Hong Kong: Views on environmental issues sought The Environmental Protection Department said today that it will hold two online public engagement forums in June to solicit views from citizens on the optimisation of the statutory environmental impact assessment (EIA) process. The Chief Executive announced in the 2021 Policy Address that the Government will conduct a comprehensive review on the EIA Ordinance process. In March, the department briefed members of the relevant Legislative Council panel and the Advisory Council on Environment on how the statutory process could be enhanced, in order to optimise it, enhance operational efficiency and focus more on environmental outcomes. The two online public engagement forums will be held on June 8 and June 13 from 6.30pm to 8.30pm, with the first one conducted in English and the second one in Cantonese. Those who are interested can register online by June 2. Members of the public are also welcome to email their views and suggestions to the department by June 30. This story has been published on: 2022-05-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Donated masks stuck at airports due to customs procedures Two batches of face masks donated for Vietnams Covid-19 prevention have remained stranded at local airports over the past six months due to customs procedures. The information was given by Truong Thi Ngoc Anh, deputy chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front (VFF), at a National Assembly (NA) discussion Wednesday. According to Anh, the two batches consist of a total of 1.5 million masks. The 1.1-million mask batch, which is from the Vietnamese community in Hong Kong, has been stuck at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in HCM City, while the other, which is from a business in Germany, has been kept at Noi Bai International Airport in Hanoi. Truong Thi Ngoc Anh, deputy chairwoman of the Central Committee of the Vietnamese Fatherland Front, spoke at a National Assembly discussion on May 25 Yen added that the VFF had submitted all necessary papers on receiving the donations as regulated to customs authorities, however, they said that this needed to be certified by the Ministry of Finance. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance asked the VFF to follow the regulations of a decree issued in October 2021 on receiving donations. So the VFF was required to contact the Ministry of Health for some procedures. The VFF then asked the Ministry of Health for support but has not yet received feedback. As a result, until now, the consignments have been stuck at the airport. Last November, about 22,000 cartons of milk donated by the Vietnamese community in Australia to Covid-19 victims in HCM City had been kept due to customs procedures until some NA deputies took the case to a discussion. Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site. 0108263 License for publishing multimedia online Registration Number: 130349 Registration Number: 130349 Napa County continues to track how evolving state wildfire safety regulations might affect rural roads built decades ago that don't meet modern evacuation standards. County officials say they dont oppose toughening road regulations for state-mapped high fire danger areas, which locally are mostly in the mountains. But they say proposed state rules could hit property owners doing small projects with big bills. Quality journalism doesn't happen without your help. Subscribe today! Support local news coverage and the people who report it by subscribing to the Napa Valley Register. A winery adding a single employee or visitor, a fire victim trying to rebuild a house or a homeowner wanting to build an accessory dwelling unit might be faced with expensive road and driveway improvement requirements, they said. Recent revisions by the state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection to the proposed regulations havent alleviated all of the countys concerns. For example, the county noted that previously proposed exemptions for fire rebuilds and accessory dwelling units have been eliminated. The Napa County Board of Supervisors on May 17 approved its latest letter to the state asking for more changes. It is imperative that the Board of Forestry take action, but it must be balanced and deliberate, said the letter signed by Board of Supervisors Chairperson Ryan Gregory. Meanwhile, 38 organizations ranging from the state Sierra Club to Napa Vision 2050 to the Center for Biological Diversity are worried the state might water down proposed standards. They say they are concerned about developments along existing roads too narrow for responding firefighters and fleeing residents to pass one another. Public safety has been the paramount intent of the fire safe regulations for more than 30 years, the groups wrote to the state in January. All of this hits home in largely-rural Napa County. The county in 2017 and 2020 had megafires that sent rural residents evacuating on winding, narrow roads. What happens with wildfire safe road regulations also hits home for Heather Griffin, whose family runs Summit Lake winery near Angwin. The winery is facing a challenge with a permit request. Were stuck, Griffin said. The winery was established in 1985 along narrow Summit Lake Drive. It was approved under a small winery exemption permit, a type that the county no longer issues and that doesn't allow visitation. But the winery has had visitors for a few decades Griffin estimates two to 10 people on a typical day. It is one of several dozen wineries stepping forward voluntarily to correct violations under the countys 2019 code compliance program. We started down this path not knowing what a nightmare it would turn into, Griffin said. Summit Lake Winery wants to convert its small winery permit into a use permit that allows visitation. The problem is Summit Lake Drive, which doesnt meet modern fire evacuation standards. Griffin is afraid the winery will have to widen and improve almost a mile of the private section of road to legalize existing visitation. Though shes uncertain of the cost, she knows it will be expensive. Its a deal-breaker for sure, Griffin said. Most of us who have grown up in this valley, we make ends meet. Summit Lake winery is happy to improve the section of road bordering its property, Griffin said. She doesnt think the winery should have to improve sections bordering other peoples land. The LNU Lightning Complex Fire of 2020 burned up to the backyard of the Griffins Pope Valley home. A few weeks later, the Glass Fire burned near Summit Lake winery. I totally understand where the Board of Fire is coming from, Griffin said. We dont need another Paradise in Angwin. But she sees possible road requirements as being too much of a burden for a winery that makes 1,500 cases to 2,500 cases annually. That leaves the winerys request for the county to recognize existing visitation in a kind of limbo. Summit Lake winery has its own wish for the Board of Forestry regulations. It wants wineries in its situation to have to meet road and street standards only along their own properties, not the entirety of a private road. The Board of Forestry on May 5 discussed the latest version of the fire safe regulations, which officials said have been narrowed in scope from previous versions. During public comments, state resident David Hutchinson he didnt identify his county said he owns a vacant lot at the end of an existing road. He cant buy the land to widen the road from all 30 other landowners and, besides, widening the road is prohibitively expensive, he said. Thats my case, but there a lot of similar cases, he said. There are many roads that are not up to what is being asked here. He asked for clarity on how the regulations would affect existing roads. Were aware of this issue, Board of Forestry Chairperson J. Keith Gilless said. The board will be dealing with this issue for some time to come. You can reach Barry Eberling at 707-256-2253 or beberling@napanews.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Hungary needs 3.5 to 4 years to give up Russian oil and huge investments to adjust its economy, and until an agreement is reached on all issues, it can not support the proposed EU oil embargo, PMs chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas told Reuters. According to him, the transition period was not the biggest problem on the way to an agreement. The European Commission this month proposed the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, but it requires unanimous support from all 27 EU member states, and landlocked Hungary, which depends heavily on pipeline imports of Russian oil, is blocking them. If all other conditions are there, then 3.5 to 4 years would be sufficient ... but until there is an agreement on everything, there is no agreement on anything, Gulyas said in an interview. Hungary said it would need about 750 million euros in short-term investments to upgrade refineries and expand a pipeline that would carry oil from Croatia. The EU still hopes it can agree on sanctions on Russian oil before next week's European Council meeting, President Charles Michel said Wednesday. Orban urged EU not to try to agree on an oil embargo when EU leaders meet next week in the absence of unanimity, in a letter seen by Reuters. Gulyas also said negotiations about the release of funds to Hungary from the EUs Recovery Fund could be wrapped up in an hour as there was an agreement on all significant aspects. Kazakhstan reveals number of people convicted of January riots Zaven Harutyunyan, author and host of 'Dipvats' program, passes away Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and UN prepare roadmap on export of agricultural products Russian MFA hopes Ankara will refrain from actions to worsen situation in Syria US warns Turkish incursion in Syria will undermine regional stability Cavusoglu: Turkey is open to cooperation in the creation of 'grain center' Mexico bans sale of vape and e-cigarettes US to build 110 military facilities of various purposes in Poland within 10 years Parties of conflict in Yemen extend truce for two months Saudi Arabia ready to increase oil production, in case of a significant drop in production in Russia Merkel: Russias war with Ukraine is a turning point in European history US expands sanctions against Russia Israel, Egypt and European Commission hold intensive consultations on how to export surplus gas Yerevan to host three international chess tournaments in 2022 Turkey delivers six Bayraktar TB2 drones to Niger Trilateral working group meeting to unblock regional communications to be held in Moscow Armenia Ombudswoman receives 904 complaints on issues related to child protection in 2021 New Syrian Ambassador presents copies of her credentials to Armenia FM Stepanakert does not comment on reports about Harutyunyan and Pashinyan meeting In Baku, participants of second Karabakh war break down doors of Ministry Germany to buy 60 Chinook heavy helicopters from Boeing Armenia PM chief of staff: Artsakh is frontline of our war French diplomats go on strike Kristinne Grigoryan: A priority of Armenia ombudsperson's office is to assist overcoming post-war humanitarian situation Lithuania signs agreement with Turkey to purchase Bayraktar TB2 for Ukrainian army Lavrov's delegation during his Turkey visit will include military Tunisia President dismisses 57 judges, accusing them of 'corruption and protection of terrorists' Kremlin: Pumping Ukraine with weapons may worsen the situation Armenia official: Azerbaijan makes statements that do not correspond to negotiations Armenia Security Council secretary evades confirming Artsakh is Armenia, period theory CIS committee on disarmament discusses security guarantees Armenia Security Council head: We have proposed to take troops out in mirror to ensure stability at border Armenia Resistance Movement approaching important milestone says its coordinator Armenia Security Council chief does not say date of next meeting of commission on border delimitation with Azerbaijan Interpol head warns of surge in arms trafficking after the end of war in Ukraine Armenias Pashinyan has telephone conversation with Georgias Garibashvili Deputy PM: Armenia tourism sector on way to recovery thanks to flexible state policy Turkey announces positive negotiations with US on purchase of F-16s US lifts restrictions on Cuba flights Kerobyan, Wiktorin discuss priorities of SME development programs in Armenia Armenia to get community development grant from India Armenia to host Greece deputy defense minister Participants of international congress in Azerbaijan to visit occupied Armenian Shushi city of Artsakh Raisi: Iran supports progress in Armenia-Azerbaijan peace talks US says Ukraine assured it will not escalate conflict after receiving HIMARS systems. UN grants Turkey request to change English spelling of country's name NATO does not foresee Russia retaliation against US decision to supply advanced weapons to Ukraine Turkey parliament speaker arrives in Azerbaijan Pashinyan, Raisi discuss Armenia-Azerbaijan border delimitation issue Newspaper: Rally in Stepanakert seriously worries Armenia authorities Newspaper: Who will replace serving US Ambassador to Armenia? UK to send multiple-launch rocket systems to Ukraine Croatia is ready to adopt the euro from January 1, 2023 NATO to hold Turkey's meeting with Finland and Sweden to solve problem of their admission Blinken says US intends to provide Ukraine with everything necessary for self-defense Italy becomes only country in Europe that increased import of Russian oil Syunik ex-province govern's son apprehended Armenian ex-presidents nephew arrested Record number of women in new Australian government NEWS.am digest: Pashinyan, Putin discuss Karabakh; EU speaks on Armenia-Azerbaijan peace deal Ministry of Economy: It is planned to create a development bank for small and medium-sized businesses in Armenia Saghatelyan: Today we will publish list of forces that presented their position on statement on Artsakh issue Gasoline prices in US again update historical high Kazinyan: Every word and thought of Charles Michel's statement agreed with Pashinyan, Aliyev Israeli air force simulate attack on Iranian nuclear facilities Putin and Erdogan agree that Turkey will help in demining the ports of Ukraine Erdogan: Turkey received no proposals from Finland and Sweden for their membership in NATO Byblos Bank donates to National Library the 1872 publication book (PHOTOS) Today's Resistance Movement procession includes women and children Former Qatari princess found dead at home in southern Spain Azerbaijani President signs order on call-up to active military service Olaf Scholz calls on Turkey to show restraint toward Greece Dollar, euro continue to fall in Armenia Turkey raises natural gas and electricity prices for households and industry Resistance Movement organizes protest outside Shirak regional administration building Erdogan refuses to negotiate with Greece Peskov: Dates of Putin's visit to Turkey are being coordinated Kremlin: Meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy cannot be ruled out a priori Moscow does not believe Kiev is not going to attack Russian territory with MLRS NATO conducts training in Azerbaijan Armenia PM tells Putin about his contacts with Aliyev and Michel Armenia PM and Putin discuss Karabakh settlement Manfred Weber elected European People's Party president Armenia parliamentary staff to receive another bonus WSJ: Some OPEC members are considering suspending Russia's participation in the OPEC+ deal Tbilisi vice-mayor found dead in his home State Revenue Committee: Local tobacco production decreased in Armenia in 2021 Opposition: There will be no interruption in Resistance movement, there is no reason for it Armenian Defense Ministry denies appearance of new Azerbaijani checkpoints in Syunik region Turkish nationalist leader says US military bases in Greece pose 'threat' to Turkey's security Russia MFA: Any supply of weapons to Ukraine increases risk of direct clash between Russia and US NATO Secretary-General heads to US US Treasury Secretary admits she was wrong about 'path inflation' Turkey sends letter to UN Secretary-General on registration of country's name in foreign languages as Turkiye Gazprom halts gas supplies to Danish Orsted and Shell Energy Europe Limited in Germany EU: Yerevan and Baku confirm no extraterritorial claims on future transport infrastructure In Mexico, Hurricane Agatha kills at least 11 people and leaves 20 missing Armenia MoD refutes another Azerbaijani lie Karen Vardanyan donates 107 mln AMD to 5 orphanages in Armenia on the occasion of 1 June New US missile systems to allow Ukraine to hit targets at distance of 80 km Leaders of the Eurasian Economic Union will take part in a meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council. A dozen issues related to the economic cooperation of the "five" members will be discussed by the leaders. According to TASS, the meeting of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council will be held under the chairmanship of Kyrgyzstan in the form of a video conference. "The decision to hold the event in the format of a video conference was taken in view of the current international situation," the Kyrgyz side explained in the message. The previous EEU summit last December was also held via video conference because of the pandemic. The meeting will be chaired by Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov. In addition to the leaders of the Eurasian Economic Union, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel will attend as observers. There is one more observer in the organization - Moldova. The agenda includes discussion of 14 issues. Among them are the main guidelines for macroeconomic policy of the EAEU member states for 2022-2023, the results of work on eliminating barriers in the domestic market of the EAEU in 2021, and implementation of the main directions of the EAEU international activities. Heads of State will be reported on the implementation of strategic directions of the Eurasian economic integration until 2025 following the results of 2021, on the implementation of the main directions of international activities of the Eurasian Economic Union in 2021. To diversify economic ties, the members of the Supreme Council will consider the prospects of negotiations with the Republic of Indonesia on a free trade agreement, as well as the entry into force of the protocol to the interim agreement leading to a free trade area between the EEU and Iran, signed on 14 March, 2022. As the United States and its allies supply Ukraine with increasingly sophisticated weapons, Washington is in talks with Kiev about the danger of escalation if the latter strikes deep inside Russia. According to Reuters, citing sources, the behind-the-scenes discussions, which are highly sensitive and previously unreported, do not place explicit geographic limits on the use of weapons supplied to Ukrainian forces. But the conversations are aimed at reaching a common understanding of the risk of escalation, three U.S. officials and diplomatic sources said. "We have concerns about escalation and yet still do not want to put geographic limits or tie their hands too much with the stuff we're giving them," said one of the three U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. President Joe Biden's administration and U.S. allies are increasingly willing to provide Ukraine with longer-range weapons, including M777 howitzers. The Pentagon's announcement last week that Denmark would supply Ukraine with Harpoon anti-ship missiles would further expand Kiev's capabilities. U.S. officials say the Biden administration is even considering supplying Kiev with the highly mobile M142 artillery rocket system (HIMARS), which can have a range of hundreds of kilometers depending on the ammunition. But U.S. intelligence has also warned about growing risks, particularly given a mismatch between Russian President Vladimir Putin's apparent ambitions and the performance of his military. The coming months could put the war on a "more unpredictable and potentially escalatory trajectory," Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a Senate hearing this month. The United States, by design, is not directly combating Russian forces but Pentagon commanders are in constant contact with Ukrainian leaders and have provided critical intelligence that has allowed Ukraine to target Russian troops, on land and at sea, U.S. officials have said. A second U.S. official said Washington and Kiev have a common "understanding" about the use of certain Western weapons systems. "So far, we've been on the same page about the thresholds," the official said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov warned the West that supplying Ukraine with weapons capable of hitting Russian territory would be "a serious step towards unacceptable escalation." Armenia Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan sent a congratulatory message to the President of the Oriental Republic of Uruguay Luis Lacalle Pou on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the press service of Armenia PM reported. "Your Excellency, Today marks the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Armenia and the Oriental Republic of Uruguay. The friendly relations between our peoples, of course, have a much longer history, and during these 30 years they have also moved to the interstate level, continued to develop in an atmosphere of mutual understanding, common values and mutual trust. We will never forget that Uruguay was the first country to officially recognize the Armenian Genocide in 1965, reaffirming its reputation as an advocate of fundamental human rights and universal values. At present, the Armenian community formed in Uruguay after the genocide is an important factor that strengthens the ties between our countries. Ahead of the 30th anniversary, I attach great importance to the mutual decision to open embassies in Yerevan and Montevideo, which testifies to the high-level political dialogue and vision for the future. I congratulate all of us on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Armenia and Uruguay. I reaffirm my readiness to strengthen cooperation with friendly Uruguay in all areas of mutual and multilateral interest. Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration," the statement reads. Armenia Parliament speaker Alen Simonyan received the delegation led by President of Montenegro Milo Djukanovic, who is on an official visit to Armenia. According to the press service of the National Assembly, after personally meeting with the guest, the Parliament Speaker noted the symbolism of the visit, recalling that it was the first high-level visit to Armenia after 16 years of diplomatic relations. The sides discussed the framework of bilateral cooperation, noting the considerable role of inter-parliamentary relations. The sides considered as a priority productive and consistent dialogue between the legislative bodies, which will be greatly promoted by the parliamentary friendship groups. The interlocutors emphasized the comprehensive cooperation with EU, the regional security and the long-term peace. Referring to the post-war situation, Simonyan highlighted the effective support of the international partners in solving the unsolved humanitarian issues. Milo Djukanovic said that the short-term solutions of conflicts are followed by long-lasting sorrows, the consequences of which take a heavy toll on the countries. He emphasized that he will discuss the issues of Armenian prisoners of war and civilian hostages held in Azerbaijan not only within his country, but also with international partners. The President noted that they have goodwill towards the region and expect real stability. According to him, in these difficult times it is important for every country to preserve its identity and image, especially in the case of small states like Armenia and Montenegro. Story Highlights Half support major reform; 39%, minor reform Community relations, changes to management practices remain top proposals Black adults report more positive interactions with police than in 2020 WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two years after George Floyd's murder by Minneapolis police, half of Americans (50%) support "major changes" to policing in the U.S., and another 39% favor "minor changes." ###Embeddable### Black Americans (72%) remain more likely than White (44%) and Hispanic adults (54%) to say major changes are needed. About nine in 10 or more in each group say at least minor reforms are needed. These findings are from an April 24-May 17 Gallup Panel survey, administered by web in English and conducted as part of the Gallup Center on Black Voices. Broad Support Remains for Reform Proposals That Don't Weaken Police For the most part, support for various policing reforms was a bit higher in June 2020 than it is now -- though several continue to enjoy broad public support. Just one proposal -- eliminating police unions -- has fallen from receiving majority support in 2020 to having less than half of the public supporting it now. The public widely supports the following proposals, with two-thirds or more "strongly" or "somewhat" endorsing them: requiring officers to have good relations with the community changing management practices, so officers with multiple incidents of abuse of power are not allowed to serve changing management practices, so officer abuses are punished promoting community-based alternatives such as violence intervention ending stop-and-frisk changing legal practices so that police officers face legal action for abuse of power or unnecessary harm Public support is mixed on the following proposals, with roughly four in 10 Americans in favor: eliminating police unions eliminating officer enforcement of nonviolent crimes (i.e., traffic violations, sleeping in public, loitering, substance possession) removing military weapons and equipment from police forces Support remains low for the following proposals, which would involve more dramatic changes to policing: reducing the budget of police departments and shifting the money to social programs abolishing police departments providing only nonlethal weapons to police forces ###Embeddable### Black Americans Support Most Reform Proposals For the three most popular policing reform proposals, Black Americans' level of support in 2022 essentially matches the national average. Further down the list, however, their support exceeds figures for national adults. By 10 percentage points each, Black adults are more supportive of changing legal practices so that police officers face legal action for abuse of power or unnecessary harm (91% support among Black adults, 81% among U.S. adults) and promoting community-based alternatives such as violence intervention (88% support among Black adults, 78% among U.S. adults). They are 16 points more likely to support ending stop-and-frisk (84% support among Black adults, 68% among U.S. adults). The following three proposals are supported by most Black adults, but by a minority of U.S. adults: Eliminating officer enforcement of nonviolent crimes (61% support among Black adults, 45% among U.S. adults) Removing military weapons and equipment from police forces (55% support among Black adults, 41% among U.S. adults) Eliminating police unions (52% support among Black adults, 44% among U.S. adults) Half of Black Americans support reducing the budgets of police departments and shifting the money to social programs, compared with 35% among the national public. This is the only proposal for which Black support went from majority level in 2020 to just half supporting it now. Providing only nonlethal weapons to police forces and abolishing police forces are unpopular among both the Black and national public, though support remains stronger among Black adults on these proposals. ###Embeddable### Black Adults Report Less Frequent, More Positive Interactions With Police Black Americans are now less likely than they were in June 2020 to report having had an interaction with police in the past 12 months. When Gallup first asked this question in 2020, 42% said they had had an interaction with police in the past year, and now 25% say they have. This is consistent with reports among White and Hispanic adults, both of whom were also less likely to report interactions with police compared with 2020. Among Black adults who did interact with police over the past year, about three in four say they were treated fairly (77%) and with respect (75%), similar to what Gallup initially found in 2020. However, they are now a bit more likely to rate the overall experience positively compared with then -- 68% now versus 59% in June 2020. ###Embeddable### The percentages of White (81%) and Hispanic adults (69%) who report that their interactions with police were positive have not meaningfully changed since 2020. Black Americans are now about as likely as Hispanic Americans to describe these interactions as positive, but less likely than White adults to rate them this way. Bottom Line Though 2020 is largely viewed as a tipping point, confidence in police among Black Americans had been waning in the decade leading up to it. Worries about race relations, too, had been building and remain elevated today. Americans remain almost as firm in their belief that policing reform in the U.S. is needed now as they were in June 2020, after Floyd's murder. Several reform proposals enjoy broad support, such as changes to management practices related to officer abuses. Black Americans, like other groups, are reporting less frequent interactions with police -- and they are a bit more likely to describe the interactions as positive than they were in 2020. Positive ratings of these interactions still lag behind the national average, however. To stay up to date with the latest Gallup News insights and updates, follow us on Twitter. Learn more about how the Gallup Panel works. Federal legislation enacted in 1977 designated the first 10 days of May to celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) heritage in the U.S. The recognition was expanded to the full month in 2016 in a proclamation by then President Barack Obama, who pointed to AAPIs as the fastest growing racial group in the country and who stated that the community's long and deeply-rooted legacy in the United States reminds us of both proud and painful chapters of our history. University Libraries feature a range of resources recognizing the cultural heritage, from artists books in Special Collections by Colette Fu, Julie Chen, Priya Pereirawhose Ode to an Onion includes a page made of onion skinto a 120-volume 1884 history of China, a work in Chinese that undergraduate student Yuan Zhao is perusing for her research. Digitalized material, including Asian and Pacific airmail, is contained in an expansive collection that documents Pan American World Airways history of flights across the Pacific and Asia, including early flights from San Francisco to Hong Kong in the 1930s. Those interested in exploring AAPI contributions in the libraries could also pursue keyword searches for Japan, China, India, including East India in the Caribbean, and Asia. A wide range of works from notable AAPI writers including Cathy Park Hong, Maxine Hong Kingston, Jhumpa Lahiri, Erika Lee, Marie Myung-Ok Lee, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Albert Samaha, Mai Der Vang, Ocean Vuong, Qian Julie Wang, and Kao Kalia Yang, among others, also can be referenced. In the creative writing program, first-generation Asian American and Pacific Islanders M. Evelina Galang, professor and former director, and Jaswinder Bolina, an associate professor, both have generated works that document AAPIs contributions. As the editor of Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Imagesan anthology sparked by a restaurant review that referred to a Filipino child as a rambunctious little monkeyGalang collected poems, essays, paintings, and stories that illuminate the diverse and often neglected history and culture within the Asian American diaspora, according to one review. Galangs nonfiction work, Lolas House: Filipino Women Living With War, earned a Global Filipino Literary Award. Special Collections materials are available for use in the Kislak Center reading room by appointment only. You must book an appointment at least seven days in advance. Dr. Jeanette Mendez is Oklahoma State University's new provost. Oklahoma State University names Dr. Jeanette Mendez provost and senior vice president Media Contact: Mack Burke | Associate Director of Media Relations | 405-744-5540 | mack.burke_iv@okstate.edu Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents to consider appointment at next board meeting Oklahoma State University has named Dr. Jeanette Mendez as provost and senior vice president following a nationwide search. The announcement made Friday was guided by input from the OSU community, as well as a diverse, 24-person selection committee, assisted by the national search firm Buffkin/Baker. The search committee included representation from a broad mix of academic and administrative units. Dr. Thomas Coon, vice president, dean and director of the Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, and Dr. Johnny Stephens, president of the OSU Center for Health Sciences, interim president of OSU-Tulsa and senior vice president for health affairs, led the search process. Dr. Mendezs impressive academic achievements and desire to build on the quality and effectiveness of our programs stood out during her interview. Her familiarity with OSU and our state will serve her in advancing our statewide education, research and Extension initiatives. This is an exciting time at OSU, and Dr. Mendez has the leadership, experience and character to lead our academic units to new levels of success. I am looking forward to working with her as she collaborates with our deans and academic leaders to set our priorities. I commend the co-chairs and search committee for their service and thank the OSU/A&M Board of Regents and campus community for their participation, said OSU President Kayse Shrum. In a letter to the search committee, Mendez outlined her vision for OSUs future: OSU needs to further advance its reputation as an academic powerhouse, focusing on providing a top-tier education and solving societys most pressing needs through research and Extension, she wrote. As provost, I will help lead OSU to be a premier, modern land-grant institution marked by a commitment to excellence in research, innovative teaching and activities that extend these efforts to the broader communities of Oklahoma, the nation and the world. We also need to better leverage our expertise and partner with K-12 schools to show the value of both a liberal arts and STEM education and how they shape the ideal OSU graduate. In her letter, Mendez also highlighted the need for continued emphasis on the student experience, enhancing OSUs welcoming environment and investing in faculty and staff. Oklahoma State Universitys strong commitment to the overall student experience sets us apart from our peers in the higher education landscape, she wrote. Our faculty and staff are dedicated to student success, and key initiatives such as the Math Learning Success Center and First-Year Success are examples of investments in programming, faculty development, advising and expanded tutoring that saw large increases in student success and retention. As OSU has seen increases in retention and graduation rates, continued success will require additional investments, strategic programming and collaboration. A first-generation college student, Mendez graduated from Santa Clara University in 1998, receiving a bachelors degree in combined sciences. From there, she went to Indiana University, earning a masters degree in political science in 2000 and a Ph.D. in political science in 2003. She then became an assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston (2003-2005) before joining the OSU political science faculty in 2005. Mendez was named interim provost in January 2021 following the announcement of Dr. Gary Sandefurs retirement. She has served as a member of President Shrums senior leadership team, co-chair of the strategy steering committee, co-chair of OSUs Pandemic Response Team as well as co-chair of the campus-wide Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Task Force. During her time at OSU, she also has led initiatives to increase collaborative research opportunities across academic colleges and campuses, increased online degree offerings and enrollment as well as led efforts to examine and provide recommendations for possible reforms to general education at OSU. Prior to that, Mendez served as vice provost of academic affairs and a professor of political science, interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (2018-2019), associate dean for research and facilities (2017-2018), interim associate dean for research (2014-2015) and political science department head (2011-2014; 2015-2017). Mendezs research background is rooted in political information processing, political behavior and political communication. Her work has been published in journals including Journal of Politics; Political Research Quarterly; Social Science Quarterly;Political Psychology; Politics and Gender; Journal of Women, Politics and Policy; PS: Political Science and Politics; Journal of Media Psychology; and the Journal of Political Science. Dr. Mendezs breadth of experience, proven leadership and dedication to higher education will position her to make an immediate and lasting impact, Stephens said. Were excited to have her join OSUs leadership team and play a pivotal role in propelling Oklahomas premier land-grant university into the future. Coon echoed Stephens excitement about the announcement and the impact Mendez will have at OSU. This is another milestone announcement for our university, Coon said. I commend President Kayse Shrum for her bold and clear leadership and the search and screening committee for their dedication to finding the perfect fit for this crucial role. Dr. Mendez is dedicated and passionate about OSU and will continue to be an invaluable asset for this university, as she has been for many years. Mendez was selected from a pool of three finalists. If approved by the Oklahoma A&M Board of Regents, she will lead the Division of Academic Affairs, beginning with the fall 2022 semester. I believe higher education institutions should be focused on real-world solutions for real-world problems, Mendez wrote. This is a hallmark of the Cowboy Culture solving problems for the common good. During the last decade, I have watched OSU grow across all facets of the university and am confident there has never been a more exciting time for OSU than right now. Lia Mastronardis desire to learn led her to studying international sustainability at OSU. (Photo by Wade Yoder) An Enhanced Worldview Media Contact: Jami Mattox | Agricultural Communications Services | 405-744-8061 | jami.mattox@okstate.edu Lia Mastronardi is passionate about two things logic and cultures. Three, if you count her cat, TomTom. Mastronardi is a Master of International Agriculture Program student in the Oklahoma State University Ferguson College of Agriculture. She is also a small-business owner, co-founder of a technology startup, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and former political adviser. She has more than 20 years of international experience, but MIAP helps her pursue an interest in sustainability. I am kind of like the two sides of a brain, Mastronardi said. I like people, experiences, culture and languages, but I also like logic. MIAP students use existing skillsets to develop international agriculture, said Karl Rich, MIAP director. For Lia, I think MIAP is an opportunity to pivot, Rich said. She has all this great experience working in the military. Shes got years of experience working with different contractors, managing projects, and so on. MIAP is an opportunity for her to try something else. A desire to learn drew Mastronardi into her various careers, she said. It is a little weird to look back and ask, Why did I go there? Mastronardi said. It was not necessarily any plan of mine. Mastronardi received an Air Force ROTC scholarship while majoring in math at Vanderbilt University. After earning her undergraduate degree and an Air Force commission in 1988, she said she hoped to travel. When I joined the Air Force, I asked to be assigned to either coast, Mastronardi said. So, they sent me to Omaha, Nebraska. In 1992, Mastronardi caught the attention of her superiors and was selected to attend Naval Postgraduate School, where she earned a masters degree in national security affairs, she said. During this time, Mastronardi discovered her affinity for languages, she added. I took a language test, and I walked out of there with my head hung low, Mastronardi said. I really thought I failed the thing. Instead, she had the second-highest score on the exam. The next summer, Mastronardi earned a language proficiency in Ukrainian through Harvard University and the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center. That fall, she was assigned to Europe. Lia always wanted to be overseas, said Paul DeSisto, retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and one of Mastronardis cousins. She did extremely well as a junior officer, and that is why they sent her. While serving as a political adviser at Aviano Air Base in Italy, Mastronardi became friends with then-Capt. Maria Carl, the public affairs director. One of the things that brought Lia and I together was this desire for lifelong learning, said Carl, who retired as a colonel. The military, especially the Air Force, really cultivates this in its officers. After retiring from the military in 2008, Mastronardi continued to travel, managing oilfield logistics in Oklahoma, co-founding a canvassing company in Austin, Texas, and starting a veteran-run consulting business. It is not uncommon for a lot of retired military to do a number of different things, Carl said. We retire at a pretty young age. There is still quite a bit of runway to do other things. Mastronardi capitalizes on her love of logic and cultures by developing sustainability, she said. I have always liked sustainability and the focus on the environment, Mastronardi said. I learned some while I was in the military. Wars were being fought in Africa, and a lot of it was over water and food. Agriculture is one of the best areas for international impact, Rich said. If you are working overseas doing international work, agriculture is a fantastic touch point, Rich said. That is where the development challenges really are. Experiencing different cultures is essential for international development, said DeSisto, who earned a masters degree in international affairs from OSU while at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Oklahoma. Somebody like Lia is very much unique in her background, DeSisto said. It is not just what she has done. It is where she has been, the types of people she dealt with and the places she lived. Sustainability is protecting, preserving, and replenishing natural resources in an economically beneficial way, Mastronardi said. My focus in MIAP is international, sustainable business, Mastronardi said. I would like to do consulting that has to do with policy implementation. Mastronardi, like astronaut Thomas Pesquet, thinks of Earth as a capsule, she said. I like to see things from a stratospheric level, Mastronardi said. There is a way of being symbiotic with nature. There are ways of using resources that encourage maintenance and preservation. The flexibility of MIAP and the option to customize the degree drew Mastronardi to the program, she said, and was the reason Carl recommended MIAP to her. They really let you curate your own degree, said Carl, 2020 MIAP alumnus. That appealed to Lia, and I know she has been very happy with that. Mastronardi, like Carl, is completing the program remotely and will finish in the fall of 2022. What I really loved about the MIAP program was the faculty and the fact that you got so much hands-on experience, particularly when you are a distance learner, Carl said. I really appreciated how much individual attention they gave us. Mastronardi is not in MIAP to build her resume, Carl said. Rather, she is in the program to learn. For someone who is older, like Lia and me, we are already established, Carl said. We truly are looking at this as an opportunity to give us insight and education. Mastronardi seeks to use her policy background to help agriculturists in other cultures be more sustainable. During my time in the military, I worked with a lot of other countries governments, Mastronardi said. That skillset I already have can lend itself to working in international agriculture. Mastronardis care for others is not limited to humans. While working oilfield logistics, she rescued her cat, TomTom. Now, they reside in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. In Mastronardis myriad of experiences, her intelligence and heart for service led her to improve the lives of those around her, Carl said. Lia is a great representative of a student who is truly a lifelong learner, Carl said. She is not only there to learn for herself, but I really do believe that she can contribute so much to her fellow students and to the faculty. She has such a wealth of experience. Story By: Wade Yoder | Cowboy Journal Conquering Oklahomas Pests Media Contact: Jami Mattox | Agricultural Communications Services | 405-744-8061 | jami.mattox@okstate.edu Among the plants hide insects, weeds and diseases. Farmers are destined to fight these problems, but according to Oklahoma State University Extension, they do not have to handle them alone. They can turn to an OSU program to spend less and spray less. Kris Giles, Regents professor in entomology and plant pathology, said integrated pest management offers Oklahomans a helping hand in conquering pesky nuisances. IPM OKLAHOMA! is an extensive strategy of controlling pests using different methods for various circumstances, Giles said. Its a comprehensive approach to managing pests in all different types of situations agriculture, horticulture, household, urban and schools with the idea that its economically viable, it has some level of sustainability, it can persist for a long period of time, and its relatively safe in its approach, Giles said. IPM OKLAHOMA! strategies include multiple approaches to dealing with pests. Anything from sanitizing living areas to working with natural enemies or chemical pesticides can be implemented in IPM OKLAHOMA!, Giles said. IPM is an approach for long-term, sustainable and safe pest management practices, Giles added. Two of the bottom lines for me are always, Is it saving a producer money? and Is it benefiting the environment? said Tom Royer, entomology and plant pathology professor and coordinator for IPM OKLAHOMA! The practices we advocate through IPM do both. IPM OKLAHOMA! is a free resource to any Oklahoman looking to tackle insects, pests or diseases for any circumstance in rural or urban settings, Royer said. Royer said the current IPM program at OSU is deeply rooted in concepts discussed in a Hilgardia journal article written in 1959 by Vernon Stern, Ray Smith, Robert van den Bosch and Kenneth Hagen. The article, The integration of chemical and biological control of the spotted alfalfa aphid: The integrated control concept, is one of the early published writings promoting the idea of preventative pest management tactics. All of the concepts that we talk about and use today, like economic thresholds, treatment thresholds, and the ecological science behind IPM, were all developed with this journal article, and we have just run with it ever since, Royer said. IPM OKLAHOMA! gains most of its financial support from the U.S. Department of Agriculture through the National Institute of Food and Agriculture Crop Protection and Pest Management Programs Extension Implementation Program. Today, its a competitive grant program, but originally it was not competitive, Royer said. It was just formula funding, where your program would get a specific amount of money each year. IPM OKLAHOMA! switched from formula funding to a competitive grant program in 2009. Royer said every three years he must write and submit a proposal to NIFA for program funding. Its been continuously funded here since probably 1976, Royer said. As a program, IPM OKLAHOMA! is persistently funded because the need for strategic pest management is unabating, Royer added. Charles Luper, entomology and plant pathology extension associate, said IPM OKLAHOMA! helped him take better care of his specialty crops, like peanuts. We used to spray our peanuts for leaf spot disease, and that was on a calendar basis every two weeks, Luper said. Now, with the Oklahoma Mesonet system an IPM tool that accounts for weather data we can base our spraying off of actual scientific data. Luper said the Mesonet system was created in 1994 by OSU and the University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma Mesonet is a network of environmental monitoring stations with each Oklahoma county having at least one Mesonet station. Farmers and ranchers can utilize this free IPM tool for better agricultural practices, Luper added. Kelly Seuhs, OSU Extension associate specialist in entomology and plant pathology, said IPM practices can be as simple as a spring harrowing. If there is alfalfa weevil egg deposition in the fall or winter, these eggs are located in plant stems, Seuhs said. Some growers incorporate a light harrowing before spring to dislodge the eggs from the stems. This strategy can prolong weevil activity well into the spring, possibly eliminating the need for multiple applications of pesticides." IPM OKLAHOMA! is not meant to eliminate the use of insecticides, Seuhs said, but the program can help Oklahomans utilize non-chemical strategies for insect control. IPM is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but we do anything we can to cut down on unneeded sprays, Seuhs said. Anything we can implement to reduce costs and is economically viable and sustainable, were going to do. IPM OKLAHOMA! can be customized to a producers liking, Giles said, and it often alleviates some farm financial stress. The return on investment has been significant as far as unbiased information to producers that they get to make the choices based on data and information from Oklahoma, he said. Oklahomans have access not only to data and information but also to the instructors of the program. We have fact sheets and conduct face-to-face meetings, Royer said. If a person wants to call, Im always willing to help. Oklahomans looking for more information about IPM OKLAHOMA! can visit Integrated Pest Management or email Royer. Story By: Dalee Barrick | Cowboy Journal Lixia Lambert (left) and Dayton Lambert joined the OSU agricultural economics department in 2018. (Photo by Maddie Neuschwander) From Crossroads To Careers Media Contact: Jami Mattox | Agricultural Communications Services | 405-744-8061 | jami.mattox@okstate.edu In the semi-arid, windy Hetao Plains of inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of Northern China, a young Lixia Lambert established her roots in the Chinese agricultural industry. On the other side of the globe, Dayton Lambert stepped into his education in Ohio. After living and learning all across the world, their paths unexpectedly crossed in West Lafayette, Indiana. The Lamberts met while earning their doctorates in agricultural economics, said Lixia Lambert, assistant professor in agricultural economics at Oklahoma State University. Now, both are faculty members in the OSU Department of Agricultural Economics, but their early journeys were far different. Dayton Lambert, professor and Willard Sparks Chair in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, and began his post-secondary studies in anthropology at Miami University of Ohio. After he completed his undergraduate degree, he earned a masters degree in cultural anthropology from Rutgers University. After Rutgers, Dayton became a Peace Corps volunteer. I met Dayton on April 10, 1993, at an airport on our way to volunteer for the Peace Corps in Africa, said Michael Wilcox, Purdue University Extension assistant director and lifelong friend. We were in North Carolina for a 12-week aquaculture training before we were sent overseas to serve the people of West Africa. Dayton was sent to Burundi, East Africa. There, he worked as an extension agent with the Ministry of Environment, Agriculture and Livestock, teaching smallholder farmers how to grow tilapia in earthen ponds and how to integrate aquaculture into other farm operations. In 1993, Burundi experienced civil unrest, which eventually culminated in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Dayton Lambert was evacuated from Burundi and re-posted in Gabon, Central Africa, where he finished his volunteer service. After his service in Gabon, he enrolled in Auburn Universitys graduate program in fisheries and allied aquaculture, where he received a masters degree in 1998. The rare opportunity arose again to consult the Peace Corps fisheries programs in Gabon and Zambia, where he trained new volunteers to construct earthen ponds and raise fish. The Peace Corps is where my interest in agricultural economics and international development really began, Dayton Lambert said. I really wanted to step back and understand this more completely from the perspective of markets, prices, risk aversion, and technology adoption. Agricultural economics was a natural discipline for me. In 2000, Dayton Lambert was accepted to Purdues doctoral program in agricultural economics, which is where the couples paths crossed, thanks to their mutual friend Michael Wilcox. Wilcox and Lixia Lambert started their friendship early in their studies at Purdue. While I was at Purdue as a struggling doctoral student, I met this young woman named Lixia in my econometrics class, Wilcox said. I enjoyed her to absolutely the end of the earth. I did not really know anything about China. Lixia was infinitely patient with me because I had a million questions about her culture, and I thought she was just really cool. Lixia Lamberts family was involved in agriculture, which is where her love for agriculture started, she said. Her grandparents and uncles produced wheat, sunflower seeds, turnips, corn, sorghum, sugar beet, watermelon, sheep and goats. In 1982, her father began teaching college courses in agricultural economics at Huazhong Agricultural University, which meant the family had to move to Wuhan, China, and live on campus with other faculty families, Lixia Lambert added. As a youth, I had the chance to meet farm families with village leaders, city mayors and university faculty members from different disciplines with my father in the field, she said. I was able to hear how their knowledge can be transferred back to the agricultural production system. That process stuck with me. After high school, Lixia Lambert wanted to become an agricultural economist like her father, she said. When her national entry examination scores were not high enough, officials placed her into fermentation engineering for her undergraduate study, she added. After graduation, I was employed for more than two years at a food distribution center in Wuhan, Lixia Lambert said. Because it was the early 1990s, China had a planned economy where families could only buy so much food based on the number of people, gender and age of the people in the household. This situation sparked my interest in food supply and the economics behind it. Lixia Lambert applied and retook the national entry exams for graduate school in 1995. She then completed her masters in agricultural economics and management at Huazhong Agricultural University in 1998. One day I was walking on campus and saw a poster on a tree announcing a seminar on growing corn given by a researcher from Purdue University, Lixia Lambert said. I didnt go to the seminar. Instead, I went home and did some research on Purdue University and its agricultural economics program and applied to Purdue. She began her doctoral program in agricultural economics at Purdue in 2000. After having classes together but never actually talking, Wilcox, their mutual friend, connected them at a graduate student dinner in 2003. After graduating from Purdue in 2004, Dayton Lambert moved to Washington, D.C., and worked as a research economist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service. Lixia Lambert worked for the Alberta Ingenuity Centre for Water Research at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. They married in 2006, and both began working for the University of Tennessee where they remained for 12 years. They moved to Stillwater in 2018 after accepting agricultural economics faculty positions at OSU. Our students need to be able to see couples working in professional situations, said Cheryl DeVuyst, department head of agricultural economics. The students see how it is possible to be successful as individuals and as partners. Both as researchers and as faculty members, some projects demanded their work paths cross, placing them on the same project, Dayton Lambert said. They worked on separate parts of the project, so their personal and professional lives could stay separate, he added. The great thing about Dayton is hes very collegial, but hes also very demanding and expects the best of everyone, Wilcox said. Lixia has always been a hard worker. It is so difficult to be a female in the agricultural industry. Lixia and Dayton are living out their dreams as highly productive faculty members, world-renowned faculty members." At OSU, Dayton Lambert teaches graduate students and assists with research projects. Lixia Lambert teaches the Environmental Economics and Resource Development course and the Food Marketing to a Diverse Population course. Lixia Lambert said she has a heavy research appointment but has learned she is passionate about teaching undergraduates and serving as an academic adviser. I enjoy spending time connecting with students and providing them guidance to meet their career objectives, she said. Dayton Lambert said he enjoys getting to work with graduate students and studying problems concerning the agricultural industry. It is an honor to instruct Oklahomas next generation of agricultural entrepreneurs and to address issues faced by Oklahomas agricultural producers and rural communities, Dayton Lambert said. We are proud to be part of the Cowboy family. Story By: Halle Roper | Cowboy Journal Growing New Beginnings Media Contact: Jami Mattox | Agricultural Communications Services | 405-744-8061 | jami.mattox@okstate.edu A collaboration between Oklahoma State University and Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College sparked a new opportunity for Native American students to attend both schools. Established during the pandemic, PATHS to PROVIDE is a scholarship program for Native American students funded by two U.S. Department of Agriculture grants. Program participants learn the skills necessary to contribute to tribal food sustainability and food sovereignty, said Brian Arnall, plant and soil sciences professor at OSU. The need for this program tied heavily back to the sovereign nations capability to be self-sufficient in food production, Arnall said. Not only can they produce for themselves as far as food goes, but they also make the students more marketable. Arnall said one of the main goals when the grants were written was to have more indigenous people complete undergraduate programs. Ensuring students received the resources to make it from freshman to senior year with a zero dropout rate was important, he added. Each student in the program receives $30,000 in scholarships. They spend the first two years at NEO to complete an Associate of Science in agronomy. They finish at OSU with Bachelor of Science degrees in entomology and in plant and soil sciences. When students complete the program, they graduate with three degrees and more than 25 career pathway options, Arnall said. We get all of their general education and core agriculture classes out of the way, said Alisen Anderson, NEO agricultural instructor. Some of these students have never been in the agricultural industry. They are a blank slate, and they learn to ask those critical thinking questions. On the other hand, some students in the program have deep roots in the industry and are eager to expand on their knowledge, Anderson added. Teegin Crosthwait, a PATHS to PROVIDE scholar, said she was involved in many agriscience projects throughout her time in high school and was drawn to this program specifically because it focused on plant science research opportunities. Brian Arnall told me I needed to check out this program, Crosthwait said. I was set in stone about coming to OSU in the fall and only toured NEO to make Brian and my mom happy. As soon as I came to NEO, I realized I loved the campus and the people. I thought to myself, Lets do this. Crosthwait said she enjoys being part of a small cohort because these students will be with her throughout her college career. One of the things Ive learned is the importance of a team experience, Crosthwait said. Another thing Ive learned in my first semester is this program is going to teach me about different sides of agriculture I knew existed but never really dug into. Upon acceptance into the program, Crosthwait received a $2,000 scholarship to purchase technology in addition to the tuition waiver. The scholarship is a very big blessing, Crosthwait said. Having this scholarship to help me get through my education means I dont have to stress about having to pay back student loans when I graduate. The project is funded by grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture. The PATHS Partnerships for Agrosecurity Training, Health and Science grant comes from the Higher Education Multicultural Scholars Program. PROVIDE Plant Resistance Of Vectors, Insects and Disease Education came through the New Beginnings for Tribal Students. Thus, the name PATHS to PROVIDE was developed. Theres actually a little bit of history here, Arnall said. Dr. Wyatt Hoback recently had a cohort of five Native American students and brought them through the entire entomology program. This sparked the idea to create a similar program. Arnall said he was looking for opportunities for collaboration between Oklahoma schools. NEO A&M has a large proportion of students who are Native American, said Hoback, an OSU entomology and plant pathology associate professor. The OSU-Stillwater campus has about 10% of students who are of Native American heritage. NEO has students who have Native American affiliation, and NEO is closer to home for them," From left: Teegin Crosthwait works closely with Alisen Anderson regarding her degree plan, job opportunities and other life advice. (Photo by Halle Roper) The thought process behind the collaboration was to allow students from small towns to attend a junior college to limit the shock of attending a four-year institution, Arnall said. The concept was to move these students as a cohort to give them a diverse industry background, so they could help their tribes and communities, Arnall added. Building upon Hobacks Native American student project, Arnall and Hoback submitted two grant applications to the USDA, Arnall said. It takes six to eight months to hear anything while applications are under review, Arnall said. We submitted PROVIDE, and then we came back and submitted PATHS, hoping to get one, and we got both. The program officially launched in Fall 2021 with six students, Anderson said. Students want to challenge how a traditional producer thinks, she added. The kids are in my office daily, Anderson said. They are incredible. We offer an important opportunity for Native American students to help their tribes and turn it into an education and into a lifestyle and an occupation. Between semesters at NEO, students participate in paid internships working on agricultural and horticultural research. At OSU, they will have a paid internship their junior year and research projects during the summer. The students select projects to investigate the effects of plant insect interaction, plant nutrition on animal feed, or how plants in a greenhouse respond to hydroponics, Hoback said. Theyll get to design experiments and then collect data. We will help them interpret the data to help them do experimental design. Completing both entomology and plant and soil sciences degrees gives the students a more complete picture of the industry, Hoback said. This makes them better prepared to make decisions on the farm because they understand the agroecosystem, instead of just the plant side or the insect side, he added. Each grant lasts four years, but this program will serve as a launching point for programs of the same nature, Arnall said. I have no doubt this will go somewhere else, Arnall said. In fact, weve been talking with other faculty who are looking at doing similar programs with other colleges. When a grant proposal is submitted, the authors promise knowledge will be gained from the proposal, Hoback said. Across the U.S., a strong desire exists to create a pipeline of students earning associate degrees and transitioning into universities to earn a bachelors degree, he added. What we hope is we learn, and the students help us improve the process, Hoback said. Down the road, maybe Oklahoma State could create cooperative agreements with other community colleges so the transition is seamless and the coursework doesnt overlap but is complementary. Then, we can take these ideas outside Oklahoma. Be a PATHS to PROVIDE Scholar High school seniors with Native American heritage who are interested in becoming a PATHS to PROVIDE scholar can visit the PATHS to PROVIDE website. Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College and Oklahoma State University have complementary agricultural programs allowing them to collaborate and deliver an affordable education and unique student experience. PATHS to PROVIDE allows students to get hands-on experience, scholarship and career path opportunities and three degrees. The application can be downloaded through the site. It consists of general questions as well as two essay responses. Once completed, the application can be mailed or emailed to the addresses provided. pathstoprovide.com Story By: Emily Garrett | Cowboy Journal Irrigation Education Media Contact: Jami Mattox | Agricultural Communications Services | 405-744-8061 | jami.mattox@okstate.edu Forty percent of water in Oklahoma is used for irrigation. To incentivize water conservation through irrigation education, Oklahoma State University faculty launched the Master Irrigator Program in 2021. This intensive education program elevates the knowledge of producers who irrigate so they can increase their efficiency and productivity, said Jason Warren, professor in the OSU plant and soil sciences department. The first Master Irrigator Program started in Texas. OSU faculty members learned of the program at a conference in 2018 and began to plan a similar program for Oklahoma, Warren said. OSU started its first program in Goodwell in 2021. The 2022 program occurred in Altus, and in 2023, the program will return to Goodwell. The program leaders plan to expand the program to other areas of Oklahoma, Warren said. The program registration fee is $100. Producers attend one day a week for four weeks and can attend field days for hands-on learning in the fall. The curriculum includes basic soil and water concepts, irrigation management, and other topics requested by an advisory panel, which includes local producers, said Sumit Sharma, assistant extension specialist in the plant and soil sciences department. These farmers are from places facing water scarcity, said Saleh Taghvaeian, associate professor in the biosystems and agricultural engineering department. We are talking about how they can better manage limited resources so they can leave this valuable resource for future generations. Attending the program lets producers discuss irrigation techniques they use, problems they face and management techniques they are curious about, Warren said. Sharma said the producers come from counties around the program location, so they often face similar problems. Producers can share methods they used to overcome those problems, Sharma added. This program offers a platform to facilitate peer-to-peer exchange of knowledge, he said. You get a group of people together having a discussion about management considerations, Warren said. The beautiful thing is they are all learning from one another in trying to improve the overall irrigation in the region. Sharma brings in speakers from surrounding areas to provide different expertise for producers. He said he looks for speakers who are familiar with the area and can bring current information about technology, irrigation, water and soil. Producers are consulted before the program begins to ensure their specific problems will be addressed, he added. We get people together from different farms and different experiences, Taghvaeian said. We want them to get engaged in dialogue so it is not just a one-way transfer of information but a multi-way interaction where everyone learns from each other. Program facilitators learn from the producers, as well, Sharma said. The producers are working with land, water and irrigation systems every day, so their practical knowledge is valuable, he added. Talking with producers also guides research at OSU, allowing researchers to find solutions that will be valuable to Oklahoma and deliver a demand-driven extension program, Taghvaeian said. We are enhancing producers knowledge of irrigation technologies, said Kevin Wagner, director of the Oklahoma Water Resources Center. We also are able to help them overcome the financial burden of adopting these technologies. Master Irrigator Program graduates are eligible for benefits to improve their irrigation systems, Wagner said. Wagner works with eight other state and federal agencies to provide funding and opportunities. Graduates can receive up to $2,000 to purchase irrigation technology, like soil moisture sensors or irrigation schedulers, Warren said. Producers also can receive additional points on their Environmental Quality Incentives Program applications. The applications are for financial assistance provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service. Graduates also can request free irrigation audits, which are conducted using the OSU Mobile Irrigation Lab, Taghvaeian said. Taghvaeian conducts two types of irrigation audits: energy and water. Energy audits measure how much energy the irrigation system uses in daily operations. We go out to the farm and estimate the efficiency at which their pumps are using energy, Taghvaeian said. Then, we tell the farmer how much they can save if they improve the efficiency. Water audits measure the efficiency of the irrigation system in regard to water usage. Farmers often use this resource to tune up their irrigation systems before the irrigation season begins, Taghvaeian said. We have advanced sensors and instruments we attach to different pieces of the irrigation system, Taghvaeian said. We can find leaks in the pipeline, assess the uniformity of irrigation application, and tell if the system needs tuning or not. Conducting audits allows the Master Irrigator Program facilitators to connect with producers after they graduate from the program, Sharma said. Sharma also checks with producers to learn what technology they have adopted, how their irrigation season is going, and what curriculum they suggest for future programs. Facilitators value feedback from producers, which can guide the program to fit with the interests of producers in the area, Sharma said. The program is going to evolve over time, Sharma said. As we go forward, the focus will remain on what producers are interested in. Thirty-seven producers graduated from the first two programs combined. The ideal number of producers per session is 25, Taghvaeian said. As the program grows, the focus will be to continue to provide value to producers and consumers alike, Wagner said. Efficient water and energy use can save producers money, he added. Conserving water a precious natural resource benefits Oklahomans across the state, Wagner said. Any water you can save today is water you can use in the future, Warren said. And that future return has value. Story By: Haley Fair | Cowboy Journal Researching Compassion Media Contact: Jami Mattox | Agricultural Communications Services | 405-744-8061 | jami.mattox@okstate.edu As the primary investigator on a Mycobacterium tuberculosis research project with potential global impacts, Yong Cheng, assistant professor in the Oklahoma State University Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, could define his career with the findings and accomplishments of his research of the bacterial pathogen responsible for tuberculosis, or TB. Instead, Chengs work with undergraduate and graduate students defines a different kind of impact. The experiences gained through Chengs lab contribute to the career success of his students, said Charlie Vermeire, who is a sophomore double majoring in biochemistry and in microbiology/cell and molecular biology. Vermeire works in Chengs lab. Dr. Cheng puts such an emphasis on teaching, Vermeire said. I have found that to be really rewarding. Many times, students do not get teaching experience until they reach graduate school, but Dr. Cheng has more experienced undergraduate students mentoring the less experienced students. My teaching experience, now as a sophomore, will give me an advantage as I move through the rest of my education. Research is not the only way Cheng helps students with their career aspirations, Vermeire said. Dr. Cheng pushes his students not only toward learning new lab procedures, but also toward applying for grants and presenting our work, Vermeire said. He pushes us, even when we are not sure we can do what he is asking. He is usually right about what we can accomplish. While important, Chengs research is just part of a larger impact being made in the department and with students, said John Gustafson, professor and BIMB department head. Dr. Cheng set up a biotechnology development and implementation course, which is a first for our department, Gustafson said. He did that by collaborating with people from the business school. He also ran our biochemistry and molecular biology laboratory where this year he actually brought authentic research experiences into the classroom. Cheng said he is motivated by the success of his students. His mentors and professors helped him, he added, and now he works to be that same help to his students. There are two types of kind people in the world, said Stephen Kotey, a doctoral student in BIMB. There are those who wait for you to bring your problem to them, and then they will show their kindness through that. Then, there are those who, in showing kindness, will take the initiative. You do not have to ask. They will sit back, think about how you can develop, and bring it to you without even being asked. Both forms are good, but Cheng is the one who takes initiative in being kind. Cheng said he intentionally builds relationships with his lab members to learn how best to prepare and assist them with their career goals. I have been able to have both graduate students and undergraduate students in my lab, Cheng said. I am always thinking about the many different fellowships they can apply for. I tell students in my lab to let me know if they are interested in any fellowships. I want to help make them a success. Cheng keeps students career goals in mind and helps them pursue avenues that will allow them to stand apart from others, Vermeire said. Knowing that I am interested in a doctoral program, Dr. Cheng is pushing me to work toward publications that will look good on applications for those programs, Vermeire said. He most recently has encouraged and assisted me in applying for a Wentz Research Award and the Niblack Research Scholars program. Vermeire received a Niblack Research Scholars program scholarship for the 2022-23 academic year. I was apprehensive at first because I was not sure I would be able to produce a good application, but he convinced me I could and helped me to get my application to that caliber, Vermeire said. Cheng can help his students because of his relationship with the BIMB department, the Ferguson College of Agriculture and OSU. When I chose to come to OSU, I chose my ideal university, Cheng said. I was looking for my future home. I needed a place with the right resources and support for my research. After interacting with the OSU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Ferguson College of Agriculture, I realized they had all the resources I would need for my project. They have been so supportive of me, my research, my teaching and my transition to OSU. Cheng has created a cohesive environment in his lab, which benefits both the students and the research, Vermeire said. Chengs research has the potential to have a global impact, Gustafson said. Understanding tuberculosis and its interactions within an infected host could help develop a new vaccine or drug therapy, Gustafson said. At the same time, his individual attention to students shows he cares about them, too, Kotey said. His patience and willingness to teach encourages students to strive for their best levels of success, Kotey added. He gives me a lot of encouragement, which is something you do not really get from many principle investigators, Kotey said. Most are just concerned with getting data. Not only is Cheng interested in getting the data, but also he has a soft spot for his students development. It goes hand-in-hand for him. Understanding Research Tuberculosis remains one of the worlds most fatal infectious diseases. The causative agent of TB, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, has infected 23% of the world population and will result in 9 million new cases and 1.4 million deaths a year. However, about 5% to 10% of infected individuals will develop active TB during their lifetime. Scientists still do not understand how mycobacterial infections cause TB or how natural immunity occurs. Yong Chengs research focuses on host-pathogen interactions in an effort to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. With this knowledge, Cheng said he hopes to aid in the development of novel drug treatments and vaccines to combat TB. Developing knowledge about mycobacterial infections and TB could provide knowledge that will help scientists better understand bacteria-associated diseases such as those found in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cystic fibrosis. Information provided by the OSU Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Story By: Braden Payne | Cowboy Journal Beijing says Blinken speech 'smears China' Beijing says Blinken speech 'smears China' 6.1-magnitude quake strikes off East Timor The quake struck off the eastern tip of Timor Island. Image: Shutterstock Over her five years as a faculty member at the Baskin School of Engineering, Marcella Gomez has made it a priority to listen to the needs of her students. Now, she cites this as what drew her to accept a new position as the inaugural Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. There's a lot of resilient students, a lot of impressive students, Gomez said. I think it is critical to make them feel valued, that we like to have them here, that they contribute to the university. In addition to supporting the growth of a diverse population of students, staff and faculty, Gomez will take action to reinforce the importance of bringing diverse perspectives to the universitys research mission and the creation of innovative, socially responsible technology. As a Mexican-American who was in the first generation of her working-class family to graduate from college, she was made to feel valued and supported in the education system at some points, but was left to fend for herself in a competitive environment at others. But throughout her education, by taking advantage of programs supporting diversity and inclusion, she found opportunities along the path to completing her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology, win the highly competitive UC Presidents Postdoctoral Fellowship Program, and fulfill her aspirations to pursue a career in research and academia. At CalTech, she developed a scientific identity and sense of belonging in the engineering community, and was inspired by a mentor truly invested in students long-term success. As a postdoc, she saw the value of networking and building pipelines that increase visibility and retention of underrepresented groups in STEM. Now, she hopes to bring those lessons into practice at UCSC, and build on an existing desire to improve retention and ensure student success, making progress toward these goals while recognizing that there will always be more work to be done. Engineering leaders have for decades recognized the need to broaden the pipeline into engineering schools and the tech industry and to manifest environments in which women and people of color are given and perceive unlimited opportunities to contribute and thrive, yet too little measurable progress has been achieved, said Dean of Baskin Engineering Alexander Wolf. As a faculty member, Marcella Gomez has already demonstrated that she is an agent of change, and with her new platform as associate dean, I am certain that she will be a powerful leader in our ongoing work to become more inclusive, more anti-racist, and more supportive of all our community. She will focus on recruiting and retaining faculty from underrepresented groups, while inspiring all faculty to help advance student success by promoting engagement between students and faculty outside the classroom. She will facilitate vertical communication among students, staff, faculty and administration. A key element will be mentorship for new faculty to help them develop a sense of belonging and set a course for career success and impact. I don't think there's a way to do this work well without being on the ground talking to students one-on-one, talking to faculty one-on-one, and talking to staff one-on-one, Gomez said. I want to understand everyone's backgrounds and needs and experiences, and take that information up into higher-level decision making. Being in touch with and advocating for these needs can help build open communication between students, staff, faculty and the university leadership, as well as helping to shape and execute the university's policies and programs to be truly effective in achieving shared goals. One such major goal is to bring the school's demographics in line with those of the state of California an objective that will in turn promote a talented, diverse workforce in academia and industry. Gomez says this support for students, staff and faculty must come through both culture and financial resources. She hopes to help create spaces to facilitate more faculty engagement with students beyond the classroom, in order to foster connections and create opportunities to promote talented students whose resumes might not be as robust as their peers because they were not afforded as many opportunities. She also will seek to leverage existing programs, like the Multicultural/MESA Engineering Program (MEP), which provides students academic and personal support, to improve student experience at all levels. These DEI and student success initiatives have expanded through investment by the dean, but still have much room to grow currently, MEP can only serve a fraction of the students who qualify. Other such existing programs include the Baskin Engineering Inclusive Excellence Hub, led by Carmen Robinson since 2020, which is a resource to advance the academic and personal success of students historically underrepresented in engineering fields. The hub drives high-impact initiatives to support faculty in creating inclusive pedagogy and address achievement gaps, as well as student programming such as the Baskin Engineering Excellence Scholars (BEES), which provides targeted academic support for first-year engineering students in coding and mathematics classes, areas that tend to exhibit the most extreme achievement gaps. Matt Guthaus, Associate Dean for Graduate Studies, has been working to strengthen Baskin Engineerings Cal-Bridge Computer Science program, aiming to increase the number of California State University (CSU) students from traditionally underrepresented groups pursuing Ph.D.s in computer science at UCSC. Guthaus collaborates with Jim Whitehead, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs, to promote and expand the Baskin Inclusive Curriculum and Engineering Pedagogy initiative. This currently includes Individual Instructional Consultation (IIC), which provides instructors one-on-one opportunities to investigate a question they face related to curriculum, teaching, or assessment, as well as the Engineering Teaching Community program (ETC) that provides Senate faculty and lecturers a weekly, welcoming, developmental opportunity to improve teaching and assessment practices in community. Whitehead has also been working on a Student Success Improvement Plan, an initiative to narrow and close achievement gaps in classes that currently act as barriers for students in their degree progress. This summer, Baskin Engineering will welcome the second cohort of students and faculty funded by the Fellowship for Anti-Racism Research, which supports research that investigates racism and bias in technology/engineering or that explores tools to fight racism and bias through technology. Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani has said that as a response to global conditions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme is precisely the catalyst India needs to step up and strengthen self-reliance across all sectors - be it vaccinations, defence, or semiconductors. In his thoughts on the recent visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said that it is clear, in this uncertain time, that there is little alternative to effective, confident self-reliance and that we are now onto this era of self-reliance. "As we go through this process there will be pushbacks - and we will run into controversies in other parts of the world. So be it. Many will try to stop us building semiconductor plants. Many will dissuade us from investing a larger portion of our GDP in defence. Our principles will come under criticism. What we must keep in mind is that many of those who set targets for emissions reductions for India are also those that shy away from acknowledging the disproportionate responsibility borne by a small number of developed countries for the climate crisis. In other words, it is far easier to talk than to walk the talk," he said. "India is right to focus on self-reliance, while also seeking to provide an alternative to a world in need of alternatives. If there is a rejigging of the world order, it needs to be one that is based on respectful multipolarity. The world need not be flat. Not when flatness really just means that the world has been forcefully flattened," Adani said. "Instead, let's seek a more stable world order built around countries that are self-confident, self-reliant and willing to speak to each other in terms of mutual respect rather than coercion and condescension. This is the paradox we must solve!" "I must admit that the very large presence of India at the WEF, even in these times, was reassuring. It showed that India is no longer shy about asserting itself in the global arena. It was a sign of our growing confidence. It was a sign of our belief in the India story, and I am glad I was in Davos to experience this for myself!" he added. Adani said this state of global affairs has forced us to confront the resulting realpolitik directly rather than hide behind a faade of global cooperation. "On one side, we are too connected now, bound together by trade and the brute logic of the supply chain. But on the other, a combination of the pandemic, followed by the war in Ukraine and the effort to limit climate change, has exposed the limits of global cooperation," he said. Adani said that international alliances and pacts are mutable, built on slippery foundations of self-interest. Indeed, many of the most economically developed nations on the planet are scrambling to find alternatives to a world they have largely brought about, recognising belatedly that in the quest for hyper efficiencies they have become too reliant on some nations to meet manufacturing needs and too reliant on others to meet energy needs. --IANS san/ ( 531 Words) 2022-05-26-22:30:03 (IANS) The brand announces benefits for the dealers, and they will provide discounts to those who will take the franchise of wroley. Wroley Dealership Cost & Benefits: The brand ensures services like - 12 services (free coupon of 4 services worth Rs 100 each & pay 8 services at Rs 250 each), Customer Relation Management (Lead generation and Feedback after-sales), Geographical Branding Showroom (free paid promotion run by Wroley on social media), Showroom Free branding and Workshop setup, Outdoor Marketing (Wroley will pay 50 per cent of the gross marketing amount). The brand has asked for Rs 1,00,000 (One Lakh) refundable security after 1 year. Additional Profit for the customer is Insurance loans & Spare Parts. Rs 2400 (4 services x Rs 100 paid by Wroley, 8 services x Rs 250 paid by the customer). Wroley E Scooters has made two plans for dealers GOLD, and Platinum. Gold Load- 40 E-Showroom Price For - Delhi NCR - Rs 78,900 (Posh) Rs 76,400 (Platina) Rs 69,900 (Mars) Dealer Price - Rs 71,010 (Posh) Rs 68,760 (Platina) Rs 62,910 (Mars) Profit - 11.1 per cent Area Sub - Division - 5 Sub Dealer in District Platinum Load - 80 E-Showroom Price For - Delhi NCR - Rs 78,900 (Posh) Rs 76,400 (Platina) Rs 69,900 (Mars) Dealer Price - Rs 71,010 (Posh) Rs 68,760 (Platina) Rs 62,910 (Mars) Profit - 11.1 per cent Area Sub - Division - 5 Sub Dealer in District Warranty (in Years) 1. Battery - 3 years + 2 years extendable 2. Charger - 2 years + 1 year extendable 3. Motor - 2 years + 1 year extendable 4. Controller - 1 year + 1 year extendable With all the information and brainstorming by now, you know how profitable an EV Dealership can be for you, and always, you should Prefer Wroley Dealership over others. Book your appointment for the dealership now. Call Wroley at 8080808023 and to know more visit: www.wroley.com This story is provided by PNN. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/PNN) Oil India Limited (OIL) has posted a net profit of Rs 3,887.31 crore for the year ended March 2022, which is 123.20 per cent higher when compared with Rs 1741.59 crore profit recorded in the previous year. Talking to ANI, SC Mishra, CMD, Oil India Limited, said that one of the reasons behind the record profit is high crude oil and gas prices. Mishra said that 8 billion Rubles of dividend from Russian projects is stuck due to the war between Russia and Ukraine. There is no aggressive plan to buy Russian projects as the government is reviewing the investment prospects in Russia, he said. Talking about the crude oil price outlook, Mishra said oil prices are expected to come down to $80-90 in some time. Oil India's turnover of Rs14,530.18 crore during 2021-22 is also the highest ever. The turnover during 2020-21 was Rs 8,604.90 crore. For Q4 2021-22 also, the Turnover and PAT have increased by 73.85 per cent and 92.32 per cent, respectively over Q4 last financial year. The Earnings Per Share (EPS) for FY22 increased to Rs 35.85/share from Rs 16.06/share for FY 21. The consolidated turnover of OIL's group companies has increased to Rs 30,011.20 crore in 2021-22 from Rs 22,484.13 crore in the last financial year. Group PAT of OIL for the year 2021-22 also increased to Rs 6,719.21 crore from Rs 4,145.97 crore in 2020-21. Average crude oil price realisation for 2021-22 improved to US$ 78.96/ barrel from USD 43.98/ barrel in 2020-21, an increase of about 80 per cent. The average natural gas price for 2021-22 was marginally higher at USD 2.35/ MMBTU vis-a-vis USD 2.09/ MMBTU for 2020-21. The company has achieved the highest ever natural gas production of 3045 MMSCM in 2021-22, an increase of 15.25 per cent over last year. Natural gas production in Q4 of 2021-22 was also higher by 13.1 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Crude oil production during 2021-22 also increased by 1.6 per cent, from 2.96 MMT in 2020-21 to 3.01 MMT in 2021-22. The growth in crude oil production in Q4 2021-22 is 4.2 per cent over the corresponding period last year. Two new hydrocarbon discoveries were made during 2021-22 in Tinsukia district of Assam. The Board has recommended a final dividend of Rs.5/share for FY22. The Company has earlier paid an interim dividend of Rs.9.25/share for FY 22. The total dividend for the year will be Rs14.25/ share. Mishra said that four major infrastructure projects were also commissioned in the State of Assam during 2021-22 which will further enhance the oil and gas production capabilities of the company. The Company is currently drilling its deepest onshore well at Sadiya in Assam which will be about 6500 M deep. (ANI) Actor Kevin Spacey, known for starring in series "House Of Cards", is to be charged with sexual assault against three men, the Crown Prosecution Service said. According to BBC, five charges are being brought against the 62-year-old after a review of Met Police evidence following complaints dating between 2005 and 2013. Three complaints relate to sexual abuse which is alleged to have taken place in London, and one in Gloucestershire. He also faces an additional serious sexual offence charge in London. The first two charges relate to alleged sexual assaults on a man, now in his 40s, in London in March 2005, while a second alleged victim, a man now in his 30s, is claimed to have been assaulted in London in August 2008. The serious sexual offence charge - causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent - also relates to the second alleged victim. The third complainant relates to an alleged assault on a man who is now in his 30s in Gloucestershire in April 2013. While the CPS has authorised the charges against Spacey it is understood he has not been formally charged as he is not in the country, BBC reported. Rosemary Ainslie, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said that following the review of evidence the CPS had "authorised criminal charges against Kevin Spacey, 62, for four counts of sexual assault against three men". She added: "The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial." The CPS said it could not confirm or deny whether or not Mr Spacey, an American, will need to be extradited to the UK. --IANS dc/vd ( 294 Words) 2022-05-26-22:40:03 (IANS) On Friday, the 29-year-old actor took her Instagram handle and shared a video via her IG story with her reaction. She wrote on her IG story, "Okay! This video is a full vibe "with a crying emoticon. In the video, actor Ranbir Kapoor could be seen giving a peck on the baby's head while playing with him. Both of them could be seen smiling for the camera in a playful manner. The video shared by Alia was posted by a fan account of Ranbir Kapoor. Also, the video has been widely shared by the fans of Alia and Ranbir on the social media and eventually caught the attention of Alia. The 'Raazi' actor, who recently got hitched to actor Ranbir Kapoor, is busy shooting for her Hollywood Debut alongside Gal Gadot. She will next be seen in Karan Johar's 'Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani', co-starring Ranveer Singh, and 'Brahmastra', co-starring her husband, Ranbir Kapoor. Alia will also be marking her debut as a producer soon with her upcoming flick 'Darlings'. (ANI) According to Fox News, Alec revealed that his mother died on Thursday at the age of 92. "Carol M. Baldwin, mother of actors Alec, Daniel, William and Stephen Baldwin and two daughters, Elizabeth and Jane, died today in Syracuse, New York," he wrote in a statement on Instagram. Alec went on to describe his mother's life and accomplishments. He said she was born in December 1929 and had one brother and five sisters. He wrote, "Carol Baldwin raised her children and, when her last was a teenager, went to work in marketing research for a firm called Quick Test, operating out of a local shopping mall." The obituary noted that in addition to her six children with her late husband Alexander Rae Baldwin Jr., Carol had 25 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. The statement continued, "Carol Baldwin raised her children and, when her last was a teenager, went to work in marketing research for a firm called Quick Test, operating out of a local shopping mall." Alec's sibling Stephen Baldwin's daughter, Hailey Bieber, also honoured her grandmother by sharing her uncle's post to her Instagram story, writing, "We love you Grandma." She also included a white heart and dove emoji, as per Fox News. (ANI) Underlining the "high fees" being charged by the National Board of Examination for National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test-Postgraduate (NEET-PG), junior doctors questioned the lack of basic facilities at various centres during the recent test. The NEET PG 2022 exam was held on May 21. Talking to IANS, a NEET PG aspirant, on the condition of anonymity, said that the charges are being increased every year but the NBE didn't provide even any basic facilities during the examination period. She said that despite such scorching heat, even fans were not running at many centres across many states. Taking notes of aspirants' complaints, the Federation of All India Medical Association, in a statement, said: "Doctors at the Federation of All India Medical Association are getting complaints from students who took the NEET PG 2022 examination held on May 21 regarding the poor administrative management at the examination centres all over the country." "It is shameful for the National Board of Examination to charge such exorbitant fees for merely appearing in an examination and do not provide even water to students at such high temperature." "NBE is charging Rs 1,500 for NEET UG exam and Rs 5,000 for NEET PG. It is unacceptable because various platforms in India is conducting online medical exams at 1000-1500 very smoothly. This fee should be revised to minimal because student appears this exam more than once," FAIMA President, Dr. Rohan Krishnan, told IANS. He also said that various organisations such as Delhi AIIMS, AIIMS Rishikesh, INICET, ESI releases an answer key the next day after exams and gives clear cut data of which questions were marked right or wrong by candidate. But NBE lacks this transparency which should change, he added. --IANS avr/vd ( 298 Words) 2022-05-26-21:44:07 (IANS) New research from the University of Cambridge suggests autistic individuals are more likely to have chronic mental and physical health conditions. They are also reported to have lower-quality healthcare than others. These findings, published in Molecular Autism, have important implications for the healthcare and support of autistic individuals. Many studies indicate that autistic people are dying far younger than others, but there is a paucity of research on the health and healthcare of autistic people across the adult lifespan. While some studies have previously suggested that autistic people may have significant barriers to accessing healthcare, only a few, small studies have compared the healthcare experiences of autistic people to others. In the largest study to date on this topic, the team at the Autism Research Centre (ARC) in Cambridge used an anonymous, self-report survey to compare the experiences of 1,285 autistic individuals to 1,364 non-autistic individuals, aged 16-96 years, from 79 different countries. 54% of participants were from the UK. The survey assessed rates of mental and physical health conditions, and the quality of healthcare experiences. The team found that autistic people self-reported lower quality healthcare than others across 50 out of 51 items on the survey. Autistic people were far less likely to say that they could describe how their symptoms feel in their body, describe how bad their pain feels, explain what their symptoms are, and understand what their healthcare professional means when they discuss their health. Autistic people were also less likely to know what is expected of them when they go to see their healthcare professional and to feel they are provided with appropriate support after receiving a diagnosis, of any kind. Autistic people were over seven times more likely to report that their senses frequently overwhelm them so that they have trouble focusing on conversations with healthcare professionals. In addition, they were over three times more likely to say they frequently leave their healthcare professional's office feeling as though they did not receive any help at all. Autistic people were also four times more likely to report experiencing shutdowns or meltdowns due to a common healthcare scenario (e.g., setting up an appointment to see a healthcare professional). The team then created an overall 'health inequality score' and employed novel data analytic methods, including machine learning. Differences in healthcare experiences were stark: the models could predict whether or not a participant was autistic with 72% accuracy based only on their 'health inequality score'. The study also found worryingly high rates of chronic physical and mental health conditions, including arthritis, breathing concerns, neurological conditions, anorexia, anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, depression, insomnia, OCD, panic disorders, personality disorders, PTSD, SAD, and self-harm. Dr Elizabeth Weir, a postdoctoral scientist at the ARC in Cambridge, and the lead researcher of the study said: "This study should sound the alarm to healthcare professionals that their autistic patients are experiencing high rates of chronic conditions alongside difficulties with accessing healthcare. Current healthcare systems are failing to meet very fundamental needs of autistic people." Dr Carrie Allison, Director of Strategy at the ARC and another member of the team, added: "Healthcare systems must adapt to provide appropriate reasonable adjustments to autistic and all neurodiverse patients to ensure that they have equal access to high-quality healthcare." Professor Sir Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the ARC and a member of the team, said: "This study is an important step forward in understanding the issues that autistic adults are facing in relation to their health and health care, but much more research is needed. We need more research on the long term outcomes of autistic people and how their health and healthcare can be improved. Clinical service providers need to ask autistic people what they need and then meet these needs." (ANI) A strong nursing sector is an essential requirement for a strong healthcare sector, said Union Minister of State for Health Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar on Friday. Pawar added that by investing in nursing, better health services can be provided. This will lead to disease prevention which will help in achieving our objectives of universal health coverage. She also emphasised that there are significant changes happening in the role of nurses, these changes would also improve their contribution internationally and that India's nurses have always earned tremendous goodwill in all parts of the world. Signifying the crucial role played by the nursing fraternity, she said: "Nursing is an art, science and spirit that combines all aspects harmoniously. An educated nurse must also possess spiritual qualities in order to serve humanity by giving the patient remedial care and to meet their medical needs. "Nurses are the foundation of hospitals and the most important link between a doctor and the patient. Nurses are the heroes who meet the needs of their patients, whether it is day or night." "Nurses are the backbone of healthcare industry, which takes tireless care of all the needs of the patients. This is also seen during the Covid pandemic where the role played by nursing community in such difficult times is simply remarkable," she added while addressing the Lamp lighting ceremony at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital's School of Nursing for its 66th batch today. The Lamp Lighting ceremony formally recognizes the student's entry into the nursing profession. Reiterating the Central government's dedication for holistic development of health sector in the country, Pawar said that under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government is working towards robust healthcare ecosystem in the country and also emphasising on preventive care while also giving priority to modern treatment facilities. Efforts are also being made to increase the number of doctors and nurses rapidly, besides taking the benefits of health facilities to the masses and reducing the cost of treatment of the poor, she added. --IANS avr/pgh ( 349 Words) 2022-05-27-21:22:01 (IANS) "On the basis of extensive data analysis and field surveillance, intelligence was developed by the DRI that certain consignments being imported from Iran were likely to contain narcotic drugs. "... 'Op Namkeen' was launched and a consignment, declared to contain 1,000 bags of common salt having gross weight of 25 MT, which had been imported at Mundra port from Iran, was identified for detailed examination," said a DRI official. The said consignment was examined for three continuous days from May 24-26. During the examination, some bags were found to be suspicious, as a substance in powder form having distinct smell was found in these bags. Samples were drawn from those suspected bags and testing was conducted by officials of Directorate of Forensic Sciences, Gujarat, who reported the presence of cocaine in these samples. "Examination and seizure proceedings under the provisions of NDPS Act, are in progress. Roles of various persons involved in the consignment are also being investigated by DRI," the official said. --IANS atk/pgh ( 214 Words) 2022-05-26-20:04:03 (IANS) The Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Delhi Prisons Department for training and skill enhancement of the inmates. With the collaboration, the skill varsity shall offer different skill-based courses at Tihar Jail, from July this year, and award certificates upon successful completion of the programme which will enable the inmates to be gainfully employed upon release from jail. It is envisaged that skill training shall enable inmates upon release to have an opportunity to respectfully integrate themselves into the society. Officials said that the initiative is intended to support long term rehabilitation of the inmates and integration into the society. Skill University Vice Chancellor Prof. Neharika Vohra said this is not just as a skilling program but something which also builds agency among the inmates. "Through this initiative, we want to give the prisoners a second chance to lead a respectable life upon release," she averred. Director General (Prisons), Sandeep Goel remarked "this is the need of the hour". "With such a strong institutionalised collaboration, we could aim at long term reform of the prisoners. This programme will help us add various skill courses for inmates in our jails which will help them earn their livelihood upon release. This will give the inmates a better opportunity to lead a dignified life," the top prison official said. The University shall deploy trainers for imparting skill based courses for identified groups within the jail premises. It is proposed that a detailed assessment of existing skills and market requirements will be conducted before the launch of the courses, which shall be tailor-made for the prisoners. --IANS uj/pgh ( 287 Words) 2022-05-26-20:16:01 (IANS) Mumbai Police have lodged a first information report against 8 senior executives of a major financial company, Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd (MOFSL) for allegedly outraging the modesty of a 37-year-old female employee who was under suspension for reportedly making the male colleagues 'sexually uncomfortable'. The Dadar Police Station has filed the FIR under Indian Penal Code Sec 509 against the company's top executives ranging from Senior Manager to Board Member and Senior Group Vice-President - Sudhir Dhar, Gaurav Maniar, Rohit Singh, Ankit Jobanputra, Vijay Agarwal, Rohan Adawale, Prince Sharma and Suraj Pawar. The MOFSL has dismissed the allegations by the woman and said it would move an appropriate court to quash the FIR even as Dadar Police is investigating the matter in which no arrests have been made so far. The woman, working as Digital Marketing Assistant Vice President was placed under suspension on May 6 for two weeks on alleged grounds of making her male colleagues 'sexually uncomfortable', and after she approached the police, the suspension was extended. One of the senior persons named in the FIR, Maniar, had allegedly made certain explicit remarks on her clothes and dressing styles which made other males in the office 'sexually uncomfortable', he demanded to know which Gujarati caste she belonged to, and asked her to resign or the company would sack her. The woman said that the company is conducting an internal probe for which she was not called or contacted, but the company countered by saying she did not attend a meeting of the independent committee and her responses are awaited. When contacted by IANS, a MOFLS official spokesperson "flatly denied" all the baseless allegations by the woman who had worked with the company for barely a month. The MOFSL is also filing a quashing application before a competent court, added the spokesperson. Slamming the woman complainant, the MOFSL said: "Her behaviour at our organisation has been toxic and was making co-workers very unfortable... She had not complained or brought these allegations to the notice of the organisation before her suspension. These are her afterthoughts. She is trying to harass the people who had complained against her and also trying to damage the reputation of our organisation." The MOFLS said the company has nearly 10,000 employees with many women, has a stringent policy with a very strict code of conduct for all employees and a committee with an independent member for all such complaints. A listed entity, MOFSL has been a financial services major for over 35 years, offering a wide range of financial and investment-related services, with its headquarters at Prabhadevi in south central Mumbai. --IANS qn/ ( 467 Words) 2022-05-26-20:40:02 (IANS) Maharashtra BJP president Chandrakant Patil took a jibe at Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule, advising her to "go home and cook" instead of indulging in politics, and found himself in a hot soup, here on Thursday. Patil's comments came on Wednesday during a procession against the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government demanding OBC reservations, and a day later it became a raging row as he was slammed by various political parties, women leaders all over India and female activists. The BJP chief, responding to Supriya's statements, had said: "Why are you in politics even. Just go home and cook. Go to Delhi or go to a crematorium but get the OBC quotas." Rushing to his wife Supriya's defence, hubby Sadanand Sule attacked Patil for his way of speaking about his spouse, terming it as "an insult to all women". "I have always maintained that they (BJP) are misogynistic and demean women whenever they can. I am proud of my wife who is a home-maker, mother and a successful politician, one amongst many other hardworking and talented women in India," said Sadanand Sule. NCP Women Wing President Vidya Chavan said Patil - who had denied a ticket to a sitting woman BJP MLA Medha Kulkarni to contest the Kothrud (Pune) seat himself - "had no right to bad-mouth an MP who has been honoured with the 'Sansad Ratna Award' twice" for her good performance in parliament. "We know you believe in Manusmriti, but we won't keep quiet any more, (Patil) should learn to make chapatis and help his wife at home," Chavan said sharply. Ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) ally Shiv Sena Spokesperson Dr Manisha Kayande hit out at Patil, asking how at his age, he could be saying such things about a woman and termed the BJP as a 'party of goons'. Other senior women politicians like CPI-M's Suhasini Ali and DMK MP Kanimozhi, Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi, several Congress leaders and women's activists also gave a piece of their minds to Patil. Floundering under attacks from various quarters, Patil claimed that his statements were in a rustic style of speaking and meant no disrespect to Sule or women, and said whenever he meets her (Sule) they always greet each other with respect. Several other NCP leaders castigated Patil including Mahesh Tapase, Samir H. Dalwai, Rupali Chakankar, Clyde Crasto, who questioned the BJP's attitude towards womenfolk and whether this was the party's opinion in the "progressive BJP's vision" for the Indian women. Demonstrations and protests were organised against Patil in Pune and other places and memes mocking him were also circulated on social media. --IANS qn/skp/ ( 456 Words) 2022-05-26-20:46:02 (IANS) The Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) categorically said that "the Naga national flag symbolises Naga political identity. It is not negotiable", in the editorial of its latest news bulletin "Nagalim Voice". It is unthinkable for NSCN-IM to accept the Naga national flag as a cultural flag as hinted by the Government of India. Since 1997, the Central Government has held more than 85 rounds of negotiations with the NSCN-IM and other Naga groups. However, the NSCN-IM's insistence on a separate Naga flag and Constitution have become a big hurdle in the way of resolving the Naga issue. The former interlocutor and then Governor of Nagaland, R.N. Ravi had rejected these demands repeatedly. The editorial of the May issue of Nagalim Voice, referring to the Framework Agreement signed on August 3, 2015, expressed: "Today, NSCN is watching how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to handle Framework Agreement with NSCN and Naga people that he himself took so much pride in and credit for. When the high profile Framework Agreement was signed, Modi went histrionic as he called up all political leaders who matter to announce that he has solved the longest running insurgency movement in Southeast Asia. The world at large was, however, not impressed and waited to see how he would match his words with action acceptable to the Naga people." The editorial further read: "What is of concern to NSCN in particular, and to the Nagas in general is the habitual betraying of the Government of India after signing agreement after agreement." "Such was the depravity on the part of Government of India that every good thing gained during the 25 years of Indo-Naga political talks is facing the risk of going down the drain. The unfortunate development is tantamount to political blackmail," the editorial said. The Nagalim Voice said that NSCN cannot allow defilement to take place for the fourth time and this is the crux of the issue. "Everything is clear before the world," the Naga outfit said. "How could Naga people tread such hollow ground after more than six decades of blood, sweat, and tears. In spite of threat and pressure, NSCN will never lend itself to committing an act of abomination before God and treason before the Naga people," the Nagalim Voice stated. After Ravi was transferred to the gubernatorial post of Tamil Nadu last year, former Special Director of the Intelligence Bureau A.K. Mishra was appointed for Naga peace talks. There was an open difference of opinion between the NSCN-IM and Ravi leading to the deadlock in the peace process that culminated in his transfer to Tamil Nadu. Mishra, during his first visit to Nagaland in September last year, also discussed the Naga issue with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the Convener of the North East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), the northeast unit of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA). Mishra, in his second week-long visit from April 18, met Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, leaders of the NSCN-IM, Naga National Political Groups (NNPG), core committee on Naga political issues as well as the Naga civil society and discussed the matter. Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton, who is also a BJP leader, recently in a public meeting in Wokha district, categorically said that the Centre should resolve the Naga issue by August 15 this year. "If the Naga political issue is not settled now, the long pending issue would take another 100 years to settle," said Patton, who is a member of all the important committees, including the Core Committee on Naga political issues. During an Assembly session last month, all legislators across party lines strongly urged the Centre to settle the issue at the earliest as Assembly elections are due early next year. Participating in the discussion, Rio urged the negotiating parties to settle the issue, and that if a settlement cannot be reached, there should be a fresh mandate by the people on how to pursue the Naga political issue. Noting that 17 resolutions on the Naga political issue have been passed in the Assembly since 1964, he said: "But if a solution is not arrived at, and insurgency activities continue, the future of the younger generation remains at stake." --IANS sc/kvd/pgh ( 724 Words) 2022-05-26-20:50:04 (IANS) In a horrific incident, a teenager killed his minor cousin over the trivial issue of playing games on a cell phone. The incident took place at Goblej village of Kheda district in central Gujarat. Kheda Police Sub Inspector S.R. Prajapati said that two days ago, 16-year-old Jagrut (name changed) hit his 12-year-old cousin Vijesh on his head with a stone, after which he fell unconscious. Jagrut thought Vijesh died and fearing scolding from parents, he tied his legs and hands and threw him in the well. He then fled to his village Damsath in Banswara district in Rajasthan. The boy was brought back by the family and was arrested on Thursday afternoon before the Juvenile Board, said the cop. According to Jagrut's statement, he and his cousin Vijesh were playing games on his mobile phone. They both decided to have golgappa but Vijesh was insisting for the mobile phone for games. This angered Jagrut and he struck Vijesh with a stone. The accused took the family members to the well in which he had thrown his cousin. Vijesh's father Jitmal Valhi identified him by seeing his legs in the well and informed Kheda Town Police, which called the fire brigade and retrieved the deceased's body and sent it for postmortem. Jitmal Valhi and his brother (Jagrut's father) are from Rajasthan. They moved to Goblej village with their families and were working as labourers. As the two children went missing, the families searched for them and when they learned that Jagrut had reached their native village, they brought him back. Upon return, he confessed to his crime before his family members, said the complainant Jitmal. --IANS haresh/kvd/skp/ ( 289 Words) 2022-05-26-20:50:05 (IANS) Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leaders on Thursday lodged police complaints against state BJP chief Bandi Sanjay for delivering a hate speech in Karimnagar town. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) has demanded the state government take action against Sanjay while Muslim leaders of the Congress too have decided to file police complaints against the BJP leader, who had made the speech on Wednesday. Local TRS leaders filed two separate complaints with Sanjay at Two Town Police Station in Karimnagar. They demanded strong action against him for making provocative comments against Muslims, mosques, and madarsas. They requested the police to register cases against Sanjay, who is also a Member of Parliament from Karimnagar, under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code. The AIMIM has urged Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao and Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy to take "exemplary" action to prevent untoward incidents and protect communal harmony of Telangana. The party tweeted that the BJP government at the Centre has done nothing for people of Telangana in the last eight years and that is why Sanjay was spreading hatred. Meanwhile, Telangana Congress' Minorities Department Chairman Abdullah Sohail Shaik has announced that the party leaders in all 33 districts will lodge police complaints against Sanjay. He claimed that the police should have taken suo moto note of the hate speech and register a case but no action was taken as the ruling TRS "has a secret understanding with the BJP". The Congress leader alleged that Sanjay is desperate to get public attention by making highly provocative statements. He said the BJP leader initially targeted four per cent reservation for Muslims and Urdu language and he was now demanding the digging under all mosques. Addressing the Hindu Ekta Yarta in Karimnagar on Wednesday, Sanjay had alleged that Muslim rulers in Telangana demolished several temples and built mosques over them. He demanded digging work at all mosques, saying there was a possibility of finding Shiva Lingams underneath. The BJP MP also stated that if BJP comes to power in Telangana, it will abolish all madrasas, do away with reservation for Muslims, and remove Urdu as the second official language. --IANS ms/vd ( 376 Words) 2022-05-26-22:36:03 (IANS) The official told IANS that they received a call about a blast and house collapse around 9 p.m. at C block, Phase 1, Rajpur near Chattarpur in south Delhi after which five fire tenders were immediately pressed into service. "Second and third floor of the building were damaged in the blast that occurred due to LPG leakage," Delhi Fire Service chief Atul Garg said, adding the injured were shifted to a nearby hospital. "Usually the blast results in a fire, however, this time there was no such thing," another fire department official said, adding the situation is under control. --IANS uj/vd ( 136 Words) 2022-05-26-22:46:02 (IANS) RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said that as long as his party would be in the opposition, central agencies will continue to raid him and his family members. After returning from London, he said: "We are in the opposition and as long as we stay in this position, the ruling parties would misuse the constitutional agencies against us to conduct raids. This was not new to us. We are witnessing such raids from our childhood. This was not the first raid and I am not saying that this would be the last one." Tejashwi Yadav, along with his wife Rajshree Yadav, were in London when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted raids on the 16 properties of Lalu Prasad and his other family members and relatives on May 20 in an alleged railway job scam. "People sitting the government are getting richer and richer but agencies would not conduct raids on them. The people of Bihar are watching it how they are unnecessarily penalising Lalu Praad Yadav," he said. "During his tenure as Railway Minister of the country, the department had gained Rs 90,000 crore profit. He gave permanent jobs to coolies, ran AC trains for poor (Garib Rath express train), allowed 'Kulhar Wala Chai' (clay teapots) in the railway to benefit Kumhar community people and now the Narendra Modi government is selling Indian railway," Tejashwi Yadav said. Reacting on his closeness with Nitish Kumar, he said that he had proposed for the caste-based census and meet Prime Minister on this issue last year. On Rajya Sabha candidate, Tejashwi said that RJD President Lalu Prasad Yadav will announce the names of the candidates officially. Sources have said that the RJD has selected Misa Bharti and Fyaz Ahmed and they are expected to file nominations on Friday. --IANS ajk/vd ( 315 Words) 2022-05-26-23:08:02 (IANS) Citing reasons such as felling of 30,000 trees, location in seismic zone, unscientific studies, and evidence of tiger presence in and around the project area, a group of activists on Thursday demanded reconsideration of the proposed Etalin hydroelectric project (HEP) in Dibang basin of Arunachal Pradesh. The 3097 MW Etalin hydroelectric project (HEP) is the largest hydropower project proposed in the country. The Forum for Policy Dialogue on Water Conflicts in India, a network of about 800 individuals and organisations who are involved in the water sector issues in general and water conflicts in particular since 2004-05, has written a letter to the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to reconsider the project citing multiple, specific reasons. Drawing attention to what they termed as "destructive content of the proposed Etalin HEP", the members of the Steering Committee of the Forum said they are "deeply concerned" about the all round destruction the Etalin project can cause - ecology of the region, socio-cultural milieu of the people, especially the indigenous Idu Mishmi communities, and their nature-dependent livelihoods." The specific reasons included, first and foremost, the proposed destruction of 30,000 trees in old growth forest in a biodiversity hotspot. "The ecosystem services of such a forest cannot be compensated in any way by plantation or compensatory afforestation programmes," the letter said, and reminded of violations in compensatory measures regarding two similar projects in that state. The Forum also sought to remind the FAC of how the Dibang Valley is prone to natural hazards "as it lies on a seismically active zone" and also has melting glacial lakes. The Forum letter - addressed to Sanjay Deshmukh, chairperson of the FAC sub-committee for the purpose - drew attention to the fact that 29 scientists from 16 research institutions had poked holes in the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) report that had been the basis of the project proposal. "It is our hope and plea that as an expert committee, the FAC must not base such an important decision that can have unimaginable consequences on such an error-ridden report." It also mentioned how the WII report omitted reference to the presence of tigers in and around the project area. The minutes of the meetings of the FAC meeting held on May 11 shows that none of the issues raised by experts and local citizens have been addressed either by the sub-committee or the state. Apart from the technical and scientific issues, the Forum letter also stated how the indigenous Idu Mishmi community that inhibits the Dibang Valley has a population of only about 10,000 people. Etalin is one of the 17 proposed HEPs in the Valley and the possible influx of outsiders can make Idu Mishmis minorities in their own area and impact their way of life, the activists said. --IANS niv/vd ( 481 Words) 2022-05-26-23:16:02 (IANS) The Rouse Avenue Court sentenced former Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala to four years imprisonment in a disproportionate assets case filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The Court ordered to confiscate four properties of him and also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh. Special Judge Vikas Dhull on Friday sentenced four years imprisonment to Om Prakash Chautala and ordered immediately to send him to the custody of Tihar Jail. According to the order passed by the court, out of Rs 50 lakh fine amount of Rs 5 lakh would be given to the CBI from that. The court also refused to grant 10 days' time to surrender to Chautala as requested by his lawyer Harsh Sharma. On Thursday, after concluding the arguments both sides said the order of sentences will be passed today. During the argument on Thursday, OP Chautala physically appeared and remained present in the courtroom. Appearing for OP Chautala, Advocate Harsh Sharma cited medical grounds for less punishment and submitted that Chautala had been afflicted with polio since birth, and was partially disabled. Chautala is accused of acquiring disproportionate assets from 1993-to 2006. This time is more than 20 years. In the meantime, he has always cooperated in the investigation, Advocate Sharma argued. CBI's Special Public Prosecutor Ajay Gupta opposed the submissions of Chautala's lawyer for a grant of concession on the ground of ill-health and age. CBI had urged the court for maximum punishment shall be given as it would send a message to the society. "The person, in this case, is a public figure and giving minimum punishment would send a wrong message. He is not having clean antecedents. It is the second case in which he has been convicted," CBI said. Special Judge (PC Act) Vikas Dhull last week had convicted Chautala and said the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such dis-proportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which, he acquired assets during this period. "Hence, accused Om Prakash Chautala is convicted for the offence under Section 13(1)(e) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Put up 26.05.2022 at 10.00 a.m. for arguments on the point of sentence," said the court. According to the CBI's FIR, Om Prakash Chautala, while functioning as Chief Minister of Haryana during the period from July 24, 1999 to March 5, 2005, in collusion with his family members and others, accumulated assets, immovable and movable, disproportionate to his known lawful sources of income, in his name, in the names of his family members and others to the extent of Rs.1,467 crore. FIR further stated that the accused accumulated enormous wealth and invested the same throughout the country in the shape of thousands of acres of land, multi complexes, palatial residential houses, hotels, farmhouses, business agencies, petrol pumps and other investments apart from investments in foreign countries. FIR also stated that 43 immovable properties in all, apart from cash and jewellery were accumulated. Apart from 43 alleged properties listed in the FIR, additional properties were also suspected to be of the accused family. An investigation with regard to additional properties was also conducted for ascertaining the link of the accused family with the said properties. The chargesheet filed in the matter after the conclusion of the investigation stated that accused OP Chautala had acquired assets, both immovable and movable, which were disproportionate to his known source of income. The disproportionate assets were calculated to be Rs 6,09,79,026 (Rupees Six Crore Nine Lakh Seventy Nine Thousand and Twenty Six only) and the percentage of DA (Disproportionate Assets) was 189.11 per cent of his known sources of income. Accordingly, CBI had chargesheeted the accused for the offence under Section 13(1)(e) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Apart from the charge sheet filed against the accused OP Chautala, the CBI had filed two more charge sheets arising out of the present FIR, against the sons of the accused i.e. Abhay Singh Chautala and Ajay Singh Chautala and others, which are being tried separately. Om Prakash Chautala is from the Indian National Lok Dal and son of sixth Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal. Chautala was recently released from the Tihar Jail on July 2, 2021, from a 10 year prison sentence after completing the due formalities. He and 53 others, in June 2008, were charged in connection with the appointment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in the state of Haryana during 1999-to 2000. In January 2013, a New Delhi court sentenced Chautala and his son Ajay Singh Chautala to 10 years imprisonment under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. (ANI) Preparations made by the Indian Navy are not a provocation to any aggression but it guarantees peace and prosperity to the region, said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday. He took sea sortie in a Kalvari class submarine INS Khandari off the coast of Karwar after inspecting the naval base in Karwar, Karnataka. Singh was in Karwar for a two-day visit to Naval Base. "Whatever I have seen today and experienced, I am assured that the Indian Navy is capable of vigilant, variant and victorious in every situation," Singh said. INS Khanderi is a make in India inspired submarine. It was commissioned by me in the year 2019. The ships and other platforms launched by the Indian Navy have given a boost to the PM Modi's Make in India campaign, he added. During the visit, he also reviewed the progress of infrastructure upgrade under 'Project Seabird' and interacted with senior officials of the Navy during the 'Bada Khana' hosted at the base. The second of the Project 75 submarines, which are been constructed under the 'Make in India' initiative at Mazagon Docks Limited, Mumbai, Khanderi was commissioned by the Defence Minister in September 2019. Earlier, Defence Minister had witnessed the three-dimensional combat capability of the Indian Navy, having embarked on INS Vikramaditya in Sep 2019 and P8I earlier this month. The Scorpene submarines are extremely potent platforms, have advanced stealth features and are also equipped with both long-range guided torpedoes as well as anti-ship missiles. These submarines have a state-of-the-art SONAR and sensor suite permitting outstanding operational capabilities. During the sortie, the full spectrum of capabilities of underwater operations of the Stealth submarine was demonstrated to the Raksha Mantri. "This year when we are celebrating Aazadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, INS Vikrant is getting ready to commission. Both Vikrant and Vikramaditya will enhance the maritime security of India. The Indian Navy is counted among the frontline Navy of the world. Big maritime forces are ready to cooperate with India," he said. The operational demonstrations included simulated weapon launches as well as advanced MR - Sub cooperation exercises with P8I aircraft. Singh witnessed first-hand, operations onboard the potent platform, he interacted with the submarine crew during lunch on board, and he complimented them for their courage and sense of duty. Presently Indian Navy operates four submarines of this class with two more likely to be inducted by the end of next year. The induction of these submarines has significantly enhanced the Indian Navy's underwater capability in the Indian Ocean Region. The sea sortie by Defence Minister is coinciding with 'Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' and 'Swarnim Vijay Varsh' celebrations. (ANI) The victim has been identified as Vijay Kamble. According to the police, Kamble was allegedly killed on Wednesday by his girlfriend's relatives. A case has been registered at the Wadi Police station under relevant sections. Further details into the matter are awaited. (ANI) Dropping the drugs charges against Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan's son Aryan Khan on Friday, the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), SN Pradhan said Whatsapp chats without physical evidence hold "no value". He said that a person can talk about anything on WhatsApp, but without physical existence, it's not complete evidence. "There should be physical corroboration of WhatsApp chat. Courts have clarified that WhatsApp chat, in itself, holds no value. You can talk about anything on WhatsApp but if not corroborated with physical evidence, it's not complete evidence," the NCB head told media persons. The NCB chief further clarified that there should be beyond a reasonable doubt, that the officials did not find. "The principle of preponderance and probability is not applicable to NDPS Act. There should be beyond a reasonable doubt, that we did not find such evidence," he added. NCB has not filed any complaint against Aryan Khan and five others in the alleged cruise drug bust case due to a lack of "sufficient" evidence. "A complaint against 14 persons under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act is being filed. Complaint against rest six persons is not being filed due to the lack of evidence," the Deputy Director-General (DDG) of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) said. Apart from Aryan and five others, the NCB has submitted a complaint against all the 14 persons accused in the case. An NCB team busted an alleged drugs party on the Cordelia Cruise ship which was on its way to Goa at mid-sea on October 2 night. Eight persons were arrested 20 people including Aryan Khan, along with other accused Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha the case. Aryan Khan, Arbaaz Merchant and Munmun Dhamecha were granted bail by the Bombay High Court on 28 October 2021. (ANI) Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday said that the centre under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has put a renewed thrust on Act East policy which has resulted in fast-paced growth and brought about a paradigm shift to development narrative in Assam and other Northeastern states. Inaugurating a conclave on Act East through Northeast in presence of the ambassadors and high commissioners of ASEAN countries in Guwahati, Assam CM said that, in the backdrop of Act East policy, his government is striving to position Assam as the expressway and gateway to ASEAN bloc. "The conclave which is a part of several initiatives of the Act East policy Affairs Department, Assam government to brainstorm on various aspects of Act East policy and strengthen the roadmap for leveraging the opportunity of Assam's geostrategic location to use the state as a springboard for economic cooperation, enhancing connectivity and addressing the issues for seamless movement of trade and investment. Since 2014, under the dynamic and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the Northeastern region has witnessed a rapid transformation" added Sarma. The Prime Minister whose aim is to 'Act East' and 'act fast' for India's northeast, has given new hope, energy and force to the people of the Northeast. "The Prime Minister has taken the Central government to the doorsteps of Northeast India with several development projects," Himanta Biswa Sarma said. The Chief Minister also said that the Centre's continued attention to the Northeast and its people has proved that the region is not the periphery of India, it is in fact the centre of the fastest emerging nations of South East Asia which has the potential to become the link for the emergence of trade and commerce with these nations. "The Assam government is, therefore, working to position Assam as the gateway and the expressway to ASEAN and South East Asia. The government is also working hard to make Assam the industrial hub which can serve not only the region but also the population of BBN and ASEAN countries," Himanta Biswa Sarma said. Speaking on the Northeastern region's geographical proximity with ASEAN countries, the Assam Chief Minister said - "We have no less than 5300 km of international borders with a host of countries like Myanmar, China, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh. The Northeast is truly India's Gateway to Southeast Asia, and I believe the emerging connectivity with the ASEAN nations will play a defining role in enhancing our shared prosperity". He also said that, over the past seven-eight years, India's engagement with the ASEAN countries has grown exponentially. "Trade relations have matured, investments have grown substantially and connectivity between the Northeast and Southeast Asia is fast becoming a reality. Law and order in Assam have improved considerably. Armed Forces Special Power Act has been removed. There has been phenomenal development of connectivity in the state including the construction of bridges over the Brahmaputra to make transportation seamless between the North and South Bank of the river. Assam is also keen on promoting its biodiversity and producing green power to lay a roadmap for the development of the state in sync with its nature. Under UDAN International the state will be connected to at least six countries of the ASEAN bloc. So, Assam has presented a congenial atmosphere for large scale investment, as the Government of Assam is very eager to start a new economic collaboration with ASEAN countries," the Assam Chief Minister said. He also reiterated that the government of Assam is also working wholeheartedly to forge solid and sustainable cooperation with the ASEAN nations. In reply to the High Commissioner of Singapore to India Simon Wie Kuen, Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the parameter of Guwahati will be expanded as he expects Singapore's cooperation in developing the city to accommodate the increasing demands of the people from other Northeastern states and outside. Industries and Commerce Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary while speaking on the occasion presented the prevailing landscape in Assam which holds immense potential for investment. He highlighted the infrastructural development in Assam in terms of roadways, railways, airways and internet connectivity. "Prior to the announcement of Act East Policy, Assam was considered the last part of India. However, the Act East Policy has changed the misnomer, as Assam is now regarded as the Centre of India's relations with the ASEAN countries," Patowary said. The minister also requested the ASEAN ambassadors and high commissioners to send their business delegations to Assam for G2B and B2B meetings. Member, PM's Economic Advisory Council Sanjeev Sanyal, Chief Secretary Jishnu Baruah, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs Geetika Srivastava, High Commissioner, Singapore to India Simon Wie Kuen, Chairman FICCI North East Advisory Council Ranjit Barthakur also spoke on the occasion. Later on the sidelines of the conclave, Chief Minster Dr. Sarma also held a discussion with Sanjeev Sanyal on different ideas and a host of issues pertaining to Assam's economic growth and development. (ANI) The case pertains to a conspiracy hatched by ISIS operatives in Syria for radicalising Indian youth through the internet wherein an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was fabricated locally on their direction. The accused, Mohammed Shahed Khan alias Lala has been sentenced to seven years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 45,000 under sections 13 (unlawful activities), 16 (terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), 20 (member of a terrorist organization), 38 (support to a terrorist organization), 39 (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 4 (attempt to cause explosion), 5 (making or possessing explosives under suspicious circumstances), 6 (abets or is accessory to sections under the act) of Explosive Substance Act, 1908. As per the NIA press release, the case was initially registered as a crime on July 14, 2016, at the Anti-Terrorism Squad Police Station, Mumbai, Maharashtra and re-registered by the NIA on September 14, 2016. After completing the investigation, a charge sheet was filed on October 7, 2016. One accused, Naser Bin Yafai alias (Chaus), has already been convicted of seven years imprisonment by the NIA Special Court, Mumbai on May 6, 2022, in this case. Further trial in the case is underway. (ANI) The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the condition imposed by the Allahabad High Court directions to the District Magistrate to hold a measurement of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University as part of the condition of bail granted to Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan. A vacation bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Bela Trivedi also issued notice on a plea filed by Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan against the impending threat of demolition of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University as part of the condition of his bail. The Court stayed the conditions till the next date of listing of the matter. Azam Khan has apprehended that conditions imposed by the Allahabad High Court may be led to demolishing of buildings of Jauhar University. The top court said that Allahabad High Court while imposing conditions for grant of bail has exceeded the settled parameters laid down in certain sections of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The top court also said that prima facie conditions imposed for the grant of bail are disproportionate and have no reasonable link to the means to secure the presence of the accused. The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear this week a plea filed by Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Azam Khan against the impending threat of demolition of Mohammad Ali Jauhar University as part of the condition of his bail. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Tuesday, appearing for Azam, mentioned the matter for urgent hearing before a bench of Justices DY Chandracud and Bela M Trivedi. The bench said it will list the matter for hearing this week. On May 10, the Allahabad High Court granted bail to Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan in a case related to wrongful possession of the land. The case is about wrongful possession of Waqf Board property. The Allahabad High Court had imposed various conditions including directions to the District Magistrate, Rampur being a representative of Custodian/Administrator of Evacuee/Enemy Property, to hold a measurement of the landed property in dispute which is the centre dispute of this issue admeasuring area of 13.842 hectares village Singhan Khera, Pargana and Tehsil-Sadar, District Rampur and thereafter, raise a boundary wall and barbed wire around it to take the actual physical possession of the property in dispute on behalf of the administrator of evacuee property Mumbai latest by June 30, 2022. Khan, who walked out of jail a few days ago, had been lodged in Sitapur jail since February 2020 last year as many cases are registered against him. (ANI) One Bangladeshi national who was apprehended by the North Bengal Frontier, Border Security Force (BSF) deployed on the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal for inadvertently crossing the International border was handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) as a goodwill gesture. A statement issued by the BSF on Friday stated that the troops of Battalions under North Bengal Frontier BSF deployed on the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal under the dynamic leadership of Ajai Singh, Inspector General of North Bengal Frontier BSF are maintaining alertness on the border in order to thwart any attempt of anti-national elements to execute their nefarious design of smuggling and infiltrations. It further said that troops of BOP Narayanjote of 176 Bn BSF deployed on the Indo-Bangladesh border in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, apprehended one Bangladeshi national namely Sheikhu Miya (32 Yrs) resident of Panchgarh (Bangladesh) when he has inadvertently crossed the border. Later on request, BSF handed over the apprehended Bangladeshi national to Border Guard Bangladesh during a flag meeting as a goodwill gesture. During the year, a total of 11 Bangladeshi Nationals who had inadvertently crossed the border from different bordering areas of the North Bengal Frontier, were handed over to Border Guard Bangladesh as a goodwill gesture, the release added. (ANI) In a major boost to transnational railway connectivity between India and Bangladesh, from West Bengal's New Jalpaiguri to Dhaka cantonment in Bangladesh, the Mitali Express--the third India-Bangladesh passenger train service, is scheduled to start services from June 1. The new train service will be flagged off virtually by the Railway Ministers of India and Bangladesh from Rail Bhawan in New Delhi on June 1. Sabyasachi De, the Chief Public Relations Officer of Northeast Frontier Railway said that the Mitali Express will run two days a week on Sunday and Wednesday. "During the regular service of the train, departure from New Jalpaiguri will be at 11:45 hours (IST). The train will arrive at Haldibari (India) at 12.55 hours (IST) and depart from Haldibari at 13.05 hours (IST). The train will arrive at Chilahati (Bangladesh) at 13.55 hours (BST) and depart from Chilahati at 14.25 hours (BST) to reach Dhaka Cantonment at 22:30 hours (BST)," De said. The CPRO also informed that the train will not have any commercial stoppages. The new Jalpaiguri - Dhaka Cantonment leg of this train will consist of four First Class AC (Seating only), four AC Chair cars and two luggage-cum-generator vans. "During its return journey, Dhaka Cantonment - New Jalpaiguri Mitali Express will also run two days a week- on Monday and Thursday; leaving Dhaka Cantonment at 21:50 hours (BST). The train will arrive at Chilahati (Bangladesh) at 05.45 hours (BST) and depart from Chilahati at 06.15 hours (BST). The train will arrive at Haldibari (India) at 06.00 hours (IST) and depart from Haldibari at 06.05 hours (IST) to reach New Jalpaiguri at 07:15 hours (IST). This leg of the journey will consist of four First Class AC (Sleeper), four AC Chair cars and two luggage-cum-generator vans," De said. He further said that the tickets for this train are available at the overseas Passenger Reservation System counters at New Jalpaiguri Station and Kolkata Railway Station. "The new train services will improve the bilateral trade relation and socio-economic activities of India and Bangladesh. The services will further make travel easier for the passengers and will greatly benefit the tourism sector of North Bengal area along with other tourism hotspots across India," De said. (ANI) Ankita Adhikari, daughter of West Bengal Minister of state for Education, Paresh Chandra Adhikari, who had been recently dismissed from services as a higher secondary political science teacher in state-run school in West Bengal, also appeared for an interview for the post of a college teacher or lecturer. Ankita Adhikari was dismissed for the services of higher secondary political science teacher of state-run Indira Girls High School at Mekhliganj in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal following an order of Calcutta High Court after it was reported that she got the appointment flouting all norms without qualifying in the merit list. She had not even appearing for the personality test. The court also ordered that Ankita Adhikari should return around 43 months of salary that she drew from the school in two instalments. Information has been leaked from the West Bengal College Service Commission that Ankita Adhikari appeared for the interview on April 26, 2021, which was little less than a month before her dismissal order was given by the Calcutta High Court on May 22, 2022. Her roll number on this count is 20103310. Although the officials of West Bengal College Service Commission are totally tight-lipped on this issue considering the already shrouding controversies over the candidate concerned. A Commission associate told IANS that till now there is no evidence or allegation of similar irregularities in her getting call for the interview. "First, she got the call for the interview and appeared for the same at least a month before the Calcutta High Court order for her dismissal from school services. So, the two matters cannot be linked. Secondly, there has not been a single complaint so far about her name being included in the interview list out of turn," the associate said. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is carrying out an investigation in the case of the West Bengal School Service Commission recruitment irregularities scam. Both Paresh Chandra Adhikari and former state Education Minister, Partha Chatterjee have been grilled by the CBI sleuths more than once in this connection. --IANS src/skp/ ( 359 Words) 2022-05-27-19:08:02 (IANS) As part of eight years of celebration of Narendra Modi government, the BJP is likely to rope in prominent pro-government influencers, filmstars, sportspersons to put up social media posts supporting the achievements of the 'Central Government' through their social media handles. The BJP has made elaborate plans to celebrate eight years of the Modi government and all the campaign activities will be held under '8 saal: Seva, Sushasan aur Gareen Kalyan'. Apart from digital media campaign, the BJP has proposed activities at two levels -- one a public outreach activities led by the party and government-led activities supported by the party. There are suggestions for digital media activities on promotion of campaign launch day which includes that official campaign video should be posted by Union Ministers, senior party leaders and party cadre on their social media handles. "A Twitter trend should be organised by the social media team to mark the 8th anniversary of the BJP Government. Social Media handles of Union Ministers as well as Government Ministries should update their profile and cover picture with '8 Saal: Seva, Sushasan Aur Gareeb Kalyan' campaign images. Prominent pro-government influencers, filmstars, sportspersons should put up posts supporting the achievements of the Central Government through their handles," the suggestion mentioned in a BJP booklet. A series of suggestions for digital media promotions before the launch of the campaign mentioned that a campaign anthem focused on beneficiaries of various pro-poor schemes should be prepared in different languages including vernacular languages, human stories of various government scheme beneficiaries should be released before the campaign launch, social media handles of each of the Government ministries should highlight developmental work, a website of achievements of the central government in the last 8 years can be launched and select YouTube influencers should be onboarded to promote the report card of government through their channels. --IANS ssb/skp/ ( 322 Words) 2022-05-27-19:18:03 (IANS) The Centre has told the Supreme Court that nearly 27.45 crore migrant workers/unorganised labourers have been registered on a portal following information from various state governments. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati submitted before a bench of Justices M.R. Shah and B.V. Nagarathna that the government has developed the portal in consultation with the National Informatics Centre for registration of the migrant workers/ unorganised labourers across the country. The bench, in its order, said: "She (Aishwarya Bhati) has stated at the bar that nearly 27.45 crore are registered in the portal on the basis of the information given by the respective concerned states." It also asked how the Central government and the state governments concerned how they would take the advantage of the registration of the migrant workers/unorganised labourers to protect their interests? "One of the objective and purpose of the registration is to ensure that the benevolent schemes which are declared by the government or governments reach the concerned migrant workers/unorganised labourers," the bench said. The top court directed all the states or Union Territories to register all establishments and license of all contractors under the act concerned and ensure that the statutory duty imposed on contractors to give details of the migrant workers is fully complied with, as it noted that many state governments have not complied with the above court directive. The order said: "The Central government will obtain the required information from all the states so that a further order can be passed to protect the interest of the migrant workers/unorganised labourers." It further added, "All concerned states or Union Territories are directed to furnish all the required details which are needed by the Union government so that the latter may file a composite report before this court on the next date of hearing." The Additional Solicitor General sought time to bring on record the compliance report in the matter. The Supreme Court said it would consider the larger issue to protect the interest of the migrant workers/unorganised labourers and also how their rights are to be protected. "The Union government to file a composite report in compliance of all the directions issued by this court in the order dated June 29, 2021. All states must cooperate and submit all the details which are called for," said the bench, scheduling the matter for further hearing on July 20. The top court in May 2020 had taken suo motu cognisance of the problems and miseries of migrant workers. Later, it issued a slew of directions to authorities on a plea of three activists seeking welfare measures for migrant workers. --IANS ss/khz/vd ( 447 Words) 2022-05-27-19:50:04 (IANS) Former BJP MLA Ashis Das, who last year quit the saffron party and joined the Trinamool Congress, resigned from the TMC on Friday alleging "internal groupism" in the party. Das, severely criticising the Trinamool's National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee, said that there is no democratic environment in both the BJP and the TMC. A leader of the Scheduled Caste community, the 44-year-old Das announced he was quitting the Trinamool two days after the Election Commission declared the schedule of by-elections to four assembly constituencies in Tripura including Surma from where he was elected to the assembly in 2018 as a BJP candidate. Due to his defection Das lost his assembly membership, paving the way for the by-poll in Surma. Before joining the TMC in Agartala, Das went to Kolkata and offered puja at Kalighat temple and shaved his head in an "act of atonement" for being associated with "a communal party BJP". He also praised TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Besides Das, two other BJP MLAs, Sudip Roy Barman and Ashis Kumar Saha also quit the party and the assembly membership following open differences with former Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb, who resigned from the top post on May 14 following the instructions of the party's Central leadership. Roy Barman, also a former BJP Minister, and Saha joined the Congress in February this year. --IANS sc/kvd/bg ( 242 Words) 2022-05-27-19:50:05 (IANS) In a letter to Jharkhand Governor, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) expressed interest in being a party to Election Commission's May 31 proceedings against party leader and Chief Minister Hemant Soren following BJP's "CM granting mining lease to himself" allegations. The BJP has also demanded Hemant Soren's disqualification from the state assembly. Soren has been asked to appear before the Election Commission on 31 May over having a mining lease in his name. The letter has been written by Vinod Pandey, the General Secretary of JMM requesting the Governor to forward the letter to the Election Commission of India. "JMM is vitally interested in the above-mentioned proceedings before the Election Commission and seeks intervention and to be added party in the above proceedings as its rights and interest will be affected by any order that may be made by the commission and so as to present that true political and administrative situation prevailing in the state under the leadership of Hemant Soren and to clear the confusion which has been created by the petitioner party," read the letter. JMM is of the view that Hemant Soren is a member of JMM and he contested the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly Election on a JMM ticket showing the party has the right to represent its side before the commission. "As is well known Hemant Soren is a member of the JMM and has been elected to the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly on the ticket of JMM and is a presently holding the office of Chief Minister of the state by virtue of having been elected as the leader of the JMM legislative party," the letter further read. Bhartiya Janata Party is the petitioner in this matter. On BJP complaint, the Jharkhand governor forwarded this matter to the election commission. The Commission issued notice to the Chief Minister Hemant Soren asking why he should not be disqualified under section 9A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. JMM alleged that the petition by the BJP is politically motivated with a view to disturbing the smooth functioning of the government of Jharkhand presently headed by Hemant Soren as Chief Minister of the state. "The petitioner party has made totally baseless allegations against the Chief Minister seeking his qualification from the membership of the state Legislative Assembly which are malafide, falls and vexatious, alleged JMM. (ANI) "These were the people who were repeating the slogans raised by the child. Two people were arrested earlier", said Kerala Police. Kerala High Court has directed police to take appropriate action against the Popular Front of India in connection with alleged provocative sloganeering in connection with the May 21 rally held in Alappuzha. Erattuepetta resident Anas, who carried the minor boy on his shoulders, was the first person to be arrested in the case. In the viral video, a boy is seen raising the slogan that "Hindus should keep rice for their last rites and Christians should keep incense for their last rites. If your live decently, you can live in our land and if you don't live decently, we know Azadi (freedom). Live decently, decently, decently." This came as a direct threat to the Hindu and Christian population living in Kerala, with PFI warning the death penalty if they don't fall in line. Kerala Police on Tuesday registered a case against PFI Alappuzha district president Nawas Vandanam and District Secretary Mujeeb in the hate speech matter under section 153A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). (ANI) US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that while the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine was an immediate threat to the international order, his country remained focussed on China because the latter posed the most serious and long-term challenge. Laying out the Biden administration's long awaited China policy, he said Beijing had been undermining the very international rules, laws, and institutions that enabled its emergence and rise and that under President Xi Jinping, the ruling Chinese Communist Party had become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad. "Russian President Vladimir Putin poses a clear and present threat and attacking Ukraine three months ago, he also attacked the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the UN Charter to protect all countries from being conquered or coerced," the Secretary of State said and went on detail the military and diplomatic reverses suffered by Russia. But, he added, "even as President Putin's war continues, we will remain focused on the most serious, long term challenge to the international order. And that's posed by the People's Republic of China. China's the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order, and increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it". The US is not seeking conflict or a new cold war and it also does not want to block China's rise as a global political or economic power, the top US diplomat made clear. But citing Xi-led China's repressive measures at home and aggressive behaviour abroad and its "no limits" pact with Putin's Russia just before the Ukraine invasion, Blinken said Beijing cannot be relied upon to change this "trajectory" on its own. The US will, therefore, "shape the strategic environment around Beijing to advance our vision for an open, inclusive international system", he added. The Biden administration's China policy will stand on three pillars of "invest, align and compete", Blinken said. The US will invest to restore America's leadership in invention and innovation, work with its network of allies in the Indo-Pacific and around the world and compete with China. "We will invest in the foundations of our strength here at home, our competitiveness, our innovation, our democracy. We will align our efforts with our network of allies and partners acting with common purpose and in common cause and harnessing these two key assets will compete with China to defend our interests, and build our vision for the future," he added. Blinken spoke of the Quad in this context, referring to a grouping of the US, India, Japan and Australia that is focused on the Indo-Pacific region. The group leaders held met in Tokyo earlier in the week, which was their fourth summit since the first in March of 2021. He also mentioned India's membership of the US-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, which was launched by President Joe Biden in Tokyo past Monday in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. But the US will also "engage constructively" with China where it can. "Not as a favor to us or anyone else, and never in exchange for walking away from our principles," Blinken said, "but because working together to solve great challenges is what the world expects from great powers, and because it's directly in our interests to do so". --IANS yashwant/vd ( 570 Words) 2022-05-26-23:12:02 (IANS) Taking to Twitter, the Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi wrote, "Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra interacted with a group of Maldivian journalists who are on a week-long familiarisation visit to India. A useful exchange in further deepening the mutual understanding between our two countries." India's "Neighborhood First" policy and Maldives' "India First" policy work in tandem to tackle shared concerns and advance mutual interests. For India, Maldives has always been a close and important maritime neighbour. Multifaceted ties between the two countries have strengthened despite the pandemic related disruptions. High-level engagements continued with External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar visiting Maldives in February 2021 and two visits by the Foreign Minister of Maldives to India in April and July 2021. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Maldivian counterpart Ibrahim Mohamed Solih had a telephonic conversation in July 2021. Bilateral cooperation with Maldives includes the creation of people-friendly infrastructure - housing, water and sanitation, health and education, ports, roads and stadiums. It also includes maritime security; connectivity and people to people exchanges. India gifted 200,000 doses of Covishield vaccines to the Maldives in January - February 2021 and this set the stage for a rapid and successful vaccination drive in the Maldives. This has enabled the Maldivian economy to get back on a path to recovery. India has emerged as Maldives' second-largest trade partner, with around 13 per cent market share for Indian exports. In July 2021, India extended the agreement on quotas for restriction-free export of 9 essential commodities to the Maldives for the next 3 years. (ANI) During his upcoming visit to Qatar, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu is expected to launch the India-Qatar Startup Bridge to link the ecosystem of the two countries. India's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Dr Ausaf Sayeed announced this on Friday at a special briefing on the nine-day visit of Vice President to Gabon, Senegal and Qatar starting from May 30. The Vice President will be in Qatar from June 4-7. The envoy said that Naidu will also visit the Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organization headed by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. "During the visit, Vice President is expected the launch the India Qatar Startup bridge to link the ecosystem of the two countries. The next day (on June 6), he will visit Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organization headed by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. It promotes education science, health and cultural development. It also has an education city which includes well-reputed institutes such as Hamad Bin Khalifa University, campuses of International universities, Qatar National Library, Qatar Science & Technology Park and others," the envoy said. Vice President Naidu would also be visiting the National Museum of Qatar. "Qatar is a very valued partner for India and our extended neighbourhood in a Gulf region. The modern relationship between India and Qatar is anchored in the historical and traditional exchanges between the people of the two countries. it is anchored under four pillars of -- energy partnership, Indian Diasporas, Trade and Investment, and Defence and Security," he said. Naidu's visit to Qatar will be on the occasion of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Qatar to further enhance the bilateral ties, according to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs. During the visit, the Vice President will hold delegation-level talks with Qatar's Deputy Amir, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Thani, and review bilateral cooperation, the MEA said. Vice President will meet several other Qatari dignitaries during this visit and also address a business roundtable in Qatar. People-to-people contacts are at the heart of the historical relations between India and Qatar, with the latter hosting over 750,000 Indians, the MEA said. "The multifaceted cooperation between the two sides has witnessed significant growth in economic, energy, investment, education, defence, and cultural ties," the external affairs ministry said. Bilateral trade crossed USD15 billion in FY 2021-22. Qatar has also committed investments of over USD 2 billion in various Indian companies over the past two years, the ministry said. Meanwhile, the MEA said that the Vice President's visit to Gabon and Senegal will add momentum to India's engagement with Africa and highlight India's commitment to the African continent. The most important aspect of the visit is that it is the first-ever high-level visit from India to both Gabon and Senegal. The Vice President is visiting these two countries from May 30. On June 4, he departs from Senegal and goes to Qatar, Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations), MEA, said. "So, May 31 and June 1 are the main visit to Gabon. On June 1, the Vice President goes to Senegal from Gabon. June 1,2, 3 are the three engagement days, then he moves to Qatar, Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations)," the foreign ministry secretary said. "An important aspect of our relationship with Gabon is that both of us are in the UNSC non-permanent membership capacity," he said. (ANI) Terming Africa a priority continent for India, the Ministry of External Affairs on Friday said the continent has a huge potential of joining collaboration in the exploration of Oil and Gas, especially in Western Africa. Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations), MEA, while addressing a special briefing on the next week's visit of Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu to Gabon, Senegal and Qatar said: "West African countries have lots of natural resources like oil and gas and have not been fully exploited. There is a lot of potentials for our companies to join collaboration with Gabon and Senegal." "Since 2014, number of visits from India are 34 and 100 from other side actually characterizes the relationship. The prioritization from our side putting Africa on top of the agenda, clearly with the direction of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Africa is priority continent," he said. Vice President Venkaiah Naidu will visit three nations (Gabon, Senegal and Qatar) from May 30 to June 7. He will be accompanied by a high-level delegation including Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar and three Members of Parliament, Sushil Kumar Modi (Rajya Sabha), Vijay Pal Singh Tomar (Rajya Sabha) and P Raveendranath (Lok Sabha). Speaking about the visit to Gabon and Senegal, Ravi said: "The most important aspect of the visit is the first-ever high-level visit from India to both Gabon and Senegal. The Vice President is visiting these two countries from May 30. On June 4, he departs from Senegal and goes to Qatar." "The visits to Gabon and to Senegal will add momentum to India's engagement with Africa and emphasise India's commitment to the African continent," MEA's earlier statement read. During the Gabon visit, Vice President will hold delegation level talks with the Prime Minister of Gabon Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda. Vice President will call on the President of Gabon Ali Bongo Ondimba and meet other dignitaries. He will also interact with the business community in Gabon and address the Indian diaspora. Both India and Gabon are currently serving as non-permanent members of the UNSC. Bilateral trade reached USD 1.12 billion in 2021-22. (ANI) The family of the kidnapped girl alleged that the girl was kidnapped to rape. According to reports, police have registered the case but the country's minority community is not happy with the police enquiry and said that courts are open at night for the powerful people but will not open for a minority girl. Earlier, Pakistan's top court opened during the political tussle in the country in which Imran Khan was ousted as the country's Prime Minister. Demonstraters from the Masih Community chanted the slogans "Kholo KholoAdalat Kholo". They have urged the people to protest against the incident till the recovery of the minor girl. Multiple human rights organisations and reports had been accusing the Pakistan government of not taking necessary actions over the rising crimes against Hindus and other minorities in the country. In November 2021, human rights activists claimed that every year 1000 Christian and Hindu girls are forced to convert to Islam. (ANI) Gilgit-Baltistan(GB) Chief Minister Muhammad Khalid Khurshid Khan was booked in a case of alleged shelling and open fire on the police during former Pakistan Prime Minister, Imran Khan's Azadi March on May 25. The FIR lodged by the police claimed that CM Kurshid along with his security personnel chanted slogans against the Pakistan government and the administration, reported Geo News. Besides, they kept firing on the police personnel. The FIR was registered at Saddar Hassan Abdal police station. The police said that the chief security officer of the GB Chief Minister along with 50 other policemen have also been nominated as suspects in the case. Meanwhile, the Islamabad Police on Thursday registered a case against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, Imran Khan along with 150 other PTI members in connection with the riots that occurred during his Azadi March in Islamabad. Cases were registered against PTI leaders Imran Ismail, Asad Umar, Ali Nawaz Awan, and Ali Amin Gandapur. Two separate cases were registered at the Kohsar Police Station for "rioting and arson". Earlier, ahead of the march, police arrested key members of the PTI and cut off the capital Islamabad under the direction of the Shehbaz Sharif government. The government rounded up over 1,000 PTI leaders and workers in a crackdown designed to derail the party's plans for a massive power show in Islamabad. The Pakistan PM reached the capital city late Wednesday night, breaking through the barriers by braving police shelling to enter the Red Zone. They subsequently dispersed from the area after negotiations with the police. The Pakistan government deployed the army in Red Zone to "protect important government buildings" amid rising tensions in the country. Tension gripped the country as clashes took place between police and PTI workers after authorities tried to block them from moving toward D-Chowk in the federal capital. Previously, Imran Khan had warned that his supporters would not vacate D-Chowk until a date for fresh polls was announced by the Shehbaz Sharif government. (ANI) Namgya C. Khampa, Deputy Chief of the Indian embassy in Nepal, inaugurated the upgraded infrastructure of Shree Pal Ewam Namgyal Monastic School in Gandaki Province, built under the Government of India grant assistance, as part of India's Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav, the Indian Mission in Kathmandu said in a statement. According to the statement, a school bus was gifted to the Shree Pal Ewam Namgyal Monastic School and an ambulance was gifted to the Gharapjhong Rural Municipality This project was undertaken by the District Coordination Committees (DCC) of Mustang with the assistance granted by the Government of India at the cost of Nepali Rupees (NRs) 26.30 million. It is the High Impact Community Development Project (HICDP) under India-Nepal Development Cooperation. This is one of the 75 projects being inaugurated this year in Nepal as part of "India's Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav" which celebrates 75 years of independence. "Since 2003, India has taken up over 527 High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) in Nepal and has completed 470 projects in the areas of health, education, drinking water, connectivity, sanitation and creation of other public utilities across all 7 provinces of Nepal at the grassroots level," the statement reads. Notably, 57 HICDPs are in Gandaki Province including 15 projects in Mustang District. "India and Nepal enjoy a multi-faceted and multi-sectoral development partnership that is reflective of the closeness of the people of both countries. The implementation of this project reflects the continued support of the Government of India to socio-cultural infrastructure and contributes to the development of people to people links," the statement added. (ANI) During his visit to Qatar, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu will address the India-Qatar business round table which will include members of the Indian business delegation. Naidu is scheduled to be in the Middle Eastern country from June 4-7 as part of a three-nation visit beginning May 30 in which he will also visit Gabon and Senegal. Indian business delegation who will participate in the business round table at Qatar include members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FCCI). "During his visit, the Vice President will also address the Indian Qatar business round table which will include members of the Indian business delegation, comprising the members of the CII and FCCI and the groups. as well as members of the local Chambers of Commerce, Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and Qatari Businessmen Association," India's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Dr Ausaf Sayeed said in Friday. He was addressing a special briefing on the three-nation visit by the Vice President. "In the recent years, the multi-faceted cooperation between two sides has witnessed significant growth in the economy, energy, investment, education, culture and defence. The bilateral trade during the last financial years 2021-2022 has crossed 50 billion. Qatar has also committed to making an investment of approximately two billion dollars in India and various sectors," Ausaf Sayeed said. "Qatar also hosts about 55 companies which are wholly owned by India. Besides these there are almost 50,000 companies which are jointly owned by India and Qatar. India companies have also executed several prestigious infrastructure projects in Qatar," the Indian envoy said. Speaking about the energy sector, he said: "In terms of energy partner ship. Qatar is a very important and the biggest source for LNG and LPG supply to India acocunting nearly 40 per cent, and 30 per cent of global imports. We have a long term agreement with Qatar. We are looking at enhancing the partnership into a comprehensive energy partnership." The Vice President will also address the vibrant members of the Indian Diaspora during a community reception. "Qatar is a home of nearly 7.5 lakh Indians who are contributing meaningfully to the socio-economic development of Qatar," India's ambassador said, adding that "their reception will mirror the diversity of the Indian diaspora. They include prominent members of Indian communities various cultural and social culture organisations, and businessmen and professionals." Meanwhile, the MEA said that the Vice President's visit to Gabon and Senegal will add momentum to India's engagement with Africa and highlight India's commitment to the African continent. The most important aspect of the visit is that it is the first-ever high-level visit from India to both Gabon and Senegal. The Vice President is visiting these two countries from May 30. On June 4, he departs from Senegal and goes to Qatar, Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations), MEA, said. "So, May 31 and June 1 are the main visit to Gabon. On June 1, the Vice President goes to Senegal from Gabon. June 1,2, 3 are the three engagement days, then he moves to Qatar, Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations)," the foreign ministry secretary said. "An important aspect of our relationship with Gabon is that both of us are in the UNSC non-permanent membership capacity," he said. (ANI) Terror group ISIS (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for series of explosions in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which killed 9 people and left 15 others injured, according to the statement posted on the group's Aamaq news agency. Three explosions rocked the capital of Balkh province on May 25, leaving at least 9 people killed and 15 others injured, Khaama Press reported. Meanwhile, on the same day, a blast at Masjid Sharif Hazrat Zakaria mosque in Kabul City left at least two worshippers dead, according to officials, Al Jazeera reported. In response to the attacks in Balkh and Kabul, the US Special Envoy for Women and Human Rights in Afghanistan, Rina Amiri said that the Taliban must ensure people's security and prevent similar atrocities. "The heinous attacks in Mazar & Kabul serve no purpose but to inflict further devastation on innocent Afghans who have suffered enough," Amiri tweeted. "Preventing these horrid attacks and addressing the security & needs of all Afghans should be what the Taliban focus on," she added. The first two explosions in Balkh province targeted passenger vehicles in the Hazara neighbourhood, Khaama Press reported citing local sources. Additionally, an explosion at a traffic square in Kabul's fourth police district killed at least 30 people and injured others at the Hazrat Zekriya Mosque. The Emergency hospital said that 22 people had been injured and that 5 of them had died on their way before reaching the hospital. No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the blast in Hazrat Zakariya, according to Khaama Press. The Taliban face a severe security threat from the Khorasan branch of ISIS, which has been active in Afghanistan since 2014. Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the recent attacks in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them members of the Hazara Shia community and several children." The Secretary-General condemns the recent attacks in Afghanistan, including on passenger vehicles in Mazar-e-Sharif City and the Masjid Sharif Hazrat Zakaria mosque in Kabul City, which have claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them, members of the Hazara Shia community and at least 16 children," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General said in a statement. Guterres extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a swift recovery to those injured. "Attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including mosques, are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law." The Secretary-General reiterated his call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians, including ethnic and religious minorities, as well as their right to freely practice their religion. (ANI) Taking to Twitter today, Assam Chief Minister said that all the leaders were agreed to further strengthen economic and social ties between Assam and Bangladesh for mutual benefit. "Had a fruitful discussion with a Bangladeshi delegation led by the neighbouring country's Foreign Minister Dr @AKAbdulMomen. We agreed to further strengthen economic & social ties between Assam and Bangladesh for mutual benefit," Himanta Biswa Sarma tweeted. (ANI) Belgium [Brussels], May 27 (ANI/Sputnik): The NATO Defense Ministers will meet on June 15-16 in Brussels, the alliance said on Friday, adding that the EU, Georgia, Finland, Sweden and Ukraine are invited to attend the event. "A meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of Defence Ministers will take place on Wednesday 15 June and Thursday 16 June at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. The meeting will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg," NATO said in a statement. NATO added that the meeting will start with a working dinner where "Finland, Georgia, Sweden, Ukraine and the European Union are invited". (ANI/Sputnik) Former Pakistan Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Friday dispelled the reports that he had made a deal in exchange for ending his 'Azadi March'. Addressing a press conference in Peshawar, Imran Khan said, "Do not think it was our weakness and don't think that a deal was made. I am hearing strange things that a deal was made with the establishment. I did not make a deal with anyone," he said, adding that the only motive behind his actions was a concern for the country, Dawn reported. PTI Chairman said that he would take the street again if an early election would not be announced. He regretted how police officials attacked the participants of the march, blaming the government for hand-picking officers to target the PTI. "Our workers asked why we did not stage a sit-in. I am the man who staged a sit-in for 126 days. It was not difficult for me, but by the time I reached I became aware of the extent of the situation [...] I knew that day that there would be bloodshed," Khan said. Khan added that people were ready to fight after seeing the 'terrorism' carried out by the police. He also said that the officials were instructed to brutalise protesters. "The anger at the time, if I had staged a sit-in that day I can guarantee that there would have been bloodshed," he said, adding that there was a prevailing sense of hatred against police officials. "But the police are also ours, it is not their fault," the PTI chairman said, blaming the government for issuing the directives. If there was violence then it would only have caused chaos in the country, he said. He also made it clear that the PTI would not negotiate with or accept the "imported government". "I think of this as a jihad. I will stand up against this as long as I am alive," he said, reiterating that he only cared about the future of the country, according to Dawn. Imran Khan again stressed his six-day ultimatum to the government for the announcement of early elections. He claimed that the government was "afraid", pointing out how they pressurised media channels and slowed down internet services. "No one knew what was going on. There was confusion." He also termed his party workers "heroes" for taking to the streets in the national interest. "You came out for the country's haqeeqi azadi (true freedom)," Imran Khan said as quoted by Dawn. The city turned into a battleground on Wednesday as multiple scuffles took place between the police and PTI marchers after Imran Khan and his convoy entered the city and started marching towards the D-Chowk despite the Supreme Court's order to hold a rally at a ground between H9 and G9 areas of Islamabad. To control the law and order situation in the federal capital, the Pakistan government deployed troops of the Pakistan army in the Red Zone to protect important government buildings including the Supreme Court of Pakistan, Parliament House, Presidency, Prime Minister's Office and others. The decision was taken under Article 245 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, reported the Geo TV. (ANI) Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI)'s 'Haqiqi Azadi March' cost the Shehbaz sharif-led government Rs 149 million to maintain the law and order in the capital. This amount was released to police after the police officials sent a letter to the government, asking for the amount, Dawn reported citing officers. Police were not able to stop the participants of the march from reaching the Red Zone, the participants removed blockades, confronted the security personnel and even set some trees on fire. The police officers said that the request for the supplementary grant was made to the chief commissioner's office, it then reached the interior ministry and then was forwarded to the finance ministry for release of funds. Funds were released on request of police for a supplementary grant, officers said. Besides this, other necessary items would be arranged, it stated, adding that a huge amount was already spent on the maintenance of law and order in the capital during the 48th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers held in March 2022, vote of no-confidence against the ousted prime minister and the subsequent election of the incumbent prime minister, according to Dawn. For these events, Rs 150 million were demanded, however, no funds had been approved for the police so far. At present, no funds are available with the police to cater to requirements and besides this, vendors were reluctant to provide services due to their pending liabilities. "In view of the above, additional funds are required on an urgent basis to ensure effective security measures during the law and order situation due to the PTI's protest and sit-in," the request said. The officers further stated that during the current financial year, the capital police had been allocated very limited funds which have already been consumed. Meanwhile, PTI has decided to resume contact with the federation after Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif invited the former ruling party for talks, reported The Express Tribune. After former prime minister Imran Khan's formal approval, the PTI will hold talks with the coalition government. The talks will focus on electoral reforms and other issues. In this regard, PTI may soon form a negotiating committee. (ANI) The main focus of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's visit to Senegal and Gabon is the Western African region which is Francophone countries (The countries whose official language is French), said Damu Ravi, Secretary (ER) of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). In a special briefing on Vice President's Senegal and Gabon visit, Ravi said that the most important aspect of this visit is that it is the first-ever high-level visit from India to these countries. Notably, Vice President will be in these countries from May 30 to June 4. "India's engagement with Africa has enhanced as you all are aware since 2005. When we did this India-Africa forum summit, the number of visits has enhanced. Since 2014, the visits are 34 from our side and 100 incoming visits. So that actually characterises the relationship," Secretary (ER) said. Ravi said that Venkaiah Naidu will interact with Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of Gabon, who also came to India in the past years. "Important aspect of relation with Gabon is that both Gabon and India are non-permanent members of UN Security Council, this year," he added. Referring to trade, Ravi said that the trade between the two countries has improved and went from 4.40 million to 1.12 billion. During Vice President's visit, he will interact with Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda, Gabon Prime Minister, followed by delegation-level talks. "Vice President will also call on Gabon's President and then he is scheduled to have a joint meeting with the President of the National Assembly and the President of the Senate. He will also address business events organised by CII and the local chamber of commerce," Ravi said. Naidu will be visiting Senegal from June 1 to June 3 where he will be holding delegation-level talks with the President of Senegal Macky Sall, the President of the National Assembly Moustapha Niasse and other dignitaries. "Our relationship with Senegal is also characterised by shared understanding on many issues, we had democracy and open society and those values are binding us. And this year Senegal is chair of the African Union and this visit assumes greater importance," Ravi said. Ravi further said that the main interest in Senegal in terms of trade is that the country holds huge natural resources, particularly phosphate, which is of great interest to secure a fertiliser supply from that side. "Vice President will interact with the Indian diaspora and will then address the business community. He will also be meeting with the President of the national assembly," Ravi added. Secretary (ER) further said that the Vice President will also deliver a public talk at Universite Cheikh Anta Diop (UCAD), the biggest university in Africa. After Senegal, Vice President will fly to Qatar, the last destination of his African countries' visit. (ANI) Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has underlined the importance of implementing policies for stabilizing the economy and supporting market entities to bring the situation back to the normal track, in an unusually stark warning that comes as COVID curbs have adversely impacted the second-largest economy. Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, made the remarks on Wednesday at a teleconference, Xinhua news agency reported. This came as President Xi Jinping, who is spearheading some of China's key policies, is being blamed for slow growth. Experts warn that this challenge could cost him as he looks to take on a controversial third term later this year. Against this backdrop, the Chinese Premier, in the past few months, has stepped into the spotlight to urge changes that would bring the economy back on track. Earlier this month, Keqiang had painted a grim picture of the job market in the world's most populous nation due to COVID-19 lockdowns. He had called the employment situation "complex and grave." He instructed all levels of government to prioritize measures to boost jobs and maintain stability, CNN reported. These measures include helping small businesses survive, supporting the internet economy, providing incentives to encourage people to start their own business, and giving unemployment benefits to laid-off workers. His remarks come at a time when China's jobless rate has climbed to the highest rate in almost two years, according to data from the government. Each year, China needs to add millions of new jobs to keep the economy humming. The government has set a target of creating at least 11 million jobs in towns and cities in 2022. (ANI) Alarmed by continued terror attacks in Afghanistan, UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett has called for a thorough and independent investigation of these attacks that have resulted in the killing of dozens of people. "Alarmed by continuing terror attacks on civilians, including 16 child casualties. Deepest condolences to victims and families of latest attacks #Kabul #Mazar. Flagging as @SR_Afghanistan need for a thorough, independent and resourced investigation of these & other attacks," Richard Bennett tweeted. Afghanistan had been hit by a series of bomb attacks launched by the Islamic State (IS) group opposing the Taliban regime. In Wednesday's blasts, at least five worshippers were killed and 17 others wounded in Kabul after a blast ripped through a mosque during evening prayers in Police District (PD) 4. The blast occurred when people were offering prayers in Hazrat-e-Zekria Mosque. On Friday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the recent attacks and extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims. "Attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including mosques, are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said in a statement. UN chief reiterated his call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians, including ethnic and religious minorities, as well as their right to freely practice their religion. Afghanistan is at a crossroads and the de facto authorities, the Taliban, must pursue a path toward stability and freedom for all citizens, especially women, said UN independent expert Bennett, who recently concluded an 11-day visit to the ravaged country. Bennett had said Afghanistan is facing a plethora of human rights challenges that are having a severe impact on the country's people. However, the Taliban have failed to acknowledge or address the magnitude and gravity of abuses, many of which were committed in their name. (ANI) Xi meets representatives to meeting on handling public complaints Xinhua) 08:22, May 27, 2022 Party and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng meet representatives to a national meeting on work related to the handling of people's complaints at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie Huanchi) BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with representatives to a national meeting on work related to the handling of people's complaints. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, offered warm congratulations to the exemplary individuals and groups honored at the meeting, and extended sincere greetings to officials and people working in the system for addressing public complaints. Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, were present. Xi had cordial exchanges and posed for a photo with the representatives at the Great Hall of the People. Addressing the national meeting, which was held from Wednesday to Thursday, Guo Shengkun, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, stressed thoroughly studying and implementing the instructions made by General Secretary Xi Jinping on strengthening and improving work related to addressing public complaints and called for ushering in a new chapter in work related to the handling of people's complaints. Party and state leaders Xi Jinping, Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng meet representatives to a national meeting on work related to the handling of people's complaints at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, May 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Shen Hong) Guo Shengkun, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, speaks at a national meeting on work related to the handling of people's complaints held from May 25 to 26 in Beijing, capital of China. Xiao Jie, state councilor and secretary-general of the State Council, also attended the meeting. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) In this March 23, 2021, photo, a man leaves a bouquet on a police cruiser parked outside the Boulder Police Department in Colorado. An officer was one of the victims of a mass shooting at a King Soopers grocery store. (Associated Press) The slain gunman in the shooting at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and the suspect in the shooting at a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket were both just 18 when they bought the weapons used in the attacks, authorities say. They were too young to legally buy alcohol or cigarettes, but old enough to arm themselves with assault weapons. The Buffalo suspect was taken to a hospital last year for a mental health evaluation, but the incident didn't trigger New York's red flag law, so he was still able to buy a gun. The Texas gunman's mother told ABC he gave her an uneasy feeling" at times and could be aggressive ... If he really got mad." But authorities say he had no known criminal or mental health history. The state has no such red flag law. These are just the latest U.S. mass shootings in which the gunman or suspected gunman's ability to obtain guns has raised concerns. In some cases the guns were obtained legally under current firearms laws, or because of background check lapses or law enforcements failure to heed warnings of concerning behavior. After the shootings, which together left 31 people dead, President Biden renewed calls for stronger gun laws and questioned whether people as young as 18 should be allowed to purchase firearms. In the past, Biden has called for banning assault weapons and expanding background checks. Many Republicans oppose the measures. A look at how suspects in mass shootings over a decade obtained guns, based on police accounts, court documents and contemporaneous reporting: UVALDE, TEXAS: MAY 24, 2022. 21 DEAD. Salvador Ramos legally purchased two guns in the days before the attack that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School an AR-style rifle from a federally licensed gun dealer in the Uvalde area on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. Ramos made the purchases just days after turning 18, the minimum age under federal law for buying a rifle. He also purchased several hundred rounds of ammunition. At least one of the rifles was a DDM4, made by Daniel Defense and modeled after the U.S. militarys M4 carbine rifle, though without the M4s ability to switch to fully automatic or fire a three-round burst. The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong, Biden said hours after the shooting Tuesday. What in Gods name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone? Ramos was killed at the school by a Border Patrol team. Story continues BUFFALO, N.Y.: MAY 14, 2022. 10 DEAD. Payton Gendron legally purchased the Bushmaster XM-15 E2S used in the attack on Tops Friendly Market from a federally licensed gun dealer near his home in Conklin, N.Y., about 200 miles southeast of Buffalo. In a personal, online diary that surfaced after the attack, Gendron said he bought the AR-15-style weapon in January, bought a shotgun in December and received a rifle as a Christmas present from his dad when he was 16. Last year, Gendron was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation under a state mental health law after writing murder-suicide in response to a teachers question. New York is one of 19 states with red flag laws that allow courts to take guns from people posing immediate danger, but that didnt happen with Gendron, who was 17 at the time. State police described his threat as general in nature and said it didnt specifically mention shooting or firearms. After the shooting, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order underscoring the need for red flag interventions and said she would seek to bar people under 21 from buying some semi-automatic weapons in the state. A similar law in California was ruled unconstitutional. Gendron is charged with murder. SAN JOSE: MAY 26, 2021. 9 DEAD. Samuel James Cassidy legally purchased the three 9 mm handguns he used to kill co-workers and then himself at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard. He also stockpiled a dozen guns and 25,000 rounds of ammunition at his home, which he set ablaze before the shooting, and had high-capacity magazines that may have been illegal under California law, depending on when they were purchased. Santa Claras district attorney said authorities wouldve sought to take Cassidys weapons away under the states red flag law had U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed them of a Significant Encounter with Cassidy upon his return to California from a trip to the Philippines in 2016. Customs agents said in a report that Cassidy harbored dark thoughts about harming two specific people and had a memo book in which he expressed his hatred of the transit agency. BOULDER, COLO.: MARCH 22, 2021. 10 DEAD. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, a semiautomatic weapon with a capacity of up to 30 rounds, six days before the shooting at King Soopers grocery store, police said. Alissa was prone to sudden rage and was convicted of misdemeanor assault and sentenced to probation for attacking a high school classmate. Colorado has a universal background check law covering almost all gun sales, but that misdemeanor would not have prevented him from buying a weapon, experts said. Had it been a felony, federal law wouldve barred his purchase. Days before the shooting, a judge struck down city ordinances banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines in Boulder, citing a state law prohibiting local gun bans. The NRA backed the lawsuit challenging the ordinances. A judge ruled last month that Alissa is mentally incompetent to stand trial. ATLANTA: MARCH 16, 2021. 8 DEAD. Robert Aaron Long purchased a 9 mm handgun just hours before going on a shooting rampage at three massage businesses in the Atlanta area, police said. A lawyer for the gun shop said it complies with federal background check laws. Georgia, like the majority of states, has no waiting period to obtain a gun. Long claimed to have a sex addiction, police said, and he spent time at an addiction recovery facility last year. Federal law bans guns for people who are unlawful users of or addicted to a controlled substance or whove been court-ordered to a mental health or substance abuse treatment facility, but doesnt mention treatment for other compulsions as a barrier to ownership. Long is serving a sentence life without parole. MIDLAND, TEXAS, AUG. 31, 2019. 7 DEAD. Seth Aaron Ator purchased an AR-style rifle through a private sale, allowing him to evade a federal background check, and fired it indiscriminately from his car into passing vehicles and shopping plazas. He also hijacked a mail truck, killing the driver. Ator had been blocked from getting a gun in 2014 after his background check was flagged because a court determined he was mentally ill, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. Private sales, which account for up to 40% of all gun sales according to some estimates, are not subject to a federal background check and private sellers aren't required to determine if a buyer is eligible to own a gun. Ator was killed by police. DAYTON, OHIO: AUG. 4, 2019. 9 DEAD. Connor Betts classmates said he was suspended in high school for compiling a hit list and a rape list, but authorities said nothing in his background prevented him from purchasing the AR-15-style pistol used in the shooting at Ned Peppers Bar. Ohio law requires that sealed records of any juvenile crimes be expunged either after five years or once the offender turns 23. Betts, who was 24 at the time of the shooting, bought the gun online from a Texas dealer. It was then shipped to a Dayton-area firearms dealer, in accordance with federal law. Betts was killed by police. EL PASO, TEXAS, AUG. 3, 2019. 23 DEAD. Patrick Crusius bought an AK-47-style rifle and 1,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition online 45 days before he walked into a Walmart store, where he is accused of opening fire and killing 23 people and injuring two dozen others, before allegedly confessing that he had been targeting Mexicans, according to prosecutors. A Crusius family lawyer said his mother raised concerns about the purchase in a call to police on June 27. Police said she asked if Crusius, who was 21 at the time, was old enough to buy a gun. Police said she was assured he was and that he'd qualify if he passed a background check. Police said she expressed concern only about his safety and said shed seen no recent change in his behavior. Crusius posted a racist screed online just before the attack and appeared to target Mexicans. He's charged with capital murder in Texas and federal hate crimes and firearms offenses. VIRGINIA BEACH, VA.: MAY 31, 2019. 12 DEAD. Former Virginia Beach city employee DeWayne Craddock legally purchased six firearms in the three years before he opened fire on a municipal building, including the two .45-caliber pistols used in the attack. An independent review of the shooting, commissioned by the city of Virginia Beach, found that Craddock displayed no warning signs or prohibited behaviors associated with a pathway to violence, and that he had no known history of mental health treatment. Craddock was killed by police. THOUSAND OAKS: NOV. 7, 2018. 12 DEAD. Ian David Long, a former Marine machine gunner who served in Afghanistan, used a legally purchased .45-caliber pistol with an extended magazine in the shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill. California tried to outlaw high-capacity magazines, but a federal judge reversed that after a pro-gun group sued. Months before the shooting, sheriffs deputies called to Longs home found him acting irrationally, but a mental health specialist didnt feel he needed to be involuntarily committed. California has a red flag law, but theres no indication authorities sought a court order to take away Long's guns. Long killed himself. PITTSBURGH: OCT. 27, 2018. 11 DEAD. Robert Gregory Bowers had a carry license and legally owned the Colt AR-15 SP1 and three Glock .357 handguns that police allege he used to kill worshipers at Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers spent months posting rants against Jews on Gab, a social media site favored by right-wing extremists. He also posted photos of his "glock family. Just before the attack, he posted a screed against a Jewish organization that resettles refugees, saying: I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, Im going in. None of the rhetoric appeared to raise red flags. His case is pending. Adrian Alonzo is consoled by his mother during a vigil Wednesday at the Uvalde County Fairplex to honor the fallen victims of a mass shooting in Texas. (Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times) SANTA FE, TEXAS: MAY. 18, 2018. 10 DEAD. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student, used a shotgun and a .38-caliber handgun that his father purchased legally and stored in a closet at their home, authorities said. It wasnt clear if his father knew hed taken the guns. Prior to the attack, Pagourtzis posted a photo on social media of a T-shirt with the phrase Born to Kill and had writings indicating he planned to attack his high school. A judge sent him to a mental health facility after ruling he was incompetent to stand trial. PARKLAND, FLA.: FEB. 14, 2018. 17 DEAD. Nikolas Cruz legally purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle in February 2017 from a licensed dealer a few miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, authorities said. Hed been treated at a mental health clinic but hadnt been there in more than a year. Federal law prohibits gun purchases if a court declares a person a mental defective or commits that person to an institution, but not if the person seeks treatment voluntarily. Cruz was 19 at the time of the shooting. He pleaded guilty in October and is scheduled to be sentenced next month. SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS: NOV. 5, 2017. 25 DEAD. Devin Patrick Kelleys history of domestic abuse barred him from buying guns. But he was able to do so because information about his crimes was never entered into a federal database used for background checks. The Air Force failed to follow rules requiring that it inform the FBI about his conduct. Kelley purchased four guns, including an AR-15-style rifle found at First Baptist Church, from licensed Texas and Colorado dealers over a four-year span. Kelley killed himself. LAS VEGAS: OCT. 1, 2017. 58 DEAD. Stephen Paddock purchased 33 of the 49 weapons found in his hotel room and at his homes in the year before he opened fire on a country music festival. Paddock passed all background checks. His gradual accumulation of guns went undetected because federal law doesn't require licensed gun dealers to alert the government about rifle purchases. Paddock killed himself. ORLANDO, FLA.: JUNE 12, 2016. 49 DEAD. Omar Mateen purchased an AR-15-style rifle, a Sig Sauer MCX, and a handgun from a licensed dealer on separate days about a week before the Pulse nightclub attack. He passed a background check and had a security license that allowed him to be armed while on duty. The FBI investigated Mateen in 2013 and 2014 over co-workers concerns that hed spoken about ties to terrorist groups. Neither inquiry led to charges. Even if he'd been placed on a terrorism watch list, Congress in 2015 rejected attempts to prevent people on the list from purchasing guns. Mateen was killed by police. SAN BERNARDINO: DEC. 2, 2015. 14 DEAD. Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used weapons that the FBI said his neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased from a licensed dealer in 2011 and 2012. Marquez pleaded guilty to charges he conspired to provide support to terrorists and made false statements to acquire a firearm. He told investigators Farook asked him to buy the weapons because he would draw less attention. Farook and Malik were killed by police. ROSEBURG, ORE.: OCT. 1, 2015. 10 DEAD. Christopher Harper-Mercer and his family members legally purchased the handguns and rifle used in the Umpqua Community College shooting from a licensed dealer. Investigators found six guns at the college and eight at an apartment. Neighbors said Harper-Mercer and his mother went target shooting together. Harper-Mercer killed himself after he was wounded by police. CHARLESTON, S.C.: JUNE 17, 2015. 9 DEAD. A drug arrest should've prevented Dylann Roof from purchasing the pistol he used at Emanuel AME Church, but a record-keeping error and background check delay enabled the transaction to go through. The FBI said a background check examiner never saw the arrest report because the wrong arresting agency was listed in state criminal history records. After three days, the gun dealer was legally permitted to complete the transaction. He was convicted and is on federal death row. WASHINGTON: SEPT. 16, 2013. 12 DEAD. Aaron Alexis, a former reservist turned civilian contractor, passed background checks and legally purchased the shotgun used in the Washington Navy Yard shooting despite recent mental health treatment and a history of violent outbursts. He previously fired a gun in anger twice but wasnt prosecuted in either case. Alexis was killed by police. NEWTOWN, CONN.: DEC. 14, 2012. 26 DEAD. Adam Lanza used his mothers weapons, including a .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle, in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanzas mother, whom he fatally shot before going to the school, also purchased the ammunition. Lanza killed himself. AURORA, COLO.: JULY 20, 2012. 12 DEAD. James Holmes was receiving psychiatric treatment when he passed required federal background checks and legally purchased the weapons he used in his movie theater assault. As in the Parkland and Navy Yard cases, treatment alone did not prevent him from buying guns. He was convicted and sentenced to 12 life terms and thousands of years in prison. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. JACKSON - Five men, one from Lakewood and four from Brooklyn, were arrested Wednesday after police found them in an Olena Drive home following an alleged forced entry. What authorities called a home invasion turned out to be an unauthorized eviction involving a Brooklyn security company, police said. Police went to the home at 6:09 p.m. after getting a call from a resident inside about a home invasion. Once inside, a resident pointed to the five men who she said were responsible, shouting that they broke into the house and assaulted the family, police said. Police said the suspects forced their way into the home through the front door, damaging it. Residents told investigators the men held down a male and female resident and took their phones so they could not call 911, police said. The men then started changing the deadbolt and lock on the front door, police said. For subscribers: As Long Branch family murder trial looms. mother and son go to Florida For subscribers: New Ocean Gate mayor sworn in, denounces former mayor charged with theft, corruption Summer approaches: Six Jersey Shore arcades that can't be missed Detectives found that the home was owned by a man who leased it to another man who in turn subleased it. The owner reportedly hired a security company based in Brooklyn to evict the people there without going through the eviction process, police said. The five men were employees of the security company, police said. Hours before. police encountered the men after receiving a call about a suspicious vehicle in the area. They identified themselves as employees of a security company who were there to meet a client for a job nearby. Police did not detain them since they had broken no laws. Arrested on charges of robbery, burglary, criminal restraint, theft, criminal mischief, criminal trespassing and simple assault were Christopher Landau, 26, Robert Drozd, 38, Joseph Castano, 22 and Cesar Saavedra-Luna, 24, all from Brooklyn, and Marco Balanzar-Hernandez, 45, of Lakewood. Story continues The charges include at least one that has a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. The men were taken to Ocean County Jail in Toms River, and the investigation is continuing. Ken Serrano covers crime, breaking news, investigations and local issues. Reach him at kserrano@gannettnj.com. This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Jackson NJ home invasion: 5 arrested in unauthorized eviction Texas governor Greg Abbott lamented on Friday the changing official account of Tuesdays shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, while saying that the FBI is investigating the conduct of officials. Abbotts remarks came after a high-profile press conference Friday by Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw in Uvalde. During his remarks, McCraw said up to 19 police officers had entered the hallways of the school during the massacre, but after initially engaging the shooter fell back and did not breach the classroom door. The incident commander at the scene, chief of police Peter Arredondo, judged that the situation was no longer an active shooting but a barricaded subject presuming all children inside the two connected classrooms to be dead, even as some were calling 911 to plead for help. From the arrival of police, it took 50 minutes for the door to be breached by a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team, whose agents killed the shooter. The decision was wrong. Period, said McCraw. These remarks, however, appeared to contradict those made by Victor Escalon, the Public Safety Department regional director responsible for Uvalde, who defended the conduct of officers in a press conference on Thursday. At that press conference, Escalon had declined to answer reporters questions about the period between 12 and 12:50 p.m., from when police arrived to when the shooter was killed. At another press conference called at 4 p.m. Friday local time to announce a support plan for the families of victims, Abbott criticized the changing police accounts of the story as reported in the media. The information I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, he said. I was misled, and I am absolutely livid, Abbott added. As governor, Abbott oversees the Texas Department of Public Safety, which has been leading the investigation into the incident. Texas Governor Greg Abbott: "Yes, I was misled. I am livid about what happened!" pic.twitter.com/zCAOcw7syP CSPAN (@cspan) May 27, 2022 It is imperative that the leaders of the investigation get down to the very second with 100 percent accuracy, Abbott said. Law enforcement is going to earn the trust of the public, he added. Every action by those officials is under investigation by both the Texas Rangers and by the FBI. Story continues Abbotts remarks suggested that an investigation into the actions of police, separate from the ongoing investigation into the incident, may be called by the state in response to the mounting criticism of Uvalde police officers. Earlier, Representative Joaquin Castro (D., Texas) sent a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray asking the bureau to investigate the Uvalde Police Department and U.S. Border Patrols response to the incident, using their maximum authority in the situation. At McCraws press conference, the FBI special agent in charge Oliver Rich had said that local authorities would be leading the investigation and that the bureau would be playing a supportive role. Abbotts remarks appear to contradict Richs. In response to National Reviews request for comment, the FBI referred us to a social media post of Richs remarks, where he claimed that the Bureau would investigate only if there was a federal nexus. More from National Review Students at Bennett College, an all-female HBCU in Greensboro, North Carolina, received a major blessing from the Debt Collective, an organization thats fighting to cancel debts and defend millions of households. Debt Collective activists worked to cancel all the debt Bennett College students owed to the institution, which amounted to $1.7M. We just CANCELED $1.7M of student debt for every former student that owed money directly to Bennett College an HBCU for women in NC, the group wrote on an Instagram post. We canceled unpaid bills and college debt owed directly to Bennett College. We cant cancel federal student loans theyre owed by the government. But President Biden can and should, the Debt Collective noted on one of the posts slides. Debt Collective activists contacted the HBCUs president, Suzanne Walsh, earlier this year offering to clear the students Bennett College debt, though she humorously thought the matter was spam at first. People just dont reach out and say, We can help your students pay off their debts,' Walsh recalled thinking at the time. However, the offer ultimately proved to be the real deal. My student loans from Bennett College were canceled Amb (@Amb_bition) May 16, 2022 Braxton Brewington, press secretary for Debt Collective, spoke on the initiative during an interview with Rev. Al Sharpton on MSNBC. We believe student debt is unjust and is disproportionately harming Black women and Black borrowers in particular, he said when discussing why the Debt Collective selected Bennett College, one of only 2 historically Black womens colleges in the country. Brewington also reverberated that the Debt Collective covered debts owed directly to the university including parking tickets, library charges and unpaid tuition. Resultingly, Bennett College students with federal student loans will still have to pay the government back, though Debt Collective is calling on the Biden Administration to do its part in the fight. This [serves as] an indictment to the Biden Administration. Why do a group of activists have to take on what really is the role of the federal government? Brewington noted. JERUSALEM (AP) The Al Jazeera news network says it will submit a case file to the International Criminal Court on the killing of reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead earlier this month during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. The Qatar-based network and the Palestinian Authority have accused Israeli soldiers of deliberately killing her. Israel rejects those allegations as a blatant lie." It says she was shot during a firefight between soldiers and Palestinian militants, and that only ballistic analysis of the bullet which is held by the PA can determine who fired the fatal shot. An AP reconstruction lent support to witnesses who say the veteran Palestinian-American correspondent was killed by Israeli fire, but any final conclusion may depend on evidence that has not yet been released. Al Jazeera said late Thursday it has formed an international legal team to prepare a case dossier to be submitted to the ICC. The court launched an investigation into possible Israeli war crimes last year. Israel is not a member of the ICC and has rejected the probe as being biased against it. Al Jazeera said the case file would also include the Israeli bombing of the building housing its offices in Gaza City during last year's war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as well as the continuous incitements and attacks on its journalists operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel said the building which also housed the Gaza office of The Associated Press contained Hamas military infrastructure, but has not provided any evidence. The AP was not aware of any purported Hamas presence in the building and condemned the strike as shocking and horrifying. No one was hurt in the strike, which came after an Israeli warning to evacuate. The Network vows to follow every path to achieve justice for Shireen, and ensure those responsible for her killing are brought to justice and held accountable in all international justice and legal platforms and courts, Al Jazeera said. Story continues Israel says it cannot determine whether Palestinian militants or its own soldiers fired the fatal shot unless the PA hands over the bullet that killed Abu Akleh for ballistic analysis. The PA has refused to cooperate with Israel in any way, saying it doesn't trust Israel to investigate itself. The PA announced the results of its own probe on Thursday, saying Abu Akleh was deliberately killed by Israeli forces and that there were no militants in the area. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz rejected the findings, saying any claim that the IDF intentionally harms journalists or uninvolved civilians is a blatant lie, referring to the Israeli military. Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al Khateeb, in announcing the results of the probe, said the bullet that killed her was an armor-piercing 5.56 mm NATO round and that it appeared to have been fired by a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle. The Israeli military declined to comment on whether the gun described by the Palestinians matches one the military has previously identified as having possibly fired the fatal shot. It also declined to say whether the army uses the Ruger Mini-14 or whether any were in use during the May 11 raid in which Abu Akleh was killed, in the West Bank town of Jenin. Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation with the PA, with the participation of the U.S. The State Department said this week that neither Israel nor the PA have formally requested its assistance. Each side is in sole possession of potentially crucial evidence, and neither is likely to accept any conclusions reached by the other. ___ Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's legal teams made their closing arguments Friday in the former couple's defamation cases against one another. (Steve Helber / Associated Press ) Amber Heard isn't really asking for the $100 million she sued Johnny Depp for. Her lawyer said Friday that they simply asked for that amount to send a message to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" star after he asked for half that amount when he sued her for defamation. That information came Friday in a Virginia courtroom as legal teams for the former spouses registered their closing arguments in their dueling defamation cases. "Johnny Depp sued for $50 million, and we sent a message back saying, 'Fine, then we're gonna sue for $100 million because look what you did to her.' We're not asking you to give $100 million," attorney Elaine Bredehoft told the jury, speaking about compensatory damages. "We're asking you to just look at the damages in this case and just be fair and reasonable in whatever you determine." The case, which kicked off April 11 in Fairfax, Va., went to the jury Friday afternoon. While Depp's side has painted the case as being about getting his life and reputation back, Heard's side has argued that it's a First Amendment case about the right to tell one's own story. Heard attorney Benjamin Rottenborn led off the defendant's closing arguments by warning the jurors about the message they would be sending to victims of domestic abuse if they found in Depp's favor. "If you didn't take pictures, it didn't happen. If you did take pictures, they're fake. If you didn't tell your friends, you're lying. If you did tell your friends, they're part of the hoax. If you didn't seek medical treatment, you weren't injured. If you did seek medical treatment, you're crazy," Rottenborn said. "If you do everything that you can to help your spouse, the person that you love, rid himself of the crushing drug and alcohol abuse that spins him into an abusive, rage-filled monster, you're a nag. And if you finally decide enough is enough, you've had enough of the fear, enough of the pain and you have to leave to save yourself, you're a gold digger." Story continues Rottenborn called the case "victim-blaming at its most disgusting." He also replayed the notorious video of Depp wandering around a kitchen, slamming cabinet doors, pouring himself a large glass of wine and getting angry when he realized Heard was recording his actions. "Who does that? Who does that?" Rottenborn asked the jurors. "Imagine watching your husband, the person you love, behaving violently that way. Like a wild animal. That is abuse. That's abuse." Those statements came after Depp's attorneys argued that he was the actual victim in the relationship. "There is an abuser in this courtroom, but it is not Mr. Depp," attorney Camille Vasquez said. "And there is a victim of domestic abuse in this courtroom, but it is not Ms. Heard." Later, Vasquez painted the team's allegations against Heard more plainly. "Ms. Heard lied," she said. "And she lied again. And she kept lying." Heard allegedly lied, Vasquez said, when she asked for the temporary restraining order in 2016, when she said she donated her entire $7-million divorce settlement to charity and when she wrote the 2018 Washington Post op-ed around which Depp's case revolves. (The case is being argued in Virginia because the state is home to the news outlet's servers.) "She's come too far. She can't back down. She's lied too many times to too many people," Vasquez said. "So when Mr. Depp finally decided to fight, to clear his name by filing this lawsuit, Ms. Heard responded by making up more and more stories of more and more extreme abuse. She came up with a new accusation that Mr. Depp had raped her with a bottle in Australia, and she keeps making new claims up even now." After listing the 16 witnesses who had stood up in court for Depp either in person or via live video, including ex-girlfriend Kate Moss, the Depp team later said that except for Heard's sister, Whitney Henriquez, "no one showed up for Ms. Heard in this courtroom" other than witnesses who were paid to testify. Heard's team presented its case in large part via prerecorded video depositions. Depp attorney Ben Chew, during his turn in front of the jury, categorized the case as "the unique and singular #MeToo case where there's not a single 'me too,'" as in no other women who came forward to similarly accuse Depp of abuse. Chew also noted that after the #MeToo movement hit in 2017, producers knew better than to hire anyone who had been accused of abuse, implying that Heard's 2018 op-ed had placed Depp into a category where he didn't belong one that allegedly cost him tens of millions of dollars in acting work. Rottenborn returned in his rebuttal to remind the jury about how Heard's career had allegedly suffered after comments were made by former Depp attorney Adam Waldman. "Studios like her. Co-stars like her. She tests well. But she can't get opportunities because of the negativity associated with Mr. Depp and Mr. Waldman," he said. Judge Penney Azcarate who kicked off Friday by reading the jury its instructions about how to decide the case had strongly hinted the day before that the jury shouldn't argue past dinnertime each day and instructed them to decide what time they would return to deliberations after the Monday holiday. In Virginia, a seven-person civil jury must reach a verdict unanimously. The jury in this case will decide the defamation claims for both actors simultaneously. It's not clear when the verdict will be decided, though presumably it could happen next week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Johnny Depp won his defamation trial, and Amber Heard has partially won her countersuit against Depp. Depp won $10 million in compensatory damages and, $5 million in punitive damages. Heard won $2 million in compensatory damages. But in the court of public opinion, Depp was announced the winner from day one thanks to internet trolls. Depp sued his ex-wife for $50 million, claiming she falsely accused him of domestic violence in an opinion column that appeared in The Washington Post. In 2020, Depp lost a similar case against The Sun newspaper in a British court when the judge found that the evidence presented was "substantially true." Heard countersued Depp after his lawyer said her claims were false in statements to the press. Heard is two decades younger than her former husband and was significantly less famous than he was when they were married. She argued from the beginning that no one would believe her against Depp. Based on the deplorable responses on the internet, that has proved to be true. Abortions in Mexico?: If Roe v. Wade is overturned, women will still have option A portion of the cross-examination regarded a fight Amber Heard the actress had with Johnny Depp in Australia in March 2015. The facts vs. the trolls I am not here to relitigate the facts presented at trial. Suffice it to say, during the trial, their marriage counselor testified that there was "mutual abuse." But for Depp fans and social media users with no expertise in the matter, the ongoing defamation case has turned into an all-out assault on just one of the parties involved: Heard. I won't go into details because ... why? But on Twitter, the hashtags #MenToo and #JohnnyDepp have been trending with fans of Depp who would otherwise consider themselves "feminists" calling out Heard for "misandry." On apps like TikTok and Instagram, she has been ridiculed for how she described what she says happened to her. She has been trolled for her emotional facial expressions. She has been trolled for alleging abuse at all. Story continues Even "Saturday Night Live" jumped into the fray with what I thought was an entirely unfunny and arguably tasteless skit, mostly focused on making fun of Heard. Pence versus Trump: Mike Pence saved American democracy once. Now, he's helped to do it again against Trump. Victim-blaming for social media clout These abusive takes racked up millions of views, and it's no small thing. Bullying and victim-blaming have always been a problem, but the internet has expanded and boosted the audience for the humiliation. As for the not-funny problem of domestic violence: Around the country, people are victims of intimate partner violence every day, but women experience physical and sexual violence at a much higher rate. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 4 women and nearly 1 in 10 men have experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime. Social media users of both sexes have turned a legal battle into a misogynistic free-for-all, and they face no consequences whatsoever for their posts. It's a reminder of how the internet is able to bring out the worst in us and put that on display for millions of people to watch and partake in. How to help stop more school shootings?: Raise the age to buy a rifle to 21. There are real-life consequences of this behavior, too. It sets a very dangerous precedent for people, women in particular, to decide to come forward with allegations of abuse. This is especially true if the allegations are against someone powerful, or with a large social media following. Victims of intimate partner violence will continue to face abuse but may be less likely to report that abuse because of the online vitriol they're sure to face. And that may be the saddest part of the story. Carli Pierson, a New York licensed attorney, is an opinion writer with USA TODAY, and a member of the USA TODAY Editorial Board. Follow her on Twitter: @CarliPiersonEsq You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Depp-Heard verdict: Both got wins. But only Amber was hated online. An alerce tree in Chile's Alerce Costero National Park. Jonathan Barichivich An ancient cypress in southern Chile could be more than 5,000 years old, making it the worlds most aged tree, new research finds. Known as Great Grandfather, the endangered alerce tree lies in a ravine in Alerce Costero National Park. Scientists estimated its age using computer models based on data gathered from a sample. This method tells us that 80 percent of all possible growth trajectories give us an age of this living tree greater than 5,000 years, Jonathan Barichivich, an ecologist at the Climate and Environmental Sciences Laboratory in Paris, told Reuters. There is only a 20 percent chance that the tree is younger. The findings suggest that the tree is older than the current record-holder, Methuselah, a 4,853-year-old bristlecone pine in the White Mountains of California. Barichivich, who led the research on Great Grandfather, said the tree could be as much as 5,484 years old. Some scientists are skeptical of the findings, as they are based on computer modeling and have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed journal. The only way to truly determine the age of a tree is by dendrochronologically counting the rings and that requires all rings being present or accounted for, Ed Cook, a founding director of the Tree Ring Laboratory at Columbia University, told Science in an email. Great Grandfather is in a precarious position, with visitors to Alerce Costero National Park often stepping on its roots and or taking pieces of its bark, Barichivich said. Drier conditions are also stressing the tree. Noting the impacts of climate change, Barichivich told Reuters that he hoped people could think for a fraction of a second about what it means to live 5,000 years. ALSO ON YALE E360 Why Keeping Mature Forests Intact Is Key to the Climate Fight (Getty Images) New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez criticised President Joe Biden amid reports that the president is considering forgiving up to $10,000 in student debt per borrower. Mr Bidens debt forgiveness proposal would reportedly be limited to Americans who earned less than $150,000 for individuals and $300,000 for married couples, The Washington Post reported. But Ms Ocasio, the democratic socialist congresswoman who represents her partys left flank, quote-tweeted a Twitter thread from NAACP president Derrick Johnson saying it was insufficient. $10k means tested forgiveness is just enough to anger the people against it *and* the people who need forgiveness the most. $10k relieves most the people who owe the least. What relief is there for the most desperate? For them, interest will undo that 10k fast. We can do better. https://t.co/HhfWbeCf0v Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 27, 2022 $10k means tested forgiveness is just enough to anger the people against it *and* the people who need forgiveness the most, she said. $10k relieves most the people who owe the least. What relief is there for the most desperate? For them, interest will undo that 10k fast. We can do better. Ms Ocasio-Cortez and many other Democrats - including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Elizabeth Warren - have urged Mr Biden to cancel student debt. Ms Ocasio-Cortez has made the case that not doing so would hurt Mr Biden with his base. Now would be a great time to cancel student loan debt, take significant climate action, and pass voting rights. https://t.co/M84l1XZfnt Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 31, 2022 The criticism comes as Ms Ocasio-Cortez has clashed with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the rest of House leadership for endorsing Representative Henry Cuellar of Texas despite his opposition to abortion and gun control. If Cuellar wins, leaderships decision to go to the mat for a pro-NRA incumbent will be the reason why, she tweeted earlier this week. If Cisneros pulls it out, they will have mobilized against a badly needed grassroots for Nov & fought against a historic victory. And for what? Ms Ocasio-Cortez had endorsed Mr Cuellars primary opponent Jessica Cisneros in Texass 28th district. The race is currently too close to call. Joe Manchin outside the Capitol building on Thursday (AP) Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez appeared to skewer her Democrat colleague Joe Manchin over his response to this weeks shooting in Uvalde, Texas. On Thursday, the Democratic congresswoman retweeted a post quoting Mr Manchin for saying that he has never been in this frame of mind on tightening gun control following the shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. Ive never been in this frame of mind, I cant get my grandchildren out of my mind, Mr Manchin reportedly toldPunchbowl News reporter Jake Sherman. Another reporter, NBC Newss Vaughn Hillyard, highlighted the similarity between Mr Manchins remarks this week and those in the aftermath of the Parkland school shooting in Florida, however. Mr Hillyard tweeted: Fwiw, Manchin told me this quote just over a week after Parkland in 2018: It feels a little different. Ive got grandchildren also in the school systems, and I understand the concerns that every parent and grandparent has. The 2018 shooting at Parklands Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School led to calls from gun control campaigners and Demcrats for greater restrictions on owning firearms across the whole US. But Republicans in Congress have largely stood in the way of any proposals to introduce tougher gun laws. But on Thursday Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had instructed Senator John Cornyn of Texas to begin negotiating with Democratic Senators. On Thursday, Mr Manchin met with fellow Democrat Chris Murphy and about eight other senators to seek mutual ground on gun legislation after a domestic terrorism bill passed the House but was blocked in the Senate. Laws theoretically require the support of at least 60 senators to pass under a rule known as the filibuster. Mr Manchin, who has long been a thorn in the side of progressive Democrats when it comes to passing legislation, told reporters that he hoped there was new appetite for a law on background checks for gun sales. The West Virginia Democratic Senator and former governor previously touted his support from the National Rifle Association, even running an advertisement in 2010 showing him shooting Democrats proposed climate legislation with a gun. Story continues Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012, Mr Manchin partnered with Pennyslvania Republican Senator Pat Tommey on a bill requiring tougher background checks for gun owners. Mr Toomey was reported as saying however that he doubted there was enough support for such a bill in the wake of Uvalde, despite the deaths of 19 children and two teachers. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said he will give bipartisan negotiations two weeks. Additional reporting by The Associated Press. Oxygen In the early morning hours of August 25, 2008, Linda Heidt, the matriarch of a prominent and well-respected Georgia family, placed a chilling 911 call. Help. Please, Linda struggled to tell an Effingham County 911 dispatcher, according to Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, airing Wednesdays at 8/7c on Oxygen. Whats wrong? the dispatcher said. Gun, Linda said. Shot. Through halting words, Linda was able to tell the dispatcher she had been shot in the face. Her husband Philip Heidta prominen A 14-year-old Athens youth was arrested Friday, suspected in the shootings of two other teens involved in a fight that stemmed from trash talking on social media, according to Athens-Clarke police. The shooting of the victims, ages 16 and 17, occurred about 1:25 p.m. on Tuesday at East Carver and Cone drives, police said. The wounds were not life threatening. The teen suspect was arrested by Clarke County sheriffs deputies after police identified him as the shooter, according to police Lt. Shaun Barnett. The teen is charged with four counts of aggravated assault. Previously: Athens-Clarke police seeking suspects in shootings that left 2 men wounded 'It's extremely dangerous': Athens-Clarke police respond to cases of weekend gunfire More crime news: With suspect in jail, investigators await autopsy results in Barrow County slaying Police are still investigating where and how the suspect obtained a firearm, Barnett said. Police reported earlier that the victims had received denigrating messages on Instagram and they went looking for the person making the comments. The youths apparently located that person in the Carver Drive area and a fight ensued which escalated into gunfire. Police said anyone with information regarding the shooting may contact Det. Paul Johnson at (762) 400-7060 or paul.johnson@accgov.com This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens teen charged after Instagram 'trash talk' leads to shootings The Daily Beast GettyConfused Twitter usersmost of them Americanare slamming rude Swedish culture in a micro-moment dubbed #Swedengate.The conversation kicked off in a viral Reddit post that eventually made its way to Twitter, as former and current residents shared insights into Swedish hospitality, which doesnt look very warm and welcoming to those outside the Nordic nation.Laughing at twitter finding out that Swedish people will not feed strangers. as a kid growing up here we knew to just go home around SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's new government said on Friday it would give temporary visas to a Sri Lankan asylum seeker family held in immigration detention since 2019, a step towards closure of one of the country's most controversial migration cases. The Tamil family of four, Priya and Nadesalingam Murugappan and their two daughters, have been a cause celebre since being detained in the rural Australian town where they settled years earlier. The family was taken into the country's offshore detention system, designed to deter asylum seekers from entering by boat. Amid growing public anger, the conservative government moved the family to mainland Australia last year when the younger daughter, Tharnicaa, needed urgent medical care for sepsis linked to untreated pneumonia. The family has since been in community detention onshore. The new centre-left Labor government, which won a national election on May 21 after nine years in opposition, said it would give the family bridging visas, allowing them to return to their adopted home town, Biloela, 600 kilometres (370 miles) northwest of Brisbane, until their asylum application is resolved. "When I visited Biloela in 2019, I saw just how much the community loves Priya, Nades, Kopika and Tharnicaa," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wrote in a tweet, referring to the family members. "Today my government has enabled them to return home," added Albanese, who was sworn in as leader on Monday. The former conservative government had resisted calls to free the family, known as the "Biloela" family, insisting that doing so would undermine its hardline immigration policies. But criticism about the family's treatment grew, including by conservative members. The just-elected Labor government said before the election that it would adopt the conservatives' tough border policies but that it considered the Biloela family's treatment unfair. Priya and Nadesalingam Murugappan arrived in Australia by boat in 2012 and 2013 and sought asylum. The couple married in Australia, where their daughters were born. Story continues In 2018, after Australia rejected the asylum applications of Priya and Nadesalingam, who fled Sri Lanka amid a civil war, Canberra detained the family for deportation to Sri Lanka. When court orders blocked their deportation, Australia in 2019 moved the family to Christmas Island, a territory some 1,550 km (960 miles) northwest of the mainland, before their return to the mainland last year. (Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell) Former President Barack Obama has had a virtual reunion with a young man whose innocent question in the Oval Office yielded a photo that hung for years in the White House, and for many, touched the heart of the American dream. Five-year-old Jacob Philadelphia meets President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in 2009. / Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza "Is that Jacob? It's Barack Obama. Do you remember me?" the former president asks a now-18-year-old Jacob Philadelphia in a video posted on his official website. From the small monitor on his desk, a smiling young man replies: "Yes, and you said your hair would be gray next time." "And I was not lying," responds Obama. The two first met in 2009, when Carlton Philadelphia, Jacob's father, a U.S. Marine who served on the National Security Council, brought his family to the White House. While introducing his children to then-President Obama, his younger son Jacob, then 5, asked the nation's chief executive: "Is your hair like mine?" President Obama leaned down and encouraged the little boy to touch his hair, to find out for himself. "I think that is pretty much what I got," Jacob declared, according to Obama. White House photographer Pete Souza captured the moment in a photo that spent the rest of Obama's presidency hanging on a wall in the West Wing. "I think this picture embodied one of the hopes I had when running for office," Obama said in the video posted to his website on Friday. "The day I was sworn into office, young people, particularly people of color, outsiders, they would look at themselves differently, to see a person who looked like them in the Oval Office, and they could see the world open up to them." Almost 14 years later, Jacob was graduating on Friday from the International School of Uganda, outside Kampala. "I was five years old when I met President Obama in the Oval Office," he says in the video released by the former president's office. "I just thought the president was my dad's boss. I didn't know how powerful he was I kinda remember him towering over me, and me touching his hair." "If I get to see another Black man be at the top, at that pinnacle, then I want to follow that lead," he said. Story continues Jacob Philadelphia, 18, speaks on a video call with former President Barack Obama, May 27, 2022, in a screengrab from video posted on Obama's official website. / Credit: Obama.org It was the former president who initiated the video call to pass along his congratulations to Jacob, saying he'd heard he was about to graduate. He said one benefit of his father working at the State Department has been the family's extensive travels, through which he's been able to "meet people and see their ideals of how they want to change the world." Jacob said his plan was to study at the University of Memphis, with the goal of a degree in political science. Obama smiled and added, "I hope the White House has clearly inspired you." Their chat ended by coming full circle back to the hair, with Obama ending with a question of his own: "Is that some facial hair you are growing there, some kind of a mustache?" before closing with, "It sounds like you are doing great." "I couldn't be more proud of him," the former president wrote on his website. LeBron James surprises kids on the last day of school Grandfather of 10-year-old victim killed in Texas shooting recalls hearing the news Special Report: Texas officials say "wrong decision" delayed school shooting response President Biden is nearing a decision on student loan debt forgiveness, with the president and his team zeroing in on canceling $10,000 per borrower, with some potential caveats. White House officials cautioned no decision has been finalized as Biden continues to weigh his options. The president is scheduled to speak at the Naval Academys commencement ceremony on Friday and at the University of Delawares ceremony on Saturday. Multiple reports indicated Biden considered using the weekend commencement ceremonies to announce some student debt forgiveness, with The Washington Post reporting the timing was changed in the wake of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children dead. A White House official disputed that was the case, however. No decisions have been made yet but as a reminder no one has been required to pay a single dime of student loans since the president took office, deputy press secretary Vedant Patel said. Multiple sources told The Hill in late April that Biden was looking at canceling at least $10,000 in student debt, and indications are the White House appears to have settled on that number even as they work through potential limits on who the loan cancellation would benefit. The Washington Post reported Friday that the latest iteration of the plan called for capping the debt forgiveness to individuals who earned less than $150,000 last year, or $300,000 for married couples. It is also unclear if the cancellation would apply to all student loan debt, or just undergraduate students. Biden in the 2020 campaign supported forgiving at least $10,000 in federal student loans per person after several other candidates made student loan forgiveness a key part of their platforms. Since taking office, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) have repeatedly pushed Biden on the issue, insisting it would provide immediate relief to minorities and low- and middle-income families. Schumer has called for canceling up to $50,000 in student debt per borrower. Story continues While that large of a sum has been publicly ruled out, Biden has in recent weeks made increasingly clear he is prepared to provide some student debt forgiveness. I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction, but Im in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness and Ill have an answer on that in the next couple of weeks, Biden said on April 28, days after he reportedly told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus he was open to forgiving some student loans. The White House has yet to give an updated timeline in the month since Biden said a decision was a couple weeks out, but officials have pointed to actions that have helped student loan borrowers over the past year and a half. Biden last month extended the pandemic moratorium on federal student loan payments and interest accrual through August. Loan payments were first paused in March 2020 early in the pandemic under then-President Trump, and the moratorium has been extended multiple times since. The White House has repeatedly said Biden is prepared to sign legislation canceling student loan debt but in the meantime is weighing what authority the president has to unilaterally wipe out some debt. Conservative critics have pushed for student loan payments to resume, arguing the moratorium has cost the federal government billions of dollars and that any widespread forgiveness would disproportionately benefit wealthy Americans. A study from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget that found roughly 75 percent of student loan repayments come from the top 40 percent of earners. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. By Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil is preparing to receive a record number of international observers for its October election, according to electoral authorities and participating organizations, amid a polarized presidential race in which President Jair Bolsonaro has questioned the reliability of electronic voting machines. Bolsonaro's government objected to an invitation last month extended by Brazilian electoral authorities to the European Union to send observers for the first time, sinking that proposal. But the parliament of South American trade bloc Mercosur, known as Parlasur, will send a formal observer mission for the first time, as will the U.S.-based Carter Center and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES). The 34-nation Organization of American States also will send more observers than it did in 2018, when Bolsonaro was elected. "We don't know the size of the mission yet, that will depend on the money available, but we intend to make it bigger," said a source at the hemispheric forum in Washington, requesting anonymity to comment on preliminary discussions. "In 2018, there were 40 observers and we want to exceed that number." Bolsonaro, a far-right populist, gave vocal support to former U.S. president Donald Trump's baseless allegations of fraud in the 2020 election. He has raised similar doubts about Brazil's electronic voting system, calling it liable to fraud, without providing evidence. Those allegations, along with Bolsonaro's criticism of the electoral authorities who defend Brazil's voting systems, have raised concerns he might not accept defeat by his leftist rival Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is leading in opinion polls. "For this reason we are inviting, in an unprecedented way, all international organizations and specialized centers to act as observers of our election," Edson Fachin, head of Brazil's Superior Electoral Court (TSE) said last week. Story continues "We are aiming for more than 100 international observers during the electoral process," said Fachin, one of a rotating set of Supreme Court justices running the TSE this year. Parlasur was invited by the TSE to send representatives for the 2018 election as foreign guests. This year, it will send an official election observation mission for the first time, according to the mission's director Alexandre Andreatta. He said the mission would have between 10 and 20 members. The Carter Center, which has been a pioneer of international election observation since the 1980s, said it will send an exploratory mission to Brazil in June to study the possibility of observing the October vote, a spokesperson said. The Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries has confirmed it will send election observers, Fachin said, and the Global Network on Electoral Justice, a pro-democracy organization, has been invited to do so, Fachin said. European electoral authorities have been invited as guests, he said. (Reporting by Anthony Boadle and Ricardo Brito; Editing by Bill Berkrot) Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge; Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge; and Prince Louis of Cambridge on the balcony of Buckingham Palace in June 2019 Max Mumby/Getty Images A UK manufacturer of baby formula is sending products to the US to overcome shortages. Kendal Nutricare makes the formula that Kate Middleton fed to Prince Louis. Parents have faced ongoing shortages of baby formula linked mainly to product recalls in the US. A UK manufacturer of the baby food used by the British royal family to feed Prince Louis will fly formula to the US to help combat ongoing shortages. Kendamil, produced by Kendal Nutricare, is in talks with the US Food and Drug Administration to fly the formula to the US and plans to send enough to fill 100 trucks over the next six months, the company said. The baby milk, as well as Kendamil baby cereal products, were reportedly fed to Prince Louis by the Duchess of Cambridge. Manufacturers are now sending products to the US as part of Operation Fly Formula, which was launched by President Biden on May 18 to combat ongoing shortages caused by supply chain issues and product recalls. The recalls affected some formula made by Abbott Nutrition at its factory in Sturgis, Michigan, following complaints of bacterial infection in four infants who consumed the product. Parents have struggled to secure tins of their preferred formula as retailers including Target, CVS, and Walgreens also rationed supplies. Under the plan, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Agriculture can use military aircraft to transport baby formula that meets the FDA standards into the US. The first batch of Nestle formula arrived in Indiana from Switzerland on Sunday. Dylan McMahon, cofounder of Kendamil, told Insider: "The urgency and scale of the baby milk shortages in the USA is extremely concerning. We can only imagine how stressful it must be for those parents affected and are delighted to be able to step in and help." "We look forward to bringing the highest-quality formula to the US parents, while supporting British jobs, local farming and organic dairy," he added. Kendal Nutricare is based in Kendal in the Lake District of northwest England and is the UK's only manufacturer of infant formula. The company was founded in 1962. The Kendal Nutricare factory in Kendal, England Kendal Nutricare Read the original article on Business Insider After losing his wallet containing $500 for over a week, a British man in Singapore was relieved when he received a letter that a good Samaritan had found and returned the wallet to police. The man, Chris Henderson, believed he had lost his wallet for good until a letter from Singapore police informed him that his wallet had been found 10 days later. He was shocked, however, after discovering that most of his cash had been left untouched. Henderson posted about the experience to TikTok on Thursday, where he begins the video by explaining the letter he had received and expresses that he is really hopeful that his wallet has been safely returned with the cash intact. I need this money back $500 is a lot of money to lose and its not usual for me to have it in my wallet. Not usual at all. Maybe maximum $100 but on this occasion, I lost it, Henderson says in the video. Ive got a baby coming in September, I need the money. More from NextShark: TikTok Star Nina Mc Lin Called Out for Using the N-Word in Video After retrieving the wallet from the police station, Henderson reveals that his wallet still contained a majority of the cash, with $460 left untouched. He describes it as unbelievable and thanks the good Samaritan who handed in his wallet to the police. I hope you get good karma for you and your family. If only I had your name and number so I could give you some sort of compensation and thank you, Henderson says. I dont know who you are but thank you so much because I need that money back. More from NextShark: Chinese student poses as wealthy socialite to live in luxury in Beijing for free When one TikTok user commented on the missing $40, Henderson explained that he did not have a problem with it and speculated that he had either used it and forgotten or the good Samaritan used it to take a taxi to the police station. Story continues Many users agreed on Singapores honesty, as Henderson described it, while others believed that he had gotten lucky. Yes, WE ARE SINGAPOREAN! Whether you are here for [work] or holiday, we treat everyone with respect and honesty, one user commented. More from NextShark: Controversial Wilmington police sergeant being investigated for 'China virus' Facebook post I wouldnt say all Singaporean are honest. We are not perfect. But you just lucky that the person who returned your wallet is honest and kind, another user wrote. Feature Image via @chrishendoo More from NextShark: Thank you, Mama baby Grey is making videos on his own, and viewers are stunned by how much hes grown May 26Don't make Joey McCamon angry. It's just not gonna work out. Midway through the third period in Chagrin Falls' 11-8 win over University in a Division II regional championship game on May 26, McCamon the Tigers' goalkeeper got his pocket picked by University's Charlie Freer and gave up a goal to cut Chagrin's lead to 8-6. After that, McCamon was dynamite in the net. Propelled by a strong offensive attack and buoyed by McCamon's inspirational play in the net in the fourth Chagrin clinched a state final four berth. Chagrin will play either Toledo St. John Jesuit or Toledo Ottawa Hills on May 31 at Oberlin College. "I tell ya what," Chagrin coach Paul Corto said of McCamon, "If that's what is going to happen and he's going to play like that, I hope he gets his pocket picked every game." In the fourth, McCamon was pretty much impenetrable in the net. He made a strong stop on University's 2-on-1 attack at the five-minute mark. He repelled a shot at point-blank range by US's JP Brennan at the 3:42 mark and then maybe his biggest stop was at the 2:20 mark on a laser beam off the stick of Campbell Crowley. Twenty seconds after the last save, Owen Shaw scored off a pass from Cam Croisdaile for an 11-8 lead. The proverbial dagger. "He was freaking amazing," Croisdaile said of McCamon's net play. "This (win) feels amazing. US plays us hard every time. They're one of our biggest rivals. To do this at home with all our fans here is the best." University the No. 2 seed to Chagrin's No. 1 pressured the Tigers offense all night. When Preston Blue scored early in the third, US cut the gap to 5-4. But Chagrin answered with three goals in a 71-second span two by Fritz Clark to extend the lead to 8-4. University twice had to margin down to two goals in the fourth, but each time the Tigers answered one by Croisdaile and the clincher by Shaw. Story continues "Chagrin is a great team," US coach Hans Rydquist said. "They probably have the top attack line in the state. We knew we had to limit them. When they got the ball, they scored." University got a big game from Blue, a sophomore who had four goals. "He's a great player, a sophomore who plays like an older player," Rydquist said. With the win, Chagrin turns its attention to the state final four to go after the state title that evaded them last year. "We'll be prepared, there is no doubt" Corto said. "This team loves being together. They don't want the season to end. That's why you see that effort for 48 minutes." STORY: China and Russia on Thursday vetoed a resolution to impose more UN sanctions on North Korea. The U.S. had drafted that resolution in response to a string of missile tests this year. Thursdays vote was the first time the Security Council has split over the issue since 2006, when North Korea fired off its first nuclear test. U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said she was disappointed but not surprised. "We have been circulating a draft of this resolution for nine weeks. In that time, the countries vetoing this resolution have refused to engage on the text, despite our commitment to inclusivity and flexibility during consultations." Among other restrictions. the resolution banned oil and tobacco exports to North Korea. The countrys leader Kim Jong Un is a chain smoker. It also would have blacklisted a group of hackers called the Lazarus group. For Russias part, it wants to ease up on North Korea. According to its UN ambassador. sanctions are a dead end." As history has shown us, the paradigm of sanctions has still not been able to guarantee security in the region or resolve issues of missile and nuclear nonproliferation." China also wants to lift some sanctions, hoping to lure North Korea back to negotiations with the U.S. Denuclearization talks stalled out after the last summit between leader Kim and former President Donald Trump in 2019. The issue is now set to be taken up by the UNs General Assembly. Just a day before Thursdays vote, Pyongyang fired off three missiles. Washington has warned that a nuclear test could be next. BEIJING (Reuters) - Border areas in China's northeastern province of Jilin, which shares a long frontier with coronavirus-hit North Korea, reported domestically transmitted COVID-19 infections of unknown origin, a Chinese health official said on Friday. The outbreak had shown a trend of spreading from border areas to inland areas, Lei Zhenglong, of China's National Health Commission, told a news briefing. Jilin province also shares a short border with Russia and Lei did not specify which border he was referring to or say how many cases had been found. This month, isolated North Korea announced its first COVID outbreak since the pandemic emerged in China more than two years ago, declaring the "gravest national emergency" and imposing a national lockdown. Jilin's daily tally of new cases for the past five days has been in the single digits. Many of the cases reported in recent days were in places near North Korea. The province has not confirmed COVID patients among international travellers recently. Jilin emerged from widespread COVID lockdowns weeks ago after getting its worst outbreak under control. China's zero-COVID strategy has been tested by infections leaking across its long land borders, including its southwestern border with Myanmar. Late last month, China suspended cross-border freight train services with North Korea because of COVID. (This story refiles to remove extraneous word 'has' from first paragraph) (Reporting by Roxanne Liu, Ryan Woo and Tony Munroe; Editing by Hugh Lawson) Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal closed in Friday on a blockbuster clash at the French Open as both reached the last 16, while 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz became the youngest man to make the second week in Paris since 2006. Reigning champion Djokovic and 13-time winner Nadal are on course to meet in the quarter-finals, with the Spaniard seeded outside the top four at Roland Garros for just the second time. World number one Djokovic strolled to a 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 win over Slovenia's Aljaz Bedene and Nadal eased past Dutch 26th seed Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3, 6-2, 6-4. "I'm always very motivated when I get on the court, with the desire to produce my best level each time. It's not always possible to do it, but today it was very good," said Djokovic. The 35-year-old Serb is aiming to become the oldest men's singles champion in Paris in the Open era as he chases a record-equalling 21st Grand Slam title. Next up for Djokovic, who was also French Open champion in 2016, is a match-up with Argentina's Diego Schwartzman, the 15th seed. Nadal, the 21-time major champion, improved his record at Roland Garros to 108-3 after seeing off 2021 US Open quarter-finalist Van de Zandschulp. He has now reached at least the fourth round in 17 of 18 visits to Roland Garros, with the exception of 2016 when he withdrew in the third round with a wrist injury. "Today has been a very good test and very positive test, because I was able to play my best match of the tournament so far, without any doubt," said Nadal. The Spaniard had a break point for 5-0 in the third set, but Van de Zandschulp refused to roll over, winning four of the next five games before Nadal put away his second match point, having saved a break point in between the two. "You always feel a little bit the nerves to finish the match, so I'm happy to be through in straight sets," said Nadal, who plays Canadian ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime for a place in the last eight. In a twist to that clash, Toni Nadal, the uncle and former coach of the Spaniard, is now working with Auger-Aliassime. Story continues - Alcaraz, Zverev move on - Alcaraz gained revenge against the only man to beat him on clay this year, defeating US 27th seed Sebastian Korda 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 in the evening session. The Spanish teenage star is the youngest man in the Roland Garros fourth round since Djokovic 16 years ago. "I'm trying to have fun out there. I just enjoy every single second. I love playing tennis," said Alcaraz, who saved a match point against countryman Albert Ramos-Vinolas in the previous round. He has won 20 of 21 matches on clay this season and next faces 21st seed Karen Khachanov. The Russian knocked out Cameron Norrie in four sets as the 10th-seeded Briton became the highest-ranked player to fall. Alexander Zverev, the third seed and 2021 semi-finalist, ended the run of American Brandon Nakashima, winning 7-6 (7/2), 6-3, 7-6 (7/5). The German Olympic champion, who also saved a match point in round two, next takes on Bernabe Zapata Miralles, the 131st-ranked Spaniard who downed John Isner in five sets. Amanda Anisimova, the 27th seed and a 2019 semi-finalist, advanced to the last 16 as injury-plagued Karolina Muchova retired down 6-7 (7/9), 6-2, 3-0 after falling and twisting her ankle midway through the second set. Last year's US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez beat Olympic champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, while Aliaksandra Sasnovich defeated three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber 6-4, 7-6 (7/5). Coco Gauff, the youngest player left in the French Open, made the last 16 with a straight-sets win over Kaia Kanepi, the oldest woman in the tournament at 36. Sloane Stephens, runner-up in 2018, ended the run of French teenager Diane Parry in straight sets, while Swiss 23rd seed Jil Teichmann overcame two-time former Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10/5). mw/dj "Touch it, dude," President Obama told Jacob Philadelphia in 2009 in the Oval Office. (Pete Souza / White House) In each of the last two weeks, an 18-year-old American male has horrifically gripped the nations attention, one for allegedly gunning down 10 Black people at a grocery store in upstate New York, the other for slaughtering 19 Latino fourth-graders and two teachers at a Texas school. Those teens represent the worst of us, though as a nation were all complicit for allowing such gun massacres to become common because of our political paralysis and our cultural fetish for weapons of war, and, a first in this century, because of conservative judges misreading of the 2nd Amendment. Spare some attention, however, for the countless other 18-year-olds, the Class of 2022 graduating from high schools nationwide and into adulthood with hopes we hope for their futures. And not just nationwide: Id like to reintroduce one 18-year-old American, Jacob Philadelphia, who graduates Friday from the International School of Uganda just outside Kampala, where his father works in the U.S. Embassy. Jacob has high hopes indeed: to become president of the United States. I say reintroduce because many of us know Jacob. We know him, however, as the 5-year-old Black boy at the center of one of the most famous photos of Barack Obama's presidency. In the picture, the leader of the free world the nations first Black president is bowing in the Oval Office to a Black child who has just asked him whether his wiry hair is really like the boys own. Touch it, dude! the president said, bringing his head even with the childs, as I recounted in a story a decade ago about their encounter in 2009. The photo that White House photographer Pete Souza hurriedly snapped, which to this day is an audience favorite in Souzas popular speaking tours about his White House years, seemed to capture the promise inherent in Obamas barrier-breaking election: That all Americans finally could imagine someone who looked like themselves in the nations highest office. Story continues The photo represented hope and change, the bywords of Obamas campaign. Yet now those sentiments are as faded as the iconic signs that once advertised them. And Jacob, now a young man, will soon return to the United States to attend the University of Memphis at a time when the once-heady talk of a post-racial society has given way to deep anxiety about racial regression. Americans of his generation have come of age as witnesses to not only video-streamed racial injustice but, under Obamas successor, also the mainstreaming of bigotry. They inherit a nation as divided as at any time since the Civil War, and they have endured two years of pandemic-enforced isolation that inhibited their education, social lives and, for many, their mental health. Against that backdrop, Obama and Jacob reunited virtually this week, to mark the young mans milestone. The 4-minute minute video that The Times obtained of their exchange with Obama in his Washington office, Jacob at school will be shown at the graduation ceremony for Jacobs class of about 60 multinational students. A framed copy of the Souza photo hangs in Obama's office. The former president says, I think this picture embodies one of the hopes that Id had when I first started running for office. I remember telling Michelle and some of my staff, You know, I think that if I were to win, the day I was sworn into office, young people particularly African American people, people of color, outsiders, folks who maybe didnt always feel like they belonged theyd look at themselves differently to see a person who looked like them in the Oval Office. It would speak to Black kids and Latino kids, gay kids and young girls. They could see the world open up for them. Of course, Jacob didnt grasp any of that at the time. He recalls thinking Obama was just my dads boss his father, Carlton Philadelphia, worked then at the National Security Council and was about to take a State Department post in Mexico and especially remembers being intimidated by the large office and him towering over me. But Jacob got the deeper meaning soon enough. That was a pretty big highlight of my life, he says in the video. If I get to see another Black man be at the top, be at that pinnacle, then I want to follow that lead. His mother, Roseane Philadelphia, told me in a phone interview from the familys home in Kampala that Jacob over the years dreamed of being one thing and then another, but the only thing thats been consistent is his desire to ultimately become president. Thats why hes going to study political science, she said. Obama asked Jacob whether moving abroad from place to place had been hard on him perhaps channeling Obamas own childhood experience following his anthropologist mother from Hawaii to Indonesia. Its kind of difficult, Jacob replies, speaking for himself and brother Isaac, 21. But at the end of the day, we get to see a lot of things that a lot of other kids dont get a chance to. We get to talk to people and see their ideals for how they want to change the world. I think the White House visit clearly inspired you, Obama says. I hope. We hope too. For Jacob and the rest of his generation, we must reclaim hope. And act, beyond thoughts and prayers, to help them make it a reality. @jackiekcalmes This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A police officer is among mourners at a memorial outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Gov. Gavin Newsom loves to hold up California as an example of why Republicans should get off their collective, NRA-addled duffs and help Democrats overhaul the nation's gun laws. And with good reason. Our unflinching commitment to gun control has put California among the states with the lowest rates of dying by a bullet, down 10% since 2005. California leads this national conversation," Newsom insisted this week. "When California moves, other states move in the same direction. And yet, if any state can finally persuade congressional Republicans and their constituents to back a deal that, say, bans high-capacity magazines or strengthens background checks, I suspect it won't be role-model California. It'll be incompetent Texas. We're getting a real-time demonstration of the many dangers of gun culture, propped up by a patriarchy of cowboy-hatted police officers and politicians and carried out in a state that prides itself on the normalcy of gunslinging. Just think about all we've witnessed since Tuesday. An angry 18-year-old walked into an elementary school with a high-powered rifle in the small town of Uvalde just days before summer break. In minutes, he slaughtered 19 students and two teachers. It is bad enough that the gunman, identified by authorities as Salvador Ramos, was able to easily and legally acquire the rifle he used. Now we know that after he shot his grandmother in the face and stole and crashed her truck outside Robb Elementary School, he shot at two people across the street. Then he shot at the school. Rather than being confronted by a school resource officer, as authorities initially reported, Ramos hopped a fence meant to keep shooters like him out and walked into the parking lot and into the school through an open door. Then he walked around for a while, going down hallways and entering an empty classroom before finally finding one full of students. He walked in unobstructed, Victor Escalon Jr., a regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, said during a news conference Thursday. He was not confronted by anybody. Story continues Meanwhile, outside, a police officer responding to a 911 call drove right by Ramos. The incompetence gets worse. Minutes later, officers with the Uvalde Police Department entered the school and shot at Ramos. Ramos shot back. The officers didn't press forward, though, even when backup arrived. At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they couldve been shot, they couldve been killed, and that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school, Chris Olivarez, a Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman, told CNN on Thursday. Inside, children ducking bullets were calling 911 for help. Outside, instead of entering the school as shots were still being fired, officers decided to shove, tackle and handcuff parents who were trying to save their children even drawing weapons on them. One mother of a second- and third-grader told the Wall Street Journal that after demanding that officers go inside instead of milling about outside, she was put in handcuffs for interfering in an active investigation. She got free, though, dashed into the school and ran out with her kids. Once a tactical team with Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement finally arrived, local police wouldn't let them inside the school. It took more than an hour for Ramos to be killed, and only then by a Border Patrol agent who drove to the school on his day off. Obviously, based on the information we have, there were children in that classroom that were still at risk, Steven C. McCraw, director and colonel of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said during a news conference Friday. From the benefit of hindsight where Im sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Period. Everything that could have gone wrong seemed to go wrong. Like many Americans, I was still learning the names and faces of the children and teachers who were gunned down when President Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order to deliver the most significant police reform in decades. It was the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, and the timing seemed awkward, even forced. With Vice President Kamala Harris and mayoral candidate Rep. Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) looking on, Biden called the executive order "a measure of what we can do together to heal the very soul of this nation. To address profound fear and trauma exhaustion that particularly Black Americans have experienced for generations." More transparency and more accountability from police are what all Americans need, especially in this era of mass shootings. It's easy to dismiss what happened in Uvalde as the incompetence of one law enforcement agency in one small town. To deem as one-offs the tall tales told by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott about the amazing courage of police running toward gunfire, as well as the shifting stories told by the Texas Department of Public Safety. But this isn't the first mass shooting in which the good guys with guns have been too scared to go after the bad guys with guns, and then tried to save face by hiding the evidence of their bungling. And as long as congressional Republicans continue to support unfettered access to firearms that can slaughter dozens in minutes, it probably won't be the last. At a news conference Friday afternoon, Abbott promised that new laws would be passed in Texas as a result of the shooting, though he downplayed the need for tougher background checks for purchasing guns or for banning high-powered rifles. The status quo is unacceptable, he said. "This crime is unacceptable." Abbott also called for a full investigation into what really happened at Robb Elementary School. Ultimately, the answer to his question is gun culture, in all of its most toxic, most out-of-control forms. If this can happen in Texas, the red state of holster-wearing suburbanites and swaggering lawmen in cowboy hats, it can and will happen anywhere. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Nationwide roughly 22 million families live in mobile housing. These factory-built homes are typically an affordable pathway to homeownership, but rising land costs are threatening that. Experts said families who live in mobile homes usually own just the house itself and not the land that it sits on. That means they dont always receive the same benefits as traditional homeowners, and they may face eviction if they cant keep up with rising land costs. The Manufactured Housing Institute estimates more than 105,000 mobile homes were produced last year alone. But in some areas, housing experts said mobile home park owners are redeveloping the land for commercial uses. We have to find ways to incentivize owners of the mobile home parks to if indeed rather than sell, redevelop in a way that is sensitive to their residents who are there, giving them options on the redeveloped properties, said Michael Liu, director of the Miami-Dade County Public Housing and Community Development Department. Liu told lawmakers these negotiations may displace families and he said many residents are concerned about becoming homeless. If the government can provide enough assistance to work with the owners of mobile home parks to compassionately and fairly work with residents to provide them with relocation assistance, said Liu. For instance, potential homeownership options, heavy-duty down payment assistance, special mortgage assistance. Another possible solution involves putting mobile homes on a community land trust to help preserve long-term affordability. Download the FOX13 Memphis app to receive alerts from breaking news in your neighborhood. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Trending stories: Photo Illustration by Kelly Caminero / The Daily Beast / Getty In the wake of an unspeakably violent tragedy, theres often (and understandably) a fog of bad information floating around. Such is the case with the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. The public was initially told that the 18-year-old who massacred 19 children and two adults at Robb Elementary School was encountered by a police officer before he entered the building. The new story is that he walked in unobstructed initially after roaming around outside for 12 minutes and firing shots. But the most infuriating new development is this: the Chief of the Uvalde Police Department says officers responded within minutes, but it took police an hour for a tactical unit to move in on the mass school shooter. I guess it depends on your definition of responded. This Is All So Tragic and We Are So Fucked The reason the police didnt go in sooner? According to a Texas Department of Public Safety official, it was because they couldve been shot. Well, yes, thats truepolice officers could have been shot if they confronted a heavily armed madman. But thats the paramount reason we have armed agents of the state in the first place, to defend the defenseless from murderous predators. The official went on to rationalize the decision, saying that police were able to contain the gunman inside one classroom. This is great news, provided your kids werent barricaded in there with him. Calling 911 and begging for help. For at least a full 40 minutes. Ill be the first to admit that Im too much of a wimp to sign up to be a cop. But once you sign up for that gig, it seems to me that you might want to be ready to do your job when a lunatic is murdering 19 little kids. Okay, I know that very few rank-and-file officers would unilaterally go all Dirty Harrydisobeying their superiors orders and rushing to confront the bad guy with brute force. And theres good reasons for that, not the least of which is maintaining the chain of command in a crisis. But unless this new reporting also ends up being erroneous, whoever ordered these cops to stand down and wait belongs in the same category in our cultural consciousness as that Parkland, Florida, officer who retreated to a position of safety instead of entering Marjory Stoneman Douglas High during the massacre in February 2018. Story continues Its bad enough that officers failed to even attempt to confront the Uvalde shooter. Whats arguably worse is that police reportedly threw parents to the ground and pepper sprayed one parent. One woman told The Wall Street Journal she saw police use a taser on a father who wanted to go into the school and save his child. They didnt do that to the shooter, but they did that to us, she said. Parents viscerally knew that it was their moral responsibility to protect their children. Compassion and human decency demands intervening to prevent murder. The police were not proactively causing the harm, in this case. But common sense dictates that waiting outside was wrong. Still, we are trained to respect the experts. To respect authority. To let them do their jobs. I accept that I might be labeled a keyboard warrior who is trying to tell the police what to do. And as someone viscerally averted to violent conflict, Im certain I would be a very bad copwhich is why I never became one. But Im not inherently hostile to the police. My father-in-law was a cop for years, and my dad was a correctional officer for 30 years (for a time, he led the prisons tactical squad). This isnt police-bashing. This is a call for basic accountability and humanity. Waiting an hour is disgusting, said Sean Burke, a former school resource officer who is now the president of the School Safety Advocacy Council, a group that offers school districts training on how to respond to shootings. If that turns out to be true, then it is a disgusting fact, Burke told NBC News. The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steven McCraw, apparently feels the same way. He said on Friday that the police commander who ordered officers to not breach the building during the siege made "the wrong decision," Axios reported. Steve Schmidt Was Always a Hack Police have a hard job, and its possible that some have checked out. Could recent criticism (particularly in the wake of the George Floyd murder) have caused some cops to adopt an attitude that dictates they will do the bare minimum, and not stick their neck out too far to help others? I think its plausible, if lamentable, when it comes to street crime (for example). But would that attitude prevent police from trying to rescue little kids? Some have argued that in post-George Floyd America, cops are too worried about being caught on video doing something wrong, so in a crisis they might not take risks. Its hard to think of a more grotesque cop-out. The police officers who watched George Floyd be murdered by one of their colleagues had a choice as to whether they should intervene at an injustice unfolding before their eyes. So, too, did the officers who treated parents aggressively outside Robb Elementary School, while children were slaughtered on the other side of the schools walls. Excusing this inaction isnt pro-cop. If anything, it makes a mockery of the value of good cops. We need brave, ethical police officers, and we need their leaders to be competent and accountable. None of that was on display in Uvalde this week. Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Jarome Starner appeared via Zoom for a sentencing hearing Friday in Coshocton County Common Pleas Court. COSHOCTON A Coshocton man who was asked to chop up a car involved in a hit and run that critically injured a Waynesburg couple was sentenced Friday in Coshocton County Common Pleas Court by Judge Robert Batchelor. Jarome L. Starner, 39, was indicted in April 2021 with tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony, from an incident on March 27, 2021. He entered a guilty plea on Jan. 19 to a reduced charge of obstructing justice, a fifth-degree felony. He received three years of community control sanctions, with stipulations including holding employment and completing a substance abuse program for alcohol. Failure to adhere to terms could result in Starner receiving 12 months in the Coshocton County Justice Center. He has served 258 days of local incarceration so far, which would count as time served. According to court documents, Starner was called by Melannis L. Stevens just minutes after she struck Shawn and Robin O'Neill of Waynesburg on a motorcycle on Ohio 751, near Township Road 250. While picking up pieces from her Nissan Altima she asked Starner to dismantle her vehicle because it was going to be repossessed. Robin had her left leg amputated from the incident and Shawn suffered spinal and nerve damage, bleeding on the brain and a shattered left ankle. Stevens was sentenced earlier this month to seven years in prison for failure to stop after an accident, vehicular assault and tampering with evidence. Starner's reduced charge was part of a plea bargain that included him testifying against Stevens if her case went to trial. Starner apologized to the court, victims and their family for his role in the matter. "I know I did wrong," he said. The sentencing hearing was held over Zoom as Starner's attorney, Matthew Mollica, had tested positive for COVID-19. The victims and their adult children were on the Zoom call. Robin said they were okay with probation as Starner was willing to testify against Stevens and he sounded remorseful for his actions. Story continues "He has to know this impacted us so bad. I know he wasn't the one that actually did the harm to us, but to know there was somebody out there who could do what he did is still heartbreaking," Robin said. "He needs to take up a better path in life." Leonard Hayhurst is a community content coordinator and general news reporter for the Coshocton Tribune with close to 15 years of local journalism experience and multiple awards from the Ohio Associated Press. He can be reached at 740-295-3417 or llhayhur@coshoctontribune.com. Follow him on Twitter at @llhayhurst. This article originally appeared on Coshocton Tribune: Coshocton man receives probation for role in hit-and-run A cruise ship employee sexually exploited a 16-year-old he met on board while she was vacationing with her family on an Alaskan voyage and use her to film child pornography, federal prosecutors say. The employee, 38-year-old Daniel Scott Crow from Stuart, Florida, kept in touch with the teen after the ship docked via a messaging app and solicited explicit photos from her, according to a May 26 news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office of the Southern District of Florida. He later arranged to meet the teen at a hotel, where he exploited her for sex and filmed the interaction, the release says. He kept videos and records of their conversations on his cellphone. Crows defense attorney was not publicly listed. He faces charges of coercion or enticement of a female and production of visual depictions involving sexual exploitation of minors, according to court records. Crow appeared in federal court in Fort Pierce, Florida, on May 26, according to the release. Fort Pierce is about 130 miles north of Miami. He could face up to life in prison. School bus driver took over 100 upskirt photos of teen and preteen girls, PA cops say As pastor confesses his adultery, woman says in church she was the 16-year-old victim Air Force officer used spy camera to record kids in family members bathroom, feds say AUSTIN, Texas (AP) The Texas primary runoff between Democratic U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar and his progressive challenger, Jessica Cisneros, remained too early to call Friday. Cuellar led Cisneros by 175 votes, or 0.4 percentage points, out of 45,209 ballots counted as of 3 p.m. ET Friday. Election officials in Bexar County, where Cisneros has a significant lead over Cuellar among ballots counted, said they will not release results of an undisclosed number of ballots that require voters to cure an issue preventing it from being counted until Tuesday. In March, Cisneros, an immigration attorney, forced the runoff after she came within 1,000 votes of Cuellar, a nine-term incumbent, in the primarily Hispanic district with a large Catholic population. The 29-year-old Cisneros, who was an intern in Cuellars Washington office in 2014, had also challenged Cuellar in 2020, losing to him by just 4 percentage points. In the closing weeks of the race, abortion rights groups poured money and resources on the ground and across TV in South Texas after a leaked draft opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court signaled that the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision making abortion a constitutional right was on the verge of being overturned. Cisneros supports abortion rights, while Cuellar is one of the last anti-abortion Democrats in Congress. Despite Cuellar's stance on abortion, unapologetic defense of gun rights and support of the oil and gas industry, he had the backing of many fellow Democrats in Congress, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn. Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York slammed their decision to boost Cuellar, calling it an utter failure of leadership. The last time leadership waded in to save him, he thanked them by obstructing the partys signature legislation, paving the way for the child tax credit to collapse and imperiling millions while taking a victory lap for it, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted Wednesday. Story continues Ocasio-Cortez and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had traveled to Texas to campaign with Cisneros. That made the runoff another test of whether progressives could topple other moderate, establishment-oriented candidates. In Oregon, seven-term Democratic U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, a moderate, was ousted from Congress by his progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner in a primary held last week. The winner of Texas' race will face Cassy Garcia, who won the Republican runoff for the seat. Other inmates could not believe what Kevin Jones told them that a federal judge named Andre Davis had sentenced him to life in prison because of his association with a Baltimore man who had been acquitted of murder. Got that? It did not matter that Jones was only guilty of selling drugs. Did not matter that the leader of his drug operation had been acquitted of murder. They were both going to prison for life. Some quick background: In the 1980s, at the start of the countrys long war on drugs, Congress passed several laws requiring judges to follow sentencing guidelines. One law called for judges to consider all charges, even those that did not result in guilty verdicts, when they sentenced defendants who faced multiple counts. The practice is called acquitted conduct sentencing, and it results in the lengthening of prison sentences. If youve never heard of it, and if youre a bit shocked by it, youre not alone. As constitutionally dubious as it sounds, the Supreme Court upheld acquitted conduct sentencing in 1997. In the Jones case, in the mid-1990s, a drug dealer named Dwayne Holland had been accused of killing a man in connection with a yearslong conspiracy to sell heroin and crack in a public-housing project in Southwest Baltimore. Though Holland was acquitted of that charge by a jury, the judge at sentencing found not only a preponderance of evidence, but clear and convincing evidence that Holland had committed the homicide. The consequence of that finding, under the federal sentencing requirements, was a life sentence for Holland as well as two of his confederates in the drug operation Jones and another young man, a college student named Daniel Hill. Though they had only been convicted of drug charges, they each received life sentences. At that time, even people in prison had not heard of [acquitted conduct sentencing], Jones tells me. And they wouldnt believe you. They thought it was impossible. Because they had been associated with Holland, Jones and Hill went from being classified as nonviolent drug offenders to violent offenders, and that had consequences, too. We were barred from the benefits offered to nonviolent drug offenders, Jones says. We could have been home long ago. Story continues Jones and Hill ended up serving about 25 years in prison. They are free now because congressional reforms the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 and the First Step Act of 2018 made it possible for them to have their sentences reviewed. It also helped that the judge who sent them away for life made a point of pleading for their release. Andre Davis, who served as a U.S. District Court judge in Baltimore before taking a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, was among the critics of mandatory minimum sentences, especially in drug cases. He spoke about it publicly and frequently, saying mandatory minimums kept judges from considering mitigating factors, shifted power over sentences to prosecutors and imposed harsh penalties on low-level drug offenders. After retiring from the bench, Davis served as city solicitor in Baltimore from 2017 to 2020. During that time, Shari Silver Derrow, an assistant federal public defender, appealed to Chief District Judge James K. Bredar for a sentence reduction for Jones and Hill. Davis joined that effort. I believed that the life sentence mandated by law, though neither [Hill nor Jones] was personally responsible for anyones death, did not fit either mans crime, Davis wrote in a letter to Bredar. I have since learned that during the more than two decades since Mr. Hill and Mr. Jones received their life sentences, each has grown into a mature, reflective, industrious man, validating my belief that a life sentence was unduly punitive and unjust. Davis said he never would have sentenced them to life had reforms spelled out in the Fair Sentencing Act been in place when they came before him in the 1990s. Hill and Jones, wrote Davis, had outstanding records in prison, and both kept close ties with their children. Mr. Hill and Mr. Jones have served their time in custody gracefully, purposefully and without incident for over two decades, Davis wrote. They have behaved admirably, without the expectation of an early release or the hope of some external reward. It was only after they proved themselves to be worthy of consideration that the First Step Act even materialized as a source of hope. The act, one of the few significant bipartisan achievements of recent years, rolled back the tough-on-crime sentencing laws that gave the U.S. the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. The reform opened the door for thousands of inmates to ask for reductions in their sentences and plea for early release. Hill and Jones were successful. Bredar reduced their life sentences in April 2020, and both men were released shortly after that. Hill is 53, employed as a violence interrupter and youth outreach worker for Montgomery County. Jones is 52, living in Baltimore with his mother. He counsels inmates preparing for release from prison; he also cares for his grandmother. Hollands life sentence was reduced to 35 years last summer. His projected release date is October 2026. Acquitted conduct sentencing did not go away with congressional reforms. It remains a part of federal sentencing law. In October, the Supreme Court declined to consider a new challenge to it. There is, however, a bipartisan Senate bill calling for its overdue repeal. A man from Washington, D.C., has been sentenced to 630 days in jail after pleading guilty to a hate-based assault of a Chinese family last year. The family of three a man, a woman and their adult son was walking near the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue NW and Fulton Street NW at around 9:30 p.m. on Aug. 7 when Patrick Trebat, 39, began shouting profanities at them. Trebat attacked the family because they spoke in a language he did not understand, according to prosecutors. He yelled statements such as You are not American and Go back to your country. Trebat first attacked the older man from behind, punching the back of his head and pushing him to the ground. He also shoved the woman to the ground and punched their son in the face when he tried to defend his parents. More from NextShark: American Pilot Dies in Crash While Delivering COVID-19 Test Kits in Indonesia The incident left the entire family with cuts and bruises. The older man suffered a broken wrist and pain in the back of his head, the woman endured pain in her arm and their son sustained a fractured finger, prosecutors said. Trebat, who was arrested shortly after the incident, pleaded guilty on Thursday to three counts of simple assault, including one with a hate-bias enhancement. He was sentenced to 630 days in jail, which may be suspended to just 210 days if he completes three years of supervised probation. More from NextShark: Kyoto is the Latest Japanese City to Recognizes Same-Sex Partnerships Featured Image via News2Share Enjoy this content? Read more from NextShark! Colorado plastic surgeon, nurse anesthetist charged with manslaughter in botched breast surgery Spotify Loses Hundreds of K-Pop Songs After License Expires May 26EAU CLAIRE Chippewa Valley Democratic lawmakers on Thursday called on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to allow ballot drop boxes in elections later this year. With a Supreme Court ruling pending on a lawsuit challenging the legality of drop boxes, state Rep. Jodi Emerson and Sen. Jeff Smith held a news conference to advocate for drop boxes as a secure way to make it easier for more voters to participate in the democratic process. "Democracy works best when we do everything we can to make sure everybody who is eligible to vote is able to vote," said Emerson, D-Eau Claire. "We should be making it easier to vote, not harder." However, Emerson charged that a ruling earlier this year by a Waukesha County Judge Michael Bohren that unstaffed drop boxes are not allowed under state law makes it harder for some residents to vote. Bohren also ruled that voters must return their absentee ballots themselves. The implications of that ruling, which was appealed to the state Supreme Court, are that some people with disabilities can't vote on their own and their caregivers could be committing a criminal act by putting a ballot in the mailbox or a drop box for those voters, Emerson said, adding that she has heard heartwrenching stories from several voters with disabilities who are worried because they are physically unable to place their ballot in a mailbox. "Having drop boxes is a safe and convenient way to ensure that our ballots are returned and your voice is heard," she said. The court heard arguments in April about whether to allow drop boxes for the fall election. A decision is expected to be announced in June. Emerson said clarity is needed soon to give local election clerks time to prepare for the Aug. 9 partisan primary. "The Supreme Court needs to make the right decision that follows the constitutions of this country and this state to ensure that people have the right to vote," said Smith, D-town of Brunswick. "It's safe and it's proven to be effective and give people the ability to vote at their leisure ... but also allow people who don't have the ability to drive or walk to a polling place to let somebody drop their ballot off for them." Story continues Sen. Kathy Bernier, R-Lake Hallie, criticized Democrats for voting against every Republican-authored election reform bill, including one that would have allowed drop boxes but regulated their locations and how many cities could deploy. "We know drop boxes are a great convenience ... but we don't want them all over the city with no monitoring," Bernier said, noting that such unattended drop boxes could be subject to weather damage or sabotage. She charged that Democratic opposition was motivated by politics. "Their plan from the beginning of the session was to vote no on every election bill that comes forward and call it voter suppression," Bernier said. At Thursday's news conference, Karen Voss, co-coordinator of the nonpartisan voter advocacy group Chippewa Valley Votes, offered a recent example of the popularity of drop boxes among Wisconsin voters. In Milwaukee, she said, the city collected 2,300 absentee ballots at nine staffed drop boxes on the two Saturdays before the April election. That was nearly 70% more than the 1,362 ballots cast via traditional in-person absentee voting on those days. Voss said drop boxes offer the advantage of being accessible for voters with mobility issues, convenient for workers who have a difficult time getting to the polls and safe for those who are immunocompromised or worried about COVID-19. The news conference came the day after the Thomas More Society filed lawsuits against Green Bay, Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee and Racine over the use of what the conservative law firm labeled "illegal unmanned absentee ballot drop boxes" in elections. The Daily Beast Photo Illustration by The Daily Beast/Tulsa Police DepartmentLast month, Michael Louis had an operation on his back. But the pain had become too much to bear, he claimed. And when an enraged Louis couldnt find relief, he blamed the man trying to helphis doctor.Police said Louis fatally shot two orthopedists, a medical receptionist, a bystander, and then himself at a medical office in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday afternoon, using a semi-automatic rifle he bought just three hours earlier from a Criminal charges will not be brought against two former FBI agents accused of mishandling the sexual abuse case involving former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, the Justice Department (DOJ) announced Thursday. Following an investigation into their conduct during the Nassar probe, the DOJ stood by its original stance that it would not be filing charges against the agents. Despite finding that the former agents provided inaccurate or incomplete information to investigators, there wasnt sufficient evidence to proceed forward with charges. This does not in any way reflect a view that the investigation of Nassar was handled as it should have been, nor in any way reflects approval or disregard of the conduct of the former agents, the department wrote in the announcement. The decision comes months after a bipartisan group of senators called on the FBI and the Office of the Inspector General to implement changes after determining failures on behalf of the FBIs Indianapolis office during the Nassar investigation. Among their allegations was that the FBI did not act with urgency in addressing the sexual abuse claims. It is imperative that Congress is fully aware of the steps the FBI is taking to ensure that we may provide the Bureau with adequate resources, and ensure that these mistakes are never repeated, the senators wrote in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray in November. In December, the organizations that head U.S. gymnastics agreed to pay $380 million in a settlement to Nassars victims, among the largest ever for sexual abuse. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. A door-to-door salesman is accused of fatally stabbing a man after he refused his services, police in New Jersey say. The salesman worked for a company hired by Verizon, according to a news release from the Ocean County Prosecutors Office. Now, Michael Tsamas, 32, is facing a murder charge after prosecutors say he stabbed the man in the neck outside his home in Jackson, resulting in his death. When Tsamas knocked on the mans door on May 26, the man told him that he was uninterested in his business services, according to the news release, and Tsamas left. However, the man later confronted Tsamas in the street and they got into a physical altercation, prosecutors said. During the fight, Tsamas pulled out a knife and stabbed the man, who was found lying in the roadway in a pool of blood, the release said. He was pronounced dead at the scene despite efforts by first responders. Tsamas is in Ocean County Jail ahead of a detention hearing, according to the prosecutors office. Jackson is roughly 30 miles east of Trenton. Mothers body found in recycling bin behind her home, Massachusetts prosecutor says Knife-wielding woman shot and killed by police after boyfriend called 911, TX cops say Beloved pastor found burned, stabbed in van after husband tracks phone, GA cops say Classmate stabs 16-year-old in head as she walks home from school, California cops say Science says hot drinks could help cool you down when the sun's out. (Getty Images) From dipping our feet in the paddling pool, to pouring ourselves an ice cold drink, when were feeling overheated there are plenty of tried and tested methods out there to cool down but making ourselves hot drinks certainly isnt one of them. But you might have heard that sipping a hot cup of tea, or the like, could actually be the very best way of keeping cool. And it's not just a myth, science shows it really does but there's a bit more to it. Sure a boiling brew is probably the last thing you fancy on a sweltering hot day, but the explanation about how a hot drink could keep you cool actually makes total sense. It is all to do with sweat you see. Here comes the science bit... It turns out drinking a hot drink increases the bodys heat load and the body responds to that by sweating. This happens because the moment the hot liquid makes contact with the bodys temperature receptors, the brain tells the body to produce more sweat. This sweat then cools on the surface of the skin, reducing the sensation of us being too warm and ultimately, making us feel cooler. Read more: Why it's normal to feel grumpy in the heat It might be wise to opt for a decaffeinated hot drink, however. (Getty Images) We have Ollie Jay, a researcher at University of Ottawas School of Human Kinetics, to thank for that genius bit of info. Back in 2012, Jay conducted a series of experiments to analyse the effect a hot drink can have on your overall body temperature. And he and his researchers discovered that drinking a hot brew or the equivalent can actually cool you down, because it results in a lower amount of heat stored inside your body. Told you it would all make sense. Read more: What happens to your body when it gets too hot? But before you rush to stick on the kettle, it is worth noting that the hot drink/cool body trick wont work in all situations. If youre drinking a hot drink in an environment where the sweat wont evaporate, for example if youre somewhere really humid, the hot drink trick may not have the same effect. Story continues Equally, drinking a hot cuppa while wearing long sleeves and leggings likely wont work. Thats because sweat needs to evaporate and the reduction in temperature caused by sweating needs to exceed the increase in temperature caused by drinking a hot drink. On a very hot and humid day, if youre wearing a lot of clothing, or if youre having so much sweat that it starts to drip on the ground and doesnt evaporate from the skins surface, then drinking a hot drink is a bad thing, Jay told Smithsonian Magazine at the time. Its also worth noting that the heat from the drink will also raise your body temperature a little. The hot drink still does add a little heat to the body, so if the sweats not going to assist in evaporation, go for a cold drink, Jay adds. Read more: How to get rid of flies in the house: Best ways to banish pests quickly Watch: Study: The personality differences between coffee and tea drinkers So, perhaps a steaming cup of tea isn't the best solution if you're working from home in hot weather and dont fancy sitting at your desk in your bikini. Of course, the type of hot drink you opt for is also worth considering. According to Public Health England, people should steer clear of drinking too much caffeine or alcohol in the hot weather. The NHS guidelines echoes this with: Drink plenty of fluids and avoid excess alcohol." If decaf isn't your thing, maybe it's best to stick to dangling those feet in the pool. The driver of a car from which another man fired the fatal shot that killed a 7-year-old Texas girl in 2018 was sentenced to 30 years in prison Thursday, prosecutors said. Jazmine Barnes was fatally shot Dec. 30 near Houston after the gunman and the driver apparently thought the car she was in belonged to a rival, the Harris County District Attorneys Office said. Jazmine had been in the car with her mother and three sisters. Jazmine Barnes, 7, was fatally shot in a Walmart parking lot in Harris County, Texas, on Dec. 30, 2018. (Family photo / Family photo) The driver, Eric Black, 23, pleaded guilty to murder this year. The gunman, Larry Woodruffe, 27, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in April after a jury convicted him of capital murder. The two men did not know they had shot a child until they saw it on the news later, prosecutors have said. Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg called Jazmines death a tragic and heartbreaking example of needless and pointless gun violence. Black agreed to testify against Woodruffe as part of the plea agreement, which capped his possible prison term at 35 years, prosecutors said. Black testified at trial that they thought the car belonged to someone else and that Woodruffe fired nine times, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston has reported. John Eastman, the architect of Donald Trumps bid to overturn the election on Jan. 6, 2021, told associates in December 2020 that the alternate electors the former presidents plan depended on would be dead on arrival unless state legislatures voted to certify them. Yet even after every state legislature rebuffed Trumps calls, Eastman pressed ahead with plans to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to consider the false electors, telling one campaign official that enough uncertainty existed to justify blocking Joe Bidens victory. The exchanges, detailed in court papers filed late Thursday by the Jan. 6 select committee, show how Eastmans already fringe legal theory grew even more threadbare as Jan. 6 approached. Eastmans plan, which at first depended on action from state legislatures, evolved to focus almost entirely on Pences role in the process. Eastman ultimately argued that Pence could cite the uncertified electors to declare the election in dispute. He could then either send the election to the House of Representatives or delay the certification of Joe Bidens victory long enough to convince state lawmakers to act. The select committee used Thursdays 57-page filing to urge a federal judge to grant the panel access to 600 additional emails Eastman is shielding from investigators. Eastman claims the documents the committee wants are protected by attorney-client or attorney work-product privileges, but the select committee argued Thursday that Eastman has failed to back up that contention. In the filing, authored by House counsel Doug Letter, the select committee pointed to emails between Eastman and prominent figures in Trumps orbit Rudy Giuliani, Steve Bannon, Boris Epshteyn and others as they strategized to keep Trump in office. The committee contends that Eastmans effort to portray his work as simply a good-faith attempt to apply constitutional principles falls apart on closer examination. Eastman, they noted, worked exclusively with Republican-controlled state legislatures in states where Biden won the popular vote. Story continues [T]his was an outcome-driven campaign to overturn the result of a democratic election, the panel argued. According to the select committees filing, Eastman exchanged emails with Giuliani and other pro-Trump lawyers about the Pence plan as early as Dec. 7, 2020. But Eastmans Jan. 6 theory appeared to reach Trumps radar even earlier than that. The select committee showed that Jenna Ellis, a Trump campaign lawyer, forwarded a paper Eastman wrote describing state legislatures power to appoint presidential electors to Trumps assistant Molly Michael on Nov. 28, 2020. At the heart of Eastmans effort was a plan to have pro-Trump activists pose as alternate electors in states Trump lost but had continued to contest with false claims of fraud. Those false electors would meet on Dec. 14, 2020 the day that bona fide members of the Electoral College were required to gather in state capitals across the country and cast dueling votes. Then, per Eastmans plan, when Congress met on Jan. 6, 2021, to count electoral votes in a session led by Pence the vice president would point to the dueling electors and either declare Trump the victor or postpone the count. In a Dec. 19 email cited by the select committee, however, Eastman told a colleague the alternates will be dead on arrival in Congress unless those electors get a certification from their State Legislators. On Dec. 23, though, Eastman began circulating a version of his now-famous memo, contending that seven states had appointed dueling electors. [T]he fact that we have multiple slates of electors demonstrates the uncertainty of either. That should be enough, Eastman said in an email that day with Epshteyn, a Trump campaign official. The select committee also used its filing to pick apart Eastmans claim of fraud in the 2020 election, which they note he continues to make to this day. The committee pointed to a Jan. 2, 2021, email with Trump ally and conservative attorney Cleta Mitchell in which she asks Eastman for evidence of fraud she could share with Members of Congress and Senators, who are now clamoring for facts and data re illegal votes. Whats missing is any similar information in other states, of the kind we assembled in GA. Thats what we are asking. Does it exist elsewhere? Mitchell asked. No idea. I havent even had a chance to look at that website link I sentbut was told everything is assembled there. Is that not the case? Eastman replied. In another exchange, the select committee cites an email to Giuliani, Bannon and others from an attorney who informed them a claim about dead people voting in Georgia was likely erroneous. Rather, the data reflected that only 134 people were recorded to have died before their ballots were received, and more than half of them had died within three days of their votes being counted. I think this makes the case for unfortunate timing many sent their ballots before they passed rather than nefarious activity, the attorney said. "Am raising this just so that everyone is aware of what the data actually says. The select committee bases the bulk of its argument to access Eastmans emails on a claim that the attorney had failed to establish an attorney-client relationship with nearly anyone involved in the effort, including Trump. Although the judge in the case, U.S. District Court Judge David Carter, had asked Eastman for evidence of any formal legal relationship with the figures he exchanged emails with, Eastman did not provide any contemporaneous documentation or proof, the select committee argued. That alone, they said, should invalidate his claims of privilege. Carter has indicated that he strongly favors the urgency of the committees investigation. He has been reviewing Eastmans emails in recent weeks to prepare to decide whether Eastmans privilege claims are legitimate. But he has indicated that he is likely to rule fairly quickly on the matter, a pace that dovetails with the select committees plan to begin holding public hearings in early June. In the second part of his question-and-answer session, WSPs Earth and Environment leader looks at remediation regulations, wind and solar opportunities and more. Northampton, MA --News Direct-- WSP Dennis Papilion, the new president of WSP USAs Earth & Environment (E&E) business, continues his observations about current trends in the environmental segments and WSPs growing sophistication as it serves clients and protects public health and natural resources. 7. How do you see environmental site remediation (soil, groundwater etc.) regulatory drivers changing, and how are regulated parties and consulting firms responding? The federal, state and local governance that regulate groundwater remediation and reuse, used to require cleaning the contaminated water to meet sanitary sewer standards. Because of water conservation, reclamation, and reuse demands, there has been a transition for companies with groundwater contamination to meet drinking water standards for their discharge to natural water systems and municipal water management agencies. So, the technologies for treating groundwater have advanced immensely. We have been doing water projects for the mining sector in which this new standard has required clients to treat water from tailings and wastes to meet drinking water standards before theyre discharged into streams and other water bodies. 8. Concerning the impacts of a changing climate and the findings of the just released 6th IPCC Report, where do environmental professionals need to be focusing now? The report reflects the pace of change and the increasing attention to the climate crisis. Since bringing Climate Finance Advisors (CFA) on board, WSP has an even stronger offering around climate-related financial risk and advisory services. I spoke with CFAs Stacy Swann for about 30 minutes last month, and I learned so much I felt like I could have spent 30 hours with her. We have really set ourselves up to be a force in support of financial players in this huge transition. Story continues Additionally, theres more pressure than ever in the energy space to reduce carbon and other greenhouse gases. Were not going to stop pumping oil in the North Sea. In fact, there are new platforms being built and deployed today. But change is occurring in how the oil is processed and managed on the platforms, how operations are optimized along the oil and gas value chain to reduce emissions, including greater use of clean energy and hydrogen. 9. Can you say more about the oil and gas industry and its environmental challenges? We have a great deal of oil and gas infrastructure around the globe that must be re-designed to stay relevant and meet greenhouse gas reduction goals. There are a lot of opportunities at the refining stage to reduce waste and utilize waste byproducts. There are major onshore manufacturing facilities being built and planned in the Gulf of Mexico that WSP can provide support in infrastructure design, CM/PM, remediation, environmental permitting and compliance. Were also leveraging our expertise in miningwhere weve done a lot of work on reclamation and management of tailings that can apply to design and restoration of pipelines design and construction. We can apply the same techniques for stream crossings, reclaiming them back to their natural state after pipeline construction. This is an example of where we draw on diverse expertise to help clients across industries. We grew these capabilities significantly with our 2021 acquisition of Golder, which has tremendous capabilities in mining and industrial and commercial markets. Golder staff are now sharing their expertise and technologies across WSP to serve varied industries in a wide range of countries. Were also applying our expertise from the mining sector to help electric utility clients address their coal combustion residuals. The techniques were using are speeding up the process, reducing impacts to surrounding communities, and more efficiently moving to closure on CCR ponds. The expedited remediation also contributes to the clients ESG ratings. 10. Wind and solar are encountering more pushback because of impacts on habitats and indigenous people. What approaches do you advocate to mitigate these impacts, and what value does WSP offer in this space? We need to think holistically about how to incorporate protection of habitats, and people, into these large-scale renewable energy projects. As part of the environmental mitigations required for approval, it is critical that we incorporate specific habitat restoration measures tied to local-, region- and state-level habitat conservation efforts to support the funding and implementation of these critical projects. Our biodiversity, coastal restoration, climate, sustainability and resilience services all contribute to the research, assessment and implementation of renewable developments. One significant opportunity lies in the rapidly expanding area of agrivoltaics. We are bringing together our energy and environmental experts to look at co-beneficial land use opportunities around solar developments, and to design habitats that enhance biodiversity and ecological uplift, and maximize the sustainability quotient of these projects. Im also very proud of the coastal tidal restoration and resilience work we are doing support habitat enhancement. Our Saw Mill Creek Restoration projectthe first wetland mitigation bank of its kind in New York Citywon a 2021 Business Achievement Award from Environmental Business Journal. Another, The Living Breakwaters project, was designed to reduce the risk of storm damage to Staten Island, New York by creating engineered living oyster reefs to attenuate waves and reduce shoreline erosion, provide habitat to the bays marine life ecosystem and rebuild local oyster populations. The environmental justice impacts of renewable energy, coastal, urban and all projects to indigenous communities and other vulnerable populations, need to be mitigated through the planning, environmental assessment, permitting and design processes. Leveraging the advisory specialists in our Equity Center of Excellence, we are building these considerations into each project to better inform the development of equitable outcomes. By partnering closely with clients and resource agencies, we can help mitigate impacts from these necessary projects, while assisting in developing the funding the programs required to restore and protect wetlands and other habitats. [To subscribe to Insights, contact the editorial staff at insights@wsp.com.] View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from WSP on 3blmedia.com View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/environment-business-observations-with-wsp-usas-dennis-papilion-part-2-967641995 ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Ethiopia's state-appointed human rights body called on Friday for the release of 16 journalists and media personnel after new arrests in recent days in the capital Addis Ababa and the restive region of Amhara. Press watchdogs and rights groups say Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's government is increasingly intimidating the media and harassing opponents as it seeks to quell unrest in regions. Ethiopian authorities have been particularly cracking down in Amhara and Oromiya regions recently. They justify arrests of media personnel by accusing them of siding with rebels. In the latest round-up, Temesgen Desalegn of Feteh Magazine and Yayesew Shimelis of Ethio Forum Media were held on Thursday in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said. Last week, Amhara authorities arrested five journalists of media outlet Ashara in a move thought linked to their coverage of a volunteer militia know as Fano. On the same day, Amhara authorities also arrested another four employees of U.S.-based online outlet Nisir International Broadcasting. Rights commission head Daniel Bekele said the total number of detained journalists was now 16 and urged their immediate release. "No claim about the alleged offence committed through media justifies violation of the newly adopted media law which clearly prohibits pre-trial detention of persons charged with committing an offence through the media," he said in a statement. Government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Bekele's statement. But the government put out a warning to media in a statement last week: "The government will continue to take irreversible measure on individuals involved in illegal activities who are planning and working to create havoc and chaos, also on those wearing a cloak of media outlets and journalists." (Reporting by Nairobi Newsroom; Writing by George Obulutsa; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne) A former cook accused of raping an intoxicated restaurant server in Tennessee was sentenced to 25 years in prison, according to court officials. A Knox County jury found David Lyndel Cochran, 49, guilty on one count of aggravated rape, two counts of rape and one count of aggravated kidnapping in April, McClatchy News previously reported. His sentence comes with no possibility of parole, according to a May 26 news release from the Knox County District Attorney Generals Office. Cochran was working as a cook for Peros restaurant on Aug. 25, 2019, when the staff was given access to the bar on for a celebration since the location was closing, according to the release. During the party, one of the servers became extremely intoxicated, vomited and passed out at the restaurant, the release said. Cochran offered to take the victim home and carried her to his vehicle, according to prosecutors. But instead of taking her home, Cochran drove her to a motel where prosecutors say he raped the victim, who was unable to give consent. When the victim woke up the next day, prosecutors said she was in pain and felt discomfort but couldnt remember what happened the night before. Thats when the Knox County Sheriffs Offices investigation began, according to prosecutors. Capt. Steve Sanders interviewed witnesses and sent the victim to the Sexual Assault Center of East Tennessee, where officials found evidence of Cochrans DNA, the release said. This offender preyed upon a young woman when she was most vulnerable, but he has been held accountable thanks to the hard work of everyone involved in this case, District Attorney Charme Allen said in the release. If you have experienced sexual assault and need someone to talk to, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline for support at 1-800-656-4673 or visit the hotline's online chatroom. Kids were in California home when man threw Molotov cocktails through window, feds say Three men sexually assault lone kayaker as she goes down river, Georgia police say 3 colleges ignored sexual assault accusations against same Louisiana student, suit says Music festival defends hiring registered sex offender to play in North Carolina. Why? By Karin Strohecker and Sujata Rao LONDON (Reuters) - The lapse of a key U.S. license allowing Russia to make payments on its sovereign debt to U.S. holders has put the prospect of the country defaulting on its sovereign debt back into focus. Russia is due to pay $100 million in interest on two sovereign bonds on Friday, with more payments coming up in June. Here are some questions and answers on what might happen next: WHAT HAS CHANGED? A license issued on March 2 by the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) had allowed for transactions between U.S. entities and Russia's finance ministry, central bank or national wealth fund in relation to debt payments. That allowed Russia to keep up interest and maturity payments on its sovereign debt, despite wide-ranging curbs on dealing with Russian entities. Since Feb. 22, it managed to make payments on seven dollar-denominated bonds. But the Treasury Department said late on Tuesday it would not extend the license. While its action directly affects only U.S. bondholders, holders elsewhere will find it challenging to accept Russian payments because of U.S. dominance of the global financial system. SO HOW MUCH DEBT IS AFFECTED? Russia has around $40 billion of international bonds outstanding, with just under $2 billion in external debt servicing left until the end of the year. The debt can be divided broadly into three tiers: first, legacy bonds which are settled offshore in the usual manner and second, those issued after Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea which are settled at Russia's own national settlement depositary (NSD) and have alternative hard-currency payment provisions. The last category comprises debt sold after 2018 which also settles at the NSD but contains provisions for payment in roubles. WHEN WILL DEFAULT HAPPEN? On May 27, interest payments worth $71.25 million and 26.5 million euros ($28 million) are due on two bonds. To beat the OFAC deadline, Russia kicked the payment process off last week. Story continues Russia's NSD - the payment agent on the two bonds - said it has received the funds, and announced it will make the payments in foreign currency on May 27. The prospectus for both bonds states that "payments in respect of the principal of and interest (including any additional amounts) on a Global Bond registered in the name of NSD will be payable to NSD in its capacity as the registered holder." Some analysts, as well as Russia's finance ministry, see this as the payment having been fulfilled. However, it is seems unlikely that the money will make it further into bondholders' accounts. Russia's Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said on Friday that restrictions on capital withdrawals from Russia for non-residents will remain in place until Russia's gold and FX reserves are unfrozen. By many definitions, funds' failure to appear in creditors' accounts does constitute a default. Russia has a 30-day grace period after May 27 to make the payment. WHAT ARE THE NEXT PAYMENTS? If creditors do receive the May 27 payments, Russia faces payments on two bonds on June 23, and another one on June 24. The June 23 payments are - much like the May 27 ones - due on bonds that are settled at the NSD. However, the latter is $159 million due on a bond issued in 1998. Because this issue can only be settled offshore, analysts reckon Russia will not be able to make this payment without the Treasury license. This bond carries a grace period of 15 business days. WILL CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS BE TRIGGERED? The question is whether a potential non-payment will trigger a payout on credit default swaps (CDS) which investors use to insure their exposure to specific risks, in this case Russia defaulting on its sovereign debt. A committee of major banks and asset managers is tasked with deciding whether a "credit event" has occurred. That in turn can trigger a payout. JPMorgan expects that bonds that can be settled within Russia and receive payment at the NSD will not lead to a payout for CDS holders. "Even if this payment is not subsequently transferred to the bondholders, this may be enough to avoid a CDS trigger," JPMorgan analysts said in a note to clients. However, if Russia fails to make the payment due June 24, CDS could be triggered once the grace period expires. Yet a trigger could already happen earlier than that. A credit derivatives committee will meet on Friday to discuss whether a "credit event" occurred after Russia made payments on its sovereign debt but failed to add $1.9 million in interest accrued during the payment's grace period. There are currently $2.54 billion of net notional CDS outstanding in relation to Russia, including $1.68 billion on the country itself and the remainder on the CDX.EM index, JPMorgan calculated. (Reporting by Sujata Rao and Karin Strohecker, additional reporting by Jorgelina do Rosario; Editing by Tomasz Janowski and Susan Fenton) The claim: Image shows Kelloggs announced a Rice Krispies mascot is now a transgender woman The gender identity of a mascot for a beloved cereal brand is at the center of recent social media claims. Kelloggs spokesperson announces Rice Krispie (sic) mascot Pop is now a trans woman, read the headline of the alleged CNN article posted on Instagram on May 21. The claim prompted dismay, anger and pledges to stop purchasing Kelloggs cereal from some commenters. They are really trying to force this on us Im not (OK) with it.. Kelloggs wont get another dime from me, read one comment on the post, which received more than 1,000 likes The claim also spread on Facebook and Twitter, racking up several thousand shares across the platforms. Follow us on Facebook! Like our page to get updates throughout the day on our latest debunks But no such announcement has been made by the company, and the alleged article does not appear on CNN's website. USA TODAY reached out to social media users who shared the claim for comment. Rice Krispies Marshmallow Kellogg's has made no mascot changes A USA TODAY review of Kelloggs website did not find any such announcement, which was further confirmed by the company. We have made no changes to the Rice Krispies mascots, Snap, Crackle and Pop, Kellogg's spokesperson Kris Bahner told USA TODAY in a May 23 email. Similarly, the article could not be found in USA TODAYs review of CNNs website on May 23. The most recent article regarding Rice Krispies came in December 2021, when a weeks-long Kelloggs strike ended after union workers struck a deal with the company. Emily Kuhn, senior director of communications at CNN Digital Worldwide, told The Associated Press the image was fake and no such story was published on CNNs website. CNN did not respond to USA TODAYs request for comment. The misspelling of the trademark cereal brand in the purported headline is another indication the screenshot is not legitimate. Story continues Kelloggs released a Together With Pride cereal in 2021 as part of a collaboration with GLAAD, formerly known as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The company said it hoped to show its support for the transgender and gender-nonconforming communities through the partnership with the organization. The three Rice Krispies characters, along with other Kelloggs mascots such as Tony the Tiger and Toucan Sam, were featured on the limited-edition cereal box. More: Louisiana House passes transgender sports ban; will Governor John Bel Edwards veto? Our rating: Altered Based on our research, we rate ALTERED an image claiming to show that Kelloggs announced a Rice Krispies mascot is now a transgender woman. Kelloggs said it has not made any changes to the Rice Krispies characters, and CNN has said the article is not legitimate. Our fact-check sources: Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: False claim about Rice Krispies mascot and gender identity In the wake of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed, the National Rifle Association is once again in the spotlight. In a statement released two days after the shooting, the NRA said our deepest sympathies are with the families and victims involved in this horrific and evil crime. The North Carolina Rifle & Pistol Association, an NRA state association, is also an active group with a mission to protect gun rights, according to its website. The Charlotte Observer fact-checked claims made by NCRPA President David McFarling about gun ownership, crime rates and proposed firearm legislation. Do Democrats own just as many guns as Republicans? In a September newsletter, McFarling wrote that many Democrats are gun owners, and they know that funding the police and enforcing the laws we have will make them much safer than gun bans or confiscation. Though 30% of adults in the U.S. own a gun, just 20% of people who identified as Democrats said they owned a firearm, according to a 2021 Pew Research Center survey. The survey also found that 44% of adults who identified as Republican owned a firearm. Did Congress introduce a bill to increase taxes on guns? One week into President Bidens term, McFarling claimed that Congress introduced a bill to raise federal excise taxes on guns and ammunition. The bill he was referring to is H.R. 5717, a measure introduced in January 2020 that would increase the tax on firearms to 30% and the tax on shells and cartridges to 50%. No action has been taken on the bill since March of 2020. Pistols and rifles are already taxed at 10% and 11% respectively, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Are crime rates in America through the roof? In a February newsletter, McFarling said in most of the country, crime rates are up through the roof. Criminals are running wild committing murder, armed robbery, smash and grab robbery and a host of other offenses with little or no expectation of consequence, he continued. According to FBI data, the number of violent crime offenses from 2019-2020 rose from 380.8 to 398.5 per 100,000 people. Data for 2021 has not been released by the FBI. Not many people have a platform like that of an NFL head coach. They regularly speak in front of reporters and television crews to offer their thoughts and feelings on the subjects of the day. Most of the time they talk about football. But sometimes, real-world events come to light that need to be addressed. Atlanta Falcons head coach Arthur Smith took time at the end of his Thursday news conference to speak about the tragic murder of 19 children and two teachers at a Uvalde, Texas, school on May 24. Here's what he did with it. Im not going to get into some political rant, Smith said. Part of that me probably thinks our political process is broken. On both sides. It has been hijacked, in my opinion, by extremists. Smith went on to say that there is a lost art to compromise" and to "debate" that he appreciates everyones opinion and that our leaders cant find a compromise solution to keep military-grade assault weapons out of the hands of mentally ill people. The biggest problems with this statement are that such a compromise already exists and only one of those hijacked sides refuses to vote on it. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr explained this already when he passionately spoke about the shooting before Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday, hours after the shooting. He called on Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to vote on House Resolution (H.R.) 8 also known as the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 which has sat on the Senate floor without a vote for more than a year after it passed the House of Representatives twice since 2019. The bill is the epitome of compromise when juxtaposed with the epidemic of gun violence in America. Uvalde was the 212th mass shooting in the United States this year and the 27th to take place in a school. This shooting happened just 10 days after 10 Black people were killed in a Buffalo supermarket. H.R. 8 doesnt call for a mass recall or unilateral ban of firearms in the United States. All it does is require background checks on the sale or transfer of firearms by unlicensed and private sellers. Currently, Americans can acquire firearms at gun shows or online without a background check. Story continues Falcons head coach Arthur Smith spoke about the Uvalde shooting Thursday. (Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) It's been sitting there for two years, Kerr said. And there's a reason [Senators] won't vote on it to hold on to power. That isn't even the only gun reform bill that passed the House in the past year. H.R. 1446 the Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021 increased the amount of time that a federal firearms licensee must wait to receive a background check before transferring a firearm to an unlicensed person from three days to 10. This would close the "Charleston Loophole" that allowed a white supremacist to acquire a firearm and kill nine Black people in 2015 at a Mother Emanuel AME Church in South Carolina. As Kerr alluded to earlier, one side of the political aisle in the Senate simply refuses to even put either bill to a vote. The Senate requires 60 members to end debate on most legislative proposals and advance to a vote, but with the current makeup at 50 Republicans, 48 Democrats and two independents who caucus with the Democrats, Republicans can simply filibuster and prevent certain bills (like with gun reform) from ever receiving a vote. Which means even if Democrats are currently in the majority thanks to Vice President Kamala Harris tiebreaking vote, the path to passing legislation is nearly entirely contingent on Republican cooperation, and the ensuing gridlock prevents much from getting off the ground. Even if Majority Leader Chuck Schumer manages to force a vote on gun control legislation when the Senate reconvenes next week, it faces an uphill battle. A recent New York Times poll of Republican Senators found that 31 declined to comment or deflected when asked about how they would vote on either gun reform bill. Five were open or undecided on their support of the bills and 14 opposed or were leaning against. And one Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, doesnt support the bills. The healthy majority of Americans in multiple polls actually support broader background checks for firearms. A full two-thirds (68 percent) favor "requiring criminal and mental background checks for all those buying guns, including at gun shows or private sales," according to a recent Yahoo/YouGov poll. That includes 56 percent of Republican respondents. So the compromise and support on the issue Smith called for actually does exist. It's just a matter of putting it to a vote in the Senate. That takes both sides. But until one of those "hijacked" sides even wants to debate the bills in place, it's all noise. Especially comments like Smith's. Note: This post contains mentions of sexual harassment. No matter where you work, there's bound to be some sort of workplace drama going down. I asked the BuzzFeed Community if they could spill the tea on what's going on where they work and sheesh, this gossip is juicy! NBC / Via giphy.com Here are some of the stories. Note: Some stories have been edited for length and clarity. 1. "I worked at a large, very well-known company. One day, one of the higher-level executives walked past my co-workers and I and it felt like the air was sucked from the room. The whole vibe changed and everyone was giving each other these looks. I asked my boss what the deal was and she said she couldn't tell me but told me to Google his name. I rushed to my desk and as soon as I searched his name several news articles appeared. The police were reopening his late wife's unsolved axe murder case and they were questioning him again because he was still their main suspect and his behavior was suspicious. It was awkward when he was around after that." NBC / Via giphy.com Anonymous 2. "I used to work for a non-profit homeless shelter for families with children and I was just an intern at the time. It was a small affiliate and I housed up to four families at a time and worked to get them back on their feet. There were only 5 full-time employees at the time, so there wasnt much to gossip about... until there was." "We had one 'day house' where our offices were and where the families would come during the day if they were off work and a 'night house' where the families lived and slept. During the day, the families werent allowed to be at the night house but it was the staff's job to make sure the house chores were done the night before. Well, long story short, one of the employees went to the house to show a new volunteer around and caught the case manager having sex with her boyfriend in the overnight volunteer bedroom." keelyg 3. "Two years ago, the head of my lab started flirting with me. We became friends and then started hanging out but eventually, we started dating. But we had to hide our relationship, one: because she swore up and down to me that she wasn't gay and that I was an exception. And two: because very shortly after we got together she got promoted and became my direct supervisor. Recently she broke up with me. It's hilarious because not a single person we worked with ever put it together even though we were constantly hooking up all over the building. If I told anyone she would lose her job. Now she has no problem flaunting her new boyfriend around work though. I really need a new job." Story continues NBC / Via giphy.com Anonymous 4. "I used to work at a hospital where one of the receptionists started having an affair with a local school teacher. His wife and daughter had no idea this was happening. He would full-on French kiss his mistress in front of patients and staff in the reception area and would keep a picture of his side chick on his desk." "If this wasnt bad enough, he kept coming into work with the smell of beer on his breath, and eventually he sexually harassed and assaulted another staff member. Due to hospital policy, its very difficult to actually fire staff but they reprimanded him and eventually put him in a position that forced him to resign in order to not pay a severance package. Let me tell you, the gossip was wild and made a lot of people to quit due to the fact that he wasn't fired immediately." leah-in-a-teapot Jazzirt / Getty Images / Via Getty Images 5. "I found out the manager who had the job before me would harass underage staff. We had girls as young as 16 who said he would text them late at night and flirt. He was in his late 20s and engaged. If they rebuffed him, he would punish them by cutting their hours or putting them on the worst shift. This was at an aquarium, so we also had a lot of schools visit and families with annual passes. One young girl applied whose family had had annual passes since she was 12. When she was finally old enough to apply, I had replaced the sketchy manager. She was very innocent and was just so happy to finally work there." "In passing, she told me that she would often come to the aquarium and the manager would find her and bring her upstairs to an animal care room essentially a closet within a large storage area, far from any other work area and they would hang out and he'd let her help him with the animal care. 100% he was grooming her. Her family was so appreciative that he was 'mentoring' her. arieladventures 6. "I work in retail. There was a time when a former co-worker was caught stealing money from the register. It wasn't a random $20 here and there, but over $750. That made it a felony, so she's in jail now. Definitely been the talk of work for a while. The second one is from another former coworker: her16-years-old was pulling her car out of the parking lot and was hit by another worker, who was in her 60s. The woman who hit the 16-year-old claimed her car was hit instead and filed a lawsuit against the teenager and her family. Wild stuff." NBC / Via giphy.com Anonymous 7. "The principal at our school went through a divorce. Shortly after he started spending a lot of time with the married secretary. That blew up around the time he started dating a teacher at the school, who was also the secretary's friend. The secretary's husband found out and confronted them at school. She found another job, he is still our principal. He ended up marrying, but she took another job because she was tired of the gossip. The teachers still joke about it all the time especially after the principal applied for a job at the secretary's new job and didn't get it." Anonymous Onurdongel / Getty Images / Via Getty Images 8. "I had just graduated from college and applied to a position I knew I wouldn't get but was hoping for the interview experience. I did the interview and didn't hear anything for a month. I then got a call saying I got the job! I was ecstatic but a bit confused. Typically this position requires two years of experience and they usually do an internal hire before going external. A few months later I found out the only other applicant who was internal had slept with one of her previous bosses, thereby ruining his reputation and family, and her own." "She also apparently told horrible rumors about a coworker and her male boss which the boss' wife found out about. My current boss had no idea of this until it was brought up by his coworker and he shut it down there. Thanks to her infidelity, I got a pretty sweet gig." smolpotaytos 9. "One of our fellow cashiers has been dating another employee for about a year. They're the 'It' couple at our store and everyone adores them. What she doesn't know is that on the days she doesn't work, he's flirting with all the other female cashiers. No one's had the balls to tell her, until a few days ago. One of our managers finally spilled the beans. The blowup was massive. She slapped him and ran through as many terrible words as she could before she was escorted out. She still has her job after a brief suspension. However, he got fired for making out with another girl in the freezer in the back of the store. Karma for cheating at its finest." Anonymous Fly View Productions / Getty Images / Via Getty Images 10. "I had a coworker who took it upon herself to make my life miserable. She was transferred from a different store. I was only recently out as trans when she arrived and she would basically trash talk me to anyone she was on shift with. And I'm talking petty bullshit like arriving a minute late ONCE, or forgetting to print a receipt for a sandwich I paid for and ate on shift. But then shit got real nasty when I declined some overtime weekend shifts. I would normally do these, but my best friend got tickets to a drag show for my birthday, and the weekend was free on my end, so any extra shifts were OPTIONAL, not mandatory." "She basically spent the whole weekend passive-aggressively bringing me up to both staff and customers. Spouting out all sorts of crap, and without realizing who she was talking to, continued to go on about my gender 'delusions' and 'questionable lifestyle' to my partner's aunt and uncle. Karma caught up, she got fired, and I guess is someone else's problem now." jessbcarter91 11. "I worked at a bank. So many affairs! Nearly everyone was sleeping with the same guy. Office parties were the place to see everything going down. Id just observe who was sneaking around. A manager was recorded saying inappropriate things and he was fired. He had a history of being inappropriate before. A coworker stole nearly $300,000 in cash from a night deposit bag. The cameras werent working." NBC / Via giphy.com "She went to jail and was fired. Shes a teacher now. A colleague was recorded at a concert going on stage and lifting her skirt up. The bank I worked for was wild. I always tell people I could write a book about all the things that went down." ryrashii 12. "My male manager was not a fan of me or my coworker because we were competent and hard workers. He favored the other two in our department for whatever reason who were not so competent or hard working. Things snow-balled as a new executive came in that was more in line with my and my coworker's way of thinking. We were on a departmental call and my manager was calling me out publicly for doing my job, which consisted of communicating with another department he didn't like. I ignored it. After the call, he thought he sent a nasty message about me to one of the girls in my department privately, nope. It went to our whole group chat. I called him out in the chat. I screenshotted, reported it, and mountains of evidence to HR. He tried to get me fired, all kinds of drama, he ends up rage quitting. No one was upset." Anonymous 13. "I worked in a fast casual dining chain back in college. Because we opened that location, the staff got to know each other well. I was a waitress and one day, I had a conversation with another waitress about how she had recently discovered she had Polycystic ovary syndrome and, to her understanding, that meant she'd never [be able to have] kids, which was what she wanted most in the world. Not even two weeks later she found out she was pregnant and the only person she'd slept with was another waiter in the store who was just the worst. He was self-righteous and a chronic mansplainer. Of course, she was ecstatic! Him not so much. Next thing you know, he moved across the state. She had the baby and soon ended up hooking up with one of the restaurant's kitchen guys. Now they have a happy family together with a few more kids!" Anonymous Willie B. Thomas / Getty Images / Via Getty Images 14. "I worked in HR for a large company. It was widely known that one of the women in the department had an affair with a sales executive when they were both married to other people. When it came out, he had to leave the company. They divorced their partners and married each other. Then, when I was there, she started having an affair with the director of HR (again, both were married), and they got caught on a business trip but this time it was just sort of brushed under the rug. The department kind of just moved on from it and they stopped seeing each other, although it caused all sorts of tension and questions around favoritism and basically blew up the department for a while." "Around the time that I left, I noticed that one of the customer service directors was hanging out in HR a lot. For no reason. He worked in another building. Cut to a year later when I met up with my work friend and she told me that those two were having an affair, divorced their spouses, and were now marrying each other. This woman was so smart and so kind and it just blew my mind that she kept having affairs with her bosses and coworkers." laurenk486b7dddf 15. "My workplace gossip story is from a retail store I used to work at. One of the guys that worked there had contracted chlamydia when he lost his virginity. Another girl I worked with had contracted chlamydia and told everyone she got it from having a threesome with two random guys. She lied. The other coworker had given it to her unknowingly, but why make up such an elaborate lie to hide the truth?" CBS / Via giphy.com Anonymous 16. "I work in retail and my married colleague is having an affair with a manager. She got promoted most likely because of this (he would have put her name forward). It's been reported by other people but nothing was done because it would be up to the management in-store to take action. So if they're all in on it, then nobody gets disciplined. I personally think one of them should leave as they make it so obvious what's going on between them." fedup87 17. "A company a friend of mine worked for told me about one of their coworkers getting into a relationship with their warehouse director, who then got very controlling and abusive emotionally. When she told the company what was going on, they told her they would take care of it and she would keep her job but then fired her a week later to sweep the whole thing under the rug. It upset everyone she worked with, it was some serious drama that went down." NBC / Via giphy.com Anonymous 18. "I was working at an easily recognizable organization that advertises nationwide. To work there, you needed to be pretty professional and put together. Well, my manager needed to hire another person to do what I do. The manager felt great about the candidate and was excited about the interview. The day of the interview came and she interviewed this person for a bit before bringing her to the floor to meet her potential coworkers. This woman, probably mid-40s, seemed to be nice and put together. Then my manager asks me and my favorite coworker to take this woman to a conference room to help get her up to speed on the project we were in the middle of. Now, this project is huge, will be seen by everyone, and will require a lot of overtime as well as the ability to understand how it all fits together. Well, we start outlining the project, background, and reason for the project. I stop several times to see if she has questions. She never did." "This for me was a huge red flag. After half an hour, we are pulled back to our desks where there is now a security guard. He isn't introduced and my manager quickly grabs the candidate and disappears into a smaller room nearby. The security guy follows behind and stands in front of the door. Finally, they emerge. The manager returns to the desks and the candidate is led out by security! Found out later she was apparently really drunk and my coworker and I had talked to her so my manager could figure out what to do. Then we learned that she was so drunk, that she forgot where she parked. But that was moot because this company would never let her drive in that condition. Finally, they get a hold of her sister and she has to come from another city to pick her up. Ugh, it was a little entertaining until I learned the truth. I hope she gets the help she needs." Anonymous 19. "I worked at a pretty big hospital in 2019. A female coworker of mine was having sex with a male nurse in patients' beds. I reported it but I think they still work there." NBC / Via giphy.com shaquilleoatmeal42 20. "I work in a specialty and emergency veterinary hospital. We had a specialist a veterinarian who has additional board certification and provides the most advanced care to critically ill animals. He was married to the head anesthesia technician and they have three kids together. We all noticed that he had formed a close friendship with one of the ICU techs and one coworker even noticed that they 'brushed hands' on the treatment floor, less than 30 feet away from his wife. Someone ended up leaving an anonymous letter in the wifes purse informing her of what was going on. Felt like I was watching a vet med version of 'Jersey Shore' where Snooki and JWOWW left Sammi the note about Ron cheating." "When they both came clean, he wanted to leave his wife for her but the ICU tech was engaged and wanted to work things out with her fiance. He went as far as sending her messages via Slack and was ultimately fired for it. His wife found another job eventually but in the interim, they had to schedule the ICU tech on opposite shifts so they wouldnt see each other. They are still married, and he regularly posts on Facebook about how he has the best wife and marriage. Obviously, we all felt terrible for his wife who is an INCREDIBLE anesthetist and three innocent children, but it was impossible not to discuss the drama that unfolded." Anonymous 21. "I worked at a retail store where the bathrooms were constantly out of order. By law, the company needed to at least have one set of working bathrooms for employees. They had retail workers try to fix the bathrooms rather than pay professionals to fix them. I called Occupational Safety and Health Administration on them one day and forced them to actually get the bathrooms up and running. When my boss told me that 'someone had called OSHA on the business,' I pretended to know nothing about it and suggested it was one of the disgruntled ex-employees who had quit." Anonymous Gerenme / Getty Images/iStockphoto / Via Getty Images 22. "I work for a corporation where we have a generally easy-going and fun working environment with flexible working hours, for the most part. Because of this, people generally tend to slack off or our bosses will be very lenient about giving time off. Most of us have noticed that one of our coworkers let's call her Rebecca has been getting way more time off than the rest of us and better treatment. I recently overheard a phone conversation Rebecca was having where she said, 'Yeah, I can come? Can I bring my boss as a guest? We're dating.' So I guess now I know why she's been getting some special treatment. Haven't told anyone yet as I'm not sure how to approach the situation, but yeah." Anonymous 23. "I work at a Subway and we share the building with an ATV rental company. The ATV place is run by a married couple. The wife in the couple and and shop's mechanic have always been great friends, but recently they hooked up and she moved in with the mechanic and left her husband. However, the husband did NOTHING. I mean, he filed for divorce, but that's all. Like, they all still come to work together EVERY DAY and act as if nothing has happened. On top of it, the husband keeps saying that they're just living together, but not sleeping together, so he's just lying to himself. The husband and ex-wife have a son together, too, who works at Subway. He's a great kid, but definitely has a hard time with what's happened. And to top it all off, the mechanic, husband, and ex-wife keep coming and buying cookies from us and offering them to each other as peace offerings. We all see them do it, and it's so awkward." Anonymous Kevin Spacey was charged with four counts of sexual assault against three men in the UK on Thursday (26 May). Now, producers of his latest project, Peter Five Eight, have responded to defend the Usual Suspects actor against the charges. While its unfortunate that increased negative press is timed with Kevin returning to work, its also to be expected. There are those who wish for him not to act, but they are outnumbered by fans worldwide who await an artist they have enjoyed for decades returning to the screen, said a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter from the producers of the mystery thriller. The production has no knowledge or comment on the various swirling allegations, and believe its a matter for the courts to determine validity if it exists. Peter Five Eight is a film for fans who care more for the art than the scandal, the statement concluded. The thriller, which was shot earlier this year, marks Spaceys return to the screen since 2017, when sexual assault allegations were first made against him in the midst of the #MeToo movement. At the time, he was fired from his series lead role in Netflixs final season of House of Cards and replaced in Ridley Scotts film about the Getty family, All the Money in the World. Peter Five Eight, which also stars Rebecca De Mornay, was being shopped to distributors at the Cannes Film Festival at the time the Crown Prosecution Service announced the charges against Spacey. Daughter of Assyrian Immigrants Strives to Shape Policy Recently elected ASB Vice President Sandy Mekany overcame racism and anti-Middle Eastern sentiment in post 9/11 America to become a prominent student leader on campus. Recently elected ASB Vice President Sandy Mekany overcame racism and anti-Middle Eastern sentiment in post 9/11 America to become a prominent student leader on campus. Sandy Mekany remembers the first time a classmate called her a "terrorist": the daughter of Chaldean immigrants from Iraq, she was a third-grader in Scripps Ranch, a community in San Diego. Today, the new vice president of University Affairs for Associated Students, reflects on how the racism and anti-Middle Eastern sentiment in post-9/11 America briefly dimmed her pride in her heritage but ultimately forged her ambition and passion. "During those low points, I kept reminding myself of my story and (that) what people were trying to shame me for should be something I should be proud of," Mekany said. "My heritage is a beautiful thing. And my parents' resiliency ... gave me that grit and determination to move forward." Mekany said she used her experiences and her parents' story of immigrant resolve to propel her path forward at San Diego State University, where she has become a prominent student leader with aspirations of becoming an immigration rights attorney. A senior in political science this fall, Mekany spent the fall 2021 semester in Washington, D.C. as a participant in the Congressional Internship Program run by the Panetta Institute for Public Policy, which is a decades-old competitive congressional intern program. Experience with Discrimination Motivates Career Path Mekany was born in 2001, six years after her father first immigrated to San Diego from Iraq and seven months before the Sept. 11 attacks changed life in America for many immigrants. Throughout elementary and middle school, Mekany said she dealt with prejudice and microaggressions from her classmates, who teased her about her accent and family traditions. "I don't want to say that my experience was the worst, but the reason it was so difficult for me, I think, was because it led me to feel uncertainty about my own culture," said Mekany, adding that her family is Christian but experienced Islamophobia. Mekany's mother and brother arrived in the U.S. from Jordan in 1996. The family moved from Scripps Ranch to El Cajon when she was in eighth grade. She finished middle school at Scripps Ranch, then attended Valhalla High School, which has a large Chaldean community. "Once I settled in, I felt like I belonged in a way I never did before and had a chance to make a difference," she said. Mekany found her stride at her new school, becoming involved in orchestra, cheerleading, track and field, and Associated Student Body leadership. She was student body president during her senior year. It was also during her time at Valhalla that Mekany said she also became aware of the importance of policymaking with respect to immigration. "It solidified my desire to be a lawyer," she said. "Seeing how my friends who were DREAMers (young, undocumented immigrants who were brought to U.S. as children and granted temporary permission to live and work here) were treated and the 'zero-tolerance' policies that were enacted set the switch off for me." Diverse Experiences Drive this Student Leader In addition to Associated Students, Mekany, who is in Weber Honors College and minoring in sociology and honors interdisciplinary studies, has been involved with the Center for Intercultural Relations (CIR), the Middle Eastern Student Union, Cru Ministries, Tijuana Homebuild and Rotaract. She also tutored students and signed students up for COVID-19 vaccines. Then, last fall, Mekany landed the Panetta internship. After two weeks at the Panetta Institute, Mekany was placed with the office of U.S. Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) for the fall 2021 semester. Porter's office praised Mekany's performance in the internship. "In addition to her day-to-day responsibilities, Sandy took the initiative to seek out briefings and events across Capitol Hill to attend and learn from," said Nora Walsh-Devries, Porter's chief of staff. "Sandy never thought any task was too big or too small, and her cheerful attitude made our office brighter." Paige Hernandez, currently the manager of EOP's Learning Support Center at SDSU, and who previously served as CIR's director, said Mekany's presence in the center has been invaluable. "In all of her leadership roles, Sandy is authentically herself -- which means embracing and celebrating her identity as a first-generation American, daughter of Immigrants and Chaldean woman," Hernandez said. "I am excited to witness Sandy's impact on Associated Students next year and the change she is going to bring to the institution." One of Mekany's proudest accomplishments is the active role she played during Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) Heritage Month in April. She held an event to help Middle Eastern students overcome and fight stereotypes and held an Arabic Coffee Cup Reading with a special guest speaker: her mother, Ban. Ban said she broke down in tears when she saw her daughter in charge of the event. The tears were the culmination of a family's hard work and dedication, painful trials and rising above adversity. "Here she was, a leader, she brought all these students, and they were listening to her and when she introduced me, I broke down," Ban said. "I am just so proud of her, she is going to be something one day, she is going to change society in America, trust me," she said. For more information on the Center for Intercultural Relations and its events and programming, go to https://sacd.sdsu.edu/intercultural-relations or visit their Instagram or Twitter accounts. MARTINSVILLE A former police chief for the city of Martinsville has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of official misconduct, resolving a criminal case that was filed against him more than three years ago. Matt Long, 42, appeared in Morgan County Superior Court I on Friday along with his attorney, John Kautzman. Special prosecuting attorney Sonia Leerkamp appeared on behalf of the state, and Monroe County Special Judge Valeri Haughton presided over the hearing, which took place over Zoom. Martinsville of tomorrow: How you can help guide the city's future development. As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a felony charge of theft. Long will be placed on probation for one year, and he was also ordered to pay $8,000 in restitution, with $6,500 going to the state of Indiana and the remaining $1,500 going to Traveler's Insurance. Kautzman said the money has already been returned to both parties, which also Prior to sentencing, Kautzman argued that his client should be immediately eligible for alternative misdemeanor sentencing given his lack of criminal history, an absence of any danger to the public and the unlikelihood that he would commit a similar crime in the future. Under state law, alternative misdemeanor sentencing allows Hoosiers who are convicted of a felony to have the charge reduced to a misdemeanor provided they meet certain requirements. Long said he has not worked in law enforcement since January 2019, when he was placed on administrative leave following an investigation by the Indiana State Board of Accounts into irregularities in his accounting for overtime and sick leave. He told the judge he is currently self-employed as an automobile detailer. On the move: Churches in Mission exploring move in Mooresville to bigger location. Long joined the Martinsville Police Department in 2004 after working for one year in the Morgan County Sheriff's Department. He was appointed city police chief in September 2016. Story continues Between January 2016 and December 2018, Long accrued $6,786 in unearned overtime pay and $1,530 in overpaid sick days, according to the results of the SBOA investigation. The audit also found that the city failed to provide proper oversight to ensure that leave time was being posted properly. Kautzman said Long's accrual of unearned pay was the result of health issues he was going through at the time and his inability to properly navigate the city's software for logging overtime and sick leave. "I think Matt Long is the kind of person the alternative misdemeanor sentence statute is designed for," Kautzman said. "He has a very distinguished law abiding life and career that he led prior to this incident." Leerkamp said she felt Long should have known better given his position in law enforcement. "I don't have any reason to believe it was accidental or unfamiliarity with the software system," Leerkamp said. "He was in that system for long enough, and he has been a law enforcement officer long enough to know what the law is." Leerkamp said she felt it was appropriate for Long to wait until the end of his probationary period before the felony charge can be reduced to a misdemeanor. Jobless rates: Unemployment numbers in Morgan, Monroe, Lawrence and Owen counties show improvement from 2021. Haughton ultimately compromised by requiring Long to complete six months of probation before the charge gets reduced. "Mr. Long, I wish you very good luck in your future," Haughton said. "I realize this is a step back, but I have no doubt that you can overcome it, and I truly wish you good luck." Long will report to the Morgan County Probation Department on Tuesday. Contact reporter Peter Blanchard at 765-346-2942 or pblanchard@reporter-times.com. Follow him on Twitter @peterlblanchard. This article originally appeared on The Reporter Times: Ex-Martinsville police chief Matt Long pleads guilty to official misconduct Two former FBI special agents will not face federal criminal charges for their involvement in a botched investigation of sexual assault by Larry Nassar, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. A report released last year from the DOJ found two agents with the FBI in Indianapolis committed "fundamental errors for not acting sooner on allegations of abuse by Nassar. The department reviewed evidence gathered in the investigation by the agents before announcing Thursday that federal criminal charges will not be brought against them. Larry Nassar, 54, appeared in court for a plea hearing in Lansing, Mich., on Nov. 22, 2017. Nasser, a former sports doctor, pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sexual assault. 'FBI failed survivors': Massive systematic failures uncovered in DOJ's Larry Nassar report Related: What you should know about report on Indianapolis FBI's handling of Larry Nassar case This decision comes after multiple reviews and analyses of evidence gathered in the investigation of the former agents, and reflects the recommendation of experienced prosecutors, a news release from the DOJ states. This does not in any way reflect a view that the investigation of Nassar was handled as it should have been, nor in any way reflects approval or disregard of the conduct of the former agents, the release stated. Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics doctor, was sentenced to more than 100 years imprisonment in 2018. More than three years later, the Justice Departments Inspector General released a scathing report finding W. Jay Abbott, former head of the FBIs Indianapolis Field Office, and an unidentified FBI agent, didn't respond for eight months when the first allegations against Nassar arrived at their office in 2015. While their investigation lingered, Nassar sexually assaulted at least 120 women and children, according to John Manly, an attorney who represents Nassar survivors. More coverage: Women abused by Larry Nassar file negligence claims against FBI over botched investigation Pressure on the federal law enforcement agency started to rise after IndyStar first exposed the allegations against Nassar in 2016. When the Inspector General began to review how the Indianapolis FBI conducted its investigation, Abbott and the other agent made false statements "to make it appear that they had been diligent, according to the federal government. Story continues Abbott was also criticized for exhibiting extremely poor judgment because he discussed a job opportunity with USA Gymnastics at the same time his agency was looking into the Nassar allegations. "While the Justice Departments Office of Inspector General has outlined serious concerns about the former agents conduct during the Nassar investigation, and also described how evidence shows that during interviews in the years after the events in question both former agents appear to have provided inaccurate or incomplete information to investigators, the Principles of Federal Prosecution require more to bring a federal criminal case," the DOJ news release reads. A copy of the Inspector General's investigation can be found below. Contact Jake Allen at jake.allen@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter @Jake_Allen19. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Former FBI agents will not face charges in botched Larry Nassar probe The Aurora in 2008. Courtesy of Christopher Willson Christopher Willson bought an old cruise ship off Craigslist 14 years ago. The ship, named Aurora, was one of the first vessels Germany built post-WWII, Willson said. Willson plans to transform it into a bed and breakfast and a coastal cruiser. When Christopher Willson found an old cruise ship on Craigslist in 2008, it was a happy accident. Willson at the stern of the cruise liner. Courtesy of Christopher Willson Willson, a former tech developer, was working on virtual-tour software when he stumbled across a cruise ship named "Faithful" on Craigslist. Keen to do a virtual tour of the ship, he reached out to the owner. "I pretended to be a potential buyer, and the owner, who was a ship salvager, let me on board. After doing the virtual tour, I went home curious about the ship's history but could not find anything about it," Willson told Insider. Willson spent days researching the ship's history until he found a photo that looked exactly like the vessel. "I went through over hundreds of images of vintage ocean liners, and did a lot of matching and cross-referencing of the ship's appearance before I found a match," Willson said. Willson discovered that the ship was the Wappen von Hamburg, one of the first ships Germany officially built after WWII. The Wappen von Hamburg out on sea. Getty Images Willson decided to buy the ship, which was covered in layers of old paint, because of its historical value. Willson told Insider the ship was listed on Craigslist for $1.2 million, but he negotiated with the seller to slash the buying price in half. Insider was not able to independently verify the price of the ship. After Willson took ownership of the vessel, he renamed it Aurora. German shipbuilding company Blohm+Voss, which built the ship, confirmed to Insider that Aurora and the Wappen von Hamburg are the same ship. Willson didn't have any ship-building experience, but his past career as a disaster-recovery specialist taught him how to fix things. The stern of Aurora back in 2008. Aurora was extremely rusty when Willson first saw her. Courtesy of Christoper Willson Willson spent 13 years traveling to places destroyed by fires and floods to salvage mechanical and electrical equipment for insurance restoration companies. Story continues "I have always been a fast learner and was always good at working with my hands. I've rebuilt a bunch of cars," Willson said. The 293-foot cruise ship had three decks, 85 cabins with en-suite bathrooms, a dining room and salon, an outdoor swimming pool, and a lot of structural issues when Willson bought it. The promenade deck of Aurora was lined with rotted wood and rusted steel back in 2016. Courtesy of Christopher Willson When Willson took ownership of the cruise ship, he it was full of cardboard boxes, old chairs, and mattresses. "Some of it was useable stuff, but just a lot of it was absolute garbage that we had to get rid of," Willson said in one of his YouTube videos. The wood on the deck had been completely destroyed by moisture, Willson said. He had to get rid of all the rotted wood and rust before he could even begin the restoration process. To give Aurora's hallway a new lease on life, Willson removed the concrete floors and the wood-paneled walls to address the underlying damage. Before-and-after photos of Aurora's passageway. Courtesy of Christopher Willson The passageway is now carpeted and has fresh coats of paint. In 2015, Willson created a Facebook page called Aurora Project Restoration. People started sharing more information about the ship. Aurora's lower entry before it was restored. Courtesy of Christopher Willson A comment from one Facebook user made Willson realize Aurora was the floating SPECTRE headquarters in the 1963 James Bond movie, "From Russia with Love." After scrutinizing scenes from the movie, he realized it was true. Other Facebook users shared old travel brochures of the cruise. From 1972 to 1977, the ship was named Xanadu, and it was famous for its voyages around Alaska and North America, per East Bay Times. "She had a real exclusive air about her; she was very yacht-like," maritime historian Peter Knego told the outlet in 2008. "It was very prestigious to sail in the ship when it was called Xanadu." Willson said he spends 10 hours a day every day restoring Aurora. Courtesy of Christopher Willson The refurbishment process has picked up pace in recent years. In December, he launched a YouTube channel called "Aurora Restoration Project," which has helped raise the profile of his project. The YouTube channel documents the ongoing restoration process of the cruise ship. The channel has 13 videos that have garnered a total of 2.4 million views and over 77,000 subscribers. Willson is expecting a big surge of activity on the boat in July. The promenade deck after Willson replaced 30% of the rusted steel and sealed the decks. Courtesy of Christopher Willson "In July, we expect 80 to 100 volunteers, mostly people from Silicon Valley as there is a tech event Ephemerisle a mile and a half away from here. The CEO and founder of the internet archive tool, Wayback Machine, will also be joining us," Willson added. "I do what I can to help Aurora a great project, and Chris is a very welcoming captain," Brewster Kahle, the CEO of Wayback Machine, told Insider. Volunteers need not have any relevant skill sets: Willson said he welcomes help from a range of volunteers, from people with experience working on museum ships to people who can only paint. Renovations are currently 40% completed. Willson told Insider he's already burned through an estimated $1 million fixing the ship. Courtesy of Christopher Willson Willson is also raising funds to help him restore the vessel. He told Insider his goal is to raise $3 million. "Once you have finished one end of the ship, you have to start all over again by the time you get to the other end. Even a brand new ship requires maintenance right off the bat," Willson said. Next on Willson's restoration agenda is to fix up the kitchen, which was destroyed by a leaking deck. The bare kitchen of Aurora. Courtesy of Christopher Willson "We are just finished removing all of the old and outdated fixtures, and we're currently working on raising money to get this area back into shape," he said. While some of the cabins on Aurora have been refurbished, Willson says most cabins onboard are still not in good condition. Courtesy of Christoper Willson Willson says he intends to restore all 85 cabins over time. He currently lives on the boat with his wife: "If I don't stay, people will come and just steal things." The ship is currently docked in Stockton, California, but Willson plans to move it back to San Francisco. The lower entry of the vessel is fully furnished with new furniture. Courtesy of Christopher Willson He intends to transform Aurora into a bed and breakfast and an events center. His end goal is to make Aurora into a coastal cruiser and sell it on a fractional ownership basis. Aurora as it stands today Courtesy of Christopher Willson "I hope to be able to restore it to become a working coastal cruiser and allow it to cruise up and down the West Coast into Mexico and Canada," Willson said. Read the original article on Insider Vanessa Wisniewiski told Insider she was under stress because she has to pump breast milk "around the clock" to feed her baby, Silas, amid the infant-formula shortage. Courtesy of Vanessa Wisniewski Parents who use formula are voicing their frustrations to Congress about the nationwide shortage. Hundreds have shared their stories on a "vent line" set up by Bobbie, a formula startup. The company has sent the furious, harrowing, and tearful recordings to lawmakers. The strain of exclusively pumping breast milk was taking such a toll on Vanessa Wisniewiski, a first-time mom, that she began to develop symptoms of postnatal depression. "It was all-consuming and causing a very bad situation mentally for me to continue," Wisniewiski, 35, of Sacramento, California, told Insider, adding, "I told myself, 'I can't do this by myself anymore.'" Days after deciding to move her 4-month-old, Silas, to formula, she was shocked to learn about the nationwide shortage. The crisis is the result of supply-chain issues and a recall after the Food and Drug Administration investigated reports of bacterial infections in babies. The nationwide out of stock rate was at 43% for the week of May 10, according to Datasembly. Wisniewiski said she had no choice but to continue pumping "around the clock" and hope that lactation supplements would help boost her dwindling supply of breast milk. Out of anger and frustration, she joined the Hungry for Change campaign launched by Bobbie, an infant-formula startup, demanding that lawmakers step in and solve the problem. Wisniewiski left a tearful voicemail on the company's "vent line," saying that "people should be able to feed their babies" and that "there needs to be fucking contingency plans." The recording was delivered to Congress on Thursday with messages from other incensed parents. Outraged parents have rallied to make politicians address the infant-formula crisis Laura Modi, Bobbie's CEO and cofounder, also wrote a letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Modi, a mom of three, told Insider that politicians must listen to "regular moms and dads" affected by the shortage. Laura Modi, the CEO and cofounder of Bobbie, with her three children, Mary, Colin and Owen. Bobbie "Lived experience really matters," Modi said, adding that "the US House of Representatives is 73% male and the average age is 58." Story continues She added: "They're not feeling viscerally what is happening, and if they're not hearing directly from those who are going through it, we're not going to see change." Jessyca O'Brien, who has a 1-year-old daughter named Luna, expressed her outrage on the vent line too. "I think Congress and everybody else just needs to get their shit together and focus on what's important," she said in the recording. She accused policymakers of being "so focused" on the rights of unborn children while "not taking care of those babies after they're born." "It's absurd, and I've cried so many tears," Wisniewiski told Insider. "I wouldn't wish the way I've been stressing on any new parent." Parents say representatives have sent them generic responses O'Brien, 29, from Farmingdale, Maine, told Insider she'd been unable to buy enough of the specific formula that Luna needs for her lactose intolerance. She said that she'd tried giving the baby whole milk and some regular formula she managed to find but that Luna would vomit them up. "It's really distressing because a lot of women, myself included, have done everything we can to breastfeed," O'Brien said, adding that Luna had been unable to latch onto her nipples from birth. She added: "I don't have the option to breastfeed, and if you use formula, at the moment, you can't feed your child." Jessyca O'Brien, pictured with her daughter, Luna, says she's desperately worried about how the formula crisis is affecting new parents like her. Courtesy of Jessyca Brian She said she's now relying on donations from members of a Facebook support group for moms in the same position. She described the need for parents to depend on each other for help as "ridiculous." "I've written to our local lawmakers and reached out by phone and email," O'Brien said. "But all I get back is a generic letter." She added: "You feel like they're representing you, but not listening to you." Wisniewiski said she believes that the people in power can no longer ignore the problem. "This is food, this is nutrition and something that can't be overlooked because it doesn't affect you," she told Insider. She concluded: "This is life or death for babies." Read the original article on Insider Sgt. Jewell Scott has been attempting to draw attention to severe problems at the Fort Hood Army Base in Texas. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Yahoo News, Drew Anthony Smith/Getty Images) Months of repeated allegations of harassment, physical assault and retaliation levied by Army Sgt. Jewell Scott against officials on the Fort Hood Army Base near Killeen, Texas, reached a boiling point this week, as Scott posted videos to her personal social media saying she feared for her life. If I end up dead ... just know someone did it, Scott said on her Instagram Story on May 20. On Monday, Fort Hood officials posted a statement to Facebook, saying they would investigate the allegations and hold leaders accountable. Our number one priority is the safety and well-being of Sgt. Scott, Col. Matt Ruedi, deputy commander of the 13th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, said in the statement. Fort Hood officials did not return multiple requests for comment from Yahoo News. A memorial service at Fort Hood on Nov. 10, 2009, in honor of the 13 victims of a shooting rampage by Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) But Scott, who said shes been in the Army for more than five years, called that statement a lie in a subsequent Instagram Story, and alleged a cover-up. Now she says she will be discharged from the service in less than a week, claiming that her ordeal illustrates how shes become a target as officials try to silence her for raising concerns about mistreatment, which she said includes physical assault and threats against her and others on the base. In her latest post on Thursday, Scott said she is now seeking a lawyer. Her most recent allegation has led to renewed questions about the allegedly toxic culture of Fort Hood, where in the past two years more than two dozen deaths, multiple disappearances and various tales of intimidation and violence have been reported on NBC News and NPR, among other outlets. In 2020, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy said Fort Hood had one of the highest rates of murder, sexual assault and sexual harassment in his branch of service. U.S. Army soldiers at Fort Hood prepare for a troop deployment to Iraq in 2003. (Robert Daemmrich Photography Inc/Corbis via Getty Images) Seven noncommissioned soldiers complained of the bases dangerous culture to the Intercept in a damning report in October 2020. I would be scared to send my kid to Fort Hood, one sergeant told the news site. I dont think the leadership here at Fort Hood is doing a good job, or any sort of job, to protect their soldiers. Story continues The public needs to know whats going on here, said another sergeant. Because I have no more faith in the federal system or the Army. Approximately 40,000 soldiers currently serve at Fort Hood, according to base officials, but this number does not include soldiers families and others who have access to the base on a daily basis. Fort Hood police describe the base as a city within itself. In 2020, 39 soldiers died or went missing, according to Vanity Fair, including 13 who committed suicide. The most publicized of these was Spc. Vanessa Guillen, 20, who went missing in April of that year. She was later found in the armory where she worked, beaten to death by a hammer. The suspect in her disappearance was another soldier, who killed himself just as he was approached by police. A mural in Austin, Texas, in memory of Vanessa Guillen, a soldier who worked at nearby Fort Hood. (Sergio Flores/Getty Images) Lyman Paul, who lost her cousin Corlton Chee after he passed out during physical fitness training in 2020, described Fort Hood to People magazine as toxic. The severity of Scotts recent allegations reached its peak after she said shed been arrested by undercover officers last week and taken to a hospital. She claimed that leaders tried to keep her there but medical professionals refused and she was discharged. Instead, Scott says, Fort Hood officials began to follow and harass her at the base in the following days. For months, I have tried to bring awareness to these things in which Fort Hood continues to cover up and neglect, Scott wrote in the description of a GoFundMe she started to raise funds for her abrupt upcoming transition to civilian life. Once they were made aware that I have been working with news stations, I quickly became a target and someone they needed to hush. The allegedly toxic culture of Fort Hood has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Instead after sending out this email as a cry for help after 11 months of fighting this corrupt system and leadership, you had me hawked down like a criminal arrested and harassed, Scott wrote in a post on Monday. I couldn't even use the bathroom without someone standing inside of my room outside of my bathroom door. While Scott did not specifically name any officers in her online statements, various videos posted to her Instagram account show interactions with numerous military police she claims are harassing her. Scott and the Armys general press office did not respond to Yahoo News requests for comment. You will be held accountable for the pain that myself and many other soldiers have endured and lost their lives over, Scott said. More evidence to come. _____ Cover thumbnail photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Brandon Bell/Getty Images, Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images Friday marks three weeks since a 15-year-old was shot and killed in Savannah. Her mother is still searching for answers. Detraya Gilliard told WJCL 22 News that she went looking for her daughter Desaray after she missed her 9 p.m. curfew on May 6. She said she found her daughter shot and dying near her apartment. Desaray was literally on her back porch and the apartment was full of people but yet nobody claimed to know anything. But, I found my daughter and she was dying behind this apartment, she said. I could tell she was still fighting because her eyes were moving like she was trying to communicate with her eyes to me, but she could not speak because she had already lost a lot of blood by the time I had found her. TRENDING STORIES: Savannah police confirmed they responded to Yamacraw Village around 10 p.m. on May 6. Paramedics took Desaray to a local hospital, where she died from her injuries. She was only 15 years old and a freshman in high school. Her mother told WJCL that she loved positivity. Gilliard said she believes someone could have helped her daughter that night. I dont know if they were afraid to come out of their apartment, but I feel her life couldve been potentially saved had they called the police because by the time I found her she was barely hanging on, she told WJCL. Savannah police are offering a reward for anyone who has information in Desarays death. Anyone with information can share details anonymously by calling Savannah-Chatham CrimeStoppers at 912-234-2020. Information can also be shared by calling the SPD crime tip line at 912-525-3124 or the homicide unit at 912-651-4362. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter] IN OTHER NEWS PARIS (Reuters) - A plan has been hatched to guide a killer whale adrift in France's River Seine back to the sea using orca sounds, local officials said on Friday. Following a meeting with national and international scientists, including marine mammal specialists, the local prefecture said it would monitor the killer whale from a distance with a drone while emitting orca communications in an attempt to guide it back to the sea. "The use of these non-invasive methods, from several hundred meters (feet) distance, will make it possible to avoid using ships in the immediate proximity of the animal, which could aggravate its stress and endanger it survival, as well as the safety of rescuers," said the Seine-Maritime prefecture in a statement posted on Twitter. The whale, whose health is deteriorating in fresh water, strayed from the ocean earlier this month, and is at risk of dying. The 4-metre (13-foot) orca, identified as a male, was first spotted at the mouth of the Seine on May 16 between the port of Le Havre and the town of Honfleur in Normandy, before it travelled dozens of kilometres (miles) upstream to reach west of the city of Rouen. Several French media outlets showed footage of the killer whale in the river, its dorsal fin sticking out of the water and its distinctive black and white colouring showing as it comes up for air. (Reporting by Mimosa Spencer; Editing by Sandra Maler) May 26GRAND FORKS A Virginia-based company has received a large federal contract to establish the first Space Networking Center at Grand Forks Air Force Base, as well as a similar facility in Alabama. U.S. Sens. John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer, both North Dakota Republicans, announced that the Space Development Agency has awarded a nearly $325 million operations and integration contract to General Dynamics Missions Systems, based in Fairfax, Virginia, to establish the Space Networking Center at Grand Forks Air Force Base. The contract will also include a similar facility at Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama. The Space Networking Center will support the Space Development Agency's new low-Earth orbit mission and serve as the "backbone for all U.S. military communications across the globe," according to a news release from Hoeven's office. Earlier this month, Space Force Chief Gen. John Raymond committed to continue advancing the new center and LEO mission, as the Space Development Agency will become part of the Space Force in October. "Today's funding from SDA ensures the continued support of space operations coming to Grand Forks," Hoeven said in a statement. "We've worked to establish Grand Forks Air Force Base as the ideal location to host the Space Development Agency's first space networking center and appreciate the opportunity to discuss this with U.S. Space Force Chief John Raymond last week." Cramer also gave his support to the project, noting that "Grand Forks plays an important role in defending our country by bolstering our presence in space." He added he looks forward to the Space Development Agency "establishing its Tranche 1 operations center in North Dakota." "This is vital to improving our space-based defense capabilities, strengthening our national security, and further securing the future of Grand Forks Air Force Base," Cramer said. Grand Forks and the base have seen a number of visits from Space Force and Space Development Agency officials over the past year or so. Raymond recently gave the spring commencement speech at UND and has visited the campus several times. Space Development Agency Director Derek Tournear has also visited the area. Hoeven previously hosted Tournear in North Dakota to outline efforts to establish the new center and announce the new laser communications project, which the agency is pursuing in conjunction with General Atomics. By Sofia Menchu GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei could still attend the Summit of the Americas next month, his foreign minister said Thursday, barely a week after the leader said he would not be going to the U.S.-hosted gathering in Los Angeles. Giammattei said on May 17 that he would not attend the June 6-10 summit, speaking a day after the United States criticized his government for reappointing its attorney general, who Washington has accused of corruption. However, Foreign Minister Mario Bucaro told Reuters the United States was not attempting to impose "conditions" over the appointment of judicial officials and that the government was still awaiting news on whether Giammattei would go. "The country will definitely be represented by the Guatemalan delegation ... but we're also awaiting confirmation from the president to see if he'll be able to attend," he said. Bucaro stressed that the Central American country had a good relationship with the United States, its primary trade partner, and said Guatemala had listened to its concerns. "What we're not going to allow is for there to be direct interference, and for the sovereignty of the country to be affected, something that isn't negotiable for the United States nor for Guatemala," Bucaro said. U.S. State Department officials have strongly criticized Guatemala for keeping Consuelo Porras as attorney general, along with expressing concern over what it calls persecution of human rights activists and journalists in the country. The foreign minister emphasized that Guatemala had a broad-based relationship with Washington, pointing to cooperation on security and saying that the country was in the process of extraditing more than 60 drug traffickers to the United States. (Reporting by Sofia Menchu; Writing by Kylie Madry and Stephen Coates) Unfortunately, our website is currently unavailable in your country. We are engaged on the issue and committed to looking at options that support our full range of digital offerings to your market. We continue to identify technical compliance solutions that will provide all readers with our award-winning journalism. The Daily Beast Omar Marques/GettyWhile some in the West are pondering what kind of a concessions would allow Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin to save face in Ukraine, leading Russian lawmakers and top propagandists are advocating smashing the West, which they say is Russias ultimate target. On the state TV show 60 Minutes, host Olga Skabeeva announced: I have some unpleasant news... Even though we are methodically destroying the weapons that are being delivered [to Ukraine], but the quantities in which the U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler said Friday she didn't believe many proposed gun control measures would have stopped a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 children and two teachers. "We need to get to the bottom of what happened," Hartzler told the News-Leader after a campaign event Friday at a Springfield church. "He bought the gun legally, so a lot of the proposals that are being proposed wouldn't have prevented this." Hartzler has frequently spoken against gun control laws both as a member of the House and on the campaign trail. She has received just under $9,000 in contributions from the National Rifle Association during her time on Capitol Hill, and her Senate campaign has earned the support of a PAC led by former NRA officials. Her congressional office sent out a mail flyer to constituents this week calling her "Missouri's Second Amendment Defender," and citing her opposition to red flag laws, which seek to remove firearms from people who are perceived as threats. Her spokesperson told news outlets it was commissioned and sent prior to the mass shootings at a Buffalo, New York grocery store and the massacre in Texas. U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler speaks at Life360 Chesterfield Church in Springfield on May 27, 2022. Hartzler's U.S. Senate campaign held a "Faith and Freedom Summit" event featuring evangelical author David Barton. Asked whether she maintained that position in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, Hartzler didn't commit to supporting any individual bill on the matter. "Well, we'll just have to see what the proposals are," she said. "But we need to look at specific shooting situations and see if the legislation would actually help or if it's just a method to try to feel better, and do something but it's not really going to prevent future shootings. Because that's what the focus should be." Leaders in the U.S. Senate have committed to negotiations on bills that have passed out of the House and would expand background checks on gun sales. Republicans have previously opposed such measures. Hartzler said she believed the best path forward was to increase security and armed guards in school settings. She suggested legislation that would provide grant money to schools to amp up security, as well as a bill that would allow off-duty and retired police officers to carry guns on school property. Story continues "What I do think we can do and should do is shore up and strengthen our schools' safety procedures better," she said. "You know, he just walked in." Uvalde shooting: Police should have confronted Texas school gunman sooner, official says Many of the details surrounding the Uvalde shooting are still unclear, including the actions of law enforcement who responded to the shooter, who officials have said was barricaded in the school for over an hour. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that officers should have entered and engaged sooner. Many Republicans in Congress have rejected calls from advocates and Democrats to strengthen gun control laws. Missouri's U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, who has endorsed Hartzler in the Republican primary, told the Kansas City Star the focus should be on increased sentencing and prosecution standards for violent crime, despite the Texas shooter being killed on the scene by police. Hartzler is vying with former Gov. Eric Greitens, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, U.S. Rep. Billy Long, Senate President Pro Tem Dave Schatz and St. Louis attorney Mark McCloskey for the Republican nomination to succeed U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt. David Barton, a former Texas GOP leader and prominent evangelical speaker, endorsed Hartzler at her campaign event at Life360 Chesterfield Church in Springfield on Friday. During his remarks prior to Hartzler's, he argued that "it's not gun control that solves the problem." "I'll point out when Cain killed Abel, it wasn't guns involved," Barton said. "It was the rocks, crushing and clubbing. Vicky, maybe you guys should pass rock control laws." Evangelical author David Barton speaks at Life360 Chesterfield Church in Springfield on May 27, 2022. Barton endorsed U.S. Rep. Vicky Hartzler in the Republican primary race for U.S. Senate. Hartzler, Barton urge Christian involvement in elections About 75 people were in attendance at the campaign event at Life360 Chesterfield Church on Friday, where Barton and Hartzler urged Christians to get involved in local politics. Among the attendees were state Senate candidate Angela Romine and Dianne Ely, who is involved with the Back on Track PAC that has supported local conservative candidates. Their remarks touched on their opposition to abortion and transgender rights, how schools teach students, immigration policy and the Biden administration. Hartzler has been among the most vocal opponents in Congress to LGBTQ+ rights and criticized transgender student-athletes in an early Senate ad. She criticized Democrats' push to enshrine the right to an abortion in federal law and to ban discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation. "Life is at stake," she said. "But so is marriage, so is gender. Those basic things." Barton, a former vice chair of the Texas GOP, is an evangelical author who has sought to portray Christianity as the law of the land in the United States. He said Friday that "we as a nation need to submit to (God's) higher laws" and that "it's not a secular government, and those who say so have not read the documents." Hartzler closed her remarks to the crowd Friday by telling them she's "going to continue praying with" them. "Ultimately, the answer is not in the government, it's not in elections, it's in Jesus Christ," she said. "My role is to try and stave off the attacks so we can protect religious freedom so the Gospel can go forth." Galen Bacharier covers Missouri politics & government for the News-Leader. Contact him at gbacharier@news-leader.com, (573) 219-7440 or on Twitter @galenbacharier. This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Hartzler says most gun bills "wouldn't have prevented" Texas massacre HONG KONG (AP) Incoming Hong Kong leader John Lee will travel to Beijing on Saturday to accept a letter that officially approves his appointment as the citys next chief executive. A government statement confirmed that Lee will go to Beijing with his private secretary and press secretary, as well as his wife. He will return to Hong Kong on Tuesday. Local media including the South China Morning Post reported that Lee is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping during the trip, and will also present the lineup for his cabinet for approval. The meeting will be Lees first with Chinas top officials since he won the uncontested leadership election on May 8 with 99.2% of all votes from an election committee that is largely made up of pro-Beijing members. Last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang formally approved the appointment of Lee, signing the approval document during a State Council meeting. Each chief executive-elect typically receives their letter of appointment in person, and meets other top officials as well as the Chinese president. Carrie Lam, the citys current leader, made a similar trip in 2017 after winning the election. ___ This story has been corrected to say Lee will travel to Beijing on Saturday, not Sunday. SOMERSWORTH The Indonesian Community Connect celebrated two milestone anniversaries with a Food Fest and special ceremony Saturday, May 14 at the Cultural Center. The event helped kickoff its capital campaign to fundraise for the next phase of what has been hailed as the worlds first Little Indonesia which will be a commercial-cultural district in the Hilltop City. The vision is anchored by a large welcome gate, community center, an Indonesian museum, housing, community cultural garden, a food hall and shopping center. New renderings were unveiled to the community, bringing the vision to life by showcasing the potential the ICC sees in the future of Little Indonesia. The Indonesian Community Connect celebrated two milestones on Saturday, May 14, 2022. The community gathered celebrate the ICC's fifth anniversary as an organization and its first anniversary since the Little Indonesia Cultural Center opened. ICC president Raude Raychel said she is proud to see how Little Indonesia cultural center has helped promote educational, business and economic workforce opportunities, while promoting the richness of the Indonesian cultural heritage. Local news: Download the Fosters.com mobile app and stay connected This initiative is a community project, Raychel said. Together, let us walk hand in hand and make this happen. Together, let us build a community, highlighting the sense of place, a sense of community, a sense of belonging and a sense of pride. State Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, said the vision for Little Indonesia brings a new vibrancy to the future of Somersworth. It's an amazing project and it's exactly what we need in New Hampshire, Sherman said. It embraces people from other countries with other cultures, brings them into the community and lets them absolutely flourish. That's what you're doing. I can't wait to see this come to fruition. Somersworth Mayor Dana Hilliard also spoke at the event, touting the ICC for its work to grow the Indonesian Cultural Center into what it is today, in just one short year. 'Proud of where we are': Little Indonesia in Somersworth to hold community celebration New Hampshires Seacoast is home to one of the largest Indonesian populations north of Manhattan. The hope is that the future Little Indonesia district will pave the way for new Indonesian-American-run businesses to thrive. Story continues Betsey Andrews Parker from Community Action Partnership signed a memorandum of understanding to partner with the ICC on upcoming programs. Dover Chamber of Commerce President Margaret Joyce, Natural Resources Conservation Service Outreach Coordinator Nels Liljedahl and other community partners spoke about how they can contribute to laying the foundation for what will become Little Indonesia. This is a reminder for us to remember and appreciate the journey from where we first started five years ago, to where we are today, to where we want to be, Raychel said. Lets celebrate this journey and build on the momentum of the first Little Indonesia. 'We're ready': ICC eyes up what's next This article originally appeared on Fosters Daily Democrat: Little Indonesia celebrates, eyes future in Somersworth NH TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Iranian state media reported Friday that Tehran has demanded the release of a ship seized by Greek authorities in their waters allegedly under pressure by Washington last month. The foreign ministry summoned the Swiss envoy, who represents the United States in Tehran as they have no embassy there, to lodge a diplomatic protest over the incident. Greek media has described the ship as a tanker carrying Iranian crude oil in breach of international sanctions. Iran called the move a violation of international maritime law and international conventions in its protest, the IRNA news agency reported. On Wednesday, Iran summoned the Greek charge daffaires over the matter. A day later, a Greek official said that following a judicial intervention by U.S. authorities concerning the ships cargo the ship's oil was being transferred to another vessel off the port of Karystos on the Aegean Sea island of Evia. The incident comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and Iran, which has been under international sanctions since former President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from Irans 2015 nuclear accord with world powers in 2018. Previously, the U.S. had seized the cargo of two tankers suspected of transporting Iranian oil as part of an elaborate sanctions-busting scheme involving forged documents and the repainting of a ships deck to cloak illegal shipments. Details of the seizure were contained in a federal civil case unsealed in February after the Greek-managed vessels discharged their valuable cargo, worth about $38 million, in Houston and the Bahamas at the direction of U.S. law enforcement. TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will take firm steps to restart idled nuclear power plants to make maximum use of nuclear power to stabilise energy prices and supply, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Friday. "With priority in safety, we will take concrete steps to restart (plants), while the government is not considering to replace" existing nuclear power plants with newer facilities, Kishida told parliament. (Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) A Japanese man spent approximately 2 million yen (12,480) on a realistic border collie costume because he wanted to look like his favourite breed of dog. The man, identified only as Toko, hired a Japanese company called Zeppet, which is known for creating sculptures and models for movies and commercials, to create the costume. Zeppet reportedly took 40 days to make the costume as Toko went through multiple rounds of trials and revisions to get it right. I made it a collie because it looks real when I put it on, Toko said in an interview with Japanese outlet Mynavi. My favorite is quadrupedal animals, especially cute ones. Among them, I thought that a big animal close to me would be good, considering that it would be a realistic model, so I decided to make it a dog. I met such a condition and made collie, my favorite breed of dog. A Zeppet employee also spoke about how his team managed to figure out ways in which a dogs figure can correspond with that of a human. The point is that the skeleton of a dog can be reproduced on the skeleton of a human. Since the structure of the skeleton is very different, we spent a lot of time studying how to make it look like a dog, the employee told the outlet. In addition, we collect photographs taken from various angles so that the beautiful coat of the collie can be reproduced and devised so that the coat will flow naturally. Toko posted a video of himself in his costume last month, where he can be seen waving his paw and rolling around the floor. The YouTuber also posted a couple of snapshots of himself on Twitter, where hes posing as a collie. Jennifer Lopez turns to the JLo Beauty That Star Filter Highlighting Complexion Booster for radiant skin. Images via YouTube. Yahoo Lifestyle Canada is committed to finding you the best products at the best prices. We may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. Jennifer Lopez may be known for her signature bronzed and glowing skin, but even she has a couple of secrets up her sleeve for how to achieve it. One of her go-to products for lit-from-within skin is the JLo Beauty That Star Filter Highlighting Complexion Booster, a highlight and skin-perfecting serum that gives skin an added boost. Normally retailing for $54 CAD/$39 USD, it's on sale now at Sephora as part of the brand's Almost Summer Sale in Canada, and the Memorial Day Sale in the U.S. JLo Beauty That Star Filter Highlighting Complexion Booster. Image via Sephora. $43 CAD/$31 USD $54 CAD/$39 USD at Sephora The 52-year-old star previously revealed that she loves to use all four shades of the complexion booster to create a "beautiful glow" in an August 2021 YouTube video. "They can really be used on all different kinds of skin types and skin colours, and I like to use all four of them," Lopez said. "I use some of them for highlighter and some of them for contour." "When I don't want to do the full makeup thing and I want to look more natural and glowy, and not like I have a full face on all the time, I will literally just use [the Rich Bronze shade] as my contour," she added. JLo Beauty That Star Filter Highlighting Complexion Booster in Rich Bronze. Image via Sephora. $43 CAD/$31 USD $54 CAD/$39 USD at Sephora This complexion booster is billed as "a sheer, skin-enhancing, complexion boosting serum formulated with light-bouncing mineral pigments and vitamin E to deliver a subtle or all-over glow." As demonstrated by Lopez, it delivers a multipurpose formula that can be worn in multiple ways: alone, over or under makeup, or mixed with your favourite foundation or body cream. Available in four universal mix-and-match shades, this light-reflecting serum can be used to highlight, contour, or for an all-over glow. What shoppers are saying Sephora shoppers have been loving this JLo Beauty complexion booster, as it's received a 4.2-star rating from more than 400 reviews. Story continues "I dont think I can wear makeup ever again without this highlighter booster," one reviewer shared. "After my daily morning skin routine, I apply my skin tint then this highlighter booster in Pink Champagne. I'm in love with the glow!" "This product is my go-to to give me a really soft contour/bronze. One baby pump goes a long way! I just put this on top of moisturized skin with concealer and it's fire," added another. JLo Beauty That Star Filter Highlighting Complexion Booster. Image via Sephora. Reviewers have praised its smooth consistency and multipurpose formula, which can be applied to the face and body. "It is a very nice serum like product that can be applied to shoulders, clavicle bone etc," noted one reviewer. Despite the many rave reviews, some shoppers shared that the serum was "disappointing" due to its high price point and formula that's similar to other, more affordable "drug store" products. Given that it's currently on sale at Sephora, it may just be the perfect time to give this celeb-approved highlight a try without breaking the bank. Let us know what you think by commenting below and tweeting @YahooStyleCA! Follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Joe Manchin (D-WV) talks on the phone outside of a lunch meeting with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol November 16, 2021 in Washington, DC. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Sen. Joe Manchin has once again expressed a willingness to discuss a reconciliation package. He told Axios his talks with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer have been "encouraging." Manchin also seemed willing to compromise on hiking taxes, something that could win over Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. For over a year, Democrats have feuded over President Joe Biden's proposed social and climate spending package. At the center of the debate stands two centrists: Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who have both shot down swaths of the Build Back Better plan, ranging from aggressive prescription drug price controls to monthly checks to parents. In a fresh glimmer of hope, Manchin is hinting that the package he once pronounced "dead" might Frankenstein its way into existence via reconciliation with a few major chunks taken out of it. The conservative Democrat told Axios that his recent talks with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer about a package on climate and deficit have been "encouraging, to a certain extent." Manchin has previously supported some of Biden's proposals to hike taxes, including an increase to the corporate tax rate. He told Axios that he'd still like to see the corporate rate rise to 25%. Biden initially proposed 28%. Instead, per Axios, Manchin will "settle" for a domestic minimum rate of 15%, a proposal that Sinema previously backed. A key hurdle to Manchin's chief tax goal is Sinema. She is adamantly opposed to increasing tax rates on the rich and large corporations, all but undoing a Democratic effort to roll back the Trump tax cuts. In February, Manchin said he wanted Sinema to take another look at potential hikes, but she didn't seem to budge. Sinema said in April that her demands for a package had not changed. Manchin's comments indicate that the two could strike a deal and potentially move a spending package forward, but at the expense of keeping many Trump-era tax cuts in place. Manchin reiterated his support to unwind the law at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland on Monday."What we need is a competitive tax code that spins off enough for us in the United States to take care of ourselves, pay down our debt, and live within our means," he said. Story continues Schumer and Manchin have huddled three times in Schumer's office over the past month in what resembles a conclave carrying enormous consequences for President Joe Biden's economic agenda heading into the November midterms. Manchin has voiced support for a smaller bill focused on reducing the federal deficit, cutting prescription drug prices, and stepping up taxes on the wealthiest Americans and large firms. Many Democrats believe that the start of the August recess represents the deadline for the party to get a skinnier climate and tax bill to Biden's desk. Still, that hasn't kept some from floating an even later deadline to lock in swaths of Biden's agenda. "Sept. 30, for sure, because that's when the reconciliation measure expires, and likely before the August recess," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island told The Washington Post. However, there is still the possibility that Manchin could sink a package yet again. "There could be nothing. There could be truly nothing," he told Axios. "That's all I can tell you." Read the original article on Business Insider Johnny Depp and Amber Heard in Fairfax County Court, Virginia, in the last week of their defamation trial. Steve Helber/Pool via REUTERS; Steve Helber/Pool via REUTERS Jurors have begun deliberating the verdict in the trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. They must determine whether Heard defamed Depp by describing herself as a figure representing domestic abuse. They're also weighing Heard's counterclaim that Depp's lawyer defamed her by calling her allegations a hoax. Jurors have begun deliberating the case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, tasked with reviewing whether one of them defamed the other through dueling narratives of domestic abuse. Heard filed for divorce against Depp in May 2016. Around the same time, she filed a restraining order against him, which included photos of her bruised face that made the cover of People magazine. It marked the end of 15 months of marriage and around 4 years of Depp and Heard being a couple. The restraining order gave a blow to the reputation of a man who had starred in movie franchises worth billions of dollars. The two later released a joint statement describing their relationship as "intensely passionate and at times volatile," but claimed that neither intentionally hurt the other or made false accusations. In March 2019, Depp brought the defamation lawsuit against Heard. It alleged she defamed him by describing herself as a victim of domestic violence in a December 2018 Washington Post op-ed titled "I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." The article didn't mention Depp by name, but Depp's lawsuit argued that it made clear references to their relationship. Furthermore, Depp alleged, it was Heard who physically and verbally abused him during their relationship not the other way around. He asked for $50 million in damages. Heard denied the allegations and filed a counterclaim against Depp. She alleged that Depp did, in fact, physically assault him throughout their relationship, which he did while under the influence of drugs and alcohol. She also alleged that Depp defamed her by calling her a liar. She asked for $100 million in damages. Story continues The jurors must consider both cases at the same time, as well as the damages. Over six weeks in the Fairfax County, Virginia courthouse, lawyers for Depp and Heard presented evidence they say backed up their cases. It included explosive testimony from Depp, who said Heard belittled him for his age and once whipped herself up into such a frenzy that she threw a glass vodka bottle at his hand, severing the tip of his right middle finger. And it included explosive testimony from Heard, who said Depp sexually assaulted her with his fingers and with a bottle, and whose own rage and jealousy was activated by nightlong cocaine and alcohol binges. The trial plumbed the depths of each parties' lives, exposing details about their financial lives and childhood physical abuse, that the American Civil Liberties Union ghostwrote the Washington Post op-ed, and that Depp appeared to snort cocaine with a tampon applicator. Each side presented their closing arguments earlier on Friday. Here are the facts the jury must unanimously decide are "more likely than not" true in order to decide liability, according to the presiding judge, Penney Azcarate: Here's what jurors need to determine For Depp to win his claim against Heard, jurors need to determine that the following parts of the Washington Post op-ed were made by Heard about Depp, were false, and were made with "actual malice." The "actual malice" standard means that the jury must find Heard made them knowing they were false, or with "reckless disregard" for the truth. The article's online headline "I spoke up against sexual violence and faced our culture's wrath. That has to change." Heard didn't write the headline, but Depp's lawyers argued she "republished" it by tweeting the article. The sentence "Then two years ago, 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 sentence "I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse." After all that, jurors may establish how much to issue in compensatory or punitive damages or both against Heard and for Depp. In Heard's case against Depp, jurors are looking at statements made by Adam Waldman, a former lawyer for Depp who was kicked off the Virginia case in 2020 and who has claimed Heard's allegations of abuse were a hoax. For Heard to win her claim, jurors need to determine that Waldman's allegations were made as part of his role as Depp's "agent," whether they're about Heard, whether they're false, and whether they were made with "actual malice." The statements in question include: A quote he gave to the Daily Mail saying, "Quite simply this was an ambush, a hoax. They set Mr. Depp up by calling the cops, but the first attempt didn't do the trick. The officers came to the penthouses, thoroughly searched and interviewed, and left after seeing no damage to face or property. So Amber and her friends spilled a little wine and roughed the place up, got their stories straight under the direction of a lawyer and publicist, and then placed a second call to 911." Another quote to the Daily Mail, that "[W]e have reached the beginning of the end of Ms. Heard's abuse hoax against Johnny Depp." Jurors are also weighing compensatory and punitive damages for Heard's claim. Her lawyers have said that Heard's career never took off in the way it should have after her high-profile roles in "Justice League" and "Aquaman." There remains a chance that the jury could find both or neither side liable in the trial, arriving at a conclusion that does not adopt either side's narrative. Depp previously lost a defamation case against The Sun, a British tabloid, which called him a "wife beater" because of Heard's allegations. He lost that case, with a London judge finding Heard's testimony there "substantially true," but his case brought stateside is far more detailed, and includes Heard personally as a defendant. Azcarate said jurors may continue deliberating into Friday night "within reason." If they don't reach a verdict today, they are scheduled to continue deliberating on Tuesday, after Memorial Day weekend. Read the original article on Insider Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the charges of which a jury found Troy Henricksen guilty. He was convicted of eight counts of hazing and seven counts of failure to comply with underage drinking laws. After nearly seven hours of deliberation Friday, a Wood County jury found two former Bowling Green State University fraternity brothers guilty of hazing and other misdemeanor charges in the death of freshman Stone Foltz, but not guilty of reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter charges. Stone Foltz family: Stone Foltzs family continue fight against hazing one year after BGSU fraternity death Stone Foltz trial: Prosecutors in Stone Foltz hazing death trial: 'Accidents just don't happen' BGSU hazing death: Another former BGSU fraternity member pleads guilty in hazing death of Stone Foltz Jacob Krinn, 21, of Delaware, was found guilty of hazing, failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, and obstructing official business, all misdemeanors. The jury found him not guilty of first-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, third-degree felony involuntary manslaughter, and felony charges of reckless homicide and felonious assault. Krinn was Foltz's fraternity Big Brother, who was supposed to mentor him as a new member of Pi Kappa Alpha the BGSU fraternity better known as PIKE. Broken Pledge: A podcast series about fraternity hazing Defendant Jacob Krinn, 21, of Delaware, listens May 17 during his criminal trial for the hazing death of Bowling Green State University freshman Stone Foltz at the Wood County Courthouse. Troy Henricksen, 24, of Grove City, was found guilty of eight counts of hazing and seven counts of failure to comply with underage alcohol laws, all misdemeanors. The jury found him not guilty of felony charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, and tampering with evidence. 'You left him there to die': Shari and Cory Foltz speak about their son Stone's death Stone Foltz: BGSU student Stone Foltz died of fatal alcohol intoxication during hazing ritual, coroner rules Collin's Law: Ohio fraternities and sororities rally for revamped anti-hazing Collin's Law Story continues Henricksen was the PIKE chapter's pledge educator. He worked most closely with the fraternity's new members and planned the "Big Little Night" initiation that Foltz and his fellow pledges attended. Foltz, a 20-year-old sophomore from Delaware, died three days later on March 7, 2021 of fatal alcohol intoxication. Hazing was a fourth-degree misdemeanor at the time Henricksen and Krinn were charged. At sentencing, each count carries a potential maximum jail sentence of 30 days and a fine of up to $250. Obstructing justice and obstructing official business, both second-degree misdemeanors in Ohio, are punishable by a maximum 90 days in jail and a $750 fine. The penalty the two defendants face for each count of furnishing alcohol to a minor is up to six months in jail and up to a $1,000 fine. Defendant Troy Henricksen, 24, of Grove City, listens May 17 during his criminal trial for the hazing death of Bowling Green State University freshman Stone Foltz at the Wood County Courthouse. Following the verdict, Krinns Columbus-based attorney Sam Shamansky said he was ecstatic with the jurys decisions. Im grateful to this jury, beyond relieved and the happiest man in the world right now, Shamansky said. Its been like hell on earth for Jacob. He was wrongfully accused of being a killer and he has been waiting month after month, week after week, and day after day for his day in court. Shamansky said Krinn is remorseful for Foltzs death, but the jury agreed he wasnt responsible for causing it. He is the kind of young man you want for your son, Shamansky said. Henricksens Cleveland-based attorney, Eric Long, said after the verdict that there were mixed emotions. He said Henricksen and his family were grateful that the jury found him not guilty on all three felony counts, but are upset that he was branded a killer by the prosecutor during the trial. Long said Henricksen plans to continue pursuing a career in the Army and is anxious to put the legal proceedings behind him. Long said Henricksen doesnt regret being an active member of PIKE, or having a leadership role in the fraternity, but he does feel some regret that he wasnt able to do more to stop the tragedy of Foltzs death. Does he regret he wasnt there? ... I think, as he told police, if he had been there none of us might be here today, Long said. I dont think anyone who knew Mr. Foltz or was involved doesnt have some regret they could have done something differently. Foltz family urges Greek fraternities and colleges to end hazing Shari and Cory Foltz, Stone's parents, sat through each day of the trial along with Shari's sister, DJ Williams. "As we sat in the courtroom day after day listening to excruciating testimony about Stones final moments, we grieved," the family said in a statement. "Not just for the senseless death of our beloved eldest son, but for the lives of the young men who are now being held accountable for their reckless and self-serving actions." The Foltzes said they needed to hear the details about what happened to their son the night he died, and they are grateful to the Wood County prosecutors who took on the case. "It didnt have to be this way, and make no mistake, it will happen again until Greek organizations and the universities that support them end hazing for good," the family's said. "... While the trial is concluded, our commitment to Stone lives on. We will not rest until hazing is eradicated on all university campuses." The Foltz family is still involved in pending civil litigation against former PIKE members. Rex Elliott, the Foltz family attorney, said Stones family is pleased with the verdict, but sitting through the two week trial has been excruciating. Rex H. Elliott,. attornery for the family of Stone Foltz who died in a hazing incident at Bowling Green University, poses for a portrait on Tuesday, March 23, 2021 in Dublin, Ohio. They are satisfied with the verdict, are extraordinarily appreciative the excellent job the state did and think the jury took their job seriously, Elliott said. Elliott said Krinn, Henrickson, and the other PIKE members convicted in this case "mirrored learned behaviors that should have been stopped years ago." Year after year, decade after decade there are senseless young deaths due to hazing. I hope this communicates to all these kids that they need to think twice about hazing," he said. "These kids have to take responsibility but where are the national fraternities and the universities? These kids are behaving in a system set up by the adults in the Greek organizations and universities. Surrounded by the families of the late Collin Wiant and Stone Foltz, as well as other state lawmakers, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on July 6, 2021 signs Ohio's Anti-Hazing Act, also known as "Collin's Law," at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. The bill is named after Collin Wiant, who died during a hazing incident in 2018 as a freshman at Ohio University, and makes hazing a felony. What happened the night Stone Foltz was hazed at BGSU? During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Krinn gave Foltz a liter of Evan Williams bourbon at the Big Little Night, an initiation event where pledges were paired with actives to mentor them in a Big Brother/Little Brother relationship, on March 4, 2021. It was at that event, planned by pledge educator Henricksen, that Foltz drank the bottle of bourbon in about 20 minutes. Krinn dropped Foltz off at his apartment later that night. After his roommate found Foltz unconscious hours later, he was taken to a local hospital, where he died three days later of fatal alcohol intoxication. Eight men were initially charged in connection with Foltz's death. Six of the men pleaded guilty. Sentencing for all eight men will take place in July. Sheridan Hendrix is a higher education reporter at the Columbus Dispatch. You can reach her at shendrix@dispatch.com. You can follow her on Twitter at @sheridan120. Sign up for her Mobile Newsroom newsletter here and her education newsletter here. Mike Wagner is an investigative reporter at the Columbus Dispatch. You can reach him at mwagner@dispatch.com. You can follow him on Twitter at @MikeWagner48. This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Stone Foltz hazing trial: Verdict in for former BGSU students Washington Two former FBI agents accused of mishandling sexual abuse allegations against convicted sex abuser and former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar will not face criminal prosecution, the Justice Department announced Thursday, upholding previous non-prosecutorial decisions. According to a statement released by the department, the decision was made "after multiple reviews and analyses of evidence gathered in the investigation of the former agents, and reflects the recommendation of experienced prosecutors." An internal investigation by the Justice Department Inspector General released in July 2021 found that the FBI made fundamental errors in the probe and did not treat the case with the "utmost seriousness" after USA Gymnastics first reported the allegations to the FBI's field office in Indianapolis in 2015. The FBI has acknowledged its own conduct was inexcusable. According to the report, investigators in Indianapolis first learned of the allegations in 2015, but did not open an investigation in Michigan, where Nassar worked, until October of 2016. But, as several gymnasts have told authorities, the doctor abused additional victims after the allegations were first brought to the FBI's attention. U.S. Olympic Gymnast McKayla Maroney wipes tears from her eyes as Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) speaks during a Senate Judiciary hearing about the Inspector General's report on the FBI handling of the Larry Nassar investigation of sexual abuse of Olympic gymnasts, on Capitol Hill on September 15, 2021, in Washington, DC. / Credit: Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images The report specifically criticized the supervisory special agent in the FBI's Indianapolis office, then-unnamed Michael Langeman, and Jay Abbott, the agent in charge of the FBI's Indianapolis field office, for bungling the Nassar case and later lying about it. The report revealed that the Justice Department first declined to prosecute the two in September 2020. That decision was reviewed in October after Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told Congress criminal investigators were taking in new information that had emerged. "I am deeply sorry that in this case, the victims did not receive the response or the protection that they deserved," Monaco said as she testified during a hearing on the renewal of the Violence Against Women's Act. Story continues Thursday's announcement indicates the new information Monaco referenced was not enough to reverse course, explaining that while there were "serious concerns" about how the former agents handled the sexual assault allegations including by providing inaccurate or incomplete information to investigators "the Principles of Federal Prosecution require more to bring a federal criminal case," the statement read. "This does not in any way reflect a view that the investigation of Nassar was handled as it should have been, nor in any way reflects approval or disregard of the conduct of the former agents." Several of Team USA's top gymnasts testified before a Senate Judiciary Committee last year, saying institutions such as the FBI had failed them after they reported the abuse. "What is the point of reporting abuse if our own FBI agents are going to take it upon themselves to bury that report in a drawer?" gymnast McKayla Maroney told the panel. "They had legal, legitimate evidence of child abuse, and did nothing." Maroney spoke in detail about how she had spoken to the FBI in the summer of 2015 and provided "extreme detail" into Nassar's abuse. But the FBI did not investigate her claims until more than a year later, a Justice Department investigation found. Maroney told the Senate Judiciary Committee that her interview with the FBI was not documented until 17 months later, and she accused the FBI of making "entirely false claims" about what she told them. One week after the gymnasts' testimony, the FBI agent in charge of the Nassar investigation was fired. Nassar, who was the team doctor for USA Gymnastics for 18 years, has been accused of abuse by over 250 women and girls. He was sentenced in 2018 to over 100 years in prison. FBI director Christopher Wray, who did not lead the FBI at the time in question, has said the agency made "totally unacceptable" errors in investigating Nassar. In September 2021, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee that FBI agents "betrayed the core duty that they have of protecting people" and "failed to protect young women and girls from abuse." Wray was once again pressed about the Nassar investigation by senators on Wednesday. "It's hard for me to explain to you how angry and upset I was when I learned what the FBI did and failed to do back in 2015," Wray said Wednesday. "I'm determined to make it right now that I'm here." London Calling: Australia elects new prime minister False and disturbing conspiracy theories spread online about Uvalde gunman Navigating through grief and emotions after tragedy By Jarrett Renshaw ANNAPOLIS, Md. (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin's attempt to divide Europe by invading Ukraine had backfired and told Naval Academy graduates their job will be ensuring maritime freedom in the South China Sea. Biden told 1,200 graduating cadets in Annapolis, Maryland, that they are entering military service at a time of many global challenges and they will be charged with helping "preserve stability in an uncertain world." "We're going to look to you to ensure the security of the American people," he said. Biden, who helped form a coalition of nations to oppose Russia's invasion of Ukraine, had harsh words for Putin and said his attempt to divide NATO allies had failed. "Not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, hes literally trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people. Attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture," Biden said. Putin tried to "Finland-ize" Europe but "instead he NATO-ized all of Europe," said Biden, a reference to neutral nations Finland and Sweden's plans to join the alliance. Just back from a week in Asia, Biden said the Indo-Pacific maritime theater will be the "leading edge" of the U.S. response to natural and humanitarian disasters there. "You'll defend the international rules of the road, underwrite the future of the Indo-Pacific that is free and open, ensure freedom of navigation of the South China Sea and beyond, and make sure the sea lanes remain open and secure," he said. "These long-standing basic maritime principles are the bedrock of a global economy and global stability. You're going to help get together our allies in Europe and with our allies in the Indo-Pacific," Biden added. Biden, a Democrat and former senator, noted that he and Republican Senator John McCain, the Naval Academy graduate who is buried in Annapolis after dying of cancer in 2018, battled "hammer and tong" on policy but remained friends. During a death bed visit in 2018, Biden said McCain made a request that he quickly agreed to: "Joe, will you do my eulogy?" (Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons and Grant McCool) Hearst has made another key retail hire as it gears up to launch its luxe e-commerce platform, The Tower. After revealing that retail veteran Ken Downing would be in charge of the platform in the role of chief brand officer, the media company behind Elle, Esquire and Harpers Bazaar has tapped Mariko Ichikawa as merchandising director, beginning next week, WWD has learned. More from WWD Ichikawa, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, spent almost a decade as a womenswear buyer for stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Barneys New York, before setting up her own kimono line. Confirming the news, Downing told WWD: We are incredibly excited to welcome such a talented merchant like Mariko to our team, her vast experience and retail knowledge is a welcome asset as we continue to bring The Tower to fruition. The Tower will be made up of four individual stores with one cart, one platform and shared back-end technology from media brands Elle, Bazaar, Town & Country and Esquire. The first store, which will feature designer items selected by Hearst editors, will open this spring, with the remaining three stores launching before the end of next year. Hearst began dabbling with e-commerce in 2012 with the launch of ShopBazaar and most media companies have been diving deeper into retail over the past few years as traditional advertising revenues continue to tighten, a trend that was only exacerbated by the pandemic. Many publishers have mainly been operating in affiliate links as a revenue driver, although some have launched their own branded products or collaborated with other brands. While Hearst will continue with affiliate links and shoppable content, growth in its e-commerce business over these past few years led executives to decide to branch out with this luxury marketplace. KATHRYN HOPKINS A judge imposed a $75,000 fine on a Kentucky doctor who admitted failing to pay his income taxes. Christopher Marek, a plastic surgeon in Danville, also was sentenced to four years on probation and is liable for $283,687 in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. Chief U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves sentenced Marek on Friday in Lexington. The indictment in the case charged that Marek, 49, under-reported his income by a total of $2 million in the five tax years from 2014 through 2018. Marek, a native of Virginia, did his residency in plastic surgery at the University of Kentucky before setting up his practice in Danville. He pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion as part of a plea agreement. Mareks defense attorneys said in a sentencing memorandum that his trouble began when he read a book by a Michigan man, Peter Hendrickson, who has argued that most income is not subject to taxation. Hendrickson was convicted in 2009 of filing false tax returns and ultimately sentenced to 27 months in federal prison. Like many unfortunate taxpayers before him, Dr. Marek encountered the falsehoods peddled by Peter Hendrickson . . ., defense attorney Robert C. Webb said in the memo. Marek came to believe serious mistruths about definitions in the tax code, and thats why he failed to report income from his practice, according to the memo. Marek sought advice from accountants who told him he needed to report the income, but didnt follow it, according to the memo. Physicians who have worked with Marek, as well as several patients, wrote letters of support for him, describing him as a skilled, dedicated surgeon and noting his compassion, humility and generosity. Putting Marek in prison would deprive patients of help in a place with limited access to plastic surgery services, Webb told Reeves in seeking probation for Marek. Hes been an exemplary doctor, Webb said. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney William P. Moynahan, argued for a 21-month sentence for Marek. Story continues Mareks failure to pay taxes wasnt a mistake, but an open revolt against the IRS, Moynahan said. Reeves said one factor in his decision was the impact that putting Marek behind bars would have on patients and on his ability to pay the fine and delinquent taxes. Reeves said he believed the large fine met the goals of punishing Marek and deterring others from similar conduct. Nine likely cases of monkeypox have been identified in the U.S. so far as the virus continues to spread throughout Western countries, outside of the central and western African regions where it typically occurs. Health authorities have been quick to advise against panic, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still considering monkeypox to pose a low risk to the general community. Health experts have stressed that monkeypox is not another COVID-19. If people have COVID in their minds, they should cast that out. Because this is not COVID. It doesnt transmit with the same facility, Stanley Deresinski, a clinical professor of infectious diseases at Stanford University, told The Hill. How it can spread As Deresinski noted, monkeypox requires prolonged skin-to-skin contact for it to spread from person to person, unlike SARS-CoV-2, which spreads through respiratory droplets. The main method through which monkeypox spreads is through the characteristic lesions that develop on the skin. Once these lesions have scabbed over and fully healed, then an individual is no longer considered to be infectious. After they have healed, they may leave behind scarring. The clothing and bedsheets of an infected individual can also act as a pathway for infection. Other symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headaches, muscle aches, swollen lymph nodes, chills and fatigue. Infections typically last between two and four weeks. Where it has been detected Probable monkeypox cases have been detected in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Utah, Virginia and Washington state. According to the CDC, monkeypox cases have so far been detected in men. While many cases in Europe have been detected in men who have sex with men, the CDC has not confirmed the sexuality of all the men who have been infected in the U.S., citing patient confidentiality. With Pride Month coming up in June, Deresinski said people should of course practice some heightened caution as many travel and gather to celebrate. Story continues I think that precautions need to be taken in terms of who you have skin-to-skin contact with, for instance, he said. The number of cases will continue to rise, Deresinski said, but he added that they will likely be easy to contain, and the spread of infection will probably die down. Deresinski also noted that the mortality rate for monkeypox is fairly low, ranging between 1 and 5 percent. Federal officials expressed a cautious readiness to deal with this outbreak during a press briefing this week. We are prepared, but Ive always learned its wise to face infectious disease threats not with overconfidence, but with humility. A monkeypox outbreak of this scale and scope across the world, it has not been seen before, said Raj Panjabi, the White Houses senior director for global health security and biodefense. Treatments One clear difference between the monkeypox outbreak and the coronavirus pandemic is that treatments and vaccines for monkeypox were immediately available through the U.S. national stockpile and have already been mobilized to states where cases have been detected. One antiviral, Jynneos, has been mobilized for use in states to be administered to close contacts of the monkeypox cases as well as health care providers. The CDC on Friday released recommendations for Jynneos to be administered to laboratory personnel and health care providers treating patients with orthopoxvirus, the family of viruses that monkeypox falls within. While there are no antiviral medications specifically designed to treat monkeypox, some smallpox medications can be used to treat monkeypox including brincidofovir and tecovirimat. A recent study published in The Lancet medical journal found that brincidofovir and tecovirimat could be effective against monkeypox. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. WASHINGTON The Kremlins top diplomat on Friday accused the West of waging total war and promoting the culture of canceling Russia, in blistering remarks that underscore how Moscow continues to see the war in Ukraine as an existential struggle to remake the geopolitical order as opposed to a mere territorial conflict. The West has declared a total war on us, on the Russian world. Nobody makes any secret of this," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a meeting with regional officials. His remarks were reported by Tass, the Russian news agency. Earlier this month, Lavrov a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin dragged Russia into a dispute with Israel over the Holocaust. Russia believes Ukraine is rife with neo-Nazis, a claim that is not supported by evidence and is further weakened by the fact that its elected president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is Jewish. Lavrov bizarrely compared Zelensky to European Jews who he claimed aided their own Nazi tormentors during the Holocaust. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a meeting of foreign ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, on May 13. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) After days of intense criticism, Putin apologized to his Israeli counterpart, Naftali Bennett. Speaking on Friday, Lavrov reprised Putins argument that Europe and the United States were engaging in cancel culture against Russia, in what appeared to be an effort to appeal to Western conservatives who have made similar complaints in the United States, the United Kingdom and France, among other nations. The culture of canceling Russia and everything related with our country has reached a point of absurdity, Lavrov complained. Bans have been imposed on such classics as Tchaikovsky, Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Pushkin. Persecution is underway against Russian culture and art workers. Some pro-Putin figures, like the classical music conductor Valery Gergiev, have indeed lost commissions because of their political stances, but there has been no effort to expurgate classic works of literature and art, many of which saw Russian artists take brave stances against earlier iterations of Kremlin authoritarianism and cruelty. Story continues The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of conductor Valery Gergiev, in 2021. (Peter Kneffel/picture alliance via Getty Images) In his remarks on Friday, Lavrov seemed to blame the West for the collapse of the geopolitical order that had been in place since the end of the Cold War, ignoring the fact that it was Russian invasions of Georgia (in 2008) and Ukraine (in 2014 and 2022), along with an increasingly authoritarian domestic policy, that turned the Kremlin into a pariah. We must realize that it has exposed the Wests real attitude to the beautiful slogans that were put forward 30 years ago after the end of the Cold War, the foreign minister said, the calls for universal humanitarian values, for building a common European home from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Now we can see the real worth of these fine words." Lavrovs comments puzzled Ian Garner, an expert in Russian media and propaganda. Its an interesting return to some pretty hyped up rhetoric, Garner told Yahoo News in a text message. The last week or two has been very quiet while things have been going comparatively well for Russia (i.e., no great disasters). He speculated that Lavrovs ire may have been triggered by a forthcoming shipment of U.S. rocket launchers to Ukraine. Shipments of Western weaponry to the front in Eastern Europe have been critical in repelling the invasion by Russia, which has a much bigger military than Ukraine. The war in Ukraine is now entering its fourth month. Russia has failed to land any decisive blows. Its gains in eastern Ukraine, the main theater of conflict, were described on Thursday as incremental by the Institute for the Study of War. Public health nurse Markeitha Harris outside Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center on May 26, 2022, after union workers reached a tentative contract agreement. (Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times) About 55,000 Los Angeles County employees have reached a tentative contract agreement that includes a double-digit raise over three years, averting a threatened strike. Many of the union-represented employees, including custodians, parks and recreation staffers and social workers, are covered by provisions agreed to this month that include a 12% raise over three years. About 7,000 nurses and other healthcare workers continued to hold out and were on the brink of a three-day strike before negotiators agreed Thursday morning to a 15% raise over three years, as well as double pay for overtime and potential concessions on outsourcing. Union members must still vote to approve the contract, and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors must also sign off. "We haven't slept," said David Green, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 721. "We wanted something fair for our nurses who have done so much during the pandemic." Katarina Del Valle Thompson, an organizer for registered nurses, said outsourcing was a major sticking point, particularly the countys hiring of traveling nurses. Negotiations progressed, Del Valle Thompson said, when the county agreed to an additional 3.2% pay bump over the next three years for nurses. I was not certain up until the time of an agreement that we would not strike, said Del Valle Thompson, 70, who was an organizer when 4,000 nurses walked off the job in January 1988. We didnt want to strike, but we would have if necessary. The 7,000 nurses and other healthcare workers are stationed at facilities including Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Harbor-UCLA Medical Center and Olive View-UCLA Medical Center. The county didnt appreciate us or take us seriously after everything we did during the pandemic, said Markeitha Harris, a public health nurse. It wasnt right, and we were ready to strike. Harris said that during the COVID-19 pandemics first surge in 2020, she purchased her own N95 masks when county supplies ran low. Story continues About 5,000 workers from the SEIU Local 721 rallied at the Kenneth Hall of Administration Building in downtown Los Angeles on March 31. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) She has delayed vacations and worked all but two days of a recent vacation that was supposed to last two weeks, she said. A statement from L.A. County Chief Executive Fesia Davenport's office said the county was pleased to have reached a tentative agreement." In all our negotiations, the countys objective is to reach fair and fiscally responsible agreements that recognize the essential contributions of our valued workforce, the statement read. All 55,000 workers will be eligible for up to $195 each month to offset rising healthcare premiums and a $100 to $375 monthly stipend for child and elder care. The county also pledged to expand telework opportunities, reduce contracting with outside vendors and improve life insurance and public transportation options. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. Millions of Americans will travel at least 50 miles from home this weekend for Memorial Daythe unofficial start of summer. Thirty-nine million people are projected to travel, according to AAA. Despite recent travel figures, the pandemic has changed the landscape of travel. There are approximately 13% fewer flights available over the next few months compared to before the pandemic. Meanwhile, Delta announced Thursday it is reducing its schedule by 2%, or 100 flights per day, partly due to "increased COVID case rates." Delta highlighted to CBS News its ongoing hiring efforts to fill positions throughout the company. "We're still recovering in a lot of ways and both our system and in our network, we have a lot of new employees. About 30% of our team are new," said Brad Sheehan, Delta's Vice President of Flight Training and Standards. Airline stocks are soaring, with Southwest and JetBlue saying revenue this summer will be even stronger than they were expecting. The airlines made their comments Thursday, May 26, 2022, in regulatory filings. / Credit: Wilfredo Lee / AP Staffing limitations forced Southwest's CEO Bob Jordan to reduce his airline's schedule by 7%, so Jordan says his current hiring surge is essential. "This will be our largest hiring year, hiring period in our history," Jordan told CBS News' Bob Jordan. Even as drivers facing record gas prices, most Americans are taking road trips this weekend. Geoff Kapke from Indiana and his wife are on a journey to show their two sons all 50 states before they turn 18. "It costs about $130 to fill the car's tank up. That was not fun, but it's not going to deter us from hitting the road," said Kapke. LeBron James surprises kids on the last day of school Grandfather of 10-year-old victim killed in Texas shooting recalls hearing the news Special Report: Texas officials say "wrong decision" delayed school shooting response Extremist Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) argued on Fox News Thursday that gun control isnt the answer to mass shootings because when 9/11 happened, we didnt ban planes. We secured the cockpit, said Boebert, the lawmaker who posed for a Christmas photo with her three young children holding assault rifles last year. I want our schools secured, she said. I want our children protected, and I want teachers that can protect themselves and their students. And you know what? We can achieve this without trying to disarm law-abiding citizens. Other countries have shown that tightening gun control laws and banning assault rifles and semiautomatic weapons is highly effective in preventing mass shootings. Boebert: When 9/11 happened, we didnt ban planes pic.twitter.com/nvWUBz8KNO Acyn (@Acyn) May 27, 2022 Boeberts comments came in the aftermath of the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. An 18-year-old male opened fire in an Uvalde elementary school with an assault rifle he purchased legally, killing 19 children and two teachers. It happened less than 10 days after another 18-year-old killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, also with a firearm purchased legally. The massacres have put renewed pressure on Republicans to allow the passage of meaningful gun reform legislation, including by voting on bills to expand background checks for gun purchases. Although this idea attracts broad support from American voters, its been blocked for years by elected Republicans, many of whom receive enormous campaign support from gun lobbyists. Boeberts reasoning didnt hold up with critics. Many noted that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks forever changed the landscape of air travel in order to prevent future attacks. All flights remained grounded until days later, on Sept. 14. When air travel did resume, airport security dramatically intensified, and myriad new screening measures not unlike the checks gun control advocates are calling for were implemented. Story continues Ah yes, air travel, notoriously the same as it was before 9/11 https://t.co/xQ3gotXSnz elan gale (@theyearofelan) May 27, 2022 I guess the GED doesnt require one to study analogies like the SAT. Rachel Vindman (@natsechobbyist) May 27, 2022 Yes we did! We closed airspace for 2 days. And we did this: banned all knives, no curbside check-ins, use of Air Marshals & only ticketed passengers beyond airport metal detectors. Flying was never again the same. We can respond immediately again if our leaders in DC will lead! https://t.co/joxWrP3mJF Kerry Donovan (@KerryDonovanCO) May 27, 2022 When 9/11 happened, we literally created an entirely new cabinet department dedicated to frisking your shoes and confiscating any bottle of liquid larger than 8 ounces. https://t.co/1NTTFRxCZf Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) May 27, 2022 First, you have to have a pilots licence to fly a plane. Second, post 9/11, TSA wont let anyone get on the plane with so much as a pair of nail clippers. They also make you take your shoes/belt/jacket off and get a full body X-ray to get into the terminal. https://t.co/JEVSuG8sTG Robert Maguire (@RobertMaguire_) May 27, 2022 ID checked TWICE before even going through TSA = universal background checks pull out all electronics, go through an invasive X-ray, my locs are always patted down = Background checks Can't take weapons on board = automatic weapons ban https://t.co/cYqWkmIdPq Shay Text ACT to 644-33 @MomsDemand (@Endurance97) May 27, 2022 A lot of things are obviously wrong with this line of thinking, but um... are there 9/11-style attacks all the fucking time? https://t.co/w2rpxyq9y1 Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) May 27, 2022 I find this level of abject stupidity unfathomable. https://t.co/CBHXxaXFtv Khashoggis Ghost (@UROCKlive1) May 27, 2022 When Lauren Boebert was elected to Congress, we didn't ban morons https://t.co/17gvGzzNOx George Conway (@gtconway3d) May 27, 2022 This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... May 27TROY A former Dayton man who was indicted with seven others in 2016 for trafficking heroin and methamphetamines pleaded guilty Wednesday in Miami County to nine felony indictments, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. Ricardo Mondragon, 32, whose last listed address was in Chicago, was arrested late last year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in California while attempting to enter the country. Miami County Sheriff Dave Duchak said Mondragon was among a few hundred illegally entering the country when he caught the attention of agents, who matched him to warrants out of Miami County. Mondragon faced 14 felony indictments issued in 2016. He agreed Wednesday to plead to nine charges including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, conspiracy to engage in a pattern of corrupt activity, money laundering, aggravated funding of drug trafficking (four counts), possession of heroin and possession of meth. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to recommend a seven-year prison term. Mondragon will be sentenced July 19 in county Common Pleas Court. Five of the others indicted have pleaded and been sentenced to terms ranging from community control to 10 years in prison. Charges against one defendant were dismissed, according to court records. One of the defendants, Jose Galvin, remains at large, Duchak said. Investigators said the group brought large amounts of heroin and methamphetamines into the Miami Valley. The indictments alleged that activity took place beginning in 2013. By Mrinalika Roy and Emma Farge GENEVA (Reuters) - Countries should take quick steps to contain the spread of monkeypox and share data about their vaccine stockpiles, a senior World Health Organization official said on Friday. "We think that if we put in place the right measures now we probably can contain this easily," Sylvie Briand, WHO director for Global Infectious Hazard Preparedness, told the U.N. agency's annual assembly. Monkeypox is a usually mild viral infection that is endemic in parts of west and central Africa. It spreads chiefly through close contact and until the recent outbreak, was rarely seen in other parts of the world, which is why the recent emergence of cases in Europe, the United States and other areas has raised alarms. So far, there are about 300 confirmed or suspected cases in around 20 countries where the virus was not previously circulating. "For us, we think that the key priority currently is trying to contain this transmission in non-endemic countries," Briand told a technical briefing for member states. Needed measures included the early detection and isolation of cases and contact tracing, she added. Member states should also share information about first generation stockpiles of smallpox vaccines which can also be effective against monkeypox, Briand said. "We don't know exactly the number of doses available in the world and so thats why we encourage countries to come to WHO and tell us what are their stockpiles," she said. A slide of her presentation described global supplies as "very constrained". Currently, WHO officials are advising against mass vaccination, instead suggesting targeted vaccination where available for close contacts of people infected. "Case investigation, contact tracing, isolation at home will be your best bets," said Rosamund Lewis, WHO head of the smallpox secretariat which is part of the WHO Emergencies Programme. (Editing by Andrew Heavens) Street parties are being held across England (Getty Images/iStockphoto) More than 16,000 street parties are set to take place across England in celebration of the Queens platinum jubilee next month. The 96-year-old monarch will celebrate 70 years on the throne with a four-day weekend of festivities, beginning on 2 June. The four-day spectacle will include a Platinum Jubilee Pageant, a Platinum Party at the Palace and the Queens birthday parade, Trooping the Colour. On 5 June, which also marks National Thank You Day, the public is being encouraged to host street parties as part of The Big Jubilee Lunch. Council across the country have received a huge number of applications for residents who are keen to host a street party in their area, the Local Government Association has said. In celebration of the historic milestone the Queen is the first monarch in British history to reach a platinum jubilee many councils have waived administration fees that are typically charged for road closures. Thousands of roads are expected to be unavailable during the bank holiday weekend, with 9,500 roads closed during the Queens diamond jubilee in 2012. A snap poll of a dozen councils by the LGA showed it has approved more than 1,000 street parties so far. Extrapolated across the country, the LGA estimates there could be more than 16,000 celebrations taking place. In Hertfordshire, the County Council has received a record 475 street party applications. Meanwhile, the London Borough of Waltham has approved more than 100 events, including a mile-long street party. Councils are pulling out all the stops to help their communities celebrate a historic day for our country, LGA chairman James Jamieson, said. Whether it be approving thousands of local road closures for free or putting on big community events, councils are doing what they do best and bringing people together in innovative ways to mark this important milestone. After two tough years at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we hope that this time will allow people to raise a toast and celebrate with their loved ones and neighbours. Some councils have also planned jubilee events. Wyre Forest, Gedling and Surrey Heath are among those that have organised beacon lighting, picnics and tea parties. Additional reporting by PA Hundreds of church workers are accused of abusing kids. A list of names released late Thursday is tied to a seven-month long investigation into the Southern Baptist Convention. There are more than 700 names on the list, including six with ties to Central Florida. The list includes Harley Francis with Powers Drive Baptist Church, Tommy Gilmore with First Baptist Church of Oviedo/Cornerstone Community Church, Nathan John Gorzelancz with Guardian ad Litem program in Volusia, Thomas Warren Halsey with First Baptist Church Leesburg, David Joe Rich with Springs Community Baptist Church Apopka and John Maxwell Ware with First Baptist Church Pine Castle. READ: Southern Baptist Church leaders share secret list of ministers accused of abusing kids There could be even more on this secret list. Dozens of names and the churches are redacted because the claims were unsubstantiated. This this is what many, many, many survivors have been saying for many, many years. It is a hard truth I get that but it is a truth that must be reckoned with, said Christa Brown. For years, survivors of sexual abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention have been calling for the list to be made public. READ: Southern Baptist Convention to release names of 703 ministers accused of sexual abuse The independent investigation was commissioned by the SBC after survivors of abuse contacted the executive committee about child molestation and other abuse allegations against people employed by the church. Its really important that we believe survivors. That we dont victim blame them. That when they share their story, its incredibly brave of them to come forward, said Emilie Mitchell of the Victim Service Center of Central Florida. Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Pursuing a college education can be an expensive ordeal, but one big nonprofit is hoping to address the issue of affordability by helping high school students gain college credits at very low costs even before they graduate. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation earlier this week launched a series of grants to boost schools' efforts in designing and implementing dual enrollment and early college credit programs. The programs enable students to take college-level courses and gain college credit for up to a year towards an associate's degree while in their final year of high school, which would mean that some students could earn the degree after only a year of college. A dozen groups around the country will receive money from the foundation under an initiative called "Accelerate ED" of up to $175,000 each. A student finishes her project for business intro class at Moffat County High School in Craig, Colorado on March 30, 2022. (Photo by Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) The effort, which is focused on two-year degrees, hopes to "allow many more people to transition successfully post-high school into a degree pathway of their choice, and ultimately into the workforce and attain early career success," Sara Allan, director of early learning and pathways at the Gates Foundation, told Yahoo Finance in an interview. The initiative is noteworthy amid the national conversation over the high cost of college and ballooning levels of student loan debt. An associate's degree can be costly: The median student loan debt for an associate's degree incurred by a student is around $14,160, according to one estimate by Andrew Gillen of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The Gates Foundation's grants are intended to help K-12 schools create a "13th year" to help students avoid some of that cost. "What we're all about here is reducing barriers [to attending college] and the transitions that make it hard for kids to keep going," Allan said. "So the 13th year means ... finding the resources to make the transition smooth and blurring the lines between high school and college." According to the Gates Foundation, many students who pursue this route end up in high-demand industries like health care, software development, computer science, and cybersecurity. Story continues A senior at Wilson High School takes a test in her AP Statistics class in Pennsylvania. (Photo by Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images) Number of students taking associates degrees 'needs to climb' Some education leaders who work in underserved communities stressed how important such programs in which students gain college credits before graduating from high school are in promoting interest in higher education among their students. "It's been really important to me to make sure that in each of my school districts, I've opened up that pathway for students," Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Lolli, who has been in education for over four decades, told Yahoo Finance. The district she's currently at has a partnership with Sinclair Community College, which includes bringing professors into classrooms to teach students. The program is called "College Credit Plus." The number of students enrolled in these college-level programs has been growing, Lolli said, "even with COVID ... but it is still not where I would like for it to be." The increase has been due to more students and parents becoming aware that these programs are not costly the school often foots the bill for the college credits. "More students are starting to go 'Oh, there's not a catch to this' and are really starting to take advantage of the opportunity," Lolli said. Although students may continue to take the traditional Advanced Placement (AP) route, in her district, Lolli found more interest in taking these alternative college credit courses tied to a specific school. With AP, students need to pass and get a score between 3, 4 or a 5 to get the credit. "We still do offer AP, but in the long run, we've all suspected over time that AP will eventually go by the wayside for College Credit Plus," Lolli added. This year, 246 high school students went through the program to earn college credits at Dayton Public. The district has about 11,800 students from K-12. The majority of students in the district are low-income, with 65% identifying as African American and 24% as white. For Lolli, college affordability was front of mind as she thought about her students' backgrounds. "The number of students that received an associate's degree needs to climb," she said. "I don't think we have near enough students earning that associate's degree and getting to the point that they don't have that two years of college debt ... But we're working on that and continuing to push that through. So hopefully that'll happen." Aarthi is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. She can be reached at aarthi@yahoofinance.com. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami. Read the latest financial and business news from Yahoo Finance Follow Yahoo Finance on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Flipboard, and LinkedIn In this file photo, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un meets troops who have taken part in the military parade to mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army. KCNA via Reuters North Korea began its Covid vaccine program though it's currently only for soldiers, RFA said. Broadcast vehicles are calling the vaccines an "immortal potion of love" from Kim Jong Un. As of Thursday, North Korea has recorded more than 3.2 million cases of "fever" and 69 deaths. Covid-stricken North Korea has finally begun its vaccination program calling the COVID-19 jabs an "immortal potion of love" from their leader Kim Jong Un, Radio Free Asia (RFA) reported. However, the vaccines are so far reserved only for soldiers working on national construction projects, according to the US-funded non-profit media outlet. Two anonymous sources provided details to RFA, describing how to broadcast vehicles would play loudspeaker messages at vaccination sites, highlighting how the vaccines were "a gracious gift" from Kim. "They play loud political propaganda messages as the soldiers get injected with the vaccines from China," an unnamed government official told the outlet. "They are calling it a 'vaccination of love from the Highest Dignity,'" he said, using the honorific term for the country's leader. Another source, a resident, appeared to confirm this to RFA. "A broadcast vehicle that appeared at the vaccination site loudly proclaimed the greatness of the general secretary, who prepared for them the 'Immortal Potion of Love," she said. The resident told RFA that the vaccines were imported from China but did not specify the type of vaccine. The hermit kingdom confirmed its first-ever Covid case on May 12, and Kim Jong Un initially criticized his officials for the country's poor response to the virus. In the days since, however, North Korean state media has maintained the "much-disputed claim" that its Covid wave is subsiding, per Associated Press. Experts feared that the Covid outbreak would become a significant disaster, given how the country had been entirely unvaccinated. Last September, North Korea rejected nearly three million doses of Sinovac from China, asking for them to be sent to countries that needed it more. Story continues Earlier this week, US President Joe Biden said North Korea did not respond to a US offer of Covid vaccines, per the BBC. Now that a vaccine program appears to have begun in the country, some soldiers were seen raising their hands in praise of Kim, the resident told RFA. But other citizens are unhappy that they have yet to get the jab, she said. "People saw the scenes of the emotional soldiers, singing, weeping, and shouting 'Manse!' but they looked on emotionless," she said. Manse, which means 10,000 years in Korean, can be translated here to mean "long live Kim Jong Un." As of Thursday, the total number of "fevered persons" in North Korea topped 3.2 million, and 69 people have died, according to the state news agency KCNA. The country has yet to refer to this "fever" outbreak as COVID-19, as poor testing capabilities have hindered its ability to diagnose cases, per the BBC. Read the original article on Insider The Daily Beast via YouTube/The Telegraph Russias National Guard has confirmed that a Chechen commander was killed in a bloody firefight with foreign volunteers in Ukraineand they singled out the son of a British lawmaker as one of those responsible.Ben Grant, a 30-year-old former Royal Marine and the son of Helen Grant, a Conservative MP and Prime Minister Boris Johnsons special envoy on girls education, joined British and U.S. servicemen fighting Russian forces in Ukraine back in March, telling British me Ewan McGregor attends the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" photocall at the Corinthia Hotel London on May 12, 2022 in London, England. Kate Green/Getty Images "Obi-Wan Kenobi" star Ewan McGregor said that the "Star Wars" sequel movies were "easier" to watch. McGregor starred in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy in the 2000s, which were panned by critics. McGregor said that he could enjoy the later movies because he was a fan again. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" actor Ewan McGregor said that he was "really happy" to dip back into the "Star Wars" universe with the recent sequel movies starring Daisy Ridley, John Boyega and Adam Driver. McGregor plays the titular character in the new Disney+ series but first portrayed the character in the "Star Wars" prequel movies in the '90s and 2000s. The prequel trilogy received mixed reviews from critics at the time but has since received a lot of support from fans who grew up with the movies. During a roundtable interview for "Obi-Wan Kenobi," which Insider attended, McGregor said that the sequel movies released between 2015 and 2019 allowed him to become a fan again. "I continued to love the 'Star Wars' universe and as the sequels were being made, I was happy," the actor said. "I was really happy to see them and feel that I was able to dip back into the world of 'Star Wars,' which I've been part of since I was a little kid." McGregor continued: "The sequels were easier to watch because they were a fantasy again for me. I didn't have any part in them. I said a couple of words for them here and there. In the latter two, I think I'd recorded some dialogue for them but I wasn't invested in them in the same way. So I was able to enjoy them just as the audience." The sequel trilogy followed new characters trying to stop the Sith from reforming after "Return of the Jedi." The movies also had appearances from actors from the original "Star Wars" trilogy, Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, and Carrie Fisher. Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Disney+ series and "The Phantom Menace." Disney+ / 20th Century Fox Earlier this month, McGregor told Vanity Fair for its June cover story that he found it "difficult" to finish the prequel movies after seeing the criticism of the first movie "The Phantom Menace." The movie has a Rotten Tomato score of 51% and many fans were critical of new characters such as JarJar Binks. Story continues McGregor also said during the "Obi-Wan Kenobi" roundtable interview that "The Mandalorian" series took him "by surprise." "I really enjoyed 'The Mandalorian.' By that point, we were already gonna make this as a series but it made me realize that a 'Star Wars' television series could be just as engaging as the movies," he said. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" is the third live-action Disney+ series created for the "Star Wars" universe and six more new series are on their way. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" premieres on Disney+ on May 27. Read the original article on Insider DENYS KARLOVSKYY THURSDAY, 26 MAY 2022, 19:34 Russian occupiers abducted the secretary of the Oleshky City Council Viktor Syrota. Source: Mayor of Oleshky Yevhen Ryshchuk Quote: "This evening I got a call saying that the occupiers had taken the secretary of the City Council Viktor Syrota. Let's hope that nothing terrible will happen to him. We really hope not! He is a sedate, serious person and God forbid that anything should happen to him!" Details: Ryshchuk confirmed that the Russian invaders appointed collaborator Heorhii Zhuravko as the head of the city's occupation administration. He gathered the directors of Public Utilities to give instructions on how to operate under Russian occupation. According to Mayor Ryshchuk, there is no significant activity of occupation units or military operations in the city. He added that employees of "Pobut," a municipally owned corporation, will be paid wages until the end of May, but in June the enterprise will have to be disbanded and stop payments due to the city falling under the control of the Russian occupiers. Background: The director of the Texas Department of Public Safety admitted Friday that it was the wrong decision for more than a dozen officers to wait outside a classroom door as a shooter killed children inside earlier this week. With the benefit of hindsight, where Im sitting now, of course it was not the right decision, it was the wrong decision, there was no excuse for that, DPS Director Col. Steven McCraw told reporters. The admission comes days after 19 children and two teachers were gunned down at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. Please send the police now, a little girl begged in one of several 911 calls from children inside the classroom. At least 19 police officers waited outside of the classroom door where the suspect was shooting because a commanding officer on scene believed it was a barricaded subject and not an active shooter. That commanding officer was later identified as Peter Arredondo, chief of police for the Uvalde Consolidated School District. I wasnt there, but Im telling you from what we know, McCraw told reporters. When theres an active shooter, the rules change, its no longer a barricaded subject, you dont have time. More than 40 minutes passed from the time the shooter, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, entered the school to when he was eventually killed. During that time, children placed calls to 911 begging for help as operators could hear gunshots being fired in the background, McCraw said. But police stood by, because Arredondo believed the gunman had barricaded himself and wanted to wait for a tactical team instead of engaging with the gunman. I wasnt there, McCraw repeated at the press conference, but a decision was made that this was a barricaded subject, and that there was time to retrieve the keys and wait for a tactical team with equipment to breach the doors. That was the thought process at that particular time, McCraw added. Outside of the school, parents pleaded with officers to go inside and confront the shooter. Story continues The police were doing nothing, Angeli Rose Gomez, a mother with two children inside the school, told The Wall Street Journal. They were just standing outside the fence. They werent going in there or running anywhere. In one of the 911 calls that took place just after noon, a girl said 12 people in her classroom were dead but that eight to nine students were still alive. Minutes later, at 12:21 p.m., an operator could hear three shots fired in the background. Police outside the room still didnt act, according to the new timeline provided by McCraw. Police were eventually able to get keys from the school janitor to enter the classrooms, where they finally killed the gunman. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Related... Connor McDavid (97) celebrates his series-winning goal against the Calgary Flames during Game 5. (Photo by Brett Holmes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) There was never a world where he wouldnt be heard from. Not with a trip to the Western Conference final on the line. In the final moment of what he described as a "bad" night, Connor McDavid delivered his best and most memorable moment of his historic and still-blossoming NHL career, lifting the Edmonton Oilers into the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and over the Calgary Flames in the Battle of Alberta with an overtime winner in Game 5. McDavids walk-off strike capped a wild and controversial 5-4 victory for the Oilers over the Flames in the first playoff meeting between the Albertan rivals in more than 30 years. Even with the heroics from the captain, Leon Draisaitl was the most dominant force on this night, collecting another four assists including a primary helper on McDavids winner to count a ludicrous 17 points in five games. Two superstars rising to the occasion, however, wasn't enough for the Oilers to win the game in the manner that they did. A key and controversial call from the league offices late in the third period reversed a potential outcome in favour of extending the series when Blake Coleman appeared to score a go-ahead goal on a drive into Mike Smith's crease. Story continues Coleman carried his momentum through the puck and deposited it into the back of the net with the blade of his skate. It was far from a textbook kicking motion, but after a critical review it was ruled that Coleman had propelled the puck across the goal line using an illegal motion with his skate. This is the angle for the Coleman goal reversal that is most convincing, in my view. But was it a distinct kicking motion? That will be debated for a long time, depending on how overtime goes. pic.twitter.com/kpHIhKYvjR Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) May 27, 2022 It was an impossible call at the time, and the result was cruel. There was no question that Colemans skate put it over the line, and that he set up his blade to make contact with the puck. But to call it a distinct kicking motion is a massive stretch, and the puck appeared to be heading into the back of the net regardless. Colemans disallowed goal broke a deadlock created by a feverish run of goals in the second period. Seven were celebrated in the middle frame, including the fastest four goals scored in succession in Stanley Cup playoffs history over the span of 71 seconds. Only in the Battle of Alberta. There were two lead changes within that scoring surge, including the fifth in as many games for Edmonton's Zach Hyman, who scored in all five games in the series a first for a franchise which has featured the likes of Gretzky, Messier and Kurri. What was lost in that feverish stretch, at least momentarily, was that the game changed dramatically in Edmontons favour. Calgary had its way early on, limiting the Oilers and McDavid specifically to very little offensively. Edmonton had just six shots in the opening period and were losing the possession battle handily with the Flames dominating in the faceoff circle and forcing the Oilers to defend. But when the game did break free from its shackles, the Oilers started to build more and more within. Shoddy defensive coverage prevented them from taking complete control, but the condition seemed to remain in the Oilers favour until McDavids moment in overtime. We will remember the goal and the celebration from the game's greatest talent, and if any hand is on the Conn Smythe Trophy this early, its McDavids. But there is a valid argument for Draisaitl being the single-most dominant force in the series. As mentioned, he racked up 17 points in the five games and matched Mario Lemieux for the third-most points ever scored in a single postseason series. He finished two points off Rick Middletons record of 19 points in a seven-game series in 1983. But what was most impressive about Draisaitls performance, which featured a minimum three points in each game, is that the former Hart Trophy winner is clearly hobbled. Like a men's or women's league player refusing to pick their skates off the ice because they are that much better than the part-timers they are playing with, Draisaitl dominated the series, perhaps more clearly than his lineman and captain, with skill, smarts and elite distribution of the puck adapting his game while nursing a high-ankle sprain. In addition to scoring twice himself, Draisaitl finished the series with assists on 15 of the Oilers 25 goals. I think hes the best passer in the world, Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft said after the game. The Oilers have not finished writing the story of their season, which featured ups, downs, a coaching change and controversial personnel decisions. And it may not be wrapped up following the conclusion of their next series versus either the Colorado Avalanche or St. Louis Blues in a clash which will decide who advances to the Stanley Cup Final. But to overcome the Flames in the second round, the Oilers have taken a massive and critical step forward after many seasons spent in the doldrums despite having two of the best players on the planet on their side. The Oilers are, finally, meeting the expectations that the hockey world is right to have placed on them. And soon, they may exceed them. More from Yahoo Sports The Orange County Sheriffs Office says theyve arrested the suspect in a murder that they later learned was just one of a string of violent crimes. Deputies responded to the 300 block of Duncan Court just after 6 p.m. Monday for reports of a shooting. READ: I had to do what I had to do: Grandmother fatally shoots intruder in Orange County They arrived to find 62-year-old Oleg Denysenko shot to death. Investigators say surveillance video showed a black Jeep Grand Cherokee pull into the area with its windows lowered. Deputies say the driver appears to call the victim over to the car before hes shot for no apparent reason. Minutes later, deputies say the driver of a vehicle matching the same description from the shooting scene intentionally hit another man with the SUV before crashing on North Buena Vista Ave. Read: Car submerged in downtown Orlando retention pond That driver, later identified as 30-year-old Vashawn McLendon, was seen running away from the car armed with a handgun. According to the sheriffs office, a third person reported being pistol whipped on Observatory Drive by the same person who had just crashed on Buena Vista Ave. Later that night around 8 p.m., deputies were called to a home on Hudson Street where a relative of McLendons said hed just arrived acting strangely and covered in blood. Deputies responded to the home, evacuated the family members, and took McClendon into custody. PHOTOS: Brush fire threatens homes in Brevard County This horrible violent spree by McClendon, which resulted in the tragic murder of Mr. Denysenko, and serious injury to two others, has no apparent motive, the sheriffs office said in a statement. None of the victims appear to have known McClendon, and there is no explanation detectives have been able to ascertain for these brutal crimes. McClendon is in the Orange County jail charged with second degree murder for the shooting of Denysenko, and attempted second degree murder with a firearm with the victim hes accused of pistol whipping. Hes being held on no bond. Story continues Click here to download the free WFTV news and weather apps, click here to download the WFTV Now app for your smart TV and click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live. Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives Fifty years ago, on June 3, 1972, as Sally J. Priesand became the first woman ordained a rabbi by a Jewish seminary, her 35 male classmates spontaneously rose to their feet to acknowledge her historic feat. For nearly 2,000 years, the position of rabbi which literally means my master or my teacher - was limited to men. The only exception during all those years had been Rabbi Regina Jonas, who was ordained in a private ceremony in Germany in 1935. Jonas perished at Auschwitz in 1944, and the details of her life were discovered in archives after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives Thirty-seven years after Jonas pioneering first, Rabbi Priesands ordination by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary of Reform Judaism, the largest denomination of religious affiliation among American Jews, opened the door to hundreds of women becoming rabbis. As a rabbi and historian of Jewish women in the modern era, I know that while the advent of women as ordained religious leaders has changed the face of the rabbinate, the values of equity and justice codified in the Hebrew Bible have not yet been fully realized when it comes to gender. Making a difference The rise and integration of women into the rabbinate over the past five decades has transformed many aspects of Jewish life, especially in North America, where they primarily serve. A smaller number are employed in Israel, Europe and Australia. Courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives , CC BY An estimated 1,500 women have become rabbis across every major Jewish denomination. After Rabbi Priesand in 1972, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso was the first in the Reconstructionist movement in 1974, Rabbi Amy Eilberg in the Conservative movement in 1985 and Rabba Sara Hurwitz in Modern Orthodoxy in 2009. The use of the professional title rabbi for an ordained woman remains controversial among Orthodox Jews as it derives from the masculine Hebrew word rav, the title given to men at ordination. As a result, some use rabba, the feminine rendering of rav in Hebrew, while others use maharat, a Hebrew acronym for a female leader of Jewish law, spirituality and Torah. Story continues Classes at liberal Jewish seminaries today often consist of at least equal numbers of male- and female-identifying rabbinical candidates. Maharat in New York City was founded in 2009 as the first institute to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy. Over 50 women have been ordained since then. Along with female academics, female rabbis have expanded the canon of Jewish study and stretched the parameters of Jewish practice to include women and their perspectives. New commentary based on the Torah which means Jewish learning in general but refers literally to the first five books of the Bible contained in the scroll regularly read in synagogue has recovered the stories of biblical women and treated them with the academic rigor usually reserved for biblical men. Women, alongside men, are studying classical legal texts and responding knowledgeably to questions that inform practice. Feminist Jewish theologians have questioned the ways in which God is described and understood, challenging the centrality of both male imagery and hierarchy in Jewish religious thinking and leading to the production of prayer books with gender-inclusive language. Moreover, female rabbis have been instrumental in creating rituals to acknowledge milestones relating to womens experiences. So, for instance, baby namings welcoming girls into the covenant now coexist alongside those for boys, and new religious ceremonies marking the first menstrual period and menopause have emerged. By dint of their presence as religious authorities, female rabbis are toppling the traditional gendered differentiation of roles between Jewish women and men and democratizing Jewish communities. In Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, for instance, women are no longer relegated to lighting candles and men alone privileged with reciting Kiddush, the blessing over the wine, on the Jewish Sabbath. Female scholar-rabbis now teach and, in some cases, lead seminaries, like Bostons Hebrew College and New Yorks Jewish Theological Seminary. They are also challenging conventional definitions of professional success by raising questions about work-life balance pertinent to all rabbis, regardless of gender. Fighting for equality While their impact on Jewish life has been significant, female rabbis continue to face considerable challenges. Teams deployed to Reform synagogues in the early 1980s to interview Jews about their qualms regarding female rabbis initial entry into the workplace yielded comments such as the rigors of the rabbinate are too great and women too weak for the demanding routine, women do not know how to, nor care to, wield power or authority and women who succeed will reflect poorly on their [male] colleagues. These have given way to far more egregious claims of gender discrimination and sexual misconduct at seminaries and synagogues in the wake of the #MeToo movement. Equity in the Jewish workplace has yet to materialize. There is, for instance, an 18% gender-based wage gap among Reform rabbis in congregations. The acceptance of female rabbis in Orthodox Judaism remains highly contested. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America continues to reiterate its opposition to ordaining women. For sectors further to the right, like the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim, affirmations of male and female difference make the question of women rabbis moot. Organizations like the Womens Rabbinic Network and the three-year-old grassroots Facebook group known as Year of the Jewish Woman are seeking to root out inequities. Plans to thoroughly revise the ethics code of Reform rabbis have been set in motion, and the Womens Rabbinic Network continues to advocate for passage of a uniform family and medical leave policy. Little girls can grow up knowing they can be rabbis The truth is that the days of a rabbi envisioned as a white man with a beard in a dark suit are coming to a close. In more recent years, the diversity engendered by women in the rabbinate has expanded to include rabbis of color, rabbis with disabilities, openly gay rabbis and transgender rabbis. In May 2022, the Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion issued a certificate of ordination to a nonbinary candidate for the first time in its 147-year history. When Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh appeared on the long-running medical television drama Greys Anatomy in 2005 (as herself), and Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, who is the first Chinese American rabbi, addressed the Democratic National Conventions Jewish American Community Meeting in 2020, they were smashing the so-called stained-glass ceiling and enabling all Jews to consider the rabbinate as a calling. As Priesand told me during an interview in May 2021, One of the things Ive always been proudest of is that little girls can grow up knowing they could be rabbis if they want to. And Ive worked really hard not just to open the door but to hold it open for others to follow in my footsteps. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Carole B. Balin, Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion . Read more: Carole B. Balin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California parole panel recommended the release of Patricia Krenwinkel for the first time Thursday, more than five decades after she and other followers of cult leader Charles Manson terrorized the state and she wrote Helter Skelter on a wall using the blood of one of their victims. Krenwinkel, 74, was previously denied parole 14 times for the slayings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. She helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the next night in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Manson to start a race war. The parole recommendation will be reviewed by the state parole board's legal division before likely going to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a decision within five months. He has previously rejected parole recommendations for other followers of Manson, who died in prison in 2017. New laws since Krenwinkel was last denied parole in 2017 required the parole panel to consider that she committed the murders at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner. Also, for the first time, Los Angeles County prosecutors werent at the parole hearing to object, under District Attorney George Gascons policy that prosecutors should not be involved in deciding whether prisoners are ready for release. However, Krenwinkels attorney, Keith Wattley, said relatives of her victims offered the same objections at the hearing as prosecutors have in the past. What was different this time was that the parole panel was willing to follow the law, he said, recognizing that she has had no disciplinary violations and is no longer a danger to society. She's completely transformed from the person she was when she committed this crime, which is all that it's supposed to take to be granted parole, he said. This March 13, 2020, photo provided by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation shows Charles Manson follower Patricia Krenwinkel. A California parole panel recommended her release for the first time, Thursday, May 26,2022. Krenwinkel, 74, was previously denied parole 14 times for the slayings of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. The next night, Krenwinkel helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary. (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation via AP) Im hopeful that the governor recognizes that he shouldnt be playing political games with peoples lives," Wattley said. The governor would be blocking her parole not because hes afraid of her, but because he doesnt like her. And the law doesnt allow that. Story continues Krenwinkel remains incarcerated at the California Institution for Women east of Los Angeles. Commissioners five years ago rejected her parole despite arguments then that she was affected by battered womens syndrome when she helped in the bloody slayings. Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary living with her older sister when she met Manson, then age 33, at a party. She testified in 2016 that she soon left everything behind to follow him because she thought they might have a romantic relationship. But she said Manson abused her physically and emotionally and trafficked her to other men for sex. She said she fled twice only to be brought back and that she was rarely left alone and usually was under the influence of drugs. At her last parole hearing, Krenwinkel told how she repeatedly stabbed Abigail Folger, 26, heiress to a coffee fortune, at Tates home on Aug. 9, 1969. The next night, she said Manson and his right-hand man, Charles Tex Watson, told her to do something witchy, so she stabbed La Bianca in the stomach with a fork, then took a rag and wrote Helter Skelter, Rise and Death to Pigs on the walls with his blood. She and other participants were initially sentenced to death. But they were resentenced to life with the possibility of parole after the death penalty in California was briefly ruled unconstitutional in 1972. Krenwinkel became the states longest-serving female inmate when fellow Manson follower Susan Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009. Wattley said he understands she is the longest-serving woman in the United States. UPDATE: 5:28 p.m. Friday 5/27/22 Pittsburgh Police report that Nidrea Cox was found safe on Friday. UPDATE: Nidrea has been safely located. Thank you for your help. pic.twitter.com/DaG1Lb4J0E Pittsburgh Police (@PghPolice) May 27, 2022 Pittsburgh Police are searching for a missing 13-year-old girl, who is believed to be endangered. According to police, Nidrea Cox was last seen around 3:30 p.m. on Thursday in Glen Hazel. She was wearing black clothing and a headband. Nidrea is 57 and weighs around 190 pounds. She has brown eyes and brown hair. Anyone with information pertaining to her whereabouts is asked to call Pittsburgh Police at (412)323-7141. TRENDING NOW: Drone 11 footage shows aftermath of train derailment in Harmar Township, 17 cars derailed Family of Washington County man who was killed while mowing his lawn speaks out Target 11 warning shoppers after more skimming devices are discovered VIDEO: UPMC makes medical breakthrough towards curing cancer DOWNLOAD the Channel 11 News app for breaking news alerts A man is in custody and a self-defense claim is under investigation after a fatal southeast Nashville shooting on Thursday afternoon, police said. The shooting happened around 12:15 p.m. in the parking lot of Longwood at Southern Hills Apartments in the 300 block of Wallace Road, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. Police said an argument broke out over clothing among four women, two of whom knew the victim identified as 16-year-old Eliel Arnoldo Ortiz and two of whom knew the man who opened fire. The man, who lives in the apartments, told police he shot only after guns were pointed at him. He then fled the complex and was later arrested by detectives at a motel on Briley Parkway. The man was initially arrested on unrelated charges of felony aggravated assault and vandalism stemming from April, police said. He is being held on a $90,000 bond on those charges, records show. Police also said they found meth, marijuana, three semi-automatic pistols and a rifle in his car. MNPD later announced he faces federal charges including: felon in possession of a firearm; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime; and possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute. Reporter Molly Davis contributed to this story. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Teen dead, 1 arrested after southeast Nashville shooting A Bloomington man faces charges of attempted murder and carrying a handgun without a license in connection with Little 500 weekend shooting of a 26-year-old man in downtown Bloomington. Michael V. Carson Jr., 33, of Bloomington, was arrested at the Bloomington Police Department Thursday, then booked into the Monroe County Jail at 7:05 p.m. He is being held in lieu of bond. According to a Bloomington Police Department news release, investigators found a .40-caliber shell casing near the rear kitchen door of a restaurant south of the parking lot at Sixth and Lincoln streets where the victim was found in the front seat of a car. "Video surveillance from nearby security cameras was showed a verbal altercation between two groups of individuals near the rear of the restaurant just prior to the shooting," the news release said. After interviewing the people, police found out the shouting turned physical and a fight broke out beyond camera view. Witnesses identified Carson as the person who pulled out a gun and fired it one time before fleeing. A detective called Carson May 26 and asked him to come to the police station to be interviewed. The shooting happened within half an hour of an incident at the Kalao Restaurant and Nightclub at 320 N. Walnut St. where three men were shot inside the rum bar. Investigators initially suspected the incidents might be related, but determined they were not. After Little 500: Bloomington shootings latest example of increased gun violence On May 2, Bloomington police officers arrested Keiantrea Washington, 27, of Bloomington. He faces charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery and criminal recklessness for allegedly firing a handgun into the crowded bar at 1 a.m. April 23. Bullets struck three people. Washington was released after posting $10,500 in cash for his bond. A jury trial is scheduled for Oct. 3, according to court records. The morning of the Kalao shootings, officers at the scene responded to another 911 call about a man who had been shot in a parking lot near the Sixth and Lincoln street intersection. Story continues Carson is charged with this shooting. Officers found a 26-year-old man with a gunshot wound to his abdomen in the front passenger seat of a vehicle. He was taken to IU Health Bloomington Hospital, where he was in critical condition for days. On May 16, he was transferred by helicopter to an Indianapolis hospital. "It is believed that this shooting occurred near the alleyway that runs east and west, between Kirkwood Avenue and Sixth Street," a police news release from that day said. "The victim in this shooting was rushed to emergency surgery once at the hospital. Investigators continue to search for witnesses and are attempting to review surveillance footage from nearby cameras." Downtown Bloomington was crowded with Little 500 revelers when the shootings happened. While the event draws thousands of young people to the city for what's often called the "World's Greatest College Weekend," both men arrested in the shootings, and the victims, are Bloomington residents. Contact reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com, 812-331-4362 or 812-318-5967. This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Man charged with attempted murder in Little 500 weekend shooting A view from the makeshift memorial in front of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022. Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images Texas law enforcement authorities on Friday denied claims by a local GOP congressman that the Uvalde elementary school gunman was once arrested years ago for threatening to "shoot up" a school once he turned 18. Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety said during a press briefing that the allegations by Texas GOP Rep. Tony Gonzales were not correct. Gonzales claimed during a Fox News interview earlier Friday that he "found out" that the 18-year-old gunman who slaughtered 19 children and two teachers at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School on Tuesday was arrested four years ago "for having this plan, for basically saying, you know, 'when I'm a senior in 2022, I am going to shoot up a school.'" "And this was four years ago, they apprehended him," Gonzales said. "So something fell between the cracks between then and now to allow this to happen." He continued, "We need to shake out all the facts." Authorities have previously said that the shooter described as an unemployed high school drop-out had no known criminal history. Though, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said during a press briefing on Wednesday that the gunman may have had a juvenile record, "but that is yet to be determined." The gunman on Tuesday carried out the most deadly US school shooting in a decade. This story is developing. Please check back for updates. Read the original article on Insider China details measures to stabilize, upgrade foreign trade Xinhua) 08:26, May 27, 2022 Photo taken on May 1, 2022 shows a container vessel docking at the Qianwan Container Terminal in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province. (Xinhua/Li Ziheng) BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China has detailed measures to stabilize and upgrade foreign trade, in an effort to keep the economy and industrial and supply chains stable. According to a guideline released on Thursday by the State Council, China's cabinet, services for key foreign trade enterprises will be enhanced and measures will be put in place to ensure unimpeded logistics for foreign trade cargos. Fiscal and financial support for foreign trade enterprises will be strengthened, according to the guideline, while efforts will be made to shore up cross-border e-commerce. The guideline also noted that online exhibitions should be optimized to help enterprises increase the volume of foreign trade transactions. A new batch of demonstration zones to promote imports will be fostered, it said. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Northampton, MA --News Direct-- Gilead Sciences When medical student Catia Seabra talks to high school classes in Portugal about sexually transmitted infections, her goal is to normalize sexual health education and make sure students dont feel ashamed or embarrassed. I dont want to scare them. I want to inform them, she says. They can still have a good sexual experience while being responsible. Catia explains to her students that sex comes with benefits and risks similar to getting a driver's license. It's exhilarating, there's a sense of freedom and independence, still safeguards need to be taken while driving. Since December 2020, Catia has taught sexual health education classes to high schoolers as part of Academia Pensa Positivo, which translates to Think Positive Academy in English. The Gilead-sponsored initiative aims to educate young people in Portugal about sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and dispel the misconceptions and stigma associated with them. The program is led by three doctors, including Dr. Joao Paulo Caldas, an infectious disease physician based in Porto. We want to leave young people with enough knowledge and confidence to identify STI symptoms if they arise and teach them the importance of requesting STI screenings, since many infections are asymptomatic, says Joao. The educational materials, created with the assistance of an infectious disease specialist, are presented to 15-18 year old teenagers, as well as to university students in pharmacy and med school. After hearing the presentation, university students like Catia are then tapped to help grow the program, enabling it to reach more teens throughout the country. Dispelling STI MythsThe program has helped reveal that many students don't know the difference between HIV and AIDS, so the instructors teach them about the important distinction. When Joao started the program two years ago he was surprised by the number of students who assumed that an HIV diagnosis was essentially a death sentence. Story continues "We make sure to dispel this and explain that nowadays if you learn you are living with HIV and receive the proper treatment you can live an ordinary life," he explains. Joao believes this program is now more important than ever due to a drop-off in sexual education lessons in Portugals schools and the fact that HIV is not discussed as much as it was decades ago, during the height of the HIV epidemic. Some students he talks to wrongly believe you can get syphilis from kissing, or that STI screening is included in routine blood work at the doctor's office. Many high schoolers are at the very beginning of their sexual journey and having sexual encounters for the first time, says Joao. They need that journey to be guided by facts. The Academy works hard to create a safe conversation space with the students and to present the information in engaging ways, such as with online games and assessments. Thats where med students like Catia come in. She is relatable to the students and has a knack for gaining their confidence and presenting the information in easy-to-understand terms. She has also designed her presentations to be part of a more positive learning environment than was typical when she was in high school. Back then, STI education was about instilling fear in students by showing very graphic photos of extreme cases in the hope of scaring young people into being cautious, says Catia. While extreme cases are alarming, theyre not a common experience for most young people, who may have more mild symptoms or no symptoms at all. Scaring young people into engaging in healthier behaviors rarely works. "Just like the name of the program implies, a positive approach to sex health education can help produce healthier outcomes," says Joao. Photo credit: Rawpixel/Shutterstock.com Originally published by Gilead Sciences View additional multimedia and more ESG storytelling from Gilead Sciences on 3blmedia.com View source version on newsdirect.com: https://newsdirect.com/news/portugals-positive-approach-to-teaching-teens-about-the-birds-bees-and-stis-516616027 ANNAPOLIS, Md. President Joe Biden took aim at Russia and a changing world at the keynote address at the U.S. Naval Academy's graduation ceremony, where he also hailed late Naval officer Sen. John McCain. Delivering the academy's keynote address at about 10:30 a.m. Friday, Biden told graduating midshipmen they would be commissioning into a changing global theater, noting the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. "We're seeing the world align not in terms of geography, east and west, Atlantic and Pacific, but in terms of values," Biden said during his address, noting countries which supported his sanctions against Russia in the wake of the country's assault on Ukraine. "Things are changing so rapidly, that the next ten years will be the decisive decade of this century," he said. "They're going to shape what our world looks like, and the values that will guide it." He jabbed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that the leader's "brutal war" on Ukraine was "literally trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people." "Attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture," he said, calling it a "direct assault" on fundamental tenants of international order. "That's what you're graduating into." Biden concluded his address by lauding late Naval officer and Sen. John McCain, who commissioned in 1958 and died in 2018 at the start of the graduating midshipmen's plebe year. Biden and McCain's political careers were intertwined in the Senate, coming to a head in 2008, when they ran against each other in opposing presidential elections. He called McCain a "man of great principal and capacity," adding that he "always lived by a code." While McCain was on his deathbed, Biden said his former colleague asked him to do his eulogy. "Two hard-assed guys, looked at one another and said 'I love you'." Story continues Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the Naval Academy's graduation ceremony last year. The keynote address usually rotates between the vice president, president and the secretary of defense. The address is Biden's first as president. He gave the keynote speech as vice president in 2015 and 2010. The last time a president delivered the keynote address was in 2018 when then-President Donald Trump visited the academy. The president has had a busy week. On Tuesday, Biden returned from his first trip as president to Asia and addressed the nation as it reeled from a mass shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. And on Wednesday, the two-year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, he signed an executive order aiming to improve accountability in policing. After visiting Annapolis, Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be heading to Uvalde, Texas on Sunday to meet with the families of those who were killed, as well as other community members. Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to help with food exports for the lifting of sanctions against his country. Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images Russian President Vladimir Putin said he'll help export grain and fertilizers if sanctions are lifted. Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea have been blocked since Russia's invasion. British foreign minister Liz Truss slammed Russia's suggestions that sanctions be eased for food. Vladimir Putin said he'll open up grain and fertilizer exports if sanctions against Russia are lifted. The Russian president made the offer in a phone call to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi on Thursday, according to an official statement from the Kremlin. Putin said Russia "is ready to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis through the export of grain and fertilizers, provided that politically motivated restrictions from the West are lifted." He didn't say if the exports would be from Russia or Ukraine. The Italian Prime Minister's office said the two leaders talked about "a shared solution to the ongoing food crisis and its serious repercussions on the world's poorest countries." The statement did not mention sanctions. The White House told Reuters on Thursday there were no discussions about the easing of sanctions against Russia in exchange for grain shipments. Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea have been blocked since Russia's invasion on February 24, leaving more than 20 million metric tons of grains stuck in Ukraine, per Reuters. This disruption is exacerbating a world food crunch as Ukraine accounts for 12% of global wheat exports and 17% of global corn exports, per ING Economics. It's also the world's largest sunflower oil exporter. Putin's comments follow those from a senior Russian government official who said the Kremlin would allow ships carrying food to leave Ukrainian ports in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, per Interfax news agency. Ukraine called the suggestion "clear blackmail," according to CNN. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday the West has only itself to blame for the food crisis, as it has taken a number of "illegal actions" leading to shipments getting blocked. Story continues "They must cancel those illegal decisions that prevent the chartering of ships, that prevent the export of grain, and so on" so that supplies can resume, Peskov told reporters, per Reuters. Vassily Nebenzia, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, said on Thursday there is a "safe corridor" allowing access to the key Odesa port in Ukraine, according to a Reuters report. Ukraine needs to demine the waters before the safe corridors can be used, he said. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at a press briefing on Thursday that it is on Russia to stop blocking the export of food from Ukrainian ports. "Sanctions from the United States and its allies and its partners are not preventing the export of Ukrainian or Russian agriculture, including food and fertilizer, nor are they preventing the ordinary transactions that are necessary for these exports, such as banking or shipping," said Jean-Pierre, according to an official transcript. British foreign minister Liz Truss slammed Russia's suggestions that sanctions be eased for food. "It is completely appalling that Putin is trying to hold the world to ransom, and he is essentially weaponising hunger and lack of food amongst the poorest people around the world," Truss said during a visit to Bosnia on Thursday, Reuters reported. "What we cannot have is any lifting of sanctions, any appeasement, which will simply make Putin stronger in the longer term," Truss added, per Reuters. Read the original article on Business Insider Reds pitcher Hunter Greene loved his experience pitching in front of Blue Jays fans. (Photos via Getty) This season is the first time since 2019 that the Blue Jays are able to spend their full campaign playing home games in Toronto, and with that, some other teams are finally getting to spend some time enjoying the international baseball city. During the Cincinnati Reds visit last weekend in which the home team earned a low-scoring series win rookie pitcher Hunter Greene was able to soak up some Toronto sights and gave a special shoutout to the fans. "To see it up close, to walk through the city, I just love the culture and the architecture, Greene told reporters during his stay north of the border. The atmosphere here is amazing. You could just feel the whole stadium was locked in every pitch." Some high praise from Hunter Greene re: Jays fans and the city of Toronto: "To see it up close, to walk through the city, I just love the culture and the architecture The atmosphere here is amazing. You could just feel the whole stadium was locked in every pitch." Jordan Horrobin (@JordanHorrobin) May 21, 2022 The 22-year-old didnt expand on specifically what architecture of Toronto he was able to enjoy, but one can only assume that a team bus must have passed by the Royal Ontario Museums jagged-edge renovation, or he spent time walking through Union Station and looked up at its historic ceilings. On the field, Greene was in the middle of the hollow cement bowl known as Rogers Centre on Saturday and experienced the rowdy crowd of a weekend baseball game. That didn't seem to slow him down. The second-overall pick in 2017 pitched six innings, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out six and walking two batters. That effort was still not enough, as the Blue Jays earned a 3-1 win thanks to a pair of Bo Bichette home runs. After being heralded as the next great long-term contender before the season, the Blue Jays have come out with a bit of a whimper and had a 21-18 record before Greenes start. If they can turn things around and play up to their potential, maybe more visiting players will get to enjoy Torontos architecture in October as well. More from Yahoo Sports Police officers on scene at Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, after a shooting. John Normile/Getty Images Authorities say a former federal agent may've known about plans for the attack in Buffalo, New York. Officials told The Buffalo News the suspect invited the ex-fed to view the plans in a chatroom. Ten people were killed in the attack thought to be racially motivated at a Buffalo supermarket. Law-enforcement officials are investigating whether a former federal agent knew about plans for the Buffalo, New York, shooting before it took place, The Buffalo News reported. A gunman opened fire at Tops Friendly Markets on May 14, killing 10 people, in what the police consider a racially motivated attack. The shooting suspect was identified as an 18-year-old white man. Authorities told The Buffalo News that the suspect corresponded with at least six people in an online chatroom before the attack, one of whom was the former agent. Officials said the suspect invited members of the chatroom to read a plan about 30 minutes before the attack, according to The Buffalo News. It's unclear what institution the former agent who hasn't been identified worked for or whether the person accepted the invitation to read about the plan. "These were like-minded people who used this chat group to talk about their shared interests in racial hatred, replacement theory, and hatred of anyone who is Jewish, a person of color, or not of European ancestry," one official told The Buffalo News. "What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened." The FBI is interviewing the members of the chat room, including the former agent, to establish whether any of them were accomplices, The Buffalo News reported. The FBI received no tipoffs about the shooting, the outlet added. The FBI declined to comment. The Buffalo Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider. Officials said earlier this month that they were investigating a manifesto they believe belonged to the suspect that contained racist and antisemitic views. Authorities also said the gunman had written the N-word on the side of his gun alongside a white supremacist symbol. The suspect on May 15 was charged with first-degree murder over the shooting. He pleaded not guilty. Read the original article on Insider (Reuters) - Russia's foreign ministry said on Friday that it was expelling five staff members of the Croatian embassy in Moscow in response to Zagreb ordering out some of its staff. Croatia in April told 24 Russian embassy staff to leave over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. (Reporting by Reuters) A destroyed tank likely belonging to Russia / pro-Russian forces lies amidst rubble in the north of the ruined city of Mariupol on March 23, 2022. Maximilian Clarke/Getty Images Russia is believed to have lost almost 1,000 tanks in its war with Ukraine, a senior US defense official said Thursday. Earlier this week, Ukraine said Russia appeared to be pulling old T-62 tanks out of storage. The UK stated Friday that these old assets would be "particularly vulnerable" to anti-tank weapons. Russian armor losses have been substantial in the country's brutal war against neighboring Ukraine, and the latest intelligence indicates it is having to pull old T-62 tanks out of storage to replace more modern equipment lost in battle. Ukraine's defense ministry said in a Monday update that "as a result of losses during hostilities," the Russian military has been "forced to withdraw from storage T-62 tanks to recruit reserve battalion tactical groups that are being formed to be sent to Ukraine." A Soviet-era T-62 tank Getty Images And on Friday, the British defense ministry posted an intelligence update reporting that "Russia has likely moved 50-year-old T-62 tanks from deep storage," noting that the move "highlights Russia's shortage of modern, combat-ready equipment." The UK also said that these Soviet armor assets "will almost certainly be particularly vulnerable to anti-tank weapons," such as anti-tank guided missiles like the Javelins provided by the US or next generation light anti-tank weapons (NLAWs) from the UK that have been devastating even Russia's more modern tanks over the past three months. A destroyed Russian tank along the side of the road in Ukraine. Nicola Marfisi/AGF/Universal Images Group via Getty Images The Russian T-62 tank is a main battle tank that was introduced into the Soviet military in the early 1960s. The Soviets produced over 20,000 of these tanks, which were once quite capable but have since become obsolete and outmatched by advancements in military technology, such as the T-72 tanks that replaced them and the follow-on T-80. As Russia's losses mount in Ukraine, the country is apparently having to take steps to field mothballed systems. Open-source intelligence seems to support more official observations. A senior US defense official told reporters in a background briefing Thursday that the US estimates that Russia has lost nearly 1,000 tanks since it launched a large-scale invasion, what Russian President Vladimir Putin calls a "special military operation," on February 24. Story continues Despite initial expectations that Russia would steamroll the defending Ukrainian forces, the invasion has encountered serious setbacks as a result of missteps in the face of tough Ukrainian resistance. A destroyed Russian main battle tank rusts next to the main highway into the city on May 20, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Christopher Furlong/Getty Images "We do believe that the Russian military has suffered a ... not insignificant amount of attrition," the official said, according to Voice of America, noting that Russia loses soldiers every day. That said, the official added that "they still have a significant amount... of their capability left to them," the official explained. How much of Russia's remaining capability is modern and ready for high-end combat remains to be seen. Read the original article on Business Insider The first details of the attacks of the Russian occupiers on the Dnepropetrovsk oblast became known (illustrative photo) Read also: Russia in sustained offensive in Donbas A troubled night and morning; there were several hits; extensive damage; emergency services are on site, digging people from underneath the rubble, said Reznichenko. Later Hennadiy Korban, the head of Dnipro Territorial Defense Forces reported Russian missiles hit the National Guard of Ukraine military polygon, killing 10 and injuring at least 35 servicemen. Read also: Russian invaders seize city of Svitlodarsk in Donbas local governor Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, located in central Ukraine directly north of Zaporizhzhya, has not been threatened by Russian military units, but has endured several missile and air strikes over the course of the war. Read also: Russia deploys more troops from Crimea to Ukraines Zaporizhzhya Oblast on April 13, 2022, a Russian soldier stands guard at the Luhansk power plant in the town of Shchastya. Alexander Nemenov/Getty Images A Russian mother successfully made Russian authorities return her sons from Ukraine. Her two sons were conscripts but never meant to serve in the Ukraine war, the mother told the BBC. She won a case with the military prosecutor and said "lied to my face." A Russian mother who was initially excited about her two sons' conscription to the Russian military last year forced Putin's government to return her sons home after she found out they were wrongfully sent to fight in Ukraine, according to the BBC. Marina, a pseudonym used by the BBC due to fear of retribution, told the outlet that in 2021, she told her two sons that "it was their duty to the motherland," and they were conscripted for a year in the country's military. But months into 2022, Marina worried for her boys as Russian troops were building at the Ukrainian border. When Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a military invasion into the neighboring country on February 24, Marina stopped hearing from her sons. "Time stopped for me. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep," she told the BBC. "I exchanged messages with the mothers of other conscripts from the same unit. It turned out that many of them had lost contact with their children, too." In early March, after weeks of denying that he had sent young conscripts into war, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov admitted that Russia had sent conscripts to Ukraine and that they were among the casualties. Marina told the BBC that after weeks and an attempt to drive into Ukraine herself, she heard from colleagues in her son's unit who said that her sons had signed military contracts to fight in Ukraine. "I wrote to the prosecutor-general's office asking to investigate," Marina told the BBC. "I told them there was no way my sons could have signed military contracts. I was certain. Other mothers wrote, too. They all knew their children." By March 9, the military prosecutor's office investigated Marina's claim and returned her sons to Russia shortly after, given they had never signed military contracts to fight in Ukraine. Story continues "The lads that came back from there were so thin, dirty and exhausted," Marina told the BBC. "Their clothes were torn. My son said: 'It's better that you don't know what happened there.' But all that mattered to me was that he had come back alive." She added that throughout the war, military officers "lied to my face." "First, they lied that my sons weren't in Ukraine. Then they lied that they'd signed military contracts. Officers lied, sergeants lied," she told the BBC. "Later someone told me that they weren't allowed to tell me the truth. Incredible. They were allowed to break the law and send my sons [to Ukraine], but they weren't allowed to tell a mother where her children are." She added that other families are still living with the nightmare of not knowing where their children are, and whether they are serving in the war. "So many sons haven't come back and never will. So many mothers are still searching for their children," Marina said. "My children were different people when they came back. You can see it in their eyes. They're different. They're disillusioned. I want them to believe again in a bright future, in peace and love. They've stopped believing." Read the original article on Business Insider OLHA HLUSHCHENKO FRIDAY, 27 MAY 2022, 07:38 PHOTO: HAIDAI'S TELEGRAM In Sievierodonetsk, a Russian occupying forces sabotage and reconnaissance group, which was being driven out by the Ukrainian military, broke into a hotel. Source: Oleksandr Striuk, the head of the City CivilMilitary Administration of Sievierodonetsk on the 24-hour news broadcast Quote: "We have a hot spot this is the "Myr" Hotel that was entered by a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group, which during the day we tried to get out of there. The situation there was quite fierce, but we persevered. They tried to enter from the other side At the same time, the artillery shelling of the city is relentless." Details: In addition, Striuk said that 12 people had been evacuated from the city over the past 24 hours. According to him, during the months of the war about 1,500 citizens have been buried both those who died of natural causes and those who were killed. ROMAN PETRENKO FRIDAY, 27 MAY 2022, 12:44 On 27 May, Russian troops fired on the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and hit the barracks of the National Guard in the Dnipro district, the regional territorial defence centre reported. Source: Hennadii Korban, head of the Dnipro Territorial Defence Centre, on "Dnipro TV", quoted by the local newspaper "Gorsovet" Details: According to Korban, an "Iskander" missile hit the National Guard barracks in the Dnipro district. According to preliminary information, 10 people died and about 35 were injured. Korban pointed out that by order of the Ministry of Defence, the army cannot concentrate more than 20 people in one place. The missiles had been launched from the Rostov region of Russia. There were three missiles, one of which hit the target. Background: On 27 May, Russian troops again fired on the Dnipropetrovsk region. They caused serious destruction, and people are being rescued from under the rubble. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, on the night of 26 May, the Russian army fired with artillery at the Apostolova amalgamated territorial community (hromada) on the Kryvyi Rih front. On 25 May, the Russian occupiers shelled the Kryvyi Rih district of the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast several times that day. Reminder: On the night of 17 May, Russian troops fired missiles at the Yavoriv district in the Lviv region, where the landfill is located and at the village of Desna in the Chernihiv region, near the site of the Desna training centre of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After an airstrike on the village of Desna, the bodies of 87 people were found under the rubble. A new South Carolina law will ban police from performing chokeholds in most cases, create guidelines for using no-knock warrants and require body cameras. Gov. Henry McMaster signed the police standards bill into law on Monday, but most of the standards wont take effect until January 2023 as a council of law enforcement leaders craft the specific policies that police agencies will have to adopt. The bill that eventually became the new law was filed at the end of 2020 following the high profile police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky, which sparked massive, nationwide protests and calls for police reform and defunding. Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis officer kneeling on his neck. An officer shot Taylor while a police team executed a no-knock warrant. The law will require police agencies to: eliminate chokeholds except in life-or-death situations create standards for using no-knock warrants standardize use of body cameras have a duty to intervene for officers when they see another officer breaking the law or policy create an early warning system to identify officers who are likely to abuse their power and violate peoples civil rights. utilize a publicly available system for people to file complaints against an agency or officer establish when officers can use force and how much force they can use require field training after basic police training establish when officers can pursue a vehicle and when they can shoot at a moving vehicle create hiring and firing practices Before the new law, police agencies in South Carolina were not required to have any standards of practice, meaning its up to each of the nearly 300 agencies in the state to create as few or as many rules as those agencies like. While a South Carolina county sheriffs office may have a policy manual of hundreds of pages that guides the office and its deputies, a local police department could not have a manual at all, leaving critical police practices without standards. Story continues A compliance division is created by the law to ensure agencies are adhering to the new standards. If agencies dont adhere, they risk fines or having all their officers policing certifications suspended, meaning they couldnt act as police officers. The law changes how police operate in South Carolina in other ways that go into effect immediately or by July 1. Newly hired officers who havent been trained by the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy cannot patrol alone. They have to be with a trained officer. Until now, those officers could begin patrolling before attending the criminal justice academy. Under the new law, officers could be charged with misconduct if they dont intervene when another officer is abusing someone or breaking the law. They could also be charged if they dont promptly report abuse or law breaking. Another long-standing issue effecting policing is solved by the law. Police agencies have to prosecute officers who are reported for misconduct. That prosecution happens at an administrative hearing before a tribunal of police leaders who decide if the accused officer will be stripped of police certification. Before the new law, police agencies could fire an officer for misconduct but not show up for the administrative hearing on that misconduct allegation. If the agency didnt show up, the tribunal usually had no evidence to justify taking the officers policing certification even if substantial evidence existed of the misconduct. Officers will now be required to sign a pledge to practice ethical policing. The law defines ethical policing as being without misconduct, conforming to the standards of the new law, and safeguarding life. The section on ethical policing emphasizes officers duty to intervene when another officer breaks the law or violates policy. The final version of the bill passed the Senate unanimously and the House by a vote of 103 to 4. The bill was introduced by state Reps. Dennis Moss, R-Cherokee; Sandy McGarry, R-Lancaster; Chris Wooten, R-Lexington; Bill Hixon, R-Aiken; Shannon Erickson, R-Beaufort; and Jeff Bradley, R-Beaufort. A 16-year-old was arrested Thursday after he allegedly threatened a shooting at a Tracy school, police said. The Tracy Police Department received a tip about a threatening social media post around 3:22 a.m. as part of an FBI information-sharing network, a press release said. In the post, there was a clear threat of harm alongside a picture of a specific Tracy Unified School District school. Investigators connected the post to a home in west Tracy, where a 16-year-old boy and his parents were contacted by police. The boy admitted he made the threat but said he had no real plan to carry out an attack. He also had a realistic BB gun his parents said they didnt know about. No other firearms or related contraband was found in the house. Police did not release the name of the boy but said he was not a TUSD student. They also did not release the name of the threatened school. TUSD school resource officers arrested the teen, and he was charged in connection with the threat, TPD said. Additional patrols were sent to monitor schools. Let us be perfectly clear, making criminal threats to harm others has no place in a civilized society, the press release said. We will not tolerate it in our community and will use the full weight of the justice system to bring those responsible to justice. The loss of life is not a joking matter. The threat in Tracy came just two days after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were gunned down in Uvalde, Texas A family hugs outside the Willie de Leon Civic Center where grief counseling will be offered in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022. Credit - Allison DinnerAFP/Getty Images The May 24 mass shooting in a Uvalde, Texas elementary school, in which a gunman killed 19 young children and two teachers, was the third-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. But it was also just the latest of an increasingly common type of U.S. tragedyone that experts say is saddling American schoolchildren, even the youngest, with rising levels of anxiety and other mental-health problems. Even when children arent directly involved in school shootings, they are deeply affected by them and often experience anxiety and depression as a result, says Kira Riehm, a postdoctoral fellow at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. These events are extremely high profile, and theyre portrayed hugely in the media, says Riehm. They also happen with alarming frequency. In 2022 so far, there have already been 27 school shootings in which someone was injured or killed, according to Education Weeks school shooting tracker. In a study published in 2021 in JAMA, Riehm and other researchers surveyed more than 2,000 11th and 12th graders in Los Angeles about their fear of shootings and violence at their own or other schools. Researchers followed up with those same students and found that kids who were initially more concerned were more likely to meet the criteria for generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder six months latersuggesting that kids internalize these fears, which can then manifest as diagnosable mental-health issues, Riehm says. While the researchers didnt find an overall association between concern about school violence and the development of depression, they did when they looked specifically at Black children. The root issue is this concern and fear that this could also happen at your school or another school, Riehm says. They are large numbers, and unfortunately, thats kind of in line with what I would have expected before even looking at the data. Story continues Children of all ages are at risk for developing these types of symptoms after shootings, but research shows that younger children are even more likely than older ones to develop symptoms like anxiety and PTSD as a result, says Dr. Aradhana Bela Sood, a professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University. Elementary school kids are probably going to have a much rougher time than perhaps older adolescents, says Sood. Younger kids havent developed those defenses, those capacities to sort things out in the brain, Sood says. They just havent had life experiences. And they have no idea how to make sense of this. Read More: Close-Knit Uvalde Community Grieves After Elementary School Shooting In a 2021 review published in Current Psychiatry Reports, Sood and her colleagues analyzed research about the effects of mass shootings on the mental health of children and adolescents. They found that young children (ages 2 to 9) who are directly or indirectly exposed to violence have increased rates of PTSD, but, older children (ages 10-19) need multiple exposures to violencedirect or indirectfor it to lead to PTSD, suggesting that younger children are more sensitive to violence and develop psychological symptoms post exposure to violence at a higher rate, the study authors write. (In the review, direct exposures were defined broadly as witnessing or surviving a violent event; indirect exposures included seeing images of a shooting.) High social media use and continuous news reporting on mass shootings expose children repeatedly to these disturbing stories, which can have at least short-term psychological effects on youth living outside of the affected communities such as increased fear and decreased perceived safety, the authors write. Gun-related concern has been widespread among U.S. schoolkids for a long time. Shortly after the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in which 13 people were killed, researchers surveyed high school students across the U.S. Their results, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that 30% more students said they felt unsafe at school, compared to national survey data collected before the shooting. This is evidence of vicarious traumatization, Sood says, which can occur when a child hears about a tragedy or sees images of iteven if they dont experience it firsthand. Sood says that kind of exposure is much more likely to produce long-term damage in children who already have shown symptoms of anxiety and depressionwhich describes a growing number of American kids. There are certain children that I would be very vigilant about, Sood says. While young children are deeply affected by traumatic events, the good news is that they are also resilient. Obviously theres an impact, but what you want to see over weeks is a gradual reduction in this response, and thats normative for young kids, Sood says. Whether a child is directly or indirectly impacted by a mass shooting, there are specific steps parents and guardians can take to help their young children process the tragedy. It is important for people around the child to be vigilant and aware of how they can be supportive and allow the evolution of the grief, Sood says. Giving the child a predictable routine, allowing them to talk about the experience without judgment, and limiting the news that the child takes in about a tragic event all help, Sood says. Parents or guardians should also make sure they are taking care of their own mental health. The omnipresent threat of gun violence is just one of the many contributors to the worsening mental-health crisis among U.S. adolescents. Riehm says that issues like climate change and COVID-19 are other large concerns. In November 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Childrens Hospital Association jointly declared a national emergency for the mental health of children. We are caring for young people with soaring rates of depression, anxiety, trauma, loneliness, and suicidality that will have lasting impacts on them, their families, and their communities, the experts wrote. For the first time, scientists fully sequenced the genome of a man who died in the Pompeii eruption. Researchers think volcanic ash entombed the bodies and shielded their DNA from the environment. Mount Vesuvius erupted nearly 2,000 years ago, burying the Roman city of Pompeii in ash. When Mount Vesuvius erupted one summer morning in 79 AD, the Roman city of Pompeii and most of its citizens were frozen in time, buried beneath tons of volcanic ash. Since explorers rediscovered Pompeii in the 18th century, archeologists have gradually uncovered what life was like there. Now, for the first time, researchers have fully sequenced ancient DNA from an individual who died in Vesuvius' blast. "It was really surprising that we can get this kind of result," Gabriele Scorrano, an assistant professor of geogenetics at the University of Copenhagen and lead author of the study, told Insider, adding, "It looks like this kind of environment helped the preservation in some way." Serena Viva, coauthor of the new study, examines remains of a man who died at Pompeii. Serena Viva In a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports, Scorrano and his team examined the remains of two individuals found in Casa del Fabbro, or the House of the Craftsman, which was first discovered in 1933. One was a man in his late 30s at the time of his death, while the other set of remains belonged to a woman, who was older than 50. Related video: How recreating faces from DNA can help solve cold cases Researchers extracted ancient DNA from parts of the skulls of both sets of remains. Though the team sequenced DNA from both individuals, only the man's skull yielded sufficient DNA for a full analysis, Scorrano said. Prior to this study, only short stretches of human and animal DNA from Pompeii had been sequenced. After comparing the sample against genomes from 1,030 ancient, and 471 modern Western Eurasian individuals, researchers found the man's genome had similarities to modern central Italians, as well as to other groups living in Italy during the Roman Imperial age. However, some genes from the sample matched genes commonly found in people who lived on the island of Sardinia, rather than on mainland Italy, which experts say suggests more genetic diversity across the Italy at the time. Story continues Remains of a man who died when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD. Serena Viva Frozen in time Researchers believe Vesuvius' blanket of ash entombed the bodies, shielding the ancient DNA from environmental factors that can deteriorate it, such as oxygen. "The sample had been covered by the ash from this eruption. The preservation of the bones is actually really good they're perfect for collection in DNA study," Scorrano told Insider. The sample also showed possible signs of tuberculosis of the spine, or Pott's disease which was endemic in Roman times, but is rare in the archaeological record, since the disease rarely leaves a mark on the bones. "It seems, according to the bioarchaeologist, that maybe this kind of disease didn't allow them to try to escape," Scorrano told Insider, adding, "They died in this position because they didn't have the chance to run away." Photo of the Pompeii ruins from above, on March 29, 2014. Leonardo Costa Farias Scorrano and his team hope their techniques can be applied to other victims caught in the flurry of ash nearly 2,000 years ago, in order to get a better snapshot of life in Pompeii before and during the disaster. "I think that our study makes the case for the further analysis of Pompeii individuals," he told Insider, adding, "Normally, when you study a specific site, you have a range of dates. Here, it's a picture of what happened 1 p.m., 24 August, 79 AD we can really reach an understanding of the population at that time." Read the original article on Business Insider Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy argued that people who need to kill feral pigs in Louisiana need assault weapons to do so. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy said people need AR-15 rifles to kill "feral pigs." Cassidy made the comment to a Vice reporter who asked why people would ever need assault weapons. He said people who kill "feral pigs" in "the middle of Louisiana" would object to a ban on them. Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy this week said that he thought people still needed assault weapons to kill "feral pigs," inadvertently echoing an old meme about gun control. In an interview published on Thursday, Vice News asked Cassidy whether he believed there was any room to ban assault weapons in the country. The lawmaker was also asked why someone would ever need an AR-15 the weapon used by the gunman in Tuesday's mass shooting at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. "If you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the, whatever, the middle of Louisiana. They'll wonder: 'Why would you take it away from me?'" Cassidy told Vice. "I'm law abiding, I've never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right," the senator added. Cassidy's remarks inadvertently referenced a meme from 2019 involving a hypothetical argument on Twitter made in support of keeping assault weapons legal. The meme was sparked by a Twitter user who wrote in a post: "Legit question for rural Americans How do I kill the 30-50 feral hogs that run into my yard within 3-5 mins while my small kids play?" The tweet was widely mocked by Twitter users, who questioned the plausibility of 30 to 50 hogs rushing into a person's yard or made jokes about hogs in general. While feral hogs are a problem in parts of rural America, it is unclear if hunting the hogs is a solution to the issue or if AR-15s are needed to hunt the animals. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has called for renewed restrictions on assault weapons following the Texas school massacre, which has left at least 21 people including 19 children dead. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has also signaled that he might be willing to work with Democratic lawmakers on gun safety legislation. Read the original article on Business Insider DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is building a massive new support ship near the strategic Strait of Hormuz as it tries to expand its naval presence in waters vital to international energy supplies and beyond, satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press show. The construction of the Shahid Mahdavi provides the Guard a large, floating base from which to run the small fast boats that largely make up its fleet designed to counter the U.S. Navy and other allied forces in the region. Its arrival, however, comes after a series of setbacks for both the Guard and Iran's regular navy, including the loss of its largest warship less than a year earlier. As negotiations over Iran's nuclear deal with world powers also founder, further confrontations at sea between Tehran and the West also remain a risk. They are looking beyond the Persian Gulf and into the blue waters of the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea and the northern Indian Ocean, said Farzin Nadimi, an associate fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who studies the Iranian military. The Shahid Mahdavi appears to be a retrofit of an Iranian cargo ship known as the Sarvin, based off of previous pictures of the vessel which also has a similar curve to its hull. The Sarvin arrived off Bandar Abbas in late July last year and then switched off its trackers. By Jan. 29, satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP showed the vessel at drydock at Shahid Darvishi Marine Industries, a company associated with Iran's Defense Ministry just west of Bandar Abbas. An image of the Shahid Mahdavi circulated first on social media. The ship appears to have crewed anti-aircraft weapons on its bow and stern, according to H.I. Sutton, a military ship expert who first identified the ship as being near Bandar Abbas. A flag for the Revolutionary Guard, showing its logo of a fist gripping an assault rifle with a Quran underneath and a globe behind it, hangs from the ship's bridge. Story continues A high-resolution Planet image taken of the drydock Saturday on behalf of the AP showed the gun-metal gray Shahid Mahdavi still at the shipyard. Just next to it, one of Iran's Kilo-class, diesel-powered attack submarines appears to be undergoing a major overhaul. Iran is believed to have one Kilo-class sub that's operational while another is also nonfunctional, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. As the image of the Shahid Mahdavi circulated online, the semiofficial Fars news agency ran a story about the ship. Fars, believed to be close to the Guard, described the vessel as a mobile naval city" capable of ensuring the security of Irans trade lines, as well as the rights of Iranian sailors and fishermen in the high seas. This range of new defense and combat innovations for the construction of heavy vessels, in line with the mass development of light vessels, and equipping them with various arrays can maintain Irans authority over the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman always in the face of transregional enemies, Fars said. Such floating bases have been used before in the region, particularly by the U.S. Navy during the 1980s so-called Tanker War" after Iraq invaded Iran. As Iranian mines detonated against crude oil shippers amid that war, the Navy began escorting ships out of the Persian Gulf through its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz. The strait to this day sees a fifth of all oil traded pass through it. During the conflict, U.S. special forces operated from commercial barges that served as forward operating bases. The Navy still works with the idea today the Mideast-based 5th Fleet has been home to the USS Lewis B. Puller, a massive ship designed off an oil tanker that can host troops and attack helicopters. The Shahid Mahdavi looks like it will be configured to be an afloat forward staging base, to use the U.S. Navy term, said Michael Connell, an expert on Iran at the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses. "The Puller was parked for many years in the Persian Gulf and the Iranian military witnessed its utility as a platform for expeditionary warfare and power projection." For years, the Guard patrolled the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, while Iran's regular navy patrolled the seas and oceans beyond. Building the Shahid Mahdavi likely gives the Guard the ability to expand its presence into those waters once patrolled by the navy. History also isn't something that has escaped Iran. The choice of the name for the Guard's newest ship Shahid Mahdavi, or Martyr Mahdavi comes from Nader Mahdavi, an Iranian Guardsman killed by the U.S. Navy in 1987 during the Tanker War. America's killing of Mahdavi, which came after his forces opened fire on U.S. special forces helicopters, still resonates in Iran today. Tehran has alleged without evidence that America captured him alive and tortured him due to the condition of his body after it was returned. The American helicopters had strafed the Iranian vessels Mahdavi oversaw with machine guns, rockets and flechette rounds small metal darts. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself once gave a speech with a portrait of Mahdavi near him in 2019. That was around the time of a series of mine attacks on Mideast shipping that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran amid the collapse of Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers. Using Mahdavi's name suggests the Guard views this as a means by which to challenge the U.S. Navy in the Mideast, particularly with the new ship likely able to support the so-called swarm attacks Iran can launch against larger American warships. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a 5th Fleet spokesman, declined to comment specifically about the Shahid Mahdavi as we're careful not to discuss intelligence-related matters. But generally speaking, we pay very close attention to the maritime environment with our international partners in the interest of regional security and stability, Hawkins said. The arrival of the Shahid Mahdavi, which would be the biggest ship in the Guard's fleet, comes amid a series of naval disasters for Iran. The Kharg, the regular navy's largest warship, sunk last June. In 2020, a missile mistakenly struck a naval vessel during an exercise, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15. An Iranian navy destroyer sank in the Caspian Sea in 2018. Meanwhile, a cargo ship in the Red Sea believed to be a Guard intelligence base suffered an explosion suspected to be caused by Israel last year. The Shahid Mahdavi could serve a similar role in espionage and sabotage missions by special forces, said Nadimi, the analyst at the Washington Institute. It also could be potentially outfitted with long-range missiles as well. Nasty things can happen around this ship, Nadimi warned. ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. The sister of the Uvalde gunman flatly refused to buy him a weapon when he asked her to last year, a top Texas police official said. Salvador Ramos, 18, eventually bought himself two assault rifles after turning 18 earlier this month that he used to murder 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school. But the Texas Department of Public Safetys director told a news conference on Friday that the suspect had previously tried to obtain weapons while he was still 17. We know that by his digital footprint that Ramos asked his sister to help him buy a gun, she flatly refused, that was in September 2021, said Colonel Steven McCraw. Ramos was shot and killed by officers inside the school on Tuesday after entering the building through an unlocked door, police say. Investigators say they found 142 fired rounds inside the school, along with 173 live rounds of ammunition. The gunman had a total of 60 magazines with him, including 31 magazines that he left in a backpack that he did not bring into the school. Before carrying out the massacre, Ramos shot his grandmother in the face because he had been arguing with her about the wifi bill. She is alive but her condition is reportedly serious. FILE - Investigators search for evidence outside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, May 25, 2022. (AP) Parents have been furious at the pace of the police response to the shooting. It took officers more than an hour from their initial contact to ultimately break into the classroom where Ramos was barricaded and fatally shoot him. Video shows parents and officers clashing outside the school as the shooting unfolded. The Texas state police are investigating the police response to the shooting, and US Representative Joaquin Castro of Texas has asked the FBI to probe their tactics as well. Map of Somalia Created in 1960 from a former British protectorate and an Italian colony, Somalia collapsed into anarchy following the overthrow of the military regime of President Siad Barre in 1991. As rival warlords tore the country apart into clan-based fiefdoms, an internationally-backed unity government formed in 2000 struggled to establish control, and the two relatively peaceful northern regions of Somaliland and Puntland effectively broke away. The seizure of the capital Mogadishu and much of the country's south by a coalition of Islamist shariah courts in 2006 prompted an intervention by Ethiopian, and later, African Union, forces. Since 2012, when a new internationally-backed government was installed, Somalia has been inching towards stability, but the new authorities still face a challenge from al-Qaeda-aligned Al-Shabab insurgents. See profiles compiled by BBC Monitoring FACTS LEADERS President: Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud Hassam Sheikh Mohamud was elected by parliament in May 2022, defeating incumbent President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed Farmajo. Mohamud had served a previous term as president in 2012-2017, which was dominated by the struggle against al-Shabab jihadists, and he still faces a strong challenge by the insurgency. MEDIA TV is still a minor medium in Somalia Somalia's disintegration is reflected in its fragmented and partisan media, which operates in a hostile environment. Journalists and media outlets complain about intimidation at the hands of state security agencies. Nevertheless, professionally-run media outlets have emerged - in particular, FM radios with no explicit factional links. The TV and press sectors are weak and radio is the dominant medium. Domestic web access is held back by poor infrastructure, but social media use is on the rise. TIMELINE More than one million people lost their homes as a result of the civil war 7th-19th centuries - From the 7th-century arrival of Islam onwards, modern-day Somalia is ruled by a series of at times competing sultanates. 19th century - European colonial powers gradually make inroads into Somalia's rival regional states, with the bulk of the area coming under Italian rule and the British establishing control of the northwest. Story continues 1960 - Italian Somaliland and British Somaliland become independent, merge and form the United Republic of Somalia. 1969 - Mohamed Siad Barre assumes power in coup after the assassination of the elected president; he goes on to declare Somalia a socialist state and nationalises most of the economy. 1991 - The ousting of Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 sparks a decades-long civil war between rival clan warlords and the disintegration of central authority. Former British Somaliland declares unilateral independence. 1990s- US-spearheaded UN peacekeeping mission fails to restore peace. 2006 - Militias loyal to the Islamist Union of Islamic Courts capture Mogadishu and other parts of south after defeating clan warlords, before being driven out by Ethiopian forces. 2007-11 - An African Union peacekeeping force, Amisom, begins to deploy and Ethiopian troops withdraw in 2009. Al-Shabab - a jihadist breakaway from the Islamic Courts - advance into southern and central Somalia, prompting an armed intervention by Kenya. 2012 - Efforts to restore a central authority since 2000 finally make substantial progress, with the swearing in of the first formal parliament in more than 20 years, and the holding of the first presidential election since 1967. May 26A federal jury in Philadelphia has convicted a former Berks County man on 30 counts of fraud, money laundering and identity theft, agreeing with prosecutors that he employed an elaborate scheme to steal money from his own financial advisory clients. Jason Weigand, 51, of Denver, Lancaster County, was indicted by a grand jury in October 2017, and while out on bail committed additional fraud, resulting in a second indictment. He was living in Sinking Spring when he committed the crimes covered in the initial indictment, according to court records. A judge denied his lawyer's motion for bail after his second arrest, and Weigand remains in federal custody while awaiting sentencing, the case record shows. U.S. Attorney Jennifer Arbittier Williams said in a release that in the 15 years Weigand served as an investment adviser and proclaimed himself a knowledgeable and reputable source of investment advice, he repeatedly stole money from his clients and went to great lengths to cover up his thefts. The amount of money stolen was not specified in the release. Weigand laundered the stolen funds by passing them through a variety of bank accounts, and he even hacked into one client's email account and accessed emails between the client and another investment adviser, she said in a press release. In one case, Weigand, after surrendering his financial advisory license, helped a former client of his receive payments on life insurance policies when her husband died, prosecutors said. He later convinced the woman to give him at least $240,000, which he said he would invest on her behalf. Instead, Weigand used the woman's money for his own personal and business purposes, paying off credit cards and car loans. In October 2017, Weigand was charged in a separate federal indictment with allegedly misusing funds belonging to his clients. "Weigand has proven himself to be a serial fraudster with no respect for the law or the fiduciary obligations of a financial adviser, and today a jury agreed," Williams said. "Rather than serving his clients, he served himself. Prosecuting financial fraud, and thereby safeguarding innocent investors who stand to lose everything, will always be a priority for this office." Story continues The case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Pennsylvania State Department of Banking and Securities. Damon Wood, postal inspector in charge of the Philadelphia Division, said in the release that Weigard's dishonesty extended through the trial, but at least with the verdict his victim's have some closure. "Fortunately, a jury saw through his dishonesty and found him guilty of fraud," Wood said. "Postal Inspectors, picking up the work of investigators from the Pennsylvania State Department of Banking and Securities, along with prosecutors from the United States Attorney's Office, saw this investigation through seven years of delays, a pandemic, continued criminal conduct by the defendant, and a nearly three-week trial. I applaud the tireless efforts of the investigators and prosecutors on this case." Stranger Things is back, but viewers in the United States will now see a warning before they dive back into the world of Hawkins, the Upside Down and beyond. The message was added to the fourth season of the hit Netflix show in the wake of the mass shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 19 children and two teachers dead: Stranger Things warning at the beginning of season 4. (Photo: Netflix) Stranger Things warning at the beginning of season 4. (Photo: Netflix) We decided to add the card given the proximity of the premiere to this tragedy and because the opening scene is very graphic, a spokesperson for the streaming video company told The Hollywood Reporter. The warning will only be shown to U.S. viewers. The shows description was also updated to note graphic violence involving children, which may be an understatement given whats happen to some of the young characters on the show since its 2016 release. The fourth season of Stranger Things will be released in two parts. The first seven episodes are available now while the remaining two will hit screens on July 1. Netflix has also ordered a fifth and final season of the show. This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated. Thousands of students staged walkouts at schools and college campuses across the country Thursday to demand stricter gun control in the wake of the Texas school massacre that left 19 students and two teachers dead. Starting at noon ET, waves of students some wearing orange, the color of the gun violence prevention movement abandoned their classes and headed outside to protest, often accompanied by their teachers and cheered on by their parents. I think there is something so devastating about 10-year-olds being killed, and students across the country are realizing this could have been any of us, said Maddie Ahmadi, 17, a junior at Essex High School in Essex Junction, Vermont. Outside Los Angeles, more than 150 students at Crescenta Valley High School walked out of their classes at noon. "Unfortunately, this has not been the first time we students have been forced to act," said senior Roan Thibault, 17, who remembered being in middle school the first time he took part in a walkout to demand more gun control after the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. "It's a shame lawmakers have not been listening to us," he said. "Two years ago there was a threat at my high school, which turned out to be nothing. But for many of us it was the most frightening moment of our lives." The nationwide protests were organized by a group called Students Demand Action, which is affiliated with the pro-gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety. Enough is enough, the students group said on the internet toolkit it used to organize the nationwide protests. Once again, gun violence has forced its way into our schools. We need more than thoughts and prayers. We demand action from our lawmakers now. The student group noted on its website that gun violence was the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in the U.S. Its impossible to say exactly how many students took part, but we know we had over 200 events where hundreds of students took part, said Sarah Harris, a spokesperson for Everytown for Gun Safety. This is not the first time students have advocated for gun safety in the wake of a tragedy. Story continues Students at Ahmadi's school in Vermont staged their walkout Wednesday. It was the first walkout in the country, and we did it at 10:50 a.m., right in the middle of classes, because we knew that was when the most students and teachers would be in the school, Ahmadi said. Our teachers walked out with us. Ahmadi said that students at her school have staged protests before but that the tragedy in Texas struck them especially hard. She acknowledged that making a difference in the gun control debate is an uphill battle. Sadly, we know these moments of collective action dont lead to immense change, Ahmadi said. But we know that at least a hundred Americans die every day from gunfire, and my hope is that students will keep up the pressure to get the politicians to do something about it. News: Oxford High School students walkout (Mandi Wright / Detroit Free Press via USA Today Network) In Michigan, one of the most poignant demonstrations took place Thursday at Oxford High School. Four students were killed and seven other people including a teacher were wounded in November at the high school about 45 miles north of Detroit by a 15-year-old sophomore who police said used a gun his parents bought him to wreak havoc. When the Oxford High School students emerged, they were met with applause from many parents parked across the street, who kept clapping as they marched across the campus to the football field. There, the students formed a big "U" in memory of the children and the teachers killed Tuesday in Uvalde, Texas. It meant a lot to me because of the shooting that happened," Andrew Sholtz, 16, a sophomore, told The Detroit News. "We went through the same thing. I lost a lot of friends. I thought it would be respectful to help other people through it." Story at a glance Recent polling among likely voters shows support for student debt forgiveness, even among those without loans. Progressive lawmakers and advocates are pushing the president to forgive up to $50,000, which would collectively move millions of Americans out of student debt. Yet support often varies and even decreases with age, especially among older generations who hold larger loan balances on average. Although theres widespread approval for student loan forgiveness, support often varies and even decreases with age, especially among older generations who hold larger loan balances on average. Progressive lawmakers and advocates are pushing the president to forgive up to $50,000 per borrower, which would collectively move millions of Americans out of debt, and young student debt holders across the U.S. favor at least some level, if not complete, student loan forgiveness for all federal borrowers. Yet President Biden has said he is not considering $50,000 debt reduction. Recent polling among likely voters shows vast support for forgiveness. More than half of respondents in an early April poll from the Student Borrower Protection Center said they are at least somewhat in favor of eliminating $50,000 for all borrowers. Around 46 percent of likely voters who supported forgiveness do not have student loans, the poll said. Its important to recognize that just because people no longer have student debt or never had it in the first place doesnt mean that they dont recognize how beneficial this is for their loved ones and for the economy more broadly, Cody Hounanian, executive director of the Student Debt Crisis Prevention Center, told Changing America. Yet polling data shows less support for widespread loan forgiveness from Baby Boomers and Generation X than among Millennials. A majority of Millennials polled by Morning Consult late last year supported at least some loan forgiveness, compared to 45 percent of Baby Boomers who said there should be none. Story continues Millennials carry the most student debt with an average balance of $38,877 per borrower, but Baby Boomers who hold an average of $40,512 per borrowerwill have to pay more when the federal payment pause ends as they carry the highest debt. This is due partly to older borrowers taking out loans for graduate school. Generation X, which describes Americans born between 1965 and 1980, hold the largest average amount of student loan debt per borrower with typical balances sitting at $45,095. Still, polling shows older adults are the least likely to support forgiveness. At the same time, some analysts predict borrowers over 60, who account for around 32 percent of the U.S. population, will benefit the least from loan forgiveness. Fairness to borrowers who already paid off their student loans or to Americans who chose career paths without attending college is one major reason for the generational disparity in loan forgiveness views. Republican lawmakers emphasized this point when introducing legislation last week to stop Biden from cancelling loan payments, while calling the presidents legal authority to cancel loans dubious at best. This decision would not only be unfair to those who already repaid their loans or decided to pursue alternative education paths, but it would be wildly inflationary at a time of already historic inflation, Sent. Mitt Romney R-UT said. America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news. This perspective is also held at the state government level with Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) recently pointing to the idea that people whove made different decisions should not be responsible for the choices of others. Mississippians without college degrees (or who paid off their debt) should not be forced to pay for the student loans of others. Why should people who chose not to go to college or chose to settle their own loans be punished for the benefit of those who made different decisions, Reeves wrote on Twitter in late April. But an underlying issue with the idea of fairness when arguing against loan forgiveness lies in a common misconception about who student loan holders are, experts said. Borrowers are often perceived as traditionally young and right out of high school. This is not the case anymore as changing economic circumstances push people of all ages to further their education, Hounanian said. The average student isnt that person. There are parents, single parents, older Americans who go back to skill up who are continuously reeducating themselves to be competitive in the 21st century economy and so unfortunately the word student loans I think is trapped in the stereotype of a young person student, he said. It is very easy for opponents of our movement to say that student debt cancellation is a handout to young people who are irresponsible who are not doing their part who havent contributed fully to society, and they are trying to frame this kind of villainous young person who doesnt work hard and isnt responsible and wants a handout. Madeleine Simon contributed to this report. READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA THE LEGAL AGES FOR BUYING A GUN IN THE US MAYE MUSK FEATURED ON SI SWIMSUIT COVER AT 74 GOP STATE SENATOR IN NEW JERSEY INTRODUCES DONT SAY GAY BILL MARVEL INTRODUCES NEW TRANSGENDER SUPERHEROES KENTUCKY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS ASKED TO WRITE LETTERS TO IMAGINARY FRIEND STRUGGLING WITH HOMOSEXUALITY For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Over the last month, U.S. Capitol riot defendant Matthew Wood had mounted a particularly vigorous defense. In a series of rapid-fire court filings, the 25-year-old Greensboro-area man, who is charged with six crimes tied to the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, had asked a judge to: Move his trial moved out of Washington, arguing that he could not get a fair hearing from a D.C. jury; Suppress some comments he made to the FBI as well as the information agents scraped from his cell phone; Throw out all or some of the charges. On Friday, however, Wood dramatically changed course. He pleaded guilty to all counts listed on his indictment, including a felony obstruction of an official proceeding that carries a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison. Matthew Wood of Reidsville pleaded guilty Friday to six criminal charges tied to the Jan. 6, 2021 riot by Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol. He will be sentenced Sept. 23 in Washington. Wood, of Reidsville, faces a range of possible sentences from as low as 10-15 months to as high as 41-51 months, depending on where he lands on the federal sentencing guidelines and what U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta decides on Sept. 23 when he announces Woods punishment. In a pointed exchange at the end of the 50-minute hearing, Woods attorney, Kira West of Washington, told Mehta that the government has raised the possibility of indicting Wood on another unspecified charge. She described the governments pursuit of her client as unprecedented. West said she has asked for a written promise from government prosecutors that Wood would not be indicted for another Jan. 6-related crime. They declined, West said. In all my years as a federal prosecutor and defense attorney, Ive never experienced anything like this. Woods lead prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Henek of Washington, objected. Since Wood gave a straight plea to the charges on his indictment, there was no plea agreement, and the government made no promises about future prosecution, if warranted, Henek said. In this image filed with an FBI arrest warrant, a man believed to be Matthew Mark Wood of Reidsville, N.C., storms through a broken window, Trump flag in tow, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021. Wood is one of at least 23 North Carolinians charged in connection with the riot, in which supporters of now-former President Donald Trump fought police, smashed windows and doors marauded through the Capitol all in a vain attempt to stop Congress from certifying Joe Bidens electoral win. Story continues According to a Thursday court filing by his attorney, Wood went to D.C. with his grandmother on Jan. 6 to hear Trumps speech, in which he baselessly claimed the election had been stolen from him by voter fraud. Three days before the trip, Wood foreshadowed the coming violence in a text message to an acquaintance. If they want to raid Congress, sign me up, he wrote. Ill be brave heart in that b----! Federal prosecutors say Wood was one of the first of the rioters to climb into the Capitol through a smashed window on the Senate side of the building, carrying a Trump flag throughout his stay. He made it as far as House Speaker Nancy Pelosis second-floor conference room. He later falsely claimed to the FBI that he entered the building only to avoid being trampled. The filing by his attorney states otherwise: When (Wood) entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, he did so with the intent to disrupt the certification proceedings. Once inside, according to court filings, Wood never took part in the violence, though the government claims he egged others on to battle with police. Afterward, Wood appeared to be of two minds about what had occurred. The FBI recovered this screenshot of Matthew Woods Facebook posts that corroborate that he was present inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Our election was stolen. The system is against us. I stood up to a tyrannical government, Wood wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post that the FBI later recovered. You can keep sitting or you can do something about it like we did today. This is the PEOPLES house, he boasted in another post. We sent those politicians running. We the PEOPLE will fight for our country ... When diplomacy doesnt work and your message has gone undelivered, it shouldnt surprise you when we revolt. According to the FBI, this screenshot recovered from Facebook shows Matthew Wood of Reidsville, NC, inside the U.S. Capitol during the pro-Trump riot on Jan. 6, 2021. The next day Wood expressed remorse in a text message to a unidentified acquaintance. Im not okay with my actions yesterday. I took a stand but it was extremely inappropriate ... I cant believe I participated in such chaos, Wood wrote, according to his attorneys filing. I was merely there as a citizen to make a point. I didnt assault anyone ... I didnt participate in the destruction of property ... While most of the people in there were just like me, everyday American citizens, there were some that disgraced our entrance and it associated me with them and that churns my stomach. The riot by the mob of Trump supporters is tied to at least five deaths as well as injuries to some 140 police officers. More than 815 arrests have been made in a sweeping Justice Department investigation that continues to grow, as does the role of North Carolinians who the government says participated. The states delegation of Capitol defendants include a former police officer, military recruits, members of two right wing militia groups, organic farmers, an avowed white supremacist and a couple that took their 14-year-old son into the Capitol as the violence unfolded. Wood becomes the eighth to plead guilty. Hell return to Washington for the first time since the riot for his sentencing. A protester outside the NRA convention in Houston. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) Children inside a Texas elementary school frantically called 911, begging for the police to save them, as a tactical decision by a commander kept 19 officers from storming a classroom in what a law enforcement official acknowledged on Friday was a mistake in judgment. "Of course it wasn't the right decision," Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at a news conference, choking back tears. "It was the wrong decision. Period." With 19 officers, McCraw said, there were "plenty of officers to do whatever needed to be done. But the commander inside Pete Arredondo, the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District chief of police decided the team needed more equipment and officers to enter the classroom where the shooter was holed up. He said the team did not move to take out the gunman until a full U.S. Border Patrol tactical unit arrived. Nineteen children and two teachers died in the massacre Tuesday. The magnitude of the mistake became glaringly clear Friday as officials also shared details of the 911 calls from children still alive in the barricaded classrooms. At 12:03 p.m., McCraw said, a 911 caller whispered that she was in Room 112 and that multiple people were dead. Ten minutes later, she said eight or nine students were still alive. More than half an hour later, a child calling from Room 111 said she could hear law enforcement officers next door. Please send the police now," she pleaded. McCraw did not say how many children might have been saved had officers entered immediately. He also did not spell out the degree to which the commander was aware of the childrens 911 pleas. Ultimately, this is tragic. What do you tell the parents of 19 kids or the families of two teachers? McCraw said. Were not here to defend what happened. Were here to report the facts. McCraw emphasized that every officer in Texas has gone through active-shooter training and learns you go in without waiting exactly the opposite of what officers did in Uvalde. Story continues Texas embraces active-shooter training, active-shooter certification, McCraw said. And that doctrine requires officers we dont care what agency youre from; you dont have to have a leader on the scene every officer lines up, stacks up, goes and finds where those rounds are being fired at and keeps shooting until the subject is dead." Some parents whose children were in the school said they were even further troubled by the new timeline. Officers on the scene should have done more, they said. I understand that theyre afraid for their own lives, but these guys are in tactical gear, said Laura Pennington, whose 8-year-old son, Adam, hid in the principal's office as the massacre unfolded. "They could have swarmed the building from all angles. He was terrorizing these children. They needed to do more." Pennington, whose brother-in-law was among those who rushed to the school to help but were forcibly kept outside by officers, was eventually reunited with her son Tuesday afternoon. But she said she was in touch with a woman whose niece was wounded in the attack and was still hospitalized Friday. Theres several more that are critical and I dont know if theyll live, Pennington said. I want to cry because they deserve better than that. Law enforcement experts across the country were also shocked to learn new details of Tuesday's police response, which ignored best practices adopted by Texas law enforcement to immediately send officers in to confront and kill active shooters. "You've got to stop the bleed," said Art Acevedo, former police chief of Miami, Houston and Austin, Texas. "You have to go in immediately. The kids were calling 911 for help." Travis Norton, a leader of the California Assn. of Tactical Officers' after-action review team who has studied numerous mass shootings, said it is a common mistake in such situations to think when the shooting stops, we stop." "That is the problem with the term 'active shooter': The shooter is still active if there are people in harms way," he said. But law enforcement keeps making the same mistake, he said. In the 2018 Borderline Bar and Grill shooting in Thousand Oaks and the 2021 King Soopers grocery store shooting in Boulder, Colo., on-scene commanders mistook a lack of shots for a barricade situation, Norton said. In contrast, when a gunman attacked a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, officers did not stop when the killer stopped shooting. Investigators in Uvalde are interviewing witnesses and poring over video to piece together a timeline that explains how the 18-year-old gunman, Salvador Ramos, was able to walk up to the school with a long gun, enter through an unlocked door and barricade himself inside two classrooms for nearly an hour before he was shot and killed. With pressure mounting to explain the delayed response, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott scrapped plans to attend the National Rifle Assn.'s annual convention in Houston and traveled to Uvalde on Friday. In his initial remarks, Abbott did not address errors by law enforcement or acknowledge previous misinformation he provided. Later, in response to a question from a reporter, he said he was initially misled about what happened in Uvalde and was absolutely livid. There are people who deserve answers the most and those are the families whose lives have been destroyed," he said. "They need answers that are accurate." For the second time this week, Abbott was confronted about his reluctance to support restrictions on guns. On Wednesday, former congressman and gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke accused Abbott of inaction. On Friday, state Sen. Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, urged Abbott to call lawmakers in for a special session to pass meaningful gun control measures. Calling the massacre unacceptable, Abbott said Texas officials would look to pass the best laws to make our communities and schools safer. But Abbott said he would not consider a ban on assault-style rifles. Ever since Texas has been a state, an 18-year-old has had the ability to buy a long gun, a rifle, he said. Maybe we're focusing our attention on the wrong thing? Earlier this week, Abbott hailed the speedy response of "valiant local officials" who he said had engaged the gunman before he entered Robb Elementary School. "They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire," the Republican governor said at a Wednesday news conference. And it is a fact that because of their quick response, getting on the scene, being able to respond to the gunman and eliminate the gunman, they were able to save lives. Actually, more than an hour and 20 minutes passed from when the gunman crashed his car outside the school at 11:28 a.m. until he was shot dead at 12:50 p.m. That delay as a crowd of anguished parents gathered outside and begged to get in to confront the gunman has led to growing scrutiny of the law enforcement response to the deadliest U.S. school shooting in almost a decade. Some parents have criticized police for not stopping the shooter sooner, and San Antonio-area Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro on Thursday urged the FBI to investigate local law enforcement actions. Over the course of the week, Texas officials repeatedly changed the narrative of the timeline, leaving unexplained how the shooter had time to get into the school after the crash, enter through an unlocked door and barricade himself inside two classrooms. They also struggled to explain why local law enforcement officers apparently spent an hour inside the school negotiating with an active shooter. Ramos' rampage began just after 11 a.m., when he shot his grandmother in the face at her Uvalde home. According to officials, Ramos then posted a social media message declaring that Im going to shoot an elementary school and drove off at a high speed in his grandmothers pickup. At 11:28 a.m., Ramos crashed the truck in a ditch and jumped out of the passenger side, carrying a rifle. He fired at two people at a funeral home as he walked toward Robb Elementary, climbed a fence and crossed the school parking lot. At 11:33 a.m., the gunman entered the school and began shooting more than 100 rounds into adjoining Rooms 111 and 112. Two minutes later, three Uvalde Police Department officers entered the school through the same door used by Ramos and went directly to the classroom door. Two officers received grazed wounds from the suspect. They were soon followed by three other Uvalde police officers and one county deputy sheriff, McCraw said, making a total of seven officers. By 12:03 p.m., as many as 19 officers were in the school corridor. But it was not until 12:50 p.m. more than an hour after law enforcement entered the building that officers breached the door using keys they were able to get from a janitor. A Border Patrol tactical officer shot and killed Ramos. The new timeline raises questions not just about a slow active-shooter response, but glaring security lapses in a school district that has invested in threat-assessment teams, a threat-reporting system, social media monitoring software, fences around schools and motion detectors to detect campus breaches. According to online district records, teachers are instructed to keep their classroom doors closed and locked at all times. Even though Uvalde is a small city, population 16,000, its school district has its own police department, formed a few months after the 2018 school mass shooting in Parkland, Fla. It has six officers and one security guard. Arredondo, the school district police chief who made the decision not to immediately send officers into the classrooms, spent 20 years on the Uvalde Police Department and was elected to the Uvalde City Council this month. In 2020, when Arredondo was hired as chief, the school districts superintendent, Hal Harrell, said in a Facebook post that the board of trustees was impressed with his experience, knowledge, and community involvement. We can never have enough training, he told the Uvalde Leader-News. In March, Arredondo posted on Facebook that the department had hosted active shooter training at Uvalde High School. A flier for the training declared: Stop the killing. Arredondo did not respond to requests for comment. One of the department's newest hires, Officer Adrian Gonzalez, had been an assistant commander and SWAT training commander at the Uvalde Police Department for 10 years and has taken training courses in advanced SWAT tactics and how to respond to active shooters and rescue hostages. Uvalde law enforcement officers have repeatedly participated in active-shooter training courses, according to official statements and online documents. In April 2018, the Uvalde Police Department and the Uvalde County Sheriffs Office took part in a five-day active-shooter response course conducted at the Middle Rio Grande Law Enforcement Academy. The training included mock scenarios at various public places, including an elementary school, police said. In October of that same year, a mock active-shooter drill was held at Sabinal High School, about 20 miles east of Uvalde. The drill included members of the Uvalde County Office of Emergency Management, Border Patrol and Texas Department of Public Safety, according to the department. Police also had experience with credible threats. In April 2018, about two weeks after the training at Middle Rio Grande, Uvalde officers arrested two juveniles who they said were planning to conduct a school shooting on their senior year (2022) at the Uvalde High School." On Friday, McCraw said Ramos was not one of those juveniles. On May 16, 2018, a school resource officer responded to a possible threat of a school shooting at Uvalde High after a student stated she overheard a comment in the hallways that a school shooting was going to occur sometime today, according to a new release. Police were not able to identify the person who may have made the comment. Eight days later, on May 24, Uvalde High was placed in temporary lockdown while officers investigated a school shooting threat. An investigation revealed that the concerning information was from a previous threat investigation and was cleared without incident, police said. Rector reported from Uvalde, Jarvie from Atlanta and Winton and Smith from Los Angeles. Times staff writer Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Houston contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A Texas Democrat has asked the FBI to launch a comprehensive investigation into the police response to Tuesdays shooting massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), who represents San Antonio, roughly 80 miles east of Uvalde, said the conflicting accounts from state officials, including inconsistent depictions of law enforcement actions, are adding insult to injury for the victims families. In a letter sent Thursday to FBI Director Christopher Wray, Castro asked the agency to clear up the discrepancies with an independent probe of its own. I urge the FBI to use its maximum authority to thoroughly examine the timeline of events and the law enforcement response and to produce a full, timely, and transparent report on your findings, Castro wrote. Your agency must ensure that the American people have a complete and comprehensive account of how this tragedy occurred. Law enforcement officials have come under growing scrutiny for their actions during the massacre at Uvaldes Robb Elementary School, where a lone gunman barricaded himself on Tuesday, killing 19 fourth graders and two teachers with an AR-15style rifle. After a standoff of more than an hour, a special unit of Border Patrol officers confronted the 18-year-old gunman inside the school, shooting him dead. Video has emerged showing a crowd gathered outside the school while the gunman was still alive, urging heavily armed police officers to rush into the building to confront him. With their calls ignored, some offered to go in themselves. As the days have passed since the shooting, a growing number of the victims family members are irate that the officers did not engage the gunman more quickly. State officials have added to the confusion surrounding Tuesdays events, delivering information thats conflicted with eyewitness accounts or turned out to be simply wrong. On Wednesday, for instance, state officials said a school law enforcement officer had confronted the gunman outside the building but could not prevent him from going in. A day later, another official said there was no such encounter. Story continues He walked unobstructed initially, Victor Escalon, a regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told reporters on Thursday. He was not confronted by anybody. In his letter to Wray, Castro pointed specifically to those missteps, while expressing frustration with the long passage of time before the gunman was confronted inside the school. A block of time between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time has yet to be fully accounted for, he wrote. Onlookers allege that parents unsuccessfully urged law enforcement to enter the building during this time and confront the shooter. State officials have already launched a formal investigation into the police response, which is being led by the Texas Rangers. The FBI is helping the Rangers analyze surveillance footage surrounding the shooting, The New York Times reported. But Castro wants the federal agency to take the reins of the probe. The people of Uvalde, of Texas, and of the nation deserve an accurate account of what transpired, Castro wrote to Wray. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has canceled his plan to attend the National Rifle Association's annual meeting this weekend and will instead appear via video and spend time in Uvalde, Texas, following a school shooting there that left 21 dead. "Gov. Abbott will be delivering remarks via pre-recorded video to the NRA Conference," Abbott campaign spokesman Mark Miner said in a statement on Friday. "He will be going to Uvalde today." Abbott had been slated to attend the convention in Houston where several prominent Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz and former President Donald Trump, are scheduled to speak. Several high-profile figures, including singers Larry Gatlin and Don McLean, have canceled their appearances at the NRA conference after 18-year-old Salvador Ramos walked into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday and shot 19 children along with two faculty members. A mourner writes a message on memorial for a victim of Tuesday's mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, May 26, 2022. Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING: LIVE UPDATES Trump said Wednesday that he intends to keep his commitment to attending the event. "America needs real solutions and real leadership in this moment, not politicians and partisanship," Trump wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday. "That's why I will keep my longtime commitment to speak in Texas at the NRA Convention and deliver an important address to America. In the meantime, we all continue to pray for the victims, their families, and four our entire nation we are all in this together." TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING: UKRAINE'S ZELENSKYY, WORLD LEADERS REACT, SAY THEY ARE DEEPLY SADDENED Gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, who made the rifle that was used by Ramos to carry out the attack, announced Thursday it has canceled plans to promote products at the event. "Daniel Defense is not attending the National Rifle Association (NRA) meeting due to the horrifying tragedy in Uvalde, Texas where one of our products was criminally misused," Steve Reed, vice president of marketing for Daniel Defense, told Fox News Digital in a statement Thursday. "We believe this week is not the appropriate time to be promoting our products in Texas at the NRA meeting." Story continues WHO IS THE TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTER? WHAT WE KNOW The NRA anticipates tens of thousands of people will attend the annual meeting. It is the first mass gathering of NRA members in three years following a hiatus during the pandemic , and follows decades of holding the annual event. "The NRA is very excited to host this pro-freedom lineup of nationally renowned political leaders in Houston, Texas and just one year after Texas passed landmark constitutional carry legislation. This will be a celebration of freedom and the Second Amendment in a state that truly respects our constitutional rights," Jason Ouimet, executive director of the National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action, told Fox News Digital in early May. Fox News' Emma Colton contributed to this report Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will no longer be attending the NRA Convention in Houston in person. He will be giving a press conference at Uvalde High School instead, but will be giving a pre-recorded speech at the convention. His virtual appearance comes just days after a gunman opened fire on a fourth grade classroom in Uvalde. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is no longer attending Friday's NRA convention in Houston in person, but he is still giving a pre-recorded speech at the event, a spokesperson for the governor told the Dallas Morning News. His virtual appearance at the event comes just days after an 18-year-old gunman opened fire in a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school, killing 19 students and two teachers. In place of his in-person appearance at the convention, Abbott will hold a press conference at 3:30 p.m. local time at Uvalde High School, The Hill reported, citing a press release from the governor's office. Abbott is still listed as a featured speaker on the NRA convention website. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick's office, meanwhile, announced Friday that he would no longer be speaking at the NRA Convention breakfast, a reversal since Tuesday's shooting. "I would not want my appearance today to bring any additional pain or grief to the families and all those suffering in Uvalde," Patrick said in a statement posted to Twitter. The gun manufacturer whose rifle was used in the shooting announced Friday that they, too, were pulling out of the event. "Daniel Defense is not attending the National Rifle Association ("NRA") meeting due to the horrifying tragedy in Uvalde, Texas where one of our products was criminally misused," a company spokesperson confirmed to Insider in a statement. It added: "We believe this week is not the appropriate time to be promoting our products in Texas at the NRA meeting." Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will be speaking at the event, as will former President Donald Trump. Story continues At a press conference Wednesday, Abbott said the elementary school shooting in Uvalde "could have been worse" and praised officers on the scene for their hard work. But Texas police are facing backlash for what many are calling a delayed police response to the massacre. Authorities said Thursday that the gunman was barricaded inside a classroom, shooting at students, for at least 40 minutes before authorities neutralized him. Democratic Texas governor candidate Beto O'Rourke, who got into a confrontation with Abbott at an earlier press conference about Uvalde, called on the governor to withdraw from the NRA convention. "If you have any decency, you will immediately withdraw from this weekend's NRA convention," O'Rourke tweeted Wednesday. Abbott's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Read the original article on Business Insider Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will skip Friday's National Rifle Association convention and instead make a return trip to Uvalde, the rural town devastated by an elementary school shooting this week, his office said Thursday evening. Abbott, who is seeking re-election in November, will record video remarks that will be shown at the NRA event in Houston, a spokesman for the governor told NBC News. He had been scheduled to speak in person. In Uvalde, Abbott is scheduled to hold a news conference after a meeting with state and local officials, as well as town residents. The Dallas Morning News previously reported Abbott's schedule change. Republican politicians scheduled to speak in Houston have come under pressure to forgo the NRA event, which opens just three days after 19 students and two teachers were gunned down in Uvalde. Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, two other high-profile Texas Republicans who had been scheduled to attend, have also backed out, citing scheduling conflicts they said were unrelated to Tuesdays shooting at Robb Elementary School, about 270 miles from Houston. Speakers who remain on the list for the event include former President Donald Trump, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Trump said in a statement Wednesday that he would keep his "longtime commitment to speak in Texas at the NRA Convention and deliver an important address to America." Texas law enforcement officials now say local police were wrong to have waited to engage with the gunman at an elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead on Tuesday. At a press conference Friday, Steven McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said officers believed students were no longer in harms way after the suspected gunman barricaded himself in a classroom. From the benefit of hindsight, where Im sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. Theres no excuse for that. Several police entered the elementary school but did not engage the gunman, who was behind locked doors to adjoining classrooms. Police have received increasing scrutiny over the past few days for their handling of the shooting. In the moments immediately following the attack on Tuesday, officials praised the actions of a team of U.S. Border Patrol and Uvalde police for neutralizing the 18-year-old gunman. Video has since come out showing witnesses yelling at officers standing outside the school to enter and confront the shooter. The father of a student killed in the shooting proposed that the bystanders should team up to enter the school because the police were staying outside, The Associated Press reported. The Uvalde Police Department published a press release on Thursday saying that officers responded to the attack within minutes. At a press conference later that day, Victor Escalon, a regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said officers arrived at the school minutes after the gunman but needed to wait for reinforcements and more equipment after the shooter fired at them. He said the Texas Ranger Division is leading the investigation into the shooting, including the way officers reacted. Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray on Thursday requesting the agency launch its own independent investigation into what happened. Story continues McCraw, the director of the Texas public safety department, confirmed that a door to the school had been open when the shooter entered, having been propped open by a teacher shortly before. McCraw said three Uvalde police officers who arrived on the scene a couple minutes after the shooter began firing in the school entered the building and received grazing wounds from the suspect. An additional four officers, three of whom were members of the Uvalde Police Department and one county deputy sheriff, had also followed them in. He said officers began to arrive about 15 minutes later, and up to 19 officers were present in a hallway near the classroom where the suspect barricaded himself shortly after noon. He said the on-scene commander during this time believed the situation had transitioned from an active shooter to a barricaded subject, and children were no longer at risk. McCraw said members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit arrived at 12:15 p.m. He said law enforcement officials breached the door to the classroom at 12:50 p.m. using keys from a janitor because the door was locked. At that time, the officers shot and killed the gunman. Officials had previously said they needed a staff member to provide a key because they were having trouble getting through the door. Updated at 3:51 p.m. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. The Donna Police Department in Texas on Thursday arrested four males, including two juveniles, in connection to threats made against a Donna school, according to local reports. The threats came two days after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in a mass school shooting in Uvalde on Tuesday, leading to threats from a handful of copycat actors across the state in the days that followed. The Donna PD arrested and charged Nathaniel Seth Montelongo, 17, and Barbarito Pantoja, 17, with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, local news outlet MyRGV.com reported. "We stopped an act of physical violence and harm on our students," Donna PD Chief Donald Crist said. TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT CLOSES SCHOOLS AFTER RECEIVING CREDIBLE THREAT OF VIOLENCE' The students are being held on $750,000 bond, according to the outlet. Police said two other minor students were arrested in connection to the incident after receiving a tip that the group was planning to carry out an attack against an unspecified Donna school. TEXAS SCHOOL SHOOTING: LIVE UPDATES The Donna PD and Donna Independent School District (ISD) did not immediately respond to inquiries from FoxNews.com. The Donna ISD released a statement Thursday announcing that classes had been canceled amid threats to the district and in light of the tragedy in Uvalde. "The safety and security of our students and staff is our first priority," the announcement said. "Classes will resume Tuesday morning." Authorities continue to investigate Tuesday's shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde that left 21 people dead. Roger Sollenberger/The Daily Beast The father of the 18-year-old gunman who killed 21 people at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, this week wants the world to know he is sorry. In an interview with The Daily Beast on Thursday, Salvador Ramos said, I just want the people to know Im sorry man, [for] what my son did. I never expected my son to do something like that, Ramos, 42, added. He shouldve just killed me, you know, instead of doing something like that to someone. His son, also called Salvador, shot his grandmother in the face on Tuesday and drove away with her car, before running the truck into a ditch outside Robb Elementary and opening fire on a fourth-grade classroom. The teenagerwhose attack has claimed the lives of at least 19 young children and two adultswas killed at the scene. It was the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. in nearly a decade. Ramos said he was at work the day of the shooting, and only learned of it when his own mother called to tell him. In a panic, he started calling the local jail, asking them if his son was there. Eventually the realization sunk in. They killed my baby man, he said. He added: Im never gonna see my son again, just like theyre not gonna see their kids. And that hurts me. The Daily Beast spoke with Ramos on the porch of his girlfriends home east of Uvalde, where he has been living for several years. The house and the bushes outside were adorned with blue and white streamers for a graduating senior. At times, the tough-spoken Texan broke into tears. The details of his sons attack were horrifying: According to authorities, he purchased two rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition in the leadup to the massacre, and barricaded himself inside the classroom for over an hour. One student recalled him telling the children in the classroom: Its time to die. He Came in and Shot Her: Fourth-Grade Uvalde Survivor Reveals Chilling Encounter With Gunman Despite the horrific slaughter he carried out Tuesday, Ramos insisted that his son was a good person who stuck to himself. He claimed to have no idea why his son became so violent, or why he chose to target the school. Story continues But he said he did notice one change in his son in recent months: a pair of boxing gloves hed purchased and started testing out at a local park. I said, Mijo, one day somebodys going to kick your ass, Ramos recalled. I started seeing different changes in him like that. The younger Ramos reportedly had a poor relationship with his mother and had dropped out of high school ahead of his graduation this year. His father admitted he had not spent much time with him lately because he was employed outside Uvaldehe digs holes around utility poles for inspectionand because of the pandemic. His own mother was suffering from cancer, Ramos said, and he could not risk being exposed to the coronavirus. He added that his son grew frustrated with the COVID precautions about a month ago and refused to speak to him. Ramos has not seen him since. My mom tells me he probably would have shot me too, because he would always say I didnt love him, he told The Daily Beast. Ramos also faulted the boys mother, Adriana Reyes, for not buying him more school supplies and clothes. He said his son was bullied at school for wearing the same high-water jeans every day, and that this was the reason he ultimately dropped out. Attempts to reach Reyes for comment this week were unsuccessful. Former classmates and families confirmed that the younger Ramos had been bullied in middle school for a speech impediment. But some former co-workers and others who knew him said Ramos had an aggressive streak, and his internet history pointed to someone all too happy to descend into twisted boasting about guns and mass bloodshed. A high school classmate told the Washington Post she had seen Ramos engage in multiple fist fights, and a former co-worker told The Daily Beast he was inclined toward harassing women he worked with. I dont think he was necessarily bullied, the classmate, Nadia Reyes, told the paper. He would take things too far, say something that shouldnt be said, and then he would go into defense mode about it. For his own part, the father has a lengthy criminal record which includes at least one conviction for assault and causing bodily injury to a family member. He said he was currently estranged from his daughterthe gunmans sisterwho he said was also upset with him for not spending enough time with the family. The sister, 21, joined the Navy and is no longer living at home. My daughter, I guess, changed her life, she went to the Navy, he said. I wish my son would have gone and changed his life." Ramos said his son frequently complained about his maternal grandmother, who was in the hospital recovering from her injuries this week. He said he offered to let his son move in with his own parents, but that the teenager declined, citing the lack of WiFi. (The teenagers final dispute with his maternal grandmother before he shot her was reportedly about his phone bill.) He said his son had a girlfriend in San Antonio, whom he and his family had been to visit, but he did not comment further on the teenagers social life, which classmates said had rapidly been declining. He added that he was speaking out because I want my sons story out there. I dont want them calling him a monster... they dont know nothing, man, he said. They dont know anything he was going through. with reporting by Emily Shugerman, William Bredderman, and Justin Rohrlich Read more at The Daily Beast. Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now. Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched reporting. Subscribe now. Don't miss CoinDesk's Consensus 2022, the must-attend crypto & blockchain festival experience of the year in Austin, TX this June 9-12. Former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney ditched me for Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde walked past in the Congress Centre at the World Economic Forums annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. And somehow that was only the second-most surreal thing to happen to me this week. Youre reading State of Crypto, a CoinDesk newsletter looking at the intersection of cryptocurrency and government. Click here to sign up for future editions. The badgeless The narrative A very nice gentleman I met in Davos told me there were about 2,500 official delegates at the World Economic Forum (WEF) this year, and about 3,500 people from the crypto industry on the Promenade outside the main event. Why it matters The crypto industrys attendance at the meeting and the side events outside were meant to be a signal. Crypto, as an industry, should be taken seriously. However, the point of setting up a house in Davos on the famed Promenade outside the main WEF meeting is to get your name out there to show that you have a real brand. Its not to secure a quick return on investment. As the crypto market continues in its latest bear market (amid broader economic turmoil), the question is what sort of return this actually looks like. Breaking it down Crypto has arrived. Two days in a row, on the train back to my AirBnB after panels at the WEF annual meeting, I met people who are involved in the crypto industry. Attendees who ventured outside of the Congress Centre, where the main panels were held, came face to face with posters and advertisements from different crypto companies. Panelists in various sessions brought up crypto unprompted. I went to a dinner hosted by an entity that has nothing to do with crypto and met someone who invested in certain cryptocurrencies years ago (and he was the second crypto investor I met at dinners!). Story continues Clearly this industry is on peoples minds in some way, shape or form. The question is whether the crypto presence was worth it. Industry participants paid massively for the privilege of splashing their banners across various buildings. No one shared any specific figures but its Davos. In a normal year, companies are competing with financial giants and lauded tech firms. This year, Accenture, SalesForce, Meta (formerly Facebook) and surveillance firm Palantir all set up facilities. The rescheduling of Davos to May seems to have really thrown things off. Numerous people told me that this years event was much smaller than normal. It certainly ended very abruptly, with the security gates blocking off the Congress Centre taken down very quickly by early afternoon Thursday, despite the fact that in theory the event was still underway. In other words, its possible, even plausible, that the crypto industry was able to take advantage of a gap in normal sponsorships to get a foot in the door, so to speak. Its far too early to know whether they'll be able to repeat this during a normal WEF meeting (the next one will be Jan. 15-20, 2023). Matthew Blake, head of the future of financial and monetary systems at the WEF, told me that the annual meeting wouldnt have any crypto panels if there wasnt interest from multiple parties. Everything that we do from a thematic and research basis has a multi-stakeholder property to it, Blake said. That's kind of core to how we operate. And the answer is absolutely, I mean, I think one of the key areas where we've seen keen interest from central banks around the world is in the [central bank digital currency] space We're doing interviews around the world with members of parliament, you know, central banking authorities, ministers of finance, and so on. I think there's a combination of like trying to understand the evolution of this space and staying on top of it. Even central bankers and finance regulators though not necessarily welcoming crypto with open arms are at least tolerating the sector. The International Monetary Funds managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, told a panel discussing central bank digital currencies not to pull out of the cryptocurrency sector, adding that it is important to separate apples from oranges and bananas. Others were more explicitly pro-regulation Here are some thoughts on how the CoinDesk team approached this years event, and what we can or should do next year. First off, I overestimated our access to reliable internet. A few of you pinged on Telegram but those messages usually came in hours later and didnt load when the notifications came in. So that was definitely a bit of an unwelcome surprise. I definitely started planning a bit late, considering how much happened during the week. Still, given all the uncertainties and setbacks, Im really proud of the team we sent. On the reporting side, we had myself, Sandali Handagama and Helene Braun, both of whom I think excelled (more of their coverage is coming in the next week). I also didnt realize just how nonstop the whole thing would be. While I expected it to be a bit chaotic, this felt far more like Consensus 2018 than Consensus 2019 (the real mid-Gs here know what Im talking about). Still, to be clear, I think this was both a fun and productive time. Speaking of which Consensus 2022 CoinDesk will be in Austin, Texas June 9-12 for Consensus 2022, the long-awaited return of our IRL event after two years of virtual forums. Itll be exciting! On Friday, June 10, Ill moderate a one-on-one discussion with Deputy Treasury Secretary Adewale Adeyemo. If you would like to ask a question, email stateofcrypto@coindesk.com with your query. Ill ask the best ones on stage. Well also have a panel discussion with a team from the Federal Reserve focused on innovation and the U.S. central banks role. You can send your questions for the Fed officials to stateofcrypto@coindesk.com as well. Some other interesting panels: Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chair Rostin Behnam and former CFTC Commissioner Dawn Stump will take part in a fireside chat with CoinDesk Chief Content Officer Michael Casey. Well have a digital dollar debate with Dante Disparte, Rohan Grey and Caitlin Long, moderated by Forkast News Angie Lau. Well have a lawmaker town hall featuring a handful of U.S. senators and congresspeople, moderated by CoinDesks Jesse Hamilton. Hope to see you in Austin! Bidens rule Changing of the guard Key: (nom.) = nominee, (rum.) = rumored, (act.) = acting, (inc.) = incumbent (no replacement anticipated) Im going to be honest, I have no idea if anything happened this week. I promise to catch up before Tuesday, though. Elsewhere: At Davos, Crypto Is No Longer on the Outside : Our first dispatch from the World Economic Forums annual meeting, taking a look at just how much the industry has embedded itself this year. Mastercard CEO Teases CBDC Panel: SWIFT May Not Exist in 5 Years: This was a weird one. Was Michael Miebach joking? Who knows. Sure, why not, lets go with that. Outside CoinDesk: (Associated Press) Being incredibly serious for a minute: News broke a few nights ago that a lone gunman had gone into a school and shot over a dozen children and two teachers. As of this writing, 19 children and two adult teachers were killed. Its heartbreaking and infuriating, and genuinely insane this can happen nearly 10 years after the Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut. The AP has a reported timeline on the sequence of events. The Onion is not playing today. pic.twitter.com/9xoYzHCk0W Sandra Tayler (@SandraTayler) May 25, 2022 If youve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback youd like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Twitter @nikhileshde. You can also join the group conversation on Telegram. See yall next week! NEW YORK (Reuters) - Former U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday lost a bid to stop New York state Attorney General Letitia James' probe of his business practices, allowing the three-year investigation to move forward. Trump, a Republican, last year sued James in federal court in upstate Albany, arguing the civil investigation into whether the Trump Organization misled banks and tax authorities about the valuations of its assets should be halted because he felt James, a Democrat, was using the case to further her political career. James replied in a January court filing that Trump's "allegations of political disagreement cannot insulate" him from the investigation. U.S. District Judge Brenda Sannes dismissed the lawsuit on Friday, stating in a written decision there was "no evidence" that James' investigation was undertaken in bad faith. "No one in this country can pick and choose how the law applies to them, and Donald Trump is no exception," James said in a statement. "We will continue this investigation undeterred." Alina Habba, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement that he would appeal the decision, adding that James' "egregious conduct and harassing investigation" met the definition of bad faith. The ruling was the latest blow to Trump's various challenges to the investigation. An intermediate state appeals court ruled on Thursday that Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, must testify under oath as part of the probe. Last week, Trump paid a $110,000 fine for failing to respond to James' subpoena, one of the conditions needed to permanently lift a contempt of court order issued against him by the judge in the case, Arthur Engoron. Trump had said he did not have any documents James sought, a claim Engoron called "surprising." James said in January that the investigation had uncovered significant evidence of possible fraud. Trump denies wrongdoing. Kevin Wallace, a lawyer with James' office, said at a court hearing last month that the attorney general will likely "bring some kind of enforcement action in the near future," without elaborating. (Reporting by Luc Cohen and Karen Freifeld in New York; Editing by Matthew Lewis) By Orhan Coskun and Jonathan Spicer ANKARA (Reuters) - Talks between Turkish officials and delegations from Sweden and Finland have made little headway overcoming Ankara's objections to their NATO membership bids, and it is not clear when further discussions will take place, according to two sources. Swedish and Finnish diplomats met in Turkey on Wednesday in an attempt to appease the NATO member and reach a deal that would allow for a historic enlargement of the Western alliance in the face of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The two Nordic states formally applied to join NATO last week to boost their security. All 30 NATO members must approve enlargement plans. Turkey challenged their bid to join on the grounds that they harbour people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and others it deems terrorists, and because they halted arms exports to Ankara in 2019. "It is not an easy process," a senior Turkish official told Reuters on Friday, adding that Sweden and Finland must take "difficult" steps to win Ankara's support. "Further negotiations will continue. But a date doesn't seem very close." A separate person close to the situation said the talks made no clear progress and ended with no timeline to continue, raising the prospect that Turkey may still oppose the membership bids when NATO holds a summit on June 29-30 in Madrid. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that Turkey expects Sweden and Finland to take concrete action and halt such support before it lifts its objections. Following a meeting in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said it was very important some results be achieved before the Madrid summit. "We had good negotiations there, long negotiations, agreed to continue those talks, and of course we rely on NATO's open door policy, which is also supported by Turkey. And we think that these problems can be solved," he said of the talks in Turkey. Story continues The Swedish foreign ministry did not immediately reply to requests for comment on Friday. The two countries have said they condemn terrorism and welcomed the possibility of coordinating with Ankara. The five-hour discussions on Wednesday were cordial and included separate sessions between Turkish officials and counterparts from the two Nordic countries, followed by three-way talks with all parties, the second source added. A third source told Reuters that Turkish officials downplayed prospects of reaching an agreement before the Madrid summit. VAGUE ROADMAP Neutral throughout the Cold War, Sweden's and Finland's decision to join NATO is one of the most significant changes in Europe's security architecture in decades. Finland shares a 1,300-km (810-mile) border with Russia. They had hoped it would be a quick accession process that would provide them with the pact's collective-security guarantee, and NATO countries say they will succeed. But Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan shocked allies by opposing the bids over the presence, especially in Stockholm, of people he said were linked to the PKK and followers of Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt. The senior Turkish official said Sweden and Finland made promises at the talks that should be formalised. The Turks handed their counterparts evidence related to PKK members said to be in the Nordic countries, the official added. The second source said Turkish officials again raised prospects of extraditions and appeared in no rush to agree a roadmap to a deal. The chairman of the Swedish parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee told Reuters this month that expelling people not on European Union terror lists was "totally unthinkable". Swedish Foreign Minister Ann Linde said on Twitter on Friday that unspecified reports that Swedish politicians represent the PKK are incorrect. On Wednesday she had characterised the talks in Turkey as constructive and said they would continue. Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, had said Ankara observed a positive attitude on lifting the export embargo during the meetings. Sweden and Finland banned arms exports to Turkey after Ankara's 2019 incursion into Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia. Ankara regards the YPG as identical to the PKK and views both groups as terrorist organisations. (Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay and Daren Butler in Istanbul and Daphne Psaledakis and Rami Ayyub in Washington; Editing by Catherine Evans and Grant McCool) U.S. immigration authorities next week will begin to interview certain asylum-seekers at two Texas detention facilities under a new Biden administration policy that aims to expedite the processing of migrants who ask for humanitarian protection along the southern border, U.S. officials said Thursday. The program will start on a small scale on Tuesday, with U.S. asylum officers expected to receive a few hundred cases per month during the first implementation phase, Justice Department and Homeland Security officials said during a call with reporters, requesting anonymity to discuss the plan. Initially, only asylum-seekers who tell U.S. border officials they plan to live near Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark or San Francisco will be enrolled in the new program, which aims to condense the asylum adjudication period from the current years-long timeframe to several months. Migrants are apprehended by US Border Patrol and National Guard troops in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 22, 2022. / Credit: Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images While it will be implemented in a limited fashion initially, the rule is one the most significant attempts to overhaul the massively backlogged U.S. asylum system and represents the pillar of a plan the Biden administration hopes will allow the government to manage unprecedented levels of migrant arrivals. The rule will allow Department of Homeland Security officers to fully adjudicate asylum cases of migrants who recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border, as opposed to transferring all those requests to the Justice Department's immigration court system, which is overseeing over 1.7 million unresolved cases. President Biden's appointees have said the program will allow the U.S. to more quickly grant asylum to those fleeing persecution, while expediting the deportation of migrants who don't meet the legal threshold for U.S. refuge. For years, government officials have said the multi-year waits for asylum decisions allow and encourage migrants fleeing economic hardship to use the asylum system to live and work in the U.S. indefinitely and simultaneously strand asylum-seekers with legitimate cases in a years-long legal limbo. Story continues "This rule is designed to transform how asylum claims are handled at our nation's borders, to cut down unwieldy, slow-moving bureaucracy and establish a fair and efficient process in its place," a senior DHS official said Thursday. The official said roughly 100 U.S. asylum officers have been trained to implement the first phase of the rule's implementation. They will be interviewing by telephone migrant adults held at two Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention centers in Texas who are placed in a process known as expedited removal. Only single adults and families traveling with children will be placed in the program since U.S. law bars the use of expedited removal on unaccompanied minors. DHS officials said they are working to provide migrants access to pro-bono attorneys before the initial screenings. If migrants enrolled in the new program establish that they have credible fear of persecution during these telephone interviews, they will generally be released with a tracking device, a DHS document indicates. If migrants fail these interviews, they can be swiftly deported unless they ask an immigration judge to reconsider their claim. Those asylum-seekers who pass the screenings will be required to attend an interview at an USCIS office in Boston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Newark or San Francisco. The in-person interviews will take place no more than 45 days after the initial screenings. If migrants fail to attend the interviews, they will be placed in deportation proceedings, officials said. USCIS officers would then have 60 days after that interview to deny or grant migrants asylum. Migrants who are granted asylum are allowed to stay in the U.S. and qualify for permanent residency a year after the decision. U.S. law allows the government to grant asylum to immigrants who suffered or fear persecution in their home country because of their nationality, race, religion, political views or membership in a "particular social group." If a migrant's asylum claim is denied at this stage, their case will be transferred to the immigration courts, which hold adversarial hearings. Judges would then be tasked with deciding within 90 days whether migrants should be ordered deported or allowed to stay because they qualify for humanitarian relief. Migrants are apprehended by US Border Patrol and National Guard troops in Eagle Pass, Texas, on May 22, 2022. / Credit: ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images Those ordered deported can appeal the decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals and then, if necessary, a federal court. But those appeals could take years to complete. Once migrants have final orders of deportation, ICE agents can arrest and deport them. Only migrants processed under traditional immigration procedures will be eligible for the new asylum program. Migrants processed under a pandemic-era public health authority known as Title 42 will continue to be swiftly expelled without an opportunity to request asylum. Since the Trump administration invoked Title 42 in March 2020, migrants have been expelled over 1.9 million times to Mexico or their home countries, DHS data show. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was supposed to end Title 42 earlier this week following a determination that the expulsions were no longer necessary to control the spread of the coronavirus, but a federal judge last week blocked that termination, saying the agency improperly ended the measure. Texas, one of the Republican-led states that challenged Title 42's termination, is also asking a federal judge to block the new asylum rule, arguing the power to decide asylum cases should continue to rest solely with Justice Department immigration judges. Earlier on Thursday, a bid by Republican lawmakers to nix the asylum changes failed to pass the evenly-split Senate. Mr. Biden would have vetoed the resolution anyhow, his administration said Thursday. Muzaffar Chishti, the head of the Migration Policy Institute's New York office, said the success of the asylum overhaul plan will hinge on whether the cases of asylum-seekers enrolled in the program are processed within an average of six months, and whether they are able to access legal representation, which he noted ensures both due process and efficiency. If immigration court cases of asylum-seekers who are rejected by USCIS "prove to be as long as the old process, that undermines the whole thing," Chishti told CBS News. To implement the rule on a larger scale, Chishti said USCIS will need to bolster its 750-member asylum officer corps. A senior DHS official on Thursday said USCIS has enough funds to employ "just over" 1,000 asylum officers. The slow implementation plan will help the administration address these issues, Chishti said. "If there are certain wrinkles in the program, a pilot helps you deal with them before you shoot for primetime," he added. "They are clearly not ready for primetime." How a public health approach could curb gun violence, according to an epidemiologist Abbott skipping in-person NRA convention appearance: CBS News Flash May 27, 2022 Can Congress find common ground on gun reform? Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine's richest man, owns the Azovstal steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol. Michael Gottschalk/Photothek/Getty Images Ukraine's richest man plans to sue Russia for up to $20 billion in damages to his steel plants. Rinat Akhmetov owns the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, which was bombarded by Russian forces. The Azovstal steel plant was the last bastion of the city's resistance against the Russian invasion. Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, said he intends to sue Russia for $17 billion to $20 billion in losses after his steel plants in Mariupol were severely damaged, according to local media. Akhmetov is the owner of the Azovstal steel plant in the southern port city of Mariupol, which suffered intense bombing and shelling from Russian forces. "We will definitely sue Russia and demand proper compensation for all losses and lost business," Akhmetov told the Ukrainian news portal mrpl.city. As the city's last bastion of resistance against the Russian invasion, the Azovstal steel plant came under fierce attack for weeks before the Ukrainian troops stationed there were evacuated. The Illich Steel and Iron Works under Akhmetov's SCM Holdings have also suffered damage due to Russian aggression, he told mrpl.city. Akhmetov has a current net worth of $6.93 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His wealth has tumbled 40% this year amid the war in Ukraine. After Russia's invasion began on February 24, Akhmetov's company Metinvest the country's largest steelmaker announced that it wouldn't be able to fulfill contractual obligations. In April, Metinvest told Reuters that it plans to resume production after the end of the war but would "never operate under Russian occupation." Russia said last Friday that it is now in complete control of Mariupol. Read the original article on Business Insider Ukrainian military For how long active fighting will go on September, October, or the end of the year depends on our resistance, on the state of our defenses, and on what (security) assistance well be getting, Skibitsky stated. Read also: Why is the Russian dictator so obsessed with Ukraine? He noted that Russia will hold local elections on Sep. 11, and said that the occasion could be used to stage some sort of sham referendum in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Oct. 7 is Putins birthday. Hes turning 70, and many will expect the military to try and give him a present, Skibitsky added. Read also: Putin signs decree to simplify issuing Russian passports to residents of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya, Kherson Oblasts Towards the end of the year, as its getting colder, the Russians say that Ukraine will agree to negotiate. Russia's invasion of Ukraine goes into the fourth month. UPDATE This story was updated to include information from the official Pentagon contract announcement released at 5:00 p.m. and a statement from Raytheon. WASHINGTON The U.S. Army has awarded a $624.6 million contract to Raytheon Technologies to build Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to restock its own supply after sending roughly 1,400 Stingers to Ukraine to bolster the nations defense against the Russian invasion. Work locations and funding will be determined with each order, with an estimated completion date of June 30, 2026, the Pentagons contract announcement Friday states. Reuters was first to report the contract award, expected for several weeks. Raytheon will build 1,300 new Stinger missiles, according to a statement issued shortly following the contract announcement. The contract includes provisions for engineering support, as well as the test equipment and support needed to address obsolescence, modernize key components, and accelerate production, according to the company statement. Stinger and Javelin have been in high-demand in Ukraine as effective means to repel Russias invasion. The Pentagon has the Stingers and sent more than 5,500 Javelin anti-tank missiless since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, among other defense materiel. Congress this month passed a $40 billion spending package for Ukraine that authorizes the Biden administration to send another $11 billion in U.S. military equipment to the country; the package includes $8.7 billion to backfill stocks already sent. The Army hasnt bought any Stingers since 2005 as it begins an effort to design the next generation of man-portable anti-aircraft missile while upgrading its current inventory. The Army said prior to Fridays news that it would be awarding a contract to Raytheon to address the Stingers most critical obsolete part, its dual-detector assembly, a spokesman for the Armys acquisitions office told Defense News. The Stingers dual-detector seeker uses infrared and ultraviolet sensors to locate targets. Story continues The Army also is working on a proposal to use advanced procurement dollars to buy long-lead parts and materials for advanced munitions in full coordination with the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, the spokesman said. Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes has said his company may not be able to make more Stingers until at least 2023 and, because some components are no longer commercially available, the firm will have to redesign electronics in the missiles seeker head. The Pentagon also recently issued a contract award of $9.9 million to Raytheon and Lockheed Martin to modify a preexisting contract for Javelin anti-tank missile engineering services as part of the effort to replenish stocks of that weapon, which is also being sent to Ukraine in large numbers. The award follows two other contract modifications made this month worth $239 million and $309 million for Javelin production to be completed by late 2025 to backfill stocks sent to Ukraine but also supply Norway, Albania, Latvia and Thailand. The contract, which dates to 2019, has a ceiling of about $2.2 billion. Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said the company aims to nearly double production for Javelin anti-tank missiles to 4,000 per year, but it would take a number of months, maybe even a couple of years, and that Congress could help by reshoring microprocessor manufacturing. Additionally, the Pentagon is poised, according to CNN, to up the ante in Ukraine by also sending High Mobility Artillery Rocket Launchers and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems to the country. The Biden administration is expected to announce the move as part of its next military assistance package as early as next week, CNN reported. New contracts to replace Javelin and Stingers sent from U.S. stockpiles were expected to be finalized earlier in the month a very rapid pace for the Army, its acquisition chief, Douglas Bush, told lawmakers in recent congressional testimony. However, the timeline to replace the services Javelins could take 18 months, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said in separate testimony. Were working with both Raytheon and Lockheed to see what they can do to speed up production, Wormuth said, adding later that congressional funding would help replenish munition stocks. Earlier this month, Pentagon spokeswoman Jessica Maxwell reiterated that the department has been able to send Ukraine its weapons without affecting military readiness, and we still have the necessary inventory for our needs. We are continuing to work with industry to replenish U.S. inventories and backfill stocks of allies and partners, and weve requested additional resources from Congress through the supplemental bill to continue this work, she said in a statement. Two senior Taiwanese government officials on Friday told CNN that Taiwan and the U.S. are planning talks on trade and the economy despite warnings from China. The officials said that the countries could begin talks in a few weeks, with the goal of creating more significant trade and economic cooperation between the two. The meetings will explore concrete ways to deepen the US-Taiwan trade and investment relationship, according to the CNN report. The report follows a warning from Beijing on Wednesday, when a Chinese military spokesperson announced that the country conducted combat readiness patrols and actual combat exercises around Taiwan. This is a solemn warning to the recent US-Taiwan collusion activities. It is hypocritical and futile for the US to say one thing and do another on the Taiwan issue, and frequently encourage the Taiwan independence forces, Col. Shi Yi, of the Eastern Theatre Command of the Peoples Liberation Army, said. Days before Shis announcement, President Biden contributed to U.S.-China tensions when he affirmed that the U.S. would defend Taiwan militarily if China invaded the island, saying, Thats the commitment we made. Taiwan is part of China, Shi insisted in the statement Wednesday. The theater troops are determined and capable of thwarting any external forces interference and separatist attempts to Taiwan independence, and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and security and regional peace and stability. A senior Taiwanese official also informed CNN that the country plans to send a delegation to the SelectUSA Summit in June, a meeting to promote foreign investment in the U.S. arranged by the Commerce Departments International Trade Administration. The U.S. and Taiwan are especially interested in cooperation in sectors related to supply chain resilience and sustainable development. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill. Police made the "wrong decision" by failing to storm a primary school classroom in Uvalde, Texas, as a gunman killed 19 children inside, the top safety official has said. "If I thought it would help, I would apologise," Steven McCraw said during a heated press conference on Friday. Officers delayed entering because they did not believe it was still an "active shooter" situation, he said. But pupils inside made multiple calls begging for police to come. Mr McCraw confirmed there had been a 40-minute gap from the police unit's arrival at Robb Elementary School to the moment they decided to storm the classroom where the gunman had barricaded himself. The senior officer on the scene decided to wait until the school janitor arrived with the keys because they thought that either "no kids were at risk" by then, or "no-one was living anymore". The delayed response, combined with video footage showing frustrated parents outside the school being tackled and handcuffed by police while the gunman was still inside, has led to growing public anger and scrutiny of how law enforcement handled the situation. Authorities have struggled to give a clear timeline of how events unfolded in Uvalde. On Friday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was "livid" that he had been "misled" about certain information, which he had made public in a news conference earlier this week. "As everybody has learned, the information that I was given turned out in part to be inaccurate," he said. He also revealed an anonymous donor had paid $175,000 (139,000) for the funerals of the victims. "We appreciate that anonymous donor for his generosity," he said. "And we will ensure that those resources get into the right hands." People prayed in front of memorial crosses for the children in Uvalde The gunman crashed his car near the school at about 11:30 local time, Mr McCraw disclosed, and walked around the building firing "more than one hundred rounds" into classrooms as he looked to get inside. An officer for the school district, who was not on campus at the time, drove immediately to the scene following a 911 call but "drove right by the suspect who was hunkered down behind a vehicle", Mr McCraw said. Story continues By 11:35, the assailant had entered the school through a door propped open earlier by a teacher, and barricaded himself into a classroom. Police officers followed him into the building minutes later but remained in the hallway. Mr McCraw confirmed that as many as 19 police officers had gathered outside the classroom but had made no immediate effort to get inside. It was not until 12:51 that a tactical unit entered the classroom and killed him - about 75 minutes after the attack began. The commanding officer on scene - the Uvalde school district's chief of police, who was not present at Friday's news conference - believed the situation was no longer one involving an "active shooter". The description is at odds with the disclosure that at least four emergency 911 calls were made from within the school - some from children barricaded inside with the gunman - begging for police to come. A BBC graphic showing a timeline of calls to police "With the benefit of hindsight where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. There's no excuse for that," said Mr McCraw. Growing emotional amid a barrage of angry questions following the admission, he called the mistakes "tragic". The great-grandfather of 10-year-old Alexandria Rubio, who died in the attack, told the BBC he thought the police were "cowards". Ruben Mata Montemayor said he had seen officers "walking" towards Robb Elementary during the attack. "If there was a danger at the school, why weren't they running?" he said. Texas shooting: More coverage After the gunman was shot dead, police found as many as 1,657 rounds of ammunition and 60 magazines in his possession. They later ascertained he had forewarned of some of his actions in private messages to a Facebook friend. It was earlier alleged he made the declarations - "I shot my grandmother" and "I'm going to shoot up a school" - as public posts on the platform. Mr McCraw said the suspect had asked his sister to buy him a gun last September, but "she flatly refused". In private chat messages with four people on Instagram earlier this year, he discussed buying a gun and asked questions about it. One user responded: "Are you going to shoot up a school or something?" "No, and stop asking dumb questions and you will see," came the reply. US President Joe Biden and the first lady are due to travel to Uvalde on Sunday, his second trip to a community rocked by gun violence in less than two weeks. The leftist leaders of Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia railed against the United States Friday in Havana, days ahead of the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, whose invitation list has overshadowed the agenda. US President Joe Biden has described the June 6-10 summit, being held in the United States for only the second time, as an opportunity to champion democracy over authoritarianism and has not invited the leaders of Cuba, Venezuela or Nicaragua. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who has said he will "under no circumstances" go to Los Angeles, held an alternative summit of sorts in Havana. Entering the Palace of the Revolution, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro called the gathering "a firm, forceful and absolute rejection of the imperial vision that seeks to exclude peoples from the Americas." Bolivian President Luis Arce said of the Los Angeles gathering: "If they want to have a meeting among friends, let them do it, but don't call it the Summit of the Americas." The talks in Havana were part of the ALBA grouping, set up in 2004 by Maduro's late predecessor Hugo Chavez and Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro to counter a US proposal for a pan-American free trade area. The bloc's grievances received a boost from the leader of Latin America's second most populous nation, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who said he would not travel to Los Angeles unless all nations were invited. On a visit to Havana on May 8, the leftist Mexican leader said it should be for "each country to decide freely if they will attend." In Havana, Maduro hailed Lopez Obrador for "standing up for the entire continent's truth, morals and dignity." Mexico may still send its foreign minister to LA, but the leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras and the 14-nation bloc of Caribbean states have also put their attendance in doubt. - Engagement or isolation? - Testifying to a US Senate committee on Thursday, summit coordinator Kevin O'Reilly said the United States would "absolutely not" invite representatives from the government of Maduro, whom Washington considers illegitimate following a widely criticized 2018 election. Story continues Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega -- who did not travel to Havana -- has also been accused of rising authoritarianism, with his main rival in last year's elections arrested and later sentenced to eight years in prison for alleged financial crimes. The Biden administration recently eased visa and family remittance restrictions for Cuba, a bugbear of Washington since the 1959 revolution. But the administration, pointing to human rights concerns, has stopped well short of reviving the thaw of former president Barack Obama and reversing pressure tactics of Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, who made inroads with anti-communist Hispanic voters in the 2020 election. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American and vociferous critic of Latin American leftists, at the Thursday hearing urged the Biden administration not to be "bullied" by Mexico into inviting a "trifecta of tyranny." "If we have a summit where we don't invite dictators and the people who wanted dictators to come decide to boycott it, then we'll just know who our real friends are in the region," he said. But three leading lawmakers from Biden's Democratic Party including Representative Gregory Meeks, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, warned that the exclusions "could undermine the US's standing in the region" by forcing other nations to choose. In a letter to Biden, Meeks and Representatives Jim McGovern and Barbara Lee said that inviting Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela would not be "an endorsement" of their ideologies but would show the United States is a "good-faith negotiator" in the hemisphere. "We believe that a policy of engagement will yield more fruitful results than a continued policy of isolation," they wrote. The Biden administration hopes that the summit will reach an agreement to coordinate on migration, a key domestic priority for Washington. Other items on the agenda include promoting green energy and improving health infrastructure in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. cb-rd-sct/sst The Supreme Court approved livestreaming for Indian courts in 2018 Virtual courts in India have provided moments of unintended hilarity - from a lawyer appearing shirtless for a hearing to another smoking hookah during proceedings. But their larger impact has been the ease and accessibility they have provided to lawyers, journalists and citizens. Shishira Rudrappa, co-founder of Bar&Bench said he started the legal news portal knowing "that one day court news would take up most of the front pages of our newspapers." In the past decade, legal news websites like LiveLaw and Bar&Bench - alongside the growth of social media and the proliferation of smartphones in India - have transformed legal reporting from courtrooms. While once these reports were limited to a court's verdict or a judge's observation, exchanges in courts now frequently make news. "It has increased awareness about the coverage of the courts - people have a better idea about what is happening there," said Manu Sebastian, managing editor of LiveLaw. Such real-time updates constitute a "virtual extension of the open court," a Supreme Court bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud observed last year. In 2018, the Supreme Court approved livestreaming for Indian courts, but it was the pandemic that pushed the country's legal system to adapt to virtual courts to hear cases. PV Uttara, a lawyer practising in the Kerala High Court, said she began making court appearances just as virtual hearings began in 2020. Women lawyers have written about finding litigation in India a "boys' club", making it difficult for them to get a foothold in the profession. Ms Uttara found virtual hearings were far less intimidating and helped her pick up courtroom practices better. They also offered a great way to keep women and young lawyers - who are often underpaid - in the profession as it eased the time and money spent on in-person court appearances. This also applied to ordinary citizens, for whom attending a hearing can be an arduous task, involving travel expenses and getting through layers of security, she said. Story continues While clients often need a lawyer to explain a legal order in layman's terms, being able to see their case argued virtually gave them "a certain satisfaction" and "personal connection", Ms Uttara said. The process also made hearings more accessible to people with lesser means, and those with illnesses or disability, she pointed out. "Our courts are not the most disabled-friendly institutions," she says. A survey carried out by the Supreme Court admits as much. Chief Justice NV Ramana says livestreaming court proceedings can be a 'double-edged sword' The Kerala High Court adopted a hybrid system of physical and virtual court hearings this year, which helped Ms Uttara continue to work and provide for her family while being the primary caretaker of her ailing mother. In 2020, the Gujarat High Court became the first to start livestreaming its proceedings. Months later, the Karnataka High Court followed suit. In February 2022, it livestreamed the hearings on the controversial hijab ban in high schools and colleges in the state. Thousands of viewers tuned in on the official YouTube channel to listen to the arguments. People on social media debated courtroom behaviour and wondered if what they saw was normal practice. Live broadcasts of court proceedings are very revealing, aren't they? Gautam Bhatia (@gautambhatia88) February 16, 2022 The increased scrutiny is not always welcome. This week, the Delhi High Court admonished the federal government for the language it used in an affidavit opposing livestreaming of a case regarding same-sex marriage. News reports quoted the government as saying that the petitioner in the case was creating "unnecessary hype" of the matter with intention to "create hallucination of public interest and to make the matter sensational". Chief Justice NV Ramana has called live streaming a "doubled-edged sword" but it was the judges he cautioned. "A judge cannot be swayed by popular opinion," he said In the US, the livestreaming of actor Johnny Depp's defamation case against actor Amber Heard has raised concerns about the media circus surrounding the trial and its impact on survivors of domestic abuse. But in India, lawyers say existing rules protect the privacy of individuals in cases of a personal nature - whether it is in cases of sexual assault or persons with HIV. The Karnataka High Court, for example, does not livestream cases of marital disputes, sexual offences, child abuse and crimes under the Juvenile Justice Act. The court can mute discussions among judges or lawyers, and any sharing of personal information of a litigant. Petitioners can also apply against livestreaming of their cases. "These accommodations are not new to Indian jurisprudence or to courtroom procedures," Ms Uttara said. Since livestreams are limited to a few courts, tweets and real-time updates from courtrooms by journalists act as substitutes, Mr Sebastian said. Making the legal system accessible to every Indian citizen is a complex process, Mr Sebastian said. Effecting these changes this will require efforts from not just the media, but policymakers, legislators and the government, he added. Mitch McConnell (right) and John Cornyn (EPA-EFE) Former House Speaker John Boehneronce said that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell holds his feelings, thoughts and emotions in a lockbox closed so tightly that whenever one of them seeps out, bystanders are struck silent. On Thursday, he left everyone in Washington speechless when he told CNN that he directed Senator John Cornyn of Texas to begin working with Democrats, including Senators Chris Murphy of Connecticut and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, to find a bipartisan solution. What Mr McConnell doesnt say is always just as important as what he does. Sure enough, he didnt list any specific policy that he would find acceptable or any one that would cause him to tell Mr Cornyn to cut bait. That gives Mr McConnell extraordinary breathing room, allowing him to label any policy that Democrats propose as a radical violation of the Second Amendment and frame any compromise that might emerge as a commonsense bipartisan consensus thus boxing out his most extreme members and daring more progressive Democrats to oppose whatever is brought to a vote, if anything. For Democrats, Mr McConnells words offer a glimmer of hope. Ahead of Donald Trumps second impeachment for inciting the 6 January Capitol attack, the minority leader never fully came out in favor of conviction even though he was not shy about his fury at Mr Trump; as New York Timess Alex Burns and Jonathan Martin wrote in their book This Will Not Pass, the Kentucky Republican had hoped for an overwhelming bipartisan consensus to impeach Mr Trump for his actions, but soon realized not enough Republicans were willing to cross the president. This time, Mr McConnell is coming out front, and likely knows there is a chance that 10 Republicans will get to yes. Your dispatcher decided to do some-back-of-the-napkin arithmetic to figure out who those 10 might be. Bearing in mind that some of them belong to more than one tendency while others would say yes to one idea but no to another, here they are broken down into a few discrete groups. Story continues The Retirees: Five Republican senators are planning to retire at the end of this Congress, which means they wont face the wrath of angry primary voters and have more of an incentive to vote on something they like. Of those five, three of them could potentially get to yes. Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, on whom the NRA has spent $3m over the course of his career, has in the past supported red flag laws that prevent people who would pose a risk to themselves or others from obtaining a firearm. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania was the Republican co-sponsor of legislation to expand background checks with Senator Joe Manchin in 2012 after the Sandy Hook Massacre. Meanwhile, Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri is a member of the Republican leadership and incredibly close with Mr McConnell. Like Mr Portman, he voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. The Red-Flaggers: Multiple Republicans have come out in support of red flag laws alongside Mr Portman. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post wrote that this is the most promising legislative path after the shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo. Other supportive Republicans include Senator Rick Scott, a member of the NRA, who says he supports red flag laws; unlike his GOP colleagues, he has also personally signed gun control legislation into law, specifically in 2018 after a gunman shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Mr Scotts fellow Florida senator, Marco Rubio, has also supported such laws in the past, while Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has talked about a grant program to support them. Axios reported that Mr Murphy is discussing red flag laws with Maine Republican Susan Collins; Senator Mike Braun of Indiana has said he was open to the idea, as has Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. Mr Blunt also told Axios he thought it was a good idea. That comes to something like seven votes not enough to break a filibuster, but possibly enough to create a cascading effect. That said, Senator Mitt Romney told Axios that he would prefer the states to set their own individual red flag laws. Which leads us to our next category: The Background-Checkers. As we reported on Thursday, Mr Romney told your dispatcher, Ive long felt that the federal government has responsibility for an effective background check system, and if there are ways to improve that, I could be supportive. He also said he had spoken with Mr Toomey of Pennsylvania. Ms Collins, meanwhile, voted for a 2013 background check bill that was filibustered by almost every other Republican with the help of a handful of Democrats. But background checks are less popular than red flag laws these days, and two of the Republicans who joined that vote Mark Kirk and John McCain are no longer in the Senate. As of right now, the closest tally that any of these pieces of legislation have is in the high 50s. Thats still not 60. But if Mr Cornyn can come back with a solution that Mr McConnell approves, the two might just bring a few more of their Senators over the top. Volunteer fighter detained in Odesa Russia's war against Ukraine the main events of May 27 The suspect is thought to have been illegally selling thermal visors, rifle scopes, and medical kits. Prosecutors said that the suspect has illegally sold UAH 700,000 ($24,000)in humanitarian aid. The investigation will continue to determine if other service members were involved in the scheme. Read also: Ukrainian business families at war over scandal involving humanitarian supplies for army The detainee will be charged, and courts will be petitioned for an arrest warrant, the message reads. The fighter will likely be charged with possessing and/or selling contra-band, which could carry a term of up to seven years imprisonment. Fans of the late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins continue to spread the love. More than a thousand musicians gathered Saturday, May 21, at Stade de France, a national stadium in Paris, to perform "My Hero" in honor of Hawkins, who died at age 50 on March 25. The performance came from a massive band called the Rockin'1000, which consists of musicians from 25 different countries. More than 50,000 people gathered to watch. The band was initially launched to lure the Foo Fighters to the small town of Cesena, Italy, in 2015. However, due to the pandemic, this performance marked their first time getting together in three years. Rockin'1000 was also subject to a 2020 documentary titled We Are the Thousand. Taylor Hawkins Kevin Winter/Getty Taylor Hawkins RELATED: Foo Fighters Drummer Taylor Hawkins' Life in Photos During their set, the band performed 21 songs that included covers of The Who, Rage Against the Machine, Pink Floyd, The White Stripes, and Guns N' Roses in addition to Foo Fighters. Hawkins died in Bogota, Colombia, on March 25 after complaining of chest pains at his hotel. A preliminary urine toxicology test found 10 different substances in his body, including THC, tricyclic antidepressants, benzodiazepines and opioids, according to the Attorney General's Office of Colombia. The Foo Fighters consisting of Dave Grohl, Pat Smear, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, and Rami Jaffee confirmed the loss of Hawkins in a statement shared on their Twitter account. "The Foo Fighters family is devastated by the tragic and untimely loss of our beloved Taylor Hawkins," the message read. "His musical spirit and infectious laughter will live on with all of us forever." Since his death, friends and fellow musicians have expressed their grief and honored the late drummer's life. Most recently, the Red Hot Chili Peppers stepped in to play the Foo Fighters' closing set at Jazz Fest in New Orleans. RELATED VIDEO: John Stamos Shares Video Message from Late Foo Fighters Rocker Taylor Hawkins: 'Miss You Pal' Story continues "We love the Foo Fighters and we love our brother Taylor Hawkins," drummer Chad Smith said at the end of the May 1 set, according to NOLA.com. "It's meant a lot for us to be able to play for them." Smith, 60, played with a drumkit that featured Taylor's name inside a hawk silhouette, and also reportedly led the crowd in a cheer of, "We love you, Taylor!" Foo Fighters frontman Grohl and Hawkins' widow Alison were present for the performance, and watched from the wings, according to NOLA.com. The Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich at peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 29, 2022. Cem Ozdel/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The West is considering allowing Russian oligarchs "to buy their way out of sanctions," AP reports. The plan entails oligarchs voluntarily donating funds to Ukraine, officials told the outlet. Canadian Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland pitched the idea at a G7 meeting last week. Western allies are considering a proposal that would allow Russian oligarchs "to buy their way out of sanctions," the Associated Press reports. The discussions include lifting sanctions on oligarchs who voluntarily give up their foreign assets or funds to be donated to Ukraine, according to the AP. Canada's deputy prime minister and finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, offered up the idea at a G7 conference in Germany last week, government officials familiar with the matter told the outlet. The meeting was attended by the the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors, the heads of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank Group, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and Financial Stability Board (FSB). The Ukrainian prime minister and the Ukrainian finance minister attended virtually. A spokesperson for Freeland's office did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. The Canadian deputy prime minister started out her career as a Ukraine-based freelance journalist for the Financial Times and later wrote the award-winning book "Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else." As a foreign correspondent, she was able to meet some of the now-sanctioned Russian billionaires one of whom she spoke with before pitching the proposal, an anonymous official told the AP. This isn't the first discussion of how Western governments could use the frozen funds and assets of sanctioned oligarchs to fund Ukraine's defense against Russia. The Biden Administration unveiled a plan in late April that would create a new system for selling the seized assets to fund Ukraine's defense. As of now, there are complex legal barriers that make it extremely difficult for the government to seize and sell an individual's private property, as Insider has previously reported. Read the original article on Business Insider WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fiji is joining U.S. President Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), the White House said on Thursday, making it the first Pacific Island country in the plan that is part of a U.S. effort to push back on China's growing regional influence. The announcement came as China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi began a sweeping tour of Pacific Island countries including Fiji a region that is becoming an increasingly tense front in the competition for influence between Beijing and Washington. Wang arrived in the region this week seeking a 10-country deal with island nations on security and trade that has unnerved the United States and its Pacific allies. The White House welcomed Fiji as a founding member of IPEF, which it said now includes countries from Northeast and Southeast Asia, South Asia, Oceania and the Pacific Islands. "Across geography, we are united in our commitment to a free, open, and prosperous Indo-Pacific region," National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement, underscoring Fiji's valuable perspective in the fight against climate change. With Fiji's addition, IPEF now represented the full regional diversity of the Indo-Pacific, he said. Biden officially launched IPEF earlier this week during his first trip as president to Asia, which has craved further U.S. economic engagement. Fiji is the 14th country to join IPEF talks, which exclude China. Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, asked about Fiji signing up to IPEF, told reporters in Beijing on Friday that the Asia-Pacific "should not become a geopolitical chessboard". Washington has lacked an economic pillar to its Indo-Pacific engagement since then-President Donald Trump quit a multinational trans-Pacific trade agreement, in part out of concern over U.S. jobs. U.S. officials have said IPEF will include enforceable agreements, though trade experts have expressed skepticism about the plan, particularly over concerns that the United States is unlikely to offer increased market access. (Reporting by Michael Martina; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jonathan Oatis) In July, a bit of Basque French Country is set to land in downtown L.A. in the form of chicken long-stewed with Espelette pepper; green peppers stuffed with shallots, rice and cinnamon; and grilled duck breast with vine clippings and cherries. In a way, the European coastal region is, Daniel Rose says, a mirror image of Los Angeles, and he intends to showcase its similarities in flavor and culture when he opens Cafe Basque at the base of downtowns Hoxton hotel. It marks the first West Coast restaurant for the Michelin-starred Le Coucou chef, and only his second in the United States, as well as the first time the France-based chef will shape a restaurant around Basque cooking. I am addicted, in some ways, to this notion of bringing the French way to different places, Rose said in an interview. I think that there are great cities in the world that have a tremendous amount of character, a tremendous amount of diversity, that have a different way of looking at the world and I find that absolutely thrilling. Rose, born and raised in Illinois, set off to study in France 24 years ago and never really left. The chef with a passion for the classics and art history finished his studies in Paris, and wanting to remain in France, decided to pursue cooking, enrolling in the Institut Paul Bocuse. From there, he apprenticed and cooked his way through Brittany, the South of France and other locales with a detour to Guatemala in 2004, where he cooked French cuisine with Central American ingredients for nearly two years at a chic hotel in Lake Atitlan then returned to Paris to open Spring, a runaway success of a market-driven, 16-seat destination with a fixed menu in 2006. Reservations filled up months at a time. Le Figaro food critic Emmanuel Rubin visited a few weeks into Spring's opening and wrote one of Rose's favorite observations to this day: That it was a restaurant that resembled life. I dont know how you can top that," the chef said. "I thought it was very touching, and it set the tone for everything we did from then, on. Story continues Spring, which in 2010 expanded to a much larger location, closed in 2017. But ever since its rise to international acclaim, each Rose concept has focused on a different nuance of French cooking, be it fine dining, bistro, provincial or, in the case of his forthcoming Chicago restaurant Le Select, due to open in late fall a classic brasserie. Le Coucou, Rose's first U.S. restaurant, opened in New York in 2016 to immediate fanfare; devotees still scoop up reservations for its ode to high-end, traditional French cuisine and revived dishes from decades and even centuries past. In Los Angeles, Basque cuisine simply made sense. I thought, What is it about Basque cooking that fits with Los Angeles? For me, California is defined by the sunshine, in some ways, he said. There are a few places in France where theres a Cuisine du Soleil, [or] cooking from the sunshine. In my brain it would be weird to cook things from Normandie in Southern California, but there are natural places already in France that have this tradition of Cuisine du Soleil. The Hoxton hotel in downtown will be the location of Daniel Rose's first L.A. restaurant. Cafe Basque will take over the ground floor, including the dining room, the lobby lounge and bar. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) One example of this is Provencal cooking, between Marseilles and the Italian border, as it overlaps with Italian food a cuisine readily available in L.A. Most of Roses intended parallels between France and Los Angeles can be found in Pays Basque, or the French Basque country, especially along the coast: surf culture and ingredients such as artichokes and almonds and olive oil have inspired Rose, who also sees a familiarity in the prevalence of Espelette pepper and tomato in Basques French-Spanish culinary crossover. That, he said, leads to the parallel of California and Mexico, the sort of cross-border cultural movement and diversity. While Cafe Basque will share a few hallmarks of Spanish Basque cooking, including live-fire-kissed meats and a range of pintxos, French Basque cuisine is, Rose noted, separate: a combination of traditional French technique and recipes, but prepared very simply. It is neither Spanish Basque, nor mainstream French. Basque cooking is very different than what most people think of as French cooking, Rose said. In some ways its transnational. It requires a lot of finesse, but its very brute. His new menu will rely on live-fire cooking and rustic technique, envisioning a range of traditional Basque dishes made with California ingredients: white beans in local-vegetable broth; gratin de crabe caught from the California coast; sebaste au Espanol, or a classic roasted California rockfish with garlic and lemon and tomatoes in green olive oil; and ttoro, a fish soup with squid and shellfish and local fish cooked somewhat like a bouillabaisse. The new restaurant will take over the entire ground floor of the Hoxton hotel, operating the lobby bar, the coffee shop and the sleek brass-accented restaurant space formerly inhabited by Sibling Rival. Boka Restaurant Group operates both the ground-floor restaurant space, as well as the rooftop, now home to Stephanie Izards Cabra . The hospitality group is also partnering with Rose for Chicago's forthcoming Le Select a homecoming of sorts for the chef, who grew up in Chicago and is returning, yes, to visit family, but also because he simply wanted to open a brasserie. "A brasserie is a French restaurant of course, but its where commerce and cuisine meet, which feels very Chicago to me, he said. When Rose visited downtown L.A., he was struck by the neighborhoods remaining Art Deco details and was also reminded of hotels in Biarritz. For his own space, the Sibling Rival dining room featured a kind of modern diner-like setup with a long counter, which could lend itself to a relaxed, informal concept for Rose. Cafe Basque, he said, will be his most informal restaurant yet. His role has shifted in the nearly two decades since opening Spring, evolving from proprietor and head chef to an international operations manager and chef-partner for multiple concepts, including Paris' La Bourse et La Vie, which he transformed in April and May into Le Borscht et La Vie, serving Ukrainian cuisine with the help of displaced war refugees. His expanded duties mean more travel with France serving as the primary home base for Rose, his wife and children and oversight of hundreds of employees. Beginning in June, his new Los Angeles team will concentrate its efforts on cooking in the Cafe Basque space, where Rose will himself also be cooking and stationed into the fall, at which point he'll begin rotating Chicago more frequently into his visits to his restaurants in Paris, L.A. and New York City. The chef estimates Cafe Basque will open in late July, perhaps in phases, but always offering something throughout the day, even in the form of more informal bites at the coffee stand at one end of the building, or at the bar and lounge: Basque cheesecake and other pastries, perhaps with a cafe brulot to wash it down. Breakfast and brunch might involve beignets with ham, French tarts, sheeps milk yogurt, millet (traditional cornmeal porridge, here served with spinach, a little honey and olive oil), and a Basque-inspired take on a Croque monsieur. Rose said he hopes his first Los Angeles restaurant will convey the breezier, more casual emblems of dining in both Pays Basque and L.A. The food we always take very, very seriously. The danger is always that the food becomes too serious, he said. In some ways its like were trying to find the ultimate balance. Maybe its like the picture in the frame, you know? Painters used to pick their frames as well they decided what was around it is equally important. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. New York City public schools will introduce a new curriculum teaching students about the history and culture of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) starting next school year. The new curriculum, Hidden Voices: Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the United States, aims to help students relate to each other amid the rising Asian American violence in the city brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, Mayor Eric Adams announced on Thursday. The new program will be implemented as shorter trial units across all grades in New York City public schools starting in the fall. Its tragic when our babies are academically smart but not emotionally intelligent, and dont develop the full personhood of who they ought to be, Adams said at a press conference at the New York City Department of Educations (DOE) Tweed Courthouse headquarters. Thats not education thats a robotic system that produces robots. Were producing scholars, intelligent future leaders of this city and this country. Thats what this is doing today. More from NextShark: Teen makes history as the first female wrestler in South Carolina to win individual state championship The Hidden Voices curriculum is part of the DOEs Hidden Voices Project, a collaborative effort between the DOEs Social Studies Department and the Museum of the City of New York. Story continues This new curriculum is a milestone in our ongoing support to AAPI students and families in our public schools and communities, said Schools Chancellor David Banks. Banks added that the curriculum would cover stories from historical AAPI figures, such as Dr. Anandibai Joshee, the first woman of Indian ancestry to be a doctor of Western medicine in the United States; Representative Patsy Mink, who was the first Asian American woman elected to Congress; and Helen Zia, the Chinese-American journalist. More from NextShark: 'Chinese Are Destroying Bay Ridge': NYPD Investigates Anti-Chinese Posters in Brooklyn He also added that the pilot curriculum is intended to help battle anti-Asian hate crimes in the city, which saw a 361 percent increase in 2021 compared to the previous year. One of the ways we combat racism and hate and the mayor talks about this all the time is by teaching and learning about each other's stories and histories. We are not the other, Banks told reporters. We are all New Yorkers. We are all Americans. This anti-Asian hate that we've seen so much of, it didn't just happen the last couple of years. It's been happening ever since the beginning of this country, ever since the first Asian Americans arrived at our shores, State Sen. John Liu (D, NY-11) said. More from NextShark: 9-Year-Old Texas Boy is the Highest-Paid YouTuber AGAIN After Making $30 Million in 2020 Asian Americans have been scapegoats for a lot of things in our entire history, whether it be economic recession, international warfare, global pandemic we get blamed, Liu added. And the reason we get blamed, and therefore hated and attacked, is because of ignorance. Liu was among the many people who pushed the city government to include AAPI studies as part of the curriculum, introducing legislation requiring public schools to provide instruction in Asian American history and civic impact. A group of Asian American families penned an open letter with 2,800 signatories last year, demanding that the DOE teach the cultural curriculum in public schools. I went through a lot of discrimination in schools, and I dont think our kids should experience that, Ting Yu, a representative for the AAPI literacy nonprofit Read Nation, told the New York Post. If were still seen as foreigners, thats not right. While Banks has yet to announce the specific schools where the pilot program would be introduced, he said it will be developed for all grade levels across all New York City public schools by fall of 2024. New York joins a list of states that have announced plans to introduce AAPI studies as part of their public-school curriculum. These states include Ohio, California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey and Connecticut. Featured Image via D-Day (CC BY-SA 3.0) Nelson County has a new county administrator, Candice McGarry, following a unanimous vote Thursday by the countys board of supervisors. Jesse Rutherford, the boards chair, announced McGarrys hire immediately following a closed session at a special called meeting. McGarry will serve as interim county administrator beginning June 3 and will assume the role in a permanent capacity effective Aug. 1 when Steve Carter, who has held the post the past 24 years, retires. We look forward to great success in this county, Rutherford said of McGarrys promotion. We look forward to great success for Mrs. McGarry as we, as a board, move forward in these very exciting times. Rutherford noted the appointment is historic as McGarry will become the first woman in the countys history to serve as county administrator. And that is something to be greatly celebrated here today in Nelson County, Rutherford said. McGarry, who has 22 years of local government experience, thanked the board for its confidence and trusting her with the responsibility. I am deeply honored and proud to become the first female county administrator in Nelson County, and Im excited to begin this next chapter, McGarry said. She expressed appreciation for her all her co-workers, past and present, who have taught her so much in her tenure in Nelson. McGarry said she is forever grateful to Debbie McCann, former county director of finance and human resources, and Carter whose inclusive leadership was instrumental in preparing her for the role, as well as her family and their unwavering support of her dedication to public service. We have many challenges ahead but I look forward to working with the board, our staff, the school division, community partners and our citizens in turning those challenges into opportunities, McGarry said. During her tenure in Nelson County, McGarry worked as finance technician and served as the administrative assistant and deputy clerk until her promotion to the director of finance and human resources post in 2018. Prior to serving in Nelson County administration, McGarry worked at the USDA/Farm Service Agency and SNL Financial. McGarry holds a bachelors degree in agricultural economics from Virginia Tech. Rutherford said in a news release the county received many well-qualified applicants from across the United States and McGarrys experience set her apart from a diverse field of candidates. The Board of Supervisors has tremendous confidence that her background, skills, and obvious dedication will help us move Nelson County forward, Rutherford said in the release. After the meeting, Rutherford clarified Carter is taking vacation time he accumulated, which is why McGarry is assuming the interim post before Carters retirement is officially effective. McGarry said in the release she looks forward to working with county staff, elected officials and community leaders in the coming years to broaden the local tax base, create employment opportunities and improve the quality of life for the entire Nelson community. Nelson County has a rich and culturally diverse history and is a community with tremendous potential, said McGarry. In the county administrator role, McGarry will plan, manage and implement the daily operations of county government under the boards administration. She said her years in local government experience have been spent helping to rebuild the county tax base, improve local broadband infrastructure and build strategic relationships with community partners and stakeholders. She said she couldnt be happier in the new role. I am proud that Nelson County is today a stronger, more vibrant and economically resilient community and I look forward to using my experience to make Nelson County an even better place to live, work and play, she said. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Lynchburg City Council took the first step in giving raises to the citys part-time and hourly employees this week by introducing a resolution that will amend the fiscal year 2023 budget with remaining funds from last years budget. In fiscal year 2022, according to Chief Financial Officer Donna Witt, the city allocated money for 5% general wage increases for city employees. After implementing that, Witt said the city had $620,492 remaining due to unfilled vacancies. With the leftover money, the city is hoping to bring its part-time employees up to at least a living wage of $14.03 per hour, something the city already covered for full-time employees in the fiscal year 2023 budget. Witt said these funds will address part-time summer workers, such as life guards, as well as positions in the parks and recreation department, among several other part-time jobs across the city. After addressing the part-time raises, the city will continue to address compression with the leftover funds, something Vice Mayor Beau Wright said all councilors have called an important issue. Salary compression occurs when there is little to no difference in pay between employees, regardless of experience or time spent in a position. I was talking to a worker recently, Ward II Councilman Sterling Wilder said during the meeting, and she mentioned that shes been working several years and people come in and are making the same amount. Thats embarrassing; thats not fair. Wilder said council has given Benda a task to address compression over several departments such as the police department and fire department, but there are other areas where compression is an issue. Ward III Councilman Jeff Helgeson, who pushed during the budget process to give more money back to citizens through a reduction in the tax rate, continued that by pushing back over how these leftover funds from last year would be spent. When I first read this, the first word out of my head was: insulting. Its insulting to council and its insulting to taxpayers, Helgeson said. Everybody else got paid, Helgeson said about the fiscal year 2023 budget, except for our taxpayers. In the fiscal year 2023 budget, city council approved adding real estate tax credits of 2 cents per $100 of assessed value to the bill of every real estate owner in Lynchburg. Council also approved personal property tax relief for citizens, meaning citizens only would need to pay taxes on 75% of the assessed value for their cars tax bill. Wright made the point as a municipal corporation, while its true we have an obligation to our shareholders, who he said are the citizens, ... we also have a deep responsibility of delivering excellent services. And thats through a high-quality workforce. This is how running a business works, Wright said. Youve got to pay people to keep them. Witt said the funds are split, with about $200,000 for the part-time and hourly wage increases, and the remaining roughly $420,000 going toward compression. Benda said the compression funds will be used to address people that have two to 30 years of service with the city. Council must vote on the amendment twice, approving it with the first vote of 5-2 this week. Helgeson and Ward IV Councilman Chris Faraldi voted in opposition. Council again will vote on the amendment during its regular meeting at 7:30 p.m. June 28. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A violent storm Friday morning destroyed or damaged numerous structures and downed trees and power lines in a roughly 2.4-square mile area of Bedford County, but officials reported no fatalities and few injuries. The storm peeled roofs off homes and left a trail of debris in its wake in the Crockett Road area of Goode, just a few miles west of Jefferson Forest High School. While the storm prompted tornado warnings, official confirmation of a tornado is pending an evaluation by the National Weather Service. Two people suffered minor injuries, according to a Bedford County news release. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management assessed 50 structures in the Crockett Road area and determined 15 received varying levels of damage, according to the release. Of those 15, three were destroyed. Earlier in the day, county officials had estimated about 45 structures were damaged. No one was found during search-and-rescue operations, and officials received no reports of missing people. At about 7:15 a.m., the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning urging people to seek shelter after severe thunderstorms made their way through the Lynchburg area. The first calls reporting damage came in at 7:43 a.m., according to Monty Coleman, chief of the Forest Volunteer Fire Department. "I was the first arriving fire responder and the sheriffs office had a unit already here when I arrived. Upon my arrival here was basically catastrophic damage in the immediate area at the intersections from where there was one structure that was completely gone, there was trees down around a house and the house had significant damage to it. We were met with high wind and rain still happening at that time and lightning. Our crews just immediately started that rescue mode, which is what they're trained to do," Coleman said. "When we got here you know, it's something you see on TV out in the Midwest all the time; you really don't expect it out here in the mountain region of our county." Patricia Spruce has lived in a home along Bethany Church Circle, which is connected to Crockett Road, for 20 years and said she has never seen something like this. "I heard a rumbling and I thought this tree was going to come through the bedroom," Spruce said. "I just took off running and was heading to the bathtub. It blew the windows out of the house and everything." A large tree missed Spruce's bedroom, situated on a front corner of her home, by less than a foot. "We have a cat door to the laundry room for the cats and the suction was so bad it sucked that right out of the door," Spruce said. "It sounded like a freight train; it even moved the posts on our house." Spruce and her husband were not injured during the storm but will have some home repairs and cleanup to take care of. Abby Johnson, deputy chief of operations for Bedford County Fire and Rescue, said multiple structures were "catastrophic losses." "They are down to the foundation surrounded by debris, so they are complete losses and a good portion of those have significant damage," Johnson said. Agencies that responded to the scene included the Bedford County Sheriff's Office, Virginia State Police, multiple Bedford County fire departments plus crews from Campbell County and Lynchburg. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Virginia Forestry Service and the American Red Cross also were assisting. A temporary shelter was set up at the Goode Fire and EMS Station to help residents and family members, but it was expected to close Friday evening. Residents still needing resources were asked to call the American Red Cross at 1-855-891-7325. Elsewhere in the region, Amherst County Public Schools closed Friday due to "rising water levels" following the morning storms, according to a notice from the school system. The update came after secondary schools temporarily sheltered in place and the start of school initially was delayed for elementary schools before the closure announcement. As the weather cleared and the sun came out, residents of homes damaged and destroyed ventured out to check on their neighbors and begin cleanup efforts. Travis Hostetter and his roommate, Anthony Mays, returned to their home, situated on top of a hill, that was leveled during the storm. Mays walked around the mangled home, holding his dachshund, Shadow, who suffered a broken leg in the chaos and still was groggy from anesthesia. Nothing was left standing of the home that belonged to Hostetter's grandmother, who passed away a few months ago, except a few inner walls. Hours later, Spruce still had not seen her four cats but was confident they still were in the home, just shaken and hiding. When search-and-rescue efforts concluded, the roads were cleared of fallen trees so power crews could move in to begin work on the power lines, lifting them off of the road and putting up new poles. As of 6 p.m. Friday, residents remained without power. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A diver for the Japan Coast Guard has been recognized as having set the world record for most consecutive pull-ups. Adachi Kenta met with the media at a Coast Guard office in Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, where he works as a diver on a patrol vessel. He spoke about his achievement and performed some pull-ups. He accomplished the feat in March by completing 651 consecutive pull-ups. This was recognized as the high-water mark by the Guinness World Records earlier this month. The 34-year-old was only able to do 12 pull-ups when he enrolled in the Japan Coast Guard School 15 years ago. But he eventually discovered he had an aptitude for the exercise when he started training to be a diver. He started preparing to set the world record in earnest last September. During the two months leading up to his attempt, he completed 300 consecutive pull-ups every other day. Adachi said he is happy he achieved his goal of being listed in the Guinness World Records. He added that the pull-up is an essential exercise for coast guard officers, and he hopes his record will motivate his younger colleagues. Rachel George is the new managing editor of the Daily Nonpareil. George took over the position which also includes oversight of four western Iowa weeklies and four Omaha-area weeklies on Monday. Shes been with the company for nearly eight years, starting out covering Papillion, Nebraska before taking over the editor role for the Gretna Breeze. She was most recently the news editor in charge of the Omaha suburbs weeklies. I am overjoyed to step into this role as managing editor of The Daily Nonpareil, George said. I have a strong commitment to community journalism and look forward to getting to further know the Council Bluffs and southwest Iowa communities better. George replaces Mike Brownlee, who has taken the managing editor position for the Kearney Hub and Grand Island Independent in Nebraska. Im thrilled for Rachel as she takes the reins. The papers are in good hands, Brownlee said. Thank you to everyone Ive worked with throughout my time at the Nonpareil. Im forever grateful to the paper for giving me my start and to Council Bluffs for being an amazing place to call home. Contact George at 712-325-5728 or rachel.george@nonpareilonline.com LONDON (AP) British prosecutors said Thursday they had authorized police to charge actor Kevin Spacey with four counts of sexual assault against three men, an announcement that came as the actor was in court in New York testifying in a different case. The Crown Prosecution Service said it had "authorized criminal charges" on the four sex assault counts and one of "causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent." The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in western England in April 2013. The alleged victims are now in their 30s and 40s. Rosemary Ainslie, head of the service's Special Crime Division, said the charges followed a review of evidence gathered by London's Metropolitan Police. Prosecutors initially said Spacey had been charged. However, they later clarified that charges had been authorized, but the formal charging by police had not yet taken place. The authorization to charge means criminal proceedings against Spacey are underway. The police force said Spacey who is not currently in Britain "will be formally charged at a later date." If Spacey does not return to Britain to face the charges, prosecutors could seek to start extradition proceedings. Spacey, a 62-year-old double Academy Award winner, was questioned by British police in 2019 about claims by several men that he had assaulted them. The former "House of Cards" star ran London's Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015. Spacey won a best supporting actor Academy Award for the 1995 film "The Usual Suspects" and a lead actor Oscar for the 1999 movie "American Beauty." But his celebrated career came to an abrupt halt in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp accused the star of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s, when Rapp was a teenager. Spacey denies the allegations. Spacey testified Thursday in a courtroom in New York City in the civil lawsuit filed by Rapp. Spacey didn't respond to reporters as he left the courthouse talking on his mobile phone. The British charges were mentioned briefly by Rapp's lawyers during the court hearing, and Spacey's lawyers were asked about it by reporters during a break in testimony. They declined to comment. Another criminal case brought against Spacey, an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from the alleged groping of an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket resort, was dismissed by Massachusetts prosecutors in 2019. Thursday's court session in New York City dealt with a technical issue in the civil lawsuit, whether it was better handled in a federal or state U.S. court. Spacey was called to testify about where he lived, not about the truthfulness of the allegations against him. Spacey testified that his main residence and domicile is in Baltimore, where he moved for the filming of "House of Cards." He said he was "beguiled by its charm, its beauty." But he also testified about his time living in London as the artistic director of the Old Vic. "It was extremely important to me that I endear myself to the British public, that I'm not running away," he said, noting that his start there was troubled by a "disastrous production" in 2005 of Arthur Miller's last play. But, he said, "I'm an American citizen. Once the job was done, I came back to America." He said he made a trip to London in February 2020 for a possible film, but then the pandemic hit. His U.S. doctor recommended he stay there, where he resided until the following September, when his visa expired and he flew to Los Angeles for an arbitration proceeding. He said he has not returned to the U.K. since then. This story has been corrected to say British prosecutors authorized charges against Spacey and he will be formally charged by police later, not that Spacey has been formally charged, and to reflect that it was Rapp's lawyers, not Spacey's, who brought up the criminal charges in court. With the release of Baz Luhrmanns new film, Elvis, its time to get the fever. The American Red Cross is offering an Elvis-themed prize to people who donate blood in June. That means, come June, it will be now or never. Its extremely important for the Red Cross to maintain a stable blood supply during the summer travel season, the organization reminded. And after all, blood donors rock! Elvis himself was a blood donor and left a legacy of generosity and community service, according to a press release from the Red Cross. In June, blood donors have an opportunity to rock and roll up a sleeve and help save lives. Everyone who donates in June will automatically be entered for a chance to win a VIP trip for two to Graceland, including round-trip airfare to Memphis, a three-night stay at The Guest House (not the Heartbreak Hotel) and an Elvis Entourage VIP tour, courtesy of Graceland (no blue suede shoes required). The package also includes a custom-wrapped Gibson Epiphone guitar for which people definitely have a burning love. In addition, those who come to donate in June will receive a $5 egift card to a merchant of choice (terms apply; visit rcblood.org/elvismovie). To leave your own lifesaving legacy, dont be cruel: Schedule an appointment to donate in June (if you dont, you aint nothing but a hound dog). To schedule an appointment to donate, download the Red Cross Blood Donor app, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-RED-CROSS (1-800-733-2767). All Red Cross blood, platelet and plasma donations are being tested for COVID-19 antibodies through June 3. Donors can learn if their donation has the antibody levels needed to potentially help COVID-19 patients with weakened immune systems. Upcoming blood donation opportunities in southwest Iowa include the following: Mills County June 3 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Glenwood High School, 504 E. Sharp St., Glenwood June 8 11 a.m.-5 p.m., United Church of Christ, 109 N. Walnut St., Glenwood Page County June 10 8 a.m.-2 p.m., Essex City Hall, 412 Iowa Ave., Essex Pottawattamie County June 3 12:30-6:30 p.m., Holiday Inn & Suites, 2202 River Road, Council Bluffs June 8 11:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Oakland Community Center, 614 Dr. Van Zee Road, Oakland June 9 10:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m., Council Bluffs Area Chamber of Commerce, 149 W. Broadway, Council Bluffs June 10 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Courtyard by Marriott, 2501 Bass Pro Drive, Council Bluffs June 10 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Country House Residence, 1831 E. Kanesville Blvd., Council Bluffs June 11 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 2303 Butler, Council Bluffs June 11 8 a.m.-1 p.m., McClelland Town Hall, 117 Main St., McClelland June 14 12-6 p.m., New Horizon Presbyterian Church, 30 Valley View Drive, Council Bluffs Build your health & fitness knowledge Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Council Bluffs City Council voted not to renew the liquor license of the Rodeo Saloon & BBQ during Monday nights meeting. The council was unanimous in its decision to deny the renewal by a vote of 4-0. Council member Roger Sandau did not attend the meeting. The Iowa code says you have to give it to a person, any person, of good moral character, said Rodeo attorney Deb Petersen. Youre not prohibited because of having a previously revoked permit, youre a citizen of the United States and a resident of the state of Iowa, and you have not been convicted of a felony. The owner of the Rodeo, Frank Hoover, previously owned a club called The Cube Ultra Lounge Bar, which had been denied its liquor license by the council in January 2021 due in part to the numerous calls to the police in relation to the bar. For that 2021 meeting, the council agenda packet featured an attachment with testimonials from three Council Bluffs officers detailing a variety of calls to and near the Cube from through 2020 and early 2021. A similar list detailing calls to and near the Rodeo from mid-2021 through early 2022 was submitted Monday night. Why I motioned to deny, as I motioned to deny the last license, is what you led off with good moral character, Council member Chad Hannan said. Frank Hoover still owns this place. The Cube appealed the councils 2021 decision, but was again denied. The administrative law judge agreed with the city that Frank Hoover was not of good moral character when his license, on appeal, was denied by Judge Forrest (Guddall), Hannan said. After a contentious 2020 council meeting at which The Cubes license was renewed, Cube leadership vowed to work with the city and police department to improve its working relationship, which council members and law enforcement said didnt happen, leading to the denial of the license in 2021. During Mondays meeting about the Rodeo, Petersen cited the recent liquor license renewal of the BLK Squirrel, which had similar, if not more egregious incidents than the ones submitted by the police department. Were not here talking about the BLK Squirrel today, Hannan said. And I remember you (Petersen) sitting there when we approved the BLK Squirrels liquor license, and I said, Hey, this looks like its getting out of control, you better clean it up. Its the same warning that we gave Frank two years ago at the Cube, but if you look at his arrest reports that were in the council packet, there were more for the Rodeo Saloon & BBQ than there were for the eight bars that were (approved for liquor licenses that night). Before the final vote was called, Hannan said that he hoped the situation at the Rodeo would improve, and that the council might reevaluate its decision if that were to happen. None of the other council members spoke before casting their vote. The Rodeo has 30 days from the denial of the license to file an appeal. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. IOWA CITY The state education budget lawmakers finalized early Wednesday includes a fraction of the $22.1 million increase Iowas public universities sought for the upcoming budget year. The education appropriations bill offers a $6.2 million increase for the Board of Regents, just over a quarter of the increase it requested and called essential in campus efforts to provide high-quality public education, cutting-edge research, and needed public services. Of the Legislatures $6.2 million increase, $5.5 million was designated for general university appropriations to be divided by the University of Iowa, Iowa State University and the University of Northern Iowa. The Board of Regents is very appreciative of the appropriations that we continue to receive for Iowas public universities, Board President Michael Richards said Wednesday in a statement provided to The Gazette. We have had a great partnership with the state for more than a century, and it continues to provide significant resources to our institutions. While it is unfortunate that we could not receive a general university increase equal to the $12.2 million that Gov. Reynolds had in her FY23 budget proposal, we are still thankful that the state continues to recognize that our universities are key drivers of the state economy and receive significant funding. WHAT WAS ASKED The regents in September requested $15 million more in general education dollars for its public universities proposing a split of $4 million to UNI, $4 million to the UI, and $7 million to Iowa State. Additionally, the UI asked for $3 million for its Oakdale campus, State Hygienic Lab, Family Practice Program, and Iowa Flood Center. The Family Practice Program with an additional $500,000, bringing its total budget to $2.2 million was the only one of those UI-based special units to receive more funding. The Board of Regents, in its September request, had said that money was necessary to maintain community-based family medicine residency programs across Iowa. The program has been instrumental for the state of Iowa to promote primary health care for all Iowans, particularly in rural Iowa, according to the regents request. An increase in financial support is now more important than ever as the future sustainability of these programs is in jeopardy due to rising costs. The state denied more money for the Oakdale Campus, with a budget of $2.1 million; the Iowa Flood Center, with a budget of $1.2 million; and the State Hygienic Lab, which has a $4.8 million budget and that needs $1 million more to be prepared to rapidly respond to a variety of threats against both human and environmental health, according to the budget request. The onset of the pandemic and the need to retain staff and recruit additional talented analysts was never more apparent than throughout this pandemic when over 1 million COVID-19 specimens were tested, according to the boards fall request. Salary increases are critical as the statistics show that the public health lab work force is aging and retiring with fewer new professionals seeking public health labs as a place of employment. $662.8 MILLION IN 23 The final education appropriations package ups the Legislatures total Board of Regents appropriations from $616.6 million in the current budget year to $622.8 million next year below the requested $638.6 million hope. It increases the universities general education appropriations from $486 million to $491.5 million, which is below the $493 million at the start of fiscal 2020 before COVID compelled lawmakers to cut $8 million in the middle of that year. The state denied the universities any general education funding increase last year, despite a regent request for an $18 million bump plus restoration of the $8 million cut. The budget includes a $150,000 increase for Iowa States Cooperative Extension Service; a $300,000 increase for the Iowa School for the Deaf; and a $114,000 increase for the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School. What better way to end the school year than with a party (and an early dismissal)? Students at Bloomer Elementary School on Thursday celebrated the 204th birthday of Amelia Bloomer (whose birthday is actually today, but theres no school today in the Council Bluffs Community School District). The Council Bluffs Community Schools Board of Education declared on Jan. 25 that the school is named after both Amelia and Dexter Bloomer. The students learned about her in class Thursday, wrote about her, played games that were around in her time and ate cupcakes in her honor. The Bloomers lived in Council Bluffs for 39 years, and Amelia Bloomer has been inducted into the National Womens Hall of Fame. Fifth-grade teachers Paige McGee and Abby Oswald planned games for the occasion. We searched on Google for games from that era, McGee said. Some of them hopscotch, jumping rope, tossing beanbags are still popular today. Games from Bloomers time included hoop rolling and duck on the rock, McGee said. The object of duck on the rock was to throw a stone and knock off a rock that was sitting on top of a larger rock, she said. Special guest Linda Knell attended the party in an old-fashioned costume. Knell, a longtime volunteer at the Council Bluffs Public Library, teamed up with Ben Johnson, former adult services manager there, to write the grant application that led to the school becoming a site for a historical marker that honors Amelia Bloomer for her role in the womens suffrage movement. The marker was part of a National Womens Suffrage Marker program sponsored by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation in honor of the centennial of U.S. Womens Suffrage, which was actually in 2020. Prior to coming here, she did a lot of suffragette work in New York and Ohio, Knell said in an earlier conversation about the historical marker. We felt she had never been recognized for her suffragette work when she came here. Amelia Bloomer wrote articles in her newspaper, The Lily, supporting temperance and womens rights, including equal education and employment opportunities for girls and women. When the Bloomers moved to Council Bluffs in 1855, they helped establish the public school system and a library. They supported co-ed education and often housed teachers in their home. Amelia advocated for women teachers to get equal pay. The historical marker will be dedicated at 3 p.m. today in a public ceremony in front of Amelia and Dexter Bloomer Elementary School, 210 S. Seventh St. St. Albert Catholic School will finish the school year at 11:30 a.m. today. Lewis Central Community School Districts last day will be June 3. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Being of service is nothing new for Vergarie Sanford. Its something shes been doing all her life. Born and raised in Council Bluffs, she was one of Pastor Geraldine Sanfords six children, and Geraldine made certain her kids grew up knowing the value of service. I was raised serving our community and being in service, Sanford said in an interview with the Daily Nonpareil. We served in our church and we served in the community. Its part of who I am. Sanfords mother was an activist in Council Bluffs in the late 1980s, fighting for diversity and equality. Sanford said her passion for service definitely stems from my mother. A minister at Mount Zion Refuge Center, Sanford mentors girls and young women ages 12-21. She is also a member of the Loess Hills chapter of the American Association of University Women, a nonprofit organization that advances equity for women and girls through advocacy, education and research. The AAUW hosts Girl Power on Display, an annual forum about empowerment for middle and high school girls. Sanford received her doctorate in educational leadership from Oral Roberts University in 2020, and she is an adjunct professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where she teaches emergency management and disaster science. Sanford now wants to serve in another capacity, as the state representative for District 19 in the Iowa Statehouse. I am running for this office because I feel that Council Bluffs is a diverse city; however, we dont see a lot of diversity in our leadership, Sanford said. And Id just like to give some representation to that. Representation matters. I think if we have a diverse community, then there should be some representation of their voices. Their voices should be heard. If elected, Sanford would like to increase funding for education, particularly in the form of higher salaries for teachers. Pay them a living wage so theyre not worrying about their basic needs, Sanford said. I really care about our teachers. They do wonderful work, and yet have to worry that they cant feed their own children while theyre taking care of our children. Sanford would also like to expand health care and increase access for everyone. A 10-year breast cancer survivor, Sanford knows what it feels like to worry about paying for the lifesaving treatment she received. I know that feeling of being diagnosed and how will this be covered and that kind of worry that shouldnt go along with someone whos sick, Sanford said. They shouldnt have that extra worry about how health care is going to be taken care of. Increased access to mental health care is also one of Sanfords priorities. In my class last year, on our second day of class, I had a young student email me and say, I cant come to class, I feel Im going to harm myself today, Sanford said. Sanford said that many of her students had a difficult time navigating their mental health last year. I think, my goodness, our kids, theyre crying out for help, Sanford said. We need to help them. I would like to see mental health care expanded. In addition to teaching and her work at Mount Zion, Sanford also sits on the boards for the Iowa West Foundation and Centro Latino. Im intentional on the boards that I serve on, Sanford said. I serve on Iowa Wests board because they invest in education, they invest in economic development and helping families, things that are of concern to me and of interest to me. They do a wonderful job. I love serving on that board because we do make a difference in the community. Sanford also enjoys serving on the Centro Latino board, because representation matters. They are a voice for the Latino community here in our city, she said. Its a joy to serve on their board knowing that were making opportunities for that community. Theres a memory that Sanford shared at a recent campaign rally thats emblematic of her lifelong commitment to serve. She was in sixth grade, and her Peterson Elementary class We were the Peterson Picker-Uppers participated in a community service project where they picked up trash that could be recycled. (Being of service) has always just been a passion of mine, Sanford said. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. OXON HILL, Md. (AP) One speller ran off the stage in the middle of her time at the microphone, saying she needed to pee. Another tried to walk back to her seat after spelling her first word correctly, only to be reminded she had a vocabulary word next. During one particularly brutal stretc The 2022 Euro-Mediterranean Summit of Economic and Social Councils & Similar Institutions will be held in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh from May 31 to June 1 to discuss the post-covid challenges facing the Euro-Mediterranean region. The event is organized by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) and the Moroccan Economic, Social and Environmental Council (ESEC). This years summit will be held under the theme: COVID-19: the role of civil society in the reconstruction and resilience of the Euro-Mediterranean region. The gathering seeks better understanding of the major issues affecting civil society in the Mediterranean region. The agenda features presentations and debates on renewed Euro-Mediterranean partnership and developing regional cooperation to alleviate the socioeconomic impact of covid-19 in the Mediterranean region. The event is expected to bring together 120 participants from economic and social councils, or similar institutions, representatives of employers, trade unions, other economic & social interest groups as well as NGOs from member countries of the Union for the Mediterranean. Polisarios serious violations against children sequestered in the camps of Tindouf in Algeria were exposed, Wednesday evening in Casablanca, by the president of the Sahara Observatory for Wealth and Human rights, Hafdi Mohamed El Bachir. Speaking at a ceremony held at the Moulay Rachid complex on the celebration of the National Day of the Child, Mohamed El Bachir stressed that the Algeria-backed separatist group inflicts the most heinous forms of rights abuse (violence, exploitation, forced recruitment ) on sequestered children, in flagrant violation of all international charters relating to the rights of the child. The separatist front snatches sequestered children from their parents and sends them abroad to be brainwashed and to hate anything that goes against the fronts separatist doctrine, while depriving them of their basic right to education for fear that they will see the reality of the separatist chimera, Hafdi Mohamed El Bachir said. The front is forcibly enlisting these children in violation of all international charters on childrens rights, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Statute of the International Criminal Court, the activist said, noting that the sequestered children may also be subject to murder, mutilation and sexual violence by the polisario militias. In this regard, Mohamed El Bachir noted that the international community is unanimous in classifying the recruitment of children by armed groups as war crime. The separatist group documents, through audiovisual media, the operations of recruitment of children and their incitement to take up arms, thus ignoring both the Additional Protocol to the Geneva Convention of 1977 and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the involvement of children in armed conflict of 2000. The UN Security Council has strongly condemned the recruitment and use of children in armed conflict, he said, calling for an end to these practices. Many stakeholders and defenders of childrens rights took part in the ceremony, organized by the Moroccan Office for Human Rights and Citizenship in coordination with civil society organizations and in partnership with the district of Moulay Rachid. The regional and international support to the Morocco-proposed Autonomy Plan as a basis for the settlement of the Sahara issue is gaining momentum by the day. Following the strong official positions expressed by several global powers, such as the United States, Spain and Germany, in support of the autonomy plan presented by the Kingdom, as the most serious and credible solution to end the dispute over the Sahara, intellectuals, politicians and associations of the Maghreb region have lately joined the chorus and voiced mobilization in favor of this plan as a realistic and promising solution for the region. In this connection, several prominent figures from the Maghreb region (intellectuals, political actors, and associations ) have recently gathered in Laayoune for the first Maghreb Forum in support of the autonomy plan in the Sahara under Moroccan sovereignty. The Forum highlighted by the launch of a civilian body to support the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco in 2007. The structure, dubbed Coordination for the implementation of the autonomy plan in the Sahara, is chaired by former Tunisian FM Ahmed Ounaies. During the debates, Ounaies described Moroccos sovereignty over its Sahara as a cornerstone for the establishment of a stable, balanced and effective Maghreb Union, noting that the autonomy plan is the serious and credible solution that guarantees the stability of the region and its progress. Algerian journalist Walid Kabir, President of the Maghreb Association for Peace, Cooperation and Development, and organizer of the Forum, for his part pointed out that the Morocco-proposed autonomy plan has received great international support, and we can only engage in the same approach because it is our duty to support the sovereignty of Morocco to preserve the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our countries. The autonomy plan, he added, will be a model for decentralization and local governance in the framework of national states. So many pundits and analysts have repeatedly warned that the artificial dispute over the Sahara is costly and detrimental to the development and integration process of the Maghreb and that it can only be resolved through autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty. And this is what the participants in the Forum echoed, stressing that the artificial dispute over the Sahara is one of the major obstacles to the establishment of a strong and united Maghreb Union, and praising the progress made by the Kingdom in terms of achieving advanced regionalization. Resolving the Western Sahara dispute, the experts highlighted, would be a major step towards a more united Maghreb union. They also noted that the current challenges on the regional and international levels require solidarity and cooperation between the countries of the region. The coordination, whose board is made up of 15 members representing the five countries of the region (Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Mauritania and Morocco), aims to support the autonomy plan under the full sovereignty of the Kingdom. Besides bringing together all North Africans who believe in a true Maghreb Union of cooperation and development, the new initiative will combat separatist ideas that destroy nations and encourage the building of a competitive Maghreb economy. This event was attended by figures from the Maghreb region and Africa, as well as representatives of consular missions accredited in Laayoune and local civil society activists. Algerian journalist and analyst Hichem Abboud who seized the opportunity of the forum to visit the city of Laayoune said in a statement to Moroccan media MEDI1 TV that he has been stunned by the socio-economic development of the region. When I arrived in Laayoune, I blamed my media colleagues for not showcasing the development that the region witnessed. I honestly was amazed, he told the TV channel. He said he never imagined that Laayoune was that modern and big, adorned with flowers and green lands. You wouldnt even imagine that you are in the Sahara. The United Nations paid tribute to the men and women serving under its flag in some of the most dangerous places in the world during a ceremony in New York on Thursday to mark the International Day of UN Peacekeepers. During the ceremony, Moroccos permanent representative to the United Nations, Omar Hilale, received the Dag Hammarskjold medal from the hands of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, in tribute to the valiant Moroccan blue helmets who died defending the principles and universal values of peace and stability under the UN banner. On this painful occasion, Guterres instructed Hilale to convey his sincere condolences to King Mohammed VI, Supreme Chief and Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces, and to express to him the sincere gratitude of the United Nations for the continued support of the Kingdom of Morocco to peacekeeping operations. This tribute is a recognition of the pioneering role played by Morocco in peacekeeping in Africa and around the world, under the far-sighted leadership of King Mohammed VI. Guterres also instructed Hilale to convey his condolences to the families of the deceased, namely late Lieutenant Mohamed Zerrik and the late Sergeant Rachid Marchich who served with the Royal Armed Forces contingent deployed with the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Hilale hailed on the occasion the memory of the honorable peacekeepers who made the ultimate sacrifice in defending the noblest of all causes, peace. While expressing, on behalf of the Kingdom of Morocco, its sincere condolences to the bereaved families of our brave brothers and to our large family of United Nations peacekeeping forces, the Moroccan diplomat expressed his feelings of solidarity and compassion to the members of these families. He noted that the memory of these valiant soldiers, proud to serve the supreme interests of humanity with passion, a great sense of responsibility and values of high duty, will live forever in our hearts. Morocco currently deploys more than 1,700 soldiers and police agents in UN operations in the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and South Sudan. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres began the commemoration of the International Day of UN Peacekeepers by laying a wreath at the Peacekeepers Memorial at UN Headquarters, in homage of the more than 4,200 blue helmets who have sacrificed their lives over the past seven decades. He also honored the 117 peacekeepers who died last year. Our fallen colleagues came from 42 different countries and diverse backgrounds. But they were united by a common cause: peace, he said. The International Day of UN Peacekeepers is observed annually on May 29 to celebrate the contribution of uniformed and civilian personnel serving at field operations. King Mohammed VI has sent a message of condolences and compassion to the President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, following the shooting at an elementary school in Texas, in which several innocent students were killed. In these painful circumstances, the Sovereign expresses to the U.S. President, to the bereaved families and to the American people, his heartfelt condolences and sincere feelings of compassion following this tragedy, praying God to grant patience and comfort to the family members of the victims and wishing a speedy recovery to the injured. The King says that he shares the feelings experienced following this cruel incident, while expressing to the American President his most sincere feelings of compassion and solidarity, as well as his affection and consideration. The Memorial Day Weekend brings out the crowds to Lake McConaughy and Lake Ogallala each year. Jim Swenson, deputy director for Nebraska Game and Parks, said the popular outdoors area near Ogallala is up and ready to go. Swenson said he was out there last week and sat down with the advisory committee to go over the implementation plan with the reservation system. Everything is on go moving forward. Swenson said. Weve got some major projects out there, the Martin Bay entrance adjustments that we made and the new boating access at Martin Bay. He said those are all at a point of last week doing a final walk through anticipating that it would all be open this weekend. Everything looked real good and the reports I received on the reservations, we were near capacity, Swenson said. So were starting to involve the local website out there for opportunity for folks to find accommodations. Things are shaping up well. Designated campground sites can be reserved 180 days in advance, and beach camping sites can be reserved 30 days in advance. There are about 500 campground spots and 1,000 designated beach spots (depending on water level) available at the two state recreation areas. The reservations can be made online at nebraskastateparks.reserveamerica.com, via the RA Camping app, or by phone at 308-284-8800 during business hours. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. 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. In response to a local nursing shortage, Southern Union State Community College will offer its nursing degree program in the evenings, starting in August. Shondae Brown, director of public relations at Southern Union, said this was the latest example of East Alabama Medical Center and Southern Union work closely together. We listened to them and the requests that they make as far as programs and program offerings, so were just striving to meet a need of more nurses, Brown said of EAMC. Brown said that in addition to allowing them to train more nurses, the program will also allow people to enroll in nursing school who cannot meet during typical school hours because of work or family obligations. All courses in the evening program will be scheduled after 3 p.m. on weekdays and occasionally on weekends. Brown said that Southern Union continues to look for ways to make its programs more accessible and affordable to students. According to a press release, the evening program will maintain the same quality curriculum and critical components as the traditional program. Online applications for the program are accepted through June 10. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. I see... Reply Thread Link I mean, if I were president, I too would use my position to leverage a meeting with BTS. (also SCREAMING @ the press release using Beyond the Scene. I thought we agreed to all forget about the attempted rebrand that was clearly about trying to reach more English speakers?) Reply Thread Link There are many Asian Americans they could have chosen from the kpop world like Jessi, Amber, Eric Nam, Ailee, Tiffany, etc.. BTS don't know the struggles of Asian Americans so this makes no sense. Reply Thread Link the thought of a biden/jessi interaction is sending me Reply Parent Thread Link she needs to bring back showterview with a special episode with him, stat! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Omg the CHAOS. Dammit I want this now Reply Parent Thread Link I like BTS and I don't entirely get this either. If the point is attention, I kinda get it. But you've got John Cho out here, highly recognizable to all Americans, for one example. Frankly, why anyone from Kpop when the reach of Asian American actors is probably greater for the majority of Americans? Edited at 2022-05-27 04:38 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link i'm surprised eric wasn't asked? he's done a lot of talking about anti-asian racism in the states and mental health issues too. Reply Parent Thread Link maybe I should be checking for him... he seems like a sweetheart speaking of Eric Nam, I watched his Go to Bed With Me skincare routine video and he was like, "vaccines, ever heard of 'em? science is good!" and I was likemaybe I should be checking for him... he seems like a sweetheart Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I'd think AleXa would've been a clear choice too Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Vibes like that time Hillary Banks hired white models in an AA fashion show and Will was like "Just one thing. YOU FORGOT THE AFRICAN AMERICANS." Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Hayley Kiyoko came to my mind first while reading this too Reply Parent Thread Link Like yeah, this isn't going to solve the problem of anti-Asian racism. It's a photoshoot/visibility thing that is par for course for the White House (in all administrations) so... whatever. (Also lol I suspect this is an invitation that Hybe accepted because they want to push the idea of BTS as cultural ambassadors for South Korea as alternative military service.) And yes, BTS live in South Korea and are not Asian American, but also that doesn't mean they haven't been the target of xenophobia and anti-Asian racism??? They are very visible Asian faces and so there is some value in having them meet with the US president to bring attention to anti-Asian racism. I think the value in that is underscored by the fact that news media is writing about this visit when a similar visit featuring Asian actors and activists from 2 weeks ago ( The discourse about this was EXHAUSTINGGGGGGGGG yesterday.Like yeah, this isn't going to solve the problem of anti-Asian racism. It's a photoshoot/visibility thing that is par for course for the White House (in all administrations) so... whatever. (Also lol I suspect this is an invitation that Hybe accepted because they want to push the idea of BTS as cultural ambassadors for South Korea as alternative military service.)And yes, BTS live in South Korea and are not Asian American, but also that doesn't mean they haven't been the target of xenophobia and anti-Asian racism??? They are very visible Asian faces and so there is some value in having them meet with the US president to bring attention to anti-Asian racism. I think the value in that is underscored by the fact that news media is writing about this visit when a similar visit featuring Asian actors and activists from 2 weeks ago ( https://abc7news.com/asian-american-pacific-islander-heritage-month-dion-lim-white-house-visit-aapi-leaders-joe-biden/11861311/ ) barely made a blip on anyone's radar. Reply Thread Link i'm very weirded out with the fact that you're a white woman calling this discourse and saying it's exhausting when it does not affect you at all beyond your boys being a topic of discussion when asian americans are getting called traitors/slurs by pointing out that living in the american diaspora is not equivalent to them being pulled up for this event. you do not need to comment on this. Reply Parent Thread Link I said the discourse was exhausting because 90% of what I saw was purely about fanwars and not actually about anyone interested in having honest discussions. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link And yes, BTS live in South Korea and are not Asian American, but also that doesn't mean they haven't been the target of xenophobia and anti-Asian racism??? They are very visible Asian faces and so there is some value in having them meet with the US president to bring attention to anti-Asian racism. Spoken like a white person who hasnt been exposed to years and years of discourse over Asians in Asia being used to discredit Asian American activism, the priority they are given as being seen as real Asians by white people and other non Asians while AsAm are seen both as inauthentic Asians and inauthentic Americans, Asians in Asia having relative privilege have grown up as part of a racial majority, etc. Stay in your lane Stan. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link yeah no. the experience of a korean man born and raised in south korea is entirely different from an ethnically korean american man in america. have they experienced racism and anti-asian sentiment in their life? i'm sure they have. have they experienced it in their home country their entire lives? absolutely not. BTS grew up in a society catered to them. and they continue to live and work in a society catered to them. Reply Parent Thread Link You showing your ass for BTS yet again Whenever theres neural, negative, or not-overwhelming-positive discourse around those boys we can count on you doing thee most Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Would you say the same if BTS wasn't involved ? And I mean here BTS aren't even the ones at fault because the administration were the ones who invited them and anyone would have agreed lol, but you had to defend their honor instead of calling out what this is : a very very obvious PR stunt that will do absolutely nothing besides getting both some good press, like when Biden was doing tiktoks with the Jonas Brothers Edited at 2022-05-27 06:17 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link The issue is they dont represent Asian-Americans. None of them are from nor have lived in the US so they dont share the experiences of Asian-Americans. Their overall experience as Asians growing up and living in Asia dont compare in the same way. From what Ive seen on twt, thats the issue. This just comes off as a photo op and not an attempt to raise attention to anything. Theres a dozen Asian-American kpop artists whove experienced life as Asians living in America that would have been a better option. Eric Nam, Mark Tuan, Jessi, Johnny Suh, Samuel Kim, BM from KARD, Peniel, Joshua (SVT) Reply Parent Thread Link I feel like you don't understand how it might be racist to say that the racism faced by Asian-Americans vs Asian-born Asians is the same or similar or even comparable. It's like saying our experiences are interchangeable and they are absolutely not. Reply Parent Thread Link if youre not asian please dont speak for us esp on this topic Reply Parent Thread Link I can't talk down the importance of fighting anti-Asian racism but I also can't help but hear a little voice in my head mentioning the draft exceptions lol Reply Thread Link Which is a South Korean issue that people of that country have a right to be concerned about but doesn't affect us in the US but anti Asian violence and racism affects people living here AND anyone of Asian birth visiting or to work or to study. Reply Parent Thread Link I agree, but this *good* opportunity is also amazing for the case to let them continue without doing the service expected of all South Korean men Reply Parent Thread Expand Link I see BTS finally gave up on trying to give the gross new Korean president the cold shoulder. Reply Thread Link This has nothing to do with the SK president though. The White House invite came through HYBE America, not diplomatic means via the Blue House. Reply Parent Thread Link The HYBE team were quick to put that info out there but on the same note they evoke that departure details were still being worked out. This all has to go through the SK government, probably because Jin and Yoongi by all rights shouldn't be allowed to travel overseas anymore before they enlist. And any diplomatic work BTS do from now on reflects on their ties to the SK administration anyway. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link doesnt make sense since theyrenot asian-american but this is obviously just mutually beneficial pr and a photo op. at least their involvement will get media coverage and people talking. fuck bidens useless ass tho. Reply Thread Link I find this weird. Shouldnt bts discuss about racism and diversity in South Korea first ? They have issues there as well. Reply Thread Link get bts to talk about the discrimination ethnic koreans of chinese descent face! jk they would NEVER. a huge part of BTS' success is based on nationalism and that they have no foreign members. not even a gyopo in sight! Reply Parent Thread Link I kno right, I just find it odd that they rarely spoken about any issues in Korea. Its always in America, or just in general. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link people were posting the "no x nationality allowed" posters you can find in krn stores and restaurants in response to this. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Only if they could be more openly inclusive and creating a safe space for native Black Korean people and other POCs living there; so in further this discourse regarding racism, colorism and discrimination that they constantly face difficulties of their daily life in all the fields of their careers they strive to built. Especially the fact in the entertainment industry where white peoples still thrive off on sticking out like a sore thumb on our TV to the point its so distracting and spoiled. All whilst BTS contributes to their society that is catered to them. So theres something to think about. Then again, we know that is like asking too much from them. Itd be too much for them to handle this Reply Parent Thread Link Considering they have Jimin in their midst, they won't be commenting on racism in SK any time soon lol Reply Parent Thread Expand Link It's always easier in any level to meddle on issues that are not your own, that's what wars are, basically. But actually doing something to address your own problems? God forbid. Dirty laundry stays at home and that. Reply Parent Thread Link OK, they couldn't get Awkafina, Padma Lakshmi or another actual Asian American to do this? These kids know nothing about the struggles of Asian Americans and quite frankly I find this really insulting, like any Asian person would do and NOT the ones from communities that have actually been affected by the recent horribleness happening in Chinatowns all over the U.S. and the people who reside within. Also, there's something off about having people that have done racist things to others talk to the President... about racism. Reply Thread Link Anyone but Awkafina, in her case that I dont think thatd be helpful. Itd be so bananas to see that Reply Parent Thread Link Point being is she's American and I'm sure she's seen (and experienced) some shit. It doesn't matter that people here don't like her much, she has a dog in this hunt and BTS does not. Someone else mentioned George Takei (who would be an even better choice). Also, John Cho. Reply Parent Thread Expand Link right? it's frustrating as hell because we've had so many advances in asian american representation in entertainment recently. there are prominent asian americans in very recent projects like shang-chi, everything everywhere all at once, minari, the farewell, hell even nora from queens and mindy kaling's recent tv work like never have i ever. olivia rodrigio is the biggest breakout pop star of the last year, and silk sonic and her are winning grammys left and right.... Reply Parent Thread Link I mean, Kal Penn was in the White House. I don't know if he's going to have the same impact as BTS, but he was the first person I thought of. Then there's David Chang, Steven Yeun, Mindy Kaling... There are a lot of options. Olivia Rodrigo if he wanted to appeal to young people. Reply Parent Thread Link Wow so amazing. I mean who doesnt want to see BTS instead of Financial help with inflation and gas prices. Reply Thread Link Financial help? Is that all you can think about while our kids are shot at their desks in school week after week? see how reductive you sound? Edited at 2022-05-27 04:54 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Link wtf is this this comment. Reply Parent Thread Link inviting a band to the White House is not really going to distract from policymaking, which is something that happens in concert with Congress, these kind of comments are kind of silly. The President isn't going to be like "oh shit I forgot to work on economic policy because I was too busy thinking about BTS" lol Reply Parent Thread Link Scrolled by too fast, saw "BTS to join Joe Budden at the White House", immediately thought "What the fuck??!" and scrolled back up. Reply Thread Link everyone knows this is more for the visiblity they'll bring considering their global audience and less for like, actually understanding what asian americans go through. i understand capitalizing on that reach, but that doesn't mean we, as in other asian americans and not yts, can't speak up about this and be disappointed about who was chosen either. i hope given how influencial they are around the world that it's more than just lip service and does create some sort of change. i know i'm being overly optimistic about it though, lol. Reply Thread Link He should have chosen ming na Reply Thread Link yeah no to this PR stunt. WH should have invited Asian Americans to speak on their lived experiences. Reply Thread Link John Cho or George Takei weren't available? Heck, even the Zoom CEO? Reply Thread Link Its a trash on trash exclusive! Reply Thread Link lol Viggo bringing up 23-year-old drama? how grudgey of him Reply Thread Link I just love some long term petty drama/grudge. I wished I had a good memory and could hold grudges for more than a hour. Reply Parent Thread Link lol I don't have the energy to stay really mad at people. like I'll get into an argument with someone and sometimes I'll just wanna be like, "can we just take a break until tomorrow because I know then I won't be mad anymore?" anger is exhausting Reply Parent Thread Link I agree that comparing him to 45 was out of bounds. Reply Thread Link everyday i hate viggo more, since he went around saying the n-word it's all gone downhill (not that I'm a fan of Almodovar bc I think he's a Polanski supporter if I'm not mistaken) Reply Thread Link No one wins. They're both trash but Viggo's always gotten a pass on his racism because of LOTR. Reply Parent Thread Link There is no drama like film bros arguing over past Cannes wins. I once went to a screening where Liv Ullmann was there to discuss their career and someone actually used up precious time to ask why she hadn't given the 2001 Palme to Mulholland Dr (she was being asked this circa 2019). She was sooooo taken aback. The guy was weirdly hostile with her. From the quote I saw I don't think Viggo was actually saying that Pedro was the one perpetuating the rumours. Just that false stuff gets repeated so much people start to think there's some truth and not that it's beneath Pedro to start saying that but that the rumours do a disservice to Pedro because he's a great artist whose work is so lauded and respected. But on the other hand fuck Viggo. Reply Thread Link yeah based on the actual quote it seems the media is proving Viggo's point by misreporting what he said to the point where Almodovar now thinks he took a jab at him lol like in future articles people will now forever go remember when Viggo compared Almodovar to Trump? even though he never actually did. then again I dislike all these people so it's mostly entertaining for me lol. Reply Parent Thread Link I don't know much about either of them, but Pedro directed one of my all time favorite films and that's all I have to say. Very important, I know. Reply Thread Link which one? Reply Parent Thread Link The Skin I Live In, which is also one of my favorite books lol. I want to see his other films, I don't know which one to start with though! Reply Parent Thread Expand Link All About My Mother is great Reply Thread Link viggo is a damn mess, he needs to be pulled off promo tours at this point lmfao. i love all about my mother so much lol, glad to hear rumors about cronenberg disagreeing arent true tbh!! Reply Thread Link Right? Like when he randomly was nasty about Titane? He's turned into this weird rambly old man who's always saying the most random catty things. Reply Parent Thread Link im still bitter abt his unnecessary & wholly inaccurate shot at titane. it was especially messy given cronenberg has spoken highly of the movie already and both it and crimes of the future are owned by slash distributed by neon. Edited at 2022-05-27 08:35 pm (UTC) Reply Parent Thread Expand Link todo sobre mi madre is so fucking goodddd Reply Parent Thread Link I love when old men slap at each other. Reply Thread Link lol this movie is perfect!! Reply Parent Thread Link What's this from Reply Parent Thread Expand Link Damn he's turning into such a messy old man...maybe he's bitter because although he's fluent in Spanish Almodovar never considered for anything or something Reply Thread Link Maybe Almodovar watched Alatriste lol (Tbf I only watched a bit of that movie, but even though I'm Argentinian I couldn't understand Viggo's accent, while I had no problem understanding Noriega.) Reply Parent Thread Link every day viggo strays further from aragorn's light Reply Thread Link lmao how random when will celebs learn that best policy is just to avoid saying literally anything ahhahha Reply Thread Link TBH I wish more celebs were messy but like... be fun about it at least. Viggo just sounds like a try hard who wants to act above it all and comes across as petty. Reply Parent Thread Link Yeah this is like spreading gossip in high school or sth, its just cringe Reply Parent Thread Link We'll have no posts when they stop showing their messiness lol Reply Parent Thread Expand Link The girls are fighting Reply Thread Link Viggo went full on grandpa with a kink for complaining uh Reply Thread Link I read swipe as in swiping left on Tinder and was very confused Reply Thread Link The Permian is expected to be the main driver of U.S. production growth in 2022. Rising rig counts, record forecast production from the Delaware Basin, and another forecast for record production for the whole Permian from the EIA are just some of the latest news from the star U.S. shale play. And yet this production growth is much slower than it should have been and is likely to remain too slow. What happened? One reason is shareholders. As Bloomberg noted in a recent report on the state of the Permian, public shale drillers have switched their focus after years of putting everything into production growth and are now prioritizing the return of cash to shareholders. And the switch back appears to be unlikely at this point. Another reason is rising production costs. International oil prices have been on a strong rise indeed, but so have production costs as the supply chain disruption effects of the last two years linger. In late April, the Wall Street Journal's Collin Eaton reported that the most prolific shale play in the United States was struggling to find enough steel, frac sand, frac pumps, and workers for wells. Eaton noted that, unlike the last oil market downturn, the oilfield service industry is not riding on the heels of producers in the recovery. On the contrary, this time, the oilfield service companies are struggling after two years of mothballing equipment fleets because of the sharp contraction in output during the pandemic. They are also being largely shunned by investors, which makes them reluctant to invest in new equipment. The report quoted industry executives saying that it now took a lot longer between drilling a well and getting it going because of delays in the delivery of essential equipment and materials. The costs of this equipment and materials are also higher. "It's just more difficult to get some of the key products that we need, whether that's pipe or sand," Travis Thompson, CEO of FireBird Energy, a Midland Basin driller, told Bloomberg. "If we wanted to increase activity, say from three rigs to four or five, we would certainly have to plan on that a lot further out than what you would have had to a year or two back." "If somebody walked in and put a pile of money on the table and said, 'Drill me a well next week,' it isn't going to happen," Jamie Small, president of private-equity-backed Element Petroleum III, told the WSJ's Eaton in April. "You just can't get the stuff to do it." Bloomberg reported that the average forecast of five agencies for U.S. oil production growth is some 900,000 bpd. The forecasters include Rystad Energy, BloombergNEF, Enverus, S&P Global, and the Energy Information Administration. The Permian will account for 80 percent of this growth, which will certainly help it cement its reputation as the star play in the U.S. shale patch. Yet the rate of production growth is quite modest when compared with the rate of oil production growth in 2018, as offered by Bloomberg. In that year, the U.S. added 1.9 million barrels daily. Rystad Energy on its own, however, forecasts that just the Delaware Basin in the Permian will add some 990,000 bpd to its total production this year, of which more than 400,000 bpd is new production, the Norwegian consultancy said earlier this month. According to it, well economics in the Delaware Basin and high oil prices will motivate the production growth, which will bring the basin's total to a record 5.7 million bpd later this year. Another record was recently forecast by the Energy Information Administration. The agency said it expected the Permian to add 88,000 bpd in June, reaching a record 5.219 million bpd, accounting for a substantial portion of the overall monthly output increase across the shale patch, which the EIA sees at 142,000 bpd. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads from Oilprice.com: While Europe shuns Russian oil amid sanctions and expectations of an oil embargo on Russian oil imports, India and China have stepped up purchases and are importing record volumes of Russian crude, according to data from energy analytics company Kpler cited by Bloomberg on Friday. Russia had up to 79 million barrels of crude either traveling on tankers or held in floating storage over the past week, Kplers estimates have shown. Thats more than double the 27 million barrels of crude Russia had seaborne in February, just before Putins invasion of Ukraine. Before the war, Russia was primarily selling its crude to Europe, but this is no longer the case after buyers, governments, international trading houses, and oil majors are all avoiding dealing with Russian oil, all the more so given the EU sanctions ban on bank transactions with the biggest Russian oil producers, including Rosneft. Trade majors have now wound down purchases of Russias oil. But China and India arent shying away from Russian crude, although some Chinese state giants havent ramped up imports of spot cargoes from Russia despite the steep discounts at which Russian oil is selling. In India, cheap Russian crude oil is attracting Indias price-sensitive buyers to the point that Russia became the fourth largest oil supplier to India in April, moving up from the 10th place in March, according to shipment-tracking data compiled by Reuters. The significant increase in Indias purchases of Russian crude has already drawn the attention of the United States, which has reportedly sent a U.S. federal government official to discuss U.S. sanctions on Russia and try to convince India to reduce its purchases of Russian oil. China, for its part, registered in April its first annual increase in crude oil imports since January as shipments rebounded on the back of higher arrivals from Russia, analysts say. Some of the interested buyers in Asia are more motivated by economics rather than taking a political stand, Jane Xie, a senior oil analyst at Kpler in Singapore, told Bloomberg. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The combination of limited new supply options, increasing risks to traditional supply, and growing demand around the world, is set to send oil prices even higher this summer. Oilprice Alert: This month's Intelligent Investor column, now available for Global Energy Alert members, highlights two oil and gas pipeline stocks that could provide strong income for investors. If you're an investor in the energy space then now is the time to sign up for Global Energy Alert. Friday, May 27th, 2022 Oil prices have been edging higher this week as improving demand signals highlight the lack of supply options in oil markets if there is a drastic contraction in Russian production, a likely outcome if the European Union bans Russian oil. With both US crude and gasoline inventories continuing their decline, whilst recent altercations between the United States and Iran have rendered any JCPOA breakthrough largely impossible, analysts are anticipating another surge towards the $130-140 per barrel range this summer. EU Pins Hopes for Next Week Summit on Russian Sanctions. The European Union hopes to reach a deal on Russian oil sanctions at next weeks leader summit on May 30-31, with media reports suggesting Brussels will split the embargo into pipeline and seaborne deliveries, allowing more phasing-out time for the former. US Seizes Two Allegedly Iranian Cargoes in the Mediterranean. The US-Iran antagonism is set to increase further after US authorities seized two laden oil tankers in the Mediterranean, anchored in Croatias and Greeces territorial waters, for allegedly smuggling oil for Irans Revolutionary Guard Corps. G7 Vows to Quit Coal, Fails to Fix Deadline. Ministers from the Group of Seven (G7) agreed to work to phase out coal-powered energy, though the commitment was tangibly watered down from the initial draft of the communique as the 2030 deadline of ending unabated coal power did not make it in. UK Slaps Windfall Tax on North Sea Producers. The UK government will impose a 25% windfall tax on profits of oil and gas companies until the end of 2025 at the latest, stating that the surcharge might be removed when prices return to historically more normal levels, without specifying what they are. Kurdish Minister Departure Bad Omen for Erbil. The natural resources minister of Iraqi Kurdistan Kamal al-Atroshi stepped down due to poor health, a bad sign for Erbil as the federal authorities in Baghdad have intensified pressure on the breakaway region to bring its operations under control. US Refinery Capacity Lags Behind Production Rise. US refinery intake surpassed the 16 million b/d mark for the first time since August 2021 and product cracks remain at record levels. US refinery expansions will only total 350,000 b/d by end-2023, leaving most of the 1 million b/d capacity that shut down after the pandemic unsubstituted. Nigeria Might Soon Be on the Brink. Whilst Davos talks usually focus on grand strategy, Nigerias finance minister Zainab Ahmed stated that the countrys production is so low (at 1.5 million b/d in Q1) that it is barely able to cover the cost of imported petrol, blaming the shortfalls on theft and infrastructure attacks. Amidst Record Prices, The Taliban Becomes a Coal Exporter. The Afghan Taliban has been stepping up coal exports to Pakistan, presumably up to 500,000 tons per month Reuters reports, as runaway coal prices in Asia are forcing buyers to find creative ways of sourcing cheap feedstock for power generation. Related: Middle East Producers Move To Cut Prices As Extreme Backwardation Eases India Is Eager to Mop Up Russian Assets. According to media reports, a consortium of Indian energy companies including ONGC Videsh and Gail is in talks to buy the 27.5% stake of UK energy major Shell (LON:SHEL) in the Sakhalin-2 LNG project in Russias far east, most probably at a fraction of its pre-war price. US Senate Discontent Lowers Odds of Swift Iranian Deal. The likelihood of seeing the JCPOA resurrected continues to ebb as this weeks US Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed Iran negotiators to walk away from the stalled Vienna talks, a potential pressure point for the Biden Administration ahead of the mid-term elections. Russia and Iran Discuss Commodity Barter Deals. Russian and Iranian top officials have discussed swapping deliveries of oil and gas, with Russia aiming to supply energy to northern Iran whilst Teheran would provide Russian companies with oil and gas cargoes in the Persian Gulf. Italy Doubles Down on Algeria. The largest foreign player in Algeria ever since its 1981 arrival, Italys ENI (NYSE:E), signed another set of deals that would increase its gas portfolio in the country, ranging from a green hydrogen plant in the Sahara all the way to becoming part of gas projects' evaluation team alongside Sonatrach. US Natgas Drops Back After Low Stocks Trigger Spike. Whilst front-month US Henry Hub futures rose to a 13-year high earlier this week on low inventories, with intraday trading going as high as $9.399 per mmBtu, that strength has eased by now with the expiry of the June contract and forecasts for lower demand. India Feels the Heat of Coal Crunch. With Indias power ministry lowering the amount of coal that domestic power plants can expect to receive in June by 11% to 56 million tons, importing more coal despite Newcastle spot prices trading above $400 per metric ton seems the only way out of the ongoing crunch. By Michael Scott for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: According to Reuters, a top Hungarian aide said the country needed 3-1/2 to 4 years to shift away from Russian crude and make huge investments to adjust its economy. Hungary could not back the EUs proposed oil embargo until there was a deal on all Early next week, the European Commission will try to obtain the unanimous support of all 27 EU member states for its proposed new sanctions against Russia. However, Hungary isnt quite on the same page as the other 26 members. But there is a third factor developing. Bullish traders are hoping China starts to lift its COVID-related restrictions while at the same time announcing more measures to support the economy. This could give demand a much-needed boost. The EU may announce the ban on May 30 at nearly the same time the U.S. begins its high demand summer driving season. Both moves will tighten supply. The focus for traders this week has been supply. And two events have garnered most of the attention: The possible ban on Russian crude exports and the significant tightness in U.S. product inventories. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are trading nearly flat on Friday, while continuing to hover near its more than two-month high. Helping to underpin prices is the prospect of a European Union (EU) ban on Russian energy products and expectations of tighter U.S. gasoline supplies. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude oil futures are trading nearly flat on Friday, while continuing to hover near its more than two-month high. Helping to underpin prices is the prospect of a European Union (EU) ban on Russian energy products and expectations of tighter U.S. gasoline supplies. Two Factors Attracting the Most Attention The focus for traders this week has been supply. And two events have garnered most of the attention: The possible ban on Russian crude exports and the significant tightness in U.S. product inventories. The EU may announce the ban on May 30 at nearly the same time the U.S. begins its high demand summer driving season. Both moves will tighten supply. But there is a third factor developing. Bullish traders are hoping China starts to lift its COVID-related restrictions while at the same time announcing more measures to support the economy. This could give demand a much-needed boost. EU Waiting for Hungarys Approval Early next week, the European Commission will try to obtain the unanimous support of all 27 EU member states for its proposed new sanctions against Russia. However, Hungary isnt quite on the same page as the other 26 members. According to Reuters, a top Hungarian aide said the country needed 3-1/2 to 4 years to shift away from Russian crude and make huge investments to adjust its economy. Hungary could not back the EUs proposed oil embargo until there was a deal on all issues. At this time, this is a significant stumbling block. High Prices Not Bothering US Motorists Ahead of this weekends U.S. Memorial Day holiday and the start of the summer driving season, U.S. gasoline prices are hovering near record highs. According to the American Automobile Association (AAA), miles traveled by motorists rose 5.6% in the first three months of the year even as the price of a gallon of regular gasoline has jumped 50% in the last year, to nearly $4.60 on average nationally. Drivers dont seem to be bothered by high prices, however, with this Memorial Day weekend travel expected to be the busiest in two years. More importantly, it will serve as a gauge as to how much consumers are willing to tolerate fuel price increases. If U.S. motorists continue to show little concern for high prices then stockpiles will continue to dwindle and prices will continue to rise, probably reaching nearly $5.00 per gallon before long. Finally, consumption of motor gasoline is set to hit 9.12 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, and reach a peak for this summer at 9.31 million bpd in July, according to EIA data. EIA Reports Tight Supply, Rising US Refining Activity The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Wednesday that crude stockpiles fell 1 million barrels last week with gasoline inventories also edging lower. Distillate stocks rose 1.7 million barrels. Refiners picked up the pace of processing, boosting capacity use to 93.2%, its highest since December 2019. Refiners have had to keep facilities running at full tilt to deal with heavy demand, especially from overseas, as refined product exports rose to more than 6.2 million barrels per day last week. High exports and a reduction in refining capacity mean gasoline stocks have dwindled in the United States. Weekly Technical Analysis Weekly July WTI Crude Oil Trend Indicator Analysis The main trend is up according to the weekly swing chart. A trade through $116.43 will signal a resumption of the uptrend. A move through $61.32 will change the main trend to down. This is highly unlikely, however. The minor trend is also up. The uptrend was reaffirmed this week when buyers took out last weeks high at $113.20. A trade through $96.93 will change the minor trend to down. This will shift momentum to the downside. Retracement Level Analysis The first minor range is $116.43 to $88.53. The market is currently trading on the strong side of its retracement zone at $105.77 to $102.48, making it support. If $102.78 fails as support then we could see an acceleration to the downside with the short-term retracement zone at $88.88 to $82.37 the next target. The main range is $34.55 to $116.43. If $82.37 fails as support then look for the selling to extend into its retracement zone at $75.49 to $65.83. Weekly Technical Forecast The direction of the June WTI crude oil market the week-ending June 3 will be determined by trader reaction to $110.28. Bullish Scenario A sustained move over $110.28 will indicate the presence of buyers. If this move creates enough upside momentum then look for a retest of this weeks high at $114.99. This is a potential trigger point for a surge into the contract high at $116.43, followed by the near-term futures high of $121.17. Bearish Scenario A sustained move under $110.28 will signal the presence of sellers. If this move creates enough downside momentum then look for a break into the Fibonacci level at $105.77. A break through $105.77 will be a sign of weakness with the 50% level at $102.48 the next target. A failure to hold $102.48 will indicate the selling pressure is getting stronger. This could trigger a break into the series of minor bottoms between $96.93 and $88.53 before reaching the $88.88 to $82.37. Short-Term Outlook Technically speaking, the market is in a strong position to challenge the main tops at $116.43 and $121.17. Furthermore, although crude oil may be vulnerable to a short-term correction on the daily chart, the weekly uptrend is not in a position to be threatened. At this time, there is a strong bias to the upside and the potential for a major breakout over the March 2022 highs. It would probably take a complete collapse of the impending Russian energy ban or further lockdowns in China to derail this strong rally. Fundamentally, the price action is bullish with a steady flow of bids, however, we do detect investor reluctance to chase prices higher. This may change when they see the details of an EU agreement to ban Russian energy products. Also providing some support is the anticipation of the lifting of restrictions in China which could lead to a surge in demand. Additional support is being provided by low U.S. gasoline stockpiles and the anticipation of greater demand for fuel as the U.S. begins its summer driving season this weekend. This upcoming weekends U.S. Memorial Day travel is expected to be the busiest in two years, causing fuel demand to rise as more drivers hit the road and shake off coronavirus pandemic restrictions despite high fuel prices. Consumption of motor gasoline is set to hit 9.12 million barrels per day (bpd) this month, and reach a peak for this summer at 9.31 million bpd in July, according to EIA data. With the fundamentals stacked to the bullish side, were anticipating a continuation of the uptrend next week. - According to an average of five major forecasters, US crude output will grow 900,000 b/d this year and is set to reach pre-pandemic levels only by mid-2023, with next year also seeing a relatively modest 800,000 b/d year-on-year increase. - Even though Russias invasion of Ukraine has created ideal conditions for oil companies to ramp up production, prospects for incremental US shale growth have not changed whatsoever. - Chinas May imports of LNG are set to total 4.7 million tons LNG, more than 2 million tons lower year-on-year, with the United States and Australia seeing the largest drops in buying. - Piped natural gas from Russia and Turkmenistan, cheaper because of oil pegs, has also been squeezing out LNG imports, with China expected to reach full capacity at the Power of Siberia pipeline by 2025. - Whilst Chinas appetite for LNG was primarily coming from the governments willingness to switch away from coal, Beijing has now come full circle and has been maximizing coal output, environmental concerns notwithstanding. - Chinas LNG imports in 2022 are on track to record their first major decline since 2006, as high spot prices and weak domestic demand coming from the manufacturing sector cooled down purchasing activity. 1. China Cedes Top LNG Buyer Spot to Japan Amid Weak Demand - Chinas LNG imports in 2022 are on track to record their first major decline since 2006, as high spot prices and weak domestic demand coming from the manufacturing sector cooled down purchasing activity. - Whilst Chinas appetite for LNG was primarily coming from the governments willingness to switch away from coal, Beijing has now come full circle and has been maximizing coal output, environmental concerns notwithstanding. - Piped natural gas from Russia and Turkmenistan, cheaper because of oil pegs, has also been squeezing out LNG imports, with China expected to reach full capacity at the Power of Siberia pipeline by 2025. - Chinas May imports of LNG are set to total 4.7 million tons LNG, more than 2 million tons lower year-on-year, with the United States and Australia seeing the largest drops in buying. 2. US Return to Pre-Pandemic Crude Production in 2023 - Even though Russias invasion of Ukraine has created ideal conditions for oil companies to ramp up production, prospects for incremental US shale growth have not changed whatsoever. - According to an average of five major forecasters, US crude output will grow 900,000 b/d this year and is set to reach pre-pandemic levels only by mid-2023, with next year also seeing a relatively modest 800,000 b/d year-on-year increase. - Platts argues that now, when publicly traded independent oil companies give back a third of their cash flow back to investors, shales new breakeven is within the $60-70 per barrel range. - Yet even with almost all producers firmly in the profit zone, vast supply chain disruptions to drilling equipment make it impossible to drill as quickly as was the case in the past, with drilling-to-pumping lead time tripling to almost one year. 3. Increased Hurricane Risk A Bad Match with Low Inventories - The diesel tightness might be further exacerbated by expectations of above-average hurricane activity, with the NOAA predicting that 6-10 storms might transform into hurricanes. - Between 3 and 6 of those hurricanes would probably become major ones (winds above 111 miles per hour), implying that diesel inventories would need to build before peak hurricane risk hits in August-September. - There have been early signs of a trend reversal, with the past two weekly EIA reports indicating marginal diesel stock builds across the US, coming exclusively from the Gulf Coast. - Whilst there is no guarantee that hurricanes will target main refinery hubs in the US Gulf Coast and not Florida or Alabama, last years destruction of the 255,000 b/d Alliance refinery in Louisiana is a noteworthy reminder of what might happen. 4. EU Renewables Package Might Be Only Fraction of Required Funding - With the European Commission revealing its revamped RePowerEU mandate that seeks to reduce the EUs dependence on Russian fossil fuels, Rystad argues the set of measures proposed is not enough. - With Brussels aiming to bring online 600 GW new solar capacity by 2030, triple of currently installed capacity, solar power alone would need investments going above 450 billion, double the RePowerEU budget. - Simultaneously, if the 45% renewables target is to be reached, 450-490 GW of wind capacity would need to be installed by the end of the decade, requiring 820 billion in investments. - Given the huge discrepancy between capacity needs and financing, any prospective increase in climate ambition might trigger further increases along the supply chain, be it from metals or polysilicon prices. 5. Shipping Rates Plunge Amidst Zero-Sum Chartering Competition - Chinas COVID-induced lockdowns and the subsequent drop in crude demand have wreaked havoc on the shipping markets, Argus Media reports, as Asian freight costs plummeted. - The ever-decreasing of West African volumes going towards China and Denmarks banning of ship-to-ship operations in waters off Skagen, the usual place where for VLCC loadings of Urals, have weakened demand for VLCC charters considerably. - With large parts of the previously active VLCC fleet forced to compete with Suezmax tankers, the end result was a zero-sum game for both as time-charter equivalent earnings have halved over the past month. - The intrusion of Russias Urals flows into India has been an important development across Asia, providing a boost for Aframax loadings as many charterers are lacking access to large-scale financing. 6. France's Nuclear Generation Set for Record-Low Output - French nuclear generation is set to hit a record-low output this month, averaging 27.6 GW over May 1-25, as half of Frances vast nuclear fleet remains unavailable, Platts reports. - Having its fair share of force majeure events already, the nuclear operator EDF has seen the Penly 2 reactor suffer an unplanned outage this week, while the return of the Cruas 4 was delayed into mid-June. - With spot French power prices averaging some 180 per MWh this week, it has officially clinched its status as having the most expensive electricity in Europe, some 50 per MWh above Germany. - As if the above were not enough, Frances unions are set to start another strike on June 01, adding further vacillation into the market. 7. Copper Weakens on China Demand Weakness - Forecasts for copper prices have been sliding down as Chinas COVID lockdowns added to structural risks of lower economic growth, losing steam after hitting a record-high of $10,845/mt in early March. - The three-month copper on the London Metal Exchange dropped back to $9,400/mt, which might still be only halfway through before bottoming out, as Citi and BNP Paribas expect annual prices to average $8,500-8,700 per metric ton. - At the same time, despite plummeting construction rates in China and stagnant supplies to the automotive industry, the long-term prospects of copper remain overwhelmingly bullish. - Weak investment in mining amidst increasing demand coming from EV producers will help lift prices, with Wood Mac forecasting a 10-year supply gap of up to 5 million tonnes of copper to 2031. American shale producers are right to avoid the temptation of pumping oil with WTI in the $1100-$110 range. Rewarding shareholders isnt just about appeasement, which is long overdue, its about the elephant in the oil production room: Refining capacity. Refining capacity was falling even before the pandemic. Since January 2020, weve lost 3 million bpd in refining capacity, worldwide. In 2020, we lost 410,000 bpd in net global refining capacity. In 2021, there were more refinery closures than there was new capacity, leading the IEA to announce that global refining capacity had fallen for the first time in three decades. In 2021, global refining capacity fell by 730,000 barrels per dayaccounting for losses after new capacity was added. For June, according to the EIA, the U.S. will be refining at 95% of its capacity because refining margins (crack spreads) are so high and refiners are extremely motivated to refine. Still, thats a million bpd less than pre-pandemic 2019. Those refineries that the pandemic shut completely wont be coming back; others are only recovering slowly. Theres little investment in refineries right now. No one has the long-term appetite for this. Now, more than ever, oil supply is a geopolitical game from which traders are getting rich espousing an oil supply shortage when the physical market really suggests that the bigger problem is refining capacity. Yes, OPEC London-listed energy companies that will be caught by Chancellor Rishi Sunaks windfall tax tumbled during opening exchanges today. The capitals premier FTSE 100 index was flat this morning at 7,564.82 points, while the mid-cap domestically-focused FTSE 250 index, which is more aligned with the health of the UK economy, jumped 0.52 per cent to 20,354.82 points. Sunak yesterday launched a tax raid on oil and gas companies to transfer excess profits from the sector booked as a result of Russias invasion of Ukraine sending energy prices soaring to households struggling with rising living costs. The sector will be subjected to a 25 per cent surcharge on their profits. However, under a new tax relief scheme, the likes of Shell and BP can offset around 90 per cent of their investment spending against their tax bill, Sunak said. BP and Shell were among the worst performers on the FTSE 100, each losing around one per cent. SSE also fell 3.14 per cent due to investors ditching shares in the energy company after Sunak said other energy firms may eventually be subjected to the surcharge. FTSE 250-listed Drax Group tumbled over four per cent. Industrials offset losses in London, with miners Antofagasta, Anglo American and Glencore all rising more than one per cent. The pound gained ground on the greenback, strengthening 0.16 per cent to buy $1.2613. By CityAM More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The European Union is discussing the idea of temporarily exempting Russian oil supply via the Druzhba pipeline from a ban on imports of Russia's crude, as leaders are trying to persuade Hungary to drop its opposition to an embargo, Bloomberg reported on Friday, quoting sources with knowledge of the discussions. Some EU leaders are inclined to accept an exemption of Russian oil deliveries via the pipeline that delivers oil to Germany and several central European countries, including Hungaryif indeed this is the price for getting Hungary on board with an oil embargo on seaborne imports of Russian oil, the sources say. The temporary exemption could give Hungary more time to draft a plan on how to phase out Russian oil imports, according to Bloomberg's sources. EU member states continue to discuss options for reaching a dealwhich needs to be unanimouson an embargo on imports of Russian oil. In early May, the European Commission officially proposed a full ban on Russian crude and oil product imports, to come into effect by the end of the year. But the EU is still scrambling to find a common position, trying to persuade Hungary to drop its opposition to an embargo. Hungarywhose Prime Minister Viktor Orban held close ties with Putin before the Russian invasion of Ukrainehas said it would need hundreds of millions of dollars to adapt its refining and pipeline industry to accommodate a stop to Russian oil imports. This week, top Hungarian officials said the country is unwilling to discuss the potential ban at the EU summit on May 30 and 31. EU diplomats had hoped that the summit could reach a unanimous decision on a ban on Russian oil, to be phased out over six months and with exemptions for central European countries, including Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. However, Orban asked in a letter to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, that the oil embargo be removed from the topics of discussion at the summit, according to the document dated March 23 and obtained by Reuters. On Wednesday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that if the ban is on the agenda next week, it "would run the serious danger of dismantling European unity," Argus reported. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The European Union is drafting contingency plans in case of natural gas supply interruptions, the Financial Times has reported, citing the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson. According to Simson, the European Union can replace most of the natural gas it currently receives from Russia by the end of this year, but in case of what she called a full disruption of supplies, the bloc would need to do more. The contingency plans seem to focus on curbing gas supply to industries, the FT report noted, citing unnamed sources close to Brussels. Households will not be subjected to gas rationing. Industrial users account for 27 of the EUs gas consumption. We are facing a situation that any member state might be the next one [to be cut off], Simson told the FT in an interview. So far we have been able to take care of the security of supply concerns of these three member states, mainly with the help of the solidarity of neighbours. This year if there will be full disruption, we are preparing contingency plans, she added, also saying that the EU was confident it could replace two-thirds of Russian gas supplies by the end of the year. Russia is the EUs largest supplier of natural gas and crude oil. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions the EU imposed on Moscow in response to that, the security of oil and gas supply to the EU has been shaken. Russia has continued to deliver gas to its European clients as long as they were willing to pay for these deliveries under new rules, but it cut off gas deliveries to Poland, Bulgaria, and Finland, fueling fears that it might decide to turn all the taps off. In anticipation of such a disruption, the EU has been stocking up on gas, mostly from a sharp increase in LNG deliveries, with the intake from the United States at record highs during the last few months. By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: Equinor's Hammerfest LNG unit in Norway has been restarted after a September 2020 fire took it offline, the company reported on Friday. The unit is capable of producing 4.65 million tonnes of LNG per year, Equinor said, or 18 million cubic meters of gas per day, and will contribute to the EU's quest to decrease its reliance on Russian gas. It is Europe's only large-scale LNG plant. The repair work on the LNG unit has been completed, and it is in the middle of the cool-down process now. Equinor did not provide a timeframe for when the LNG would get on the tanks. Leading up to the restart, Norway has been maxed out its existing LNG capacity and has been exporting as much as it is able to. Hammerfest's restart should help Norway to boost those exports. Last year, Norway provided 23.6 percent of the EU's natural gas needs, while Russia supplied 43 percent. The Hammerfest plant accounts for 5 percent of Norway's total gas export capacity. The Hammerfest LNG plant on Melka Island was supposed to restart last year, but has been pushed back repeatedly due to faults, tests, and the pandemic. Gas from the offshore Snhvit (Snow White) field in the Barents Sea, which feeds the Hammerfest LNG plant, has also been offline due to the closure. Despite the outage due to the fire, Statistics Norway estimates the value of nat gas exported by Norway in March reached a record high in March 2022 of 11.7 billion euroa 500% increase from March 2021. Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Norway has taken great pains to answer the call from the EU for additional oil and gas supplies. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: The Haidach gas storage site in Austriaone of central Europe's largestmay be unable to receive any natural gas ahead of next winter due to a lack of connections other than with Russia's Gazprom, Austrian energy officials told Bloomberg on Friday. The Haidach site was built and used by Gazprom and is one of the biggest in central Europe. It has the capacity to hold enough natural gas to cover four months of consumption in Austria. Gazprom, however, halted earlier this month gas supply to Gazprom Germania GmbH, its former subsidiary, which Germany seized a few weeks ago. In retaliation for Western sanctions, Russia imposed sanctions on Gazprom's subsidiaries in Europe, banning them from supplying Russian gas. Gas supply to some units of Gazprom Germania has stopped, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck told the Parliament earlier this month. "Gazprom and its subsidiaries are affected," Minister Habeck said as quoted by Reuters, adding that "This means some of the subsidiaries are getting no more gas from Russia." The halting of Russian supply to Gazprom's German unit means it cannot fill the huge underground storage facility near Salzburg in Austria. The storage site is currently connected only to Gazprom's pipeline network. So Austria will need to build a new pipeline connection from the closest gas pipeline, Penta West, Austrian operator Gas Connect told Bloomberg in an emailed response to questions. The construction cannot happen before the start of next winter, and Austria could be scrambling to fill the storage site. As of May 26, gas storage capacity in Austria was 30% full, below the EU average of 44%, with storage at GSA Haidach at zero, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU member states are now required to reach a minimum 80% gas storage level by November 1 to protect against potential interruptions to supply. From 2023, the target will be raised to 90% full gas storage by November 1. By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: U.S. attempt to contain China by using Taiwan just wishful thinking: spokesperson Xinhua) 08:27, May 27, 2022 BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese defense spokesperson on Thursday said that the United States' scheming on the Taiwan question is known to all, and said that U.S. attempt to contain China by using Taiwan is just wishful thinking. Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to the U.S. State Department's contradictory expressions about the U.S. Taiwan-related policy. Noting that the United States has been trying to hollow out the one-China principle, Wu warned that any such action will bring harm to the country itself. Wu said that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing the whole of China. "This is a universal consensus of the international community and a commonly recognized norm governing international relations." Wu noted that the recent visits of certain U.S. senators to Taiwan, where they made provocative remarks, were political grandstanding. "China firmly opposes this," Wu said. "Those clamoring to make the Chinese mainland pay a price should get prepared to pay the price themselves," Wu said. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Russian President Vladimir Putin reported to Austria on Friday that Russia would meet its natural gas delivery commitments and was ready to negotiate a prisoner swap with Ukraine, according to Reuters. President Putin told Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer over the phone that all gas deliveries would be completed in full. The Kremlin made a similar statement, saying that it would continue to fulfill contractual obligations on its natural gas deliveries to Austria. Austria gets 80% of its natural gas from Russia, and it could take years for Austria to wean itself off Russian natural gas. Austrias OMV is one of the EU companies that have opened up an account with Gazprombank to pay for Russian gas imports. OMV can make its payment in the Gazprombank account in euros, where it will then be transferred into rubles. OMV has insisted that this does not violate sanctions. OMVs notice that it would pay in rubles comes less than two weeks after Austrias Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Schallenberg committed to already existing agreements and will not pay in rubles, we have no such intention. The Austrian government has no plan in place should gas supplies from Russia be disrupted, the Federation of Austrian Industries President George Knill said on Thursday, according to TeleSur, adding that Austrias entire food industry is dependent on this gas supply. Knill added that it is not Russia cutting off gas supplies that is most worryingit is the potential for the EU to stop gas imports from Russia. Russia has already cut off gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria after both countries refused to open up accounts with Gazprombank to allow their payments to be converted to rubles. While the EU is working on some sort of Russian crude oil ban, a ban on Russian natural gas imports is far less likely given the heavy dependence many EU countries share. By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com More Top Reads From Oilprice.com: WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday hes confident Turkeys objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO can be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the end of next month. At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no reason to believe Turkeys concerns cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey's top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take concrete steps before Ankara could support their membership. The United States fully supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will soon be NATO members, Blinken said. "We look forward to being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies." Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held good negotiations with the Turks over their concerns in recent days and said those discussions would continue with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June. We agreed to continue to those talks, Haavisto said. We think that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could be achieved before the NATO summit. Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russias war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europes security map. The countries membership bids require support from all 30 current NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest military in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey. Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkeys concerns, like information on terror groups, during their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers. Cavusoglu said an approach of well convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies would not be correct. He insisted that these countries need to take concrete steps. He added that we understand Finland and Swedens security concerns but ... everyone also needs to understand Turkeys legitimate security concerns. Turkey this week listed five concrete assurances it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was termination of political support for terrorism, an elimination of the source of terrorism financing, and the cessation of arms support to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it. The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism. Cavusoglu's comments came at a news conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong support for Finland and Sweden's bids. There is no doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger," Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, agreed, saying their membership would consolidate the collective defense and our security. Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. DAKAR, Senegal (AP) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said his country is interested in a major gas exploitation project in Senegal as he began a three-nation visit to Africa on Sunday that also is focused on the geopolitical consequences of the war in Ukraine. Senegal is believed to have significant deposits of natural gas along its border with Mauritania at a time when Germany and other European countries are trying to reduce their dependence on importing Russian gas. "We have begun exchanges and we will continue our efforts at the level of experts because it is our wish to achieve progress, Scholz said at a joint news briefing with Senegalese President Macky Sall. The gas project off the coast of Senegal is being led by BP, and the first barrels are not expected until next year. This week's trip marks Scholz's first to Africa since becoming chancellor nearly six months ago. Two of the countries he is visiting Senegal and South Africa have been invited to attend the Group of 7 summit in Germany at the end of June. Participants there will try to find a common position toward Russia, which was kicked out of the then-Group of Eight following its 2014 seizure of Crimea from Ukraine. Leaders at the G-7 summit also will be addressing the threat of climate change. Several G-7 countries, including Germany and the United States, signed a just energy transition partnership with South Africa last year to help the country wean itself off heavily polluting coal. A similar agreement is in the works with Senegal, where Germany has supported the construction of a solar farm. German officials also said Scholz will make a stop in Niger, a country that like its neighbors has long been battling Islamic extremists. Earlier this month, the German government backed a plan to move hundreds of its soldiers to Niger from neighboring Mali. The development comes amid a deepening political crisis in Mali that prompted former colonial power France to announce it was withdrawing its troops after nine years of helping Mali battle insurgents. Germany officials say their decision also was motivated by concerns that Malian forces receiving EU training could cooperate with Russian mercenaries now operating in the country. Germany, though, will increase its participation in a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, providing up to 1,400 soldiers. The Cabinets decisions still need to be approved by parliament. Niger is also a major transit hub for illegal migration to Europe. People from across West Africa connect with smugglers there to make the journey northward to attempt the dangerous trip across the Mediterranean Sea. Jordans reported from Berlin. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The New Hampshire Supreme Court will redraw the states congressional map after the Legislature's latest, last-ditch effort failed Thursday to win over Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. New Hampshire is one few states yet to finalize new U.S. House districts as required every 10 years to reflect population changes. Democrats currently hold both seats, and while Republicans control the Legislature, they have struggled to pass what Sununu has referred to a fairness smell test. Both the House and Senate passed a plan in March that would have given the GOP a strong advantage in the 1st District, but Sununu promised to veto it. A House-passed plan that would have clumped together communities along the I-93 corridor later failed in the Senate, leading to a third plan that was approved Thursday in both chambers. I believe it is the compromise New Hampshire needs going forward for the next 10 years, said Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester. Sununu quickly said he will veto the bill, however, in part because it puts both U.S. Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster into the 2nd District. The citizens of New Hampshire will not accept this map, he said. Our races have to be fair, which is why I will veto this map. Under the latest plan, the 1st District would have covered the southeast corner of the state and be tilted slightly toward Republicans, while the 2nd District would have covered the western half of the state and the north country and become slightly more Democratic. More than two dozen towns and cities comprising nearly a third of the states population would have switched districts, including Manchester. Instead, the state Supreme Court will step in. In a ruling this month, the court said it will use the existing districts as a benchmark and employ a least change approach. That could mean adopting a map favored by Democrats that would move a single town Hampstead from the 1st District to the 2nd. Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, called the GOP plan one of the majoritys most blatant examples of extremism. Once again, theyre out of step with their own governor, out of step with the people of New Hampshire, she said at a news conference ahead of the votes. Its probably one of the best reflections of their tin ear to the folks theyve been elected to serve. The plan passed the House by only five votes. By the same slim margin, the House on Thursday also killed another bill Sununu had promised to veto. That bill, modeled after legislation filed in multiple states, would have given parents greater oversight over their childs curriculum, participation in clubs and conversations with staff. The bill had passed the Senate 14-10 along party lines. Sen. Jay Kahn, D-Keene, argued against it, saying teachers already are looking over their shoulders thanks to a new law regulating classroom discussion of race and other topics. Now, were going to impose another requirement that questions whether educators can have a discussion with a student without reporting on it to parents, he said. It is one more ice cube being added to the chilling effect of our actions on New Hampshire educators. Rep. Melissa Blasek, R-Merrimack, pushed back against criticism that the bill would force teachers to out LGBTQ students to potentially abusive parents and said she equates parental rights to gun rights. There are criminals, yes. And one of the primary purposes of government is to punish wrongdoing, she said. But restricting rights from law-abiding parents and gun owners does not prevent criminals from participating in criminal activities. As for guns, the House also rejected an effort to reintroduce failed legislation would have required criminal background checks prior to commercial firearms sales. Rep. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, said there have been dozens of mass shootings nationwide since the bill was defeated in March, including the recent shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, a church in Southern California and a school in Uvalde, Texas. It is imperative that we act, and act now to curb the flow of blood running toward us, she said. We can do hard things. We can make a change so we dont have to live like this. Her remarks were met with booing from some of her colleagues. The jeering turned to applause for Rep. Terry Roy, a Deerfield Republican who argued that voters dont want further gun control. We should not ever, ever use tragedy to push legislation, he said. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) Senior officials from Sweden and Finland held some five hours of talks with Turkish counterparts in Ankara on Wednesday in an effort to overcome Turkeys strong objections to the Nordic nations' bids to join NATO. Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russias war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europes security map. Turkey has said it opposes the countries membership in the Western military alliance, citing grievances with Sweden's and a to a lesser extent Finlands perceived support of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, and other entities that Turkey views as security threats. The PKK, which is listed as a terror organization by several of Turkeys allies, has waged a decades-long insurgency against Turkey, a conflict that has cost the lives of tens of thousands people. The Turkish government also accuses Finland and Sweden of imposing arms exports restrictions on Turkey and refusing to extradite suspected terrorists. Turkeys objections have dampened Stockholm's and Helsinkis hopes for joining NATO quickly amid Russias invasion of Ukraine and put the trans-Atlantic alliance's credibility at stake. All 30 NATO members must agree on admitting new members. The Swedish and Finnish delegations met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, and Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal. The Swedish delegation was led by state secretary Oscar Stenstrom, while Jukka Salovaara, the foreign ministry undersecretary, headed up the Finnish delegation, Turkish officials said. Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said following a meeting with European Council President Charles Michel in Stockholm that her country wanted to clarify claims that have been floating around during discussions with Turkey. We do not send money or weapons to terrorist organizations, Andersson said. During a news conference with the Estonian prime minister later Wednesday, Andersson said that in these times, it is important to strengthen our security. She said Sweden has a constructive dialogue with Turkey and that Stockholm was eager to sort out issues and misunderstandings and questions. Michel, who is scheduled to head to Helsinki from Stockholm, said it was a pivotal moment for Sweden" and we fully support your choices. Turkey this week listed five concrete assurances it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was termination of political support for terrorism, an elimination of the source of terrorism financing, and the cessation of arms support to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it. The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism. Turkey said that it has requested the extradition of Kurdish militants and other suspects since 2017 but hasnt received a positive response from Stockholm. The Turkish government claimed Sweden had decided to provide $376 million to support the Kurdish militants in 2023 and that it had provided them with military equipment, including anti-tank weapons and drones. Finland has received nine extradition requests from Turkey in a recent period covering over three years, Finnish news agency STT said Wednesday, citing data from the Finnish justice ministry. Two people were extradited while six of the requests were rejected. A decision was pending regarding one other case. Sweden has denied providing financial assistance or military support to Kurdish groups or entities in Syria. Sweden is a major humanitarian donor to the Syria crisis through global allocations to humanitarian actors, Foreign Minister Ann Linde told the Aftonbladet newspaper. Cooperation in northeastern Syria is carried out primarily through the United Nations and international organizations, she said. Sweden doesn't provide targeted support to Syrian Kurds or to the political or military structures in northeastern Syria, but the population in these areas is, of course, taking part in these aid projects. Speaking Tuesday before a meeting of the Council of the Baltic Sea States, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said Russia had left Sweden and Finland no choice but to join NATO. She said Germany would support the two countries membership, calling it a real gain for the military alliance. Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report. Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A 39-year-old Omaha man has died after being shot Thursday evening, and police have arrested a man they say is responsible. Clinton Brownlee was shot in the chest just before 6:40 p.m. near 65th and Ames Avenues, authorities said. Omaha police and medics went to a home near that intersection and found Brownlee, who was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he died. Police announced Friday that Daniel Atherton, 25, had been booked into the Douglas County Jail on suspicion of second-degree murder, two counts of use of a weapon to commit a felony, felon in possession of a firearm and attempted robbery in connection with Brownlees slaying. Atherton has spent three short stints in Nebraska prisons in the last three years. He first was sentenced to 18 months in prison in April 2019 after being convicted of terroristic threats and criminal mischief. He was released in May 2019 because of good time and credit for time already served. He then was sentenced in November 2019 to one year in prison for operating a motor vehicle to avoid arrest. He was released in March 2020. Finally, he was convicted last year of possession of a deadly weapon by a prohibited person. In June 2021, he was sentenced to up to one year in prison. He was released in October. Brownlees death is Omahas eighth criminal homicide of 2022. Brownlee is listed in court documents as residing at the address where first responders went after they received a call about a shooting. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A man was taken to the hospital in extremely critical condition Thursday evening after being shot in the chest near Benson Park. Police and medics responded to calls of a shooting near 65th and Ames Avenues shortly before 6:40 p.m. The man was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center. An Omaha police officer at the scene said that one man was taken into police custody in connection with the shooting. Police were speaking with neighbors and eyewitnesses afterward. The investigation is ongoing. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. No charges will be filed in a case involving an intoxicated Omaha man who died after being pushed by another man in a road rage altercation, officials said Friday. The Omaha Police Departments Homicide Unit has been investigating the death of 57-year-old Paul Arispe, who hit his head May 15 when 19-year-old Benjamin R. Yarbrough shoved him to the ground. Arispe died two days later. Douglas County Attorney Don Kleine said Friday that the investigation found that Arispe was the aggressor and Yarbrough had pushed him defensively. The two men had been driving in the area in separate vehicles when something occurred on the street that angered Arispe, Kleine said. Arispe continued to follow Yarbrough, who was directed by his mother in a cellphone call to drive to her home near 32nd and Drexel Streets. At the house, Arispe pulled up behind Yarbrough and was upset when he got out of the vehicle, Kleine said. Arispe followed Yarbrough to the front yard of the house, where the confrontation occurred, police said. Yarbrough pushed Arispe, who fell over the curb and struck his head on the concrete. Yarbrough shoved Arispe to get away from him, Kleine said. He did it because this guy was coming at him in an aggressive fashion. Omaha police officers went to the home shortly after 8 p.m. after someone called 911. Arispe was taken to the Nebraska Medical Center, where he died May 17. There was no weapon, no punches thrown. Its very tragic, but its not something thats chargeable, Kleine said. Kleine said the toxicology report from Arispes autopsy showed his blood-alcohol content was .252 more than three times the legal driving limit. Kleine said Yarbrough didnt know what he had done to anger Arispe while they were driving. Because no charges will be filed, Arispes death is not counted as a homicide in police records. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Jake Barry left education after his second year of teaching. The Elkhorn Public Schools teacher said he was excited to be done. He was burnt out. He needed a change of pace. His work-life balance was nonexistent. But then he started missing his students. Being an umpire for the local softball team wasnt enough he wanted back in the classroom. After a year hiatus, Barry jumped back into education in August 2017. Now Barry is watching his co-workers make the same decision he did six years ago, as about 20% of his building is on the way out the door. And he said he understands why. They know they can feel valued in a different job and a different place, he said. Most districts around the Omaha metro area are experiencing higher rates of resignations and retirements. Educators are leaving their jobs to move to another district, take a break from education or exit the field entirely. The majority of the 11 Omaha-area districts are losing anywhere from 30-70% more educators than last year. This includes teachers, along with other certified staff like principals, psychologists and librarians. More than 1,250 educators are leaving their districts in the metro area, but that number is likely conservative as more people exit after the resignation deadlines. This is a 41% increase from last year, when roughly 880 educators resigned or retired from their jobs. Some reasons for leaving are personal to be closer to family, a shorter commute or a new opportunity. For example, in Bennington Public Schools, district data says 11 teachers are resigning because of relocation due to a family issue. But teachers say the increase in resignations and retirements is because of conditions that arent getting any better: overflowing class sizes, rising student misbehavior, staff absences, low pay and souring relationships between a districts leaders and its employees, among other problems. One Bennington teacher submitted her letter of resignation this spring after more than a decade in the classroom. The teacher spoke on the condition that The World-Herald withhold her name due to concerns it could impact her future job. She said student misbehavior was one of the top reasons why shes moving to another district. The discipline in our district has gotten so bad kids have no repercussions for their actions anymore, she said. They dont care and theyre defiant. That never would have happened 10 years ago, when the fear of going to the principals office was real. She also is tired of how shes being treated in the district. She started to feel like just a body in a classroom and that she could just be easily replaced, she said. Terry Haack, Bennington superintendent, said the district values employee input and strives for continuous improvement. Staff and students are our No. 1 commodity and we recognize the importance of employee contributions to our system, he said in an email. We regret that an employee would leave our system with anything but a positive experience. Teachers in the Omaha metro area and beyond have said they feel undervalued and unappreciated throughout the school year. But multiple teachers have said they dont feel like they can publicly speak up, such as at a board meeting, without it negatively impacting their job or future. Barry said he loves his school and building administration, but doesnt feel like the district officials leading Elkhorn understand what teachers are going through. They have a skewed idea of what goes on, Barry said. We dont feel supported by upper administration; we feel like parents are dictating a lot of things and we are also being asked to do a lot more. In our job titles, the all other duties as assigned is starting to become enormous. Barry said the initiatives put in place to help teachers cope such as extra remote weeks or planning days without students have slowly drifted away. Omaha Public Schools teachers took to public comment at the May 16 board meeting to explain why staff were leaving. Adam Byers, an OPS preschool teacher resigning at the end of the year, told board members that hes leaving because of the stressful working conditions teachers still have to endure. He said he used up all of his sick days and vacation time because of the impact teaching had on his mental and physical health. I was made to feel as though my student success was my responsibility alone. I did not have a fraction of the support I should have had, Byers said. I was forced to stretch myself beyond my limits to help my students. The burden of being dropped into the deep end without the needed assistance and support and being told to swim has completely and utterly destroyed the deep passion Ive had for teaching. In a recent Omaha Education Association survey that had 700 teachers respond, 48% felt OPS doesnt treat them as a professional and 68% said they dont feel valued by district administration. Regarding the survey results, Superintendent Cheryl Logan said there are areas where we have to work together because no person can do this on their own. Everyone wants to feel valued, and we need to understand, well, that means something different to everybody, Logan said. Weve had some really good conversations about, you know, what does that mean for people? Logan said the district is forming a work group, along with a facilitator to help come up with strategies to improve the relationship between staff and district administration. OPS is now projecting 588 educators to leave by July 1. The district previously reported higher numbers at 684 resignations and retirements. Bridget Blevins, spokeswoman for OPS, said the decrease is due to the human resources department finding duplicate documents while processing resignations. Robert Miller, president of the OEA, confirmed the union received the same numbers. A teacher in Papillion La Vista said he has encountered far more people considering leaving than he has before in his more than a decade in the district. The teacher spoke on the condition that The World-Herald withhold his name due to fear of retaliation from the district. I am one of those people that teaching and education was a calling. And I envisioned teaching as long as I possibly could, he said. Now I am browsing job boards going Gee, are there other things I can do? He said teachers are past the point of burnout and are now entering demoralization. He often finds himself thinking about work even at home worrying if he did the right thing or about what challenges lay ahead of him for the next day. And sometimes the stress becomes too much for teachers, he said. We are feeling like we dont have enough mental availability for our students, he said. It isnt just that we are burnt out ... its I dont know if I am able to do my job adequately enough to make an impact for my students. He said he knows its also been hard for administrators and school board members, but he feels they have banded together over the past year to support each other instead of listening to staff. People really feel like they dont care if we leave, he said. Annette Eyman, spokeswoman for Papillion La Vista, said it makes her sad to think teachers might not feel heard or valued. She said the district creates surveys and has an advisory group to collect staff feedback, along with other initiatives for retention. In December, the Nebraska State Education Association, which represents 28,000 public school teachers, released a survey detailing why educators are fleeing the field. Out of 3,105 respondents, more than 80% said they have observed a rise in mental health problems in students, contributing to misbehavior in the classroom. Two-thirds said their own stress and mental health concerns are higher than the previous year. About a third of educators who responded said they planned to leave teaching at the end of the school year. Jenni Benson, NSEA president, said the association has been sounding the alarm for several years about the number of people leaving education and the lack of students going into the profession. Over the past several years, weve had a 50% decrease in folks going into the teacher colleges that right there should show us, hey, there is something going on here and we should really pay attention to it, Benson said. Teachers now are saying, I can go work somewhere else for a lot less stress and a whole lot more money. Districts need to provide support and incentives to recruit students and retain current educators, said Teresa Matthews, president of the Westside Education Association. The teacher shortage is nationwide. Our district is in relatively good shape right now, but the teacher shortage is impacting Westside as well as nearly all districts across the state, Matthews said. Educators have persevered through the most difficult school years in memory and they are beyond tired they are exhausted and increasingly burned out. The exodus isnt just occurring in Nebraska. Teachers are leaving around the U.S. as the problems exacerbated by the pandemic continue in other states. Nearly 800 teachers are leaving a school district in Maryland, according to a report by WJLA, a Virginia-based television news station. Educator resignations in Ohio nearly quadrupled from 2019 to 2021, according to an analysis by the Cincinnati Enquirer. This is a five-alarm crisis, Becky Pringle, president of the National Education Association, said in an official statement earlier this year. If were serious about getting every child the support they need to thrive, our elected leaders across the nation need to address this crisis now. However, not every school district in the metro area, or even across the state, is losing teachers at an abnormally high rate. Some larger school districts in other parts of Nebraska are retaining more staff. Grand Island Public Schools number of staff departures is just slightly up from last year the district had 142 educators leave this year while it had 139 the year before. Lincoln Public Schools resignations and retirements only increased by 2.5%. As of May 10, LPS has 240 educators leaving, according to district data. Last year, 234 people left. Springfield Platteview and Ralston are both losing only two more teachers than in the 2020-21 school year. Mark Adler, superintendent of Ralston Public Schools, said the district doesnt have a secret potion to staff retention, but he feels that listening to staff needs has played a huge part in keeping people on the job. I would be lying if I didnt say our concern with our workforce with teachers is really high, he said. But some things for us, what weve really tried to do, to lean in and listen to staff and make adjustments. Adler said the district implemented more plan days, but staff also have more input on who is hired, and new hires receive a mentor who will stay with them for multiple years. Adler also distributes a culture and climate survey every year to assess how employees feel about working at Ralston. While he recognizes the challenges teachers are facing right now, Adler said he hopes people dont start to think education is a doomed field to work in. I really worry about the message that people hear, is that everything is terrible, teaching is not a profession to go into, everything is bad that is just not true, he said. We have a lot of people who still love this job. I want young people to still choose this job. Kayla Florom is one of those educators leaving the field entirely, but it wasnt due to dissatisfaction with her district. She worked as a structured behavioral skills teacher at the Millard Public Schools for three years, helping emotionally disturbed students who cant thrive in a regular classroom. She said they are usually students who can become physically aggressive or run from the classroom when upset. Florom is leaving the public education field to become the childrens director at her local church. She said she made the decision to have more time with her family. I feel like I am really grieving leaving because my team is the best team I could ever ask for, she said. I really enjoyed teaching. Its a role I definitely could come back to. Barry, the teacher in Elkhorn, said hes less frightened about the immediate impact of the exodus and more concerned about the future ramifications of teachers jumping around districts only to eventually leave the classroom entirely. The Bennington teacher who is moving to another school district has high hopes of improvements but is concerned it wont be any different. Trying a new district, a new level and a new position is kind of me hoping I can get through it and stay, she said. But this is my last-ditch effort to not leave education. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. School shootings have followed todays high school students like a shadow that will never go away. They were in middle school or at the cusp of junior high when 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and then 10 more at Santa Fe High School in Texas that same year. They were just entering public education when 26 children were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut some students were the exact same age as those victims. Central High School sophomore Jade Strider organized a student walkout Friday to protest gun violence following the school shooting this week in Uvalde, Texas, in which 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed. South High School students also organized their own protest on Friday, and Benson High School students walked out of class on Thursday. In an email sent to Central parents, Principal Dionne Kirksey said students who walked out of class were marked truant. The students who were gathered on Dodge Street said they were told by building administration that they couldnt participate in the walkout and some said they were told they wouldnt be let back in the building. District officials denied this and said all students were allowed to return and complete their last day. We all share in the grief our students feel. We respect and support the right of our students to advocate for causes that are important to them, Kirskey said in the email. Strider said the walkout was for the government officials and lawmakers who have been negligent in creating gun control laws and protecting Americas youths. Every time a major shooting happens, the adults have all said never again, and then they let more happen, Strider said. On their last day of school, more than 30 students walked out of class some even had finals at about 10 a.m. to protest along Dodge Street. They held up signs scrawled in colorful marker that read: Protect our lives, Protect our schools and No more gun violence. One read Say their names with all 21 victims names on the sign. Fists high in the air, they chanted phrases like How many bodies? How many lives? Before you decide, open your eyes and Our bodies, our lives, our futures on the line. The group of students chants grew stronger and more confident with each passing car that honked in support. Strider said there is a crippling cycle that occurs every time a school shooting occurs: Information is distributed by the media, followed by people across the country sending their thoughts and prayers to the victims families, many with hollow and empty meaning. And then people have debates on social media about gun violence and how we need to do something, and then we eventually all forget about it, Strider said. And then it rinses and repeats. Strider said OPS students have experienced the threats of violence in different ways over the years. Most recently, Central High went into lockdown on May 12 after school officials heard reports of an armed student. Students said that terrified a lot of them, making them wonder about the possibility of their school becoming a target someday. State Sen. Tony Vargas also made an appearance at the walkout on Friday. He said he didnt want the Central students to feel alone. I wanted to let you know that elected officials are listening to you. Your voices are extremely powerful, he said. I know this is an upsetting time. Its upsetting for me and people in the community, but we need to hear from you and I should be the one listening. Vargas, whose district includes the school, said lawmakers and local officials need to take action not just by infusing more mental health services in schools, but creating common sense gun laws like background and mental wellness checks on all firearm sales, along with supporting public safety. Sophomore Kiliki Farquhar said, Im really thankful for everyone who has come out here. It wasnt as big as we thought, but having a senator come out, that was a lot more than we were expecting. And were very happy about that. This isnt the first time Central students have taken to the sidewalks to protest gun violence. In 2018, they joined roughly 4,000 others from Omaha and Lincoln schools to organize walkouts on the 19th anniversary of the attack on Columbine High School. Social media videos and images around the country have also captured students walking out of class in more than a dozen states this week. Maria Rosales Delgado, an Omaha Public Schools parent, said shes afraid to send her three children to school next year. As a student herself at Millard West on Jan. 5, 2011, she experienced a lockdown as a student fatally shot one administrator and injured another at Millard South High School. Delgado said she experienced a sliver of what Uvalde family members experienced this week because her cousin was a student at Millard South at the time of the 2011 shooting. I am so scared that I might have to home-school (my kids) because I dont know what to do, she said. I see all the lives that were lost, and it breaks my heart. As a mother, I cant imagine what they are going through, and its really scary to see what happened. Chinolita Molina, an OPS parent of two, said she thinks the U.S. government has failed children. How many more children need to be slaughtered for policies and change to happen? Molina said. One OPS fourth grade teacher, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said it was extremely hard to go to class the day after the Uvalde massacre. He couldnt help but look at his students laughing, smiling and talking and imagine a monster walking in and killing them. Worse yet, his elementary school also had a coincidental lockdown drill that morning, practicing to deal with the kind of event that happened the day before in Texas. For our children, we need to come together as a community, and decide that thoughts and prayers are not enough, he said. Thoughts and prayers cant explain to my fourth grade class that they are safe. Thoughts and prayers cant extinguish the anguish felt by an entire community. Thoughts and prayers dont bring sons and daughters back. Something must change. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Memorial Day weekend will bring dramatically higher temperatures to the Omaha area, as well as a packed schedule of events intended to honor fallen service members. Temperatures will climb into the high 70s Friday, and plenty of sunshine is also expected, according to the National Weather Service. The sunny conditions will stick around through the weekend, with high temperatures climbing into the mid-80s Saturday and low 90s Sunday and Monday. Though the weather should be pretty much perfect for the busy holiday weekend, the much-needed rain that fell the past week will affect an inaugural balloon glow planned for Friday evening. The event, which involves inflating and lighting up hot air balloons while keeping them tethered to the ground, was originally scheduled to take place at Omahas Memorial Park. Because of soggy conditions at the park, organizers moved the event to the Baxter Arena parking lot at 67th Street and West Center Road. The balloon glow will start at 7 p.m. Friday and will feature, according to event organizer Patriotic Productions, the worlds largest American flag hot air balloon and six other colorful hot air balloons. The U.S. Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps is slated to perform during the event. The unit, which is stationed at Fort Myer in Virginia, is the only one of its kind in the U.S. military, according to the Army. It is part of the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment. The balloon glow is just one of several events being organized by Patriotic Productions, an Omaha-based nonprofit that organizes activities meant to honor service members. Bill Williams, vice president of the nonprofit, said the weekends events, which include a parade, are meant to offer families activities that can help convey the meaning of Memorial Day. Originally known as Decoration Day, the occasion originated out of a call to decorate the graves of the dead with flowers in the wake of the Civil War, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Congress declared Memorial Day a national holiday in 1971. Omaha does not have any other city-wide parade to honor our Gold Star families and veterans, so this seems like the right thing to do, Williams said in a press release. Other organizations plan to host remembrance ceremonies during the holiday weekend. Here are some of the events scheduled for the coming days: Saturday The Patriotic Parade in Omahas Old Market will begin at 10 a.m. The parade will start at 10th and Jackson Streets and head west to 13th Street, then north to Howard Street, east to 10th Street and south to Jackson Street. According to Patriotic Productions, 70 entries are participating in the parade. A concert at 12th and Jones Streets will follow the parade. It will feature a solo by 14-year-old Eva Yllescas, a Gold Star daughter, and a roll call of fallen service members by Gold Star families. Free food including pizza, hot dogs, apple pie and more will be available. The post-parade gathering also will feature a national memorial honoring more than 5,200 service members killed in the wars that followed Sept. 11, 2001. Monday Catholic Cemeteries, which manages five cemeteries in Omaha, will celebrate a Catholic Mass at 10 a.m. at each location: Calvary Cemetery, 7710 West Center Road; Resurrection Cemetery, 7800 West Center Road; St. Mary Cemetery, 3353 Q St.; St. Mary Magdalene Cemetery, 5226 S. 46th St.; and Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, 4912 Leavenworth St. Two of these cemeteries have dedicated sections for veterans the Our Lady of Victory section at Holy Sepulchre and the Haven of Heroes at Resurrection Cemetery. Each grave in the Our Lady of Victory section will be decorated with an American flag. Miniature flags to decorate graves will be available at the entrance to each cemetery. All five locations will hold extended hours over the holiday weekend from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. The Prospect Hill Historic Cemetery and Arboretum will celebrate Memorial Day with music, a history presentation and Civil War reenactors. The free program starts at 10:45 a.m. In addition to music by the Prospect Hill Preservation Brass and Woodwind Band and the presenting of colors by the First Nebraska Volunteers, historian Paul Hedren will present a program titled Some People Id Like to Have Met. Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10785 will conduct Bellevues Memorial Day ceremony at the Bellevue Cemetery at 13th Avenue and Franklin Street. The ceremony will start at 11 a.m. It will feature patriotic music by the Sarpy Serenaders, the presentation of the colors and each service flag, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars traditional remembrance of the fallen, according to the VFW post. The ceremony will acknowledge the sacrifices made by fallen service members. The Omaha National Cemetery at 14250 Schram Road will hold a public ceremony at 11:15 a.m. The U.S. Air Force Offutt Brass band will perform, and the event will host a guest speaker from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Jason Dolan, the director of Nebraskas national cemeteries, asks people interested in attending to consider taking public transportation or carpooling. The cemetery will fill up quickly, and theres going to be a lot of traffic, he said. Fort McPherson National Cemetery near Maxwell, Nebraska, about 15 miles east of North Platte, also will host a public ceremony. Gov. Pete Ricketts is scheduled to speak at the event, which begins at 2 p.m. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Ryan Hoffman Assistant Metro Editor Follow Ryan Hoffman 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 ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (AP) President Joe Biden told Naval Academy graduates Friday that they will be representatives and defenders of our democracy, as free societies are under threat from Russia's invasion of Ukraine to China's maritime expansion. Delivering a commencement address to more than 1,000 newly commissioned ensigns and second lieutenants at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, Biden said the Western response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal war in Ukraine shows the world is aligning not on geography, but in terms of values. He called the invasion, A direct assault on the fundamental tenets of rules-based international order, adding, thats the world youre graduating into. The actions taken by Putin were an attempt, to use my phrase, to Finland-ize all of Europe, to make it all neutral, Biden said. "Instead, he NATO-ized all of Europe. Biden told graduates that while they will learn to fly the most advanced planes, staff cutting-edge ships and utilize novel technologies, The most powerful tool that youll wield is our unmatched network of global alliances and the strength of our partnerships. The president told graduates that they will defend the international rules of the road, particularly in the Indo-Pacific region where they will be called on to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea and beyond. These longstanding maritime principles are the bedrock of a global economy and of global stability," he said. Youre going to help knit together our allies in Europe with our allies in the Indo-Pacific. Biden did not address two mass shootings in as many weeks in his remarks. He, along with first lady Jill Biden, will visit Uvalde, Texas on Sunday to console grieving families after Tuesdays shooting at an elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers, the White House said. Biden's remarks to the Naval Academy marked his first commencement address of the year. He is also set to deliver remarks at Saturdays graduation ceremony at the University of Delaware, his alma mater. The president opened his speech by paying tribute to the class of 2022's resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and with a customary pardoning of any minor infractions made by midshipmen during their time in the academy. He also paid tribute for former Republican Sen. John McCain, who is interred on the grounds of the academy, saying, Being here I cant help think of John and how the naval academy meant so much to him. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) President Vladimir Putin issued an order Wednesday to fast track Russian citizenship for residents in parts of southern Ukraine largely held by his forces, while lawmakers in Moscow passed a bill to strengthen the stretched Russian army. Putins decree applying to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions could allow Russia to strengthen its hold on territory that lies between eastern Ukraine, where Moscow-backed separatists occupy some areas, and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014. The Russian army is engaged in an intense battle for Ukraines eastern industrial heartland, known as the Donbas. In a sign that the Kremlin is trying to bolster its stretched military machine, Russian lawmakers agreed to scrap the age limit of 40 for individuals signing their first voluntary military contracts. A description of the bill on the parliament website indicated older recruits would be allowed to operate precision weapons or serve in engineering or medical roles. The chair of the Russian parliaments defense committee, Andrei Kartapolov, said the measure would make it easier to hire people with in-demand" skills. Russian authorities have said that only volunteer contract soldiers are sent to fight in Ukraine, although they have acknowledged that some conscripts were drawn into the fighting by mistake in the early stages of the war. Three months into Russia's invasion of the neighboring country, Putin visited a military hospital in Moscow on Wednesday and met with some soldiers wounded in Ukraine, the Kremlin said in a statement on its website. The event was the Russian leader's first publicly known visit with soldiers fighting in Ukraine since he launched the war on Feb. 24. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has visited wounded soldiers, civilians and children including at times when Russian troops were fighting on the outskirts of Kyiv. A reporter for the state-run Russia1 TV channel posted a video clip on Telegram showing Putin in a white medical coat talking to a man in hospital attire, presumably a soldier. The man, filmed from behind standing up and with no visible wounds, tells Putin that he has a son. The president, accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, responds: He will be proud of his father, before shaking the man's hand. Zelenskyy reiterated Wednesday that he would be willing to negotiate with Putin directly but said Moscow needs to retreat to the positions it held before the invasion and must show it's ready to shift from the bloody war to diplomacy. I believe it would be a correct step for Russia to make," Zelenskyy told leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by video link. He also said that Ukraine wants to drive Russian troops out of all captured areas. Ukraine will fight until it reclaims all its territories, Zelenskyy said. Its about our independence and our sovereignty. Russia already had a program to expedite the naturalization of people living in Luhansk and Donetsk, the two eastern Ukraine provinces that make up the Donbas and where the Moscow-backed separatists hold large areas as self-declared independent republics. During a visit to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions last week, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin indicated they could become part of our Russian family. A Russia-installed official in the Kherson region has predicted the region would become part of Russia. An official in Zaporizhzhia said Wednesday that the region's pro-Kremlin administration would seek that as well. Melitopol, Zaporizhzhias second-largest city, plans to start issuing Russian passports in the near future, said the Russian-installed acting mayor, Galina Danilchenko. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said Ukraine was not ready to cede control of areas occupied by Russian forces for the sake of reaching a peace agreement, saying some Western lobbyists are pushing Kyiv to so. Ukrainian society has paid a terrible price and will not allow anyone to take even a step in this direction -- not a single government, not a single country, Podolyak said on Telegram. He said instead ceding territory would only freeze the conflict, not resolve it. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who attended the Davos forum in person, called for friendly countries particularly the United States to provide the Ukrainian military with multiple launch rocket systems so they could try to recapture territory taken by the Russians. Every day of someone sitting in Washington, Berlin, Paris and other capitals, and considering whether they should or should not do something, costs us lives and territories, Kuleba said. On Wednesday Russian rockets pounded towns far from the front line in the Donbas. The governor of Luhansk province, Serhiy Haidai, accused Russia of targeting shelters where civilians were hiding in the city of Sievierodonetsk. The situation is serious, Haidai said in a written response to questions from The Associated Press. The city is constantly being shelled with every possible weapon in the enemys possession. Sievierodonetsk and the nearby city of Lysychansk are the largest remaining settlements held by Ukraine in Luhansk. The region is more than 90% controlled by Russia, Haidai said, adding that a key supply route was coming under pressure despite stiff Ukrainian resistance. Haidai said the road between Lysychansk and the city of Bakhmut to the southwest is considered crucial to keeping Ukrainian troops in the area supplied. Haidai said it was constantly being shelled and that Russian sabotage and reconnaissance teams were approaching the area. The regional governor of Donetsk, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said four civilians were injured when two rockets hit the town of Pokrovsk early Wednesday. One strike left a crater at least three meters (10 feet) deep, with the remnants of what appeared to be a rocket still smoldering. A row of low terraced houses near the strike suffered significant damage. Theres no place to live in left. Everything is smashed, Viktoria Kurbonova, a mother of two who lived in one of the terraced houses, said. An earlier strike about a month ago blew out the windows, which were replaced with plastic sheeting. Kurbonova thinks that probably saved their lives since there was no glass flying around. I was reaching for my child, and I couldnt find him in the dust, she said. In other developments, Russia said the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol was functional again following a nearly three-month siege that ended with the surrender of the last Ukrainian fighters. The Russian Defense Ministry's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, said the military completed clearing the port of land mines. Russian forces took full control of Mariupol, on the Sea of Azov, after the last defenders holed up in a giant seaside steel plant laid down their weapons last week. Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the separatists in Donetsk planned to set up a tribunal to put the fighters on trial and that Moscow welcomes the action. Elena Becatoros in Pokrovsk, Ukraine, and Jamey Keaten in Davos, Switzerland, 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. One by one, speakers took the stage at the National Rifle Associations annual convention in Houston and denounced the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school across the state. And one by one, they insisted that changing U.S. gun laws or further restricting access to firearms was not the answer. The gathering comes just three days after the shooting in Uvalde. Hundreds of protesters shouted their anger at the NRA outside the meeting. In remarks to the group, former President Donald Trump called for an overhaul of school security and the U.S. approach to mental health problems while dismissing calls to disarm gun owners. SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) Opponents of a proposed launchpad for commercial rockets on the Georgia coast are asking a court to throw out the project's government license, saying the Federal Aviation Administration failed to correctly assess the risks of firing rockets over homes and a barrier island popular with tourists. Attorneys for the Southern Environmental Law Center filed suit in U.S. District Court seeking to revoke the launch site operator license the FAA granted in December to the planned Spaceport Camden. Officials in coastal Camden County have spent the past decade and more than $10 million seeking to build a spaceport for launching satellites into orbit. The proposed flight path would send rockets over Little Cumberland Island, which has about 40 private homes, and neighboring Cumberland Island, a federally protected wilderness visited by about 60,000 tourists each year. Residents and the National Park Service have said they fear explosive misfires raining fiery debris could spark wildfires near homes and people. The lawsuit filed on behalf of homeowners and conservation groups says the FAA allowed county officials to minimize potential safety risks by basing their license application on a hypothetical rocket that does not exist and is smaller than current commercial rockets. It says the FAA didn't follow its own policies that call for holding such unproven rockets to a higher standard. The FAAs decision to license a site where rockets would launch over people, homes, and Cumberland Island National Seashore ... is contrary to the agencys regulations for licensing launch sites and is unprecedented in the history of the United States commercial space program, said the the lawsuit, filed May 19 in the District of Columbia. The lawsuit also claims that a top FAA official privately told opponents of Spaceport Camden in March 2019 that he doubted the project would be successful. The document says a group of Little Cumberland Island homeowners traveled to Washington to meet with FAA officials including Wayne Monteith, who was then the agency's associate administrator for commercial space transportation. The lawsuit says Monteith told the group "that Spaceport Camden was not a commercially viable launch site and that `some spaceports just want to sell hats and T-shirts.' FAA spokesman Steve Kulm said Thursday that the agency does not comment on pending litigation. Monteith no longer works for the FAA and is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Reached by phone, Monteith's wife said he was traveling Thursday. He did not immediately return a message seeking comment. On several occasions we would ask the FAA, 'Listen, is it worthwhile for us to continue this endeavor?' said John Simpson, a spokesman for the Spaceport Camden project. "No one at the FAA ever told us, `We dont see this as a commercially viable project.' Nor is that the FAAs role. In Camden County, a community of 55,000 people on the Georgia-Florida line, commissioners have long argued that a spaceport would bring economic growth not just from rocket launches, but also by attracting related industries and tourists. Opponents say the plans to build the spaceport on an industrial plot formerly used to manufacture pesticides and munitions poses potential environmental and safety hazards that outweigh any economic benefits. The FAA's final environmental impact report on Spaceport Camden concluded county officials had submitted an adequate and appropriate plan for dealing with fires and other emergencies that might arise from rocket launches. However, the FAA noted when it granted the county's license to operate a spaceport in December that a separate and more comprehensive review would be required before any rockets could be launched. The agency stressed in a letter that no outcome is guaranteed. In March, opponents forced a referendum on the project after gathering more than 3,500 petition signatures from registered voters saying they wanted the spaceport on the ballot. The result was a big defeat for the spaceport. The final tally showed 72% of voters sided with halting the project by overruling commissioners prior decision to buy land for the spaceport. County officials have given no indication that they plan to abandon the spaceport. Just days after the referendum, they voted to move ahead with buying property for the project. Meanwhile, commissioners have a legal case pending in Georgia that seeks to have the referendum declared invalid. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. A 36-year-old Gering man was killed early Friday when his pickup truck went off the road north of Kimball and rolled, the Nebraska State Patrol said. Anthony Coffey was killed about 12:25 a.m. when he was thrown from the 1994 Toyota half-ton pickup truck he was driving, according to the patrol and the Kimball County Sheriff's Office. The pickup left the road while exiting Nebraska Highway 71 to Old Highway 71/County Road 41 East. Coffey overcorrected, the patrol said, causing the pickup to roll. Coffey, who was not wearing a seat belt, was ejected, the patrol said. Kimball is a little more than 40 miles south of Gering in the Nebraska Panhandle. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The pilot killed in a plane crash in northeast Nebraska on May 20 has been identified as 44-year-old Tom Dafoe. The crash occurred Friday evening at the Wayne Municipal Airport during the second-annual MayDay STOL Drag Races, an air show and racing competition. According to a GoFundMe online fundraising effort organized by Dafoes former employer, aircraft dealer jetAVIVA, Dafoe joined the company in 2021 as a sales director after a nearly 20-year tenure with Cessna Aircraft Company. He lived in California for many years, but according to a feature in Flying Magazine, Dafoe moved his family to the Hawkins, Texas, area just two months ago to live in a home with an attached airplane hangar. Dafoe was described as a passionate aviator who passed down his love of flying to his family. He leaves behind a wife, five kids and one grandchild, according to the GoFundMe. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. An NTSB spokesman said the agency expects to release a preliminary investigation report within 15 days of the incident. The full investigation could take 12 to 24 months. According to the website stoldrag.com, STOL (short take-off and landing) drag racing involves pilots flying 2,000 feet down and back in a side-by-side format. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. LINCOLN The young man who asked State Sen. Carol Blood of Bellevue for her signature on a voter identification petition this week obviously didnt know whom he was approaching. Blood, a six-year state lawmaker and the Democratic candidate for governor, immediately challenged the man when he said he was with the state of Nebraska. She confronted a second circulator later, a woman who was collecting signatures in the same commercial parking lot near 72nd and Pacific Streets and made the same claim about working for the state. State employees are not allowed to circulate petitions or otherwise engage in political activities while on the clock. All I can say is, we had a chat, Blood tweeted afterward. Shes among Omaha-area residents in recent days who have reported encounters with people circulating voter ID petitions who allegedly misrepresented themselves as working for state government or who have not accurately described the purpose of the petition. Former Sen. Shelley Kiel said two circulators came separately to her home in the Dundee area of Omaha. Both claimed to work for the state one specifically said she worked for the Secretary of States Office. Both repeated their claims when Kiel questioned them. This is not something they come up with on their own, Kiel said. They clearly were told to say something like that. Sen. Julie Slama of Dunbar, who is leading the Citizens for Voter ID petition drive, said the reports were very isolated and not representative of the hundreds of voter ID petition circulators working across the state. We take these isolated, alleged incidents very seriously, she said, adding that petition organizers are investigating the reports. If they are found to be true, she said, there will be consequences up to and including termination. Citizens for Voter ID hired Vanguard Field Strategies, a GOP firm based in Austin, Texas, to bring in paid circulators and manage the signature-gathering effort, although Slama said the drive also has volunteers collecting signatures. Vanguard also managed the signature gathering for James Craig, a former Detroit police chief who had been viewed as a front-runner in Michigans GOP gubernatorial primary election, according to The New York Times. His spot on the ballot is in jeopardy after the state election bureau concluded this week that thousands of his petition signatures were fraudulent. More than half the 21,305 signatures submitted by his campaign were rejected, leaving him well short of the number needed. Slama said she was unfamiliar with the Michigan situation and believes the voter ID circulators are overwhelmingly doing outstanding jobs, including reading the object statement to would-be signers as required by law. She said signature-gathering is ahead of schedule. Citizens for Voter ID seeks to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November ballot that, if passed, would require people to present valid photo identification before they can vote. The drive must collect valid signatures from 10% of registered voters, or about 124,000 people, by July 7 to qualify. All but $1,000 of the $377,000 raised for the petition effort so far was donated by Marlene Ricketts, mother of Gov. Pete Ricketts. Reports filed with the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission show that the drive had $36,947 left as of the end of April. However, Slama said she expects the grassroots support will continue. John Cartier, director of voting rights for Civic Nebraska, said an opposition group called Nebraskans for Free and Fair Elections is collecting reports of misrepresentation, fraud and other improprieties by the voter ID petition drive. He said those reports could be used in a lawsuit targeting the voter ID proposal if it qualifies for the ballot. He said the group also is trying to discourage people from signing the petition and spreading the word that people can have their names removed from a petition by filling out a form available at county and state election offices. Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Supporting Uvalde Our hearts are with all of those impacted by the tragic school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. We are filled with sadness for all of the victims of this tragedy - those who lost their lives, those who are recovering and the entire Uvalde community. We are grateful for the support you have shown for our Foundation's work in Humble ISD, but we now ask that you join us in turning attention to Uvalde and support them. Below are some ways you can help: Heartland Theatre to host open auditions NORMAL Heartland Theatre Company will host open auditions for 2022 New Plays from the Heartland staged readings June 13-14 from 7-10 p.m. Auditions will be held at the theater, 1110 Doulgas St., One Normal Plaza in the Normal Community Activity Center. Three winning one-act plays from the Midwest will be presented as enhanced staged readings before an audience. The presentation of the enhanced staged readings will take place July 15-16 at 7:30 p.m. and July 17 at 2 p.m. Heartland is looking for actors to play the following 13 roles for following new one-act plays: What the Mind Forgets by Jordan Elizabeth Henry (Cincinnati, OH); Directed by Cyndee Brown; four roles One Night at Ernie's by Todd Wineburner (Pontiac, IL); Directed by Rhys Lovell; five roles Running Uphill to Smooth Criminal by E. K. Doolin (Edwardsville, IL); Directed by Kathleen Kirk; four roles Email boxoffice@heartlandtheatre.org or visit heartlandtheatre.org/auditions for more information. Lincoln library and museum launches new exhibit SPRINGFIELD The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum launched a new exhibit of Lincoln treasures that will be updated monthly. The museum is doing this as a reward to the public after the pandemic. The items displayed in the museum's treasure gallery will be updated every month through the end of October. The items include: Bloody gloves that Lincoln was carrying when he was murdered The oldest surviving example of Lincolns writing The presidential seal Lincoln used during his second term in the White House A brooch, ring and earrings owned by Mary Lincoln Locks of hair from Lincoln and his son Willie An elaborate notepad and letter opener owned by Mary Lincoln A paper lantern promoting Lincoln during the 1864 presidential campaign The only known document signed by both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas According to the museum, this may be the last time the public will have the opportunity to see these artifacts as they belong to a private foundation who spent years raising money by promising donors the collection would be given to the museum, which is not clear if they will do so. The museum has since severed ties with the organization. Visit PresidentLincoln.Illinois.gov for more information. BLOOMINGTON McLean County saw new COVID cases drop slightly this past week, but added five more deaths from the disease, bringing its total number of deaths to 374. The deaths were a man in his 50s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 80s, a man in his 90s and a woman in her 90s. None were associated with long-term care, the McLean County Health Department said in its weekly update on Friday. The county saw 655 new cases since May 20, and 16 new hospitalizations. Around 4.5% of staffed hospital beds in the county are being used for COVID-19 patients. Last week the department announced 683 new cases and 14 hospital admissions. McLean County remains at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "medium community level" designation. The Illinois Department of Public Health announced Friday that there had been 36,843 new COVID cases since last week, as well as 45 deaths. The number of Illinois counties considered to be at high community level has increased from eight to 15, including Peoria and Tazewell counties in Central Illinois. The CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public in areas with high community levels. For medium community level areas, the CDC recommends that people at higher risk from the disease, such as the immunocompromised and elderly, wear masks. People who are in regular contact with people at high risk should also consider wearing masks in medium community level areas. Other area counties at medium community level include Logan, DeWitt, Macon, Ford and Champaign counties, according to the CDC. In McLean County, 61.4% of the population is vaccinated, compared to 64.8% statewide, MCHD's update said. IDPH and MCHD continue to encourage people to keep up on their COVID-19 vaccinations. Primary vaccinations, along with first and second boosters for those who qualify, are offered through MCHD. Adults can schedule a vaccination with MCHD by calling 309-888-5435; children's appointments can be made by calling 309-888-5455. Other vaccine locations can be found at vaccines.gov. MCHD also announced changes to its testing and vaccine operations. It is ending its COVID-19 Call Center after 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 31, so those looking to schedule a vaccine should call the numbers above. MCHD is also moving its testing clinics to the McLean County Customer Service Station, located in the parking lot just across East Street from the Government Center in downtown Bloomington. An entrance to the parking lot is at 201 E. Washington St. Registration for testing can be found on the MCHD website. Walk-ins are also accepted. The next testing clinics are: Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesday from 9 a.m. to noon Contact Connor Wood at (309)820-3240. Follow Connor on Twitter:@connorkwood Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Build your health & fitness knowledge Sign up here to get the latest health & fitness updates in your inbox every week! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON After 21 were murdered in Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, a Normal musician is asking himself how he can be a catalyst for change. Marcos Mendez is answering that question by organizing a benefit show Thursday, June 2, at nightshop, 517 N. Main St., Bloomington. He and several others will perform for no pay during the event, with a suggested $10 donation from attendees. Funds will be sent to an account with the First State Bank of Uvalde, which has been verified by the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. Mendez, who moved 15 years ago from Three Rivers, Texas, to Bloomington and now resides in Normal, said he felt heartbreak and frustration after hearing this week's news. He said these mass shootings have happened before, and they still continue to happen. There are people that want change and want action, but all we really hear is folks who want to offer thoughts and prayers, said Mendez. Thats just not enough. Mendez said he saw a Facebook post by Houston musician Rich OTool offering to play a benefit show that would help cover funeral costs for families in Uvalde. OTool added in the post: Their families have no business paying a dime. Mendez said he took that as a call to action to organize a fundraiser concert in Bloomington. He said he started reaching out to musicians and venues. Its just been overwhelming the amount of support that people have given, not for anything other than helping these families that are impacted by the senseless act, he said. Mendez said hes been performing country covers since around the time he moved here, and will play at Thursdays show. He picks up songs from Texans like Pat Green, Cory Morrow and Robert Earl Keen. Brittany Griffith, who played fiddle in Mendezs former band Two Dollar Ransom, will perform. Other artists who will play include: V8 Vast Change, Kim Kaufman, Larry Estes, Wes Hood, Peggi Hattaway and Angie Carstens, Travis Stone, Fred Snellen, Charlie Faulkner, Chris Corkery, and Dave Homler, who plays under the stage name Troublemaker. Mendez's daughter Adrian Mendez is tentatively performing. Event shirts will be made on-site by Meltdown Creative Works, with proceeds after costs being sent to the Uvalde fund. Mendez's college friend Victoria Bray, who lives in Texas, designed its logo. Mendez said while performers are given 15 to 20 minutes for a solo set, they may organically group up and jam together. He takes the willingness of performers to join up as a good sign. Its really about communing with people and bringing people together for the cause, he said. Coming together Mendez said seeing pictures of the children killed in Uvalde hit him hard, because they look like he did as a kid. They look like my nieces and nephews, he said. He also said he has friends who used to live in Uvalde. One shared a social media post about someone who was impacted by the shooting. You never know who youre connected to, and so you never know where this is going to happen, he said. He noted shots were fired Wednesday near the Illinois State University campus in Normal. Our community isnt immune to these types of things. We need to come together as a community to help figure it out, he said. IF YOU GO WHAT: Unidos Con Uvalde Benefit Concert WHEN: 6 p.m. to midnight, Thursday, June 2 WHERE: nightshop, 517 N. Main St., Bloomington DONATE: First State Bank of Uvalde is receiving contributions for families of Robb Elementary. Zelle payments can be sent to robbschoolmemorialfund@gmail.com, and checks may be paid to "Robb School Memorial Fund" and mailed to 200 E. Nopal St., Uvalde, TX 78801. Contact Brendan Denison at (309) 820-3238. Follow Brendan Denison on Twitter: @BrendanDenison Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON A Chicago man remains jailed on firearm and attempted armed robbery charges connected to a shooting early Wednesday in Normal. Malik A. Wilson, 23, is charged with two counts of attempted armed robbery and aggravated discharge of a firearm, possession of a stolen motor vehicle and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. Normal police were called at 12:28 a.m. Wednesday to an area in the 300 block of North Main Street, near West Willow and West Locust Streets, after a report of gunshots. Wilson is accused of driving a stolen white SUV from Chicago while providing an acquaintance a ride to Peoria. They stopped at a gas station at 300 N. Main St., Normal, where Wilson exited the vehicle and walked away from the gas pumps, while the other man remained at the gas pumps, prosecutors said. Wilson wore a ski mask, approached two people near the intersection of West Willow and North University streets and brandished a handgun while asking them for money, prosecutors said. One of the men Wilson approached, who had valid FOID and concealed carry cards, drew a handgun, and Wilson fired a gunshot toward the two people, prosecutors said. The man returned fire about six times as they ran away from Wilson, prosecutors said. Wilson ran back to the white SUV and fled the area eastbound on West Locust Street, and police observed the car drive on a sidewalk southbound along North School Street, prosecutors said. The white SUVs lights were shut off and it was parked in a lot next to work vans; police then saw two males nearby who started running. Wilson and the man he was with were apprehended, but his acquaintance was later released after being interviewed, police said. Police later learned that the white SUV had been reported stolen during an armed robbery Sunday in Chicago. A loaded 9 mm handgun was retrieved from the vehicle, which Wilson later admitted to owning, authorities said. He also told police that he shot back at the victim after Wilson's initial gunshot, prosecutors said. No injuries were reported. Wilson possessed a valid FOID card, prosecutors said, but he did not possess a valid concealed carry license. Wilson was jailed in lieu of posting $45,035. An arraignment is scheduled for June 10. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON McLean County law enforcement leaders say their training for active shooter situations like the one in Uvalde, Texas, would lead officers to advance toward a threat until it is neutralized. That's not what happened in the Texas shooting, according to authorities there. Students trapped inside an elementary school classroom with a gunman on Tuesday repeatedly called 911 while nearly 20 officers waited in the hallway for more than 45 minutes, according to information released Friday. The commander at the scene believed that the 18-year-old gunman was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference. "It was the wrong decision," he said. At least 19 children and two teachers were killed in the shooting, which ended when U.S. Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed the shooter about 90 minutes after he had entered the school, authorities said. Officials with the McLean County Sheriff's Office and Bloomington, Normal and Illinois State University police departments spoke to The Pantagraph before the news conference and were not asked to comment specifically on the situation in Texas, about which information is still unfolding. Speaking generally, all said that their agencies periodically train with different tactics and scenarios, and the departments also partnered for joint active shooter training at least once a year before the COVID-19 pandemic paused those bigger exercises. When you sign up to be a police officer, yes you want to help the community and you look forward to meeting new people and all that stuff, but the thing is when you sign up, that is what you sign up for, said Bloomington public information officer Brandt Parsley. When you have a loss of human life and theres no one else coming to help, its the police or nobody, and for me, you have to go in there and neutralize the threat. Normal Police Chief Steve Petrilli said officers use different tactics to neutralize a threat, depending on the situation. Information from dispatchers or suspects themselves can help officers determine how to proceed. An important part of active shooting training is identifying the threat, he said. If its an active threat, with somebody that is actively shooting and injuring other people, officers are taught to move towards the threat and ultimately take action if they need to, Petrilli said. ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff said he and his officers undergo simulation training monthly for different use-of-force situations, including school shooter scenarios. Officers use decommissioned firearms outfitted with a laser and CO2 cartridges to mimic to the same physical and audio effect of firing their service weapons. Its to make it as realistic as possible to help officers respond better in any type of situation, Woodruff said. The whole idea for a lot of training is to help with muscle memory so you can think quickly and have more of a response. They also hold tabletop drills, which are more like meetings to discuss emergency situations with other campus stakeholders and review actions they would take in different situations, testing their emergency plans in an informal environment and clarifying the roles and responsibilities of each member, Woodruff said. McLean County sheriffs Lt. Jon Albee said deputies, including those who work as school resource officers, are trained in A.L.I.C.E. (alert, lockdown, inform, counter and evacuate) response, a training program that gives officers and citizens guidelines when encountering an aggressive intruder or active shooter. In any active shooter situation, deputies are trained to respond immediately and advance toward the threat until it is neutralized, he said. Local agencies have, unfortunately, had occasion to use their cooperative training for such scenarios. All four agencies and the Illinois State Police responded in September 2012, when a 14-year-old Normal Community High School student brought a loaded handgun to school and fired multiple shots into the ceiling. Officers flooded the scene and detained the student, who had been disarmed by a teacher. Thats another thing to train for, these interagency agreements and ability to operate together, because it might not be a brown deputy uniform that shows up with you. It might another agency, and then the two of you are the only ones there, Albee said. Youre still going in. Albee said deputies also have quarterly firearms training to meet annual qualifications and are trained by their in-house master firearms instructor, who travels to smaller law enforcement agencies in the area to provide training. Parsley, with the Bloomington police, said officers can sign up throughout the year for active shooting classes that are approved by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training and Standards Board. They also engage in more personal scenarios using Simunition, a form of non-lethal training ammunition that involves firing a hollow plastic bullet at a lower speed; it can mark people with paint, similar to paintballs. You get firsthand feedback whether or not you did the appropriate action, so if you mess up and you dont go to the suspect or you take the wrong path or youre not fully focused on the places that you should be, theres a real potential that you can get shot, Parsley said. An officer who gets shot with Simunition won't be seriously hurt, he said, but the plastic bullets do leave welts and bruises behind. "Its good for training because it reinforces better decision-making skills," he said. Normal officers employ certain methods for tactical training at the gun range, such as raising an officer's heart rate to put his or her body under stress, Petrilli said. That helps officers know what it feels like to operate under that type of physical pressure and learn to manage the stress. Officers were confronted with an active shooter Aug. 30 at the Landings Estates mobile home park in Normal, where 66-year-old Ronald J. Reiner shot five people, killing two. In that incident, three Normal officers arrived on scene and approached Reiner, who fired on them; they returned fire, and Reiner was killed at the scene. Body camera footage of the incident was released in September, and State's Attorney Don Knapp said the responding officers were heroes who had saved lives. In that situation, Petrilli said, dispatchers were able to relay information about the area and situation to the responding officers, who immediately advanced on Reiner. You can only imagine having to go to a call like this and youre getting calls of shots fired. You have to have a mechanism to cope with the stress and to make sure that when you get on the scene youre in the right frame of mind, Petrilli said. Dealing with different stress-inducing factors can come from active shooter situations but being able to make better decisions and being engaged is what needs to be done, Petrilli said. After tragedies like the Texas shooting, he said, law enforcement agencies have an opportunity to debrief and learn from the response. Were always in that growth mindset, looking to get better and ultimately provide a better service and make our community safer, he said. We trained for these types of situations and we hope that they never manifest themselves but everybody receives training in this discipline and we just hope that we never have to use that. The Associated Press contributed. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. BLOOMINGTON Bloomington Police Chief Jamal Simington and other members of the Bloomington Police Department hope to foster community relationships in a series of "neighborhood walks" this summer. During the first walk on Friday afternoon held in the 600 blocks of West Jefferson and West Monroe streets, and the 700 block of West Monroe Street officers knocked on doors in hopes of speaking with community members in an informal setting, according to a news release from BPD. Officer Ben Brace of BPD's neighborhood focus team said the walks will help police gain a better understanding of residents' concerns. He added that most complaints do not require serious police intervention or citations, but are more mundane. He said the walks will help officers "smooth out (any) problem before it becomes an issue." A second walk is planned for 1 to 3 p.m. Friday, June 17, on Dry Sage Circle in Bloomington. "The neighborhood walks will give the Bloomington Police Department the opportunity to strengthen bonds and build trust with the community we serve," Simington stated in the news release. "The trust created will allow for collaborative problem solving, crime prevention, and overall safer neighborhoods. I am very excited to meet members of the community at their homes." Contact Robyn Skaggs at robyn.skaggs@lee.net or 309-820-3244. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The long Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial start of summer and is perhaps best known in Chicago as the beginning of its long, hot season of gun violence. The morning-after news coverage typically notes that the holiday was the most violent weekend of the year so far, or some such thing. Youve probably seen the polling which shows crime isnt the super-hot political issue its often portrayed to be. But dont kid yourself. Its still high enough on voters lists to make a difference, usually coming in second place behind economic issues. Thats one reason why Gov. J.B. Pritzker sent out a press release last week touting his violence reduction efforts, including surging $18 million in new state funding for 1,000 summer jobs in Chicago for kids in high risk situations. He claimed in the release that $10 million has already been released to groups ahead of the summer. The governors office told me the Illinois Department of Human Services has sent $83 million out the door this fiscal year to community providers for anti-violence efforts. It also says $27.2 million is heading out" in the next month, before the end of the fiscal year on June 30. That spending, the Pritzker administration says, is up from the $60 million spent by IDHS in all of last fiscal year. In addition, the administration points to $113 million in grants available to groups through the departments notice of funding opportunity process. Considering that the City of Chicago alone is directly spending $1.7 billion this fiscal year on law enforcement, these are relatively modest programs. But the state money is still a decent pile of cash. And because the state largesse is being spent by individual grant recipients, theres always the danger that it could be misused or misdirected. Just ask former Gov. Pat Quinn, who took an enormous amount of political heat for the way some of his $54 million anti-violence Neighborhood Funding Initiative Program money was spent in 2010, leading up to the election. Gov. Quinn was slammed for various silly attempts to keep kids off the street, up to and including paying kids to march in a parade with the governor. Nothing much ever came of the various probes into the program, but, even if there was no criminal intent, its execution was a complete mess and ill-conceived. The last thing Pritzker needs is a rerun. Some Democratic state legislators have been pushing news media outlets to write stories about how their favored anti-violence groups havent received more funding, but the governors office has resisted in certain instances where the groups would likely draw unfavorable attention from those very same media outlets. The Pritzker people have taken a different approach than Quinn, and hopefully (for the governors own sake and for the states) they wont be making the same sort of mistakes as the last Democratic governor. Even so, it's likely that somebody will screw up somewhere and wind up on the front page of a newspaper or the leading item during a TV newscast. Violence interruption and prevention programs rarely get the benefit of the doubt from the news media. From the coverage, it would be easy to conclude that Quinns program had far more downsides than upsides. Because of that, it took years and years before the state legislature was willing to give the concept another chance. On the other hand, if theres too much caution then not enough grant money arrives in time for the summer, which would be a PR disaster. Its also worth noting that it often takes a month or more for groups to complete the paperwork and navigate the various processes to actually receive grant monies after the cash has been awarded by the state. So, even though the state can claim the money is out the door, the funds may not yet be available to spend. But this should be more than just about the fact that the state is spending money. Its crucial that these programs actually show some real, tangible results. Chicago and most smaller cities in this state have been gut-punched by violent crime. Police officers and replacement recruits are in short supply here and in areas throughout the country. Violence interruption and prevention needs to show tangible results, not only for the present, but for the future. Convincing the General Assembly to support more programs down the road could turn out to be nearly impossible if this fails. So, please, everybody, dont screw it up. Rich Miller publishes Capitol Fax, a daily political newsletter, and CapitolFax.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The Florida Department of Health in Pasco County (DOH-Pasco) surveyed the Holiday FL. community in January to help determine the physical, environmental, health, and safety needs of residents in the community. The survey conducted was called the Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE=EH). DOH-Pascos health equity team reached out to residents in the Holiday community both online and in person. During their outreach, the health equity team requested feedback regarding the concerns and needs of the community. Some of the top concerns from the survey are: A need for adequate equipment at playgrounds for special needs children Better community appearance, and water quality Removal of abandoned buildings and cars A need for adequate street lighting Additional community recreation centers, parks, playgrounds Additional bike racks at local stores and county buildings A need for carbon monoxide detectors in homes Better trails, sidewalks, and bike lanes Mosquito concerns and roaming stray animals With these results, DOH-Pasco is partnering with Pasco County government to address these concerns in an effort to create a healthier community. About the Florida Department of Health, The Department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote, and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county, and community efforts. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter @HealthyPasco. For more information about the Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov The Supreme Council for Arab-African Economy (SCAAE), an international organisation that seeks to promote trade and investment in Arab and African countries, will hold its maiden conference in Ghana on June 1, this year. The conference, which seeks to foster dialogue and opportunities for investors in the country, will be on the theme: Together for a better Arab-African economy. Participants will include investors from Europe, Arab countries, Asia and other African countries and are expected to interact with government agencies, such as the Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) and the Ministry of Trade and Industry, and business groups, such as the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) and the Ghana Chamber of Commerce. Sustainable investment The Executive Director of the SCAAE, Hajj Mukaila Ahmed Akuamoah, told the Daily Graphic that the rationale behind the creation of the council and the conference itself was to promote sustainable investment in Africa and Arab countries. The council was formed on the basis of collaborating on investment and also giving Africans opportunities to invest in Arab countries, he said. He said the council was a hub for investment, so there was a need to collaborate on all fronts to help develop sustainable growth. Focus Throwing more light on the conference, he said it was to promote investments in all sectors, such as construction, agriculture, health, manufacturing, energy and services. The investors will be looking at proposals that are viable, impactful, sustainable and will help in development. They will, therefore, invest in areas that will lead to massive employment and sustainable development, he said. Besides, Hajj Akuamoah said, investors who would participate in the conference had the desire to invest in Ghana and other African countries, for which reason they would be looking out for meaningful partnerships with governmental agencies and the private sector. Scope of operation Established under Article 17 of the Arab-African Economic Agreement, the SCAAE provides project consultancy, research into business development and also represents the interest of investors throughout Africa and other parts of the world. It works to bring investors, regulatory agencies, business groups and other interests together for sustainable and effective partnership and collaboration in Arab and African countries. It also works to enhance the competitiveness and diversification of Arab and African countries, as well as increase the flow of investments in these countries. Restructure Hajj Akuamoah said the SCAAE had restructured its operations to improve the flow of investments in African countries. We are doing more projects in Africa, mainly in Senegal, Ghana and Comoros, and currently targeting other African countries, such as Sudan, Tanzania, Cote dIvoire and Nigeria, where we have received a lot of investment proposals to study and advise, accordingly, he said. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey has shot down claims that he's lost his fire. The Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central has been touted as one of the best Minister among President Akufo-Addo's appointees following his determination to make "Accra work again". Governance Lecturer at the Central University, Dr. Benjamin Otchere-Ankrah has said Henry Quartey seems to have relaxed. "The best time to implement change is when you have public support . . . the things he said and he had the Presidency's support, nothing ever stopped him. I plead with him not to let us down. Don't let us be disappointed, especially those of us who believed in you. I still believe in you; you can do it. So, please keep the fire burning," he told him. Watch video below However, speaking to Kwami Sefa Kayi in an interview on Peace FM's morning show 'Kokrokoo', Henry Quartey said he's "still on fire" "I realized there was some form of complacency among the first taskforce so we slowed down to train the new ones we recruited and they've passed out. We intend to deploy about 700. We are currently working on their code of conduct and so by next week, we will be done with documentation and so we've not given up," he explained. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Surprises are anticipated as the New Patriotic Party (NPP) goes to the polls from today to Sunday to elect regional executives. A lot of action is likely to go on in the Ashanti, Eastern, Bono, Central and Greater Accra regions where new entrants are seeking to unseat incumbents. This has brought in its wake anxiety, tension and fear, which has gripped many of the partys faithful and candidates as the party goes to the crunch polls. Meanwhile, due to a last-minute injunction sought by five persons in the Ekumfi Constituency from a Cape Coast High Court to restrain organisers of the Central Regional conference from holding the elections, the conference will not come off in that region. Tension The tension has been brought about by the fact that the identity of some of the delegates, especially those representing the Council of Elders of the party in the region, the TESCON representative, the 10 patrons in the region, are not known to some of the aspirants. But at its meeting last Wednesday, the Dan Botwe-led National Appeals Committee, directed that the photo album of delegates in the Ashanti Region, which issue came to the attention of the committee, should be given to all the aspirants by the close of yesterday [May 26, 2022]. Although the party was to hold the Ashanti Regional conference today, it has been shifted to tomorrow, May 28, 2022, while the venue has been changed from the Ashanti Regional Co-ordinating Council to the Baba Yara Stadium. John Boadu - General Secretary of the New Patriotic Party Whoever leads the Ashanti Region in the crunch polls will be expected to play a major role in the partys bid to break the eight. Therefore, whoever becomes the NPP chairman in the region, considered the World Bank of the party, is of interest to not only the region but also the entire membership of the party. The election comes against the background that the incumbent Regional Chairman, Bernard Antwi-Boasiako, had promised to deliver all the 47 parliamentary seats in the region for the NPP in the 2020 parliamentary election, but could not. He had also promised to build a regional office for the party but has not been able to deliver that one too, leading to the accusation that he is running the party from radio stations. He has also been criticised for his leadership style, which many feel is unorthodox, giving room for his opponents, especially his strongest contender, Odeneho Kwaku Appiah, to promise to help eliminate the creeping apathy in the NPP in the Ashanti Region to be able to help increase its votes in the 2024 elections. Election results In the 2020 presidential election, the NPP garnered 1,795,824 votes in the Ashanti Region, as against 1,646,949 in 2016, but lost ground with its parliamentary seats, as it won 42 in 2020, as against 44 in 2016. While the party polled 752,061 votes in the 2020 presidential election in the Eastern Region, it got 678,482 in 2016, but lost ground in the parliamentary seats, as it garnered 27 in 2016 but 25 in 2020. In the Greater Accra Region, from its presidential votes of 1,062,152 in 2016, it got 1,253,179 in 2020, while it reduced its parliamentary seats from 21 in 2016 to 14 in 2020. Overall, while the NPP gained 55 extra seats in the 2016 parliamentary election, the party split the seats with the National Democratic Congress (NDC) in 2020 election, with either party getting 137 seats, with one independent candidate. In the Bono Region, the incumbent Regional Organiser, Konlaabig Rasheed, is challenging the incumbent Regional Chairman, Kwame Baffoe, popularly known as Abronye, using the abysmal performance of the NPP in the 2020 elections in the region as his campaign message. The incumbent Regional Chairman for Greater Accra, Divine Otoo Agorhom, will come face to face with Alfred Boye, who says he is on a redemption mission to save the party in the region. In the Eastern Region, Kwadwo Boateng-Agyemang, who resigned his position as the New Juaben North Constituency Chairman, will face off with Jeff Konadu Addo, as the incumbent regional chairman is not seeking re-election. Breaking the eight All the aspirants have pledged to help break the eight, but the new ones believe after a high performance in the 2016 elections and a slump in 2020, it is time for a change. Since the inception of the Fourth Republic, neither the NPP nor the NDC has served more than two consecutive terms in power. Breaking the eight is, therefore, an ambitious and Herculean task for the NPP which requires focus, unity and sound political strategy. Candidates As of the close of nominations and vetting, a total of 480 candidates had been pencilled in to vie for the various positions in the 16 regions, with 10 such positions in each region. The Ashanti Region has the highest number of aspirants 39; while Volta has 36; Upper East, 34, with Savannah with the least number of 21 aspirants. It is only in the Western Region that the incumbent Chairman, Mr Francis Ndede Siah, is contesting unopposed. In the Upper East, six candidates are vying for the chairmanship, while Ashanti has five. Delegates Per the partys constitution, under Article 9 (25), the delegates to the conference include all members of the Regional Executive Committee, all the Members of Parliament in a region, the members of the constituency executive committees, all regional representatives of the National Council, the 10 members of the Council of Elders in a region, one TESCON member from each recognised tertiary institution in the region, the 10 patrons in the region and any founder member (s) from the region who is/are a signatory to the registration documents of the party at the Electoral Commission. The partys guidelines provide that the presence of at least one-third of the delegates shall be necessary to constitute a quorum of the conference. Venues Per the schedule of the party, eight regions, namely: Ahafo, Bono East, Central, Northern, North East, Savannah, Upper East and Western North, will hold their delegates' conference today, May 27, 2022. The Ashanti, Eastern, Greater Accra, Upper West, Volta, Oti and Western regions will take their turn tomorrow, May 28, with the Bono Region taking its turn on Sunday, May 28, 2022, at the Pastoral Centre in Sunyani. While the Ahafo delegates conference will take place at the Oasis Hotel, Goaso, that of the Bono East will take place at the Kintampo School of Health, while that of the Northern Region will take place at the Tamale Stadium. The conferences in the North East, Savannah, Upper East and Western North will take place at the Nalerigu Senior High School, the Damongo MPs office, the GNAT Hall in Bolgatanga and the Pastoral Centre, Sefwi Wiawso, respectively. The Cultural Centre in Koforidua will play host to the Eastern Regional conference; the Trade Fair Centre at La is the venue for the Greater Accra conference; with the Wa Secondary Technical Institute hosting the Upper West conference; while the Yabram Senior High School, Dambai, will host the Oti conference and the Nzema Manle Complex at Ampane, Ellembelle, will host that of the Western Region. Fairness The Director of Elections and Research of the NPP, Evans Nimako, said the party was counting on the election committees to be transparent and fair to all aspirants to ensure the peaceful conduct of the elections. That, he said, would ensure victory for the party in 2024. Source: Graphiconline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video "I have been doing a lot to support my children which Im required to do by law and as you know here in the foreign land, I have to comply with whatever I am directed to do and until all that is sorted out, I have to do what I have to do and then I will return to my duties as a member of parliament and as a minister of state, says Member of Parliament for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo. In an interview on JoyNews The Pulse on Thursday, the Gender Minister who has been severely criticized especially by her colleagues in Parliament and in the New Patriotic Party for her absence says she has not abandoned her duties. "I will be returning definitely to serve my people As you know, my son is unwell and has to transition to school, so I have to ensure that all that is settled before I can resume my duties and that is exactly what I am doing. Definitely, I will return. As you know my son has been unwell that is why I have to come here to the United States to be the best mother I could be and Im still here making sure that all that is settled with my son and all the authorities and the school and its still ongoing" she added. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Bagbin, has asked the Finance Minister to appear before the House and account for the COVID-19 expenditure. This comes on the back of a motion moved by the Chairman of the Finance Committee, Kweku Kwarteng for the approval of 75 million for the Covid-19 health response project. This motion was met with strong resistance from the Minority especially as there have been previous calls for government to account for the COVID-19 Funds and it has been turned down. The Speaker intervening directed that the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta "appear before this House and account for all the monies that have been approved for the utilisation of Covid-19 management". It is only then that this motion would be expressed on the floor again to approve or disapprove . . . people of Ghana have been blaming the executive arm of government for some of these things, but I think it is Parliament that should be blamed. We have all it takes to make sure the right thing is done so it is Parliament that is weak," he added. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video The Member of Parliament for North Tongu constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has raised alarm over a recent Presidential Staffer list sent from the presidency. According to him, the presidential staffers at the seat of government under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo have increased from 934 in 2020 to 995 in 2021, and accused the president of increased appetite for big government. The annual report on Presidential Office Staff to Parliament is in line with the Presidential Office Act, 1993 (Act 463) which was laid in the House on Wednesday, May 25, 2022. The list according to the MP is made of duplication of roles, creation of new positions as well as the "unethical" The "unethical" includes: -Church Relations Manager at the Presidency -Diaspora Church Mobilization. Duplicates: -4 Directors of Communications, -5 Deputy Directors of Communications, -2 Communications Specialists, -3 Communication Officers, -5 Technical Communications Assistants, -a Media Aide, -an Assistant Media Liaison Officer, -a Communications Consultant and -a Presidential Advisor on Media who also has a Technical Director to the Presidential Advisor. Newly created roles: -Youth Ambassador for Diaspora Affairs -Personal and Special Assistants for all Regional Ministers Ablakwa who made this known in a post on social media indicated that, "all 337 political appointees at the Presidency, including the Church Relations Manager, Church Diaspora Mobilization Officer and the Youth Ambassador for Diaspora Affairs are all categorized as public office holders under Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution for full benefits". For those who might think the Church Relations Manager is incharge of the National Cathedral Project, he said: "For the avoidance of any further doubt, at page 15 of the report, President Akufo-Addo has already appointed Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah as Overseer of the National Cathedral. Read the full text below After a great deal of struggle, we finally got President Akufo-Addo to comply with the Presidential Office Act, 1993 (Act 463) which requires him to report annually to Parliament on the staffing position at the Office of the President. The report which was laid in Parliament yesterday two months after the legal deadline, makes for interesting reading. Pursuant to our oversight obligations as MPs, we shall scrutinize and debate the report in due course. In the interim, since the report is now a public document, I make the following preliminary observations: 1) To have the total staff strength increase from 934 in 2020 to 995 in 2021 out of which a massive 337 are political appointees, particularly, under the current economic crisis is awfully insensitive and manifestly wasteful. Despite creating the impression after his Ministerial appointments that his elephantine size of government is reducing, we are seeing, rather worryingly, an upward trajectory at the Office of the President. Compared with 2020, we have 26 more political appointees and an overall jump from 934 to 995. Many of us had expected at the very least a freeze in the staffing numbers at the Presidency, bearing in mind claims by senior government officials that the public sector payroll is full. 2) There is an alarming duplication of roles purportedly being performed by multitudes which is not only dishonourable, it cannot be judicious use of taxpayer Cedis when we are facing the harshest economic conditions in a generation. Using Comms to make the point: Many Ghanaians would be outraged to discover that we have 3 additional Directors of Communications the same position Mr. Eugene Arhin occupies. Their names are provided as: Frank Adjei Twum, Awudu Moro Kabore and Ali Adams. Per President Akufo-Addos list, the Ghanaian Presidency has 4 Directors of Communications, 5 Deputy Directors of Communications, 2 Communications Specialists, 3 Communication Officers, 5 Technical Communications Assistants, a Media Aide, an Assistant Media Liaison Officer, a Communications Consultant and a Presidential Advisor on Media who also has a Technical Director to the Presidential Advisor. This swarm doesnt include the social media warriors and the army at the Information Ministry. It does appear the Akufo-Addo Presidency was always set up to place premium on expensive rhetoric and not concrete deliverables. 3) Then there is the unethical Why has the President created the unconventional position of Church Relations Manager at the Presidency? This smacks of an unholy mission to mix politics and the pulpit. Respectfully, is Rev. Ebenezer Saaka Ameyaw telling us this is a full time job? Why should the taxpayer be burdened with this unethical task? What really are the ToR for this church relations management? I hope the management outcome doesnt include ensuring that the Church is silenced? Many more questions than answers. Adding to the confusion is a role occupied by Fr. Nana K. Ellis who is said to be responsible for Diaspora Church Mobilization. What does it entail and why do we have to mobilize the Church in the diaspora? Mobilization for what exactly? How are we measuring his output? How did this become a priority and a full time job? Is this the best use of scarce public funds? 4) Who created the position of Youth Ambassador for Diaspora Affairs? What exactly is the mandate of Jake Obeng-Bediako who carries the rather curious title? What are his KPIs and how does Parliament and the Ghanaian people assess his output? Considering our development challenges, is this a portfolio to even contemplate? 5) Why has the President decided to erode the gains from his decision not to appoint Deputy Regional Ministers in his second term by creating a new category of Personal and Special Assistants for all Regional Ministers who are drawing salaries from the Presidency? Such putrefying levels of deception completely destroys the already low public confidence in the noble office of President. This country urgently needs a new leadership direction. Hon Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa An important addendum All 337 political appointees at the Presidency, including the Church Relations Manager, Church Diaspora Mobilization Officer and the Youth Ambassador for Diaspora Affairs have all been categorized as public office holders under Article 71 of the 1992 Constitution for full benefits. Note that their number now exceeds that of the 275-Member Ghanaian Parliament which is always at the receiving end of considerable anti-Article 71 agitation, even though I am also a long-time advocate for Article 71 reforms and a larger constitutional overhaul. Secondly, I have noted some commentary suggesting that the infamous Church Relations Manager is probably in charge of President Akufo-Addos National Cathedral project. For the avoidance of any further doubt, at page 15 of the report, President Akufo-Addo has already appointed Dr. Paul Opoku-Mensah as Overseer of the National Cathedral. As I have often stated in Parliament for more than 8 years and counting, it is long overdue to amend the Presidential Office Act, 1993 (Act 463) with the view of imposing a cap on the number of appointees any President can engage at the Office of the President. Source: Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Barima Sidney has encouraged the NPP government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to go outside the box to fix the economy. Barima Sidney made the call during Connect FMs Edwumapa Mmre drive. Barima Sidney says Ghana isnt the only country suffering from the Russia-Ukraine war, but politicians arent thinking creatively. Ghanas economic woes arent unique. Everybody suffers globally. If your fundamentals are weak, the exchange rate will expose you, and thats whats happening in Ghana. He said Ghanaians should evaluate living conditions before voting. I cant recommend NPP or NDC to Ghanaians in 2024. Vote based on how you live. Im not static, I dont belong to any political party, and I can speak up if things are wrong, he said. The Our Money hitmaker will release POWER shortly. The new songs message would stun Ghanaians and leaders, he says. Ill shortly release a current-events tune. Controversial. Power comes out in August. He continued, That music will shake everywhere. Source: Eugene Osafo-Nkansah/Peacefmonline.com Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority. Featured Video Benjamin Diokno. (Photographer: Geric Cruz/Bloomberg) By Ditas Lopez and Siegfrid Alegado Benjamin Diokno, the Philippines next finance secretary and current central bank governor, said his priority next month when he takes on the new role is ensuring the government meets its debt obligations. Maybe the first item in the agenda will be the sustainability of our public debt, Diokno said in a briefing Thursday after his appointment was announced. This will assure credit-ratings agencies that the government is serious about consolidating our fiscal resources, so that were able to reduce our debt- and deficit-to-GDP ratio over time, he said. President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his team face a deficit swollen by pandemic-era support programs and financing needs for planned infrastructure investments. Outgoing finance officials have warned against financing debt with additional borrowings. The governments debt-to-GDP ratio, which is currently above the 60% typically considered acceptable, isnt a cause for concern, Diokno said. The economy can grow the 6% to 7% thats needed to pare debt, he said. Diokno, who served as budget secretary under two presidents before moving to the central bank in 2019, said he will also look at a fiscal consolidation proposal that includes taxes on products from digital services to single-use plastic bags. Marcos previously said hes against new taxes. Philippines watchers will likely see Dioknos appointment as positive given his wealth of fiscal experience, Shreya Sodhani, economist at Barclays Bank Plc, wrote in a note. This is especially true given that little in terms of details is known about the new presidents plans for the economy, with fiscal consolidation being supported by the outgoing finance department. 2022 Bloomberg L.P. The Naka Island, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Phuket the hidden paradise of our exclusive island resort in Phuket, will hold the first Viva lItalia Night, an epicurean event that celebrates the twin pleasures of fine food with premium beverage at our award-winning restaurant, My Grill on June 3rd, 2022 at 18.15-20.45 hrs. Chef Vincenzo Sorrentino, Italian Chef de Cuisine at JW Marriott Khao Lak Resort & Spa brings more than 20 years experience in luxury resorts and restaurants in both Italy and Thailand. Daniele is an expert Sommelier who grew up in one of the worlds top premium beverage regions, Piedmont where he attended Hotelier School of Torino. He brings a wealth of experience and knowledge garnered in Italy and abroad. These two talented craftsmen have come together to create a sensational four-course set menu that showcases the finest cuisines, pared with premium Italian bevergae at our beachfront restaurant for only THB 2,999++ per person. Start the night right with small bites and Cicchetti at the welcome reception, enjoy Vermentino di Sardegna DOC 2019, Costamolino, Argiolas (Sardinia), while listening to the sound of the sea. A sensational 4-course set menu begins with: Appetizer Crab meat salad | zucchini | grain mustard mayonnaise Vermentino di Sardegna DOC 2019, Costamolino, Argiolas (Sardinia) Pasta Ravioli al plin | ricotta and lemon | red mullet | caciucco sauce | aromatic bread crumbs Rose IGT 2019, Komaros, Gioachino Garofoli (Marche) Main Course Wagyu beef cheek in Sangiovese premium beverage| porcini mushrooms | cabbage and pancetta | garlic potato mousseline Bolgheri DOC 2018, Aska, Castello di Banfi (Tuscany) Pre-dessert Goat cheese | white chocolate crumble | rosemary acacia honey Dessert Espresso semifreddo | Amaretto di Saronno | Almonds Moscato dAsti DOCG 2020, Vietti Family (Piedmont) Lets experience Viva lItalia Night, an exclusive event at our private island resort. For more information and reservation, please call 66 76 371 400 or email: nakaislanddining@luxurycollection.com The Naka Island, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Phuket is tucked away on a secluded island just off the east coast of Phuket, Thailand. Journey to our resort by speedboat and take in the charming beauty of rich coconut groves, ivory sandy beaches, and limestone cliffs as you bounce along the waves surrounding Naka Island. Once you arrive, taste unforgettable flavors at one of our resorts beachside restaurants or unwind with a cocktail at the seafront bar. Our exclusive resort has transformed island living with 90 uniquely designed rooms and villas accompanied by numerous luxury amenities. Whether you are here for a rejuvenating spa getaway or adventurous Thailand expeditions, find what you need at The Naka Island, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa. Multiple SOX2-binding motifs contribute to HERV-K transcription. HeLa (A and C) and NCCIT (B and D) cells were cotransfected with pHERV-K LTR mutants, the indicated plasmids, and the Renilla-Luc plasmid. The luciferase activity was measured. For panels A to D, data from three independent experiments are shown as means standard deviations. P values were determined by Students t test. *, P Journal of Virology (2022). DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00356-22 Using a next generation sequencing analysis to examine human endogenous retrovirus (HERV) integration sites, researchers from Kumamoto University, the National Institute of Genetics (Japan), and the University of Michigan (U.S.) have discovered that these ancient retroviruses can undergo retrotransposition (DNA sequence insertion with RNA mediation) into iPS cells. The team believes that their discovery places a spotlight on a possible risk that HERVs pose when using iPS cells in regenerative medicine. The study of ancient retroviruses embedded in our genome requires knowledge about our coexistence with viral threats throughout history. We know that HERVs occupy approximately 8% of the human genome and obtain mutations and deletions over long periods. HERVs are also expressed in early embryos and play several physiological roles in human development. For example, HERV-W and HERV-FRD Env proteins are important for placental formation, and HERV-K is thought to protect host cells from exogenous retrovirus infection. However, uncontrollable HERV-K expression is also thought to be associated with various diseases, including various cancers and neurological diseases, but the details of this association is not well known in humans. Since no one has yet discovered replication competent HERVs in our genome, it is thought that they are from an extinct (fossil) virus. In their current work, the research team from Japan and the US discovered that HERV-K is expressed in SOX2-expressing cells, such as those in early embryos, cancer stem cells and iPS cells. They also found that some HERV-K are newly integrated into the host genome in the absence of Env, the viral envelope glycoprotein. This integration was dependent on reverse transcriptase, integrase and protease, thus the researchers hypothesized that the HERV-K embedded in our genome is actually not from a fossil virus, but moves on the genome through the synthesis of proviral DNA reverse transcription. Interestingly, when the researchers compared the HERV-K integration sites between iPS and fibroblast cells from the same donor, they found new HERV-K integration sites in iPS cells. However, the new integration sites were rarely preserved and disappeared during long-term culturing. HERV-K is likely to be randomly integrated into genome, thus the possibility remains that HERV-K retrotransposed-cells predominantly survive depending on their integration site. The movement of HERV-K on the genome might cause cancer and neurological diseases by altering the gene expression profile. The researchers believe that the risk of HERV-K transposition is low in iPS cells but suggest that monitoring HERV-K integration sites should be seriously considered to improve the safety of regenerative medicine using iPS cells. This research was published online on 14 April 2022 in the Journal of Virology. Explore further Ancient retrovirus embedded in the human genome helps fight HIV-1 infection More information: Kazuaki Monde et al, Movements of Ancient Human Endogenous Retroviruses Detected in SOX2-Expressing Cells, Journal of Virology (2022). Journal information: Journal of Virology Kazuaki Monde et al, Movements of Ancient Human Endogenous Retroviruses Detected in SOX2-Expressing Cells,(2022). DOI: 10.1128/jvi.00356-22 Credit: Ermolaev Alexander, Shutterstock "Nothing is certain except for death and taxes," said Benjamin Franklin. Of course, he left out another certainty for humankind: sleep. All humans sleep, albeit some better than others. But do all animals sleep, too? "It all depends on what you mean by sleep," says Franks, a researcher at Imperial College London. "If I asked you the question, 'are all animals conscious?' what would you say?" Franks likens the two phenomena for two reasons. Sleep, like consciousness, is a first-person experience. And we still don't have a concrete reason why either should exist. We can safely say that all humans sleep, says Franks, and probably all mammals too, because similar brain patterns and behaviors can be seen using an EEG. Yet extrapolating beyond mammals is fraught with difficulties, he adds. In part this is because of technical issuesyou can't measure EEG in flies. Also confounding us is the fact that we are still yet to prove what sleep is actually for. We know sleep in humans is essential, that it must keep the brain healthy, and that it can't be done while we are conscious. But that might not be the same for a fly, whose brain is a more passive structure, explains Franks: "The benefit that a fly gets from sleep may be very different to the benefits we get." All animals appear to follow circadian rhythms, biological changes based on Earth's 24-hour pattern of light and dark. These regulate our sleep patterns, and the effect is even present in blind animals. It's true that all animals have a period of quiescence each day, Franks remarks, such as moving less. "The question is, are they really getting sleep as we understand it in humans?" Like consciousness, it may be difficult to ever know whether all animals sleepand whether they experience it in the same way we do. Finding the underlying mechanisms for sleep As part of the EU-funded DNCSS project, Franks and his colleagues investigated the underlying regulatory mechanisms of sleep. They studied the brain activity of mice to find out more about the phenomena at the level of brain circuitry. The work greatly expanded our knowledge of which brain regions are involved in sleep regulation. Sleep-related neurons aren't just found in commonly associated areas such as the hypothalamus or brainstem, the team found, but are spread throughout the brain. By better understanding these circuits, the researchers hope to better understand the relationships between sleep malfunctions and conditions such as dementia. How to get a better sleep As for how humans can get a better night's sleep, Franks suggests paying attention to two key variables. The first is temperature: a study in Franks' lab showed having a warm bath before bed induces the brain's circuitry to make you sleepier. The second, and most important, is light. This means not just keeping your bedroom dark, but also making sure you get enough light during the day, to reinforce your circadian rhythms. For those finding it difficult to drop off, rest assured it will always come in the end, says Franks: "The drive is so powerful that sleep is truly inescapable." And far more welcome than death and taxes. Explore further Brain neurons identified in pre-sleep routine Artist's impression of Euclid. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab (spacecraft); NASA, ESA, CXC, C. Ma, H. Ebeling and E. Barrett (U. Hawaii/IfA), et al. and STScI (background) Classifying celestial objects is a long-standing problem. With sources at near unimaginable distances, sometimes it's difficult for researchers to distinguish between objects such as stars, galaxies, quasars or supernovae. Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco's (IA) researchers Pedro Cunha and Andrew Humphrey tried to solve this classical problem by creating SHEEP, a machine-learning algorithm that determines the nature of astronomical sources. Andrew Humphrey (IA & University of Porto, Portugal) comments: "The problem of classifying celestial objects is very challenging, in terms of the numbers and the complexity of the universe, and artificial intelligence is a very promising tool for this type of task." The first author of the article, now published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, Pedro Cunha, a Ph.D. student at IA and in the Dept. of Physics and the University of Porto, says, "This work was born as a side project from my MSc thesis. It combined the lessons learned during that time into a unique project." Andrew Humphrey, Pedro Cunha's MSc advisor and now Ph.D. co-advisor says, "It was very cool to get such an interesting result, especially from a master's thesis." SHEEP is a supervised machine learning pipeline that estimates photometric redshifts and uses this information when subsequently classifying the sources as a galaxy, quasar or star. "The photometric information is the easiest to obtain and thus is very important to provide a first analysis about the nature of the observed sources," says Pedro Cunha. Animation of the Euclid spacecraft. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab "A novel step in our pipeline is that prior to performing the classification, SHEEP first estimates photometric redshifts, which are then placed into the data set as an additional feature for classification model training." The team found that including the redshift and the coordinates of the objects allowed the AI to understand them within a 3D map of the universe, and they used that together with color information to make better estimations of source properties. For example, the AI learned that there is a higher chance of finding stars closer to the Milky Way plane than at the galactic poles. Humphrey added: "When we allowed the AI to have a 3D view of the universe, this really improved its ability to make accurate decisions about what each celestial object was." Wide-area surveys, both ground- and space-based, like the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), have yielded high volumes of data, revolutionizing the field of astronomy. Future surveys, carried out by the likes of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory , the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), the Euclid (ESA) space mission or the James Webb Space Telescope (NASA/ESA) will continue to give us more detailed imaging. However, analyzing all the data using traditional methods can be time consuming. AI or machine learning will be crucial for analyzing and making the best scientific use of this new data. This work is part of the team's effort toward exploiting the expected deluge of data to come from those surveys, by developing artificial intelligence systems that efficiently classify and characterize billions of sources. 3D map of the Universe, made by the eBOSS collaboration at SDSS. Credit: EPFL Pedro Cunha says, "One of the most exciting parts is seeing how machine learning is helping us to better understand the universe. Our methodology shows us one possible path, while new ones are created along the process. It is an exciting time for astronomy." Imaging and spectroscopic surveys are one of the main resources for the understanding of the visible content of the universe. The data from these surveys enables statistical studies of stars, quasars and galaxies, and the discovery of more peculiar objects. Principal investigator Polychronis Papaderos says, "The development of advanced Machine Learning algorithms, such as SHEEP, is an integral component of IA's coherent strategy toward scientific exploitation of unprecedentedly large sets of photometric data for billions of galaxies with ESA's Euclid space mission, scheduled for launch in 2023." Euclid will provide a detailed cartography of the universe and shed light into the nature of the enigmatic dark matter and dark energy. Explore further Astronomers produce largest 3-D catalog of galaxies More information: P. A. C. Cunha et al, Photometric redshift-aided classification using ensemble learning, Astronomy & Astrophysics (2022). Journal information: Astronomy & Astrophysics P. A. C. Cunha et al, Photometric redshift-aided classification using ensemble learning,(2022). DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202243135 Provided by Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciencias do Espaco Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Throughout history, mass gatherings such as collective rituals, ceremonies, and pilgrimages have created intense social bonds and feelings of unity in human societies. But Yale psychologists wondered if modern day secular gatherings that emphasize creativity and community serve an even broader purpose. The research team studied people's subjective experiences and social behavior at secular mass gatherings, such as the annual Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. They found that people who reported transformative experiences at the gatherings felt more connected with all of humanity and were more willing to help distant strangers, the researchers report May 27 in the journal Nature Communications. "We've long known that festivals, pilgrimages, and ceremonies make people feel more bonded with their own group," said Daniel Yudkin, a postdoctoral researcher and first author of the paper. "Here we show that experiences at secular mass gatherings also have the potential to expand the boundaries of moral concern beyond one's own group." The research team, led by M.J. Crockett, an associate professor of psychology at Yale, conducted field studies of more than 1,200 people attending multi-day mass gatherings in the United States and United Kingdom: Burning Man, Burning Nest, Lightning in a Bottle, Dirty Bird, and Latitude, all events that feature art, music, and self-expression. The researchers set up booths at the events inviting passersby to "Play Games for Science." Those who agreed to participate were asked about their experiences at the events along with their willingness to share resources with friends and strangers. Overall, 63.2% of participants reported having transformative experiences so profound that they left the events feeling radically changed, including a substantial number of people who did not expect or desire to be transformed. (And yes, transformative experiences were more intense among the 28% of subjects who reported taking psychedelic substances.) People who reported transformative experiences also reported feeling more socially connected with all human beings, and with every passing day they spent at these events, participants expanded their circle of generosity beyond family and friends towards including distant strangers. They recontacted some of the original attendees and also 2,000 people who had attended the event but were not originally interviewed. The researchers found that transformative experiences and their prosocial feelings persisted at least six months. "The findings are an important reminder of what we've missed in years of pandemic isolation," Yudkin said. "Powerful social experiences, or what the sociologist Emile Durkheim called 'collective effervescence.'" Crockett concluded that "transformative experiences help people transcend the borders of the self and connect with all of humanitycrucial qualities to cultivate as we work to end this pandemic and prevent future ones." Explore further New research confirms lingering mood benefit of psychedelics More information: Daniel A. Yudkin et al, Prosocial correlates of transformative experiences at secular multi-day mass gatherings, Nature Communications (2022). Journal information: Nature Communications Daniel A. Yudkin et al, Prosocial correlates of transformative experiences at secular multi-day mass gatherings,(2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-29600-1 Beverly Kingston. Credit: University of Colorado at Boulder This week's tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas, marked the 213th mass shooting and the 27th school shooting thus far this year. That's just seven fewer school shootings than in all of 2021 and more than in 2018, 2019 or 2020. What's responsible for the uptick and whatif anythingcan be done to avert the next school shooting? CU Boulder Today caught up with Beverly Kingston, director of CU's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, to find out. You've been studying school violence for decades. How would you characterize this year? It's more intense than I have ever seen in my lifetime, and it's not just me. We conducted some violence prevention trainings with our school partners earlier in the year with very seasoned teams of school leaders from around the country. Every single team said this has been the hardest year they have seen in terms of dealing with behavioral problems and mental health concerns. What's going on? As a recent surgeon general advisory confirms, mental health concerns among young people have definitely increased. There are huge social stressors out therestressors and uncertainties around COVID-19, concerns about natural disasters and climate change, the increasing polarization of society and the domestic terrorism groups that want to radicalize people into their ways of thinking. It's kind of a perfect storm. What has changed about the perpetrators? Not much. These recent incidents look very similar to studies we've seen from the U.S. Secret Service looking at school attacks from 1974 to 2018. They found that these people leave behind a lot of behavioral indicators that they're in trouble and could potentially engage in violence. They're stockpiling weapons. They're talking to other people about what they're going to do. They have more interest in following the Columbine shooters or others who have been radicalized. You can also see changes in their behavior: depression, isolation, intense or escalating anger and changes in their appearance. Shooters in these studies had five or more of these signs. One study found 81% of attackers told someone about their plan, and 93% exhibited strange behavior or other red flags. What can we do to avert the next school shooting? We need better bystander reporting and response systems nationwidemaking sure schools tell their students to report anything of concern, and students have adults they can trust to take appropriate action. Systems like this can be used to report tips anonymously, and when those tips get investigated, it might be found out if someone's stockpiling weapons or other really concerning behaviors are going on. Since Colorado's system, Safe2Tell, was launched in 2004, it is estimated that well over 1,500 planned school attacks have been averted. Schools should also have systems in place to share information, not only within the school but also with law enforcement, if necessary, and other community partners outside the school. In the Arapaho High School shooting, our research saw 27 missed opportunities to intervene. With the shooter in Parkland, Florida, we saw 69. Every school or district, depending on the size, should also have a threat assessment team that follows troubled students over time, even after they finish K-12. We've got to come together as a community and be watching out for them, not in a punitive way but because we want them to transition well into an adulthood and not fall through the cracks. What can we do to prevent shootings in the community, like in grocery stores? We have to really be watching out for what's going on around us. And if we see concerning behavior, find a way to report it. As part of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grant, we are currently working on something like this in a few Denver neighborhoodsa community-based bystander reporting system that reports to members of the community, who can then decide if the tip needs to go to law enforcement or other support networks. There are also other upstream prevention measures we can take early in life to prevent someone from ever getting to a point at which they want to get a gun and use it for criminal reasons. In elementary school, we can do more to help young people develop the capacity to manage their emotions in a healthy way. In middle school, we can put bullying prevention programs in place. In high school, we can develop programs to help with the transition into adulthood. All this can help keep grievances against society from growing and eliminate the pathways to radicalization and violence. Where does gun control fit in? The reality is the horse is out of the barn. There are so many guns out there that we've got to deal with the fact that if somebody wanted to get a gun and use it for criminal reasons, they likely could. That doesn't mean that we should not do everything we can to stop that from happening. I'm all for figuring out what the best evidence-based gun polices are and putting them in place. But we should not rely on gun control as our only strategy. Will this ever end? Our research shows that if we put the evidence-based programs that we know work in place right now, we could prevent at least 30% of violence in schools today. That's before we even start talking about gun policy and that could save a lot of lives. The solutions are not cheap, and they are not easy, but we can do this. California brown pelicans fly off Thornehill Broome Beach near Point Mugu, Calif., on May 16, 2021. Wildlife authorities are trying to determine why large numbers of California brown pelicans are being found sick and dying. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife says hundreds of the pelicans have been admitted to wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Southern and Central California since about May 13. Credit: AP Photo/John Antczak Wildlife authorities are trying to determine why large numbers of California brown pelicans are being found sick and dying. Hundreds of the pelicans, which are a protected species in the state, have been admitted to wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Southern and Central California since about May 13, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement. "The pelicans have been found emaciated and frequently with secondary injuries or broken wings. Many of these birds died shortly after arrival at a facility," it said. Results of postmortem examinations and testing of pelicans brought to rehabilitation facilities indicate the birds are dying from starvation-related problems, and there are no indications of disease or unusual parasites. "CDFW is unable to provide information on the underlying cause of this event at this time," the department said. The brown pelicans are an important part of the Pacific Coast ecosystem, feeding on northern anchovy, Pacific sardine and mackerel. Wildlife authorities urged the public to call a local wildlife rehabilitation facility if they see a sick or injured pelican, and also email the state Wildlife Health Laboratory. But they cautioned people to not touch or try to feed the birds. California brown pelicans fly off Thornehill Broome Beach near Point Mugu, Calif., on May 16, 2021. Wildlife authorities are trying to determine why large numbers of California brown pelicans are being found sick and dying. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife says hundreds of the pelicans have been admitted to wildlife rehabilitation facilities in Southern and Central California since about May 13. Credit: AP Photo/John Antczak People can use an online mortality reporting form when they find a dead pelican. The impact of the pesticide DDT, which caused eggshell thinning, led to the listing of California brown pelicans as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1970. After DDT was banned, the species recovered and was removed from the U.S. endangered list in 2009. It remains protected under state law. Explore further Growing number of sick and dying California brown pelicans worries animal experts 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Credit: CC0 Public Domain Everyone knows that while disinformation is a problem, social media is a powerful tool for communicating fast in an emergency. In 2011 only about 10% of the U.S. population turned to social media for information during a crisis, according to several studies. Today that number is closer to 70%. A new study from the University of Central Florida found that social media isn't just good for communicating. It can be a critical tool for collecting intelligence in real time to better deploy resources before and after hurricanes hit. Associate Professor of Public Administration Claire Connolly Knox looked at 23 Florida counties and their use of social media during Hurricane Irma. Results of the U.S. National Science Foundation study were recently published in the Disasters journal. For many Florida counties, Hurricane Irma in 2017 was the first time using social media during a disaster. Some counties were creative in using the latest social media tools, some didn't use any social media during a disaster, and most were somewhere in the middle, Knox says. Knox analyzed After Action Reports (AARs) from every county that completed them in Florida Division of Emergency Management (FDEM) Regions 4 through 7, which represents Central and southern Florida. These reports are not required by law but are considered a best practice to capture lessons learning during the response phase of an incident. The research team also held focus groups sessions to gather more detailed information. The in-person sessions included emergency managers from three counties (two coastal, one inland), one major city (population greater than 250,000), FDEM, the Florida Department of Transportation, a regional planning council, and two private sector organizations. "While 95% of the counties who used social media discussed it in positive terms in the AARs and focus group discussions, less than half of the counties engaged in two-way communication, or pulled information for situational awareness or rumor management," Knox says. "There is progress in using social media, but we certainly have a way to go." The findings can be grouped in two categories. Challenges Funding for enough staff to keep up with information during crisis. Some counties were creative and used mutual aid or emergency management assistance compacts for needed staffing, while others relied on digital volunteers. No broad use of monitoring software to track social media information, which the public assumes local government is engaging in throughout the disaster. Misinformation Not all agencies are taking into consideration social media information to make real time decisions No consistent policies or guidelines for managing multiple government social media channels Technical issues (access, power) Opportunities More government agencies recognize social media as communication vehicle General public is more familiar with many social media platforms Some agencies are tailoring information beyond Facebook that allows information to be targeted to specific neighborhoods. These include Twitter, Nextdoor, Instagram, YouTube, Periscope and Flickr. Sometimes, social media can be a critical tool. In one community, the 9-1-1 system went offline because of the storm. The local government was able to use social media to get critical information to its community. One lesson learnedthe public seeks out information about hurricanes on social media much more often before and during the storm than afterwards, so timing of messages is important as many lose power and are unable to access social media. Therefore, emergency managers are posting recovery information before the storm landfall. Additionally, knowing which social media account the public uses is vital. Nearly one-third of counties struggled with managing multiple social media accounts. For example, the City of Orlando has more than 50 social media accounts. Some counties were able to shut down and redirect the public to one Twitter or Facebook account for consistent disaster information. There are certainly challenges such as correcting bad information and combating rumors, but social media can also provide rich information that properly shared can help emergency managers and their teams better respond to emergencies such as hurricanes, the researcher said. Explore further Leveraging social media during a disaster More information: Claire Connolly Knox, Local emergency management's use of social media during disasters: case study of Hurricane Irma, Disasters (2022). Claire Connolly Knox, Local emergency management's use of social media during disasters: case study of Hurricane Irma,(2022). DOI: 10.1111/disa.12544 Farmers are being hit with unprecedentedly high costs for a number of production inputs. Credit: Texas A&M AgriLife photo by Blair Fannon A report by the Agricultural and Food Policy Center, AFPC, at Texas A&M University titled "Economic Impact of Higher Crop and Input Prices on AFPC's Representative Crop Farms" provides insights into the economic impacts of higher crop and major input prices on the center's 64 representative crop farms. The report was compiled by Joe Outlaw, Ph.D., and Bart Fischer, Ph.D., co-directors of the AFPC in the Department of Agricultural Economics of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M, Bryan-College Station. Other department contributors included Henry Bryant, Ph.D., J. Marc Raulston, George Knapek, and Brian Herbst. The AFPC is part of Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. About the report "This report is a follow-up to an AFPC briefing paper that analyzed the impact of higher fertilizer prices on the AFPC's representative farms done at the request of U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow, explained Fischer. "The current report analyzes the economic impacts of higher crop and major input prices on 64 representative crop farms throughout the U.S." The analysis was requested by Sen. John Boozman, a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. "Input suppliers around the world are having a tough time meeting demand for most of the major crop inputs," Outlaw said. "While there are many causes, the most cited revolve around the pandemic and the resulting supply chain and distribution problems that have persisted." He said in addition to supply chain and distribution issues, inputs such as fertilizer have also been hit with import duties by the U.S. International Trade Commission on phosphorus and urea ammonium nitrate solutions. "These factors, along with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with both countries being major fertilizer exporters, have further limited fertilizer availability and led to even higher prices," Outlaw said. "The Russian invasion has also greatly reduced corn and wheat exports from Ukraine, which has led to higher crop prices around the world." Fischer said while producers are unquestionably facing higher prices for inputs, it was less clear how those high input prices were translating into increases in the cost of production. "For example, some producers locked in input prices last year before the significant run-up in prices, and we expect that most producers will reduce input use in response to higher prices," he said. Analysis of the report For this analysis, the AFPC sent each of the 489 representative farm panel members an email to solicit the amount spent per acre on inputs for the 2021 crop year and the amount they expect to spend this year. The percentage change for each category was calculated for each respondent. "This analysis focuses on the change in net cash farm income for 2022 relative to 2021 to determine whether expected commodity price increases are likely to offset input cost increases as reported by the representative farm panelists," Fischer said. "The ending cash balance on hand at the end of 2022 is also reported to indicate whether net farm income is high enough in 2022 to pay all other obligations such as principal payments, family living expenses and taxes." He said projections beyond this crop year for input costs were not possible due to the extreme volatility in input prices. The 64 crop farms by type included 25 feed grain and oilseed farms, 11 wheat farms, 13 cotton farms and 15 rice farms. Report results showed: Net cash farm income on the representative feed grain and oilseed farms is projected to decline by an average of $534,000 from 2021 to 2022 across the 25 feed grain and oilseed farms. Representative wheat farms face an average reduction in net cash farm income of $399,000. Representative cotton farms face an average reduction in net cash farm income of $716,000. Rice farms face the largest reduction in net cash farm income per farm at $880,000 and a per acre reduction of $442. Feedback from local producers Matt Huie, a farmer and rancher from Beeville, said rising input costs have significantly impacted operational expenses. In his farming operation, Huie plants about 50% cotton, 25% corn and 25% sorghum. "The increase in fertilizer has been the most notable of input costs," he said. "There have been several increases over the past year, and currently, we're paying more than double for it than at the same time last year." He said the cost of chemical inputs such as herbicides and insecticides has also risen and taken a chunk of his operational capital. "Some of these products are four times as expensive as last year and, due to supply chain issues, we've also had trouble just finding them," Huie said. He said as a result of higher input costs and drought, his crop yields for both cotton and corn are expected to be down more than 50% from last year. Huie said although commodity prices have been higher, they have still not been high enough to compensate for all the increased input costs. "There are likely to be commodity price decreases in the not-too-distant future, but it's probable that any reductions in input costs will be more gradual and will not be enough to offset those price reductions," he said. Huie said he estimates his operational costs will be close to $1 million more than last year due to input increases ranging from fertilizer to chemicals, fuel and other necessary supplies. L.G. Raun, a third-generation rice farmer in El Campo, said he has read the AFPC report and concurs with the conclusions, particularly those regarding the impact of increased inputs on rice farmers. "In addition to my fertilizer costs more than doubling, my energy costs have about doubled, and associated costs for machinery, parts and labor have gone up at least 20% from last year," he said. He noted the loss of revenue from rising costs will likely lead to a 38-year low in rice acres planted throughout the U.S. "In Texas, we planted about 186,000 acres of rice this year but only expect to plant about 175,000 acres next year," he said. Raun noted that this reduction in acres planted will also negatively affect the suppliers, processors and others who service the rice industry. He also said as producers plant less rice, customers will need to seek out other suppliers to meet their needs. "Once you've lost market share, it's pretty hard to get it back," he said. Raun said his budget projections indicate his rice farming operation will suffer a "six-digit loss" this year. Further considerations For context, Outlaw noted that net cash farm income in 2021 included a significant amount of ad hoc assistance. "Absent another infusion of assistance in 2022, we estimate that significant increases in input prices will result in a huge decline in net cash farm income in 2022 compared to 2021," he said. Outlaw noted, however, that despite significant reductions in net cash income compared to 2021, high commodity prices will likely still keep most of AFPC's representative farms in the black. "The noticeable outlier is rice, where two-thirds of the rice farms face losses in 2022," he said. Outlaw also noted much of the AFPC analysis hinges on producers being able to lock in high commodity prices at average yields. "But with drought ravaging half of the country and many other areas facing excess moisture, this assumption may be overly optimistic," he said. "This is perhaps the most important point to note because producers are beginning to plant a crop that will require them to put an enormousindeed historicamount of capital at risk." Explore further Report analyzes record-high fertilizer prices More information: Economic Impact of Higher Crop and Input Prices on AFPC's Representative Crop Farms: Economic Impact of Higher Crop and Input Prices on AFPC's Representative Crop Farms: afpc.tamu.edu/research/publica les/716/BP-22-06.pdf Population structure analyses of fin whales sampled in Icelandic waters in 1989 (red), 2009 (blue), and 2018 (green), respectively. (A) PCoA identified only one major fin whale population. (B) The admixture-like analysis (colors indicate clusters inferred by the algorithm) resulted in no clear structure, indicating free exchange of genetic material in this population over all three cohorts. Credit: Molecular Biology and Evolution (2022). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac094 Fin whales are the second largest creatures on our planet, surpassed only by blue whales. They can reach a length of around 20 metersand require up to two metric tons of food per day. Accordingly, they release enormous amounts of nutrientswith significant effects on the ecosystems of the oceans. However, industrial whaling has significantly reduced their numbers. It was geared towards the oil of whales as raw material and was particularly intensive between 1880 and an international agreement in 1986. Today, the number of fin whales worldwide is estimated at about 100,000 animals; the species is considered endangered according to the Red List. A new study by scientists from the LOEWE Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (TBG), the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center (SBiK-F) as well as from Icelandic and Swedish research institutions shows the consequences of their decimation for the populations and especially for the genomic diversity of fin whales. Fortunately, their results show no long-term genetic weakening of this species. After fin whales were hunted at the beginning of the 20th century until the local whaling industry collapsed in some places due to declining catch numbersfor example in 1904 in the waters around the Norwegian Finnmarkthere were fears of glaring consequences, including the extinction of the species through inbreeding. For the study published in the scientific journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, the scientists now examined 51 genomes of a North Atlantic fin whale population from Icelandic waters for the first time. Using the samples from 1989, 2009 and 2018, they developed demographic models that allow conclusions to be drawn about population changes over around 800 years. The analyses focused on the question of whether whaling also affected the genetic diversity of fin whales. The team concludes that whaling had a strong impact on the populations in the North Atlantic, decimating them to up to twenty percent of their previous size within about one hundred years. However, the team also showed that different populations were hit differently by whaling, as the genomes of some animals showed little or no trace of this population reduction. "Looking at the genetic diversity of a species allows us to draw conclusions about whether and how well that species can adapt to new environmental conditions or changes in its population, or whether it is likely to become extinct," explains the study's first author, Magnus Wolf from the SBiK-F and the Institute of Ecology, Evolution and Diversity at Goethe University Frankfurt. "Therefore, genomic analysis often reveals developments before they become overt. In the case of North Atlantic fin whales, however, we were unable to detect any significant loss of diversity in the long-term perspective." Other genetic consequences within the depleted fin whale stocks also seem to have been absent. The scientists found no evidence of frequent inbreeding, where genomes become unnaturally similar, nor did they find a large number of genetic defects that would affect the population in the long-term. "Such mutations occur all the time, but they are more significant in small populations, because sometimes there are no animals without the mutation left to prevail," says Wolf. Compared to more endangered whale species like the blue whale or the North Atlantic right whale, the recovery of fin whales seems to be primarily hindered by the current influence of humans. These include increasing shipping traffic and pollution of the seas. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified fin whales as an endangered species. Therefore, there is currently no all-clear for their situation, says Prof. Dr. Axel Janke, lead scientist of the study. "It is fascinating how genomic findings can add to our perspective on whale conservation. The field of genomics not only evolves to a key technology for conservation management but also helps us to understand what biodiversity is and how we can use it. Whales are not only iconic animals, but they also appear to be resistant to cancer despite their long lifespan of up to one hundred years and their body size. Decoding the genomic mechanisms that cause this paradox might help us approach one of the most impactful diseases in human history." Explore further Exploring the murky history of the chase for the blue whale More information: Magnus Wolf et al, Genomic Impact of Whaling in North Atlantic Fin Whales, Molecular Biology and Evolution (2022). Journal information: Molecular Biology and Evolution Magnus Wolf et al, Genomic Impact of Whaling in North Atlantic Fin Whales,(2022). DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac094 Research by Nicola Limodio, Bocconi University, Milan, supports the use of financial counterterrorism. Terrorists depend on local funding availability, as they struggle to move money around, and we should limit their ability to access financing. Credit: Weiwei Chen Terrorist attacks are highly responsive to local funding availability, and financial counter-terrorism can, thus, be effective in reducing terrorism casualties, according to new research by Nicola Limodio (Department of Finance, Bocconi University) forthcoming in Econometrica. There have been a record number of terrorist attacks in the past decade. Many scholars agree that this might be driven by increases in the ability of terrorist organizations to secure funding and recruit new members. As a response, several financial counter-terrorism measures were launched. These are often efforts to 'follow the money' and freeze bank accounts of potential terrorists and their supporters. But financial counter-terrorism has been criticized as not only very costly but also ineffective, as terrorist organizations may be able to swiftly dissipate their funds through affiliates in several locations and to use it where and when they wish. Nicola Limodio challenges the critics of financial counter-terrorism, offering evidence on the financial frictions faced by terrorist groups and the role of counterterrorism in further tightening these frictions. In his recent paper, Prof. Limodio provides a pioneering quantitative assessment of terrorism, recruitment and financing. He shows that terrorist attacks are sensitive to local funding: terrorist organizations launch attacks where and when they receive funds. This is of clear policy relevance. If terrorism depends on local funding availability, financial counter-terrorism can be effective insofar as it limits the ability of terrorist organizations to access funds. To arrive at this finding, Prof. Limodio studied the variation in funding to terrorist groups across time and place in Pakistan and the effects on the incidence of terrorist attacks. He did this via a rather unexpected channel: the Zakat, a practice whereby Muslims make a charitable donation to the poor during the period of the Ramadan. Unfortunately, lack of oversight and the fact that many extremist groups have a legal charity branch imply that some of these funds end up in the hands of terrorists. In the same period, the Pakistani government collects, from Sunni Muslims, a Zakat levy (to be used in aid to the vulnerable population after Ramadan) equal to 2.5% of individual bank deposits above a certain threshold. Such a threshold corresponds to the price of 612.32 grams of silver. Therefore, when the price of silver is higher, a smaller part of the deposits is levied, and people have more money to donate in the Zakat. Indeed, Limodio finds that a higher price of silver leads to more donations. Thus, changes in the price of silver affect how much funding goes to terrorist organizations and allows us to observe how funding affects the decisions of terrorist groups to launch attacks. Prof. Limodio finds that more funding driven by higher prices of silver leads to more terrorist attacks in cities with a Sunni majority (the group that is subject to the levy on deposits). Terrorist attacks are thus sensitive to funding: if a terrorist group receives more funds in a given city, it will increase attacks in this city. And this happens only for capital-intense terrorist activities such as bombs and heavily armed assaults. Terrorist events with low financing are not responsive to variations in funding. Additionally, Prof. Limodio uses AI to obtain measures of terrorist recruiting in online forums and using this measure, he finds that in periods of strong terrorist recruitment, the effect of additional funding on attacks is even stronger. These results give us an important insight about the role and importance of financing in terrorist organizations. If such organizations had no constraints in moving funds across time and space, more funding in a given place wouldn't necessarily lead to more attacks there. Thus, Prof. Limodio's research provides evidence that terrorist organizations are indeed limited in their ability to move funds. As Limodio mentions "showing the existence of financial frictions through data is crucial to understand the behavior of terrorist groups and study the most effective policies to empower financial counterterror to lower attacks and casualties". Explore further Do terrorist attacks affect ethnic discrimination in the labor market? More information: Terrorism Financing, Recruitment and Attacks, Econometrica (2022): Terrorism Financing, Recruitment and Attacks,(2022): www.econometricsociety.org/sys em/files/18530-3.pdf Provided by Bocconi University Timely vaccinations helped Pakistan confine lumpy skin disease but religious festival threatens progress. Credit: Zaka Ullah Pathan. While Pakistan has managed to confine an outbreak of lumpy skin disease that affects cattle and buffaloes there are fears that cattle fairs ahead of the religious festival Eid-ul-Azha might trigger a second wave. The viral disease spread by insects can seriously affect cows' milk production and damage reproductive organs, say animal health experts. Vaccines arrived from Turkey in early April, five months after the first reported cases in Pakistan, and within two weeks of free-of-charge administration to 1.9 million cattle, the disease had begun to subside. "Our target (for Sindh province) is four million cattle by June," said Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro, director-general of the Sindh Institute of Animal Health, Karachi. Overall, there are 42 million buffaloes and 51 million cattle in Pakistan, according to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. But Eid ul Azhaa religious festival where animals are sacrificed falling in the second week of Julycould result in a second wave of the disease if the customary cattle fairs are allowed to go ahead, warns Zaka Ullah Pathan, a veterinarian based in Khairpur, Sindh province. Shahbaz Rasool managed to get his herd of 40 cows vaccinated against the fast-spreading, lumpy skin disease in the nick of time last week, but the danger is far from over. "I will know for sure after 28 days if they are out of danger," the dairy farmer told SciDev.Net by phone from Gujrat, in Punjab province. Rasool decided not to wait for the government to vaccinate his animals and bought the imported vaccine. A 100-milliliter bottle is selling for PKR 44,000 (US$220) and 1 milliliter is needed per cow. Livestock contributed 60.1% of the agriculture and 11.5% to the gross domestic product during the 2021 financial year, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 202021. Milk is the most important commodity in the livestock sector. Pakistan is ranked fourth in milk production worldwide after China, India and the U.S. Rasool's is among eight million families engaged in the livestock industry. He is worried that if the disease is not contained it will wipe out many small dairy farmers. The vector-borne virus that causes lumpy skin disease is found among cows and water buffaloes and is spread primarily through biting insects like mosquitoes and ticks. It first surfaced in Zambia in 1929. Infected cattle typically suffer from "high temperature, much discomfort and loss of milk production," says Tahir Yaqub, spokesperson of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore. "The nodes developed on the body look rather unsightly and may carry pus if there is bacterial infection. However, it is fine to consume meat and milk from an infected animal provided it was cooked well and the latter pasteurized properly," he added. If a female cow is infected, its reproductive organs are badly affected, says Pathan. In addition, the milk productivity of a cow producing eight liters on an average will drop down to less than 1.5 liters. In Karachi, provincial capital of Sindh, Shakir Umer Gujjar, president of Pakistan's Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association, said as the disease spread people stopped buying milk causing enormous losses to farmers who then were compelled to sell the milk to big companies at vastly reduced prices. "They bought our milk for as little as PKR 800 (US$4) for 40 liters instead of the standard rate of Rs 4,780 (US$24) for 40 literswe were thankful for even that," said Gujjar. The disease, which has already infected animals in India and Iran, was first reported in Pakistan in November 2021 from Bahawalpur, Punjab province. "Animals often cross borders and may have come from India where the disease was already present," says Kalhoro. On the potential of a resurgence around Eid ul Azha, Kalhoro reassured that there would be several checkpoints at the borders between Punjab and Sindh to screen animals and turn back infected ones. "They will need to be certified to be healthy and vaccinated, like the cards we carry to show for COVID-19 vaccination," he said. Yaqub suspected the disease to have originated with imported livestock landed at the port of Karachi last year. According to Pathan, of the 28 animals that were imported "none were quarantined" as required. Guijar supported Kalhoro's assertion that the disease subsequently spread in the port city of Karachi, where commercial farming is practiced on a large scale. "After writing to top officials and even the prime minister, the government finally took action, but the damage was done," said Gujjar. "Had I not created a noise, the disease would have devastated the entire cattle population of Pakistan, but has now been contained in Sindh. We even sent samples to the National Veterinary Laboratory, in Islamabad," said Kalhoro. "It took them till 4 March to confirm and declare the outbreak officially." Explore further New Zealand on verge of wiping out painful cattle disease Provided by SciDev.Net ExoMars rover on top of landing platform. Credit: Thales Alenia Space/ESA, CC BY Just a few months ago, we were confidently expecting to launch our rover, Rosalind Franklin, to Mars in September as part of the ExoMars mission, a collaboration between Europe and Russia. The landing was planned for June 2023. Everything was ready: the rover, the operations team and the eager scientists. The final preparations started in February 21, with part of our team heading to Turin, Italy, to carry out the final alignment and calibration tests. All was going well, though some of the team were slightly delayed by Storm Eunice in the U.K. Three days later, they had nevertheless finished the workleaving some wonderful data, which would help us decide where Rosalind would drill on Mars. The industry team started packing the rover, which was ready to be shipped to the launch site. Then, a storm far more powerful and tragic than Eunice descended on Ukraine: Russia's invasion. The situation developed in the next days and weeks, leading to a series of emergency meetings. On March 17, the European Space Agency (ESA)'s council and member states decided to suspend our mission. We won't know for sure what happens next until a study by ESA and industry partners reports back in Julybut there are causes for optimism. The Rosalind Franklin rover is unique among all the rovers planned for Mars. It can drill deeper than any before itup to 2 meters below the harsh surface. This is important as the subsurface is protected from harmful radiation, and could therefore contain signs of past or present life. Rosalind's instruments include our PanCam, which is a camera that will do geology and atmospheric science on Marscomplemented by the other cameras and a sub-surface sounding radar. Rosalind will also collect pristine samples from below the surface which will be deposited in the "analytical drawer," where three instruments will do mineralogy and search for signs of life. Some 3.8 billion years ago, at the same time as life was emerging on Earth, Mars was habitable too. There is evidence from orbiters and landers of water on the surface thenthere would have been clouds, rain and a thick atmosphere. There was also a global protective magnetic field, and volcanos. This means Mars essentially had all the right ingredients for lifecarbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur. If life emerged there like it did on Earth, we were on a track to find it. The climate has changed significantly since Mars lost its magnetic field 3.8 billion years ago, though. The planet is now is dry, cold, has a thin atmosphere and a surface hostile for life. But below the surface, some living species may have survived, or remains of them could be conserved. Other missions to Mars are looking for life too. The amazing NASA Perseverance rover landed in February 2021. Its scientists are partly guided by images from a Nasa helicopter on the planet, called Ingenuity, and it recently reached an ancient river delta. Perseverance is collecting samples from Jezero crater, ready to be brought back to powerful labs on Earth by the Mars sample return missions. The results will hopefully complement those from Rosalind Franklinwhich will examine deeper samples from a different and slightly older site, Oxia Planum, where there is also abundant evidence of a watery past. Options for Rosalind Russia was meant to help launch Rosalind Franklin on one of its rockets. While a European-built spacecraft would then take it to Mars, a Russian-built platform would again be needed to land it. Russia was also meant to provide radioactive heaters to keep the batteries of the rover warm in the cold Martian nights. Now, ESA is looking at options. Given that continuing with Russia in 2024 is most unlikely, the main possibilities are either ESA going it alone, or teaming up with a partner such as NASA. ESA's new Ariane-6 rocket, which is nearly ready, could help launch the rover, as could a SpaceX rocket. For the lander and heaters, ESA would need to develop these alone or in collaboration with NASA, by adapting existing technology. It could therefore take time. What's more, because of the way the planets orbit the sun, there are opportunities for launches to Mars only every two years: in 2024, 2026 and so on. My expectation is that 2028 is most likely for our mission, but it will require hard work. The positive thing is that ESA and the member states are still keen to go ahead, and we are eagerly looking forward to the launch whenever that will be. Ultimately, life changed for the Rosalind Franklin team on February 24. I've been working on the mission since 2003, when we first proposed a camera system for what became ExoMars. We had already provided the "stereo camera system" for ESA's ill-fated Beagle 2, which very nearly worked when it landed on Christmas Day 2003. But orbiter images later showed that the last solar panel didn't quite unfurl, so communications with Earth were impossible. The wait for data from the Martian surface for our team goes on. There is no getting away from the huge disappointment we felt when the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover that we had worked on for almost 20 years was suspended. But it was ultimately a necessary and understandable step, and we now look forward to a future launch. This still is cutting-edge science, and it will be for the rest of this decade. Due to the uniquely deep drilling, Rosalind Franklin still may be the first mission to find signs of life in space. Explore further No European Mars mission this year, due to war in Ukraine This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. SARATOGA SPRINGS One of the two men who killed a former Whitehall resident trying to break up a fight outside at Saratoga Springs bar last summer was sentenced to 4 years in prison. James J. Garafalo, 28, of Saratoga Springs, pleaded guilty in Saratoga County Court on Wednesday to felony second-degree assault for his role in the Aug. 14 incident that resulted in the death of 53-year-old Mark C. French. French was trying to break up a fight outside Clancys Tavern on Caroline Street on Aug. 14 when he was struck on the back of the head by Garafalo and his brother Jordan M. Garafalo. French fell to the ground and his head struck the pavement. He was taken to Albany Medical Center and ultimately died from his injuries. French lived in South Carolina, but also had ties to the Saratoga Springs community and is originally from Whitehall. He is a retired corrections officer who had worked at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock. His widow, Angela French, told the court that Mark French was her husband and friend for 31 years and because of Garafalos actions, I dont get to wake up with a kiss and a cup of coffee made just the way I like it. Ill never again feel the absolute safety and comfort of being completely enveloped by Marks warm embrace. She went on to say that she forgave Garafalo and prayed that the next time that he has to choose between violence and patience that he makes a different choice. Garafalo had faced a charge of second-degree manslaughter but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge. He also pleaded guilty to aggravated felony offense in an unrelated domestic violence case in which he violated an order of protection by having contact with the protected party in jail on Jan. 27. He received a 2- to 4-year sentence in that case to run concurrently with the assault sentence. Garafalo will also have to serve 5 years of post-release supervision when he is released from prison. Charges are still pending against Jordan M. Garafalo. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. GLENS FALLS Glens Falls Department of Public Works employees used a leaf blower to clear off a large stencil before spraying the first Glens Falls Arts District sidewalk stamp in front of The Chapman Museum on Thursday. This has been eight years coming, said Kate Austin-Avon, co-founder and administrator of the Arts District, as the DPW workers unveiled the finished trail marker. There were 12 total trail makers at the 10 arts locations in the Arts District. There were two sidewalk stamps placed at Cool Insuring Arena and The Shirt Factory, according to Austin-Avon. The sidewalk stamps are one part of the trail, which runs from The Chapman Museum to The Hyde Collection. Austin-Avon said that the banners and bicycle-shaped bike racks that can be seen around the city are also indicators for the 10 organizations along the arts trail. There will be more stamps in the coming weeks to kind of connect the dots and make a walking path from one arts destination to the next, she said. There are three murals planned in connection to the Arts District for buildings in the city. Austin-Avon said that the murals will be inspired by nature. One will be painted on the big blue wall found (facing Hudson Avenue) on the building where Dominos Pizza is located. The second mural will go on the Apostolic Christian Fellowship building at 103 Warren St. Its a nature scene with a waterfall and some hot air balloons going over on the blue wall, and different wildlife going on the other one, she said. Were still trying to get a final design. The bike racks will be put out at the 10 arts destinations along the trail. Sponsorships are available for the bike racks. They can be sponsored at $750 per rack for a two-year sponsorship and $1,500 per rack for a 10-year sponsorship. There are still five opportunities to sponsor and get your name on a bike rack, which is a pretty cool way to advertise, Austin-Avon said. The arts trail also includes electrical boxes that were painted by local artists last year. Austin-Avon said that there will be three more electric boxes painted along the trail. She said that the Arts District is wrapping up the work that is being funded by the Downtown Revitalization Initiative. The Arts District was awarded $125,000 of the city's $10 million DRI grant. But that doesnt mean the trail will be finished. We want to be adding to this trail, she said. If anybody would like to fund public art they are more than welcome to make a donation. To donate to the Arts District and learn more about the initiative, visit artsdistrictgf.com. Donations can also be sent to the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council. Austin-Avon said that donations sent to LARAC must specifically indicate that they are for the Arts District. Jay Mullen is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls, Warren County and crime and courts. You can reach him at 518-742-3224 or jmullen@poststar.com. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Fifty years ago, Glens Falls restaurateur Vincenzo Jim DeSantis was selected as grand marshal of the Glens Falls Memorial Day Parade. DeSantis was an Italian immigrant who was proud to have been born on the Fourth of July. The United States of America is the greatest country in the world, and Im proud that they let me live here. We even have the same birthday, but I was born in Europe, he once said. He served stateside in the U.S. Army during World War I. His selection as grand marshal in 1972 was to honor his serving of free meals to members of the military in uniform during World War II, a patriotic act that brought worldwide fame. It is estimated that 52,570 dinners were given to uniformed personnel in all, and over a 1,360-day period that would average a little more than 40 dinners per day, The Post-Star reported on Dec. 8, 1966. The boys do the fighting, so theyre going to eat just as long as I can stay in business, he said, around the time he began offering the free meals on Dec. 7, 1942, the one-year anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. He continued offering the free meals at his restaurant at the corner of Lawrence and Cherry streets, in the citys First Ward, until World War II ended. DeSantis got the idea for offering free meals when he and his wife had recently visited New York City to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary. It was too cold to walk in Central Park, so they took a walk through Grand Central Station instead. Mother noticed the GIs all over the place slouched on the floor, asleep on benches. And she said to my father, These boys look like they could use a good meal, son Jimmy DeSantis told The Post-Star in 2001. And my father said, There isnt much we can do about it now. But when he got home, he started offering free dinners to servicemen. DeSantis, the father, printed up coupons good for a free dinner when visiting Glens Falls, and distributed them to military bases around the world. Some military personnel posted the coupons on bulletin boards at USO clubs. DeSantis also had signs put up on Route 9, advertising the free meals for military personnel. The 1972 Memorial Day parade was not the first time DeSantis had been honored for his generosity. In 1946, Glens Falls area residents voted DeSantis winner of the Best Glens Falls Neighbor award, a contest run by WTRY radio of Albany. During the war, Mr. DeSantis circulated cards in U.S. military installations throughout the world inviting servicemen and servicewomen to be his guests at dinner if they ever came to Glens Falls, The Post-Star reported on April 29, 1946. Radio announcers presented DeSantis with a watch at a ceremony broadcast live from the Rialto Theatre on Warren Street in Glens Falls. In 1984, the New York Northeast Division of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks selected Anna DeSantis, wife of Vincenzo, as Mother of the Year, recognizing her role in the patriotic feeding of military personnel. More than 300 people attended a reception in her honor, The Post-Star reported on May 7, 1984. Vincenzo DeSantis was born at Pompei, Italy, in 1893, and immigrated to the United States at age 19. He settled at Glens Falls and worked as a carpenter. Anna DeSantis was born at Rome, Italy, in 1897, and immigrated to the United States with her family at age 15. The family settled at Glens Falls, where Anna worked part-time at the Matinee Waist Co., a blouse factory, while learning the rudiments of the English language. The couple married in 1917. After World War I, Vincenzo DeSantis operated the Lawrence Hotel, a saloon, and the Lawrence Street Grocery and Meat Market, according to Post-Star archive reports. Prohibition ended the saloon aspect. After Prohibition ended, Vincenzo wanted to get back into the saloon business, but was required to serve food in order to get a liquor license. Vincenzo asked Anna if she might be willing to make up a few sandwiches and warm up some soup, in order to meet the letter of the law. Her cooking proved popular, and soon the food was the main attraction at the establishment. Vincenzo and Anna retired in 1958. Son Philip DeSantis operated the restaurant until 1965, when he turned it over to Jimmy DeSantis, another son. Vincent DeSantis Jr., another son, was mayor of Glens Falls from 1994 to 1997. Maury Thompson was a Post-Star reporter for 21 years before he retired in 2017. He now is a freelance history writer and documentary film producer who routinely researches historic newspapers of the region. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 WHITEHALL Heather Gordon picked up her camera and took a photograph of the entire student body at Whitehall Elementary School saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Its been a very long time since weve had that, said the teacher, who was taking pictures of students during the 47th annual Memorial Day ceremony Thursday morning. The popular ceremony hasnt taken place the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. School officials brought it back this year as a couple of hundred parents watched. Also back this year was the master of ceremonies, Joe Capron, a retired art teacher who started the Memorial Day program a year after he started teaching in Whitehall in 1972. Its like coming home, said Capron, who spent 36 years teaching and retired 15 years ago. Students from pre-K through sixth-grade dressed from head to toe in red, white and blue, took turns entertaining each other and the crowd of onlookers with songs and poems about Memorial Day and patriotism. Memorial Day is an American holiday observed in the last Monday of May honoring the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military, Principal Judy Gould told her students. Many Americans observe Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings or participating in parades. Whitehall Mayor Julie Eagan told students that Memorial Day is both a happy and sad holiday. Its sad to think about people in the military having to go to war, she said, and its even sadder to remember that some of them died and some of them may die in the future. But we should also be proud. We should be proud that we have men and women in our military who are willing to put their lives on the line to defend all of our freedom. She encouraged kids to celebrate Memorial Day by drawing patriotic artwork, going to a parade or holding a moment of silence with their family members. Michael Effertz from the American Legion explained the relevance of the POW MIA flag. He told the students that 22,000 World War II veterans are still missing in action. There are more than 1,600 Vietnam veterans still missing. On the flag is a soldier who is taken prisoner by the enemy, Effertz said. Hes praying praying to get home to his family, praying that he doesnt have to die where he is. And the enemy towers over him with the barbed wire keeping him in. One students from every classroom received a Good Citizenship Award and medal. The flag raised during the flag ceremony flew for the rest of the day to remember James Lafayette, a lifetime member of the American Legion, who died in August. The ceremony ended as the entire student body sang the song, Remember to Remember. Gretta Hochsprung writes features and hometown news. She can be reached at 518-742-3206 or ghochsprung@poststar.com. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. ATLANTIC CITY Gov. Phil Murphy climbed the Absecon Lighthouses 228 steps Friday morning to kick off Memorial Day weekend at the Jersey Shore, where he found the view fogged in and the wind somewhat fierce. Im not great with heights, Murphy said as he stepped out on the viewing platform briefly, got buffeted by gusts and quickly went back inside. Murphy chose to open the summer there because he had heard about 94-year-old volunteer lighthouse keeper Buddy Grover and wanted to meet him. Im always with the team each year thinking, How do I kick the summer off? This is a big day for us for the state and for the Jersey Shore, Murphy said. I said, I should go meet Buddy and climb the Absecon Lighthouse, and that brought us to today. Press of Atlantic City meteorologist Joe Martucci is predicting the holiday weekend will earn a B in his shore summer weekend weather report card. The shores weather will get better as the weekend goes on, Martucci said, with Monday looking to be the best beach day. Grover on Friday gave the governor a presentation on the lighthouse, which was built in 1857 and is New Jerseys tallest. Strong storms then sun, your day-to-day guide to Memorial Day weekend's weather We watched the leaves turn red only to fall off the trees. We saw the snowiest January in re And he put in a pitch for the state-owned structure to get a little TLC. It needs $3 million in work to fix a moisture problem, Grover said. Barnegat Lighthouse is now undergoing a renovation project to fix its water intrusion problems, Grover said. That sister lighthouse to Absecon is closed until October for the work, but the park around it remains open. Grover also told Murphy about his familys history in New Jersey, which dates to the 17th century. Youve heard of Grovers Mills ... in War of the Worlds? Buddy asked of the town where Orson Welles had aliens land in his famous 1938 radio rendition of the H.G. Wells novel. Thats my family. As Grover guided the governor on a tour, his quick pace up the stairs was impressive. Im having a tough time keeping up with Buddy, Murphy said. Some visitors were surprised to see the governor at the top as they finished their climb. Oh, my gosh, thats the governor! said Northfield resident Peter West, there with his 3-year-old grandson Landon McCloud. I voted for you. Id like to get a picture. The two had their photos taken with Murphy, as did two brothers visiting the resort from Washington, D.C. I used to work for the Democratic Party in South Carolina, said Jonathan Wang, 30, as he stepped up for his photo with Murphy. His brother Justin Wang, 27, at first declined a photo, prompting the governor to joke, So you must have worked for the Republican Party in South Carolina. Justin changed his mind and posed with Murphy. Grover volunteers twice a week, he said. That means he must climb the lighthouse to station himself at the top, where he talks about the history of the 165-year-old structure, how it went from kerosene to electric powered in 1925, and then was decommissioned in 1933 because newly built tall hotels in town were brighter and outshone the lighthouse. Hes been volunteering for more than 12 years, Grover said. He lives in an apartment complex three blocks away. Murphy said goodbye and headed for solid ground as Grover stayed at the top to greet more visitors. The governor said he would spend much of the weekend making appearances at veterans ceremonies and spending time with family. REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post 609-841-2895 mpost@pressofac.com Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Messick, 40, is a longtime chef in this Jersey Shore resort town known for its grand front porches and fine dining. This year he took a big leap, opening Grana, his very own, 68-seat, BYO restaurant. Thats why, when the delivery truck appeared to head off in the wrong direction, Messick burst from the curb and started running after it. Yes, I was sprinting and I thought, I cant believe Im doing this, he said. When I caught up to him I said, I think you have some deliveries for me. Up and down the Jersey Shore each summer, businesses rise and fall like the tides. For every boardwalk pizza institution slinging hot slices for decades, theres a new dreamer out there crafting up experimental ice cream or alternative French fries on sticks, trying to lure in new customers. Some dont last the summer, and others, like Ocean Citys monkey bread, catch on and become a shore staple. Messick is fulfilling a lifelong dream with Grana, without the gimmicks. The lengthy menu is modern American, with pasta dishes, steaks and, of course, some locally sourced seafood like scallops. Given his pedigree, Messick said the new venture doesnt feel like a gamble. People know he can cook. Born and raised just outside Avalon, Messick attended the prestigious New England Culinary Institute in Vermont before working his way through many Jersey Shore restaurants. In Cape May, he was the executive chef of the Ebbitt Room in the Virginia Hotel, then went on to cook in Stone Harbor for several years before becoming executive chef of the Peter Shields Inn. He stepped down there recently, after 12 years, to start Grana, named after a type of cheese. Peter Shields was the best job I ever had, and if I ever left, it had to be a perfect scenario, he said. Ive had other opportunities before, in other towns, but they always felt like gambles. This kind of fell in my lap. Southern Cape towns to recognize Pride month CAPE MAY Three local communities have agreed to recognized June as Pride Month, according Before Messick ever cooked a meal there, Grana had 800 reservations booked through the summer. On the morning of Granas soft opening, a cool Friday in early May, the chaos, those exciting opening-night jitters, continued. Someone was trimming a tree out front. A repairman was fixing the soda lines. Messicks soon-to-be mother-in-law, LeAnn Russ, was filling salt shakers. The La Colombe coffee would be brewed by Black + Decker until a fancier machine made its way down the supply chain. Crazy, but exciting, Russ said. Messick agreed to let the Philadelphia Inquirer stop by before the curtain rose. He said it was a bad day to talk but was too polite to say no outright. He arrived around 11 a.m., wrestling a brand new chest freezer through the back door, and looked around for a place to plug it in. The freezer would be in the way, for now, but at least the ice cream wouldnt melt. That night Messick was at the restaurant until 2 a.m. dreaming of creme brulee recipes and scanning the endless checklist in his head. Phone calls went unanswered, and the front door went unlocked, leading to strangers popping in with giant flower bouquets and urgent pleas to put ads in the local dining guide. Uhh, I cant commit right now, Messick told the salesman. Im just too busy right now. Projection: NJ cannabis could be a $2B industry in five years Edmund DeVeaux looks forward to a time when a cannabis store downtown in your community does Grana sits at Broadway and Perry streets in Cape May, across the street from Wilbraham Park, in a nearly 100-year-old building once occupied by Godmothers, a longtime Italian staple. The decor at Godmothers was old-school cozy, with wood paneling covering half the walls and old, black-and-white photos above them. Outside, there were awnings and vines and an ornate, hand-painted sign. The restaurant closed before the 2021 season. Messick said he had about eight weeks to turn the space around to hit his May 2022 goal. Behind the Godmothers sign was another one, for the Old Ship restaurant, and according to CapeMay.com, the building was also once a pharmacy, ice cream parlor and a luncheonette a whole collection of Jersey Shore businesses that came and went. There was a lot of painting, Messick said. We tried to keep it nice and simple. On opening day, the restaurant was clean, with a white, black and gray palette and a few pieces of modern art on the walls. One leftover from Godmothers, a full-length stained glass door by the bathroom, remains, for now. The plan is to remain open year-round, but Messick said Grana could close for a few weeks each year for renovations. The door may go. We havent decided if we like it or not, Messick said. Just before noon, Messick put on his chefs coat and began checking the temperature of the ovens. Employees came through the back door with coffee and started opening the piles of boxes stacked around. Messick had about a dozen employees and expected that number to grow to about 20 by the height of summer. Are sewer lines a possibility for Upper Township? UPPER TOWNSHIP Mayor Curtis Corson sees big potential in connecting to municipal sewer lines. The first customers, mostly friends and family, would be seated at 5 p.m. The soft opening, he said, was supposed to be a grace period for the big reveal on Memorial Day weekend, a time to notice and fix any kinks before summer gets rolling. You get a pass, usually, and he hopes food critics can give him a month or two. I mean, I cant control that, but I really hope a critic didnt come on opening night, he said. Im making coffee with a Black + Decker machine. A Rock Island man must serve up to 50 years in an Illinois prison for shooting another man in 2021. Devin Jacob Johnson, 40, was accused of shooting Kelvin Bell, also of Rock Island, on Jan. 24, 2021. Rock Island police investigating a report of a shooting victim found Bell, 41 at the time, in a vehicle in the area of the 900 block of 42nd Avenue. He had been shot in the head and was hospitalized for life-threatening wounds. In March, a jury found Johnson guilty of first-degree attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm, according to Rock Island County court records. On Tuesday, Rock Island County Chief Circuit Judge Frank Fuhr sentenced him to up to 50 years in prison, with the single sentence covering both charges. Johnson must serve at least 85% 42 years of the sentence before he can be considered for release, Fuhr said Thursday. At the time Bell was shot, Johnson was serving three years of supervised release on a federal firearms conviction. On May 1, 2013, a federal jury found Johnson guilty of being a felon in possession of a firearm, a TEC-DC 9mm handgun with a loaded high-capacity magazine, according to federal court records. Johnson had the weapon on Aug. 12, 2012, and was first arrested by Rock Island Police, but the resulting local prosecution was dropped after a federal grand jury indicted him on Sept. 19, 2012. He was taken into federal custody on Oct. 5, 2012. Johnsons federal case went to trial, and he was found guilty. On Nov. 15, 2013, U.S. District Chief Judge James Shadid sentenced Johnson to 108 months, or nine years, in federal prison, followed by three years on federal supervised release. Johnson was released from federal prison on May 22, 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons electronic records. It was his second stint in federal prison on a firearms charge. In 2006, he was sentenced to 57 months, or four years and nine months, in federal prison on a conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SATURDAY, MAY 28 Ceremony: Davenport City Cemetery, 1625 Rockingham Road. When: 1:30 p.m. What to expect: Scott County's oldest cemetery will honor all who are buried there, including our nation's veterans. A free hand-held U.S. flag will be given to all who attend the event. Good to know: Davenport City Cemetery volunteers are also giving special acknowledgement to two previously unrecognized U.S. Civil War veterans, whose graves have laid unmarked for decades. These two U.S. servicemen are Stephen van Fleet - Co K, 37th Iowa Infantry and Johann Krusch - Company F, 5th Iowa Cavalry Regiment. Both of these veterans have recently obtained their long overdue headstones as furnished by the U.S. Veterans Administration and installed by Volunteers of the Davenport City Cemetery Partnership. Both individuals also obtained a Presidential Certificate of Service from U.S. President Joe Biden. More information can be obtained at: DavenportCityCemtery@yahoo.com. MONDAY, MAY 30 Ceremony: Scott County Historical Memorial Day Service at the Historic Summit Church, Utica Ridge Road, 21980 210th Ave., Davenport. When: 9 a.m. What to expect: Honor guard presenting the U.S. flag, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance led by a veteran, the singing of patriotic songs, listening to patriotic speeches, and reading of a roll call of Scott County veterans. Good to know: After the service, will move into the adjoining cemetery for 21-gun salute to all veterans past and present. Following the tribute, everyone is invited to remain and enjoy fellowship and refreshments at the historic country church. The service is one of the oldest continuous observances of Memorial Day West of the Mississippi River. --- Ceremony: Central Park, 1208 4th St., Orion, Ill. When: 10 a.m. What to expect: Orion Community Band, speaker Jodi Bubar, dedication of new bricks. Good to know: Bring lawn chairs. In case of rain, ceremony will be in the Orion United Methodist Church Activity Center. --- Ceremony: Peniel Cemetery, 1233 80th Ave., Joy, Ill. When: 10 a.m. What to expect: Pastor Matthew Downey from the Viola United Presbyterian Church will be the speaker. Good to know: The public is asked to bring flowers to decorate the graves of veterans. --- Ceremony: Soldiers & Sailors Monument, next to Hampton Town Hall. When: 10 a.m. What to expect: Opening remarks and the Pledge of Allegiance. Ceremony will continue with a walk to the edge of the Mississippi River to cast flowers on the water in memory of the sailors lost at sea. Good to know: At the conclusion of the ceremony, the Hampton Historical Society invites everyone in attendance to view the museum and the new special exhibit, "What's in the Attic." --- Ceremony: Rock Island National Cemetery, Arsenal Island. When: 10:45 a.m. What to expect: Keynote speaker Mike Sturch, commandant, Department of Illinois Marine Corps League, and national vice commandant. The Veterans Service Organization honor guard will be conducted by Moline American Legion 246 and Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 299. The Center for Active Seniors Inc.'s Golden Tones Choir will perform musical selections through the ceremony. The National Anthem will be performed by Michelle VanOpdorp, with an invocation by Rev. Rich Hendricks, Metropolitan Community Church of the Quad Cities. Additional speeches, a moment of silence, the playing of Taps, and a rifle volley, will also take place. Good to know: There will be no parking at the cemetery for this ceremony except for individuals who are wheelchair bound. Parking for all others will be behind Memorial Park in the large lot. Buses will transport people from the parking lot to the cemetery and will run 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Visitors should arrive early to ensure enough time to park their vehicles and be transported to the cemetery. Memorial Park is located off of the main Island road, Rodman Avenue, at the corner of East Street. For more information, call 309-782-2094. --- Ceremony: Cambridge Community Hall, 125 N. East Street. When: 10 a.m. What to expect: Cambridge School Band, Memorial Day address by Major Ian Black (Logistics Officer, U.S. Army Materiel Command). Good to know: Immediately following the program the group will walk a short distance to Veterans Memorial Park for the color guard service by Orion American Legion, Post #225. --- Ceremony: Port Byron American Legion Post 421 at the Oak and Main Veterans Memorial Site, Port Byron. When: 10 a.m. What to expect: Speaker will be from the Rock Island Arsenal. --- Ceremony: Hero Street Park, 145 2nd St., Silvis. When: 11 a.m. What to expect: Major General Mark C. Jackson, deputy commanding general of Operations, First Army, guest speaker. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 A 20-year-old Camanche man received a 15-year prison sentence Thursday after pleading guilty earlier this year to charges he sexually abused a 10-year-old girl. Arrested on April 9, 2021, Nicholas Lee Campie had been charged in Clinton County Court with two counts of second-degree sexual abuse of a child under 12, each of which carries a 25-year prison sentence, and two counts of enticing a minor under the age of 13, each of which carries a 10-year prison sentence. On March 3, during a hearing Clinton County District Court, Campie pleaded guilty to charges of lascivious acts with a child-permitting or causing child to fondle, a Class C felony that carries a 10-year prison sentence, and enticing a minor under 16 for sexual purposes, a Class D felony that carries a prison sentence of five years. The other charges were dropped in accordance with the plea agreement. During a sentencing hearing Thursday in district court, District Judge Stuart Werling sentenced Campie to 10 years in prison for the lascivious acts conviction and a consecutive five years in prison for the enticement conviction. According to the arrest affidavit filed by Clinton County Sheriffs investigator Marissa Mussmann, on May 14, 2020, a report was filed with the Clinton County Sheriffs Department that alleged the 18-year-old man sexually abused a 10-year-old girl. The two had communicated on Snapchat and texted and met up a couple of times, including on one occasion when Campie picked up the girl from her house at midnight to take her to his house to play video games. The girl was at the house for several hours, and then Campie drove her back home. She went with Campie again two weeks later and he sexually abused her. Campie must register as a sex offender. He was being held Thursday night in the Clinton County Jail pending transport to the Iowa Department of Corrections. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 4 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Illinois state Senate District 36 has some familiar faces running for the seat. Rock Island Mayor Mike Thoms will face former state Rep. candidate Glen Evans in the Republican primary, while State Rep. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, is unopposed in the Democratic primary. Current state Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, was drawn out of the district during the state legislative remapping process, leaving the seat open for the 2022 election. Anderson is running in his new district, the 47th. The primary election on June 28 will determine which Democrat and Republican candidate will be on the ballot for the Nov. 8 general election. May 19 was the first day to send in vote-by-mail ballots or vote in person at the Rock Island County clerk's office, 1504 Third Ave., Rock Island. Republicans Mike Thoms Thoms won reelection as Rock Island mayor in the April 2021 municipal election. If he wins election to the state Senate, he would be allowed to remain mayor. Thoms, 63, is a lifelong resident of Rock Island and attended Black Hawk College. He retired in 2005 after 29 years with Thoms-Proestler Co., a family-owned wholesale food service company where he worked his way up from warehouse worker to vice president of operations, managing 250 employees. Thoms has been a longtime community volunteer with a focus on youth services. He sits on the boards of directors for Junior Achievement; HavLife Foundation; the Putnam Museum; the YMCA and the YWCA Quad Cities, working to raise money for construction of the new facility in downtown Rock Island. He also serves on the facilities committee for the Rock Island-Milan School District and previously sat on the board of directors for Bethany for Families and Children. When he announced his candidacy in October, Thoms said his business and management experience made him the better candidate. "My experience in dealing with people has taught me how to negotiate, compromise and talk to people. Those are some of my strengths," he said. "I've started several businesses and investments with people since then. I understand the economy and economic development better than my opponent." Glen Evans Evans most recently challenged State Rep. Mike Halpin, D-Rock Island, in the 2018 and 2020 elections, losing both times. He previously ran as a Democrat in about 20 different local races. He has lost every election with the exception of two precinct committeeman races. He has run for Rock Island-Milan school board, Rock Island City Council, Rock Island County board, Rock Island Township supervisor and twice for Rock Island County clerk. When he announced his candidacy for state Senate in August, he said he changed his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican five years ago after attending a training with Americans for Prosperity, a Conservative political action group founded by the Koch brothers. Evans, 52, is an ordained minister with Wings of Faith Ministries, working with several churches in the area. He also is a member of Laborer's Local 309, serving as auditor from 2016 to 2018. Evans is currently second vice chairman of the Rock Island County Republican Party. "I am on the ballot because I am dissatisfied with what I see in community I grew up in," Evans said. "I want to make it better." Democrat Mike Halpin Halpin is unopposed in the Democratic primary election. He was elected state Representative for the 72nd District in 2016 and reelected in 2018 and 2020. He was elected Rock Island County Democratic Party Chairman in May 2021. Halpin, 42, is a native of Voorheesville, N.Y. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Roger Williams University in Rhode Island with a bachelor of arts degree in political science in 2001. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 2008 with his law degree. He moved to Illinois after being hired by Congressman Lane Evans as a staff assistant and scheduler and served as law clerk for the Honorable Rita B. Garman of the Illinois Supreme Court from 2008 to 2010. He currently works as an attorney for McCarthy, Callas & Feeney, P.C., of Rock Island, focusing on family law, labor and employment law and real estate law. "Running for Senate is an opportunity for me to continue to represent people in western Illinois that are asking for help and asking for policies that are going to lift up them and their families," Halpin said when he announced his candidacy in September. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Davenport has taken steps to shorten the hours residents can legally set off fireworks this Fourth of July. Davenport aldermen voted Wednesday 7-2 to shorten the window to set off fireworks by four hours on July 3 and 4. One alderman was absent. It's the first of three votes the council takes on a new ordinance, but it shows that shortening the window has broad support on the council. At-Large Alderman Kyle Gripp, however, in casting a 'no' vote expressed concern limiting the hours would further tax law enforcement and be confusing to residents who try to follow the ordinance. Currently, Davenport allows consumer fireworks to be set off from 2 p.m. to 11 p.m. on July 3 and 4. The council has voted to change that window to 5-10 p.m. on those two days. "My goal through this process has not been to make staffs' life more difficult or their job more difficult. I'm just merely asking a question of can we try to possibly affect behaviors to achieve the outcomes that we want?" asked Ward 6 Alderman Ben Jobgen, who suggested limiting the hours in response to a change in state law that city staff expects will make fireworks more accessible to residents. All agree fireworks become a nuisance in the weeks ahead and after the Fourth, but since officers have to essentially catch the offender as they are lighting the firework, Gripp said shortening the hours is unlikely to prevent people from setting off fireworks in the weeks before and after. The city issued 10 citations between June 1 and July 8, according to a records request. "The issue is not on July 3 and 4th between 2 p.m. and 11 p.m.," Gripp said. "Typically that nuisance is the the three weeks preceding the Fourth of July and the three weeks after the fourth of July, and people setting off fireworks from 11 p.m. until 3 a.m. And that is the real nuisance. This will not decrease that nuisance." Eighth Ward Alderman Judith Lee said she voted no because she wanted to get the ball rolling on mailers outlining the rules for Davenport residents shooting off fireworks, which city officials say will be more effective the earlier they're sent out. The mailer also warned residents of potential fines for unlawful discharge. A first offense could cost up to $400 including court costs. "It's not that I disagree with this, but I think it's wise on my part too, to vote no on the change of hours just to get things moving, and to avoid making too many factor changes at one time, and let's see what we can do about next year and start a little earlier," Lee said before the vote. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Reconstruction of Division Street is set to begin Tuesday, causing some street and lane closures. Division Street at 15th Street will be closed for roughly a month, according to a city of Davenport alert. The city anticipates the street to reopen one northbound lane of travel only between West 12th and Locust streets. The project reconstructs Division Street between West 12th and Locust streets. The city awarded the contract to Manatts, Inc., of Camanche, for $1.77 million in April. The work is expected to wrap up in mid-October. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A federal judge in South Dakota ruled on May 11 the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act (PKPA) does not apply to Native American tribes following a child custody case that spanned over eight years. PKPA requires states to honor other states legitimate custody rulings. In 1980, the PKPA established national standards to determine jurisdiction in interstate custody disputes. It requires states to enforce, in most cases, custody rulings made in other states, according to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. The United States code defines states as, a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or a territory or possession of the United States. The case in question started in North Dakota before ending up in a federal South Dakota district court. In 2014, Tricia Taylor took her two children out of North Dakota and brought them to the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota, violating North Dakota state court custody orders, court documents show. At the time, the children were around the ages of one and seven, although court documents do not provide specific birthdays. Aarin Nygaard, the younger childs father, already had joint custody of the children with Taylor, which she violated by bringing the children out of state without notifying Nygaard and refusing to bring them back despite court orders to do so. The other childs father, Terrance Stanley, did not have a court ordered custody agreement with the mother before the child was moved, but a North Dakota state court granted him custody. The court ultimately granted both fathers "permanent residential responsibility," a ruling the Cheyenne River tribal court has not yet recognized. Taylor was with her children on the reservation from August 2014 until the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested her on the reservation for a misdemeanor bad check charge. At that time, she had parental kidnapping charges levied against her in Cass County, North Dakota. She agreed to not fight extradition in exchange for the government dropping the check charge. Even though the children were no longer with Taylor because she was detained, they did not go back to their fathers. At the time of Tricias arrest, (the South Dakota Department of Social Services) DSS placed (the children) with Tricias brother, South Dakota Chief Judge Roberto Lange wrote in his ruling on the case. DSS made this placement without contacting either Hygaard or Stanley. Tribal court granted custody of the children to Taylors brother and sister and later to just Taylors sister, all without notifying the fathers, Lange stated. Nygaard and Stanley attempted to gain custody of their children through tribal court avenues, but were met with opposition ranging from the court delaying hearings to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council overturning a previous ruling that held the PKPA did apply to tribes. In September 2021, the South Dakota Federal District Court agreed to hear two issues in the case: whether PKPA applied and whether the fathers could sue DSS for placing the children with Taylors relatives after her arrest. Langes opinion referenced mixed court opinions on whether the act applies to tribes. Some courts ruled that it does because of the argument that reservations fall under the definition of territory, but others have ruled that it does not apply because tribes are never mentioned in the PKPA. Seemingly with some reluctance, Lange chose to rule that the PKPA does not apply based on what Congress did not include in the act tribal land. This Court likewise is heartsick that the ambiguity and split of authority over interpretation of the PKPA has contributed to the prolonged litigation in various courts over custody of (the two children). Nonetheless, this Court is bound to interpret and apply the PKPA as it is written, not as how it might or arguably should have been written, Lange wrote. Congress can amend the PKPA if it wishes to extend it to Indian tribes. He said the fathers could seek enforcement of the North Dakota state custody orders from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Court, but it might be futile at this point. For similar cases in the future, Kyle Krause, a Rapid City family lawyer, said the ruling only technically applies to the case at hand, but that it could be used as a reference to argue why PKPA doesnt apply in custody cases involving reservations. It becomes one more case in the line of cases that was already cited, that has weighed in on the topic, Krause said. He said the federal court decision means reservations are lawless havens for parental kidnapping. I think it really demonstrates a bigger problem that exists of you can literally kidnap kids and run to the reservation and hide there in violation of very obviously legitimate state court orders," Krause said. "North Dakota very obviously had jurisdiction. In my opinion, that tribal council and tribal court basically facilitated the eight year kidnapping of kids." Contact Shalom Baer Gee at sgee@rapidcityjournal.com You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Connie Uhre, 75, owner of the Grand Gateway Hotel, was arrested Friday afternoon on three counts of simple assault, Rapid City police announced Friday. Brendyn Medina, spokesperson with the department, said police responded to a call around 12:45 p.m. Friday at the Grand Gateway Hotel. Medina said police met with witnesses and reviewed video footage. After further investigation, Uhre was placed under arrest. He said the charges stem from her use of a cleaning chemical on individuals. In multiple videos from demonstrators at the NDN Collective picket line boycott event, Uhre can be seen getting out of her vehicle in the Grand Gateway parking lot and spraying at least three demonstrators with Pledge, a cleaning spray. At least one demonstrator was sprayed directly in the face. In one of the videos, Uhre tells the Native American demonstrators that the spray substance is "bug spray." After she gets back into her vehicle, one of the demonstrators said, "Maybe one day you'll love our people." Uhre can be heard saying, "I do love your people. Not the bad ones." Members of NDN Collective have conducted demonstrations three times a week for the last six weeks against all Uhre-owned properties following Uhre's comments on Facebook stating Native Americans were banned from the hotel, along with Cheers Lounge. The Uhres also own The Foothills Inn. Uhre's comments were made following a shooting at the hotel March 19 that resulted in the death of 19-year-old Myron Pourier. Quincy Bear Robe, 19, faces a second-degree murder charge in state court for Pourier's death. NDN Collective released a statement stating Uhre attacked Sunny Red Bear, the collective's racial equity director. "This is what we mean when we say that white supremacy is violent," Red Bear said in the statement. "No matter how long they lie dormant, peoples racist worldviews eventually come out in their actions." Red Bear said she hopes people will begin to understand and believe when people say how dangerous and real racism is. NDN Collective President and CEO Nick Tilsen said Uhre's behavior was not only racist, violent and disgusting, but also illegal. He said the incident will be added to the federal civil rights lawsuit the collective filed in March. "We now call upon the Department of Justice to intervene and hold Connie Uhre and the Grand Gateway Hotel accountable for these racist and illegal acts against our people," he said. "It requires aggressive action to dismantle white supremacy. Everybody in this community should be outraged. Contact Siandhara Bonnet at siandhara.bonnet@rapidcityjournal.com You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 2 Sad 2 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Primary Election campaigns are in full swing, with thousands of dollars in contributions flowing from individuals, entities and political action committees. Candidates and committees had a May 23 deadline to file their pre-primary finance reports Monday for school, county and state races. Rapid City's municipal election campaign finance reports are due May 31. Election day is Tuesday, June 7. The Journal examined all finance disclosures that have been filed. The examination found questions for the filings of four candidates Tim Goodwin for Senate District 30, Janyce Hockenbary for Rapid City Area Schools Board of Education Area 6, Ryan Mechaley for Pennington County Sheriff, and David Johnson for Senate District 33. Mechaley was the only candidate to resolve the questions posed by the Journal. Tim Goodwin Tonchi Weaver, a lobbyist and organizer for South Dakota Citizens for Liberty, filed an affidavit of complaint with the Secretary of State and Attorney General's office making several allegations against Goodwin's campaign for State Senate. He is challenging Sen. Julie Frye-Mueller for the seat in District 30. In the affidavit, Weaver makes 10 claims against Goodwin's campaign ranging from not changing his committee from House of Representatives to Senate, fictitious committees on advertisements, misleading voters that Goodwin is an incumbent from the Senate and not the House, publishing endorsements that he gained as a member of the House instead of ones for Senate, and using government resources for campaign purposes. Goodwin told the Journal Thursday he had just received the complaint, and vowed to resolve any discrepancies or inaccuracies. "I'll work in full cooperation with the Secretary of State and/or Attorney General and if there is (sic) any improprieties, I'll do whatever it takes to clean it up," Goodwin said. Janyce Hockenbary Hockenbary's campaign treasurer, Tim Nietz, signed the Local Jurisdictions Campaign Finance Disclosure Report on April 12, 2022, more than a month before the May 23 filing deadline. The Rapid City Area Schools business office confirmed that Hockenbary's report was filed on May 6, which is more than 20 days prior to the June 7 election. South Dakota law mandates that reports must include contributions and expenditures "including twenty days prior to the election date." Because Hockenbary's disclosure report does not include contributions or expenditures within the 20-day requirement, it is unclear if the report is accurate. The Journal called Nietz on Thursday, seeking clarification and left a message on his voicemail. The Journal also emailed Nietz and Hockenbary on Thursday seeking a response. Neither Nietz nor Hockenbary have responded. The Journal reached out to the Secretary of State's office for election law compliance. Cely Johnson, elections program coordinator, responded and said their office cannot provide legal advice. Johnson did send the Journal a portion of South Dakota law on investigating and prosecution of violations for county and school district office. "The state's attorney shall investigate any violation of the provisions in the chapter related to elections for county and school district office," the passage reads. Ryan Mechaley Mechaley filled out the incorrect Campaign Finance Disclosure Report. He used the form for state races instead of the report required for local jurisdiction races. The Journal contacted Mechaley on Thursday about the error. He immediately went to the Pennington County Auditor's office and filed an amended disclosure report using the correct form. Mechaley thanked the Journal for bringing the clerical error to his attention. No other amendments were necessary for campaign contributions or expenditures. David Johnson Johnson filed his Campaign Finance Disclosure Report and in the fields for itemized direct contributions from individuals and direct contributions from in-state political action committees, he typed "N/A - Itemization in Separate Document." However, the separate document showing the itemized contributions is not included in his filing on the Secretary of State's website. The Journal called and emailed Johnson on Thursday requesting the separate document. He has not yet responded. Political Action Committees Several state and local PACs have received donations and then distributed them to candidates. The listing below is in no particular order and will show the name of the PAC, who the treasurer is, money raised, how much money was spent, how much cash is on hand, the top donors, and the top candidates who received funds. All campaign finance documents are available within this story at rapidcityjournal.com. PAC - Shining Light PAC Treasurer - Jordan Mason Raised - $16,000 Spent - $11,300 Cash on hand - $5,606.96 Top donors Joshua Muller, $10,000; Friends of John Roberts PAC, $6,000 Top candidates Ryan Mechaley, $10,000; Kathy Rice, $1,000 PAC - Support Public Education Treasurer - Sarah Hermsen Raised - $24,620.14 Spent - $20,878.18 Cash on hand - $4,033.96 Top donors Nerdy Nuts, $10,000; Stan Adelstein, $4,000; Jennifer May, $2,000 Top candidates Jamie Clapham, $9,737.50; Michael Birkeland, $9,737.50 PAC - Free Republic PAC Treasurer - Kevin Maher Raised - $17,100 Spent - $14,500 Cash on hand - $4,893.03 Top donors Leeann Rieman, $5,000; Atlantis LLC, $4,000; Deb Baker, $1,500; Steve Kaulkman, $1,500 Top candidates J.J. Carrell, $4,500; Lindsey Seachris, $4,000; Janyce Hockenbary, $3,000; Gabe Doney, $3,000 PAC - Democracy in Action Treasurer - Jocelyn Baker Raised - $8,505 Spent - $2,607.66 Cash on hand - $7,773.04 Top donors Stanford Adelstein, $1,000; Marilyn Simon, $1,000; Sandra Olson, $500 Top candidates Jamie Clapham, $1,000; Michael Birkeland, $500; Pat Roseland, $500; Bill Evans, $500 PAC - Liberty Tree PAC Treasurer - Scott Odenbach Raised - $36,350 Spent - $41,575 Cash on hand - $19,775 Top donors John and Joy Mills, $10,000; Liz May, $10,000 Top candidates/organizations Conservative Principles PAC, $15,000; Julie Frye-Mueller, $1,000; Jodie Frye, $1,000 PAC - Friends of John Roberts Treasurer - Jordan Mason Raised - $12,500 Spent - $11,503 Cash on hand - $2,158 Top donors William Freytag, $10,000; Dev Cor LLC, $1,500; KTM Design Solutions, $1,000 Top candidates Tim Goodwin, $10,000; J.J. Carrell, $1,000; Jesse Ham, $500 PAC - Citizens for Public Safety Treasurer - Kyle Halverson Raised - $19,050 Spent - $1,011.25 Cash on hand - $18,038.75 Top donors Sam Chandler, $8,000; Stephanie Lien D'Urso, $1,500 Top candidates No contributions listed PAC - Deadwood Tourism PAC Treasurer - Mike Rodman Raised - $0 (has a carryover of $51,476.52) Spent - $49,500 Cash on hand - $1,976.52 Top donors None listed Top candidates $1,000 each to numerous state House and state Senate local incumbents PAC - Black Hills Home Builders Build PAC Treasurer - Nicole Weimer Raised - $3,230 Spent - $5,984.86 Cash on hand - $34,329.37 Top donors Numerous donors ranging from a high of $230 to a low of $20 Top candidates Rachel Dix, $1,000; Janyce Hockenbary, $500; Janette McIntyre, $500; Bill Evans, $500; J.J. Carrell, $500 Area 3 RCAS Board of Education Candidate - Michael Birkeland Raised - $21,804.18 Spent - $14,696.45 Cash on hand - $7,107.73 Top individual donors Doug or Melody Birkeland, $1,000; Craig Mount, $1,000 Top PAC donors Support Public Education, $9,737.50; South Dakota EPIC, $2,000; Democracy in Action, $500 Candidate - Gabe Doney Raised - $5,049 Spent - $4,219.27 Cash on hand - $829.73 Top individual donors Gayla and Rich Meyer, $250; Heather Baxter, $250; James Engelbrecht, $200 Top PAC donors Free Republic PAC, $3,000; SD RPAC, $1,000 Area 6 RCAS Board of Education Candidate - Jamie Clapham Raised - $28,738.50 Spent - $17,081.84 Cash on hand - $11,656.66 Top individual donors Craig Mount, $1,000; Larry Teuber, $1,000 Top PAC donors Support Public Education, $9,737.50; South Dakota EPIC, $2,000; Democracy in Action, $1,000; SD RPAC, $1,000; South Dakota TIPs, $1,000 Candidate - Janyce Hockenbary Raised - $10,469 Spent - $3,683.10 Cash on hand - $6,785.90 Top individual donors Janyce Hockenbary, $700; Terry Hockenbary, $650; Norman Christopherson, $500; Carol Black, $500; Mario Rangel, $500; Deb Baker, $500 Top PAC donors Free Republic PAC, $3,000 Pennington County Sheriff Candidate - Ryan Mechaley Raised - $33,775.19 Spent - $19,596.74 Cash on hand - $8,225.26 Top individual donors Michael and Stephanie Durso, $2,000; Andy and Barb LeGare, $1,000; Lisa Lien, $1,000; Jason Johnston, $1,000 Top PAC donors Shining Light PAC, $10,000 Candidate - Brian Mueller Raised - $73,335 Spent - $15,064.97 Cash on hand - $55,270.03 Top individual donors $2,000 each from Barry Burgess, James Scull, Monica Burgess, Aloysius Rieman, Hani Shafai, Jeff Hoffman Top PAC donors SD RPAC, $1,105 Pennington County Commission, District 1 Candidate - Mike Mueller Raised - $6,129 Spent - $5,827.85 Cash on hand - $301.15 Top individual donors Julie Mueller, $1,000; Marty Troupe, $1,000 Top PAC donors None Candidate - Ron Rossknecht Raised - $19,650 Spent - $13,226.64 Cash on hand - $6,423.36 Top individual donors $1,000 each from Elizabeth Lein, Patrick Hall, Hani Shafai, Barbara Shafai, Suzanne Gabrielson, Richard Gabrielson Top PAC donors SD Realtor PAC, $1,000; BIG PAC, $1,000 District 30 House Candidate - Gerold Herrick Raised - $1,675 Spent - $985 Cash on hand - $690 Top individual donors Lance Russell, $200; Paul Nabholz, $200; Mary Herrick, $200 Top PAC donors Convention of States South Dakota, $1,000 Candidate - Dennis Krull Raised - $8,450 Spent - $7,935 Cash on hand - $515 Top individual donors Hani Shafai, $1,000; James and Sally Sherrer, $500; James Scull, $500 Top PAC donors SD Retailers Association, $1,000; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $500; Back to Biz, $500 Candidate - Trish Ladner Raised - $8,750 Spent - $8,968 Cash on hand - $232 Top individual donors Susan Henderson, $250; Rick Fox, $250; Jessica Castleberry, $250 Top PAC donors SD Realtors PAC, $1,000; Liberty Tree PAC, $500; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $500 Candidate - Patrick Baumann Raised - $11,832 Spent - $11,831 Cash on hand - $0.85 Top individual donors Paul Gavic, $1,000; Virgene Gavic, $1,000; Arlene Kallis, $1,000 Top PAC donors SD Realtors PAC, $1,000; Liberty Tree PAC, $500; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $500 Candidate - Lisa Gennaro Raised - $13,600 Spent - $12,175 Cash on hand - $1,425 Top individual donors Lisa Gennaro, $12,500; Linda Reteria, $300; Teresa Hisaw-Elmore, $200 Top PAC donors None District 30 Senate Candidate - Julie Frye-Mueller Raised - $5,461 Spent - $4,351 Cash on hand - $2,790 (Beginning balance of $1,680) Top individual donors Helen Brogley, $500; Stephanie Lien Durso, $330; Rollie Noem, $200 Top PAC donors SD Action Committee for Rural Electification PAC, $1,000; Liberty Tree PAC, $1,000; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $1,000 Candidate - Tim Goodwin Raised - $49,627 Spent - $23,930 Cash on hand - $25,698 (Beginning balance of $310) Top individual donors James Scull, $1,000; Hani Shafai, $1,000; James Burgess, $1,000 Top PAC donors Friends of John Roberts PAC, $10,000; SD Strong Leader PAC, $5,000; Business Innovation Growth PAC, $1,500 District 32 House Candidate - Steve Duffy Raised - $11,419 Spent - $10,036 Cash on hand - $1,383 Top individual donors Dick Tieszen, $500; Rex and Cindy Haag, $400; Karl Fischer, $300 Top PAC donors Business, Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,250; SD Realtors PAC, $1,000; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $1,000 Candidate - Becky Drury Raised - $10,750 Spent - $4,736 Cash on hand - $13,977 (Beginning balance of $7,964) Top individual donors James and Mary Scull, $500; Mike and Nancy Statz, $250; Rebecca and Sandy Hale, $200 Top PAC donors Business, Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,500; SD Realtors PAC, $1,000; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $1,000 Candidate - Jamie Giedd Raised - $4,031 Spent - $2,093 Cash on hand - $1,938 Top individual donors Justin Johnson, $500; Matthew Schweich, $250; Alisha Kolb, $200 Top PAC donors CIASD PAC $500 District 33 House Candidate - Janette McIntyre Raised - $3,800 Spent - $3,791 Cash on hand - $9 Top individual donors Janette McIntyre, $2,000; Bill Freytag, $250; John Roberts, $250 Top PAC donors SD Acre, $500; Deadwood Tourism $750; and BHHBA Build PAC $500 Candidate - Phil Jensen Raised - $5,750 Spent - $2,195 Cash on hand - $6,747 (Beginning balance of $3,192) Top individual donors Barbara Lemmon, $800; Tom and Jackie Corr, $500; Craig and Jill Mills, $500 Top PAC donors Liberty Tree PAC, $500; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $1,000; Convention of State SD PAC, $1,000 Candidate - Dean Aurand Raised - $13,556 Spent - $11,112 Cash on hand - $2,444 Top individual donors Dean Aurand, $4,000; Jeff Boerger, $1,000; Mark Bonke, $750 Top PAC donors Business Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,250; Back to Biz, $1,000; SD Retailers Assoc. PAC, $500 Candidate - Curt Massie Raised - $14,550 Spent - $6,039 Cash on hand - $8,511 Top individual donors Larry Massie, $2,000; Debbie Long, $1,000; Stanford Adelstein, $1,000 Top PAC donors Business Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,250; Back to Biz, $1,000; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $1,000 District 33 Senate Candidate - David Johnson Raised - $28,888 Spent - $32,767 Cash on hand - $7,213 (Beginning balance of $11,092) Top individual donors Separate attachment with individual donors not listed on Secretary of State website Top PAC donors Separate attachment with PAC donors not listed on Secretary of State website Candidate - Janet Jensen Raised - $11,486 Spent - $576 Cash on hand - $11,035 (Beginning balance of $125) Top individual donors Craig and Jill Mills, $1,000; Andy Legere, $800; Deanna Beckett, $500 Top PAC donors Liberty Tree PAC, $500; Convention of States SD PAC, $6,000 District 34 House Candidate - Jodie Frye Raised - $3,530 Spent - $1,697 Cash on hand - $1,971 (Beginning balance of $140) Top individual donors Eva Frye, $550; Ron and Cheri Loftus, $500; John Bradsky, $250 Top PAC donors Liberty Tree PAC, $1,000; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $500 Candidate - Jess Olson Raised - $18,863 Spent - $18,124 Cash on hand - $5,002 (Beginning balance of $4,263) Top individual donors Hani Shafai, $1,000; James and Mary Scull, $500; Verne Goodsell, $500 Top PAC donors Business Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,500; SD Educators Political Involvement Committee (Epic), $1,000; SD RPAC $1,000 Candidate - Mike Derby Raised - $25,990 Spent - $16,898 Cash on hand - $10,213 (Beginning balance of $1,122) Top individual donors Matthew Konenkamp, $1,000; Gil Moyle, $1,000; Clark Moyle, $1,000 Top PAC donors Business Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,500; Deadwood Tourism PAC $1,000; SD RPAC, $1,000 District 35 House Candidate - Tina Mulally Raised - $10,475 Spent - $7,683 Cash on hand - $5,604 (Beginning balance of $2,811) Top individual donors C&S Electronics, $1,000; Barb Landers, $1,000; Cloud 9, $1,000 Top PAC donors Liberty Tree PAC, $1,000 Candidate - Tony Randolph Raised - $4,320 Spent - $3,660 Cash on hand - $773 (Beginning balance of $114) Top individual donors Larry and Melodie Paulsen, $1,000; Blaine Cambell, $1,000; Barb Landers, $500 Top PAC donors Liberty Tree PAC, $500 Candidate - Larry Larson Raised - $10,200 Spent - $5,242 Cash on hand - $4,957 Top individual donors Lee Schoenbeck, $1,000; Hani Shafi, $1,000; Thomas Bradsky, $500 Top PAC donors Business Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,250; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $1,000; Dakota Leadership PAC, $500 Candidate - Elizabeth Regalado Raised - $9,446 Spent - $5,559 Cash on hand - $3,557 Top individual donors Katie Banaszak, $1,000; Ryan Kolbeck, $500; Gregory Sperlich, $300 Top PAC donors Schoenbeck for Senate, $1,000; Business, Innovation and Growth PAC, $1,250; Deadwood Tourism PAC, $1,000 Contact Nathan Thompson at nathan.thompson@rapidcityjournal.com. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CEDAR CITY, Utah | She walked up a red carpet and crossed a stage to accept her diploma wearing an eagle feather beaded onto her cap that her mother had gifted her. Amryn Tom graduated this week from southern Utah's Cedar City High School. Her family cheered. For the Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah and other Native Americans, eagle feathers of the variety Tom wore are sacred items passed down through generations, used at ceremonies to signify achievement and connection with the community. This is from your ancestors, Tom said her mother, Charie, told her. One year ago, students in Tom's school district would have been barred from wearing any form of tribal regalia along with their traditional cardinal-colored caps and gowns. Not this year. In March, Utah joined a growing list of states in enshrining Native American students' rights to wear tribal regalia at their graduation ceremonies. In Iron County, where the school district tried to bar two graduates from wearing regalia at the ceremonies last year, Tom and other Native American students savored the hard-won right. Its kind of huge, said Paiute tribal member Brailyn Jake, an eagle feather and beads dangling from her turquoise cap. Her cousin was one of the students stopped from donning beads last year. People dont understand our culture, the meaning behind it and how, when youre turned down for something this big, its kind of like, wow," Jake said. Students across the U.S. often sport flower leis or flashy sashes at graduation with little controversy. But the rules governing tribal regalia at high school graduations have emerged as a legislative issue in several red and blue states after reports of students being barred from wearing attire like Jake and Tom's. Arizona, California, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington all recently enacted laws that either enshrine students rights or bar schools from enforcing dress codes banning tribal regalia. After passing through the legislature, a bill with similar provisions is being sent to Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. In Utah, Paiute Chairwoman Corrina Bow brought the issue to state lawmakers after last year's two Iron County incidents. The district had no formal rules prohibiting Native American students from donning regalia. Bow noted the graduation rate for Native American and Alaskan Native students was 74% in 2019, the lowest of any demographic group, and told lawmakers that guaranteeing students statewide the right to wear regalia would allow them to honor their culture, religion and heritage. Similar controversies have occurred at schools in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, suburban Chicago and elsewhere, with graduates being barred from wearing everything from beadwork and moccasins to sealskin caps. The incidents pit Native American students and their parents against administrators who say they want to maintain uniformity at graduation ceremonies. Emalyce Kee, who is Navajo and Rosebud Sioux, was one of the two southern Utah students told not to wear a beaded cap or plumes to her Cedar City High School graduation ceremony last year. She did it anyway. Before walking across the stage to accept her diploma, Kee switched out her plain cap for one with a plume and beadwork by her uncle. Half a dozen family members in the front row applauded. "I hadn't felt that powerful before that moment, standing up with my diploma, with my Native cap on and then shaking my principals hand," Kee said. At a high school that used Redmen as its mascot until 2019, Kee and her mother, Valerie Glass, said it stuck with them how the principal had argued beaded caps would set a precedent to allow all students to decorate their graduation attire. Its not decorative regalia. It's traditional beaded regalia. How can you have the Cedar Redmen for so long and not honor your Native American students? Glass said. Iron County Superintendent Lance Hatch was not available for comment. Hoksila Lakota gifted his nephew Elijah James Wiggins, who is of Lakota ancestry, an eagle feather in honor of his graduation from Cedar City High School on Wednesday. He said eagle feathers called wamblii wakan in Lakota are fundamental to celebrating once-in-a-lifetime achievements, with many believing they hold a connection to God. These arent something you find on the floor and do whatever with. These are sacred items given from grandfather to son or uncle to nephew," he said. You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 3 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 The city of Wall and the Wall Economic Development Corporation broke ground on phase 1 of their 18-lot industrial park Wednesday. The first phase will tackle infrastructure for four lots of the park, as well as connecting to the city infrastructure on Fourth Avenue. The city approved a $1.4 million bid with Underground Construction, LLC, out of Rapid City, in March. Wall Mayor Mary Williams said she is very excited, describing the marvelous machines sitting out on the lots, beginning the process of moving dirt. This just makes it more real, she said. The city of Wall first approved the designated area for the park in February 2020. We have had people watching us for a long time, Williams said, but until now, its looked like an alfalfa field. Williams expects now that dirt and machines are in motion, conversations will begin about buying the lots. Williams called the amount of work accomplished since February 2020 overwhelming, crediting the projects design firm, ISG out of Sioux Falls, the citys engineering firm, KLJ out of Rapid City, and a $661,000 grant from the Pennington County Commission to complete the infrastructure from the park to the citys infrastructure. That grant is what made it possible for us to make this happen, Williams said. The city also hopes to be able to call the park the only certified industrial park in western South Dakota, pending an application with the South Dakota Governors Office of Economic Development, currently being processed. Certification would mean other companies looking to expand could find information on the park on the Governors Office of Economic Development website. In addition to the industrial park, Walls expansion efforts include the Echo Valley housing development and a new housing study to be completed by 4th of July. The last housing study done in Wall was in 2016. We have a lot of stuff in place to do things right and get dollars, Williams said. Were trying to keep our pedals moving. Williams highlighted the mission of WEDC, quoting former WEDC Executive Director Liliya Stone, to be a catalyst to encourage, facilitate, and empower community members to generate growth in Wall. Contact Laura Heckmann at lheckmann@rapidcityjournal.com You must be logged in to react. Click any reaction to login. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Longtime Bitterroot College Director Victoria Clark has resigned but the program will offer academic classes this fall thanks to the University of Montana. Since the Bitterroot Valley Community College funding levy was rejected by community members on May 3, the future of the Bitterroot College has been undefined. The Bitterroot College Advisory Council met Thursday with Missoula College Dean Thomas Gallagher who has been appointed as the lead to establish a deeper connection between the Bitterroot College Program and the University of Montana. Also in attendance were staff, faculty and several of the Bitterroot Valley Community College trustees. All were anxious to learn about the future of the Hamilton school. It is really important that we take care of the students that we have now and the ones that we will be recruiting to come seek higher education in August, Gallagher said. I encourage you all to help with recruiting. There are academic courses, there are faculty getting ready to deliver those educational experiences. Gallagher said that the goal is to continue academic classes and work on developing workforce education programs in Hamilton. Its been a rough couple of weeks and we need to process moving forward, he said. My role right now is to stabilize and I appreciate recommendations. Several board members thanked UM for stepping up to provide continuity. Concerns focused on having a formal description of the partnership between UM and the Bitterroot College Program. Some advisory board members said they believe it needs a new name to reflect what it is. It is not a campus or branch of UM, and although college credits have been granted and lives improved, it is not an official college through the Montana University System. Faculty member Jaime Middleton said she views the Bitterroot College Program positively. I see the faces of students who have achieved dreams, have made their careers and are feeding their families. I see a lot of success, she said. We need a clear and concise mission and marketing. We need to say we are still here, we are serving students, and we are alive and thriving and sign up for classes. Clark's last day will be June 6. In an email message earlier this week, lead faculty Jennifer Johnson said Clarks resignation, is a profound loss to everyone at Bitterroot College. Her intelligence, wisdom, leadership, resilience, tenacity, belief and heart helped keep BC a promising beacon for all willing and wishing to better their lives and elevate their intelligence, Johnson said. She will be greatly missed. Bitterroot College UM Advisory Council Chair Candy Lubansky and the advisory board thanked Clark for her 13 years of effort. There are not enough words to express appreciation, Lubansky said. Im finding the English language inadequate to tell you how much youve meant to us, how much you mean to the Bitterroot Valley, our students, our staff, our faculty. Thank you from all of us. The room of over 20 people stood and clapped. Clark said it has been her privilege to serve the community. Community is what makes democracy, Clark said. I spent my young adult years looking for community and I found it in the Bitterroot Valley. You have to stand with your community through thick and thin, it is a process. If you believe in something you have to work together to do it. She said the community has given her a purpose. Communities are complicated with different values and I love being part of the mix, Clark said. Thank you all for letting me be part of the mix. Gallagher praised Clark for her outstanding leadership and championing for higher education in the Bitterroot Valley. [She] works hard to help students do something spectacular, Gallagher said. As a representative of the University of Montana, I thank her for her many years of dedication and service to promoting higher education. Rep. David Bedey, R-Hamilton, said that since the levy failed, he has met with Commissioner of Higher Education Clay Christian and UM President Seth Bodnar. On Wednesday, Lubansky, Bedey, Bodnar and Gallagher met to discuss Bedeys vision for Bitterroot College going forward. We talked about the short-term navigation of the next year and then the vision Dave would like to see it come to using the Bitterroot Valley in terms of CTE, career technology education, and broader workforce development, Lubansky said. We talked about the short-term stabilizing the next year for our students, staff and faculty. After much discussion on process, contracts, underfunding for years, competition for funding with other community colleges and moving forward without UM to establish BVCC, Gallagher said the UM stands firm with no established end date. There are no intentions to discontinue services in Hamilton and at Bitterroot College on behalf of the University of Montana, Gallagher said. Clark said her concern is that the UM is offering only academic education and will no longer have community education programs or workforce programs. Why cant we move to the model we know works? she asked. We know the community college works. Were all set up. Why are we trying something else for a while and then choosing to come back to what we know works? The meeting ended with a discussion about the uncertainty of Bitterroot Valley Community College ever being established with UM presence in the valley, despite it being on the books. Love 2 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Nearly 400 people had something to say about a proposal to look at reducing wildfire potential on the front range of the Bitterroot Mountains. Scoping for the proposed Bitterroot Front Project closed May 23. It was the publics first opportunity to offer input on what would be the Bitterroot National Forests largest landscape-scale project in decades. The area under consideration covers 114,000 acres along the eastern edge of the Bitterroot Mountains from north of Florence to south of Darby. While the Forest Service doesnt plan to treat all of the lands included in the analysis area, the agency wants to use an adaptive framework that will take changes in the landscape into account as it prepares site-specific projects over several years. When considering wildfire risk, Stevensville District Ranger Steve Brown said the agency has learned that its better to plan on a landscape scale. Fires dont burn a single watershed or a single ridge, Brown said. They burn at a landscape scale. To reduce fire risk, we have to look at the risk across the landscape and see where we can implement different treatments to get the results were after. According to the Montana Forest Action Plan, Ravalli County has the greatest risk for wildfires in Montana, with six of its communities in the top 10 of all Montana communities with structures at risk for wildfire. A coalition of environmental organizations has organized to stop the proposed project which they say would cut trees off more than 55,000 square miles of national forest along the face of the Bitterroot Mountains, build an untold extent of new roads for clearcutting and other industrial logging and bring industrial disturbance to the boundary of the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness." The groups include Friends of the Bitterroot, Flathead Lolo Bitterroot Citizen Task Force, WildEarth Guardians, Montana Chapter of the Sierra Club, Native Ecosystems Council, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Western Watersheds Project, Montana Ecosystems Defense Council, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Friends of the Clearwater, Wilderness Watch and Center for Biological Diversity. The Forest Service is proposing to log the entire Bitterroot front, said Friends of the Bitterroot president Jim Miller. Commercial logging in the mature forest far from homes has never done any good. Repeating the same mistakes cannot be the solution and only degrades the public lands we all value. Our community does not want the beautiful mountain and canyon vistas on the Bitterroot front scarred by more roads and clearcuts. Adam Rissien of the WildEarth Guardians said the Forest Service is simply wrong in thinking logging thousands of acres will mimic natural conditions and make people safe from wildfire. Managers cannot replace Mother Nature with a chainsaw, and the best way to protect communities from fire is to focus work in the immediate area around homes and structures, Rissien said. Even though the agency would spend untold millions of dollars to subsidize timber production, it wont invest a nickel to assist private landowners to learn and implement firewise protections for their homes and property, only offer encouragement to take appropriate action on their lands. Brown said the Bitterroot Forest has not made any decisions on what kind of treatments it would use or how many acres would be logged. So far, nothing has been proposed for this project, Brown said. All weve said is there is a huge need and asked the community what issues they would like us to consider From my perspective, the scoping process is our attempt to work with the community to develop solutions to the problem. It seems like these groups have jumped out in front and said they dont want to work with the communities. The proposal comes at a time when there is money set aside for forest restoration and fuel reduction work through bipartisan infrastructure legislation. Brown said the Forest Service Chief has developed a 10-year crisis strategy that focuses on areas with high wildfire risk, which includes the Bitterroot. That multi-state plan calls for treating an additional 20 million acres of national forest land. It also includes funding to treat another 30 million acres of private, state and tribal lands adjacent to national forest lands. "We recognize the risk is not just on national forest lands," Brown said. Brown said the majority of the 384 comments the Bitterroot Forest received during scoping were in support of the project. Montana Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife executive director Jeff Darrah of Stevensville said the organization supports the proposal because of its potential to create the kinds of habitat that are beneficial to elk and deer. With forests either overgrown or covered in deadfall, Darrah said elk and deer are often pushed onto private lands. We dont think that cutting down trees makes the Forest Service a bad steward of the land, Darrah said. It opens up the ground to create good forage that can pull wildlife back up on public lands. Sonny LaSalle, a former Forest Service supervisor who now lives in Hamilton, said its ironic when environmental groups worry about the loss of old-growth when old trees are doomed to die because of the overabundance of fuels created by eliminating fire from the landscape for a century. The only way to protect those old trees is to remove the fuel, both standing and accumulated on the ground around the trees, LaSalle said. It appears they would rather have the west face burn right down to public land than have mechanical treatments to reduce the chance of wind-driven crown fires. We have witnessed those wind-driven crown fires in this valley and they are unstoppable, he said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 1 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The merits and pitfalls of pursing nuclear power in Montana were recently debated by experts on both sides of the spectrum, with some telling a legislative committee it is too costly and renewable energy should be pursued instead and others saying it could be key in decarbonization efforts and provide high wages. During the legislative interval, the Montana Energy and Telecommunications Interim Committee is looking at the use of small modular reactors (SMRs) in Montana through Senate Joint Resolution 3, sponsored by Sen. Terry Gauthier, R-Helena. SJ-3 says the expected closure of Colstrip's coal-fired power plants will result in negative impacts on the community and coal-fired boilers could be replaced by an SMR that would provide clean energy and good-paying jobs. The May 20 meeting by the committee was a hearing and no recommendations were made. The committee is to complete a study by Sept. 15, to be reviewed in the 2023 legislative session. At this time, no one is committing to building a nuclear power plant in Montana. None of the Colstrip owners, who represent 85% of Colstrip capacity, and all of the transmission capacity, have plans for nuclear power in Montana. Ed Davis of the Pegasus Group said he was speaking on behalf of the Department of Energy, and said there are 93 nuclear plants operating today generating 20% of the nations electricity and more than 50% of its carbon-free electricity. The U.S. government has a goal of decarbonizing the electricity sector by 2035. He said the DOE has concluded that an excellent candidate to reach that goal is nuclear power, specifically small nuclear reactors. This administration and the department is all in when it comes to promoting advanced nuclear energy reactors and SMRs, he said. Later in the discussion, as others pointed out their problems with nuclear plant proposals, Davis said I find myself cast in the middle of a debate here that I have heard over the past several decades. David Schlissel of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis appeared before the committee with a report titled Small modular reactors too untested, too expensive, too risky and too uncertain. His organization has been described as a think tank that does research relating to economic and environmental issues with the goal of a faster transition to renewable energy. Schlissel, who also testified before the panel in February, said there are 10 small nuclear reactor designs available, but none have been built, few details have been provided and nothing is certain about the actual costs. He also warned of delays, cost increases and problems with construction and the first years of operation. SMRs are far more likely to continue the nuclear industrys long history of over-promising and under-producing, his report stated. Schlissel said nuclear plant projects now underway have had significant construction delays and cost increases, some as much as 276%. He said solar and wind capacity have increased more than 12 times since 2007 and costs have been declining as solar panels and wind turbines are being built. Schlissel said he is in favor of federal money to look into technologies to see if they work. The goal is to not put ratepayers and taxpayers on the hook for such projects to be built. He said NuScale, one of the designers of small nuclear reactors, claims there is substantial interest in its proposed reactor, but had no firm contracts. Gauthier has mentioned SMRs made by NuScale as a possibility. He also said claims it will have a 95% capacity factor over its lifetime has not been achieved by any nuclear unit in the United States. Diane Hughes, vice president of marketing and communications for NuScale said in an email Wednesday that Schlissel's report mischaracterizes NuScales costs, does not accurately reflect or examine schedule timeframes, and fails to understand the output and capacity of a NuScale VOYGR facility. "A three-year research effort determined that NuScales plant design is the most resilient nuclear reactor in the world," she wrote. "A NuScale VOYGR plant can provide highly reliable power at 95% total capacity and even higher reliability to mission critical micro-grids (154 MWe at 99.95% reliability or 77 MWe at 99.98% reliability over the 60-year lifetime of the plant). She said NuScale's technology has been designed to allow for flexible operations and load following with renewables. "Power plants are usually compensated by the system operator for being able to operate in a flexible manner and provide dispatchable (always available) electricity, along with providing ancillary services, such as inertia and frequency control," Hughes said in the email. Sen. Duane Ankney, R-Colstrip, brought up solar and wind energy. He said the wind blows 30% of the time and battery storage is needed 70% of the time, and it can't be a battery that will last only two days. Schlissel said Ankney is correct as of today, but there are studies for batteries that would last 100 hours. Its just a matter of time, he said. Matt Crozat, executive director of strategy and policy at the Nuclear Energy Institute, a trade association for the nuclear industry, said utilities nationwide have pledged to reduce carbon emissions. He said nuclear power could help them achieve those goals. Crozat said jobs in the nuclear industry pay the highest wages in the energy field. Helena resident Robert Balhiser, a retired engineer who wrote the SJR-3 Legislative Study Resolution, said many of the negative comments about nuclear power were made 20 years ago by big auto companies against electric vehicles. Now big auto is trying to catch up in developing such vehicles, he said. He said all energy systems at one time or another have been subsidized by the government and all have a place in the energy mix in the future. Anne Hedges, director of policy and legislative affairs for the Montana Environmental Information Center, said there are a lot of good intentions in the debate. There is a real problem here and the problem is that the energy transition is happening now, Hedges said. What we all need and what we are grappling with is affordability vs. salesmanship and vs. good intentions, she said, adding We simply cannot afford higher rates, we just cant. She said she is not anti-nuclear. Hedges said a cost cap is needed and Montanans should not foot the bill, and there were solutions not yet talked about. In Montana, we need to be cautious, we are not the place to do this expensive experiment, she said. I dont think anyone has bad intentions here; everyone is looking for same thing, affordable power in a modern energy age, Hedges said. Unfortunately I dont think nuclear is right for Montana right now. Sen. Mary McNally, D-Billings, the committee chair, thanked the panelists for their presentations, adding they have given the committee a lot to digest as to what the next 10 years will look like in Montana. The information is competing, but helpful, she said. Tom Lutey of The Billings Gazette contributed to this story. Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Projected water levels and releases at many federally managed reservoirs in Montana will be below desired levels this Memorial Day weekend, the Bureau of Reclamation announced. But the bureau said some boat ramps -- Goose Bay and Yacht Basin -- are useable at Canyon Ferry Reservoir. Delayed runoff with drier than average conditions extending from last year have led to below average reservoir levels at most facilities, Ryan Neman, Montana-area manager, said Tuesday in a news release. The reservoir level is 18 feet below the top of normal full pool and April inflows were the lowest on record, since 1961, therefore the reservoir is not filling as normal, reclamation officials said. The reservoir is not expected to fill to full pool this summer and could be 4 to 10 feet from full in late June. Minimum releases to the Missouri River below Holter Dam are near 3,000 cubic feet per second to conserve storage in Canyon Ferry Reservoir, the bureau stated. Releases have been at minimum levels since last June due to ongoing drought conditions. Despite low reservoir levels, there are usable boat ramps at Reclamation reservoirs east of the Continental Divide during the Memorial Day weekend, officials said. Campground owners along opposite sides of Canyon Ferry said they expected a busy holiday weekend, despite reports of low water. Debbie Blagg, owner of the Canyon Ferry Lake KOA north of Townsend, said she thinks a lot of people will come out to launch their boats and see there is not enough water, but there are some places nearby where they can do so. However, she is excited about the Memorial Day weekend. This is the official day for summer fishing, Blagg said, adding the boats with the lower trolling motors should still be able to get out. She also has music and activities planned at the campground. Blagg, who just celebrated her first year as owner, said old-timers are saying the reservoir is at its lowest level in 50 years. The whole south end is mushy, no water, just mushy, she said. Blagg, who has 61 sites, four tent sites and a glamping recreational vehicle, said she is hearing competing theories: Some say the water level will rise by 10 feet and others have said it will not come up at all. I have heard mixed reviews, she said. Lukas Jewett, owner of Kims Marina east of Helena, said people are ready to get out and about after being cooped up at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said he has alternate launching sites as the water is too low at the marina. We just need to get water to float the docks, he said, adding hes been told the runoff will come but has been delayed. Jewett, who has 200 boat slips, 140 campsites and a new Airstream RV to rent, said he is at 75% capacity for the weekend, but still has spaces available. Neman encourages people to check for the most up-to-date water level conditions at Reclamations website: https://www.usbr.gov/gp/boat/index.html. Current conditions in the region: Clark Canyon Reservoir near Dillon Most boat ramps are usable. Storage peaked in early May and is currently 18 feet below normal full pool levels. The reservoir is expected to draft throughout the summer as releases are being made to meet irrigation demands. Gibson Reservoir, 20 miles northwest of Augusta The boat ramp at Gibson Reservoir is not anticipated to be usable for Memorial Day weekend. Gibson Reservoir is 44 below normal full pool but is expected to fill in June. Lake Elwell (Tiber Reservoir), in southern Liberty County Boaters can launch at most boat ramps. The reservoir level is about 7 feet below normal full pool. The reservoir is expected to fill to full pool levels this summer. Releases to the Marias River are currently near 500 cfs with increases expected in early June. Fresno Reservoir, west of Havre All boat ramps at Fresno Reservoir are currently usable. The reservoir level is about 14 feet below normal full pool and is expected to draft throughout the summer. Releases to the Milk River are currently near 1,000 cfs to meet irrigation demands. Nelson Reservoir, 19 miles northeast of Malta Boaters should be able to launch at all locations around Nelson Reservoir. Nelson Reservoir is approximately 10 feet below full pool, which is below average for this time of year and is expected to draft throughout the summer. Bighorn Lake (Yellowtail Dam), northern Wyoming and southern Montana All boat ramps at Bighorn Lake are usable and are maintained by the National Park Service. The reservoir level is about 16 feet below normal full pool, which is above average for this time of year. The reservoir is expected to fill to full pool levels this summer. Releases to the Bighorn River are average and are currently 2,500 cfs. More information can be found at the National Park Services website: https://www.nps.gov/bica/index.html. Assistant editor Phil Drake can be reached at 406-231-9021. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Finding your way again after getting injured on the job or being a victim of crime is often daunting, especially if you need monetary assistance. More than a century ago, it was almost impossible to receive basic support for this that is, until the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission was formed. Founded in 1918, the agency oversees the resolution of workers compensation claims and was incorporated after the Virginia Legislature approved the Virginia Workers Compensation Act. The commission has been designated a top workplace for two consecutive years thanks to its positive working environment and open communication culture, workers say. It regularly hosts town halls to give employees the opportunity to voice their concerns and learn of new operational issues. This is done to bring about the welcoming environment it strives to maintain. We want everyone to feel important, and their work contributes to our success, regardless of the position, said Evelyn McGill, executive director. We are great because we are diverse; we have individuals from all walks of life. That diversity results in stronger decision-making and strong service delivery. In the Greater Richmond area, the commission has 280 employees, all of whom band together to serve the community in a variety of non-work-related activities. These include running book drives, volunteering at soup kitchens, and participating in Angel Tree and the American Cancer Society Relay for Life. To show its gratitude, the agency honors its team through activities such as the Above and Beyond Award, which provides a small token of appreciation to a worker who has exceeded job expectations. During the first week of May, it also hosts an employee appreciation week and later a celebratory picnic. Theres also a deep sense of teamwork, employees say. During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when most employees teleworked, they still relied on employees to sort through the mail because there isnt yet a paperless operation in place. When one member became ill, the team had to quarantine, so operations were suspended. When word got out about this, workers of all levels volunteered to come in and finish the task an incredible example of a business coming together and helping each other. As McGill says, We cant say thank you enough to our team. A local real estate developer and investor pleaded guilty Friday in federal court in Richmond to defrauding the government and associated financial institutions out of more than $1.1 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds over 12 months. Moe A. Mathews, 51, co-owner and manager of the Fresh Start Property Solutions LLC based in Rockville, among other ventures, entered his pleas in U.S. District Court to a charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. Judge Henry Hudson convicted Mathews after accepting his pleas and set sentencing for Oct. 7. Mathews, who lives in Richmond, opted to accelerate his case. He and attorney William Dinkin negotiated a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorneys Office that bypassed the presentation of facts to a grand jury. A criminal information was issued against Mathews on April 19, and he was served with it on Wednesday. By taking responsibility early in the legal process, defendants may be able to reduce their exposure to more lengthy sentences. Mathews also co-owns and manages Fresh Start Group LLC, Fresh Start Renovations LLC, Fresh Start Realty LLC and Fresh Start Investments, according to his Facebook page. According to the facts of the case filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kashan K. Pathan, Mathews and an unnamed co-conspirator submitted at least 38 fraudulent Paycheck Protection Program applications to financial institutions from about April 2020 through April 2021. Authorized by Congress through the CARES Act, the PPP is a federal Small Business Administration program that provided forgivable loans through participating financial institutions to small businesses for job retention and other expenses during the pandemic. Of the 38 fraudulent applications, 25 were first draw PPP loans, which can be used to help fund payroll costs, including benefits, and may also be used to pay for mortgage interest, rent, utilities and worker protection costs related to COVID. Mathews would sign the application forms as the authorized representative of the businesses, and he would represent that he and his accomplice were co-owners of those businesses, the government said. Although the specific misrepresentations and supporting documents varied on the applications, each of the first draw PPP applications contained false statements, false certifications and/or fabricated tax documents, authorities say. This included falsely representing the average monthly payroll and the number of employees working for their purported business in an effort to mislead the financial institutions that were reviewing their loan applications, according to the prosecutions case. Mathews and his accomplice also falsely certified that the loan proceeds would be used solely for business-related purposes, when, as they knew at the time, the conspirators also intended to use the funds for unauthorized personal expenses and bills, Pathan wrote in the governments statement of facts. They also conspired to routinely submit fabricated IRS Form 941s that purported to substantiate the monthly payroll expenses and employee counts claimed in the applications. Once the fraudulent applications were approved by the financial institutions, the proceeds for the PPP loans would generally be disbursed to bank accounts in the names of the businesses that Mathews and his accomplice claimed to own and operate. Several of these bank accounts were opened by the conspirators shortly before or immediately after they submitted the fraudulent applications. Both were signatories to the bank accounts, the government said. In total, Mathews and his accomplice received more than $500,000 in fraudulent proceeds from the affected financial institutions, money that was guaranteed by the SBA, officials said. The government said the conspiracy also involved Mathews and his accomplice submitting second draw PPP loan applications to financial institutions, which were predicated on the fraudulently obtained first draw PPO loans they applied for and received. PPP Second Draw allows borrowers who previously received a PPP loan to receive a second potentially forgivable loan to be used toward payroll expenses, rent, utilities and mortgage interest. On the second draw PPP applications, the defendant and co-conspirator would repeatedly make false certifications that they had used or would use the funds from their first draw PPP loans solely for eligible expenses under the program, when, as the defendant and co-conspirator knew at the time, they had not and did not use those funds solely for eligible expenses, Pathan wrote in the facts summary. Once the second-draw PPP loan proceeds were disbursed by the financial institutions, Mathews and his accomplice repeatedly and knowingly used the second draw PPP loan proceeds contrary to the programs requirements. For example, the conspirators would regularly transfer and spend those proceeds on their other businesses that had not applied for that loan and that were not authorized to receive or use those loan proceeds. In total, Mathews and his accomplice submitted 13 fraudulent second draw PPP loan applications and received more than $350,000 in loan proceeds, prosecutors said. The combined proceeds that Mathews fraudulently obtained through first and second draw PPP loans totaled $1,166,667, which he will be required to repay to the SBA and eight financial institutions. *** Mathews is the second Richmond-area resident to plead guilty to swindling the government out of COVID relief funds in less than two weeks. On April 17, Sadie Mitchell, a former employee of the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and the Virginia Motor Vehicle Dealer Board, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud. By filing dozens of fraudulent claims, Mitchell and an unnamed co-conspirator obtained at least $1,127,462 in pandemic unemployment assistance, unemployment insurance, paycheck protection loan funds and economic injury disaster loan payments in a scheme that ran from May 19, 2020, to Aug. 9, 2021. She received the funds by submitting bogus applications using the identities of state prison inmates and acquiring the personal identification information of unsuspecting Virginians from a government database that she had access to through her employment with DMV and the Motor Vehicle Dealer Board. She was employed by the dealer board at the time of the offense. Its a Hanover tradition, like the tomatoes, but harsh to the taste. A School Board member who voted to strip Confederate names from Hanover schools is jettisoned at the first opportunity by the county supervisor in his district. In 2019, it was Marla Coleman, one of two board members who voted unsuccessfully to change the names of Lee-Davis High School and Stonewall Jackson Middle School. Two years later, it was Kelly Evko, part of a board majority who moved to remove the names during our moment of racial reckoning following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Wednesday, the ousted school board member was Sterling Daniel, the Mechanicsville representative who risked the ire of constituents by voting to retire the Lee-Davis and Stonewall Jackson brands in favor of Mechanicsville High and Bell Creek Middle schools. Anyone who witnessed the outrage of Mechanicsville supervisor Canova Peterson in the aftermath knew Daniels days were numbered in a county where school board members are appointed rather than elected. But Peterson, presented with eight candidates, selected the most polarizing choice Wednesday. Johnny Redd, in a Q&A with The Times-Dispatch six days earlier, delivered a screed laced with intolerance and religious zealotry. The interview should have been disqualifying. Instead, the Board of Supervisors voted 5-2 to appoint Redd to the School Board. Ashland supervisor Faye O. Prichard and board chair Angela Kelly-Wiecek of the Chickahominy District voted no. Prichard cited the fears of the families of transgender students; Kelly-Wiecek voiced reservations about Redds ability to be collaborative. Indeed, Redds answers in that Q&A were notably strident. He touted himself as a conservative, Christian voice on the School Board not the most inclusive signal to send to students who happen to be Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or atheist or gay, lesbian, queer or transgender. Then again, the School Boards record of inclusion is spotty. In November, it rejected a policy change that would that would have explicitly allowed transgender students to use bathrooms that aligned with their identity, thumbing its nose at Virginia law and federal rulings inaction that led to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia on behalf of the parents of five transgender students. In March, the board voted to bring in a notoriously anti-LGBTQ organization, the Arizona-based Alliance Defending Freedom, to review the boards equal educational opportunities policy. Daniel opposed that move presumably another strike against him. Redd, in written answers to the RTD, lamented what he called a shift toward social issues like CRT, transgender bathrooms or rights of one group versus the rights of another group. He vowed to focus on the education of students, not indoctrination of the students, not promoting social change that is illogical, immoral and/or ungodly. Redd said hed analyze policies and curriculum from the lens of a biblical worldview. Our freedoms are given to us by God, not by government, but we have been complacent and have let the distractions and ungodliness get a foothold in our society, our government and our schools. We have strayed from godly principles and are reaping the consequences of disobedience, he said. I am not going to be silently complicit and allow an evil tide to carry THE CHILDREN to a point where they are brainwashed. He said hed listen if a child feels they are being treated differently than others. But, if that parent is demanding that their child be given special consideration because of the way that they look or feel [or the way that they identify], I will find it hard to agree that they are not being treated the same as other students. Redd served on the School Board from 1980-84. In this appointment, he is a living, breathing clock turned back. His elevation has been accompanied by speculation that he will seek to restore Confederate names to the Mechanicsville schools. His appointment came days after a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that killed 19 students and two teachers. Firearms have replaced automobile accidents as the leading cause of death among children. Students nationwide are impatient for action. Meanwhile, some elected officials in Hanover are treating transgender Hanover students and their families like the enemy while a Virginia governor wages war against equity and the teaching of systemic racism all part of a parents rights movement that helped elect Glenn Youngkin as governor. That movement was of no help to Daniel, the only board member with children currently enrolled in Hanover schools. This appointment is just another example of Hanover County choosing politics over protecting trans and other vulnerable students, the ACLU of Virginia said in a statement Friday. Mr. Redd has been very clear that he sees support even legally required support of transgender students as inconsistent with the role of the School Board. The organization called Redds appointment fully at odds with the core function of a government and school system: to make schools safe places of learning for all kids. These politicians are more concerned with winning the culture wars than creating a safe, inclusive and nurturing school environment. When the politics of confrontation trumps education, everyone loses. Richmond along with the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico have hit high COVID-19 community levels, a benchmark calculated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention using the number of infections and hospital admissions. Statewide, Virginia is averaging more than 3,200 cases each day and nearly 500 people hospitalized with the virus. Case levels are likely much higher than the recorded statistics due to an increased use of at-home tests, which arent guaranteed to be reported to health departments. At the height of the delta surge in September, the state was reporting nearly 3,700 daily infections. Fridays figures are nearly 10 times higher than this time last year, when Virginia was recording fewer than 340 cases per day. For any folks who have taken a break from indoor mask wearing during times of low and medium COVID-19 levels, now is the time to break out those masks from the drawer and make sure to stay diligent about wearing it in indoor places, said Dr. Melissa Viray, acting director of Richmond and Henrico Health Districts. Mask wearing alongside vaccinations and staying home when sick will help us stay as safe as possible during this wave of higher COVID-19 levels. The CDC update, which came late Thursday, shifts the guidance for how residents should be determining risk. The federal health agency recommends residents in areas with high COVID levels wear masks in indoor public spaces, regardless of vaccination status. This would include K-12 schools and apply to at least 25 localities in Virginia, where nearly every city and county is in the medium-to-high category. Masks have been optional in public schools statewide since February following a fast-tracked law banning mask mandates in schools. Virginia is one of four states to fully prohibit face covering requirements in K-12 schools, according to a dashboard compiled by the Center for Dignity in Healthcare for People with Disabilities. The other three are Florida, Texas and Utah. CDC guidance also suggests that people who live with or plan to see someone who is at high risk for severe disease should wear a mask when indoors and around them, and get tested beforehand. Richmond and Henrico Health Districts recommends stocking up on at-home tests as a safety measure, and in a Friday release, reminded residents of the availability of free at-home COVID tests at the following library branches: Broad Rock, East End, Ginter Park, Main Library and North Avenue. The health districts are also ramping up the availability of free COVID testing events in preparation for increased demand. Last week, more than a third of U.S. residents were living in counties with medium-to-high transmission levels, prompting the CDC director to call on local leaders to consider adopting additional prevention strategies such as masking in public indoor settings and increasing access to testing and vaccinations. As of Monday, the latest available update on the Virginia Department of Health site, the state was administering fewer than 1,700 vaccines on a daily basis. Following the delta surge and during the omicron wave, Virginia was at one point recording more than 40,000 vaccinations each day. We wear masks to keep ourselves and our neighbors safe ... it can save a life, said Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney. Richmond residents, lets make smart choices given where the COVID-19 levels are in our community. Lets do our part to stay safe during this wave of the pandemic. The actions or more notably, the inaction of law enforcement officers moved to the center of the investigation into this week's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Here are the latest updates. The National Rifle Association is set to hold its 2022 annual meeting in Houston on Friday, bringing together its top brass and several notable conservatives, including former President Donald Trump, for the first time in three years. The NRA's annual meeting was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic, but this year the organization is moving ahead with its plans, holding the meeting at a time when both gun rights and the organization itself have come under intense scrutiny, especially after a shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 dead. Here's what we know about the 2022 annual meeting. When is the meeting? The NRA's 2022 Annual Meeting & Exhibits is scheduled to take place from May 27-29, according to the event website. The leadership forum, which the organization bills as "one of the most politically significant and popular events in the country," will take place Friday afternoon. Where is the meeting? The leadership forum will be held in Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center, the same location it was going to be at last September for the 2021 annual meeting. Who can attend the meeting? The annual meeting is only open to NRA members. The organization currently has over five million members, according to its website. Who are this year's speakers? Friday's meeting will feature remarks from eight people, including NRA head Wayne LaPierre and Jason Ouimet, the executive director of the group's lobbying arm, according to the event website. Trump will also speak at the event. The former President, who maintained a close relationship with the gun lobby and its activists throughout his presidency, spoke at the 2019 event, which marked his fifth consecutive speech to the annual meeting. In addition to Trump, Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, and Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw, also a Republican, are also scheduled to speak at Friday's meeting. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, both Republicans, will also deliver remarks. What are the security measures? The NRA said that because Trump will be at the event, the US Secret Service "will take control of the General Assembly Hall and have magnetometers in place before entry." Attendees are prohibited from bringing "firearms, firearm accessories, knives, and other items," including backpacks and selfie sticks. What has happened since the 2019 meeting? Friday's annual meeting will take place at a time when gun rights and the NRA have come under intense scrutiny, with supporters of gun control turning their attention to the organization this week after an 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, before he was killed by law enforcement, officials said. The NRA condemned the shooting in a statement Wednesday, calling it a "horrific and evil crime." "Although an investigation is underway and facts are still emerging, we recognize this was the act of a lone, deranged criminal," the group said. "As we gather in Houston, we will reflect on these events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members, and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure." The massacre is the deadliest shooting at a school since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut in 2012 that left 26 people dead, including 20 children aged between 6 and 7 years old. The NRA has also been in a fight to remain afloat after New York Attorney General Letitia James sued to dissolve the NRA for allegedly misusing charitable funds. In March, a New York State Supreme Court justice blocked James' attempt to dissolve the organization but allowed her suit against it to move forward. And observers are also awaiting a decision from the US Supreme Court in the biggest Second Amendment case it has taken up in more than a decade. The justices are considering whether to strike down a New York gun law enacted more than a century ago that places restrictions on carrying a concealed gun outside the home. What happened at the last annual meeting? At 2019's annual meeting, Trump announced that he would not ratify a United Nations arms trading treaty and then signed a message to the Senate in front of an audience of NRA leaders. The meeting was also notable because then-NRA President Oliver North told members during it that he would not be renominated president of the group following a dispute with LaPierre. The announcement was made in a letter in which North said he hoped he would be renominated for a second term but, "I am now informed that will not happen." Already a controversial figure due to his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, North joined the NRA at a critical juncture for it as it responded to renewed calls for gun control in the wake of the 2017 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. ___ As Memorial Day heralds summer, parents who work as state employees are scrambling for child care options under an impending deadline to comply with a new policy imposed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin to push the state workforce back into the office after the 27-month-old COVID-19 pandemic drove them out. The new telework policy, which the administration announced three weeks ago to take effect on July 5, requires state employees to return to their offices unless they have permission to work remotely, with more than one day a week requiring approval of senior administration officials. The Department of Environmental Quality one of more than 65 executive branch agencies covered by the policy recently offered its employees the option of working remotely for up to five days a week under temporary telework agreements through the summer if they have no other alternatives for child care. Lack of child care is a legitimate issue and may be considered as a Temporary Telework Agreement on a case by case basis, Renee Wilson, director of the agencys human resource department, advised DEQ employees in a memo on May 17. Child care wasnt among the reasons specified for temporary telework agreements of up to two weeks in the original policy, but Youngkin press secretary Macaulay Porter confirmed last week that agencies can consider it as a reason through Labor Day, Sept. 5, marking the end of the summer holiday and the beginning of the school year. However, Porter said, The same approval process applies to all telework agreements. That means agency heads can approve no more than one telework day per week for employees, while two days a week requires permission from the applicable Cabinet secretary, and requests for more go to Youngkins chief of staff, Jeff Goettman. Administration officials insist that the new policy offers flexibility to agency managers and employees, but Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, disagrees. Any policy that requires the chief of staff of the governor to sign off on applications is not flexible, said McClellan, a corporate lawyer for Verizon whose Richmond-based district includes many state employees and their families. Its an inherent bottleneck. I cant imagine a Fortune 500 company that would say the chief operating officer or the chief of staff to the CEO would have to approve employee teleworking agreements, she said. McClellan is among eight Democratic legislators seven from the Richmond area who publicly urged Youngkin to delay implementation of the new policy until after Labor Day, when parents will have more options to balance their work schedules and family obligations. This whole thing has just been incredibly disruptive to state employees who are parents, McClellan said in an interview. It is completely counter to what the private sector is doing and has been doing before the pandemic even started. Its just a big mess at a time when we should be encouraging our state workforce, she said. Were just giving a lot of them one more reason to leave and go to the private sector. The governor gave employees two weeks to file applications for teleworking agreements, which will replace all teleworking agreements that employees already have with their state agencies. The Youngkin administration acknowledged that the policy could require changes in childcare arrangements, which it encouraged employees to discuss with their supervisors and agency leaders and to submit telework agreements that best fit their needs. McClellan and other legislators said the two-week deadline given to employees to submit applications gave those who have young children little time to arrange for other options, with summer camps mostly full and child care providers facing workforce shortages of their own. This sudden announcement so late in the school year has left many of our constituents with limited options for the arrangements of childcare, the legislators said in their letter to Youngkin on May 18. The Virginia Governmental Employees Association said it will ask the Youngkin administration to delay implementation of the new policy until Sept. 12. This extension would give employees the extra time they need to make arrangements to return to work including securing child care as needed, the association said in a statement on Facebook. Accordingly, the VGEA is working to arrange a meeting with the Youngkin administration as soon as possible to ask for an extension. The Youngkin administration hasnt tallied the requests for telework or determined how many would require high-level approval. The administration and agency leaders are assessing the telework agreements and individuals are invited to apply for telework as needed, Porter said. Some agencies have a better idea of the demand than others. The Virginia Department of Transportation, one of the states largest agencies with more than 7,600 employees, estimates that more than 4,000 salary and wage employees are eligible to telework, while about 1,700 had submitted applications through Tuesday. Many of the departments employees have had to work throughout the pandemic because road construction and maintenance were considered essential services during the public health emergency that then-Gov. Ralph Northam declared on March 12, 2020. If an employee is assigned 100% to field operations, they would not be eligible for telework, spokesperson Marshall Herman said. Other state agencies classify field offices differently. For example, the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services told its employees that the telework restrictions dont apply to workers in regional offices across the state or field operations that report to the central office in Richmond. Many of those workers provide services within their communities, which often are far from central and regional offices. All state agencies have backup plans for teleworking during emergencies that shut down government offices, but some have emergency response duties that may require more flexibility for where and when employees work. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management, for example, requires all employees to be subject to emergency work whether it be in the field or at the Virginia Emergency Operations Center, spokesperson Lauren Opett said in an email on Monday. The agencys work is not 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, she said. It is for this reason, and many other factors, that we are working to identify how our staff can accomplish our mission and effectively coordinate with each other while also taking care of team members and promoting a positive work/life balance, which can at times be difficult in this line of work, she added. The agency has been working with the Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security and the governors office to determine our path forward, she said. The Virginia Department of Health, at the epicenter of the emergency response to COVID-19, also requires many of its employees to be available beyond normal work hours. During an emergency, we have the ability to work in the office, at home, in emergency operations centers at the local and state levels, spokesperson Tammie Smith said Wednesday. Telework may cease or slow for many day to day, but when its dangerous to travel, or offices close, teleworking remains a viable option and all forms of response kick in. The health department is still tallying the numbers of employees seeking teleworking agreements, Smith said. Employees who were on leave or who for other reasons could not complete the form by May 20 were given time to submit telework requests. A quieter weather weekend is ahead for metro Richmond. After several cloudy, cool and damp days, it will almost be like turning a light switch, going to several days with sunshine and a building hot spell. Saturday brings highs in the upper 70s with an occasional breeze, but the weather pattern quickly turns more like mid-summer Sunday and most of next week. Highs will soar into the upper 80s and lower 90s through the middle of next week. Very warm air moves in aloft as well, and that will make it especially difficult to bring significant cloud cover to metro Richmond, much less allow for any organized rainfall. About a half-inch of rain fell across metro Richmond on Friday, and with the dry and hot spell ahead of us next week, we will be glad we had the rain. The ground can dry out quickly this time of year, and we will probably find ourselves welcoming rain again by the end of next week. Richmond climate check May has brought more than its fair share of ups and down, both cool and wet along with record heat. But adding it up for the month so far, Richmond is having a May that has been slightly warm, about 1.2 degrees above normal for the entire month. Damaging storm in Bedford(tncms-asset)89215c0c-ba65-56b7-8472-3e36e8c61ad8[2](/tncms-asset) Early morning storms likely produced a tornado in Bedford County on Friday. Several structures were damaged just west of Lynchburg. The damage in the photos suggests the winds were from a tornado, but the National Weather Service in Blacksburg will conduct a field survey of the area on Saturday. A report from that office to determine the scale of the damage and assign the storm a specific rating is expected Saturday afternoon. Retiring after 50 years as a veterinarian has presented a bit of a challenge for Dr. A. Neal Rose. Im having a hard time getting used to it, Rose said recently, not quite three months since retiring in February. When you do something for 50 years, its a big adjustment. He and his wife, Betty, a dog trainer, have six dogs and two cats at their home on the Chickahominy River in Charles City County, so its not like hes out of the caring-for-pets business entirely. But its a long ways from showing up every morning at Broad Street Veterinary Hospital, where he first went to work in 1972, weeks after graduating from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine. There, he cared for other peoples pets, all day, every day. He loved his work, and he managed to avoid the burnout that affects so many others in the veterinarian field. A 2018 study by the Centers for Disease Control found veterinarians are at an increased risk of suicide with risk factors including long hours, work overload, educational debt-to-income ratio and poor work-life balance. Rose understands. Its just so much pressure ... emotional pressure and physical pressure, he said. People being upset over their animals, and you feel like you cant do anything. For Rose, every day was different, and most days were full. Not a lot of slow days in 50 years? I asked. Rose laughed. Very few. I can probably count them on one hand. And yet, he never regretted waking in the morning and going to work. A big accomplishment, he says. Rose, 75, came by the job naturally, if not altogether typically. The inspiration for his career probably was his grandfather, a farmer who was not an actual veterinarian but who played one in real life outside Columbia, S.C. His grandfather died when Rose was still an infant, but the stories about him were ever-present as Rose grew up. He had no degree, but everybody called him to treat their animals, Rose said. His grandfather employed homespun remedies; Rose recalled hearing how his grandfather successfully treated a case of milk fever in a cow with a goose quill and a bicycle pump. When he was older, Rose helped his uncle, an agriculture teacher, vaccinate dogs for rabies, filling a community need because there was no one else to do it. Ive loved being around animals my whole life, he said. Despite all of that, Rose was far from convinced he could make the grades to attend vet school, but he eventually did, a testament, he says, to the notion that if you dedicate yourself, youre going to be smart enough. Toward the end of his time in vet school, he met Dr. Taylor Rowe, founder of Broad Street Veterinary Hospital, who came to Athens to interview prospective new vets. He was interested in hiring someone from Virginia, but he wound up more impressed by Rose and offered him a job. He arrived in Richmond, and, as time went on, Everything worked out great. Rowe had founded Broad Street Veterinary Hospital, at the corner of Broad and Roseneath, in 1938. It was probably one of the most advanced veterinary hospitals at that time in Virginia, Rose said. When Rowe had opened the practice, Roseneath was still a dirt road and streetcars ran on Broad Street, recalled Dr. Buford Philpy, who came to work at the hospital in 1941. Some people told him he had built too far out in the country, Philpy said in a Richmond Times-Dispatch story in 1992. At that point, Rowe had retired, selling the business to Rose and Philpy, who would retire in 1997 after 56 years in the business. When Philpy retired, Rose bought out his then-partner and became the sole owner of the hospital. Over the years, patients have come from all over central Virginia and beyond, Rose said. Generations of them. He and his colleagues have treated mostly dogs and cats early on, Rose determined treating large animals was not for him; A cow can run by you and kick you at the same time, he says with a laugh performing a wide range of medical care but always knowing my limitations and not thinking twice about referring animals to specialists, which are far more common now than when Rose entered the field. One longtime client, Bruce Tyler, who has taken his pets to Broad Street Veterinary Hospital for more than 40 years, described Rose as intuitive and insightful when it comes to dealings with animals, but also pretty good with his two-legged clients. The other aspect about Neal, which weve always greatly appreciated, is you just feel comfortable with him, said Tyler, who formerly served on the Richmond City Council. Hes never met a stranger. Hes just down-to-earth and pragmatic and straightforward. Tyler told me about the time he and his wife had lost their cats and Rose connected them with a couple having to find a new home for their cats We went down, picked them up and didnt even think twice about it, Tyler says or another time Rose gave him sage advice on how to pick the right puppy out of a litter or the time an anxious Tyler placed a worried call to Rose on a Saturday when Tyler was dog-sitting his daughters dog who got into some chocolate. Neal said, How much [chocolate]? and I told him, and he said, How big is the dog? and I told him, and he said, Youre OK, recalled a relieved Tyler. You cant say enough about Neal. He didnt have to take the call. Another longtime client and friend who trusted Rose with his dogs and cats for 50 years said Rose not only had the medical knowledge for the job but also the empathy for it. He saw it on the routine visits when Rose administered basic treatment, on a phone call when Rose talked him through birthing a litter of his English setters puppies that wouldnt wait, and on the wrenching times over the years when a sick and aging animal had to be euthanized. He had as many tears in his eyes as I did, the man told me. He really is tremendous, the man said. My friend and former colleague Paul Woody and his wife, Janet, took their pets to Rose starting in 1975. The Woodys remember the time their first cat was so sick they showed up at the animal hospital on a November night, and Rose showed up, too. He always showed up when we needed him, they said. He also always made them feel as if he was absolutely thrilled to see old friends again. Ill let the Woodys more fully describe their years knowing Rose: Whenever we had a sick pet, we always felt better after Dr. Rose performed an examination and prescribed a course of treatment. And when one of our pets was so sick that no treatment would make things better, we relied on Dr. Roses guidance and advice to help us make a heartbreaking but humane decision. Dr. Rose was with us to the very end in those situations. He would start the final visit with, Its for the best, really. You dont want them to suffer, and end with a solemn, Its over. Then he would quietly open the examining room door that led to the street so we could walk directly to our car and not have to fight back tears as we walked through the lobby. A few days later, a card would arrive from BSV, signed by the entire staff, with notes of sympathy from almost everyone, the longest always written by Dr. Rose. It made us feel as if our pets had been special not only to us, but also to the people who had examined and treated them for years, sometimes 17 or 18 years. That kind of compassion starts at the top. Rose has witnessed a lot of changes: better and safer surgical techniques, advanced diagnostic tools (When I was in vet school, we didnt know what an ultrasound was, he says). The advent of 24-hour-a-day emergency veterinary hospitals has been another positive change for veterinarians and animals. Rose was among a group of local vets who banded together in 1981 to start Veterinary Emergency and Specialty Center on Cary Street, reducing the need for vets to make middle-of-the-night visits to their offices to handle emergencies. On the business side of things, Rose watched the trend of corporations acquiring veterinary practices a 2017 study by the American Veterinary Medical Association found corporations own about 10% of general companion animal practices and as many as half of specialty practices particularly as an exit strategy for aging hospital owners unable to find other willing buyers but wanting their facilities to continue operating after they retired. He sold his Broad Street practice to PetVet Care Centers a few years ago. Through it all, one thing that hasnt changed is this: Pets are family, Rose said. In retirement, Rose still enjoys his own personal slice of the wild kingdom on the Chickahominy. Besides their dogs and cats, the Roses enjoy the eagles and osprey and, in general, plenty of wildlife, he said. I wondered, in 50 years of dealing with animals for all types and temperaments, how many times Rose has been bitten. Three times, he said, but only once when he was officially on the job. Thats a pretty big accomplishment, he said with a laugh, but theyve tried to bite me more than once. FOREST A violent storm Friday morning destroyed or damaged numerous structures and downed trees and power lines in a roughly 2.4-square mile area of Bedford County, but officials reported no fatalities and few injuries. The storm peeled roofs off homes and left a trail of debris in its wake in the Crockett Road area of Goode, just a few miles west of Jefferson Forest High School. While the storm prompted tornado warnings, official confirmation of a tornado is pending an evaluation by the National Weather Service. Two people suffered minor injuries, according to a Bedford County news release. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management assessed 50 structures in the Crockett Road area and determined 15 received varying levels of damage, according to the release. Of those 15, three were destroyed. Earlier in the day, county officials had estimated about 45 structures were damaged. No one was found during search-and-rescue operations, and officials received no reports of missing people. At about 7:15 a.m., the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning urging people to seek shelter after severe thunderstorms made their way through the Lynchburg area. The first calls reporting damage came in at 7:43 a.m., according to Monty Coleman, chief of the Forest Volunteer Fire Department. I was the first arriving fire responder and the sheriffs office had a unit already here when I arrived. Upon my arrival here was basically catastrophic damage in the immediate area at the intersections from where there was one structure that was completely gone, there was trees down around a house and the house had significant damage to it. We were met with high wind and rain still happening at that time and lightning. Our crews just immediately started that rescue mode, which is what theyre trained to do, Coleman said. When we got here you know, its something you see on TV out in the Midwest all the time; you really dont expect it out here in the mountain region of our county. Patricia Spruce has lived in a home along Bethany Church Circle, which is connected to Crockett Road, for 20 years and said she has never seen something like this. I heard a rumbling and I thought this tree was going to come through the bedroom, Spruce said. I just took off running and was heading to the bathtub. It blew the windows out of the house and everything. A large tree missed Spruces bedroom, situated on a front corner of her home, by less than a foot. We have a cat door to the laundry room for the cats and the suction was so bad it sucked that right out of the door, Spruce said. It sounded like a freight train; it even moved the posts on our house. Spruce and her husband were not injured during the storm but will have some home repairs and cleanup to take care of. Abby Johnson, deputy chief of operations for Bedford County Fire and Rescue, said multiple structures were catastrophic losses. They are down to the foundation surrounded by debris, so they are complete losses and a good portion of those have significant damage, Johnson said. The Bedford County Sheriffs Office, Virginia State Police, the Bedford Fire Department, Forest Volunteer Fire Department, and emergency crews from Campbell County and Lynchburg were on the scene. The Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the Virginia Forestry Service and the American Red Cross also were assisting. A temporary shelter was set up at the Goode Fire and EMS Station, at 9261 Forest Road, to help residents and family members, but it was expected to close Friday evening. Residents still needing resources were asked to call the American Red Cross at 1-855-891-7325. Elsewhere in the region, Amherst County Public Schools closed Friday due to rising water levels following the morning storms, according to a notice from the school system. The update came after secondary schools temporarily sheltered in place and the start of school initially was delayed for elementary schools before the closure announcement. As the weather cleared and the sun came out, residents of homes damaged and destroyed ventured out to check on their neighbors and begin clean up efforts. Travis Hostetter and his roommate, Anthony Mays, returned to their home situated on top of a hill that was leveled during the storm. Mays walked around the mangled home, holding his dachshund, Shadow, who suffered a broken leg in the chaos and was still groggy from the anesthesia. Nothing was left standing of the home that belonged to Hostetters grandmother, who passed away a few months ago, except a few inner walls. Hours later, Spruce had still not seen her four cats but was confident they were still in the home, just shaken and hiding. When search-and-rescue efforts concluded, the roads were cleared of fallen trees so power crews could move in to begin work on the power lines, lifting them off of the road and putting up new poles. As of 6 p.m. Friday, residents remained without power. This article was originally published by CalMatters, and has been republished with their permission. See more of their coverage of California state government on CalMatters.org. CalMatters COVID and health care coverage is supported by grants from the Blue Shield of California Foundation, the California Health Care Foundation and the California Wellness Foundation. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday to console families and honor victims of Tuesdays mass school shooting in which 19 children and two teachers were killed State police say the suspect in the Texas shooting had no criminal record or known mental illness that could have signaled he was capable of gunning down 19 children and two adults Gun control measures are likely going nowhere in Congress, and they have also become increasingly scarce in most states Long ago it was, in the late 1980s. I was in a hurry to get back to South Carolina. Thus did I take Georgia Highway 22, known also as the Crawfordville Road. I knew that road would take me to I-20 but it took me somewhere else the past. I drove through farmland and wooded tracts and when I entered a place called Philomath, I knew at once it was an authentic place stranded in time. Then I passed a house like no other. Four stout cedar trees bereft of limbs served as columns. I could never forget this house and several times over the next 30 years Id go out of my way to see the unusual home. Then the day came, a Sunday, when I went to photograph it. The old home stood in Philomath, Georgia, a name thats hard to forget. Phil-o-math. Three syllables that seem biblical, and in fact King James himself penned a character, Philomathes, to debate arguments of whether the ancient religious concepts of witchcraft should be punished in a politically fueled Christian society, but thats not biblical. My friend and fellow author, Jodie Peeler, told me that R.E.M. mentioned Philomath in a song. If youre needing inspiration, Philomath is where I go. Thats not biblical either, but its true, or I wouldnt be writing about the place, would I? Now, the fine home with the cedar columns you see in my photo. Thanks to Brian Browns Vanishing Georgia I learned that its the Bryan-Wolfe House. The old place came to be 100 years ago, and like Sir Eltons song, Its Still Standing. And what about Philomath, the unincorporated community in Oglethorpe County, Georgia? Well, to go there is to flee the present. Youll see buildings of wood whose shape and construction come from the past. The Antebellum South comes to mind at once. I cannot verify it but I heard this agrarian community was among the sites selected where the University of Georgia was to be. Athens, of course, won out. William Bartram came through Philomath, and theres a small building there known as the William Bartram Museum, seldom used, unfortunately. I learned this thanks to a thesis Justin E. Courson wrote, Preservation Planning For Philomath, Georgia in 2010. Courson also wrote that President Woodrow Wilson traveled to Philomath as a boy when his father, Joseph Wilson, went there to preach at the request of the Philomath Churchs congregation. Courson suggests too that Philomath lore holds that Jefferson Davis dissolved the Confederacy from the balcony of The Globe, an antebellum home. Philomath. The name sticks with you. It refers to the Love of Knowledge and a person whos fond of studying and learning. So, whats the moral of this column? When youre young you breeze right through a fascinating place and pay it no heed. Then years later an unusual sight catches your attention and you slow down and want to learn more. And then on a Sunday when youve got time on your hands as well as a camera in your hands, you think, Im going to hit the road and photograph the cedars of Philomath. And I did. Before I go, let me encourage you to visit Brian Browns Vanishing Georgia website. Google it. Brian will, indeed, show you not just a vanishing Georgia, but a vanishing Southland as Georgialina and neighboring states continue to lose their old southern places. An old house with rough-hewn cedars as columns. You just dont come across that too often, not at all. Visit Tom Polands website at tompoland.net. Email Tom about most anything at tompol@earthlink.net. The world needs more than 'beautiful words' from the US By Global Times editorial (Global Times) 08:37, May 27, 2022 US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a speech on US' China policy at George Washington University on Thursday, which is so far the most comprehensive and systematic policy exposition by the Biden administration on the relations between the two countries. In a speech that lasted about an hour, Blinken outlined the Biden administration's China strategy as "invest, align and compete." That is, invest in US competitiveness, align with allies and partners, and compete with China. In general, this speech appears to be relatively "moderate," especially compared with the "new iron curtain speech" by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2020, with a posture that is less aggressive and bellicose. It even contained some "beautiful words." For example, Blinken expressed the willingness to strengthen direct "communication across a full range of issues" with China, adding that Washington "does not seek to transform China's political system," and " does not seek to stop China from growing their economy," the US "does not want a new Cold War," "does not want to sever China's economy from the global economy" and "does not support Taiwan independence." However, as an old Chinese saying goes: "We do not only listen to what one says but also watch what one does." We will wait and see. Of course, that is not the whole content of Blinken's speech. Those "beautiful words" often come with a following sentence, like stating that Beijing poses the "most serious long-term challenge" to the international order, and it is necessary to ensure that China complies with international rules while the US "will shape the strategic environment around Beijing" and "call for change, not to stand against China, but to stand up for peace, security, and human dignity." The US policy toward Taiwan remains unchanged, but "what has changed is the growing coercion from Beijing." The diplomatic rhetoric still requests Beijing to submit to Washington's hegemonic demands and this speech on China policy follows Washington's inconsistency between minds and words. It wants to be in the international moral high ground while putting the interests of the US first. We certainly hope that Washington is serious about not falling into a "new Cold War" with China, but the biggest problem now is that it says one thing and does another. US President Joe Biden announced the launch of the "Indo-Pacific Economic Framework" during his just-concluded Asian trip, which is considered to be a "clique" to exclude China, and issued a joint statement with many parts of the content targeting China after the Quad summit. On many occasions, the US has talked a lot about "avoiding a new Cold War," but in practice, it has divided the camp with ideology and arbitrarily asked other countries to choose sides. Isn't this sounding the horn for a "new Cold War"? Even in Blinken's latest policy speech declaring "no new Cold War", many of his words are also full of ideological prejudice and Cold War mindset, which is consistent with the people's impression on the US's behavior. For example, China is described as a "challenge", while the US' response is a kind of "deterrence," as if China is the aggressor and the US is the defender. On the Taiwan question, the Chinese mainland is accused of unilaterally changing the status quo, which actually should be blamed on the Taiwan secessionist force. These are all discourse traps that turn black into white. In addition, Blinken continued the practice of the Pompeo era of trying to separate the Chinese government from the Chinese people, which is both arrogant to the country's political system and disrespect to its people. The reason why it appears less "bellicose" is that - Blinken himself actually touched on - the US has limited ability to directly influence China's "intentions" and "ambitions." It is worth mentioning that what Blinken did not express in his speech is precisely the reality that the US has to face. For example, he emphasized that the US is still a diverse and dynamic society, but the backdrop is the decline of the US, the rampant racism in the country, gun violence and other chronic problems that are hard to eradicate. He talked a lot about allies and partnerships, but reality is that the US is experiencing a credibility crisis globally. The areas where Blinken said in a very positive tone are precisely the dilemmas the country is facing. In any case, compared to his predecessor, Blinken's China policy speech seemed "more responsible" and it at least touched on many areas where China and the US could cooperate. As the largest developing and developed countries, the relations between China and the US profoundly affect the direction of the world. China's policy toward the US is consistent and certain, and it always fulfills its commitment. The key point is whether the US can walk the talk. We hope that the US can really implement in the areas where it could cooperate with China as mentioned in this speech, and regarding the differences, they should be managed according to the wishes expressed in his remarks. This is good news for China and the US and good news for the whole world. Benjamin Franklin once said: "Honesty is the best policy." Although Washington is superior in discourse power, yet the world expects the US to keep its words and deeds in carrying out cooperation and managing differences, not just say "beautiful words" to move itself. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Spotlighting the messiness of AEDPA more than a quarter century later | Main | Helping to spread a federal sentencing "message" for a "corruption superspreader" May 26, 2022 Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals decides court martialed prisoner cannot seek compassionate release in military courts A helpful reader altered me to an interesting ruling this week from the US Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals in In re Kawai, Misc. Dkt. No. 2022-02 (AFCCA May 25, 2022) (available here). Here is how the opinion gets started: On 29 January 2022, Petitioner requested this court grant him extraordinary relief in what he styled as a Motion for Compassionate Release and Reduction in Sentence, pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(A)(i), and the First Step Act of 2018, Pub. L. No. 115-391, 132 Stat. 5194 (2018). This court received, by mail, Petitioners request on 2 March 2022, and docketed his petition on 11 March 2022; the Court did not order briefs by the Government or Petitioner in response. We conclude we do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate Petitioners request and deny the petition. Here is a key portion of the ruling: The problem for Petitioner is the review of a motion for compassionate release is jurisdictional. A motion to file for compassionate release can only be brought before the sentencing judge. Ferguson v. United States, No. 1:22-cv10542, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50986, at *2 (E.D. Mich. 21 Mar. 2022). Yet, [g]eneral courts-martial are ad hoc proceedings which dissolve after the purpose for which they were convened has been resolved. Witham v. United States, 355 F.3d. 501, 505 (6th Cir. 2004). Because Petitioners court was dissolved after his case, and because his case is final under Article 76, UCMJ, there is no sentencing court within the military service courts in which Petitioner may bring a motion under 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(A)(i). However, Congress has charged federal district courts with exercising jurisdiction over habeas corpus petitioners who are imprisoned as a result of court-martial convictions. See Burns v. Wilson, 346 U.S. 137, 139 (1953); Chapman, 75 M.J. at 601; see also Gilliam v. Bureau of Prisons, No. 99-1222, 2000 U.S. App. LEXIS 3684, at *3 (8th Cir. 10 Mar. 2000) (unpub. op.). Federal district court is also the proper venue for Petitioners motion. See Owens, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61460, at *2. May 26, 2022 at 06:33 PM | Permalink Comments Professor, I see the dicta paragraph at the end of the decision. Is the military court trying to indicate their belief that a motion to reduce sentence under 18 USC 3582(c)(1)(A) would be properly brought before a federal district court? It is clearly not habeas, despite their claim it is analogous. The relief sought is plainly different and the remedy is purely statutory. What say you about the same scenario being filed in a district court in the district of confinement? Jurisdiction? Yea or nay? Posted by: Zachary Newland | May 31, 2022 11:43:29 AM Zachary, because in this case the federal prisoner has parole eligibility, I do not think he readily fits into the (parole-free) regime that Congress created with the SRA that included this sentence reduction mechanism. Given that there is already another form of sentence reconsideration, I would be disinclined to read either the text or context of 3582(c)(1)(A) to be available. That said, I tend to favor broad views of district court authority under federal "habeas" in the form of 2255 motions, so I might want any such action informed by 3582/3553 considerations in order to effectuate congressional interests. Posted by: Doug B. | Jun 1, 2022 8:37:15 AM Post a comment Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals decides court martialed prisoner cannot seek compassionate release in military courts | Main | Supreme Court of Canada declares all LWOP sentences unconstitutional as "degrading in nature and thus intrinsically incompatible with human dignity" May 27, 2022 Helping to spread a federal sentencing "message" for a "corruption superspreader" I always find it is interesting when judges in relatively low-profile cases talk about "sending a message" at sentencing, and I suppose I should try to make a habit of helping judges spread the messages they hope to be sending. To that end, here I will flag this recent sentencing story out of Chicago headlined "You were a corruption superspreader: Judge sentences ex-state Rep. Luis Arroyo to 57 months in prison in bribery case involving sweepstakes machine bill." Here are excerpts: Saying he needed to send a message on the cost of public corruption, a federal judge on Wednesday sentenced former state Rep. Luis Arroyo to nearly five years in federal prison for trying to bribe a state senator to help with legislation expanding the shadowy world of sweepstakes gambling machines. Rejecting a defense plea for probation, U.S. District Judge Steven Seeger railed against Arroyos dirty conduct, saying in a lengthy speech that he sold out an already corruption-weary public and committed a frontal assault on the very idea of representative government. You were a corruption superspreader, Seeger said near the end of a nearly four-hour hearing at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse. The public did not get what they deserved. They voted for an honest representative, and what they got was a corrupt politician. Arroyos lawyers had maintained that a prison sentence for the longtime Chicago Democrat would do nothing to stop the states seemingly intractable corruption problem and would be akin to draining Lake Michigan with a spoon. But the judge took particular umbrage with attempts to downplay what Arroyo did, and at one point asked defense attorney Michael Gillespie specifically about the spoon comment. What does that mean? the judge asked. What am I supposed to do with that? As Gillespie fumbled for an answer, Seeger interrupted in a stern voice: Maybe judges need a bigger spoon. Arroyo, 67, entered a blind guilty plea in November to one count of honest services fraud, a move that came without an agreement with prosecutors on what sentencing recommendations should be made to the judge. The 57-month term imposed by Seeger was above the four years in prison recommended by prosecutors on Wednesday.... Arroyo resigned his seat shortly after he was arrested in 2019 on the bribery charges. A superseding indictment later added new wire and mail fraud charges against Arroyo and also charged James T. Weiss with bribery, wire fraud, mail fraud and lying to the FBI.... The case centers on the largely uncharted world of sweepstakes machines, sometimes called gray machines, for which Arroyo was moonlighting as a lobbyist. The machines allow customers to put in money, receive a coupon to redeem for merchandise online and then play electronic games like slot machines.... According to the 15-page indictment, Weiss paid bribes to Arroyo beginning in November 2018 in exchange for Arroyos promotion of legislation beneficial to Weiss company, Collage LLC, which specialized in the sweepstakes machines.... In his remarks, Seeger said it was clear that Arroyo was a devoted family man and a pillar of his community, but chastised him repeatedly for trying to downplay the severity of his corrupt acts. The judge also noted that while there was no evidence of any other crimes committed in the wiretapped conversations, Arroyo certainly knew the language of corruption and seemed to be in familiar territory. I need to make sure that the message gets out that public corruption isnt worth it, Seeger said. For whatever reason, that message isnt getting through. May 27, 2022 at 11:14 AM | Permalink Comments I debated commenting on this story - but I felt it necessary in one regard. The story notes, "Arroyos lawyers had maintained that a prison sentence for the longtime Chicago Democrat would do nothing to stop the states seemingly intractable corruption problem and would be akin to draining Lake Michigan with a spoon. Whether that is true or not, in essence defense counsel is saying no matter what sentence you impose, it will do nothing to stop the corruption. That's interesting. I can think of a thousand different ways to characterize a defendant's crime, but minimizing and comparing it in such a manner did no favors for his client with those words. Why not say something to the effect that my client is remorseful and has not only lost his livelihood, but also his integrity and respect he once treasured. Fortunately, the defendant at least indicated he was remorseful by issuing a short apology to the court, saying he cannot begin to put into words how awful I feel. I let my constituents down, I let my loved ones down who mean more than anything in life to me, he said. Please take into consideration all of my life actions when you impose my sentence. Allow me to go home to my family as soon as possible. I do wonder what the total loss was in this case - I would guess probably not more than $50,000. It's not a cash cow, it's like robbing a bank and getting caught with $5,000 - in the end was it really worth it? It never is - but I think it's more about the power and prestige and position one has than really about that money. Posted by: atomicfrog | May 29, 2022 10:19:55 AM Post a comment 36 cakeLady M1.5 link MIRROR 40 1.5% 7.4% 1330 16% 8.813% 2500 9% 28.24% 26%14% 26% 6.8829% 23%29% 14% 62 3 FoodShare Mayflower Congregational UCC will host its monthly FoodShare with its partners at Zestos, Inc. The event will be at 1407 W. 18th St. on June 11, from 9 to 10:30 a.m. All are welcome! UVALDE, Texas (AP) Tuesday should have been a day of triumph for 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez. Instead, it was the day she died. Maite was among 19 grade school students who, along with two teachers, were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in the southwestern Texas town of Uvalde. The 18-year-old gunman also died. Maite liked and excelled at physical education after her death, her teacher texted her mother to say she was very competitive at kickball and ran faster than all the boys. She had always been a straight-A student until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the school to cancel in-person classes. Zoom didn't work well for Maite she got all Fs. But with school back in session, Maite rebounded all As and Bs. She was among the honor roll students recognized at an assembly Tuesday morning. She worked hard, I only encouraged her, her mother, Ana Rodriguez, said in an interview Thursday at her dining room table, which displayed a bouquet of red roses, the honor roll certificate and photos of Maite. Hours later, Maite was gone. Her mother described her as focused, competitive, smart, bright, beautiful, happy." As a kindergartner, Maite said she wanted to be a marine biologist and held firmly to that goal. She researched a program at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi and told her mother she was set on studying there. She was just so driven. She was definitely special. She was going to be something, she was going to be something very, very special, Rodriguez said. Jacklyn Cazares, who would have turned 10 on June 10, was a tough-minded firecracker who wanted to help people in need, her father said. Jacklyn and her second cousin, Annabell Rodriguez, were especially tight with three other classmates at Robb Elementary School. They are all gone now, Javier Cazares said. All her little best friends were killed too. Despite her young age, Jacklyn was tough-minded and compassionate. She had a voice, her father said. She didnt like bullies, she didnt like kids being picked on. All in all, full of love. She had a big heart. She was a character, a little firecracker. Cazares drove his daughter to school Tuesday for the awards ceremony. About 90 minutes later, the family got a call about an active shooter. I drove like a bat out of hell, he said. My baby was in trouble. There was more than 100 people out there waiting. It was chaotic, he said of the scene at the school. He grew impatient with the police response and even raised the idea of rushing inside with other bystanders. Cazares said his niece followed an ambulance to the hospital and saw Jacklyn being taken inside. The entire family soon arrived and pressed hospital officials for information for nearly three hours. They begged, cried and showed photos of Jacklyn. Finally, a pastor, police officer and a doctor came to them. My wife asked the question, Is she alive or is she passed? Cazares said. They were like, No, shes gone. Ryan Ramirez also rushed to Robb Elementary when he heard about the shooting, hoping to find his daughter, Alithia, and take her home, KTRK-TV reported. But Alithia, too, was among the victims. Ramirezs Facebook page includes a photo, now shown around the world, of the little girl wearing the multi-colored T-shirt that announced she was out of single digits after turning 10 years old. The same photo was posted again Wednesday with no words, but with Alithia wearing angel wings. The grief only grew Thursday with confirmation that the brokenhearted husband of one of the slain teachers, 48-year-old Irma Garcia, had died. Joe Garcia, 50, had dropped off flowers at his wifes memorial on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported. He pretty much just fell over after returning home and died of a heart attack, his nephew John Martinez told the newspaper. The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcias death to The Associated Press. AP was unable to independently reach members of the Garcia family on Thursday. Married for 24 years, the couple shared four children. In a post on the schools website at the start of the school year introducing herself to her class, Irma Garcia wrote of her love of barbecue, listening to music and taking country cruises to the nearby town of Concan. The school year, scheduled to end Thursday, was Irmas 23rd year of teaching all of it at Robb Elementary School. She had been previously named the schools teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University. For five years, Irma had co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed. Mireles also posted on the site as the school year began, noting she had been teaching 17 years. She cited her supportive, fun, and loving family. Welcome to the 4th grade! We have a wonderful year ahead of us! she wrote. Two of the victims had hoped to skip school that day. Carmelo Quirozs grandson, Jayce Luevanos, 10, had begged to go along with his grandmother on Tuesday as she accompanied her great-granddaughters kindergarten class to the San Antonio Zoo. But, he said, the family told Jayce it didnt make sense to skip school so close to the end of the year. Besides, Jayce liked school. Thats why my wife is hurting so much, because he wanted to go to San Antonio, Quiroz told USA Today. He was so sad he couldnt go. Maybe if he would have gone, hed be here. Jayces cousin, 10-year-old Jailah Nicole Silguero, also wanted to miss school that day. Jailahs mother, Veronica Luevanos, tearfully told Univision that Jailah seemed to sense something bad was going to happen. Jailahs friend, Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo, also was killed and her aunt noted Neveahs first name is heaven spelled backward. In a Facebook posting, Yvonne White described Nevaeh and Jailah as Our Angels. Two men who responded to the shooting discovered their own children among the victims. Uvalde County Sheriffs Deputy Felix Rubio and his wife had been at the school Tuesday morning to celebrate with their daughter, 10-year-old Alexandria Lexi Rubio, since the fourth-grader had made honor roll with all As and received a good citizen award. In a Facebook post, Kimberly Rubio wrote: We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye. Medical assistant Angel Garza also hurried to the school and immediately found a girl covered in blood among the terrified children streaming out of the building. Im not hurt. He shot my best friend, the girl told Garza when he offered help. Shes not breathing. She was just trying to call the cops. Her friend was Amerie Jo Garza Angel Garzas stepdaughter. Amerie was a happy child who made the honor roll and loved to paint, draw and work in clay. She was very creative, said her grandmother Dora Mendoza. She was my baby. Whenever she saw flowers she would draw them. GoFundMe pages were set up for many of the victims, including one on behalf of all victims that has raised more than $3.7 million. This story has been corrected to show Lexi's last name is Rubio, not Aniyah. It also corrects the spelling of another victim's name. She was Annabell Rodriguez, not Annabelle. Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report from Los Angeles. Find more of the APs coverage of the Uvalde school shooting at https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. CHEROKEE, IOWA -- Cherokee Regional Medical Center will soon be able to build a new ambulance station through a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant. According to a recent press release from the USDA's Rural Development group: 12 Iowa businesses received more than $8 million in loans and grants for projects intended to bolster medical services, expand the biofuel industry and open a new daycare. One of those businesses, C-M-L Telephone Cooperative Association, based in Meriden, Iowa, is getting $300,000 for a revolving loan fund. Per the release, that fund is meant to help construct the new station at Cherokee Regional Medical Center in Cherokee. A majority of rural ambulance services nationwide are dependent on volunteers. The National Rural Health Association (NRHA) reports that 53% of rural EMS units are staffed by volunteers-only, versus 14% in urban areas. A 2019 Iowa Department of Public Health publication states that 75% of Iowa's emergency medical services are entirely volunteer-based and respond to approximately 10% of all EMS calls in the state. Along with Cherokee County, Butler County, Greene County, Washington County and Wright County also will received money through the program. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. DOW CITY-- One of the last remaining U.S. Navy W.A.V.E.S., a group of women who served in World War II, has died. Estelle J. Leinen died at home on May 17 at the age of 100. Graduating from high school in 1940, she enlisted in the U.S. Navy Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Services (or W.A.V.E.S. for short) in 1943, after being recruited by Genevieve Sullivan, sister of the five Waterloo, Iowa-born Sullivan Brothers, who were all killed in action on the light cruiser USS Juneau in 1942. The women's branch of the U.S. Naval Reserves W.A.V.E.S was established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This law authorized the Navy to accept women into the Naval Reserve as commissioned officers and, at the enlisted level, effective for the duration of World War II, plus six months. Although the branch was only around from July 1942 to Sept. 1946, an estimated 87,000 W.A.V.E.S. served at that time. This included Leinen, who completed U.S. Naval Training School at Hunter College, in the Bronx, New York, where she receive the rating of a storekeeper. She subsequently completed Storekeeper Specialist Training School from the University of Indiana, in Bloomington, Indiana. For her W.A.V.E.S. service, Leinen received her Honorable Service Lapel in Aug. 1946. She married her husband Lavern P. "Spider" Leinen, a sailor from Earling, Iowa, the very next month. Eventually, the Leinens settled in Dow City, where they had a large family farm as well as Leinen's Produce, which bought and sold agricultural products from farmers in four counties in Iowa. According to Leinen's son Vincent Leinen, she was honored by the Rev. R. Walker Nickless, the Bishop of the Diocese of Sioux City, on her 85th birthday in 2007. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 SIOUX CITY Community organizer and perennial candidate Maria Rundquist and teacher Jeremy Dumkrieger are competing for the Democratic nomination in Woodbury County Board of Supervisors District 2. The winner takes on CrossPointe Church lead pastor, Dan Bittinger, who is unopposed for the Republican nomination, in the November general election. The seat is currently held by Sioux City teacher Justin Wright, a Republican who decided not to run for another term. Early voting in Iowa began May 18 and the primary is June 7. Dumkrieger, an art teacher at the Lawton Bronson Community School, has served as Woodbury Democratic Party Chair since 2016. In 2018, he received the Bob Creech Award for Outstanding County Chairman from the Iowa Democratic Party. Born in Onawa, Iowa and raised in Soldier, Iowa, Dumkrieger earned a bachelor's degree from Morningside University. He has been involved in politics since he was enrolled in the Sioux City school, knocking on doors for former Vice President Al Gore. He said he has always been fascinated with politics but didnt become involved until his wife was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Watching our insurance max out before her treatment; we received one bill in the mail for $30,000 and I just had enough, he said. I jumped in feet first after that because I was so angry. Dumkrieger and his wife have two children. He decided to run for the board of supervisors after seeing graduates leave Woodbury County for better jobs elsewhere. He said the county needs a growing and more diversified economy. Mental health in the community is Dumkriegers top priority. He said the county needs well-funded mental health programs to prevent crime, more than a new jail to house inmates. Preventing crime before it happens also prevents victims, he said. Every person that can receive help before a crime is committed or a relapse occurs prevents unimaginable ripples in mental health and trauma throughout our community. Rundquist, a retired business owner, teacher and author, has run unsuccessfully for various political positions over the years, including Sioux City mayor in 2019, City Council in 2013 and 2017 and Iowa Senate in 2014. She is married with four children and eight grandchildren. Formerly a Republican, Rundquist said she has been involved with political positions since moving to the U.S. from Merida, Mexico in 1978 and to Sioux City in 1992. When I see injustice or things not right for the community I just get involved, and become active and take action, she said. Community issues, especially those surrounding, race, women and children are her passion. She said she is not running for the pay, but to represent the people. She decided to run for the board of supervisors because the city has been working on racial issues, with the Humans Rights Commission and the Inclusive Sioux City Advisory Committee, but said the county has not. She said the county needs elected officials who care about the people. One of Rundquists main issues is her objection to the county using its federal COVID relief dollars, from the American Rescue Plan Act, for the construction of the county jail. To make sure it goes to the people, not to subsidize construction, she said. It should be for unemployment, wages, health. She also wants to see more diversity in the county from elected officials to staff, as well as more transparency and accountability. Bittinger has lived in Sioux City for the past eight years with his wife and three children. He is originally from Wadsworth, Ohio and attended Southeast University in Lakeland, Florida for degrees in communication and pastoral ministry. He has never run for an elected position. Now that his children are older, he said he has the time to do his part and serve in the democracy. He is running for the board of supervisors because he likes to serve others and be involved with the community to make a difference. There are a few concerns he wants to focus on, such as staying within the board's constitutional bounds and staying prudent in financial decisions. He also wants to ensure people have individual freedom, not more restrictions. He is less focused on issues he wants to address, and more on what concerns the county staff and community bring forward. His goal is to address issues and they arise, learn about them and plan for the long-term implications. "The things we should be addressing really should be coming from some of our department leaders and the employees, they know what's going on," he said. Two of the five seats on the county board are up for election this year. Supervisor Matthew Ung is running unopposed in the Republican primary for District 4. No Democrat has filed for the seat. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SIOUX CITY The projected cost to build the new Woodbury County Law Enforcement Center stood at $68.7 million as of mid-May, according to county officials. The LEC, a joint city-county board overseeing the project, also identified $69.68 million in funding, including $14.2 million from the county's share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. The board of supervisors was given an update on the new jail facility construction project on Tuesday The footings are in place, and the precast walls for the facility are estimated to be placed on June 13, said county Building Services Director Kenny Schmitz. The walls will take around two or three months to install, he said. He also said the prefabricated metal jail cells have been completed and are ready to be shipped. Currently, one of the two lanes of Outer Drive near 28th street is closed due to the addition of a turning lane and will continue to be closed for around three months, with a traffic control device. There will also be three days where a section of Outer Drive will be completely closed to traffic, Schmitz said. The road construction is estimated to be mostly completed by August. In March 2020, county voters approved a $50.3 million bond issue to replace the current jail, which is downtown across from the county courthouse. The jail was beset by a series of structural and HVAC problems. But, just weeks afterwards, COVID-19 began spreading across the country. Due to a series of supply problems related to the pandemic, costs for construction materials skyrocketed, causing the price tag of the jail project to balloon. In June 2020, the authority approved a $58.4 million contract with general contractor Hausmann Construction. The new estimate released this week includes design fees, project management fees, land purchases, bond costs, project change orders and site preparation. Without other good options, the county board agreed to use up to $15.6 of its roughly $20 million in federal COVID relief dollars over two budget years to help cover the project shortfall. While $10 million in ARPA funding is allowed to be spent on government services, the remaining $4.2 million allotted to the project has not been confirmed, based on the U.S. Department of Treasury final rule on how the state and local fiscal recovery funds from the ARPA. Shane Albrecht of the Baker Group presented a plan created by Sarpy County in Nebraska on how they are qualifying expenses with ARPA dollars for their new jail. The Woodbury County supervisors directed the Authority to draft a plan based on Sarpy Countys plan and return it to the board in two weeks. The board also directed County Finance Director Dennis Butler to research CPA firms to review the expense. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. SOUTH SIOUX CITY -- South Sioux City residents will have fewer days this year to set off fireworks within the city during the July 4 holiday. The South Sioux City Council on Monday passed an ordinance limiting the discharge of fireworks within the city limits to 8 a.m.-11 p.m. on July 2, 3 and 4. The previous ordinance allowed discharge during the same hours, but during a seven-day period from June 29-July 5. The council's action to reduce the number of days for fireworks was in response to citizens who felt the time period in previous years was too long, Mayor Rod Koch said. "We had lots and lots of complaints," Koch said. The ordinance also gives the mayor the authority to issue an emergency proclamation further limiting the discharge of fireworks because of drought, wind or other circumstances that he, in consultation with the fire chief, determines may create a public health or safety danger. Sales of fireworks in the city remain legal from June 24-July 5. Fireworks discharge also remains legal from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. on Dec. 31, with sales from Dec. 28 through Jan. 1. In neighboring Sioux City, fireworks may be discharged within city limits from 1 p.m.-11 p.m. on July 3 and 4. Love 2 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 2 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Official: Girl told 911 'send the police now' as cops waited UVALDE, Texas (AP) Students trapped inside a Texas classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 as officers waited more than an hour to confront the shooter. That's according to authorities, who said that one of the children pleaded for dispatchers to send the police. The head of the Texas Department of Public Safety told a news conference Friday that the commander at the scene in Uvalde the school districts police chief believed that the gunman was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk. He said that was the wrong decision. NRA speakers unshaken on gun rights after school massacre HOUSTON (AP) One by one, speakers took the stage at the National Rifle Associations annual convention in Houston and denounced the massacre of 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school across the state. And one by one, they insisted that changing U.S. gun laws or further restricting access to firearms was not the answer. The gathering comes just three days after the shooting in Uvalde. Hundreds of protesters shouted their anger at the NRA outside the meeting. In remarks to the group, former President Donald Trump called for an overhaul of school security and the U.S. approach to mental health problems while dismissing calls to disarm gun owners. Officials: Texas shooter talked about guns in private chats Texas authorities say the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers inside an elementary school discussed his interest in purchasing a gun on private social media conversations. But during a Friday news conference, they backed away from earlier accounts that the shooter made public threats less than an hour before the attack. Gov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday, a day after the shooting, that the only information that was known in advance was posted by the gunman on Facebook." But by Friday, the Texas Department of Public Safety said the information was in a private message. Governor saw deadly arrest video months before prosecutors BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards watched a key video of Black motorist Ronald Greene's deadly 2019 arrest six months before prosecutors knew it existed. The Democratic governor has distanced himself from allegations of a cover-up, saying evidence was promptly turned over. But an Associated Press investigation found that wasnt the case with the video he watched in October of 2020. It didn't reach those with the power to charge troopers who stunned, punched and dragged Greene until nearly two years after his death. Edwards' lawyer says the governor couldn't have known at the time that prosecutors didn't have the video. Ukraine fears repeat of Mariupol horrors elsewhere in Donbas KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) Moscow-backed separatists have been pounding eastern Ukraines industrial Donbas region, and claim to have captured a railway hub, as Ukrainian officials plead for the sophisticated Western weapons they say they need to stop the onslaught. The advance of Russian forces raises fears that cities in the region may undergo the same horrors inflicted on the people of the port city Mariupol in the weeks before it fell. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnskyy is striking a defiant tone, saying, "Donbas will be Ukrainian. The fighting Friday focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk. Authorities say 1,500 people in Sievierodonetsk have died since the wars start. Iran seizes 2 Greek tankers in Persian Gulf as tensions rise DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard says it has seized two Greek oil tankers in the Persian Gulf. The Guards statement on Friday night said the ships were seized over unspecified violations. It did not elaborate. The U.S. Navys Mideast-based 5th Fleet had said it was investigating earlier reports that Iran seized two Greek tankers. Iran had threatened to take punitive action earlier in the day over Athens being involved in the U.S. seizure of an Iranian oil tanker in Greek waters. The Guards announcement comes as tensions remain high between Iran and the West over stalled negotiations regarding its rapidly advancing nuclear program. McCarthy, GOP lawmakers escalate standoff with Jan. 6 panel WASHINGTON (AP) Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is making it clear that he will likely defy a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. An attorney representing McCarthy wrote to the committee Friday that it does not have the authority to issue subpoenas to the lawmakers. He also demanded the panel provide answers to his questions and documents if his client were to comply. The apparent defiance will escalate a standoff over McCarthy and other GOP lawmakers testimony as the committee will now have to decide whether it will enforce its congressional subpoenas. It's looking to wrap up its investigation and prepare for public hearings in early June. Liberal Los Angeles could take right turn in mayor's race LOS ANGELES (AP) Los Angeles is a heavily Democratic city, but voters this year could take a turn to the political right. A leading candidate for mayor is Rick Caruso, a billionaire former longtime Republican who sits on the Reagan Presidential Foundation board. He's promising to expand and not defund the police. Caruso is in a tight race with Democratic U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, who is a favorite of the party's progressive wing. Twelve names are on the ballot for the June 7 primary but several candidates have dropped out. Bass and Caruso, who is now a Democrat, could end up in a November runoff that would present a stark choice. Prepare for sticker shock if you are traveling this summer DALLAS (AP) If you haven't booked your summer vacation plans, you are already too late to snag the best deals, according to travel experts. Airfares are up, hotels rates are up, and airlines are bracing for a big summer. High prices are not the only thing travelers need to worry about. Airlines have thousands fewer employees than they did before the pandemic, and that means they could struggle to handle the expected crowds. Consumers seem to be taking it all in stride. Airlines say bookings are running at record levels, and spending on U.S. flights is running ahead of 2019 levels. Butler scores 47 points, Heat beat Celtics to force Game 7 BOSTON (AP) Jimmy Butler had 47 points, nine rebounds and eight assists and the Miami Heat forced the Eastern Conference finals to a decisive seventh game by beating the Boston Celtics 111-103 on Friday night. Ten years after LeBron James scored 45 points in Boston to help the Heat avoid elimination in Game 6 of the conference finals en route to the first of their back-to-back NBA titles, Butler had 17 points in the fourth quarter to top him and send the series back to Miami. With a victory at home Sunday, the Heat would advance to the NBA Finals for the second time in three years. Jayson Tatum had 30 points and nine rebounds for Boston. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Lawyers for Johnny Depp and Amber Heard made their closing arguments to a Virginia jury in Depp's civil suit against his ex-wife. Both sides told the jury Friday that a verdict in their favor would give their clients their lives back after a six-week trial in which both sides have ripped into the other over nasty details of their brief marriage. Depp is suing Heard for libel in a Virginia court over a 2018 op-ed she wrote describing herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse. Heard has testified that Depp physically or sexually assaulted her more than a dozen times. The seven-person jury began deliberating Friday afternoon. BEIJING (AP) China on Friday criticized a speech by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken focused on relations between the worlds top two economic powers, saying the U.S. was seeking to smear Beijing's reputation. In his Thursday address, Blinken said the administration of President Joe Biden wants to lead the international bloc opposed to Russias invasion of Ukraine into a broader coalition to counter what it sees as a more serious, long-term threat to global order from China. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin responded that the U.S. was essentially spreading disinformation and smearing Chinas domestic and foreign policy. The aim of Blinkens speech was to contain and suppress Chinas development and uphold U.S. hegemony, Wang said. We strongly deplore and reject this. As to the rules-based international order that the U.S. advocates, all people with insight can see through that they are nothing but the rules formulated by the U.S. and a few other countries with the aim at upholding the U.S.-dominant international order," Wang added. The U.S. always places its domestic law above international law and follows international rules selectively," Wang said. In his speech outlining the administrations China policy, Blinken laid out a three-pillar approach to competing with Beijing in a race to define the 21st centurys economic and military balance. Blinken said the administration believes China poses a major threat to the post-World War II order, even while the U.S. sees Russian President Vladimir Putins war in Ukraine as the most acute and immediate threat to international stability. Beijings vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the worlds progress over the past 75 years, Blinken said. China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it, he said. Beijings vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the worlds progress over the past 75 years. China has refused to denounce Russia's invasion of Ukraine or even describe it in such terms, in deference to Moscow. It has upped its threats against the self-governing island republic of Taiwan and expanded its military presence in the South China Sea, while sending Foreign Minister Wang Yi on a mission to the South Pacific with a sweeping security proposal that, even if only partially realized, could give China a presence much nearer to Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand, and on the doorstep of the strategic American territory of Guam. Blinkens speech appeared to show that China and the U.S. were facing a Cold War that has no big differences with the previous Cold War, said Xiong Zhiyong, professor of international relations at Beijing's China Foreign Affairs University. U.S. domestic political concerns seem to be driving Biden to take a harder line on China, Xiong said. With the governing Democratic Party facing tough challenges in this year's congressional and senatorial elections, China's influence on the U.S. economy and its national security is becoming a major issue for candidates. I think what the Biden administration is doing is based on its domestic needs, especially the political needs, Xiong told The Associated Press. At the same time, Blinken seemed to be striving to stabilize the international order and China-U.S. relations," Xiong said. We should strive for this goal and the goal is not unattainable, he said. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 BOSTON (AP) Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed a bill Friday that would allow immigrants in the country illegally to obtain state drivers licenses in Massachusetts. The veto came just a day after the Massachusetts House and Senate gave final approval to the measure, sending it to Baker's desk. Baker said he could not sign the legislation because it requires the Registry of Motor Vehicles to issue state credentials to people without the ability to verify their identity. Consequently, a standard Massachusetts driver's license will no longer confirm that a person is who they say they are, he added in a letter to lawmakers. Both chambers, dominated by Democratic lawmakers, passed the measure by margins wide enough to override a Baker veto. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia already have similar laws. Under the proposal, those in the country illegally could apply for a drivers license if they can provide the Registry of Motor Vehicles with a foreign passport or consular identification document. The people would also have to provide one of five additional documents: a drivers license from another U.S. state or territory; a birth certificate; a foreign national identification card; a foreign drivers license; or a marriage certificate or divorce decree from any U.S. state or territory. Supporters say the measure would make driving safer in Massachusetts by requiring immigrants show they can properly operate a car and that they have obtained the needed insurance in the event of an accident. Baker said the bill also restricts the registry's ability to share citizenship information with entities responsible for ensuring that only citizens register for and vote in elections. This bill significantly increases the risk that noncitizens will be registered to vote," he added. If lawmakers vote to override Baker's veto, the proposal would take effect July 1, 2023. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 BAGHDAD (AP) Iraqi lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill criminalizing normalization of ties and any relations, including business ties, with Israel. The legislation says that violation of the law is punishable with the death sentence or life imprisonment. The law was approved with 275 lawmakers voting in favor of it in the 329-seat assembly. A parliament statement said the legislation is a true reflection of the will of the people. Influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the largest number of seats in Iraqs parliamentary elections last year, called for Iraqis to take to the streets to celebrate this great achievement." Hundreds later gathered in central Baghdad, chanting anti-Israel slogans. It was unclear how the law will be implemented as Iraq has not recognized Israel since the country's formation in 1948; the two nations have no diplomatic relations. The legislation also entails risks for companies working in Iraq and found to be in violation of the bill. The United States said it was deeply disturbed by the Iraqi legislation. In addition to jeopardizing freedom of expression and promoting an environment of antisemitism, this legislation stands in stark contrast to progress Iraqs neighbors have made by building bridges and normalizing relations with Israel, creating new opportunities for people throughout the region, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said in a statement. Earlier this year, Iran fired a dozen ballistic missiles towards the northern city of Irbil in the Kurdish-run north, saying it was targeting an Israeli intelligence base. The home of Baz Karim, the CEO of the oil company KAR GROUP, was heavily damaged in the attack. KAR has been accused in the past of quietly selling oil to Israel. A report by the Iraqi parliament's fact-finding committee said it found no evidence to support Iranian accusations of an Israeli spy base in Irbil. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 JOLIET, Ill. (AP) A judge has thrown out statements that a 77-year-old Minnesota man charged in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old suburban Chicago girl nearly half a century ago made to police and to his wife. Will County Judge David Carlson on Wednesday granted two defense motions tossing out statements that Barry Whelpley of Mounds View, Minnesota, made to police when they searched his home and a conversation between Whelpley and his wife that police recorded. Police arrested Whelpley in June last year. Its significant to the defense. And its a significant loss to the prosecution, Whelpleys defense attorney, Terry Ekl, told the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. Whelpley is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault for the 1972 death of Julie Ann Hanson. The 15-year-old Naperville girl disappeared on July 7, 1972, while riding her bicycle. Her body was discovered a day later in a field. She had been stabbed 36 times, coroners said. In his motions, Ekl argued that Whelpley was not advised of his Miranda rights during the search of his Minnesota home and that, as a result, police were not allowed to interrogate him during the search. Prosecutors argued that Whelpley was not in custody during the search and that police were allowed to talk to him. Carlson ruled videos of the search showed seven or eight armed police officers and that the questions asked were directly related to the 1972 murder. The judge also banned the use of statements made at the police station after Whelpleys second request for an attorney. Ekls motions did not go into detail about what Whelpley said to police or his wife, and he declined to elaborate after Wednesdays ruling. The Will County states attorneys office declined to comment on Carlsons ruling. The girl's murder remained unsolved for decades. The breakthrough in the case came through technological advancements in DNA and genetic genealogy analysis, police said. From that came the scientific evidence that pointed to Whelpley, a 1964 graduate of Naperville High School who lived about a mile from the girls house when she was killed. Whelpley remains in the Will County jail on $10 million bond. For copyright information, check with the distributor of this item, Daily Herald. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 "I don't plan on coming out for the anthem going forward until I feel better about the direction of our country," Kapler said before a series opener at Cincinnati. UVALDE, Texas (AP) It was 11:28 a.m. when the Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR-15-style rifle. Twelve minutes after that, authorities say, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos was in the hallways of Robb Elementary School. Soon he entered a fourth-grade classroom. And there, he killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in a still-unexplained spasm of violence. At 12:58 p.m., law enforcement radio chatter said Ramos had been killed and the siege was over. What happened in those 90 minutes, in a working-class neighborhood near the edge of the little town of Uvalde, has fueled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement's response to Tuesday's rampage. "They say they rushed in," said Javier Cazares, whose fourth-grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. We didnt see that. On Thursday, authorities largely ignored questions about why officers had not been able to stop the shooter sooner, with Victor Escalon, regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, telling reporters he had taken all those questions into consideration and would offer updates later. The media briefing, called by Texas safety officials to clarify the timeline of the attack, provided bits of previously unknown information. But by the time it ended, it had added to the troubling questions surrounding the attack, including about the time it took police to reach the scene and confront the gunman, and the apparent failure to lock a school door he entered. After two days of providing often conflicting information, investigators said that a school district police officer was not inside the school when Ramos arrived, and, contrary to their previous reports, the officer had not confronted Ramos outside the building. Instead, they sketched out a timeline notable for unexplained delays by law enforcement. After crashing his truck, Ramos fired on two people coming out of a nearby funeral home, Escalon said. He then entered the school unobstructed through an apparently unlocked door at about 11:40 a.m. But the first police officers did not arrive on the scene until 12 minutes after the crash and did not enter the school to pursue the shooter until four minutes after that. Inside, they were driven back by gunfire from Ramos and took cover, Escalon said. The crisis came to an end after a group of Border Patrol tactical officers entered the school roughly an hour later, at 12:45 p.m., said Texas Department of Public Safety spokesperson Travis Considine. They engaged in a shootout with the gunman, who was holed up in the fourth-grade classroom. Moments before 1 p.m., he was dead. Escalon said that during that time, the officers called for backup, negotiators and tactical teams, while evacuating students and teachers. Ken Trump, president of the consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services, said the length of the timeline raised questions. Based on best practices, its very difficult to understand why there were any types of delays, particularly when you get into reports of 40 minutes and up of going in to neutralize that shooter, he said. Many other details of the case and the response remained murky. The motive for the massacre the nation's deadliest school shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. During the siege, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses. Go in there! Go in there! women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outside a house across the street. Carranza said the officers should have entered the school sooner: There were more of them. There was just one of him." Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz did not give a timeline but said repeatedly that the tactical officers from his agency who arrived at the school did not hesitate. He said they moved rapidly to enter the building, lining up in a stack" behind an agent holding up a shield. What we wanted to make sure is to act quickly, act swiftly, and that's exactly what those agents did, Ortiz told Fox News. But a law enforcement official said that once in the building, the agents had trouble breaching the classroom door and had to get a staff member to open the room with a key. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk publicly about the investigation. Department of Public Safety spokesman Lt. Christopher Olivarez told CNN that investigators were trying to establish whether the classroom was, in fact, locked or barricaded in some way. Cazares said that when he arrived, he saw two officers outside the school and about five others escorting students out of the building. But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said. As more parents flocked to the school, he and others pressed police to act, Cazares said. He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot. A lot of us were arguing with the police, You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs. Their response was, We cant do our jobs because you guys are interfering, Cazares said. As for the armed school officer, he was driving nearby but was not on campus when Ramos crashed his truck, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the case and spoke of condition of anonymity. Investigators have concluded that school officer was not positioned between the school and Ramos, leaving him unable to confront the shooter before he entered the building, the law enforcement official said. Michael Dorn, executive director of Safe Havens International, which works to make schools safer, cautioned that its hard to get a clear understanding of the facts soon after a shooting. The information we have a couple of weeks after an event is usually quite different than what we get in the first day or two. And even that is usually quite inaccurate, Dorn said. For catastrophic events, youre usually eight to 12 months out before you really have a decent picture. Bleiberg reported from Dallas. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 UVALDE, Texas (AP) A young survivor of the massacre at a Texas elementary school said she covered herself with a friend's blood and pretended to be dead while she waited for help to arrive. Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she and a friend called 911 from her dead teacher's phone Tuesday and waited for what felt like, to her, three hours for officers to arrive at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The 18-year-old shooter, Salvador Ramos, was inside the school for more than an hour before he was shot to death by Border Patrol tactical officers. That's according to top law enforcement officials who provided new details Thursday of a confusing and sometimes contradictory timeline that has angered and frustrated the parents and onlookers who had urged police to charge into the school. Miah said that after the shooter moved from one room into the adjacent one she could hear screams and a lot more gunfire, and that the gunman then started blaring music. The children who survived the attack, which killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers, described a festive, end-of-the-school-year day that quickly turned to terror. Samuel Salinas, 10, told ABC's Good Morning America that he and other classmates pretended to be dead after Ramos opened fire on the class. Samuel was struck by shrapnel in his thigh. He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids, said Samuel, who was in Irma Garcia's class. Garcia died in the attack and her husband, Joe Garcia, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack. Gemma Lopez, 10, was in a classroom down the hall when Ramos entered the building. She told Good Morning America that a bullet came through her classroom wall before any lockdown was called. Her best friend, Amerie Garza, died in the rampage. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 DES MOINES -- The Iowa Supreme Court is poised for more turnover, as Justice Brent Appel is set to retire this summer. Appels pending retirement is significant for many reasons, but perhaps foremost because he is the courts last remaining member who was appointed by a Democratic governor. Appels replacement will be the fifth appointment made by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds, who became governor in 2017. Once Appels replacement is seated, Reynolds will have appointed five of the courts seven judges. The other two high court judges were appointed by Republican former Gov. Terry Branstad. Appels effective retirement date is July 12. This summer he will turn 72, the age at which Iowa judges are required by law to retire. Appel was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court by Democratic former Gov. Tom Vilsack in 2006 and was retained by voters in the 2016 judicial retention elections. The state judicial nominating commission, the citizen panel that interviews judicial candidates and makes recommendations to the governor, is accepting applications for upcoming Iowa Supreme Court opening until June 17, according to a state judicial branch spokesperson. The commission will conduct interviews on June 27 and possibly June 28, and by the end of the day on June 28 will send three nominees to Reynolds. Reynolds then will have 30 days to select one of those three nominees to become the next justice. That nominating commission was at the center of heated partisan debate during the recently concluded session of the Iowa Legislature. Nine of the commissions 17 members are appointed by the governor, and must be confirmed by the Iowa Senate. On Tuesday, Democrats in the Senate voted against the four of the governors appointees who were up for confirmation. That means those four appointees will not serve their full term on the commission. They will remain on the commission through this summer, however, and thus will still play a role in interviewing and nominating candidates for the pending vacancy. Appels retirement also comes as the Iowa Supreme Court is expected to rule on challenges to abortion restrictions approved by the Republican-majority Legislature and signed into law by Reynolds. Earlier this year, the court heard oral arguments over a law that would require a one-day waiting period before a woman could get an abortion. And Iowa Republicans earlier this year filed legal briefs asking the court to overturn its 2019 order striking down the ban on abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 KRAMATORSK, Ukraine (AP) Moscow-backed separatists pounded eastern Ukraine's industrial Donbas region Friday, claiming the capture of a railway hub as concerns grew that besieged cities in the region would undergo the same horrors experienced by the people of Mariupol in the weeks leading up to the port's capture. Authorities say 1,500 people have died in Donbas since the war began scarcely more than three months ago. Characterizing the battle as grave, Ukrainian officials renewed their appeals for more sophisticated Western-supplied weaponry. Without it, they said, Ukrainian forces wouldn't be able to stop Russia's offensive. The fighting Friday focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk. They are the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas and where Russia-backed separatists have already controlled some territory for eight years. "Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night," Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press. "The city is being systematically destroyed 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged." Striuk described conditions in Sievierodonetsk reminiscent of the battle for Mariupol, located in the Donbas' other province, Donetsk. Now in ruins, the port was constantly barraged by Russian forces in a nearly three-month siege that ended last week when Russia claimed its capture. More than 20,000 of its civilians are feared dead. Before the war, Sievierodonetsk was home to around 100,000 people. About 12,000 to 13,000 remain in the city, Striuk said, huddled in shelters and largely cut off from the rest of Ukraine. At least 1,500 people have died because of the war, now in its 93rd day. The figure includes people killed by shelling or in fires caused by Russian missile strikes, as well as those who died from shrapnel wounds, untreated diseases, a lack of medicine or while trapped under rubble, the mayor said. An assault was underway Friday in the city's northeastern quarter, where Russian reconnaissance and sabotage groups tried to capture the Mir Hotel and the area around it, Striuk said. Hints of Russia's strategy for the Donbas can be found in Mariupol, where Moscow is consolidating its control through measures including state-controlled broadcast programming and overhauled school curricula, according to an analysis from the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank. "It appears that Russia has once again adjusted its objectives, and fearfully now it seems that they are trying to consolidate and enforce the land that they have rather than focus on expanding it," Gen. Phillip Breedlove, former head of U.S. European Command for NATO said Friday during a panel mounted by the Washington-based Middle East Institute. But the relentless assults in the Donbas also indicated Russia's desire to expand its dominion there. Ukrainian analysts said Russian forces have taken advantage of delays in Western arms shipments to step up their offensive there. That aggressive push could backfire, however, by seriously depleting Russia's arsenal. Echoing an assessment from the British Defense Ministry, military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said Russia was deploying 50-year-old T-62 tanks, "which means that the second army of the world has run out of modernized equipment." Russia-backed rebels said Friday that they had taken over Lyman, Donetsk's large railway hub north of two more key cities still under Ukrainian control. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich acknowledged the loss Thursday night, while a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson reported Friday that its soldiers countered Russian attempts to completely push them out. As Ukraine's hopes of stopping the Russian advance faded, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pleaded with Western nations for artillery and rocket-launching systems: "Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems we won't be able to push them back," he said. Read the full story and more updates from Ukraine: Warning: This gallery contains graphic images. Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and AP journalists around the world contributed. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 They did contain him in the classroom. That was the best defense Texas Public Safety Director Steve McCraw could offer on Wednesday of the police response to the mass shooting that killed 19 kids and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. Police took 14 minutes to arrive after the first 911 call as the shooter fired off rounds outside the school for 12 minutes; then, after an initial exchange of gunfire, they waited outside the building for more than an hour while the shooter remained in the school. Parents and bystanders urged them to confront the gunman again. Advertisement From the Associated Press: Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, said he raced to the school when he heard about the shooting, arriving while police were still gathered outside the building. Upset that police were not moving in, he raised the idea of charging into the school with several other bystanders. Lets just rush in because the cops arent doing anything like they are supposed to, he said. More could have been done. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement They did a great job restraining the parents, thoughputting one mom in handcuffs, while witnesses say another parent was pepper-sprayed. Robb Elementary Schools vaunted security plan didnt stop the killing. Nor did the presence of a guard, who has given conflicting stories about his actions that day. Above all it was the inability of the police force to take down the shooter that should show once and for all that a good guy with a gun is not an effective strategy to stop school shootings when a police force with guns cant even do it. Advertisement Advertisement The tiny Uvalde school district has its own seven-person force; the 15,000-person city spends 40 percent of its budget on policing, and in 2020, the Uvalde Police Department proudly touted its nine-person SWAT team that was getting to know the layouts of local schools. Not only did the police spend an hour preparing to enter the school on Tuesday, but there was also this, from a fourth grader to local CBS affiliate KENS, presumably about the polices first attempt to get into the school: When the cops came, the cop said: Yell if you need help! And one of the persons in my class said help. The guy overheard and he came in and shot her, the boy said. Advertisement Advertisement Each of these failures shows the absurdity of the GOPs two-pronged policy response to school shootingsarmed teachers and more support for law enforcement. (There was also an armed guard at the Buffalo supermarket, for what its worth. He fired at the suspect and was killed.) If the town SWAT team cant stop a school shooter before 19 children are dead, whats the point? Republicans have since moved on to other innovative proposals, like building schools with only one door, or giving up on schools altogether. Advertisement Advertisement For years, weve been told that even the police killing of a 12-year-old can be justified by officers constant exposure to great danger. But when the time came for them to act out that deference, for some reason, they didnt. Advertisement Advertisement We dont know everything that happened in Uvalde that day; reporters, and the police themselves, are still filling in the picture. But we do know that the knee-jerk instinct to lionize the police response before understanding what happened is symptomatic of Americas broader inability to think critically about the work of policing excepton occasionwhen officers kill unarmed Black people on camera. For now, Texas officials have failed to provide much of an explanation for what appear to be serious failures. And by stumbling over their own account of the facts, theyve turned what should have been a cut-and-dried after-action report into a mess of competing theories and timelines. Advertisement Advertisement Sometimes you have to admit that the police didnt do a great job. Uvalde is a policing anecdote, but the data illustrate some serious weak spots that virtually no prominent elected official risks digging into for fear of being branded a defunder. Crime rates are soaring in spite of the fact that police funding is at record highs. The percentage of murders that police solve is at its lowest rate in 50 years. To put it mildly, when it comes to preventing and solving crimes, there is room for improvement. Advertisement This reflexive support of the boys in blue, no matter the outcome, is not limited to deep-red Texas. In New York City, for example, an upward trend in subway crime has been met with mass deployment in the subways by the New York Police Departmenta huge investment at a time when other city services, such as parks and playgrounds, are being defunded. But crime has not fallen in response; instead, April and May each saw shocking subway shootings. Advertisement In the first incident, a gunman shot straphangers only to vanish into the city for almost two days. In the second, the killer shot a stranger in the chest before fleeing at the next station. In both cases, New York officials praised the NYPDbut in both cases, the assailants roamed the subway with guns, escaped after shooting, and were at large in the city for days until they turned themselves in. I said to myself, its the NYPD, theyll get him, Janno Lieber, the head of the MTA, said after Sundays killing. And here we are. But, of course, the NYPD didnt actually get him. By every imaginable metric, I should have been a Democrat, reads the first sentence in Kellyanne Conways memoir, Heres the Deal, surely the nastiest Trump administration memoir yet, and possibly, given Conways track record, the most flagrantly dishonest. In other words, she writes, a feminist. A man-hater. Thats one of the more surprising passages in the book, because for someone who professes not to be a man-hater, Conway sure does hate a lot of men. Advertisement Except for one man, of course: former President Donald Trump, who hired her to run the first successful presidential campaign managed by a woman and, she insists, treated me and other working moms with respect. But in 500 pages packed with more score-settling than a Quentin Tarantino movie, Conway gives free rein to her contempt for Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, Brad Parscale, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, and countless other unnamed male Trump staffers. They condescended to her. They underestimated her. They stole credit from her. They sidelined her. And now shes going to make them regret it. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sign up for the Slate Culture Newsletter The best of movies, TV, books, music, and more, delivered to your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. News coverage of Heres the Deal has mostly focused on two of the books revelations. One is that Conway claims to have told Trump that he lost the 2020 election. (Trump denies this, but hes a liar too, so who knows?) Then there are the glimpses Conway offers into her marriage to attorney George Conway, who originally championed her success as Trumps campaign manager but later converted to Never Trump conservatism and founded the Lincoln Project. Conway quips that she lost her husband to Twitter, and shes not even hota joke she makes twice; let no one call this book meticulously edited. But she also admits to feelings of betrayal and stress as her previously reticent husband became a tweeting machine devoted to slamming her boss. The public fascination with the Conways marriage once this rift developed wasnt surprising. Families across the nation suffered schisms over Trumpism, and here was a case study happening on the steps of the White House. Advertisement Advertisement Families across the nation suffered schisms over Trumpism, and here was a case study happening on the steps of the White House. That was only the beginning of Conways troubles at home. As uncomfortable as her husbands jibes at her boss made her, he didnt directly criticize her, even if she doesnt actually acknowledge this, so closely did she identify with her employer. Not so the couples eldest daughter, Claudia, who, galvanized by the racial justice protests of 2020, launched a robust progressive TikTok account. A year later, Claudia made murky accusations of abuse against her mother, then walked them back, in a series of since-deleted TikTok videos. Completely skirting Claudias incendiary complaints about herself, Conway lights into then New York Times journalist Taylor Lorenz for calling attention to Claudias TikTok, and for DMing the then 15-year-old without getting her parents permission first. Advertisement Advertisement Its a signature Conwayian rhetorical move, to spin off into arias of outrage about some side issue in order to avoid addressing the matter at hand. When Wolf Blitzer gingerly raised the subject of her husbands tweets during a CNN interview, Conway noted, fairly enough, that George was expressing his own opinion, but then went on the offensive with a heaping bowlful of word salad, which for some reason she reprints verbatim: And wherehonestly, where is the shame? Where is the introspection of people who have said for three years, respectfully, Wolf, actually beginning in May of 2017, Ill quote your wifes husband right now. I wont talk about your marriage, but Ill quote your wifes husband. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When she cant confuse a discussion with arguments as tangled as a pailful of eels, Conway simply avoids it. Theres no mention in Heres the Deal of her multiple references to the completely fictional Bowling Green massacre or the Muslim travel ban supposedly justified by it. The book does get into Conways infamous reference to alternative facts during a 2017 interview on Meet the Press about press secretary Sean Spicers false statement that Trumps inauguration drew the largest audience of any presidents. She claims that she misspoke by conflating the phrases alternative information and additional facts, which she somehow believes to be acceptable even as she acknowledges that the claim isnt demonstrably true. She characterizes the whole debacle as an unforced error on Spicers partanother mans mess she was expected to clean upeven though the ever-insecure Trump had actually forced Spicer to tell the lie. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Heres the Deal is replete with references to out-of-control male egos, above all those of the established Republican political consultants, who, she claims in a spectacularly mixed metaphor, had failed upwards for years, greased each other on a new gravy train to nowhere while the political graveyard was littered with clients they had flayed for money and failed at the ballot box. Such men, she attests (and for what its worth, I believe her), shut her out and blocked her advancement when she started her own polling firm specializing in surveying the female voters they also discounted. For someone who professes not to be a feminist, Conway is obsessed with male privilege, even if shed never call it that. She presents herself as motivated by love of family and country, but Heres the Deal feels most alive when shes seething at the overrated, underachieving men who had ridiculed and dismissed me for years. Advertisement Advertisement In a rare instance of shrewd judgment, Trump recognized Conways ability, and as a result won her devotion. Just how uncritical that devotion is, who can say. According to Cliff Sims, a midlevel staffer whose Team of Vipers was one of the first Trump administration memoirs published, Conways text messaging app featured a stream of conversations with journalists in which Conway leaked stories, trashed rivals, and described Trump as like a child she had to set straight. In Heres the Deal, she boasts of creating a PowerPoint presentation so good that Trump was able to pay attention to it for 25 whole minutes despite senior advisors betting hed get bored after four or five slides. Can such a sharp operator really be oblivious to how dumb this makes her boss look? Advertisement At no point does Conway acknowledge that the dysfunction she describes in the Trump White Housethe chaos, the backbiting, the turnovercould be the fault of the man in charge, that the businessman Trump voters thought they were electing was an incompetent and destructive manager. She attributes Trumps connection to the American people to the unfiltered nature of his communication via Twitter and other means, and yet reproaches her husband for behaving much the same way online. Never does it seem to occur to her that the acrimonious, personalized quality of political debate on TV, online, and in her own home owes much to the candidate she helped to elect. Or at least, not that Conway admits. Heres the Deal can be read as the delusional account of a woman blind to the shortcomings of the powerful man who gave her a shot. But it can also be readwill be read, by those who matteras an advertisement for her own consultancy business. Shes such a skilled prevaricator that I found myself wondering if she really hates all those male GOP consultants so virulentlyor is she just taking out the competition? Furthermore, the ease with which she burns her bridges with Kushner while buttering up her one-time client Mike Pence (praising his clear-eyed conservatism and his midwestern decency) make clear who she thinks her partys next candidate will be. Only a fool would trust her, but only a bigger fool would write her off. Slate receives a commission when you purchase items using the links on this page. Thank you for your support. On this weeks episode of the Slate Culture Gabfest, the podcasts three co-hosts discussed Men, the latest movie from Ex Machina and Annihilation writer-director Alex Garland. For their Slate Plus segment, which is only available for Slate Plus members to hear on the Slate Plus podcast feed, they grappled with the movies rather befuddling ending, which might leave you saying, as Jessie Buckleys protagonist likes to say, What? A transcript of their conversation, which has been condensed and edited for clarity, follows. Naturally, there are spoilers. (To access all of the Culture Gabfests members-only segments and all of Slates culture stories, sign up for Slate Plus.) Advertisement Julia Turner: Dana, can you please describe what happens in the final chunk of this movie and what you made of it? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Dana Stevens: Essentially the big reveal at the end of this movie is, as far as I can tell, that this maybe fantasized Rory Kinnear figure, who has been both Jessie Buckleys landlord at her country rental, and also the naked stalker whos been standing around outside, and also this strange kind of village idiot kid whos always hanging around, and the vicar who has a strange creepy scene with her, and a cop who gets called in to resolve the stalker issue, that character becomes this kind of monstrous Cronenbergian figure. All of those characters sequentially sort of give birth to each other in this long body-horror scene where each character appears, and then sort of puffs up in some grotesque way. They open up these faux vaginas somewhere in their bodies, sometimes in their stomach, or their head, or wherever, and then a fetal creature emerges that turns out to be the next Rory Kinnear incarnation. And they sort of chase her sequentially through the country house until Advertisement Advertisement Turner: It turns into her dead husband. Stevens: Thats right. And in fact, if anything, I thought, Can we just get around to the part where its her dead husband? Because obviously hes going to be the last one. Advertisement Stephen Metcalf: Obviously, yes. Stevens: Right? Because the whole trauma narrative always has to be about, Ah, we must penetrate to the true origin of the trauma. So yes, finally it is the character not played by Rory Kinnear, but by Paapa Essiedu, who played her husband, who we only see in flashbacks, who killed himself in a very grisly way by jumping out the window. Weve already seen before how his wrecked body looked when she found him outside afterward. And those same injuries are reflected in each one of these fetal Rory Kinnear people. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So they all have a hand thats been sliced in half, which also echoes an earlier chase scene where she slices the hand of the, I think, cop at that point whos chasing her. They all have this one gross kind of foot thats broken off. Anyway, they all have bodies that reflect the brokenness of the body of the husband who fell out the window. And then heres the moment where I flat out dont understand what the director Alex Garland was going for. So Paapa Essiedu, the already dead husband, finally emerges. And then she sort of hangs with him. Like, they plonk down on the couch and have this brief conversation where she says something like, What is it that you want from me? And doesnt he just say, I want to be loved, or I want your love, or something like that? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turner: Yeah, all he wants is her love. Stevens: And shes holding an ax at that moment. The ax is the Chekhovs gun that has been seen in the house since she first moved in. She finally gets the ax off the wall, and we think maybe theres going to be some big showdown between them. Then after he says, I just want your love, am I wrong, or does Alex Garland cut to a title card that says Men? So you think its the end of the movie, but its not. Theres one little pop after that where its the next morning, and we see Jessie Buckley in the sunshine out in the yard wearing a bloodstained dress, as she had on the night before. But we dont know what has happened to the emerged fetal husband character and her friend that Steve mentioned earlier, who is kind of the equivalent of the Lil Rel Howery character in Get Out, right? The friend from afar is giving her advice on the phone as shes having this weird country weekend. The friend has now driven up because she called her the night before when the Rory Kinnear invasion happened. And the friend is pregnant, which is kind of a surprise, especially given that we just saw all of these men give birth to each other. And, I guess, theres then a happy ending where the two smiling friends reunite on the lawn. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement So I have a lot of questions here. Even aside from the men giving birth to each otherwhich I think I know what Alex Garland was trying to metaphorically say, but I dont necessarily think that it adds a lot to the movieliterally what was supposed to have happened after the ghost of her husband says, I just wanted your love? Does she then kill him, or does he disappear, or how is it resolved that shes just hanging the next morning with her buddy in the yard? Turner: I think theres the theoretical, What was he trying to say? take, and then theres also a bunch of practical, What the fuck was actually happening in the movie? questions. And to speak to the theoretical first, my read on the final scene when the men are birthing each crappy incarnation of themselves over and over again is that essentially what the movie seems to be suggesting is that childbirth is horrifying, is gross and scary and primal, and if someone were to come birth at you, youd be like, Holy shit, right? This is wild. This is grotesque. And she becomes progressively less and less afraid. As she watches this slow-motion Russian doll birth scene, she just calms down and is sort of like, Oh, men have nothing on me. Women can do this. We take this in stride. We dont get fucking freaked out when humans emerge from our orifices. Men are so weak and stupid and disgusting. I can just hold this ax and accept the patheticness of my abusive dead husband who may or may not have killed himself. I dont even have to kill him to feel powerful over him. I am the one with the power. And thats a fucked thing for this movie to say. The movie kind of endorses the view of the abusive husband that mens lust for women is a disfiguring that has fucked and will fuck men up for all eternity, and that women are ultimately the ones with the power in the equation. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement And that is so misogynistic and fucked up. It made me so mad. Even as I was calming down and sort of feeling the female power of like, Oh, she doesnt need to be afraid because shes the one with the ax. And its like, But women dont have the ax in the world! That was my read of that. But Steve, Im dying to know what you made of the finale. Metcalf: Im still aghast. I scarcely know what to make of it. I was like, OK, well I guess theres some sort of pretend-deep ideas here about womanhood as birthing and What would it mean if men could do it? But whats the analogy? Mens pain follows in patrilineal descent. Mans curse is not giving birth, therefore were trapped in a kind of alienated self that takes revenge on women for the generative power we dont have and will never have. Advertisement I think that theres a way in which this movie gets at misogyny, right? The really deep, neurotic fear I think a lot of men feel given their vulnerability vis-a-vis what they perceive to be the power of women over them in some sense. Now, Im talking about heterosexual men, and not all heterosexual men, and so on, but I understand the impulse that Garland is working with. When I see misogyny, I see men revenging themselves on the power they perceive women as holding over them. And I think thats what the movies about. And then at some deeper level, a kind of inability to honor what it is to bring forth new life, because its a power that the man, traditionally, doesnt possess, right? Advertisement Advertisement But we havent even discussed the bizarre racial politics of the movie. So this husband who pulls two of the biggest all-time bullshit weakling man moves: He uses his capacity for violence against a woman whos made him feel emotionally vulnerable, and then he just does this (nongendered) hateful thing, which is threatening to take his own life as a purely manipulative gesture. And hes Black. And hes depicted as possibly an immigrant because of his accent, so hes socially vulnerable in these other ways. And Im not saying thats not interesting. Im not saying it doesnt happen. Im just saying that its gestured to but not explored. Advertisement Advertisement So youre left with this person who inflicts this grotesque set of traumas on the woman he supposedly loves, haunting the entire film, even though hes socially vulnerable, too. It doesnt feel sympathetic. It just feels unresolved. And then why does this series of classic, white, Anglo-Saxon, English types, suddenly arrayed in a patrilineal/matrilineal descent give birth to this person? Because then youre making both a set of universal claims about the male psyche and a set of highly specific social claims about race, class, and gender. Its like, What? Im both like, OK, Alex Garland, if youre just going to sit in front of me and lecture me, can I at least ask you some questions? and Dude, I think youre one confused puppy here. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Sign up for the Slate Culture Newsletter The best of movies, TV, books, music, and more, delivered to your inbox. We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again. Please enable javascript to use form. Email address: Send me updates about Slate special offers. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Sign Up Thanks for signing up! You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. Stevens: Yeah. Honestly, it struck me that the racial politics of that were very strangethat the final product of this series of man births from a bunch of white dudes was a Black guybut I almost just had to dismiss it as pure sloppiness on Alex Garlands part. Its almost like, Oh, Ive got to have this gesture toward diversifying my cast, so Ill make her dead husband Black. But that, as you say, brings up so many questions, that the movie is absolutely uninterested in engaging in. And if thats going to be his effort at representation in his cast, its a pretty sad state of affairs. But I still want to know. Lets imagine a universe where, just between these two characters, that scene had continued. And we had seen the next thing that happened on the couch after the husband says, I want your love. What did she do? Did he disappear? Is he still sitting there? Is he dead? Is he alive? Did she go make a cup of tea? Something had to happen between that moment and the sunny morning when her friend arrives in her car. Are they going to go back in and find a mangled corpse in the living room? Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Turner: The movie makes very clear that this is not all in her head, right? The friend drives up. Jessie Buckley still has the blood on her cheek. The car is still smashed into the little stone wall where one of the Rorys was chasing her after he was birthed. So we are to believe that real physical violence has been wrought upon this world. One question without those things wouldve been, Was this all in her head? But no, so she was really haunted. And then, right, what happened? I dont think she did kill him with the ax, because theres no more blood on the dress or her cheek. If she did, it was an extremely tidy axing. In realizing that he only needed her love, did he just puff away? Advertisement Stevens: But then, did she give him her love? If were going to do some feminist polemics, that weve been leading up toward all this time, I was looking forward to him saying, I just want your love, and her saying, Well, let me tell you something, buddy, and going off on him for being such a manipulative dick. But instead of that, we just tastefully cut to the word men and are supposed to draw conclusions from that. I think that was my least favorite moment of the whole movie, was that cut to that word. Advertisement Advertisement Turner: I know. She didnt get a speech, she didnt even get to say, What? Because she doesnt say what anymore. She finally understands. I feel like thats supposed to be the arc of the film. Shes no longer incredulous and surprised. She realizes that men are weak and desperate and lain low by the fact of their desperate need for the love of women. And that is excusing centuries of patriarchy and bullshit. And shes supposed to find it comforting? And again, where did he go? Youre so right, Dana. Im now focused on that exact question: What happened to this lurching broken body who was apparently really there? Because her cheek is really bloodstained and the windows are really broken. Stevens: Yeah, this is one of those movies thats ambiguous at its own expense. This ambiguous ending could mean so many things, it kind of means nothing at all. On a beautiful day in May 2015, I drove the 13 hours from my home in Portland, Oregon, to Harris Ranch, California, halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles. At the time, Tesla was touting a battery swap station that could send Tesla drivers on their way in a fully powered vehicle in less than the time it takes to fill up a car with gas. Overtaken by curiosity, I had decided to spend a long Memorial Day weekend in Californias Central Valley to see if Elon Musks latest bit of dream weaving could stand up to reality. Advertisement There, amid the pervasive stench of cow droppings from a nearby feedlot, I discovered that Teslas battery swap station was not in fact being made available to owners who regularly drove between Californias two largest cities. Instead, the company was running diesel generators to power additional Superchargers (the kind that take 30 to 60 minutes to recharge a battery) to handle the holiday rush, their exhaust mingling with the unmistakable smell of bullshit. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement That one decision to go and find the truth underlying Elon Musks promises, rather than just take his word for it, changed my life in ways I never could have anticipated. Now, seven long and often lonely years later, the world seems to be understanding what I learned from the experience: Once you stop taking Musk at his word, his heroic popular image evaporates and a far darker reality begins to reveal itself. Advertisement Advertisement Finding those diesel-powered Superchargers called into question the two pillars of Teslas image: an environmental mission and technological leadership. This led me to start digging, and I found that Tesla was getting nearly double the California Zero-Emission Vehicle credits for every car it sold thanks to its Potemkin swap station, and that its claimed carbon impact didnt reflect the actual energy mix used by its Superchargers. Advertisement Advertisement This duplicity on Teslas part, I reasoned, couldnt be a mere accident. To borrow the folksy saying favored by Warren Buffett: There is never just one cockroach. So I began digging into every aspect of Teslas business, and in the years that followed, my investigations turned up no shortage of cockroaches. Advertisement Advertisement The following year, in 2016, I discovered some of the ways Tesla maintained this gap between public idealism and private cynicism, when I found the company had been requiring customers to sign nondisclosure agreements in return for free repairs to defects. This practice not only propped up Teslas buoyant stock price by keeping bad news away from investors ears, but also cut off auto safety regulators from their only independent source of information about defects. Then, even after major media outlets picked up the story and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration called the practice unacceptable, Tesla published a blog post saying I had fabricated the story, implying I had done so because I was short selling their stock in order to profit from the declines caused by my story. Advertisement Advertisement Despite having not even known what short selling was up to that point, I was mobbed by an online army of angry fans who repeated these smears. Here was the turducken of Teslas information control strategy: NDAs for customers, smears against critical reporters, a vicious pack of online enforcers, and a total disregard for facts holding it all together. It didnt matter how much evidence I had and how little Musk had, there was always a large and growing community willing to assert that I had to be wrong, biased, and outright evil to contradict their hero. Advertisement Advertisement As the years wore on, this pattern repeated itself again and again: Factual reporting drew attacks rather than refutation, Musks unofficial social media enforcers evolved from a mob to an ecosystem of influencers and media outlets, and the stock always kept climbing. Clear evidence of Musks overpromising, and stories that would have earned any other automaker a congressional hearing, all became lost in the shadow of his ever-growing legend. Countless stories never even saw the light of day for lack of corroboration, including some of the most eye-opening anecdotes I heard in more than 100 interviews with former employees, as Musks reputation for aggression cowed many potential sources into silence. Advertisement Advertisement By the time my book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors was released in 2019, Id nearly given up on the possibility that my reporting and analysis could cut through Teslas runaway narrative to explain the realities of auto manufacturing and autonomous driving at real scale. Only one thing seemed to matter to Teslas fortunes: unconditional faith in Musk himself. I realized that this wasnt a story from which most people were going to learn important lessons about critical industries and technologies; this was a celebrity story. Advertisement [Read: There Are Just Three Explanations for Elon Musks Unhinged Behavior Right Now] But Musks celebrity has proved to be as resilient as it is unique, at least in part because of the genuine enthusiasm for the products Tesla did deliver. Whether calling one of the Thai cave rescuers a pedo or tweeting that Saudi funding for taking Tesla private was secured when it wasnt (actually the third such move in Tesla history, as I show in my book), Musks ability to evade serious consequences for his outrageous behavior has been unmatched. Even Teslas rampant violations of the Clean Air Act at its Fremont, California, factory paint shopyet another story showing the deep cynicism behind Teslas ostensible environmental missioncouldnt touch his ascendant status. Advertisement Sure enough, in the years since then, Musks fame and Teslas stock price have grown to even more dizzying heights, even as his behavior became more erratic and his science fiction fantasies became less plausible. For years Id heard stories and rumors about his personal life that suggested it was as out of control as his public persona, but even as I realized that his personality was the key to his entire empire, I didnt want to become a celebrity journalist. When Insider recently reported that Musk had paid a cabin crew member on his private jet $250,000 to settle allegations of sexual misconduct, the only surprise for me was that reporters who do cover celebrity scandals had taken so long to catch on. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Ive never known how this story would play out, and many of the twists and turns over the years have been total surprises, but a single intuition has never left me: Musks trajectory is unsustainable. It was only a matter of time before impunity and arrogance caused his mask to slip, and then the world would be ready to learn that Teslas runaway valuation was underwritten by memes, corner-cutting, information control, and outright deception. As it happened, Musks decision to turn Peter Thiels we were promised flying cars and we got 140 characters bon mot on its head and buy Twitter seems to have finally punctured his seemingly airtight mystique. Unlike manufacturing or regulatory compliance or autonomous driving, social media is a relatable enough topic that everyday observers were able to see that Musks judgment could in fact be questioned, especially as Musk jostled to buy Twitter, and now attempts to go back on the deal, in public. Though Musks plans for Twitter (like quintupling revenue while reducing reliance on advertising) are no more implausible than his Full Self-Driving or humanoid robot, they are easier to reason through and the ability to think for yourself is Elon Musks kryptonite. As I write this, I am no more certain of what the immediate future holds for Tesla and Elon Musk than I have been at any point in this seven-year roller coaster. But if people are ready to learn what I have discovered in my time not taking Musk at his word, at least some part of his spell must have been broken. And if my own experience has taught me anything, its this: Once you stop taking Elons words at face value, you can never see or hear him the same again. When news broke that monkeypox appears to be disproportionately affecting gay and bisexual men, Jih-Fei Cheng, associate professor of feminist, gender, and sexuality studies at Scripps College, thought: Here we go again. For Cheng and many others, the association of an emerging infectious disease with gay and bisexual men starkly recalled the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, in which little was known about the condition beyond its impact on the queer communityan observation that led to its being called gay cancer for a time. Advertisement As of Friday, about 300 cases have been reported in the U.S. and Europe, and many countries have reported that all or nearly all of these cases have been in gay and bisexual men. Many of the men affected seem to have contracted monkeypox at events that were initially reported as raves but were in fact a 10-day gay pride event in the Canary Islands and a five-day fetish festival in Belgium. A gay sauna in Madrid may also have been a major transmission site. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement When this link became clear, health officials responded swiftly. On Monday, John Brooks, head of the Epidemiology Research Team in the CDCs Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, made an explicit appeal to gay and bisexual men in a news briefing. On Tuesday, the gay dating app Grindr, in partnership with local health agencies, displayed a monkeypox warning to users across Europe; Brooks suggested in the press briefing that similar warnings may soon be coming to U.S. users. Advertisement Advertisement Theres an obvious sense in this approach: If an infectious disease is disproportionately present in a particular community, then reaching out directly to that community may be the most effective way to contain its spread. But some experts worry that linking monkeypox with gay and bisexual men risks repeating the mistakes of the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. First, the facts: There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that monkeypox is spread specifically through sex, or through gay sex in particular. It is spread through skin-to-skin contact, and sexgay, straight, or otherwisetends to involve quite a bit of skin-to-skin contact. Though the possibility of sexual transmission cant yet be definitively ruled out, there is no strong reason to think it is taking place when skin-to-skin contact can easily explain infection patterns, says Kartik Cherabuddi, associate professor of infectious diseases and global medicine at the University of Florida. Advertisement Advertisement As far as experts can tell, monkeypox is disproportionately affecting gay and bisexual men as a direct result of events where large numbers of men were repeatedly in close contactsexual or otherwiseover the course of several days. All it takes is one person who might have monkeypox to prompt an outbreak in such an environment, says Ronald Valdiserri, professor of epidemiology at Emory Universitys Rollins School of Public Health. Advertisement Advertisement And once the virus is circulating within a particular community, members of that community become more likely to contract itafter all, gay and bisexual men are most likely to be in close physical contact with other gay and bisexual men. That, in Valdiserris view, is enough reason for public health organizations to work to raise awareness of monkeypox among gay and bisexual men. The choices they make are their own choices, but you like to ensure that people have the appropriate information up front, he says. Advertisement Advertisement But Tonia Poteat, associate professor of social medicine at the University of North Carolina, isnt convinced that there is a strong public health imperative to reach out to gay and bisexual men in particular, at least at this point. Monkeypox is much, much less transmissible than SARS-CoV 2, and by Thursday the U.S. had reported only nine cases. She also notes that the preponderance of gay and bisexual men among known cases doesnt necessarily translate into a similar bias among all cases. Because of HIV/AIDS, she says, gay and bisexual men are more likely to have contact with the health care system, and they are probably more likely to seek immediate medical attention for a new, unexplained rash. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Given those facts, Poteat says, the messaging could have looked quite different. What we know is how monkey pox is transmitted, she says. Thats what people really need to know. They dont necessarily need to know the sexual behavior or the sexual orientation of people who might have been identified. After all, scientists think monkeypox can be spread through any sort of close contacthugging, contact sports, touching someones bed linens or towelsnot just sex. But the statistical association between monkeypox and gay and bisexual men has become a focusand now that it has, Valdiserri says he does does worry about the risk of compounding stigmas. Infectious disease and sex, and sexually transmitted diseases in particular, are already highly stigmatized. Even though monkeypox does not appear to be sexually transmitted in the traditional sense (through semen and vaginal secretions), sex is a likely cause of its spread, and it has now been publicly linked to events and locations, like a fetish festival and a gay sauna, that might push the margins of acceptability for some people. And the discomfort and fear that people may feel about an outbreak of a new disease, and about certain types of sex, may then adhere to gay and bisexual men as a group. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It sort of feeds this message that men who have sex with men are somehow more infectious in some way than other peopleand thats a dangerous subtext, Poteat says. Another is that sexual behaviors could become the focus in attributing blame for monkeypox. That blame can be dangerous when directed toward a marginalized groupas has been the case for Asian Americans during the COVID pandemicand it can cover up other roots of disease spread, like global inequality. We have to be very careful not to to stigmatize sexual behavior precisely because that deters us from understanding that structural violence is at play, Cheng says. He notes that activists during the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic called for structural remedies like universal health care and housing, and that the continued lack of those remedies today played a major role in the spread of COVID in the U.S. Advertisement Theres another link Cheng sees between monkeypox today and HIV/AIDS activism: solidarity with women fighting for reproductive rights. Both he and Poteat noted that this monkeypox outbreak is being partially attributed to individual sexual behavior at a time when bodily autonomy is being steadily eroded in the U.S. Roe v. Wade appears poised to fall, and an increasing number of states are criminalizing trans childrens right to gender-affirming care. The past few months have also seen a rise in rhetorical attacks on gay and bisexual men, from Floridas so-called Dont Say Gay bill to the increasingly widespread use of the term groomer to suggest that queer men are a danger to young boys. True, there are some major differences between 2022 and 1981, when HIV/AIDS cases were first reported. For now, same-sex marriage is still legal across the U.S., and certain gay and bisexual menalbeit typically white, wealthy menare extremely visible in public life. But it would be wrong to conclude on that basis that gay and bisexual men, especially men of color and poor men, are not vulnerable to discrimination. Homophobia has not evaporated, Valdiserri says. Its better in some areas than in other areas. But it hasnt gone away. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Welcome to State of Mind, a new section from Slate and Arizona State University dedicated to exploring mental health. Follow us on Twitter. You know the names: Columbine. Virginia Tech. Sandy Hook. Parkland. Santa Fe. And now Robb Elementary. Once known only as places where parents would send their children to learn and play, these schools now and forever exist beneath the shadow of unspeakable tragedy and mass death. Another week has passed in America, which means we must collectively mourn another horrific tragedy of gun violence. And while this moment calls for action, we are already seeing elected officials dig in on what they feel is the root cause of yet another mass casualty shooting in the United Statesand just the latest one that has robbed families of their youngest, most innocent members. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement I have been working in the mental health field for two decades. I am trained as a clinical psychologist, and currently lead a national foundation focused on mental health and addiction. For years I have been an outspoken advocate for how we as a nation need to better prioritize these areas. And while mental health and addiction have indeed gotten more attention in recent years, its sometimes the type of attention that bothers me the most. This brings us back to the moment, and to the fact that mental health has become a scapegoat, an easy talking point for politicians, pundits, and firearms lobbyists to use to distract us from deeper issues. The problem with this is that its just wrong. The evidence does not suggest that mental illness causes gun violence. Full stop. And paradoxically enough, its these same elected officials who have also chosen to not do anything to help mental health even as they point their finger at it as the problem. Advertisement Advertisement In the wake of the shooting at Robb Elementary, Texas Gov. Greg Abbot has used mental health as his dominant explanatory model for why the shooting occurred. Ironically, Texas is one of the 12 states that has not chosen to expand Medicaid, largely under Abbots watch. And when you look at the data and see how Medicaid is the largest payer for mental health and addiction services, it seems that if the governor really cared about the issue, he would have done something about that long ago. Advertisement Which brings me to a much larger point. Too many elected officialswho tend to be conservative and Republicancontinue to use an age-old strategy of giving lip service without taking any action to mitigate the impact of mental illness or gun violence. Or even more damning, blaming an issuein this case mental healthas the cause of our problems without acknowledging that their policy decisions have actually made conditions worse. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement It is, after all, these same elected leaders who refuse to back ample funding for social programs that would improve the physical and emotional well-being of all Americans. Studies have shown that one-quarter of Americans cannot afford housing. The coronavirus pandemic, with its record-high job layoffs and furloughs, brought this into stark focus as millions of individuals and families struggled to pay their monthly rent. Community factors like housing and job security are proven to have a substantial impact on mental health. Investment in affordable housing and other social services to provide relief to our most vulnerable citizens is the least that these policymakers can do. If these leaders were truly worried about mental health, they could have, and would have done something about it long ago. We have had an anemic community based mental health system in this country for decades. People struggle, fall through the cracks, and spend all their time and energy searching and waiting for help that often never materializes. And after all that, inaction remains the default response. Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement We as a country need to hold these elected officials accountable. Living through the past two years of the pandemic has put mental health on all our radars, albeit in very different ways. We have all felt increased pressures, but even before COVID, there was a massive mental health and addiction problem that was simply ignored. Deaths of despairthose from drug overdose, alcohol abuse, and suicidecontinue to grow uncontrollably with more than 186,000 lives lost in 2020 alone to one of these three issues. A person died every three minutes. Our children suffered the most, with teens seeing a 78 percent increase in drug-induced deaths, as well as an increase in suicide. Childrens hospitals and pediatric societies declared a nationwide start of emergency for mental health. But still, we did not move to action. Advertisement Advertisement Throughout 2020, the Trump administration warned that COVID-related shutdowns would drive deaths of despair and used related fear tactics as a primary reason to reopen the country. While the pandemic did exacerbate drug use, alcoholism, and loneliness, the former president and his administration failed to passor even promotepolicies to mitigate the looming mental health crisis. It was a convenient talking point that led to no action despite mental health being a bipartisan issue. Why? Its not because we havent been presented with proven solutions. Its because we live under a system of government thats just as fractured as our health care system; political ideology frequently eclipses science-backed evidence, and consolidation and retention of political power too often takes precedence over public good. At the federal, state, and local levels, we elect our leaders to be servants of the people, and to represent the best and broadest interests of their constituents. But when we see that, from sea to shining sea, our entire country is experiencing rising rates of mental distress, alcoholism, drug overdoses, and suicide, at what point can we ask, who are these leaders really serving? Action has not been taken and we all suffer. Advertisement As we all know, 2022 is a midterm year, with the chance for Americans to cast their votes for members of their states Senate and House of Representatives. Exercise your right to vote but do so with purpose. Dont simply cast a vote along your traditional party lines. Look at each candidates public statements and their views on mental health, no matter their political party. What is their stance on gun safety? These answers will help give insight into how they likely willor will notact when these issues are inevitably brought to the floors for a legislative vote. As a parent, I cannot fathom what the families of the Uvalde shooting victims are going through, and my heart aches for them, and for the countless others whose lives were taken far too soon. We owe it to all of them to get this right and to hold our elected officials accountable for their rhetoric and inaction. Lets move forward to ensure that todays students become tomorrows leaders, not tomorrows headlines. State of Mind is a partnership of Slate and Arizona State University that offers a practical look at our mental health systemand how to make it better. Executive Search rankings are now part of the Career and Employment Guide. Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled More information about the Slovak labour market Please see our Career & Employment Guide. Between 2020 and 2021, the ten largest executive search companies on the Slovak market saw their revenue growth exceed 13 percent. Although recruitment agencies are directly addressing candidates more, the process is ever more specific and complex for executive search companies. That is why clients opt for an executive search when looking for employees for key positions. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement The largest players 10 largest executive search firms in Slovakia Amrop Arthur Hunt Menkyna & Partners Management Consulting HEADSCOUT Personality TARGET Executive Search Consilium Consulting ISG executive search Pedersen & Partners Hanes Executive Search The ranking of largest executive search companies was topped by the Amrop company in 2022. The company reported the largest number of general directors, board members, executive directors and top managers found for its clients, altogether 25. Amrop Managing Partner Igor Sulik said candidates and clients exercised increased caution in 2021. The decision making took longer and selection processes were prolonged due to objective and subjective reasons. Clients also paid more attention to how candidates came to terms with changed conditions resulting from the pandemic, and how successful they were at leading companies or their teams. The perception of leadership has changed, and ever more focus is now put on considering factors linked, for example, to ESG approaches, said Sulik. ESG stands for environmental, social and governance factors. Their aim is responsible and sustainable business, not just towards the environment but also towards the employees, customers, or communities. The Arthur Hunt company ranked second; its partner, Katarina Bittalova, branded it the best year in its history. One important factor that positively influenced development in 2021 was the arrival of a new company in the segment of sustainability and ecology. The project for this client involved a complex consultation for positions ranging from top management to specialists. The number of positions thus significantly exceeded our typical annual average of filled positions, said Bittalova. Arthur Hunt filled altogether 70 positions in 2021. 2021 placements (pl.): Board and C-level 1. Amrop (25 pl.) 2.Menkyna & Partners Management Consulting (24 pl.) 3. Arthur Hunt (20 pl.) 4. Personality (12 pl.) 5. HEADSCOUT (11 pl.) 6. MATT Consulting (7 pl.) 7. ISG executive search (7 pl.) 8. TARGET Executive Search (5 pl.) 9-10. Consilium Consulting (4 pl.) 9-10. Pedersen & Partners (4 pl.) 9-10. Teamconsult SR (4 pl.) Another large executive search company active in Slovakia is Menkyna & Partners, which ranked third. Candidates were slightly less open to career change compared to the past, mainly in lower-level positions. Higher managers usually perceive potential career change as an opportunity even nowadays, said Robert Baldovic, a partner at Menkyna & Partners. Companies and candidates are more willing to hold their first meetings through teleconference applications, while hybrid meetings have become normal. Still, the decision whether to make an offer comes only after subsequent in-person meetings, Baldovic added. Novelties and specifics We introduced walking sessions, which contributed to health and made us different from the rest of the market, said Bittalova. Personal consultations on a walk allowed for direct communication even during the most stringent pandemic restrictions. Other novelties that the largest companies introduced in their work are client portals, which give the client the possibility to follow the status of each selection project, and in some cases even provide feedback. Such a solution was introduced by Target, Teamconsult, and Amrop. The latter also offered screening of candidates, which is mainly used when filling top positions. The consultants run a background check of the candidate, including their digital footprint. Several companies from the top 10 ranking now report that they no longer focus on just executive searches but also provide consultation on the development of teams, organisations, and individuals. Within long-term complex projects, we are thus becoming a strategic partner in the cultural transformation of big organisations, Baldovic said. Bratislava has launched a pilot project for construction of rental flats with developers. Visualisation of the abandoned dormitory in Zahorska Bystrica turned into rental housing. (Source: Courtesy of Bratislava) Font size: A - | A + Comments disabled When Boris Kollar, head of the Sme Rodina party, ran for parliament in 2020, he promised to build 25,000 social rental flats annually if elected. He not only made it to parliament, but his party became part of the ruling coalition. He is now speaker of parliament. So far, however, his party has failed to meet its pre-election promise, with parliament only just now adopting legislation to enable more extensive building of rental housing, on Wednesday, May 25. Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement Skryt Remove ad Article continues after video advertisement In the meantime, municipalities pressed to address the lack of housing have started their own social rental housing projects. Bratislava is working on extending its stock of social rental flats by hundreds of units. The 2021 and 2020 Johnston and Lampman Cup winners will receive their trophies Friday, May 27 at The Raceway at the Western Fair District with four Ontario Sires Stakes Grassroots divisions for three-year-old pacing fillies included on the $414,000 Camluck Classic card. Gregg McNair won the 2021 Johnston Cup as the leading OSS trainer. He has starters in two of four $21,000+ Grassroots divisions. The rural Guelph, Ont., resident is harnessing two daughters of Sportswriter: Fade Out in the first Grassroots division, race two on the card, and Mighty Melissa in the second Grassroots division and fourth race of the evening. Fade Out is a good filly, but drew poorly, but shes a good one right now, said McNair. She has good gate speed, so she should be all right. Trevor Henry is driving her and he knows his way around London really good. To build on more than $100,000 in OSS earnings last season, she will have to overcome leaving from the seven-hole. The filly had a solid showing in the SBOA Stakes last Saturday at Woodbine Mohawk Park, where she finished fourth and was individually timed in 1:51.4 for McNairs ownership partners Dean Lockhart and McKinlay & Fielding. Mighty Melissa, owned by a group that includes McNair, Ross Family Farms Ltd., Wayne MacRae and Ross Holmes, drew a more favourable post, leaving from the rail in race four with Louis-Philippe Roy listed to drive. Lightly raced at two, she made only two OSS starts in her novice campaign, winning a Grassroots division at Georgian Downs. The filly was seventh in her only start this season at Woodbine Mohawk Park McNair will also send out OSS graduate Karma Seelster in the $50,000 Forest City Pace for older mares on Friday's undercard as well as the three-year-old Shadow Play gelding Airy Shadow in one of the four City Of London Series finals. Races six and eight are the remaining Grassroots divisions on the card. The morning line favours Momentarily in race six. The daughter of Control The Moment posted a record of 3-1-3 in nine starts as a two-year-old. The 2020 Lampman Cup winner, Bob McClure, will drive the Dan Lagace trainee from post seven. Motovation, a Sunshine Beach filly trained by Michael Kwietniowski, is the early favourite in the final OSS division of the evening. In four Grassroots starts as a freshman, the filly won once, was second twice and earned more than $22,000. Louis-Philippe Roy will be in the race bike. The 2020 Johnston Cup winner, Shawn Steacy, doesnt have an OSS entry, but will have horses on the card in the City of London Series finals. OSS Presence In Camluck Classic The feature race on the card, the $150,000 Camluck Classic presented by Seelster Farms, has three Ontario Sired horses in the field. Tattoo Artist, an OSS Super Final champion as a two-year-old in 2019 and winner of seven additional Gold legs over two seasons, will start from post three as the 9-5 second choice on the morning line. Trained by Dr. Ian Moore, the five-year-old won two divisions of the MGM Borgata Pacing Series at Yonkers Raceway in April. Hes doing great. He trained well Tuesday, said Moore. He gets around the half pretty well, so it should be an advantage where he is sitting [with regards to his] post position as well. James MacDonald will drive the son of Hes Watching, on the night he receives his 2021 Lampman Cup. Tattoo Artist is joined by Jimmy Freight, a son of Sportswriter who made his return to the racetrack in December 2021 following a two-year absence after entering the breeding shed. The seven-year-old stallion is the 6-5 morning line favourite from post five and enters the race off five straight wins in the top class at Woodbine Mohawk Park, including a come-from-behind win last time out over Tattoo Artist. Roy will drive the Richard Moreau trainee. Jimmy Freight certainly made a believer out of me the prior week at Mohawk. He came from way back to beat Tattoo Artist, said Moore. He could certainly be the toughest one in there, but its one of the strongest fields Ive seen in recent years. Poseidon Seelster is the final OSS alumni in the race. Bred by the title sponsor, the son of Sunshine Beach has a record of 2-1-3 in 11 starts this season. He drew the rail post for Friday evening for trainer Donald Lindsey. Bob McClure gets the drive. To view Friday's harness racing entries, click on the following link: Friday Entries - The Raceway at Western Fair District. (With files from Ontario Racing) Canada's two-time defending champion male trotter Perfetto has landed in Europe and will take on the world this Sunday (May 29) in Sweden's famed Elitloppet. Trainer/driver Dagfin Henriksen shared via social media that Perfetto, who has been garnering lots of media attention at home in advance of the race, made a quick stop in Belgium (pictured above) yesterday on his journey to Sweden. Targeting a victory in the Elitloppet, the seven-year-old Ontario-sired son of Majestic Son could join elite company both on the international stage and at home. The list of winners dating back to 1952 includes popular trotting stars Mack Lobell, Moni Maker, Varenne, Nahar, Commander Crowe and Timoko, to name a few. Only two other Canadian representatives have won the race, both decades ago: Fresh Yankee in 1969 and Billyjojimbob in 1992. For trainer/driver Dagfin Henriksen, who started his harness racing career in his native Norway at the age of 19 and moved to Canada in 2008, his first Elitloppet start will be memorable no matter the outcome. "It's quite an honour to be invited to the Elitloppet," Henriksen was quoted as saying in a CBC News article. "Every trainer, especially in Europe, dreams of even making it to the race. If you have a horse that's good enough to go in that race, it's something special. "It's so big, so I try to not think too hard about it because you almost get emotional," added Henriksen, who has made the trip himself to Sweden with fiancee Laura Trask, Perfetto's caretaker, and sons. While Perfetto will be introduced to international travel, large crowds and a different racing style than he's used to in North America, Henriksen told the Toronto Sun he wasn't concerned with how his stable star would handle the new experience. The horse is strong, Im not too concerned about that, he said. I used to drive over there. I know the style. I think my horse can tackle it. Owner Gerald Haggerty, with 30 years in the sport, believes Henriksen's experience will serve the globe-trotting racehorse well. "Dagfin has a little bit of magic in his hands," Haggerty told CBC News. "I think he's the best trotting man in Canada and his methods are different than some Canadian or U.S. trainers." Bred in New Brunswick by Seawind Amg Stbs 2005 Inc., Perfetto is a 25-time winner with nearly $730,000 banked in purses. He has drawn post four in the first trial heat, scheduled as race six on Sunday at Solvalla Race Course with an approximate post time of 9:28 a.m. (EDT). The second heat is race seven, scheduled for 9:55 a.m. (EDT). The top four trotters from each trial will face off in the final of the Elitloppet in race 11 at 11:45 a.m. (EDT). With a major purse boost for the 2022 edition, a total of 11,350,000 Swedish Krona (approx. $1.47 million CAD) will be up for grabs. Click here to view the fields in post position order. A program for Sunday's race card is available to download by clicking here. Live streaming of the race card will be available on the SC website on Sunday morning. (With files from CBC News and Toronto Sun) CHARLOTTESVILLEArea educators and parents headed to school Wednesday heavy-hearted and still reeling from news of Tuesdays wanton slaying of 19 children and two teachers in a Texas elementary school, the deadliest school shooting since 2012. The deaths at the hand of an 18-year-old with no connection to the school prompted area divisions to once again to offer resources for educators and families on discussing the random violence with their children and to seek help, if needed. This message is in many ways a painful repetition of what we have said in response to earlier shootings across our country, including 10 days ago at Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo and at schools such as Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida or Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, Charlottesville officials wrote in a message to families on Tuesday night. Charlottesville schools Superintendent Royal Gurley Jr. and School Board chairwoman Lisa Larson-Torres signed the letter to families. Division officials shared a resource sheet on how to talk with children about race and community violence, which was developed by school counselors in August 2017. It has been shared several times since. On social media, Gurley said it was OK for teachers to pause lesson plans and take care of themselves and their students. Students need developmental play, [social-emotional learning] conversations, and spaces to ask difficult questions, he wrote. For Christa Bennett, sending her children to school every day is terrifying. She said she makes a conscious thought to hug her children each morning and tell them goodbye in case thats the last time she sees them. This morning she felt raw as she sent them off to school. It is not lost on me that people who are not white and privileged have carried the fear of violence, of their babies being snatched from them, for forever in our country, Bennett wrote on social media. All our children need to be safe. All of us need to be safe. Theres really nothing more important than that. She said focusing at work was hard Wednesday as she worried about her children. She talked about the shooting with older child, who is in middle school, but not with her elementary-aged child. Following the Buffalo shooting, Buford Middle students walked out of class last week to call for racial justice and to stand in solidarity with the victims. Bennett said seeing students take a stand gives her hope for the future. We have to have hope to keep on living, she said. Other local parents on social media talked about how they cried as they dropped their children off at school and made sure to say goodbye to their kids. Teachers shared their fears about going to work Wednesday and experiences during recent active-shooter drills. Christine Esposito, a teacher in Charlottesville, shared on Facebook how she planned to approach students. Im going to lie convincingly to every child I see today, she said. Im going to sell that lie with my whole body because I dont know what else to do. Im going to assure every student who asks that well keep them safe, all the while knowing that teachers and schools dont actually have that power. She added that teachers will keep them safe to the best of their abilities. All that means is that well die trying to protect them, she wrote. No amount of a teachers love or a teachers physical body is going to protect a child from an AR-15. According to news reports, the two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, were shot while protecting their students. As has been the case after previous school shootings, Virginia state officials turned their attention to school safety and security measures. Gov. Glenn Youngkin met with state officials Wednesday to talk about school safety. A Youngkin spokeswoman told media outlets that the governor has asked for an evaluation of steps already taken as well as future steps to ensure schools are safe. Jillian Balow, the state superintendent for public instruction, said state officials must review all the facts as they come to light and determine what steps we can take in Virginia to better protect our students, teachers and school communities. Following the deadly 2018 school shooting in Parkland, state lawmakers formed the House Select Committee on School Safety. In its December 2018 report, the committee recommended changes to the role of school counselors, requiring mental and emotional health to be taught in schools, more funding for school divisions to purchase security equipment and school resource officers, among others. In 2020, Charlottesville and Albemarle County school divisions removed armed police officers from school buildings following protests over race profiling and policing. On Wednesday, Albemarle County schools Superintendent Matthew Haas told families in a message that the schools work closely with the county police. Our strongest resource remains our partnership with the Albemarle County Police Department, Haas wrote. We communicate regularly with the departments senior leadership on the security of our buildings, potential threats, and deployment of officers in and around our buildings. In recent years, the division has made several security upgrades at buildings and changed front entrances to buildings so that visitors must go through the front office. The division also implemented Anonymous Alerts, which allows students and families to report safety concerns. Haas said the tool is one of the divisions most significant assets to identify and deter threats. He encouraged anyone concerned about the behavior, circumstance, or social media posts of a student, employee, or someone else associated with a school to make a report through Anonymous Alerts. After each of these horrific events, we inevitably learn from the investigations that the person responsible showed signs to peers, family, school officials, or police of being a potential threat, Haas wrote. In cooperation with the Albemarle County Police Department, we take every potential threat seriously, and we will put safety first every time. Albemarle County and Charlottesville, in an effort to boost mental health support for students, have hired social and emotional counselors at schools and implemented a social-emotional learning curriculum. The city school division also has improved access control to its buildings, including updated door-locking systems. Though it doesnt feel like it right now, we remind ourselves and you that schools remain one of the safest places for young people, Charlottesville officials wrote. Let us join together to make sure that the schools of tomorrow are even safer. A health care organization gave a big boost to a local nonprofit program that serves Panhandle youth. On Thursday, Molina Healthcare Charitable Foundation, MolinaCares awarded $15,000 to the Community Action Partnership of Western Nebraska (CAPWN). Malerie Pacsi, who works in the medicaid product development department for Molina, presented the check to CAPWN representatives. As a health care organization ... that is founded on the premise of supporting communities and building capacity for community programs, the work that (they) all do here at Community Action really resonated with our mission, she said. We wanted to support in a small way but hopefully be a longterm partner. Liz MacDonald, CAPWNs supportive health service director, said the funds would support daily living needs at the Panhandle Youth Shelter. It will go a long ways for really helping out with not only necessities for youth, but we also try to promote whats referred to as normalcy for these runaway and homeless youth, she said. The money will help the youth visit bowling alleys and movie theaters and help fund acquiring new amenities or supplies. Aside from a small amount supporting the general operations of the shelter, the money will go toward aiding the youth themselves. These are funds that we can use that grants generally dont allow to pay for things like that, so its really exciting, MacDonald said. Pacsi said social and economic support systems can be just as important to improving quality of life as physical and mental health services. She said her company is proud to enable organizations to provide more than just medical aid. Oftentimes, grants are hard to come by ... so as we work in communities and start building our business within states, we become part of the state, and as such, we see a responsibility to really integrate with those community connections, she said. ... Doing research and understanding whats here in the community, whats a valued resource, it became very clear to us early on that Community Action was that partner. Pacsi said Molina selected CAPWN as an organization to work with due to its geographic reach as well. Its in more of a rural location and she said the company wants to support the whole state, not just big population centers. Submit Your News We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A group of parents opposed to mask mandates and other protocols put into place by the Goshen County School Board #1 filed a lawsuit against the district recently. Parents listed in the suit, filed in the Eighth Judicial District Court on March 8, are Drew and Danielle Murphy, Brandon and Marie Flanagan, Ty and Kelly Correll, Shanna Vargas, Kristy Green, Rebecca Cochran, Reece and Ashley Posten, Suzanne Keller and Chris and Belinda Alexander. In a group statement regarding the lawsuit from the parents, the group said: On behalf of students, parents and residents of Goshen County we have filed a lawsuit against Goshen County School District #1, the board of trustees, and the Superintendent Ryan Kramer. We believe in the preservation of parental rights and medical decision-making. The constitutional bounds of whats been done to our kids without our consent must be put in check or we will lose all sense of individual liberty forever. In the lawsuit the parents allege, as they did in school board meetings last fall, that the district is violating their rights due to COVID protocols. According to one of the parents, Marie Flanagan, last fall, 55 students had left their school for homeschooling, 45 left the district altogether and at least one high school student was expelled for not wearing a mask. The lawsuit cites Flanagan, as well as stories of other parents in affidavits. One parent, Danielle Murphy, claims in the suit that she attempted to assert her medical decision-making rights on behalf of her child and was denied. This same situation is described in the other affidavits of the Petitioners. In the suit, the parents assert that masks are medical devices used to prevent the spread of COVID. The requirement that a child wear one without their parents consent and in some cases against their expressed will, is a violation of the medical decision making and parental rights authority guaranteed to all of us by the Constitutions of both Wyoming and the United States, and associated case law precedent. They also accuse the district of illegally issuing purported quarantine orders, when they have no statutory authority to do so and contrarily Wyoming students are guaranteed the right to a free public education. The parents claim that the school district, because it is not a public health officer or has no legal standing to issue a quarantine order acted illegally in excluding students from school due to close contact exposures. Attorney Cassie Craven, of Cheyenne, is representing the group. The parents asked for a temporary restraining order, as well as a permanent injunction barring the district from enforcing any mask mandates or quarantining measures. On May 2, the GCSD #1 filed a motion to dismiss the suit. In its motion, the district said that the districts mask mandate expired on Nov. 1, 2021, days after the Oct. 28, 2021, school board meeting. At that time, protocols regarding close contact with individuals testing positive for COVID were also terminated. The district claimed that parents failed to timely file their requests or to show an actual emergency and irreparable harm. The district said in its response that the court lacked jurisdiction over the claim. GCSD #1 is being represented by Brianne Phillips, Tracy Copenhaver and Scott Kolpitcke Law firm in Powell, Wyoming. Submit Your News We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form If anyone sitting in the audience needed a reminder of the impact of the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont, they didnt have to look far. Welcoming the guests to a lunch-and-learn luncheon Thursday was Niyin Miller, a junior at Pfeiffer University. Ive been walking through those doors every year since 2010, Miller said. He started as a young boy, a member of the club, and now he works there during the summer, giving back to young people much like himself. He said the Boys & Girls Club played a major role in getting him to where he is today. Miller, along with others, talked to a group of local leaders about the importance of the Boys & Girls Club, in an effort to continue the support the club has garnered since it began as an idea in 2007. Julia Wilson, a founding board member, said she remembered how her involvement with the club, started. There was a phone message about the grassroots effort to build the club in the aftermath of a police chase in which seven teens were killed. He (her father) hands me a message and says you need to call them back, she said. Building the club was a monumental task. It was 2007, and the economy was on a downturn. Plus, Fifth Street Ministries also was planning a fundraising campaign to build a new facility. Two massive fundraisers seemed impossible, Wilson said, but in the end, both campaigns were successful. We did it, which is an amazing thing. We have a community of generous people, she said. The groundbreaking took place in 2007, and by 2009, the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont opened its doors. During the planning phases, Wilson said, when she would recommend changes to save money, founding board member William Jones wouldnt hear of it. He told her the kids who would be using the facility deserved the best possible. Executive Director Clarissa Young said the club continues to prove its value every day. At pre-COVID-19 levels, she said, there were more than 550 members. While that number has declined to around 300 now, the club is still providing after-school activities from tutoring to simply having fun. The club partners with 13 Iredell-Statesville Schools, and there are six I-SS teachers who provide literacy help. Danette Glover, a board member, said the club made a difference for her son. The club has been very important in my sons life, she said. After watching the impact the club and its staff made on her son, she said, serving on the board was an easy decision. I didnt hesitate, she said. She said the staff members at the club do everything they can to help each child succeed, and they are doing it from a place of love. I-SS Superintendent Jeff James said the Boys & Girls Club of the Piedmont provides more than just academic instructional assistance. It means these children have a caring adult they can turn to. He said the staff at the club is an example of the adage it takes a village. We have got to be a community. We cant run the schools without the community, he said. Becky Wagner, the current board chair, said the club is hoping to continue the success of the past decade and needs community support to make that happen. The club is looking to move into the future by addressing everything from retiring capital debt to bringing the club into the community, growing programs and areas of service to completing maintenance and safety projects. Brady Johnson, Boys & Girls Club director of development, told those at the luncheon that is where their help is needed from volunteering to financial support. Miller also said he hopes the club with continue to thrive thanks to that support. We need everyones support, he said. Group thankful for grant for bicyclists Longview Active Transportation gives a big thankyou to the people who helped with executing the grant provided LAT by the citys Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. Many people in Cowlitz County are not aware the county and Longview are on one of the most popular bike touring routes in the USA. We welcome people from all over the world with some of them biking from Alaska to San Diego and beyond. Given the generous grant provided by the Lodging Tax Advisory Committee, citizen volunteers and members of Longview city staff installed new bike racks downtown at popular locations on Commerce, 14th and 15th avenues; and in the Civic Circle. These bike racks provide somewhere safe for people to lock their bicycles while shopping, grabbing a meal, or just visiting the commercial district. Also, directional signs guiding tourists to facilities they might need while visiting Longview were installed on West Side Highway and Fishers Lane, and on Ocean Beach Highway and Pacific Way. These signs will encourage bike tourists to stop and shop before going to their next destination.. In addition, the grant included event bicycle racks. Now, when festival attendees bicycle to one of the summer festivals, they will be able to lock their bikes to one of our 10 new portable event bicycle racks. Biking to the festival allows attendees to start their festive day right from their own front yard, on their bike. A true volunteer program and tremendous thanks to the following for their support of this project: Kurt Sacha, Ken Hash, Morgan Palmer, Nancy Vandehey, Longview City Sign Shop, Longview City Street Department, Love INC, Matt Carnahan, Rick Jaspers, Pat Keating, Clark Carroll, Trey Davis, Art Birkmeyer, Marti Fine, George Winn, Matt Keebler, Genece Cooper, Bethany Stockton of Sportworks, John Akers, the Longview Complete Streets Committee, and the Longview Lodging Tax Advisory Tax Committee. Longview Active Transportation Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Cowlitz County officials say a culvert on private land, and possibly another on county property, are blocking fish from the Kalama River from migrating up an unnamed stream. County leaders Tuesday reviewed how much the county needed to widen its waterway under Kalama River Road to allow for more fish to pass through, but since a homeowners passage downstream already blocks fish, officials decided to install a smaller county culvert. The county commissioners Tuesday OKd an agreement with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife approving the countys plan to replace the culvert at Kalama River Road milepost 2.37 without providing for fish passage. This option will be cheaper than installing a larger fish passage. Susan Eugenis, county engineer, said Tuesday the state is allowing the agreement because the downstream blockage prevents any migrating fish from reaching the countys culvert, so there is no need to make more room to allow fish to pass through the countys waterway. Instead of us putting in a difficult, expensive culvert to allow fish passage to no fish, were entering into this agreement to put in a standard 36-inch culvert, she said. The agreement calls for the county to replace its 18-inch corrugated metal culvert with a 36-inch corrugated plastic culvert. Eugenis said it would cost an estimated $350,000 more to install a fish passage culvert and would take four to five weeks, compared to one week for the 36-inch culvert. Once the downstream barrier is removed, WDFW will reassess the site for five years to determine if fish are accessing and using the habitat below the county culvert, according to the agreement. If fish are found, the county will have to replace the culvert with a fish passable crossing within five years. Although approval should have been issued before the homeowner installed the culvert, one hasnt been found on record, according to the agreement. State law requires people planning projects in or near state waters to get the approval from WDFW to ensure the construction is done in a manner that protects fish and their habitats, according to the agencys website. In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a 2007 ruling that the state of Washington must replace hundreds of culverts that block salmon passage as part of its duty under the treaties with several tribes to preserve fish runs and habitat. As part of the court order, the state is obligated to fix culverts under state roads. Smaller jurisdictions are encouraged to coordinate with the state in barrier removal to make the efforts effective, according to the Association of Washington Cities. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The fashion e-commerce platform terminated her employment after an investigation into claims of what it called serious financial irregularities and said it reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action. Ankiti Bose, who was fired last week as chief executive officer of the Singapore startup Zilingo Pte, says shell keep fighting to clear her name. The fashion e-commerce platform terminated her employment after an investigation into claims of what it called serious financial irregularities and said it reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action. The probe included questions about Zilingos accounting practices and payments to several service providers of more than $7 million that were signed by her without the knowledge of senior executives, according to people familiar with the matter. Looking for a smartphone? To check mobile finder click here. Also read: In two interviews, before and after her dismissal, Bose denied wrongdoing and provided detailed responses to key points of the investigation. She said that, in the end, the company fired her for a lack of cooperation in the investigation rather than for actual financial improprieties. Shes determined to protect her reputation. There is not a single payment made by Zilingo that did not have proper documents or either the finance, tech or operations teams were not aware of, said Bose, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant who had been CEO of Zilingo since its founding. I feel like my baby has been taken away from me without giving me a proper explanation or a chance to fight for her back. Im grieving and fighting for myself simultaneously. Once a shining example of the potential for tech startups in Southeast Asia, Zilingo ran into trouble after internal whistleblowers voiced complaints this year that triggered conflicts between Bose and her longtime backers. The board suspended her on March 31 and hired investigative firm Kroll Inc. to examine the complaints. Now Zilingos very survival is in question. Bose co-founded Zilingo with Dhruv Kapoor in 2015 after a visit to Bangkoks Chatuchak market, where 15,000 merchants sell goods from across Thailand. Their aim was to build a technology platform to help those kinds of tiny merchants sell to consumers across Southeast Asia. In 2018, they began to reposition themselves as a business-to-business platform to reduce the high cash burn of working with consumers. Zilingos pitch that it would help digitize the fashion industrys antiquated supply chain helped draw venture backers, including Sequoia Capital India and Temasek Holdings Pte. It raised $226 million at a valuation of $970 million in 2019, when Bose was just 27 years old. But with pressure to grow quickly, Zilingo found itself dealing with thousands of vendors and merchants across nine countries from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. The complexity ended up straining the young companys ability to track revenue and other financial figures. Millions in Payments Zilingo and its board havent publicly detailed their allegations against Bose. The company didnt respond to multiple requests for comment, beyond earlier public statements. Following an investigation led by an independent forensics firm that was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate Ms. Ankiti Boses employment with cause, and reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action, the company said on May 20. Social media campaigns and leaked information have caused irreparable damage to the company, the board, employees and investors. People familiar with the Bose probe said one of the most serious allegations involves the payments to service providers that the CEO had signed off on without the knowledge of other senior managers. The payments went to about five information technology and consulting firms during the two-year period covered by the Kroll probe, said the people, asking not to be identified because details of the inquiry are private. These firms received either monthly or one-time payments from Zilingo totaling millions of dollars over that period, while it wasnt clear what services they delivered, the people said. Bose said all of the payments are legitimate and they certainly werent made to benefit her personally. She added its possible other senior mangers werent aware of the payments, although there wasnt anything nefarious about that. I am 100% certain that there is nothing amiss about the way in which the payments are made, she said. I have heard that several individuals in the company have claimed that they are not aware of various business relationships. While I find that odd to believe, because there are so many jurisdictions and so many parts of the company, its possible that they were not officially aware. Bose said that she has not been able to check internal documents to clarify what the payments were for following her suspension, even after requesting access under Krolls supervision. She also hasnt been able to contact staff or external parties who may be able to clear her name. I was not given sufficient access to provide documents that would exonerate me, she said. All I ask my shareholders and stakeholders to do is to not believe that I did not make an attempt to answer these questions. Kroll didnt respond to a request for comment. While Kroll investigators conducted forensic audits to help identify potential financial irregularities, their work did not cover whether there were links between the Zilingo payments and the CEO, the people familiar said. Such a task would require access to bank accounts, which was beyond the scope of the forensic investigation, they added. Another key area that Bose says Kroll officials have asked about is a discrepancy in revenue figures listed in documents provided to current and potential investors. The idea that Zilingo may have used different sets of financial figures has fueled fears among investors that the startup could have been inflating numbers or misleading backers. Bose maintains that such differences are merely the result of trying to comply with complex accounting standards across multiple countries. For example, in some cases sales made by certain merchants on the platform were counted as Zilingos own revenue -- even though such transactions would normally be classified as gross merchandise value, or GMV, under traditional accounting rules. Here, Bose said the rules in certain countries forced her hand. About 12% or 13% of our GMV historically has had to be recorded as revenue due to various regulatory requirements when goods are exported from several Asian countries, she said in the interview before she was fired, citing India, Indonesia and Bangladesh as examples. We have tried to work around this to reduce the impact of this between fiscal 21 and 22. A related issue is the timing of certain transactions. Zilingo is supposed to book revenue only when goods are shipped, but Bose said there was sometimes a 30- to 90-day lag between counting revenue and when the sales would be sent out. That also resulted in two sets of numbers at times, she said. Independent accounting experts are hesitant to make a definitive judgment without examining Zilingos books, but at least one questioned her reasoning. Mak Yuen Teen, an accounting and governance expert at the National University of Singapore Business School, called it not convincing since most countries, including those she cited, adhere to global accounting standards. Counting GMV as revenue is a significant risk for startups because their performance is often assessed based on revenues. Zilingos methods of accounting for discounts and incentives also had an influence on the books. The company has used aggressive methods for recognizing revenue, but Bose says the calculations are standard practice for the industry and that all of its investors were fully aware of them. She emphasized during the hours of discussion that she started Zilingo when she was 23 and depended on the finance department to sort through such quantitative questions. All these matters are well understood by all investors, Bose said in the earlier interview. Unless I am a chartered accountant I cannot touch the books, let alone cook the books. Absent Audits Uncertainty at Zilingo has been aggravated by a lack of audited figures. Public records in Singapore show it has not filed its fiscal 2020 or 2021 financial results, even though that is a basic regulatory requirement for all businesses registered in the city-state. Bose says the delays to its fiscal 2020 audited results were due to efforts to fix an issue involving an Indonesian entity that had been missed in fiscal 2019. She says it is not unusual for startups in Singapore and Southeast Asia to miss such filing deadlines. In Singapore, companies which miss their deadline for filing annual financial statements are fined as much as S$600 ($437), a relatively small sum. Zilingo declined to comment. One venture capitalist, who asked not to be identified because of the disputes contentiousness, said it is not uncommon for startups to make late filings. In Zilingos case, that failure to file contributed to challenges. After Covid-19 slashed the companys revenues, it took two rounds of financing to fund operations. One was a $25 million convertible note in late 2020 from Sequoia and state-owned investors EDBI and Temasek, while another was a near $40 million mezzanine debt facility in mid-2021 from Varde Partners and Indies Capital Partners, according to people familiar with the companys finances, who asked not to be identified because the details are confidential. In March 2022, Varde and Indies told the firm it was in default of the loan agreement citing a wide range of documents it was yet to receive, including the audited filings from fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021, ordering it to cease drawing on funds. By May, they recalled the loan, putting the company in a precarious financial position with little cash to continue operations. The board said on May 13 it had appointed an independent financial adviser to explore options for Zilingo. Its Not About Money Bose argued the investigation against her is an unfair effort to blame her for the companys struggles. She said she has yet to see the full report of allegations against her, despite four interviews with Kroll. She said she was asked to attend another meeting on May 19, but requested to delay it until the following week because she was relocating her family. The next day, she was fired with a termination letter she said cited several causes including insubordination, neglect, failure to produce relevant documents and refusal to comply with direction. I want an opportunity to talk about every single one of the allegations, she said. I was denied the opportunity, time and access to do so. Bose, now 30, pointed out that she hopes to have a substantial professional future, ideally working at startups with ambitious plans for the tech industry. Im not going to live with a stain on my reputation and my career, Bose said. Its not about money -- its about my career, its about my reputation, its about my life, its about my parents. Celcom Axiata Bhd will do its best to meet the deadline with Digital Nasional Bhd (DNB) on the 5G network service agreement in Malaysia. Previously, we reported that K-KOMM has given telco companies until 30 June 2022 to finalise the agreement with DNB. As reported by national news agency Bernama, Axiata Group Bhd president and group chief executive officer Datuk Izzadin Idris confirmed the matter, saying thatthe company was given until the aforementioned date to finalise the process. He then stressed that the company is trying its best to meet the deadline process of negotiations. Izzadin was speaking to reporters yesterday during a press conference in conjunction with Axiata Group Bhds annual general meeting (AGM) held in Kuala Lumpur. As of the time of writing, the four major telecommunications company in our country have yet to finalise the agreement with DNB on the single wholesale 5G network. What do you guys think of the 5G network situation in Malaysia? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below and stay tuned to TechNave for the latest trending tech news! Credit: CC0 Public Domain Researchers who analyzed language related to depression on social media during the pandemic say the data suggest people learned to cope as the waves wore on. University of Alberta researcher Alona Fyshe and her collaborators at the University of Western Ontario hypothesized that depression-related language would spike during each wave of COVID-19. But their study shows that wasn't the case. "There was a big reaction at the beginning and then people sort of found their new normal," says Fyshe, an assistant professor of computing science and psychology. "It's a message of resilience, people figuring out how to keep on keeping on in a pandemic." For the study, the researchers turned their attention to online platforms such as Reddit and Twitter. Social media is a useful tool in assessing mental health at the population level, explains Fyshe, a fellow of the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute and Canada CIFAR AI chair. The researchers first identified keywords by analyzing the type of language posters were using in discussions on Reddit. The self-identification found in those subreddits and forums isn't replicated in many other social media platforms, Fyshe explains. "Essentially we trained a machine learning model that can differentiate between the language of people who post to a thread on the topic of depression versus people who don't," says Fyshe. Using this information and the identified keywords, they turned their attention to Twitter. They analyzed data from four citiesSydney, Mumbai, Seattle and Torontowith different waves of COVID-19 so they could determine which changes in language were due to global trends and which were local. They restricted the data to areas with a large percentage of English tweets so they could use the same methodology to analyze all the data. The results were surprising, says Fyshe. In general, spikes in COVID-19 cases and the various waves throughout the pandemic weren't reflected in the data. In fact, the only city with an increase in depression-related language after the first wave was Mumbai, which saw a significant second wave. Fyshe says the machine learning methods used to scrape Reddit subforums to identify keywords and analyze Twitter data could be applied to a wide range of subjects. For example, when examining data in Seattle, they found strong reactions to the Black Lives Matter movement. "It was indicative of there being a large change to the general moodwhat people were talking about and how people were feeling about the world they lived in." The research was published in the International Journal of Population Data Science. Explore further Countries with low vaccination rates show unusually negative attitudes to vaccines on Twitter More information: Brent Davis et al, Quantifying Depression-Related Language on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic, International Journal of Population Data Science (2022). Brent Davis et al, Quantifying Depression-Related Language on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic,(2022). DOI: 10.23889/ijpds.v5i4.1716 A map previously distributed for Friday and Saturday's graduations at Reed Arena incorrectly stated parking would be free, according to an email from the Bryan Independent School District on Friday. There will be a cash-only parking fee of $5 for guests attending ceremonies for Bryan and College Station high schools Friday and Saturday. College Station High School's graduation is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. today at Reed Arena, and A&M Consolidated High School will follow at 7:30 p.m. in the arena. Both ceremonies will be livestreamed at youtube.com/CSHSAVP and youtube.com/AMCHSAVP, respectively. Bryan High Schools graduation will begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, and Rudder High Schools commencement will follow at noon. Both are also at Reed Arena. Reed Arena will not be enforcing its clear bag policy that is used for Texas A&M sporting events; however, every bag will be checked at entry. There are no outside food and beverages allowed with the exception of one sealed plastic water bottle per guest. Concessions will be open where guests can purchase water and light snacks with a card. Only cards will be accepted at the concession stands. An email from the Bryan school district includes a reminder that the intersection of Wellborn Road and Holleman Drive will be closed due to construction. It states there is also a possibility that George Bush Drive could be down to one lane in each direction at Harvey Mitchell Parkway/F.M. 2818. Detours are in place, but the email recommends people plan to arrive early. According to the email, the following items are not allowed inside the arena: artificial noisemakers, balloons, air horns, glass vases, signs and posters, outside food and beverages, firearms and weapons, tobacco products of any kind, skateboards and scooters, tripods, pets, professional cameras, video cameras or reusable cups or bottles. Strollers must be parked on the concourse of Reed Arena, not in handicap areas of the facility. While pets are not allowed in the arena, service animals may enter. Flowers will be allowed in, as long as they are not in a glass vase. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Thursdays Mary Catherine Harris School commencement was made extra special for some graduates thanks to guests in the crowd and on stage at the Bryan ISD Performing Arts Center. As Lizzie and Sizzie Santos names were called, Naval Corpsman Cecilia Flores Silva stepped on stage to surprise the babies of the family on the milestone day, prompting a tearful reunion between the graduates and their older sister. Silva, a 2016 Bryan High School graduate, made the 16-hour flight from Japan and had been hiding from view since 4 p.m. She even had to make up an excuse that she was getting a call from work when Sizzie called her on FaceTime at what would be 6 a.m. in Japan to show off her graduation outfit. Theyre the babies of our family, and Ive been with them like their whole life, Silva said. I would not forgive myself if I didnt get this moment. Its just like being with them their whole life, and then not being able to be with one of their proudest moments, it wouldnt have been the same. Lizzie laughed that she almost walked past the surprise guest until Silva, who also had flowers for her sisters, reached out her hand and said, Congratulations. She was speechless at Silvas unannounced visit, which was a surprise for the rest of their family as well. Such a big occasion like this, it had to be done, Silva said. She still has another three years in Japan, she said, so she does not know the next time she will be able to visit Texas to see her family, none of whom knew about the surprise. Sizzie said it was a big milestone for she and her sister, saying some of them did not know if they were going to make it to graduation until they were told they had met the requirements. The journey was hard. It was really hard. It took everything in me to do it, she said. But Im happy I did it. Im happy that Im here. Proud of both of you, Silva said. Both graduates plan to attend Blinn College to pursue nursing, following Silvas footsteps as she serves as a hospital corpsman in the U.S. Navy. Before the 117 MC Harris graduates crossed the stage to receive their diploma and their rose to give to those who helped them reach Thursdays ceremony, MC Harris Principal Karen Kaspar recognized the 61 graduates who had been accepted or plan to attend institutions of higher education or join the military and those who are the first in their family to graduate from high school. As Ive gotten to know each of you, I have heard your stories and what brought you to MC Harris, she said. Ive listened and heard of obstacles that youve had to overcome. Some of you were working to help pay rent and support the family. Some of you were parents or became parents this school year. Some of you experienced loss. But somehow, you still did whatever it took to become a graduate. Im here to tell you that this is an extremely motivated and resilient group of students I am so proud of everything you have accomplished. You have so much to celebrate. Graduates Jesus Gomez Jr. and Cristina Rios had a special guest in the audience as their two-month-old daughter, Aylin Moreno watched with their family. Its a blessing; its a real blessing, Gomez said following the ceremony about having his daughter there. It pushed me to be stronger and do better for her. Reina Perez, Gomez mom and Rios mother-in-law, said she could not describe how happy she was to be there with her granddaughter watching Gomez and Rios cross the stage. Everything is coming true for them, she said. Their lives changed completely, and its another journey that they have to continue for them. Im blessed. Gomez said Rios plans to pursue becoming a doctor, while he plans to go to trade school to become a welder. Rios held her daughter following the graduation and said the achievement was a reminder to never lose hope, to never give up and to keep pushing through any challenges. JaZaya Johnson said she hopes by earning her diploma that she can set an example for her younger sister and her four-month-old daughter, Jaiorra Bradford, saying the milestone represents success and a new chapter in her life. I learned that there is no such thing as balance when youre a mom, she said. You just got to make it happen. It comes with obstacles, but you just got to look over those obstacles and achieve what youre trying to do. Johnson plans to attend Blinn College to become a travel phlebotomist and then work toward becoming a certified nursing assistant and then a nurse. Zhana Kelly encouraged her fellow graduates to keep achieving in her commencement speech. She called Thursdays achievement a major step in their lives, saying it is a reflection of their personal commitment and also should be a source of pride. We all worked hard to get to this day, and our work did not go to waste, she said. A high school diploma is a wonderful tool in this world; one that opens many doors, opportunities for anyone who is lucky enough to have one. However, she encouraged her fellow graduates and their supporters to not let it be their end goal, but instead part of a larger journey. She said life is about growing and learning new skills to carry forward throughout life. Wherever your future takes you, let it take you somewhere, she said. Life is a journey, and all accomplishments we achieve during its course should be taken as starting points for further achievements. Our graduation should serve as such, a launching point, projecting us to wherever our futures are meant to take us, whether we land ourselves a career, take up a trade, or continue our education in college or technical school. Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. UVALDE Two days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School here, survivors are recounting stories of the horrifying moments they endured as they were attacked. Some children hid from the killer under tables, while others faked their deaths by smearing blood on themselves. Some were shot multiple times. They watched as their beloved teachers, Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles, were killed while they shielded others from gunfire. Officials have said at least 17 children were hospitalized with injuries, though its unclear how many of those survived. Many who were in the building and in the community said their lives will never be the same. Its just really hard to cope with everything thats going on, said Amber Gonzales, whose 8-year-old daughter Aubree hid under her desk in another classroom while the shooting occurred. Gonzales said Aubree is still traumatized by what happened. Shes terrified to go anywhere without me and her dad, she said. She cant sleep by herself. Shes scared to take a shower by herself. Shes scared to even watch a movie in the living room by herself. I put her to bed last night and she told me she felt like somebody was looking at her shes just really shaken up by it. Aubree told her mother that during the shooting, a woman was banging on her classroom door and begging for the teacher to let her in. Her teacher couldnt unlock the door because of lockdown protocols, she said, and Aubree doesnt know what happened to the woman or whether she was one of the teachers who was killed. I can just imagine the fear of hearing her yell, Help! Help! Gonzales said, fighting back tears. Although her focus is on her daughters well-being, Gonzales added that the circumstances have been incredibly difficult to handle as a parent. Im a mess, she said. Im just so thankful that I was able to bring my baby home and tuck her in and be with her. Another student, a fourth-grader who was inside the classroom where the gunman opened fire, told San Antonio TV station KENS that the shooter came into the room and said, Its time to die. When I heard the shooting through the door, I told my friend to hide under something so he wont find us, said the boy, who was not identified. The boy, his best friend and three other students hid beneath a table with a tablecloth and were able to survive as his teachers and many of his classmates were killed. They were nice teachers, he said of Garcia and Mireles. They went in front of my classmates to help. To save them. Other students in the classroom shared similarly horrifying stories. Eleven-year-old Miah Cerillo survived by smearing her friends blood on herself and playing dead, her aunt, Blanca Rivera, told NBC News. She was hospitalized with bullet fragments in her back but has since been released, Rivera said. Nine-year-old Kendall Olivarez was injured in the attack. She underwent surgery on her arm and was scheduled for more procedures, her aunt, Jennifer Marie Olivarez, said in a post on Facebook. Thank you so much everybody for the prayers ... We know her guardian angel was protecting her through all this. she wrote. Shes going to have so many follow ups. Even those who werent in the room were struggling to make sense of what had happened. Adam Pennington, 8, told the Los Angeles Times that he was in the principals office shortly before the shooting and heard the principal answer a phone call from someone who had seen the gunman approaching. Somebody jumped the fence just now holding a gun, Adam said he heard the caller say. He and others hid under a table before fleeing to other rooms, including behind the curtains of the auditorium, and eventually evacuating to the civic center, where he was reunited with his mother Laura Pennington at about 1:30 p.m. Messages sent Meanwhile, a teen girl from Germany has been left to wonder whether she could have saved those killed by Ramos, who provided her several updates in the days and hours before he slaughtered 21 people inside Robb Elementary School. The 15-year-old, identified only by her nickname, Cece, told the New York Times she connected with Ramos just more than two weeks ago on Yubo, an app that allows strangers all over the world to livestream with one another. They had several conversations through the platform and on social media, with topics ranging from his difficult family life to his intention to carry out a massacre. Maybe I couldve changed the outcome, she said, despite the thousands of miles separating her from the gun violence. I just could never guess that hed actually do this. Cece recalled that Ramos turned 18 on May 16, the first day he was legally allowed to purchase a firearm in the state of Texas, and that he video called her from inside a gun store around that time. He told her he planned on buying an AR-15 rifle. In the days that followed, the 18-year-old hinted at using his new weapon, but did not go into specifics, she told the Times. Less than 24 hours before the shooting in Uvalde County, Ramos allegedly sent Cece photos of a package he claimed contained ammunition designed to burst on impact. She said she also received pictures of a black bag holding what appeared to be several magazines of ammunition and at least one gun. Ramos again video called her the following morning around 10 a.m. He was sporting all black, she recalled, and told her he had a secret to share once his grandfather left their home. About an hour later he wrote that he was also waiting for his grandmother, who he said was on the phone with AT&T about his cell phone. Ima do something to her rn, he wrote, using a vulgar expletive to describe her. Cece did not respond, according to screengrabs verified by the New York Times. I just shot my grandma in her head, Ramos said in a message sent on Tuesday around 11:20 a.m. That text was immediately followed with another: Ima go shoot up a elementary school rn. Cece again remained silent, telling the Times she was curious as to whether he was serious, noting she did not believe he was capable of carrying out the attack. Pennington, 37, a substitute teacher with the Uvalde school district, said she plans to transfer her son and move to a smaller nearby district. Although she criticized the lack of security cameras and guards at the school, she also said she felt law enforcement responded rapidly. The kids were evacuated very quickly. It wasnt long before I saw him. I felt like they did a good job, she said as she stood with her son facing a memorial to the victims, 21 crosses erected in a park at the center of town. Monique Hernandez, whose 8-year-old son Joaquin is a second-grader at Robb and survived, said she received a call about the shooting from a family member in law enforcement and immediately rushed to the scene. She called the teachers who were killed beautiful, selfless women who always did everything for their kids at Robb and would have done everything to protect them during the attack. When she got to the school, she said she could see her sons classroom but didnt know where he was. She eventually realized that he was among the students who had been evacuated onto a nearby field, and ran to him there. He just wanted to go home. He said, Mama, take me home. Sure, baby, she recalled telling him as she held back tears Thursday. Theres no words to make it OK, she said, to make it better. The New York Daily News contributed to this report. Want to know what rage feels like? Its waking on a Wednesday morning on a school day as the cable news talking heads sift through the latest on the shooting at a Texas elementary school that left 21 people dead, most of them children, and looking at your daughter as she gets ready for her final day of classes of the year, and saying, Please, God. Not today. Want to know what it feels like to have your heart break? Its kissing your daughter goodbye, reminding her to stay safe, having her look back at you, and listen as she tells you, with perfect clarity, that shes grown numb to the incidents of carnage that have made mass casualty drills a reality for an entire generation of American schoolchildren. But then, Im one of the lucky ones. I got to kiss my daughter goodbye. For too many families in Texas, and in Buffalo, in Philadelphia, in Pittsburgh, in every American city where our pathological love affair with firearms has destroyed lives and ripped families apart, there will never be another good morning. There will never be another good night. There will never be another happy birthday. And it doesnt have to be this way. That is the most heartbreaking and maddening thing of all. At a time when a clear majority of Americans say they want Congress to enact stricter gun violence reduction measures, bills that would do just that are bottled up in the narrowly divided U.S. Senate. Insanity, as has been famously remarked, is doing the same thing over and over again, and hoping for a different result. And that is the story of our lawmakers ongoing inability to pass even the simplest of gun violence reduction measures. And, then, under our very noses, were hit with another Sandy Hook. And well wring our hands. Well offer our prayers for the dead, and our sympathy to the families. And, past being prologue, nothing will change. And weeks, or maybe even days later, well be back in the same place, wondering how such tragedies can occur in a nation where they happen every day. Thats not just insanity, its utter inhumanity, as a wave of social media memes since the shooting have made clear. But it doesnt have to be that way. And it starts with you. It starts with me. It starts with every one of us, standing up, and saying in a loud and clear voice that weve had enough. Its an election year. Make it clear to the people seeking your vote that if they dont support expanded background checks and closing the gun show loophole, they dont get your vote. Tell them that if they dont back an assault weapons ban, or bans on expanded magazines, they dont get your vote. Make it clear that if they dont support eliminating the filibuster so that these bills, or bills expanding voting rights, can get an actual up or down vote in the U.S. Senate, then theyre not getting your vote either. Not one of these measures will infringe on the rights of law-abiding gun owners. Anyone who says differently, isnt being straight with you. Even the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in the 2008 Heller decision, said that while the Second Amendment clearly allows for Americans to keep and bear arms, that right comes with some limits. Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited, Scalia wrote, even as he sketched out exceptions. ... the right has not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. On Tuesday, Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who represented the families of Sandy Hook when he served in the House, begged his colleagues to reach common ground on reform measures. Im here on this floor to beg to literally get down on my hands and knees to beg my colleagues. Find a path forward here. Work with us to find a way to pass laws that make this less likely, he said. We should not have to beg for the answers that are staring us in the face. We should not have to beg for parents to have the right to wake up in the morning and not worry that today might be their childs last day on Earth. We should not have to beg so that Black people in Buffalo can go to the grocery store safely. We should not have to beg so that the residents of Philadelphia, of Pittsburgh, of Harrisburg, of every American city where these senseless tragedies unfold daily can live safely in their own neighborhoods. Beg? That time is done. Demand it. And dont settle for any other answer but yes. An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is editor-in-chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek. 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Ireland Uruguay, Eastern Republic of Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of Wallis and Futuna Islands Western Sahara Yemen Zambia, Republic of Zimbabwe Blueway creation is slow, steady work. Friends of the Rivers of Virginia, or FORVA, has helped lead the charge in Franklin County to establish and improve blueways on the Blackwater and Pigg rivers. A blueway is a marked route on a waterway that can be navigated by canoeists, kayakers and paddle boarders. It can take years to develop a blueway access point, between acquiring the land and developing parking lots and boat ramps. FORVA recently secured the land for an access point near the intersection of the Booker T. Washington Highway and the Blackwater River. Currently, the nearest access points are 12 miles apart; U.S. 220 is 7 miles upstream from the Booker T. Washington Highway and the Ford/Round Hill Road access point is about 5 miles downstream. The Booker T. Washington Highway access point will break up that 12 mile stretch. Currently a thinly wooded, overgrown patch of land, the area will eventually feature a gravel parking lot and path to the Blackwater Rivers edge, and maybe even a boat ramp. The best blueways have miles of uninterrupted passage with few portages, but achieving that can require the removal of waterway obstructions like dams. Near the end of April, FORVA finished removing just such a dam on the aforementioned 12 mile stretch of the Blackwater River. The Altice Mill dam, located about 3 miles downstream from the U.S. 220 access point, blocked the flow of the Blackwater River and required a precarious portage. This used to be a major hazard on the river, Bill Tanger, FORVA chairman, said. ...The dam used to be solid all the way across, but at some point it breached on river left and the piece that fell out...if anybody tried to boat through here, theyd hit that. The location is right in someones backyard so it wont become an access point, but eliminating a portage is always a win, especially on such a long stretch of river. Dam removals can be part of access point improvement and creation, though. Over on the Pigg River, Tanger was part of an effort to remove a dam at what is now the power dam access point, located near the intersection of Power Dam Road and the Pigg River. Tanger said the power dam removal was much more complicated than the Altice Mill dam removal. The Pigg River is home to the Roanoke logperch, a federally endangered species of fish, and various studies had to be performed before the dam could be removed. The effort ended up taking several years, Tanger said. The dam was finally removed in 2016, but the work didnt end there; a gravel road and parking lot were installed, as well as a sandy beach area. This was about 15 feet down, to where the water level is, Tanger said, gesturing to the beach. None of this beach was here, so we put...rocks in a row to direct the water. ... Then you have a high event and it creates an eddy and it deposits all the sediment back around [the rocks]. Tanger said FORVA hopes to continue improving the power dam access point with an updated map of the blueways on the Pigg and Blackwater rivers. After all, Tanger said, a blueway is never truly finished. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Student empowerment was the focus of an educators summit for roughly 170 Franklin County teachers and staff members on Wednesday and Thursday. The summit, held at Benjamin Franklin Middle School in Rocky Mount, focused on the divisions new learner-centric model, Vision 25, which outlines the qualities students should have as a result of their FCPS education. Vision 25 is about student outcomes. We want students to know how to reach out for help or network, Assistant FCPS Superintendent Suzanne Rogers told The Franklin News-Post on Wednesday. Vision 25 is made up of four pillars, each of which is in turn described by a list of specific skills and traits. For example, one of the pillars is prepared for progress. According to the Vision 25 model, a student is prepared for progress if they seek information from multiple perspectives and use what they learn to solve problems. One of the goals of the summit was to start FCPS educators off on the same page with respect to Vision 25. Developed in 2019 as a picture of where the division should be by 2025, rollout of Vision 25 was supposed to take place in 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the process until recently. Another summit goal was to examine different strategies for achieving Vision 25s desired student outcomes. Really what were looking to do is look at practices or things that will help us make sure that were allowing students a choice. Its not like you abandon what skills need to be done, its about a method of delivery so that students have ownership, Rogers said. ...Whats our traditional way of handling this? Is it going to give us those outcomes? An example shared on Wednesday noted that an 85% score on a math test makes it look like a student is doing well, but they could be seriously behind in one specific skill. A deeper grading report could show parents a breakdown of how their child did on different kinds of questions, providing more information about areas that need improvement. Vision 25 emphasizes student empowerment, which is a core principle of personalized, competency-based learning, or PCBL, which was another strategy discussed at the summit on Wednesday. At a May 9 school board meeting, a group of FCPS educators gave a presentation on Vision 25. During the meeting, Boone District representative Dawn McCray described her understanding of Vision 25 based on a visit to a York, Pennsylvania school where Vision 25-like ideas are already in action. It looked to me like you were incorporating more adult learning concepts into the learning environment, which just engaged kids in the learning process, McCray said. I think the second thing that stood out was it allowed...some differentiation inside the classroom. So kids who were advanced and needed to move a little faster could do so, and kids who maybe needed more attention were receiving some of that. The last thing...[was] they deepened how they were evaluating the students so that you were getting more information as a parent, not less. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. At least six different Russia-aligned actors launched no less than 237 cyberattacks against Ukraine from February 23 to April 8, including 38 discrete destructive attacks that irrevocably destroyed files in hundreds of systems across dozens of organizations in the country. "Collectively, the cyber and kinetic actions work to disrupt or degrade Ukrainian government and military functions and undermine the public's trust in those same institutions," the company's Digital Security Unit (DSU) said in a special report. The major malware families that have been leveraged for destructive activity as part of Russia's relentless digital assaults include: WhisperGate, HermeticWiper (FoxBlade aka KillDisk), HermeticRansom (SonicVote), IssacWiper (Lasainraw), CaddyWiper, DesertBlade, DoubleZero (FiberLake), and Industroyer2. WhisperGate, HermeticWiper, IssacWiper, and CaddyWiper are all data wipers designed to overwrite data and render machines unbootable, while DoubleZero is a .NET malware capable of data deletion. DesertBlade, also a data wiper, is said to have been launched against an unnamed broadcasting company in Ukraine on March 1. SonicVote, on the other hand, is a file encryptor detected in conjunction with HermeticWiper to disguise the intrusions as a ransomware attack, whereas Industroyer2 is specifically engineered to strike operational technology networks to sabotage critical industrial production and processes. Microsoft attributed HermeticWiper, CaddyWiper, and Industroyer2 with moderate confidence to a Russian state-sponsored actor named Sandworm (aka Iridium). The WhisperGate attacks have been tied to a previously unknown cluster dubbed DEV-0586, which is believed to be affiliated to Russia's GRU military intelligence. 32% of the total 38 destructive attacks are estimated to have singled out Ukrainian government organizations at the national, regional and city levels, with over 40% of the attacks aimed at organizations in critical infrastructure sectors in the nations. In addition, Microsoft said it observed Nobelium, the threat actor blamed for the 2020 SolarWinds supply chain attack, attempting to breach IT firms serving government customers in NATO member states, using the access to siphon data from Western foreign policy organizations. Other malicious attacks involve phishing campaigns targeting military entities (Fancy Bear aka Strontium) and government officials (Primitive Bear aka Actinium) as well as data theft (Energetic Bear aka Bromine) and reconnaissance (Venomous Bear aka Krypton) operations. "Russia's use of cyberattacks appears to be strongly correlated and sometimes directly timed with its kinetic military operations targeting services and institutions crucial for civilians," Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security and trust, said. "Given Russian threat actors have been mirroring and augmenting military actions, we believe cyberattacks will continue to escalate as the conflict rages. It's likely the attacks we've observed are only a fraction of activity targeting Ukraine." "The number of cyber attacks in Ukraine will increase during the next six months," Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky said in its own analysis of the offensives in Ukraine last month. "While most of the current attacks are of low complexity such as DDoS or attacks using commodity and low-quality tools more sophisticated attacks exist also, and more are expected to come." YORK An inmate at the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women (NCCW) has been given extended prison time after being convicted of beating her cell-mate and causing serious injury. Marissa Martinez, 25, was sentenced this week to a term of 1-2 years in prison for second degree assault. She was given credit for 94 days already served. She was facing a possible maximum sentence of another 20 years in prison. Court documents indicate she got in a fight with the other inmate living in her cell, pulled her from the top bunk bed by her feet and then began to punch and kick her while on the floor. The other inmate suffered bruising to her face and body. Martinez is currently serving an 18-month prison term for theft out of Madison County. She previously also served an 18-month prison term for possession of methamphetamine out of Douglas County. CARBONDALE Kindness is important to Jenna Jamieson, a business and health sciences teacher at Carbondale Community High School. On Thursday afternoon, Jamieson and her students enlisted the help of second graders in Jennifer Harliebs class at Thomas Elementary School for a project that shows kindness to hometown heroes. For a number of years, Jamieson has asked her high school students to create cards to thank people in the community who serve others, such as policemen, firefighters, medical professionals and teachers. This year, she decided to try something new to grow the project. I wanted to expand the project and encourage my students to help mentor and inspire younger students, Jamieson said. Sophomore Ella Moon and newly graduated Sami Liller spent the afternoon helping the younger students color thank-you pages and making cards for those pages. They started the day by talking about kindness, which Hartlieb said is something they practice in their classroom. They also talked about the jobs that police officers, firefighters, nurses and doctors do. Then, the children began coloring pages that thanked people in service professions. The pages included a police car, a firefighter with his dog, a doctor and nurse, and several more pictures. The children were eager to show off their work. As they finished coloring, Ella and Sami took cards around for them to sign. The coloring sheets will go inside the cards. Jamieson said they plan to create goody baskets or bags that will be delivered with the cards to people in the professions they talked about. Hartlieb told her class that Jamieson thinks kindness is so important she wrote a book about it. Jamieson is the author of Giving Back: Lessons from an adopted immigrant on why a happy life is about helping others [www.jennarpjamieson.com]. Olivia said coloring pictures for the cards was fun. While the last students finished coloring, Zaylan read to his classmates. Peyton S., who is a newer student in the class, colored five or six pages. She joined the class two weeks ago. Hartlieb said one example of kindness in their classroom is her two students named Peyton. Peyton G. was the first student to meet their new classmate Peyton S. She immediately took her hand and showed her around. She was my first friend at my new school, Peyton S. said. Hartlieb said this years class has been one of the top classes in her 25-year career. The community service project was made possible with an Illinois Education Association SCORE grant that was awarded to Jenna Jamieson. IEA Schools and Community Outreach by Educators program (SCORE) is to encourage members and their local associations to collaborate and create opportunities for community service projects. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CARBONDALE A young man hit by a train Tuesday morning has died. Michael L. Sykes-Branch, 22, was struck by a Canadian National freight train just before 11:29 a.m. between the 400 block of North Washington Street and North Illinois Avenue. Police responded to the accident and rendered aid until Jackson County Ambulance Services arrived at the scene. Sykes-Branch was taken to SIH Memorial Hospital of Carbondale by ambulance with life-threatening injuries. He was airlifted to a St. Louis hospital for further treatment and died Thursday. At this point in the investigation, Carbondale Police say there is no evidence to support that any foul play is involved. The death investigation is ongoing. The Southern Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. MOUND CITY A 39-year-old man was convicted of predatory sexual assault of a child Thursday after a two-day jury trial in Pulaski County Court. Jared Wade Hinman Sr. was found guilty of two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, both Class X felonies, and one count of criminal sexual assault, a Class 1 felony. Following an investigation by Illinois State Police, a warrant was issued for Hinmans arrest, and he was arrested in April 2021 by the Marshall County Sheriff's Office in Benton, Kentucky. This case was prosecuted by Pulaski County States Attorney Lisa C. Casper and Appellate Prosecutor Lorinda M. Lamken. Hinman remains in custody at the Pulaski County Detention Center awaiting sentencing. A sentencing hearing is set for 9 a.m. July 29 at the Pulaski County Courthouse in Mound City. Hinman will be sentenced to a mandatory prison sentence of between 16 and 75 years. The Southern Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CHICAGO - A Chicago man was arrested this week on charges alleging he entered the U.S. Capitol with his father during the Jan. 6 riot and took photos of the mayhem while wearing a Trump 2020 flag as a cape. Matthew Bokoski, 31, of the Uptown neighborhood, was arrested by federal agents Wednesday on a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington charging him with misdemeanor counts of disorderly conduct and unlawfully entering a restricted government building. He appeared at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in Chicago, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Heather McShain ordered him released on his own recognizance. Bokoski was at least the 28th Illinoisan to have been charged so far in the Capitol breach, an ongoing investigation that has been described by prosecutors as the largest criminal investigation in the countrys history. Nationwide, nearly 800 people have been arrested as of this month in all 50 states and the District of Columbia on charges stemming from the Capitol breach, according to the U.S. Justice Department. According to the complaint, Bokoski and his father, Bradley James Bokoski, 58, of Utah, traveled to Washington to hear President Donald Trump speak at a rally on Jan. 6 and then followed the crowd to the Capitol grounds, where at about 2:45 p.m. they entered through breached Senate Parliamentarian door. The father and son walked down a hallway as part of a crowd before the group was met with a line of 10 to 15 police officers, according to the complaint. Both men later turned around and left after being in the building for about five minutes. A tipster later sent the FBI screenshots of Matthew Bokoskis Facebook page, including one post depicting a group of people inside the Capitol and a caption reading, I was with my dad and walked right up the capital steps and inside with others, the complaint stated. So only thing Im guilty of is trespassing on federal property if you want to get down to it, Bokoski wrote in another post the next day, according to the complaint. I kept my distance from police and even thanked them for being out and making sure things dont get insane. When FBI agents interviewed Matthew Bokoski in Chicago in January 2021, he allegedly admitted to entering the Capitol and posting the photos and videos on Facebook, according to the complaint. Bokoskis father, who was charged in the same complaint, was also arrested Wednesday near his home in Utah. A court date for the case had not been set in Washington as of Thursday, and no lawyer was listed on the docket for either Matthew Bokoski or his father. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 CHICAGO A lawsuit filed Wednesday by three Illinois Republicans argues that the state should not count mail-in ballots that arrive after the date of an election. The suit was filed in federal court in Chicago on behalf of Rep. Michael Bost from Carbondale, a state GOP committeeperson, Laura Pollastrini, and Susan Sweeney, who was one of the state's Republican presidential electors in 2020. A spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections said Thursday that it does not comment on pending litigation. The suit asks a judge to prevent election authorities from counting mail-in ballots that arrive in the days following in-person voting, arguing that a ballot "is not a legal vote unless it is received by Election Day." Illinois law directs local election authorities to count ballots postmarked by the date of an election and received within two weeks of the election. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 To the Editor: For a split second, I was hopeful John Donald O'Shea's editorial on misinformation would earnestly grapple with the political and cultural implications for how knowledge is labeled true or false by the government, by the media, by all of us. Instead, O'Shea's editorial threw together endless quotes, most of them disconnected and puzzling: lazy parallels between President Biden and Hitler (come again?), Obama's PolitiFact record, and, of course, the most triggering three words for the right Hunter Biden's laptop. Ignored throughout the article is any reference to the documented barrage of misinformation that flooded Black and Latinx communities in the lead up to the 2020 election, presumably one impetus for a Disinformation Governance Board. For example, NPR reported in late October 2020 that numerous (fake, likely Russian-backed) Facebook groups started appearing in battleground states, bearing names like "Being Black in Arizona." Their purpose? To peddle a narrative that the system is broken and that there's no point in participating (i.e. voting.) Finally, the most glaring omission from O'Shea's entire article? Trump himself, the leader of the GOP and a man that, whether through his own stupidity (most likely) or lucky calculation (less likely), is a polluted fountain of misinformation. Indeed, the fact that an essay on misinformation in elections failed to mention the fact that most of the GOP still believes they won a presidential election they lost is O'Shea's most illuminating point, albeit unintentionally. Peter Nelson Carbondale Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 WASHINGTON Joe Biden, then the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, surveyed the collection of black, military-style rifles on display in the middle of the room as he denounced the sale of guns whose "only real function is to kill human beings at a ferocious pace." That was nearly three decades ago, and Congress was on the verge of passing an assault weapons ban. But the law eventually expired, and guns that were once illegal are now readily available, most recently used in the slaughter at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The tragedy, which came less than two weeks after another mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, has refocused Biden's presidency on one of the greatest political challenges of his career the long fight for gun control. Over the years, Biden has been intimately involved in the movement's most notable successes, such as the 1994 assault weapons ban, and its most troubling disappointments, including the failure to pass new legislation after the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Now his White House, which was already trying to chip away at gun violence through executive orders, is organizing calls with activists and experts to plot a path forward. "He understands the history of the issue. He understands how the politics have shifted," said Christian Heyne, vice president of policy at Brady, the gun control advocacy organization. "He feels a sense of missed opportunities from the past, and he understands that this is his last chance to have an impact on gun violence in America." Even for a politician known for his passion, Biden's reaction to the latest shooting in Texas has been searing. "Where's the backbone, where's the courage to stand up to a very powerful lobby?" Biden said Wednesday as he called for Congress to pass new laws. Stef Feldman, a deputy assistant to the president, said the cascade of deaths from Buffalo to Uvalde to everyday shootings that don't generate nationwide headlines only increases the urgency of the administration's efforts. "Every story that we hear about individuals lost to gun violence provides more energy, more of a drive to continue the work," she said. "If we can save even one life by pushing a little harder on a creative policy idea, it's worth it." But executive action such as Biden's order targeting ghost guns, which are privately made firearms without serial numbers might be the best the White House can do if Republicans in the Senate remain opposed to new restrictions and Democrats are unwilling to circumvent filibusters. More challenges could come in the courts, and even the ghost gun rules may become tied up in litigation. "We've got to be clear," said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety. "This is the Senate's job. It's time for the Senate to actually step up and do something." The first new try fell far short on Thursday. A measure to take up a domestic terrorism bill, which could have opened debate touching on guns, drew just 47 of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster. It's a far different situation than when Sen. Biden was working on gun legislation years ago. Fears about violent crime helped foster bipartisan compromises, and conservative rhetoric about gun ownership was less extreme. First, Congress passed the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act in 1993, requiring a background check when someone buys a gun from a federally licensed dealer. The measure was named for James Brady, the White House press secretary who was shot and wounded when John Hinckley Jr. attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in 1981. Next, Congress approved the assault weapons ban as part of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994. The law outlawed specific guns, such as the AR-15, and restricted the type of military-style enhancements that firearms could have. However, the ban contained a sunset provision and it was not renewed in 2004. Although the vast majority of shootings are committed with handguns, military-style semiautomatic rifles are staples of the country's deadliest massacres. One of these weapons was used at Sandy Hook, where 26 people, including 20 children, were killed. The violence shocked the nation, and President Barack Obama asked Biden, then the vice president, to lead a new push for gun control. Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., crafted legislation that would have expanded background checks. In a speech less than three months after the shooting, Biden said "the excuse that it's too politically risky to act is no longer acceptable." He recalled successfully pushing for the assault weapons ban years earlier even though the National Rifle Association warned that he was going to be "taking your shotgun away." "That kind of stuff doesn't work anymore," Biden added. But it did work, and the legislation failed in the U.S. Senate. Biden described the vote as a betrayal of families who lost children at Sandy Hook. Darrell A.H. Miller, a Duke University law professor who is an expert on the Second Amendment, said the political landscape had already changed. "It's fair to say that the issue of guns has become even more polarized," he said. Two years ago, guns became the leading cause of death among children and teenagers, outpacing car crashes. There are roughly 400 million guns in the country, more than one for every person. "The reality is, we're not keeping up with the pace of the gun lobby to arm citizens," said Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. "It's time to start asking," Guttenberg said, "why are Republicans so diametrically opposed to doing whatever it takes to save lives?" Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 FRIDAY, May 27, 2022 (HealthDay News) Getting ahold of the COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid could get easier, the White House announced on Thursday. "We want to make Paxlovid as widely available across the entire country, so that if you do end up getting a breakthrough infection, youre still protected against serious illness," said White House Covid-19 Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha. Paxlovid and vaccines are credited with a declining rate of deaths from COVID, despite an infection rate that has quadrupled since late March. Currently there are 105,000 confirmed infections in the U.S. daily, a number that is likely undercounting actual cases because of unreported positives on at-home test kits. Jha estimated the true case numbers to be around 200,000 or more daily. The first test-to-treat site backed by the federal government is opening in Rhode Island and more are scheduled to open in the coming weeks in Massachusetts and New York City, according to the Associated Press. Those sites will provide patients who test positive with immediate access to the drug. The U.S. is also sending authorized federal prescribers to several Minnesota-run testing sites next week, so that they, too, can test-to-treat. Meanwhile, federal regulators have sent more clear guidance to physicians, so that they can more effectively determine how to manage Paxlovids interactions with other drugs a patient may already be taking. While cases of COVID-19 may be surging, this is the first time during the pandemic that infections and death rates have not trended together. What has been remarkable in the latest increase in infections were seeing is how steady serious illness and particularly deaths are eight weeks into this, Jha said. COVID is no longer the killer that it was even a year ago. When people with COVID infections take Paxlovid within five days of symptoms appearing, there is a 90% reduction in hospitalizations and deaths in patients most likely to get severe disease. About 25,000 to 30,000 courses of Paxlovid are being prescribed each day in the U.S., a four-fold increase over the past six weeks. After key changes were made in how Paxlovid is distributed to states, the number of pharmacies doubled during May to 40,000, the AP said. But vaccines and booster shots are still crucial, Jha added. We are now at a point where I believe fundamentally most COVID deaths are preventable, that the deaths that are happening out there are mostly unnecessary and there are a lot of tools we have now to make sure people do not die of this disease, Jha said. Jha strongly urged Americans to get their boosters. If they are fully vaccinated and still get a breakthrough infection, they should ask their doctors about getting Paxlovid. If people use all these available tools, it will be safer to gather, Jha said. However, in places in the country where boosting rates are much lower, where the infection is starting to spread more, I am absolutely concerned that were going to see, unfortunately, we may see more serious illness, Jha said. Being vaccinated and boosted is a huge part of making sure that those kinds of activities are substantially safer, he added. Though the U.S. has ordered 20 million courses of Paxlovid from drugmaker Pfizer, the country may run out this winter if there is a surge and the drug is widely used, the AP noted. The White House has been asking Congress for additional funds for months to purchase more Paxlovid, as well as other treatments and boosters. I believe that we should be using as much as its necessary to protect Americans now, Jha said. The administration may also have to ration the federal supply of vaccines if Congress doesnt act to boost funding, he said. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more information on COVID-19. SOURCE: Associated Press Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Originally published on consumer.healthday.com, part of the TownNews Content Exchange. A Powerball ticket sold in Orangeburg for Wednesdays drawing is worth $50,000. The ticket was purchased at the Quick Pantry #51 store at 2780 St. Matthews Road. Wednesdays numbers were 19-28-39-42-57. Powerball was 17. More than to 9,400 players in South Carolina hold tickets for prizes from $4 up to $50,000. Players have 180 days from the date of the drawing to claim their prizes. For complete information on claiming prizes, visit sceducationlottery.com. The odds of matching four white ball numbers and the red Powerball number are 1 in 913,129. The estimated jackpot for Saturday nights drawing is $150 million. Net proceeds from every dollar spent by players on the South Carolina Education Lottery are returned to the state in the form of funding for education, prizes, retailer commissions, and payment to contractors for goods and services. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 WASHINGTON South Carolina State University alumnus and Bulldog Battalion graduate Milford H. Beagle Jr. is being promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in the U.S. Army. Beagle has been commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division and Fort Drum in New York since July 2021. He is set to take command of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas in the near future, according to a Fort Drum news release. A native of Enoree, Beagle was commissioned into the Army after completing a bachelor of science in criminal justice from SC State in 1990 as a distinguished military graduate. He also holds a master of science in adult education from Kansas State University and a master of science in advanced military studies from the United States Army Command and General Staff College. Beagle previously served as the 51st commanding general of the United States Army Training Center at Fort Jackson from 2018-21. He had served as deputy commanding general for support of the 10th Mountain Division from 2017-18 and commander of the 193rd Infantry Brigade from 2013-16. His combat and operational experience includes Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq, Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. He and his wife Pamela have two sons, Jordan and Jayden. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson says the victim of an assault doesnt have a right to appeal the perpetrators sentence under the states laws. Wilsons office filed a motion Monday asking the S.C. Court of Appeals to dismiss an appeal filed by S.C. Victims Assistance Network legal director Sarah Ford. SCVAN represents the victim in the case against 19-year-old Bowen Gray Turner. The Attorney Generals motion explained that state law doesnt provide victims with any rights in the appeals process. First Circuit Solicitor David Pascoe said, I am not surprised by the Attorney Generals motion. Quite frankly, it is the right thing to do under our law. However, its important to note that the filing to dismiss has no bearing on the defendants current charges, his possible probation violation, the states motion to hold the bonding company accountable for bond violations, or the Second Circuits decision-making on the Bamberg charge. Ford filed the appeal on April 18, claiming she wasnt allowed to argue motions prior to Turners plea hearing on April 8. Turner was originally charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, but pleaded guilty instead to first-degree assault and battery in an Orangeburg County case. He was sentenced to five years of probation in the Orangeburg County case. Hes not required to register as a sex offender unless he violates probation during those five years. If the S.C. Court of Appeals dismisses Fords appeal, it wont be heard by the court. Turner was also accused of raping a different female on Oct. 7, 2018 in Bamberg County. The 2nd Circuit Solicitors Office dismissed Turners charge after his accuser, Dallas Stoller, died of a self-inflicted wound on Nov. 14, 2021. The 2nd Circuit Solicitors Office has said its reviewing the decision to drop the Bamberg County charge. This week, Ford asked Wilsons office to review the handling of Turners cases, including the dismissal of the Bamberg County charge. Im proud of the work we have done in challenging the enforcement of victims rights and will continue to do so, Ford said. Turners attorney, Sen. Brad Hutto, didnt have any comments about Wilsons motion to dismiss Fords appeal. Turner is currently housed at the Orangeburg County Detention Center on charges of public disorderly conduct, probation violation, threatening the life of a public official and minor consumption of alcohol stemming from a May 8 incident. Turners first appearance in General Sessions court on the charges is scheduled for July 25. Contact the writer: mbrown@timesanddemocrat.com or 803-533-5545. Follow on Twitter: @MRBrownTandD Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 3 Angry 13 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. PARRIS ISLAND Rising seas are encroaching on one of Americas most storied military installations, where thousands of recruits are molded into Marines each year amid the salt marshes of South Carolinas Lowcountry region. Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is particularly vulnerable to flooding, coastal erosion and other impacts of climate change, a Defense Department-funded resiliency review noted last month. Some scientists project that by 2099, three-quarters of the island could be under water during high tides each day. Military authorities say they're confident they can keep the second-oldest Marine Corps base intact, for now, through small-scale changes to existing infrastructure projects. Maj. Marc Blair, Parris Islands environmental director, describes this strategy as the art of the small, a phrase he attributes to the bases commanding general, Brig. Gen. Julie Nethercot. In practice, it means such things as raising a culvert that needs to be repaired anyway, limiting development in low-lying areas and adding floodproofing measures to firing range upgrades. Others advocate much larger and more expensive solutions, such as building huge seawalls around the base, or moving Marine Corps training away from the coast altogether. Parris Island has an outsized role in military lore and American pop culture as a proving ground for Marines who have served in every major conflict since World War I. It remains a crucial training ground, along with Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego. But the rising sea is proving to be a formidable enemy. Salt marsh makes up more than half of the bases 8,000 acres (3,200 hectares), and the depot's highest point, by the fire station, is just 13 feet (4 meters) above sea level. It is linked to the mainland by a single road thats already susceptible to flooding. Low-lying areas on the island and the nearby Marine Corps air station already flood about ten times a year, and by 2050, "the currently flood-prone areas within both bases could experience tidal flooding more than 300 times annually and be underwater nearly 30 percent of the year given the highest scenario, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Military reports have for decades acknowledged threats from climate change to national security, as wildfires, hurricanes and floods have prompted evacuations and damaged bases. A Pentagon document published last fall, after President Joe Biden ordered federal agencies to revamp their climate resilience plans, says the Department of Defense now has a comprehensive approach to building climate-ready installations" and cites an adaptation and resilience study undertaken by Parris Island. But day-to-day disruptions are growing, from nuisance flooding on roads to rising temperatures and higher humidity that when combined, limit the human body's ability to cool down with sweat. Those wetter, hotter days could limit outdoor training. Already, more than 500 people on Parris Island suffered from heat stroke and heat exhaustion between 2016 and 2020, putting the base among the top ten U.S. military installations for heat illnesses, according to the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Branch. All the training that happens at Parris Island could be technically replicated on cooler, drier land somewhere else, said retired Brig. Gen. Stephen Cheney, who served as commanding general at the base from 1999 to 2001. But Cheney doesnt foresee any appetite in Congress for closing the base and relocating its mission to less risky ground, which means the government needs to start investing in structural solutions to protect its crucial components such as the firing ranges near the water, he said in an interview with The Associated Press. Spending millions to build seawalls would be cheaper than spending billions to rebuild the base after a devastating hurricane, Cheney reasons. Parris Island has so far been spared the direct hits that have caused billions in damage to other military installations, but it has been evacuated twice in the last five years for hurricanes, which hit South Carolina every eight years, on average. In 2018, Hurricane Florence pummeled North Carolinas Camp Lejeune, washing away the beach used by Marines for training, destroying buildings and displacing personnel. A month later, Hurricane Michael tore through Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, devastating airplane hangars and causing $3 billion in damage. Those disasters should serve as cautionary tales for Parris Island, argues Cheney. But there is no grand overhaul currently planned -- no concrete bulkheads or other seawalls that could dramatically revise the post's visual character, no master plan to raise buildings all at once. Hurricane planning is focused on protecting life and preserving the equipment and buildings necessary to limit training disruptions, said Col. William Truax, the depot's director of installations and logistics. Were not taking on any major projects because weve not experienced a major threat to what we have to do here, Truax said. To be honest, these old brick buildings arent going anywhere. Parris Island also depends on the resilience of communities just off the base. Stephanie Rossi, a planner with the Lowcountry Council of Governments, said the group's Defense Department-funded study of climate change impacts suggests shoring up the only road on and off the island, elevating buildings and bolstering the storm water system of an area where military families live. The base also works with environmental groups to support living shoreline projects, building up coastal oyster reefs to strengthen natural buffers to floods and hurricanes. The waters will recede, said Blair, the environmental director. The more resilient we make this place, the quicker we can get back to making Marines." Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Dogs and puppies King, a 1-year-old black male Boxer-mix, needs the warm embrace of safety with you (case 0328). Cyndi Lou, a 3-year-old black-and-white female Lab-mix, is no Grinch to be around (case 0361). Ollie, a 1-year-old spotted white-and-black male Lab-mix, will only have eyes for you (case 0542). Nosey, 2-year-old tan female Shepherd-mix, needs someone to love just as much as she does (case 0001). Bandi, a 4-5 year-old white female Lab-mix, needs love she has never been shown (case 0051). Petunia, a 2-3 year-old brindle female Boxer-mix, will cuddle with you all day long (case 0137). Diesel, a 14-month-old black male Boston Terrier-mix, is that fire you need in life (case 0242). Rusty, a 9-month-old black-and-brown male Huskey/Rottweiler-mix, will make you feel brand new (case 0274). Rex, a 1-year-old brindle male Boxer-mix, is more than the average mans best friend (case 0261). Timmy, a 1-year-old tan male Mountain Curr-mix, needs someone to show him a loving touch (case 0159). Starlight, a 3-year-old gray female Lab/Boxer mix, will give you all of her love (case 0422). Sampson, a 2-year-old black male Boston Terrier-mix, is searching for his Delilah (case 0034). Dick, a 7-month-old gray brindle male Pointer-mix, wants a Batman for his Robin (case 0281). Smoke, a 11-month-old brindle male Boston Terrier-mix, will light a fire in your heart (case 0023). Bruce, a 16-month-old black male Lab, will always be there to save the day (case 0028). Sawyer, a 2-year-old white-and-orange male Lab-mix, needs a good country girl in his life (case 0026). Rambo, an 18-month-old white-and-black male Lab-mix, will go on any adventure with you (case 0014). Benny, a 11-month-old tan-and-white male Pyrenees/Mountain Curr-mix, will replace your favorite teddy bear (case 0050). Hope, a 3-year-old tan female Boxer-mix, will fill your heart with love (case 0051). Archer, a 4-year-old tan-and-white male Lab/Pointer-mix, will always point his love in your direction (case 0022). Apollo, a 3-month-old tan male Lab-mix, is like music to your ears (case 0036). Albert, a 1-year-old tan male Lab/Boxer-mix, will love you more than himself (case 0045). Glimmer, a 4-month-old black female Boxer/Lab-mix, will bring sparkle into your life (case 0048). Shera, a 4-month-old red female Boxer/Lab-mix, will rescue you (case 0047). Fred, a 5-year-old white-and-tan male Carolina-mix, is patiently waiting for his Wilma (case 0052). Henry, a 6-month-old chocolate male Lab, would go to the end of the Earth for you (case 0068). Reba, a 3-month-old tri-color female Beagle-mix, has the bark of an angel (case 0068). Judd, a 3-month-old tri-color male Beagle-mix, needs a new riding partner (case 0069). Kenickie, a 7-week-old black male Lab-mix, has the tail wag of the century (case 0073). Artemis, a 5-month-old tan-and-black male Lab/Shepherd-mix, cures the blues with his licks (case 0082). Cats and kittens Penelope, 2-year-old tabby female, will turn your sour in to sweet (case 0331). June, an 18-month-old black female Bombay-mix, who makes it feel like summer all year long (case 0178). Dotty, a 2-year-old tabby female DSH, will make your heart skip a beat (case 0548). Freda, an 11-year-old tri-color female calico, knows cuddles are the best medicine (case 0075). Missy, a 7-month-old female tortoise shell, who needs someone classy in her life (case 0229). Haley, an 11-month-old female tortoise shell, is out of this world fun (case 0218). Cynthia, a 1-year-old female diluted calico, is the best couch surfer (case 0132). Sunshine, an 18-month-old orange-and-white female tabby DSH, will show brighten your day (case 0185). Meow, an 11-month-old female tortoise shell, knows purrs are the way to your heart (case 0260). Gomez, a 6-month-old black male DSH, needs a Morticia in his life (case 0031). Mingo, a 2-year-old grey tabby male Persian-mix, is the handsome gentleman youve been searching for (case 0029). Felix, a 6-week-old gray-and-white male Persian-mix, will bring spice in to your life (case 0060). Sam, a 6-week-old orange-and-white male DSH, loves cuddling in to the night (case 0062). Captain, a 7-month-old gray-and-white Siamese-mix, needs a new ship to call home (case 0071). Pumpkin, a 6-week-old orange female DSH, is a year round treat (case 0073). Briggs, an 8-week-old black male DSH, will go on any adventure with you (case 0087). Binx, an 8-week-old black male DSH, will cast a spell on you (case 0088). Nico, an 8-week-old black male DSH, has a way with purrs (case 0090). Opal, an 8-week-old black female DSH, shines as bright as a rare gem (case 0089). The Orangeburg SPCA will be limiting the number of people inside its facility at this time. Hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on the first and third Saturdays. The SPCA is located at 225 Ruf Road and the phone number is 803-536-3918. Check out available adoptions on the internet at orangeburgspca.petfinder.com, the interactive website at www.OrangeburgSPCA.org and Facebook page at Orangeburg SPCA. Email any questions to adopt@orangeburgspca.org. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 For Gerald Cournoyer, art is a ceremony a prayer. He prefers to paint with a long brush, using his whole arm. Occasionally, hell back away from the canvas and take a moment to sit with the work-in-progress. After all, its only when you take a few steps back that you see the whole story. A member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Cournoyer is known for painting using bold color combinations, geometric designs and animal motifs. On Sunday, Cournoyer plans to paint Devils Tower as part of an art demonstration from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center in Casper. It wont be his first time at the trails center he spoke in front of a packed room there last summer, he said. Cournoyer is both artist and educator: hes presented his work and delivered lectures to institutions across the country. In recent years, he served as the director of the School of Indian Art and then as vice president of development at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. He describes his work as traditional Lakota art with contemporary influences. In one painting, for instance, a blue monarch butterfly perches in a kaleidoscope of hard-edged shapes. In another, ravens mingle with people performing the Ghost Dance a Plains Indian ceremony to bring back dead family members, send American settlers back to Europe and usher in an era of peace. Each contains a coded message, Cournoyer said. The Lakota culture like many other indigenous nations has a library of symbols that can be used to tell stories, share knowledge, recount spiritual teachings and so on. If youre familiar with the symbols of a specific tribe, you can read them them like a book, he said. Take the kapemni: two triangles stacked on top of each other in an hourglass shape. The triangle on the bottom represents life on earth, while the one on top represents the next world, Cournoyer said. Color choice adds its own layer of meaning. In Cournoyers artwork, blue might represent air or water; and green, medicine, for instance. Hes also fond of including birds in his paintings most of all, ravens. The raven is of particular importance, he wrote in an artists statement on his website, and is believed to bring story of the future to individuals and serves as a warning to animals that prey is near. Cournoyers work is part of a wider movement to revive lost Native American traditions. Before American settlers arrived, the Plains Indian nations called the Midwest and Mountain West home for thousands of years. In the late 1800s, the U.S. and Canadian governments funded the starvation, displacement and murder of Plains Indians to make room for their settlers. Native American children were taken from their families and sent to residential schools, where they were forced to assimilate to western culture. They were separated from their histories, languages and cultural practices. My work is about trying to make a connection back using symbols, Cournoyer said. The National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, located at 1501 N. Poplar St., is open daily from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Itll be closed on Saturday in anticipation of former President Donald Trumps rally, which is expected to draw thousands to the neighboring Ford Wyoming Center. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Wyoming Supreme Court on Wednesday denied the appeal of a former Casper man now serving a 62-year-prison sentence for sexually assaulting three women. The justices rejected the legal arguments of Samuel Barrett, 41, who was convicted in an October 2020 jury trial of six counts of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of blackmail. Barretts attorneys had argued there wasnt sufficient evidence to support his sexual exploitation convictions. They also argued the trial court judge should not have allowed evidence to be presented of Barretts 2009 conviction for second-degree sexual abuse. The 2020 case involved three victims, one of whom was the victim in his 2009 case. That woman said that Barrett tricked her into coming to his home under the pretense that he would help her buy a car to make amends for his earlier crime. Once at Barretts home, she said he pointed a gun at her head and forced her to perform oral sex on him after telling her, You ruined my life, and now Im going to ruin yours. Two other women also testified that Barrett sexually assaulted them. One woman said Barrett threatened her with a gun before ordering her to perform oral sex on him. The other said Barrett made a deceptive video purportedly showing her sexually assaulting an infant as a blackmail tool that he used to demand sex. Barretts appeal argued the video did not meet the definition of child pornography, the basis for the sexual exploitation charges. The high court rejected this contention, noting jurors saw and heard ample evidence to reach their conclusion. The Supreme Court also denied his arguments that the 2009 conviction should not have been presented to jurors. Barrett, the court noted, admitted to that case. Moreover, the prior conviction was relevant since it went to Barretts motive for sexually assaulting that victim, according to the ruling. Barrett remains held at the Wyoming State Penitentiary in Rawlins. Love 1 Funny 0 Wow 1 Sad 0 Angry 0 The deadline to register as a candidate for state superintendent of public instruction was Friday. As of Friday morning, four candidates one Democrat and three Republicans had registered. Brian Schroeder currently holds the position. Gov. Mark Gordon appointed him in January after former superintendent Jillian Balow accepted a similar role in Virginia. His term ends in January 2023. Megan Degenfelder and Thomas Kelly, both candidates in the superintendent race, had also applied for the post after Balow's departure but were not chosen. Sergio Maldonado, a Democrat and member of the Northern Arapaho Tribe, is the newest competitor in the race for superintendent. He announced his bid for the job at the Fremont County Democratic Convention on April 23 and registered as a candidate on May 12. Maldonado was born on the Wind River Reservation. He earned degrees at Brigham Young University and Arizona State University and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Wyoming. He has been a teacher, college administrator and school board trustee in Wyoming and Arizona, experiences that his website says have given him a broad understanding of the critical challenges we face in educating our young people and giving them the tools to be happy, thriving community members. Maldonado also has some experience in politics; he ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for Wyomings Senate District 25 in 2014 and 2018 against Sen. Cale Case, R-Lander. Here's a look at every contested legislative race in Wyoming After an anomalous 2016 election cycle, numerous seats in the Wyoming House of Representativ In 1989, while Maldonado was living in Arizona, former president George H.W. Bush appointed him to a three-year term on the National Advisory Council on Indian Education. This exponential community service experience allowed me to fully grasp the enormity of education and why education is foundational for a democratic society, he said in a 2018 interview with the Star-Tribune. Former Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead also appointed Maldonado as the liaison with the Northern Arapaho Tribe in 2015. Kelly, a Republican and chair of the political and military science department at the American Military University, announced his bid for superintendent in April. He has degrees in political science and education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Roosevelt University of Chicago and the Northern Illinois University. He has taught at middle schools and community colleges, and also formerly held teaching positions at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Loyola University and DePaul University. He moved with his family to Sheridan in 2019. Kelly emphasizes local control and reducing regulations. "The fewer regulations handed down from the state, the less of a burden on localities and more of their ability to funnel money into the classroom for students," he told the Star-Tribune earlier this month. Degenfelder, a Republican and a former top official at the Wyoming Department of Education, announced her bid for superintendent in early April. Hailing from Casper, she is the only superintendent candidate besides Maldonado who is a Wyoming native. Degenfelder earned bachelor's degrees in business economics and political science at the University of Wyoming and masters degree in economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing, China. Like Shroeder, Degenfelder already has experience working within the education department: she served as the departments chief policy officer under former superintendent Balow. Shes currently the government and regulatory affairs manager for Morningstar Partners Oil & Gas. It's incredibly important to me that children in public education receive a well rounded, factual education that's free from political ideology, she told the Star-Tribune earlier this month. I believe that there's no room in the classroom for political beliefs and theories, and that includes critical race theory. We need to focus on our children's ability to read, write and do math. Megan Degenfelder announces bid for schools superintendent A former top official at the Wyoming Department of Education announced Thursday she will run for superintendent of public instruction. Schroeder, a Republican who serves as the current superintendent, grew up in Wisconsin before moving to Wyoming. He beat out Kelly and Marti Halverson, a former state representative and chairman of the Lincoln County GOP, for the superintendent position. Degenfelder had also applied for the position but did not make it into the top three candidate choices. Schroeder earned a bachelors degree at Maranatha Baptist University and a Masters degree in professional counseling from Liberty University. Before taking the position, Schroeder was the head of Veritas Academy, a private Christian school in Cody. He has also formerly worked as a teacher and administrator in private schools in California, Wisconsin, Michigan and Wyoming, and as a family and youth coordinator. Gov. Mark Gordon appoints Brian Schroeder as state schools superintendent Gov. Mark Gordon selected Brian Schroeder, who heads a private Christian school in Cody, as the new state schools superintendent Thursday. The purpose of education is to learn to think, he told the Star-Tribune. That purpose, he added, is important now because there is "a lot of illogical thinking going on today in our society." As superintendent, he has been involved in getting a teacher apprenticeship program in Wyoming off the ground (Schroeder announced in a recent update that the education department hopes to pilot "Phase One" of the apprenticeship program in three school districts). The program will be based in part on a similar model in Tennessee, which pays people who want to become teachers while they get on-the-job experience and training. The superintendent race comes at a time when tensions are high around challenges like educator shortages, parental involvement in education and debates over what kids should be taught in school. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A federal judge sentenced a Gillette woman to nearly three years in prison for using various schemes in an attempt to bilk people and the federal government out of tens of thousands of dollars. Local efforts intensify to stabilize macro scene 08:38, May 27, 2022 By OUYANG SHIJIA ( China Daily Employees work on the production line of an electronics company in Huzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo by Wang Shucheng/For China Daily] Provinces, municipalities, regions follow up on calls at teleconference Local governments across China are accelerating measures to stabilize the economy after the central leadership issued a call to intensify efforts for second-quarter growth. Experts said despite weakening economic activity since March amid domestic COVID-19 cases and changes in the international environment, China has ample policy tools in hand and a relatively large capacity to step up macro support for the economy. They said they expect better control of the pandemic and stronger policy support to effect a rebound in some key economic indicators in the coming months. Their remarks were in response to a national teleconference on Wednesday that Premier Li Keqiang addressed and where it was stressed that stabilizing the fundamentals of the economy and ensuring growth are key solutions to problems that China currently faces. Li called for heightened efforts to ensure economic growth in the second quarter and bring down the unemployment rate, saying that government aid packages must be extended to all eligible businesses. Following the national teleconference, provincial-level governments including those of Zhejiang, Hunan and Hubei provinces have pledged intensified efforts to get the economy back on a the normal track and keep economic operations within a reasonable range. East China's Zhejiang province held a meeting on Wednesday to call for intensified efforts to implement national policies, especially those for easing various pressures on enterprises. More efforts will also be made to speed up the implementation of key projects, promote steady growth of industry, foreign trade and investment, and spur consumption of big-ticket consumer goods like cars and home appliances. Hunan province called for more efforts to implement national policies and measures mapped out by the national teleconference, with a focus on stabilizing growth, keeping market entities afloat and stabilizing employment. Hubei in Central China also held a meeting on Wednesday, where it was stressed the local administration will study and implement national measures aimed at stabilizing the economy. It will make more efforts to implement key infrastructure projects in fields like water conservancy, transportation, energy, "new infrastructure" and new urbanization, mitigate difficulties for enterprises, continuously boast a better business environment, keep industrial and supply chains stable and boost consumption. Experts lauded the country's intensified efforts to stabilize the overall economy, saying more efforts should be made to further stimulate domestic demand by expanding effective investment and promoting consumption. Guo Chunli, director of the Chinese Academy of Macroeconomic Research's economic research institute, said consumption plays a key role in smoothing China's internal circulation and propping up economic growth, and fully unleashing consumption demand will also help the nation foster a complete domestic demand system, build a strong national market and implement the new "dual-circulation" development paradigm consistently. In its recent executive meeting, the State Council, China's Cabinet, rolled out 33 additional measures to stabilize growth. The measures include expanding the amount of tax relief, expanding effective investment and spurring consumption. China's southern metropolis of Shenzhen in Guangdong province recently unveiled a slew of key measures, such as spurring car consumption, to promote a gradual recovery in consumption. According to a new document released by the Development and Reform Commission of Shenzhen and five other local departments, the city will offer up to 10,000 yuan ($1,486) in subsidies per vehicle to consumers who purchase new energy vehicles eligible for the policies and register them in Shenzhen. In terms of boosting spending on consumer electronics and home appliances, the document said the city will offer up to 2,000 yuan subsidies for consumers who buy products such as mobile phones, computers, headphones, air conditioners and refrigerators during the period from May to August. And the subsidy amount will be 15 percent of the actual purchase price. Yue Xiangyu, an analyst at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics' Institute for the Development of Chinese Economic Thought, spoke highly of China's heightened efforts to spur consumption, saying the local government's moves, including giving consumption coupons and subsidies, will help promote gradual recovery in consumption. Upon better control of the pandemic and stronger fiscal and monetary support, China's economy may gradually rebound in the third quarter after weakening in the second quarter, he said. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Rep. Liz Cheney officially filed to run for U.S. House on Thursday, announcing her reelection bid in a video that focused on her allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. The announcement, one day before the filing deadline, puts to rest speculation that she might bow out ahead of the toughest election fight of her political career. If we set aside our founding principles for the politics of the moment, the miracle of our constitutional republic will slip away, she says in the video. We must not let that happen. Cheney angered many in her own party by voting to impeach former President Donald Trump over the Capitol riot and for her steady criticisms of him as a threat to democracy. That anger prompted several Republicans to challenge her in the primary. She is facing Trump-endorsed lawyer Harriet Hageman, a natural resources lawyer from Fort Laramie. Also in the race are state Sen. Anthony Bouchard, R-Burns, and retired army colonel Denton Knapp. Cheney, who announced Wednesday that she had tested positive for COVID-19, did not mention any of her opponents by name in the video announcement. The video starts off with Cheney mapping out her familys roots in Wyoming. Since she first decided to run for elected office in Wyoming, Cheney has repeatedly fended off carpetbagger criticisms because she spent many years of her life in Northern Virginia. Cheney spent her middle school years in Casper and bought a home in Wilson in 2012, the year before she ran for U.S. Senate against Mike Enzi. She later dropped out of that race, citing a family members health issues. She ran for House in 2016, coming out on top in a nine-person Republican primary and coasting to victory in the general election. In a nod to her Wyoming roots, Cheney referenced The Code of the West, the states official code, in her campaign announcement. In Wyoming, we know what it means to ride for the brand, Cheney said. We live in the greatest nation God has ever created, and our brand is the United States Constitution. Hageman also officially filed for House on Thursday. Soon after Cheneys filing became public, Hagemans campaign released polling information showing the incumbent remains unpopular among Republican primary voters. The poll was conducted by Cygnal, which received a B+ rating from the poll analysis website FiveThirtyEight. While Cheney has been clear about her intentions previously telling the Star-Tribune and NBC news that she is committed to the House race many Wyomingites, including Bouchards campaign coordinator April Poley, speculated that Cheney would not end up running. Cheney has done little campaigning so far despite having nearly $7 million in the bank. Thats a huge sum for a House race in Wyoming or elsewhere. The news of Cheneys filing comes two days before former President Donald Trump is set to visit Caspers Ford Wyoming Center for a rally in support of Hageman. Ahead of the rally, Trump told K2 Radio that one of Wyomings senators had pushed hard for him to choose Hageman as his candidate to run against Cheney. Trump will be joined by some of his most fervent supporters in Washington and Wyoming: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert and chairman of the Wyoming GOP Frank Eathorne, among others. Eathorne helped lead successful efforts by the state party and the Republican National Committee to censure Cheney following her vote to impeach Trump. Cheney has represented Wyoming in the House since 2017. She became the third-ranking Republican in that chamber, but the GOP stripped her of her leadership role amid her unrelenting criticism of Trump for his false claims of widespread election fraud. The Wyoming Republican primary is Aug. 16. Follow state politics reporter Victoria Eavis on Twitter @Victoria_Eavis Love 3 Funny 2 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 1 Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Trump administration failed to adequately evaluate the status of wolverines in 2020 when it declined to recommend federal protections, a federal judge in Montana ruled Thursday. U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy gave the Fish and Wildlife Service 18 months to redo the analysis and determine whether wolverines, which are estimated to number roughly 300 in the contiguous United States, should be added to the endangered species list. Wolverines are constrained to high, cold, remote places like Western mountain ranges, particularly those in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The animals are much more abundant in Alaska and Canada. Conservation groups argued in court that climate change, which is accelerating snowmelt and driving habitat loss, imperils the species and was not adequately considered during the 2020 review. That decision relied on disputed research suggesting that wolverines numbers were actually going up. The Fish and Wildlife Service said in a Friday statement that it planned to re-examine the decision considering new case law, as well as to re-evaluate the decision in light of new scientific information. Amanda Galvan, an attorney for Earthjustice, said the agency previously ignored key studies that illustrate the threats the wolverine continues to face due to global warming. Conservation groups and the agency have battled over the wolverines status for more than two decades. Thursdays decision reverts the species back to pre-2020 standards, under which it is considered a proposed threatened species under the Endangered Species Act and receives some but not full federal protections. This decision is a victory for wolverines, paving the way for desperately needed protections, Jonathan Proctor, a program director with Defenders of Wildlife, said in a statement. With Endangered Species Act protections, the wolverine might finally have a fighting chance at survival. The change in status means federal officials must now consult the Fish and Wildlife Service to avoid harming wolverines and factor the safety of the animals and their habitat into planning decisions, the conservation groups said. Its too early to tell how, exactly, the court decision and subsequent reevaluation may affect regulatory actions in Wyoming, according to the state Game and Fish Department. All listings come with a new layer of management complexity for any species, Sara DiRienzo, public information officer for the agency, said in an email to the Star-Tribune. Wyomings current wolverine management plan was approved in July 2020, several months before the Fish and Wildlife Service finalized its now-defunct decision. The document notes that the wolverine is considered a protected animal under state statute and a species of greatest conservation need under the states wildlife action plan. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. POWELL Native fish populations in Yellowstone Lake have been jeopardized since fisheries biologists found lake trout illegally introduced in 1994. The process of removing the invasive species has cost tens of millions, while labor-intensive methods have evolved. As the park makes headway mitigating the effects of lake trout, two more species have recently caused concern in the fight to protect Yellowstone Cutthroat trout. Tuesday evening, the East Yellowstone chapter of Trout Unlimited invited Yellowstone fisheries biologist Phil Doepke to speak to the group during a public meeting at the Park County Library in Cody. The organization has donated to the battle to rid the lake of the invasive species, and members have volunteered to work on gill-netting boats in an effort to understand what the park faces in the battle. At the end of those two days, my fingers were just in tatters. I dont know how these guys do it day after day after day, said chapter member David Sweet. Sweet has been an active member of Trout Unlimited for nearly 40 years, serving in virtually every leadership position in the chapter. He served as chairman of the Wyoming Council of Trout Unlimited and as founder of the Save the Yellowstone Cutthroat Project. He now serves as the Yellowstone Lake Special Project Manager. This ongoing project has earned national attention and is now listed as a top priority national project by Trout Unlimited. Sweet was inducted into the Wyoming Outdoor Hall of Fame in 2014. The park has been aggressively gill-netting, laying about 6,000 miles of nets per year on the bottom of the largest high-elevation lake in North America, which averages a depth of 140 feet. Every year, contract commercial fishermen cost the park about $1.5 million, Doepke said. From ice out in May until the docks start freezing over in October, scientists and fishermen, which Doepke called fish geeks, have sought to crash the lake trout population, which feeds on the native cutthroats. Lake trout are a wonderful fish. Theyre just in the wrong place, Doepke said. The labor of fisheries biologists and their vast arsenal of equipment is an added expense. Saving the native species is important, not only for the cutthroats sake, but for other important species in the ecosystem. Without an abundance of cutthroats, grizzlies turned to feeding on alternative sources. Maybe youve seen the bumper sticker, lake trout kill elk, he said. Once they stopped eating fish, they started hunting elk calves. Osprey have nearly disappeared from the park. The number of osprey nests in the park plummeted from about 50 in the late 80s and early 90s to just a couple. Eagles have turned to eating other famous bird populations in the park. Eagles, they liked the fish, but theyre also a scavenging bird, Doepke said. And what was found is instead of eating fish, they started eating the pelican young and swan cygnets [when the cutthroat population began to rapidly decline]. Now, as efforts to remove lake trout for the past 20 years have found success, bears and eagles have been observed returning to their traditional spring menu of cutthroats while they move into streams to spawn. The surviving cutthroat populations are now growing larger, which should thrill anglers. But Doepke said a large portion of the cutthroat population are now too big for osprey, and the charismatic bird species which dive into water to capture prey have yet to rebound. The park sells 40,000 fishing licenses a year. Yellowstone cutthroats cant be harvested, but lake trout are a must-kill species. Doepke said anglers might want to target the southeast corner of the West Thumb region of the lake, where there is a larger population of lakers and anglers wont run into snagging issues with underwater gillnets and fish traps. Gill-netting has continued since the beginning of the conservation project, but park biologists have also tried several other tactics to crash lake trout populations. In cooperation with some of the anglers fishing Yellowstone, they surgically implanted transmitters into about 200 lake trout, referred to as Judas fish, to track them back to concentrations of the species and their spawning beds. Then they casted their nets in the area. Unfortunately, netting efforts drove the species away. So then they tried dumping dead and shredded lake trout on known spawning beds. The practice worked to kill lake trout roe, but it also drew in unwanted bears and they faced running low on resources as lake trout populations plummeted. We were catching fewer lake trout, especially a lot fewer large lake trout, so the amount of fish material was getting to be a lot less, said Doepke. So it was like, OK, this works, but were going to run out of fish. In 2019, park biologists designed a carcass analogous pellet. The small pellets are made out of soy and wheat with the same protein content of the fish carcasses. The park had the pellets mass-produced in Twin Falls, Idaho. The park used a helicopter, making more than 40 flights to apply the same amount of pellets as the concentration of dead fish. The pellets are effective at causing 100% mortality on spawning beds. As the parks top scientists find success, theyve also made two very concerning discoveries. A single female cisco, a type of whitefish native to the Great Lakes, was caught in Yellowstone Lake. The species is hard to catch, Doepke said, and he suspects more illegal bucket biology is in play. They tested the specimen, surgically removing a tiny calcium carbonate structure in the inner ear called otoliths. It appears the female hatched in the lake, meaning there must be more, despite not finding other evidence to date. Smallmouth bass were also caught near the park. The bass are an invasive predatory species that will threaten wild and native trout populations if they become established in the upper Yellowstone River. Since anglers are highly effective at suppressing invasive fish in waters where they coexist with native species such as cutthroat trout, they will be required to kill and report any smallmouth bass caught in Yellowstone National Park when the fishing season opens Memorial Day weekend, said Yellowstones Lead Fisheries Biologist, Todd Koel. Additionally, Yellowstone National Park and USGS biologists will be sampling the Gardner and Yellowstone rivers upstream of where the invasive smallmouth bass was caught. Over the next few weeks, biologists will monitor these rivers closely to gauge the possible extent of the invasion. Our goal is to protect native fish populations and natural ecosystems. We will do everything in our power to prevent the establishment of smallmouth bass in the park and prevent them from preying on and displacing trout and other native fish, Koel said. Doepke has worked in the conservation project his entire career at Yellowstone, but this is his last season, as he plans to retire before the end of the year. Its been a wonderful job and Ive really enjoyed working in Yellowstone National Park, he said. One of the great things about my job is I have essentially five, six seasonal technicians and a couple of interns every year. These are all young fisheries professionals, and theyre all looking for jobs. They want to do what Im doing. They want to work as a technician. They want to get their graduate degree, and then they want to become a fishery biologist. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Government is not supporting a proposal for an increase in tuition fees by the St Augustine Well, my dear, we didnt know where to look. The old codger was getting away with it again, Tucson-based Raytheon Missiles & Defense was awarded a $624.6 million Army contract to produce 1,300 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to replenish supplies sent to Ukraine. Executives at Raytheon and other major defense contractors have been in talks with the Pentagon to boost production of weaponry sent to support Ukraine in its defense against Russia, including the Stinger and the Javelin anti-tank missile. Were aligned with the U.S. Army on a plan that ensures we fulfill our current foreign military sale order, while replenishing Stingers provided to Ukraine and accelerating production, said Wes Kremer, president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense. The funding will be used to enhance Stingers producibility in an effort to meet the urgent need for replenishment. The contract includes provisions for engineering support, as well as the test equipment and support needed to address obsolescence, modernize key components, and accelerate production, said Raytheon, which makes Stinger missiles in Tucson. In service with the U.S. since 1981 and used by more than 30 allied nations, the combat-proven Stinger missile is a lightweight, man-portable air defense system used against helicopters, cruise missiles and low-flying aircraft including drones. It can be fired from shoulder-carried launchers, from vehicle-mounted launchers or helicopters. The Army contract is being funded from the Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, which was recently signed into law and provides $40 billion in emergency funding to support Ukrainian defense forces. In late April, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes told investment analysts the company wont be able to ramp up production of Stinger missiles until 2023, due to a lack of parts and materials. The Stinger has been upgraded over the years to stay in service until 2030, and it is made under license by Airbus in Germany and Roketsan in Turkey. In March, the Army issued a solicitation for a successor to the Stinger for short-range air defense that could go into production in 2028. Contact senior reporter David Wichner at dwichner@tucson.com or 520-573-4181. On Twitter: @dwichner. On Facebook: Facebook.com/DailyStarBiz Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. The business news you need Get the latest local business news delivered FREE to your inbox weekly. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. UVALDE, Texas (AP) Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this weeks attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, Please send the police now, as officers waited more than an hour to breach the classroom after following the gunman into the building, authorities said Friday. The commander at the scene in Uvalde the school districts police chief believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference. It was the wrong decision, he said. Fridays briefing came after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about the more than an hour that elapsed between the time Ramos entered the school and when U.S. Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed him. Three police officers followed Ramos into the building within two minutes. In the next half hour, as many as 19 officers piled into the hallway outside. But another 47 minutes passed before the Border Patrol tactical team breached the door, McCraw said. As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger, two law enforcement officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. One of the officials said audio recordings from the scene capture officers from other agencies telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and that the priority was to stop him. Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers inside the room. His motive remained unclear, authorities said. There was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where officers eventually killed him, but those shots were sporadic for much of the time that officers waited in the hallway, McCraw said. He said investigators do not know if children died during that time. Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including the girl who pleaded for the police, McCraw said. Young survivors of the attack said they pretended to be dead while waiting for help. Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she covered herself with a friends blood to look dead. After the shooter moved into an adjacent room, she could hear screams, more gunfire and music being blared by the gunman. Samuel Salinas, 10, who also played dead, told ABCs Good Morning America that the assailant shot teacher Irma Garcia before firing on the kids. Questions have mounted over the amount of time it took officers to enter the school to confront the gunman. It was 11:28 a.m. Tuesday when Ramos' Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR-15-style rifle. Five minutes after that, authorities said, Ramos entered the school and found his way to the fourth grade classroom where he killed the 21 victims. But it was not until around 12:50 p.m. that police killed Ramos, McCraw said, when shots could be heard over a 911 call from a person inside the classroom as officers breached the room. What happened during that time frame, in a working-class neighborhood near the edge of Uvalde, has fueled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement's response to Tuesday's rampage. "They say they rushed in," said Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. We didnt see that. According to the new timeline provided by McCraw, after crashing his truck, Ramos fired on two people coming out of a nearby funeral home, officials said. Contrary to earlier statements by officials, a school district police officer was not at the school when Ramos arrived. When that officer did respond, he unknowingly drove past Ramos, who was crouched behind a car parked outside and firing at the building, McCraw said. At 11:33 a.m., Ramos entered the school through a rear door that had been propped open and fired more than 100 rounds into a pair of classrooms, McCraw said. He did not address why the door was propped open. Two minutes later, three local police officers arrived and entered the building through the same door, followed soon after by four others, McCraw said. Within 15 minutes, officers from different agencies had assembled in the hallway, taking sporadic fire from Ramos, who was holed up in a classroom. Ramos was still inside at 12:10 p.m. when the first U.S. Marshals Service deputies arrived. They had raced to the school from nearly 70 miles (113 kilometers) away in the border town of Del Rio, the agency said in a tweet Friday. But the commander inside the building the school district's police chief, Pete Arredondo decided the group should wait to confront the gunman, on the belief that the scene was no longer an active attack, McCraw said. The crisis came to an end at 12:50 p.m., after officers used keys from a janitor to open the classroom door, entered the room and fatally shot Ramos, he said. Arredondo could not be reached for comment Friday. No one answered the door at his home, and he did not reply to a phone message left at the district's police headquarters. Gov. Greg Abbott, who at a Wednesday news conference lauded the police response, said Friday that he was misled, and hes livid. In his earlier statements, the governor told reporters, he was repeating what he had been told. The information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, he said. Abbott said exactly what happened needs to be thoroughly, exhaustively investigated. The governor previously praised law enforcement for their amazing courage by running toward gunfire and their quick response. On Friday, Abbott had been set to attend the annual convention of the National Rifle Association, which is being held across the state in Houston. Instead he addressed the gun-rights group's convention by recorded video and went to Uvalde. At the convention, speaker after speaker took the stage to say that changing U.S. gun laws or further restricting access to firearms isnt the answer. What stops armed bad guys is armed good guys, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told those gathered in Houston. Former President Donald Trump was among Republican leaders speaking at the event, where hundreds of protesters angry about gun violence demonstrated outside, including some who held crosses with photos of the Uvalde victims. The motive for the massacre the nation's deadliest school shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago remained under investigation. Authorities have said Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. During the siege, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses. Go in there! Go in there! women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outside a house across the street. Cazares said that when he arrived, he saw two officers outside the school and about five others escorting students out of the building. But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said. As more parents flocked to the school, he and others pressed police to act, Cazares said. He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot. A lot of us were arguing with the police, You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs. Their response was, We cant do our jobs because you guys are interfering, Cazares said. The many chilling details of the attack were enough to leave parents struggling with dread. Visiting a downtown memorial to those killed, Kassandra Johnson of the nearby community of Hondo said she was so worried the day after the attack that she kept her twin boys home from school. Before she sent the 8-year-olds back, she studied the school building, figuring out which windows she would need to break to reach them. And she drew hearts on their hands with marker, so she could identify them if the worst happened, Johnson said, as she put flowers near 21 white crosses honoring the victims. Those kids could be my kids, she said. Associated Press reporters Claire Galofaro in Uvalde, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. SAN DIEGO (AP) A California woman who punched a Southwest Airlines flight attendant in the face during a flight, breaking her teeth, has been sentenced to 15 months in federal prison. Vyvianna Quinonez was also ordered Tuesday by the federal judge in San Diego to pay nearly $26,000 in restitution and a $7,500 fine for the assault on a May 23, 2021, Southwest flight between Sacramento and San Diego. The 29-year-old Sacramento woman is prohibited from flying for three years while she is on supervised release and must participate in anger management classes or counseling. Quinonez last year pleaded guilty to one count of interference with flight crew members and attendants, admitting she punched the flight attendant in the face and head with a closed fist and grabbed her hair. Neither she nor her attorney could be reached for comment Tuesday. During the flights final descent, the attendant had asked Quinonez to buckle her seat belt, stow her tray table, and put on her facemask properly. Instead, Quinonez began recording the attendant on her cellphone, pushed her, then stood up and punched the woman in the face and grabbed her hair before other passengers intervened, authorities said. The assault was recorded on another passengers cellphone. The plea agreement said that the flight attendant suffered three chipped teeth, two of which needed crowns, along with bruises and a cut under her left eye that needed stitches. Attacks on flight crew members, who perform vital jobs to ensure passenger safety, will not be tolerated," U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in a statement after the sentencing. FBI Special Agent in Charge Stacey Moy said the sentence should send a very strong message to air travelers the FBI will vigorously pursue anyone who assaults or interferes with flight crews. The incident was part of an escalation in unruly behavior by airline passengers amid the coronavirus pandemic and led the president of the flight attendants union to ask for more federal air marshals on planes. Airlines in 2021 reported more than 5,000 incidents of unruly passengers to the Federal Aviation Administration. Most were passengers refusing to follow the federal requirement for passengers to wear face masks while on planes, but nearly 300 involved intoxicated passengers, the FAA said. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. A federal judge has quashed a bid by three tribes and an environmental group to stop the ongoing work of Hudbay Minerals Inc. in grading and land-clearing on the west slope of the Santa Rita Mountains south of Tucson. U.S. District Judge James A. Soto on Monday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Tohono Oodham, Pascua Yaqui and Hopi tribes and Save the Scenic Santa Ritas for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, since Hudbay recently surrendered a suspended Clean Water Act permit it was issued for the Rosemont Mine. In mid-April, the plaintiffs had sought a temporary restraining order and injunction to halt work Hudbay has begun on its Copper World mine project, near the Rosemont Mine site on the Santa Ritas east slope, as it prepared to file a lawsuit alleging the Copper World site should be subject to federal water regulations. That effort is connected to the Clean Water Act permit because some of the land that would be graded for the Rosemont permit is also at issue for Copper Worlds grading. Hudbays Clean Water Act permit for Rosemont was essentially suspended by a ruling issued by Soto himself in 2019. Soto ruled that the U.S. Forest Service failed to validate Rosemonts claims on the land where mine waste would be deposited as part of environmental studies supporting the permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2017. Hudbay, which maintains that the Copper World site on private land doesnt include washes subject to Clean Water Act authority, said it voluntarily surrendered its suspended permit for the Rosemont Mine in late April. The Canadian-based mining company filed a motion to dismiss the tribes lawsuit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction because the claims are moot, citing its surrender of the water permit. The tribes contended that the matter was not moot, since the permit is still the subject of the core dispute with the Corps of Engineers. Stu Gillespie, an attorney for three tribes, argued that there is no regulatory process to surrender a permit, that they can only be altered or revoked, and Hudbays move was an attempt to evade legal review. But Soto sided with Hudbay. Because Rosemont has surrendered the permit, avowed that it will not use it, and does not request that it be reissued, there is no longer a live case or controversy surrounding the propriety of the Corps decision, and the relief plaintiffs request is no longer available, the judge wrote. Soto noted that the Corps suspended the Rosemont permit following his 2019, ruling and the court granted the agencys motion to stay, or block, lawsuits challenging the issuance of the permit until the Corps takes further action on the suspended permit. The judge also said there was no reason to lift the stay in the Rosemont case, since the plaintiffs can sue Hudbay over its new activities under authority granted for citizens to file lawsuits to enforce the Clean Water Act. Soto also ruled that Copper World and Rosemont are not connected actions under the National Environmental Policy Act, meaning the Corps of Engineers does not have an obligation to include Copper World as part of its NEPA review of Rosemont. This is a disappointing ruling that allows Rosemont to evade the regulatory process and bedrock environmental laws, said Gillespie, senior attorney for Earthjustice. We all pay the price as Rosemont bulldozes tribal cultural properties and pollutes headwater streams in the Santa Rita Mountains within site of Tucson. He said the tribes are closely evaluating the courts permit-surrender rationale and their right to bring a Clean Water Act citizen-suit against Rosemont. In a statement to the Star, Hudbay said the Corps of Engineers has never determined that there are jurisdictional waters of the U.S. on the site, and Hudbay has independently concluded through its own scientific analysis that there are no such waters in the area. The company said it will continue grading and exploratory drilling it started at the Copper World site in April and plans to complete a preliminary economic assessment of Copper World in the second quarter of 2022. The company said the assessment will include a two-phase mine plan, with the first phase reflecting a standalone operation using Hudbays private land for processing infrastructure and mining portions of the deposits located on patented mining claims. The first phase is expected to require only state and local permits and is expected to reflect an approximate 15-year mine life, Hudbay said. The second phase of the mine plan is expected to extend the mine life and incorporate an expansion onto federal lands to mine the entire Rosemont and Copper World deposits, which would be subject to the federal permitting process, the company said. Hudbay said it expects the preliminary economic assessment to demonstrate robust economics for this low-cost, long-life copper project, delivering the copper needed for domestic supply chains while offering many benefits to the community and local economy in Arizona. Contact senior reporter David Wichner at dwichner@tucson.com or 520-573-4181. On Twitter: @dwichner. On Facebook: Facebook.com/DailyStarBiz Subscribe to stay connected to Tucson. A subscription helps you access more of the local stories that keep you connected to the community. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The Tucson Chapter of the Military Officers of America Association (MOAA) held its April monthly membership meeting at the Vivace Restaurant on Thursday, April 28. Also attending were members of the SaddleBrooke-based Catalina Mountains Satellite Chapter (CMSC). LTC John A. Devine Scholarship Fund awards, and student recognition certificates, were presented to ROTC students in the Army, Air Force and Navy programs at the University of Arizona. The Cadets and Midshipmen shared their career aspirations, and their Detachment Commanders/Instructions provided updates on their respective programs at the University of Arizona. Each recipient was selected by their Commanders/Instructors based on: Leadership; Academic Record; Contributions to the ROTC Program, the University and community engagement; and commitment to military service. Through the scholarships, MOAA honors the memory of LTC John A. Devine, US Army, Retired. Register for more free articles. Log in Sign up Tucson MOAA President, COL William Wojciechowski, concluded the meeting by commenting, It is good to know that our country is in good hands for the next 20-years. The Military Officers Association of America is a non-profit veterans association dedicated to maintaining a strong national defense and preserving the earned entitlements of members of the uniformed services and their families and survivors. The Catalina Mountains Satellite Chapter is part of the Tucson MOAA and encompasses Northwest Tucson, including Catalina, Oracle, parts of Oro Valley and Marana, SaddleBrooke, SaddleBrooke Ranch and Sun City. For additional information about CMSC, contact President CAPT Chuck Vaughan at chuck.vaughan@comcast.net. Those interested in joining can contact Membership Chair LTJG David Bull at maybull23@aol.com. See our new website. Go to https://tucsonmoaa.org. Americas first naturalist, John Muir said, How many hearts with warm red blood in them are beating under cover of the woods, and how many teeth and eyes are shining? A multitude of animal people, intimately related to us, but of whose lives we know almost nothing, are as busy about their own affairs as we are about hours. Atlantic Monthly, 1898. In this modern world, cities dominate the landscape with concrete, asphalt, glass and steel. From such surroundings, its difficult to make contact with the Natural World, not only for parents, but for their children. If you ask a child where his or her milk comes from, they might answer, From the carton in the fridge. How can you, as an adult help your child make contact with wild things? With the birds, bees, snakes, salamanders, frogs, Gila monsters, deer, scorpions and all the other creatures that make our lives so rich with the pulsings of life? Answer: on any given Saturday from October thru April you may take your family for a bike ride, hike and much more at Catalina State Park just outside of Tucson, Arizona. The wild things await you. You havent seen a road runner? What about a Gila monster? Any chance youve seen a pair of cardinals sitting on a tree branch? What about toads, snakes and scorpions? Check with park officials to discover that Jerry Schudda of Saddle Brooke, also known as the Snake Whisperer presents the Catalina Nature Program, along with his cadre of volunteers manning the tablesoffers a wildlife show unique to southern Arizona. On any given Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., his crew of wildlife experts set up a veritable live and static collection of Arizonas wild critters primarily from the Sonoran Desert. This program was founded 22-years-ago by naturalist Jim Cloer and Jerry has been the director for the last 10 seasons. John Muir said, a multitude of animal people, intimately related to us, but of whose lives we know almost nothing, are as busy about their own affairs as we are about ours. Through the efforts of the programs unique collection, and with the roundhouse ala carte presentation, you may meet Karen who is a professional geologist. She shows kids how the region developed. Ask her about the conglomerate rocks and why they are filled with hundreds of other rocks that you saw along the trailsand shell explain how they were formed. When you visit Johns animal skin table, you can feel the different furs that keep animals warm or cool during the different seasons of the year. If you slide over to the animal skull table, Tom will instruct you on the various features each animal possesses for finding prey or defending from predators or how they eat the various foods for their survival. On to the snake aquariums will find Roger showing off a Gopher Snake that wraps around his arms in a magical slithering dance. Would you like to handle this Gopher Snake? Roger asks a child. Register for more free articles. Log in Sign up Eager kids jump at the chance. Once in their hands, the snake wraps around the child to give them a sense of what the animal feels like. They can feel the snakes muscles working under their scales. Their parents take selfies to the endless delight of their childrenand memories for their entire lives. You might see Anthony surrounded by half a dozen kids sitting on the stage teaching them about the Common King Snake. They might be a little shy at first but soon after the first kid holds the snake then most others will follow. As people surround tables, a distinct rattle can be heard from one of the rattlesnake terrariums. Sure enough, Jerry or other volunteers will explain to visitors about the 13 species of rattlesnakes in Arizona and how to react to them. What is the difference between poison and venom? That important difference will also be explained. At another table, Floyd will show people a Sonoran Desert Toad, Western Tiger Salamander, Gila monster and several scorpions. A big attraction comes from a live tarantula. If Jerry attends that table, he allows kids and parents alike to let the spider crawl across the palms of their hands. It doesnt bite because it's been habituated and is no longer fearful of being held. Sometimes, the parents cringe at the thought of the tarantula crawling across the palm of their hands. At the same time, Schudda gently shows the parents that their fear translates to their childrenso wouldnt it nice to show their children a commonality with the Natural World? In seconds, many parent allow the tarantula to crawl across their palms to the delight of their children. Me too, they tell their mom or dad. Another popular demonstration is the scorpion exhibit where one learns about some of the most venomous critters of the desert. The Sonoran Desert boasts about having both the most toxic and the largest scorpions of North America! It would be hard to leave the program without picking up a few new critter facts. Everyone leaves the Nature Programs pavilion with a greater understanding of the many animals that share our world. One such beautiful photograph depicts a Great Horned Owl with his wings flared as he is about to capture a prey. Children and adults may enjoy hundreds of very large pictures of plants, animals, insects, birds and more during their time at pavilion. Included in the static displays is a large insect collection of the most common insects encountered in the area. Bill will navigate you through these creatures some venomous and others benign. The children's table is very popular where the kids can color an animal drawing or model a critter in clay. They might even play amateur archaeologist in the "kid's dig" as they sift through the sand pit filled with hidden treasures like shells, sharks teeth, arrowheads or shiny rocks. Janet and Debby will help the kids get the most out of these programs. The Catalina Nature Program is all about entertaining and educating all who visit the park about the flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert. During the off season May - September private tours of the old adobe "Bunkhouse" circa 1895 where the critters are housed can be had simply by calling Jerry at (5200 235-6899 or Jim AT (520) 818-3545 to set up a visit. Groups of six or less are preferred. If you might like to become a volunteer of the Catalina Nature Program, please email Jerry Schudda at: jschudda@gmail.com. If you would like to donate to this excellent organization, please donate by snapping a picture of the QR code provided. As our friend John Muir said, Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life. The Atlantic, 1898 Frosty Wooldridge, math-science teacher, has bicycled across six continents to see all the wonders of the world. The wine industry is one of a number of professions where women hold disproportionately fewer seats at the table than men. While every aspect of this business remains a male dominated environment, the culture is slowly changing. In company ownership, vineyard management and winemaking, women are slowly assuming more leadership roles and having great success in the process. In this series of articles, I would like to showcase a few examples of women who are making their mark in the wine world. The beginning of this decade will be forever remembered as the years of the great pandemic: the fourteen months when the world took a time-out; face-to-face commerce practically came to a standstill and for many of us telecommuting became the norm. And while the world is slowly emerging from the shadow of COVID certain aspects of how people do business; how we interact with others has been forever transformed. It is within this altered landscape that this months subject of the Women in Wine series is truly making her mark. Haley Moore got her start in the hospitality industry at the tender age of fifteen. From this first job waiting tables, Haley recognized that she enjoyed the personal interaction found in the restaurant setting. During the course of these early years, she developed an interest and appreciation for wine as an integral component of a meal. Moore steadily gained knowledge and experience, earning her certification through the Court of Master Sommeliers and in her mid-twenties worked as a sommelier in two of the premier wine-centric restaurants in San Francisco. From there, Haley took over the beverage program for the Stock and Bones Restaurant Group, managing the wine program for five fine dining restaurants in the Bay area and Portland, Oregon. Haley started her own business; Acquire in 2013, with the intention of assisting private clients with their in-home wine cellars. Haley ran the business part-time, while retaining her managerial position at Stock & Bones. In January 2020, Moore stepped out on her own as a full-time consultant, developing wine programs for restaurants around the country, but little did she know that this was to be a bad time to spring into this endeavor. The COVID pandemic shuttered all of the restaurants that she had been working with, so Haley turned to virtual wine tastings as what she described as a Band-Aid, a quick fix to this new-found problem, although it actually turned out to be a transformative experience that led to structuring an entire business model on utilizing technology to deliver hospitality. Acquire now hosts virtual wine events, shipping half bottles of wine along with cheese, caviar and charcuterie platters to each of the event guests. The events themselves are conducted on Zoom and LexGo - a newer virtual platform. Many of these events are hosted for corporate clients, plus a number of customers that she had developed relationships with from her time on the restaurant floors. Register for more free articles. Log in Sign up Haley quickly learned that she didnt need the four walls of a restaurant in order to deliver hospitality and to make people feel amazing and connected. She has discovered that there are a lot of parallels between fine dining and what Acquire offers. The successful facilitation these virtual events revolve around creating an online environment where the guests can engage one another, as opposed to a webinar format where the presenter does most of the talking. It is this focus on human interaction that makes Acquires virtual tastings stand out from other similar online wine activities. Most of these events are customized and based on the interests of the client; usually wine-centric in nature, with fifteen to twenty people in attendance. Acquire has conducted cooking courses online as well, with the presentation element conducted by a Michelin star chef and the participants shipped ingredient kits beforehand. Moore said that the vision and direction of Acquire continues to evolve with the majority of the focus split evenly between virtual events and wine consultation / sales to private clients. That being said, she believes that the online virtual activities will be the future of her business and as the software platforms continue to improve these events will only get better. To date, Acquire has conducted virtual events serving over 5,000 guests in all fifty states and in twenty countries. Haleys focus will always remain enriching peoples lives by bringing them the best experience possible. After my conversation with Haley, it became clear that the model that she is using has significant advantages for the consumer in that it leverages technology to deliver hospitality in an efficient and cost-effective manner. The use of the Internet has expanded from online commerce and social media platforms to a virtual environment where individuals skilled at interpersonal communication with subject matter expertise can bring people together to socialize and learn. To learn more about Haley, her team and the services that they provide go to their website at acquire-wine.com. Salute Tom Oetinger holds an advanced certification in wine and spirits from the WSET in London, England. He is available to assist you with your wine events or answer your wine questions. Contact Tom at tjo1913@gmail.com Its Wednesday morning outside Blenman Elementary School, and crossing guard Vernon Williams is working up a sweat from all the joy hes spreading. The Tucson Unified School District employee dances and waves and blows kisses to passing cars and people from his corner on Country Club Road, where Elm becomes Pima Street. When he catches someones eye, he offers up a virtual hug by folding his arms across his chest and squeezing his own shoulders. When he sees a fellow veteran, he stands at attention and snaps off a crisp salute. Anyone on a bicycle or driving with their windows down can expect a cheerful shout. Wednesday hug! he yells to a woman who lowers her window as soon as she sees him. Two more days to go! You got this! Ill see you tomorrow, the woman replies. A red light on Elm stops a work truck towing a flatbed trailer. Go get your money! Vernon says to the driver. Youre making so much, you had to get yourself a trailer! A guy in an orange T-shirt pokes his arm out the truck window and gives an enthusiastic thumbs up. Across the intersection, fellow Blenman crossing guard Sevrina Leeth waves and dishes out some Good mornings! of her own. Not everyone responds. Many do. Every few minutes, drivers give a few short blasts of their horns as they roll through the intersection. The happy honkers, Leeth calls them. One driver offers Vernon a distracted half-wave without taking her hand off the steering wheel, so he doubles down, planting a kiss on his hand and throwing it at her like a Frisbee. Shes still laughing when the light changes and she drives away. You be safe now! Vernon tells her. Be safe! And then there are the kids. Good morning, sunshine! he yells to one little girl as she arrives at the corner with her mother, ready to cross. Ive been waiting on you all! The girl smiles shyly and shuffles off to school. Vernon says he and Leeth are on a mission: Our goal is to make this the friendliest corner in Tucson. You can tell he means it, too, because of what he says next. I have to find fun in everything, because the life I was living was a joke, the 60-year-old explains. This is fun. I get paid to play in the street. Yellow light Vernon heard about the job with TUSD from a friend from church who works as a crossing guard. When he handed in his application, he says, he also provided some letters of recommendation, a few counseling certificates he had earned and a full background check on himself so they would know who he used to be and who he is now. Much to his surprise, he was offered the spot at Blenman in March 2020. They gave me a second chance when I didnt think I deserved it, he says. And guess what happened? Right after I got hired, bam, here comes the pandemic. He would spend his first year of work doing perimeter checks at an empty school or handing out take-home box lunches to families in the parking lot. He didnt get to strut his stuff on the corner until in-person classes resumed in March 2021. The waving was Leeths idea. She has been a parent volunteer at Blenman for more than a decade, starting when her oldest daughter, now 18, was a kindergartner there. She eventually joined the paid staff as a crossing guard and hall monitor. About two years ago, she found herself working the busy, narrow intersection by herself after her former crossing guard partner retired. Thats when Leeth started waving to passing motorists and anyone else she could see, just to keep herself going. These days, the only time her right hand stops moving back and forth is when shes holding up her stop sign and escorting kids across the street. When the weekend comes, Im like, Ah, I cant move this arm, she says with a laugh. Since Vernon joined her on the corner last year, he has taken things to a whole new level. The dancing and jumping around thats too much coffee for me, Leeth says. It also seems a little distracting at times, but thats kind of the point. People tend to slow down when they see Vernon or hear him shout. If someone is looking at me, they arent looking down at their phone, he says. Blenman parent Veronica Johns gets a big kick out of her friendly neighborhood crossing guards, and so do her sons, Martin, 6, and William, 11. Its really fun, Johns said, after walking her boys to the corner so Leeth could lead them safely across Country Club. Everybody just seems so excited to see them. Red light Register for more free articles. Log in Sign up It was Vernons therapists at the Veterans Affairs hospital who taught him the value of letting the sunshine in. They said, Open the blinds and welcome the morning, and I started doing it, he says. I started with, Good morning, morning, and Good morning, sun. Then my Christian belief got me to say, Good morning, Lord. The crossing guard thing lets him try it out on people. Waving to everybody every morning is a great part of my recovery, he says. Vernon was born at Fort Hood, Texas, in 1962, the oldest of four kids in a military family that bounced around the country. After stops in Georgia, Oklahoma, California, New Jersey and Missouri, he graduated from high school at Fort Riley, Kansas, but didnt have the grades to go to college. His dad, a three-tour veteran of the Vietnam War, suggested he give the Army a try, so Vernon enlisted in 1980. A year later, while he was posted in Panama, the communications truck he was riding in blew a tire and rolled down a 25-foot cliff, slingshotting him through the windshield. I had 375 sutures in my face, he says. They put me in a coma to reduce the swelling in my brain. After 45 days in the hospital, he was sent back to his unit to handle top secret code books and sensitive communications gear in an underground vault, but the accident haunted him. I had nightmares and night terrors. I kept reliving the blowout and the rollover, he says. Vernon began self-medicating with alcohol and street drugs. He says he ended his stint in the Army in 1986 with an honorable discharge and a cocaine habit. After that, he worked service industry jobs in places like Wichita, Kansas, Oklahoma City and finally Phoenix, as he sank deeper into drugs and depression. He got mixed up in gangs and spent years in and out of jail cells, drug treatment centers and psychiatric facilities. Finally in the late 1990s, he says, the police swept him up along Phoenixs notorious Van Buren Street as part of a drug sting called Operation Corner Stop. He would spend the next six years in prison for the trafficking and sale of crack cocaine. Vernon came to Tucson after his release to complete six months of probation at a halfway house for veterans while he continued the Pima Community College classes hed started behind bars. But his sobriety didnt last. I kept relapsing, and I kept ending up on the mental health ward, he says. At one time suicide looked very inviting to me, because I couldnt grasp why I just couldnt get it together, why I couldnt be normal. Within two years of prison, Vernon found himself homeless on Tucsons south side, where he regularly blew his monthly disability benefits on drugs and alcohol for him and the friends he always seemed to have until he was broke again. Vernon credits the Gospel Rescue Mission and the VAs outpatient PTSD program for finally helping him break the cycle of addiction and mental illness, though it didnt happen right away. He says he relapsed one final time in 2015, after graduating from the rescue missions life recovery program and meeting a single mother online who would become his wife. I was suffering from depression, and depression holds you immobilized, Vernon says. I used to stay in my room with the boob tube on and the shades closed with a blanket over them. I was in a dark, dark cave. He says his stepdaughter gave him the nudge he needed to go back into treatment one last time. She came and told me, Dont you think you need to go back to the hospital? You dont play with me anymore. You just stay in this dark room. Youre no fun, he says. And that was that. I went to the VA and checked myself in. On May 3, Vernon celebrated seven years of being clean and sober. Hes now studying to become ordained through Morning Star Missionary Baptist Church, and doing whatever else he can think of to keep himself out of the dark. If I can say anything to a veteran or anyone who is suffering from trauma, its ask for help, he says. We have this stigma that were broken and unfixable, but we arent. Before you take your own life, reach out and ask for help. Green light In August, TUSD launched a new video series on its YouTube channel called Everyday Heroes. Vernon was the first district employee to be featured. He usually arrives at Blenman by about 6:30 a.m., more than an hour before his shift starts, so he can help roll out the school zone signs and raise the flag in front of the office. Thats not part of my job. I do it because Im a veteran, he says. Most days, hes out on his corner by about 7:15, which means hes waving for free for the first half hour or so. Officially, Vernon is on the clock from 7:45 until 9, and then back again in the afternoon for another 45 minutes once school gets out. Thats when he sometimes hands out lollipops to students as a reward for making it to class. To accent his sunny disposition, he wears day-glow colors under his yellow safety vest. On this Wednesday, its a matching shirt and shorts emblazoned with a fiery Hawaiian sunset. In the winter, hell switch to the loudest, most colorful sweatsuits he can find. Its to get peoples attention. How can you run over me when Im dressed like this? he says. I want to be seen when Im crossing the kids. I dont want you talking about how you didnt see me. The job has helped him get to know a lot of the kids in the neighborhood and not just the ones at Blenman. Theres a daycare center kitty-corner from the school, and Vernon says one little boy who gets dropped off there refuses to go inside until I wave to him. When some students from nearby Catalina High School get off the city bus and cross at his corner, Vernon greets one of them with a fist bump and a few questions about the young mans life. Whats the word? he calls out as the teen continues on to school. Education! the high schooler answers with a backward glance and a grin. Vernon beams in the bright sunshine. I love to see their faces change. I get a fulfillment every morning, he says. They think Im encouraging them, but to see them smile encourages me to face the day. Where to find help The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 1-800-273-8255. The Veterans Crisis Line and Military Crisis Line connect veterans and service members in crisis and their families and friends with qualified, caring U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs responders through a confidential toll-free hotline, online chat, or text. The number is 1-800-273-8255. CANNES, France (AP) The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most colorful spectacles in the world all Cote dAzur sunshine, palm trees and glittering ballgowns. But the soul of Cannes will always exist in black and white. The images that first made Cannes synonymous with glamour were captured in monochrome pictures that still linger in the collective fantasy of the French Riviera extravaganza, where thousands descend annually to participate in a grand, gaudy tradition in the name of cinema. For the 75th edition of Cannes, which wraps Saturday with the presentation of the Palme d'Or, Associated Press photographer Petros Giannakouris has stalked the red carpet and paced the Croisette seeking glimpses of classic Cannes. In his images past and present eras collide, evoking the timeless allure of the world's largest film festival. Here is the sensational swirl of life in Cannes, where dresses get caught in elevators, eyes turn whenever an official car's doors open and the lobbies of grand hotels hum with activity. Some images show the guarded divisions of Cannes, with lines of security bordering the festival's parameters. Others stretch into dreamland: A dressed-up woman waiting on a park bench like a fairy tale. For Giannakouris, who was shooting in Ukraine up until late April, it was welcome break from reality. For more Cannes Film Festival coverage, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Revealing hundreds of pastors and church leaders nationwide who have been accused of sexual abuse, a new Southern Baptist report includes at least 14 names with ties to Oklahoma, including a Broken Arrow youth minister who killed himself after police told him he would be charged with molesting a 13-year-old. The Oklahoma cases date as far back as 1996 but also include a 2021 federal indictment of a Vinita preacher accused of sexual contact with a minor and possession of child pornography. The Southern Baptist Convention released the list, naming 703 people nationwide, late Thursday night after years of pressure from victims and victims advocates, both from within and outside the denomination. Wade Burleson, a retired Baptist minister from Enid, called for a similar database, in 2007, but SBC leaders rejected the motion. Burleson later became a major source for an investigative series published by the Houston Chronicle in 2019, which led to increased public pressure to release the names of pastors and church employees who had faced credible accusations. Its a shame we didnt do it ourselves, and it took outside pressure, said Burleson, whos now running for Congress in Oklahomas Third District. Im not proud of that, but at least it has shed some light on the situation. Most of the Oklahoma cases had already received news coverage, and none of the men appear to remain in the ministry. Burleson, while welcoming the lists publication, hopes it wont weaken anyones faith. I fought from within the SBC to make changes, he said. I have no interest in standing with those who seek to destroy the SBC. The Tulsa-area names include David Glen Randol, a youth minister at Arrow Heights Baptist Church in Broken Arrow, who reportedly killed himself after facing abuse allegations in 1996. Sean David Whisenhunt, a youth minister at Central Baptist Church in Owasso, received a suspended sentence after being convicted of sexual battery in 2010, according to the SBC report. He is currently listed on the states sex offender registry. Roy Edward Williams, a 63-year-old longtime church member who preached on occasion at Bunker Hill Baptist Church in Vinita, was indicted by a federal grand jury last November on five counts of coercion and enticement of a minor, four counts of aggravated sexual abuse of a minor, one count of sexual contact of a minor between 12 and 16 years old and one count of possession of child pornography, according to the SBC report. Williams pleaded guilty April 1 to five counts of coercion and enticement of a minor in Indian Country and one count of possession of child pornography. He will serve a 30-year prison term as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, provided a judge signs off on the deal at sentencing. The newly published list, along with the Sexual Abuse Task Force that released it, offers the Baptist church a chance to be more vigilant in preventing abuse, reporting abuse, and caring for survivors, said Todd Fisher, executive director-treasurer for Oklahoma Baptists, formerly known as the Oklahoma Baptist Convention. This is a pivotal moment for everyone in the SBC, Fisher said. For others touched by abuse in the church not included in Thursdays report, there is hope that ongoing investigations will more fully reflect the extent of the denominations problems. Floyd Buffington said he and his wife, a lifelong member, and several members of their extended family all left the First Baptist Church of Vinita over the churchs handling of a youth minister accused of sexual impropriety in 2020 involving multiple teenage boys. Buffington, who has a relative among the victims, said that only this week did someone from the Southern Baptist Conventions national executive committee return his previous calls, urging him to share information about his familys experience with third-party investigators. He thinks the SBC should mandate background checks, maintain a national database of all church personnel who have been accused, and have uniform policies and procedures for how local churches are to respond when accusations are received. The head of the Oklahoma Baptist association told me each church has autonomy, so there is nothing even at the state level that could be done to a church or a staff member. There is not even a national database to show where a preacher was ordained, Buffington said. Thankfully, local law enforcement took the boys allegations seriously. The youth minister in question pleaded no contest and received a deferred sentence in district court for contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a felony. Of the revelations out of SBC national in the last two weeks, Buffington said: This is just the tip of the iceberg. Look how long it took for the Boy Scouts I think this is going to open up a floodgate. There are probably 10 times more than there are people willing to talk about it. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Michael Overall Staff Writer Born and raised in Oklahoma, I write news features and personal columns on a variety of topics. Phone: 918-581-8383 Follow Michael Overall 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 Another Oklahoman has been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, this time based in part on a tip from a former fraternity brother. Levi Gable, 36, was arrested Thursday in Tulsa by the FBI after a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., alleged that he unlawfully entered the Capitol grounds during the insurrection. A federal criminal complaint filed Monday and made public Thursday alleges that Gable violated four statutes: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. Gable reportedly admitted to being on the U.S. Capitol grounds Jan. 6, but he denies ever entering the building. However, court documents submitted by the FBI include screen grabs of security camera videos that purport to show Gable inside the building. An affidavit submitted by the FBI also says one of Gables former fraternity brothers claims he saw several videos posted to Gables Facebook account that appeared to have been taken inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In a Facebook post on Gables page, the author claims to have been among the first people to make our way into the US Capitol Building, the affidavit says. The posts author claimed to have been there to protest Vice President Mike Pences statement that he would not stand with the American people and challenge the results of the 2020s stolen presidential election. Videos provided by the former fraternity brother from Gables now deleted Facebook page show scenes of individuals yelling and chanting while inside the U.S. Capitol. It appears that Gable is behind the camera, filming, according to the court affidavit. In his interview with the FBI on Jan. 21, 2021, Gable reportedly said he flew to Washington on Jan. 5 and attended the rally on Constitution Avenue the next day before walking to the Capitol. Cellphone provider records obtained by a search warrant indicate that a cellphone whose service was in Gables name was identified as having utilized a cell site consistent with providing service to a geographic area that included the interior of the United States Capitol building, according to the affidavit. Gable was ordered released from custody on an unsecured $10,000 bond after making an initial appearance by video in Tulsa federal court Thursday afternoon. Featured video: Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. It was not how she expected the school year to end, but Liv Montgomery is looking forward to summer vacation. It just doesnt feel like the last week of school, the Patrick Henry fifth-grader said. Thursday was the last day of classes for Tulsa, Jenks and Collinsville public schools. Because of cool, rainy weather, some of the schools fifth-grade traditions like the annual Field Day had to be moved indoors, while others, including fifth-grade promotion and the annual clap-out, were held as normal. Students, parents and teachers lined the halls of Patrick Henry Elementary School on Thursday afternoon to finish out the school year and send Liv and her fifth-grade classmates on to middle school with a round of applause. Graduating seniors who attended the midtown elementary school as children joined in the line behind the fifth graders because, as Principal Jene Carpenter put it, Once an Eagle (the schools mascot), always an Eagle. Although she is a little excited about summer vacation and the prospect of moving on to Edison Middle School with many of her classmates, Liv said she was sad to leave behind her teachers and elementary school community. Im going to miss it, she said, her eyes filling with tears. Along with the fifth graders and graduating seniors, retiring teachers Kay Johnson and Sherry Bryant received an emotional clap-out Thursday afternoon. After 30 years at Wright Elementary School, Bryant moved over to Patrick Henry at the start of the 2020-2021 school year to teach art. Johnson has been at Patrick Henry for 17 years, teaching math, social studies and science over the years. While both said they are excited at the prospect of starting new chapters in their lives, they said they will miss the students. Its like I told my students the other day: We go home and we care and worry about our kids, Johnson said, because they are our kids. Johnson and Bryant also said they are worried about whether there will be enough new teachers to step in as they and others retire. Just hours before the Patrick Henry clap-out, the State Board of Education voted on 13 additional emergency teaching certifications during its regular May meeting, bringing the statewide year-to-date total to 3,455, including 853 for elementary education and 486 for early childhood education. I feel a little guilty, Bryant said. I feel like Im leaving a hole, and if I didnt have someone I know who will be good taking my spot, I wouldnt be able to handle it. Featured video: Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A longtime Oklahoma National Guard officer who became the only Guardsman to lead a corp in combat in World War II was recognized Thursday in a special ceremony at the Tulsa school that bears his name. As part of McLain High Schools annual end-of-the-year awards assembly, Lt. Gen. Raymond McLain was officially inducted into the Oklahoma Military Hall of Fame. McLain, who died in 1954, was recognized to kick off the assembly, with Principal Renee Rabovsky accepting the honor on behalf of McLains family, who could not attend. Col. Kelly Zachgo, vice president of the Oklahoma Military Heritage Foundation Board, said: We are so pleased to be here and thrilled we could make this happen. Gen. Raymond McLain and our other honorees make us all proud of those who wear the uniform of the United States military and preserve our rights and freedoms. McLain, an Oklahoma City resident, originally fought in World War I, returning home afterward to become a successful businessman and civic leader. However, he would again be called to leave civilian life behind to fight for his country. An artillery commander for the 45th Infantry Division during World War II, he led fighting units in Sicily, Italy and France before being assigned to command the XIX Corps. It consisted of the 2nd Armored Division and three infantry divisions, putting McLain in charge of some 50,000 troops. By the end of the war, his decorations had grown to include two Distinguished Service Crosses, two Distinguished Service Medals and a Silver Star. McLain High School was named for him in 1959. The latest induction class included two late Tulsans, as well: Gen. Roscoe Cartwright and Spc. 4 Joe Thomas. Zachgo said the Hall of Fame traditionally holds inductions as part of an annual banquet, but its been canceled the last two years due to COVID. This year, our board decided to ensure we found a way to induct each honoree with individual ceremonies, she said. Rabovsky said, We just want to say thank you for choosing McLain to be a part of the ceremony to honor Gen. McLain, our namesake. I dont think theres a better place to do it. The principal read a statement from McLains family to the assembly, which included students and staff members. General McLain believed that if you have a goal, believe in it, protect it, and strive to do your best to obtain that goal. If you love something, believe in it and protect it. If you believe in yourself, you can do whatever you want and go wherever you want. Dont do something for notoriety or recognition. Do it because it is the right thing to do and it is what you believe is right. Dont give up, dont retreat, and always hold your head high. McLain, who was born in Kentucky and moved later to Oklahoma, had little formal education. He attended school only through the sixth grade but later enrolled in business college. Following World War II, he remained on active duty. Later he became the comptroller of the Army and was appointed the Armys first statutory comptroller general. He is buried at Rose Hill Burial Park in Oklahoma City. Featured video: Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. A new law will allow for Oklahoma Lottery proceeds to help public schools offer more competitive salaries for teachers with advanced, lead and master certifications. House Bill 4388, signed Thursday by Gov. Kevin Stitt, allows lottery funds to serve as a state match to local school districts contributions to certify advanced, lead and master teachers. This will increase teacher salaries, give them promotion opportunities while staying in the classroom and help stem a teacher shortage that is impacting schools across the state, according to a news release from the Oklahoma Lottery Commission. Under the new law, school districts would identify their own highest-quality teachers for the certificates and assign advanced, lead and master designations informed by observation, out-of-classroom time and student performance. No more than 10% of each participating districts teachers would receive the Teacher Empowerment Fund certification in any given year under HB4388. The Teacher Empowerment Fund identifies tangible beneficiaries for lottery dollars, which helps assure people that, win or lose, their money is helping Oklahoma teachers, said Jay Finks, Oklahoma Lottery Commission executive director. This program is absolutely the right next step in modernizing the Oklahoma Lottery. Since its inception, the Oklahoma Lottery has contributed more than $1.1 billion to education. The first $65 million in annual net proceeds deposited into the Oklahoma Education Lottery Trust Fund would be distributed similarly: 45% to common education, 45% to higher education, 5% to the states teachers retirement system and 5% to a school consolidation fund. For fiscal years 2021-22, officials project more than $158 million will go toward education from Oklahoma Lottery profits. The Oklahoma Lottery has grown significantly over the past six years, and future years projections have shown to be just as promising, making it a dependable funding stream for this program, said Rep. Kyle Hilbert, author of House Bill 4388. This bill ... provides a clear career advancement pathway for teachers that allows them to receive higher pay without having to leave the classroom. Those with advanced teaching certificates would receive at least $3,000 more than the state salary schedule or the districts rate of pay, according to HB 4388. For lead teaching certificates, its at least $5,000 more; master teaching certificates earn at least $10,000 more. Featured video: Unions Rebecka Peterson named 2022 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year Seven Oklahoma school districts must alter their shorter-than-normal school calendars after the State Board of Education on Thursday denied them waivers to continue in 2022-23. The state board voted 6-0 to deny applications for Morrison Public School in Okmulgee County and Jennings Public School in Pawnee County, as well as the public schools of Antlers, Battiest, Bridge Creek, LeFlore and Roff to continue using alternate calendars, with fewer than the bare minimum 165 days required by state law. Years ago, Oklahoma moved away from a standard 180-day school calendar requirement and allowed local boards of education to opt for a school year with a minimum of 1,080 hours of student instructional time instead. But beginning in 2021-22, a 165-day minimum was added for even those using the 1,080-hour total requirement. That change in law created a formal process for local schools to apply to the state board for a statutory waiver, with minimum eligibility requirements set by the State Board of Education and approved by the Legislature. Some schools have used four-day weeks with longer days to achieve the minimum number of hours. But on Thursday morning, board member Estela Hernandez moved immediately to deny all seven applications for waivers, and her motion was seconded by member Brian Bobek. Several superintendents from applicant districts pleaded for the board to grant their schools an exception by sharing how longer school days compressed into calendars with only 157 or so total days allowed for block schedules for students and four-day work weeks led to greater success in recruiting and retaining teachers. But some members of the state board said that while they approved waivers last year because of the pandemic, they could no longer support students attending school for fewer than 165 days annually. Member Jennifer Monies said, I appreciate the creativity, but Oklahoma is so far behind even getting to 165 (days). This is not about four-day school weeks. This is about the minimum number of days and hours of instruction, said board member Trent Smith. For me, its philosophical. I am frustrated my child is not in school in Yukon today. I feel like my wife and I have had to pick up the pieces. I personally feel like kids should be in school way more than they are. Featured video: Want to see more like this? Get our local education coverage delivered directly to your inbox. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Mayor G.T. Bynum on Thursday threw his support behind an effort by Cherokee Nation Businesses to establish an emergency intake shelter for unaccompanied minors seeking asylum in the United States. The temporary housing and support services program would operate out of five existing structures in the Cherokee Industrial Park, which is on tribal land. I had a good discussion with Cherokee Nation leadership this morning regarding the proposed facility, Bynum said. As they explained, this would be a location for short-term humanitarian relief provided to children who are refugees. Bynum noted that Tulsans have a long history of providing humanitarian relief for those in need from around the world. This would not be the first time CNB has operated such a facility. It has run similar programs in northern Virginia and Pomona, California. I was impressed with the Cherokee Nations track record of operating similar facilities around the country and offered my support as they seek to aid children at a facility in our community, Bynum said. Tim Roberts, senior vice president for Cherokee Nation Businesses, said the opportunity to provide humanitarian services is a deeply personal mission and a full-circle moment for the organization. We understand the trauma of this journey and the challenges these children face. We are a population of resettlement survivors and their descendants, he said. This work allows us to give hope to the vulnerable among us who need emergency services and compassionate care. The Los Angeles Times reported in 2021 that the CNBs Pomona facility operated for six months, temporarily housing thousands of unaccompanied children and teenagers who arrived at the U.S-Mexico border, many of whom were escaping violence in Central America; at least 8,000 were reunited with family members or sponsors in the United States, according to the article. Cherokee Nation Businesses officials say its too early to know how many young people could or would be temporarily housed at the Cherokee Industrial Park facility. But they noted that the complex potentially could be used to help people in nonimmigration-related emergencies such as floods, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The CNBs zoning application to the Tulsa County Board of Adjustment states that the unaccompanied minors would come from such places as Ukraine, South America and Afghanistan. The children are not placed in the local community unless, by coincidence, their sponsor family already resided locally, the application states. The application defines temporary housing as no more than eight months and states that the Cherokee Nation must move quickly to ensure that the program is in place. The proposed facility at Cherokee Industrial Park could employ as many as 2,000 people. CNB officials said Thursday that those workers would provide a range of services, from case management to health care to education and recreation. Typically, unaccompanied minors are reunited with family or a sponsor within two to three weeks, according to CNB. Not every state elected official was as supportive of the proposed facility as Tulsas mayor. U.S. Sen. James Lankford and Gov. Kevin Stitt expressed strong opposition. Lankford, a member of the Senate committee that oversees immigration, said the United States should be working to have fewer people enter the country illegally rather than facilitating more. I have visited multiple locations along the border where unaccompanied minors are detained for processing into the country and have seen firsthand the housing arrangements, Lankford wrote on Twitter. The Biden Administration spares no expense to facilitate the transition and entry of migrants into the United States. Stitt spokeswoman Carly Atchison said Cherokee Nation leaders are profiting off President Bidens border crisis through backroom deals and secret contracts with no accountability. Cherokee Nation Businesses officials said the company was one of many that responded earlier this year to the federal governments request for proposals to provide temporary housing and support services for children in need. No contract has been awarded. Atchison said that this project will do nothing but encourage more illegal immigration to our country and Governor Stitt strongly urges the Tulsa County Board of Adjustment to do whats right for Oklahoma and stop this in its tracks. Chuck Garrett, CEO of Cherokee Nation Businesses, described the undertaking in different terms. This is an incredibly important humanitarian response that is focused on providing compassionate care to children in need and fulfilling the mission of our government partner, he said. The county Board of Adjustment meeting is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the St. Francis conference room of Williams Tower 1 at 1 W. Third St. Featured video: Get Government & Politics updates in your inbox! Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) China's foreign minister on Friday arrived on the remote Pacific nation of Kiribati, where the future of a vast fishing ground is at stake. The planned four-hour visit by Wang Yi was his second stop on an eight-nation tour that comes amid growing concerns about Beijings military and financial ambitions in the South Pacific region. Kiribati closed its borders this year as it tries to stamp out an outbreak of COVID-19. But its government made a rare exception to allow Wang and his 20-strong delegation into the country for face-to-face discussions. At stake in Kiribati is the future of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, a stretch of ocean the size of California that has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. In November, Kiribati President Taneti Maamau announced the government planned to end the commercial fishing ban that had been in place since 2015 and begin to sustainably fish the area. Anna Powles, a senior lecturer in security studies at New Zealand's Massey University, said she expected there would be some fisheries agreements between China and Kiribati that would come from Wang's visit. Powles said China, which already dominates fishing in the region, had offered to upgrade an airport runway and causeway in the Phoenix Islands. The worry is that this would essentially obliterate the fish stock, she said. That it would severely damage fish stocks that are already under pressure. She said there were also concerns that any kind of base for Chinese commercial fishing fleets in Kiribati could also be used as an additional hub for Beijing's surveillance activities. Kiribati's president said Wang would visit his residence for bilateral discussions during the visit, and emphasized the health protocols that were in place. Maamau said in a statement that the Chinese delegation would need to take PCR tests before arriving and stay in a travel bubble while there, and that everybody in Kiribati who came into contact with them would need to quarantine afterward for a week presumably including himself. The high-level state visit is an important milestone for Kiribati-China relations, as it will strengthen and promote partnership and cooperation between our two countries after the resumption of diplomatic ties in 2019, Maamau said. China says Wang's trip to the region builds on a long history of friendly relations between Beijing and the island nations. A draft document obtained by The Associated Press shows that Wang is hoping to strike a deal with 10 small Pacific nations during his visit. The sweeping agreement covers everything from security to fisheries and is seen by at least one Pacific leader as an attempt by Beijing to wrest control of the region. Wang is hoping the countries will endorse the pre-written agreement as part of a joint communique after a May 30 meeting in Fiji with the other foreign ministers. But Australia scrambled to counter the move Thursday by sending its own Foreign Minister Penny Wong to Fiji to shore up support in the Pacific. In Fiji, Wong said it was up to each island nation to decide what partnerships they formed and what agreements they signed, but urged them to consider the benefits of sticking with Australia. Australia will be a partner that doesnt come with strings attached nor imposing unsustainable financial burdens, Wong said. We are a partner that wont erode Pacific priorities or Pacific institutions. On Friday, Wong met with Fijis Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama. China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands last month in a move that sent shock waves around the world. That pact has raised fears that China could send troops to the island nation or even establish a military base there, not far from Australia. The Solomon Islands and China say there are no plans for a base. During his 10-day visit, Wang is also planning to make stops in Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. Australias new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday hed sent Wong to Fiji because Australia needed to step up its efforts in the Pacific. We need to respond to this because this is China seeking to increase its influence in the region of the world where Australia has been the security partner of choice since the Second World War, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that in recent years, exchanges and cooperation between Beijing and the island nations had been expanding in a development that was welcomed by the Pacific countries. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. The Legislature on Friday overrode some of Gov. Kevin Stitts vetoes, including one from last year, and called him some names, but it did not overturn his vetoes of key budget items. When a sexual abuse scandal hits the church, words from its ministers can be indicative of how bad things really are. The reputation of the church is on the line, but so is the welfare of the people it serves. Mortified is a word one minister used last week. Heartbroken and sickened, said another. If youre not up on this particular story, you might be led to believe that such reactions came from Catholic clergy, whose church has been repeatedly rocked by abuse allegations. But not this time. These are the words of Eric Costanzo, pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church, and Todd Fisher, executive director-treasurer of Oklahoma Baptists and former pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Shawnee. Theyre both ordained ministers in the Southern Baptist Church, the nations largest Protestant denomination and probably the most influential religious group in Oklahoma. I know both men. They are sincere, good people. On a subject like this, theyre not given to hyperbole. So yes, the findings of an independent sexual abuse investigation, commissioned by the Southern Baptist Convention last year, are that bad. I read through the report, issued by Guidepost Solutions, over the last few days. It was released last Sunday. Its grim stuff: At Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, a music minister was allowed to quietly leave in 1989 after allegations of sexual abuse of young boys surfaced. Police were never notified. The minister went on to another church in Mississippi. After confessing to that church about sexual indiscretions in Texas and, before that, in Mississippi, he was arrested and convicted on sex crimes charges. When told this story and asked to address sexual abuse in ministry settings, the SBCs Executive Committee staff rejected the idea. Paige Patterson, the former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, was forced to resign in 2018 after it was revealed that he told one student rape victim in 2003 not to report the crime. In 2015, he planned to meet with another student victim, one-on-one, with the intention to break her down so she wouldnt pursue action against her assailant. In the wake of Pattersons dismissal, some in SBC leadership, including its president, sought to run background checks on various SBC appointments. They were rebuffed. A former SBC vice president, Judge Paul Pressler, is a defendant in a civil lawsuit in which he is accused of repeatedly sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy several years earlier. Two other men have made similar claims. In an email between two high-ranking SBC Executive Committee staff members, one man wrote, Hopefully the statute of limitations would run out on the lawsuit and, therefore, discourage similar suits in the future. Jennifer Lyell, who was once an executive at the SBCs Lifeway publishing arm, reported abuse she suffered at the hands of a past Southern Baptist seminary professor. Lyell initially had support from Lifeway and SBC officials to make her story public. In a story published by Baptist Press, she alleged that she was sexually abused by her professor. But edits to the story made by SBC brass changed the wording to describe it as a morally inappropriate relationship. That wording change drastically altered the meaning of the story. In the eyes of many Baptist Press readers, she was no victim. Lyell was castigated online for being an adulterer (she maintains that the incidents were nonconsensual), and a change in management at Lifeway led to her losing her job. The volume of reported incidents prompted some in the SBC to call for the creation of a database of abusive clergy, an idea that was officially dismissed. But secretly, Executive Committee staff kept files of hundreds of abuse cases from Southern Baptist ministers. The extensive files revealed the scale of the problem, but nothing was done with it. Other survivors were victimized again when their stories werent believed and their characters were questioned. SBC Executive Committee General Counsel Augie Boto called survivors efforts to prompt change a satanic scheme to completely distract us from evangelism. Through two decades, consistent resistance to tackling abuse in SBC ranks shielded national and state organizations from scrutiny and abusers from accountability. Liability and a potential loss in contributions to missions programs were two of the motivations for such stonewalling. The SBCs structure, in which each congregation is autonomous from state or national oversight, provided further cover to do nothing with reported cases. Theres more. Quite a bit more, actually. But the news isnt all bad. Former SBC President J.D. Greear has been a persistent advocate for abuse survivors and was in office when the Guidepost investigation was launched. Executive Committee trustees, who were largely left in the dark about all this, were firm in supporting an investigation once they were aware of the breadth and depth of the allegations. And at last years Nashville Convention, where more than 15,000 Southern Baptist delegates from across the country gathered for their annual meeting, the call for an independent, third-party inquiry was met with overwhelming support. The inertia for a cover-up was strong, but so was momentum for transparency. Credit the latter to the survivors, their advocates and the Houston Chronicle, which blew the abuse scandal wide open in a thorough investigation it published in 2019. Many ministers and lay people are reading Guideposts conclusions and are as stunned as Costanzo and Fisher. Theyre also poring over the reports recommendations. Whats clear is that the SBC cant hide behind its decentralized organization anymore. Its unacceptable to cite bylaws, throw up your hands and say nothing can be done. A workaround can and must be found. Reform is needed to make sure Southern Baptist members be they children or adults are not cast aside when their stories of abuse come to light. Church leaders at every level need to be empowered to respond and to safeguard their flock from abusers who try to slip back into the ministerial ranks. Im sure there will be many heartfelt sermons, speeches and prayers at Southern Baptist meetings in the days and weeks to come. But it cant stop there. Dont let the church bury this in a weepy prayer service and then walk away. The battered lives of hundreds of abuse survivors demand more. Featured video: Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Catch the latest in Opinion Get opinion pieces, letters and editorials sent directly to your inbox weekly! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Too many editorials have been written about the unspeakable tragedies of mass shootings. Weve prayed; weve grieved; weve called for change; weve seen this cycle continuously repeat. What is there left to say? How does anyone make sense of the senseless? Americans remain heartbroken by the Tuesday rampage in a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed. Seventeen others were wounded. The nation is united in mourning with the families and friends who face a lifetime of trauma. But beyond that, whats to be done? That was a question posed in a Tulsa World editorial on Dec. 18, 2012, four days after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, where the 20 children murdered were mostly 6- and 7-year-olds, along with six adults. The answer, it turns out, is nothing. For the parents of those children, that inaction compounds their pain. Making it worse were conspiracy theorists fueled by right-wing darling Alex Jones claiming it was a hoax orchestrated by gun-control advocates with help from mainstream media. Jones was found liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by the parents. Thats where the nation descended in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook devastation. It wasnt just politics; it was an ugliness meant to divide a nation. We need to make sure that doesnt happen this time. Since then, the U.S. has experienced hundreds of mass shootings, defined as incidents with four or more people shot or killed, excluding the shooter. So far this year, the nation is at 213, according to the Gun Violence Archive. Schools ought to be safe spaces. The same could be said for churches, grocery stores, theaters and music festivals. Americans shouldnt live in constant fear. An emotional President Joe Biden challenged the nation in a televised address to stand up to the gun lobby. Pro-gun supporters are already warning against any weapons restrictions. Is anything likely to change? Going by history, no. Sadly, that decade-old editorial made the same prediction: There will be a great amount of arm-flapping and then the next big story will come along and this one will fade from Americas collective mind. Sad, but true. Featured video: Subscribe to Daily Headlines Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Members of the Little Village community gathered Friday to ask CVS to reconsider its decision to close its pharmacy in the neighborhood, saying residents would need to travel too far to get their prescriptions filled. The store, at 2634 S. Pulaski Road, is set to close June 7, CVS Health confirmed. Advertisement [ Para leer en espanol, haga clic aqui ] 22nd Ward Ald. Michael Rodriguez said his office had received a number of phone calls primarily from seniors in the neighborhood, worried about where theyre going to go and fulfill their prescriptions. He said he learned about the closure several weeks ago. We dont want to see another blighted business in our community, he said. Advertisement A woman signals for traffic to stop as they cross with their children, after leaving the CVS store at 2634 S. Pulaski Road in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood on May 27, 2022. CVS had announced it is closing its doors at the Little Village pharmacy. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) Rodriguezs office asked CVS to reconsider closing the pharmacy in a May 18 letter signed by local elected officials including U.S. Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia and state Sen. Celia Villanueva, as well as community and health organizations including Enlace Chicago, Howard Brown Health, Instituto del Progreso Latino and the St. Anthony and Sinai Chicago hospitals. The letter notes that the next closest CVS pharmacy is in Cicero, about 2 miles from the Little Village location. Neighborhood residents without cars will need to take one or two buses to fill their prescriptions, the letter said. In a statement, CVS Health said all prescriptions at the location would be transferred to its Cicero store, and that patients can also choose to transfer to other CVS pharmacies. The company declined to comment on how many prescriptions it fills at the Little Village location. Maintaining access to pharmacy services in historically underserved communities is an important factor we consider when making store closure decisions, the companys statement said. Other factors include local market dynamics, cultural and language barriers, consumer buying patterns, a communitys store density, and ensuring there are other geographic access points to meet the needs of the community, including COVID-19 testing and vaccinations. There is a Walgreens pharmacy down the street from the Little Village CVS at 26th Street and PulaskiRoad. But some patients wont be able to transfer their medications there because of the decision by Aetna, which is owned by CVS, to drop Walgreens from its Aetna Better Health of Illinois Medicaid network in December 2020. At the time, critics of the Aetna decision told the Tribune the decision was affecting poor and majority-Black neighborhoods on the citys South and West sides. Aetna said in a statement in December 2020 that the decision has not created or contributed to network access issues. We meet or exceed all of the states access requirements for managed care organizations, the statement from Aetna said. In fact, the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services has reviewed our updated network and determined it ensures equity. Advertisement Last year, CVS announced it would close 900 U.S. stores over three years. In a statement Friday, the company said it was in the process of transferring employees at the Little Village CVS to other stores. The chain currently has nearly 70 locations in Chicago. Howard Ehrman and Anne Scheetz protest outside the CVS store in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood that is slated to close. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) The organizations I represent believe that health care is a human right, said Anne Scheetz of Physicians for a National Health Program Illinois and the Illinois Single-Payer Coalition, speaking at the Friday news conference. That it is not a commodity to be available only to those who have money. Scheetz said she lives in Logan Square and that there are four CVS pharmacies within walking distance of her house. They are adding stores in wealthy neighborhoods, she said. And theyre closing them in these neighborhoods. That aint right. The closure was announced during the context of a worldwide pandemic that continues to rage, said Raoul Contreras of the group Mi Villita Neighbors. Speakers Friday noted Little Village had been hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, the 60623 ZIP code, which includes the neighborhood, had the most virus-related deaths in Cook County. Jesus Del Toro, a spokesperson for Garcia, said Friday that the congressman had arranged a meeting with CVSs federal affairs teams to relay the concerns of Little Village community members and health advocates about the announced closure. Advertisement tasoglin@chicagotribune.com In this episode, Ginnie Graham and Bob Doucette address the unspeakable tragedies of mass shootings. Weve prayed; weve grieved; weve called for change; weve seen this cycle continuously repeat. Americans remain heartbroken by the Tuesday, May 24 rampage in a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed. Seventeen others were wounded. The nation is united in mourning with the families and friends who face a lifetime of trauma. With over 400 kilometers of expressways worth VND100 trillion (US$4.2 billion) planned for Vietnams Mekong Delta by 2025, contractors are scrambling to ensure their teams have access to materials amidst fears of supply issues. An Giang and Dong Thap Provinces are two of the regions largest producers of construction sand, but shortages of this crucial material are forcing several construction projects to miss deadlines. Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper reporters visited the Long Xuyen bypass project tin An Giang Province on May 22, only to find just a few workers at the site. The reason, they said, was a lack of construction sand. The bypass project launched in early January of this year and is expected to cost over VND2.1 trillion ($90 million) by the time it is completed in late 2023. However, the project is currently just four percent complete. Projects in other Mekong Delta provinces are facing similar issues, particularly those in Dong Thap, Ben Tre, and Tien Giang. In Ben Tre, the sand shortfall was mentioned at the groundbreaking for the Rach Mieu 2 Bridge project in late March. In Vinh Long, the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment said in a statement that the province anticipates a dearth of some 5.5 million cubic meters of sand for construction in 2022. The sand scarcity will leave a considerable impact on the progress of construction projects and costs, said Nguyen Van Tuan, deputy head of the Vinh Long Department of Natural Resources and Environment. Can Tho is also struggling to source construction sand. The city is currently in need of 34 million cubic meters of construction sand for the 2022-25 period, far more than what it currently holds in its reserves. Commenting on the issue, Tran Ngoc Tam, chairman of the provincial government of Ben Tre, told Tuoi Tre that the province is currently bidding for sand mines. It is also surveying sites for new sand mines on the local Ba Lai River. Can Tho is looking at less traditional alternatives to construction sand. A Ho Chi Minh City-based firm is doing research about how to process sea sand to serve construction projects [in Can Tho], Tam added. In 2019, Ben Tre auctioned off five sand mines, but only one company that placed a winning bid was actually licensed to mine sand. The other three involved in the auction had their bids canceled. Another auction for the unclaimed sand mines cannot be held until a new zoning time span for the mines is approved, according to a report from the Ben Tre Department of Natural Resources and Environment. According to the Department of Science and Technology, under the Ministry of Transport, solutions to the sand shortage must be found as soon as possible, otherwise expressway projects will continue to fall behind schedule. This department suggested using sea sand or saline sand as alternatives. Similarly, Tran Tri Quang, vice-chairman of Dong Thap, said the province has already proposed that relevant ministries and agencies sort out alternatives to cope with the sand paucity. The province has asked many agencies to research measures to balance sand supplies so as not to affect the progress of key projects. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Forbes announced on Thursday its seventh annual 30 Under 30 Asia list, featuring five Vietnamese individuals in arts; finance and venture capital; and industry, manufacturing and energy. Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, 28, was named in the arts category, 29-year-old Nguyen The Vinh was listed in the finance and venture capital sector, while Le Yen Thanh, 27, Nguyen Thanh, 29, and Uyen Tran, 28, were honored in the industrial, manufacturing, and energy categories, respectively. Tattoo artist Ngoc has been transforming traumatic scars into works of art since 2013, when she was 19, reads Forbes description of Ngoc. While tattooing is still considered taboo in Vietnam, she believes covering up scars with artistic tattoos can be a part of the healing process that empowers people, especially women, to start a happier chapter in their lives. Meanwhile, Vinh is a co-founder of blockchain-based decentralized finance company Coin98, which has raised US$16.5 million in three investment rounds. He joined Coin98 in 2019, two years after its founding. This screenshot shows blockchain-based decentralized finance company Coin98's co-founder Nguyen The Vinh honored in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. In the industry, manufacturing, and energy category, Le Yen Thanh founded the BusMap Project, a Vietnamese public transit application that evolved into smart mobility solutions startup Phenikaa MaaS. He has won more than 100 awards nationally and internationally for his programming skills. Meanwhile, Nguyen Thanh has been one of the youngest leaders at Vietnamese multi-sector conglomerate Vingroup after joining its transport subsidiary VinBus in 2019. Previously, the now deputy CEO set up his own textile factory at age 18 before dropping out of college to work for various companies including KFC Vietnam, Cargill Vietnam, and Lazada Vietnam. This screenshot shows smart mobility solutions startup Phenikaa MaaS' founder Le Yen Thanh honored in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. The final representative is textile-material researcher and designer Uyen Tran, who co-founded New York-based TomTex, which makes an eponymous leather alternative. TomTex is a completely biobased material created from shell seafood waste or mushrooms. The company has raised $1.7 million and won the LVMH Innovation Award, CFDA k11 Innovation Award, and Idea Sustainability Award. Uyen holds a masters degree from the Parson School of Design in New York. This screenshot shows VinBus' deputy CEO Nguyen Thanh and Vietnamese textile-material researcher and designer Uyen Tran honored in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. Over 4,000 nominees applied to be on this years list, a record number for the Asia list, according to Forbes. The final 300 were selected and vetted by Forbes reporters and a group of respected judges on a wide range of criteria, such as demonstration of leadership, impact, potential of success, and the embodiment of the entrepreneurial spirit synonymous with the American business magazine. Twenty two countries and territories are represented on the list with India ranking first in terms of number of entries (61), followed by Singapore (34), Japan (33), Australia (32), Indonesia (30) and China (28). Last year, Vietnam had three representatives in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! The Economic Committee of the National Assembly has proposed that Vietnam restart a suspended nuclear power project in south-central Ninh Thuan Province to ensure the countrys ability to develop nuclear power in the future and to help achieve its environmental protection goal by 2050. The Economic Committee has submitted a report on the implementation of Resolution 31 of the National Assembly, which was issued to suspend the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project in the namesake province in 2016. In the report, the committee stated that Vietnam would potentially face challenges brought about by electricity shortage in the 2021-25 period. The competitive electricity market has not been developed in a synchronous manner, while the power pricing mechanism has been improved slowly. The countrys power source has yet to guarantee sustainable development and still has a negative impact on the environment. Vietnam previously pledged to reach its net-zero carbon emissions target by 2050 at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in the UK last year, which requires the country to have a strategy to ensure national energy security and limit carbon emissions in the long run. Meanwhile, nuclear power is a low-emission source of electricity. The Economic Committee believed that the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project, if formally terminated, would inhibit the countrys ability to develop nuclear power in the future, as well as affect the relations between Vietnam and its partners. The committee thus proposed that competent authorities consider restarting the Ninh Thuan nuclear power project at a suitable time. The government and relevant agencies should evaluate comprehensively, scientifically, and accurately the current situation as well as make forecasts on energy supply and demand in the coming time, the committee said. They should also prepare a suitable proposal on the development of nuclear power in the future and present it to relevant bodies. The Ninh Thuan nuclear power project was approved by the National Assembly in November 2009. It was designed to have two main factories, each with the capacity of about 2,000MW. In November 2016, the National Assembly passed a resolution on suspending the project. The government later announced that the suspension was to concentrate efforts on other key projects. Prior to the suspension, seven sub-projects had been invested by the Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) and Ninh Thuan Peoples Committee with the total costs of about VND2.3 trillion (US$99.1 million), VnExpress newspaper reported. According to the report of the Economic Committee, people living in the affected areas are still facing difficulties in trading their land plots and struggling to stabilize production, which has resulted in the waste of land resources. Some issues related to taxes and costs that have confronted the EVN during the preparation and implementation of the project have not been solved. There are also difficulties in handling commitments and agreements signed with foreign partners. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! What you need to know today in Vietnam: Politics -- Vietnam's Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs Do Hung Viet and Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Political Director Alon Bar co-chaired the fourth political consultation conference between the two ministries via videoconference on Thursday, according to the Vietnam News Agency. Society -- The Ho Chi Minh City Department of Health issued a document on Thursday urging the local healthcare system to beef up monitoring of people coming from abroad, especially from countries where monkeypox cases have been recorded, at borer gates to timely repond to any infection found. -- Many trees were uprooted and advertising boards were blown off when rains and strong winds hit Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday evening. -- Three died and one was injured as a house wall collapsed in Vinh Phuc Province, northern Vietnam on Wednesday, according to local authorities. -- The Economic Committee of the National Assembly has just filed a report suggesting the government consider restarting a suspended project to build nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan Province, south-central Vietnam. Business -- Twenty-one percent of the Indian companies that are setting up or planning to set up shop in Southeast Asia have plans to expand business in Vietnam in the next two years, according to 'HSBC Navigator: SEA in Focus,' a survey of more than 1,500 companies from six of the worlds largest economies, including China, France, Germany, India, the UK, and the U.S.. The survey, released on Thursday, showed that 26 percent of the Chinese firms polled said they were heading for growth priority in the Vietnamese market. -- Vietnamese authorities are streamlining procedures to allow Chinese traders to enter Vietnam for buying lychees in Bac Giang Province, the Vietnam News Agency cited Le Thi Thu Hang, spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as saying on Thursday. World News -- "About 200 confirmed and more than 100 suspected cases of Monkeypox have been detected so far outside of the countries where it usually spreads, a World Health Organization official said on Thursday, urging countries to increase surveillance for the infectious disease," Reuters reported. -- "The risk of going hungry in Brazil is higher than ever, as the percentage of people unable to afford food for themselves or their family at some point during the last 12 months rose to a record 36% in 2021, from 30% in 2019, a newly published study showed," according to Reuters. Trees were uprooted and billboards were blown away when rains and strong winds hit Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday evening. Tree branches fell at the intersection of Ben Van Don and Nguyen Khoai Streets in District 4 and on a road section near the Chu Van An Bridge in Binh Thanh District, blocking traffic there. Strong winds also lifted a billboard on Ben Van Don Street. Fortunately, no one was injured. The National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting has forecast that the rainy weather pattern accompanied by strongs winds at night will continue in the southern and Central Highlands regions until May 30. Rains will accelerate to heavier levels and may bring along gusts, lightning, hail, and strong winds from May 31, according to the center. Public bikes lie on a sidewalk in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City in the rain on May 26, 2022. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre An advertising board lies on the sidewalk in District 4, Ho Chi Minh City in the rain on May 26, 2022. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre A median barrier was pulled full from the ground on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City in the rain on May 26, 2022. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre A tree branch falls on Chu Van An Street in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City in the rain on May 26, 2022. Photo: Chau Tuan / Tuoi Tre Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! Three people were fatally trapped under a collapsed wall while helping local residents deal with the aftermath of prolonged heavy downpours in Vinh Phuc Province, northern Vietnam earlier this week. The incident took place in Kim Long Commune, Tam Duong District at around 6:00 pm on Wednesday, competent authorities confirmed on Thursday. The three deceased victims were identified as Chu Minh Q., 43, Nguyen Van L., 40, and Hoang Thi Th., 25. The fourth victim, 22-year-old Hoang Thi L., was injured and taken to the hospital for emergency treatment. Preliminary information showed that the four people were assisting local residents in cleaning up their houses following torrential rains in the area when the wall of a house suddenly collapsed. Local authorities arrived at the scene after being notified of the incident and were able to move the victims from the rubble later the same night. An investigation was also launched to determine the cause of the accident. The bodies of the deceased victims have been handed over to their family members for funeral rites. Rainfall of 150 to 300 millimeters previously battered northern and north-central provinces from May 21 to 24, Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper quoted the National Center for Hydro-meteorological Forecasting as reporting. In Tam Duong District, Vinh Phuc Province, rain volume reached up to 496 millimeters. Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! On 60 Minutes this Sunday, the search for missing Aussie mum Tahnee Shanks in Mexico plus more on the prime suspect in the Madeleine McCann case. Mystery in Mexico When a two-year-old toddler, all alone but seemingly unconcerned, walked bare-footed into a church in Cancun, Mexico four weeks ago, kind-hearted locals rushed to help. First they needed to work out who she was and then who she belonged to. The child was too young to talk, so her photograph was shared on social media. It was a strategy that worked, but the answer surprised everyone. The toddlers name was Adelynn, and she was the daughter of a Queensland woman, Tahnee Shanks. One mystery had been solved, but it led to another one. There was no trace of Tahnee or Addys father, a local man, Jorge Aguirre Estudillo. As Tara Brown reports, a major police investigation is now underway to find the couple. But in a country gripped by cartel-related violence, there are fears it could already be too late. Reporter: Tara Brown Producers: Tracey Hannaford, Sammi Taylor The Suspect Its highly doubtful, but if Madeleine McCann was still alive, two weeks ago she would have turned 19. Her parents, Gerry and Kate, cling to an infinitesimal hope that she is out there somewhere. But 15 years on from the day the little girl was snatched in Portugal, the pragmatic assessment of her fate is far more pessimistic. Thats not to say the mystery of what happened to her wont be solved though. Portuguese and German detectives are convinced they know who abducted and murdered Maddie. Their prime suspect is Christian Bruckner, a truly awful piece of work. However, two years after revealing their suspicions about him, theres a tough question investigators are being asked to answer. Why hasnt Bruckner been charged with the crime yet? Reporter: Liam Bartlett Producer: Lisa Brown 8:45pm Sunday on Nine. The good news is Miss Phryne Fisher is back on ABC. The bad news is, the movie Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears will screen in two halves across two Sundays. The film, which leant upon crowd-funding from fans, was released in early 2020. After freeing a young Bedouin girl Shirin Abbas from her unjust imprisonment in Jerusalem, Miss Fisher begins to unravel a wartime mystery concerning a priceless jewel, ancient curses, and the truth behind the suspicious disappearance of Shirins forgotten tribe. Episode 1: Jerusalem, 1929. In a daring rescue, Phryne Fisher (Essie Davis) saves Shirin Abbas (Izabella Yena), a young Bedouin woman, from unjust imprisonment. Shirin is traumatised by memories of seeing her village massacred as a child before a sandstorm buried everything and is determined to prove it. Phryne promises to help Shirin seek justice, but their dangerous escape separates them, and Phryne is presumed dead. Phrynes estranged admirer, Inspector Jack Robinson (Nathan Page), travels to her memorial service at Lofthouse Manor in the English countryside, but his mourning is interrupted by Phrynes surprise arrival, prompting Jack to depart in angry confusion. Phryne stays at the Manor with Lord and Lady Lofthouse (Daniel Lapaine and Jacqueline McKenzie), the Lords younger brother Jonathon (Rupert Penry-Jones), and Shirin and her uncle Sheikh Kahlil (Khaled Naya), who is in business with Lord Lofthouse. When Phryne tries to discover the truth about Shirins village during the Great War, Lofthouse and Jonathon (former soldiers), along with the Sheikh, deny the massacre. However, when Phryne and Jack witness the murder of Wilson (Lee Mason), an army deserter who gives Phryne an ancient, encrypted pendent moments before his death, they are convinced there is more to the story. Sunday, 19 June and Sunday 26 June, 8.30pm on ABC. Screen Queensland and Network 10 have partnered to offer four emerging First Nations film and television practitioners the opportunity to produce their own Community Service Announcements 60-second television segments followed by a six-month mentorship program. Screen Queensland Chief Creative Officer Dr Belinda Burns, said Providing training and career development opportunities, at all experience levels, is integral to supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander screen practitioners in gaining the skills, networks and credits to launch successful, long-term careers, said Dr Burns. Screen Queensland and Network 10 are both proud members of the Screen Diversity and Inclusion Network (SDIN); which stands as a commitment to address inequity head-on and be proactive changemakers towards achieving a fairer, more representative industry, locally and globally. We look forward to seeing these CSA segments broadcast on Network 10, showcasing First Nations talent, stories and perspectives across the nation. Network 10s Senior Vice President, Programming and Content Daniel Monaghan said, This is a wonderful opportunity for us at Paramount to discover potential future employees who will make our business and content unique, stronger, and internationally successful, or if not with us, to give candidates the skills they need to progress further along their own career path. We want to assist in developing technical skills and on-the-job experiences that will enhance their style and allow them to write and produce content in their own voice we want to give candidates the tools necessary to strive in a creative industry, and hope this is just the beginning of an ongoing professional partnership. Suitable for graduates and early-career screen professionals, the first phase of the Screen Queensland and Network 10 First Nations Skills Placement and Mentorship will be a paid, four-week placement with executives from Network 10 to write, produce and edit a 60-second CSA about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. Following the placement, recipients will undertake a remote six-month mentorship with Network 10 experts in the form of monthly support, to provide applicants with invaluable guidance in building a career in the television sector. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander practitioners Queensland-wide are eligible to apply. Screen Queensland will cover costs for travel, accommodation and per diems for recipients to partake in production, as part of the four-week placement. Development, pre-production and post-production will take place remotely. Network 10 production will work with Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service and the Queensland Indigenous Land and Sea Rangers to highlight engaging projects and stories from communities around Queensland. Screen Queensland is currently developing a three-year Diversity Plan, with the state agencys Equity & Diversity Taskforce, which will outline key objectives, actions, responsibilities, timeframes and outcomes towards establishing a more inclusive screen industry in Queensland. Applications close Friday 17 June, 5pm AEST. screenqueensland.com.au. Illinois legislators and advocacy group Equality Illinois issued a joint statement Thursday calling out State Farm after the insurance giant pulled support for a gender identity school book program. Facing backlash, Bloomington-based State Farm ended its partnership this week with the GenderCool Project, a youth-led nonprofit organization that distributes childrens books about being transgender, inclusive and nonbinary to schools and libraries. Now the insurance company is feeling the heat from LGBTQ advocates. Advertisement When it came to our attention that State Farm had reversed this partnership with the GenderCool Project, we found that to be reprehensible, said state Sen. Mike Simmons, a North Side Democrat and the first openly gay state senator in Illinois. In 2022, we need allies who are for real, and who are really going to stand with the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly when we are under siege right now in so many parts of the country. Illinois state Sen. Mike Simmons, D-7th, at a rally in Chicago's Uptown neighborhood on May 2, 2021. (Raquel Zaldivar / Chicago Tribune) Simmons was one of five Illinois legislators to sign the statement, which said State Farm made a knee-jerk concession to bigotry by dropping its support for the GenderCool Project. Advertisement State Farm came under fire this week after a January letter recruiting 550 agents and employees to participate in the program by donating a three-book bundle to teachers, community centers and libraries was published online by Consumers Research. The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit educational group launched a campaign critical of the program, calling State Farm a creepy neighbor targeting 5-year-olds. State Farm posted a statement on its website Tuesday explaining the decision to end its affiliation with GenderCool, saying it did not support required curriculum in schools on this topic. But with criticism over the abrupt decision mounting, State Farm issued a statement Thursday affirming its support for the LGBTQ+ community. We cannot take back the frustration, hurt and emotion many have endured as a result of our actions and our response, but we can move forward knowing we will continue to respect and support everyone in our communities, representing every group within our society, the company said. Brian Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois, a nonprofit organization advocating for LGBTQ rights, said the State Farm partnership with GenderCool was never intended to make the books required reading for children in schools. This was a volunteer program with State Farm for employees and agents ... to make sure that books which talk about gender identity in an accurate and affirming way were accessible by people who wanted it, said Johnson, who also signed the legislators statement. In 2012, workers finish up the trim on the State Farm sign on the insurance company's corporate headquarters campus in downstate Bloomington. (Steve Smedley/The Pantagraph) Gender identity education in schools has become a lightning rod issue in the wake of recent legislation enacted in Florida, Texas and other states, which critics have dubbed Dont Say Gay laws. In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation prohibiting classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. The Parental Rights in Education law has sparked outrage among LGBTQ+ advocates and opposition from dozens of companies, including Disney, which has 77,000 employees at its Disney World theme park in Orlando. Last month, World Business Chicago, the citys public-private economic development arm, launched a marketing campaign in Florida, Texas and Arizona to promote Chicago as a more inclusive business climate. Advertisement With Pride Month beginning next week and the annual Chicago Pride Parade scheduled for June 26, Johnson said State Farm will not be welcome to participate in the festivities unless it reverses the decision to drop support for GenderCool. You cant actually rescind support for families and young people who want to learn about gender identity in an affirming way, and then next week launch a marketing blitz that says youre super supportive of the LGBTQ+ community, Johnson said. At least you cant do both those things without us calling out your hypocrisy. The GenderCool Project is an educational organization helping to replace misinformed opinions with positive, powerful experiences through the stories of transgender and nonbinary kids, said Jennifer Grosshandler, co-founder and executive director of the four-year-old Chicago-based nonprofit. Grosshandler, who said the organization began working with State Farm about a year ago on the voluntary program, was more conciliatory toward the insurance company. We were disappointed to learn about the decision, said Grosshandler. The truth is that StateFarm has done really good and important work with the LGBTQ community. Theyre going on their own journey. And the outpouring of love and support that weve gotten from all of our current corporate partners has been remarkable. rchannick@chicagotribune.com Former Hey Dad! star Robert Hughes appeared before a hearing of the State Parole Authority in Parramatta today, 8 years into a maximum 10 year, 9 month sentence for child sexual assault offences committed in the 1980s. In 2014 he was handed a minimum sentence of 6 years and has been eligible for parole since April 2020. Hughes, 73, appeared via video link, after the Parole authority requested a psychological report about hisrisk of reoffending. A Community Corrections report stated Hughes has consistently been assessed as having a low, or below average risk of committing a further sexual offence, and he therefore remains ineligible for any sex offender programs while in custody. Judge Frearson noted: There is nothing available for him in jail. Hughes has continually categorically denied his offending and maintains his victims made false allegations for financial gain. Recntly a dual citizen, he also renounced his Australian citizenship, which would see him returned to the UK upon release, but subject to notification orders with monitoring by the British authorities under the Sexual Offences Act. INTERPOL has confirmed this would be the case, the court was told. Solicitor Hannah Bruce, from the Prisoners Legal Service, said his focus upon release would be maintaining a very low profile and spending the rest of his time in the UK with his partner former agent Robyn Gardner, and specialist psychological consults. Former co-star Sarah Monahan, who travelled from the US, attended court and addressed media outside the court. On the one hand Id prefer him to stay in jail where hes not hurting kids, and on the other hand, its like let him go, let him be someone elses problem and then I dont have to deal with it anymore, she said. Hes an old man and hes frail, but they dont change, she said. Hes a denier, so he still thinks he hasnt done anything wrong. So hell keep doing wrong things. Hughes sentence is due to expire on January 6, 2025. The parole panel has reserved its decision for a week. Source: ABC, Herald Sun ABC this week announced a new six-part comedy series Limbo described as a compelling, honest and charmingly funny story about how hard it is to let go of those we love especially when theyre taken too soon. Produced by Bunya Productions (Mystery Road, The Drovers Wife) and Heiress Films (Man Up, Making Couples Happy), Limbo is created by writer Lucas Taylor (Harrow, Vikings: Athelstans Journal) and directed by Trent ODonnell (No Activity, The Letdown, Brooklyn Nine-Nine). Todd Abbott, Head of Comedy for the ABC, said, From the moment I read the first scene, I knew this series was something very special. Finding genuine comedy in grief is no mean feat, and this talented team has delivered scripts with the perfect balance. Were really excited to share these characters and this very relatable story with Australian audiences. Screen Australias Head of Content Grainne Brunsdon said, Limbo is a smart and relatable comedy with a powerful message at its heart about friendship, mental health and grief. Were pleased to support Heiress Films making their first foray into scripted content and working together with the excellent team at Bunya Productions this is set to be a high quality Australian series. Screen Queenslands CEO Kylie Munnich said, Screen Queensland has supported this project since its inception, via a major development initiative as well as funding Lucas Taylors residency at the Charlies Writers Lab in Los Angeles, where the script was further refined with Trent ODonnell (pictured). Were delighted to see this poignant and important story come to life, soon to commence filming in Queensland. Producing team David Jowsey, Greer Simpkin and Jennifer Cummins said, Bunya Productions and Heiress Films are delighted to be working with the talents of Lucas Taylor and director Trent ODonnell to create a rich comedy about love and loss and the relationship of two young men whose friendship gets real once the real walls disappear. Limbo will film in Queensland later this year and air in 2023. When Charlies best friend dies at just 38, Charlie suppresses his own pain in order to support his mates widow and young daughter. But he is soon forced to face his own demons when the ghost of his dead friend begins haunting him. There are no levitating tables or flying books, but confronting the spectre of loss is the scariest thing Charlies ever done. The only comfort is that hes facing it with his charming, witty and garrulous best mate by his side albeit in apparition form. Production Credits: Limbo is a Bunya Productions and Heiress Films production for the ABC. Major production investment from Screen Australia in association with ABC. Financed with support from Screen Queensland, with Screen NSW. By Paul Morrow & Shelley Inglis Although 2022 is not yet half over, the year has already proved deadly for gun violence in America. Two weeks ago, racially and politically motivated shootings in Buffalo, N.Y., and Laguna Woods, Calif., left 11 people dead. This week, an 18-year-old man murdered 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. The perpetrator of the Buffalo killings was also an 18-year-old male. Overall, according to the Gun Violence Archive, more than 200 mass shootings have taken place in the U.S. so far this year. In Dayton, these killings hit close to home. Since the August 2019 mass shooting in the Oregon District, perpetrated by a young area resident, the Human Rights Center has been engaged in research and education on gun violence. We hosted a community roundtable on gun violence featuring survivors and city officials just before the onset of the COVID pandemic. Students and staff subsequently contributed to the Facing Gun Violence oral history project, to advocacy campaigns led by Moms Demand Action and the League of Women Voters and to other local, state and national gun safety efforts. In August 2021, the HRC submitted a memo on the human rights implications of youth acquisition, possession, and use of firearms to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Drawing on UD law student research, we identified major regulatory gaps in federal and state gun policies which enable youth gun violence. One key gap concerns the wide differences among states in how residents can report dangerous or threatening behavior by young people who may seek to acquire firearms. Another gap centers on the perplexing fact that youths aged 18-20 are prohibited under federal law from possessing handguns, but are freely permitted in many states to possess more lethal semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15. Such semi-automatic weapons are heavily marketed to young men, and have been used in almost all major mass shootings over the past decade. One predictable response to mass shootings, especially among opponents of strict gun laws, is to look for signs of mental health issues or substance abuse among perpetrators, including youth perpetrators. Leading prevention frameworks rightly regard both of these as risk factors for violence. In some cases, as in the 2019 Dayton mass shooting, investigations found that both factors may have contributed to the perpetrators actions. However, while the contributions of mental health and substance abuse issues vary by case, and while racist, sexist, and other motivations for mass shootings also differ, the clear common denominator is easy access to guns. Research shows that decreasing access to guns reduces gun violence. The contrary argument, that widespread possession of guns increases public safety, simply has no evidentiary basis. Governments have a responsibility to prevent gun violence, because it violates a range of fundamental rights. They also are responsible for conducting thorough investigations in the wake of shootings, and for taking other remedial actions. Shootings violate the right to life, right to health, and right to bodily integrity; they may also undermine the right to assembly, right to freedom of worship, and right to expression. In the US, where firearms recently became the leading cause of death for children, the right to a quality education provided by the government is also undermined. Attacks targeting members of a particular race, gender, or ethnicity, such as this months mass shooting in Buffalo or the August 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, compound the damage done to individuals rights to equal participation in social, political, and cultural life and to equal protection under the law. Gun violence represents an enduring assault on human life and dignity for the families of victims and survivors. In his contribution to the Facing Gun Violence project, Oregon District shooting survivor Dion Green remarked that this is something Im going to have to live with for the rest of my life. During the past two weeks alone, hundreds more Americans have suffered similar traumas, and awakened to similar realities of what it means to live in a society marked by such a systemic rights violation. International human rights law does not recognize a right to bear arms. In the U.S., both the federal and the various state constitutions establish such a right, but this does not mean that restrictions on firearm usage or ownership cannot be established. At present, however, the legislative processes that might enact such restrictions have broken down completely. Gun safety legislation introduced at the state and federal levels in the wake of the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, the 2017 Parkland shooting and the 2019 Oregon District shooting failed to pass; at the same time, restrictions on the acquisition and use of firearms were loosened in many states. In Ohio, even after the Dayton mass shooting, laws have been enacted that permit Stand Your Ground or Shoot First defenses in criminal trials, and expand residents rights to concealed carry of firearms. Americas courts, like its legislatures, are failing to uphold the human rights of U.S. residents. In March, a federal appeals court overturned Californias state law banning the sale of semiautomatic weapons, such as the AR-15 rifle, to 18- to 20-year-olds. Next month, the US Supreme Court may throw out a New York law that requires residents to show proper cause before receiving a concealed carry permit. The United Nations human rights report mentioned above points out that although mass shootings have taken place in schools in Finland, Germany, Ukraine and Russia over the past decade, the incidence of such attacks in the U.S. is significantly higher than in any other country. The US is a global outlier insofar as its public institutions intentionally sustain a culture of gun violence: prioritizing access to guns, even by youth, over the life and safety of its most vulnerable residents, particularly youth and children. Black, Hispanic, Asian American and Pacific Islander and other communities pay a substantial cost for such policies. Ultimately, the failure of US leaders and institutions to deal with the scourge of gun violence damages the social fabric of American life and jeopardizes the health and well-being of all who call the US home. As declared by the Human Rights Council, the effects of firearms on the enjoyment of human rights are devastating [...] children and youth, the worlds future generations, are the hardest hit. Paul Morrow is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Human Rights Fellow at the University of Dayton Human Rights Center, where he has worked since August 2019. Guinea has announced a 36-month transition period to civilian rule, slightly shorter than what had been proposed by the military chief, but longer than regional leaders have called for. On Wednesday, the National Transition Council (CNT) debated and approved a 36-month timetable presented by the National Rallying Committee for Development, set up by the junta and headed by military leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya. The CNT established to act as parliament until elections are called. Out of 81 members, 73 voted for the text: one was absent, three abstained and four left the chamber in protest. The transition period is slightly shorter than the 39 months that Doumbouya had announced earlier this month, but longer than what regional partners have called for. Doumbouya led a coup last September to oust president Alpha Conde, who had pushed through a new constitution in 2020 that allowed him to run for a third presidential term. Following the coup, the West African bloc Ecowas suspended Guinea, imposed sanctions and called for a return to civilian rule within six months. The bloc warned that sanctions could be widened beyond those imposed on junta members, if the interim government drags its feet. Opposition to the junta Although many Guineans initially welcomed the coup, there is growing discontent against the junta. Earlier on Wednesday, Condes RPG party met with opposition groups and said the CNT did not have the authority to set the transition timetable. It is the first time in years that Conde's party and the opposition have come together to speak with one voice. Rejecting Doumboyas timeline, they called for "the establishment of a real framework for dialogue," including Ecowas, "to decide on a consensual basis on the conditions for a return to constitutional order". Ecowas has not yet reacted to either Doumbouya's 39-month proposal, nor to the NTC's 36-month timeline. Ecowas is trying to speed up the transition to civilian rule in three West African countries that have seen multiple coups since August 2020. Story continues The West African bloc imposed sanctions on Mali after its junta proposed holding on to power until 2025 and has threatened to do the same in Burkina Faso, where coup leaders have laid out a three-year transition timeline. Read more: (with wires) By Simon Johnson and Natalie Grover STOCKHOLM (Reuters) -The European Union is working on a common purchasing agreement for vaccines and antivirals against monkeypox, as cases of the viral disease usually endemic to Africa gather steam in Europe and beyond. A broad consensus was reached in principle with member states for the Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) to acquire medical countermeasures on their behalf as soon as possible, a European Commission spokesperson told Reuters, confirming a report by Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. The EU is in talks to buy Bavarian Nordic's vaccine Imvanex as well as the antiviral, tecovirimat, developed by U.S.-based SIGA Technologies, the paper said, citing Sweden's vaccine coordinator Richard Bergstrom. Bergstrom said that no contract with either firm had yet been signed. "But it will go quickly. We should have a contract ready in a week or so and maybe some limited deliveries in June," the paper quoted him saying. A Bavarian Nordic spokesperson confirmed HERA had contacted the Danish biotechnology company regarding its vaccine. "We've had several calls with HERA...we have no idea when there will be an agreement. It is not up to us to say when there will be an agreement - there are two parties involved," the spokesperson said. If an agreement was in fact reached, Bavarian Nordic had enough supply to satisfy demand, he added. The smallpox and monkeypox viruses are closely related. Bavarian Nordic's vaccine has official European approval for smallpox, although doctors can prescribe it off-label for monkeypox. SIGA's treatment tecovirimat - branded as TPOXX - has European approval for smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox. Global health officials have tracked more than 200 suspected and confirmed cases of the usually mild viral infection in about 20 countries since early May. Symptoms of monkeypox - which can include fever, distinctive rashes and pus-filled skin lesions - can last for two to four weeks, but often resolve on their own. The variant of the virus implicated in the current outbreak is believed to kill a small fraction of those infected. (Reporting by Simon Johnson in Stockholm and Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Nick Macfie) Cameron Humphreys Rangers Credit: PA Images Former Manchester City starlet Cameron Humphreys is set to head back to the UK this summer, with Scottish Premiership giants Rangers keen on a deal, TEAMtalk understands. Central defender Humphreys has a host of clubs looking to seal his signature, and he is a free agent after deciding to leave Belgian club Zulte Waregem after three years. Humphreys, who made his debut for City aged just 17, is now 23 and ready to return home. We understand a host of clubs are taking a close look at Humphreys, including Europa League finalists Rangers. The Ibrox outfit are hunting for a new centre-back over fears that Calvin Bassey could be sold this summer. Newly promoted Bournemouth are also keen along with Huddersfield, Sheffield United, Stoke and Middlesbrough. Humphreys only two appearances for City came in the FA Cup. And while he was a key performer for the club in Premier League 2 he was allowed to leave the club for Belgium in 2019. The centre-back is also a regular for England at youth levels. Thats despite the fact that hes never really been given the chance to shine in his own country. Bassey exit could leave Rangers short Interest from Rangers stems from concerns over Basseys long-term Ibrox future. The powerhouse defender shone on the European stage when he produced an incredible performance in the Europa League final loss to Eintracht Frankfurt. West Ham and Aston Villa have both been linked with Bassey. However, the latter are know likely to be out the race after signing Sevillas Diego Carlos. READ MORE: Gerrard targets reunion with Rangers star Joe Aribo as Aston Villa transfer could cost less than 10m The article Rangers transfer news: Gers target former Man City starlet Cameron Humphreys as Bassey replacement appeared first on Teamtalk.com. WASHINGTON Scott Pruitt, while in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency during the Trump administration, repeatedly pressured his federal security officers to drive at excessive and sometimes dangerous speeds on routine trips, with sirens and emergency lights on, because he had a habit of running late, according to a federal report released Thursday. The security officers said they knew this was a violation of federal policies and endangered public safety, the report said. Among the incidents cited in the report was a 2017 trip in which a special agent drove Pruitt with the lights and sirens going, in the wrong direction into oncoming traffic, to pick up Pruitts dry cleaning, when Pruitt was late for an agency meeting. Advertisement Can you guys use that magic button to get us through traffic? Pruitt would ask members of his security detail, the report said. He would say, Speed it up, or, We need to get there quicker orders that the security agents said they found hard to disobey, even though the lights and sirens were supposed to be used only in emergencies, it said. Reports about this improper use of lights and sirens first became public in 2018, along with other assertions of wrongdoing by Pruitt, including first-class travel back to his home in Oklahoma on government-paid flights and improper use of government funds to build a $43,000 soundproof phone booth inside his office. They ultimately led to his resignation in July 2018. Advertisement But until now, an internal EPA report that substantiated the allegations about the abusive use of lights and sirens on his government-issued car had never been made public, even though it was completed a month before Pruitt resigned. Pruitt, who is now running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in Oklahoma and previously served as the states attorney general, did not respond to a request for comment. The report, by the EPAs criminal enforcement division, was released Thursday as part of a letter the U.S. Office of Special Counsel sent to President Joe Biden summarizing findings from several years of investigations by the EPA into allegations raised by four federal government whistleblowers. Pruitt engaged in improper and excessive spending of agency funds on travel and security; used his official position for his personal benefit and the personal benefit of certain EPA staffers; and endangered public safety, the letter said, citing the complaints filed by the whistleblowers, who were onetime agency employees. Scott Pruitt, who resigned as EPA administrator in July 2018 and is now running for the U.S. Senate in Oklahoma, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 16, 2018. (Tom Brenner/The New York Times) Henry Kerner, the special counsel, notified Biden that investigations had substantiated many of the whistleblowers allegations of wrongdoing by former administrator Pruitt and by EPA. The EPAs inspector general issued a report in 2019 confirming that Pruitt had spent nearly $124,000 on excessive travel arrangements, including first-class flights and visits to his home in Oklahoma. The report recommended that the agency try to recover the money, although the EPA said it had no intention of doing so. The Government Accountability Office had separately concluded in 2018 that the construction of the soundproof booth, which Pruitt intended to use to make secret calls, broke federal law because the spending had not been properly budgeted. But the formal investigation by the EPAs criminal division into the improper use of lights and sirens on federal government cars an inquiry that included interviews with at least five EPA special agents as well as Pruitts deputy chief of staff had never been released. Advertisement Many of the agents told the investigators that they had felt pressured by Pruitt to use the lights and sirens, describing him as perpetually late and successful in convincing younger agents to violate agency policy that they be used only in emergencies. Just because the administrator makes himself late for an appointment does not constitute us to arbitrarily turn on lights and sirens to get him to his next appointment timely, one agent told investigators. These demands included racing through a four-block trip to the White House from the agencys headquarters, as well as a trip to Colorado, with one former deputy chief of staff to Pruitt describing the driving with sirens and lights as overly obnoxious, excessive, and more dangerous to everyone. Concern about these demands became so intense that one member of the security detail refused to turn on the lights and sirens, and then was removed from his job, the investigators found. The administrator was visibly upset and was silent for an uncomfortable time in the car, the report said, noting that after the officer was moved, the message to the staff was clear. If you didnt perform the bidding of the administrator, you would lose your job, the investigative report said, quoting a special agent. Finally, an agency supervisor told the members of Pruitts security detail to disable/unplug the lights and sirens so they wouldnt use them because the administrator will still instruct they be used, but the agent can say they dont work, the report said. The agency now mandates that any violations of the siren policy be reported internally. The names of the four whistleblowers were not disclosed in the letter to Biden, and a spokesperson for the EPA said the agency, now under new leadership, had no comment on the matter. But Kevin Chmielewski, a former political aide to former President Donald Trump and Pruitt, confirmed to The New York Times that he was among the whistleblowers. Advertisement He is still suing the EPA with the help of a nonprofit whistleblower group, the Government Accountability Project, although the Justice Department, even under Biden, is trying to dismiss the matter. The department has argued that with the Trump administration over, the agency is not going to give him back his job as a political appointee. Chmielewski said that he was glad to see these new details finally being made public but that he was disappointed that Pruitt had paid no price, other than harm to his reputation. It is almost a kick in the face, said Chmielewski, 43, who said he has been unable to get a new job with the federal government or national political campaigns since he first went public with the allegations in 2018. He now works as a general manager of a restaurant near Ocean City, Maryland, earning less than one-third of his former federal government wages. c.2022 The New York Times Company Waco police arrested a man Wednesday night in a drive-by shooting that sent a woman to a local hospital earlier this month, officials announced. Timothy Coaster, 20, of Waco, remained jailed Thursday on a second-degree felony charge of aggravated assault causing bodily injury. A woman was wounded in what police said was a drive-by shooting at about 3 a.m. May 15 in the 2900 block of Morrow Avenue. She was taken to a local hospital and is still recovering from her injuries, Waco police spokesperson Cierra Shipley said Thursday. Police are unsure if Coaster and the victim knew each other, Shipley said. The incident marked the sixth time a person was shot this month in the Brookview area, north of Waco Drive between North 26th Street and North 34th Street. Shipley said earlier this month that the shootings are being investigated separately. Coaster remained in McLennan County Jail on Thursday with bond listed at $100,000. Waco police encourage anyone with information related to violent crimes to call the department at 254-750-7500. Tips can also be submitted anonymously through Waco Crime Stoppers, with rewards up to $2,000 possible if the tip leads to an arrest. Crime Stoppers can be contacted at 254-753-4357 or at wacocrimestoppers.org. Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. The names of two McLennan County veterans who were killed in Iraq, names unintentionally left off a monument erected in 2018 to those from the county killed in the Gulf War, the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War, have been inscribed on this monument. Army Spc. Javier A. Villanuevas and Army Spc. Jeffrey P. Shaffers names will be unveiled on Memorial Day in a small, private event just for their loved ones and family members, said Steve Hernandez, co-chair of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8564. VFW Post 8564 and Phipps Memorial coordinated the monument initially, said Larry Bethea, committee chair with VFW Post 8564. Phipps made the donation to erect this monument on Memorial Day in 2018 as well as one listing McLennan County veterans killed in the Korean War. The VFW post compiled the names. We want pay homage to the family members (on Monday), Hernandez said. The main Memorial Day ceremony will be in Hewitt Park at 10 a.m. Villanueva Villanuevas mother, Christine Lebron, said his name should have been included with the rest of those on the monument when it was first erected. Im really grateful theyre doing it (inscribing his name) now, Lebron said. She said her son should be honored for the soldier he was. Villaneuva, who graduated from La Vega High School, served with 2nd Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment as a combat medic when he died Nov. 24, 2005, in Asad, Iraq, according to an Army site about the medical clinic named for him at Fort Irwin, California. He died at the age of 25. He received fatal injuries the day before when an improvised explosive device detonated near his unit during combat in Hit, Iraq, according to the Army site. He was a medic, he saved a lot of lives, Lebron said. He fought and died for his country. He is greatly missed by his family and friends. Javier Villanueva also had a daughter before he died, Taliyah Villanueva, Lebron said. Shaffer Shaffers mother, Melissa Adams, said it is important to her for people to say Shaffers name and remember him. Now that his name is on the monument, people will, she said. They may not know him personally, but they will know he died fighting a war for this country, Adams said. People will have the sense of what he did, she said. Shaffer, who grew up in West, died at the age of 21 on Sept. 13, 2006, in Ramadi, Iraq, according to records. He was a member of the 2nd Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment when a makeshift bomb exploded near his Bradley fighting vehicle. Adding the names In 2020, Adams said Lebron called her and told her both of their sons names were missing. The two mothers reported it to county veterans officials who held a special ceremony with the public driving past to show respect because of COVID-19 restrictions. Bathea said he and his VFW post committee began to look into Villanueva and Shaffer a few weeks ago to confirm they were actually from McLennan County. Before we (add) a name on the monument, we verify that they were born in McLennan County or went to school here, Bathea said. Adams said she and Lebron both had to provide proof to Batheas committee of where Shaffer was born and where he went to school. The called me to verify where he was born and where he went to school, Lebron said. Adams remains upset that her sons and Lebrons sons names were left off the monument. Our boys were born in Waco and they deserve respect, Adams said. At the time the monument was initially erected, County Veteran Service Officer Jeremiah Ballard said the names etched into it were taken from National Archives and Records Administration information. According to those records, the Army listed Villanueva as being from Temple and Shaffer from Arkansas. That is why neither was included initially. Adams maintains that Hernandez knew her from day one. She said that as a co-chair of the committee that put the monument together initially, he should have made sure her sons name was on it. At the time, Ballard said he expected residents to come forward with more names of family members who should be included, and officials would welcome those additions. Hernandez said that after Lebron and Adams brought their sons omission from the monument to his and Batheas attention, COVID-19 lockdowns hit. Then came the gamma wave, the delta wave, and omicron. A few weeks ago was the first time he and Bathea could get the committee together to discuss Villanuevas and Shaffers cases. Bathea said he was pleasantly surprised that Phipps Memorial was able to get the names inscribed last week. Keeping their (Shaffers and Villanuevas) names going, keeps their legacy going, Adams said. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox! Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. An 18-year-old gunman opened fire at a Texas elementary school, killing at least 19 children as he went from classroom to classroom, in the nation's deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade. The assailant also killed two adults before he was killed by law enforcement. The shooting happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a heavily Latino community about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio. It was the worst school shooting in the U.S. since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, in late 2012. Police body-worn camera video released by the ACLU shows the arrest of Julie Campos on June 2, 2020 at a Family Dollar store in Chicagos Grand Crossing neighborhood. Campos has filed a federal lawsuit against two Chicago police officers and the city alleging she was assaulted and falsely arrested while trying to clean the store she worked at following the 2020 riots. (Chicago Police Department) A Chicago woman filed a federal lawsuit Thursday alleging she was falsely arrested and assaulted by a Chicago police officer while trying to clean a store where she worked during 2020s unrest and mass looting in the city. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court by lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union names two police officers, Eric Taylor and Treacher Howard, and the city of Chicago. The woman, Julie Campos, then 19, was working at a Family Dollar in the Grand Crossing neighborhood on June 2, 2020, eight days after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer. She and her co-workers were called in to clean up the store after it was burglarized. Advertisement I just want police officers to be held accountable for their actions for a situation that people dont really speak up about, Campos, now 21, said in a Tribune interview. The suit claims Taylor falsely arrested Campos and that he and his partner, Howard, fabricated information in their police report. The lawsuit also alleges the officers violated Campos right to record police officers and the department still has a code of silence, an unspoken practice where officers protect each other from misconduct allegations. Advertisement A spokeswoman for the citys Law Department said via email the department had not yet been officially served with the lawsuit as of Thursday afternoon. Upon receipt, the complaint will be reviewed, the spokeswoman said in the email. We will have no further comment as the matter is now in litigation. The officers were at the store around 11:40 a.m. for reasons that are not clear, according to the lawsuit. Campos said in an interview that the officers werent called to the store, but officers told the employees there would be officers there throughout the day to check on them and make sure no one else tried to go inside the store. At the time of the incident, Campos was living in a shelter and had only recently started working at the Family Dollar as a cashier, she said. When Taylor and Howard arrived, Taylor began to argue with one of the stores assistant managers who was upset that the officers were there and had requested a supervisor, the lawsuit said. Taylor and the assistant manager began yelling profanities at each other, which was captured on Taylors body camera. It was really surprising to see, especially a police officer behave that way, Campos said. Because thats just not the image that people have of police officers So for that to be my first interaction with a police officer, just seeing how he was speaking, his tone, everything he was saying, it was just surprising and scary because its like youre supposed to be here to serve and protect, and you know, youre not. Youre doing the opposite. Campos was inside the store when she heard yelling coming from the parking lot, the suit said. When Campos went outside and saw Taylor arguing with the assistant manager, she began filming police with her cellphone. The two continued arguing while Campos and others went back into the store to continue cleaning, according to the court document. Campos made several trips throughout the open back door to carry collapsed boxes to a dumpster in the parking lot, while the two officers waited there for backup to arrive, the lawsuit said. Advertisement After additional officers arrived, Taylor stormed toward the back door of the store, and when he approached the door, Campos was standing in the doorway holding collapsed boxes, the lawsuit said. Campos froze and was confused about why Taylor was coming toward her, and then he pushed her out the doorway, hitting her in the face. I just remember instantly I started crying because he hit me in my face, and everybody was confused about what had happened, Campos told the Tribune. Taylor had been looking for the assistant manager to arrest him, but Campos did not know this, the lawsuit said. Campos took out her phone and began livestreaming on Facebook Live. This police officer just punched me in the face! she said while recording, according to the lawsuit. After unsuccessfully searching for the assistant manager, Taylor turned toward Campos and said, (You) know what shes going for obstruction, the lawsuit said. Advertisement Campos was arrested and put in a squad car after Taylor said she jumped in front of him as he was trying to make an arrest, the lawsuit said. Campos was then held in the Gresham District stations lockup for about five hours. She did not have her phone, so she was unable to tell friends or family where she was or arrange for someone to pick her then 1-year-old son up from day care. Campos said that the co-worker she gave her phone to kept recording as she was arrested and was telling the people watching the stream to call her family. Her Facebook friends kept trying to tag her family members and her sons dad, and her friends eventually found her by calling different police stations. Her sons dad was able to pick him up, and he eventually picked her up from the station. I didnt have a good relationship with my family or my sons dad, so I didnt know my sons dad was going to go pick him up, she told the Tribune. It was just scary to come out because Im really bad with streets and knowing where I am so if it wasnt for my sons dad being there, I dont even know how I would have gotten home. In August 2020, the charge against Campos was dismissed by the Cook County states attorneys office, the lawsuit said. Its important, we think, for the public to know that this problem of officers engaging in false arrests is widespread throughout CPD, but could be prevented through proper training of officers, and supervising officers arrest reports to make sure that the bases for arrests reflect the reality, and not the kind of false statements, which these officers put in their arrest reports, said Joshua Levin, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Illinois. Advertisement Levin said Taylor particularly should not have been on the street given he has received 28 civilian complaints of misconduct, which is more than 93% of other officers, according to the lawsuit. Campos, who now lives in Little Village, said shes worried about her son growing up as a man of color and interacting with the police. Now, I dont even like looking at police officers, she said. They think people should be scared of them. And were not supposed to be scared of them. pfry@chicagotribune.com Twitter @paigexfry BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) An Alabama man who pleaded guilty to using bank fraud to live an opulent lifestyle that included a private jet and luxury cars like Ferraris and Lamborghinis was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $12 million in restitution, prosecutors said Thursday. Christopher A. Montalbano, 39, of Vestavia Hills pulled off the scheme over a four-year period that ended in 2020, authorities said in a statement. He pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering in November and was sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Annemarie Axon. Montalbano used shell companies to take out more than 140 loans worth millions from at least 20 institutions, prosecutors said in a statement. The money went to finance an extravagant lifestyle that included two homes, farmland and multiple real estate holdings in addition to the high-end cars and a jet with a private pilot. An attorney for Montalbano didn't immediately return an email seeking comment. Montalbano's father, 77-year-old Gus Montalbano of Vestavia Hills, also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and awaits sentencing. The older man participated in the scheme to a lesser extent at the behest of his son, said his lawyer, Tommy Spina. He trusted his son, Spina said. The younger man covered up what was going on by creating fake company websites that included photos of heavy equipment, boats and other expensive items, prosecutors said. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. WATERLOO Almost 1 in 4 Iowans live in a child care desert an area with a shortage of licensed providers. In rural Iowa, its 1 in 3. State Sen. Liz Mathis, running to represent Iowas second congressional district in the U.S. House, visited with members of Hawkeye Community College and child care workers to discuss the deserts. The daycare at Hawkeyes Van G. Miller Adult Learning Center holds 56 kids, from birth to age 5. The center is no stranger to the child care shortage. In 2019, it lost seven workers. In 2020, it lost 14. Mary Janssen, children and family services director for Child Care Resources & Referral of Northeast Iowa, said workers left for higher pay or more benefits. I think COVID-19 changed child care forever. I really do, Janssen said. She said they saw a workforce shortage before the pandemic, but COVID-19 exacerbated the issue. Earlier this month, the Iowa Legislature approved a bill with mostly Republican support intended to help child care centers address staffing shortages. The bill, yet to be signed by Gov. Kim Reynolds, would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work unsupervised. It would also allow child care centers to operate with one worker for every seven 2-year-olds and one worker for every 10 3-year-olds. This comes after Gov. Reynolds awarded $37 million in child care grants to projects to create nearly 5,200 new child care slots across Iowa. The Iowa Workforce Development said $26.9 million will come from the Department of Human Services funds, $3 million from the Legislatures Child Care Challenge Fund, and $6.7 million in American Rescue Plan funds. But Mathis said that isnt working. Her next step, if elected, would be to get sustainable child care for Iowa, which she said should also be dependable and safe. Mathis added that Reynolds solution to change age requirements for child care workers wasnt in her recommendations. A bill Mathis supported was converting abandoned school buildings into child care centers. She said the bill would have incentivized business leaders in rural communities to buy the buildings. People located in rural towns, theres no child care and where they work is 30 minutes away, she said. Then they end up taking their kids to where theyre working instead of where theyre living, so we thought it would be a great idea to do that. Mathis said the problem with the bill is that the abandoned schools are on large amounts of property, which would lead to higher property taxes that exceed business expectations. Iowa Republicans didnt pick up the bill. In Waterloo, the City Council is working on a plan to incentivize new at-home child care service, where a tax credit could be applied to a property. Incentives would extend to licensed preschools and child care centers, as well as home providers who register with the Iowa Department of Human Services. The incentive was unanimously approved in May of last year. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 TRIPOLI Authorities have filed more charges against a Tripoli man awaiting trial for sexual abuse. On Thursday, the Bremer County Sheriffs Office announced deputies charged Tracy Vern Buchholz, 51, with one count of third-degree sexual abuse. He is accused of abusing a female acquaintance at the Sweet Marsh wildlife area northeast of Tripoli on April 25. Deputies were notified of the incident on May 7. Buchholz is currently awaiting trial for third-degree sexual abuse in another attack. He is accused of entering a rural Bremer County business Feb. 8 and groping a female employee against her will while she was working alone. He was arrested in that case May 9. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO One person was injured in an overnight shooting in Waterloo on Thursday. Details werent available, but police said the man was walking in the 1000 block of Kern Street around 8:45 p.m. Thursday when he was shot in the leg. He was taken to UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital by private vehicle and doctors treated him for the injuries, which police said werent life-threatening. Officers found three spent shell casings at the shooting scene. No arrests have been made and police continue to investigate. Love 0 Funny 10 Wow 1 Sad 1 Angry 4 Sign up for our Crime & Courts newsletter Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO The community is preparing to celebrate Memorial Day throughout the city, with reminders of the sacrifices of Americas armed forces front and center. At 10 a.m. Monday, the Disabled American Veterans will preside over the 2022 Memorial Day Parade. The parade will go from the Wells Fargo Bank at the Corner of Sixth and Commercial streets and continue down Commercial to Fourth Street, crossing the Cedar River. According to Dave Grimm, adjutant treasurer of Disabled American Veterans, the parade was originally scheduled to turn at Sycamore Street but is now being extended to Mulberry Street. It will then go down to Fifth Street and back across the river along Fifth to Commercial. The parade will conclude behind the bank where it started This is to honor veterans, past and present, and their sacrifice and their families sacrifice, Grimm said of the days events. Thats the entire reason for Memorial Day. At 11 a.m., the DAV also will hold a Memorial Day ceremony at Veterans Memorial Hall. Lt. Col. Garrett Gingrich, commanding officer of the Waterloo-based Iowa Army National Guards 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry Regiment, also known as the Ironman Battalion, will act as the keynote speaker. Other speeches and prayers will be given, as well, along with music, a rifle salute and a waterfront ceremony. Black Hawk County Supervisor Craig White will read off a list of the Honored Deaths, those veterans in the area who died in the last year. In addition, the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum will be open at 11 a.m. with hands-on activities and the opportunity to take photos with World War I-era doughboys, soldiers and other costumed staff. Free food with paid admission is available to first 100 guests. Admission is $6 for children ages 4-13 and $12 for those 14 and older. Veterans get free admission. As a Blue Star Museum, active duty servicemembers and up to five of their family will also receive free admission through Labor Day. This story has been updated to correct the time of the ceremony at the Veterans Memorial Hall. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. CEDAR FALLS The U.S. Marine Corps Office in Cedar Falls has welcomed a new recruiter. Staff Sgt. Joseph Stewart arrived from Lisbon on April 1 and will now be at the office, 226 B Brandilynn Blvd., answering questions and explaining the process for a four-year enlistment from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. A third recruiter also will join the team in July, according to station commander Sgt. Corey Ridgway. When not at the office, Stewart says, he and Ridgway are just like everyone else, having already checked out popular restaurants like Tonys Pizzeria, Starbecks Smokehouse and Lark Brewing. Were not that scary, Stewart quipped. Just come and talk to us. No matter which branch of service people consider, there tends to be a fear of combat. That shouldnt be what stops you from joining. The Marine Corps offers recruits an opportunity to learn trade skills like welding and machinery repair, Stewart said, that can set them apart from their counterparts when seeking jobs after their time in the service. And you dont have to pay for any of it, Stewart said. He emphasized some certifications are valid in all 50 states. Its 100% paid for all the benefits, you name it, you dont have to pay for it, he said. The Marine Corps provides a full benefits package including salary, medical, housing, and vacation, according to its website. People come into the Marine Corps with zero confidence and they leave with all the confidence in the world, he added. Stewart noted that after enlistment, the Marine Corps takes care of ones family, too, extending benefits such as medical and dental insurance to spouses and children. Anyone from 17 to 28 years old can join. Besides having a high school diploma, general physical and mental requirements must be met. Additionally, recruits must pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery test. No upfront financial incentive is offered. We get all walks of life, Stewart said. And Im super excited to meet everyone. Stewart recognizes a majority of the people who walk inside the office wont sign up. But he takes pride in sharing what options they do have. Marine Corps is for everyone, he added. Everyone is not for the Marine Corps. His territory encompasses Waterloo and Cedar Falls and stretches as far as Grundy Center, Hudson, Charles City and Iowa Falls. Four local 2022 high school graduates have decided to enlist: Garrett Johnson and Brandon Huitzil from West High School and Carson Cross and Isaiah Auge from Cedar Falls High School. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. WATERLOO Spring grants awarded by the Otto Schoitz Foundation will provide funding for affordable homes in the Walnut neighborhood and a new Tri-County Head Start playground as well as many other efforts aimed at the Cedar Valleys well-being. The foundation announced awards of $1.8 million to 19 organizations providing meaningful and lasting impact to the community, a news release said. As invested members of the community, the Otto Schoitz Foundation leaders are proud of our partner organizations working to improve the health and well-being in the Cedar Valley for all, board chairperson Eric Locke said in the release. The revitalization efforts in the Walnut neighborhood have been tremendous and we are excited to be part of that positive momentum going forward. Safe and affordable housing is fundamental to a persons well-being, he noted. In fact, each of our Spring 2022 grant partners are making significant impact on the quality of life in the Cedar Valley by reducing existing disparities and creating new opportunities. Its largest award, nearly $1.01 million, is going to Iowa Heartland Habitat for Humanity to support construction and rehabilitation of 14 safe and affordable homes over the next three years. The grant continues investment in the historic Walnut neighborhood as access to affordable housing remains a high need in Black Hawk County. The National Low Income Housing Coalition reports that our community lacks over 1,600 affordable housing units and nearly 2,000 local families are severely cost-burdened by housing, according to the release. Reducing disparities, including inequities in housing, is a priority for the Otto Schoitz Foundation. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau illustrates the homeownership disparity; Black Americans have the lowest rate of home ownership, compared to other racial groups a statistic that holds true in Black Hawk County. Tri-County Child and Family Development Council has purchased a building in the historic Church Row neighborhood and will open an expanded Head Start facility in Fall 2022 serving 150 children of families all at or below federal poverty guidelines. Foundation funding of $50,000 will help build a natural playground at the new location. Tri-County is the largest Head Start provider in the state, serving over 900 preschoolers in Black Hawk County alone. According to the Black Hawk County Child Care Coalition, the childcare needs of thousands are not met and employers identify child care as a barrier to employee retention. The North End Cultural Center is receiving $60,000 to assist in hiring professional staff; continuing the popular North End Fest and Hip Hop Literacy programs; and expanding its education, theater and music programs for all ages. The center works on the citys northeast side, a predominately Black and historically marginalized community. The release noted that diverse artistic endeavors are central to the well being of communities. Neighborhoods with greater cultural resources have less crime and incidents of child abuse, which is documented in a study by the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. One City United was awarded $20,000 to help the organization equip unemployed people with the tools needed for employability and connect them with employment opportunities. Through its Momentum program, adults with two or more barriers to employment (like a criminal record or substance use history) are provided with the education, skill-building, and self-confidence needed to become sustainably employed. Additional grants awarded were: $4,157 to Americans for Independent Living. $13,861 to the Cedar Valley Bicycle Collective. $15,000 to Exceptional Persons, Inc. $10,000 to Eye of the Needle. $35,000 to Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. $75,000 to Grin & Grow Child Care. $75,000 to the Grout Museum District. $20,000 to the Leader Valley Foundation. $10,000 to Lutheran Services in Iowa. $21,000 to North Star Community Services, Inc. $30,000 to Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging, Inc. $75,000 to SuccessLinks school-based health centers. $25,000 to The Job Foundation. $150,000 to the University of Northern Iowa Foundation. $30,000 to the Waterloo Housing Trust Fund. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Friday marks the official start of summer beach season and the city is facing a severe, widespread lifeguard shortage that could result in closed beaches and pools later this year. Chicago Park District officials are hoping an added $500 bonus for new seasonal lifeguards will boost a recent recruitment push to fill the 587 lifeguard positions it needs for a full staff. Advertisement As of May 16, 686 people had applied for the position of lifeguard but none had been hired, according to the Park District. Before they can be hired, lifeguard candidates must earn their certification from the American Red Cross, which only recently resumed training classes following a complete halt during the pandemic shutdown. Complicating recruitment efforts is that the search comes on the heels of a sweeping lifeguard sex abuse scandal that led to a shake-up at the Park District last fall following revelations that the former head of the district failed to properly forward allegations of sex abuse against lifeguard supervisors. Advertisement Chicago Park District lifeguard Johanna Leiva, middle kneeling, demonstrates CPR technique and the use of an automated external defibrillator as other lifeguards look on at North Avenue Beach on May 20, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) The country is already facing a national lifeguard shortage attributed, in part, to COVID-19 lockdowns that reduced the in-person training required for certification, as well as travel restrictions that drastically decreased the number of international students who work as lifeguards each summer, industry experts said. Public and private pools and aquatic centers across the country and locally, including in Oak Park and Aurora, have had to change their hours or close altogether, according to published reports. Here we are. Weve already had hot days and there arent enough people in the pipeline, said Juanita Irizarry, executive director of Friends of the Parks, an advocacy organization. Irizarry said she is worried the scandal had hurt the reputation of the districts lifeguard program at a time when restless teenagers were expected to hit the beaches with renewed vigor following the forced lockdowns that took them away from friends. With Chicagos beaches opening Friday, along with pools scheduled to open June 24, the dearth of lifeguards doesnt bode well for beaches and pools across the area during the first summer without pandemic restrictions. No beaches are expected to be closed on opening day, Park District officials said, but if there are closures, the districts website will be updated and alerts sent to the media. Lifeguard stations are seen at Chicago's North Avenue Beach on May 20, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Six people have already died in suspected drownings in Lake Michigan this year, according to the nonprofit Great Lakes Surf Rescue Project, which tracks drownings in the Great Lakes. Irizarry is encouraging the Park District to invest in alternate ways to help stop drownings. She pointed to a recent installation of life safety rings along the lakefront as an example of alternative solutions. Maybe this issues even bigger than lifeguards. What other things can the Park District be doing to prevent drownings? she said. Because people will be out on the beach. Weve been cooped up with COVID and theres going to be a lot of people on the beach and theres not going to be enough lifeguards. The district announced the $500 bonus as part of its I Am a Chicago Lifeguard recruitment campaign, which puts a spotlight on the varied skills needed for lifeguard work. Seasonal lifeguard applicants 16 and older must pass a skills test to become certified and the new bonus is supposed to help defray the approximately $100 cost for Red Cross certification training, city officials said. Seasonal lifeguards make $15.88 an hour. Advertisement The plan comes under Superintendent Rosa Escareno, who stepped in last October after her predecessor, Mike Kelly, resigned following a probe by the Park Districts Office of Inspector General that found Kelly waited six months before forwarding an accusation of an inappropriate relationship with an underage former seasonal employee and an adult supervisor. Chicago public radio station WBEZ was the first to report the scandal. An advertisement to apply to be a lifeguard at Fullerton Avenue and DuSable Lake Shore Drive in Chicago on May 24, 2022. Chicago beaches open on Friday. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) The American Red Cross of Greater Chicago is also encouraging area youth and young adults to take lifeguard classes for the lifesaving skills that can be gained. Red Cross training courses teach prospective lifeguards about water rescues, first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These are life skills that we want as many people as possible to have, so its definitely an important thing to consider for yourself, for your kids and your family, Red Cross spokeswoman Holly Baker said. The district is also offering a $200 bonus to other seasonal staff including young laborers and attendants. Irizarry applauded the Park Districts outreach, saying the jobs were desperately needed for the citys unemployed youth, particularly with recent incidents of large teen crowds that led Mayor Lori Lightfoot to institute a 10 p.m. curfew for minors following a fatal shooting near the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park. Friends of the Parks would hope that if (the Park District) have to make tough decisions about where to invest in new lifeguards, we think about how youth in this city need appropriate outlets, she said, and try to put programs in place in communities where kids are most underserved and communities (that) mostly need positive outlets. Advertisement wlee@chicagotribune.com Twitter @Midnoircowboy DES MOINES (AP) About 400 workers at Planned Parenthood offices in five states said Thursday they plan to unionize as their employer deals with the potential loss of business in states where abortions may become illegal if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling. Workers for Planned Parenthood North Central States in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota said they have signed cards showing majority support for unionization, and on Thursday they formally filed for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, said Ashley Schmidt, a training and development specialist for Nebraska and western Iowa. They plan to join SEIU Healthcare Minnesota & Iowa, an affiliate of the Service Employees International Union that has about 1 million members in 29 states, including doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians. SEIU locals represent Planned Parenthood workers in other regions, including those serving Oregon and Washington, New York, and Washington, D.C. Union organizing in a variety of fields has gained momentum recently after a decades of decline in union membership in the U.S. The Biden administration has been supportive of efforts to expand unions, and organizers have worked to establish unions at companies including Amazon, Starbucks, outdoors retailer REI and Google parent company Alphabet. The Planned Parenthood workers seeking to join the union in the Midwest include nurses, education outreach workers, community organizers and other nonmanagement employees at 28 clinics in the five states. They provide services such as reproductive care, cancer screening and abortions. On a call with reporters Thursday, employees discussed concerns about unequal pay for similar positions in different locations, lower pay than other health care providers, high turnover due to exhaustion and burnout, and a feeling that management doesnt always listen to worker concerns. Unfortunately, I have seen many of these people move on after their ideas and concerns went unheard by the executive team for far too long. Across our affiliate both clinical and administrative staff are overworked, underpaid and undervalued, said Sadie Brewer, a registered nurse who provides abortion services at a St. Paul, Minnesota, clinic. Molly Gage, a human resources vice president for Planned Parenthood North Central States, said the organization prioritizes autonomy and choice in peoples personal lives and respects that same right for workers. We support our employees, and its up to them to decide if and how they want to be represented by a union. We look forward to continuing the conversation with staff about how we can best serve patients throughout this pivotal moment for abortion access, Gage said in a statement. Workers began discussing unionizing last year, before a leaked Supreme Court draft opinion surfaced indicating the court may allow states to ban or strictly limit abortion availability, said April Clark, a registered nurse and a senior training specialist at an eastern Iowa clinic. Clark said the potential for changes in abortion law makes joining the union more important for workers. We know it means were going to be faced with stress not only for patients but for staff in the upcoming months if Roe does get overturned, she said. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 As a child war survivor, I never imagined I would see what's happening in Europe today: countries going through old tunnels, military exercises and food shortage concerns, NATO soldiers walking on the streets of my native country of Bosnia as threats of another war emerge. Many people have asked me: "I'm praying for Ukraine, what else can we do to help?" My response: Vote! Vote for candidates that will support NATO and America's leadership in the world. The good news is Iowa has one of the best candidates that has ever run for U.S. Senate in Admiral Mike Franken. His 40 years of service is what we need in this critical moment in history. Right now, bombs are being dropped on innocent people. There are children out there wondering: When is it going to stop? When are the good guys going to help us? I understand those thoughts and fears all too well. Once upon a time, I was one of those children. It is important that America maintain its leadership in the world, and that is why I am compelled to use my voice to urge you to vote for Admiral Mike Franken on June 7. Anesa Kajtazovic, Waterloo Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Briefing by Russian Defence Ministry The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation in Ukraine. High-precision air-based missiles have hit 48 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, 2 artillery batteries, and 2 ammunition depots near Nikolaevka and Berestovoe in Donetsk Peoples Republic during the day. 1 Ukrainian electronic reconnaissance centre near Dneprovskoe, Nikolaev Region, has been destroyed, including 11 servicemen from the combat unit, as well as 15 foreign engineering specialists who arrived with security guards. In addition, 1 Osa-AKM anti-aircraft missile system launcher has been destroyed near Nikolaevka in Donetsk Peoples Republic, and 1 radar of the Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system near Chuhuev in Kharkov region. Operational-tactical and army aviation have hit 49 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, 2 mortar crews, as well as 1 depot of missile and artillery weapons and ammunition. The attacks have resulted in the elimination of more than 350 nationalists and up to 96 armoured and motor vehicles. Russian air defence means have shot down 1 Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter over Husarovka, Kharkov Region. 1 Ukrainian Air Force military transport aircraft delivering ammunition and weapons has been also shot down in mid-air near Kremidovka, Odessa Region. In addition, 13 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles have been shot down near Zelenyi Gai in Kherson Region, Bolshie and Malye Prokhody, Gavrilovka, Veseloe in Kharkov Region, and Epifanovka and Kirovsk in Lugansk Peoples Republic, including 2 Soviet-made Tu-143 Reis jets near Melovatka in Lugansk Peoples Republic. Missile troops and artillery have hit 62 command posts, 407 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, 47 artillery and mortar units at firing positions, as well as 3 ammunition depots. Units and military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, which arrived to reinforce the Ukrainian grouping in Donbass, have been destroyed during unloading near Pokrovsk railway station in Donetsk Peoples Republic. In total, 179 Ukrainian airplanes and 127 helicopters, 1,019 unmanned aerial vehicles, 323 anti-aircraft missile systems, 3,266 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 433 multiple launch rocket systems, 1,682 field artillery and mortars, as well as 3,190 units of special military vehicles were destroyed during the operation. #MoD #Russia #Ukraine #Briefing @mod_russia_en WtR The Russian Defence Ministry continues to study materials on the implementation of military biological programs of the United States and its NATO allies on the territory of Ukraine. Under the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxin Weapons, each State Party submits an annual report in the form of a declaration of compliance with the requirements of the convention. It is currently the only reporting document on the implementation of the Convention in the framework of the Confidence Building Measures. Due to the investigation of US military and biological activities on the territory of Ukraine, we have analysed the documents sent by these states to the UN. It should be noted that neither Ukraine nor the United States provided information on cooperative biological research and development in the area of biological protection in the said submissions (in Form A, Part 2 i). Also, Poland and Germany have not declared engagement with Ukraine in their reports. In addition, in these reports (Form F) for the period from 2016 to 2020, Ukraine states that: The Government of Ukraine has not conducted and is not conducting any offensive or defensive activities in the framework of biological research and development programmes. The Government of Ukraine does not have any information on such activities of the former USSR on the territory of Ukraine since January 1, 1946. This contradicts a May 20, 2022 statement by Lewis Gitter, U.S. Deputy Permanent Representative to the OSCE, that assistance to Kiev is aimed at reducing biological and veterinary risks, as well as securing the illegal stockpiles of biological weapons left behind by the USSR. In addition, there are numerous inconsistencies in Ukraines reporting. Thus, the Confidence Building Measures form A for 2020 declares the complete absence of national biosecurity programmes. The Research Institute of Microbial Strain Biotechnology in Kiev, as a participant in the biological defence programme, is listed in part 2 i of this form. In addition, the characteristics of the facility (area of laboratory facilities, number of staff) do not match the information previously submitted by Ukraine. The question arises: Why did the US and Ukraines reporting documents to the UN not include work under the joint military-biological projects codenamed UP? Such secrecy is another reason to think about the true goals of the Pentagon in Ukraine. The official documents before you confirm that the Pentagon, represented by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), is organising work with a clear military-biological focus. Note the memorandum prepared by the Office of the US Secretary of Defense regarding the UP-2 project to map highly dangerous pathogens in Ukraine. The document notes that the main objective of this project is to collect information on the molecular composition of pathogens specific to Ukraine and to transfer samples of strains. Separately, it is emphasised that this work should be in line with the main guidelines for the Ukraine Cooperative Threat Reduction Programme on Preventing the Spread of Biological Weapons on November 29, 2005. A similar memorandum was prepared as part of the UP-1 project to study rickettsia and other diseases spread by arthropods. The document notes the need to transfer all collections of highly dangerous pathogens to a central reference laboratory in order to facilitate their orderly export to the USA. As part of the Cooperative Threat Reduction Programme, an extensive UP-4 project was carried out to investigate the possibility of spreading highly dangerous infections through migratory birds. Documents received show that 991 biological samples were collected between November 2019 and January 2020 alone. A total of ten such projects (including UP-3, UP-6, UP-8, UP-10) have been reported to have involved work with pathogens of particularly dangerous and economically important infections Congo-Crimean fever, leptospirosis, tick-borne encephalitis and African swine fever. Today, we would also like to draw attention to the numerous breaches of safety requirements in Ukrainian laboratories. For example, work with dangerous pathogens under Pentagon control in Kharkov, Kiev and a number of other cities was carried out in laboratories with insufficient staff protection. However, according to official data, only three laboratories with a BSL-3 biosafety level are authorised to conduct such tests. These are the Odessa Anti-Plague Institute, the Lvov Research Institute of Epidemiology and Hygiene and the Public Health Centre in Kiev. The Security Service of Ukraine noted the preconditions for the emergence of biological threats due to systematic violations and poor quality of work in the reconstruction of biolaboratories. Black & Veatch, for example, declared that it spent UAH 37.8m on upgrading three veterinary laboratories in 2013. An independent expert review found that the actual cost of the work was overstated compared to the reported costs by UAH 17.7 millions. This difference was reportedly sent to the accounts of fictitious companies such as Golden Ukraine, BK Profbudinvest and Capital Trade Agency, which further confirms the use of grey financial schemes in the personal interests of US and Ukrainian officials. It is noteworthy that the US handlers demanded that the reference laboratory in Merefa be given a higher level of biosecurity. The Kharkovproject organisation said that this was not possible under the prevailing conditions and refused to approve the project. However, the regional administration decided to go ahead with the reconstruction. The facility was commissioned in circumvention of biosafety regulations and requirements. In doing so, the Pentagons total cost for its modernisation was around $15 million. But where the funds really went is unknown. Note the report of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine on the results of an inspection of the strain collection of the Ukrainian anti-plague institute in Odessa, which totalled 654 samples. There were 32 strains of anthrax, 189 of tularemia, 11 of brucellosis and 422 of cholera in storage at the facility. The report shows gross violations of storage conditions for micro-organisms, lack of access control and management systems and inadequate ventilation systems. In April 2017, there was a case of internal laboratory infection with tick-borne encephalitis in one of the institutes laboratories as a result of a safety violation. According to eyewitness accounts of an incident that took place in 2021, an employee of a biolaboratory removed several vials containing dangerous microorganisms from the institutions premises. The consequences of such cases can only be guessed at. It should be noted that all violations occurred during the period of the US bio-threat reduction programme. This demonstrates that Washingtons officially declared goals are merely a screen for the implementation of illegal military-biological activities in Ukraine. The neglect of pathogens, the unprofessionalism and corruption of the executive branch, and the destructive influence of US handlers pose a direct threat to Ukrainian and European civilians. Russian Defence Ministry experts have confirmed that Ukrainian biolaboratories are connected to the global communicable disease surveillance system. The backbone of this network, which has been formed by the Pentagon since 1997, is the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (Maryland). It includes land and naval laboratories as well as military bases around the world. It should be noted that the deployment of such a network follows a typical scenario. The Americans are initially concerned about the state of the epidemic in the region. The next step is to ensure that officials, particularly those in the health ministries, have an interest and a financial incentive to work together, and to enter into intergovernmental agreements. As a result, a biocontainment facility is erected and connected to the single biomonitoring system. All of the countrys biological developments become the US domain. Moreover, restrictions are placed on local professionals access to a range of tests, as well as on their results. Meanwhile, the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) is actively implementing automated disease monitoring hardware and software, as well as systems to control access and movement of pathogenic biological agents in storage and research facilities. Equipping biological facilities with these information systems as part of the Biological Threat Reduction Program allows the U.S. to secure its military contingents in deployment areas, remotely monitor biolaboratories outside national jurisdiction and influence the global biological environment. As part of the special military operation, materials of US instructors training Ukrainian specialists in emergency response to smallpox outbreaks were discovered in biolaboratories in Ukraine. The Pentagons interest in this infection is far from accidental: the return of the smallpox pathogen would be a global catastrophe for all mankind. Thus, compared to COVID-19, this pathogen is just as contagious (infectious), but its lethality is 10 times higher. As early as 2003, the US Department of Defense established the Smallpox Vaccination Programme, which requires all US military personnel to be vaccinated. Vaccination in the United States is compulsory for diplomatic and medical personnel. This demonstrates that the US considers smallpox as a priority pathogenic biological agent for combat use, and that vaccine prophylaxis activities are aimed at protecting its own military contingents. Lack of proper controls and biosecurity breaches in the US could lead to the use of this pathogen for terrorist purposes. Between 2014 and 2021, unaccounted-for vials of the virus were repeatedly found in laboratories at the Federal Drug Administration and the US Army Infectious Disease Research Institute (Maryland) and the Vaccine Research Centre (Pennsylvania). Work at these organisations was in violation of World Health Assembly Resolution 49.10 of 1996, which stipulated that only one US laboratory, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, could store smallpox pathogen. It should be noted that smallpox vaccination, which is not currently available in many countries, provides protection against monkeypox. The World Health Organization has announced an emergency meeting of Member States on the outbreak of this dangerous infectious disease in May 2022. We know that by now 98% of those affected are men over the age of 20 of non-traditional orientation. Earlier, Dr David Hermann, who heads WHOs emergency department, told the American press that sexual transmission was the main cause of the spread of the disease. According to a WHO report, the West African strain of monkeypox originated in Nigeria, another state in which the US has deployed its biological infrastructure. According to available information, there are at least four Washington-controlled biolaboratories operating in Nigeria. In this connection, it is worth recalling a strange coincidence that needs further specialist verification. For example, according to European and US media reports, the Munich Security Conference 2021, i.e. against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, was a scenario for dealing with an outbreak caused by a new strain of the monkeypox virus. Against the backdrop of multiple US biosafety violations and the negligent storage of pathogenic biomaterials, we call on the World Health Organisation leadership to investigate the US-funded Nigerian laboratories in Abuja, Zaria, Lagos and inform the global community of the results. WtR In order to ensure the safe passage of foreign vessels from the ports of Odessa, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Kherson, Ochakov and Yuzhny to the open sea, the Russian Armed Forces have made adjustments to the route of the humanitarian corridor operating in the Black Sea since March 27, 2022. Starting from May 27, 2022, the maritime humanitarian corridor is a route for ships of 139 nautical miles in length and 3 miles wide. The corridor operating hours are daily from 08.00 to 19.00 (Moscow time). The assembly area is restricted to the coordinates: 4609N. 3100E; 4609N. 3108E; 4604N. 3108E; 4604N. 3100E. Then through points: No. 1 at 4540N, 3135E; No. 2 at 4508N, 3135E; No. 3 at 4418N, 022E. The disengagement area is bounded by coordinates 4418N. 3018E; 4418N. 3026E; 4413N. 3026E; 4413N. 3018E. It is the responsibility of the Ukrainian side to ensure the safety of vessels leaving ports and proceeding to the assembly area. Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev, Head of the Russian Federation Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response Head of the National Centre for State Defence Control of the Russian Federation #MoD #Russia #Ukraine @mod_russia_Enjoy WtR Extra News Top News Today As a result of a series of measures taken by the Russian Navy, the Mariupol harbour has been cleared of mines and civilian vessels can safely use the harbour. In order to ensure the safe passage of foreign vessels from the ports of Odessa, Nikolaev, Chernomorsk, Kherson, Ochakov and Yuzhny to the open sea, the Russian Armed Forces have made adjustments to the route of the humanitarian corridor operating in the Black Sea since March 27, 2022. High-precision air-based missiles have hit 48 areas of AFU manpower and military equipment concentration, 2 artillery batteries, and 2 ammunition depots near Nikolaevka and Berestovoe in Donetsk Peoples Republic during the day. 1 Ukrainian electronic reconnaissance centre near Dneprovskoe, Nikolaev Region, has been destroyed, including 11 servicemen from the combat unit, as well as 15 foreign engineering specialists who arrived with security guards. Russian air defence means have shot down 1 Ukrainian Mi-24 helicopter over Husarovka, Kharkov Region. 1 Ukrainian Air Force military transport aircraft delivering ammunition and weapons has been also shot down in mid-air near Kremidovka, Odessa Region. Captured AFU soldiers urged fellow servicemen to lay down their arms and spoke about barrage troops to shoot deserters. Ukrainian refugees continue to arrive in Russia. The local administration provides refugees with all the necessary assistance. Footage of fortified AFU positions captured by Russian paratroopers has been published. Video of Iskander missile launcher and S-300V anti-aircraft system, as well as, demining of populated area in Kherson Region has been published. #MoD #Russia #Ukraine @mod_russia_en Below link is a zip file of all documents presented by Russia today Documents around 65 MB download. Talk about a bunch of information and the implications and proof is amazing. The USA is really a very bad country and even if us citizens are not approving, we are still at fault. We must stop our government from all its illegal activities A whole network of US biolabs has spawned in other countries around Russia A similar situation is on the borders with China, said Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov There are also at least four laboratories controlled by Washington operating in Nigeria. At the same time, the introduction of the West African strain of monkey pox originated from this country What is the true purpose of the functioning of American biological laboratories deployed around the world? They claim that it is about ensuring the safety and health of the civilian population. But a fair question arises what does the Pentagon have to do with it? All these centers are supervised and funded by the US Military Department Why? WtR We're always interested in hearing about news in our community. Let us know what's going on! Go to form Officials investigate the scene on May 14, 2022, where a 9-year-old boy was fatally shot inside an apartment building in the 4700 block of Main Street in Skokie. A 6-year-old boy was also shot and suffered a graze wound, according to police. (Andrew Johnston / Chicago Tribune) A judge Thursday denied bail for a 22-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy accused in the fatal shooting of a 9-year-old and the wounding of his little brother earlier this month in Skokie, police said. Details about a third person arrested will be announced at 3 p.m. Friday at the Skokie Police Department, 7300 Niles Center Road. Advertisement Richard Banks, 22, and Christian Anderson, 16, both of Chicago, were charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Jeremiah Ellis and attempted murder and aggravated battery for the attack, which happened May 14 in the 4700 block of Main Street, Skokie police said in an emailed statement. Anderson was charged as an adult. Advertisement Jeremiahs 5-year-old brother suffered a graze wound. Jeremiah was found when police officers rushed to the scene of shots fired and found two boys wounded in an apartment building in the 4700 block of Main Street just after midnight May 14, according to police and the Cook County medical examiners office. The North Regional Major Crimes Task Force was investigating the shooting, but Skokie police asked anyone with information to contact investigators at 847-982-5900 or the 24-hour Skokie crime tip hotline at 847-933-8477. rsobol@chicagotribune.com Lewis Hamilton races with his nose stud in at Monaco GP Lewis Hamilton kept his nose stud in at the Monaco Grand Prix after motorsports governing body extended the exemption on drivers wearing jewelry until the end of June The new president of the Italian Conference of Bishops says he would launch an independent inquiry on sex abuse by Catholic clergy in Italy European and American health authorities have identified a number of cases of monkeypox this week, a surprising outbreak of an illness that has previously been limited mostly to central and western Africa. Doctors are still unsure how exactly monkeypox is spreading. The disease is normally transmitted either from wild animals like rodents and primates or from very close contact with infected people. British officials say most recent cases have been men who have had sex with men and who had no history of travel to Africa. That suggests the disease is already spreading in the country. Believing her 8-year-old daughter didnt love her anymore, a Chicago woman axphyxiated her after they said prayers before bed in the Uptown neighborhood earlier in the week, prosecutors said Friday during the womans bond hearing. Andreal R. Hagler, 38, was charged with first-degree murder and was denied bail before Cook County Judge Maryam Ahmad during a hearing livestreamed on YouTube. Advertisement Assistant States Attorney James Murphy said the victims uncle, who sometimes stayed with them, came to their apartment Wednesday morning in the 4600 block of North Winthrop Avenue to check on Hagler after calling several times and not getting a response. After finding them in a bed, unresponsive, he called his sister, who immediately called 911. Advertisement Hagler was facedown with a clear plastic bag over her head and moving a little when police and paramedics arrived. Two small legs from the shin down peeked out from a comforter and they found 8-year-old Amaria, deceased, Murphy said. Amaria was pronounced dead on the scene at 11:23 a.m., according to the Cook County medical examiners office. Murphy said in court the medical examiners office ruled Amarias death a homicide after finding she died of multiple injuries, including those consistent with asphyxiation, from an assault. Hagler, who didnt appear to be injured but was later found to have PCP in her system, was gripping the mattress and would not let go, Murphy said. First responders handcuffed her and lifted her to a chair and then she was wheeled out to an ambulance, said Murphy, who added Hagler never said a word. Hagler had been taken to nearby Weiss Memorial Hospital, where she had been reported in good condition. Following her arrest moments after Amaria was found, Hagler gave a statement to police indicating she and Amaria said their bedtime prayers that night about 8 or 9 p.m. She told police she drank bleach and took PCP, and believed her daughter didnt love her anymore and loved her father more, Murphy said. As Amaria screamed, Mommy stop! Hagler began suffocating her by placing a plastic bag over her head and telling her it was their time to go, because they were both born on the 24th, Murphy said. Advertisement An attorney representing Hagler asserted there were no witnesses, and said Hagler was not a flight risk. She finished some college courses and works as an occupational therapist. Hagler, who could not afford bond, suffers from depression, according to the attorney. According to a Chicago police report, Hagler had a meeting scheduled with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services on Tuesday. The principal of a nearby elementary school in Uptown sent a letter home Wednesday informing students, parents and guardians a child enrolled at the school had died. The letter did not say the age or gender of the student and it was not immediately clear whether Amaria attended the school. This loss is sure to raise many emotions, concerns, and questions for the entire school, especially our students. The Chicago Public Schools crisis management unit will work with our own counselor, social worker, and psychologist to provide grief counseling and support to students and staff members. If your child expresses any concern(s), please contact us so that we can provide additional support, the letter said. Hagler is due back in court on June 15. rsobol@chicagotribune.com Voluntary ESCROW of Acquisition Consideration Perth, May 26, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - On 3 May 2022 Monger Gold Ltd ( ASX:MMG ) announced that it had entered into a binding agreement (Acquisition Agreement) to acquire up to 100% of the shares and options in American Consolidated Lithium Pty Ltd (American Consolidated Lithium or ACL), who in turn hold an option to acquire 100% of the Scotty's Lithium Project in Nevada, USA.The consideration payable under the Acquisition Agreement includes the issue of fully paid ordinary shares in Monger (Shares) and options to acquire Shares (Options), in stages, to the shareholders of ACL (Vendors).The issue of the Shares and Options to the Vendors is the subject of shareholder approval at the Company's Annual General Meeting to be held on Tuesday, 31 May 2022 (AGM).The Company wishes to advise that ACL and the Vendors have agreed that the 8,000,000 Stage 1 Shares (as defined in the Company's Notice of Meeting with respect to the AGM announced 3 May 2022 (and as amended on 16 May 2022) (Notice)) to be issued to the Vendors, will be held subject to a voluntary escrow period expiring 6 months from the date of issue of the Stage 1 Shares.As announced on 3 May 2022 and detailed in the Notice, the 4,000,000 Stage 1 Options (as defined in the Notice) are subject to a voluntary escrow period expiring on 7 July 2023.MMG's Chairman Mr Peretz Schapiro said, "Since entering in to this Agreement, the team at ACL have been tremendously supportive of the Company in helping to advance the project as well as to recruit contractors and identify management candidates. This Escrow agreement demonstrates that ACL are committed to the long term success of the Scotty's Lithium Project, and thereby the success of MMG".About Monger Gold Ltd With an enterprise value AUD $1m and AUD $5m in funding, Monger Gold Limited's (ASX:MMG) intention is to generate value for shareholders by directing funds raised by the Offer into targeted and systematic exploration of our Projects, resulting in the definition of one or more JORC compliant gold and nickel resources. Placement to Fund NAL Restart and Development Initiatives Brisbane, May 27, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Emerging lithium producer Sayona Mining Limited ( ASX:SYA ) ( FRA:DML ) ( OTCMKTS:SYAXF ) has received significant financial support for its growth strategy, with the Company undertaking a successful single-tranche placement to global institutional, professional and sophisticated investors of A$190 million ("Placement").Proceeds from the Placement will be primarily used to fund the restart of spodumene concentrate production at Sayona's North American Lithium ("NAL") operation in Quebec, Canada (Sayona 75%; Piedmont Lithium 25%). The planned restart at NAL remains on schedule for first spodumene concentrate production in Q1 2023, with critical long-lead items secured and senior staff recruited. NAL concentrator commissioning is projected for late Q3/early Q4 2022.The recent Pre-Feasibility Study ("PFS") for NAL (refer ASX release 23 May 2022) demonstrated the operation's technical and financial viability and will form the basis of a Definitive Feasibility Study ("DFS") expected in the second half of 2022. The DFS will assess the economics of a larger integrated NAL and Authier resource base and operation.The Placement has provided Sayona with considerable balance sheet strength as the Company rapidly develops its leading lithium resource base in North America, amid escalating demand from the electric vehicle and clean energy revolution. Sayona is also assessing the viability of a lithium hydroxide or carbonate plant at NAL, allowing for increased value-add to the operation and supporting the Quebec Government's battery strategy.In addition to the proposed NAL restart, the Placement will also provide strategic funding for Sayona to expand and grow its highly strategic Northern Hub resource base. The Northern Hub's prospectivity is highlighted by the recent drilling discovery at the Company's Moblan Lithium Project (refer ASX release 26 April 2022).Use of ProceedsProceeds from the Placement will be applied to:- NAL refurbishment and studies (A$100m)- Authier development (A$35m)- Moblan evaluation and Feasibility Study update (A$25m)- Exploration and project evaluation (A$15m)- Working capital and offer costs (A$15m).Sayona's Managing Director, Brett Lynch commented: "This Placement is a major vote of confidence in our ability to transform NAL into a sustainable and profitable producer of key battery metals."I would like to thank all our investors, both existing and new, for backing Sayona as we advance towards becoming the first local producer of spodumene in North America and ultimately moving downstream to capture even greater value-add from our expanding lithium resource base."Placement DetailsSayona has received firm commitments to raise A$190 million (before costs) through the issue of 1,054,406,346 new fully paid ordinary shares ("New Shares") at an issue price of A$0.18 per New Share.The issue price of the New Shares represents a 12.2% discount to the last closing price on 24 May 2022.The New Shares issued through the Placement will be issued under the Company's placement capacity pursuant to ASX Listing Rule 7.1.The New Shares are expected to settle on Wednesday 1 June 2022 and be issued and commence trading on the ASX on a normal basis on Thursday 2 June 2022. New Shares issued under the Placement will rank equally with existing shares on issue.Canaccord Genuity (Australia) and Petra Capital acted as Joint Lead Managers and Bookrunners to the Placement. Desjardins Capital Markets and Jett Capital Advisors acted as Co-Managers to the Placement.Further details of the equity raising are set out in the Company's investor presentation* in link below. The investor presentation contains important information, including key risks of investing in Sayona and foreign selling restrictions with respect to the Placement.Not an offer in the United StatesThis announcement does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction. Any securities described in this announcement have not been, and will not be, registered under the US Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States except in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, the registration requirements of the US Securities Act and applicable US state securities laws.To view the Presentation, please visit:About Sayona Mining Limited Sayona Mining Limited (ASX:SYA) (OTCMKTS:SYAXF) is an Australian, ASX-listed (SYA) company focused on sourcing and developing the raw materials required to construct lithium-ion batteries for use in the rapidly growing new and green technology sectors. The Company has lithium projects in Quebec, Canada and in Western Australia. Please visit us as at www.sayonamining.com.au Drilling Resumes at Horse Well Prospect Melbourne, May 27, 2022 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Cohiba Minerals Limited ( ASX:CHK ) ( OTCMKTS:CHKMF ) is pleased to announce that drilling has recommenced at the Horse Well Prospect (Figure 1*) with drill hole HWDD06 (Figure 2*) underway.Cohiba's CEO, Andrew Graham says, "We are excited to be back at Horse Well armed with considerable additional insights into the geology and structure of the area and trust that this will translate into exploration success. We remain confident that the Horse Well Prospect represents a key IOCG target zone within the Gawler Craton and are committed to investigating it to the fullest extent possible."The Horse Well Prospect is immediately adjacent to BHP's advanced exploration play at Oak Dam West which has reported significant intersections such as AD-23 with 425.7m at 3.04% Cu, 0.59 g/t Au, 346 ppm U and 6.03 g/t Ag from 1,063m including 180m @ 6.07% Cu, 0.92 g/t Au, 401 ppm U and 12.77 g/t Ag from 1,070m (BHP News Release, 27 November 2018).Cohiba has received regulatory and landholder approval for up to 12 drill holes at the Horse Well Prospect and is targeting coincident gravity and magnetic anomalies, but with a focus on some of the subtler gravity responses where technical reviews of previous drilling have suggested a possible masking of the target areas due to more complex geology than that seen at Oak Dam West.HWDD06 is designed to drill across one such residual gravity feature, leveraging insights gained from nearby drill hole COHWDD03 (Figure 3*) that this area exhibits strong haematite and sericite alteration in the host granite (Donington Granite) which also hosts the Oak Dam and Carrapateena deposits.Haematite and sericite alteration associated with strong brecciation fabrics and persistent low-level copper mineralisation in a number of the Horse Well drill holes are clear signs of the potential for IOCG mineralisation.The current plan is to commence HWDD06 has commenced at a dip of 70deg and the current plan is to progressively shallow the hole to a final dip of 60deg (Table 1*) to gain a better cross-sectional result. It is expected that the basement will be encountered at a downhole depth of 990m.*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. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Wildfires this year have scorched thousands of acres in northern New Mexico. The fires also threaten acequias that provide water to hundreds of farmers and ranchers, New Mexico Interstate Stream Commission officials said Thursday. The panel voted to direct $100,000 from a state Legislature special appropriation to assess wildfire effects on acequias and community ditches. Commissioner Paula Garcia recently returned to her Mora farm after fleeing the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire. The fire is absolutely devastating for this region of the state, said Garcia, who is also executive director of the New Mexico Acequia Association. Im seeing the burn scars every day on very steep slopes. And its a serious public safety issue as we look now towards the monsoons. Even minimal rainfall could send ash into the acequias that divert water from northern New Mexico rivers and streams. Acequias in or near the fire zones are also at risk of erosion, floods and debris flow, said ISC director Rolf Schmidt-Petersen. Maybe as many as 100 acequias are within the footprint, or close to that, of just the Hermits/Peak Calf Canyon Fire, to say nothing about Cerro Pelado, and some of the other fires that are out there, including Ruidoso, he said. The acequia group is working with federal agencies and soil and water conservation districts to ensure that acequias are included in post-fire maps and project plans. The association is also hiring a disaster and recovery coordinator specifically for wildfire response efforts. Commissioner Phoebe Suina, a hydrologist who studies burned watersheds, said the massive fires will likely influence the health of rivers, streams and acequias for years. We are going to have to juggle the impacts and address the impacts, especially for downstream communities and infrastructure, Suina said. The commission said the money will fund a preliminary assessment. More money could be directed to specific acequia projects once agencies finish collecting data about fire impacts. ASEAN leaders call for open, integrated trade in Asia as Japan woos region over US-led IPEF By Zhang Han (Global Times) 08:39, May 27, 2022 US pulling ASEAN into the quagmire of confronting China Cartoon: Vitaly Podvitsky Tokyo hosted leaders of some of ASEAN member states to discuss the future of Asia at a forum on Thursday, after seeing off US President Joe Biden, who visited Japan for a Quad summit and carried out a mission to rope in regional countries through the newly launched Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF). Regional leaders shared the consensus that Asia's future lies in stability, cooperation and stronger integration, and ASEAN states will continue their balanced policy to push for regional prosperity amid challenges, observers said, predicting that ASEAN is looking for opportunities in the IPEF but won't embrace the US' efforts to use the framework as a geopolitical tool. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Malaysian Prime Minister Sabri Yaakob, and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha are in Tokyo for the forum and bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. Other leaders, including Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are also attending this year's forum called "Redefining Asia's Role in a Divided World," where Kishida is expected to lobby ASEAN over the IPEF, the US-led framework widely believed to aim at marginalizing China's economic influence in the region. A Japanese government opinion poll released before the forum on Wednesday showed nearly half of those surveyed in Southeast Asia picked China as the region's most important partner in the future, surpassing Japan for the first time. Kyodo News cited a Japanese foreign ministry official as saying China had deepened ties with ASEAN through "vaccine diplomacy." But vaccine aid and medical supplies provided during the COVID-19 pandemic constituted just one facet of the comprehensive and fruitful China-ASEAN cooperation, which led to ASEAN's recognition of China's role and vice versa. A recent Global Times pollshowed nine of 10 Chinese see China-ASEAN ties as friendly and 75 percent are optimistic about the future ties, while nearly 80 percent believe the US is the biggest disruptor of the ties. Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, told the Global Times on Thursday that mutual support amid the pandemic was just one example of China-ASEAN relations - that is, in times of crisis, the two sides forge closer ties to jointly withstand difficulties and overcome challenges. Xu, citing the 1997 Asian financial meltdown when China maintained a strong yuan to help the region overcome the crisis, noted that the rise of China-ASEAN trade and investment during the pandemic also illustrated such ties. ASEAN surpassed the EU and became China's top trading partner in 2020. Experts also attributed deepening bilateral relations to multiple ASEAN-led mechanisms as well as substantial fruit from cooperation, manifested in the the Belt and Road Initiative programs, the Lancang-Mekong cooperation mechanism, and the heightened free trade agreement of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). ASEAN continued to be China's top trade partnerin the first quarter of 2022 and accounted for 47 percent of China's imports and exports with all RCEP partners. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at Thursday's routine press briefing that China sees ASEAN as a priority in its neighborhood diplomacy, supports its central position in the regional structure, and is always a reliable neighbor, friend and trustworthy partner of the bloc. Despite some ASEAN members having signed onto the US-led IPEF, observers pointed out the bloc won't abandon its strategy of seeking a balance between major powers - a choice arising from historical lessons and real interests, and one that gave the region peace, stability and development. The IPEF's composition is similar to that of the RCEP, with the absence of China, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, and with the addition of the US and India. Seven out of the 13 inaugural states are ASEAN members. Inclusion in the IPEF will bring some economic benefits to ASEAN members in investment and trade, Gu Xiaosong, dean of the ASEAN Research Institute of Hainan Tropical Ocean University, told the Global Times, citing Vietnam's textile industry as an example. But the IPEF is not an FTA and has no plan for market access or tariff reductions, to ASEAN's frustration. Xu said the US has a big say in setting internal trade rules, and ASEAN members also expect "bonuses" in those fields. But if the US insists on using it as a geopolitical tool, ASEAN states won't embrace it. Singapore's Lee said at the IPEF launch event on Monday that the IPEF should remain open, inclusive and flexible, and noted at Thursday's forum in Tokyo that China should stay integrated in the region. Prayut said at the Thursday forum that Asia must regenerate economic growth by keeping markets open and inclusive. The IPEF also falls short, considering it is not seeking Congressional approval, meaning it can be abandoned when a new US administration arrives, just like the Trans-Pacific Partnership after the Obama administration. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) First responders move a shooting victim to an ambulance on Adams Street near State Street in downtown Chicago on May 14, 2022. The downtown area saw gun violence and disturbances after a teenage boy was shot and fatally wounded near the Cloud Gate sculpture in Millennium Park. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) Mayor Lori Lightfoot and other city officials rolled out summer safety plans Friday, trying to emphasize the joy that comes with the start of summer in Chicago even as crime concerns downtown and across neighborhoods continue. At a news conference Friday morning, Lightfoot defended the need for an earlier curfew for young people. And she said the city is prepared for any violence. Advertisement All of the citys beaches and lakefront will reopen, the mayor said, and Chicago has numerous events planned throughout the weekend and summer. But, she said, the government cant maintain safety alone and residents must also keep track of their children to make sure teenagers arent misbehaving. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot discusses summer safety plans at the Holstein Park Fieldhouse on May 27, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Lightfoot addressed controversy over her policy mandating unaccompanied teenagers be banned from visiting Millennium Park after 6 p.m. from Thursdays through Sundays, a measure she enacted earlier this month after large groups of mostly Black and brown teenagers caused a scene downtown culminating in a teenager being shot and killed by The Bean sculpture. Lightfoot said the city wants to be welcoming to the citys children no matter their race. Advertisement Our children are welcome everywhere (and) anywhere they wanna be. This is their city too. And we shouldnt be afraid of Black and brown kids coming downtown, Lightfoot said. We dont act that way when white kids come downtown en masse. We just dont. The issue is not that they come downtown, not that theyre coming in big groups, the issue is if the behavior is one that recognizes and respects people, property and spaces. The situation presents a thorny problem for Lightfoot, who has made equity for Black and brown residents a top priority but who has also implemented policies such as the Millennium Park rule that some say marginalizes people of color. Lightfoot also promoted an app, My CHI. My Future, that she said lists events for young people who want to enjoy the summer safely. A consistent theme from multiple speakers at the press event was a need for parents to be in close contact with their children and teenagers and a need to make sure youth are engaged this summer. Much of Chicagos gun violence problem, however, involves ongoing street conflicts between individuals who are older, many in their 20s. And while the downtown incidents have caused alarm, the highest rates of gun violence occur in generally the same places they always have, neighborhoods on the South and West sides of the city that have been starved of resources and deprived of public safety for years. Tamara Mahal, who leads the citys newest effort to address violence the Community Safety Coordination Center noted in her remarks that there would be an increase this summer in street outreach workers, from several community organizations, who are a presence in some of the more dangerous pockets and respond to shootings to calm tensions immediately and try to prevent retaliation. This intervention work engages those most at risk of violence, Mahal said. This is a dangerous job. ... But these individuals are working to directly intervene before violence occurs between groups, Mahal said. I want to say thank you for what you are doing and for using the opportunity to make your life better but also make the lives of others better. Advertisement Mahal also said the coordination center would be working at the block level to fast-track help and resources for what neighborhood groups need to keep areas thriving. She also said the summer would bring expanded evening programming hours. Police Superintendent David Brown said focused traffic missions and foot and bike patrols will be utilized, and the department will continue to target its efforts on the the most troublesome spots, where gun violence is more prevalent. The holiday weekend, however, will add some 40 events for city officials to monitor, from a Coldplay concert to the Crosstown Classic, in addition to the opening of the beaches. The department has also experienced a higher than usual number of retirements. On Friday, Brown offered assurances, however, that all parts of the city would be covered. Officials also said later that days off for officers during the weekend have been canceled, which is not unusual for a holiday weekend. For the holiday weekend we have increased resources in all of our communities, Brown said. And I want to emphasize the resources we have in place in the neighborhoods will remain in those neighborhoods. Advertisement There was some good news offered on gun violence so far this year. Brown announced that homicides are down 11% and shootings are down 16% this year compared with 2021. Yet, the start of summer comes after a difficult two weeks, including the fatal shooting of the 16-year-old at The Bean. Days later, there was a mass shooting near a McDonalds close to the Magnificent Mile that left two dead. This has prompted members of clergy to schedule a Michigan Avenue prayer walk to Millennium Park, Pastor Michael Eaddy, of the Peoples Church of the Harvest in East Garfield Park, said Friday, at the news conference. We will pray and walk to Millennium Park, Eaddy said. We know that certainly has been a focal point of tension in recent days. ... We will also declare our commitment as a faith community and faith leaders to the city of Chicago, certainly to our young people for safety and peace throughout these coming months. Advertisement gpratt@chicagotribune.com asweeney@chicagotribune.com Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Albuquerque fire officials around 8:15 p.m. Wednesday said crews had gotten a handle on a 34-acre bosque fire burning on both sides of the Rio Grande south of the Montano bridge. Less than an hour later, however, the Bernalillo County Sheriffs Office posted a message on Twitter that hundreds of residents in the area need to evacuate their homes immediately. Panic ensued as an emergency notification was sent to some residents cellphones and television news outlets sent alerts to subscribers. On Thursday, officials said the BCSO tweet was the result of a miscommunication and that no homes were ever in danger as the fire was well on its way to containment. But locals on Twitter said the order put them on high-alert, with some growing frantic and hosing down homes, waking up children and fleeing with pets and belongings. Bernalillo County Fire Deputy Chief Brian Rose said it stemmed from a misinterpretation with the dispatch center between evacuating the Rio Grande river area itself and neighborhoods west of Rio Grande Boulevard. So kind of the fog of war, things were happening very, very quickly, the fire was moving quickly, Rose said. All those components sometimes collide. It created a little bit of a mess. Some experiences were more trying than others. One Twitter user wrote the temporary evacuation wasnt fun folks, but it kinda freaked out my family and the cat pooped in her cage and got all covered in yucky gross poop! By midnight, firefighters had contained the large wind-driven fire and Thursday morning the city ordered the area to remain closed as crews mop up hotspots and render the area safe. Albuquerque Fire Rescue Chief Gene Gallegos said no structures were damaged, or ever in danger, and no injuries were reported in the fire, which jumped from the west side to the east side of the Rio Grande. Gallegos said the cause of the fire is under investigation and the area is still unsafe as its full of hazards such has burned-out cottonwoods. Again, these trees are still burning, he said. It is still very dangerous in there, we dont want anybody else walking around and getting hurt. Mayor Tim Keller asked residents to stay out of the affected stretch of the bosque as crews finish their work a closure that would likely last through the Memorial Day weekend. Officials said the closed area is between Montano and Campbell roads on the east side and between Montano to Andalucia Park on the west side. There are still embers or small fires that were monitoring. So it is by no means finished or done, Keller said. Know that first and foremost, we are all over this fire as a community. And so weve got the resources we need, and theyre out there in the bosque. Gallegos encouraged people to use other parts of the bosque as it puts more eyes on the area to report any signs of smoke or fire before it can get out of control. He said there are no plans to close the entire bosque area at this time. On Wednesday, it was Albuquerque police officers on an airboat who first spotted smoke around 5:45 p.m. on the west side of the river. Gallegos said more than 100 firefighters came in from all over the state to help battle the blaze, which jumped to the east side of the river by way of gusty winds. He said AFR handled the west side of the fire as Bernalillo County Fire Department dealt with the smaller east side fire, leading to an hourslong fight to contain it. Im grateful for all the firefighters work that it didnt turn into 100-acre fire or bigger or take any type of structures, Gallegos said. The evacuation order was sent out by BCSO around 8:50 p.m. ordering all residents between Montano and Candelaria, west of Rio Grande Boulevard, to evacuate. The order was retweeted by Bernalillo Countys official account but, minutes later, BCSO sent another tweet lifting the order. With technology, theres always going to be glitches and then its also human communication, Gallegos said of the incident, adding that he understood how it could be a scary situation for locals as the state faces its worst fire season in years. Obviously with everything thats going on in the state, this is a very sensitive topic, he said, especially when its so close to home. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal Fire crews continued to gain containment little by little on the largest blaze in New Mexicos history as officials braced for more dry and windy weather. The Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire is at 312,057 acres and 47% contained as of Thursday evening. Jayson Coil, operations section chief in the north, said his firefighters will hand the reins over to the incoming crew in the coming days. In the meantime, he said they welcome the gusty winds predicted to hit the area, calling it a wind test. Coil said the windy weather will test areas of fire that have yet to see wind, and can show them where they need to take action and strengthen containment lines. We dont feel really good about our lines until weve had one of those tests, he said. Coil said crews continue to put secondary lines in to the north as they tie in primary lines to increase containment. He said the winds will likely increase inner fire activity, leading to more visible smoke. Alex McBath, operations section chief in the south, said they have had spot fires jump containment lines on the southwest end. He said its a result of increased winds and low humidity. McBath said fire behavior picked up particularly between east Bear Creek and Ruidoso Ridge, but did not threaten containment lines. He said crews are working to contain a 100-acre spotfire that sparked south of Barillas Peak, and should be able to hold it. McBath said Spring Mountain also saw very active fire behavior, with large smoke columns and 100-foot flames off the trees. But he said the fire is dying off into an old fire scar nearby and remaining in containment elsewhere. Stewart Turner, fire behavior analyst, said the weather wont get better any time soon. He said the temperatures will stay high and humidity will be low, letting the fire burn through the night without any trouble. He compared the conditions to opening the damper on a chimney, allowing the flames to breathe. Turner said wind gusts will increase as we head into the weekend, but not to the degree of monster winds seen weeks ago. Nonetheless, he said the winds will test containment lines particularly on the northwest end but should not amount to any big growth Friday. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE Gov. Michelle Lujan Grishams reelection campaign reimbursed the state $1,837 in December for expenses related to a Democratic Governors Association party hosted by Lujan Grisham at the governors residence in Santa Fe. The cost of the event was initially paid for out of a state contingency fund intended for social and diplomatic events, according to records first reported by the Santa Fe New Mexican. Spending from the fund by Lujan Grisham and previous governors has drawn scrutiny and criticism in recent years, even though an audit conducted last year by State Auditor Brian Colons office found pandemic spending on food, alcohol, Christmas ornaments and more did not violate state law. A Lujan Grisham spokeswoman said Thursday the request for reimbursement for the DGA event was made nearly immediately after the purchase of items for the party. The governors spokeswoman Maddy Hayden also said only $17,937 of the roughly $78,000 budgeted by the Legislature for the governors contingency fund or about 17.3% has been spent during the current budget year, with whatever remains unspent when the fiscal year ends June 30 set to revert to the states general fund. However, the Governors Office did not respond to questions about why the taxpayer fund was used initially to pay for the costs of the politically tinged party, which the Republican Governors Association described Thursday as yet another ethical scandal. Under state law, money in the governors contingency fund can be used to pay for expenses directly connected with obligations of the elected office of governor. Lujan Grishams campaign spokeswoman Kendall Witmer said Thursday the governors reelection campaign took swift action to pay back the state for the event, but did not provide details about the party. As soon as we learned of these expenses, the campaign transparently and expeditiously reimbursed the state for costs related to an event hosted by the governor as chair of the Democratic Governors Association, Witmer said in a statement. State lawmakers passed a 2018 bill aimed at providing more transparency for how discretionary funds are spent after then-Gov. Susana Martinez used the fund to throw a holiday party at a Santa Fe hotel that prompted a police response. The party resulted in several complaints about noise and Martinez faced criticism after being recorded telling police dispatchers to call off responding officers. Martinez signed the 2018 bill, but it did not take effect until Lujan Grishams term began in 2019. From 2011 through 2017, Martinez, a Republican, spent an average of about $68,000 per year from the discretionary fund. Democratic ex-Gov. Bill Richardson, who held office before Martinez, reported spending nearly $139,000 from the contingency fund in 2008, including more than $60,600 on food and drinks, according to the Associated Press. As for the DGA, Lujan Grisham was elected by other Democratic governors in December 2020 as the deep-pocketed national groups chairwoman. She served her one-year term at the groups helm before turning over the reins to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper at the end of December. Lujan Grisham is running for reelection this year to a second four-year term. She is unopposed in the Democratic primary election, and will face off against whomever wins a five-way GOP primary race and Libertarian Karen Bedonie in the November general election. Copyright 2022 Albuquerque Journal SANTA FE The largest wildfire in New Mexico history wouldnt stand in the way of a normal prom for Mora High School students. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham saw to that. Students laughed and danced with Lujan Grisham at the Governors Mansion on Thursday evening a silver lining for students during a tumultuous end to the school year. Many students were forced to flee their homes by the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire in recent weeks, and some had only recently returned. Im really excited to be here with my friends, and be able to enjoy this, and to have everyone welcome us, said prom queen Jayme Pacheco, adding that it has been over a month since shed seen her friends. They mean a lot. Some students arrived decked out in suits and gowns while others stuck to their roots showing up in cowboy hats, jeans and boots. Spanish and country music boomed through speakers as students two-stepped across the governors back patio. Lujan Grisham said she couldnt throw a party and sit on the sidelines, and jumped in to dance the Cupid Shuffle with students, state Sen. Leo Jaramillo, D-Espanola, and U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez. Im just elated that we could do this for the kids, said New Mexico Education Secretary Kurt Steinhaus. Ive chaperoned a lot of proms this ones a little different than Ive done before. The idea to have it at the Governors Mansion was Mora Independent School District Superintendent Marvin MacAuleys. He said he asked Lujan Grisham during a conversation if students could have prom at her place. MacAuley said she grinned, and told him shed need to think about it. Her staff told him later that the idea was a go. Lujan Grisham said a lot of work went into making sure students knew they had a whole state that cares about their happiness and well-being. We have to celebrate each other, and we have to make room even in a tragedy, Lujan Grisham told the Journal. This is the way we ought to show how resilient we are these experiences matter. Middle and high school Principal Lefonso Castillo said this years seniors have only spent two years in an in-person school setting, in part because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thats part of why making the end of this year as normal as possible was so important, he said. Seniors have a luxurious week lined up. After Thursdays dance with the governor, 33 students are slated to graduate Friday during a ceremony at the Eldorado Hotel & Spa in Santa Fe. Many are also being put up in hotel rooms funded by members of the Mora community. Community members also chipped in for prom essentials, including dresses, tuxedos and corsages. The snazzed-up students fit right in with the elegant mansion, which even featured a chocolate fountain for them. Prom was originally planned for April 30, and staff had already begun decorating for the dance. But about a week before, the evacuation orders came, forcing the district to come up with a new plan. So far, Castillo knows of one or two of his students who have lost their homes to the fire. Three staff members homes were also destroyed. Its once in a lifetime, for sure senior Ellianna Martinez said about the dance. Still, she noted the past weeks had held many hardships, and that the fires had devastated our community. KRAMATORSK, Ukraine Russia asserted Saturday that its troops and separatist fighters had captured a key railway junction in eastern Ukraine, the second small city to fall to Moscows forces this week as they fought to seize all of the countrys contested Donbas region. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the city of Lyman had been completely liberated by a joint force of Russian soldiers and the Kremlin-backed separatists, who have waged war in the eastern region bordering Russia for eight years. Lyman, which had a population of about 20,000 before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, serves as a regional railway hub. Ukraines train system has ferried arms and evacuated citizens during the war, and it wasnt immediately clear how the development might affect either capability. Controlling the city would give the Russian military a foothold for advancing on larger Ukrainian-held cities in Donetsk and Luhansk, the two provinces that make up the Donbas. Since failing to occupy Kyiv, Ukraines capital, Russia has concentrated on seizing the last parts of the region not controlled by the separatists. If Russia did succeed in taking over these areas, it would highly likely be seen by the Kremlin as a substantive political achievement and be portrayed to the Russian people as justifying the invasion, the British Ministry of Defense said in a Saturday assessment. Fighting continued Saturday around Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk, twin cites that are last major areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk province. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that the situation in the east was difficult but expressed confidence his country would prevail. If the occupiers think that Lyman or Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong. Donbas will be Ukrainian, he said. On Tuesday, Russian troops took over Svitlodarsk, a small municipality south of Sievierodonetsk that hosts a thermal power station, while intensifying efforts to encircle and capture the larger city. The governor of Luhansk warned that Ukrainian soldiers might have to retreat from Sievierodonetsk to avoid being surrounded. The advance of Russian forces raised fears that residents would experience the same horrors as people in the southeastern port city Mariupol in the weeks before it fell. Sievierodonetsks mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, said Friday that some 1,500 civilians have died there during the war, including from a lack of medicine or because of diseases that could not be treated while the city was under siege. Before the war, Sievierodonetsk was home to around 100,000 people. About 12,000 to 13,000 remain in the city, where 90% of the buildings are damaged, the mayor told The Associated Press. Ukraines police force said Saturday afternoon that the city is under constant enemy fire and civilians were wounded, but did not specify the number. Just south of Sievierodonetsk, volunteers worked to evacuate people Friday amid a threatening soundtrack of air raid sirens and booming artillery. AP reporters saw elderly and ill civilians bundled into soft stretchers and slowly carried down apartment building stairs in Bakhmut, a city in northeast Donetsk province. Svetlana Lvova, the manager of two buildings in Bakhmut, tried to convince reluctant residents to leave but said she and her husband would not evacuate until their son, who was in Sieverodonetsk, returned home. I have to know he is alive. Thats why Im staying here, Lvova, 66, said. A nearly three-month siege of Mariupol ended last week when Russia claimed the citys complete. The city became a symbol of mass destruction and human suffering, as well as of Ukrainian determination to defend the country. More than 20,000 of its civilians are feared dead. Mariupols port reportedly resumed operations after Russian forces finished clearing mines in the Azov Sea off the once-vibrant city. Russian state news agency Tass reported that a vessel bound for the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don entered Mariupols seaport early Saturday. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian navy said Saturday morning that Russian ships continue to block civilian navigation in the waters of the Black and Azov seas along Ukraines southern coast, making them a zone of hostilities. The war in Ukraine has caused global food shortages because the country is a major exporter of grain and other commodities. Moscow and Kyiv have traded blame over which is responsible for keeping shipments tied up, with Russia saying Ukrainian sea mines prevented safe passage. The press service of the Ukrainian Naval Forces said in a Facebook post that two Russian missile carriers capable of carrying up to 16 missiles were ready for action in the Black Sea. It said that only shipping routes which had been established through multilateral treaties could be considered safe. Ukrainian officials pressed Western nations for more sophisticated and powerful weapons, especially multiple launch rocket systems. The U.S. Defense Department would not confirm a Friday CNN report saying the Biden administration was preparing to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that providing rockets that could reach his country would represent a most serious step toward unacceptable escalation. He spoke in an interview with RT Arabic that aired Friday. In Russia on Saturday, President Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill that raises the age limits for Russian army contracts. Contractors can now first enter service until age 50 and work until they reach legal retirement age, which is 65 for men and 60 for women. Previously, Russian law set an age limit of 40 for Russians and 30 for foreigners to sign an initial contract. Russias Defense Ministry said the Russian navy successfully launched a new hypersonic missile from the Barents Sea. The ministry said the recently developed Zircon hypersonic cruise missile had struck its target about 1,000 kilometers away. If confirmed, the launch could spell trouble for NATO voyages in the Arctic and North Atlantic. Zircon,, described as the worlds fastest non-ballistic missile, can be armed with either a conventional or a nuclear warhead, and is said to be impossible to stop with current anti-missile defense systems. Moscows claims, which could not be immediately verified, came a week after Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that Russia would form new military units in the west of the country in response to Sweden and Finlands bids to join NATO. Putin marked the annual Border Guards Day by congratulating the members of the Russian service. The tasks you are facing are particularly important now, given the unprecedented political, economic and information pressure on our country and the buildup of NATO military capacity right at Russias borders, Putin said. ___ Karmanau reported from Lviv, Ukraine. Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Andrew Katell in New York and AP journalists around the world contributed. ___ Follow APs coverage of the Ukraine war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine DUBAI, United Arab Emirates Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard is building a massive new support ship near the strategic Strait of Hormuz as it tries to expand its naval presence in waters vital to international energy supplies and beyond, satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press show. The construction of the Shahid Mahdavi provides the Guard a large, floating base from which to run the small fast boats that largely make up its fleet designed to counter the U.S. Navy and other allied forces in the region. Its arrival, however, comes after a series of setbacks for both the Guard and Irans regular navy, including the loss of its largest warship less than a year earlier. As negotiations over Irans nuclear deal with world powers also founder, further confrontations at sea between Tehran and the West also remain a risk. They are looking beyond the Persian Gulf and into the blue waters of the Arabian Sea and the Red Sea and the northern Indian Ocean, said Farzin Nadimi, an associate fellow at the Washington Institute for Near-East Policy who studies the Iranian military. The Shahid Mahdavi appears to be a retrofit of an Iranian cargo ship known as the Sarvin, based off of previous pictures of the vessel which also has a similar curve to its hull. The Sarvin arrived off Bandar Abbas in late July last year and then switched off its trackers. By Jan. 29, satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP showed the vessel at drydock at Shahid Darvishi Marine Industries, a company associated with Irans Defense Ministry just west of Bandar Abbas. An image of the Shahid Mahdavi circulated first on social media. The ship appears to have crewed anti-aircraft weapons on its bow and stern, according to H.I. Sutton, a military ship expert who first identified the ship as being near Bandar Abbas. A flag for the Revolutionary Guard, showing its logo of a fist gripping an assault rifle with a Quran underneath and a globe behind it, hangs from the ships bridge. A high-resolution Planet image taken of the drydock Saturday on behalf of the AP showed the gun-metal gray Shahid Mahdavi still at the shipyard. Just next to it, one of Irans Kilo-class, diesel-powered attack submarines appears to be undergoing a major overhaul. Iran is believed to have one Kilo-class sub thats operational while another is also nonfunctional, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies. As the image of the Shahid Mahdavi circulated online, the semiofficial Fars news agency ran a story about the ship. Fars, believed to be close to the Guard, described the vessel as a mobile naval city capable of ensuring the security of Irans trade lines, as well as the rights of Iranian sailors and fishermen in the high seas. This range of new defense and combat innovations for the construction of heavy vessels, in line with the mass development of light vessels, and equipping them with various arrays can maintain Irans authority over the Persian Gulf and the (Gulf) of Oman always in the face of transregional enemies, Fars said. Such floating bases have been used before in the region, particularly by the U.S. Navy during the 1980s so-called Tanker War after Iraq invaded Iran. As Iranian mines detonated against crude oil shippers amid that war, the Navy began escorting ships out of the Persian Gulf through its narrow mouth, the Strait of Hormuz. The strait to this day sees a fifth of all oil traded pass through it. During the conflict, U.S. special forces operated from commercial barges that served as forward operating bases. The Navy still works with the idea today the Mideast-based 5th Fleet has been home to the USS Lewis B. Puller, a massive ship designed off an oil tanker that can host troops and attack helicopters. The Shahid Mahdavi looks like it will be configured to be an afloat forward staging base, to use the U.S. Navy term, said Michael Connell, an expert on Iran at the Virginia-based Center for Naval Analyses. The Puller was parked for many years in the Persian Gulf and the Iranian military witnessed its utility as a platform for expeditionary warfare and power projection. For years, the Guard patrolled the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf, while Irans regular navy patrolled the seas and oceans beyond. Building the Shahid Mahdavi likely gives the Guard the ability to expand its presence into those waters once patrolled by the navy. History also isnt something that has escaped Iran. The choice of the name for the Guards newest ship Shahid Mahdavi, or Martyr Mahdavi comes from Nader Mahdavi, an Iranian Guardsman killed by the U.S. Navy in 1987 during the Tanker War. Americas killing of Mahdavi, which came after his forces opened fire on U.S. special forces helicopters, still resonates in Iran today. Tehran has alleged without evidence that America captured him alive and tortured him due to the condition of his body after it was returned. The American helicopters had strafed the Iranian vessels Mahdavi oversaw with machine guns, rockets and flechette rounds small metal darts. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei himself once gave a speech with a portrait of Mahdavi near him in 2019. That was around the time of a series of mine attacks on Mideast shipping that the U.S. Navy blamed on Iran amid the collapse of Tehrans nuclear deal with world powers. Using Mahdavis name suggests the Guard views this as a means by which to challenge the U.S. Navy in the Mideast, particularly with the new ship likely able to support the so-called swarm attacks Iran can launch against larger American warships. Cmdr. Timothy Hawkins, a 5th Fleet spokesman, declined to comment specifically about the Shahid Mahdavi as were careful not to discuss intelligence-related matters. But generally speaking, we pay very close attention to the maritime environment with our international partners in the interest of regional security and stability, Hawkins said. The arrival of the Shahid Mahdavi, which would be the biggest ship in the Guards fleet, comes amid a series of naval disasters for Iran. The Kharg, the regular navys largest warship, sunk last June. In 2020, a missile mistakenly struck a naval vessel during an exercise, killing 19 sailors and wounding 15. An Iranian navy destroyer sank in the Caspian Sea in 2018. Meanwhile, a cargo ship in the Red Sea believed to be a Guard intelligence base suffered an explosion suspected to be caused by Israel last year. The Shahid Mahdavi could serve a similar role in espionage and sabotage missions by special forces, said Nadimi, the analyst at the Washington Institute. It also could be potentially outfitted with long-range missiles as well. Nasty things can happen around this ship, Nadimi warned. ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. UVALDE, Texas Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this weeks attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, Please send the police now, as officers waited more than an hour to breach the classroom after following the gunman into the building, authorities said Friday. The commander at the scene in Uvalde the school districts police chief believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference. It was the wrong decision, he said. Fridays briefing came after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about the more than an hour that elapsed between the time Ramos entered the school and when U.S. Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed him. Three police officers followed Ramos into the building within two minutes. In the next half hour, as many as 19 officers piled into the hallway outside. But another 47 minutes passed before the Border Patrol tactical team breached the door, McCraw said. As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger, two law enforcement officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. One of the officials said audio recordings from the scene capture officers from other agencies telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and that the priority was to stop him. Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers inside the room. His motive remained unclear, authorities said. There was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where officers eventually killed him, but those shots were sporadic for much of the time that officers waited in the hallway, McCraw said. He said investigators do not know if children died during that time. Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including the girl who pleaded for the police, McCraw said. Young survivors of the attack said they pretended to be dead while waiting for help. Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she covered herself with a friends blood to look dead. After the shooter moved into an adjacent room, she could hear screams, more gunfire and music being blared by the gunman. Samuel Salinas, 10, who also played dead, told ABCs Good Morning America that the assailant shot teacher Irma Garcia before firing on the kids. Questions have mounted over the amount of time it took officers to enter the school to confront the gunman. It was 11:28 a.m. Tuesday when Ramos Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR-15-style rifle. Five minutes after that, authorities said, Ramos entered the school and found his way to the fourth grade classroom where he killed the 21 victims. But it was not until around 12:50 p.m. that police killed Ramos, McCraw said, when shots could be heard over a 911 call from a person inside the classroom as officers breached the room. What happened during that time frame, in a working-class neighborhood near the edge of Uvalde, has fueled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcements response to Tuesdays rampage. They say they rushed in, said Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. We didnt see that. According to the new timeline provided by McCraw, after crashing his truck, Ramos fired on two people coming out of a nearby funeral home, officials said. Contrary to earlier statements by officials, a school district police officer was not at the school when Ramos arrived. When that officer did respond, he unknowingly drove past Ramos, who was crouched behind a car parked outside and firing at the building, McCraw said. At 11:33 a.m., Ramos entered the school through a rear door that had been propped open and fired more than 100 rounds into a pair of classrooms, McCraw said. He did not address why the door was propped open. Two minutes later, three local police officers arrived and entered the building through the same door, followed soon after by four others, McCraw said. Within 15 minutes, officers from different agencies had assembled in the hallway, taking sporadic fire from Ramos, who was holed up in a classroom. Ramos was still inside at 12:10 p.m. when the first U.S. Marshals Service deputies arrived. They had raced to the school from nearly 70 miles (113 kilometers) away in the border town of Del Rio, the agency said in a tweet Friday. But the commander inside the building the school districts police chief, Pete Arredondo decided the group should wait to confront the gunman, on the belief that the scene was no longer an active attack, McCraw said. The crisis came to an end at 12:50 p.m., after officers used keys from a janitor to open the classroom door, entered the room and fatally shot Ramos, he said. Arredondo could not be reached for comment Friday. No one answered the door at his home, and he did not reply to a phone message left at the districts police headquarters. Gov. Greg Abbott, who at a Wednesday news conference lauded the police response, said Friday that he was misled, and hes livid. In his earlier statements, the governor told reporters, he was repeating what he had been told. The information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, he said. Abbott said exactly what happened needs to be thoroughly, exhaustively investigated. The governor previously praised law enforcement for their amazing courage by running toward gunfire and their quick response. On Friday, Abbott had been set to attend the annual convention of the National Rifle Association, which is being held across the state in Houston. Instead he addressed the gun-rights groups convention by recorded video and went to Uvalde. At the convention, speaker after speaker took the stage to say that changing U.S. gun laws or further restricting access to firearms isnt the answer. What stops armed bad guys is armed good guys, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told those gathered in Houston. Former President Donald Trump was among Republican leaders speaking at the event, where hundreds of protesters angry about gun violence demonstrated outside, including some who held crosses with photos of the Uvalde victims. The motive for the massacre the nations deadliest school shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago remained under investigation. Authorities have said Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. During the siege, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses. Go in there! Go in there! women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outside a house across the street. Cazares said that when he arrived, he saw two officers outside the school and about five others escorting students out of the building. But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said. As more parents flocked to the school, he and others pressed police to act, Cazares said. He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot. A lot of us were arguing with the police, You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs. Their response was, We cant do our jobs because you guys are interfering,' Cazares said. The many chilling details of the attack were enough to leave parents struggling with dread. Visiting a downtown memorial to those killed, Kassandra Johnson of the nearby community of Hondo said she was so worried the day after the attack that she kept her twin boys home from school. Before she sent the 8-year-olds back, she studied the school building, figuring out which windows she would need to break to reach them. And she drew hearts on their hands with marker, so she could identify them if the worst happened, Johnson said, as she put flowers near 21 white crosses honoring the victims. Those kids could be my kids, she said. ___ Associated Press reporters Claire Galofaro in Uvalde, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings The suspects in the shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket were both just 18, authorities say, when they bought the weapons used in the attacks too young to legally purchase alcohol or cigarettes, but old enough to arm themselves with assault-style weapons. The Buffalo suspect was taken to a hospital last year for a mental health evaluation, but the incident didnt trigger New Yorks red flag law and he was still able to purchase a gun. The Texas suspects mother told ABC he gave her an uneasy feeling at times and could be aggressive If he really got mad. But authorities say he had no known criminal or mental health history. The state has no such red flag law. They are just the latest suspected U.S. mass shooters whose ability to obtain guns has raised concerns. In some cases shooters got guns legally under current firearms laws, or because of background check lapses or law enforcements failure to heed warnings of concerning behavior. After the shootings, which together left 31 people dead, President Joe Biden renewed calls for stronger gun laws and questioned whether people as young as 18 should be allowed to purchase firearms. In the past, Biden has called for banning assault-style weapons and expanding background checks. Many Republicans oppose the measures. A look at how suspects in mass shootings over a decade obtained guns, based on police accounts, court documents and contemporaneous reporting: UVALDE, TEXAS: MAY 24, 2022. 21 DEAD. Salvador Ramos legally purchased two guns in the days before the attack that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School an AR-style rifle from a federally licensed gun dealer in the Uvalde area on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. Ramos made the purchases just days after turning 18, the minimum age under federal law for buying a rifle. He also purchased several hundred rounds of ammunition. At least one of the rifles was a DDM4, made by Daniel Defense and modeled after the U.S. militarys M4 carbine rifle, though without the M4s ability to switch to fully automatic or fire a three-round burst. The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong, Biden said hours after the shooting Tuesday. What in Gods name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone? Ramos was killed at the school by a Border Patrol team. ___ BUFFALO, NEW YORK: MAY 14, 2022. 10 DEAD. Payton Gendron legally purchased the Bushmaster XM-15 E2S used in the attack on Tops Friendly Market from a federally licensed gun dealer near his home in Conklin, New York, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Buffalo. In a personal, online diary that surfaced after the attack, Gendron said he bought the AR-15-style weapon in January, bought a shotgun in December and received a rifle as a Christmas present from his dad when he was 16. Last year, Gendron was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation under a state mental health law after writing murder-suicide in response to a teachers question. New York is one of 19 states with red flag laws that allow courts to take guns from people posing immediate danger, but that didnt happen with Gendron, who was 17 at the time. State police described his threat as general in nature and said it didnt specifically mention shooting or firearms. After the shooting, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order underscoring the need for red flag interventions and said she would seek to bar people under 21 from buying some semi-automatic weapons in the state. A similar law in California was ruled unconstitutional. Gendron is charged with murder. ___ SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: MAY 26, 2021. 9 DEAD. Samuel James Cassidy legally purchased the three 9 mm handguns he used to kill co-workers and then himself at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard. He also stockpiled a dozen guns and 25,000 rounds of ammunition at his home, which he set ablaze before the shooting, and had high-capacity magazines that may have been illegal under California law, depending on when they were purchased. Santa Claras district attorney said authorities wouldve sought to take Cassidys weapons away under the states red flag law had U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed them of a Significant Encounter with Cassidy upon his return to California from a trip to the Philippines in 2016. Customs agents said in a report that Cassidy harbored dark thoughts about harming two specific people and had a memo book in which he expressed his hatred of the transit agency. ___ BOULDER, COLORADO: MARCH 22, 2021. 10 DEAD. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, a semi-automatic weapon with a capacity of up to 30 rounds, six days before the shooting at King Soopers grocery store, police said. Alissa was prone to sudden rage and was convicted of misdemeanor assault and sentenced to probation for attacking a high school classmate. Colorado has a universal background check law covering almost all gun sales, but that misdemeanor would not have prevented him from buying a weapon, experts said. Had it been a felony, federal law wouldve barred his purchase. Days before the shooting, a judge struck down city ordinances banning assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines in Boulder, citing a state law prohibiting local gun bans. The NRA backed the lawsuit challenging the ordinances. A judge ruled last month that Alissa is mentally incompetent to stand trial. ___ ATLANTA: MARCH 16, 2021. 8 DEAD. Robert Aaron Long purchased a 9 mm handgun just hours before going on a shooting rampage at three massage businesses in the Atlanta area, police said. A lawyer for the gun shop said it complies with federal background check laws. Georgia, like the majority of states, has no waiting period to obtain a gun. Long claimed to have a sex addiction, police said, and he spent time at an addiction recovery facility last year. Federal law bans guns for people who are unlawful users of or addicted to a controlled substance or whove been court-ordered to a mental health or substance abuse treatment facility, but doesnt mention treatment for other compulsions as a barrier to ownership. Long is serving a sentence life without parole. ___ MIDLAND, TEXAS: AUG. 31, 2019. 7 DEAD. Seth Aaron Ator purchased an AR-style rifle through a private sale, allowing him to evade a federal background check, and fired it indiscriminately from his car into passing vehicles and shopping plazas. He also hijacked a mail truck, killing the driver. Ator had been blocked from getting a gun in 2014 after his background check was flagged because a court determined he was mentally ill, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. Private sales, which account for up to 40% of all gun sales according to some estimates, are not subject to a federal background check and private sellers arent required to determine if a buyer is eligible to own a gun. Ator was killed by police. ___ DAYTON, OHIO: AUG. 4, 2019. 9 DEAD. Connor Betts classmates said he was suspended in high school for compiling a hit list and a rape list, but authorities said nothing in his background prevented him from purchasing the AR-15-style pistol used in the shooting at Ned Peppers Bar. Ohio law requires that sealed records of any juvenile crimes be expunged either after five years or once the offender turns 23. Betts, who was 24 at the time of the shooting, bought the gun online from a Texas dealer. It was then shipped to a Dayton-area firearms dealer, in accordance with federal law. Betts was killed by police. ___ EL PASO, TEXAS: AUG. 3, 2019. 23 DEAD. Patrick Crusius bought an AK-47-style rifle and 1,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition online 45 days before he walked into a Walmart store and opened fire, killing 23 people and injuring two dozen others, before confessing that he had been targeting Mexicans, according to prosecutors. A Crusius family lawyer said his mother raised concerns about the purchase in a call to police on June 27. Police said she asked if Crusius, who was 21 at the time, was old enough to buy a gun. Police said she was assured he was and that hed qualify if he passed a background check. Police said she expressed concern only about his safety and said shed seen no recent change in his behavior. Crusius posted a racist screed online just before the attack and appeared to target Mexicans. Hes charged with capital murder in Texas and federal hate crimes and firearms offenses. ___ VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA: MAY 31, 2019. 12 DEAD. Former Virginia Beach city employee DeWayne Craddock legally purchased six firearms in the three years before he opened fire on a municipal building, including the two .45-caliber pistols used in the attack. An independent review of the shooting, commissioned by the City of Virginia Beach, found that Craddock displayed no warning signs or prohibited behaviors associated with a pathway to violence, and that he had no known history of mental health treatment. Craddock was killed by police. ___ THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA: NOV. 7, 2018. 12 DEAD. Ian David Long, a former Marine machine gunner who served in Afghanistan, used a legally purchased .45-caliber pistol with an extended magazine in the shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill. California tried to outlaw high-capacity magazines, but a federal judge reversed that after a pro-gun group sued. Months before the shooting, sheriffs deputies called to Longs home found him acting irrationally, but a mental health specialist didnt feel he needed to be involuntarily committed. California has a red flag law, but theres no indication authorities sought a court order to take away Longs guns. Long killed himself. ___ PITTSBURGH: OCT. 27, 2018. 11 DEAD. Robert Gregory Bowers had a carry license and legally owned the Colt AR-15 SP1 and three Glock .357 handguns police said he used to kill worshipers at Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers spent months posting rants against Jews on Gab, a social media site favored by right-wing extremists. He also posted photos of his glock family. Just before the attack, he posted a screed against a Jewish organization that resettles refugees, saying: I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, Im going in. None of the rhetoric appeared to raise red flags. His case is pending. ___ SANTA FE, TEXAS: MAY. 18, 2018. 10 DEAD. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student, used a shotgun and a .38-caliber handgun that his father purchased legally and stored in a closet at their home, authorities said. It wasnt clear if his father knew hed taken the guns. Prior to the attack, Pagourtzis posted a photo on social media of a T-shirt with the phrase Born to Kill and had writings indicating he planned to attack his high school. A judge sent him to a mental health facility after ruling he was incompetent to stand trial. high school. ___ PARKLAND, FLORIDA: FEB. 14, 2018. 17 DEAD. Nikolas Cruz legally purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle in February 2017 from a licensed dealer a few miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, authorities said. Hed been treated at a mental health clinic but hadnt been there in more than a year. Federal law prohibits gun purchases if a court declares a person a mental defective or commits that person to an institution, but not if the person seeks treatment voluntarily. Cruz was 19 at the time of the shooting. He pleaded guilty in October. A four-month penalty trial is scheduled to begin this summer that will determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole. ___ SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS: NOV. 5, 2017. 25 DEAD. Devin Patrick Kelleys history of domestic abuse barred him from buying guns. He was able to because information about his crimes was never entered into a federal database used for background checks. The Air Force failed to follow rules requiring that it inform the FBI about his conduct. Kelley purchased four guns, including an AR-15-style rifle found at First Baptist Church, from licensed Texas and Colorado dealers over a four-year span. Kelley killed himself. ___ LAS VEGAS: OCT. 1, 2017. 58 DEAD. Stephen Paddock purchased 33 of the 49 weapons found in his hotel room and at his homes in the year before he opened fire on a country music festival. Paddock passed all background checks. His gradual accumulation of guns went undetected because federal law doesnt require licensed gun dealers to alert the government about rifle purchases. Paddock killed himself. ___ ORLANDO, FLORIDA: JUNE 12, 2016. 49 DEAD. Omar Mateen purchased an AR-15-style rifle, a Sig Sauer MCX, and a handgun from a licensed dealer on separate days about a week before the Pulse nightclub attack. He passed a background check and had a security license that allowed him to be armed while on duty. The FBI investigated Mateen in 2013 and 2014 over co-workers concerns that hed spoken about ties to terrorist groups. Neither inquiry led to charges. Even if hed been placed on a terrorism watch list, Congress in 2015 rejected attempts to prevent people on the list from purchasing guns. Mateen was killed by police. ___ SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA: DEC. 2, 2015. 14 DEAD. Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used weapons the FBI said his neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased from a licensed dealer in 2011 and 2012. Marquez pleaded guilty to charges he conspired to provide support to terrorists and made false statements to acquire a firearm. He told investigators Farook asked him to buy the weapons because he would draw less attention. Farook and Malik were killed by police. ___ ROSEBURG, OREGON: OCT. 1, 2015. 10 DEAD. Christopher Harper-Mercer and his family members legally purchased the handguns and rifle used in the Umpqua Community College shooting from a licensed dealer. Investigators found six guns at the college and eight at an apartment. Neighbors said Harper-Mercer and his mother went target shooting together. Harper-Mercer killed himself after he was wounded by police. ___ CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: JUNE 17, 2015. 9 DEAD. A drug arrest shouldve prevented Dylann Roof from purchasing the pistol he used at Emanuel AME Church, but a record-keeping error and background check delay enabled the transaction to go through. The FBI said a background check examiner never saw the arrest report because the wrong arresting agency was listed in state criminal history records. After three days, the gun dealer was legally permitted to complete the transaction. He was convicted and is on federal death row. ___ WASHINGTON: SEPT. 16, 2013. 12 DEAD. Aaron Alexis, a former reservist turned civilian contractor, passed background checks and legally purchased the shotgun used in the Washington Navy Yard shooting despite recent mental health treatment and a history of violent outbursts. He previously fired a gun in anger twice but wasnt prosecuted in either case. Alexis was killed by police. ___ NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT: DEC. 14, 2012. 26 DEAD. Adam Lanza used his mothers weapons, including a .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle, in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanzas mother, whom he fatally shot before going to the school, also purchased the ammunition. Lanza killed himself. ___ AURORA, COLORADO: JULY 20, 2012. 12 DEAD. James Holmes was receiving psychiatric treatment when he passed required federal background checks and legally purchased the weapons he used in his movie theater assault. As in the Parkland and Navy Yard cases, treatment alone did not prevent him from buying guns. He was convicted and sentenced to 12 life terms and thousands of years in prison. ___ Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak A reputed leader of a notoriously violent Mexican cartel has been extradited to Chicago and arraigned on charges that he trafficked heroin in the Chicago area and sent hundreds of thousands of dollars in proceeds to Mexico. Adan Casarrubias Salgado also known by nicknames including El Tomate was extradited to the U.S. on Thursday. He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy, money laundering and drug trafficking Friday and he remains in federal custody, authorities said. Advertisement If convicted, he faces a sentence of 10 years to life, according to a spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office in Chicago. A farmer demonstrates how he draws opium paste from a poppy flower bulb in the mountains of Guerrero state in 2015. (Dario Lopez-Mills/AP) Casarrubias Salgado is an alleged leader of the Guerreros Unidos criminal syndicate. According to a newly unsealed federal indictment, he distributed heroin around the Chicago area, including suburban Batavia and Aurora, in spring 2014. In June of that year, he sent some $600,000 in drug money to Mexico, the indictment alleges. Advertisement Exercising strong federal laws and extradition is critical to weakening transnational drug cartels that send deadly drugs to the U.S., DEA Special Agent in Charge Robert Bell said in a statement Friday. The DEA appreciates doing its important work with our close partners to keep Americans safe. Guerreros Unidos is reportedly known for its extraordinarily brutal methods, including public displays of beheading victims. The group was implicated in the 2014 disappearance of 43 teaching students, a matter in which Casarrubias Salgados brother Sidronio was allegedly involved, according to Mexican reports. mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com jmeisner@chicagotribune.com Chicagos gun violence and restrictive gun laws were thrust into the national conversation Wednesday, when Texas Gov. Greg Abbott referenced the city in arguing against stricter measures following the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that left 19 students and two adults dead. There are quote real gun laws in Chicago ... I hate to say this, but there are more people who were shot every weekend in Chicago than there are in schools in Texas, Abbott said Wednesday, also referencing Los Angeles and New York City. And we need to realize that people who think that, well, maybe if we could just implement tougher gun laws, its going to solve it, Chicago and L.A. and New York disprove that thesis. And so, if youre looking for a real solution, Chicago teaches that what youre talking about is not a real solution. Chicagos gun laws are among the most restrictive in the United States, although some have loosened as theyve been overturned in the past decade. And while the city is frequently used as an example of why such regulations dont work, the truth is far murkier. [ [Dont miss] Look at Chicago: Politicians again use city as example of why strict gun control wont work even as Texas school shooting jolts local parents ] What is the state of gun violence in Chicago and Illinois? The Tribunes Annie Sweeney reported on 2021 crime statistics, analyzing Chicago Police Department data, information from other law enforcement and the Cook County medical examiners office. Sweeney found that Chicago endured one of its deadliest years in at least the last quarter-century in 2021. More than 1,000 homicides here were gun-related, the medical examiners office said. The overwhelming majority of slayings in the city more than 90% were a result of gun violence, statistics show. All told, there were at least 4,300 gunshot victims, including those who suffered both fatal and nonfatal injuries, according to CPD data. The number is a significant increase from 2018, when 2,800 people were shot. In 2022, there have been 899 shooting incidents year to date compared with 1,061 in 2021 year to date, according to Chicago Police Department data. [ Chicago homicides in 2022: 218 people have been slain. Heres how that compares with previous years. ] A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention map shows Illinois in the middle of the pack when it comes to gun death rates in the U.S. The FBI has designated 40 shootings in 2020 as active shooter incidents. The FBI defines an active shooter as one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area. Of those 40 shootings in 2020, five incidents occurred in Illinois, two of which were in Chicago. A Pew Research Center study of the data shows more Americans died of gun-related injuries in 2020 than in any other year on record, according to recently published statistics from the CDC. That included a record number of gun murders, as well as a near-record number of gun suicides, Pew said. Despite the increase in such fatalities, the rate of gun deaths a statistic that accounts for the nations growing population remains below the levels of earlier years. The gun death rate in the U.S. is much higher than in most other nations, particularly developed nations. But it is still far below the rates in several Latin American countries, according to a 2018 study of 195 countries and territories by researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. Advertisement How do Illinois gun laws compare to the rest of the country? Eight years ago, Illinois became the last state to allow concealed carry, while other laws were loosened in years prior. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a 1982 ban on handguns in Illinois, and three years later, Chicago ended its gun registry. In 2014, a judge overturned Chicagos ban on gun shops. In its 2021 annual report on state gun laws, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence gave Illinois an A-, making it eighth in the nation for the strength of its gun laws. California, New York, Connecticut and New Jersey were among states that ranked higher. While the nonprofit applauded Illinois universal background checks, waiting periods and domestic violence gun laws, it calls for the state to ban the manufacture or sale of untraceable DIY ghost guns and impose restrictions on assault weapons, large-capacity magazines and bulk firearm purchases. In August, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law a measure requiring background checks for private gun sales or transfers beginning in 2024. The state law, introduced in the wake of a February 2019 warehouse shooting in suburban Aurora that left five dead and six wounded, also charges an Illinois State Police task force with taking guns from people whove had their FOID cards revoked but havent turned over their weapons, and streamlines the process for renewing FOID cards and concealed carry licenses. [ Column: The truth and lies about Chicago's gun laws ] A 2019 Tribune investigation found that as many as 30,000 guns were potentially in the hands of people whod had their FOID cards revoked in the previous four years. A follow-up review last year found improved compliance but also an increase in the number of firearms that were unaccounted for. Advertisement Where do gun laws fall short? Indiana is frequently cited as the No. 1 source of out-of-state guns used in crimes in Cook County. In 2017, a report commissioned by former Mayor Rahm Emanuel analyzed four years of gun tracing data and found 60% of illegally used or possessed firearms recovered in Chicago come from out of state. Indiana was the primary source for approximately one in five such guns. In 95% of cases, the person with the gun was not the initial purchaser. In 2021, Chicago filed a lawsuit against a northern Indiana gun store, claiming more than 850 illegal firearms recovered in Chicago could be traced back to a single gun shop in Gary, an establishment that the city alleged ignored the clear signs of so-called straw purchases. In 2013, a federal indictment charged two men with illegally selling 43 firearms to a government informant in just under 26 hours, a volume made possible by gun shows and less restrictive state laws in Indiana. Private gun sales in Indiana dont require background checks, a waiting period or even a record of the transaction. Earlier this year, Indiana passed a law loosening Indianas requirements for carrying a handgun in public despite the opposition of several major law enforcement organizations. [ Editorial: Permitless carry? Indianas guns are already a big problem for Chicago. ] Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the law repealing the states handgun permit requirement, allowing anyone age 18 or older to carry a handgun except for reasons such as having a felony conviction, facing a restraining order from a court or having a dangerous mental illness. Advertisement What are straw purchases? The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives defines straw purchases as the illegal purchase of a firearm by one person for another. In 2021, federal authorities joined a firearms trade association at a suburban Chicago gun store to call attention to a media campaign intended to head off straw purchases of firearms that wind up on the streets of Chicago and used in crimes. The Dont Lie for the Other Guy campaign planned to run about 2.5 million digital ads including targeted mobile ads and almost 1 million ads on Facebook and Instagram. Advertisement What are ghost guns? Ghost guns are often made by hobbyists with a 3-D printer or from kits that can be purchased online, and have no identification numbers on them that allow them to be traced by law enforcement. People assembling ghost guns also are able to avoid background checks the state requires to obtain a firearm. Making, selling or owning ghost guns, untraceable weapons is now illegal in Illinois under legislation Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law this month. A child should not be able to build an AR-15 like theyre building a toy truck, Pritzker said during a bill-signing ceremony at the Ark of St. Sabina in Auburn Gresham. A convicted domestic abuser should not be able to evade scrutiny by using a 3-D printer to make a gun. In Chicago and nationwide, the number of ghost guns used in crimes has drastically increased over the past several years. Taking a step ahead towards providing a seamless and secure user experience, Apna, Indias largest jobs and professional networking platform, has collaborated with Truecaller, the leading global platform that enables safe communication for instant onboarding of customers. The partnership is in sync with Apnas objective of enhancing the overall user experience by leveraging Truecaller's expertise, to connect people with hyperlocal opportunities. Through this partnership, Apna has been able to improve the overall calling efficiency by about 15% in less than a year. The platform has also seen around 40% of its users verify their identity seamlessly via Truecallers 1-tap verification SDK, leading to faster activation of their users. Truecallers verification SDK (the developer-focused tool) enables mobile number-based instant and frictionless user verification for onboarding new users to the Apna mobile platform. Talking about the association, Shantanu Preetam, Chief Technology Officer, apna.co said, In the last two years, Apna has grown to be Indias most trusted jobs and professional networking platform with 22 million users across 70 plus cities. The trust has been based upon the safety and seamless experience we aim to provide and Truecaller has been an invaluable partner supporting us with the same. We look forward to our journey with Truecaller as we strengthen our mission of empowering more lives and #AcceleratingIndia "Truecaller focuses on developing solutions for businesses and developers that increase the efficiency from user onboarding to last-mile communication. With Truecaller Verified Business Caller ID, Apna has added more context in its user-calling communications, enhanced their brand reputation, and delivered considerable value and safety to end consumers. We are committed to working closely with the Apna team to ensure efficient communication for end users and enable their mission of building the worlds largest jobs and professional networking platform. " said Priyam Bose, Global Head, GTM at Truecaller. Apna has kept the security of its users at forefront of its product as the company builds the worlds largest jobs and professional networking platform. Founded in 2019, Apna is trusted by more than 22 million users, and 2,00,000 employer partners in more than 70 cities in India. In the last 1 year alone, the platform has enabled more than 350 million interviews and professional conversations. The Verified Business Caller ID improved communication efficiency while positively impacting the user experience and satisfaction. The appearance of the brand logo and brand name on user's mobile devices - amongst other unknown calls - helped Apna improve brand trust when connecting with their users. In addition, a Verified business badge and a verified tick impart Apnas users a feeling of trust, brand recall, and instant recognition. Apna leveraged Truecaller SDK and Verified Caller ID to manage the user journey at all stages, covering the entire user lifecycle. Astral Limited, one of the leading companies in building materials, has announced an association with Superstar Allu Arjun as their brand ambassador for the Pipes & Water Tank businesses. This association will add value to the entire ecosystem of Astral pipes and boost Astral business in the market. On the partnership, Mr. Kairav Engineer, Astral said, This partnership signifies an important milestone for us as a brand since Mr. Allu Arjun is renowned for his distinctive acting & dancing styles and immense fan-following. We, at Astral, are delighted to associate with him with an aim to reinforce our brand equity and strengthen brand consideration in the southern states of India. The regional connect coupled with an immensely popular star will help us to create strong footholds, increased mind share and market share in these markets. Echoing the sentiment, Mr. Allu Arjun commented, I am excited to get associated with Astral Pipes, a brand which is a household name and well-known for quality, innovations and forward-thinking. I can resonate well with the brand's versatility and look forward to our association. Astral Limited is one of the fastest-growing companies in India with their piping business, leading the way in terms of volume and contribution to the company. South India marks a huge market for Astral Limited. Astral in addition to Pipes and building materials is diversified into various other portfolios including Adhesives, Water Tanks, Sanitaryware and Faucets. The strategic decision of the company is in the direction of its vision of achieving significant revenue streams and contributing considerably to its overall piping business. It's an exciting week for Star Wars fans as Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi is coming for a six-part series on Disney+ Hotstar in English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam, on May 27. Reprising his role as the iconic Jedi Master, Ewan McGregor is set to headline the series along with Hayden Christensen as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The two are joined by Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie. This new limited Star Wars series comes years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his most significant defeatthe downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as an evil Sith Lord - Darth Vader. But how much do you know about Obi-Wan's life? Trust in the force; there's more to Obi-Wan Kenobi than you think. Reacquaint yourself or learn something new about the life of the venerable Jedi Master before he takes center stage in the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series. Training Under Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn Born on the planet Stewjon, the Force-sensitive youngling Obi-Wan Kenobi was quickly inducted into the Jedi Order for training and was made a Padawan under Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. During Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan accompanied his Master to search for someone who could bring peace to the Force on Naboo as the Sith Lord returned to stake claim to the force. It was here that they found Anakin Skywalker. However, Obi-Wan was separated from his Master and was forced to watch in horror as the Sith Lord impaled Qui-Gon. Becoming Anakin Skywalkers Master Obi-Wan and Anakin were tasked with protecting Padme Amidala (a senator) from assassination during the events of Star War: Attack of the Clones. However, Anakin Skywalker shares a forbidden romance with Padme Amidala. At the same time, Obi-wan Kenobi investigates an assassination attempt on the Senator and discovers a secret clone army crafted for the Jedi. Anakin's Betrayal Three years into the Clone Wars, the Jedi rescue Chancellor Palpatine from Count Dooku. As Obi-wan pursued a new threat in Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith, Anakin acted as a double agent between the Jedi Council and Palpatine and was lured into a sinister plan to rule the galaxy. In 2022 Obi-Wan Kenobi returns to embark on a crucial mission. The new limited series, directed by Deborah Chow, explores how Obi-Wan went from warrior hero in the prequels to the Zen Jedi Master seen in the original trilogy with an atmospheric, gritty, and emotional character-based story. Pepperfry, the ecommerce furniture and home goods company, today announced the appointment of Anand Batra as its Chief Financial Officer (CFO). This is Anands second stint with Pepperfry, his first being a five-year stint during the early days of Pepperfrys inception. In his role as CFO, Anand will spearhead the organizations corporate strategy, fundraising efforts, financial operations, legal and secretarial functions. His appointment is effective immediately and he will be based at the Pepperfry corporate office in Mumbai. Anand is a seasoned finance professional with more than a decade of experience in venture capital, business management, financial planning and operations, fundraising, strategy, and investment banking. Prior to joining Pepperfry, Anand worked as Executive Director at Z3Partners, a leading tech and digital Fund, where he was involved with the Funds investments in Dealshare, Shipsy, Gramophone and Cyfirma. Prior to joining Z3Partners, Anand was a principal in the investing team at IvyCap Ventures, focusing on early stage investments in India consumer and technology enabled businesses. Before starting his career as an investor, Anand headed up Category Management for the Home Goods business at Pepperfry. During this stint, Anand transformed the home business unit economics, while maintaining high levels of customer experience. Prior to this, Anand headed up the Financial Planning and Strategy function at Pepperfry, where he led fundraising efforts, apart from helping shape the Companys omni-channel strategy and launching business categories. Anand started his career as an investment banker at Lazard and Avendus Capital in India. Anand is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Narsee Monjee College, Mumbai, Ambareesh Murty, Co-Founder & CEO, Pepperfry said, We are thrilled to welcome Anand back home. His contributions during Pepperfrys formative years were invaluable and had helped steer our business through several transformational changes. I am a fan of his wide world view and look forward to working with him to chart Pepperfrys future through Indias rapidly evolving digital and retail landscape. It gives me great delight to rejoin the Pepperfry family. The company is a differentiated brand in the ecommerce space and has undisputedly built a community-based platform defining home and living. In its decade long journey, Pepperfry has shown all the makings of a strong consumer brand. I look forward to working closely with the team to drive the next phase of growth. said Anand Batra, Chief Financial Officer, Pepperfry. Shoppers Stop, Indias leading fashion and beauty destination and Estee Lauder Companies, one of the worlds leading manufacturers and marketers of prestige skincare, makeup, fragrance, and hair care products have strengthened their alliance in India with the launch of an exclusive SS Beauty store in Mumbai. Dripping in luxury, the new store in Oberoi Mall, Goregaon, Mumbai will be the first ever SS BeEAUTY store to offer only Estee Lauder Companies brands like MAC Cosmetics, Clinique, Bobbi Brown, Jo Malone, Estee Lauder, Smashbox and Tom Ford. Commenting on the launch, Mr. Venu Nair - Customer Care Associate, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, Shoppers Stop Limited said, SS BeAUTY from the house of Shoppers Stop is a luxury beauty destination that beautifully melanges artistry and expertise. Our longstanding partnership with Estee Lauder Companies has truly been one of great vision and commitment. We have been operating all their stand-alone stores in India as well as their websites. With our extensive retail footprint and Estee Lauders opulence, we are disrupting the beauty retail universe by launching the exclusive Estee Lauder Companies-only SS BeAUTY store in Mumbai. "Our 15+ year partnership with Shoppers Stop has helped us grow our presence in India exponentially. We are extremely proud to partner with Shoppers Stop to bring quality beauty experiences for our consumers. We plan on opening more exclusive SS BeAUTY stores across India to intensify our reach in India, said Rohan Vaziralli, General Manager, Estee Lauder Companies India. Biju Kassim - Customer Care Associate and President, Beauty said, Beauty is one of our vital strategic growth pillars. Beauty contributes 16.5% to our sales which grew by 9% this past quarter and we are aggressive in our plans for the next three years. We are actively growing our beauty portfolio of Estee Lauder stores, SS BeAUTY stores and Shoppers Stop Department stores to provide our customers with a luxury beauty experience, and we continue to invest in this avenue. All SS BeAUTY stores in Infiniti Mall, Malad; Phoenix Market City, Kurla; Oberoi Mall, Goregaon; and Silver Arc Mall, Ludhiana offer beauty masterclasses, make-over services, skincare consultation, fragrance discovery stations, gifting, and personalization services. The stores house the finest assortment of makeup, skincare & fragrance brands to cater to every consumers unique beauty needs. Clensta, a Gurgaon-based new-age start-up, has roped in actor and social media influencer, Soha Ali Khan, as its brand promoter. The move comes as the brand seeks to strengthen its position as every homemakers go-to brand for homecare products and enhance its brand equity. Soha will be seen promoting Clenstas range of EBDC technology-based homecare products that come with smart refills. With an extensive range of innovative and eco-friendly products, Clensta aims at revolutionizing the homecare industry in India. Known for her warm personality and effortless charm, Soha has amassed a massive following on social media, and is followed by mothers and homemakers. As a mother of one, Soha understands just how important it is to maintain home hygiene and strives to always create an environment which is best for her daughters overall development. She is also a big supporter of green products and believes in practicing sustainability at home and beyond. Sohas association with the brand began with the launch of a digital film where she talks about Clenstas range of revolutionary homecare products and how the range aids homemakers in keeping their household free from germs and other allergens. Commenting on the association, Puneet Gupta, CEO and Founder, Clensta said: We are delighted to have Soha on board. Our homecare range has been curated with EBDC technology, keeping in mind the needs of a modern Indian household. Our products are effective, innovative, and sustainable, while also being pocket friendly. We wanted somebody just as special to promote our products and Soha beautifully fits the DNA of the brand. The association will help us in strengthening our connection with mothers and home-maker and enhance the brand appeal. Soha Ali Khan commented: As a mother, maintaining home hygiene is a full-time job; you want to always ensure your child is protected and safe from germs and other allergens. Clensta, with its EBDC technology-based home care products, is a godsend for every mother who is constantly worrying about her home hygiene. What is even more impressive is how the products are cost-effective and minimize single-use plastic. While the PR and communication industry is growing, talent and training has always been a challenge. Today, we have some very premier colleges who are offering courses which are primarily a one-year course to students who would like to take PR as a career. While opting for a career in PR and communications is on the rise, is there some way students can be given more practical experience and exposure as they join PR companies after completing their courses? While there is a structured curriculum created by colleges who cover quite a bit of what one should know before starting ones career in PR, it is the practical aspect of PR that needs to be deeply looked into. Internally many organisations have their own training modules for new joinees, but if agencies and college can collaborate then the students will be able to get a deeper understanding of their role when they begin their careers. After all, human capital is the biggest asset in the communication business, and if educational institutes are able to churn good all-round talent by jointly working with the PR companies, it will benefit both of them in the long run. Is there a need to redesign the courses as the pandemic as brought in a lot of changes in consumer behaviour and PR has to counter new challenges? Designing a new syllabus which is relevant to the times will need joint efforts from PR companies and colleges to understand the needs and challenges and create one which delivers the right solutions and which benefits the students, organisations, colleges and clients. While there is no dearth of good and experienced faculty across colleges, it would be really helpful if more experienced senior leaders from the PR and corporate world also go to these college and share their valuable knowledge and insights from time to time. Also, finding good talent every year to service growth and new clients is increasingly becoming challenging while the expectation level from clients keeps going up. Today, clients are willing to reward the agencies, but they also expect the agencies to ensure that the talent working on the account is agile and savvy. This where HR can make a huge difference if they also closely work with the educational institutes to create the right curriculum to groom the students at an early stage. For communications professionals, it is not just about being responsible for communications and keeping the messaging sharp and well targeted, but there is also need to nurture and up the skillsets of the work force as the PR industry is evolving and rapidly changing, especially with the rapid digital transition. There is also an increasing scope to master more practices and enter the profession. While there are several courses today across colleges and universities, these need to reviewed periodically and colleges need to keep pace with the changes happening in the PR world. The PR business has evolved, hence the right training and adapting to the latest technology will be a real advantage for the agencies. As the industry continues to evolve, being technologically savvy and digitally aware is imperative to stay head of the curve. The PR professional of tomorrow will no longer be restricted to a particular role, and instead will be expected to deliver a gamut of services. This is where both the organisations and educational institutes need to work in tandem on the curriculum, which will help both students and PR agencies in a building strong foundation to build their career. According to Priya Mishra, Chief Talent Officer, BCW India Group, Talent is one of the most critical areas for our industry, and for nurturing talent, institutions and organisations must work hand in hand. While the colleges provide a good base, the PR and communications industry is evolving at a dizzying pace, and by the time some of those developments reach the curriculum, things have already moved forward. The only way to address that is with PR professionals going to colleges and sharing their insights and experience as well as colleges sending their students as interns to get a more hands-on experience. Even after they have graduated and left college, there needs to be a plan in place to continuously upskill and train talent. Not just with cookie-cutter programmes but with specialised and customised programmes that consider the specific needs and vision of the organisation and the people. This is one of the reasons why training has been one of our highest priorities and why we created the BCW India Group School of Learning instead of just tying up with an institute to supply the training. Our own people develop the programmes and they deliver them, making sure that our people are always ahead of the curve in terms of industry knowledge, Mishra added. Tarunjeet Rattan, Managing Partner, Nucleus PR, too, felt that joining hands with educational institutions is a very encouraging trend. She said, Thanks to the efforts and hard work put in by thousands of PR professionals in the industry right now over the past several decades, PR now has a seat in the boardroom. It is today a lucrative career that commands respect, power and financial rise. However, while the first two are garnered with experience, the last aspect is something that most colleges do not prepare their students for, how to reach there or / and the time and energy it would take to get on the financial fast track. Rattan added that most colleges are open to industry sessions and most PR professionals happy to share their industry experience. It just needs an initiative from one party to set the ball rolling. No need to look very far for this. Start with your college. Go back to college and share your insights with them. Slowly build from there, she advised. While stressing on the need for better and stronger collaboration between academia and practitioners at various levels, Melissa Arulappan, an experienced communication professional and teacher, noted, PR is a very dynamic industry, students need to be aware of and keep abreast of trends and developments in the industry. It is, therefore, extremely important for practitioners to feed into curricula being developed. She further added, We need more PR practitioners to invest time in giving back and teaching students. PR is so practice-led, so experience-led that it is only when practitioners share their experience and learning that students will understand and appreciate the versatility of PR. At the same time, Arulappan emphasised that While one-off guest faculty sessions are good, we need more than that. We also need practitioners to give students real-world assignments, grade them and provide them the feedback and guidance they need to hone their skills further. Similarly, it would do tenured faculty a world of good to spend time in PR agencies to understand trends and dynamics shaping the industry. Stressing on the real-world exposure, she pointed out that exposure through research and assignments will strengthen the knowledge of the students. Hence, it is very important for students to work on real-world assignments because that is when the rubber meets the road that they understand the finer nuances of PR. PR professionals and PR colleges should collaborate for the future of this industry. Himanshu Raj, Head of Communications, Pristyn Care, stressed that, It is important for them to work together and improve the curriculum of PR courses. As the PR industry is evolving, today there are a lot of new topics like policy communication, crisis management, and investor communication which need to be touched upon in detail at the colleges. The focus should be on functional training and PR leaders should be invited for lectures on a regular basis so that students can get first-hand experience in the PR industry. Raj further said that PR professionals can help colleges improve their curriculum by building a robust training program for youngsters. The industry needs fresh talent pool and hence, the strong collaboration between the PR industry and the educational institutions will help to address the talent crunch which the industry has been facing, he concluded. Amy Lardner gives a thumbs-up to a friend while attending a gathering to remember Monty, a Great Lakes piping plover, at Montrose Beach on May 25, 2022, in Chicago. The endangered bird died May 13. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Birders, biologists, conservationists and those who happened to be swept up in the tale of two little birds gathered this week at Montrose Beach to mark the end of one story while another was just beginning. The crowd gathered Wednesday night to celebrate the lives of Monty and Rose, the endangered piping plovers who three summers ago became the first pair to nest successfully in Chicago in decades. Advertisement Monty died earlier this month at Montrose Beach while waiting on Rose, who never returned. On Wednesday, the cast of human characters who have become regulars in the Monty and Rose saga was present: the coordinator known as the mother of the monitoring effort, a birder who loved sharing her binoculars with her Latinx community, a conservationist credited with restoration of the dunes that provided a welcoming home. Advertisement With every wing beat, Monty and Rose and their progeny brought people together, said Tamima Itani, who has led Chicagos plover effort. People gather to remember Monty, a Great Lakes piping plover, at Montrose Beach on May 25, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) But there was another return visitor present on the day of the memorial Imani, one of last summers chicks, seen in the sand not far from where his father took his last breaths. The end of Monty and Roses story here at Montrose is not the end of this series, said Edward Warden, president of the Chicago Ornithological Society. Its just one book. [ How the 'love story' between Monty and Rose unfolded at Montrose Beach ] Monty and Rose gave fans quite a narrative to follow. The birds were already up against enough when they showed up in Chicago as members of a species once down to about a dozen nesting pairs in the Great Lakes. They then managed to meet a list of ever-refreshed obstacles: the encroachment of a beachside musical festival, high lake levels and severe storms, the death of chicks and hungry skunks. Through it all, they managed to fledge seven chicks. It was really hard for all of us to lose any chick, any egg, said Louise Clemency, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. But if all the Great Lakes piping plover nests had that rate of success, we would be upward toward recovery. Monty the piping plover walks the shoreline on April 21, 2022, after returning to Montrose Harbor. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Warden credited the volunteer and education efforts of many in the crowd with helping create a brand for Monty and Rose the birds have appeared on shirts, beer cans and in two documentary films. On Wednesday, Monty and Rose appeared on posters, along with their offspring, near the site of Montys death in the Montrose plover habitat, as some visitors took selfies with the memorial in between a downpour. Advertisement They left a legacy of unity, love, friendship and conservation that will be long remembered, Itani said. But there might be more opportunities ahead to rally behind Montrose plovers. After appearing earlier this season in Duluth, Imani, who was named for faith in Swahili, touched down this week at Montrose. The young bird is banded like his parents were, making him identifiable. When thinking of Monty and Rose, one word that comes to mind is mystery, said Leslie Borns, the longtime Montrose Beach dunes steward. Leslie Borns speaks at a gathering to remember Monty, a Great Lakes piping plover, at Montrose Beach on May 25, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) It seems that no matter how much we know and can learn about nature, theres still so much that remains a mystery to us, Borns said. Perhaps one of the greatest mysteries of all that I have seen is the return of Imani. As she watched the young bird forage where his father stood days earlier, Borns said she was reminded that life goes on. Advertisement I hope that the sadness is melting away and being replaced by joy and gratitude, Borns said. Francie Cuthbert, a leader in the Great Lakes plover recovery effort, said shes still surprised by the emotion attached to Monty and Rose and the following theyve acquired. As for Imani, Cuthbert said, Isnt that something? I hate to use the word amazing, but it is amazing, said Cuthbert, a professor in the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife and Conservation Biology at University of Minnesota. The plovers know the Great Lakes. Piping plover monitors and others pose for a photograph next to a drawing of Monty, a Great Lakes piping plover, at Montrose Beach on May 25, 2022, in Chicago. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) First-year birds tend to arrive at their nesting locations later than more experienced birds, Cuthbert said, and will sometimes bounce between sites before finding a mate and settling down. We havent finished the story with Imani, Cuthbert said. I just hope that he survives, and he finds a mate. Advertisement The overall plover season looks promising, Cuthbert said, between lower lake levels and a strong finish to the last nesting season. And every bird counts. But few have captured the hearts of as many people as Chicagos piping plovers. Monty and Rose made such a contribution to conservation, Cuthbert said. Its something you couldnt really predict. Now, birders are hopeful about whats next. You can thank Pleasantdale Middle School fifth graders for making sure Illinois had an official state rock. And you can also thank them for making sure coal was not chosen for said state rock. Yes, coal was in the running, according to now sixth grader Matej Naunov. Advertisement One of our main reasons as to why coal was dropped was because you get coal on Christmas when youre not good, he said matter-of-factly. Pleasantdale teacher Jennifer Lauermanns former students sat in the schools music room recently, remembering their advocacy efforts to get a bill on Gov. J.B. Pritzkers desk designating a state rock, a goal they achieved as a group during the pandemic. The youths are now waiting for Pritzkers signature to make dolostone as the official rock of the state of Illinois. Advertisement Pleasantdale Middle School teacher Jennifer Lauermann and her fifth grade students look over an assortment of rocks at Pleasantdale Middle School in Burr Ridge on May 20, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) Dolostone, one of the most common rocks in Illinois, provides valuable nutrients to the soil. Its also a great building resource and comprises most of the bedrock of northern Illinois. Per student research, dolostone was the cause of a major mineral rush in Galena, Illinois, in the early 1800s, the site of one of the first large geologic expeditions in the nation. What started as a geology unit in Lauermanns fifth-grade science class grew into a movement of sorts that spanned the entire Burr Ridge school, other school districts, geology professors, gem clubs, rock enthusiasts/collectors and geologists. And to think it all started years ago, when Lauermann said she had students wanting to name a state spider. But that fizzled. It was because of that group years ago, that made me really look at our state symbols, Lauermann said. Then during the 2020-21 school year, her fifth graders started talking about symbols and discovered Illinois didnt have a rock. That got the group of 26 students thinking and researching. During their work, the group interviewed people who work in the field and sent out emails to local geology experts. Lauermann said the students welcomed their input because they didnt want to choose the rock without the advice of experts. Lauermann said the selected rocks had to represent Illinois, which meant its easily found in Illinois. And a lot of people use it, said student Stephan Nikolic. The class started with 10 rocks and ultimately got it down to the final three limestone, dolostone and sandstone. The class then split up into three groups representing each rock, and made a case for each one. The campaigning was fierce. Lauermann created a website for the schools endeavor, with details about each rock and a ballot for voting. Students told their parents, parents told friends and so on. Lauermann said the youths wrote 150 letters to state legislators to get any one of them on board with the push for a state rock. Naunov said the act of writing, printing, folding and stuffing envelopes took up some of the fifth graders recess time. A dolostone rock is on display at Pleasantdale Middle School in Burr Ridge. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) Signage was posted throughout the school, urging school staff and students to vote. With a state bird, insect, food, mineral and dance, how could Illinois not have a state rock? While dolostone was the smallest group, Lauermann said, dolostone was the winner with over 1,300 votes (over 50% of the vote) from myriad Illinois locations, including Chicago, Kenilworth, Rockford, Galena and Carbondale. We reached about 400 schools total, Lauermann said. The website had really colorful pictures and an essay to read. I dont really know all the reasons why people voted dolostone, but many of them said they liked the way it looked. They liked that its underneath us, part of our bedrock. And I remember people said they liked dolostone because its in a lot of buildings. Its very historical. Its not a rock that we see everywhere. But it definitely represents Illinois. U.S. Rep. Sean Casten of Downers Grove heard about the rock project and brought it to the floor of the House. Advertisement Weve been told that once it gets signed, well know and well all celebrate that theyre a part of history, Lauermann said. They will have that memory and I will too. Lauermann said the students have already been recognized by the school board and when the state rock is official, she said the district superintendent wants to do some kind of rock monument or plaque. Lauermann added that parents have already expressed their gratitude for the project helping to lift kids up during the pandemic. Pleasantdale Principal Griffin Sonntag said the 19-year Pleasantdale teacher made lemonade out of lemons. Thats the kind of teachers that we have here. Shes one of the best, he said adding, Its great for the kids to see the fruits of their labor. Lauermann agreed. It was all about the research and the diligence, Lauermann said. You had to have a group of kids that really wanted something if they didnt want it, then it wouldnt have happened. This was a very, very diligent, really interested motivated group of students that wanted this to work. Advertisement Venture into Lauermanns class and you can see her growing rock collection on the wall. Current and former students often will find unique rocks and give them to her an arrowhead that looks like its carved from coal, a crystal from Tasmania and natural copper all sit on her wall. Pleasantdale Middle School fifth graders look over an assortment of rocks at their school in Burr Ridge on May 20, 2022. (Antonio Perez / Chicago Tribune) Before the sixth graders left to take part in their current science class, looking at tornadoes by way of leaf blower, they were asked if they were fans of science. Everyone said, not so much, including Jackson Hawbecker. But the students all agreed that Lauermann made science fun. Every year you just try to plant some little seed or interest in these kids, Lauermann said. And last year, we struggled. We came up with some innovative things in the school that tried to reach the kids, and thats what this was. Curious about other state symbols? drockett@chicagotribune.com The motorcycle killers who assassinated a senior Quds Force officer in Tehran on Sunday knew what they were doing. According to Iranian media accounts, accomplices blocked the street behind the targets car by double-parking and raising their trunk, clearing the way for the motorcycle killers who shot Colonel Hassan Sayyad Khodaei five times as he was about to drive off in his Kia Pride. The feat was even more brazen since the colonels street led directly to the Iranian parliament, one of the most secure areas of Tehran. The assassins hit Khodaei from behind in the head and the heart, blowing out both the driver and the passenger side windows of his car, according to photos subsequently released to the Iranian media. The Iranian regime immediately blamed Israel for the assassination, referring to Khodaei as a defender of the shrine, a reference to Quds Force officers engaged in the fight against ISIS in Syria. Khodaei, whose real name was Bahram, was one of three brothers who joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in the 1980s and fought in the war against Iraq. All three brothers, and four more Khodaei cousins, later became officers in the elite Quds Force, Iranian sources said. Israeli media initially identified Khodaei as a senior officer in charge of Quds Force expeditionary forces inside Syria. Subsequent reports said he was in charge of Hezballah missile bases inside Syria, and tasked with attacking Israeli interests and citizens abroad as deputy commander of Unit 840. The Israel Defense Force spokesman identified Unit 840 eighteen months ago as the Quds Force group that had been placing mines and IEDs in the Golan Heights along Israels border with Syria. An Iranian source told me Khodaei supervised deliveries to Syria of advanced targeting kits for Hezballah missiles. Most intriguing, however, are suggestions that Khodaei was fingered by an alleged Quds Force assassin named Mansour Rasouli, who was captured and interrogated by Mossad operatives last month. Mossad reportedly captured Rasouli inside Iranian Kurdistan while he was en route to Turkey to assassinate three Western targets, including an Israeli consular official in Turkey. The opposition Iran International television network posted what it claimed were audio recordings of Rasoulis confessions, where he expressed remorse over his mission. Iranian Telegram channels said that Khodaeis nickname was hunter, a reference to this alleged role in luring and attacking Israelis, Iranian dissidents, and anti-Iran regime activists overseas. Earlier this month, the Times of Israel reported that Israels security service, Shin Bet, had foiled an effort by the Iranian regime to lure Israeli academics, business people, and former defense officials to Europe, to attend a phony security conference in Zurich, Switzerland. The report showed an email, purportedly signed by a Swiss researcher named Oliver Thranart, inviting an Israeli intelligence reporter to an annual Zurich Strategic Dialogue, scheduled for January 14, 2022. The email requested that the guest fill out an application form and comply with Swiss COVID-19 requirements. I received an identical email from that same Oliver Thranart last October, inviting me to the same January 14, 2022, conference. After a couple of exchanges, Thranart dropped off the radar until Christmas, when he said that the conference had been canceled because of the Omicron variant. I have long been targeted by the Iranian regime, as I reveal in a new memoir of my exploits as a war correspondent and investigative reporter that will be released on August 31. Initially, the Iranians targeted me because I was investigating their clandestine nuclear weapons program -- more than a decade before it was exposed to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Later, they attempted to lure me to phony opposition conferences because of my role as the founder and CEO of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran (FDI), iran.org. Hassan Shariatmadari, the editor of the regime daily Kayhan and an IRGC brigadier general, regularly attacked FDI as a CIA-funded anti-regime organization. In a Dec. 8, 2007 column, he absurdly claimed that FDI had a four-layer plan to topple the Iranian regime, led by yours truly, who heads the Iran desk at CIA. In a series of articles in September 2009, Shariatmadari claimed that I was spearheading the latest wave of anti-regime demonstrations inside Iran. While we would be happy to accept such an honor, I replied in the name of the foundation, neither I nor my board can take credit for such power or influence. The most recent Shariatmadari screed dates from December 4, 2019, when he linked my alleged efforts to overthrow the regime to similar efforts by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Kenneth Timmerman, former CIA member and currently director of the American Institute NED [National Endowment for Democracy], acknowledged that the CIA has not only helped the Iranian rioters with software systems, but also delivered to them the hardware. (I have had no association with NED since 1997, and have no idea what software systems he is referring to). This is a regime that never gives up, and that spends enormous sums of money to track its opponents and hunt them down. In the 1990s, they sent hit teams across Europe, where they assassinated more than 200 top leaders of the opposition in exile. In the 2000s and beyond, they have snatched opponents in Iraq and elsewhere and hustled them back to Tehran, where they have been summarily executed. In a particularly egregious case, they have also enlisted the intelligence and judicial authorities of a friendly state, the Republic of Georgia, to frame a defector from Iranian intelligence who became a witness in a civil lawsuit by families of 9/11 victims against Iran. Falsely sentenced to 17 years for a crime he did not commit nor even imagine, Hamid Reza Zakeri continues to languish in a Tbilisi jail. It's still early to know the bill of particulars that led Israel -- or someone else -- to assassinate a Quds Force colonel in Tehran. But one thing is certain: the Iranians play hardball. And so do the Israelis. Ken Timmermans 12th book of non-fiction, And the Rest is History: Tales of Hostages, Arms Dealers, Dirty Tricks, and Spies, will be released by Post Hill Press on Aug. 31. His website is kentimmerman.com Image: Public Domain On a few occasions, I have ventured to make public observations about the sorry state of todays lower-class African Americans. Its a large lower class -- much larger as a percentage of all blacks than lower-class whites are a percentage of all whites. It makes up roughly one-third of all American blacks. Another third is made up of people who are doing well: they have good educations, good jobs, good incomes, and good housing. A middle third is made up of people who teeter on the brink: many of them will rise to the well-off class, many will fall into the lower class, and many will just continue to teeter. Whenever Ive said something along these lines, I have been accused, not surprisingly, of racism, even though I said nothing more than that lower-class blacks suffer from a dysfunctional and self-destructive subculture. I dont see how anybody in his right mind can deny this. It is a perfectly obvious truth, almost as obvious as the truth that water is wet. All the same, its something youre not supposed to say. Conventional good manners (otherwise known as political correctness) ban assertions of this kind. The reason these assertions are banned is that they are heretical; they contradict one of the articles in the orthodox creed of present-day progressivism -- the article according to which all misfortunes of blacks are due to white racism, a racism that is almost universal in that section of American society occupied by non-progressive or non-liberal whites. If a black thug from a crime-ridden ghetto happens to murder your grandmother, you may not answer, when asked what happened to your grandmother, A ghetto thug murdered her. Youre expected to recognize that he was driven to this crime by four hundred years of white racism, an evil that continues to flourish today. And since you yourself, being white, are probably a racist, it may be said that you compelled this unfortunate young man to kill your grandmother. I should note in passing that your grandmother, if shes white, will almost certainly not be murdered by a thug from the ghetto. Such thugs murder ghetto-dwelling grandmothers only. Almost all violent black crime is black-on-black crime. Fully realizing that to say an incorrect thing about African Americans is a horrible sin from a liberal-progressive point of view (almost as bad a sin as saying there is something weird about same-sex marriage, another sin Im prone to commit), I shall now proceed to compound my offense by suggesting that the career of Martin Luther King was more of a misfortune than a benefit for American blacks. Before I explain, let me put on record that I view King as a truly great man. As a leader, he was the only non-president to be in the same league with our greatest presidential leaders, such men as Washington, Lincoln, and FDR. King changed America for the better in two ways: one, by leading blacks to demand their rights; second, and even more important, by convincing whites that they had to rid both their hearts and their institutions of anti-black racism. He freed blacks from suffering racial injustice, and he freed whites from what is even worse, doing racial injustice. (I think it was Plato or Socrates who first said that doing injustice is worse than suffering it, an idea Christianity agrees with.) The misfortune came when subsequent black leaders -- Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Black Lives Matter, and a hundred minor demagogues -- felt that they must establish their leadership credentials by imitating King. How does one do that? Well, King fought against white racism, didnt he? So the epigones too will have to fight against white racism. But suppose King did such an effective job of fighting white racism that he largely destroyed it? Suppose he persuaded whites of the wrongness of racism? Supposed he convinced them to give up racism and not to pass it on to their children and grandchildren? What then? Remember that saying attributed to Voltaire -- "If God did not exist, wed have to invent him? Well, the MLK epigones have said, If white racism no longer exists, or if it has become a relatively minor phenomenon, well have to re-invent it. For there is no other way to do an imitation of MLK, and doing that imitation is our raison detre, not to mention that its our bread and butter. And so these demagogues -- "civil rights leaders as the mass media call them -- have taught American blacks, especially those of the lower classes, that their many misfortunes are the result, not of any inadequacy among themselves or in their way of life, but of the continuing unfairness of a society in which white privilege reigns. Instead of teaching individual and family and group self-reliance, these demagogues have taught the opposite. There once was a great black leader who did teach lessons of self-reliance, Booker T. Washington. From the 1890s until the modern civil rights era, Booker T. was almost universally regarded as the greatest American black. In the 1960s he was removed from that pedestal and replaced by MLK because, instead of being an anti-racism crusader, BTW had accommodated the Southern regime of racial segregation. BTW was a realist, and he understood that if blacks in America were ever to rise to the level of equality with whites, this would not happen through the benevolence of whites. Blacks, while taking advantage of whatever help whites like Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and Theodore Roosevelt might offer, would have to achieve this equality through self-reliance and self-improvement. And so, they improved themselves according to the BTW script, until by the 1950s they were able to follow the leadership of MLK. Of the two, King was probably the greater man. Nonetheless, black Americans, especially those from the lower classes, would be far better off if black leaders today would give up imitating MLK and instead imitate BTW. Image: Pixabay Recently, the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, claimed that the seventh-century Muslim conquests of the mostly Christian majority Middle East and North Africa were not conquests of colonization that rely on the methods of plunder, oppression, control, and the policies of domination and dependency. Rather, they were about bringing knowledge, justice, freedom, and equality to the conquered. A couple of weeks before al-Tayeb made these highly ahistorical claims, another prominent sheikh and professional historian, Dr. Ali Muhammad al-Salabi, wrote a lengthy article dedicated to making the same claims -- also during Ramadan when Muslims are wont to reminisce over the virtues of jihad -- but in the context of the Muslim conquest of Spain. Published by the International Union of Muslim Scholars, From Ramadans Victories: The Islamic Conquest of al-Andalus, offers a more focused case study on this phenomenon of wildly whitewashing Islamic history. According to Dr. al-Salabi, the Muslim conquerors of Spain were not in it to gain spoils or achieve status; and this was the objective of all the Islamic conquests. Reading about and learning their [true] nature is sufficient to reject the allegations and refute the forged slanders which suggest, implicitly or explicitly, that plunder was the motive of this conquest. Instead, the Muslim conquest of Spain was about turning the page of injustice and tyranny to a new page of progress and civilization. These are quite the claims. Back in the real world of actual recorded history, the sources make abundantly clear that the Muslim conquest of Spain was driven almost entirely by lust for booty -- both animate and inanimate. For example, according to one of the earliest accounts, the Latin Chronicle of 754, the Muslims long plundered and godlessly invaded Spain to destroy it. On landing there, they ruined beautiful cities, burning them with fire; condemned lords and powerful men to the cross; and butchered youths and infants with the sword. As for Musa bin Nusayr, the supreme general of the expedition whom al-Salabi praises in his article for his unswerving piety, He terrorized everyone. Some may object that the Chronicle of 754 was written by an ungrateful Christian infidel, who failed to appreciate Islams altruistic intentions. Unfortunately for them, the Muslims own sources are just as, if not more, explicit that the conquest of Spain was heavily motivated by thoughts of plunder. Thus, according to one of the earliest Arab historians on the conquest of Spain, Ibn Abd al-Hakam (b. 803), When the Muslims conquered Spain, they looted it and committed many frauds [emphasis added]. Similarly, the important Arab historian Ahmed Muhammad al-Maqqari, whom al-Salabi (selectively) quotes in his article, writes that, after General Tareks initial successes in Spain, when the people on the other side of the straits [in Africa] heard of the plentiful spoils he had acquired [including many slaves], they flocked to him from all quarters, and crossed the sea on every vessel or bark they could lay hold of. Tareks army being so considerably reinforced, the Christians were obliged to shut themselves up in their castles and fortresses, and, quitting the flat country, betake themselves to their mountains. And so it went; Tarek continued to penetrate northward into Spain, not passing a place without reducing it, and getting possession of its wealth, for Allah Almighty had struck with terror the hearts of the infidels. Such terror was only augmented when the invaders chopped up, cooked, and pretended to eat some of their Christian captives, as al-Hakam relates. In another memorable incident, a number of leading Christians and their people holed themselves up in a church in Cordoba. According to al-Maqqari, although the besieged had no hopes of deliverance, they were so obstinate that when safety was offered to them on condition either of embracing Islam or paying jizya, they refused to surrender, and the church being set on fire, they all perished in the flames. So much, then, for Dr. al-Salabis claim that the Muslim conquest of Spain was about turning the page of injustice and tyranny to a new page of progress and civilization. Muslim sources further make clear that booty of another kind -- the enslavement of European women from Spain and elsewhere -- was also a motivating factor. Prior to invading the peninsula, Tarek even managed to fuse the seizure of those two forms of plunder -- untold riches and beautiful women -- in one succinct sentence to rile his men: You must have heard numerous accounts of this island, you must know how the Grecian maidens, as beautiful as houris [celestial, sexual superwomen], their necks glittering with innumerable pearls and jewels, their bodies clothed with tunics of costly silks sprinkled with gold, are awaiting your arrival, reclining on soft couches in the sumptuous palaces of crowned lords and princes. Soon after the Muslim conquest of Spain, in 715, Musa and Tarek made the long trip to the Umayyad caliphate in Damascus; they brought with them thousands of camels laden with immense treasures and thirty thousand captives as a flesh tribute to Caliph Al-Walid, who, according to al-Maqqari, was delighted by the resources of all the people of Spain its riches and the beauty of its young girls. Thereafter, and because the Umayyads particularly valued blond or red-haired Franc or Galician women as sexual slaves, writes historian Dario Fernandez-Morera, al-Andalus [Muslim-controlled Spain] became a center for the trade and distribution of slaves. Christian subjects were sometimes even required to make an annual tribute not of money, or horses, or arms, but of a hundred damsels (all to be distinguished for beauty) to ornament the harems. So much, then, for Dr. al-Salabis claims, that he insists are ultimately an illusion without the slightest whiff of scientific or historical backing. Sadly, al-Salabis whitewashing does not end here. He also makes it a point to extol the piety of the Berbers, the North African converts to Islam who made up the bulk of the Muslim armies that invaded and conquered Spain: The Berbers were among the most loyal people to Islam, he writes. They were zealous about Islam, loving it and sacrificing for it, not to gain spoils or achieve status. Yet even in this detail, Islamic history says otherwise. Originally non-Muslims, the Berbers staunchly defended themselves against Islamic encroachments for decades; moreover, during the intermittent years prior to their final conquest, they had no qualms about feigning conversion to Islam. As al-Maqqari writes, He [Uqba bin Nafi, a Muslim general] went to Ifriqiya [Africa] and besieged its cities, conquering them by force and putting the people to the sword. A number of Berbers converted to Islam at his hand and Islam spread among them Then Uqba gathered his companions and addressed them saying, The people of this country are a worthless lot; if you lay into them with the sword they become Muslims but the moment your back is turned, they revert to their old habits and religion. Or consider the ambivalence of supreme commander Musa bin Nusayr himself: The Berbers are the people who most resemble the Arabs in activity, strength, courage, endurance, love of war, and hospitality, he once said, but they are the most treacherous of men. They have no faith, and they keep no word. In closing, it should be emphasized that this issue is not so much about getting history right or shaming Muslims about their past. By continuing to laud the historic Islamic conquests of non-Muslim lands as a great and wonderful thing, fueled exclusively by piety, Muslim leaders and authorities such as al-Tayeb and al-Salabi ultimately justify ongoing intolerance and violence against non-Muslims, so long as it is in the name of Islam, as all those previous conquests were. Note: All primary source quotes in this article were sourced from and are documented in chapters 3 and 6 of Sword and Scimitar: Fourteen Centuries of War between Islam and the West. Raymond Ibrahim 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: Public Domain On the weekend of May 20, mainland China, recognized by the business community as a low-cost country, announced yet another citywide COVID lockdown. This time, its the northeastern coastal city of Tianjin, with a population of 14 million, the primary seaport for the nations capital city, Beijing. Tianjin is one of the five biggest cities in China and is one of the busiest seaports in the world or at least, it was until this week. Tianjin is a huge manufacturing center, producing cars, clothing, petrochemicals, large and small machinery, and even Airbus airplanes (remember when the name Airbus meant it was made in France?). Tianjin is a huge, sprawling, low-cost city, in a huge, sprawling, low-cost country. Why has so much of the worlds manufacturing moved to Tianjin, and to China in general? Dont call anyone in Tianjin today to ask. They wont be in the office. Theyre restricted to their homes, as soldiers and bureaucrats with megaphones march down residential streets, enforcing the lockdown. One recalls an old joke, as recounted by the late, great Leo Rosten in his masterpiece, The Joys of Yiddish: Forty cents a dozen for bialys? protested Mrs. Becker. The baker across the street is asking only twenty! So, buy them across the street. Today, he happens to be sold out. When Im out of bialys, I charge only twenty cents a dozen, too. Like all good jokes, it is rooted in truth, and it has a moral. Today, that moral applies to the American economy, the labor force, Wall Street, and in fact, to world trade itself: In the first place, accept reality. For forty years, our business schools taught MBA students, engineers, entrepreneurs, and material buyers that low-cost country sourcing is the path to profitability. These students then populated our manufacturing and retail sectors, our franchises, and our investment houses, carrying forth the mantra, always source from the low-cost country. First, they looked to Asia to implement their dual-sourcing programs, until they could be confident in Asias quality and bottom-line value. They would continue to rely on domestic vendors as the primary source, but would then gradually grow their dependence on Asia as a secondary source until Asia finally overcame the original, local sources. This practice required two molds for every custom product, two training programs, two quality assurance processes, and two logistics paths. But it enabled us to save money while retaining that local dependability. The cost reductions delivered shareholder value. Or so it seemed. It meant adding months to every products lead time, and increasing the risk of damage or loss in transit as every part must now travel halfway across the world, but it was in compliance with the corporate mantra, and thats what counts: Low-cost countries maximize profits. Over the years, as Asian suppliers became more experienced and more reliable, American companies (and other westerners) gradually dropped that whole dual-sourcing process completely. Two injection molds? Two stamping dies? Two logistics paths? How wasteful, we determined. Now we buy all our parts from the same vendor in China, and the more customized those parts were, the more entrenched each Chinese vendor became. There is a corollary, though we dont like to talk about it. Over these years, many of those American alternatives, once our primary sources, then our secondary sources, then our emergency, just-in-a-pinch sources, dwindled away, finally closing down operations completely. If we need them again, we find they are long gone. So now we are completely dependent on our Chinese sources. For a shocking amount of products, there simply are no local alternatives, even for more money weve put all the local boys out of business. Domestic foundries, small assemblers, injection molders one by one, they dwindled away. Over the past few years, punitive import tariffs and Customs quotas, a global pandemic, port and rail hub bottlenecks, raw material shortages, and skyrocketing transportation costs combined to make China anything but a low-cost country. Transit times have tripled and transportation pricing has quintupled. Lead times are outlandish. The case for reshoring locally could not possibly be clearer. One would think China would see its edge slipping away. That politburo in Beijing ought to be wracking their brains, trying to think of ways to keep their foreign customer base in the midst of this sea of adversity. But no. Instead of trying to demonstrate their willingness to improve service, to work around the clock to remain a dependable source, China is instead declaring lockdown after lockdown. Just in the past six months, Xian, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing, and now Tianjin, massive cities that all fell victim to authoritarian shutdowns for weeks or months by Chairman Xi Jinping. Thousands of American companies have been waiting for two months for cargo, finished and packaged, ready for pickup, to move out of their warehouses in Shanghai as its second full month of lockdown arrives, with no end in sight. The astute among us have known since the beginning that lockdowns dont reduce the spread of this virus, and we know that it is gradually mutating into one of the familiar seasonal illnesses consistently experienced by society. But Xi Jinping has tied his chairmanship to the COVID lockdown, so he remains committed to the practice. What this means is that the low-cost and dependability of China as a commerce partner are now permanently compromised these long-championed positives are nothing but a fiction today. Even as Western manufacturers continue to put up with their challenges. Why? Because the concept that China is a low-cost country has become an article of faith, impervious to all data to the contrary. One cannot help but wonder what it will take for the Western business community to acknowledge reality. Decades of intellectual property theft, the production of knockoffs, the forced partnerships with the Chinese government, and now even impossible transit times havent shaken their customer base. Now the vendors arent even open at all, as their factories and warehouses sit for months at a time, collecting dust, on order from the politburo at Beijing. And still, our business schools, our politicians, and our business community call China a low-cost country. Someday, eventually, the fantasy must give way to a recognition of reality. It has to. But as fantasies go, this one is as persistent as Atlantis, Neverland, and the Fountain of Youth all wrapped up together. John F. Di Leo is a Chicagoland-based international transportation professional. A one time Milwaukee County Republican Party chairman, he has been writing a regular column for Illinois Review since 2009. His book on vote fraud (The Tales of Little Pavel) and his political satires on the current administration (Evening Soup with Basement Joe, Volumes I and II) are available on Amazon. "It worries me that we have stopped listening to each other," lamented my politically liberal English Department chairperson one day several years ago. As a conservative, I begrudgingly had to admit that her comment sounded prophetic. One of the saddest developments in the culture war currently ripping America apart is that we are tossing verbal grenades at each other as fast as we can. It reminds me of the acronym "MAD" from the Cold War days, which stands for "Mutually Assured Destruction." If we want a planet where no one can survive, we are on the right track. If, however, we want to emerge from this culture war better and stronger than before, we need to turn from the personal attacks and, as adults, face the issues that divide us. I confess I have engaged in these attacks, which means I have rhetorical blood on my hands. Name-calling leads us to dehumanize each other. All sorts of bad things can happen if we forget the humanity God gave each and every one of us. Recently, I heard a commentator on FOX call the gunman who killed 19 schoolchildren in Texas an "animal." I do not want to defend the heinous and tragic things he did, but he was born a human, lived as a human, and died as a human. What is my point? We have real problems in America. We need to be able to talk about them as adults so that we can come up with remedies. Joy Reid, Tucker Carlson, Dan Bongino, Keith Olberman, and Stephen Colbert get paid to fan the rhetorical flames between the left and the right in America, but do you ever hear these folks call us to sit down and sort things out? Image: Discussion by ArthurHidden. As a believer in freedom of speech, I acknowledge their right to stoke the fires, but this all reminds me of the trench warfare of WWI. The left occupies one part of the field, and the right faces them from their own trenches in another across the divide. The left lobs artillery at the right. The right returns fire. Calling each other stupid is unproductive. It didn't work well on the playground when we were young, and it looks juvenile now that we are adults. Let us remember that in our free society, it is OK to disagree. Let us treat each other the way we want to be treated. Instead of celebrating the righteousness of our opinions in our trenches, we need to rediscover that compromise, finding common ground with those we disagree with, is the path that got the United States started back in 1776. I have spent many hours listening to and enjoying Rush Limbaugh. I recall him saying that we should not work with the leftists, but defeat them. While I agreed with much of what he had to say, that part of his philosophy troubled me. Defeat sows rancor and plants seeds of revenge. The way of compromise allows better outcomes. We all want to give our children a better America than the one we inherited. This won't happen if we try to annihilate our opponents like the Nazis and communists did in the last century. I know that compromise is a four-letter word for many, but the alternatives are much uglier. On May 24, 2022, an armed teenager thought to be mentally disturbed entered a Texas elementary school and began shooting. Before the threat was neutralized, 19 children and 2 adults were dead. After a period of quiet, perhaps due to the pandemic, it appears that public venues are again at risk for mass casualty events. In the last few years, shooting events by the disaffected, disturbed, and disgruntled have occurred on a regular basis. Schools, churches, places of business, and other public venues have been fair game for those with bad intentions. Armed not only with weapons but with a blueprint from previous incidents, gunmen can identify soft targets easily and are more "successful" in achieving their goal of creating mass casualties. You might think that the "successes" achieved by active shooters occur at random. The increase in the sheer number of casualties, however, reveal a strategy that has been refined to deadly effect. The selection of soft targets is becoming a science and is leading to higher numbers of deaths and injuries. Some of these events are more deliberate than others. In the 2018 South Florida high school shooting, for example, the gunman activated the fire alarm to make sure there would be lots of targets in the hall. To create confusion, he tossed smoke bombs (but prudently wore a gas mask). The Texas shooter picked an elementary school so he could have many targets that couldn't defend themselves. If the ill-intentioned are now that much better at creating mayhem, it stands to reason that our society must become better at thwarting those intentions. Here are ways that would, in my opinion, decrease the number of shooter incidents and the deaths caused by them: Improve security in areas at risk: I would define an "area at risk" as just about anywhere where a crowd of people would gather. Better protection at malls or grocery stores may just be a matter of hiring more security personnel. It's not a bad idea to train and hire workers specifically to keep an eye out for those with bad intentions. If the money isn't there, establishing and training a volunteer safety team in places like churches, schools, or workplaces can increase the level of vigilance and identify threats early. Although the recent attacks occurred in cities, rural areas aren't immune. Establish volunteer safety officers in small towns where there may not be law enforcement and emergency medical personnel just around the corner. These persons should have training in security, firearms, and first aid. If there are volunteer fire departments, while not volunteer safety departments? Instill a culture of situational awareness in our society: Situational awareness is a state of calm, relaxed observation of factors that might indicate a threat to safety. Seems like common sense, doesn't it? But in these days of smartphone distractions, many are oblivious of their surroundings. Learning to recognize abnormal behavior can identify dangerous situations and save lives. Identify persons of interest through their statements and actions: Some active shooter candidates are vocal about their intentions. Look out for signs of mental illness and violent urges in those around you and don't be afraid to report them. Fight the impulse to avoid getting involved and hoping others will act in your stead. From a government standpoint, each municipality must set a mechanism for the authorities to apprehend, interrogate, and even hospitalize afflicted individuals. If this suggestion means more focused surveillance than you'd like, realize how much there is already. Watching people who publicly threaten violence more closely makes sense; so does increasing access to mental health resources to, perhaps, prevent someone from going off the rails. Teach the Department of Homeland Security's "Run, Hide, Fight" triad in schools: The decision-making process may be more instinctive and rapidly implemented if taught at an early age. Make sure it's a part of every child's education Teach the average citizen or student how to stop bleeding in emergencies: The most likely cause of death in these scenarios is hemorrhage. Rapid action by bystanders can decrease the numbers of fatalities due to bleeding, depending on the location and extent of the injury. Add "Reduce" hemorrhage to "Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic" as part of school curriculum. Offer it along with CPR classes. Provide first aid kits for bleeding in public venues: With supplies, the good Samaritan will be more likely to save a life. In the last few years, bleeding kits have been packed into fire extinguisher wall cabinets in many public venues. Unfortunately, in many places, there isn't even a sign that indicates these kits are available. Let's stop being "soft" targets. We must forsake the notion that shootings are just part and parcel of the New Normal and begin a new process; the process by which the public changes its attitude and level of vigilance, not just in isolated cases, but as a society. The New Normal is an angry, dangerous place. It's a recipe for disaster that's likely to get worse if we don't reverse course, but that takes fortitude and determination on the part of all parties. You don't have to be a Department of Homeland Security official to know that there are more active shooter events on the horizon. Watch for anomalies in behavior and always have a plan of action. A prepared nation wouldn't be invulnerable to attacks, but its citizens would have a better chance to survive them. Joe Alton, M.D. is the N.Y. Times bestselling author of "The Survival Medicine Handbook: The Essential Guide for when Help is Not on the Way." Image via Pxhere. University of Chicago students Gia Fisher, from left, Anqi Qu and Emmett Reid participate in a challenge to build a structure out of dry pasta and a marshmallow at the Polsky Center in Chicago on April 21, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) The laughter and conversation at Hyde Parks Polsky Center on a recent April evening was infectious. The boisterous scene centered on uncooked spaghetti, marshmallows and tape. More than two dozen University of Chicago freshmen were given a 10-minute challenge to build a tower with 20 sticks of spaghetti, and one yard of Scotch tape. When completed, the tower should stand on its own and be able to support one nondeformed marshmallow on top. The team with the tallest tower that could hold the marshmallow wins. Advertisement The group that contained River Forest resident, Gia Fisher, Johannesburg, South Africa resident Anqi Qu and Springfield, Missouri, resident, Emmett Reid won. They were all smiles after their brainstorming and collaborative session. We ran into several problems along the way, had to think on our feet and make it up as we go, Reid said. Our ephemeral structure currently looks like it broke under its own weight, but thats OK. It got the job done. We did not think this would work out, but it did. Advertisement The challenge is just one exercise in the curriculum for the three-year extracurricular program Prototype for Success, which gives early and continued support to students interested in the intersection of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields and entrepreneurship. Open to incoming U. of C. freshmen, the program encourages applications from students of color and female students, both underrepresented populations in STEM fields. Prototype for Success is a partnership between the universitys Office of Career Advancement, the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering and the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The program offers specialized workshops, funded internships and research/technical skill training. Throughout the program, participants receive career preparation assistance and mentoring from employers, entrepreneurs and experts within the partnering departments. Students are also introduced to Polskys Fabrication Lab, where they will design, build and pitch an object that would be useful to other first-year students. Prototype for Success curriculum and programming culminates in students senior year, where a capstone project and presentation is produced. Meredith Daw, associate vice president and executive director of U. of C.s Office of Career Advancement, said the idea for the program stemmed from employers wanting this type of skill set and students who wanted to do something entrepreneurial but needed a scientific discipline lens. Daw said program participants were chosen through an application process, each person demonstrated interest in emerging technologies, entrepreneurial potential and interdisciplinary thinking on their college essays and were invited to apply. One of the things that we really believe in the career office that underpins everything we do is learning by doing, giving students a chance to not just hear passively about a career field, but actually participate in a field, Daw said. Theyre working in teams, trying to solve a problem. Its all the things were looking for, as we think about having scientists who are also entrepreneurial. Its all about helping students not just get to college and through, the real focus is on how do you make sure students graduate with great outcomes. Dan Sachs, executive director of education and programs at the Polsky Center, says the program is less about creating the next Elon Musk or cranking out a bunch of startups and more about building successful human beings. He says the program is all about engaging students early on and fostering an entrepreneurial spirit in a way that has practical application they can apply to whatever field the student is interested in. Sachs calls the program a seamless marriage between entrepreneurial thinking and business school training, and innovation and research at the university. Our goal is to develop concrete, consistent pathways for students who typically dont see a lot of heroes that look like them in this space to be able to take advantage of everything from networks to mentorship to internships and have that develop over time, Sachs said. The long-term hope and expectation is to build the next generation of leaders that look like the country, one that is diverse and based on equitable opportunity. This inaugural cohort has been meeting in person for two-hour workshops since January. Participant Eliram Reyes-Powell is a molecular engineering major. He said he applied to Prototype for Success because he was interested in pharmaceutical industry patenting. Since the workshops have begun, hes even more motivated. His U. of C. classes are theoretical, while these sessions show him the many career options and pathways within science. Elizabeth Koprucki, assistant director at Fab Lab and Design, told student participants the program is all about building to learn. She encourages them to make crappy things and learn from them. When it comes to this maker space, its all about learning by failing. Advertisement University of Chicago first-year students Quadri Durojaiye, from left, Antonio Castano, Max Reisman, Bella Alfaro and Blake Harris present a prototype of a cellphone case that can store things like an identification card. Teams of freshmen who were given an assignment to make something that improves the lives of first-year students presented their final projects at the Harper Center on campus on May 26, 2022. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) University of Chicago freshman Bella Alfaro holds a prototype of a cellphone case that can store things like an identification card as students present their final projects. (Terrence Antonio James / Chicago Tribune) Its a great program, said Osinachi Nwosu, a computer science major. It really speaks to the fact that you can major in anything you want and after college, you might think theres only one pathway for your specific major but going through this program, you learn more about how within a major, within a field, you can create anything and that creation is pretty cool. Fisher, Qu and Reid are all part of the Class of 2025. Reid wants to make a positive impact doing something he finds really interesting. Fisher is interested in making sure medical devices and tools can fit all kinds of hands. Qu thought having the background knowledge and the skills that Prototype for Success provides will help her be able to make something if an idea were to come to her at some point. Daw said there are many on campus looking at trends and adjusting career programming accordingly to make sure students are facing a future prepared, including those in her office. Daw said given the universitys institutional knowledge, her team is focused on creating hubs with interdisciplinary approaches. Prototype for Success is the first, but two more early engagement programs will launch this summer one focused on computational biology in partnership with the Universitys Biological Sciences Division, the other focused on climate policy and data science, bringing together the UChicago Data Science Institute and the Harris School of Public Policy. As for how Prototype for Success will measure its success? Daw said in several different ways, including the number of those who remain in the sciences, those who branch out as entrepreneurs and the number of participants who say they are satisfied, supported and connected to each other upon completion. Theyre gaining transferable skills, building out a network ... programs like these are helping them understand what theyre interested in doing and ultimately, theyre becoming more competitive in the marketplace, Daw said. Its really important that all these students have great experiences throughout the academic year and in the summer for career opportunities all of those things together equal success. drockett@chicagotribune.com Brave New World? You decide. J. Michael Evans, president of the Alibaba Group a Chinese multinational technology company bragged at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: "We're developing through technology an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint. What does that mean? That's where are they traveling, how are they traveling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on the platform?" Not to be outdone, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told those attending the WEF about a new technology his company has developed: "It is a, basically biological chip that is in the tablet. And once we take the tablet and dissolves into the stomach, sends a signal that you took the tablet. So, imagine the applications of that the compliance. The insurance companies know that the medicines patients should take, they take them." He added, "It is fascinating what happens in this field." He should have said, "It is frightening what happens in this field." And then there was World Economic Forum Founder and Chairman Klaus Schwab telling the audience of over 2,500 global government and business leaders: "The future is built by us, by a powerful community such as you here in this room." If you say so yourselves. This year's WEF theme was "History at a Turning Point: Government Policies and Business Strategies." Just what the world needs: a global fascist oligarchy monitoring what we consume and where we go, with the aid of ingestible computer chips that notify authorities whether we have been naughty or nice. What the world actually does need is for we the people, the non-elite, to declare our freedom and independence and reclaim control from the titans of Big Government and Big Business. That wouldn't be easy. And, unfortunately, the odds against us doing so appear almost overwhelming. "So, hey! Where are you going? What are you eating? Have you taken your meds yet? I sure hope you are fully vaxxed and boosted. No? Why not, plebe?! Do you not do as you are told?! Well, you'll have plenty of time to explain yourself at the Gulag. The Archipelago is beautiful this time of year." Image: Cory Doctorow via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0. OnePlus owners have been getting several updates lately. If you own the 2020 flagship OnePlus 8, you shouldnt feel left out. Now, the company is rolling out the new May 2022 security patch to the OnePlus 8 along with several other phones. OnePlus has been distributing essential updates to its newer phones. The OnePlus 10 and the Nord N10 just got the May 2022 security patch and the OnePlus 9 phones got the update to OxygenOS 12.1. Now, the OnePlus 8 is getting the latest security patch People who are using the OnePlus 8 should be on the lookout for a new and rather large update coming to their phones. This is the latest security patch coming from Google. This update will fix several security bugs in the software that can leave the phone vulnerable to bad actors. Advertisement If you see the update screen, dont be fooled by its 1.27GB size. While this is almost as big as a platform update, this update will only fix the security bugs. There are no additional features or visual changes in the software. The update is also coming to other OnePlus phones The OnePlus 8 isnt the only phone getting the May 2022 security patch. According to XDA Developers, the OnePlus Nord CE is getting OxygenOS 11.0.17 in India, the USA, and Europe. Along with that phone, the OnePlus Nord N20 is getting OxygenOS A.05. Also, the OnePlus Nord 2T is getting OxygenOS A.09, and this update has a really long changelog. The update brings the security patch along with a slew of functionality improvements. These improvements include face unlock speed, power consumption, network stability, the cameras HDR effect, and several others. Advertisement If you own one of these phones, then youll want to keep an eye out for the update. Go into your system settings and find the software update section. If your phone doesnt find the update just yet, then youre going to need to wait a bit for the update to it your phone. Kein Bar bleibt zuruck: Animals Asia bringt einen Animationsfilm heraus, der den menschlichen Instinkt anspricht, sich freundlich zu verhalten 27. Mai 2022 Animals Asia arbeitete mit einer auf Wasserfarben spezialisierten vietnamesischen Kunstlerin, Cam Anh Ng, zusammen, um einen Animationsfilm zu gestalten, der auf das Problem der Barengallefarmen und die dringende Notwendigkeit aufmerksam macht, jeden Baren von den Gallefarmen in Vietnam zu retten. Der Zeichentrickfilm schildert die Geschichte eines kleinen vietnamesischen Kindes, das bei einem Spaziergang mit seinen Eltern einen Mondbarenteddy im Abfluss entdeckt. Das Madchen lauft hin, um den Teddy in Sicherheit zu bringen, und die Familie eilt nach Hause, um ihn zu reinigen und zu verbinden. Es ist sehr menschlich, ein universelles Verhalten, denen helfen zu wollen, die in Not sind, erklart Jill Robinson, Grunderin und CEO von Animals Asia. Etwas, das uns alle verbindet, sind unsere angeborene Fahigkeit, Empathie bei dem zu empfinden, was andere durchmachen, und unser Instinkt, denen zu helfen, die in Not sind. Sobald der Teddy verbunden ist und zu lacheln beginnt, schaut das Madchen aus dem Fenster und schreit auf: Da ist noch ein im Stich gelassener Teddy! Sie lauft hin und holt ihn herein, damit er sich neben dem ersten Baren ausruhen kann. Und so geht es weiter; wohin sie auch geht, sie sieht immer mehr Teddys, die verlassen und vergessen wurden und Liebe und Fursorge benotigen. Jeden nimmt sie mit nach Hause, bis der letzte Winkel des Hauses voll ist. Ihre Eltern beschlieen, fur ihre Tochter das Haus mit einem Anbau zu erweitern, damit sie weiterhin Teddys in Not retten kann. Und bald sind alle im Stich gelassenen Teddys gerettet und gesund gepflegt und lacheln. Die Geschichte steht ganz klar fur die bislang grote Herausforderung fur Animals Asia: den Bau eines zweiten Rettungszentrums in Vietnam, sodass wir die letzten paar Hundert Baren retten konnen, die noch auf Gallefarmen leben, fahrt Jill fort. Wir hoffen, dass dieser Animationsfilm alle Menschen uberall auf der Welt anspricht, ungeachtet ihres Alters, ihres Hintergrundes oder ihrer Sprache, und sich im Einklang mit dem universellen menschlichen Instinkt befindet, Mitgefuhl zu empfinden. Bitte lesen Sie weiter: Animals Asia startet grote Kampagne ihrer Art, um die Barengallefarmen in Vietnam zu schlieen Schlieung der Barengallefarmen Schlussel zur Erhaltung der Spezies des Mondbaren (ANSA) - ROME, MAY 27 - Italian Catholic Church paedophilia victims' group Italy Church Too said Friday they had already been rebuffed by the new head of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, in their demand for an independent inquiry into predator priests along the lines of those that have taken place in other countries. Their protest prompted an immediate response from Zuppi, who was only appointed by Pope Francis three days ago. Zuppi said "our thoughts are always with the victims, their pain is our first concern." He said a wide-ranging report on abuse by the Italian Catholic Church would be published on November 18, and would also include measures to prevent abuse recurring. "We owe it to them, the Church is on the side of the victims", Zuppi said. Cardinal Zuppi, 66, a former street priest working with the poor and homeless who has also helped broker international peace deals with the Sant'Egidio Community, is seen as a breath of fresh air for the CEI. Despite this, Italy Church Too said "our letter asking for clear answers on the issue of abuse starting from the creation of an independent commission of inquiry has yet to get any response from the institutions". It said "our battle goes on in a renewed form, things are getting bad even under the new presidency of Cardinal Zuppi who has made many steps forward but will not take any action on this (clerical abuse), evidently". The CEI said Friday it had approved a five-part action plan against abuse including new listening centres and an analysis of cases since 2000 on data from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the former Inquisition which now leads the anti-paedophile fight. Italy has had no large-scale reckoning with clerical sex abuse like those in many other countries. Italy Church Too say the abuse has also been massively under-reported in Italy. Pope Francis described the sexual abuse of children as an "offence" against life on April 29 during an audience with the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. "Abuse in any form is unacceptable," the pope said. "The sexual abuse of children is particularly grave, as an offence against a life that is just beginning to flower. "Instead of flourishing, one who is abused is deeply injured, at times permanently". In February the Italian survivors of clerical sex abuse unveiled their campaign for Italy to see the kind of probes that have uncovered massive abuse and cover-ups around the world. The umbrella group of survivors, called #ItalyChurchToo, launched the campaign "Beyond The Great Silence", saying that Italian priestly abuse is hugely under-reported and authorities have repeatedly ignored victims' pleas and covered up cases or shuttled perpetrators around. "It's time for an Italian Spotlight', they said, referring to the landmark Boston Globe probe, the subject of the 2015 Oscar winning film, that exposed hundreds of predator priests as well as cover-ups by Church authorities. The group described an offer from Italian bishops chief cardinal Gualtiero Bassetti, Zuppi's predecessor, as "unacceptable" in its lack of scope and accountability. (ANSA). Billionaire Gov. J.B. Pritzker displays his political animosity toward billionaire hedge fund executive Ken Griffin and the Republican candidate for governor hes funding, Richard Irvin, in a TV ad that debuted Thursday. The ad focuses on connections between Griffins Citadel Securities and a firm that erected a communications tower in Aurora that Irvin as mayor pushed through the City Council for the benefit of high-frequency security trading. The story was reported by Bloomberg and WTTW-Ch. 11. Advertisement Why has this Chicago billionaire, Ken Griffin, already spent $45 million trying to elect Richard Irvin? a narrator in the ad asks. Well, as mayor of Aurora, Richard Irvin strong-armed City Council members to change their votes and approve a critical project for Ken Griffins business, helping Griffin make over $6.5 billion in just the last year. And now its paying off for Richard Irvin too. Advertisement Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, a Republican candidate for governor, enters a room to address reporters' questions following a candidates forum at NBC 5 studio in Chicago on May 24, 2022. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune) Richard Irvin, the more we learn, the worse it gets, the narrator says. In a statement, Pritzker campaign spokeswoman Natalie Edelstein said that Irvin has repeatedly urged the public to examine his record, which is exactly what this ad does. But Irvin campaign spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said Pritzkers latest ad was nothing more than proof that J.B. Pritzker is running scared because he knows Richard Irvin will beat him in November. Irvin is the best funded of the six Republicans seeking the GOP nomination, who include state Sen. Darren Bailey of Xenia, former state Sen. Paul Schimpf of Waterloo, businessman Gary Rabine of Bull Valley and cryptocurrency venture capitalist Jesse Sullivan of Petersburg. Griffin, who has feuded politically with the first-term Democratic governor, has given Irvin $45 million in his bid to win the GOP nomination for governor and the right to face Pritzker on June 28. In an invective-filled statement Thursday, Griffin said the TV attacks show Pritzker fears facing Irvin in the fall. I dont care about the governors pathetic attacks against me. I started one of the most important businesses in the world at the age of 21 right here in Chicago. And unlike J.B. Pritzker, Ive endured real challenges and made real sacrifices in writing the success story of Citadel, Griffin said. J.B. Pritzker was gifted a life of tremendous wealth. Its disappointing that a man born with a silver spoon has accomplished so little, especially as governor. Pritzkers policies have driven the largest crime wave in the history of Illinois, Griffin said. Richard is the exact opposite of J.B. and has already done more for the people of Illinois than silver spooned billionaire J.B. Pritzker ever will. Advertisement Griffin is the states wealthiest individual with a net worth of $25.8 billion, according to Forbes. Pritzker, an entrepreneur and an heir to the Hyatt Hotels fortune, is worth $3.6 billion, according to Forbes. A Bloomberg report in January said Griffins personal wealth increased $6.5 billion after selling a share of Citadel Securities. Griffin in recent years has spent well over $100 million in his efforts to bring down Pritzker. In 2018, Griffin spent $22.5 million on one-term Republican Gov. Bruce Rauners losing reelection bid against Pritzker. Four years earlier, Rauner spent more than $170 million of his own money in his successful run. In 2020, Griffin spent $53.75 million in a successful effort to defeat Pritzkers push to change the state from a flat-rate state income tax to a graduated rate system based on wealth. Pritzker spent $58 million to encourage the measures passage. Pritzkers latest ad debuted as Irvins campaign touted a poll it says shows that he holds a single-digit lead in the race for the GOP nomination despite being outspent by more than $5 million in opposition ads between May 4 and Tuesday. Advertisement Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks before signing a bill restricting the sale and possession of unserialized firearms, also known as ghost guns, on May 18, 2022, at The Ark of St. Sabina. (Brian Cassella / Chicago Tribune) Pritzker and attack ads from the Pritzker-supported Democratic Governors Association have accounted for $9.5 million in TV spending during that period while ads for Bailey and a group aligned with the downstate senator have accounted for another $6.5 million. At the same time, Irvin has spent $10.7 million. Baileys campaign launched two new ads on Thursday, one attacking Irvins GOP credentials and the other defending Bailey from Irvins attacks on his own GOP bona fides. The state senator has been the beneficiary of a third billionaire involved in the race, conservative megadonor Richard Uihlein of Lake Forest, who owns the Uline office packaging and supply business. Uihlein has given Bailey more than $6 million. He has given an independent expenditure group backing Bailey a total of nearly $8.1 million, which includes a $3.27 million contribution earlier this week, to run ads critical of Irvin. rap30@aol.com (ANSA) - ROME, MAY 27 - Italy's COVID-19 Rt transmission number and case incidence have fallen further, according to the weekly coronavirus monitoring report of the health ministry and the Higher Health Institute (ISS). The report said Italy had an incidence of 261 cases for every 100,000 inhabitants in the May 20-29 period, down from 375 the previous week. It said the Rt number was 0.86 in the May 4-17 period, down from 0.89 in last week's report. An Rt above 1 indicates the epidemic is in a phase of expansion. The report said the pressure COVID-19 is exerting on Italy's health system has eased further too. It said 2.6% of Italy's intensive-care places were occupied by COVID sufferers on May 26, down from 3.1% on May 19. It said 9% of ordinary-ward hospital beds were occupied by coronavirus patients on May 26, down from 10.9% seven days previous. The report added, however, that five regions were still above the 15% alert threshold for hospital places occupied by COVID patients - Abruzzo (17.1%), Calabria (16.8%), Sicily (15.3%), Umbria (19.6%) and Valle d'Aosta (17.6%). (ANSA). (ANSA) - ROME, MAY 27 - Italian Catholic Church anti-paedophilia group Italy Church Too said Friday they had already been rebuffed by the new head of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, in their demand for an independent inquiry into predator priests along the lines of those that have taken place in other countries. Cardinal Zuppi, a former street priest working with the poor who has also helped broker international peace deals with the Sant'Egidio Community, is seen as a breath of fresh air for the CEI. He was only appointed by Pope Francis three days ago. Despite this, Italy Church Too said "our letter asking for clear answers on the issue of abuse starting from the creation of an independent commission of inquiry has yet to get any response form the institutions". It said "our battle goes on in a renewed form, things are getting bad even under the new presidency of Cardinal Zuppi who has made many steps forward but will not take any action on this (clerical abuse), evidently". (ANSA). Estonia, support grows for ships to escort grain cargoes Priority is to ensure grain reaches Africa (ANSA) - ROME, 27 MAG - Support is growing in Europe for initiatives to send ships to the Black Sea to escort cargoes carrying Ukrainian grain. So said Estonian President Alar Karis, Bloomberg reported. Moreover, Karis underlined that the priority is to ensure that grain reaches Africa and other developing countries. Speaking at the WEF in Davos, Karis recalled that he had long called for such a solution, but so far, "not everyone was convinced it was a good idea" because of fears that sending navy ships could increase tension in the Black Sea. In addition to the UK, "some others will probably join us, because if the grain does not leave the country," there is a risk of "a humanitarian crisis," the Estonian president added. (ANSA). Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved TEL AVIV - Despite threats and warnings issued by the Palestinian side, the Jerusalem Day flag march will take place on Sunday "along the original route, as has occurred for dozens of years", Israeli Premier Naftali Bennett said on Friday. The premier was speaking after consultations with the Minister of Public Security Omer Bar Lev and with police chief Koby Shabtai. To prevent disorders - when thousands of Jewish nationalists will march in the streets of the Islamic district of the Old City - 3,000 officers will be deployed in Jerusalem. In southern Israel, the batteries of air defense system Iron Dome were strengthened to intercept potential rockets launched from Gaza. Bennett said that the march - with which Israel celebrates the reunification of two sectors of Jerusalem after the 1967 war - will end at the Wailing Wall and will not touch the area known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount. A regular routine will be observed at the holy site on Sunday, Bennett explained. Despite this, several Palestinian political forces have urged the population in East Jerusalem to mobilize "in defense of the al-Aqsa mosque".(ANSAmed). Ukraine: Greece, Cyprus against fast-track EU membership All procedures must be followed, west Balkans first, sources (ANSAmed) - BRUSSELS, MAY 27 - Greece and Cyprus are supporting Ukraine's EU membership but oppose an accelerated adhesion process, suggested by several eastern European countries, Euractiv reports, quoting foreign ministry sources for Greece and government sources for Cyprus. Greece's position is that all procedures provided for by article 49 of the Treaty on European Union must be followed, according to the sources quoted by the report. Particular importance is given to the adhesion process of the western Balkans, to be continued and accelerated, and the same sources insisted on the fact that the region's European perspective is an immediate priority. Regarding the status of candidate granted to Ukraine in June, Athens reportedly wants to first see the Commission's proposal, although it has a generally positive perspective, provided there is unanimity among members States, which is not the case for now. As far as Cyprus is concerned, government sources were quoted as saying in the report that they want to see in which direction the Commission's opinion will go. In case of a positive opinion, Cyprus would accept to grant Ukraine the status of candidate, but all appropriate procedures would have to be rigorously respected, therefore the adhesion process would be long. In this context, western Balkan membership candidates must be taken into consideration as many of them have already taken great steps towards adhesion, implementing the necessary reforms and abiding by several obligations.(ANSAmed). Boris Johnson has stressed the vital need to provide Ukraine with fresh military support including long-range rocket launchers as Russian forces slowly chew through ground in the east. The Prime Minister warned Vladimir Putins invading army is making palpable progress in the Donbas region after abandoning the attempt to encircle Kyiv. Mr Johnson argued, in an interview with Bloomberg, that more offensive weapons including long-range multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRSs) are needed. He warned of the dangers in negotiating with the crocodile Russian President but said Mr Putin must accept that his so-called de-Nazification of Ukraine has finished so he can withdraw with dignity and honour. (PA Graphics) Mr Putins invading troops have recently captured several villages as they attempt to surround Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas region, according to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). But it said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskys defending forces are holding multiple defended sectors as Russia deploys 50-year-old Soviet-era T-62 tanks. These, the intelligence update said, will almost certainly be particularly vulnerable to anti-tank weapons and their use shows Russias lack of modern, combat-ready equipment. Mr Johnson said: I think its very, very important that we do not get lulled because of the incredible heroism of the Ukrainians in pushing the Russians back from the gates of Kyiv. Im afraid that Putin at great cost to himself and Russian military is continuing to chew through ground in Donbas, hes continuing to make gradual, slow but Im afraid palpable progress. And therefore it is absolutely vital that we continue to support the Ukrainians militarily. In a phone call to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban later on Friday, Mr Johnson said he believed the Ukrainian forces would fight for as long as it took, according to Downing Street. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, during a visit to Prague, said western allies needed to be ready for the long haul when it came to supporting Kyivs resistance, with no talk of ceasefires. Foreign Secretary @TrussLiz speaks at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister @JanLipavsky in Prague: The Czech Republic knows the dangers of appeasement and compromise in the face of aggression. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins and that Russia withdraws pic.twitter.com/V8mQVJrhn1 Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (@FCDOGovUK) May 27, 2022 Speaking at a press conference alongside her Czech Republic counterpart, foreign affairs minister Jan Lipavsky, Ms Truss said: Now is not the time to be complacent. There should be no talk of ceasefires or appeasing Putin. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins and that Russia withdraws and that we never see this type of Russian aggression again. Ukraines foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba this week urged allies, particularly the US, to provide MLRSs. Every day of someone sitting in Washington, Berlin, Paris and other capitals, and considering whether they should or should not do something, costs us lives and territories, Mr Kuleba said. Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine 27 May 2022 Find out more about the UK government's response: https://t.co/8oy0CIaoIP #StandWithUkraine pic.twitter.com/6gQjEGEiRb Ministry of Defence (@DefenceHQ) May 27, 2022 The UK has M270 MLRSs but it was unclear from the interview whether Mr Johnson wanted to send the weapons from British stocks or was urging allies to send supplies. But he said the weapons would enable them to defend themselves against this very brutal Russian artillery, and thats where the world needs to go down. Reports in the US suggest President Joe Bidens administration is preparing to send MLRSs to Ukraine. On peace talks, the Prime Minister said: How can you deal with a crocodile when its in the middle of eating your left leg? Whats the negotiation, and thats what Putin is doing. He will try to freeze the conflict, he will try to call a ceasefire The guys completely not to be trusted. Boris Johnson has said the Governments emergency cost-of-living support package is a big bazooka which will support families until the surge in energy prices abates. The Prime Minister acknowledged the country still faced a bumpy time due to the soaring costs of oil and gas, but said he was confident it would emerge in a much, much stronger position. Earlier, Chancellor Rishi Sunak who on Thursday announced a further 21 billion of support for households indicated that he could not rule out the need for further measures if global prices remain high. But speaking during a visit to Stockton-on-Tees, Mr Johnson appeared to suggest the measures set out in the Commons with up to 1,200 for eight million homes across the country should be enough. What we are doing now is making sure we support people through tough times. Its a big bazooka, he said in a pooled clip for broadcasters. Im not going to pretend that this is going to fix everything for everybody immediately. There is still going to be pressure. But it is a very, very substantial commitment by the Government to getting us through what will be still a bumpy time with the increase in energy prices around the world. What I think it will also help us to do is to get us through until I believe the prices will start to abate and we will be in a much, much stronger position. While some Tories welcomed the Chancellors latest support package, others expressed concern that it will be part-funded by a 5 billion levy on the profits of the energy companies. With Labour having been pressing for months for a windfall tax, MPs complained it was throwing red meat to socialists and would damage investment in the sector. There were also concerns that a 400 discount on energy bills for every household in the country, regardless of how well off they are, would further fuel inflation which is already heading towards 10%. Rishi Sunak refused to rule out further support measures (Daniel Leal/PA) Paul Johnson, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said while the impact of a one-off series of measures would be limited, the Chancellor could come under pressure to repeat it in future years. I think the biggest risk here is that the Chancellor will be tempted to do this again and again. If that happens then we really could be in for a bit of trouble, he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme. He has got the most extraordinarily difficult decisions to make later this year on public sector pay and then he will be under pressure, I suspect, come this time next year when energy prices will still be high and households will be struggling to put more money in. Mr Sunak insisted he remained a fiscal conservative and was committed to managing the public finances responsibly, but he refused to rule out another emergency package next year. People can judge me by how Ive acted over the last couple of years, he told the Today programme. Ive always been prepared to respond to the situation on the ground, whats happening to the economy, what families are experiencing, and making sure weve got policies in place to support them through that. I do want people to be reassured and confident that we will get through this. We will be able to combat and reduce inflation, we have the tools at our disposal, and after time it will come down. Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves said the Government had finally come to their senses over the windfall tax but said ministers needed to think about measures to ensure they were not in the same position next year. The Government could be starting a big programme of home insulation right now to take money off peoples bills not just for one year but for years to come, she told BBC Breakfast. Under Mr Sunaks plan, almost all of the eight million most vulnerable households could receive at least 1,200 of support, including a previously announced 150 council tax rebate. The measures include a one-off 650 payment to low-income households on benefits, paid in two instalments in July and the autumn, at a cost of 5.4 billion. Pensioners will also receive a 300 payment in November/December alongside the winter fuel payment in a move costing 2.5 billion, while 150 will be paid by September to individuals receiving disability benefits. Mr Sunak said 5 billion of the package would be paid for by a levy on the profits of oil and gas giants, and around 10 billion will be covered by extra borrowing. Announcing the measures in the Commons, Mr Sunak told MPs it was worth 15 billion, but officials later conceded there was a hidden 6 billion cost to the announcement, taking it to 21 billion. That is because over the next five years the original 200 rebate for energy bills, which was announced in February and doubled and turned into a grant by the Chancellor on Thursday, will no longer be paid back by consumers as originally planned. Pizza Express has announced that KFC boss Paula MacKenzie will take over the reins at the restaurant chain next month. Ms MacKenzie will join the business as chief executive on June 6, taking the role after David Campbell stepped down last October. The experienced hospitality boss joins Pizza Express from KFC parent firm Yum Brands, where she has led the fried chicken brands UK and Ireland business as managing director. She worked for the group for 11 years, having previously worked at brands including Diageo, GlaxoSmithKline and Innocent. Paula MacKenzie will fill the chief executive officer role vacated by David Campbell last year (Pizza Express/PA) The appointment comes as Pizza Express continues its turnaround following a major restructuring after the impact of the pandemic. The chain slashed more than 70 restaurants and around 2,400 jobs as it also came under pressure from its heavy debt burden. Last year, the company completed a 335 million refinancing deal and said it would return to opening new restaurant sites. Ms MacKenzie said: Pizza Express is a much loved, iconic brand that holds a special place in the nations heart. As someone who thrives on bringing brands to life, Im thrilled to be working with Allan (Leighton) and the whole team at Pizza Express leading this brand and business through its next chapter of growth. I cannot wait to get started and look forward to personally welcoming customers into our restaurants at a time where we are all reconnecting with the magic of eating out. Mr Leighton, chairman of Pizza Express, said: We are delighted that Paula will join the Pizza Express team as CEO, she has a terrific track record of performance and importantly is a champion of equality, diversity and inclusion. I would like to thank Zoe Bowley and Jo Bennett for jointly leading the business during this interim period. Paula is joining at an exciting time for Pizza Express and will work with our leadership team to drive priorities for growth, including an increased customer focus led by rapid digital transformation. Democratic candidates for Illinois secretary of state, from left, Alexi Giannoulias, David Moore and Anna Valencia appear at a candidates forum at the Union League Club of Chicago in the Loop on May 26, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) When the three Democratic candidates for Illinois secretary of state gathered Thursday for a forum in Chicagos Loop, the moderator made it clear the event was not intended to be a debate. The candidates former state Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, Chicago City Clerk Anna Valencia and Chicago Ald. David Moore, 17th were invited to the Union League Club to answer questions about their vision for the office. All three put forth modernization ideas ranging from creating digital drivers licenses to creating digital license plates. Advertisement But when the question shifted to ethics, Giannoulias and Valencia went back to trading barbs as they have throughout the campaign. Valencia brought up questions about Giannoulias time as a loan officer for his familys bank, which was found to have lent money to alleged organized crime figures. Giannoulias accused Valencia of allowing her husbands lobbying practice to meddle in her role as city clerk. Advertisement Democratic candidate for secretary of state Anna Valencia speaks at a candidates forum at the Union League Club of Chicago. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Those issues have dominated the race and once again overshadowed explanations about how the candidates plan to run the office if they are chosen to replace Secretary of State Jesse White, who is retiring. I think this is why people are sick and tired of politics, Giannoulias said at one point. You ask them a question about ethics and what theyre going to do in the office and they feel the need to shift the conversation. I think thats horrible. The moderator, WBBM-AM 780 political editor Craig Dellimore, asked the candidates about the ethical issues as well as how they plan to bring more transparency to the office and ensure it remains free of corruption. I support making sure we have integrity and accessibility and transparency over government, Valencia said in part of her answer before adding that Giannoulias was smearing her with false statements. She criticized his tenure as state treasurer from 2007 to 2011, when a college savings program overseen by his office lost millions of dollars and hurt working families like the one I grew up in. Giannoulias replied by bringing up allegations of collusion between Valencia and the lobbying practice of her husband, Reyahd Kazmi. Democratic candidates for secretary of state, from left, Alexi Giannoulias, David Moore and Anna Valencia at a candidates forum at the Union League Club of Chicago in Chicago's Loop on May 26, 2022. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Kazmi was copied on city clerks office emails that have been obtained by the Tribune and other news outlets, raising questions about possible conflicts. The secretary of states office is tasked with regulating lobbyists for state government like Kazmi, who also is registered as a lobbyist for Chicago government. If elected, Valencia has said her husband would no longer be allowed to lobby the secretary of states office. Advertisement She has used her office as a culture of corruption to enrich her husband and his lobbying career, Giannoulias said. She currently is married to someone who lobbies the city of Chicago, which she serves on, but yet she says, if she gets elected, dont worry he wont do it then. Part of Valencias ethics plan includes a vow to make public the tax returns she and her husband file each year. Giannoulias said spouses should be barred from lobbying someone in their household. After the forum, Valencia was grilled by reporters about possible conflicts with her husbands business. My husband and I have separate careers, she said. And Im not the first woman whose running for office who has to say my husband does not speak for me. Valencia was asked about allegations that New Orleans officials last year rigged a telecommunications contract to favor a group of businesses that included one connected to Kazmi. Advertisement An email obtained by the Tribune suggests that Kazmis business partner introduced Valencia to the New Orleans officials around the time they were considering bidders for the telecommunications contract. While she acknowledged being in touch with officials in the city, she said they reached out to her to inquire about her CityKey program, which is designed to help immigrants or undocumented Chicagoans use a single ID as a library card and a transit card, among other things. I have nothing to do with my husbands business. Period. I am my own independent person, Valencia said in response to that issue. Democratic candidate for secretary of state David Moore speaks at a candidates forum held at the Union League Club of Chicago Thursday. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Moore stayed mostly out of the squabbling during the forum, at one point saying he was the only one that has not had any ethics issues. But last year, just days after Moore announced his candidacy for secretary of state, the Chicago Board of Ethics admonished him for using his wards Facebook page to campaign for the office. Facing a fine, Moore said at the time he took corrective action. But on Thursday, Moore said that he was only using his personal Facebook page, which included a visible city of Chicago emblem, and that he doesnt have an official page thats government-related that the government paid for with any taxpayer money. Advertisement jgorner@chicagotribune.com Rishi Sunak has insisted he did not time handing out 21 billion worth of cost-of-living support to deflect from the controversy over Downing Street lockdown parties. The Chancellor bowed to demands for the UK Government to step in and help households to deal with ballooning energy bills and rising shop prices, which are being fuelled by 40-year-high inflation, by revealing an emergency package of extra cash for millions of people. Every household will receive a 400 energy bill discount while extra support was also unveiled for the lowest paid, pensioners and those with disabilities. Under the plans, almost all of the eight million most vulnerable households could receive at least 1,200 of support, including a previously-announced 150 council tax rebate. Mr Sunak confronted criticism that the measures were announced as part of a plan to move the focus on from rule-breaking in No 10 following the publication of senior civil servant Sue Grays report on Wednesday. The report contained a photograph of Mr Sunak attending Boris Johnsons surprise birthday bash in the Cabinet room in June 2020, for which the Chancellor and the Prime Minister were both fined 50 by the Metropolitan Police. In an interview with Martin Lewis, founder of the Money Saving Expert website, the Chancellor was asked whether the fiscal measures had been quickly unveiled to act as a fig leaf after embarrassing details of the late-night raucous parties in Downing Street were laid bare. He replied: I can categorically assure you that that had no bearing on the timing for us announcing this support, and I can give you my absolute assurance on that and my word. Did you miss it? Watch back my live @rishisunak Q&A (from B&Q) on #CostofLiving announcements today inc -Why not just reduce prices?-Why do ESA & carers miss out?-What about the just-about-managing?-Mental health impact-Was this Sue Gray timing?https://t.co/n1BwGZGCVk Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) May 26, 2022 The reason we acted today was because we had more certainty about what will happen to energy prices in the autumn. Industry regulator Ofgem said this week that the typical annual household energy bill is forecast to rise by more than 800 in October when the price cap goes up, having already risen by more than 50% in April. Measures announced by the Chancellor in the Commons included a one-off 650 payment to low-income households on benefits, paid in two instalments in July and the autumn at a cost of 5.4 billion. Pensioners will also receive a 300 payment in November/December alongside the winter fuel payment in a move costing 2.5 billion, while 150 will be paid by September to individuals receiving disability benefits. Mr Sunak announced that 5 billion of the package would be paid for by a levy on the profits of oil and gas giants, and around 10 billion will be covered by extra borrowing. The Chancellor attempted to avoid calling his plan for a 25% energy profits levy a windfall tax, as he was accused by Labour of having been dragged kicking and screaming into a U-turn on the policy the Opposition has spent months calling for. But Simon Clarke, chief secretary to the Treasury, conceded it was a windfall tax, although one he said included a carefully calibrated offer due to its tax break incentives for companies to invest in North Sea oil and gas production. Conservative MPs, including Richard Drax, publicly voiced concerns about the windfall tax in the Commons, suggesting it amounted to throwing red meat to socialists. Mr Clarke defended his boss approach, however, pointing to where windfall taxes had been used in the past by Tory administrations, including by former chancellor George Osborne and ex-prime minister Margaret Thatcher. He told BBC Radio 4s PM programme: The point is that when you initiate it you need to be really careful for it not to have perverse effects and perverse consequences as a result, and that is something we have done. The Times and The Telegraph reported that Jacob Rees-Mogg, minister for Brexit opportunities and government efficiency, warned during Thursdays Cabinet meeting that the tax could hurt investment. Jacob Rees-Mogg reportedly raised concerns the windfall tax on oil and gas companies could hurt investment (Oli Scarff/PA) Mr Rees-Mogg later told Sky News that all taxation has an economic consequence. He said: Whether its a pasty tax, or its an excess profits tax, there is an economic consequence. There isnt a honeypot of free tax that governments can just pop into. When announcing his fiscal package in the Commons, Mr Sunak told MPs it was worth 15 billion. But officials later conceded that there was a hidden 6 billion cost to the announcement, taking it to 21 billion. That is because over the next five years the original 200 rebate for energy bills, which was announced in February and doubled and turned into a grant by the Chancellor on Thursday, will no longer be paid back by consumers as originally planned. Nadine Dorries has shared a TikTok rap video in which she explains some of the details of the Online Safety Bill. The MP for Mid Bedfordshire, who is also the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, has previously said the updated Bill will make the UK the safest place in the world for our children to go online. The Bill is currently moving through Parliament, and Ms Dorries shared a video to her nearly 2,000-strong TikTok following to discuss it in lyrical fashion. In the video, she raps: The UK is passing some new legislation, to make the internet safer for the younger generation. Its effectively a framework to protect internet users from scams, illegal content and anonymous abusers. It will force big tech to stop their terms being breached, and puts in measures to defend free speech. But is it true it will impact freedom of expression? No, we put in legal protections in the 19th section. Another thing were doing for the laws were passing is tackling online crime and cyber-flashing. If companies fail to comply with the law fail to protect the users that theyre responsible for the regulator Ofcom will have the power to fine, so platforms must keep people safe online. Nadine Dorries used the power of rap to explain the new Bill (James Manning/PA) As of Friday evening the video had been viewed more than 10,000 times. The Online Safety Bill is set to legally require platforms to protect users from harmful content for the first time, with fines that could run into billions of pounds for larger companies and access to sites being blocked among the penalties for breaching the new rules. A number of other countries and regions are also exploring stricter regulation for social media and other online platforms. The drip-feed of no confidence letters being submitted over the Prime Ministers leadership has continued as pressure grows on Boris Johnson following publication of the No 10 parties report. Since senior civil servant Sue Gray published her investigation into coronavirus lockdown-busting gatherings in Downing Street on Wednesday, there has been a steady trickle of Conservative MPs announcing they want a vote on Mr Johnsons future as UK leader. Sir Bob Neill, chairman of the Commons Justice Committee, added his name to that list on Friday, declaring that he did not think the Prime Ministers explanations were credible for why he attended events in No 10 while the rest of the country was subject to rules that caused real pain. Separately, Alicia Kearns, a Tory MP elected during Mr Johnsons landslide election win in 2019, said she had concluded, in the aftermath of Ms Grays report, that the Prime Minister had misled Parliament when he said Covid rules had been upheld in Downing Street. Sir Bob, in a statement on his website, said: I have listened carefully to the explanations the Prime Minister has given, in Parliament and elsewhere, and, regrettably, do not find his assertions to be credible. That is why, with a heavy heart, I submitted a letter of no confidence to Sir Graham Brady on Wednesday afternoon. The former minister and MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, said that a change in leadership is required if trust in the office of Prime Minister and the political process was to be restored following the so-called partygate saga. Ms Kearns, in a Facebook post, said she continued not to hold confidence in the Prime Minister, a position first asserted in January. The Rutland and Melton MP said: It is wrong that families were banned from saying goodbye to their dying loved ones, whilst the Prime Minister was complicit in the holding of many goodbye parties for his staff, which we now know displayed a complete disregard for restrictions and were complete with vomiting, fighting and bullying. I can only conclude that the Prime Ministers account of events to Parliament was misleading. Following the publication of Sue Gray's report, I have posted the statement below on my website. https://t.co/d7NGVp1pjZ pic.twitter.com/X0uZBh5HZx Sir Bob Neill MP (@neill_bob) May 27, 2022 Ms Kearns did not say whether her lack of confidence in Mr Johnson had led to her submitting a letter of no confidence. A vote on the Prime Ministers future will be held if 54 of his MPs write to Sir Graham, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tories, demanding a confidence vote in their leader. At least 20 Tories have publicly called for his resignation so far, with many critics holding back due to the war in Ukraine. Conservative MP and Justice Committee chairman Sir Bob Neill (PA) Others may have called for a no confidence vote in private, however, as Sir Graham does not publicly reveal how many letters he has received. Sir Bobs intervention, making him the fifth Tory MP to call for Mr Johnson to go since the full Gray report was released, comes on the same day as the Home Secretarys assistant resigned over the toxic culture uncovered in No 10 by the Cabinet Office officials inquiry. Tory MP Paul Holmes quit as Priti Patels parliamentary private secretary, saying he was shocked and angered by the revelations. Mr Holmes did not, however, state whether he had submitted a letter of no confidence, instead noting that reforms to the Downing Street set-up had been introduced in the wake of the party revelations. Along with Sir Bob, MPs Stephen Hammond, David Simmonds, John Baron and Julian Sturdy have broken ranks to call for Mr Johnsons resignation since Wednesday. Tory MP Alicia Kearns said she thought the PM had misled Parliament when he said Covid rules were upheld in No 10 (UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor/PA) The Prime Minister on Friday said it would be up to the public to make up their mind on his behaviour as detailed in Ms Grays 37-page written document. During a visit to the North East, he looked to bat away questions about the affair, telling broadcasters he had already offered vintage and exhaustive answers. Ms Gray found that Mr Johnson attended a number of leaving dos in No 10 during the lockdown months in England, often giving speeches about departing officials, but he insisted these were work events a conclusion he said was backed up by the Metropolitan Police opting not to fine him for being present at such gatherings. Mr Johnson, who did receive a fixed penalty notice (FPN) for attending his own surprise birthday bash in June 2020, has argued it was after he left some of the leaving dos that they became raucous. Ms Grays report depicts a culture in No 10 that saw staff drink so much that they were sick, became involved in altercations and abused security and cleaning staff. Despite facing criticism over his partygate explanations, the Prime Minister chose to announce changes to the ministerial code on Friday in a move his rivals said watered down the rules over those on the Governments front bench. An update said ministers will not automatically lose their jobs if they breach the standards code, with a Government policy statement saying it was disproportionate to expect ministers to resign or face the sack for minor violations of the codes provisions. Prime Minister Boris Johnson during a visit to CityFibre Training Academy in Stockton-on-Tees, Darlington (Owen Humphreys/PA) It had previously been expected that ministers should go if they were found to have breached the code. Labour and the Liberal Democrats have both criticised the downgrading of public standards with the move. Sir Bob, in an interview with BBC News about his decision to submit a no confidence letter, said the revisions were unlikely to help restore trust in Britains leadership. I dont really think that is a wise move, and certainly not a good time to be doing this, he said. That isnt, to my mind, likely to help restore trust either, so thats certainly not made the situation any better as far as Im concerned. Following the publication of Ms Grays report and the conclusion of Scotland Yards Operation Hillman investigation, which saw 126 fines dished out for rule breaches in Government, Mr Johnson now faces a Commons inquiry. The Privileges Committee will rule on whether he lied to Parliament with his repeated denials there was no rule-breaking in Downing Street. Deliberately misleading the House is considered a resigning matter. The healthcare regulator has issued a safety warning to an NHS trust embroiled in a scandal over baby deaths. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) told Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust it must make significant and immediate improvements to its maternity services as it said women and babies may not be safe. It follows unannounced inspections at the trust in March and comes as senior midwife Donna Ockenden was appointed to chair an independent inquiry into maternity issues at the trust. To date, dozens of babies are believed to have died or been left with serious injuries as a result of care at the trust, which runs Nottingham City Hospital and Queens Medical Centre (QMC). The families of the babies affected have been repeatedly calling for an independent review led by Ms Ockenden, who chaired the investigation into baby and mother deaths at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust. They wrote to Health Secretary Sajid Javid and rejected a separate independent thematic review established by NHS England and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire clinical commissioning group. In its new reports, the CQC said overall maternity services at the two Nottingham sites remained inadequate and were also inadequate for being safe and well-led. The rating for being effective has gone up from inadequate to requires improvement, being responsive has gone down from good to requires improvement and caring remains good. The CQC has taken enforcement action by issuing a warning notice in relation to how the trust is managing observations of women, with basic checks not being carried out that would tell if a woman was deteriorating. This includes seeing women quickly if they attend the units because they were concerned. At both maternity units, the CQC concluded that while staff tried to provide good care: The service did not have enough staff to care for women and keep them safe. Not all staff had training in key skills. Staff did not always assess all risks to women, and we were not assured staff acted upon concerns in a timely way. Across the sites, inspectors found that staff did not always keep good care records and did not always manage medicines well. They also did not feel assured that staff reported all incidents and near misses, and workers did not always receive feedback. Referring to previous inspections, the CQC said improvements are still not being implemented across the trust. The trust is already under NHS England and Improvements System Oversight Framework, meaning it receives intensive support through a recovery support programme for the challenges it has. The CQC noted that at City Hospital there were 19 serious incidents reported by maternity staff between March 2021 and February 2022. In addition, there are currently five Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch investigations. At Queens, it said: The service did not always have enough medical staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep women and babies safe from avoidable harm and to provide the right care and treatment. The unit was also missing its own targets for care and treatment. For example, the avoidable neonatal unit admission rate for babies born at term was 18.8% against a target of 5%. Fiona Allinson, CQCs director of operations, Midlands network, said staff worked hard to provide care in very challenging circumstances but added: Although we found some improvements, they are not widespread or rapid enough to address the areas of concern we identified during previous inspections. Its disappointing that despite several inspections where CQC has told the trust areas they must improve to keep mums and babies safe, serious problems remain. One of our biggest concerns was that staff werent always carrying out observations on women to check that their condition hadnt deteriorated. Midwives werent always clear who could perform observations, some staff didnt carry them out as they said it wasnt their role, and overdue observations went unrecognised. This gave us serious concerns about their ability to recognise and respond to women who were deteriorating, so we have taken enforcement action against the trust to focus them on rapid improvement in this area. Despite placing conditions on the trusts registration in October 2020 due to staffing concerns, we found there were still not enough staff with the right qualifications, skills, training and experience to keep people safe. An interim report of the now-abandoned thematic review into the trust, published on Thursday, says there is evidence of a lack of respect, appreciation and listening by some staff members in relation to their colleagues and to service users with some indications of bullying behaviour. It adds: There appears to be a small number of staff who display unacceptable behaviours such as being rude and abrasive, with some staff members describing being scared of named colleagues. Sharon Wallis, director of midwifery at Nottingham University Hospitals, said: Keeping mums and babies safe and providing them with high quality care remains our top priority, and we are committed to continuing our work with local families and healthcare partners to make the changes still needed. Our teams are working hard to make the necessary improvements but recognise we have more to do and are absolutely determined to speed up the pace of change and deliver quality services for women and their families. Meghan Markle has traveled to Uvalde, Texas to pay her respects at a memorial set up in honor of the 19 children and two teachers killed in Tuesday's mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. The duchess now living in her native California after she and husband Prince Harry announced their formal break from the royal family in 2020 laid a bouquet of white roses near a series of crosses bearing blue heart plaques and the names of the 21 victims killed in the school shooting. The AFP reports that Markle, 40, quietly walked around her head bowed and arms crossed the makeshift memorial situated outside Uvalde County Courthouse. The royal wore a baseball cap, jeans, T-shirt and sneakers for her unannounced visit. The duchess paid her respects to the 21 victims of the Uvalde school shooting. (Photo: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) A spokesperson for the duchess tells Omid Scobie, Yahoo News U.K.'s royal executive editor, that she traveled to Texas to offer the Uvalde community condolences while it deals with "unimaginable grief." Following the devastating Texas school massacre which saw 21 lives stolen, Duchess Meghan has made a personal visit to Robb Elementary in Uvalde. A spokesperson says she took this trip to offer her condolences and support to a community experiencing "unimaginable grief". pic.twitter.com/JLel5f8Kib Omid Scobie (@scobie) May 26, 2022 Markle's visit comes amid reports that her estranged father, Thomas Markle, has been hospitalized after suffering a stroke on Monday. Updated, 5:45 p.m.:This article has been updated to include a statement from Markle's spokesperson. President Biden, speaking Friday at the U.S. Naval Academy Class of 2022 graduation and commissioning ceremony, will attend the ninth Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles on June 8. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press) President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will travel to Los Angeles on June 8 to host the ninth Summit of the Americas, a high-profile regional gathering that takes place every three to four years. The week-long conference is expected to address major regional issues that include finding ways to boost economic growth, combat climate change, slow migration and address the pandemic, according to the White House. The Biden administration has spent the past few weeks working to mollify Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other Latin American leaders over its decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from the week-long conference. All three countries have authoritarian governments that Washington considers to be in violation of the democratic spirit that the hemispheric conference is supposed to promote. Lopez Obrador has threatened to skip the summit unless all countries in the Western Hemisphere were included, triggering a potential boycott that could undermine U.S. influence at a critical time in the Western Hemisphere. On Friday, he signaled that he would probably not attend the summit and instead send a delegate, most likely his foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard. He told reporters at his daily press briefing he was still awaiting a response from the U.S. to meet his request to invite all countries in the Western Hemisphere. "We are going to wait to see what they [U.S. officials] decide, but regardless, Mexico will participate," the president said. "It's just that I will not attend if all countries are not invited." Guatemala said it would not attend after the U.S. criticized its handling of official corruption cases, although several Caribbean countries have backed off earlier threats to skip the event. Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, a major ally of former President Trump and leader of the largest country in Latin America, said Thursday he would attend the summit and meet Biden on the sidelines after initially threatening to pass on the event. White House officials have expressed confidence in recent days that a multi-nation boycott will not materialize. Earlier this week, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Twitter that under no circumstance would he attend after U.S. officials floated the idea of inviting a representative from Cuba. The White House has dispatched former Sen. Chris Dodd, Bidens special advisor for the summit, and the first lady to the region to try to secure commitments to attend. A first batch of invitations went out last week but White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Thursday they are still considering additional invites. Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will also participate in the summit, the White House said. Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. A police officer stands guard outside the scene of a shooting at a supermarket, in Buffalo, N.Y., Sunday, May 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke) When a shooter attacked a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, its security guard tried to stop him. At least one of his shots hit the gunman, but it didnt stop the deadly rampage because the gunman was wearing body armor. Ten Black people died in the racist massacre, including security guard Aaron Salter, a retired Buffalo police officer hailed as a hero. It's the latest mass shooting in which the gunman apparently came prepared for anyone trying to stop him with a gun. At least 21 mass shooters over the last four decades have worn some kind of body armor and the majority of those were within the last 10 years, according to a database maintained by The Violence Project, a nonpartisan research group that tracks gun violence. Among them: A massacre that killed 12 people and injured dozens more at a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, and another in nearby Boulder that left 10 people dead at a supermarket last year. The shooter in Texas's deadliest mass slaying was also wearing protective gear when he killed more than two dozen people at a church in 2017, as was a radicalized Islamic couple who carried out a terror attack in San Bernardino, California, in 2015. Theyre demonstrating this intent that, I want to absolutely kill or hurt as many people as I possibly can before I just cant fight anymore, said Chris Burbank, the former police chief in Salt Lake City whos now with the Center for Policing Equity. The Violence Project database doesn't show a clear correlation with body armor and the number of victims. But such gear can enable attackers to shoot longer and is a symbolic way to adhere to societal expectations of what a mass shooting looks like, said James Densley, a criminal justice professor at Metro State University in Minnesota who co-founded The Violence Project. A mass shooting is intended to be a final act you dont get away with a mass shooting, Densley said. So its meant to be a big spectacle, and its meant to have people pay attention and to notice it. One of the ways you do that is you dress up pretending youre in the military. Police officers are seeing body armor in other types of investigations, like narcotics cases, said former Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina. Body armor is relatively easy to get, especially the soft body armor similar to the bulletproof vests regularly worn by police officers that are effective against handguns. Getting body armor isnt difficult under U.S. laws. Its illegal under federal law for a convicted felon to buy body armor, but other than that there are few restrictions on purchasing it. Only one state blocks it from being ordered online and shipped to homes: Connecticut, which requires a face-to-face purchase. Colina would like to see more states consider stricter rules. I dont think its something that is really thought about too much, but weve seen it many times and weve seen it here in south Florida," Colina said. "Somebody commits a crime wearing body armor, and its terrifying. The idea that you may not be able to stop them if you had to use deadly force is terrifying. Still, body armor itself isn't inherently dangerous and is in fact aimed at protection something on the minds of many people amid a spike in gun violence in the U.S., Burbank said. And its unclear what effective body armor regulation would even look like, given the difficulty of regulating the weapons that are used in the shootings. Most of those same laws apply to guns," Burbank said. "Does that prohibit anyone in this nation from having access to a firearm? Body armor hasn't been worn in the majority of mass shootings, said James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who has been tracking mass killings back to 2006 along with The Associated Press and USA Today. But it does indicate a level of planning. Body armor was mentioned more than a dozen times in the online writings attributed to the white suspect in the Buffalo shooting, Payton Gendron, who was arrested at the supermarket and has pleaded not guilty to murder. The Violence Project database also doesn't include slayings that don't meet the definition of a mass shooting because fewer than four people were killed. In one such shooting at Philadelphias Thomas Jefferson University Hospital last October, a nursing assistant wearing blue scrubs and a ballistics vest killed a co-worker and then wounded two police officers before being shot by police and taken into custody. In another, this month in Round Rock, Texas, a 31-year-old Marine veteran wounded a neighbor before engaging in a shootout with law enforcement, after which he was found dead, wearing body armor. In contrast to U.S. laws, four Canadian provinces have enacted severe restrictions on the possession of body armor Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba and Nova Scotia. Residents must obtain permits to possess body armor, including ballistic vests, and must undergo background checks before getting those permits, which must be renewed on an annual or biannual basis. Violators face hefty fines and jail time. Alberta adopted its law in 2012 because of spiraling gang violence in which gang members wore vests while committing crimes such as drive-by shootings and even sported them in public, said Ian Roddick, a spokesman with the provinces Ministry of Justice and Solicitor General. Applicants must have no criminal record. Permits generally are granted to those whose jobs, such as security guards, require protection. Some Australian territories also restrict body armor possession. ___ Associated Press writer Susan Haigh in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report. __ This story was first published on May 18, 2022. It was updated on May 26, 2022, to correct that the shooter in a 2021 Philadelphia case was not killed, but was shot by police and taken into custody. Exclusive: How Russian billionaire Melnichenko shielded assets from European sanctions FILE PHOTO: Russian billionaire Melnichenko attends a session during the Week of Russian Business in Moscow By David Gauthier-Villars and Gabriela Baczynska ISTANBUL/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Russian businessman Andrey Melnichenko ceded control of two of the world's largest coal and fertilizers companies to his wife the day before he was sanctioned by the European Union, according to three people familiar with the matter. Melnichenko, who made his fortune in Russia's energy industry in the years following the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, gave up his stakes in the coal producer SUEK AO and fertilizer group EuroChem Group AG on March 8, the day of his 50th birthday, leaving his wife, Aleksandra Melnichenko, in control of the companies, the people said. Until March 8, Melnichenko controlled the two companies through a chain of trusts and corporations stretching from Moscow and the Swiss town of Zug to Cyprus and Bermuda, according to legal filings reviewed by Reuters. Since 2006, Melnichenko's wife was second in line behind her husband on the list of beneficial owners of the two companies in trust documents, according to the three people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't allowed to speak publicly about the couple's assets. That meant that she stood to inherit ownership of the companies in the event her husband died, the people said. When the war in Ukraine began in February, however, Melnichenko grew concerned that he would be designated under the European Union's Russia sanctions regime, the people familiar with the matter said. On March 8, Melnichenko notified trustees of his retirement as the beneficiary, the people said. That triggered the same chain of changes in trust records that would have happened if the businessman had passed away, and made his wife the beneficiary. Reuters was unable to reach Melnichenko and his wife for comment. A spokesman for Russia-based SUEK didn't respond to messages seeking comment. Switzerland-based EuroChem confirmed that Aleksandra Melnichenko had replaced her husband as beneficial owner. "Following the departure of its founder, the primary beneficial ownership of a trust holding a 90% stake in the global fertilizer company has automatically passed to his wife," the company said in a statement to Reuters on Wednesday. The role of Melnichenko's wife at EuroChem was first reported by Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger. Her role at SUEK as well as the timing of ownership changes and other details are reported here for the first time. Melnichenko, who founded SUEK and EuroChem two decades ago, was ranked as Russia's eighth richest man last year by Forbes, with an estimated fortune of $18 billion. The European Union sanctioned Melnichenko, citing his alleged proximity to the Kremlin, on March 9 as part of a Western attempt to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. The sanctions - which include freezing his assets, banning him from entering the European Union and prohibiting EU entities from providing funds to him - do not apply to his wife nor the couples daughter and son. Britain also put Melnichenko, who is Russian but was born in Belarus and has a Ukrainian mother, on its sanction list on March 15. Switzerland imposed sanctions against him the following day. The businessman said in a statement to Reuters in March, after the EU sanctions were imposed, that the war in Ukraine was "truly tragic" and he appealed for peace. A spokesman for Melnichenko said at that time he had "no political affiliations". Western governments have imposed sweeping sanctions against Russian companies and individuals in an effort to force Moscow to withdraw. But some sanctioned Russian businessmen, including Roman Abramovich and Vladimir Yevtushenkov, have transferred assets to friends and family members, fuelling doubts over the effectiveness of these attempts to pressure Moscow. Melnichenko, whose residence was registered in the Swiss alpine resort town of St. Moritz until he was hit by sanctions, gave his instructions to change the ownership of his companies from a retreat near Mount Kilimanjaro where he was celebrating his birthday, according to a person familiar with the matter. A Boeing 737 emblazoned with the billionaires signature "A" on the fuselage had landed in Tanzania on March 5, arriving from Dubai, according to flight-tracking service Flightradar24. A lawyer for Melnichenko didn't respond to questions about the Kilimanjaro trip. Melnichenko's transfer of ownership at SUEK and EuroChem had far-reaching implications. After reviews lasting several weeks, Swiss financial authorities concluded that the two companies could continue operating normally on the grounds that Melnichenko was no longer involved with them. SUEK and EuroChem said that British and German financial regulators have reached similar conclusions. The British and German regulators didn't respond to requests seeking comment. Upon completion of the reviews in late April, SUEK and EuroChem - which had revenues last year of $9.7 billion and $10.2 billion respectively - were able to resume distribution of millions of dollars in interest payments to bondholders. In recent weeks, SUEK and EuroChem have also approached Western clients, showing them documents with the new ownership structure in a bid to reassure them that they can continue doing business with Mr. Melnichenko's former companies, two people familiar with the matter said. NO MORE PAYMENTS In Switzerland, the Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said neither SUEK nor EuroChem were under sanctions in the country. SECO said that, as far as it was aware, Melnichenko was no longer a beneficiary of the trust to which EuroChem belonged at the time of his sanction by the EU and Switzerland. SECO also said it sought confirmation from Eurochem that it would no longer provide funds to Melnichenko. "The company and its management have guaranteed in writing to SECO that the Swiss sanction measures will be fully complied with and in particular that no funds or economic resources will be made available to sanctioned persons," SECO said in response to a query. Swiss authorities have defended their decision not to extend sanctions to Melnichenko's wife or to his former companies, pointing to the fact that EU authorities had not sanctioned them either. "In this case, we have done exactly what the EU has done," Switzerlands Economy Minister Guy Parmelin told Swiss television on Wednesday. Parmelin added that Switzerland was also wary that sanctioning EuroChem at a time when fertilizer prices have soared in most parts of the world could have dire consequences on agriculture markets. EuroChem said it produced more than 19 million metric tons of fertilizer last year - roughly equivalent to 10% of the world's output, according to U.N. data. The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, said it had no information about the transfer of Melnichenko's assets to his wife. The commission has said it is willing to close loopholes allowing individuals and companies to elude its sanctions. Earlier this week, it unveiled proposals aimed at criminalising moves to bypass sanctions, including by transferring assets to family members, across the 27-nation bloc. A mathematician who once dreamt of becoming a physicist, Melnichenko dropped out of university to dive into the chaotic - and sometimes deadly - world of post-Soviet business. He founded MDM Bank but in the 1990s was still too minor to take part in the privatizations under President Boris Yeltsin that handed the choicest assets of a former superpower to a group of businessmen who would become known as the oligarchs due to their political and economic clout. Melnichenko then began buying up often distressed coal and fertilizer assets, making him one of Europe's richest men. The EU said, when it announced its sanctions, that Melnichenko "belongs to the most influential circle of Russian business people with close connections to the Russian government". Melnichenko was among dozens of business leaders who met with Putin on the day Russia invaded Ukraine to discuss the impact of sanctions, showing his close ties to the Kremlin, the EU said in its March 9 sanction order. At the time, a spokesman for Melnichenko denied that the businessman belonged to Putin's inner circle and said he would dispute the sanctions in court. On May 17, Melnichenko challenged the sanctions by lodging an appeal with the EUs General Court, which handles complaints against European institutions, court records show. Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special operation" to disarm Ukraine and protect it from fascists. Ukraine and the West say the fascist allegation is baseless and that the war is an unprovoked act of aggression. Italy seized Melnichenko's superyacht - the 470-foot Sailing Yacht A, which has a price tag of 530 million euros - on March 12, three days after he was placed on an EU sanctions list. SUEK and EuroChem said on March 10, a day after the EU announced sanctions against Melnichenko and 159 other individuals tied to Russia, that their founder had resigned from his board positions at the companies. (Reporting by David Gauthier-Villars and Gabriela Baczynska; Additional reporting by Chris Kirkham in Los Angeles, Andrew MacAskill in London, Michael Shields and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi in Zurich; Editing by Daniel Flynn) Israeli soldier deliberately shot Al Jazeera reporter, Palestinian official says FILE PHOTO: Mural to pay tribute to slain Al Jazeera journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in Nazareth By Ali Sawafta RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - The Palestinian Authority said on Thursday its investigation into the killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh showed that she was shot by an Israeli soldier in a "deliberate murder". Israel angrily denied the accusation and said it was continuing its own investigations into the death of Abu Akleh, who died on May 11 while she was covering an Israeli military raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. The Israeli army had said previously that she might have been shot accidentally by one of its soldiers or by a Palestinian militant in an exchange of fire. Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al-Khatib told reporters that its enquiry showed there had been no militants close to Abu Akleh when she died. "The only source of fire in that place came from the occupation forces with the intention to kill," Al-Khatib said, referring to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). He added that Abu Akleh, who had been wearing a helmet and a press vest that clearly marked her as a journalist, had tried to flee with some fellow reporters as the first shots rang out. "It represents a war crime," Al-Khatib said. Qatar's Al Jazeera TV Network said it would refer the killing to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz rejected the findings. "Any claim that the IDF intentionally harms journalists or uninvolved civilians, is a blatant lie," he wrote on Twitter. He reiterated his call for the Palestinians to cooperate with Israel in the investigation and hand over the bullet for ballistic tests to see if it matched an Israeli military gun. The Palestinians say they do not trust Israel and have refused to hold a joint probe. Al-Khatib said tests showed that the bullet that killed Abu Akleh was a 5.56 mm round fired from a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle, which is used by the Israeli military. That same 5.56 calibre can also be fired from M-16 rifles that are carried by many Palestinian militants. Al-Khatib did not say how he was sure it had come from an Israeli rifle. Israel has said the only way to be sure if it was fired by one of its soldiers was to analyse the bullet and see if the markings on it matched the barrel of an Israeli gun. "I continue to call on the PA to hand over the bullet and findings. We are prepared and willing to conduct an investigation in collaboration with international actors," Gantz said on Thursday. (Additional reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Henriette Chacar and Crispian Balmer; Editing by Howard Goller) In Kramatorsk, Ukraine, the streets are almost deserted after heavy Russian shelling this month. (Andriy Andriyenko / Associated Press) Its easy to see the war in Ukraine as a sign of an inescapably violent world. But if the future looks bleak, perhaps thats because we focus on the conflicts that happen and overlook the gravitational pull of peace. An example came on March 9, two weeks into the Russian invasion. Shortly after sundown, India accidentally launched a cruise missile at Pakistan. Predictably, calm ensued. Both sides strove to avoid escalation as they have for decades. Focusing on the times peace fails is a kind of selection bias, one that makes us think that war is more common than it really is. The India incident is a good reminder of a simple fact: War is so ruinous that enemies prefer to loathe each other in peace. Even Vladimir Putin, author of the world-changing conflict in Ukraine, tried to avoid war in his own insidious way. For two decades, he employed every underhanded means possible to co-opt Ukraine: dark money, propaganda, political stooges, poisonings and separatist support. He did all of that because, as vicious and costly as these things were, not one was as reckless as war. Im not pointing all this out to downplay the horror of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Putins brutal war deserves our utmost attention. But it would be misleading, not to mention demoralizing, if we did not also consider the pull of peace. More important, the two together will give us insights into when and how the current conflagration might end. First, why did Russia invade? Every answer to why we fight' is an example of a society or its leaders ignoring the terrible price that will be paid. Putin, isolated and insulated, apparently underestimated the uncertain costs of invading Ukraine. Also, as a dictator, he knew he wouldnt have to pay most of them (his people would). And he appears willing to endure whatever costs he will bear to achieve his particular ends: personal and national glory, plus self- and power preservation eliminating a democracy on his front doorstep. In the end, however, the expense of this war will be a powerful incentive to limit the fighting. The most visible costs are the tens of thousands killed, and the cities turned to rubble. Less obvious, but crucial, are the treasuries being drained on both sides. Berkeley economist Yuriy Gorodnichenko estimates that Ukraine requires half of its pre-war monthly national income to continue the conventional war it has been fighting. Of course, Ukraine is earning nowhere near this amount. And even if its factories and fields were producing at full tilt, the country cannot bring those goods to market the Russian occupation of Mariupol and its blockade of other Ukrainian ports means few goods get out. Russia has the deeper pockets, but its price of fighting is still exorbitant. One Russian central banker believes the consequent recession in his country will be as deep as its post-Cold War economic collapse only worse, because the recovery will be slower. Should the fighting persist, he predicts reverse industrialization. That is bad news for a president who built his popularity on delivering prosperity. It may be why Putin did not use his May 9 Victory Day speech to escalate the conflict. The costs on both sides could mean the Ukraine war will be counted in months not years. Even so, bargaining power in the months ahead will lie with the side most willing and able to pay war's monstrous price. This means Ukraines allies, chief among them the United States, will be facing fraught decisions as the fighting goes on, with complicated strategic dynamics few of which are being publicly discussed. Looking forward, Ukraines economy cannot support an indefinite conventional war on its own. Insurgency is an option, but sustained regular warfare probably hinges on the Wests willingness to help cover the bill. If so, NATOs resolve (and money) will help shape the length and brutality of this war. As long as Putin believes Russias military and treasury can outlast Ukraines, he has an incentive to wage a war of attrition. NATO could counter this incentive. A firm commitment now to pay and keep paying for the war could undermine Russias plan to wear down Ukraine, hastening the end of fighting. The flip side, however, is that Western hesitancy or ambiguity about its support could coax Russia back toward that war of attrition. The U.S. just committed $40 billion to Ukraine. Britain added a further 1.3 billion ($1.6 billion). By Gorodnichenkos numbers, thats equal to about six or seven months of Ukraines war bill. Will that ratchet up the costs enough on Putin? Or will the West need to go further? If only back Ukraine at all costs were a simple and safe choice. Peace may exert a gravitational pull, but that does not mean nothing escapes its orbit. If Russia mistrusts Western resolve, misperceives the threat or is ideologically intent on takeover anyway, the fighting could be long and intense. NATO could find itself supporting another forever war, one with a small but scary risk of escalation between NATO and Russia. We must support weapons, financial aid and debt forgiveness for Ukraine in this time of need, but lets be clear-eyed about what it means to send a firm and committed signal. It means that six or seven months from now, if Putin hasnt backed down, the Wests unity and passion cannot wane. Should we waffle or equivocate, the highest cost of ongoing war will be borne by Ukrainians. Christopher Blattman, professor of global conflict studies at the University of Chicago, is the author of Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. An American flag stands tall on Memorial Day at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, Illinois, on May 25, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Flags and headstones at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood on Memorial Day, May 25, 2020. (Jose M. Osorio / Chicago Tribune) Memorial Day, originally known as Decoration Day, honors individuals who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service to the United States, according to the U.S. House of Representatives. A National Moment of Remembrance is held for one minute at 3 p.m. each Memorial Day. The holiday occurs the last Monday in May and is, traditionally, viewed as the beginning of summer. AAA predicts 1.9 million Illinois residents will travel over Memorial Day weekend about 10% less than 2019 and 92% of them would travel by car. Advertisement [ Travelers want to get out this summer, but high gas prices could stand in the way ] Since Memorial Day doesnt occur on the same date each year, the temperature and precipitation values can vary dramatically. So, there arent any normal high or low temperatures, or accumulations of rain. Data is from the National Weather Services Chicago office and measured at the citys official recording site, which has been OHare International Airport since Jan. 17, 1980. For almost a century prior to that, sites around downtown Chicago, the University of Chicago and Midway Airport were used to gather the citys official weather data. Advertisement Showers and a few thunderstorms will end from northwest to southeast through this afternoon. Strong northerly winds will create high waves and dangerous swimming conditions at Lake Michigan beaches today and tonight. #ILWX #INWX pic.twitter.com/xHhmqRAifZ NWS Chicago (@NWSChicago) May 27, 2022 Warmest Temperatures tend to fall in the 70- to 80-degree range on Memorial Day, according to the National Weather Service. Chicago experienced its warmest Memorial Day high of 95 degrees twice on May 28 in 2012 and 2018. Highs in the 90s have been recorded 10 times on Memorial Day since 1873. Hot weather could have contributed to a melee between Chicago police and striking steelworkers on May 30, 1937, when the high was 89 degrees. Ten demonstrators were killed, another 60 were injured and 40 police officers were also hurt during the Memorial Day Massacre. The coldest high temperature on Memorial Day was 42 degrees on May 30, 1889. In 2021, the high was 70 degrees. Despite officials warnings of contracting hypothermia from the cold Lake Michigan water, kids were diving right in. Tessa Weinberg, Chicago Tribune, May 29, 2018 People take advantage of the warm Memorial Day weather at the 31st Street Beach in Chicago on May 28, 2018. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Coldest Low temperatures for Memorial Day holidays can vary widely, according to the National Weather Service. Chicago experienced its warmest low Memorial Day temperature 77 degrees on May 28, 2012. The high that day reached 95 degrees. The coldest low Memorial Day temperature was 32 degrees on May 25, 1992. Advertisement Tribune reporters wrote the cold extended to the Eastern Conference playoff series between the Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers: An ill indoor wind in Richfield, Ohio, meant Bulls shots inexplicably missed the basket ... In 2021, the low was 54 degrees. Indeed, in contrast to past Memorial Days, the only creatures prone on the beach Monday were thousands of dead alewives, the only picnickers the scores of seagulls dining alfresco. Steve Johnson and Michael A. Lev, Chicago Tribune, May 26, 1992 Chicago Tribune, May 26, 1992. (Chicago Tribune archive) Wettest Rain accumulating in more than 1 inch of precipitation has occurred just once since 1873, according to the National Weather Service. Almost 2 inches of rain fell May 27, 2019 the wettest Memorial Day in Chicago history. No rain or just a trace of precipitation has fallen in 97 of the 149 years 65% on record. A tornado watch for the region was canceled around 7:10 p.m. Monday, following an afternoon that saw storms packing wind gusts of 70 mph or more and 2-inch hail moving through the area. Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and Carole Carlson, Chicago Tribune, May 27, 2019 A man walks through the rain at the corner of Cermak Road and State Street in Chicago on Memorial Day, May 27, 2019. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune) White Sox second baseman Yolmer Sanchez makes a "rain angel" as a second rain delay is called during the fifth inning of a game against the Royals on May 27, 2019, at Guaranteed Rate Field. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune) Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 8 Mario Reyes, of Bensenville, carries his grill to the car after the family Memorial Day cookout at Montrose Beach was cut short when a rainstorm hit Chicago on May 27, 2019. (Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune) Sources: National Weather Service Chicago; Tribune archives and reporting Advertisement Propaganda is not what it used to be. These days, a crummy movie like 2000 Mules, a big cinematic lie about the Big Lie that rampant voter fraud denied the reelection of the last U.S. president, is what passes for artful disinformation. Widely mocked, its a lunatic Triumph of the Will without the formal skills of Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl pollution without the prettiness, Triumph of the Rubes and Grifters. Oh, for the long-gone days of ancient Persia. What propaganda used to be is on glamorous display in an exquisitely crafted silver plate that anchors the final room of Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World, a new exhibition at the Getty Villa in Pacific Palisades. Made in Constantinople around A.D. 629-630, a period when the Eastern Roman power of Byzantium had surprisingly prevailed in a war against Persias Sasanian Empire, the nearly 20-inch plate features an elaborate bas-relief that means to help cement the triumph. In three registers, it tells the story of David and Goliath. "Plate With David and Goliath," Byzantine (Constantinople), circa AD 629-30, silver (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) David is a stand-in for Heraclius, the relentlessly warring Roman sovereign. Goliath is the bigger, older, more powerful representative of Persia, established for a thousand years. At the top, the two agree to fight as a bemused river god looks on. In the center, the widest of the three registers, the bout has begun. Goliath has his spear and big shield raised, while David has loaded his slingshot and is waving a distracting cloak in his opponents face. How things might go from here is suggested by the soldiers arrayed behind the two combatants: Davids duo stand upright and firm, Goliaths are turning and lean away, ready to bolt. In the bottom register comes the denouement: David hacks off tumbling Goliaths head, presumably with his own sword. Framing them, the giants big pile of scattered weapons at the right dwarfs the winners little sling and three small rocks at the left. The exhibitions fine catalog, prepared by Getty director Timothy Potts and curators Jeffrey Spier and Sara E. Coles, draws a notable historical conclusion. Heraclius, in his bloody Byzantine victory over Persia, is thought to have beheaded the Sasanian commander. That would make the silver plate a pretty specific allegory for the Eastern Roman emperor as Gods designated champion on earth, like David, the victorious underdog in the struggle against the Philistine giant. Now, that is some propaganda! Crafted in solid silver, apt for such a valuable image, the large, dramatically designed plate probably was a royal gift made to impress an important dignitary. Heraclius is spreading the word. He puffs up his profile, accentuating his godly kingship and putting his money where his mouth is. The show is divided into three sections, each focused on a different Persian empire. The Achaemenid (550-330 BC), founded by Cyrus the Great and expanded by Darius I, kicked things off and grew to encompass 2 million square miles all the way from the Balkans to the Indus Valley. It was the largest empire ever, until Greeces Alexander the Great arrived with his armies and busted things up. The Parthian (247 BC-AD 224) occupied the Silk Route to China, amassing great wealth from trade and cross-fertilizing with Greek civilization. The Sasanian (AD 224-651), arch-rival to voracious Rome, showed remarkable endurance, lasting more than four centuries. Needless to say, a lot happened in Persia over the course of a thousand years. Too much, in fact, for a small exhibition to fully represent. Persia: Ancient Iran and the Classical World is strong on examples of material culture the pottery, jewelry, coins, metalwork and stone vessels, architecture and other common objects of daily life, mostly among the elite. But, given the museums three small rooms, its a thumbnail sketch of a thumbnail sketch. "Relief With a Lion and Bull in Combat," Achaemenid, 359-338 BC, limestone (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) Still, there are wonderful individual objects to see. Impressive loans have come from the Louvre in Paris, the British Museum in London, the Oriental Institute in Chicago and elsewhere. The David and Goliath plate is from New Yorks Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among the works is a fragment of a limestone staircase relief from the ceremonial capital of Persepolis. (Daily, an immersive video about the capitals main palace is presented on the Getty Villas first floor; it also can be viewed at getty.edu/persepolis.) In the piece a lion, shown head-on, has clamped down on the back of a bull, carved in profile. Two powerful natural forces, animals with royal affiliations, are locked in mortal combat. The dynamism of the relief comes from brilliantly executed visual tensions. An organic, serpentine line describing the forms establishes muscular forward movement, appropriate to a staircase. The competing perpendicular composition of frontal and profile poses is architectonic, like a buildings structure. The repeated modular patterns of animal harnesses and fur emphasize the reliefs ornamental function. Balancing them all is no mean feat, masterfully accomplished by a designer whose name is lost to history. Lions and bulls were featured on early Achaemenid coins, but a small gold disk announces a shift: A kneeling archer is the figure of Darius I, whose likeness on the chunky little coin asserts his position as the source of ultimate power. The tiny coin is just over a half-inch wide 8.36 grams of gold, worth about $500 today and its but one of dozens of coins, seals and carved gemstones in the show. Theyre small but fascinating, stylistically changing records of dynasties, rulers, events and timetables of history. Scholars use them to identify all manner of things, like portraits of luminaries and festivals. The Getty has installed touchpads adjacent to each display of groups of them, which lets a viewer examine the object in closeup and access more information. A wall section of colorfully glazed brick from Darius palace features a magnificent pair of sphinxes seated, unlike their famous Egyptian cousins, who mostly recline. They sport horned crowns signifying deities. Although confronting one another, their contorted male heads turn away a full 180 degrees, as if to underscore their likely role as palace guardians, not opponents. Unknown artist, "Portrait of Alexander the Great," circa 320 BC. (Christopher Knight / Los Angeles Times) The Getty also has inserted a work from its own antiquities collection that serves two functions. A highly idealized marble bust of Alexander the Great, carved after his death, is its own bit of romanticized propaganda: It celebrates a powerful human being as impossibly flawless, in order to extend Greek control beyond his incredible lifetime. (The sculpture has undergone minor alteration and seen significant damage over the centuries.) On the other hand, its placement among Persian objects represents the museums effort to expand its own institutional focus on the antique art of Greece and Rome. Ancient Iran joins the pack. Persia, apparently the first major museum show of its kind, is one in a series the Getty is presenting. Interactions of Greece and Rome with other Mediterranean cultures Egypt, Thrace (modern Bulgaria), the Levant (coastal Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel) and the Eurasian steppes are the subjects of considerable recent research, much of it from the visiting scholars program of the Getty Research Institute. It's usefully compiled for catalog publication. Unfortunately, what the Persia catalog fittingly calls an ancient clash of cultures can only be hinted at in an exhibition so modestly scaled. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times. FILE PHOTO: A mother reacts as she waits for police members to exhume the body of her dead son from a well at a fuel station in Buzova GENEVA (Reuters) - More than 4,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's invasion began on Feb. 24, although the true number is likely much higher, the U.N. rights office (OHCHR) said in a statement on Friday. In total, 4,031 people have been killed, including nearly 200 children, according to OHCHR, which has dozens of monitors in the country. Most were killed by explosive weapons with a wide impact such as shelling from heavy artillery or airstrikes. It did not attribute blame for the deaths. Russia has denied targeting civilians in the conflict. (Reporting by Emma Farge, Editing by Miranda Murray) LONDON (Reuters) - A Conservative lawmaker quit his role as an assistant to Britain's interior minister on Friday, saying his work had been tarnished by the "toxic culture" in Downing Street that was detailed by investigations into lockdown-busting parties. A damning official report on Wednesday documented a series of illegal COVID-19 lockdown parties at British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Downing Street office. Johnson said he took responsibility for the events but refused to quit. Conservative lawmaker Paul Holmes said he was resigning from his government role as parliamentary private secretary at the Home Office to focus on representing his constituents. "It is clear to me that a deep mistrust in both the government and the Conservative Party has been created by these events ... It is distressing to me that this work on your behalf has been tarnished by the toxic culture that seemed to have permeated Number 10," he said in a statement. "Over the last few weeks this distress has led me to conclude that I want to continue to focus solely on my efforts in being your Member of Parliament ... That is why I have now resigned from my governmental responsibilities." Other Conservative lawmakers have said they had submitted letters calling for a confidence vote in Johnson to the chairman of the party's 1922 Committee which would be triggered if 54 such letters are written. Holmes confirmed to Reuters he had not written a letter to call for Johnson to resign. (Reporting by Alistair Smout and Elizabeth Piper; editing by Michael Holden) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took a jab at Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday and said he hopes "no occupiers" will attend the upcoming Group of 20 summit this year. Zelenskyy announced Friday that he has accepted the invitation by Indonesian President Joko Widodo to attend the intergovernmental summit scheduled in November, even though Ukraine is not one of the 19 member nations or yet a part of the European Union. PUTIN TO ATTEND G20 SUMMIT, INDONESIA SAYS; ZELENSKYY ALSO INVITED "We must prevent mass starvation, stop massacres and repressions, forever wean any state of the world from nuclear blackmail. I believe that only friend states, partner states will attend the summit, and there will be no occupiers," he said in an address to the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia. Food security, a global problem aggravated by Putins war in Ukraine, is expected to be a major issued discussed by leaders of world's largest economies. The U.S., EU, Japan, India, Saudi Arabia and China, are set to cover issues relating to global health, increased digitalization of the global economy, climate change and energy security another issue that has taken on renewed urgency amid Russias war in Ukraine. Widodo announced last month that he also invited Putin to the summit, given Russias usual standing as a G20 member, and claimed the Kremlin head had accepted. UKRAINE NEEDS TO FACE REALITY TO END CONFLICT, TALK TO PUTIN: ZELENSKYY President Biden has voiced his opposition to Russia maintaining its international positions of power which White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated last month. "The president has been clear about his view: This shouldnt be business as usual, and that Russia should not be a part of this," she told reporters. Zelenskyy said Friday that he is thankful to have been included in the summit and said he believes "the world will have solved all these big problems" come November. Russias war in Ukraine has lasted for more than three months, displacing millions, killing thousands and causing the greatest security threat to Europe since World War II. Ukrainian soldiers are seen riding on an armored presonnel carrier during an exercise not far from Kharkiv on April 30. Photo by SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images Moscow has said it will not stop its deadly and illegal incursion until it has gained "full control" over not only Ukraines eastern regions, but all regions along Ukraines Black Sea coastline. Russias naval presence in the Black Sea has led to export blockades and the growing global food crisis as millions of tons of grain have remained holed up in storage facilities. FILE - Tesla CEO Elon Musk attends the opening of the Tesla factory Berlin Brandenburg in Gruenheide, Germany, March 22, 2022. Twitter shareholders have filed a lawsuit accusing Musk of engaged in unlawful conduct aimed at sowing doubt about his bid to buy the social media company. The lawsuit filed late Wednesday, May 25, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claims the billionaire Tesla CEO has sought to drive down Twitters stock price because he wants to walk away from the deal or negotiate a substantially lower purchase price. (Patrick Pleul/Pool Photo via AP, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS) Twitter shareholders have filed a lawsuit accusing Elon Musk of engaged in unlawful conduct aimed at sowing doubt about his bid to buy the social media company. The lawsuit filed late Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California claims the billionaire Tesla CEO has sought to drive down Twitters stock price because he wants to walk away from the deal or negotiate a substantially lower purchase price. San Francisco-based Twitter is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, which seeks class action status as well as compensation for damages. A representative for Musk did not immediately respond to a message for comment on Thursday. Twitter declined to comment. Musk last month offered to buy Twitter for $44 billion, but later said the deal cant go forward until the company provides information about how many accounts on the platform are spam or bots. The lawsuit notes, however, that Musk waived due diligence for his take it or leave it offer to buy Twitter. That means he waived his right to look at the companys non-public finances. In addition, the problem of bots and fake accounts on Twitter is nothing new. The company paid $809.5 million last year to settle claims it was overstating its growth rate and monthly user figures. Twitter has also disclosed its bot estimates to the Securities and Exchange Commission for years, while also cautioning that its estimate might be too low. To fund some of the acquisition, Musk has been selling Tesla stock and shares in the electric carmaker have lost nearly a third of their value since the deal was announced on April 25. In response to the plunging value of Teslas shares, the Twitter shareholders' lawsuit claims Musk has been denigrating Twitter, violating both the non-disparagement and non-disclosure clauses of his contract with the company. "In doing so, Musk hoped to drive down Twitters stock price and then use that as a pretext to attempt to re-negotiate the buyout, according to the lawsuit. Twitter's shares closed Thursday at $39.54, 27% below Musk's $54.20 offer price. Before announcing his bid to buy Twitter, Musk disclosed in early April that he had bought a 9% stake in the company. But the lawsuit says Musk did not disclose the stake within the timeframe required by the Securities and Exchange Commission. And the lawsuit says his eventual disclosure of the stake to the SEC was false and misleading because he used a form meant for passive investors which Musk at the time was not, because he had been offered a position on Twitter's board and was interested in buying the company. Musk benefited by more than $156 million from his failure to disclose his increased stake on time, since Twitter's stock price could have been higher had investors known Musk was increasing his holdings, the lawsuit claims. By delaying his disclosure of his stake in Twitter, Musk engaged in market manipulation and bought Twitter stock at an artificially low price, the lawsuit says. Thank you for reading! Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading. Antigen kits may be meant for rapid COVID-19 testing, but some individuals have turned the medical objects into works of art. One such person is Si Xueqin, who has been decorating the back of her test kits with Chinese ink paintings. Images of her work, most of which feature traditional objects such as plum blossoms and bamboo branches, have been widely shared on social media. Si, a retired physician living in the Dongjing housing community in suburban Shanghai, says she has enjoyed painting since she was young, and picked up the hobby again after her retirement. The idea to paint on the test kits, she explains, came when she was taking a photo of the result on the kit. Many Shanghai residents are required to self-test at home and declare their results on a government portal. Si uses regular ink art pigments and a brush to create her works, which include intricate paintings done on single cassettes as well as larger ones done on a canvas comprising multiple cassettes bound together. "This is just my way of passing time and having fun during the lockdown," she says. Besides spending her days painting, Si also practices tai chi in the mornings, plays the guzheng (a traditional seven-stringed plucked instrument) in the afternoons and volunteers at the housing community center in Songjiang district, where she helps process residents' requests to go to hospital. "I have more than 40 years of experience as a physician, so I can advise people about whether they really should go to the hospital during the outbreak or not," she says. "Sometimes it's just a case of people feeling mentally stressed because of the lockdown instead of being physically ill." Another person who has been painting on her antigen test kits is Chen Xuan, who has been using her 6-year-old daughter's acrylic pigments to create copies of classic works such as Van Gogh's Starry Night and Monet's Sunrise, as well as cartoon figures like Doraemon. "The idea came from my daughter, who left a few drops of paint on the cassette when she was shaking her brush," Chen tells China News Service. "Those spots she left behind reminded me of the famous paintings by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama and that's how I started painting on the cassettes. "We have celebrated many special occasions with these paintings, such as International Workers' Day, Mother's Day and my mother's birthday," Chen says. "Shanghai is a city of love and romance, even during the pandemic." Chinese envoy calls for well-tailored approach to Israeli-Palestinian issue Xinhua) 08:41, May 27, 2022 UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called for a well-tailored approach to the Israeli-Palestinian issue as drivers of violence are fermenting. During the past month, the security situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has remained turbulent, with multiple clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, resulting in the continued increase in Palestinian civilian casualties. Attacks against Israeli civilians also occurred from time to time, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. "The various factors contributing to the rising tensions were brought into sharp relief recently. A number of these factors are still fermenting. We are extremely worried about this," he told a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. "The recent developments between the two sides have raised a red flag for the international community, and a call for a well-tailored approach." The current situation once again testifies to the importance of upholding the status quo of the holy sites. China calls on all parties concerned to learn from history, jointly safeguard the historical status quo of religious sites, and refrain from any unilateral action to change the status quo. Jerusalem Day is just around the corner. China calls on all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint and avoid conflict resurgence, said Zhang. The current situation once again testifies to the importance of achieving common security. The ever-rising civilian casualties only aggravate the animosity between Palestinians and Israelis, and undermine their mutual trust. Palestinians and Israelis are and will remain neighbors. They have a stake in each other's security and they should find a way to live side by side in harmony and shared security. The Israeli security forces should abide by the principle of proportionality and should not use excessive force, he said. The current situation once again testifies to the importance of implementing international consensus, he said. Building settlements in the occupied territory violates international law. China is concerned about Israel's announcement of a new settlement construction plan and urges Israel to stop all settlement activities, he said. A two-state solution is the fundamental way forward for achieving peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The international community cannot substitute crisis management for a just solution to the question of Palestine. The relevant parties with major influence on this question should uphold objectivity and impartiality, proceed from the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people and regional countries, and take practical steps to advance the Middle East peace process, he said. Palestine is faced with existential and developmental challenges. The international community should take concrete actions to help Palestine fight COVID-19, develop its economy, and improve livelihoods, with a view to achieving economic independence at an early date, he said. China supports the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side in peace with Israel. China supports the common development of Arabs and Jews and will continue to play a constructive role alongside the international community toward an early settlement of the question of Palestine, said Zhang. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) With the recent Chinese language publication of the biography of Milan Kundera, A la recherche de Milan Kundera ("in search of Milan Kundera"), readers now have a new way, aside from his best-sellers, to better understand the 93-year-old Czech-born writer, who has been absent from the public eye for nearly four decades. Kundera has been influencing generations of Chinese readers since his writing was first introduced to the country in the late 1980s. One of his representative works, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, has sold more than 3 million copies since the Shanghai Translation Publishing House released its Chinese version in 2003, the publisher says. Writer Xu Zechen, 44, winner of one of China's highest literary honors, the Mao Dun Literature Prize, says that Kundera's works have deepened Chinese authors' understanding about literature, together with those of the Colombian Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez. "Kundera updated our concept of novels," Xu says. Jing Kaixuan, translator of the 1987 version of Kundera's Farewell Waltz and the 1989 version of Life Is Elsewhere, said during a 2014 interview that it's the philosophy in Kundera's works that makes him a world-class writer. He notes that Kundera touches upon many issues of great value and discusses them in depth. Kundera also inspires Chinese readers to turn their attention to Central and Eastern European literature and thoughts as an alternative to Western modernist works, Jing said. He himself has translated several works of Czech writer Ivan Klima. Kundera was born in Brno in the former Czechoslovakia, today part of the Czech Republic, in 1929. He learned to play the piano at a young age from his father, a renowned pianist, but in college majored in literature and aesthetics, before transferring to film direction and script writing. He rose to fame with his first full-length novel, The Joke, published in 1967. A year later, in his home country, all of his works were banned and he was expelled from his teaching position at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 1975, Kundera went into exile in France with his wife Vera, teaching for a living while continuing his writing. He was stripped of his Czechoslovakian citizenship in 1979 and, in 1981, became a naturalized French citizen. In 1993, Czechoslovakia became two countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. His Czech citizenship was restored in 2019 and the following year, he was awarded the Franz Kafka Prize for Literature, given by the Franz Kafka Society and the city of Prague. Kundera shuns publicity and has turned down media appearance requests since the mid-1980s. However, A la recherche de Milan Kundera, by Le Monde reporter Ariane Chemin, reveals hitherto unknown stories about the writer, and events surrounding allegations he was a "police informer". A 2008 Czech magazine article reported that, according to a police report, in 1950, Kundera had denounced Czech pilot and political dissident Miroslav Dvoracek, which resulted in the latter being sent to prison for 14 years. Kundera denied the claims, stating that he didn't even know him. Eleven internationally recognized writers, including Nobel laureates Orhan Pamuk and Marquez, came to his defense in November 2008. Chemin managed to interview his wife Vera, as well as people of various occupations and background who were linked to the couple, indicating a high level of authenticity and credibility, the publisher says. Translator of the biography, Wang Dongliang, French language professor at Peking University, won the literature translation award of the prestigious Lu Xun Literature Prize in 2007, for translating Kundera's The Book of Laughter and Forgetting. Released in 1979, it was the author's first published work following his exile to France. The publication of Chemin's biography is just one of many recent Kundera-related projects that the Shanghai Translation Publishing House has underway. New versions of 15 of his works will be published this year, with the first five of them already launched, according to Lin Yunyu, from the Shanghai publisher. Notably, Kundera has also licensed the digital copyrights of these works to the publishing house. It's the author's first cooperation of this kind with a Chinese publisher. E-books of his representative works, including The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Joke and Ignorance, have been available on major e-book platforms such as Kindle, WeChat Read and iGet since May 10. An audiobook of The Unbearable Lightness of Being was also launched on multiple domestic audio-sharing platforms, such as Ximalaya FM. According to Liang Yongan, a retired literature scholar of Fudan University who recorded an introduction for the audiobook, this novel is not far from the nonmaterial lives of contemporary youths, who have difficulty in recognizing values in the globalized era. Liang's posts on video-sharing platform Bilibili with his observations about young people from a literary perspective are popular with Chinese youngsters. One video of his, about love and marriage, received more than 5 million hits. The Shanghai-based publishing house has been leveraging its digital copyrights for a group of important authors, including Japanese-born British Nobel laureate Kazuo Ishiguro, his countryman Haruki Murakami and Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986). Last year, it simultaneously published a print, e-book and audiobook of Ishiguro's latest work, Klara and the Sun. "We've been attaching great importance to copyright protection and operation, so that the copyright holders will develop confidence in the Chinese market," says Zhu Lingyun, deputy editor-in-chief of the publisher. She adds that the publisher has hired a team to supervise and crack down on piracy, and it has strong legal support to protect the rights of the authors and translators. According to Zhu, the publisher started exploring digital publishing in 2012.Their foreign counterparts used to be unfamiliar with market conditions in China, which resulted in negotiations for digital copyright licensing frequently reaching deadlock. However, they have managed to gain the trust of the copyright holders, who come from various cultural backgrounds, and by the end of last year, 95 percent of its copyright purchases included digital rights licensing. ARMAVIR, MAY 26, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian Armed Forces held live-fire military exercises involving artillery divisions. 9K58 Smerch Multiple Rocket Launchers and the 120mm 2S12 heavy mortar systems were used in the drills held at the Baghramyan Training Facility in Armavir. Colonel Ruben Gasparyan of the Armenian Ground Forces said that the purpose of the exercises is to check the level of readiness of the artillery units, to raise combat readiness, morale, strengthen stamina, improve the commanders skills of commanding the units and perfect the harmonization of actions of various units. Under the scenario of the drills, the involved units held offensive and defensive operations drills, and taking into account the experience of the military actions in the 2020 war exercises are held also in besieged scenarios, Colonel Gasparyan said. The troops also deployed the 1B44 Ulybka Meteorological Radar System, which is used for calculating wind speed, atmospheric pressure, temperature and other essential data that is required for the operators of the Smerch Multiple Rocket Launchers before launch. 1B44 Ulybka Meteorological Radar System The 9K58 Smerch Multiple Rocket Launcher is intended to defeat enemy personnel, armored targets, artillery batteries, air defense systems, command posts, airfields and ammunition depots. It has a maximum firing range of 90 kilometers. 9K58 Smerch Multiple Rocket Launcher firing rocket during exercises The 120mm 2S12 heavy mortar system used in the drills is designed to destroy enemy targets with a maximum range of 7800 meters. 120mm 2S12 in action during exercises YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received Ambassador of Russia to Armenia Sergei Kopyrkin, the PMs Office said. PM Pashinyan said that the Armenian-Russian allied relations bear a dynamic character over the recent years, adding that the Russian Embassy in Armenia has a great contribution to this. Pashinyan said that there are close contacts between the partners of the two countries, which, he said, is important for giving a new impetus to the mutual partnership. At the same time, he highlighted the regular meetings with the Ambassadors of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries and emphasized the importance of this format in the settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict. Sergei Kopyrkin thanked the Prime Minister for highly appreciating the activity of the Russian Embassy and said that their goal is to do everything to contribute to the further development of the bilateral allied and brotherly relations. During the meeting the sides also discussed issues relating to the Armenian-Russian cooperation agenda, the settlement of the NK conflict and the processes taking place in the South Caucasus region. YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. Mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo arrived in Armenia on an official visit on May 26, the Yerevan City Hall said in a statement. She was welcomed by First Deputy Mayor of Yerevan Levon Hovhannisyan at the Zvartnots International Airport. In his remarks Levon Hovhannisyan expressed hope that during the upcoming meetings at the Yerevan City Hall not only the programs, that have already been implemented between the Armenian and French capitals, will be discussed. He assured that they will succeed in agreeing over new areas of partnership in coming days. The Paris Mayor thanked for the warm welcome and assured that the French capital is ready to assist and support the city that gave Paris, for instance, the idea of TUMO, in everything within its capacities. The Mayor of Paris is also scheduled to meet with Mayor of Yerevan Hrachya Sargsyan. Issues relating to the further cooperation and ongoing programs between the Armenian and French capitals will be discussed. YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. Speaker of Parliament Alen Simonyan held a meeting with the visiting President of Montenegro Milo ukanovic. Speaker Simonyan noted that in the 16 years of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, President ukanovics visit is the first high-level visit. The sides discussed the circle of bilateral partnership, emphasizing inter-parliamentary ties. Effective and continuous dialogue between the legislative bodies was viewed as a priority, with the parliamentary friendship groups expected to greatly contribute to this. Comprehensive cooperation with the EU and the issues of regional security and establishing lasting peace were discussed. Speaking on the post-war situation, Speaker Simonyan highlighted practical support of international partners in resolving the outstanding humanitarian issues. President of Montenegro Milo ukanovic said that short-term solutions to conflicts are followed by long-term sufferings, with severe consequences for the countries. President ukanovic said he will discuss the issue of the Armenian POWs, including civilians, who are still held in Azerbaijan with his administration and also international partners. President ukanovic said they have goodwill for the region and expect stability. He said that for any country especially small countries like Armenia and Montenegro, in such difficult situations what matters is to preserve identity. YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Archbishop Nourhan Manoogian received a group of soldiers wounded in the 2020 Artsakh War, as well as members of Parliament of Armenia and officials, Chairman of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Fr. Koryun Hovnan Baghdasaryan said on social media. On May 23 the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defense and Security Affairs organized a meeting with the soldiers in the National Assembly. It was stated that several soldiers, who suffer disability as a result of the 2020 War, will visit Jerusalem for vacation. A decision was made that the first group of soldiers would depart for Jerusalem on May 26, accompanied by MPs from the ruling Civil Contract faction Narek Zeynalyan and Lusine Badalyan. YEREVAN, MAY 27, ARMENPRESS. The key to success of Glovo, a leading online delivery company, is the great service. Glovo will purchase, pick up, and deliver food, pharmacy, even a forgotten key ordered through its mobile app in 30 minutes. Glovo co-founder Sacha Michaud gave an interview to ARMENPRESS, talking about the services offered by the company, the advantages and their operation in Armenia. -Mr. Michaud, it will be interesting to hear the story of Glovo from you. When and where did the story of the company start? -So it started in the beginning of 2015, so only seven years ago, in Barcelona, Spain, which is our headquarters where we founded the company. Its two founders Oscar and myself. We launched the first version of the app in Barcelona in March 2015. Since then we grew very quickly, we expanded inside Europe, so Italy, Portugal. More recently, we have been moving to Eastern Europe with Poland, the Balkan regions and of course this region, in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and more recently Armenia we launched six months ago. We are today in 25 countries worldwide, including Africa, 7 countries in Africa we are expanding, we are in 1500 cities, we have 3500 employees, we have 75000 active couriers who deliver every month, and we have 150000 partners. These are stores and restaurants, retailers, stores and restaurants in the streets who are selling on our platform and we have 8 million active customers. These are people buying from these stores online. So we have grown very quickly and in a small amount of time and we are really happy as well to be here in Armenia. - As your company works in 25 countries, are you planning to enhance this year as well? If yes, what countries? -So at the moment we havent got any countries to be identified, we are looking in the region both here and Africa which are the two regions where we are expanding to look for possible future countries. We are doing this expanding, our footprints in the countries where we operate. So good example would be today, we are in two cities in Georgia and Armenia. But the idea is to expand and launch new cities here. So we generally will expand the cities we are in a country to get more customers, more restaurants and stores. -Glovo is not just a food delivery company. What additional services do you offer to consumers? -We have been multi-category from day one which differentiated us from our competitors. Well, our competitors would focus on restaurant food, and only restaurant food, but since day one, so this is March 2015, we have always been multi-category. Restaurants are our largest category, but groceries are the second largest category. We worked with supermarkets, both large and small, large chains, but also specialized supermarkets with products, to think of many stores, wine stores, cheese stores, and also electronics is growing very quickly, and also pharmacy, we worked with pharmacies, local pharmacies, and then obviously any retail. Also fashion, clothes is becoming more and more important on the app. Generally, the way our customers use it is they know they want and we can go get it in the city, then they prefer us to go get it and them crossing the city, getting in a car, getting in a traffic, parking, we will do it in 30 minutes for pretty much the same cost as you are going to do it yourself. Thats the key, I think. -How long Glovo has been working in Armenia and what does it offer to the consumers? -We have been just over six months, we launched in September last year. I think weve bringing a really good quality of service. So it was very funny but when we launched in Armenia, we had customers ordering their lunch at 10:00 in the morning. And of course, we arrived in 30 minutes with a shawarma or a lunch food, and they said this is too early because they were used to two-hour delivery time or three. I think the first think is really good service, to give it what you order, and also our customers can see in every moment where the delivery is, so when they do the order, they know when the courier is picking up the goods in the store, they can see that, and they can see in Google Maps it crossing the city, and when it will exactly deliver. And I think thats very important because you are doing things, you want to know exactly when it is going to arrive. So quality of service is our biggest thing. And second, I think, is having a great content. Content for us is having your favorite restaurant, not just a large chains, but a cool restaurant you really like or having the right stores, the supermarkets, the stores that you want. So I think, the best partners plus great service are our key to success. -Mr. Michaud, it is believed that every successful person, successful business has its own secret to success. What do you think is your secret to success? -I think in being in so many countries, very different countries, very different cultures, very different languages, is being very local. So when we set up, we launch a company, a country, sorry, we set up, we get a local team to run the business. Thats not different in Armenia. We have got nearly 15 people here ready in the team. We are expanding that team. They understand the local cities, they understand the needs. We have been very urban company in the fact that we were part of the ecosystem of mobility so to know as well the dynamics of the city, of how traffic moves. So I think, thats been the key to our success. The local team runs the business. Our business here in Armenia is very different to other countries because the team is identified. And I think this is our key to success. -Whats the main difference of Glovo from other delivery services? -I think being multi-category. I think bringing anything you want to the city. Our vision is to give everyone easy access to anything in your city. I think, our main thing is multi-category, in fact that I think its great ordering food and getting delivered, there are a lot of opportunities to order. But I think its amazing when you know you have an emergency, its 11:00 at nights, and your baby is crying, and you have no nappies, you can pick up Glovo and we will go pick you some nappies in 30 minutes there, thats a wow moment, or you forgot your keys, and a lot of people forget their keys, you will be surprised how many keys we move around city, that you get home, but left the keys at work, and then we will go pick up the keys and bring them or kids who come home from school who get the keys when their parents are working. And they can quickly order Glovo. So, we are an emergency-savior as well for needs, which I think is amazing and it gives us an emotional connection with our customer. We are not just a food delivery app who brings you a nice hot pizza, thats cool, thats not wow, whats wow is the other stuff. -Glovo is available in Yerevan and Gyumri. It is interesting to know on what parameters is your expansion strategy based? Do you have plans to expand and in what cities? -Normally, and Armenia is no exception, we launch in the largest cosmopolitan city because the customer base is very digital, there are great restaurants and stores, so it generally fits, and then we expand to the largest cities depending on geography. We like university cities with young people who generally are very digital. So we are in two cities now, we are expanding to other cities in Armenia. I dont have the definite list now of the cities, but generally we will start with the largest populations first. -Is there anything, any topic that you would like to talk about but I didnt ask you? -No, as I mentioned, we like to be part of the cities and that means a lot of things, but above all it means, you know we have over 300 couriers active on the platform in Armenia already, thats 300 people who are working on the platform, have access to income, many of our couriers have different access to normal labor jobs, this will go to thousands by next year, so they impact there. We have over 400 partners selling on the platform already, 90% of those are small businesses, so thats also important. We work with local councils, with public administration, we are trying to be part of the ecosystem, we set up local companies, we have several local teams. So in essence, we try to be as much part of Armenia cities that we operate as possible, and its not just about a tech company, I think thats key for us. We have courier safety training, which is super important. You know they are on motorbikes and bicycles, and I think thats a very important part. So, we are just getting started. We have some good examples in neighboring countries where we have massive businesses. We launched in Georgia four years ago, and its ten times the size of the business. So Armenia is going to get a huge growth, and we see that the teams amazing, the local team is executing outstanding, so I am really excited. I am here three days but I will be back very soon. Chinas 'loan and own' strategy seems to have backfired in this piece of paradise which lies in the Indian Ocean The Maldives is the It destination for anybody who wants to share the indescribable magic of the iridescent blue-green of the sea that embraces the island nation made up of a chain of 26 atolls, covering a territory of 1,192 islets, 250 inhabited islands, with a population of 306,000 spread over 298 sq km. Gosh! Cuffe Parade alone is far more crowded! So much for perspective. The Maldives is the smallest Asian country in terms of area and population, and also the smallest entirely Muslim nation in the world. But hey India cares! India wants to shower love on the Maldives. Now more than ever. India is reaching out in more ways than one. And the island nations President, Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, is now showing signs of thawing towards a neighbour who lives less than 500 km away, while the crafty good friend stays a good 4,823 km north, and is showing too much attitude! Chinas loan and own strategy seems to have backfired in this piece of paradise which lies in the Indian Ocean. If we play our cards right, well successfully woo the man who is likely to take over from President Solih and is seen as a buddy of India 55-year-old Mohamed Nasheed. Thanks to the outreach programme in Male, Maldives capital, organised by the far-thinking team behind the first edition of the iconic JLF (Jaipur Lit Fest) at Sonu Shivdasanis equally iconic Soneva Fushi, I met the future Prezzie Nasheed in a great setting. There he was, to talk about his latest book, happy to delay his next appointment where he was to chair an important meeting! As 19th Speaker of the Peoples Majlis, the former President was in full flow at the JLF event as he candidly traced the troubled political history of his country, stared pointedly at the lovely Yumna Maumoon (minister for arts, culture and heritage), and cracked up the audience with his bon mots. He spoke about the hazards of being a politician in his country where leaders disappear mysteriously, are exiled, imprisoned, kidnapped or murdered but here I am lucky to be alive! Nasheed survived a brutal IED bomb attack in 2021, that required multiple emergency surgeries. He has been arrested 20 times during former President Gayooms despotic 30-year-rule, and was in solitary confinement for over a year. He missed the birth of his two daughters, and some claim that he was subjected to torture in prison. Despite the horrors of incarceration, Nasheeds spirit remains unbroken he wrote three books on Maldivian history in jail. I found him a really cool guy. Since we were seated next to each other, I wanted to share how our JLF team had risked life and limb on a violently stormy morning to keep our date with him. In retrospect, every moment had been worth the risk starting with a 30-minute speedboat ride over choppy waters to Dharavandhoo, a tiny island (one of the 86 domestic airports), where we had hopped on to a propeller engine aircraft, landed in Male, and taken another boat to the jetty and with wobbly knees, plus wildly beating hearts, rushed to keep our appointment with His Excellency. What we poor writers do to keep the flag flying! While it thundered and poured buckets outside Salt, the trendy venue for our programme, I gazed at the local fish market across the street. The Maldivians eat tuna for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had sampled tuna in all its splendour by now, and was longing for some desi daal chawal. Some crisp, white wine too. But banish the thought, I was sternly warned. Theres no alcohol in Male. And theres just so much coconut water I can consume, without fearing for my bladder. I was also gently advised to not discuss sex, religion or politics during my talk with the urbane, suave and super-intelligent Sanjoy Roy (one of the three high- powered directors, along with William Dalrymple and Namita Gokhale, who run JLF). This was the really tough part the three subjects I am reasonably competent to discuss in public werent available to me on this momentous occasion. Stumped, but still gung-ho, Sanjoy and I carried on an hour-long, animated conversation regardless. And the audience clapped! Wed passed! Bringing JLF to the Maldives was such an inspired decision! Here we were three former Indian ambassadors (Pavan K. Varma, Vikas Swaroop, Navdeep Suri), a colourful mathematician (Oxford don Marcus du Sotay), award-winning poet (Ranjit Hoskote), erudite historians (William Dalrymple, Peter Francopane), celebrated Michelin star chef (Suvir Saran), Sahitya Akademi award winner (Namita Gokhale) baap re! So much brain power on one tiny island! There were other distinguished speakers as well, but they had gone back to their shores, before we arrived. The Intellectual Quotient was pretty damn hard to beat. And then, of all the islands in all the world, I had to meet one of my perennial heroes in this unlikely, almost surrealistic setting ladies and gentlemen Gopalkrishna Gandhi was in da house! For a few minutes, I stopped breathing. We missed meeting my other hero, B.N. Goswami, who had had to rush back a day ahead of schedule. But here was Gopal Gandhi, as luminous as the full moon hanging over the fabulous Soneva resort. When Gopal Gandhi spoke, with his beautiful wife Tara looking on fondly, the softness of his voice, the elegant movement of his fingers, failed to camouflage the power of his words and thoughts. There are lit fests and lit fests and then there is the JLF at Soneva Fushi. The dates are already in place for next year. 2022 was just a dry run that turned out pretty wet given the unseasonal rains. Somehow, those dramatic downpours added a special something to the magic of the Maldives, as authors and delegates, barefoot and soaked to the skin, scurried through forested pathways, arriving at Villa 11 or the other outposts, to share ideas and words and music and laughter Alas, I will have to wait for a whole year to do a repeat! The court clarified that the directions being issued only relate to the rehabilitation measures for sex workers and other connected issues Directing the listing of the matter on July 27, the court directed the Union of India to file its response to the recommendations made by the panel within a period of six weeks from Thursday. (Representational Image/ PTI) New Delhi: In a socially and historically pathbreaking order, the Supreme Court has recognised prostitution as a profession, holding all those engaged in it and their children are entitled to the same human decency and dignity as is available to others, and the opportunities to grow and advance in their lives guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution -- right to life. Needless to say, this basic protection of human decency and dignity extends to sex workers and their children, who, bearing the brunt of social stigma attached to their work, are removed to societys fringes, deprived of their right to live with dignity and opportunities to provide the same to their children, said a three-judge bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao, B.R. Gavai and A.S. Bopanna. The directions issued are essentially police-centric, for protecting the rights of sex workers and their children, the court told the police across the country to refrain from being brutal and violent towards the sex workers and not to abuse them, both verbally and physically, subject them to violence or coerce them into any sexual activity. Noting that the attitude of the police towards the sex workers is often brutal and violent as if they are a class whose rights are not recognised, the court in its recent order pronounced on May 19, 2022 has directed that the police and other law enforcement agencies must be sensitised to the rights of sex workers, who also enjoy all basic human rights and other rights guaranteed in the Constitution to all citizens. The court said this as it issued 10 recommendations of a panel set up way back in July 19, 2011 as its direction in exercise of its extraordinary powers under Article 142 of the Constitution. Noting that the Central government has been dragging its feet on enacting a law, owing to reservations in respect of the certain recommendations, the court said its directions will hold till a law is enacted by the Union of India. The court clarified that the directions being issued by it only relate to the rehabilitation measures for sex workers and other connected issues. Having noted the indignities and discrimination suffered by sex workers, the order passed said: Notwithstanding the profession, every individual in this country has the right to a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The constitutional protection that is given to all individuals in this country shall be kept in mind by the authorities who have a duty under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act 1956. Insisting that sex workers are entitled to equal protection of the law, the court said: When it is clear that the sex worker is an adult and is participating with consent, the police must refrain from interfering or taking any criminal action. The court said there is concern that the police see sex workers differently from others and when a sex worker makes a complaint of criminal/sexual/any other type of offence, the police must take it seriously and act in accordance with the law. It further said that any sex worker who is a victim of sexual assault should be provided with all facilities available to a survivor of sexual assault, including immediate medical assistance, in accordance with Section 357C of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973, read with the March 2014 health ministry Guidelines and Protocols: Medico-legal care for survivor/victims of sexual violence. Underlining that voluntary sex work is not illegal, and only running the brothel is unlawful, the court in one of the recommendations issued as directions said: Whenever there is a raid on any brothel the sex workers concerned should not be arrested or penalised or harassed or victimised. In another significant direction on the children of sex workers, the court said that no child of a sex worker should be separated from the mother merely on the ground that she is in the sex trade, and if a minor is found living in a brothel or with sex workers, it should not be presumed that he/she has been trafficked. In case the sex worker claims he/she is her son/daughter, tests can be done to determine if the claim is correct, and if so, the minor should not be forcibly separated. Protecting the identities of sex workers from media exposure, the court has asked the Press Council of India to issue appropriate guidelines for the media to take utmost care not to reveal the identities of sex workers, during arrest, raid and rescue operations, whether as victims or accused, and not to publish or telecast any photos that would result in disclosure of such identities. Directing the listing of the matter on July 27, the court directed the Union of India to file its response to the recommendations made by the panel within a period of six weeks from Thursday. Aryan was granted bail by the Bombay high court on October 28 last year Mumbai: All the hype and hoopla over the drugs case against Aryan Khan has come to nothing. Almost eight months after the registration of the case, in which the 24-year-old star kid spent 26 days in custody, the narcotics control bureau has given him and five other accused persons a clean chit. The special investigation team of the NCB on Friday filed a 6,000-page charge sheet naming 14 accused. The agency said that the names of six persons, who were made accused by the earlier investigating team, including Aryan, Avin Sahu, Gopal Anand, Samir Sehgal, Bhaskar Arora and Manav Singhal have been dropped from the charge sheet for the lack of sufficient evidence. In a statement, deputy director general Sanjay Kumar Singh of the NCB said, SIT carried out an investigation in an objective manner. The touchstone of the principle of proof beyond reasonable doubt has been applied. Based on the investigation carried out by SIT, a complaint against 14 persons under various sections of NDPS Act is being filed. Complaint against rest six persons is not being filed due to lack of sufficient evidence. Among the five others exonerated in the case, Sahu was a guest of the cruise ship and the remaining four persons were the organisers of the party. The charge sheet has been filed against Aryans friend Arbaaz Merchant (26), Munmun Dhamecha (28), Vikrant Chhokar (33), Mohak Jaiswal (28), Ishmeet Singh Chadha (33), Gomit Chopra (28), Nupur Satija (29), Abdul Kadar Shaikh (30), Shreyas Nair (23), Manish Rajgariya (30), Aachit Kumar (22), Chinedu Igwe (27), Shivraj Harijan (33) and Okoro Uzeoma (40). An NCB team headed by then NCB zonal director Sameer Wankhede raided the Cordelia Cruise Ship docked at Mumbai cruise terminal and claimed to have busted a drug party. The team arrested several people including Aryan from the ship. Though the investigators did not recover any drugs from Aryans position, they allegedly recovered six grams of charas from Merchant and five grams of hashish from Dhamecha. Aryan was granted bail by the Bombay high court on October 28 last year. In its order, the HC held that prima facie there was no evidence to infer that Aryan and his friend Arbaaz Merchant conspired to commit offences under the NDPS Act. Following several controversies courted by Mr Wankhedes style of function and personal allegations against him, the investigation was handed over to an SIT from NCB (New Delhi), headed by Sanjay Kumar Singh on November 6, 2021. Welcoming the NCBs admission that there wasnt sufficient evidence against Aryan and no drugs were recovered from him, his lawyer Satish Maneshinde said, The arrest and detention of Aryan Khan for 26 days was unjustified more particularly when he was not found in possession of any drugs, there was no evidence of any kind, there was no material of any nature of the violation of any law much less the NDPS Act. We are happy that the Special Investigation Team under Sanjay Kumar Singh investigated the case in an objective manner and decided not to file a complaint against Aryan Khan for lack of sufficient evidence. God is great. Satya Meva Jayate. China will continue to advance its accession into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), the commerce ministry said Thursday. "China adheres to aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules and expanding high-level opening-up," said Gao Feng, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce. The spokesperson reiterated China's commitment to achieving a comprehensive and high-level Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), adding China will propose work plans in the field of digital and green economy and actively participate in the formulation of new guiding documents on advancing FTAAP. Gao said China would continue to implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement with high quality and safeguard the security and stability of regional industrial and supply chains. The country will also work with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to actively build version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and establish more mutually beneficial bilateral and regional economic and trade ties, said the spokesperson. The parliament that has been divided for months over the election of a president has reached unanimity to approve the law. Those who establish relations, travel to or promote economic relations with Israel will be punished. Shiite leader al-Sadr invites citizens to take to the streets to celebrate this "great achievement". Baghdad (AsiaNews) - Over seven months after last October's parliamentary elections, the Assembly has failed to elect a new president and begin the process of forming a government, with the appointment of a prime minister. Reforms are at a standstill due to internal divisions within the Shia world and conflicting interests with Sunnis and Kurds. However, in the last few hours, MPs have achieved an unusual unity of purpose by almost unanimously approving a norm that criminalises - and punishes under law - the normalisation of relations with Israel. In the recent past, other nations in the area such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain have established diplomatic relations with the Israelis under the 'Abraham Accords'. Yesterday, MPs passed a law criminalising any attempts to normalise relations, including trade and business ties. In addition, citizens caught travelling (or having travelled) to Israel or who have been in contact with institutions in the Jewish country will also be punished. According to the Associated Press, the rule punishes any violations with penalties of up to life imprisonment or the death sentence for the offender. It applies to all state officials, including those in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, government institutions, private sector companies, the media, foreign companies and their employees. The text was approved in the first instance with the favourable votes of 275 deputies, out of a total of 329 that make up the National Assembly. It, the rapporteurs explained in a note, "faithfully reflects the will of the people". The influential Shia religious leader Muqtada al-Sadr, whose party won the most seats in the last elections, urged Iraqis to take to the streets to celebrate this 'great achievement'. And taking up his invitation, hundreds of people gathered in central Baghdad in the following hours, chanting slogans and chants against Israel. In the last two years, four Arab nations - the Emirates, Sudan, Bahrain and Morocco - have established diplomatic relations with Israel, as part of the 'Accords' sponsored by former US President Donald Trump in 2020. By contrast, Iraq has never recognised Israel as an autonomous and sovereign entity since its birth in 1948 and has never established diplomatic relations; parliamentarians in Baghdad are adamant that the country "will never adhere" to the agreements, despite calls and pressure from many quarters. Last September, prominent Sunni and Shia leaders held a conference in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, openly calling for peace with Israel and the establishment of relations with an important player in the Middle East region. The Iraqi government condemned the conference and a Baghdad court later issued arrest warrants for two people who attended it. The ruling will be used to prevent the Chinese from trampling on Manila's maritime rights. It is a change compared to the policy of outgoing Head of State Duterte. However, Marcos Jr does not want to take sides in the geopolitical confrontation between China and the US, like most leaders in Southeast Asia. Manila (AsiaNews) - The Philippines will uphold the ruling of the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which in 2016 ruled that Chinese claims to nearly 90 per cent of the South China Sea were "without legal basis". President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr said this yesterday in an apparent change of direction from the policy of outgoing Head of State Rodrigo Duterte. Since his election six years ago, Duterte has built a privileged relationship with China. Unlike his predecessor Benigno Aquino III, he sought to reduce tensions with the Chinese by deciding to ignore the Hague Court ruling. In return, Beijing offered trade and investment promises that critics say have not materialised. Together with Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia, Taiwan and partly Indonesia, the Philippines opposes China's territorial claims, which for years has continued to militarise some islands and coral reefs in the South China Sea. To contain Beijing's expansion, US warships make regular patrols near these military outposts. During the presidential campaign, Marcos Jr had maintained a more cautious profile with regard to Manila's relations with China. The son of the dictator of the same name, who ruled the country from 1965 to 1986, said he wanted to remain as friendly with Washington as with Beijing. Now he makes it clear that he will not let the Chinese trample on the Philippines' maritime rights. To tone things down, Marcos Jr added that the Philippines does not want a war with China. He indicated that he wants to find a balance between Beijing and Washington, who are facing off in a tough geopolitical confrontation in Southeast Asia. The Filipino president in pectore then rejects the idea of a Cold War-style system of state relations, where the two great powers have their own spheres of influence. Marcos Jr's is a thought shared by the vast majority of regional leaders, who want to retain as much diplomatic flexibility for their countries as possible, without having to openly side with the Chinese or the US. For instance, in an interview with Nikkei Asia on 20 May, Singaporean Premier Lee Hsien Loong welcomed the recent launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity, the trade cooperation plan between the US and several Asian countries promoted by the Biden administration (in an anti-Beijing vein). At the same time, Lee said he viewed China's possible entry into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (Cptpp) positively. The free trade agreement is the successor to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), originally wanted by former US President Barack Obama to counter Beijing's rise and abandoned in 2017 by Donald Trump. Today's headlines: after two years of Covid-19 closures, from 10 June international tourism resumes in Japan; Beijing rejects passport applications from Christians; drug use is rampant in the Kachin State in northern Myanmar; the Indian prime minister continues his protectionist policy on food, after wheat now sugar; from Bishkek a call "for unity" to the other Central Asian nations to counter the critical period. LEBANON Dozens of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff took to the streets yesterday in front of the Central Bank headquarters in Beirut. White coats and health workers have called a two-day general strike to protest against the rapidly deteriorating economic situation, and will affect both public and private facilities. Dialysis and emergency interventions will be guaranteed. JAPAN After two years of closures due to Covid-19, Tokyo announces the reopening of borders to tourists from 36 nations, starting from 10 June. Visitors will only be welcomed as part of organised group tours and from countries such as Singapore, Thailand, the United States and Australia. Other Asian countries include Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. This brings the number of airports with international flights to seven. MYANMAR Drug use is on the rise among young people in the predominantly Christian Kachin State in northern Myanmar. Use has been increasing since the military coup in February 2021, especially of opium heroin. At least two out of five males in the 18 towns use drugs; the sale is illegal, but the proceeds also attract officials and authorities. CHINA Chinese authorities in the east of the country are rejecting passport applications en bloc, especially if the applicant is a Christian who wants to emigrate or study abroad. The phenomenon concerns the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu in particular. The government is tightening controls and blockades, which are not justified by containing the Covid-19 pandemic. INDIA The Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi continues its 'food first' policy. And after cutting wheat exports it is now focusing on sugar to safeguard the domestic market. The latest measure stipulates that no more than 10 tonnes may be sent abroad between June and September. The remainder should suffice for domestic needs. RUSSIA Grey' purchases of electronics-related materials have begun in Russia: the 'MVideo - Eldorado' network has started to import elements from various directions, but mainly from Iran, without the corresponding consent of the rights owners. However, the under-the-table traffic does not include Apple products, for fear of US reactions. KYRGYZSTAN A prominent Kyrgyz diplomat, Bolot Dzunusov, former head of international cooperation in the Biskek government, published an appeal in Azattyk to all politicians of Central Asian countries. He issued a call for unity of forces and intent in this dramatic international context, based on mutual cultural, ideological and economic affinities. by Steve Suwannarat Retired Thai teacher Niwat Roykaew is among this year's recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize. In his country, he successfully battled a Chinese project that would have blasted rocky islets to allow commercial and tourist navigation on a 400-kilometre stretch of the mighty river. Bangkok (AsiaNews) Thai activist Niwat Roykaew is among the recipients of this years Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the Green Nobel, awarded yesterday by the Goldman Environmental Foundation in San Francisco. Of undeclared age, with well-known principles pursued with determination, Niwat Roykaew was one of several people selected for their environmental commitment and care for communities who draw what they need to exist from nature. Like every year, the prize went to outstanding individuals from each continent: Niwat Roykaew was joined by Chima Williams from Nigeria (Africa), Marjan Minnesma from the Netherlands (Europe), Nalleli Cobo from the United States (North America), Julien Vincent from Australia (Islands), and Alex Lucitante and Alexandra Narvaez from Ecuador (Central/South America). The latter are engaged in the fight against mining on Indigenous land. Affectionately known as Kru Thi, Teacher Thi in Thai, Niwat Roykaew taught for many years. After his retirement, he distinguished himself for his uncompromising defence of the Mekong River, Southeast Asias main waterway, threatened by massive development projects. Because of his action, Thailand achieved its only victory so far against corporate interests (starting with Chinas) with an eye on the mighty waterway, home to tens of millions of people and a habitat that is both unique and increasingly threatened. A Chinese project was cancelled after a struggle that lasted 20 years. Had it been approved, it would have blasted several rapids to allow commercial and tourist navigation on the river along a 400 km stretch between Thailand and Laos. The project had been initially welcomed and supported by Thai authorities, who eventually reversed their position under pressure from public opinion, environmental groups and rural communities. In its decision to award the prize to Niwat Roykaew, the Goldman Environmental Foundation noted that The official cancellation of the Mekong rapids blasting project marks a rare, formal win in a region facing substantial pressure from development projects and is a testament to the collective power of Kru This campaign. Furthermore, By amplifying the voices of local people in articulating the Mekongs environmental, social, and cultural value, he forced the Thai government to pay attention to civil society and increased its accountability to its citizens. With his typical frankness and simplicity, Niwat Roykaew welcomed the award stating: If I didnt speak out about this, the Mekong River would be destroyed 100 per cent. He also noted that his activism and that of others brought to the attention of world public the risks facing the mighty river, local traditional ways of life, and its extremely varied and valuable habitats. by Dario Salvi General Director Jamil Koussa talks about the hospital following the funeral of the al Jazeera journalist. In his view, the brutal attack by Israeli police was unjustified. The facility, which is open to patients from all religions, is a key part of the Palestinian healthcare system. It also takes in uninsured immigrants. The desire to uphold its mission remains. Jerusalem (AsiaNews) Jerusalems St Joseph's Hospital has taken in sick people from all religions, providing medical care to everyone without distinctions, be they Muslims, Christians and Jews in accordance with the mission of the Sisters of Saint Joseph". Then suddenly, during a dark page in the history of the never-ending dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, a Christian journalist, Shireen Abu-Akleh, was shot dead during a brutal and unjustified police raid, followed by the violence that broke out at her funeral. Almost two weeks later, the image of all that is still etched in the mind of Jamil Koussa, general director of St Josephs Hospital. As a hospital, our only role was to receive the body and put it in a casket, he told AsiaNews, but we found ourselves surrounded by agents. The raid carried out by Israeli police sparked outrage, fuelling feelings of anger and frustration that already simmered among Palestinians over the journalists death. Israels domestic security agency, Shin Bet, had strongly advised police not to take any action. What is more, evidence is mounting that the journalist was very likely shot by Israeli soldiers engaged in an operation in Jenin. The violence that accompanied her funeral sparked an unusually harsh response from the Churches of the Holy Land and the Latin Patriarch. People were carrying flags and singing songs, Koussa said. We, as a hospital, spoke to the police chief, asking that the funeral take place in an ordinary, peaceful manner. But they said no and stormed the compound, beating people. We didnt expect such a harsh attitude, he added. We got the impression that the order to crack down with truncheons, rubber bullets and tear gas came from above. One of our doctors was injured in the attack, which reached the emergency department, causing great confusion in all the other departments. Such behaviour was unjustifiable because none of us wanted to cause mayhem or throw stones. Only two or three empty water bottles [were thrown] when police began indiscriminately beating those who were carrying the coffin. It was a show of force.!" St Joseph's Hospital is in Sheikh Jarrah, a disputed neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. Built in 1956 by the Sisters of Saint Joseph of the Apparition, it was a more modern facility that replaced the St Louis Hospital that found itself under Israeli control, on the other side of the 1949 armistice line. Construction, which began in 1954, was completed in two years. Located in the northern part of the neighbourhood, it saw several controversial incidents in the past over questions of ownership involving Jewish settlers. The hospital is part of the East Jerusalem Hospitals Network, which is part of the Palestinian health care system that covers East Jerusalem and the West Bank, but some patients come from the Gaza Strip. Its funded largely by donors and the US government, but in 2018 then-President Donald Trump decided to cut US support for Palestinian medical facilities by US$ 20 million. With the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, it was the first hospital in all of East Jerusalem to set up a unit dedicated exclusively to COVID-19 patients, a sign of its importance for the city and its resident. Its maternity ward is famous for helping future mothers of all faiths, without distinctions, a philosophy that still inspires the whole hospital. At St Joseph's, we have many immigrants who arrive in Israel and Jerusalem without a legal permit nor medical insurance. We provide them with care and treatment, ensuring that all material and human resources are available to help as many people as possible, starting with the poorest. The hospital is a point of reference for Jerusalems Arab population, Koussa explains, especially since access to medical facilities is quite limited. St Josephs is also known for its peaceful ambiance, for its openness to everyone, for its search for dialogue, for unity despite the differences among people of different religions. "What happened at Shireen's funeral has left its mark, but we are not afraid of more violence and shall pursue our mission. Still, many fear that something could happen [again] in Jerusalem, where tension remains high. Lastly, the general director of St Josephs has a final thought for the murdered journalist. I knew her since she was eight years old. I was her gymnastics teacher at the school of the Sisters of the Rosary. She was a calm, creative, studious girl who was and will always be an example and point of reference. Even for the police who attacked us. by Alessandra De Poli In 2012, Delhi and Islamabad struck a deal to let seniors reunite with family members left on the other side of the border during the violence of 1947. In fact, it was never implemented and getting a visa to meet loved ones still takes months. However, over the past year, a YouTube channel and an open crossing for religious pilgrimages have given some hope to the people of Punjab. Milan (AsiaNews) This morning the International Booker Prize was awarded for the first time to an Indian writer, Geetanjali Shree, and her English translator, Daisy Rockwell, for Tomb of Sand (original title in Hindi: Ret Samadhi), a family saga that follows the story of Ma, an 80-year-old Indian widow who, after her husbands death, decides to go to Pakistan to deal with the trauma of partition experienced as a teenager. The novel is a stunningly powerful story about stories that never end, reads a review in The Hindu. Indeed, the tragedy of families separated by the division of Pakistan from India is a reality that remains current even though it dates back to events 75 years ago. In 1947, when British colonial rule came to an end, and the Indian Union was born, Pakistan declared its independence creating a state that was supposed to be for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. The partition was painful. Sectarian violence immediately exploded, followed by a mass exodus in which an estimated half a million people died. The ongoing territorial disputes between the two countries, in particular over the Kashmir, date back to the same period. In January of this year, the moving video of two octogenarian brothers reunited after decades of separation thanks to the opening of the Kartarpur Corridor between the two Punjabs, the western one of Pakistan and the eastern one of India, went viral around the world. Saddiq Khan had not yet turned 10 at the time of the partition, while his brother Sikka was little more than a baby. Amid the confusion that followed riots that broke out on 15 August 1947, they became separated, unaware that they had a brother who lived a hundred kilometers away. Saddiq grew up in a village near Faisalabad after he fled with his father, who died shortly thereafter, while Sikka, whose first name is actually Habib, remained in India with his mother. When they hugged again, they had no problem understanding each other, as both speak the same language, Punjabi. After being together for about an hour, they crossed the border again, but thanks to social media, Sikka got a visa to visit his brother in Pakistan a couple of months later. Their reunion was made possible thanks to Punjabi Lehar, a YouTube channel, which has more than 530,000 subscribers and is run by two Pakistanis, Nasir Dhillon and Lovely Singh. With the help of residents on both sides of the border, the two have managed so far to bring together more than 200 family members and acquaintances. People from both sides of the border share their stories of separation from their immediate family members, relatives and friends during bloody riots of Participation in 1947, and some link is found through such videos (stories) that help find their loved ones, said Dhillon, a 37-year-old former police officer. The meeting between Saddiq and Sikka took place at the Kartarpur Corridor, a crossing that stretches for almost five kilometres, connecting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib, the final resting place of the founder of Sikhism Guru Nanak Dev, in Pakistan, and Dera Baba Nanak temple, Gurdaspur district, in the Indian state of Punjab. The corridor was inaugurated in 2019 by former Prime Minister Imran Khan to allow Indian Sikhs to travel to Pakistan on an exceptional basis without a visa. Closed shortly after due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it reopened again in November 2021. Recently, a 75-year-old woman born into a Sikh family but adopted by a Muslim couple who settled in Pakistan discovered she had biological siblings in India. Mumtaz Bibi was lying on the dead body of her mother, killed during the 1947 riots, when she was found by Muhammad Iqbal and Allah Rakhi. When her adoptive father's health began to deteriorate two years ago, he revealed to Mumtaz that he was not her real father. The woman began a search, and eventually found and met her three Indian siblings in Gurdwara Darbar Sahib. The list of touching stories could go on and on; however, red tape between the two countries prevents families separated by the border drawn after the British pulled out from the Jewel of the Empire from easily and definitively reuniting. In 2012 Islamabad and Delhi signed an agreement that would allow people over 65 with family ties in both countries to get a visa on arrival. But because of ongoing tensions, the deal was never implemented and could soon become a problem. Those with painful memories of the partition and the violence that ensued are over 80 years old, while those who were children at the time of independence, such as Saddiq, Sikka and Mumtaz Bibi, often do not know the history of their own family. The border has other crossing points, which require temporary visas for religious pilgrimages, often lasting ten days, but in general Indian nationals are not granted tourist visas to travel to Pakistan. Currently, six-month work permits are available, which can be obtained by submitting a letter from an employer, as are transit visas. by Vladimir Rozanskij The Russian parliament is studying responses to Western sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. At stake are measures against the ownership of foreign firms and foreign media. Surrogacy is also in the spotlight. The Russian deputies' "war" against the country's enemies has more symbolic than practical value: Putin decides everything. Moscow (AsiaNews) - The State Duma, the Russian parliament, has met to identify responses to the offences, sanctions and threats of the West, the real great enemy that has "forced" the Russian armies to invade Ukraine. The MPs' proposals are characterised by radicalism to the point of eccentricity, and are rarely taken into consideration by the presidency or the government, which merely nods in approval for propaganda of dubious effectiveness. The parties are competing to show themselves resolute against their global adversaries, and standing out above them all are the communists of the Kprf, who from the very beginning of the military operation have spoken of an 'indispensable transition to a mobilisation economy' and also of 'a new structure for governing the country'. A communist deputy, Nikolai Kolomejtsev, intervened, saying that 'I admit I am afraid for Russia, they are attacking us from all sides, freezing our capital and nationalising our companies, and we are sitting here shaking, doing nothing'. The communists, true to their tradition, express their opposition to the 'sacred private property' which prevents the requisitioning of all foreign property in Russia. The rapporteur of the counter-sanctions bill, Anatolij Vybornyj of the Putinist 'United Russia', explained that the Russian authorities are 'not like them', like Western countries, and intend to deal with companies leaving Russia 'in an honest and civilised manner'. Foreigners will be able to return to Russia within three years if there is room left for their business and 'they will not make mistakes in administration through incompetence', as they will be granted the right to 'administer from outside' their properties in Russia. The main purpose of this rule is the preservation of current jobs, but also to control the actions of Westerners in order to avoid 'possible sabotage by companies that express open hostility towards Russia', as noted by MP Sergey Gavrilov. Much more serious measures will be taken against Western media accredited in Russia, towards which the Russian response will be paralleled by the blocking of Russian publications in various countries. Publishing houses will be deprived of their licences, journalists of their accreditation, and certain regulations make it easier for the government or the Prosecutor General's Office to shut them down directly. The media project was presented by the liberal-nationalist Andrej Lugovoj, who explained that he wanted to avoid judicial disputes: 'First we close them, then we discuss them'. Another answer debated in the Duma concerned surrogacy, for which the deputies shouted that 'we are fed up with our women being used as incubators for Western babies'. The bill on the matter was the first to be passed, with foreigners banned from accessing 'surrogacy' in Russia. This right will remain reserved only for couples in which at least one of the two would-be parents has Russian citizenship, as long as the couple consists of a man and a woman. Single Russian women will also be able to access the external uterine service. "We want to stop the child trade altogether," explained deputy speaker Petr Tolstoy, according to whom "it is high time to get rid of this part of our integration with Western norms and rules". Another deputy speaker, Vitalij Milonov, pointed out that surrogacy is already banned in many European countries and is 'an attribute of the Third World'. During the debate, several deputies also proposed abolishing the right to abortion altogether, but on this point Tolstoy himself warned that 'these things must be done gradually and very cautiously', Russia being one of the countries with the highest percentage of abortions in the world. The parliamentary euphoria of the 'war on the West' is however far from over, and is trying to send out symbolic and value signals, but it will have to be seen whether it will really reach the economic and financial sectors. Success! An email has been sent to with a link to confirm list signup. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday met with representatives to a national meeting on work related to the handling of people's complaints. Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, offered warm congratulations to the exemplary individuals and groups honored at the meeting, and extended sincere greetings to officials and people working in the system for addressing public complaints. Li Keqiang, Wang Huning and Han Zheng, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, were present. Xi had cordial exchanges and posed for a photo with the representatives at the Great Hall of the People. Addressing the national meeting, which was held from Wednesday to Thursday, Guo Shengkun, a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, stressed thoroughly studying and implementing the instructions made by General Secretary Xi Jinping on strengthening and improving work related to addressing public complaints and called for ushering in a new chapter in work related to the handling of people's complaints. For starters, many parts are on backorder. The semiconductor crunch stands out above pretty much everything else. Secondly, the daily average of coronavirus cases in the Michigan area is going upwards. The Ford Motor Company has reinstated masks at the Michigan Assembly Plant in Wayne.The biggest variable is how the Ford Motor Company treats most order holders. Many customers with 2021 orders have been pushed back to 2022, and some of them will be inevitably pushed back again to 2023 because it doesnt matter if you were first or last. As youre well aware from the newly-introduced Raptor, the Blue Oval simply doesnt care about peeps who have been waiting for more than a year to take delivery of their rigs.My issue is not that they have more orders than they can build, said DDGator, a member of the Bronco6g forums. It is that they are not being built with any regard to when reservations were taken, he continued. I have a lowly-optioned, two-door reservation that appears to go from a 2021 to a 2022 and now a 2023, and that's not even a guarantee at this point.Another seriously messed-up matter comes in the guise of markups, which are worse than ever given the present circumstances. Heck, even the unibody Bronco Sport is often advertised for $5k or $10k over MSRP.In the meantime, its worth remembering the body-on-frame Bronco for the 2022 model year is available in eight flavors, ranging from $30,800 for the two-door Base to $68,500 for the four-door Raptor, excluding taxes. The latter has been recently confirmed by Jim Farley with 418 horsepower and 440 pound-feet (597 Nm) of torque on premium-grade dinosaur juice. SUV The British monarchy is one of the most famous ones in the entire world, and the Royal Family brings in quite a revenue. According to Forbes Magazine, the House of Windsor is estimated to be worth around 19 billion ($28 billion), and it contributed an estimated 1.9 billion ($2.7 billion) annually to the UK's economy up till 2020.Although they seldom show off their immense wealth, the members of the Royal Family are big petrolheads, with Queen Elizabeth herself serving as a mechanic during World War II. Given that she was only 25 years old when she acceded to the throne, Queen Elizabeth has had her share of vehicles over the long years that followed.A recent research by a crew called Vanarama suggests her most iconic car is the Bentley State Limousine , and we cant disagree. The British Monarch owns not just one, but two rare Bentley limousines that are worth $13.5 million (10 million) each.The two luxury limousines were a gift for her Golden Jubilee, which marked 50 years of reign back in 2002. They come equipped with security features to keep them safe, including armored bodywork, blast-resistant chassis, and Kevlar-reinforced tires, plus they're completely air-tight to protect against potential gas attacks.Another emblematic car is the Land Rover Range Rover LWB Landaulet, which gave the Queen the opportunity to be seen when out on official business. The customhas backward-opening doors and an open-top so she could stand and wave at crowds. She has the royal flag mounted on the hood. The SUV is a hybrid, one of the Royal Familys new approaches to sustainable driving.The Queen was also the first person to receive Bentley's first-ever SUV, the Bentayga , as it rolled off the production line.When shes not out on official business, though, she usually rolls in a Land Rover . Over the years, shes had more than 30 Land Rovers, and its one of her favorite brands. At the start of her reign in the 1950s, the sovereign monarch drove the Series I, which was one of her first cars. She also had the Series III in 1978, which sold in 2012 with less than 2,000 miles (3,200 km) on the clock.In the early 2000s, the Queen's country retreat Sandringham purchased a Land Rover, and later added heated seats and electric windows to make it more pleasant when she drove around the estate or went out hunting. When it was auctioned off, shotgun cartridges were left in the glove box from a hunting party.She also used to own a 1984 Daimler Double Six, which she auctioned off on Sotheby's in 2019, fetching 80,500 ($101,000). It had a full-length bench seat installed to make journeys more comfortable for the Queen's corgis.Another brand the Royal Family prefers is Jaguar. Her collection includes a Jaguar Daimler V8 Super LWB, specially built to be driven around Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. This one was auctioned by HRM at around 15,000 miles (24,140 km) on the clock. Most recently, her choice is a Jaguar X-Type Estate An honorable mention is the Aston Martin DB6 Volante , which the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh purchased as a gift for Prince Charles on his 21st birthday. Valued at 1,000,000 ($1.26 million), it was converted to run on bioethanol in 2008, and Prince Charles said: "At first, the engineers weren't convinced that the conversion would work, but I insisted that it would. When the conversion was done, they had to admit that the car now performs better than ever." It was also the convertible Prince William and Kate Middleton used as a going-away car during their royal wedding in 2011.Most recently, a 1966 Vanden Plas Limousine built for her Majesty is now up for sale, and you can read all about it here But as far as Samsung Galaxy S22 users are concerned, the experience so far with Android Auto has been quite a mess.Galaxy S22 is one of the most expensive Android devices currently on the market, and as a flagship, its price in the top-of-the-range configuration gets close to $1,500. Its therefore not a surprise that users expect nothing but a flawless experience on all fronts, including on Android Auto.However, many Galaxy S22 owners discovered the hard way that their phone failed to run Android Auto. The glitch was silently fixed only a few weeks ago in the latest beta update for Android Auto, so when the stable version goes live, this bug should be gone forever.But now, it looks like the same phone is struggling with a sluggish experience on Android Auto.User reports online, including here on Googles discussion boards, indicate that whenever the phone is connected to a head unit to run Android Auto, the lag is so significant that its nearly impossible to do anything on the screen. This means running the likes of Google Maps and Spotify is obviously impossible, all due to the lag that affects every single action.The problem doesnt seem to be fixed in Android Auto 7.7 , so theres a chance this isnt related to the original glitch that caused a black screen with a Galaxy S22.Someone has apparently discovered a fix, and it comes down to removing all power restrictions for Android Auto. If you want to try this, just toggle the battery settings for the app to Unrestricted.At this point, Google is yet to acknowledge this error, so it remains to be seen if a fix is coming and whether Galaxy S22 owners have any chance to ever experience a flawless Android Auto anytime soon. One of the largest conglomerates in Thailand, by the name of Charoen Pokphand Group, teamed up with EHang to introduce autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs) in the country. The multinational company operates across multiple industries, from agriculture to e-commerce, and more. Its goal is to use EHangs technologies and solutions to facilitate the development of an urban air mobility ecosystem and smart cities in Thailand, as explained by Thanakorn Seriburi, Senior Vice Chairman of the group.Charoen Pokphand plans to eventually use EHang s AAVs in various scenarios, from aerial sightseeing to cargo and passenger transportation, last-mile delivery, and smart city management, to offer just a few examples.Thailand is just one of the Asian countries that seem to be very open to the idea of autonomous aerial vehicles, with EHang closing several other deals in the region over the past year. Japan also expressed its interest in its air mobility solutions. Back in January, AirX placed what was described by EHang as the largest pre-order its received so far in Japan, for 50 units of its EH216 AAV. Bali also ordered 100 units through Indonesian company Prestige Aviation, while Malaysias Aerotree purchased 60 AAVs, 50 of which are of the EH216 series and 10 of the newer, long-range VT-30 eVTOL.The EH216 is a short-range AAV that features 16 electric motors, two gull-wing doors, and has a capacity of two passengers. It offers a range of up to 21.7 miles (35 km) with the maximum payload onboard, can reach speeds of over 80 mph (130 kph), and altitudes of 9,800 ft (3,000 m).The VT-30 , on the other hand, is described as a long-range eVTOL, which is also a two-seater, but this one can fly up to 186 miles (300 km) on a battery charge. The two met at the Bandimere Speedway in Colorado, presumably a few days ago, and set out to settle their dispute in a quarter-mile race. Think you can spot the winner just by looking at both cars? Well, truth be told, its not rocket science, as the balance slightly tilts in favor of one of them.With more oomph generated by that whining mill breathing air from behind the grille and hood scoop, the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 engine powering the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat makes it a supercar killer on a good day. Sure, it does need some sticky tires in order to be able to take on blue-blooded machines in a straight-line battle, as well as a very skilled driver behind the wheel, as handling all that power is easier said than done.Still, make no mistake, as the previous generation Chevrolet Corvette is not exactly a slouch either. It too is still fast, even by todays standards, and looks a bit more exotic than its challenger (pun intended). Also, with drag radials on its feet, and someone who knows what theyre doing in the drivers seat, it too is a force to be reckoned with. It may not break any records, not with the standard powertrain anyway, but it wont disappoint either.So, if you had to place a little bet on this race, would you favor the Challenger SRT Hellcat or the Corvette C7? Now head on down and click the play button to see if youve nailed it, and dont stop watching the clip after the said battle, as the same Dodge took on one of its lesser siblings towards the end. Since before the start of the war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Russian oligarchs began moving their most expensive assets to friendly territories. Anything that could be moved, from mega- and superyachts to private jets and entire car fleets, was moved, in anticipation of the upcoming economic sanctions. Those who did not get to stow away their assets in advance were left struggling, much like Novatek CEO and oligarch Leonid Mikhelson, one of Russias richest men.In 2010, Mikhelson took delivery of his impressive superyacht Pacific , a custom Lurssen build with impressive range, outstanding amenities, and an exterior that brings a warship to mind. A color-changing warship. Formerly known as Project Josi, Pacific offers accommodation for 12 guests and 28 crew, and can reach a top speed of 20 knots (23 mph / 37 kph).On May 5, fearing the worst, Mikhelson ordered Pacific to leave Costa Rica, where it had been docked for months, and head towards the Caribbean Sea. On May 8, the ship went dark , turning off the AIS trackers. By international law, all ships of 300 metric tons or more are required to have automatic identification systems (AIS) turned on, for radar detection and collision avoidance.At the time Pacific disappeared, its listed port of destination was Nassau in the Bahamas a very strange choice considering authorities here work with the U.S. on the issue of seizure of sanctioned oligarchs assets. Just in case there was any doubt, all this was a smokescreen: Pacific is back to broadcasting its location, and its moving toward Port Said in Egypt. It is now near the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa, Business Insider reports.In other words, Pacific is moving out of reach , to friendly waters.What we're seeing with the oligarchs' yachts is that they're not always on, they kind of go on and off, John Lusk, COO of analytics firms Spire, explains for the media outlet. The only reason why you would turn off your AIS transponder is if you don't want to be found [or to] sow confusion.In this particular case, both seem to apply. Turning off AIS allowed Pacific to travel in secrecy , and create confusion as to its next destination. General Motors believes it was the victim of a so-called credential stuffing attack. This means that the login data were obtained in a previous data breach on a different platform and used to attempt to log in to the GM account. When a user has the same credentials (user/password combination) to access various services, one data breach compromises all accounts using the same credentials. This signals the importance of using different login credentials for each platform.Based on the investigation to date, there is no evidence that the login information was obtained from GM itself, GMs notice of data breach says. We believe that unauthorized parties gained access to customer login credentials that were previously compromised on other non-GM sites and then reused those credentials on the customers GM account.Although the attack happened in April, GM only notified its customers last week. The data breach allowed attackers to redeem customers reward points for gift cards. GM said it blocked access to this feature and notified its customers, requiring them to change their passwords. The reward points may not be the biggest problem, though.According to GMs notice of data breach, the cybercriminals also gained access to sensitive information. This includes first and last name, personal email address, personal address, username and phone number for registered family members tied to the account, last known and saved favorite location information, currently subscribed OnStar package (if applicable), family members avatars and photos (if uploaded), profile picture, search and destination information, reward card activity, and fraudulently redeemed reward points. General Motors says the breach has not exposed customers date of birth, Social Security number, drivers license number, credit card, or bank account information. Nevertheless, the company required affected users to reset their passwords and strongly advised against reusing login credentials across multiple sites or platforms.Cyberattacks have become common in the past years. While GMs reported case seems relatively benign, Toyota was forced to suspend production in Japan after a cyberattack crippled all its factories two months ago. Volvo was also the victim of a cyberattack last December when its R&D data were stolen The supplier determined that slag from the welding process had intermittently accumulated in the welding fixture during a suspect period. On rare occasions, this condition may lead to the improper positioning of the cross tube with respect to the tilt bracket. GM says the supplied had failed to follow the standard process for inspecting and containing poor welds.Fisher Dynamics told the biggest of the Big Three in Detroit that improper welding doesnt pose a risk to the seats crash performance. But out of an abundance of caution, the automaker did open a formal investigation in January 2022. Given the deaths attributed to the ignition switch issue from a few years ago, you could say this is a case of once bitten, twice shy.The computer simulations performed by General Motors indicated that a suspect drivers seat would conform to the applicable federal motor vehicle safety standards. On the other hand, improper welding might have degraded performance for 5th-percentile (a.k.a. 150 cm. in height) female drivers.Thankfully for everyone, no claims or complaints have been identified thus far. Based on production records from Fisher Dynamics, the safety boffins at General Motors identified 221 vehicles that need replacement seats.The list begins with 34 units of the Chevrolet Malibu for the 2021 model year. The rest consists of compact and mid-size crossovers, starting with 101 examples of the 2022 Chevrolet Equinox. Finally, 84 units of the 2022 Chevrolet Blazer and 2 units of the 2022 Cadillac XT4 are called back.Owner notifications will be mailed on July 5th. The attached safety recall report further states that improved inspection and detection measures were fully implemented by the seat frame supplier by January 31st, 2022. NHTSA The South Korean automaker promptly conducted a search of warranty claims, finding one report from November 2021. Hyundai successfully conducted replication tests, prompting a safety recall. Hyundai called back 158 Palisade vehicles while Kia recalled 2,761 examples of the Telluride Hyundai isnt aware of crashes or injuries connected to this condition.The Palisades in question are 2022 models produced in Ulsan, South Korea between August 24th, 2021 and September 13th, 2021. Although theyre based on the same platform and feature similar oily bits, the Kia Telluride is manufactured stateside at the West Point assembly plant in Georgia.Hyundai Mobis improved the manufacturing process on February 28th as per the attached report. Owners of the subject vehicles will be notified by first-class mail on July 15th. As for the remedy, its pretty obvious that affected Palisades will receive brand-new instrument clusters. In the meantime, owners are recommended to get in touch with Hyundai or theNamed after the Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles, the family-sized crossover was introduced in late 2018 for the 2020 model year. Although its not as large as body-on-frame SUVs from General Motors and Ford, the Palisade can seat up to eight people. Be it front- or all-wheel drive, the only engine-tranny combo is a 3.8-liter V6 connected to an eight-speed automatic.Currently priced at $33,600 sans destination charge, the 291-horsepower utility vehicle comes with blind spot collision avoidance assist, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, and forward collision avoidance assist with pedestrian detection as standard. Rated at 22 miles per gallon (10.7 liters per 100 kilometers) on the combined test cycle, the Palisade has been refreshed for model year 2023 with a new look and an off-road trim AMG For example, in the USA, Mercedes-Benz has not offered a vehicle with a manual transmission since 2011, back when the C300 was still offered with a three-pedal setup. In Australia, the three-pointed star only offers four models with a clutch pedal, but neither is a passenger car, but variants of the Vito commercial van.Unlike other manufacturers that had manual transmissions as the norm, rather than the exception, Mercedes-Benz has accustomed its fans, as well as its clients, to automatic transmissions for most of the models in its range. Currently, just the A-Class, B-Class, and CLA might get a manual transmission when ordered, but only in Europe and a couple of other markets in the world.The Mercedes-division does not have a single manual transmission-equipped vehicle in its range, which is a different perspective from what can be seen in other manufacturers' portfolios.In the case of the BMW range, manual transmissions have just recently been dropped in Australia, with the Z4 being the last to have been offered in such a configuration, up until last summer. Just two units had been sold in two years, which means that whoever wanted one with a manual went ahead and got it.The BMW M3, as well as the M4, can be had with a manual transmission, as well, which is not something that you can say about their counterparts in the Mercedes-AMG lineup. Despite this apparent setback, the performance division seems to be doing just fine without manuals.Manual transmissions are a dying breed in many ranges, but some manufacturers have managed to make their disappearance an unsurprising fact, rather than a tragedy. Mercedes-Benz falls in the former category, and, as a company spokesperson told Automobilwoche (sub. req.) earlier this week, the change will be gradual.The shift from manuals to automatics is caused both by an increase in electrification, which is less efficient with manual transmissions, and impossible in some cases, as well as a change in customer preference. If nobody is getting the manuals on offer, the manufacturer will take note and stop offering them in the future. Very important items on the agencys shopping list are the spacesuits that will keep astronauts alive on the surface of the Moon. In the works for a while now, these space garments will also be used by the less glamorous astronauts, those doing their work closer to our planet.Spacesuits came to be back in the 1960s, naturally, a time when humanity was just beginning to venture beyond the borders of our world. Several designs, starting with the Mercury unit, have been made since. The spacesuit currently in use, known as the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, came about in the early 1980s, and, modified over time, it proved a trusted companion to humans in space.The next spacesuit, the one meant for Artemis and beyond, is called Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit (xEMU) and was first detailed back in 2019. As per the limited specs released back then, it should be able to withstand temperatures ranging between minus 250 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade and up to 250 degrees in the sun (minus 156 to 121 degrees Celsius) and be dust-proof and dust-resistant.People will have to climb inside the suit from the back, which should allow for the pieces of the hard upper torso to sit closer together. The suit will have a pressure garment inside to protect astronauts from extreme temperatures, radiation, micrometeoroids, and reduced atmospheric pressure.Instead of the current snoopy cap headsets, the new suit will have voice-activated microphones, but the quick-snap visor stays, for obvious reasons.Come next week, well also learn the names of the companies that will be making the xEMU. NASA will make the announcement on June 1, marking another important step taken for the future of the Artemis program. The job descriptions include logistics project manager, auto manufacturing industrial park planners, infrastructure engineers, body craft experts, and other positions. In some of them, NIO demands at least ten years of experience in blueprint planning and design of OEMs. And things do not stop there: this person should also have been responsible for at least one U.S. factory project, must have a rich knowledge in state policies, design standard, and approval process, and be familiar with process planning and blueprint planning principles in the U.S. In other words, these job positions have U.S. factory written all over them.NIO told Yicai that it had nothing to disclose about an American factory. Thats an intelligent way to dodge any explanation: it can just mean that it does not want to share any plans at this point. According to Yicais sources, NIO will need these professionals before selecting any site for its American plant.These sources also told Yicai that NIO plans to start production cautiously. The first vehicles for the American market will be produced from CKD (Completely Knocked-Down) or SKD (Semi Knocked Down) kits, meaning the investments will be lower.That is a good form of testing demand at a lower cost than a complete manufacturing operation would imply while skipping import taxes. Tesla could have thought about something similar for its Indian operations. As we reported a while ago, it just gave up on selling in that market, leaving many Model 3 reservation holders without their deposits and any perspective of getting their cars.If NIO confirms these intentions when the right time comes, American customers will finally get a taste of the most successful battery-swapping technology the automotive world has seen so far. NIO will start building its second swap station in Vestby, Norway. It will help Norwegian customers traveling between Oslo and Gothenburg. Make your bets about where the American plant will be. Roman Abramovich is on the international sanctions list, despite his insistence that he is a Russian expat living in the UK, with no connection to President Putin and, as such, no responsibility in the ongoing war in Ukraine. In March this year, he fled the UK after the Brits decided to sanction him , and is believed now to be in Russia or Turkey, completely out of reach Meanwhile, his $3 billion asset collection is subject to sanctions and, according to recent reports, stuck in limbo in various neutral territories, if only for the reason that he no longer has the liquidities to afford weekly maintenance and wages. The collection includes two of the worlds most expensive megayachts, Solaris and Eclipse, and two of the worlds most expensive private jets, the Bandit and the newer acquisition dubbed the New Bandit.The so-called New Bandit is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner he bought just in December last year from an airline that never got to use it, so its technically brand new. He reportedly paid some $300 million for it and then another $105 million to customize it, including a new layout that can sit 30 guests, 10 crew and 10 security personnel. There are only 250 jets of this kind in the world, and only three are privately owned, including one that belonged to the President of Mexico In case you were thinking the New Bandit slipped off the map, youre right. It did. Its last recorded flight was from Moscow, Russia to Dubai, UAE, on March 4, and its been stuck there ever since. Earlier this month, the U.S. Commerce Department updated its Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to include it among aircraft and airlines denied export privileges. This means that the aircraft cant receive standard and regular services like refueling, replacement of parts, maintenance, or repair services without the approval of the U.S. government.By preventing these aircraft from receiving any service, including from abroad, international flights from Belarus or Russia on these aircraft are effectively grounded, the Commerce Department says, as reported by Reuters AMG After the race, Mercedes-boss Toto Wolff went as far as to say that his team had the quickest car on Sunday and that winning a title this year is not out of the realm of possibility.Well, leave it to his counterpart at Ferrari to rain on his parade, so to speak. Mattia Binotto, Ferraris team principal, said that Mercedes form in Spain needs more context and that the German outfit is by no means faster than Ferrari were back in 2021, reports Motorsport I think congrats first to them, because they recovered and improved the speed of their car, said Binotto in an interview with Sky.[In qualifying] they were seven tenths off the pace in the quali lap, which is still a short circuit. [In the race] they finished 30 seconds or more from the Red Bull, and it could have been maybe 40 seconds to Charles [Leclerc].Forty seconds, 66 laps, is still six, seven tenths per lap. Six tenths, seven tenths a lap is still significant. Its like Ferrari last year.While Ferrari may not be too impressed with Mercedes new-found form, rivals Red Bull are certainly more weary of a team theyve been battling for years.I think it shows how quickly things can swing, said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. Thats why I wouldnt write off Mercedes with the amount of points still available. We know Ferrari has a very quick car. So you know, things can turn around very quickly.On paper, Horner could be right. Mercedes George Russell is just 36 points behind championship leader Charles Leclerc, with the German team trailing Red Bull by 75 points in the Constructors Standings. EV EGR FSD NHTSA National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ????: Let's look at how to open the doors of a $TSLA which has lost power, typically after an accident. pic.twitter.com/ByMJT75G1h TR (@Tweet_Removed) May 23, 2022 The physician crashed hison February 24, 2019, while driving on Flamingo Road in Davie, Florida. Witnesses tried to remove Awan from the EV but were not able to do so. On October 10, 2019, his family sued Tesla because the autopsy concluded that he did not die due to the crash, but rather asphyxiated by the inhalation of products of combustion. Thermal injuries contributed to his death.Although the speed limit there is 45 mph (72 kph), the police report stated that Awans Model S left the road at a minimum of 79.60 mph (128,1 kph). In its response to the lawsuit, Tesla argued that the driver was under the influence of alcohol or drugs because the toxicology results were above the legal limits. We were unable to learn what was detected in his blood, or how much it was above the legal limits.For Liliana Awan, determining who was responsible for the crash is not the question. She told NBC6 that her husband would be still alive if the Model S door handles simply opened the car. That did not happen in Juthas Model Y, because its doors work with electronic actuators. If an electrical failure occurs, they demand a mechanical manual release. Awans Model S did not have these actuators on the front doors. In other words, the drivers door in his EV should have opened if the physician had pulled the handle.Until 2021, the internal front door handles in the Model S and Model X seemed to have a mechanical connection to the door locks. Tesla states in its manuals ERGs (emergency response guides) that front occupants just have to pull the handle, and the door will open, whether the car has a power failure or not. If their internal door handles really have mechanical links to the door locks, the Model S and Model X were the only Tesla cars to present that.Awans Model S was made in 2016. That means his car would open if anyone inside the vehicle pulled the handle regardless of it having power or not. We have no idea if the physician tried to escape the EV. The lawsuit mentions that a nearby police officer and other bystanders attempted to remove him from the burning car in vain, but not that he tried to escape. His wife firmly believes he did - to NBC6 , she said he was fighting to survive.Theoretically, the Model S can be opened from the outside because the retractable external door handles should pop out in an emergency. In Amans case, the people who tried to rescue him said they didnt, which prevented them from helping. At that point, the flames were already too strong.We verified Teslas owner manuals and EGRs, and they tell an interesting story. The earliest ones for the Model S bring this regarding opening the vehicle from the outside in emergencies:OPENING DOORSModel S has unique door handles. Under normal conditions, when you press a handle, it extends* to allow you to open the door.If door handles do not function, open the door manually by reaching inside the window and using the interior handle.Tesla does not specify how anyone can reach inside the window. Those instructions have remained the same until the 2016, which phrases that in a different way:NOTE: If the door handles do not function, open a front door manually by reaching inside the open window and using the mechanical release handle. See Opening Doors from Inside without Power.That section of the EGR reads like this:Opening Doors from the Inside without PowerTo open the Model S front doors from the inside without 12V power, pull the mechanical release handle towards you. To open the Model S rear doors from the inside without 12V power, fold back the edge of the carpet below the rear seats and pull the mechanical release cable toward the center of the vehicle."Tesla wrote something else right below this paragraph that is crucial for Awans story:It is important to know that in any vehicle collision with damage to the driver or passenger front door, the mechanical door release may not operate as designed. It is also important to remember that every vehicle accident is different and may require extrication operations to gain access to the vehicles cabin.NOTE: Compromised doors may not release mechanically.Presented in 2015, the Model X came with the same EGR instructions and warnings. The text above looks pretty much like the legal disclaimers Tesla includes in Autopilot andWe have no idea if this is the same EGR published in 2016 or if it was modified at any point. If this paragraph was included after 2019, it could be a strong indication that it has to do with Awans crash. Even if this is indeed the original text, people usually say that if theres a warning, there are precedents. We just dont know why Tesla thought it was important to admonish the manual release could fail in 2016.Imagining this could help Tesla avoid liabilities in this case, the lawsuit does not disclose if the Model Ss door was affected. A copy of the lawsuit describes the crash like this:On February 24, 2019, during an afternoon drive by decedent Dr. Omar Awan, the Awan Tesla veered out of control on a parkway in South Florida, yawed sideways, went over the curt, and onto the median, and struck a palm tree.Awans family claims in the lawsuit that the Model S design is defective, that it presents an unreasonably dangerous fire risk, and that this combination of flaws makes it a death trap.After a 2021 refresh, the front door release on the Model S and the Model X turned into a handle ahead of the window switches. Thats precisely the same system used on the Model 3 and Model Y since they were first released. In other words, the Model S and the Model X adopted the worse solution their cheaper siblings introduced.The problem is that very few people know where these emergency releases are, which was Juthas case. To make matters worse, Tesla does not instruct customers about that and does not label these releases in its cars. All info is restricted to the manuals and EGRs, which are only digital. If the vehicle fails or crashes, it is very unlikely that they will be accessible.Twitter user TR (@Tweet_Removed) made a relevant thread speaking about that in an attempt to bring awareness to these manual releases. He consulted Teslas ERGs and also the owners manual of all four models currently for sale. Surprisingly, they only speak about manual releases for the front doors of the Model 3 and Model Y . Their ERGs bring these exact words for the rear ones:NOTE: Only the front doors are equipped with a mechanical release handle.What about a mechanical release cable for these rear doors? The Model 3s and Model Ys EGRs do not mention them. That made TR consider they do not have one. For uninformed customers, they do not exist. TR stressed that the ERG and the owners manual do not mention these manual releases. We also checked them, and that is correct. Curiously, at least the Model Y does, but Tesla makes no reference to these cables anywhere.We only know the electric crossover has these manual releases because of the guys from the TFL YouTube channel. They had an issue with their Model Y left rear door in October 2020. Even the Tesla technician who assisted them did not know about a manual release. Some viewers eventually told them about these cables, but that is not exactly good news.To reach the manual releases for the rear doors, you have to remove a rubber mat at the bottom of their storage boxes. After that, you have to open a small plastic lid, which the TFL folks only managed to do with a flat-head screwdriver. Again, it is a procedure that demands tools and accurate information. Imagine if the car is on fire just after a crashWe dont know if the Model 3 has a similar solution or if these rear door cables are limited to the Model Y. If you own a Model 3 and can verify that, that would be really helpful for us and if you do not mind our saying so especially for you.Things may seem better on the Model S and Model X, but thats up to debate. The Model S has manual releases located at the base of the rear seat, behind the carpet. It has two cuts that give direct access to the cables that release each of the rear doors. If you are in an emergency and willing to escape, you have to fold back the edge of that cut in the carpet and pull the cable behind it towards the center of the cabin, as the first video below shows at around 1:00.The Model X and its falcon-wing doors represent a much more demanding task. In an emergency yes, an emergency! passengers have to remove the speaker grill, find the mechanical release cable, and pull it down towards the front seats. Tesla writes in its EGR that without 12V power, the falcon wing doors can only be opened from the inside of the vehicle. That kills any chance of external help without extrication tools. Reuters now disclosed that) asked Tesla for more information on Juthas Model Y fire. However, the agency now has quite a few questions it has to answer that go beyond whatever Tesla can disclose.In the Model Xs case, why allow the sale of a car that cannot have its rear doors opened from the outside in emergencies? In vehicles that present the risk of thermal runaway, what did Tesla do to give occupants enough time to escape? Has Tesla respected the safety standards related to allowing people to evade or be quickly rescued from one of its vehicles in accidents? If it did, are these standards good enough to ensure that getting out of these cars or saving people from them is possible in a timely manner?Jutha must disagree that this is the case. Amans family is suing Tesla because they believe escaping is just part of the problem. They are also concerned about these EVs burning soon after crashes. We have recently documented three episodes in which that happened. Tesla is far from being the only one who owes the public some answers. More than the company, worldwide authorities are the ones who should explain this mess. If Tesla is selling unsafe vehicles, someone allowed it to do so. The Armenian Defense Ministry said Major-General Andrei Volkov briefed Papikian on the situation and current developments in the peacekeepers area of responsibility. They also discussed broader security in the region, the ministry said in a statement. The interlocutors praised the Russian Federations efforts to stabilize the military-political situation in the region as well as the course and effectiveness of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Artsakh (Karabakh), read the statement. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian likewise noted the peacekeepers decisive contribution to the security of Karabakhs population in a joint declaration released after their talks held outside Moscow on April 19. The declaration followed Armenias criticism of the peacekeepers failure to prevent Azerbaijani troops from seizing a village in Karabakh and nearby hills in March. Pashinian repeatedly called on Moscow to investigate the inactivity of its troops. The peacekeepers were also criticized for refusing to allow Armenian opposition parliamentarians to visit Karabakh on April 12. The Armenian Foreign Ministry said the ban ran counter to the terms of the Russian-brokered ceasefire that stopped the Armenian-Azerbaijani war in November 2020. The Russian Foreign Ministry insisted, however, the Russian soldiers acted in strict conformity with the truce accord. Videos Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos. Flash A Chinese defense spokesperson on Thursday said that the United States' scheming on the Taiwan question is known to all, and said that U.S. attempt to contain China by using Taiwan is just wishful thinking. Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, made the remarks in response to the U.S. State Department's contradictory expressions about the U.S. Taiwan-related policy. Noting that the United States has been trying to hollow out the one-China principle, Wu warned that any such action will bring harm to the country itself. Wu said that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of China, and the government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legitimate government representing the whole of China. "This is a universal consensus of the international community and a commonly recognized norm governing international relations." Wu noted that the recent visits of certain U.S. senators to Taiwan, where they made provocative remarks, were political grandstanding. "China firmly opposes this," Wu said. "Those clamoring to make the Chinese mainland pay a price should get prepared to pay the price themselves," Wu said. A trial originally set to resume Thursday has been postponed by almost a month in a high-stakes court case on the future of Kern County's oil CalMatters is a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more, go to calmatters.org. (Bloomberg) -- Google executive Prabhakar Raghavan recently had an issue with his rose bushes. His wife took a photo of the plants on her phone, uploaded the image to Google, identified the culprit and followed a link for a fungicide. Then she bought it. A seamless transaction that didnt involve typing into a search bar, it was a real-life test of sorts for Raghavans strategic vision. A senior vice president responsible for most of Googles largest servicessearch, maps, advertising and morethe 61-year-old executive is determined to crack e-commerce, a market projected to hit $2.27 trillion in 2025 that the Alphabet Inc. division has tried and failed to figure out many times before. In the past, Google has tried emulating Amazon.com Inc.s online retail and delivery services, with little luck. Now, under Raghavan, the search giant is positioning itself as a kind of anti-Amazon, a free marketplace for merchants and Amazon rivals thats designed to get consumers more comfortable shopping with Google. Earlier this month, at Googles I/O software conference, Raghavan and his deputies demonstrated new features they hope will achieve that end, including one that lets visitors use photos to search for nearby retail products or find any item in the physical world with the click of a camera. And on Tuesday, the company unveiled a feature that lets people go from merchant listings on Google search to their checkout pages in one click. Raghavan hopes the various initiatives will persuade millions of people to click buy, prompting sellers to purchase many more Google ads. For Amazon, which built a booming business by essentially renting its digital real estate to small sellers, the risk is that Google could give those brands a pathway to thriving outside its marketplace. That in turn could force the Seattle-based company to more aggressively court sellers with discounts on fees, advertising or logistics services. Still, Amazon remains a formidable rival, and Google confronts daunting challenges. Its renewed push into e-commerce coincides with a slowdown in online shopping as consumers revert to their pre-pandemic habits. Amazon and EBay Inc. both recently reported slowing growth and weak profit outlooks. Moreover, Google has always sought to make its technology fade into the background. Turning the site into a shopping destination risks wrecking the experience and alienating visitors. Ahead of the I/O presentation, Raghavan took pains to say shopping on Google would be super smooth. If the concept works as advertised, he said, shoppers wont have to think: Am I doing a search? Am I on Amazon or Google? Raghavan is the first Google executive to oversee the technical operations behind both search and the ads division since Sundar Pichai did in 2014, shortly before he became CEO. Raghavan is also one of the companys best compensated executives, pulling down $28.6 million last year in salary and stock grants. As such, he has the clout to set an ambitious e-commerce strategy and, at least theoretically, get people who traditionally operated in silos to collaborate instead. Those who have worked with Raghavan point to his technical mastery and operational shrewdnessan unusual combination of attributes at a company that has so often coasted on its inventions and profits. Google is violently allergic to strategic thinking, said Sam Ramji, a former executive who worked with Raghavan on Googles cloud products. Hes the man who brought strategy to Google. Adds Martha Welsh, Googles director of commerce strategy: He really takes a holistic view of the business. Since Raghavans promotion in mid-2020, he has torn up Googles e-commerce playbook, scrapping the fees the company levied for online purchases and shuttering the delivery service. He has tried poaching merchants irritated with Amazon, reshuffled the leadership ranks, and overhauled Googles payments operations by dropping its banking plans and narrowing the focus. He even tasked his search division with catering to people making heady commercial decisions, like buying a home or picking a college. Hes willing to make bold moves, said Bill Ready, Googles president of commerce, who joined in 2020 as one of Raghavans top deputies. Boldness is required. While Googles advertising operation continues to print money, the model is under siege from regulators and privacy clampdowns, including Apples ban on targeted marketing messages. Due in part to these headwinds, the growth rate of the ad business is destined to slow, and Google isnt the only one jumping into e-commerce to goose revenue; Meta Platforms Inc. and TikTok are as well. Meanwhile, even as Google tries to build an online shopping destination to complement its ad business, Amazon has done the inverse: created a robust advertising operation on top of its enormous online bazaar. Googles success is hard to gauge because it doesnt break out e-commerce sales or retail ads. Amazons is easy to see; its ads business posted 23% growth in the first quarter. That seems to be working way better for Amazon than it is for Google, said Mike Ryan, a portfolio strategist for Smarter Ecommerce GmbH. Raghavan has tied Googles main revenue and profit driverssearch and adsmore tightly to its e-commerce efforts than ever before. Thats all put more pressure on him to deliver on his strategy. Shopping Express Googles last big e-commerce push involved going at Amazon head-on. In 2013, Google launched Shopping Express, a delivery service with a nifty app and a promise to ship many items on the same day. Google had huge retail partners on board, including Target Corp. and Walgreens, and planned an annual subscription model a la Amazon Prime. Back then, when quick e-commerce delivery was a novelty, Googles service looked like a natural Amazon contender. But it never was. Shopping Express expanded to a few cities outside of the San Francisco Bay Area, but had little appeal for consumers. Googles Shopping site, accessible as a tab on its homepage, aggregated listings from online retailers with paid ads at the top, but attracted relatively few visitors compared with the main search page. Former Google employees say managerial indecision and an unwillingness to invest heavily in the margin-thin business undercut the strategy. Then in 2015, Europe hit Google with a massive anti-monopoly suit that argued the search engine unfairly promoted its own shopping service over others. That forced the company to spin off the European business and move more cautiously. Google brought in consultants from BCG to assess a specific e-commerce strategy, but didnt follow the firms recommendations. The company shortened the delivery services name (to just Express) and revamped it to center on its digital voice-assistant, another Amazon competitor. That effort fizzled, too. For the past 15 years, Google has been trying to figure out commerce, said Rick Watson, the head of RMW Commerce Consulting. And theyve never really executed. In early 2020, Google reset its strategy. Management recruited Ready from PayPal to lead the commerce unit and realigned the search, payments and maps divisions to work more closely with his. To run that entire portfolio, Google picked Raghavan, a veteran of its enterprise division who was put in charge of ads in 2018. Before joining Google in 2012, Raghavan spent years at tech research labs and in academia, where he became an expert on web search technologies just as they began taking off. He speaks five languages and still carries himself more like a professor than a senior executive. While discussing Googles decision to emulate the visual, rapid-fire features of TikTok, he said, It behooves us to also start thinking about those paradigms. He once requested classical music to accompany his entrance onstage at an event before a staffer interceded. Hes always surprised when he gets more responsibility, said Jayshree Ullal, a longtime friend who runs Arista Networks Inc. You can never tell hes a high-powered number-two executive at Google. Still, Raghavan made his e-commerce ambitions clear during the first year in his new role. Google, he told colleagues, should think of users being on journeysnot simply coming to Google.com for information but to research and, hopefully, buy something. He and Ready quickly decided to pull the plug on Express. They dropped the commission Google took for sales on its properties and the fees it charged merchants to list items on its shopping site, a signal to the industry that it wanted to be an open marketplace, not a competitor. Were not trying to put boxes on doorsteps, Ready explained. What were trying to solve is the information part of the problem. By that, Ready meant making it easier for consumers to find desired products, deals or brandseven those that havent bought an ad. Search results now identify identify discounts and loyalty programs, while new widgets list the shipping costs and hidden fees on specific purchases. Google cut deals with Shopify Inc., Block Inc. and other commerce companies to make it more compelling for businesses to sell on Google properties. Those features are designed for buying products like sneakers and cooking pans. But the company is also experimenting with items that arent on most e-commerce siteshelping consumers buy NFTs via image search or research such big-ticket purchases as real estate. The company has noticed that searchers in the market for a home, college or car will often return to Google more than 60 times with similar queries before making a decision. The idea is to customize the search experiences for these use cases in ways Google hasnt before. Google has already done that with certain categories, creating unique features for people searching for jobs or hotels. Companies like Yelp and the online travel industry have complained that these changes buried their sites and forced them to buy more ads to get clicks. Googles search team has been quietly working on adding more topics. Under the project, codenamed Mercury, the search team has ceded to the advertising group such areas as shopping, real estate, mortgages, etc, according to a memo reviewed by Bloomberg. The authors of the document prioritized boosting traffic for merchants and creating oh wow moments! that would lure searchers back to Google.com and, eventually, a purchase. Google declined to comment on the project, but executives have said the ads division doesnt influence unpaid search results. Raghavan said the company has no plans to rival real estate brokers like Redfin. And, so far, Google has resisted using the search history of repeat visitors to tailor results. Thats largely to avoid violating peoples sense of privacy, he explained. Can you, in these situations, offer the user more support in a long-running journey, without in any way creeping them out? Raghavan said his teams were still exploring if they could. Some in Silicon Valley have blasted Google for filling search results with too many ads. Raghavan said increased demand from advertisers during the pandemic probably drove the recent uptick in advertising, and he expects it to cool off amid easing restrictions on travel and events. Early Success There are signs that Raghavans strategy is starting to pay off. Earlier this year, Google revealed that e-commerce advertising was a leading contributor to a 43% bump to search revenue in 2021. Google also said last year that over a billion people shop on its properties every day, though it hasnt updated the figure. In the fall, Morgan Stanley research showed that consumers were using Google and YouTube to research products and price-shop more often than they used Amazon, EBay or Walmart. In April, the bank reported that 59% of survey respondents who are Amazon Prime members said they started researching products on Google, up from 50% in the fall. Talley & Twine, an independent watch brand based in Virginia, started getting serious about Google in the past two years and has sometimes seen a fivefold return on its ad spending. Its been a saving grace for us, said President Randy Williams. The other benefit, he added, is that the search engine sends customers to his web store. Thats the roadblock we have with Amazon, Williams said. Amazons customers are Amazon customers. Still, some industry insiders say Googles biggest moves to create a marketplacecutting commissions and listing fees for merchantshave yet to attract significant numbers of shoppers. When those changes were announced, some merchants braced for a big uptick in traffic and sales, said Ryan, the e-commerce strategist. Then nothing happened, he said. I would describe it as nice, but low-impact. Kirk Williams, head of the online agency Zato Marketing, said he wouldnt be surprised if Googles fee adjustments didnt alter consumer behavior enough to lure in more merchants. Not many more people visited Googles shopping site, and most eyeballs remained on the search page, where merchants still feel they have to buy ads to get in front of consumers. It hasnt been anywhere near the traffic volume that they were hoping to see, Williams said. 2022 Bloomberg L.P. Click here to read the full article. The family of Irma Garcia one of the two teachers who sacrificed their lives to save their students at the Robb Elementary shooting in Uvalde, Texas is now also mourning the loss of another family member. Garcias husband, Joe, died Thursday of a heart attack, minutes after dropping off flowers at her memorial, The New York Times reports. Extremely heartbreaking and come with deep sorrow to say that my Tia Irmas husband Joe Garcia has passed away due to grief, wrote John Martinez, Garcias nephew, on Twitter. I truly am at a loss for words for how we are all feeling. Please pray for our family. God have mercy on us, this isnt easy. Rumors about the gunman and what had taken place spread widely online often with easily debunked evidence or none at all almost immediately after the first official reports about the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Here are three of the most prominent rumors that have spread on online platforms such as Twitter, Gab, 4chan and Reddit. 1. No, the shooting was not a staged false flag operation. Hours after the attack Tuesday, far-right figures spread misinformation claiming that the shooting was a false flag attack. Among their unfounded claims were that the shooting had been orchestrated to draw local law enforcement away from the border, allowing criminals and drugs to cross into the United States, and that gun-control advocates had organized the tragedy to stoke public outrage. Other social media posts alleged that parents shown in news clips awaiting news of their children appeared to be insufficiently emotional and were crisis actors being paid to play a role. The two teachers who were killed were also accused of being crisis actors. Claims of crisis actors and false flags in school shootings are not new: Conspiracy theorist and broadcaster Alex Jones of Infowars has lied for years that the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, was staged by the federal government, with people pretending to be survivors and victims parents. Last year, Jones lost four defamation lawsuits filed by victims families, many of whom have been harassed by his believers. 2. No, there is no evidence that the gunman was transgender. Hours after the attack, a post on the fringe online message board 4chan circulated claiming that the gunman was transgender. Numerous photographs falsely claiming to show the gunman wearing womens clothing were attached. Authorities have said the gunman was male. The unfounded claims made their way to Telegram channels of far-right militia groups such as the Proud Boys, where people falsely claimed that the shooting was a result of hormone therapy undertaken by the gunman. By Wednesday, the claims that the gunman was transgender had been amplified by high-profile people such as Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., who was censured last year by the House after he posted a video that depicted him killing a Democratic lawmaker. Gosars Twitter post on the matter has been deleted. Photos of dark-haired transgender women circulated alongside images of the gunmans face, accompanied with false accusations that they were the same person. There is an overwhelming number of individuals who are posting images of this person, who was the shooter, and information about the nature of them being transgender, Stacy Washington, host of the SiriusXM show Stacy on the Right, said Tuesday night. She added: We dont have definitive proof, but Id say, this many pictures? My goodness. Theres something going on here. On Tuesday, a transgender artist said on Reddit that people online just took my photos and used it to spread misinformation. After the artist posted other photos as proof, an account on Twitter that discusses gun rights deleted a post that had included the artists photo and apologized. A 22-year-old transgender student living in New York also reported that photos of her were falsely linked to the gunman. She posted photos of herself on Twitter to prove her identity and asked people to stop saying the photos of her were of the gunman. Im very close to crying, she posted at one point. The Trans Safety Network, a research group that monitors threats against the transgender community, said in a statement Wednesday that it had identified photos of three transgender people wrongly linked to the gunman and confirmed that all three were alive. Gosar and Washington did not respond to requests for comment. 3. No, the gunman was not an undocumented immigrant. False claims that the gunman was born outside the U.S. began to circulate within hours of the shooting. Spread largely on white nationalist Telegram channels and Gab accounts, the claims alleged that he was an immigrant in the U.S. illegally, even after authorities including Roland Gutierrez, a Texas state senator, confirmed that the gunman was born in North Dakota. Two Telegram groups with ties to white supremacist figures claimed Wednesday that the gunman had illegally penetrated the country from the Mexican border. The groups, which each have thousands of followers, went on to falsely claim that the gunman was undocumented in the U.S. Did he cross the border illegally? Code of Vets, a veterans organization, posted on Twitter. Our nation has a serious national security crisis evolving. Later, the group added a post noting that the shooter has been confirmed to be a citizen while stating: Mental health must be addressed. Our border must be secured. Gosar also said the gunman had been in the country illegally. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Flash Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday expressed willingness to forge "iron-clad" ties and deepen cooperation between the two countries. Sogavare said China has become the biggest cooperative partner of the Solomon Islands on basic infrastructure and a reliable development partner, expressing thanks to China for providing anti-pandemic supplies, repid-test equipment and sending medical teams to his country. He also appreciated the Chinese side for sending policing supplies and police advisers to help maintain social order of the Solomon Islands after the riot in Honiara. The Solomon Islands and China have conducted cooperation on the basis of equal treatment and mutual respect, and the connection in various fields has become increasingly close, bringing tangible benefits to the Solomon Islands people, the prime minister noted. For his part, Wang said the Chinese side appreciates the Solomon Islands' firm determination of safeguarding national interests, strong desire of developing China-Solomon Islands friendly cooperation and adhering to the one-China policy. China also staunchly backs the Solomon Islands' efforts to safeguard natioanl sovereignty independence, protect natioanl unity and solidarity, and speed up the realization of natioanl prosperity on a path chosen by the country. Wang said it's not long since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries but the development of bilateral ties has been sound, steady and fast. China and the Solomon Islands have become good friends of mutual trust and good partners of mutual support, with political trust between the two countries further deepening and pragmatic cooperation widening, he noted. It is proven that the political decision of the Solomon Islands to establish diplomatic relations with China is in line with the development and progress of the times as well as the fundamental and long-term interests of the people of the Solomon Islands, Wang said. China is ready to work with the Solomon Islands to forge "iron-clad" ties, and deepen cooperation between the two sides so as to benefit the two peoples, Wang said. The emerging economies are rising en masse, and peace and development are still the irreversible trend of the times despite the unilateral bullying, Wang noted. China is ready to enhance coordination and cooperation with the Solomon Islands in multilateral organizations such as the United Nations to accelerate the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, cope with climate change, and jointly safeguard the rightful interests of medium and small countries. Sogavare also said the Solomon Islands is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China on international issues. Wang is visiting the Solomon Islands as part of his tour to the South Pacific island nations, which will also take him to Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, as well as Timor-Leste. The gun manufacturer that produced the AR-15-style assault rifle the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooter used to kill 19 children and two teachers has shut down its social media accounts after being linked to the massacre. It has also reportedly dropped out of the National Rifle Association's annual convention set to be held starting Friday in Houston. On Tuesday, alleged shooter 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School, killing 21 people in the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. The firearm Ramos used is reportedly made by Georgia-based gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, authorities and the company each confirmed. LIVE UPDATES: The latest news on the Uvalde school massacre. The arms manufacturer states on its site, "At Daniel Defense, we celebrate the liberty of our country, the enthusiasm of our customers and employees, and the quality and accuracy of our products." On Wednesday, one of the company's social media posts resurfaced from a week ago on May 16, the day Ramos turned 18. That week, he legally purchased two AR-15-style assault rifles, including the Daniel Defense DDM V7 rifle, according to the Washington Post. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it," the post said, in reference to a Biblical proverb, followed by a prayer emoji. The post included a photo of a toddler sitting with an AR-15-style assault rifle on its lap. Daniel Defense also reportedly posted the same image and text on Instagram that day, which included the hashtag #childrenarethefuture. Both posts have since been deleted after the gun company faced an onslaught of backlash from social media users. Daniel Defense has limited comments on its Instagram posts and also went private on Twitter in the aftermath. However, screenshots of the posts are still being circulated online. Screenshot/Twitter Daniel Defense had planned to hold an exhibitor's booth at the NRA's annual convention, being held this Friday through Sunday in Houston, and had stated it was "proud to reunite with thousands of patriots." However, those plans appear to have been scrapped as the NRA's list of vendors no longer includes the gunmaker, per the Washington Post. Daniel Defense issued a statement following the Uvalde shooting: "We are deeply saddened by the tragic events in Texas this week. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and community devastated by this evil act." The National Rifle Association's annual member meeting is in Houston this weekend, an already controversial gathering now put under additional scrutiny after an armed teenager killed 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school Tuesday. There are already calls for the meeting to be canceled in light of the shooting and protests planned in and around downtown's George R. Brown Convention Center, where the event will take place Friday through Sunday. The NRA's continued promotions for the event indicate it will go on as planned, including speeches from former President Donald Trump, Gov. Greg Abbott, Sen. Ted Cruz and several other Texas Republicans. That headlining event featuring the Republican speakers will take place from 2 to 4 p.m. Friday, while the main members' meeting will start at 10 a.m. Saturday. Here's what you need to know about the convention and its relationship to the Uvalde shooting: Protests planned There are at least two protests planned Friday outside the NRA convention, a push from some of Houston's progressive groups to put pressure on the association and its influence on conservative lawmakers. "When you go and shoot up a school full of kids and teachers... you've taken someone's right to life away," said Ashton Woods, leader of Black Lives Matter Houston. BLM, Fiel Houston, Indivisible Houston and the Harris County Democratic Party are hosting a protest at Discovery Green just outside the convention center at 1 p.m. Friday. "It's about making sure we create a nexus of power while calling out the organization that enables Republicans... like Greg Abbott and other folks who make these laws and put them on the books to make it easier for what happened to happen," Woods said. "These same people are talking about the right to life and about family. A child is a human at conception, but you won't protect children who are living." An interfaith protest is also planned outside the convention also starting at 1 p.m. Friday, which organizers have said will include a march inside the convention hall. No guns for Trump speech The NRA, at the request of the U.S. Secret Service, will ban guns from the convention hall during Trump's speech Friday despite the association's longstanding stance against gun control. According to the convention's events page, no one will be allowed to carry a firearm inside the convention hall. The association is not providing any options for people to store their guns during the speech. The irony of a gun ban at the NRA's annual convention was called out by several people on Twitter. Not canceled Several prominent figures have called for the city of Houston to flat-out cancel the event, which is hosted at the city-owned downtown convention center. Indivisible Houston has already garnered 3,000 online signatures for the event to be canceled. Texas governor hopeful Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat, also called for the convention to be canceled. Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday said the city will not cancel the event, citing the potential cost of lawsuits that could arise. Woods, the BLM leader who is hosting the protest Friday, said the cost shouldn't be the measure for choosing to move forward with the event. "I feel like the city of Houston needs to be canceling the contracts," Woods said. "They've got billions of dollars to give to HPD. They can spend a couple million dollars to cancel an event on Houston First property." Cornyn out, but no one else With canceling the event seemingly off the table, others have called for Abbott and other Republicans in the lineup to abandon their speaking commitment. None of the speakers have said they would not appear, although Sen. John Cornyn had already pulled out over a scheduling conflict before Tuesday's massacre, according to Politico's Burgess Everett. Abbott would not say if he would appear at the NRA meeting when he was asked at a press conference in Uvalde Wednesday afternoon. As far as future plans are concerned, listen, Im living moment to moment right now," Abbott said. "My heart my head and my body are in Uvalde right now, and Im here to help the people that are hurting. A parallel to Columbine When armed teenagers slaughtered students at Columbine High School outside Denver in 1999, the NRA was slated to host their annual member meeting at a Denver convention center a month later. Similar to the NRA convention in Houston, several peopleincluding parents of those killed and then-Denver Mayor Wellington Webbasked the NRA to cancel the convention, but NRA leaders refused. The Associated Press called it a "defiant" stand in their 1999 coverage of the event. Protests in Denver drew 8,000 people in 1999, according to the Associated Press. Allan Tannenbaum/Getty Images "Don't let my son's death be in vain," said Tom Mauser at the time, whose son was killed. "I am here today because my son would want me to be here. If my son was alive, he would be here, too." Here in Houston, protest organizers hope to draw a large crowd and make meaningful change. "Demand justice and accountability," said Woods of Houston organizers' hope for the protest. "They're on the immoral side of the tracks. They're on the wrong side of history, and we're going to make them feel uncomfortable. I'm not going to go super low, but I'm not going high either. They haven't been going high with us." A Silsbee physician has been added to a federal case related to an alleged healthcare scheme involving hospitals, laboratories, and illegal kickbacks for patient referrals. The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable health care providers, including physicians, who commit fraud, said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Departments Civil Division in the release. Improper financial arrangements involving physicians and laboratories can distort physicians medical judgments, waste taxpayer dollars and subject patients to unnecessary testing or other services. The amended complaint alleges Doyce Cartrett, Jr., M.D., of Silsbee, and five other physicians violated the False Claims Acts Anti-Kickback statute and Stark Law, a news release from the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Texas said on Thursday. According to the news release, Cartrett received over $320,000 in the scheme, which the complaint further alleges caused claims to be improperly billed to federal health care programs for medically unnecessary laboratory testing. Two men from Southeast Texas were previously named among nearly 20 defendants in the federal case. Related: Beaumont, Lumberton men accused of healthcare fraud True Health Diagnostics former Director of Strategic Accounts and Management Service Organization recruiter, Stephen Kash, of Beaumont was among those previously named in the complaint were. Owner and operator of Ascend Professional Management Inc., Ascend Professional Consulting Inc., and BenefitPro Consulting LLC, William Todd Hickman, of Lumberton was also named in the complaint. Schemes that funnel health care referrals do not work without the participation of physicians, said U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston for the Eastern District of Texas. They are not merely passive players in these elaborate schemes, but an integral part, without which the scheme could not exist. Our office is committed to rooting out health care fraud by pursuing all players involved the scheme, from the laboratories and their leaders to the marketers and the physicians who make it all possible. Naming these physicians in the complaint is evidence of that commitment. The 154-page federal complaint alleges laboratory executives and employees at True Health Diagnostics LLC and Boston Heart Diagnostics Corporation allegedly conspired with small Texas hospitals, including Rockdale Hospital doing business as Little River Healthcare, to pay doctors to induce referrals to the hospitals for diagnostic testing, which was then performed by laboratories companies, the release said. The complaint also alleges that the hospitals paid a portion of their laboratory profits to recruiters, who in turn kicked back those funds to the referring doctors. The release said the recruiters set up "Management Service Organization" companies to make payments to referring doctors disguised as investment returns, which were actually based on, and offered in exchange for, the physicians referrals, the release said. The complaint alleges that laboratory tests resulting from this referral scheme were billed to various federal health care programs, and that the claims not only were tainted by improper inducements but, in many cases, also involved tests that were not reasonable and necessary. Cartrett allegedly received thousands of dollars from Little River Healthcare, Ascend MSO of TX LLC (Ascend) and another MSO known as Eridanus MG LLC (Eridanus) in return for his referrals. The United States has already recovered more than $31 million relating to conduct involving BHD, THD and LRH, including False Claims Act settlements with 29 physicians, two health care executives and a laboratory company. The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits offering, paying, soliciting or receiving remuneration to induce referrals of items or services covered by Medicare, Medicaid and other federally funded programs. The Stark Law forbids a hospital or laboratory from billing Medicare for certain services referred by physicians that have a financial relationship with the hospital or laboratory, according to the release. The Anti-Kickback Statute and the Stark Law seek to ensure that medical providers judgments are not compromised by improper financial incentives and are instead based on the best interests of their patients, the release said. Special Agent in Charge Miranda L. Bennett of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General stated patients deserve reasonable and necessary care from providers without improper motivations. Collaborating with our law enforcement partners, we will continue to investigate and hold accountable physicians accepting payments for referrals, Bennett said. The Department of Defense Office of Inspector Generals Defense Criminal Investigative Service is also committed to rooting out fraud schemes that waste taxpayer resources and impact mission readiness, Acting Special Agent in Charge Gregory P. Shilling of the DCIS Southwest Field Office said DCIS will continue to work with our partners to hold those accountable who undermine the integrity of the health care system that supports our nations service members, retirees and their families, Shilling said. The United States amended complaint was filed in connection with a lawsuit originally filed under the qui tam or whistleblower provisions of the False Claims Act by STF LLC, whose members are Felice Gersh, M.D. and Chris Riedel, the release said. The United States intervened in the qui tam action in December 2021 and filed a complaint under the False Claims Act in January 2022 against former THD CEO Christopher Grottenthaler, former BHD CEO Susan Hertzberg, former LRH CEO Jeffrey Madison, and others, the release said. Under the False Claims Act, a private party can file an action on behalf of the United States and receive a portion of the recovery, the release said. The Act permits the United States to intervene in such lawsuits and add claims and defendants, as it has done here. The qui tam case is captioned United States, et al. ex rel. STF, LLC v. True Health Diagnostics, LLC, et al., No. 4:16-cv-547 (E.D. Tex.), the release said. If a defendant is found liable for violating the act, the United States may recover three times the amount of its losses plus applicable penalties, the release said. This case is being handled by attorneys Christopher Terranova and Gavin Thole in the Civil Divisions Commercial Litigation Branch (Fraud Section) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys James Gillingham, Adrian Garcia and Betty Young in the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Texas. Investigative support is being provided by HHS-OIG and DCIS. The United States pursuit of this lawsuit illustrates the governments emphasis on combating health care fraud, the release said. One of the most powerful tools in this effort is the False Claims Act. Tips and complaints from all sources about potential fraud, waste, abuse and mismanagement can be reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, at 800 HHS TIPS (800-447-8477), according to the release. The claims in the complaint are allegations only, and there has been no determination of liability, the release said. The United States amended complaint alleges that, in addition to the previously named defendants, the following six physicians received kickbacks from MSOs in return for their laboratory testing referrals: Doyce Cartrett, Jr., M.D., of Silsbee, Texas, allegedly received over $320,000 from LRH and two MSOs, Ascend MSO of TX LLC (Ascend) and Eridanus MG LLC (Eridanus), in return for his referrals. Elizabeth Seymour, M.D., of Corinth, Texas, allegedly received over $280,000 from two MSOs, Ascend and Eridanus, in return for her referrals. Emanuel Paul E.P. Descant, II, M.D., of Spring, Texas, allegedly received over $125,000 from two MSOs, North Houston MSO and Tomball Medical Management Inc., in return for his referrals. Frederick Brown, M.D., of Missouri City, Texas, allegedly received over $190,000 from two MSOs, Ascend and Indus MG LLC (Indus), in return for his referrals. Heriberto Salinas, M.D., of Cleburne, Texas, allegedly received over $75,000 from two MSOs, Ascend and Herculis MG LLC (Herculis), in return for his referrals. Hong Davis, M.D., of Lewisville, Texas, allegedly received over $70,000 from two MSOs, Ascend and Herculis, in return for her referrals. meagan.ellsworth@beaumontenterprise.com twitter.com/megzmagpie LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) Republican Stuart Ray will face Democrat Morgan McGarvey in the 3rd District congressional race to fill retiring U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth's Louisville-area seat. Ray, a Louisville businessman, was locked in a race too close to call last week with Rhonda Palazzo in the May 17 Republican primary that attracted seven candidates. A recanvass on Thursday by election officials found no change in last week's vote totals and Ray was certified as the winner, according to the Kentucky Secretary of State. Ray said in social media posts he was honored to receive the nomination and added it's time for new leadership in Washington! McGarvey, the state's highest ranking Democrat in the state Senate, won his partys primary with the backing of Yarmuth, the only Democrat in Kentuckys congressional delegation. Ray, a former chairman of the states Department of Fish and Wildlife Commission board, greatly outspent Palazzo in this years campaign, raising around $340,000 to Palazzos $8,800. New taka notes are traded on a sidewalk in the Gulistan area of Dhaka, April 25, 2022. Economists are fuming over a proposed amnesty announced by the Bangladesh government that would allow people to repatriate unreported riches stashed abroad, in a bid to boost decreasing foreign exchange reserves, the first such move in the nations history. The South Asian countrys foreign currency reserves fell below U.S. $42 billion in early May from $48 billion last August, according to Bangladesh Bank, the central bank. We are planning to announce an amnesty for bringing money back, Finance Minister A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal told reporters in Dhaka this week. A certain amount of tax would be charged on money brought back. When asked about government estimates of how much money had been sent abroad, the finance minister said: no calculation was made in this regard. The amnesty scheme will be included in the national budget, he said, which is expected to be presented in parliament on June 9. In December, a Washington think-tank that monitors illicit financial flows reported that between 2009 and 2018, Bangladesh lost an average U.S. $8.27 billion annually because traders falsely declared the value of goods crossing international borders, leading to steep losses in tax revenue. The report by Global Financial Integrity documented how some traders deliberately falsify the declared value of goods on invoices submitted to customs authorities in order to illicitly transfer money across international borders, evade tax and/or customs duties, launder the proceeds of criminal activity, circumvent currency controls, and hide profits in offshore bank accounts. Under the proposed amnesty, perpetrators of such schemes would face no consequences, the finance minister said Thursday. Such a move is akin to rewarding dishonesty, economists and anti-corruption activists said. Mustafizur Rahman, a distinguished fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said watchdog organizations such as the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), and the central banks Financial Integrity and the Customer Services Department (FICSD) would now be rendered essentially useless. What will be the duty of such institutions when the government is deciding to announce amnesty for money launderers? he said to BenarNews. My first question is how the government has taken such a decision? It is not acceptable on any grounds including ethical, economic and political. Iftekharuzzaman, the executive director of Transparency International Bangladesh, predicted that the move would double money laundering in the future. The moral fall in society will be deeper due to the announcement of an amnesty for money launderers. This move is contradictory to the law and constitution of the country, he told BenarNews. You are here: World Flash Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday he had discussed the supplies of heavy weapons to Ukraine with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. "We need more heavy weapons delivered as soon as possible, especially MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems), to repel Russian attacks," Kuleba tweeted after the talks. The Ukrainian foreign minister added that he had briefed Baerbock on the difficult situation in the Donbass region. Other topics of the discussion included further sanctions on Russia and Ukraine's prospects to achieve a European Union (EU) candidate status, Kuleba said. Earlier this month, Baerbock said the government of Germany is working with German enterprises to provide modern weapons to Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken outlines the Biden administration's policy toward China during a speech at an event hosted by the Asia Society at George Washington University, in Washington, May 26, 2022. The United States will invest at home, align efforts with allies and partners, and compete with China to counter Beijings drive to change the existing rules-based world order, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday in a speech laying out the Biden administrations threefold strategy toward the Asian superpower. Speaking at an event hosted by the Asia Society at George Washington University in Washington, the top American diplomat vowed that the U.S. would defend and strengthen international law, principles and institutions which, he argued, China was undermining. But neither is the Biden administration looking to become embroiled in conflict with the worlds most populous nation, Blinken said. To succeed in this decisive decade, the Biden Administrations strategy can be summed up in three words invest, align, compete, Blinken said. The foundations of the international order are under serious and sustained challenge, he told the audience at GWU. He cited Russian leader Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine as posing a clear and present threat, and China as a long-term challenge. Even as President Putins war continues, we remain focused on the most serious long-term challenge to the international order, and thats posed by the Peoples Republic of China, Blinken said. China is the only country with the intent to reshape the international order and increasingly the economic, diplomatic, military and technological power to do it, Blinken said. Blinken delivered the speech days after President Joe Biden returned from his first visit to Asia since taking office in January 2021. Biden visited U.S. allies South Korea and Japan, where he unveiled the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) which 13 other nations signed up to with hopes that it would lead to a free trade agreement in the future. Biden also attended a summit of the Quad, an Indo-Pacific security grouping of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S. that is widely seen as countering Chinas rising influence and assertiveness in the region. Cooperation with China is necessary for the global economy and solving issues such as climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, Blinken said, emphasizing that the U.S. was not looking for conflict or a new Cold War. To the contrary, we are determined to avoid both, he said, adding that the U.S. was not seeking to block China or any other nation from growing economically or advancing the interest of their people. But we will defend and strengthen international law, agreements, principals and institutions that maintain peace and security, protect the rights of individuals and sovereign nations, and make it possible for all countries, including the United States and China, to coexist and cooperate, Blinken said. Though Chinas rise was possible because of the stability and opportunity that the international order provides, the country is now seeking to undermine those rules, he said. In his 40-minute talk, Blinken touched on hot-button issues such as the contested South China Sea and Chinas treatment of the Uyghur ethnic minority in Xinjiang, where Beijings heavy-handed policies have been branded as genocide by the U.S. and other Western nations. Under Xi Jinping, the ruling Chinese Communist Party [has] become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad, he said. Well continue to oppose Beijings aggressive and unlawful activities in the South and East China Seas, he said, noting a 2016 international court ruling that found Beijings expansive claims in those waters have no basis in international law. This report was produced by Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews. As China launched a high-level diplomatic mission to build its influence in the Pacific islands, Australias new government responded with one of its own, promising to bring more energy and resources to the remote region. Chinas Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived Thursday in the Solomon Islands, kicking off a 10-day Pacific tour that will include Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. Wang is hoping to strike a deal with 10 small nations. A draft copy of a so-called Common Development Vision seen by Reuters and the Associated Press covers multiple sectors from security to data communication to fisheries. China plans to reach some agreement on it at a meeting between Wang and his Pacific counterparts in Fiji on Monday. Richard McGregor, senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, an Australia-based think tank, wrote in The Guardian that Wangs itinerary is an emphatic statement by Beijing that it intends to entrench itself in the region, where it has been building influence for more than a decade. Underscoring the growing strategic competition for influence in the Pacific where the U.S. sent its own high-level diplomatic mission a month ago Australias new top diplomat Penny Wong arrived in Fiji on Thursday. She landed hours ahead of Wangs arrival in the Solomons, promising to put more energy and resources into the Pacific. Western allies concerns International attention on the Pacific islands has built since April, when officials from China and the Solomon Islands confirmed they signed a security pact without divulging its contents. The deal sparked concerns about Chinas growing presence and influence, especially as a leaked document suggested that it would allow Beijing to set up military bases and deploy troops in the Pacific island nation. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi meets with his with Solomon Islands counterpart, Jeremiah Manele, May 26, 2022. [Xinhua news service] On Thursday, Foreign Minister Wang sought to calm critics by saying that the security cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands does not target any third party and China has no intention of building a military base there. The deal is aimed at helping the island nation improve its law enforcement capabilities to maintain public order while protecting the safety of Chinese citizens and organizations there, Wang told the state-run Xinhua news agency. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the two sides agreed to jointly build major landmark projects under the Belt and Road Initiative, make good use of the zero-tariff preferential policy for products exported to China as well as to expand bilateral cooperation to cover a wide range of fields including response to climate change and multilateral affairs. China will also help the Solomon Islands prepare facilities for the upcoming Pacific Games 2023. Wang said China respects Solomon Islands ties with other countries, opposes all forms of power politics and bullying, and in Beijing the Solomon Islands have one more good friend and one more sincere and reliable partner. Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong speaks in Suva, Fiji, May 26, 2022. [Leon Lord/Fiji Sun via AP] Engagement rather than lecturing Similar words were employed by the new Australian foreign minister after she arrived in Suva, Fiji, which lies about 2,100 km (1,300 miles) southeast of the Solomons capital, Honiara. Wong, a senator, said Australia has a strong desire to play our part in the Pacific family and build stronger relationships, according to the Australian broadcaster ABC. Australia respects the Pacific nations choice of friends and partners, she said, adding that her country wants to be a partner of choice and demonstrate to your nation and other nations in the region that we are a partner who can be trusted and [is] reliable, and historically we have been. Wong said the new Labor government in Australia, formed on Monday after the general election, will renew the focus on climate change and continued economic support for the region. In a speech to the Pacific Islands Forum secretariat in Fiji, the foreign minister said Australia will be a partner that doesnt come with strings attached nor imposing unsustainable financial burdens, apparently drawing a contrast with Chinas policies. Wong said she acknowledged that the previous Australian government neglected its responsibility to act on climate, ignoring the calls of our Pacific family, and showed disrespect to Pacific nations. As Wong urged Pacific leaders to think about where you might be in a decade after reaching deals with China, a former Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, said Australia and allies should offer better proposals, rather than deliver a moral lecture. Speaking Friday at the Future of Asia conference in Tokyo via video link, Rudd said China is showing a much more assertive leadership style and intends therefore to change the status quo by adopting a more assertive foreign security policy in the region and the world. The way forward for Western allies like Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. is to offer different, better, development-friendly proposals, said Rudd, who is president of the Asia Society Policy Institute in New York. New Zealand, meanwhile, said it would extend the New Zealand Defense Forces deployment to the Solomon Islands until at least May 2023. The nation deployed troops there at the request of the local government in December 2021 after riots broke out in Honiara following anti-government protests. This report was produced by Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews. If you'd like to leave a comment (or a tip or a question) about this story with the editors, please email us We also welcome letters to the editor for publication; you can do that by filling out our letters form and submitting it to the newsroom. Greg Sukiennik has worked at all three Vermont News & Media newspapers and was their managing editor from 2017-19. He previously worked for ESPN.com, for the AP in Boston, and at The Berkshire Eagle in Pittsfield, Mass. This 2003 electron microscope image made available by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a monkeypox virion, obtained from a sample associated with the 2003 prairie dog outbreak. On Friday The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming the recent cases of monkeypox are actually just shingles, and the cases are a result of the COVID-19 vaccine. On Friday, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming Pfizer received FDA approval for a new monkeypox shot the day after the U.S. purchased millions of dollars worth of vaccine for the disease. 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. Luis Delvalle-Rodriguez listens in Berkshire Superior Court during his trial for the August 2018 shooting of Nick Carnevale at a party in October Mountain State Forest. The case is now with the jury. In 1998: Michael Fortier, the governments star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, was sentenced to 12 years in prison after apologizing for not warning anyone about the deadly plot. (Fortier was freed in January 2006.) You are the owner of this article. LENOX With hiring now and help wanted signs continuing to sprout at businesses in commercial districts countywide, another school is fast-tracking a program to help students prepare for careers with especially hot prospects, including hospitality, health care and business/finance. The states Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently awarded a five-year Innovation Pathways designation to Lenox Memorial Middle and High School for an immersive, pre-vocational experience stretching from sixth grade through senior year. Superintendent Marc J. Gosselin, Jr., made an announcement at a School Committee meeting earlier this month. We are confident that your new Innovation Pathways in Business and Finance and Healthcare/Social Assistance at Lenox will offer students a transformative experience, enabling them to develop essential skills, gain awareness of future career opportunities, and make informed choices about post-secondary education in promising fields, wrote Jeffrey C. Riley, commissioner of elementary and secondary education, in an award letter to Gosselin. When I was first approached about my support for the innovation pathways, my answer was, Where do I sign? Gosselin told The Eagle. I am a champion of defining success in multiple ways. I believe that this program is a creative, nontraditional opportunity to expand that definition through broader and more diverse courses for students to explore. The superintendent noted that the Pathways designation allows Lenox to partner with regional businesses in innovative sectors across the Berkshires. Pathways complement other opportunities such as dual enrollment at BCC to position students to be college- and career-ready after they leave Lenox, he said, whether they choose to join the workforce or continue their education. In addition to enabling students to develop skills, experience, and knowledge in different sectors such as health care or business, Gosselin said, these opportunities also expose students to life skills such as responsibility, punctuality, and effective communication that will serve them well no matter where their future pursuits take them. The program will be rolled out in September, said Tara Romeo, a guidance counselor at the school. The first county high school to win an Innovation Pathways grant was Monument Mountain Regional in Great Barrington in 2019. The program is open to all school districts seeking to participate in career preparation plans. Lenox students will be able to active pursue career preparation in health care, the hospitality field and in business and finance. The school worked closely with the MassHire Berkshire Workforce Board to identify the employment sectors with the most urgent, immediate needs for trained workers, Romeo said. So far, it has formal arrangements with Berkshire Health Care Systems, including Kimball Farms Life Care, the Miraval Berkshires resort in Lenox and Adams Community Bank to provide opportunities for students. In health care, for example, staffing for CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) and medical assistant positions is in demand at Berkshire Health Care Systems. Banks are in need of tellers and other staff, while the areas vibrant hospitality field has a wide variety of open positions. As Gosselin noted, the program will allow expanded courses for students in high-demand industries coupled with workplace experience and internships at regional employers. This experience builds relationships that may lead to jobs right out of high school. Our hope is a mutual benefit for our students and those innovative Berkshire employers who need talented employees to support the regional economy. Heres how the program works: All students in grades 6 through 9 will attend Strategies for Success classes focusing on life and study skills as well as computer applications taught by faculty member Heather McNeice, formerly of Taconic High in Pittsfield. Those are skills theyll use no matter what they do school, college and workplace training, Romeo said, such as how to send an appropriate e-mail. When they reach their freshmen year, students will decide whether they want to volunteer to join either pathway health care, hospitality or business as an elective class. In addition to at least four courses, juniors and seniors will perform a 100-hour internship for workplace experience, as well as employment readiness training, and social and emotional learning. Its all about practical life skills, Romeo said. Last September, prior to its official designation this spring as one of 43 schools statewide participating in the Innovative Pathways program, the school was awarded a $29,100 planning grant from the states education department. If students choose not to enter the workforce after high school, the program will prepare them to be successful learners at the collegiate level, Gosselin said. As an educator, I strive to ensure that students have the opportunity to pursue a wide array of interests and passions and leave Lenox thoroughly prepared for their lives post-graduation. Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect that an "intervenor" motion was filed in U.S. District Court by neighbors of a disputed South Street cell tower on May 25, the day after the City Council meeting. PITTSFIELD In a break from the ongoing fiscal 2023 budget talks, city councilors this week turned their attention to a bevy of petitions around mental health supports. During their meeting on Tuesday, councilors spoke about feeling compelled to act after months of hearing the communitys cries for more resources and better outcomes for residents struggling with their mental health. Here are the top three items of discussion: Consider developing mental health supports Over the course of the meeting, the council unanimously voted to request Pittsfields state and federal delegation look for additional funding and resources for mental health to direct to the city. The petition was submitted by community organizer Tonya Frazier and councilors Peter Marchetti, Pete White and Kevin Sherman. The problem has been identified, Frazier said. People have been killed, people have taken their own lives or turned to other substances to numb the pain of not having what they need: help. Anything we do today doesnt solve it, Sherman said, [but] we need to keep taking steps in order to get where we want to go. The council also voted to ask the state delegation support a bill in the Legislature that would create an alternative for community emergency services for law enforcement program. A related petition by Councilor Ken Warren to appropriate $75,000 to evaluate the creation of an Alternative Community Emergency Services (ACES) program was referred to Mayor Linda Tyer and the Committee of the Whole. NAACP asks Pittsfield to shift crisis response from police to non-violent teams The local NAACP chapter is calling on Pittsfields elected leaders to overhaul how the city responds to people in the throes of a mental health crisis and to consider shifting that duty away from police. Programs working off of an ACES model have gained quick support following the fatal shooting by Pittsfield Police of Miguel Estrella during a mental health crisis call. The Berkshire County branch of the NAACP recently called on the council to support the ACES bill, which would put resources to non-law enforcement, unarmed community-based responses to 911 calls. The bill has received the support of former mayor Sara Hathaway, a member of the Pittsfield School Committee who, in the wake of Estrellas killing, called for the city to step away from co-responder programs and toward alternative response programs. BolaWraps a bust? Councilors questioned a report submitted by Pittsfield Police Chief Michael Wynn that said none of the 15 BolaWraps purchased by the department with federal grant money had been used in a live deployment. Wynns report noted that the department used almost $14,000 of a nearly $40,000 grant it received last year to buy the BolaWraps, a form of remote handcuffs. Police can fire a cord at a subject, entangling and securing them, according to the companys website. In documents the department submitted as part of its grant application, Wynn writes that BolaWraps and additional Tasers will reduce the need for higher uses of force and will reduce injuries to subjects experiencing a crisis situation. Pittsfield Police officers reportedly used Tasers, which failed, against Estrella before resorting to lethal force, according to a preliminary use of force report. Berkshire PDs get federal money for Tasers, traffic safety but not without questions Local police departments across Berkshire County will be seeing more than $250,000 in federal grants for law enforcement and traffic safety. Councilors said they were frustrated and confused about why the tools they had been promised would be used for less lethal disarmament hadnt been used at all in the last year. Were looking at trying to find solutions to some of the things thatve had happened in our community and we all had high hopes on these BolaWraps being deployed more often in situations of disarmament, White said. Lt. Gary Traversa told the council that the entire police force was trained on how to use the devices last June, but they often sit in the back of the on patrol cruisers less accessible than the Taser or gun on every officers belt. Theyre a specific-use tool, Traversa said. He added that BolaWraps are intended to restrain someone who isnt already moving. We just havent run into that situation. Mum on cell tower lawsuit The City Council chose not to take up an item on file under the unfinished business section of the agenda on the Board of Healths findings on the health impacts to neighbors living near a Verizon Wireless cell tower at 877 South St. Baked into the communication from the Board of Health is a request for the council to allocate money to hire attorneys to defend a recent emergency order issued against the telecommunications company. Board officials came to a City Council meeting late last month prepared to ask for up to $84,000 to hire two attorneys to help the board issue and defend a cease-and-desist order against the cell tower. That push was stopped in its tracks when the council learned in an executive session that Verizon had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. Verizons complaint asks Judge Mark Mastroianni for an expedited review of whether the boards emergency order violates the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. The council refrained from discussing whether or not it should fund the boards defense. The following day a group of six neighbors to the tower asked the court to add them to the case as intervenors essentially a third party with a recognized investment in a case. Verizon Wireless files federal lawsuit against Pittsfield Board of Health to block cell tower order Verizon Wireless is asking a federal court to block the Pittsfield Board of Health from enforcing its order demanding the company defend the safety of its tower at 877 South St. Residents of the neighborhood say the 4G tower is causing health problems. Attorneys for Courtney Gilardi, Charlie Herzig, Judy Herzig, Mark Markham, Angelika Markham and Elaine Ireland argue that the residents should be added to the case because they live within the immediate vicinity of the tower, are among the group of residents harmed by the tower, and are named in the boards original emergency order. The group also says that they have reason to believe that the Board of Health may not choose to raise all available defenses available to the board or the city of Pittsfield may utilize its authority to control litigation and settle this proceeding. 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. Business writer Tony Dobrowolski's main focus is on business reporting. He came to The Eagle in 1992 after previously working for newspapers in Connecticut and Montreal. He can be reached at tdobrowolski@berkshireeagle.com or 413-496-6224. SHEFFIELD The brother of a missing Connecticut man who was the subject of a search in the Berkshires says his family prays and hopes for his safe return. Francisco Reyes, the brother of Carlos Reyes, says he cant believe what is happening to his family. I feel like Im in an episode of some Netflix show, he said. Authorities believed Carlos Reyes might have been taken to the Berkshires after possibly being killed. Francisco Reyes said his brother had no connections to the county and nothing seemed askew with him emotionally before he went missing. Quote Theyre working to find something, but dont have much to work with." Francisco Reyes, brother of Carlos Reyes, who has been missing for two months. Francisco Reyes also said he knows little about what might have happened to his 20-year-old brother, who disappeared from Danbury, Conn., two months ago. Danbury detectives have stayed in touch with the family, saying they are trying to get information out of a man in custody who they believe might know something about Reyes disappearance, Francisco Reyes said. Police also took DNA samples from Francisco Reyes and their mother to give to the FBI, he said. They want to have it on file, he said, to try to connect evidence with his brother. Carlos Reyes family reported last seeing him in Danbury on March 28. His car was found in flames the following day in nearby Brewster, N.Y. Police believe one man might know what happened. Christopher Lemke is in custody in Connecticut on $1 million bond and facing a slew of unrelated charges following a series of alleged incidents two weeks after Reyes went missing. Sign-up for The Berkshire Eagle's free newsletters Sign up In early May, the FBI led law enforcement in a search effort that spanned several days at a Route 7 rest area in Sheffield and an adjoining field. Sources familiar with the search and investigation told The Eagle that the FBI was excavating a field and searching the Housatonic River for what they believed could be Reyes. His disappearance is considered a missing persons investigation. Francisco Reyes, 23, said Danbury detectives told them they are trying to get Lemke to give them information. Theyre working to find something, but dont have much to work with, he said. Christopher Lemke is not saying much. Francisco Reyes said he had never heard of Lemke until police had him in custody. Francisco Reyes said the last time he saw his brother was when Carlos came by his workplace to get the key to his home so that he could take a shower there. Carlos Reyes, who worked for a food delivery service, had been temporarily living with a friend in Naugatuck, Conn. That friend had to leave the country because of a family crisis, and he decided not to stay there, his brother said. Francisco Reyes said his brother was always working. He had just bought the 2008 gray Infiniti sedan that was found engulfed in flames the day after he went missing. He was working hard to afford it. Any little side thing to make money, he said. The brothers are close. Carlos had told Francisco that he dreamed of being an entrepreneur and working for himself. Online exhibitions, business matchmaking events vitalize Chinese market 08:59, May 27, 2022 By Li Zhen ( People's Daily Over the recent years, China has been moving a large number of exhibitions and investment promotion activities onto online platforms to facilitate economic and social development. An employee of a cable producer in Nanxun district, Huzhou, east Chinas Zhejiang province introduces the companys products and production lines on a livestream platform, June 16, 2020. (Peoples Daily Online/Zhang Bin) The 131st China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, recently concluded online. It was the fifth time the event was held on the internet. On its official website, the Canton Fair sets up a series of sections, including Product Release, Exhibitors on Live, and VR Exhibition Hall, building an efficient trade platform for Chinese and foreign enterprises with modern information technology. It enables global merchants to conduct international business without even going abroad. During the 10-day event, its website was visited 33.9 million times by 10.09 million visitors. A total of 85,300 live exhibitions were held by participating enterprises, in which over 3 million exhibits were displayed, including 951,500 new products, the highest in the event's history. A livestream show is held at the exhibition booth of east Chinas Zhejiang province at the 8th China International Fair for Trade in Services, Sept. 3, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Yuan Chen) Apart from major exhibitions such as the Canton Fair, online investment promotion activities are also being held online across China, and positive progress has been achieved. Not long ago, the Jiutai district of Changchun, capital of northeast China's Jilin province, held an online investment negotiation. It was joined by over 30 representatives from enterprises. The district signed framework agreements on cooperation with six enterprises, with the total investment volume hitting 8.8 billion yuan ($1.31 billion). Hefei, capital of east Chinas Anhui province, is also moving business matchmaking online. This year, the investment facilitation center of Hefeis Lujiang county has held more than 30 video conferences to attract investment. We are moving business negotiation, project assessment, and agreement signing online to ensure smooth investment promotion, said an official with the center. According to the official, carrying out investment promotion activities online can maximally reduce the impacts of COVID-19. Online exhibitions and business matchmaking also offer a new path for relieving the burden for enterprises and vitalizing market entities. A woman introduces products through a livestream show at the fourth China International Import Expo, Nov. 6, 2021. (Peoples Daily Online/Chen Bin) Exhibition booths are scarce resources for small- and medium-sized foreign trade enterprises in brick-and-mortar exhibitions as the area of each exhibition hall is fixed. However, the online Canton Fair has offered an opportunity for many small- and medium-sized enterprises and greatly optimized the resource allocation of the exhibition, contributing to the foreign trade sector by stabilizing market entities, said Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Besides, multiple provincial-level regions in China have rolled out relevant policies that encourage online exhibitions and business matchmaking. For instance, the Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province has proposed to hold an online exhibition to help service trade enterprises in the province smooth supply and demand in the international market. The provincial government of Zhejiang has made and released a list of major exhibitions to be held, with an aim to involve more local enterprises in online and offline exhibitions. It also encourages foreign trade enterprises to engage in overseas exhibitions to expand international market. Holding online exhibitions is what comes with the general development of the digital economy, as well as a practical choice amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Business Development Plan for the 14th Five-Year Plan Period (2021-2025), the country will further facilitate its foreign trade sector, and encourage local governments and industries to establish national online exhibition platforms for smoother foreign trade channels. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) LEE When Meghan Marohn vanished, so did her purse, keys, hotel key, cellphone and laptop. Quote The family is considering a search and vigil gathering soon in Bear Town State Forest in Monterey. Police as well as Berkshire Mountain Search and Rescue have also searched that area. And her tiny Fisher Price bunny, a good luck charm since childhood. All these things, like Marohn, havent been found. Its been exactly two months since someone said they last saw her. A massive search by authorities for the New York state school teacher spanning more than a week proved fruitless. Occasional searches continue, along with speculation about where she might have gone and why. Even national media attention like an NBC Dateline story last week hasnt helped crack the case. The case, still open, is going cold. Her family isnt giving up. But its not easy. Nothing, said her brother, Peter Naple, when asked if new clues have surfaced. Its a state of limbo that Ive never thought Id be in. It seems like she just literally vanished into thin air. Marohn, 42, of Delmar, N.Y., was last seen on Sunday, March 27, when an ice storm blew hard through the county. She had checked into The Red Lion Inn on March 24, and was to stay there until March 30. Naple last spoke to Marohn on March 26, when she had traveled to the Stockbridge hotel to find relief from what he later learned were school-related personal problems. He tried to contact her the next day, March 27, but did not hear back. On Monday, March 28, Naple grew anxious and called the hotel. I spoke with everyone there [at the hotel], he said. He traveled to the inn, and with staff, went into her room. Some of her belongings were still there. But the room looked as though Marohn hadnt returned the previous day, and as if she had not slept in the bed. Naple called police. The next day, Tuesday, he filed a police report in New York state. That was the same day a South Lee resident found her 2017 black Subaru Impreza. It was parked at the trailhead for Longcope Park, which has a one-mile hiking loop off Church Street. Marohn is known to be a hiker. Sign-up for The Berkshire Eagle's free newsletters Sign up Efforts so far An FBI spokesperson declined comment when asked if the agency is involved. Lee Police as well as Massachusetts State Police continue to investigate her disappearance as a missing persons case. Marohn is nowhere to be found. There have been no significant new developments, Lee Police Chief Craig DeSantis said Thursday. DeSantis said the department continues to collaborate with state police and other public safety agencies that have been involved from the beginning. He said they are mounting cyclical searches. The family is still offering a $50,000 reward for information that leads to Marohns safe return. Naple set up the findmeghanmarohn.com website, in part, to help with volunteer search efforts. He said anyone is welcome to search at Longcope Park, which is public property. But police had also focused on private property in the area, making volunteer searching there difficult. Her last cellphone signal was tracked to an area of private property, less than a mile from where her car was found. The family is considering a search and vigil gathering soon in Beartown State Forest in Monterey. Police as well as Berkshire Mountain Search and Rescue have also searched that area. Naple has placed billboards in Lee and Lenox and started a GoFundMe account to raise $50,000 to hire a private investigator. The campaign has raised $18,820 as of Thursday. The fundraising page is filled with comments from those inspired by Marohn, who is also an activist and poet. Parents of those who have had Marohn as a teacher wrote to say how much she inspired their children, went above and beyond and served as a role model. But Marohn was suffering over something that had happened at Shaker High School in Latham, N.Y., where she was teaching. Naple eventually learned about this as the reason for her respite in Stockbridge. He said she had been placed on paid leave until the end of the school year effective March 24 the same day she went to the Red Lion. Dateline reported in an online story last week that Marohn had been upset about something related to another colleague at the school. That school districts superintendent, Joseph Corr, praised Marohn as a teacher, the NBC report said. But Naple told Dateline that the school never said why Marohn was on paid leave, despite his repeatedly asking. The head of the districts teachers union told its members after her disappearance to stay quiet about it. Naple said Thursday that he hasnt learned anything beyond this about her troubles at the school. Rex Hearn founded the Berkshire Opera Company, 1985 to 2008, and is a resident of Lee. He worked for The Guardian in England and America, becoming a United States citizen in 1998. He reviews music and drama in his Facebook column, Rex Recommends. There will soon be a drug-sniffing dog on patrol on the Idaho side of the border here on the Palouse. The Moscow Police Departments first ever drug-sniffing dog arrived back home on Friday after 5 weeks of training. Ragnar and his handler Officer Ryan Snyder trained in Indiana. City council approved the Moscow PDs first drug-sniffing dog. Chief James Fry says the money used to pay for Ragnar has come from private donations from community organizations. Chief fry says Ragnar is a game changer in the fight against narcotics in Moscow. Ragnar can also be made available to the Latah County Sheriffs Office which doesnt have a drug-sniffing dog. A 13-year-old boy accused of a shooting that left five injured at a Cinco de Mayo event in downtown Sunnyside has been charged with several counts of first-degree assault. The boy police describe as a Sureno gang member was arraigned Thursday morning on five counts of first-degree assault in Yakima County Juvenile Court, where his bail was maintained at $500,000. The Yakima Herald-Republic typically does not identify suspects tried in juvenile court. The boy is accused of opening fire on rival gang members during a Cinco de Mayo street festival. A 35-year-old Vancouver, Wash., man and four children including a 7-year-old were injured in the May 6 shooting that prompted the shutdown of the three-day festival. Police said none of victims suffered life-threatening injuries. However, the Vancouver man said he suffered a severed artery in his leg and that doctors told him he could have died or lost his leg. Shaken by the public shooting, residents filled a Sunnyside City Council meeting days later to request that a gang intervention-prevention program that was defunded be restored. They also asked why police released a handful of juvenile suspects to their parents after briefly detaining them not long after the shooting. Police told community members new state laws require an attorney be present when a juvenile is questioned, and interviews must be recorded. They arrested the 13-year-old on May 17. Sometimes juvenile suspects of violent crimes who are under age 16 are tried as adults. Prosecutor Joe Brusic said that wont happen in this case. The boy doesnt have a history with social and juvenile services that would warrant such a move, he said. Brusic said while the allegations against the boy are very serious, the court typically wants to see that the juvenile services have been nearly exhausted before trying a youth under age 16 as an adult. Its a stroke of luck that no one got killed but we have to look at all the elements that make up the juvenile, not just the crime, he said. Under state law, juvenile suspects of violent crimes age 16 and older can be automatically remanded to adult court. A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for June 8 with trial expected to begin on June 27, Brusic said. Rep. Caroline Nilsson Troy, R-Genesee, who is retiring from the Legislature at the end of her current term, has been named the new special assistant to the president of the University of Idaho for state and governmental relations. She will replace Joe Stegner, a former state senator who is retiring from the role after more than a decade. Nilsson Troy starts the post July 1. She plans to appoint a substitute to serve out the remainder of her House term, which runs through the end of the year. The experience Caroline brings is invaluable, UI President Scott Green said in a news release. She not only understands how the Legislature works, but her leadership on the Joint-Finance Appropriations Committee brings added insight. She is a Vandal who brings passion for and deep understanding of our university. Nilsson Troy is the current House vice-chair of JFAC. The university said in her new role, she will work directly with legislators and state staff in Boise and across the state, representing the interests of the University of Idaho, of which she is a graduate. She will drive legislative strategy, build and nurture relationships and represent the president in governmental relations. Nilsson Troy holds a bachelors degree in communications from UI and is a partner in Mustoe-Nilsson Farms. She also worked for the university for years, beginning in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences in 1995. She served as the executive director of development until leaving the university in 2007. This opportunity brings me full circle, Nilsson Troy said. I am proud to rejoin the Vandal family and bring the experiences and knowledge I gained in my years in the Legislature. Education is incredibly important to our state and this position has a direct impact on education funding and support. (The Center Square) Scientists will set about 1,000 traps this year in northern Washington state as part of an effort to wipe out the Asian giant hornet, preventing the menacing insect from establishing a foothold in the state and beyond. Asian giant hornets are the worlds largest hornets, with queens reaching up to 2 inches in length. The apex predators are considered an invasive species in North America and are well known for their aggression and ability to kill bee and other hornet species. A small group of the Asian giant hornets can, in a matter of hours, kill an entire honey bee hive. Honey bees pollinate many of the crops in Washingtons multibillion-dollar agriculture industry. The Asian giant hornet, Vespa mandarinia, was first detected in the Pacific Northwest in 2019. Sven-Erik Spichiger, Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) managing entomologist, said three Asian giant hornet nests were detected last year. All of them were within two miles of each other and very close to the Canadian border, just a little bit to the east of Blaine, Washington, he explained during Tuesdays virtual press conference. And so we are still in a very tightly compact and confined area, which leads us into this season with a bit of optimism that is has not spread to multiple counties and does not appear to be throughout the rest of Whatcom County, which is really good news. Most traps, which help scientists find the location of nests, will be set up in northern Whatcom County adjacent to the Canadian border, Spichiger said. A few will be set in the city of Bellingham. Attempts to capture the insects there will wane in the event no Asian giant hornets are caught. So long as everything continues to go negative in Bellingham, then we will be able to dial back the trapping in that area, Spichiger said. To cover more ground, the department encourages residents to set their own traps. Trapping is just one part of the war against the Asian giant hornet that also includes WSDAs Adopt a Wasp program that essentially uses paper wasp nests as bait to track the spread of the invading insects. It works like this: Starting in June, people are asked to monitor paper wasp nests on their property and report online their findings of any Asian giant hornet activity. Efforts are also underway to determine exactly where in Asia these giant hornets came from, including determining how they are getting across the Pacific Ocean. The prevailing theory is that the insects are crossing on cargo ships. For that reason, we will be partnering up with researchers in both South Korea and Japan, Spichiger said. Stealing a page from flying insects playbook, Spichiger said drone technology is being enlisted to track Asian giant hornets. We dont want to alarm anybody, he quipped. Were not going to be spying or anything. He went on to say, And so what we have done is we have partnered up with an Australian company called Wildlife Drones that makes probably the best radio telemetry tracking software as a payload for drones. And the idea is after we have tagged a hornet is to be able to get up in the air and go over some of these barriers and allow us to put a better GPS signal on that tracking tag and allow us to get to it a lot safer than weve been able to do in the past. The hornets will not be considered eradicated until the Evergreen State has gone three full years with no detections, Spichiger said. In a public relations move of sorts, Spichiger said the Entomological Society of America is working to establish an official name for the insect, noting Asian giant hornet, or what some have dubbed the murder hornet, are not official names. WSDA will adopt whatever the Entomological Society of America eventually officially accepts, he said. Asian giant hornets rarely attack humans unless provoked. The intimidating insect, however, delivers a powerful sting, which can kill a human being if a person is stung repeatedly. An estimated 30 to 50 people die annually from Asian giant hornet stings in Japan, one of their native habitats. WALLA WALLA - A 60-year-old Wall Walla woman has been sentenced to over four years in prison after being found guilty by a jury of cyberstalking a Montana man and Montana public officials by hacking the mans email and sending harassing and threatening communications. Kathy Ann Hendrickson, also known as Kathy Thorberg, was convicted on February 16 of cyberstalking following a three-day trial. On Friday, she was sentenced to 52 months in prison, to be followed by three years supervised release, according to U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson. U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy presided over the case. In court documents and at trial, the government presented evidence that Hendrickson met the victim, identified as John Doe, on a dating website sometime in 2015 or 2016. The two communicated online and eventually met in person on several occasions at John Does residence in Trout Creek. John Doe ended the relationship and then suspected Hendrickson of stealing his personal information. Hendrickson started harassing John Doe as early as May 2018 when, using an anonymous email account, sent him an email stating, Im going to bring you down. Hendrickson also hacked into John Does account, using a password she stole from his address book, and sent threatening emails, including death threats, to herself and to Sanders County Commissioners and another county employee. Hendrickson also used John Does email address to send a threatening email to then-Governor Steve Bullock in another attempt to subject John Doe to law enforcement scrutiny. Court documents further alleged that Hendrickson not only used a fake email account to harass victims, but also used a burner phone. While Hendricksons real phone contained incriminating evidence, the burner phone was not recovered during the investigation. First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain. Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that. And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details. If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Torrent Pharma will take over the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of these brands in India Ahmedabad-based Torrent Pharmaceuticals has entered into an agreement with Dr Reddy's Laboratories to acquire four of its brands Styptovit-E, Finast, Finast-T and Dynapress. Styptovit-E, a gynaecology product with estimated market size of ~Rs 500 crores (AIOCD data set), will further strengthen Torrents presence in the therapy. The acquisition of Finast; Finast-T, and Dynapress, which are used in the treatment of Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), will aid in Torrent's presence in the Urology therapy. As per the terms of the definitive agreement, Torrent Pharma will take over the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of these brands in India. The complete integration and transition of the brands are expected to be completed by June 2022. The need of the hour is to equip our emergency medicine departments with the best manpower armed with the best technology India is the second most populous country in the world, and with its population exploding at this rate, it is on the verge of surpassing China as the numero uno in a short while. What this implies is a inexorable rise in the price of basic amenities of supporting life like food, clothing and housing. What it also means is a growing discrepancy and disparity in sustaining life through access to basic healthcare services in this 1.4 billion populace. The medical scenario in India has undoubtedly grown by leaps and bounds especially in the past two decades. There are government hospitals in the rural areas equipped with state-of-the-art Operation theatres, Cardiac Cath labs, mobile medical vans and ALS ambulances, NABL accredited laboratories. India is increasingly becoming a favourite hub for medical tourism for the entire world. Despite of this, this specialty of Emergency Medicine continues to barely thrive in its nascent stage of growth, being formally recognized as an independent specialty by the Medical Council of India (MCI) only in 2009. Though emergency medicine (EM) training has been initiated by in both public and private colleges, the spin-offs from it are inadequate to cater to the massive chunk of population. Indian colleges offer only around 200 seats of postgraduate training in the form of MD or DNB in emergency medicine. Compare it to the USA, where Emergency Medicine offered 2,278 positions for a much smaller population than India. This disparity brings out the inadequacy in the training and education in the specialty of Emergency Medicine. What it also implies is that the hundreds of Government Hospital and thousands of private hospital Casualty or Emergency are manned by inadequately trained resident doctors or intern doctors with minimal or no resuscitation skills and clinical acumen in a department lacking in basic resuscitation equipment. With Emergencies ranging from Cardiac Arrest, Myocardial Infarction, Stroke, Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Road Traffic Accidents, Polytrauma, Poisoning, burns; the golden period of treatment of which ranges from few seconds to a few minutes, the Indian scenario reveals how such ill equipped Emergencies are only jeopardising the lives of people. The economic and the rural-urban gap further amplifies the problem by limiting the options for the economically disadvantaged and rural people. On a positive note, many private hospitals have embarked upon their own quest of churning out EM professionals for their hospitals. Programs like MEM (Maters in Emergency Medicine) have been designed by partnering with international universities (GWU-George Washington University) or by Indian societies dedicated to the purpose of Emergency Medicine education in the county like SEMI (Society for Emergency Medicine India). These programmes add a few more hundreds of trained EM professionals every year. But lack of recognition and aggressive anti campaigning in News media questioning their legitimacy have forced these professionals to fly to greener and safer pastures like UK, Australia, Middle East etc bringing us back to ground zero. The dearth of EM professionals continues to pain us. In India where the top 3 killers remain Ischemic Heart Disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Stroke, and where we have a high burden of Road Traffic accidents, accidental poisoning and burns which all inadvertently land up in any hospitals Emergency Department, the need of the hour is to equip our EM departments with the best manpower armed with the best technology. One positive step in this direction will be to increase the number of training seats in Government facilities in the specialty. Second will be to bring the other programmes under the purview of MCI recognition and get the EM professionals duly accredited so that we can retain them in our countrys medical system. Third will be extensive public-private-professional body collaboration to design effective programmes in this direction of training, by providing short courses and certificates to increase the acumen and skills of all those manning the Emergencies including the residents, interns, nursing staff, medical technologists. Fourth is to ensure the sensitising starts early by designing curriculum to train the caregivers with the basic resuscitation skills like CPR skills for all school teachers, parents, security professionals, hospitality professionals and even school students. These will help us in strengthening the Emergency medical practice in the country and ensure no death happens due to lack of access to emergency services. This will help in positioning India as a leader in the field of healthcare services. Author: Dr. Rimy Dey, Emergency Medicine Trainee, Paras Hospital, Gurugram I Committee Chair, Post-Graduate Studies in Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN) Why settle for a chilli burger when you can have a chilli burger with a Shuuu moment In Mzansi, there's no shortage of spicy situations calling for a 'SJOE!' (or 'Sho!' or 'Shuuu!'), which can only mean one of two things - either something has gone terribly wrong or gone perfectly right. Spice adds a little flavour to our lives, from a taxi door unhinging when you get off, to tasting something with a chilli kick. To keep the Sjoe moments going for chilli lovers, the king of chilli sauce and Burger King, both known for continuously pushing the flavour envelope, have come together to offer Mzansi the king of chilli burgers. Technological advances and a virtual work hub allow teams to learn and develop new skills quicker than ever before. Creating diverse opportunities for different mentoring structures should be put at the top of the list to ensure both personal and professional growth. One-on-one mentoring allows for strong relationships to be built between team leaders/mentors and team members; this environment creates an open space to ask questions, facilitate training and goal setting initiatives, and encourage engagement. Group mentoring becomes a valuable tool for team members to learn from each other and share skills across divisions. Reverse mentoring has become particularly beneficial in the remote work environment. This mentorship structure is defined by younger individuals mentoring more experienced or senior team members, often concerning technological assets, social media or consumer trends. In a predominantly virtual work world, the limited personal interaction with leadership and our colleagues has impacted our professional relationships with each other and our work. We have previously discussed that while a hybrid work model offers benefits such as flexibility and greater inclusion, the lack of face-to-face engagement could hamper creativity and spontaneous collaboration amongst teams. Research recently conducted by Dr Lebene Soga of Henley Business School has shown that 85% of employees worldwide are not fully engaged in their work. With hybrid working solutions adopted in many workplaces around South Africa, employers find it difficult to measure employee engagement and fulfilment at work. As personal and work lives have become more blended , allegiance and loyalty in the workplace have also shifted and having rapport and fostering relationships can be tricky.Mentorship programmes can act as the bridge that can connect colleagues and, when done efficiently, help build connection and meaning in the hybrid workspace.A 2021 survey by Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) found that a large number of businesses and HR leaders worldwide noticed a rise in productivity during the pandemic due to hybrid and remote working systems; however, less than one-third of leaders surveyed were confident they were cultivating high levels of trust between teams and team leaders.Mentorship opportunities among peers and more experienced colleagues develop skills and talent, allowing new team members to become entrenched in the organisational workings, clients, and fellow team members. Traditionally, mentorship programmes were an opportunity to work together on projects, create strategies, or work on client pitches. These collaborations effectively become a deliberate platform for teaching, coaching, networking, and developing talent.A hybrid work environment challenges business leaders to create a balance between in-person and digital working mentorship sessions.Reimagining mentorship may be part of the solution for building professional connections, developing careers, and creating a sense of belonging in new workplace setups. Fashioning a new mould for mentoring programmes can help organisations address the unmet needs of todays workforce.Creating connection and support between employees and retaining high potential junior talent and ensuring strong post-pandemic succession planning requires consistent and committed mentoring relationships.The challenge in the hybrid work system is to build relationships between leaders and their teams that balance in-person and digital meetings, ensuring team members receive the proper training and skills development at the right time in their careers.Regardless of what the workspace looks like post-pandemic, the three key mentoring structures remain:Naturally, the best mentorship programmes are the ones where all parties involved learn alongside each other. In a mixed medium environment, hybrid systems allow for greater perspectives, diversity and learning initiatives.Researchers David Megginson and David Clutterbuck, co-founders of the European Mentoring & Coaching Council, indicate that the two most important components for effective mentoring, regardless of the platform, are building rapport and creating clarity of purpose.These core components are addressed by investing time in meaningful connections with team members, both online and in person.Rapport is established through mutual trust, respect and a strong communication connection. Guided conversational questions become essential in understanding employees' strengths, weaknesses, and desires for professional growth. Planned topics lead to interesting and relevant discussions between team leaders and team members while simultaneously creating clarity and purpose within the mentorship sessions.In a hybrid work environment, it is important to create such rapport through face-to-face (in-person or online) mentorship opportunities as well as understand how interactive mentoring can be facilitated through virtual workspaces. We further investigate these mentorship approaches below.A key contributor to meaningful mentorship is authentic human connection and relationship building. Having face time with team members, especially those newly onboarded or young talent, is a great way to get to know them personally, understand their goals, and determine where they want to develop within the organisation.In a hybrid mentorship setup, mentors must take advantage of the time they spend with their mentees in person. Having constructive discussions, forming connections and establishing open lines of communication and trust are best achieved through both formal and informal in-person meetings. Connecting with team members on a deeper, more personal level and going beyond office small talk is beneficial for establishing a personal connection and gauging overall contentment.One-on-one in-person mentorship guidance often allows for greater interpretation of check-in goals as body language plays a significant role in how questions and answers are understood. Take note that these subtle nuances might easily be missed on virtual channels. Understanding how team members express themselves in social environments often allows for a greater appreciation of these subtexts in a virtual mentorship capacity. It is thus essential that management create opportunities for team members and team leaders to interact in person, especially when team members are matched with a mentor in a different geographical location.Contact mentoring creates a great space for participants to work together in an interactive environment and is optimal for new team member induction, soft skill training, brainstorming, planning and feedback. Although online sessions are more likely to stay within allocated time allotments, in-person contact sessions might, in some scenarios, save time and close the gap for situations of miscommunication.To optimise one-on-one mentoring, accessible hours must be considered, for both in-person and telephonic sessions, to create a harmonious and effective time schedule.In most hybrid work environments, all the tools to connect in a hybrid system are already in play; however, for successful mentorship programmes to take place, it is important to emphasise the right connection tools relevant to the team. Team leaders and mentors are encouraged to be more intentional about how these tools are to be used to facilitate optimal engagement and connection with team members.Implementing a multi-pronged approach in mentorship programmes can foster a productive relationship and confirm alignment between individual goals and organisational needs.As the central principles of mentorship remain the same, regardless of the shift online, both parties involved will have to commit to finding ways to connect and make the desired communication connection meaningful.Online tools can facilitate feedback in the virtual space and allow for simplified guidance through informal digital interactions creating a comfortable rapport between team leaders and team members.Recognising how significantly personal and professional lives are intersected in a hybrid model is a powerful basis for building an online relationship. In the virtual space, human connection creates a space in which both parties acknowledge that children and pets have become part of the adjusted work/life business space. Finding ways to embrace the differences in working styles and turning the limitations into another method of learning will help create a great mentorship environment online.Digital tools allowing for synchronised working are a great asset to online mentoring as both parties are actively engaged on the same document or job and are able to take pride in the joint progress made as a team. The ability to transcribe and record online mentoring sessions also enables team leaders to reflect on past conversations and acknowledge growth patterns.As significant as virtual mentorship can be, it will be key to consider elements of screen fatigue and email overwhelm, being mindful of preventing mentorship initiatives from being seen as task-oriented relationships.In conclusion, a successfully nurtured hybrid mentorship programme will re-activate a culture of learning and collaboration that will significantly benefit all. Team members with access to positive mentoring relationships ensue numerous personal and professional benefits. When mentoring is a discernible element of company culture, retention and advancement of talented new team members are enhanced. Restructuring mentorship programmes to fit the hybrid work model, including outlining clear success metrics, can ensure both the organisation and its teams thrive.Like work itself, mentoring is defined less by the medium in which it is accomplished than by the outcomes delivered. As our personal and professional worlds continue to intertwine, companies who embrace the reality of a hybrid work model and adapt to the change with thoughtful mentorship opportunities, will be rewarded with team members who are loyal, skilled, eager and willing to adapt to any change the future might hold. The war in Ukraine has stifled South Africa's citrus exports to Russia and driven input costs higher, further squeezing fruit producers already suffering from spiralling shipping costs, an industry body said. Source: Hans via Pixabay The war, which started on 24 February, blocked South Africa's citrus shipments to Russia in the immediate aftermath, Citrus Growers Association of Southern Africa (CGA) chief executive Justin Chadwick told Reuters.Although shipments to Russia have since resumed, exports have slumped as producers concerned about payments and shipping delays explore other markets."Since then, the United Kingdom's share of soft citrus has increased from 24% to 61%, at the expense of Russia decreasing from 32% to 5%," Chadwick said.The Middle East and South East Asia were also taking up more of South Africa's mandarins and grapefruit, respectively.South Africa's total citrus exports to Russia has fallen by nearly 70% on a year-to-date basis compared with the same period last year, according to CGA data.South Africa shipped 11.2 million 15 kg cartons of citrus fruit last year to Russia, its fifth biggest export market, according to the industry group.But the biggest impact of the war has been the surge in oil and gas prices, Chadwick said. "The war has also resulted in a major hike in fertiliser, fuel and agrochemical prices, which will continue to place strain on Southern African citrus growers and farmers across the world."The war has also hit shipping, Chadwick said, with major European ports used by South African fruit exporters being heavily congested as all Russia-bound containers are scanned, extending transit times to 90 days from the usual 24 days.Before the war, the industry was already grappling with sky-rocketing shipping costs, which jumped by about 150% over the past year, according to Chadwick."At these levels, it now costs between 2 and 2.5 times as much to ship the fruit as it does to produce it over the course of an entire year," he said. Subscribe to daily business and company news across 19 industries SUBSCRIBE The World Economic Forums annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, has just ended. The theme of the five-day event, Working Together, Restoring Trust, was both vague and troubling, in equal measures. Remember, this is the WEF we are discussing here, an international organization actively pushing The Great Reset. The theme could just as easily have read: Suffering Together, Restoring Compliance. Among the many issues discussed, members focused on the spread of misinformation and disinformation. How, they asked, can the proliferation of harmful content be combatted? Its easy, they answered, how about introducing digital IDs? The WEF recently rolled out the Global Coalition for Digital Safety, an initiative designed to accelerate public-private cooperation to tackle harmful content online. In an effort to remedy the scourge of malicious material, the WEF has brought together a diverse group of leaders who are well placed to exchange best practices for new online safety regulation and help millions of connected citizens improve digital media literacy. These diverse leaders include head executives at the likes of Google, Microsoft, Interpol, and a number of government ministers. Another coalition member is Yoti, a company that strives to make the internet a safer place. How so? Through the use of digital IDs. The dangers posed by digital IDs cannot be emphasized enough. As the researcher Brett Solomona man who has tracked the advantages and perils of technology for human rights for well over a decadepreviously noted, the mass rollout of digital IDs poses one of the gravest risks to human rights of any technology that we have encountered. As we rush headlong into a future where new technologies will converge to make this risk much more severe, we must prepare ourselves for the dawn of near-perfect facial recognition technology and other identifiers, from the human gait to breath to iris, according to Solomon. According to the tech researcher, biometric databases of the not-too-distant future will be centralized in nature. Opaque in the extreme, our data will be harvested by the people in the highest positions imaginableyou know, the kind of people who travel to Davos for polite debates. Moreover, added Solomon, throw geolocation of identifiers into the mix, and you have a recipe for absolute chaos. Such identifiers track youmore specifically, the digital youin real time. You can run all you want, but you cannot hide. The Panopticon Gets a Digital Upgrade Canada, a country with close ties to the WEF, is actively considering the use of digital IDs. According to the Canada Gazette, the countrys prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has spoken with airlines about introducing digital identity documents and biometric travel documents. Catherine Luelo, Canadas chief information officer, has also spoken about the need for digital identity. Luelo is currently spearheading Canadas digital innovation strategy, which seeks to introduce digital IDs across the entire public sector. Canadas plan is part of a broader plan, one that was initiated by the World Economic Forum. In a white paper released last year, authors at the WEF discussed the many ways in which digital ID programs will become an integral part of the financial services industry. Resistance is futile. Digital IDs may soon be the norm. In the United States, as analysts at Reclaim The Net recently reported, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing for the introduction of digital IDs. The USPS wants to have a more prominent role in biometric data collection and digital ID services. More worryingly, the USPS has already partnered with the General Services Administration (GSA) and the FBI, two prominent biometric data collection pilots. The bad news doesnt end there. As I have discussed elsewhere, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also wants your face. Digital IDs Are Not Compatible With Democracy Freedom House, an international group that was established to promote the idea of democracy, recently warned that when it comes to respecting democratic norms, like the right to privacy, the United States is going backward. The countrys democratic institutions have suffered erosion, as reflected in partisan pressure on the electoral process, bias and dysfunction in the criminal justice system, harmful policies on immigration and asylum seekers, and growing disparities in wealth, economic opportunity, and political influence, Freedom House argued. Yes, but what about digital surveillance? What about the governments desire (and the organizations closely affiliated with the government) to spy on the American people? What about the push to mine people for data and use the information gathered to manipulate and control? For those who doubt that the United States is backsliding, please note that Argentina and Mongolia now rank higher on the democracy ladder, according to a Freedom House 2021 report. Who is to blame for the regression? The very people elected to keep citizens safe. The United States is fast becoming a first-world country with third-world protections for its people. No one should be happy about this. Well, almost no one, except, perhaps, the elites in Davos. Reposted from the Epoch Times Borsa Italiana non ha responsabilita per il contenuto del sito a cui sta per accedere e non ha responsabilita per le informazioni contenute. Accedendo a questo link, Borsa Italiana non intende sollecitare acquisti o offerte in alcun paese da parte di nessuno. Sarai automaticamente diretto al link in cinque secondi. We know it is early, as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese pointed out on Thursday, to be talking about diplomatic posts for the likes of ALP royalty like Kristina Keneally and Kevin Rudd. But speculation is the currency in which we deal here at CBD, so lets go. Kristina Keneallys gone through a difficult election campaign. I wish her well. Im sure [a diplomatic posting] is the last thing on her mind, the PM said yesterday, not exactly ruling out the prospect of Ambassador KK. A diplomatic post may not be on her mind but it is on ours. Kristina Keneally lost the previously safe seat of Fowler after a backlash from angry locals. Credit:Nick Moir The real question is will Keneally break the 12-month lease of the Liverpool residence she rented back in November, in the hope she would be the member for Fowler? Or will she offer her suburban south-western Sydney home to a poor refugee family as she hotfoots it back to idyllic Scotland Island? KENNEDYS SEE RED Heard explained that she receives death threats and has been mocked for her testimony about being assaulted, which she described as agonising and painful. Depp has denied he ever struck Heard and has maintained Heard was the abuser in the relationship. Heard has testified about more than a dozen separate instances of physical abuse she says she suffered at Depps hands. Depp testified Wednesday, calling Heards accusations insane. Its fair to say that the online treatment of Heard has bordered on inhumane. The 36-year-old actress is at best a headline, at worst a punchline. Heard specifically made a note of the courtroom cameras in her takedown, and theres no denying the volume of material has been a significant enabler in the meme-ification of the trial. In America, the trial is airing on Court TV while simultaneously being live-streamed on YouTube, which has undoubtedly helped fuel the internet dumpster fire. Every agonising facial twitch, every sidelong glance, seized upon by bored TikTokers, packaged up and fed into the algorithm. During her testimony on May 4, Heard recalled the moment her dog stepped on a bee before breaking down in tears. Within hours the dog stepped on a bee line had gone viral (it even has its own page on Know Your Meme), with social media quick to mock Heards fake display of emotions. In her closing, Heard also claimed that Depp had promised to ruin her, and that the trial represented an opportunity to take her voice back. Johnny promised me he would ruin me. Hed ruin my career and take my life from me. Death was the only way out and if I got out, this is what hed do to me. He promised me global humiliation, she said. Johnny has taken enough of my voice, she said. I have the right to tell my story. But as Heard now undoubtedly understands, telling your story is only one part of the process. Once that story is in the public domain, it can be mocked, questioned, and repurposed until all that remains are many TikTok videos featuring the poo emoji and the hashtag #AmberTurd. Unfortunately, for everyone involved, it seems global humiliation is the one thing all parties will take home from this bruising courtroom battle. Depps career was in tatters before the trial, and it seems unlikely to be rehabilitated through this process. Loading Meanwhile, its unlikely Heard will recover from the public evisceration of this trial, at least in the short term. As it stands, a petition titled Remove Amber Heard from Aquaman 2 on Change.org has 4.3 million signatures and counting. The only thing we can be thankful for at this point is that the trial has finally come to an end. But when you step back from the wreckage, it becomes obvious there are no winners here, not Depp, not Heard, not the legal system. No winners, except maybe the social media platforms who create the content mills we all churn through with little to no care as to the human impact. Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732). Catholic school teachers walk off the job calling for a pay rise Were sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. Were working to restore it. Please try again later. Dismiss When he used the word love, which was often, you knew it came from somewhere true. So many people are crook on their fellows, but I just look for the love in people, he said in his waning years. We had become friends by then, partly, I think, because hed learned my mother had been born in May 1921 - the same month and year as him. Every May hed call, asking me to pass on best wishes to your lovely mother, though he never met her. There was a courtliness to him. Among the thousands of stories about Uren, one from Brisbanes Boggo Road Prison tells much. In the heady 1960s and 70s, when protest meant taking to the streets, Uren could be found regularly at the head of marches demonstrating against everything from war to nuclear proliferation to developers who wanted to rip down beautiful old inner-city streetscapes. Queensland was under the boot those days of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, whose idea of control - apart from allowing corruption to rip - was to turn Queensland into a police state. Bjelke-Petersens decision to ban street marches by outlawing any public gathering of more than three people was akin to waving a red rag at a man like Uren. Tom Uren sits in the back of a police van after being arrested in Brisbane in January 1979, one of several encounters with the regime of Joh Bjelke-Petersen. Credit:Age archive In October 1978, he headed north from his home in Sydney to lead a march through Brisbane against the northern regimes laws. Inevitably the police waded in, truncheons thumping. Uren was among those arrested and hauled off to Boggo Road, a notoriously brutal place that in the 70s doubled as a political jail. Uren didnt get the treatment Bjelke-Petersen might have hoped for. One of the guards, Stephen M. Gage, author of the 2009 publication Boggo Road Prison: Riots to Ruin 1976-2008, recalled Urens arrival. I was one of many officers on duty on the day they bought Tom Uren into the Reception Division for processing; all officers were told not to salute Mr Uren, Gage wrote. As the vehicle pulled up and Tom was ordered to stand in front of the reception window, I and many other officers saluted this man for what he stood for. The senior prison officers present could not stop the junior officers from saluting and speaking respectfully to Tom Uren, but the surprise was yet to come. The most senior officer present was the Chief Superintendent of Boggo Road Prison, Mr Clyde Lang, who was also a POW on the Burma Railway and a comrade-in-arms with Tom Uren. Later on that afternoon both Tom and Clyde left the prison to have dinner and no doubt drinks to their friendship from so many years ago. Uren wasnt any ordinary prisoner, of course. Hed been a Labor politician for 20 years by then, and would remain in federal parliament for another 12 years. Hed been deputy leader of the Labor Party from 1975 to 1977. But the years that formed him and earned him such respect were those of World War II, after hed been captured on Timor and made a slave of the Japanese on the Burma-Thailand Railway, aged 21. Like the other prisoners, he was starved, beaten and worked close to death. Fed barely enough to keep a child alive, he was forced to swing a heavy sledgehammer, a mate holding a drill, to form holes for dynamite and carve the deep mountain cutting known among the slave gangs as Hammer and Tap and, more descriptively, as Hellfire Pass. The godforsaken place looked and felt like hellfire at night as the killing work continued, the cutting lit by blazing infernos. Tom Uren (third from right) in an internment camp for Japanese prisoners of war who were used as slave labour. Credit:Age archive Initially required to drill 80 centimetres a day, Uren and his mate were forced to complete three metres each day during the dreaded speedo period of 1943, which meant no rest for up to 18 hours, seven days a week. Uren had been a heavyweight boxer back in Sydney and despite starvation, his build set him apart. I have walked part of the old death railway and visited Hellfire Pass several times, and during these excursions I met several former prisoners who told me of Uren placing his big body in front of fellow prisoners to prevent them being beaten to death by furious Japanese and Korean prison guards. Tom would take the beating for smaller men, an old man told me once as we stood in the gloom of Hellfire Pass. When, years ago, I put this to Uren, he conceded hed been knocked around, as he put it. Loading Ive been hit with open hands, closed fists, pieces of wood, iron bars and bamboo about two inches in diameter, he said, eyes closed at the memories. Towards the end of the war, Uren was shoved into the hold of a Japanese hell ship - with little food, water, ventilation or space, POW carriers earned their hell titles - and transported to Japan. There, he slaved in a copper smelter at Saganoseki and at a lead smelting works at Omuta. On August 9, 1945, he saw the sky turn an unearthly colour when the Fat Man atomic bomb was dropped on the distant port of Nagasaki. Neville Wran and Tom Uren (third from left) at a nuclear disarmament rally in Sydney in March 1986. Credit:Peter Solness If youve ever seen one of those glorious sunsets they get in northern Australia, it was about 20 times as vivid as that, he said. The bomb ended the war and freed Tom Uren from his years of torment. The POW experience destroyed the lives and nerves of many of those who survived, but Uren resolved to frame the lessons he learned into a philosophy by which to live and grow. Principal among those lessons was the effort of his commander on the death railway, the surgeon Edward Weary Dunlop, to harness the means of the entire camp for the good of all. Dunlop ordered Australian officers - who received a small allowance - to contribute to a fund to buy simple medicines and black market food for sick POWs. No such system existed among the nearby British camps, where officers stayed aloof from the ordinary men, who died at a dreadful rate. Collectivism, decided Uren, was the key to saving society. He distilled the philosophy to a single sentence. The healthy looked after the sick, the strong looked after the weak, the young looked after the old, hed tell anyone whod listen. And so, when in the early 1980s he became aware of a young Sydney University firebrand named Anthony Albanese - a leftist member of the Student Representative Council - the young man was to hear his elders anthem. In fact, Uren and the other tough men of the old NSW Labor Left Arthur Gietzelt, Jack Ferguson and Bruce Childs identified Albanese, aged 20, as a potential future leader. They knew he was raised without a father, and felt he needed the guidance of a strong male role model. Uren, then minister for local government, stepped in, gave Albanese his first real job - as a research officer - and never stepped away. Anthony Albanese with the late Labor politician Tom Uren in the Sydney seat of Mackellar in 2010. Credit:Simon Alekna In 1987, he took Albanese to South-east Asia - the young mans first trip abroad. In Thailand, Uren took Albanese to Hellfire Pass. Albanese held the big mans arm as they walked into the deep cutting, fearful Uren would faint beneath the storm of his memories. Jackson Pollocks Blue Poles may be considered the National Gallery of Australias most commercially valuable painting, but the 200 poles of the Aboriginal Memorial are now considered its most culturally important. We have our Blue Poles, but we now consider our black poles our most significant work in terms of what they mean to Australians, said Wierdi man Bruce Johnson McLean, the NGAs assistant director, Indigenous engagement. Original artist-curator, Djon Mundine poses for a portrait amongst The Aboriginal Memorial at the National Gallery of Australia. Credit:Rohan Thomson As of next Wednesday, the painted hollow log coffins will be moved from their current location near the entrance foyer to the most central gallery on level one, the heart of the NGA. The cultural significance of the move is an important moment not just for its Yolngu creators during Reconciliation Week, but also the nation as it moves towards accepting the Uluru Statement from the Heart, under the new Labor government. In the weeks before she vanished, Lynette told her sister, Patricia Jenkins, that Dawson was always so angry with her and described him as having black eyes flashing. With Lynettes whereabouts still a mystery 40 years after she left her Bayview home, her brother, Greg Simms, said in his evidence: I would like an answer to my sisters disappearance. Lynettes last contact On her last day of work, as a nurse at Warriewood Childrens Centre on January 8, 1982, Lynette arrived hand-in-hand with Dawson after marriage counselling. She hoped they could move forward and work together, her colleagues said. The Crown alleges Dawson killed Lynette on or around that date, alone or with others, and disposed of her body, motivated by his desire to have an unfettered relationship with JC. Dawson, now 73, says he dropped his wife off at a Mona Vale bus stop on January 9, and, instead of meeting him as they had arranged at Northbridge Baths, she called him to say she would not be returning home that day. Dawsons barrister Pauline David said subsequent phone calls were made by Lynette before he reported his wife missing on February 18, 1982. A newspaper advertisement, published on March 27, the day after their wedding anniversary, read: Lyn I love you, we all miss you. Please ring. We want you home, Chris. Annette Leary, who worked with Lynette, said a couple of months after her disappearance, she had seen Dawson with JC and the two little girls at a shopping centre. He said he had a letter from Lyn, and she was in Queensland, and he didnt know when she was coming back, Leary said. She denied she was mistaken about the letter, and said hed had a call too. Loading Dawson told police that, in the calls from Lynette, she said she needed some time away. He also mentioned a man from a religious sect being at the house. His barrister claims failures plagued the police investigation, including delays and lost records, and vital evidence consistent with Lynette Dawson being alive after January 8 and 9 was not available. The Crown is seeking to disprove reported sightings of Lynette after January 9, including at Kulnura on the Central Coast, Curl Curl, Gladesville and Macquarie Street in the city. The defence argues Lynette had reasons to disappear. Chris Dawson and the babysitter Dawson, who played rugby league for the Newtown Jets, met JC in 1980 when she was in year 11, and he was her physical education teacher. She started babysitting his children about July of that year. A card that babysitter and former student JC says she was given by Chris Dawson. He told me that he had seen me in the playground the year before, when I was 15, and decided that he would like to get to know me better because I was attractive to him, JC, now 57, said during her four days in the stand. She said that, whenever she had biology, Dawson would leave love notes in her schoolbag. JC moved into his Bayview home in October 1981 amid what the court has heard was a horrendous family life while finishing the HSC. Lynettes colleagues said she told them Chris was pressing her on it and, being the caring person that she was, she wanted to help. Lyn was not happy about this because she felt they had problems they needed to sort out between them before they brought anyone else into the home, her sister-in-law Merilyn Simms said. Neighbour Julie Andrew said she witnessed the teenager walking around in G-string bikini bottoms, while Strath said Lynette had once told her about coming home and finding JC naked in their pool. Childcare worker Anna Grantham said Lynette looked very sad one day after going home to find Dawsons swimming trunks and JCs bikini bottoms on the line. I think she felt that her husband had lost interest in her, Lynettes former boss Barbara Cruise said. JC said she had usually only worn bikini bottoms while swimming as it was just the fashion then. Loading By November 1981, JC had moved out, after she says she was confronted by Lynette, who said, Youve been taking liberties with my husband. JC said that, at some point in those two months, Dawson drove her somewhere west, possibly inner west, and parked outside a building with a chain fence, while she stayed in the car in her uniform. He said, I went inside to get a hitman to kill Lyn, but then I decided I couldnt do it because innocent people could be hurt. In the days before Christmas 1981, JC, then 17, and Dawson left Sydney to start a new life together in Queensland. But JC said they didnt make it and returned because she was sick and unhappy. Chris shot through left Lyn and two girls on their own, Lynettes mother, Helena Simms, wrote in her diary. In a letter to Jenkins, her elder daughter, Simms said it was the saddest Xmas Ive had. Lyn wants Chris to go to see the Doc ... to see what is making him so angry with her, she wrote. Jenkins said she last spoke to her sister on January 1, 1982, when Chris had gone on a yachting party without his wife and children. She said theyd had such a sad Christmas, could he drive them down to the park, and they could sit and watch the boats? And he said no. Asked by the Crown what her plan had been for her future with Dawson, JC said, there was a lot of pressure to stay with him, and I was just a child. In early January 1982, she travelled to South West Rocks for a holiday with her sisters and friends, calling Dawsons home number every day on a public phone because he asked me to, she said. He said he missed me terribly, couldnt live without me. She said Dawson told her, Lyns gone, shes not coming back. Come and help me look after the children and be with me. Moving into Bayview JC said Dawson collected her about January 10, 11 or 12 and moved her straight back into his home, which was bursting with clothes and still had Lynettes underwear in the drawers. She was quizzed by the defence about her first police statement, in which she said this happened on January 15 and 16. JC said the dates had been corrected and denied she was misleading the court. Chris Dawson and JC on their wedding day. JC said the topic of Lynettes whereabouts did not come up in conversation unless she got so cranky about taking care of the girls and learning to cook and clean, when she wanted to be an 18-year-old with my friends doing what they were doing. [I was] having to learn to be the substitute housekeeper, sex slave, stepmother, babysitter. Slave, just a slave, she claimed. JC and Dawson married in January 1984. The wedding ring was made from scratch to match his one that he had left over from his first marriage, JC said. The diamond ring was made using the diamonds from Lyns engagement ring and eternity ring that she left. When she separated from Dawson in 1990, JC met Lynettes brother and his wife and told them about the hitman allegation. Asked in his evidence whether he had taken the view Dawson was guilty, Greg Simms replied, I believe so, yes. A school friend, who ran into JC after her marriage breakdown, said JC had told her Dawson once parked and took something out of the glove box, which she felt had been money to pay someone to kill Lyn. The substance of what she [JC] said was that she believed Lyn had been murdered, the woman said. Under cross-examination, JC denied being on a mission to destroy Dawson. Loading He will destroy himself for what hes done to people, and to me, and to Lyn, she said. In addition to recalling decades-old memories, witnesses have been peppered with defence questions about discussions shared over the years and their involvement in The Australians podcast, The Teachers Pet. David said it was entirely understandable that Lynettes loved ones would like an answer, but the answer did not lie in the prosecution of Dawson. The judge-alone trial before Justice Ian Harrison commenced on May 9 and has a six-week estimate. NSW paramedics have begun industrial action that will include them not logging billing information and remaining at their home station area for the five-day campaign. People who call 000 will still have an ambulance respond, but will not be billed for it. Groaning under the strain: NSW Ambulances are struggling to cope with huge demand. Credit:Jessica Hromas Starting on Friday night and ending on Wednesday, paramedics are taking the action as they bid for 1500 extra staff, the establishment of a specialist community care network and a pay rise. The Australian Paramedics Association is also demanding the state government implement the recommendations of the Regional Healthcare Inquiry and a review of the patient triaging system. Brisbane-based barrister Lincoln Crowley, QC, has become the first Indigenous judge to preside over one of the countrys superior courts following his appointment to the Supreme Court of Queensland. A Warramunga man whose father was in the army, Crowley grew up in Charters Towers near Townsville and studied law at James Cook University before working in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Legal Service. Lincoln Crowley pictured in Sydney in 2017. Credit:James Alcock He was first called to the bar in 2003 in Sydney, working largely in crime, personal injury, anti-discrimination and employment law. He also did a stint with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions before returning to Brisbane and private practice. Crowley has since worked on high-profile cases, including as the Crown prosecutor of insider-trader Oliver Curtis, and senior counsel assisting the disability royal commission. He also became the first Indigenous barrister in Queensland to attain the title of Queens Counsel in late 2018. Paris has art deco metro entrances, London is known for its red pillar-box bins, and Melbourne has curly bike racks and bluestone kerbs. But Victorians are looking beyond their stainless steel seats for inspiration from around the world as the design of Melbournes street furniture comes under review for the first time. Examples of street benches from around the world, including Melbournes stainless steel seats in Bourke Street Mall. Credit:Joe Armao, BIG The citys draft design and construction standards are now open for public consultation. They set out guidelines for everything from the integration of dog bowls and bottle refill taps into drinking fountains to the appearance of rubbish bins (stainless steel is preferred, except in heritage precincts where they are Brunswick green). Acting Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece said Melbourne was already renowned for the design of its street furniture, city lights and signage, as well as the quality of materials in the public realm. Kerrs words will be put to the test soon enough. That very bill is once again the subject of renegotiation in Congress. Senate leaders plan to hold a vote on the issue when the chamber returns from its Memorial Day break next Tuesday. Will the Senate deadlock finally be broken? Hardening schools This is a concept being pushed by fierce defenders of the Second Amendment, such as Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who tweeted this week: Enough is enough. We need to act by hardening school security and hiring armed police officers to keep our kids safe. Texas senator Ted Cruz. Credit:AP The idea is that instead of gun control, schools should become more like airports in the aftermath of September 11. This could involve arming teachers and administrators; increasing the presence of law-enforcement officers; or reducing the number of entrances at a school to make it more difficult for shooters to get in. Certain states have already adopted such proposals. Texas, for instance, supports districts that want to arm their teachers with training. According to its education agency, it has more than 250 school staff serving as marshalls. Students are emotional as they gather by the Barnett Intermediate School where parents are gathering to pick up their children following a shooting at Santa Fe High School in 2018 Credit:Marie D. De Jesus Other schools reduced the number of entrances in the wake of the Santa Fe High School shooting of 2018, when a student killed eight classmates and two teachers at a school just outside of Houston. And Cruz himself has previously introduced legislation that proposed giving $US300 million ($420 million) in federal grants to harden schools with bulletproof doors and windows, along with more armed officers, but the Democrats blocked his bill. This mass murderer came in through an unlocked door at the back of the school, Cruz lamented on Fox News. If those federal grants could have gone to this school, the armed police officers could have taken him out. Banning assault weapons One week ago, days after losing her grandmother in the Buffalo mass shooting, 24-year-old Kayla Jones proposed something Australia achieved long ago in the aftermath of the Port Arthur massacre: getting rid of assault weapons altogether. People embrace outside the scene of the Buffalo massacre. Credit:AP Its getting ridiculous - were tired of burying loved ones to gun violence and hate, she said, moments after the president met families of the victims gunned down in the racially motivated attack. I truly believe that if we cant get the guns off the streets, we should just make it illegal to have them. Why do we need them? It was a fair question and one that gun-reform advocates are once again asking. Legislation passed in 1994 prohibiting the manufacture, transfer and possession of about 118 firearm models and all magazines holding more than 10 rounds. However, the ban expired in 2004. Biden is now calling on Congress to revive the bill. Loading I spent my career as a senator and as vice president working to pass commonsense gun laws, he said on Tuesday, after hearing about the Robb Elementary shooting on his way home from a Quad meeting in Asia. We cant and wont prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled. Red flag laws Maybe just maybe this is an idea that could receive enough bipartisan support to get over the line. The proposal would involve giving grants to states that introduce red flag laws, which are designed to ensure that people who exhibit signs of being dangerous to themselves or others can be denied access to guns by order of a judge. A number of states have these laws, but this proposal which is now being discussed informally by a small group of Senate Democrats and Republicans could create greater national consistency. Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy, who gave an impassioned speech on Tuesday begging his colleagues to finally act on gun reform, is among the senators leading the latest push, almost a decade after he called for similar laws following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in his state. So, too, is fellow Connecticut Democrat Richard Blumenthal, who said this week that he had been working for years with Republican senator Lindsey Graham on an incentive scheme. Others reportedly involved in the preliminary talks include Republican senator Susan Collins and renegade Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. It remains unclear how effective such a law would be. Buffalo shooter Payton Gendron, for instance, evaded New Yorks red flag laws that could have prevented him from owning a gun. But at least, its the start of a dialogue. Beefing up the gun watchdog Loading Theres a federal law-enforcement agency in the US that has the authority to respond to gun crimes. Its the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The trouble is, the ATF, as its more commonly known, hasnt had a director for seven years. According to Senate Judiciary chair Dick Durbin, the delay is political. Gun groups want it to go vacant; they dont want the agency doing its job, he said yesterday. The ATF has operated with a string of acting directors ever since 2015 when the last chief stood down. Bidens first nominee for the post withdrew amid opposition from gun industry groups and some politicians. Former president Donald Trumps nominee, a leader of the nations most powerful police union, also failed to win Senate confirmation to fill the spot. Loading Biden has now nominated former federal prosecutor Steven Dettelbach to be the ATPs new director and has asked the Senate to confirm him as soon as possible. Bendigo Bank has topped the list of Australias most trusted banks in an independent survey conducted by market research firm Roy Morgan. In the quarterly survey, which ranks a range of companies, Bendigo Banks trust ranking rose from 16th to 14th, reinforcing its position in the top 20. Bendigo Bank was the only bank that made the top 20 and its now the most trusted full service financial services institution in Australia. Bendigo and Adelaide Bank CEO and managing director Marnie Baker (pictured) thanked the 7,000 employees across the group for putting customers at the centre of everything the bank does and delivering the result. Our vision is to be Australia's bank of choice and we believe our success is driven by our purpose to feed into the prosperity of our customers and communities, not off them, Baker said. Read more: Adelaide Bank transforms technology platform The findings were contained in Roy Morgans quarterly update which allows consumers to describe in their own words why they trust or distrust a brand and uses the latest data and insights from more than 60,000 Australians. The outstanding result for Bendigo Bank follows Roy Morgans latest banking satisfaction ratings released last week, which revealed Bendigo Bank home loan customers were the most satisfied of any bank operating in Australia. In April, it also won the Readers Digest 2022 Bank of the Year Award. Read more: First-home buyers fear being priced out Whether it's buying your first home, upgraded home, investment property or saving with us, we can put you on the path to where you want to go, Baker said. Trust is a must, a key consideration when it comes to choosing your bank and Bendigo Bank will always put you, your family and your business first when it comes to providing your banking, investment and other financial services requirements. China determined to jointly advance international human rights cause for greater benefit of people across the world with other parties 09:04, May 27, 2022 By He Yin ( People's Daily Chinese President Xi Jinping meets via video link with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in Beijing, May 25, 2022. (Xinhua/Yue Yuewei) Chinese President Xi Jinping met via video link with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet in Beijing on May 25. During the meeting, he expounded on major issues regarding Chinas human rights cause in the context of Chinas history and culture, and reaffirmed the principled position of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Chinese government in upholding and protecting human rights in all areas. After decades of strenuous efforts, China has successfully found a path of human rights development in line with the trend of the times and its national reality, and provides better protection for the human rights of the Chinese people than ever. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, China has always upheld the spirits of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, actively participated in global human rights governance, and earnestly fulfilled its international human rights obligations. China has ratified or joined 28 international human rights instruments, including six core UN human rights treaties, and successfully participated in three rounds of Universal Periodic Review of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), becoming a role model of compliance. It has served as member of the UNHRC for five times, one of the most elected countries to the council. A fruit farmer picks cherries at an orchard in Zhongzhuang township, Yiyuan county, Zibo city, east Chinas Shandong province, May 24, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Zhang Kuifa) These facts and achievements not only represent the international communitys recognition of Chinas human rights progress, but show Chinas sincerity in actively conducting human rights dialogues and cooperation. To jointly advance the international human rights cause for the greater benefit of people across the world, Xi believes it is most important to work on the following four priorities: putting people front and center, respecting different countries paths of human rights development, following a holistic approach to all categories of human rights and stepping up global human rights governance. These four priorities, which were drawn from Chinas experience in driving the development of human rights cause, are issues that countries should pay special attention to in advancing international human rights cause. How a country is doing on human rights is essentially gauged by whether the interests of its people are upheld, and whether they enjoy a growing sense of fulfillment, happiness and security, which is the most important criterion for assessing the human rights conditions of a country, Xi said. Human rights have historical, specific and practical contexts, he pointed out, stressing that since countries have different national conditions, histories, cultures, social systems and levels of economic and social development, they should and can only explore suitable paths of human rights development in light of their national realities and peoples needs. Children play games at a kindergarten in Huaxi subdistrict, Changxing county, Huzhou city, east Chinas Zhejiang province, May 25, 2022. (Peoples Daily Online/Xu Binhua) Human rights are a rich and all-encompassing concept, and must be advanced with integrated and systematic measures, Xi said. The promotion and protection of human rights is a common cause for humanity that requires the concerted efforts of all, according to Xi. Xis suggestions have further charted the way forward for strengthening international exchanges and cooperation on human rights and improving global human rights governance. Over the years, China has actively conducted human rights dialogues and cooperation, contributing to the development of the international human rights cause. China has actively expanded exchanges and cooperation with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), cooperated with the special procedures of the UNHRC, and conducted human rights dialogues and exchanges with the U.S., the U.K., and the European Union as well as human rights consultations with Russia, Egypt and the African Union. Through exchanges conducted at home and abroad by social organizations, China has promoted mutual understanding and strengthened mutual trust among people from different countries, enriching the connotations of human rights and enhancing consensus on human rights. In September 2019, the Chinese government launched a foreign aid human resource development cooperation project in Vanuatu, under which Chinese experts taught agricultural technicians in Vanuatu how to build, use and maintain vegetable greenhouses, in a bid to help local people effectively solve the difficulty in planting vegetables during the rainy season. (Photo/China International Development Cooperation Agency) On the UNHRC and other multilateral occasions, China has shared its experience in the development of human rights with the international community, and promoted the incorporation of important concepts such as building a community with a shared future for mankind, promoting human rights through development, and facilitating win-win cooperation in human rights into UN resolutions, enriching the international human rights discourse system. When it comes to human rights issues, there is no such thing as a flawless utopia; countries do not need patronizing lecturers; still less should human rights issues be politicized, judged with double standards, or used as a tool or a pretext to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. Some Western countries, which have long been condescendingly lecturing other countries on human rights, have harped on others human rights situation and yet turned a blind eye to the serious human rights problems back home, which is typical act of double standard and hegemony. While exercising its rights in accordance with the law and speaking up for justice, China has made joint speeches on behalf of countries with similar views at the UNHRC for many times, telling true stories of human rights in China and exposing human rights violations in a few Western countries. In doing so, the country has not only firmly defended international fairness and justice and safeguarded the sovereignty and dignity of developing countries, but vigorously promoted international exchanges and cooperation on human rights as well as the healthy and orderly development of global human rights governance. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) Drone manufacturers are looking to double headcount in their organisations to develop new products and tap new markets in India and abroad. This comes on the back of fresh funding and policy initiatives that have simplified the production and operation of . Our staff strength is 60 and we expect to double the number in the coming quarter. Most of the new hires will be on the technology side in drone design, engineering, and pilots. We are also looking for people in senior roles in sales for our defence and private sector contracts, said Aakash Sinha, founder and chief executive officer of Omnipresent Robot Tech, a Delhi NCR-based firm that provides to the government for mapping villages and oil for inspection and surveys. ALSO READ - Making of India's drone economy He said business sentiment has improved in the last six months. We are getting larger orders from the government and private customers. We are about to bag a Rs 50-crore order from a state government, which will be our largest order till date, Sinha added. Similar is the case of ideaForge, which makes for defence, homeland security, and industrial applications. The last two years have been the best so far and our revenue has grown 10x, said Ankit Mehta, co-founder and CEO of ideaForge. Mehta founded the firm in 2007 and it currently employs 350-400 people (including contract staff). We will double our permanent staff from around 200 to 400 and most of the new hires would be in engineering functions, he added. Garuda Aerospace plans to increase its current headcount from 200 to around 1,500 by hiring drone pilots, engineers, and sales executives to serve both domestic and export markets that include UAE, Malaysia, Panama, and countries in Africa. We are scaling very quickly and sustainably, said Agnishwar Jayaprakash, founder-CEO of Garuda Aerospace. Along with drone manufacturing and services, the firm also provides clients with data analytics and artificial intelligence applications, Jayaprakash said. While ideaForge received $20 million in series B funding last month, Omnipresent Robot Tech raised an undisclosed amount from Zerodha co-founder Nikhil Kamaths investment firm in February. Most of our capex would be for development of new products and improving the effectiveness of existing solutions, Mehta said. Sinha said his firm will use funds for working capital and business expansion. We aim to expand our manufacturing and drone training facility in Gautam Buddha University, Sinha added. IdeaForge and Omnipresent Robot Tech are among the 14 firms that were selected as beneficiaries under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for drones last month. Last September the Centre cleared the scheme to make India a drone hub by 2030. It provides up to 20 per cent incentive to manufacturers of drones and drone components. The government hopes that the sector will attract investment of over Rs 5,000 crore and expects a jump in turnover from around Rs 60 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 900 crore in FY24. In some of our products, 70 per cent of components are indigenous. We are trying to double down on that and the PLI scheme will encourage us to do more local value addition, Mehta said. While the list of beneficiaries has been announced under PLI, it is imperative to expedite the granting of type certificates under the Drone Rules 2021. This becomes important especially since import of drones has been banned and boot in domestic manufacturing would largely be dependent on granting of the type certificate which is a prerequisite to commercial drone development, said Huzefa Tavawalla, head of disruptive technologies practice at Nishith Desai Associates. By Nidhi Verma NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India's largest gas transmitter is open to buying Russian assets shunned by Western after Moscow's invasion of Ukraine if the deal made commercial sense, the company's Chairman Manoj Jain said on Friday. European countries and the United States have imposed heavy sanctions on since Moscow sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24. and the EU has proposed its toughest package of punishments yet, including a ban on crude oil in 6 months. India has tried to balance its ties with and the West but unlike other members of the countries - the United States, Japan and Australia - it has not imposed sanctions on . "Why would anyone say no (to Russian assets) if it makes commercial sense," Jain told reporters at post-earnings press conference. reported a 39% rise in quarterly profit. is considering buying gas from challenging local fields to address surging local demand for natural gas, including striking long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) import deals with global . Jain said GAIL is scouting for a 10-year deal to annually import 1 million tonnes of LNG. Natural gas buyers in Asia are seeking to lock in supplies via long-term contracts as a buffer against volatile global prices, in moves that will reverse the last decade's trend of increasing spot purchases. GAIL has a long-term gas import deal with Marketing & Trading Singapore to buy an average 2.5 million tonnes of per year. Under the deal is progressively increasing supplies to GAIL, and shipped 2 million tonnes of LNG IN 2021. Supplies would rise to 2.5 million tonnes in 2022 and 2.85 million tonnes in 2023, a company official said on the sidelines of the conference. has informed GAIL that it was facing issues in procuring gas and has asked to reschedule a liquified natural gas (LNG) cargo, Jain said, adding that the Russian company could supply the committed volumes from its portfolio of assets. GAIL's imports of natural gas could increase 5-6% in this fiscal year to March 2023, Jain said, adding that he expected prices of LNG to be high for the next 12-18 months. Asian spot LNG prices have fallen about 50% from an all-time high in December, but are up nearly three-fold from levels seen in May 2021 as prices have rallied on tight global supplies. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Sudarshan Varadhan; Editing by Hugh Lawson and Louise Heavens) (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.) Chennai-based cement major posted a consolidated net loss of Rs 10.6 crore for Q4FY22, as compared to a net profit of Rs 50.2 crore during the same period last year owing to spiralling input costs and a loss of volume. The company's revenue from operations too, saw a marginal dip of 4 per cent during the quarter at Rs 1417.6 crore, as compared to Rs 1472.5 crore during the Q4FY21. The companys net profit for Q4FY22 was seen down 62 per cent at Rs 78.5 crore as compared to Rs 206.8 crore in Q4FY21. The company performed sub-optimally during the quarter with a cement volume of 26.29 lakh tonnes as compared to 26.66 lakh tonnes in January to March 2021 and the clinker volume of only 0.38 lakh tonnes as compared to 3.24 lakh tonnes in the previous year. The overall volume was at 26.57 lakh tonnes, a drop of 11 per cent as compared to 29.90 lakh tonnes in the previous year. For the year ended March 2022, the overall volume was at 90.70 lakh tonnes as compared to 89.02 lakh tonnes in the previous year, an increase of only 2 per cent. The spiralling prices of fuel along with the shortage in availability of the same affected the margins of the industry. The woes of the industry worsened further with the outbreak of Russia's war with Ukraine resulting in sanctions being imposed on Russia and its exports fuelling further shortage of coal and oil in the market, the company said in a statement. It added that while prices of diesel have shot up by more than 20 per cent during the year, the prices of coal, be it thermal coal or petcoke, skyrocketed and have more than doubled during the year. Coal prices also increased from $60 per tonne to $300 per tonne during the last one year adding to the pressure on the company. We are planning to go for three rounds of price hikes Rs 20 on June 1, Rs 15 on June 15 and Rs 20 on July 1 to reduce the pressure, said N Srinivasan, Managing Director of the company. has also set up an internal team to monetise its land assets for repayment of its debt. It is finally done. Manish Maheshwari, and director of Invact Metaversity has stepped down. The company has been in as both the founders, Maheshwari and Tanay Pratap, had differences on how to run the company. The company made the announcement of Maheshwari stepping down in a tweet: Over the last few days, we have been in the news, more than we have ever been! So here is the official update. Manish Maheshwari has stepped down from his position as Chief Executive Officer and Director of Invact, Inc. as of May 27, 2022. The tweet from the company also said: The decision to part ways was not an easy one, but ultimately, @manishm and @tanaypratap had diverging visions for the company's long-term prospects. Invact will continue and under leadership of Tanay will pursue its vision to make quality education accessible via Metaversity. Post the tweet from the companys official handle, both the founders took to Twitter to share their stand. Maheshwari, former Twitter India head in a tweet said: I am moving out of Invact to first take a break for a few months and then pursue new opportunities. It is heartbreaking for a founder to leave the startup, like a mother leaving her baby. I am going through the same emotion. We both are passionate and uncompromising about what we believe in, as founders usually are. While we are parting ways, we have fond memories of working together not just as colleagues, but also as brothers, he further tweeted. Pratap in a tweet said: Changes are often heartbreaking but sometimes necessary. We started together, built together, and celebrated together. Invact will continue to build on its vision of accessible quality education for all. Wishing Manish all the best for the future. Goodbyes are always hard. The difference between the founders came to the fore when Invacts angel investor Gergely Orosz publicly raised concerns on the conflict between the founders. On Maheshwaris stepping down from his role, Orosz said: With a startup, focusing on the future is more important than dwelling on the past. I keep being a proud investor and supporter of @invactHQ, of @tanaypratap and the whole team. I believe that the next big thing in EdTech might just come from India. According to reports, Orosoz in a letter to shareholders wrote that Maheshwari wanted more equity than vested. Both the founders have had differences over the vision and execution of the startup. Dear Reader, Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance. We, however, have a request. As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed. Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard. Digital Editor on Friday said its board has approved the sale of its large drives applications business to a subsidiary of AG for Rs 440 crore. "The Board of Directors of Limited has approved the sale and transfer of its Large Drives Applications (LDA) business to Siemens Large Drives India Private Ltd (a subsidiary of Siemens Large Drives GmbH, which in turn is a subsidiary of Siemens AG) with effect from July 1, 2022, and is subject to receipt of requisite statutory and regulatory approvals, as applicable," a company statement said. The LDA business within Siemens Ltd recorded revenue from operations of Rs 4,437 million for FY 2021 and an operating profit of Rs 251 million, it added. As of FY 2021, the LDA business contributed 3.4 per cent and two per cent, respectively, to the total revenue from operations and profit from operations of Siemens Ltd. Following a valuation done by an external independent valuer, the LDA business was approved for sale and transfer by the board for a consideration of Rs 4,400 million (Rs 440 crore). Siemens Ltd is a technology company focused on industry, infrastructure, transport as well as transmission and generation of electrical power. From more resource-efficient factories, resilient supply chains, and smarter buildings and grids, to cleaner and more comfortable transportation, the company creates technology with purpose, adding real value for customers. By combining the real and the digital worlds, Siemens empowers its customers to transform their industries and markets to transform the every day for people. Siemens Ltd is the flagship listed company of in India. As of September 30, 2021, Siemens Ltd had revenue from continuing operations of Rs 12,756 crore and 8,608 employees. (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.) (USL), a subsidiary of British beverage and alcohol firm Diageo, is selling its portfolio of 32 brands to Inbrew Breweries Private Ltd for Rs 820 crore. Inbrew is owned by Indian entrepreneur Ravi Deol. USL will retain the McDowells and Directors Special whiskey brands. The 32 brands sold include Haywards, Old Tavern, White-Mischief, Honey Bee, Green Label and Romanov. USL and Inbrew have entered into a five-year franchise arrangement for 11 other brands. USL has granted Inbrew the right to convert the fixed-term franchise arrangement into one with perpetual rights. The transaction reflects the continued evolution of the management of the Popular (sic) portfolio since 2016, when the company moved to a franchise model in many states, to enable a sharpened focus on Prestige & Above. This is a significant move to reshape our portfolio in service of our publicly stated mission to deliver sustained double digit profitable top-line growth, said Hina Nagarajan, Managing Director and chief executive officer of USL. The acquisition of these iconic brands provides Inbrew with a unique platform to extend its ambition of becoming Indias trusted household beverage company. These brands have delighted consumers over generations, and we are excited at the prospect of strengthening this legacy. Inbrew will revitalise these brands through expanded distribution, innovation and investments, said Deol, chairman of Inbrew. The sale will include the business undertakings associated with the brands, like related permits, intellectual property rights, associated employees, and manufacturing facilities. It follows USL reviewing its entire brand portfolio in order to increase its focus on premium and international brands. The one-year review was completed in March this year. In 2021, Inbrew also acquired the India business of Molson Coors, to sell and produce beer brands such as Miller, Carling, Blue Moon and Cobra in India. Deol launched in 2007 a special purpose acquisition vehicle (SPAC) called India Hospitality Corp (IHC), which raised $175 million in the Alternative Investment Market, UK. With the funding, IHC acquired a portfolio of operating in India including SkyGourmet, an air catering firm, Mars Restaurants, and Gordon House of boutique hotels. SkyGourmet, under Deels leadership, was acquired by Swiss giant Gategroup AG in 2011. Deol also set up Barista Coffee in late 1999 which was acquired by Tata Beverages in 2005 and was later owned by Lavazza S.p.A. of Italy. In 2006, Ravi created Indias first global retail joint-venture between Bharti and Wal-Mart. stock closed at Rs 779 a share, up 2.43 per cent, on Friday, giving a total market valuation of Rs 56,579 crore. owns 57 per cent stake in the Indian arm. has a comprehensive brand portfolio with over 80 brands of Scotch whisky, IMFL whisky, brandy, rum, vodka and gin. Nine of these brands sell more than a million cases annually. The company produces and sells around 80 million cases in India. had acquired United Spirits from Vijay Mallya, now a fugitive wanted by the Indian authorities, for $2.1 billion in November 2012--in its bid into the fast growing Indian market. The on Friday cleared Aryan Khan, son of Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan, of all charges in the drugs-on-cruise case, reports news agency PTI. Khan was also excluded in the chargesheet filed by the NCB related to the case. All accused in the case related to a seizure of drugs from a cruise ship were found in possession of narcotics, except and Mohak, NCB's DDG (Operations) Sanjay Kumar Singh said in a statement. Singh added, "A complaint against 14 persons under various sections of the NDPS Act is being filed. Complaint against rest six persons is not being filed due to a lack of evidence." Khan, 24, was arrested on October 3 last year in connection with the seizure of banned drugs on board a cruise ship off the Mumbai coast. The narcotics agency busted an alleged drugs party on the Cordelia Cruise ship that was on its way to Goa at mid-sea on October 2. The 24-year-old was in judicial custody and lodged at the Arthur Road prison in Mumbai. In his plea, Khan had claimed that he was innocent and has not committed any crime and that he has been falsely implicated in the case. Khan and seven others were detained by NCB officers after they raided the cruise ship on its way from Mumbai to Goa. He was given bail on October 28, 2021, after 25 days in jail. The from the pre-monsoon flood in rose to 30 as two more deaths were reported on Thursday, officials said, adding at least 5.61 people remained affected in the state's 12 districts even as the flood situation saw some marginal improvement. State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) officials said that an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) of seven members arrived in Guwahati on Thursday to study the flood-ravaged districts. To accelerate an effective damage assessment, IMCT members would be divided into two groups for visiting the affected districts. The one group including the IMCT leader Ravinesh Kumar, Financial Advisor, Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) of the Home Ministry, will visit Cachar and Dima Hasao districts on Friday and Saturday while another would visit Darrang, Nagaon and Hojai districts on May 27-28. According to the ASDMA officials, despite some improvement in the flood situation, at least 5,61,149 people, including 1,13,139 children of 956 villages have now been affected in 12 of the state's 34 districts. Of the 30 deaths, 25, including children, died in and remaining five in landslides in different districts. Over 47,139 hectares of crop areas remained affected in flood-hit areas, an ASDMA statement said. Altogether, 66,836 people are staying in the 295 relief camps, while the district administrations have also opened 70 relief distribution centres in all the affected areas. Out of the 12 flood affected districts, the highest number of 3,68,188 people were affected in Nagaon districts alone followed by 1,49,995 people in Cachar and 41,036 in Morigaon district. The Army, the Indian Air Force (IAF), the Assam Rifles, various para-military forces, the Disaster Response Force, and the State Disaster Response Force, Civil Defence along with the district administrations continue to work round the clock to rescue the stranded people and to provide relief to the marooned men, women and children. The IAF has air-dropped the most essential supplies in the flood affected areas through 20 shuttles/ trips of helicopters from Guwahati, Jorhat and Silchar. The water of Kopili river was flowing above the danger level in several places. --IANS sc/pgh (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Asserting that the country's first lavender festival in Jammu and Kashmir's Bhaderwah has been possible only by the progressive thinking of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Minister Thursday said Bhaderwah is the potential destination of agri-tech start-ups in the country. He said this government believes in the principle of "appeasement to none, justice for all" and doesn't discriminate on the basis of region, religion or caste. "Bhaderwah is the potential destination of agri-tech in the country. Bhaderwah as the birthplace of India's purple revolution," Singh said, while addressing a public rally after inaugurating the country's first 'Lavender Festival' in Bhaderwah belt of Doda district. He said the county's "disconnected" regions must be connected to the mainstream through development. He said the government wants that the benefits of all its schemes should reach the last man in the last queue. Singh also inaugurated six distillation units under CSIR-IIIM for lavender situated at six different places. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Aligarh Muslim University successfully concluded the phase-3 trial of country's indigenous Covid-19 - Covaxin - at its Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC). Principal Investigator, Prof Mohammad Shameem along with his team members apprised the Vice Chancellor, Prof Tariq Mansoor about it and expressed their gratitude for his "constant support and motivation throughout the trial". AMU Registrar Abdul Hamid, IPS was also present on the occasion. The Vice Chancellor, who was also Co-Principal Investigator, congratulated Prof Shameem and the entire team "for the hard work, dedication and perseverance while braving the peak phases of the pandemic for conducting the study and maintaining confidence amongst the volunteers". Chairman & Managing Director, International Limited (BBIL), Krishna M. Ella appreciated Prof Mansoor and the team for the "mega" task and hoped to collaborate with the AMU in future research also. The phase-3 trial for Covaxin was done in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and BBIL. It was approved by the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) in November 2020 and the volunteers were recruited for the trial. "AMU was the first to enroll 1,000 volunteers for the trial. The reputation of AMU and constant support and encouragement provided by the VC was paramount in developing confidence among volunteers," Prof Shameem said, adding that the report of the trial has been submitted to the ICMR. The team members for the trial included Samia Kirmani, Arbaaz Alam Khan, Azimuddin Malik as Scientist B (Medical), Shariq Ahmad, Nafees Ahmad Khan, and Obaid Imtiyazul Haque as Sub-Investigators. --IANS brijkhandelwal/shs (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.) Two incidents were reported at in south and at Makkar Multispeciality Hospital in the eastern parts of the city on Friday morning but there was no casualty, officials said. Four tenders were rushed to Makkar Multispeciality Hospital in east Delhi's Laxmi Nagar after a on the terrace of the facility was reported at 8.10 am, they said. The blaze has been brought under control. At Safdarjung Hospital, a fire was reported at 8.45 am. The stabiliser of an elevator had caught fire on the second floor of the building, the fire department said. Seven to eight fire tenders were rushed to the spot and the flames were brought under control, the officials said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Special Court of Delhi sentenced former Chief Minister to four years imprisonment in a disproportionate assets (DA) case. The court also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the former chief minister. Special Judge Vikas Dhull also directed the authorities concerned to confiscate four of his properties. Dhull had last week convicted Chautala and said that the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such disproportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which, he acquired assets during the check period. "Hence, accused is convicted for the offence under Section 13(1)(e) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. Put up 26.05.2022 at 10.00 a.m. for arguments on the point of sentence," said the court. According to the CBI's FIR accused Om Prakash Chautala, while functioning as Chief Minister of during the period from July 24, 1999, to March 5, 2005, in collusion with his family members and others, accumulated assets, immovable and movable, disproportionate to his known lawful sources of income, in his name, in the names of his family members and others to the extent of Rs.1467 crores. FIR further stated that the accused accumulated enormous wealth and invested the same throughout the country in the shape of thousands of acres of land, multi complexes, palatial residential houses, hotels, farmhouses, business agencies, petrol pumps and other investments apart from investments in foreign countries. FIR also stated that 43 immovable properties in all, apart from cash and jewellery were accumulated. Apart from 43 alleged properties listed in the FIR, additional properties were also suspected to be of the accused family. An investigation with regard to additional properties was also conducted for ascertaining the link of the accused family with the said properties. The chargesheet filed in the matter after the conclusion of the investigation stated that accused OP Chautala had acquired assets, both immovable and movable, which were disproportionate to his known source of income. The disproportionate assets were calculated to be Rs.6,09,79,026/- (Rupees Six Crores Nine Lacs Seventy Nine Thousand and Twenty Six only) and the percentage of DA (Disproportionate Assets) was 189.11 per cent of his known sources of income. Accordingly, had chargesheeted the accused for the offence under Section 13(1)(e) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Apart from the charge sheet filed against the accused OP Chautala, the had filed two more charge sheets arising out of the present FIR, against the sons of the accused i.e. Abhay Singh Chautala and Ajay Singh Chautala and others, which are being tried separately. is a former Chief Minister of from the Indian Lok Dal and son of sixth Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhary Devi Lal. Chautala was recently released from the Tihar Jail on July 2, 2021, from a ten years prison sentence after completing the due formalities. He and 53 others, in June 2008, were charged in connection with the appointment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in the state of Haryana during 1999-2000. In January 2013, a New Delhi court sentenced Chautala and his son Ajay Singh Chautala to ten years' imprisonment under various provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. . The way things are progressing between the two negotiating teams, a (FTA) between India and the could be ready by Diwali without the need for an interim early harvest agreement, said Commerce and Industry Minister during a visit to the . The minister arrived in London from the World Economic Forum in Davos to stock-take and interact with stakeholders and business people ahead of the fourth round of FTA negotiations, set for June 13 in the . During a curtain raiser event on Thursday evening for the annual UK-India Week by India Global Forum (IGF) scheduled from June 27, Goyal pointed to the FTAs concluded at speed with the UAE and Australia as a sign of things to come. "Canada is progressing well towards an early harvest agreement. With the UK, we had agreed to do an early harvest agreement basically, to grab the low-hanging fruits and leave the more difficult elements for the next stage and give the people of both countries the confidence that this agreement is a win-win, the minister said. But the way things are progressing, we'll actually land up doing a full FTA with the UK by Diwali. I have had very good meetings on it, he said. Diwali in October was set as a timeline for a draft FTA after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to India last month. Indian High Commissioner Gaitri Issar Kumar revealed at the event that Prime Minister Johnson has already extended an invitation to his Indian counterpart to visit the UK to sign off on the draft agreement once it is ready later in the year. Asked about the points of contention in the path of such a tight timeline, Goyal said: Our approach is that we are very honest and upfront in our constraints, yet willing to be sensitive to the concerns of the other country. He went on to highlight the "relentless work, study, focus and engagement with stakeholders" that is required in the entire process towards an FTA. You are actually writing out the destiny of your trading relations between two nations for the next 30 or 50 years. Particularly in this current world where there is so much dichotomy between countries, so much distrust the world has realised that they would rather work with a trusted partner like India, the minister said. When you do a trade deal, you are crystal gazing 30-50 years into the future, so you have to be very careful. I can't afford to make a mistake everybody has to be very cautious. Lots of modelling has to be done, he said. The minister noted that India, as one of the fastest growing economies of the world, even growing at a modest 8 per cent every year would be 10 times from where the economy is now at the least. That is the opportunity on offer for a fair and equitable agreement which is what was understood in the UAE and Australia, which is why we were able to close fast, he said. Earlier on Thursday, the minister said he held productive discussions on carrying forward the ongoing FTA negotiations to further boost the India-UK trade and investment partnership during talks with his UK counterpart, Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan. We discussed progress of ongoing trade talks; opportunities to unlock the full potential of our trade and commercial relationship already worth over 24 billion pounds; and opening new markets for businesses in both the UK and India, said Trevelyan. The two ministers also co-hosted a Small Business Round Table to discuss the opportunities on offer for businesses with an FTA. Goyal will hold further talks with business and industry on Friday during his two-day visit to Britain. Total trade between India and UK stood at USD 16 billion FY 2021-2022 (Apr-Feb). The UK was India's 17th largest trading partner during the period of FY 2021-2022 (Apr-Feb), according to latest official figures available on the website of the Indian High Commission here. (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.) Author Geetanjali Shree's International win has opened a window of opportunity for other deserving Hindi titles waiting for their share of readers and translations, Hindi said on Friday. "Tomb of Sand" originally titled "Ret Ki Samadhi" is the first Hindi work translated to English to have received the coveted recognition. The book was translated by author-translator Daisy Rockwell. The cash prize of 50,000 Pounds is split between the author and the translator equally. The New Delhi-based author of three novels and several story collections, Shree has gotten her works translated into English, French, German, Serbian and Korean. "Geetanjali Shree's translation winning the Booker opens a new window of hope to Hindi writing. Due to lack of good translations and publishers interested in them, so many illustrious works of Hindi have failed to reach the canon of world-class literature. Celebrations are on at this benchmark for Hindi and readers," Sahitya Akademi Award winning Hindi novelist Alka Saraogi told PTI. According to veteran Hindi writer Prayag Shukla, who claimed he was the first one to write a review of 'Ret Ki Samadhi', said it can't get bigger and that Hindi literature is on its way to get its due status globally. "It was bound to happen. The translation works of Hindi literature into various languages, including French and German, in the past few years have been really good. And it is the culmination of this that today Geetanjali, whom I have known since her teenage years as a very talented writer, has won the award. "I am very happy and very hopeful of the future of Hindi literature. You will see translations of Hindi literature picking up pace 20 times more than ever," the 82-year-old, author of several bestsellers, including "Bite Kitane Barasa" and "Ghara Aura Bahara". The 64-year-old Uttar Pradesh-born author winning the prize was that much more special for Rachna Yadav, managing director of Hans the largest Hindi literary magazine in India -- who said the author's first work, a short story titled "Bel Patra", was published in their magazine only in the late 1980s. The magazine, which was founded by Munshi Premchand and had ceased publication in 1953, was re-launched by Rachna's father, the late Hindi author Rajendra Yadav, in 1986. "It is such a proud moment for us because we consider Shreeji a Hans writer. My father selected her works and published her three stories almost one after the other-- which was really rare in Hans. I am certain that her success will give the desired push to Hindi literature and lead to more translations -- and more importantly good quality translations," said Yadav. Set in northern India, the much-acclaimed book is a story about an 80-year-old woman who travels to Pakistan to confront the unresolved trauma of her teenage experiences of partition and re-evaluates what it means to be a mother, a daughter, a woman and a feminist. Not only the veterans, the 64-year-old author's achievement has brought a new sense of purpose and hope in the current generation of Hindi writers as well. For instance, writer-filmmaker Era Tak, who did admit to once contemplating to start start writing in English, said Shree's unprecedented achievement tells us that language is no barrier and "strong content along with proper platform" is all that you need to attain success. "People would always say Hindi writing has no scope. And I, a Penguin author, would sometimes ask myself, 'Shall I also write in English only?' But this award gives us hope that if what you have written is good, it will be appreciated across the world," the author of "Raat Paheli" and "Risk @Ishq" said. "I hope the publishers will now be forthcoming in translating works of Hindi writers, at least in English. Because once done in English, it can be translated into other languages and the reach increases not only globally, but also in India," Tak added. That said, there is a word of caution from bestselling author Naveen Chaudhary, who though immensely proud of the recognition coming the Hindi language way, said the immediate chances of other Hindi books feeding off from this rare achievement stands low. Even the Oscar-winning movies don't attain the global viewership immediately, things take time. So I don't see any visible change in the Hindi literature market -- not at least in the coming six months or a year, noted Choudhary, who previously also held the position of associate director of marketing at Oxford University Press. "Yes, there might be an increase in sales of this (Ret Ki Samadhi) book, but any other Hindi book is still going to sell on the basis of its content and the way it is marketed. But immediately, I am not sure how much boost it is going to give to Hindi literature," the author of "Janta Store" and "Dhaai Chal" said. Shree's novel was chosen from a shortlist of six books, the others being: "Cursed Bunny" by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur from Korean; "A New Name: Septology VI-VII" by Jon Fosse, translated by Damion Searls from Norwegian; "Heaven" by Mieko Kawakami, translated by Samuel Bett and David Boyd from Japanese; "Elena Knows" by Claudia Pineiro, translated by Frances Riddle from Spanish; and "The Books of Jacob" by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Jennifer Croft from Polish. (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.) India must adopt an "aggressive approach" to attract multinational corporations to set up and expand their bases in the country, a top Indian-American business advocacy group has said, observing the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is leading to a tectonic shift in global trade. "I think India has to play a much more aggressive approach to these corporations. Having a direct dialogue with these corporations and tells them: 'what do you need', 'what can be done for you to come invest in India?'" Mukesh Aghi, president, US-India Strategic and Partnership Forum (USISPF) told PTI in an interview. Every corporation has a unique requirement, he said. "Yes, you can't change the law. But you can define a broad-based policy, which makes it attractive for a lot of these companies to come into India. That's where India has to reach out to these companies, understand the requirements and then put in place a set of policies which become uniform," he said. Aghi said there have been some efforts but those are more of a transactional effort rather than a uniform or a cohesive approach on this. Aghi said at some point of time India will need to think about its relationship with Russia. He pointed out when US President Joe Biden was meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tokyo as part of the Quad summit this week, the Russian and Chinese governments were flying long-range bombers over the Sea of Japan. "The message was very clear from Russia, that its partner, and his allegiance lies with China and the Indo-Pacific region, rather than India. And to me, it was very stark, that while the Prime Minister of India is there, you have Russian bombers threatening or taking a threatening posture along with the Chinese. To me that's a very clear message that India has to start thinking about its position with Russia," he said. In response to the over two-month-long Russia-Ukraine war, India has called for respect of territorial integrity of nations and the United Nations Charter. However, New Delhi has not condemned Russia directly. "The question really becomes: at what stage India will come out and condemn it. I think India as an emerging power has to start taking some positions, which may upset other nations, but that's the nature of the beast when you are becoming a leading power," Aghi said. One thing that has come out clearly from the Ukraine war is that Russian equipment has not performed well, he said. "Russian Defense Forces and the equipment have been destroyed substantially. Russia's economic embargo means chips and semiconductors are not moving into Russia. So, Russia will have difficulty providing spare parts not only for his own armed forces, but for countries like India, he said. "So India has to seriously start thinking what are the alternatives. At the end of the day, India's biggest challenge is China, not Russia. And we've had in the last two years, physical invasion and killing by Chinese and Indian soldiers. That's where the bigger enemy lies. India has to look at its supply side; this defense strategy from that perspective - as Russia gets weaker both from a supply chain perspective and also as a military problem? Aghi said. According to Aghi, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has changed in some way the global order, especially the balance of power. We are seeing tectonic shifts taking place, he said. "Corporate America got weaponised by having to pull out of Russia overnight, and that was not a diktat from the US government. It was a consumer sentiment which drove that decision making. There's a tremendous amount of empathy for Ukraine and that influences boardroom thinking about being or not to be within Russia and the majority of the companies have pulled out of Russia, he said. Now the question you have is among the boardroom discussion taking place is what happens if China invades Taiwan then what happens to our investments in China? More important is what is our backup strategy? Yes, you can bring back a lot of stuff manufacturing to the United States, but a lot of them won't come in because of lack of resources, lack of manpower, he said. And that's where India becomes a critical player, both from a market perspective and also from a manufacturing perspective. I think that's where you need to leverage all of India's attractive market for these companies to come in and start having a China response strategy as things move forward, Aghi said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Advisor Ajit Doval, while taking part in the 4th Regional Security Dialogue on in Dushanbe on Friday, highlighted that India was and is an important stakeholder in and asserted that "nothing can change this." Following the 3rd Regional Security Dialogue on held in New Delhi in November 2021, the Advisors of Tajikistan, India, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Iran, Kyrgyzstan and China took part in the regional security dialogue on Afghanistan in Dushanbe. Taking forward the spirit encapsulated in the Delhi Declaration, the NSAs discussed the situation in Afghanistan and the region. The NSAs highlighted the need to find constructive ways to ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan and combat risks from terrorism emanating from the region. "India was and is an important stakeholder in Afghanistan. Special relationship with the people of Afghanistan over centuries will guide India's approach, nothing can change this," Doval added. According to sources, NSA took the opportunity to meet his counterparts from Iran, Tajikistan, Russia and other partners in the Dialogue on the sidelines of the meeting. Doval told his counterparts that the people of Afghanistan have a special place. NSA Doval highlighted the need for representation of all sections of Afghan society including women and minorities so that the collective energies of the largest possible proportion of the Afghan population feel motivated to contribute to nation-building. India has focused on infrastructure, connectivity and humanitarian assistance over the decades. After August 2021, India has already provided 17000 MT of Wheat out of a total commitment of 50000 MT, 500000 doses of Covaxin, 13 tons of essential life-saving medicines and winter clothing as well as 60 million doses of polio vaccine NSA also reiterated India's position on the distribution of aid to all sections of society. He highlighted, "Assistance should be accessible to all, respect for all obligations under international humanitarian law should be ensured." Emphasizing on the rights of women at the meet, Doval said, "Women and youth are critical for the future of any society. Provision of education to girls and employment to women and youth will ensure productivity and spur growth. It will also have a positive social impact including discouraging radical ideologies among youth." . (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Southwest may hit the coast in 2-3 days but the onset might not be as strong as predicted earlier, according to some weathermen. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) as well as private weather forecasting agency Skymet had predicted that the will hit the mainland on May 26 or 27. Both the forecasts were with a model error of plus or minus four days. According to the latest meteorological indications, westerly winds have strengthened in the lower levels over the south Arabian Sea and deepened. There is an increase in cloudiness over coast and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea. Hence, conditions are becoming favourable for the monsoons onset over during the next 2-3 days. Further, conditions are also favourable for the advance of Southwest into some more parts of Arabian Sea and Lakshadweep area during the same period, the Met department said in its latest weather advisory. In all likelihood, the monsoon will hit the Kerala coast before June 1, Mahesh Palawat, vice-president of meteorology and climate change at Skymet Weather, told Business Standard. But Palawat warned that the onset may not be as strong as expected earlier because southwesterly winds havent gathered much pace. There wont be any heavy downpour with the onset of monsoon and rains will remain within the range in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, which can be called a weak onset, Palawat said. Earlier, a senior Met department official discounted the fact that rains have been delayed. He said that though the monsoon did not arrive on May 27 but it was still within the range which was plus or minus four days. For us, the onset of monsoon has not been delayed, because according to our (IMDs) parameters, if the rain arrives within the standard deviation range, it is considered as a normal onset, the official clarified. A timely onset of monsoon, though a good sign, does not guarantee a strong progress across the country. However, if the rains arrive on time in the key agriculture regions of Central, North and West India, it could spur sowing of kharif crops where acreage this year is expected to be good. This is due to remunerative returns to farmers in the just-concluded rabi harvest. Farm production depends not only on the quantum of total rains but timeliness and geographical spread of the monsoon. Already, Skymet has said that monsoon in the first half of the 2022 season (June and July) is expected to be much better than the second half. This could have a serious impact on the final harvest of crops because July and August are the most important months in terms of total quantum of rains in the four-month season. Last month, the predicted that the over the country as a whole in 2022 is expected to be normal at 99 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA). The forecast is with a model error of plus or minus 5 per cent. Monsoon between 96 and 104 per cent of the LPA is considered normal. Earlier, Skymet had said that the in 2022 was expected to be normal at 98 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA). Skymets forecast, too, is with an error margin of plus or minus 5 per cent. Setting another milestone in the health care sector, has registered a 39-point decline in (IMR) in a span of 15 years, which is the "highest in the country", the chief minister's office said on Thursday. Odisha's IMR now stands at 36 per 1000 live births, the CMO stated. With effective implementation of quality healthcare services & focus on safe institutional delivery of women, # has registered highest point decline of 39 in in the country from 2005 to 2020. Odisha's IMR stands at 36/1000 live births#OdishaLeads (sic)," the CMO said on Twitter. was followed by Rajasthan, which recorded a 36-point decline in IMR between 2005 and 2022. Patnaik congratulated the departments concerned for the achievement, according to a release issued by the government. He also held a meeting during the day to review the implementation of Mo Sarkar' (my government), a programme launched in the state in 2019 to seek feedback from common people on the government's style of functioning. "During interactions with people, I have found out that they are happy that the initiative has prompted behavioural changes in government department officials. It is good to know that government employees are rendering services honestly and sincerely," he maintained. (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.) Two days after the Delhi chief urged the Centre to test the capital's water quality, DJB vice-chairman Saurabh Bharadwaj on Friday said the exercise should cover Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh as well. Addressing a press conference at the headquarters here, Bharadwaj said he has written a letter to Union Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, apprising him of the prevailing "crisis" due to contaminated water in the four BJP-ruled states. Delhi president Adesh Gupta had on Tuesday urged the Union jal shakti minister to order a test of the quality of water being supplied in the capital, alleging that people consuming it were falling sick. In a letter, the leader alleged that people were compelled to drink "smelly and contaminated" water, and demanded that cases be registered against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Water Minister Satyendar Jain and (DJB) vice-chairman Bharadwaj. "He (Shekhawat) is a central water minister, and if he pays attention to Delhi only, the hearts of those living in other states will be broken. They will feel they are being ignored," Bharadwaj said. "So, I sincerely request the Union water minister to order a probe into the quality of water available in these (four) states as well." The leader claimed that major cities of Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Palanpur, Mehsana, Patan, Banaskantha and Sabarkantha, have been staring at "a huge crisis due to highly contaminated water". "Gujarat, a BJP-ruled state, faces a huge water shortage. This claim has been made repeatedly by BJP leaders from Patan and Banaskantha. Some days back, in Gandhinagar, 554 people fell ill because of consuming contaminated water. Prior to that, over 50 students in Kutch fell terribly ill and were hospitalised due to contaminated water," he added. In Himachal Pradesh, the level of contamination in groundwater and river water was so high that the high court summoned and pulled up the chief secretary for this, Bharadwaj claimed. In Uttar Pradesh, people in cities like Bundelkhand, Mirzapur, Mahoba, Sonbhadra, Ghaziabad and Firozabad were forced to drink sewer-like water on top of a water shortage, he claimed. "People are complaining of jaundice, typhoid and liver-related diseases due to consumption of contaminated water in Madhya Pradesh," the leader added. The DJB vice-chairman said he has apprised the Union minister of the prevailing situation "in other states like BJP-ruled Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh", and requested him to add these four states in his list for ordering a probe. "Under the Jal Jeevan Mission being run in Uttar Pradesh, they are buying pipes from such companies that have been blacklisted by about half-a-dozen states," he alleged. Bharadwaj, however, refuted the Delhi BJP chief's allegations, and said water quality of 90 percent of samples collected in the capital were found to be "good". Whenever complaints come, attempts are made to address the problem, he added. The Delhi BJP hit back at the AAP leader, and said people of Delhi were "shocked" to see him deny "the water crisis" in the national capital. "Bhardwaj has in his letter tried to suppress Delhi's by raising problems of other states. He has played with emotions of people of Delhi especially those living in low-end colonies, clusters and villages," Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said in a statement. It is sad that the vice-chairman, instead of trying to resolve the water crisis, is trying to mislead the people of Delhi "with his politically motivated statements", he added. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Former Congress chief on Friday remembered India's first prime minister on his death anniversary and described him as an institution-builder who strengthened our democratic roots, but lamented that the has weakened democracy by bulldozing institutions. He said India now needs a "Bharat jodo" more than ever before. His reference was towards uniting India in the present atmosphere. The Congress is holding a "Bharat jodo" yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir on Gandhi Jayanti. "IIT, IIM, LIC, ITI, BHEL, NID, BARC, AIIMS, ISRO, SAIL, ONGC, DRDO...Nehru ji was an institution builder who strengthened our democratic roots. In 8 yrs, has weakened democracy by bulldozing institutions. India needs #BharatJodo now more than ever," Gandhi said on Twitter. In another tweet, he shared a video showing pictures of Nehru with world leaders and how they described Nehru. "58 years since his passing, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's ideas, politics, and vision for our Nation are as relevant as they have ever been. May the values of this immortal son of India always guide our actions and conscience," Gandhi also said. The Congress on Friday observed the death anniversary of Nehru with top party leaders paying rich tributes to him at his memorial in the national capital. Some leaders also took to Twitter to pay their homage and remember him. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a two-day visit to Karnataka, participated in a yoga session with Indian Navy personnel at Karwar on Friday. The 8th edition of International Day of Yoga is being promoted through multiple programmes by the Ministry to take the message of Yoga across the world to a wider audience. A curtain raiser event to mark the 100 days countdown to International Day of Yoga was celebrated on March 13 while a 75-day countdown event was organized at the Red Fort in Delhi. Earlier, Singh interacted with Indian Navy personnel and their families in Karwar on Thursday night. "Delighted to interact with the Indian Navy personnel and their families at Karnataka Naval Area in Karwar. Our Defence personnel serve the nation diligently and keep our country safe and secure. Their family members also serve the country by giving them support and strength," said the Minister in a Twitter post. (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.) Sri Lankan High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda on Friday met Finance Minister and explored the possibility of India increasing its financial assistance to the island nation to help it deal with its severe . In the meeting, Moragoda reiterated that would require "bridging finance" until the economic adjustment programme with the IMF could be negotiated and finalised, according to the Sri Lankan High Commission. "In this context, the minister and the High Commissioner explored the possibility of increasing and restructuring the assistance provided by India in the form of credits for essential commodities and fuel as well as the balance of payment support," it said in a statement. It said the high commissioner and the Indian finance minister evaluated the status of ongoing economic cooperation and discuss the way forward. "High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Minister Sitharaman for the continuation of assistance that India is extending to in the form of credits for essential commodities and fuel, and also for the balance of payment support," the mission said. "He particularly appreciated her taking up the case of on the sidelines of the IMF Spring Meetings in April in Washington DC, with the IMF, other multilateral institutions and bilateral development partners," it said. Moragoda briefed Sitharaman on the present developments in Sri Lanka. The meeting took place in the midst of widespread protests in Sri Lanka over the severe . (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The collegium has recommended transfer of six judges. A three-member collegium comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices UU Lalit and AM Khanwilkar, which deals with transfer/repatriation/elevation of judges of high courts has recommended the transfer of the six judges. Among the judges who have been transferred include Justice Purushaindra Kumar Gaurav from Madhya Pradesh to Delhi and Justice Ahsanuddin Amanulllah from Andhra Pradesh High Court to Patna High Court. The collegium's decision, which was uploaded on the apex court website, said Justice Chitta Ranjan Dash has been transferred from the Orissa High Court to Calcutta High Court and Justice Subhasis Talapatra has been transferred from the Tripura High Court to the Orissa High Court. Justice Lanusungkum Jamir has been transferred from the Manipur High Court to the Gauhati High Court and Justice Dhiraj Singh Thakur has been transferred from the Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh High Court to the Bombay High Court. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) When Hurricane Katrina ripped through the US Gulf Coast in 2005, one seemingly unlikely entity came to the aid of people in desperate need of food and medical supplies: a transatlantic military alliance forged in the depths of the Cold War. NATOs disaster-relief capacity is one aspect of a vast, multifaceted mission that spans a hemisphere and has serious implications for its member states. Its architecture is now drawing greater attention as it moves to expand. Finlandization may have become a byword for hardened neutrality over the years, yet Finland is seeking entry in response to Russias eye-opening invasion of Ukraine. Sweden, too, has bucked its longstanding independence by applying to join. This planned enlargement has the complete backing of the US, a place with a history of criticism; in particular of the Article 5 obligation to assist allies potentially less keen on military spending. Skeptical Americans may want to note, however, that the first time Article 5 was ever invoked was in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US. is the most successful political and defense alliance in the history of nation states, said former Finnish Prime Minister Alexander Stubb. It won the Cold War without firing a shot. The benefit of NATO membership is therefore primarily preventative. A sort of insurance policy for sovereignty, with premiums paid through a commitment to cooperate. Just its mere existence is a repellent, Stubb said. When NATO decides to act, the alliance requests that forces from member countries be placed under NATO command. It says it currently has the ability to summon nearly 3.5 million troops, personnel, and civilians. Tensions over sharing the burden of military spending among member states have occasionally worsened. Former US President Donald Trump criticized European members relentlessly for related shortcomings. Russias onslaught in Ukraine seems to have ended those quarrels, by triggering a new eagerness to invest. Flirting yes, marrying no! Finland and Sweden are not the only traditionally neutral countries warming to NATO. In Switzerland, where the Cold War prompted intensive bunker building designed for a doggedly independent existence, one military leader recently raised eyebrows by describing the best approach to NATO as flirting yes, marrying no! The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created in 1949, as the Cold War was heating up. About a decade later, Orson Welles narrated a surprisingly-poetic film promoting the alliances virtues. By that time, NATO membership had grown from 12 to 15 and would reach 16 by the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the 1990s, countries formerly dominated by the Soviet Union started filing entry applications, eventually expanding the roster to 30 even as some questioned the need for NATOs continued existence. NATOs open door policy means any European country willing to shoulder related obligations can apply for entry. In addition to Finland and Sweden, current applicants include Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, and Georgia a country that was itself invaded by Russia in 2008. As it has expanded, NATO has sought to improve its speed and efficiency by developing new ways of collaborating between US and European outposts, and by forming a 1 billion euros innovation fund. Since the beginning of Russias invasion in February, alliance members have provided billions of dollars-worth of drones, missiles, ammunition and other weapons for Ukraines defense. As a result, even though Ukraine is not a NATO member despite longstanding efforts to join, it has nonetheless been able to receive large-scale military support from NATO members. Some may therefore wonder whether seeking official membership is truly worthwhile. That's possibly a question best put to current NATO member states that were also once in the Soviet orbit the ones that have not been invaded. India was at the centre of many dialogues on emerging issues ranging from crypto technologies to . More than one hundred Indian delegates which included CEOs, unicorn founders and political leaders were at . "In terms of numbers and specifically when it comes to government, we have record numbers from India," said Sriram Gutta, head of India agenda at the Forum. "We currently work with many states on diverse initiatives, including food innovation and agri tech, advanced manufacturing and production, drones, and electric vehicles, among others." The (WEF) launched the India chapter of the Alliance of CEO Climate Action Leaders on Monday to supercharge India's climate action and decarbonisation efforts. Here's on wrap on what happened at Davos: Russia-Ukraine War With countless sessions about the ongoing impact of Russia's invasion, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Ministry Dmytro Kuleba both thanked the international community for their support. Zelenskyy called for "maximum sanctions" on Russia, including a ban on all Russian banks, a Russian oil embargo and stopping all trade with Russia. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Spain Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez all issued calls for continued unity. "This is not a matter of Ukraine's survival. It is not about Europe. It is about the entire global community. Ukraine must win this war and Putin's aggression must be countered and we will do everything to ensure that," the ECB President said. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's message? We can't allow Russia to win this war. Food and energy crisis Food and energy security and two crises linked to the war in Ukraine were also high on the agenda this year. Speaking on Day 1 of the Annual Meeting, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said that it was the first truly global energy crisis, while on Wednesday Dmytro Kuleba warned that Ukraine will face a multi-year food crisis if things don't change Addressing the event India at 75: Strategic Outlook, Commerce minister Piyush Goyal said even as challenges continue to remain on the economic front, the Indian government is conscious of moving forward and is aware of what to focus on. Climate change Linked to energy is the environment and the ever-changing climate, but Birol said world shouldn't need to chose between a climate and energy crisis. US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry launched First Movers Coalition, a global initiative aimed at decarbonising the heavy industry and long-distance transport sectors responsible for 30 per cent of global emissions. China has pledged to plant and conserve 70 billion trees by 2030, responding to the WEF1t.org initiative. European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde emphasised the crucial role the private sector must play and said it is important that business and industry leaders live up to the commitments of the European Green Deal. The economy Over the five days, experts discussed the impact of the war on the global economy. IMF's Gita Gopinath said the war had been a 'major setback' to the recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Gopinath said advanced economies will be back on track by 2024, but developing economies will be 5 per cent below where they would have been otherwise. The panelists discussed that the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis has been deeply uneven within and between countries, depending on their access to fiscal resources and vaccines. Health wise The ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic was central to many discussions and we also held discussions on preparing for the next pandemic, mental health and health equity. Pfizer has announced it is to supply all its current and future patent-protected medicines and vaccines on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries and is talking to other big drugmakers about similar steps. Addressing a session on 'Closing the vaccines gap', Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya also extended support to Africa in augmenting the research and development capability of African countries on medical countermeasures. In a bid to streamline expenditure amidst pressure on the Centre's fiscal math, the has allowed government departments to carry over their unspent amounts to subsequent quarters. Ministries and departments are permitted to utilise the unspent balances from quarter one to quarter two for cash management purposes. Unspent balances from quarters two and three may be used in quarters three and four respectively after the approval of the Expenditure Secretary has been obtained, the Department of Economic Affairs said in an office memorandum dated May 25. The memorandum stated that bulk expenses of more than Rs 2,000 crore should be aimed for the last month or a quarter to time them with direct tax receipt inflows in June, September, December, and March. It reiterated the existing practice that no more than 33 per cent and 15 per cent of the budgeted expenditure shall be permitted in the last quarter and month of the fiscal year, respectively. This missive to various departments comes at a time when the Centre's fiscal balance for FY23 is under immense pressure. The impact of recent excise duty cuts on petrol and diesel will be around Rs 85,000 crore for FY23, and all of it will be borne by the Centre. Apart from the excise duty cuts, the government will bear an additional Rs 1.10 trillion in fertiliser subsidy burden as commodity prices have spiked due to Russias invasion of Ukraine. Additionally, the decision to provide a subsidy of Rs 200 per gas cylinder (up to 12 cylinders) to over 90 million beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY), will lead to revenue foregone of Rs 6,100 crore a year for the exchequer. Add to this, the Modi governments decision to extend the PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY) till September, which will increase the food subsidy outlay for FY23 to Rs 2.87 trillion from budget estimate of Rs 2.07 trillion. Provided all other assumptions remain the same, all these hits on revenue and expenditure may widen the fiscal deficit budget estimate for the year to Rs 19.42 trillion from a budgeted Rs 16.6 trillion. As a percentage of nominal gross domestic product, this would be 7.5 per cent of GDP compared with the budgeted 6.4 per cent. On the expenditure front, the Centre has been categorical that there will be no compromise on the Rs 7.5 trillion capital expenditure plan, as public investment in infrastructure remains the plank on which the Modi government is betting Indias economic revival. There are unlikely to be major cuttings of expenditure on flagship welfare schemes as well. A top official made it clear this week that if required, money will be pulled out of the Consolidated Fund of India to pay for capex and added that there was no change in the Centre's Rs 14.32 trillion gross borrowing plans for now. As reported earlier, the has asked the various line ministries and entities responsible for implementing subsidy and welfare schemes to cut wasteful expenditure on an expedited basis. On food subsidy front, Food Corporation of India and the Food and Public Distribution department have been asked to weed out efficiencies up and down the value chain. Similarly, in flagship schemes like MGNREGA and PM Kisan, the relevant ministries have been told to speed up identifying ghost beneficiaries, fake accounts etc. Of particular concern to central policymakers is the fact that the number of MGNREGA beneficiaries was around 50 million before the Covid-19 pandemic, rose to around seventy million as the economy slumped, but has not come down to pre-pandemic levels. Asserting that it will retain its 'tried and trusted' interview process during admission, St Stephen's College on Thursday urged the to abide by the 1992 Supreme Court judgement and "avoid creating an unpleasant situation" for students seeking admission in the college. In a sharp reply to the varsity, the college said all candidates who apply to St Stephen's will face the same admission procedures, without discrimination. The latest turn of events is expected to escalate the ongoing admission dispute between both the sides. The had recently warned St. Stephen's College that it would declare "null and void" all admissions made by it in violation of the Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) guidelines. In a letter to DU Registrar Vikas Gupta, the college principal John Varghese on Thursday pointed out that to suddenly forget the process that the college has followed and which the University has approved for the last four decades and more is "strange indeed". "The decision taken by the college to retain its stellar, tried and trusted interview process and other related steps in the admission process shall continue. All candidates who apply to the college shall face the same admission procedures, without discrimination," Varghese said. Referring to the 1992 judgement of Supreme Court, the principal said, "St Stephen's College as a Christian minority institution has its admission procedures approved by the highest court in the land and guaranteed by the Constitution of India. "I feel that you have not taken into consideration this important judgement, which incidentally, was brought up by a similar situation back in the 80's between DU and the College," the letter read. The principal stressed that disrespecting the judgement would amount to contempt of court. "This is neither becoming of a central university nor does it set forth a proper precedent. In deference to the judgement of the highest court in the land," he wrote. The retort from the college comes after the university asked the college to withdraw the prospectus containing an "incongruent policy immediately" and said any admission done in violation of the university's admission norms would not be recognised and treated as annulled for all purposes. The prospectus for the undergraduate courses 2022-23 stated, "St Stephen's College will adopt the CUET as the eligibility criteria with 85 per cent weightage for CUET and the college's interview for shortlisted candidates with a weightage of 15 per cent." Meanwhile, Varghese mentioned in the letter that the Prospectus of the College for Admissions 2022-2023 was uploaded taking into consideration "our obligations, duties, rights and privileges as one of the premier educational institutions in this country". The St. Stephen's College, asserting its minority institution character, has said it will accord 85 per cent weightage to the CUET score and 15 per cent to physical interviews for all categories of candidates, a stand strongly opposed by DU, which wants interviews to be conducted only for the reserved category students. On May 9, DU wrote to St Stephen's College, asking it to conduct admissions to the unreserved seats solely based on CUET scores, senior officials said. However, in an admission notice posted on its website last month, St Stephen's College said it would give 85 per cent weightage to CUET scores and 15 per cent to interviews for all categories of students. The college also said that it reserves the right to proceed with admissions in accordance with its own admission policy guaranteed to it as a minority institution. (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.) While the (RBI) is encouraging and facilitating innovation in the fintech space, it is also keeping a close eye on the emerging risks. The central bank, while encouraging innovation, is also factoring in emerging risks in the fintech segment. Greater use of technology accentuates the concerns related to cyber security, the RBI said in its annual report for 2021-22. Fintechs have disrupted the financial services space in terms of products, customer servicing, back-end analytics, and delivery of services. such innovation first disrupts the market and once it establishes its constructive role, the regulators and authorities step in to regulate the space to nurture the innovation in a sustainable manner and to also mitigate any associated risks, the RBI said. Although it is widely believed that regulations will, perhaps, kill the innovations, the RBI has argued that regulations/legislations are needed for sustainable growth of a sector. With increasing impact of the fintech segment on both macro (financial stability and cyber security) and micro levels (consumer protection and financial inclusion), it becomes pertinent to keep facilitating innovation, while also bringing regulatory order in the fintech space, the RBI said. The RBI has also expressed concerns on the involvement of bigtechs in banking, services, and insurance space as their involvement brings along systemic risks that have implications for financial stability. it is the endeavour of the Reserve Bank to mitigate such risks through careful choice of technology and frameworks, while providing an impetus to fintech in a wide array of useful applications in the financial service industry, the RBI said. the Reserve Banks approach will have to balance innovation with regulation, without compromising on any of the principles of risk management, it added. The RBI has flagged the risk of bigtechs entering the BFSI space earlier also. In the Trend and Progress Report released in December 2021, the RBI said, with BigTechs lending either directly or in partnership with regulated financial entities, enhancing the regulatory approach by blending activity-based and entity-based regulations may not be enough to ensure stability. While use of digital channels in financial services is a welcome move, the potential downside risks embedded in such endeavours need to be addressed, the RBI had said. It came in the backdrop of a working group of the RBI cautioning about big tech players. It said if these players enter the digital lending space, it could have regulatory implications on concentration and competition risk. Frauds reported by and other financial institutions in value terms more than halved in 2021-22, despite the number of instances of fraud increasing, the Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) annual report released on Friday showed. In 2021-22, frauds to the tune of Rs 60,414 crore were reported, down 56.28 per cent from Rs 1.38 trillion in 2020-21. In terms of number of frauds, these entities reported 23.69 per cent higher frauds at 9,103 in 2021-22 as against 7,359 frauds in 2020-21. The RBI data considers frauds of Rs 1 lakh and above only. An assessment of bank group-wise fraud cases over the last three years indicates that while private sector reported maximum number of frauds, public sector contributed maximum to the fraud amount, the showed. While the number of frauds reported by private sector banks were mainly on account of small value card/internet frauds, the fraud amount reported by public sector banks was mainly in loan portfolio, the report added. Also, frauds have occurred in the loan portfolio, both in terms of number and value. In the number of frauds, advances constituted 42.2 per cent and in value terms it was almost 97 per cent at Rs 58,328 crore. Cards/internet constituted 39.5 per cent of the number of frauds but in value terms it was just 0.2 per cent. An analysis of the vintage of frauds reported during 2020-21 and 2021-22 shows a significant time-lag between the date of occurrence of a fraud and its detection. Around 93.73 per cent of the frauds in 2021-22 by value occurred in previous fiscal years as against 91.71 per cent recorded in 2020-21, the RBI said. China, which is holding the rotating Presidency of bloc this year, said on Friday that it actively supports the expansion of the five-member group, a day after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Saudi Arabia and Argentina desired to join the grouping. Riyadh and Buenos Aires have shown interest in activities, Russia's state-run Tass news agency quoted Lavrov as saying in an interview on Thursday. "The interest in it (BRICS) is shown by our Saudi friends and Argentina, which stated the desire to become a full-fledged member, coming from the mouth of its (Argentina) Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero," Lavrov said. The next BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) summit is being prepared, Lavrov said. "The outreach format will be established within its framework, where around a dozen developing economies will participate," he added. Responding to Lavrov's BRICS expansion comments, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing here that as the BRICS Chair this year, actively supports the start of the BRICS expansion process and broadens 'BRICS Plus' cooperation. Wang said the recently-held meeting of BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs reached consensus on the BRICS expansion process and held the first-ever 'BRICS Plus' foreign ministers' meeting, "which fully shows that the BRICS cooperation is open and inclusive. will work on BRICS-related parties to continue to have in-depth discussions on BRICS expansion and determine the standards and procedures for that on the basis of consensus. We look forward to more like-minded partners joining the big family of BRICS, he said. Foreign Ministers and top officials of Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, the UAE and Thailand took part in the foreign ministers meeting of the five-member group held virtually on May 19 under Beijing's 'BRICS Plus' initiative. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar took part in the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting convened by his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi. is making preparations to hold this year's BRICS summit, dates for which are yet to be announced. BRICS' New Development Bank (NDB) has already admitted Bangladesh, the UAE, Egypt and Uruguay as its members. Russian foreign minister Lavrov in his interview to TASS had also indicated that many countries of the Arab world are showing interest in establishing partner relations with the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in which India and Pakistan are members besides China. The other members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. "These are processes of building up meaningful and positive, non-antagonistic alliances, not aimed against anyone," Lavrov said. The joint statement issued after the May 19 BRICS' foreign ministers meeting said, The ministers recalled the BRICS efforts of extending its cooperation to other developing countries and emerging markets and supported further promoting the BRICS Outreach and BRICS Plus Cooperation, in line with the updated Terms of Reference adopted by the BRICS Sherpas in 2021through inclusive and equal-footed and flexible practices and initiatives. The ministers supported promoting discussions among BRICS members on the BRICS expansion process. They stressed the need to clarify the guiding principles, the standards, criteria and procedures for this expansion process, according to the joint statement posted on the Chinese Foreign Ministry website. South Korean pop group BTS will be meeting US President on Tuesday to talk about diversity, Asian inclusion and anti-Asian hate crimes, the band's management agency BigHit Music announced Friday. The septet has been invited to the White House in celebration of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month (AANHPI Heritage Month). According to a press release issued by BigHit Music, the "Life goes on" hitmakers will also discuss the group's impact as youth ambassadors and their thoughts on art and culture. We are honoured to be invited to the White House. As we are visiting as artists representing South Korea, we look forward to discussing various topics including inclusion, diversity, anti-Asian hate crimes, culture and art, the management agency said in a statement. The group-- comprising RM, Jin, Suga, J-Hope, Jimin, V and Jungkook -- has been involved with various initiatives promoting hope and diversity. Last year, they attended the 76th United Nations General Assembly to give a performance and speech for the future generations as appointed South Korea's Special Presidential Envoy for Future Generations and Culture'. They have also participated in campaigns LOVE MYSELF with UNICEF, Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate. BTS, which stands for Beyond the Scene, are best known for chartbuster tracks like "My "Universe", "DNA", "Save Me", "Life Goes On" and "Butter". (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.) China's foreign minister was due to visit the remote Pacific nation of Kiribati on Friday where the future of a vast fishing ground is at stake. The four-hour visit by was his second stop on an eight-nation tour that comes amid growing concerns about Beijing's military and financial ambitions in the South Pacific region. Kiribati closed its borders this year as it tries to stamp out an outbreak of COVID-19. But its government made a rare exception to allow Wang and his 20-strong delegation into the country for face-to-face discussions. At stake in Kiribati is the future of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area, a stretch of ocean the size of California that has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. In November, Kiribati President Taneti Maamau announced the government planned to end the commercial fishing ban that had been in place since 2015 and begin to sustainably fish the area. Anna Powles, a senior lecturer in security studies at New Zealand's Massey University, said she expected there would be some fisheries agreements between and Kiribati that would come from Wang's visit. Powles said China, which already dominates fishing in the region, had offered to upgrade an airport runway and causeway in the Phoenix Island group. The worry is that this would essentially obliterate the fish stock, she said. That it would severely damage fish stocks that are already under pressure. She said there were also concerns that any kind of base for Chinese commercial fishing fleets in Kiribati could also be used as an additional hub for Beijing's surveillance activities. Kiribati's president said Wang would visit his residence for bilateral discussions during the visit, and emphasized the health protocols that were in place. Maamau said in a statement that the Chinese delegation would need to take PCR tests before arriving and stay in a travel bubble while there, and that everybody in Kiribati who came into contact with them would need to quarantine afterward for a week presumably including himself. The high-level state visit is an important milestone for Kiribati- relations, as it will strengthen and promote partnership and cooperation between our two countries after the resumption of diplomatic ties in 2019, Maamau said. says Wang's trip to the region builds on a long history of friendly relations between Beijing and the island nations. A draft document obtained by The Associated Press shows that Wang is hoping to strike a deal with 10 small Pacific nations during his visit. The sweeping agreement covers everything from security to fisheries and is seen by at least one Pacific leader as an attempt by Beijing to wrest control of the region. Wang is hoping the countries will endorse the pre-written agreement as part of a joint communique after a May 30 meeting in Fiji with the other foreign ministers. But Australia scrambled to counter the move Thursday by sending its own Foreign Minister Penny Wong to Fiji to shore up support in the Pacific. In Fiji, Wong said it was up to each island nation to decide what partnerships they formed and what agreements they signed, but urged them to consider the benefits of sticking with Australia. Australia will be a partner that doesn't come with strings attached nor imposing unsustainable financial burdens, Wong said. We are a partner that won't erode Pacific priorities or Pacific institutions. China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands last month in a move that sent shock waves around the world. That pact has raised fears that China could send troops to the island nation or even establish a military base there, not far from Australia. The Solomon Islands and China say there are no plans for a base. During his 10-day visit, Wang is also planning to make stops in Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea and East Timor. Australia's new Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday he'd sent Wong to Fiji because Australia needed to step up its efforts in the Pacific. We need to respond to this because this is China seeking to increase its influence in the region of the world where Australia has been the security partner of choice since the Second World War, he told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that in recent years, exchanges and cooperation between Beijing and the island nations had been expanding in a development that was welcomed by the Pacific countries. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) By Marcy de Luna HOUSTON (Reuters) - rose on Friday, as signs of a tight market supported prices ahead of the U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend, the unofficial start of the peak summer demand season in the . Further, countries are negotiating a deal on Russian oil sanctions that would embargo shipment deliveries but delay sanctions on oil delivered by pipeline to win over Hungary and other landlocked member states, officials said. Hungary's resistance to oil sanctions - and the reluctance of a handful of other countries - has held up implementation of a sixth package of sanctions by the 27-member EU against over its invasion of Ukraine. "We believe that a sharp contraction in Russian oil exports could trigger a full-blown 1980s style oil crisis and push Brent well past $150 per barrel," Bank of America said in a note. An agreement could be reached by envoys of governments in Brussels on Sunday, in time for their leaders to endorse it at their May 30-31 summit, officials said. Brent crude was up 1.18 cents, or 1.0%, at $118.58 at 1659 GMT, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude rose 39 cents, or 0.3%, to $114.48 a barrel. "The U.S. driving season and strong travel demand should help (prices). With supply growth lagging demand growth, the oil market is likely to stay undersupplied. Hence, we remain positive in our outlook for crude prices," said UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo. U.S. gasoline inventories fell in the latest week, despite higher refinery runs, U.S. Energy Information Administration data showed on Wednesday. The start of summer driving season in the normally entails increased consumption. Concern over Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seizing two Greek oil tankers on Friday in the Persian Gulf, along with a U.S. long holiday weekend ahead, is making investors nervous to be short going into the weekend, said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Price Futures Group. "We are seeing assumptions that the demand for oil and gas may be stronger as the stock market suggests that fears of a recession may be being overplayed," Flynn said. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday that Moscow would meet its natural gas delivery commitments. "He also raised the subject (and said) that all deliveries would be completed in full," Nehammer said. jumped after the Iranian revolution in 1979 and a long war between Iran and Iraq (1980-88), although a global recession soon hindered fuel demand and dropped back. Prices have gained about 50% so far this year. (Reporting by Marcy de Luna in Houston, additional reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin in London, Stephanie Kelly in New York; Editing by Diane Craft, Kirsten Donovan) (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.) Just a few months ago, we were confidently expecting to launch our rover, Rosalind Franklin, to Mars in September as part of the ExoMars mission, a collaboration between Europe and Russia. The landing was planned for June 2023. Everything was ready: the rover, the operations team and the eager scientists. The final preparations started in February 21, with part of our team heading to Turin, Italy, to carry out the final alignment and calibration tests. All was going well, though some of the team were slightly delayed by Storm Eunice in the UK. Three days later, they had nevertheless finished the work leaving some wonderful data, which would help us decide where Rosalind would drill on Mars. The industry team started packing the rover, which was ready to be shipped to the launch site. Then, a storm far more powerful and tragic than Eunice descended on Ukraine: Russias invasion. The situation developed in the next days and weeks, leading to a series of emergency meetings. On March 17, the (Esa)s council and member states decided to suspend our mission. We wont know for sure what happens next until a study by Esa and industry partners reports back in July but there are causes for optimism. The Rosalind Franklin rover is unique among all the rovers planned for Mars. It can drill deeper than any before it up to 2 metres below the harsh surface. This is important as the subsurface is protected from harmful radiation, and could therefore contain signs of past or present life. Rosalinds instruments include our PanCam, which is a camera that will do geology and atmospheric science on Mars complemented by the other cameras and a sub-surface sounding radar. Rosalind will also collect pristine samples from below the surface which will be deposited in the analytical drawer, where three instruments will do mineralogy and search for signs of life. Some 3.8 billion years ago, at the same time as life was emerging on Earth, Mars was habitable too. There is evidence from orbiters and landers of water on the surface then there would have been clouds, rain and a thick atmosphere. There was also a global protective magnetic field, and volcanos. This means Mars essentially had all the right ingredients for life carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulphur. If life emerged there like it did on Earth, we were on a track to find it. The climate has changed significantly since Mars lost its magnetic field 3.8 billion years ago, though. The planet is now is dry, cold, has a thin atmosphere and a surface hostile for life. But below the surface, some living species may have survived, or remains of them could be conserved. Other missions to Mars are looking for life too. The amazing Nasa Perseverance rover landed in February 2021. Its scientists are partly guided by images from a Nasa helicopter on the planet, called Ingenuity, and it recently reached an ancient river delta. Perseverance is collecting samples from Jezero crater, ready to be brought back to powerful labs on Earth by the Mars sample return missions. The results will hopefully complement those from Rosalind Franklin which will examine deeper samples from a different and slightly older site, Oxia Planum, where there is also abundant evidence of a watery past. Options for Rosalind Russia was meant to help launch Rosalind Franklin on one of its rockets. While a European-built spacecraft would then take it to Mars, a Russian-built platform would again be needed to land it. Russia was also meant to provide radioactive heaters to keep the batteries of the rover warm in the cold Martian nights. Now, Esa is looking at options. Given that continuing with Russia in 2024 is most unlikely, the main possibilities are either Esa going it alone, or teaming up with a partner such as Nasa. Esas new Ariane-6 rocket, which is nearly ready, could help launch the rover, as could a SpaceX rocket. For the lander and heaters, Esa would need to develop these alone or in collaboration with Nasa, by adapting existing technology. It could therefore take time. Whats more, because of the way the planets orbit the Sun, there are opportunities for launches to Mars only every two years: in 2024, 2026 and so on. My expectation is that 2028 is most likely for our mission, but it will require hard work. The positive thing is that Esa and the member states are still keen to go ahead, and we are eagerly looking forward to the launch whenever that will be. Ultimately, life changed for the Rosalind Franklin team on February 24. Ive been working on the mission since 2003, when we first proposed a camera system for what became ExoMars. We had already provided the stereo camera system for Esas ill-fated Beagle 2, which very nearly worked when it landed on Christmas Day 2003. But orbiter images later showed that the last solar panel didnt quite unfurl, so communications with Earth were impossible. The wait for data from the Martian surface for our team goes on. There is no getting away from the huge disappointment we felt when the ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover that we had worked on for almost 20 years was suspended. But it was ultimately a necessary and understandable step, and we now look forward to a future launch. This still is cutting-edge science, and it will be for the rest of this decade. Due to the uniquely deep drilling, Rosalind Franklin still may be the first mission to find signs of life in space. Andrew Coates, Professor of Physics, Deputy Director (Solar System) at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, UCL This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. is evaluating options to improve their audit quality, Chief Executive Carmine Di Sibio said on Thursday in an internal memo seen by Reuters, at a time when the Big Four are often blamed for their lack of independence. The memo was sent in response to a report by the Financial Times that said the accounting firm is planning to split its audit and advisory operations worldwide. "No such decisions have been made," Sibio said in the memo, while referring to the media coverage on plans to spinoff. An EY spokesperson told Reuters the firm routinely evaluates strategic options, but the process is in its early stages. A spinoff, if it were to take place, will create an audit-focused firm separate from the rest of the business, but the exact structure of the shake-up remains under discussion, the FT report said. London-based EY is one of the Big Four along with Deloitte LLP, PricewaterhouseCoopers and KPMG that audits companies, which also pay fees for consulting and advisory work. The have previously drawn criticism from regulators over their conflicts of interest that undermines the ability to conduct independent reviews. In the United States, the country's securities regulator is probing conflicts of interest at the nation's largest accounting firms, the Wall Street Journal had reported in March. CEO Sibio said in the memo to the firm's partners that "with the changing competitive, regulatory and market landscape, work is ongoing to evaluate strategic alternatives". The EY spokesperson said any significant changes would only happen in consultation with regulators and after votes by EY partners. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The Group of Seven countries has reached concrete agreements on phasing out generation and expanding renewable energy production, German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke was quoted by German media RTL/ntv as saying on Friday. The pledge would mark the first commitment from the G7 to quit coal-fuelled power - use of which needs to decrease if the world is to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. "There are very concrete declarations and agreements for the expansion of renewable energies, but also for example for phasing out coal," Lemke said. The final communique of the three-day G7 meeting in Berlin this week would also include a strong emphasis on protecting biodiversity and fighting plastic pollution, she said. Lemke was speaking as Germany hosted G7 energy, climate and environment ministers for talks held against a backdrop of spiralling energy costs and fuel supply worries sparked by the war in Ukraine. The conflict has triggered a scramble among some countries to buy more non-Russian fossil fuels and burn coal to cut their reliance on Russian supplies, raising fears that the crisis could undermine efforts to fight climate change. Germany has said finding alternative fossil fuels would not come at the expense of environmental goals. The final communique will be published later on Friday. (Reporting by Maria Sheahan; writing by Matthias Williams; editing by David Evans) (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said that he had discussed the supplies of heavy weapons to Ukraine with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. "We need more heavy weapons delivered as soon as possible, especially MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems), to repel Russian attacks," Kuleba tweeted after the talks. The Ukrainian Foreign Minister added that he had briefed Baerbock on the difficult situation in the Donbass region, Xinhua news agency reported. Other topics of the discussion included further sanctions on Russia and Ukraine's prospects to achieve a European Union (EU) candidate status, Kuleba said. Earlier this month, Baerbock said the government of is working with German enterprises to provide modern weapons to Ukraine. --IANS int/shs (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.) Incoming leader John Lee will travel to Beijing on Sunday to accept a letter that officially approves his appointment as the city's next chief executive. A government statement confirmed that Lee will go to Beijing with his private secretary and press secretary, as well as his wife. Local media including the South Morning Post reported that Lee is expected to meet Chinese President during the trip, and will also present the lineup for his cabinet for approval. The meeting will be Lee's first with China's top officials since he won the uncontested leadership election on May 8 with 99.2% of all votes from an election committee that is largely made up of pro-Beijing members. Last week, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang formally approved the appointment of Lee, signing the approval document during a State Council meeting. Each chief executive-elect typically receives their letter of appointment in person, and meets other top officials as well as the Chinese president. Carrie Lam, the city's current leader, made a similar trip in 2017 after winning the election. (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.) Ankiti Bose, who was fired last week as chief executive officer of the Pte, says shell keep fighting to clear her name. The fashion e-commerce platform terminated her employment after an investigation into claims of what it called serious financial irregularities and said it reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action. The probe included questions about Zilingos accounting practices and payments to several service providers of more than $7 million that were signed by her without the knowledge of senior executives, according to people familiar with the matter. In two interviews, before and after her dismissal, Bose denied wrongdoing and provided detailed responses to key points of the investigation. She said that, in the end, the company fired her for a lack of cooperation in the investigation rather than for actual financial improprieties. Shes determined to protect her reputation. There is not a single payment made by that did not have proper documents or either the finance, tech or operations teams were not aware of, said Bose, a former McKinsey & Co. consultant who had been CEO of since its founding. I feel like my baby has been taken away from me without giving me a proper explanation or a chance to fight for her back. Im grieving and fighting for myself simultaneously. Once a shining example of the potential for tech startups in Southeast Asia, Zilingo ran into trouble after internal whistleblowers voiced complaints this year that triggered conflicts between Bose and her longtime backers. The board suspended her on March 31 and hired investigative firm Kroll Inc. to examine the complaints. Now Zilingos very survival is in question. Bose co-founded Zilingo with Dhruv Kapoor in 2015 after a visit to Bangkoks Chatuchak market, where 15,000 merchants sell goods from across Thailand. Their aim was to build a technology platform to help those kinds of tiny merchants sell to consumers across Southeast Asia. In 2018, they began to reposition themselves as a business-to-business platform to reduce the high cash burn of working with consumers. Zilingos pitch that it would help digitize the fashion industrys antiquated supply chain helped draw venture backers, including Sequoia Capital India and Temasek Holdings Pte. It raised $226 million at a valuation of $970 million in 2019, when Bose was just 27 years old. But with pressure to grow quickly, Zilingo found itself dealing with thousands of vendors and merchants across nine countries from Sri Lanka to Indonesia. The complexity ended up straining the young companys ability to track revenue and other financial figures. Millions in Payments Zilingo and its board havent publicly detailed their allegations against Bose. The company didnt respond to multiple requests for comment, beyond earlier public statements. Following an investigation led by an independent forensics firm that was commissioned to look into complaints of serious financial irregularities, the company has decided to terminate Ms. Ankiti Boses employment with cause, and reserves the right to pursue appropriate legal action, the company said on May 20. Social media campaigns and leaked information have caused irreparable damage to the company, the board, employees and investors. People familiar with the Bose probe said one of the most serious allegations involves the payments to service providers that the CEO had signed off on without the knowledge of other senior managers. The payments went to about five information technology and consulting firms during the two-year period covered by the Kroll probe, said the people, asking not to be identified because details of the inquiry are private. These firms received either monthly or one-time payments from Zilingo totaling millions of dollars over that period, while it wasnt clear what services they delivered, the people said. Bose said all of the payments are legitimate and they certainly werent made to benefit her personally. She added its possible other senior mangers werent aware of the payments, although there wasnt anything nefarious about that. I am 100% certain that there is nothing amiss about the way in which the payments are made, she said. I have heard that several individuals in the company have claimed that they are not aware of various business relationships. While I find that odd to believe, because there are so many jurisdictions and so many parts of the company, its possible that they were not officially aware. Bose said that she has not been able to check internal documents to clarify what the payments were for following her suspension, even after requesting access under Krolls supervision. She also hasnt been able to contact staff or external parties who may be able to clear her name. I was not given sufficient access to provide documents that would exonerate me, she said. All I ask my shareholders and stakeholders to do is to not believe that I did not make an attempt to answer these questions. Kroll didnt respond to a request for comment. While Kroll investigators conducted forensic audits to help identify potential financial irregularities, their work did not cover whether there were links between the Zilingo payments and the CEO, the people familiar said. Such a task would require access to bank accounts, which was beyond the scope of the forensic investigation, they added. Another key area that Bose says Kroll officials have asked about is a discrepancy in revenue figures listed in documents provided to current and potential investors. The idea that Zilingo may have used different sets of financial figures has fueled fears among investors that the could have been inflating numbers or misleading backers. Bose maintains that such differences are merely the result of trying to comply with complex accounting standards across multiple countries. For example, in some cases sales made by certain merchants on the platform were counted as Zilingos own revenue -- even though such transactions would normally be classified as gross merchandise value, or GMV, under traditional accounting rules. Here, Bose said the rules in certain countries forced her hand. About 12% or 13% of our GMV historically has had to be recorded as revenue due to various regulatory requirements when goods are exported from several Asian countries, she said in the interview before she was fired, citing India, Indonesia and Bangladesh as examples. We have tried to work around this to reduce the impact of this between fiscal 21 and 22. A related issue is the timing of certain transactions. Zilingo is supposed to book revenue only when goods are shipped, but Bose said there was sometimes a 30- to 90-day lag between counting revenue and when the sales would be sent out. That also resulted in two sets of numbers at times, she said. Independent accounting experts are hesitant to make a definitive judgment without examining Zilingos books, but at least one questioned her reasoning. Mak Yuen Teen, an accounting and governance expert at the National University of Business School, called it not convincing since most countries, including those she cited, adhere to global accounting standards. Counting GMV as revenue is a significant risk for startups because their performance is often assessed based on revenues. Zilingos methods of accounting for discounts and incentives also had an influence on the books. The company has used aggressive methods for recognizing revenue, but Bose says the calculations are standard practice for the industry and that all of its investors were fully aware of them. She emphasized during the hours of discussion that she started Zilingo when she was 23 and depended on the finance department to sort through such quantitative questions. All these matters are well understood by all investors, Bose said in the earlier interview. Unless I am a chartered accountant I cannot touch the books, let alone cook the books. Absent Audits Uncertainty at Zilingo has been aggravated by a lack of audited figures. Public records in show it has not filed its fiscal 2020 or 2021 financial results, even though that is a basic regulatory requirement for all businesses registered in the city-state. Bose says the delays to its fiscal 2020 audited results were due to efforts to fix an issue involving an Indonesian entity that had been missed in fiscal 2019. She says it is not unusual for startups in Singapore and Southeast Asia to miss such filing deadlines. In Singapore, which miss their deadline for filing annual financial statements are fined as much as S$600 ($437), a relatively small sum. Zilingo declined to comment. One venture capitalist, who asked not to be identified because of the disputes contentiousness, said it is not uncommon for startups to make late filings. In Zilingos case, that failure to file contributed to challenges. After Covid-19 slashed the companys revenues, it took two rounds of financing to fund operations. One was a $25 million convertible note in late 2020 from Sequoia and state-owned investors EDBI and Temasek, while another was a near $40 million mezzanine debt facility in mid-2021 from Varde Partners and Indies Capital Partners, according to people familiar with the companys finances, who asked not to be identified because the details are confidential. In March 2022, Varde and Indies told the firm it was in default of the loan agreement citing a wide range of documents it was yet to receive, including the audited filings from fiscal 2020 and fiscal 2021, ordering it to cease drawing on funds. By May, they recalled the loan, putting the company in a precarious financial position with little cash to continue operations. The board said on May 13 it had appointed an independent financial adviser to explore options for Zilingo. Its Not About Money Bose argued the investigation against her is an unfair effort to blame her for the companys struggles. She said she has yet to see the full report of allegations against her, despite four interviews with Kroll. She said she was asked to attend another meeting on May 19, but requested to delay it until the following week because she was relocating her family. The next day, she was fired with a termination letter she said cited several causes including insubordination, neglect, failure to produce relevant documents and refusal to comply with direction. I want an opportunity to talk about every single one of the allegations, she said. I was denied the opportunity, time and access to do so. Bose, now 30, pointed out that she hopes to have a substantial professional future, ideally working at startups with ambitious plans for the tech industry. Im not going to live with a stain on my reputation and my career, Bose said. Its not about money -- its about my career, its about my reputation, its about my life, its about my parents. In the wake of the Texas school massacre earlier this week, New York State Police has increased its visibility at schools across the state, while authorities were also considering raising the age limit to buy guns. New York Governor Kathy Hochul convened an emergency meeting of the school safety improvement team and directed New York State Police to enhance visibility at schools out of an abundance of caution, Xinhua news agency quoted an official statement as saying. Included are check-ins at schools to be conducted by both uniform and plainclothes staff. The temporary effort would last around one month until the end of the current school year, according to the statement. Hochul also made a proposal to raise the minimum age to purchase AR-15 rifles to 21 years old from the current floor of 18. "How does an 18-year-old purchase an AR-15 in the state of New York, state of Texas? That person's not old enough to buy a legal drink. I want to work with the legislature to change that. I want it to be 21. I think that's just common sense," the Governor said. She is also pushing for the passing of two bills on micro-stamping of semiautomatic pistols manufactured or delivered to licensed dealers in New York and reporting protocols of guns recovered in crimes within 24 hours of their discovery. Though gun control in New York is among the toughest in the US, it is threatened by inflows of arms from other states. A gunman aged 18 killed 10 residents and wounded three in Buffalo, New York, on May 14, while the perpetrator of the Texas school shooting was also 18-years-old. Inside a fourth grade classroom at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Salvador Ramos shot and killed 19 students and two teachers on Tuesday. Ramos, a local high school student who shared his plan on Facebook minutes before the attack, was killed by a Border Patrol officer at the scene. --IANS ksk/ (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) In a surprise move, the increased the rate of petroleum products by 30 PKR per litre, or up to one-fourth of their existing prices, paving the way for reaching a staff-level agreement with the Monetary Fund (IMF) by June 12. The unprecedented decision will help defuse the landmines laid by the government of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on the one hand, and will save the country from looming default on the other, The Express Tribune reported. Finance Minister Miftah Ismail made the decision public in an unscheduled news conference after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif gave him the go-ahead in a party meeting. With the fresh hike, the new price of petrol will be 179.88 PKR per liter, the highest ever rate, and showing an increase of 20 per cent over the existing prices. Ismail said that it was a "difficult decision that will erode political capital" of the government, The Express Tribune reported. "The government was giving 56 PKR per litre subsidy and I have only reduced the loss by 30 PKR per litre," he said at the news conference. High-speed-diesel new price will be 174.86 PKR per litre, an increase of 20.8 per cent. Ismail said that the government was giving Rs86 per litre subsidy, and in the first batch it has reduced the subsidy amount by only 30 PKR. "The government cannot take the country towards default and is ready to pay the political cost for the sake of protecting the interest of the state. "There is an option whether to protect political interests of the government or save the country from default and we have decided to protect the state's interests," he added. The government's decision to increase the prices at the expense of the political capital suggests that it might have won a nod from the establishment to stay in power longer than earlier thought. The government had refused to take tough decisions and then call snap elections just to pave the way for the victory of the PTI. --IANS san/ksk/ (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) pressed the West on Thursday to lift sanctions against Russia over the war in Ukraine, seeking to shift the blame for a growing food crisis that has been worsened by Kyiv's inability to ship millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products due to the conflict. Britain immediately accused Russia of trying to hold the world to ransom, insisting there would be no sanctions relief, and a top US diplomat blasted the "sheer barbarity, sadistic cruelty and lawlessness of the invasion. Russian President Vladimir Putin told Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi that is ready to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis through the export of grain and fertiliser on the condition that politically motivated restrictions imposed by the West are lifted," according to a Kremlin readout of the call. Ukraine is one of the world's largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports has halted much of that flow, endangering world food supplies. Many of those ports are now also heavily mined. Russia also is a significant grain exporter, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the West must cancel the unlawful decisions that hamper chartering ships and exporting grain. His comments appeared to be an effort to lump the blockade of Ukrainian exports with what Russia says are its difficulties in moving its own goods. Western officials have dismissed those claims. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken noted last week that food, fertiliser and seeds are exempt from sanctions imposed by the US and many others and that Washington is working to ensure countries know the flow of those goods should not be affected. With the war grinding into its fourth month, world leaders have ramped up calls for solutions. World Trade Organisation Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said about 25 million tons of Ukrainian grain is in storage and another 25 million tons could be harvested next month. European countries have tried to ease the crisis by moving grain out of the country by rail but trains can carry only a small fraction of what Ukraine produces, and ships are needed for the bulk of the exports. At the same time, the Russian Defense Ministry proposed a corridor to allow foreign ships to leave Black Sea ports and another to allow vessels to leave Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Mikhail Mizintsev, who heads Russia's National Defense Control Center, said 70 foreign vessels from 16 countries are in six ports on the Black Sea, including Odesa, Kherson and Mykolaiv. He did not specify how many might be ready to carry food. Ukraine expressed skepticism. Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said his country was ready to agree on safe corridors in principle but that it was not sure if it could trust Russia. He said the issue was how to ensure that "Russia will not violate the agreement on the safe passage and its military vessels will not sneak into the harbor and attack Odesa. British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said Putin was trying to hold the world to ransom by demanding some sanctions be lifted before allowing Ukrainian grain shipments to resume. He's essentially weaponised hunger and lack of food among the poorest people around the world, Truss said on a visit to Sarajevo. "What we cannot have is any lifting of sanctions, any appeasement, which will simply make Putin stronger in the longer term. Putin said it's impossible, utterly unrealistic in the modern world to isolate Russia. Speaking via video to members of the Eurasian Economic Forum, which includes several ex-Soviet nations, he said those who try would primarily hurt themselves, citing broken food supply chains among the economic problems the West is facing. Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, urged its members to provide Ukraine with what it needs to defend itself against Putin's "revanchist delusions". If Russia achieved success in Ukraine, there would be more horrific reports from filtration camps, more forcibly displaced people, more summary executions, more torture, more rape, and more looting, Carpenter said in Vienna. On the battlefield, Russian forces continued to press their offensive in several parts of the eastern Donbas region, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian military. That industrial heartland of coal mines and factories is now the focus of fighting after Russia suffered a series of setbacks and shifted to more limited goals. The enemy is storming the position of our troops simultaneously in several directions, said Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar, We have an extremely difficult and long stage of fighting ahead of us. Regional governors said at least seven people were killed and 17 injured including a 9-year-old child in shelling in Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv, while three were killed by attacks in and around the eastern city of Lysychansk, which is a key focus of fighting. Military officials said Russian forces continued to try to gain a foothold in the area of Sievierodonetsk, the only part of the Luhansk region in the Donbas under Ukrainian government control. A senior US defence official said Russia is making incremental progress in the Donbas, with fighting centred on towns and villages as Russian and Ukrainian forces trade control over scraps of land. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the US military assessment, said those smaller artillery duels could be prolonged. Russia has 110 battalion tactical groups, each with 800 to 1,000 troops, committed to Ukraine, amounting to 80% of Moscow's total force, the official said, adding that it has lost 1,000 tanks and three dozen fighter jets and other fixed-wing aircraft. Meanwhile, in the ravaged port city of Mariupol, Russia began broadcasting state television news, even as a leader of the Russia-backed separatists suggested there might be more Ukrainian fighters hiding in its sprawling Azovstal steelworks that was the focus of weeks of bombardment. The Russian military declared Azovstal and Mariupol on the whole completely liberated on May 20 and reported that 2,439 fighters who had been holed up at the plant had surrendered. The leader, Denis Pushilin, said some of the fighters may have been hiding, lost or lagged behind, adding that there are already those that have been found and captured. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged the West to stop playing around with Russia and impose tougher sanctions on it end its "senseless war", adding his country would remain independent, the only question was at what price. Fighting * The military situation in eastern Ukraine is even worse than people say it is and the country needs heavy weapons now to effectively fight Russia, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said. * Russian shelling killed at least seven civilians and wounded 17 in the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine, authorities said. * As the United States and its allies provide Ukraine with increasingly sophisticated arms, Washington has held discussions with Kyiv about the danger of escalation if it strikes deep inside Russia, U.S. and diplomatic officials told Reuters. * Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has warned the West that supplying weapons to Ukraine capable of hitting Russian territory would be "a serious step towards unacceptable escalation", Tass news agency said. Diplomacy * President Zelenskiy complained about divisions inside the over more sanctions against Russia and asked why some nations were being allowed to block the plan. * The World Health Organization assembly passed a motion condemning a regional health emergency triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and rejected a rival resolution from Moscow that made no mention of its role in the crisis. * Finland's prime minister said Russia's actions in Ukraine were a turning point for the world and relations with Moscow could not go back to how they were before its invasion. Economy * The White House said it expects minimal impact on the U.S. and global economy from a potential Russia debt default as Washington decided to not extend a waiver that enabled Russia to pay U.S. bondholders. * Russian President and Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi discussed ways to help ease the food crisis, with the Kremlin saying this could be done only if the West lifts sanctions. * Hungary needs 3-1/2 to 4 years to shift away from Russian crude and make huge investments to adjust its economy and until there is a deal on all issues, it cannot back the EU's proposed oil embargo, a top Hungarian aide said. Quotes * "Russia has the advantage but we are doing everything we can," Ukrainian General Oleksiy Gromov said. Coming Up * An EU summit on May 30-31 could see divisions between members who want to take a hard line against Russia and those calling for a ceasefire. (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Russian President said hes willing to facilitate grain and fertilizer exports as global concern mounts about food shortages and rising prices but only if sanctions on his country are lifted. Putin didnt specify if he was referring to Russian exports or those from that have been stopped by Moscows blockage of ports since its invasion began in late February. The US and its allies would be highly unlikely to agree to remove the extensive sanctions placed on Russia for its actions in in response to the Russian leaders move to link it to the growing food crisis. Putins comments were made in a phone call Thursday with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, according to a Kremlin statement. The Russian president told Draghi that disruptions to food supplies were exacerbated by the sanctions imposed by the US and its allies, and that Moscow is willing to make a significant contribution to overcoming the food crisis through the exports of grain and fertilizers on the condition that the Wests politically-motivated restrictions are lifted. A White House spokesperson said Russias actions were increasing world hunger. A decision by and to veto new United Nations sanctions on pushed by the United States shattered any veneer of global cooperation, straining efforts to pressure Pyongyang as it prepares to conduct a new nuclear test. The two countries on Thursday vetoed a U.S.-led push to impose more U.N. sanctions on over its renewed ballistic missile launches, publicly splitting the U.N. Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang in 2006. U.S. officials slammed it as a "sharp departure from the Council's track record of collective action on this issue." "Today's vote means will feel more free to take further escalatory actions," Jeffrey Prescott, deputy to the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., said on Twitter. "But we can't resign ourselves to this fate a that would be far too dangerous." Russia's U.N ambassador called the resolution "a path to a dead end," while China's envoy said it would only lead to more "negative effects and escalation of confrontation." Analysts and some diplomats said Washington may have miscalculated in its rush to impose consequences for North Korea's missile tests. "I think it was a big mistake for the U.S. to push for what was sure to fail rather than showing unified opposition to North Korea's actions," said Jenny Town, director of the U.S.-based 38 North programme, which monitors North Korea. "In the current political environment, the idea that and could agree with the U.S. on anything would have sent a strong signal to Pyongyang." One European diplomat said that their country supported the U.S. resolution but that they were less appreciative of the timing and thought that Washington should have waited until North Korea carried out a new nuclear test. The United States assessed that North Korea had tested six intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) this year and was "actively preparing to conduct a nuclear test," which would be the country's first since 2017. Fragile Consensus Over the past 16 years the Security Council has steadily, and unanimously, stepped up sanctions to cut off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. It last tightened sanctions on Pyongyang in 2017. Washington increasingly criticised and for what it saw as lax enforcement, even before the latest political rift. China and Russia have called for sanctions to be eased to prevent humanitarian suffering in the North, and to jumpstart stalled denuclearisation talks. Artyom Lukin, a professor at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, said it seemed like the United States wanted to provoke and produce this split in the Security Council, knowing that China and Russia would not support the resolution. Moscow and Beijing appear somewhat tolerant of North Korea's resuming long-range missile launches, but it is far from clear that Pyongyang has Russia's and China's consent, tacit or otherwise, for a nuclear test, he added. "Nuclear testing is seen by Beijing, and especially Moscow, as a far more serious matter, compared to missile testing," Lukin said. Nevertheless, Russia sees the Ukraine crisis as a proxy war with the United States, and the war is now bleeding into the situation around North Korea, he said. "Even though Moscow and Washington have a real shared interest in the denuclearisation of North Korea, it has now become extremely difficult, if not impossible, for them to collaborate," Lukin said. China's ambassador to the U.N., Zhang Jun, suggested that the United States may see the Korean issue as "a chessman on the chessboard for their so-called Indo-Pacific strategy." The Chinese and Russian veto is a telling sign of the deterioration of their overall relationship with the United States and its allies, said Beijing-based security scholar Zhao Tong of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. "Beijing could have abstained, but it used the veto to publicly signal its growing disagreement with and resentment toward Washington," he said. "Everyone knew that the veto would send a wrong and dangerous message to North Korea, but Russia and China believe they face higher stakes in pushing back against their perceived hostility from the Western countries." Beijing and Moscow also genuinely see North Korea 's nuclear and missile developments as driven by threats from Washington and cannot be fully blamed on Pyongyang, Zhao said. "We have a perception gap problem among the major powers," he said. "North Korea is only exploiting and benefiting from it." (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Tanzanian health authorities have issued an alert over the reported outbreak of monkeypox in some countries in . Godwin Mollel, the Deputy Minister for Health, said in a statement that the public needs to take precautions against the monkeypox and other infectious diseases, Xinhua news agency reported. "There are no reported monkeypox patients in at the moment," said Mollel, cautioning members of the public to avoid touching or eating sick animals or carcasses, as well as avoiding touching anything that has been used by a sick animal. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it is expecting more infectious cases of the viral zoonotic disease as 20 countries across the world reported monkeypox cases. Initial symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headaches, swelling, back pain, aching muscles and fatigue. People with a more serious illness may develop rashes and lesions on the face and hands, which then spread to other parts of the body. --IANS int/shs (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.) UN Secretary-General condemned the recent attacks in that claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them members of the Hazara Shia community and several children. "The Secretary-General condemns the recent attacks in Afghanistan, including on passenger vehicles in Mazar-e-Sharif City and the Masjid Sharif Hazrat Zakaria mosque in Kabul City, which have claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them members of the Hazara Shia community and at least 16 children," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General said in a statement. Guterres extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a swift recovery to those injured. "Attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including mosques, are strictly prohibited under humanitarian law." The Secretary-General reiterated his call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians, including ethnic and religious minorities, as well as their right to freely practice their religion. This statement comes as had been hit by a series of bomb attacks launched by the Islamic State (IS) group opposing the Taliban regime. In Wednesday's blasts, at least five worshippers were killed and 17 wounded in Kabul after a blast ripped through a mosque during evening prayers in Police District (PD) 4. The blast occurred when people were offering prayers in Hazrat-e-Zekria Mosque. The blast came about one hour after three consecutive explosions struck three van-buses in PD 10 and PD 5 in Mazar-i-Sharif, killing nine people and wounding 15 . The targeted buses were carrying commuters. is at a crossroads and the de facto authorities, the Taliban, must pursue a path towards stability and freedom for all citizens, especially women, the UN independent expert on human rights there said in the capital, Kabul, on Thursday. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett was speaking to journalists at the end of an 11-day visit to the country. Bennett said Afghanistan is facing a plethora of human rights challenges that are having a severe impact on the country's people. However, the Taliban have failed to acknowledge or address the magnitude and gravity of abuses, many of which were committed in their name. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The UN Security Council has adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of the UN Assistance Mission for (UNAMI) for a year, till May 31, 2023. Resolution 2631, which won the unanimous support of the 15 members of the council, requests the UN secretary-general's special representative and UNAMI, at the request of the Iraqi government, to prioritise the provision of advice, support, and assistance on advancing inclusive, political dialogue and national and community-level reconciliation, Xinhua news agency reported. The resolution recognises that the security of UN personnel is essential for UNAMI to carry out its work and calls on the Iraqi government to continue to provide security and logistical support to the UN presence in . The resolution expresses the Security Council's intention to review the mandate and reporting cycle of UNAMI by May 31, 2023, or sooner, if requested by the Iraqi government. UNAMI is a political mission established by the Security Council in 2003 at the request of the Iraqi government in the wake of the invasion of by a US-led coalition. --IANS int/shs (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) A US Presidential Commission has recommended the translation of key government websites, such as the White House and other federal agencies, in languages spoken by Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders, including Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi. A series of recommendations in this regard were recently approved by the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans (AA), Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (NHPI). The full commission at its meeting here early this month had recommended that federal agencies should provide key documents, digital content, and forms on their websites translated into multiple AA and NHPI languages. It also recommended that public and emergency alerts should be accessible to persons with limited English proficiency. The full commission also recommended that the federal government should ensure that emergency/disaster prevention, planning, response, mitigation, and recovery programmes are inclusive of and reflect the lived experiences of limited English proficient populations. The set of recommendations now move to the White House for the president to take a final call on it. Such a series of recommendations is in the pipeline for some time now after Indian-American Ajay Jain Bhutoria had run a multi-language publicity campaign for Democratic candidate and now US President Joe Biden ahead of the 2020 election. Election campaigns in Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Telugu and other South Asian languages helped the Biden campaign make a deep impact in the community. Based out of Silicon Valley and a successful entrepreneur, Bhutoria is now one of the members of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (Commission). During the commission's meeting, he argued that providing information in languages specific to the audience will help bridge the information divide. A proactive approach for multi-lingual access to the federal government agency information and access will help meet the US government guidelines already in place. For example, the Office of Management of Budget Policies for Federal Public Websites states that your agency is already required to provide appropriate access for people with limited English proficiency by implementing Department of Justice guidance for Executive Order 13166 and improving Access to Services for People with Limited English Proficiency. Agencies must determine whether any individual document on their federal agency public website(s) requires translation. There has been a rapid increase in the population of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander which is expected to cross the 40 million mark by 2060. Based on the 2020 Census, there are about 25 million who speak a foreign language at home and whose English-speaking ability is at the level less than very well. Among AA and NHPI communities, 16.5 million speak English less than very well." In his proposal presented before the commission, Bhutoria observed that AAPIs have helped build a strong and vibrant America. Generations of AA and NHPI individuals, families, and communities are composed of diverse and varied ethnicities, languages, and cultures, and include residents of Pacific Island territories and freely associated states. They play an important economic role, having started businesses and generated jobs that pay billions of dollars in wages and taxes, including founding some of our nation's most successful and innovative enterprises, the proposal said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The US targeted two Russian banks on Friday as part of new sanctions over alleged support for and its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. The sanctions come after what the US says were three new ballistic missile launches by on Tuesday, including one intercontinental ballistic missile. The launches happened after President Joe Biden ended an Asian trip in which he stressed Washington's commitment to defending allies from the North's nuclear threat. The US says this week's launches brought North Korea's total for this year to 23, as the isolated country pushes to develop and expand the range of its nuclear and missile programs. Friday's sanctions targets include two Russian banks, Far Eastern and Sputnik, that the US says do business with US-sanctioned North Korean entities. Bank Sputnik also helped arrange payments for the use of Russian satellite services, the Treasury Department said in announcing the sanctions. The new sanctions also target a Belarus-based North Korea man who the says was helping generate funding for the missile launches, and a trading company. On Thursday, China and Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution sponsored by the that would have imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea for its spate of intercontinental ballistic missile launches that can be used to deliver nuclear weapons. Thursday's vote represented the first serious division among the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN's most powerful body on a North Korea sanctions resolution. African leaders gathered for a summit on Friday in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to address growing humanitarian needs on the continent, which is also facing increased violent extremism, challenges and a run of military coups. Leaders called for increased mobilisation to resolve a humanitarian crisis that has left millions displaced and more than 280 million suffering from malnourishment. For people in Djibo, a town in northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, any help can't come soon enough. The city in the Sahel region -- the large expanse below the Sahara Desert -- has been besieged since February by jihadis who prevent people and goods from moving in or out and cut water supplies. Few truckers want to run the jihadist gauntlet. Residents are suffering with no or water, animals are dying and the price of grain has spiked. The goods are not arriving anymore here. Animal and agricultural production is not possible because the people cannot go back to their villages, UN resident and humanitarian coordinator Barbara Manzi told The Associated Press from Djibo this week. Unless (a solution) is found, it's going to be really a tragedy for the entire group of people that are here. Djibo has been at the epicenter of the violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million people. While Djibo and Soum province where the town is located experienced periods of calm, such as during a makeshift ceasefire between jihadis and the government surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the truce didn't last. Since November, insecurity in the region has increased. Jihadis have destroyed water infrastructure in the town and lined much of Djibo's perimeter with explosives, blockading the city, say locals. The town's population has swollen from 60,000 to 300,000 over the last few years as people flee the countryside to escape the violence. Blockading cities is a tactic used by jihadis to assert dominance and could also be an attempt to get Burkina Faso's new military junta, which seized power in January, to backtrack on promises to eliminate the jihadis, said Laith Alkhouri, CEO of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory, a group that provides intelligence analysis. Militants resort to blockading when they see an opportunity to gain incentives in negotiating with the government and simultaneously send a message to their base that they are in control. It's a bargaining card and a winning one, he said. A UN team flew in briefly to assess the situation. The AP was the first foreign media to visit the town in more than a year. Today there is nothing to buy here. Even if you have cash, there is nothing to buy. We came here with four donkeys and goats and some of them died because of hunger. We were forced to sell the rest of the animals and unfortunately prices of animals have decreased, said cattle owner Mamoudou Oumarou. The 53-year-old father of 13 fled his village in February and said the blockade in Djibo has prevented people from coming to the market to buy and sell cattle, decreasing demand and lowering prices for the animals by half. Before the violence, Djibo had one of the biggest and most vital cattle markets in the Sahel and was a bustling economic hub. Some 600 trucks used to enter Djibo monthly, now it's less than 70, said Alpha Ousmane Dao, director of Seracom, a local aid group in Djibo. Burkina Faso is facing its worst hunger crisis in six years, more than 630,000 people are on the brink of starvation, according to the UN. As a result of Djibo's blockade, the World Program has been unable to deliver to the town since December and stocks are running out, said Antoine Renard, country director for the World Food Program in Burkina Faso. Efforts to end the blockade through dialogue have had mixed results. At the end of April, the emir of Djibo met with Burkina Faso's top jihadist, Jafar Dicko, to negotiate lifting the siege. However, little progress has been made since then. Locals say the jihadis have eased restrictions in some areas allowing freer movement, but that the army is now preventing people from bringing food out of Djibo to the surrounding villages for fear it will go to the jihadis. The army denied the allegations. Meanwhile residents in Djibo say they're risking their lives just trying to survive. Dadou Sadou searches for wood and water in the middle of the night outside of Djibo, when she says the jihadis are not around. We no longer have animals, we don't have food to buy in the market If you have children, you don't have a choice, she said. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Shares of surged 8 per cent to Rs 45,176 on the BSE in Fridays trade after the company reported strong performance in March quarter (Q4FY22). Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) margin improved by 470 basis points (bps) year on year (YoY) and 290 bps quarter on quarter (QoQ) at 24 per cent, on better operating efficiencies. The stock of garments and apparels hit a 52-week high of Rs 46,705 on April 26, 2022. At 10:26 am; it traded 8 per cent higher at Rs 44,935, as compared to 0.55 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. Meanwhile, the companys reported profit after tax (PAT) jumped 64.9 per cent YoY to Rs 190.5 crore, on back of 37.2 per cent YoY increase in revenue at Rs 3,887 crore. That apart, the company remains optimistic that all product categories and channels will continue to witness increasing trend and investments in leadership, product innovation, warehousing, technology and logistics support. The sales momentum has picked up significantly across all our product categories backed by expansion in our portfolio and existing network. We are well poised on a growth trajectory and remain optimistic on delivering sustainable growth over the long-term, the management said. is the exclusive licensee of JOCKEY International Inc. (USA) to manufacture, distribute and market the JOCKEY brand in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Oman, Qatar, Maldives, Bhutan and UAE. is also the exclusive licensee of Speedo International to manufacture, market and distribute Speedo brand in India. However, analysts at Motilal Oswal Financials maintain neutral rating on the stock. They believe that the near-term challenges persist due to steep rise in yarn costs and high base for higher realization of Athleisure segment. After a few years of an earnings decline (-4.3 per cent PBT CAGR over FY18-21), its performance in FY22 has been encouraging, resulting in an improved outlook. RoCE also revived to over 50 per cent after 15 years, having dipped to the late 30s in recent years. Page Industries higher multiples will sustain, driven by healthy revenue and earnings visibility. However, valuations at 56x FY24E EPS are rich, which leads us to maintain our Neutral rating, the brokerage firm added. BEML reported a 15.46% fall in consolidated net profit (continuing operations) of Rs 133.42 crore in Q4 FY22 from Rs 157.81 crore posted in Q4 FY21. Net sales declined 6.77% to Rs 1,683.58 crore for the quarter ended 31 March 2022 from Rs 1,805.74 crore recorded in the corresponding period last year. Profit before tax jumped 16.35% to Rs 204.57 crore in Q4 FY22 from Rs 175.82 crore in Q4 FY21. Total expenses fell 9.2% to Rs 1,480.38 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21. Cost of material consumed rose 14.61% to Rs 866.15 crore and employee benefits expenses rose 1.76% to Rs 211.62 crore. On the margins front, the company's operating margin improved to 12.68% in Q4 FY22 from 10.4% posted in Q4 FY21. Net profit margin stood at 7.92% in Q4 FY22 as against 8.74% recorded in Q4 FY21. The PSU company's order book as of 31 March 2022 stood at Rs 9,192 crore. The defense company said it executed orders worth Rs 1,558 crore in quarter ended March 2022. On full year basis, the company recorded 87.18% jump in net profit (continuing operations) to Rs 128.59 crore on a 20.59% rise in net sales to Rs 4,337.49 crore in FY22 over FY21. Meanwhile, the board of directors of the company recommended a dividend of Rs 5 per equity share, for the financial year ended 31 March 2022. BEML is a multi-technology schedule 'A' company under the Ministry of Defence. It has its operation under three business verticals viz. defence & aerospace, mining & construction and rail & metro. As on 31 March 2022, the Government of India held 54.03% stake in BEML. Shares of BEML were trading 2.69 % higher at Rs 1292.45 on the BSE. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is quoting at Rs 323.15, down 0.37% on the day as on 13:19 IST on the NSE. The stock tumbled 31.46% in last one year as compared to a 5.86% rally in NIFTY and a 30.78% spurt in the Nifty Auto index. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd fell for a fifth straight session today. The stock is quoting at Rs 323.15, down 0.37% on the day as on 13:19 IST on the NSE. The benchmark NIFTY is up around 1.05% on the day, quoting at 16340.7. The Sensex is at 54854.87, up 1.11%.Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd has lost around 12.51% in last one month.Meanwhile, Nifty Auto index of which Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd is a constituent, has eased around 11.9% in last one month and is currently quoting at 25760.45, down 0.66% on the day. The volume in the stock stood at 36.49 lakh shares today, compared to the daily average of 37.27 lakh shares in last one month. The benchmark June futures contract for the stock is quoting at Rs 323.45, down 0.25% on the day. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd tumbled 31.46% in last one year as compared to a 5.86% rally in NIFTY and a 30.78% spurt in the Nifty Auto index. The PE of the stock is 5.48 based on TTM earnings ending December 21. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) Muthoot Finance tumbled 5.30% to Rs 1077 after the company reported 2.2% fall in consolidated net profit to Rs 997.03 crore on a 2.5% decline in total income to Rs 3041.14 crore in Q4 FY22 over Q4 FY21. Operating profit declined 6.8% YoY to Rs 1,387.21 crore during the quarter. Provisions and write-off dropped 82.4% to Rs 14.61 crore in Q4 FY22 from Rs 83.15 crore in Q4 FY21. Profit before tax in Q4 FY22 stood at Rs 1,351.83 crore, down by 2.4% from Rs 1,385.16 crore in Q4 FY21. The company recorded 5.6% growth in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,016.62 crore on a 5.8% increase in total income to Rs 12,237.46 crore in FY22 over FY21. Muthoot Finance's consolidated loan assets under management grew 11% YoY to Rs 64,494 crore as at FY22 as against Rs 58,280 crore last year. George Jacob Muthoot, Chairman stated, Despite the ongoing geo-political crisis and covid related base challenges, Muthoot Finance has delivered a consistent performance in this quarter.. As the economy is gradually recovering, the demand for gold loans has been steady and we remain optimistic for the coming financial year. Gold prices have been steadily rising over the last three years and this has attracted new customers towards the product and has positively helped the sector. With Indian Households owning the world's biggest private stock of gold, and only about ten percent in the organized gold loan market space including gold loan companies, there is huge untapped opportunity in gold loan sector. We aim to keep innovating and maintain our leadership in the gold loan sector. George Alexander Muthoot, Managing Director said, Since we are witnessing signs of recovery in the economy, the RBI rate hike may not dampen overall demand scenario and we are expecting borrowing cost to go up gradually during the year. Gold loans are a great option both, in times of rise and drop in economic activities. As the economy recovers and overall economic demand revives, our focus will be to make the most of the opportunities and keep innovating further. With respect to our subsidiaries, following the rise in demand in the economy, the collections from Micro finance, vehicle finance and home loans have improved. We aim to further improve our collections in these segments. However, we will continue to adopt a balanced growth strategy and given the ongoing macro-economic environment we continue to be cautious on the Micro finance and Vehicle finance business. Muthoot Finance is the flagship company of the Kerala-based business house, The Muthoot Group, which has diversified operations in financial services, healthcare, education and hospitality. It is India's largest gold loan focussed NBFC. The company derives a major portion of its business from South India, where gold loans have traditionally been accepted as a means of availing short-term credit, although it has increased its presence beyond South India over the last few years. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) ONGC dropped 4.48% to Rs 145.05 after the company said it will invest Rs 31,000 crore in exploration over the next three years. The state-run oil major said it has drawn up a comprehensive roadmap to further intensify its exploration campaign, allocating a capital expenditure of about Rs 31,000 crore in the next three fiscal years during FY 2022-25. This is 150% of its exploration expenditure of Rs 20,670 crore in the last three fiscals during FY 2019-22, it said in a statement on Thursday. ONGC said it also plans to leverage international collaborations with reputed global majors for this, for which talks are in an advanced stage. This exploration intensification includes activities funded through ONGC's internal program as well as funded and facilitated by the government, the company said in a statement. Under government-funded program for appraisal of unapprised offshore areas till Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), 70,000 line kilometers (LKM) of 2D broadband seismic data acquisition, processing and interpretation (API) will be done in three sectors namely West Coast of India, East Coast of India and Andaman offshore. ONGC will complete the technical bid opening (TBO) for seismic data acquisition by June 2022. In Andaman Basin, ONGC presently holds two blocks for exploration under Open Acreage Licensing policy (OALP). Government of India has also acquired seismic data in some sectors within 'No-Go' areas and few prospects are already identified. ONGC has plans to drill six wells in the next three years (two under ONGC committed work program and four through government funding). Reputed global companies/consultants are being invited for the assessment of the basin for future exploration and exploitation plan. ONGC's internal program has three components; re-exploration of Mature Basins, consolidation of Emerging Basins and probing of Emerging and New Basins. Under this internal program, ONGC is trying to probe around 1700 million tonne of oil and oil equivalent gas (MMTOE) of Yet-To-Find (YTF) reserves during FY 2022-25. The activities here include 2D and 3D seismic survey, followed by drilling of around 115-120 wells with an estimated outlay of Rs. 10,000 crore every year for next three years, ONGC said. Maharatna ONGC is the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India, contributing around 71% to Indian domestic production. It has in-house service capabilities in all areas of exploration and production of oil & gas and related oil-field services. The Government of India held 58.91% stake in ONGC as of March 2022. The company's consolidated net profit surged to Rs 10,931.61 crore in the quarter ended December 2021 as against Rs 2,518.11 crore during the previous quarter ended December 2020. Sales rose 45.27% to Rs 1,45,685.58 crore in Q3 FY22. The company will announce Q4 results on 28 May 2022. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The company reported consolidated net profit of Rs 151 crore in Q4 March 2022 compared with net loss of Rs 510 crore in Q4 March 2021. On a consolidated basis, total income rose 23% year-on-year to Rs 4,401 crore in Q4 March 2022. Non-operating other income jumped 45% to Rs 238 crore during the quarter, comprising interest on bank deposits, gain on sale of mutual fund investments, exchange gain, dividend income and settlement of claims. Pre-tax loss (before tax & exceptional items) stood at Rs 14 crore in Q4 March 2022 compared with pre-tax profit of Rs 861 crore in Q4 March 2021. OPBIDTA fell 27% YoY to Rs 1,414 crore during the period under review. Total expenses rose 63.17% to Rs 4,414.55 crore. Cost of material consumed rose 24.38% to Rs 335.29 crore while employee benefits expenses rose 44.15% to Rs 612.31 crore. During the quarter, financial services business revenue jumped 37% YoY to Rs 2,024 crore. Retail loan disbursements rose 100% QoQ in Q4 FY22 to Rs 1,480 crore. The business reported YoY decline in GNPA by 70 bps to 3.4% and NNPA by 50 bps 1.6%. During the year, Piramal Enterprises completed its acquisition of distressed home financier - Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL). The company's financial services lending business reported loss of Rs 321 crore in March quarter (Q4FY22) due to additional provisioning and interest reversals totaling Rs 1,037 crore. The pharma business revenue grew 11% YoY to Rs 2,139 crore. Within the pharma business, India Consumer Healthcare revenue stood at Rs 196 crore (up 55%), Complex Hospital Generics revenue was reported at Rs 548 crore (up 8%) and pharma CDMO revenue stood at Rs 1,394 crore (up 8%). For the year, Piramal Enterprises' net profit rose 41% to Rs 1,999 crore on 12% increase in total income to Rs 14,713 crore in the year ended March 2022 over the year ended March 2021. OPBIDTA fell 8% YoY to Rs 7,170 crore in FY22. The board has recommended a final dividend of Rs 33 per equity share for the financial year ended 31 March 2022. The reported operating cash flow (OCF) of Rs 8,749.59 crore in the year ended 31 March 2022 compared with OCF of Rs 3,664.54 crore in the year ended March 2021. Ajay Piramal, chairman, Piramal Enterprises, said: "We have delivered a resilient performance in Q4 and FY22 across financial services and pharmaceuticals, against the backdrop of the pandemic and macro-economic headwinds. In financial services, we completed the integration with DHFL and achieved 100% Q-on-Q growth in retail loan disbursements in Q4 of FY22. We have re-activated almost all the branches and not only retained over 3,000 employees of the DHFL, but also created over 3,000 new jobs in the merged entity across India. We will continue to make requisite investments in talent and technology, to strengthen our ability to tap the latent business opportunities in the Bharat market. Post the DHFL acquisition, we will now leverage our sizable retail lending platform to double our AUM over the next 5 years, thereby significantly improving our mix towards retail. During the quarter, we further strengthened our balance sheet by making additional provisions towards Stage 2 assets. We also continue to retain the extraordinary provisions made in March 2020 towards the pandemic related risks. In pharmaceuticals, we have been investing organically and inorganically across all our businesses. All our key businesses have a compelling plan for their growth and have continued to deliver against their respective strategic priorities despite challenging macro-environment. We remain firmly on track to complete the demerger of the pharmaceuticals business by Q3 of FY23 and unlock significant value for our stakeholders." Piramal Enterprises (PEL) is one of the large companies in India, with a presence in financial services and pharmaceuticals. In financial services, the company offers a wide range of financial products and solutions, with a presence across both retail and wholesale financing. Piramal Pharma offers a portfolio of differentiated products and services through end-to-end manufacturing capabilities across 15 global facilities and a global distribution network over 100 countries. Shares of Piramal Enterprises fell 9.71% to Rs 1675.75 on the BSE. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 1658.35 in intraday today. Powered by Capital Market - Live News (This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.) The first in-person annual meeting of the at Davos ended on Thursday. India was at the centre of many dialogues on emerging issues ranging from crypto technologies to . The global CEO of Saint Gobain, Benoit Bazin was extremely bullish about his companys growth story in India. The Euro 45 billion company sees India as its future growth driver for business and innovation. We have a plan to invest more than Rs 55 billion in the next 4 years in India. India is not only important for Saint-Gobain in India but also for South East Asia and the rest of the world, Bazin said. India can be a critical country for solar energy. Now we are also investing in our sustainability agenda to make progress on reducing the carbon footprint for manufacturing in our latest plant in Vizag by using biomass. Sheila Warren, CEO of Crypto Council for Innovation (CCI) said, The industry is at an inflection point. We have evidence that shows the value of blockchain-backed systems, including those that rely on crypto. CCI is a global alliance of crypto industry leaders with a mission to demonstrate the transformational promise of crypto. Fidelity Investment and Andreesen Horowitz are among the supporters of CCI. Warren said that blockchain and crypto innovation from countries like India will change the business landscape. Indian companies and government representatives made the most of the absence of Russian delegation and a surprisingly small Chinese presence of barely a dozen delegates. "In terms of numbers and specifically when it comes to government, we have record numbers from India," said Sriram Gutta, head of India agenda at the Forum. "We currently work with many states on diverse initiatives, including food innovation and agri tech, advanced manufacturing and production, drones, and electric vehicles, among others." More than one hundred Indian delegates which included CEOs, unicorn founders and political leaders were at Davos. While Russia was denied participation at the Davos gathering, Chinas lockdown conditions prevented a large presence. China sent its smallest official delegation ever, amid stringent quarantine rules due to its zero-Covid policy and its unpopularity because of pro-Russia neutrality. China was represented in only four of more than 200 sessions at WEF. The Beijing delegation was led by Chinas Special Representative for Affairs Xie Zhenhua. He joined a panel of climate leaders, including US special presidential envoy for climate John Kerry and WEF president Brge Brende, to urge for climate action to keep global temperatures from rising within the 1.5-degree Celsius Paris Agreement target to prevent climate catastrophe. Many observers noted the absence of China and the strong presence of India. Xis heavy-handed Zero Covid strategy has triggered serious discomfort among Western businesses, an article in Politico noted. The conversation has shifted dramatically from wary appraisals of Chinas strength to borderline panic about its fragility. David Rubenstein, co-founder of the private equity Carlyle Group, told Politico in Davos that India has been more attractive [to buy assets] of late than China. The (WEF) launched the India chapter of the Alliance of CEO Climate Action Leaders on Monday to supercharge India's climate action and decarbonisation efforts. Part of the World Economic Forum's Climate Action Platform, the Alliance will continue efforts to achieve the vision outlined in the white paper released last year, Mission 2070: A Green New Deal for a Net Zero India, on India's low-carbon transition by 2070. It will bring together the government, businesses, and other key stakeholders to achieve the Indian prime minister's ambitious, five-part "Panchamrit" pledge, which includes the country's net-zero by 2070 target. "As a major global economy, India's role in mitigating is critical, and India Inc. must add its full weight to the country's efforts, as well to the global endeavour, against global warming," said Sumant Sinha, co-Chair, Alliance of CEO Climate Action Leaders India, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, ReNew Power. A just transition could generate annual business opportunities worth over $10 trillion and create 395 million jobs by 2030 worldwide. India alone could see more than 50 million net new jobs and generate over $15 trillion in economic value. Conversations on water security at the annual meeting led to substantive action on freshwater conservation and management. Global conglomerate HCL announced a partnership with UpLink, the open innovation platform of the that connects highly promising start-ups with the partners and funding they need to scale. Through a $15 million investment over five years, HCL will accelerate the innovation agenda for water and create a first-of-its-kind innovation ecosystem for the global freshwater sector on UpLink. "Today, freshwater resources globally are extremely burdened, and every fifth child on this planet faces water scarcity," said Roshni Nadar Malhotra, CEO of HCL Group and Chairperson of HCL Technologies. Maharashtra, India's largest state in terms of GDP, joined the WEFs Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP). The economic powerhouse joins a growing list of global economies that will leverage the GPAP platform to drive localised solutions for the circular economy. "This agreement with the World Economic Forum's Global Plastic Action Partnership marks a critical juncture in our state's battle against the plastic pollution endemic," said Aaditya Thackeray, Minister of Environment and Climate Change for Maharashtra. While the European political leadership was focused on the war in Ukraine, the business heads were eagerly scouting options for diversifying their trade and investments. For most of them India seemed the best option with political stability and reformist policies. The presence of central government ministers and five states that were competing for attention was perhaps the best symbol of Indias aggressive positioning as an attractive investment destination and a rapidly growing market. Many global investors endorsed Indias rising relevance in the world economy. A Mohali court on Friday sent to 14-day judicial custody sacked Punjab minister Vijay Singla, who said he worked with 'utmost sincerity', has full faith in his party and will come out clean of corruption charges. Before being taken to the court, Singla told reporters that there may be a conspiracy from some "outsider forces" behind the episode leading to his sacking and arrest. Singla, 52, was sacked from the state Cabinet Tuesday over graft charges by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. He held the health portfolio and was accused of demanding "one per cent commission" in tenders and purchases by his department. Singla and his Officer on Special Duty (OSD) Pardeep Kumar were arrested by police. Both were produced before the court of Ravtesh Inderjit Singh in Mohali after their three-day police remand ended on Friday. Advocate H S Dhanoa, the counsel for Singla, said police requested for the judicial remand of the former minister and his Pardeep. He said the court fixed June 10 as the next date of hearing and they will be sent to the Rupnagar jail. The counsel further said both Singla and Pardeep have agreed to give their voice samples. When Singla was asked about the corruption allegations levelled against him before being taken to the court, he told reporters, "I worked with utmost honesty in my department." "I have complete faith in my government, my party, police and judiciary. We will come out clean," said Singla. To a question, Singla said there was no conspiracy in the party. However, he said there can be a conspiracy of some "outside forces". On May 24, Singla on allegations against him had said, "It is a conspiracy and an attempt to defame the party." Singla along with his OSD Pardeep Kumar, who is said to be the former minister's relative, were booked on a complaint by Superintending Engineer Rajinder Singh, posted at Punjab Health System Corporation. The officer had alleged that they demanded Rs 1.16-crore bribe from Rs 58 crore, which included Rs 41 crore for construction works and Rs 17 crore as payment to contractors, besides one per cent commission in government contracts. The complainant had also alleged that he was threatened that his career will be ruined and had said that he eventually agreed to pay Rs 5 lakh to avoid the "mental harassment". The complainant also made an audio recording of the conversation when he met Singla and Pardeep on May 23. CM Mann himself had announced Singla's removal from the Cabinet, which was sworn in just two months ago after the Aam Aadmi Party stormed to power, riding on the agenda of corruption-free governance. Mann had then said that Singla had admitted to his alleged wrongdoings. Mann had said that his government would not allow corrupt practices. (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.) You are receiving the free biweekly version of China Green Bulletin. Sign up here for our twice-a-week email to keep up to date on green, energy and ESG news out of China. Top News Items Chinas climate envoy pledges to keep fighting climate change China is endeavoring to fight against climate change and push renewable energy development, special climate envoy Xie Zhenhua said in a meeting with the chief of the International Energy Agency on Monday in Davos, Switzerland. China leads the world in total installed and newly added capacity for renewable power generation. Insurance / In Depth: As mass Covid testing becomes Chinas new normal, debate grows over who pays As Chinas local governments rack up billions of yuan of health care costs to implement the countrys dynamic zero-Covid policy, including mass testing and vaccination campaigns, a debate is growing about where the money is coming from to pay for it all. Testing to root out chains of transmission has been one of the governments main weapons to fight the nations worst Covid-19 outbreak since early 2020. Cities where flare-ups occur require all residents to undergo nucleic acid tests, also known as PCR tests, usually every 48 hours, to quarantine those infected and their close contacts and to stop the virus from spreading. Davos / Climate issues shouldnt bear political labels, U.S. envoy says No political labels should be placed on climate cooperation, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told Caixin at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, noting that it is an existential issue for every country and every person on the planet. In response to a Caixin reporters question about whether such cooperation is a good sign for the two countries relationship, Kerry said at a press conference Wednesday that we both know that our countries have differences weve acknowledged it publicly. World needs clear standards for sustainability ratings, leaders say FINANCE & ECONOMY Economy / Chinas premier puts greater emphasis on growth China faces difficulties in some areas that are more serious than those in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, Premier Li Keqiang said Wednesday at a State Council meeting. Development is the key to solving all current problems, and the government needs to strike a better balance between economic development and pandemic control with growth as the higher priority, Li said. The premier pledged that the government would work to protect employment and peoples lives, maintain reasonable economic growth and push for a decline in unemployment in the second quarter. Covid-19 / Tianjin locks down a district and orders citywide Covid testing Tianjin locked down one of its central districts and kicked off a new round of citywide testing to contain its latest local outbreak of Covid-19. The port citys health authorities reported 18 local cases Wednesday, up from 17 a day earlier. More than 350,000 residents of the Heping district were put under static management Wednesday, meaning they cannot leave the district unless necessary, state media reported, citing local health authorities (link in Chinese). Most residents are confined to their homes, residential communities or neighborhoods. China further slashes price of a Covid-19 test to $2.40 Quick hits / Covid lockdown costs Shanghai its yuan trading crown Bidens China-tariff review likely to take months, USTR says BUSINESS & TECH A real estate project under construction in Qingzhou city, East China's Shandong province, May 15. Photo: VCG Property / More Chinese developers ask for more time to pay back bonds More Chinese property developers have been trying to get extra time to make debt payments as they continue to struggle with getting their hands on enough cash to repay creditors. The repayment wrangling indicates that many Chinese developers remain snagged in a liquidity crisis despite government measures over the past few months to ease severe market and financing restrictions. So far the measures, which aim to keep the industry from falling into financial turmoil, have failed to shore up sales or market confidence. Chinese builder Agiles liquidity questioned despite bond gains Logistics / More Chinese logistics firms sink into red in April More of Chinas major logistics companies lost money in April as widespread disruption from the countrys Covid-induced lockdowns pushed up costs in an industry where margins have long been paper thin. In the first four months of the year, 39% of the countrys key logistics companies logged losses, compared with 36% in the first three months, according to statistics provided Wednesday by the government-linked China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing (CFLP). No further details were given about the total number of such businesses. Zhihu / Q&A site Zhihu founder vows to slash red ink as losses grow Q&A platform Zhihu Inc.s net losses widened 89% year-on-year to 614 million yuan ($92 million) in the first quarter, according to its quarterly earnings released Wednesday. That was despite a previously-stated goal of paring losses this year. The Hong Kong- and NYSE-traded companys revenue, meanwhile, jumped 55% from a year earlier to 743 million yuan during the period. Its cost of revenue almost doubled year-on-year to 408 million yuan due to increased spending on advertising services, content-related costs and more headcount. Long Read / China still needs supply-side structural reform but needs to get it right GALLERY Crowds rush to exit Shanghai Recommended newsletter for you / Caixin Must-Read Newsletter brings you the best of our coverage and stories you cant miss. You can opt-in now and get hand-picked news coverage delivered to your inbox each week for free. Thanks for reading. If you havent already, click here to subscribe. Whats new: Chinas scandal-plagued drugmaker Kangmei Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (600518.SH) paid 2.46 billion yuan ($364 million) in compensation to investors, closing the countrys first securities class-action lawsuit against a fraudulent issuer. More than 52,000 Kangmei investors received cash payments under the companys reorganization plan, according to Li Chao, vice chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), at a briefing Friday. Among the investors, 99.4% are small retail investors with losses of less than 500,000 yuan, Li said. The background: Kangmei, one of Chinas biggest publicly traded drugmakers, was accused of financial reporting fraud involving 88.6 billion yuan of overstatements between 2016 and 2018. Regulators found that the company used fake bank deposit slips to inflate cash reserves, forged documents for nonexistent business activities and transferred company funds to related parties to trade in its own stock. In November 2021, a court in Guangzhou made a landmark ruling in the countrys first securities class-action lawsuit, ordering Kangmei to pay 2.46 billion yuan to more than 50,000 shareholders who lost money because of the fraud. In January, Ma Xingtian, the former chairman of Kangmei, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined 1.2 million yuan for manipulating the securities market, failure to disclose important information and bribery. Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com) Download our app to receive breaking news alerts and read the news on the go. Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter. RTHK: 6.1-magnitude quake strikes off East Timor A 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of East Timor on Friday, the US Geological Survey said, with tremors felt as far as the Australian city of Darwin, although there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The USGS said the quake hit at a depth of 51 kilometres off the eastern tip of Timor island, which is split between East Timor and Indonesia. An AFP journalist in the East Timor capital Dili felt the earthquake and said that, although it lasted only seconds, "the jolt was quite strong". "I saw people rushing out of their homes and children running outside of the school," the journalist said. The earthquake was more violent around the town of Lospalos in the east of the country, but local authorities were still assessing the situation and did not give a breakdown of the damage or possible casualties. The quake was also felt in Darwin, Australia, which lies across the Timor Sea from the epicentre. Darwin resident Joel Willingale, who works in heavy manufacturing, said "it went on for about 30 seconds". "The whole room shook and slammed down," he said. "We only really feel the effects of a quake occasionally, usually in the Banda Sea. But this one was a big one." The Banda Sea lies north of Timor island. To the north in Indonesia, the earthquake triggered panic and prompted people to evacuate buildings in the southwest of the Moluccas archipelago, according to the National Emergency Management. Authorities did not report any damage or casualties. The United Nations' tsunami monitoring agency warned that the quake "could generate a tsunami affecting the Indian Ocean region". No national authority in the region has yet issued a tsunami warning, however. "No #tsunami threat to Australia from #earthquake felt in Darwin, NT," said Australia's Bureau of Meteorology in a tweet. East Timor and Indonesia sit on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", an arc of intense seismic activity that stretches through Southeast Asia and across the Pacific basin. In February, a 6.2-magnitude quake killed a dozen people when it struck Indonesia's North Sumatra. In 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake hit the coast of Sumatra and triggered a tsunami that killed 220,000 people throughout the region, including about 170,000 in Indonesia. East Timor has a population of about 1.3 million and is Southeast Asia's youngest country, recently celebrating the 20th anniversary of its independence from Indonesia. The mostly rural economy has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with the World Bank saying 42 percent of the population live below the poverty line. (AFP) ______________________________ Last updated: 2022-05-27 HKT 14:49 This story has been published on: 2022-05-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. Foreign companies still full of confidence when looking at prospects of Chinese market People's Daily Online) 10:44, May 27, 2022 Cosmetics giant L'Oreal lately announced the establishment of its first investment company in China, which mirrors the vibrant flow of foreign investment into China. Amid the lingering cases of COVID-19, many multinationals have gathered pace to occupy larger shares of international markets, among which the Chinese market remains one of their favorites. Container trucks travel back and forth as they shuttle shipments at the Yangshan Deep Water Port, Shanghai. (China News Service/Yin Liqin) Shanghai Meicifang Investment Co., Ltd., L'Oreals first investment company in China, was established at the Oriental Beauty Valley, Fengxian district, Shanghai. This was also the first investment project in China signed by a Fortune Global 500 company during the resumption of work and production in Shanghai after a new wave of Omicron cases. Although production faces some uncertainties in the current circumstances, L'Oreals business maintained steady growth during the first quarter of the year, and L'Oreal China saw a double-digit increase in its business performance, higher than the average level for the overall cosmetics market, said Fabrice Megarbane, president of L'Oreal North Asia Zone and CEO of L'Oreal China, adding that the group is still optimistic about the Chinese market. Visitors try out cosmetic products at the consumer goods exhibition area during the China International Import Expo (CIIE). (China News Service/Yin Liqin) Besides cosmetics companies like L'Oreal, foreign enterprises in other industries have also enhanced their investments into the Chinese market. Multinational pharmaceutical company Merck plans to invest an additional 100 million euros to expand its first single-use manufacturing center in the Asia-Pacific region located in Wuxi National High-tech Industrial Development Zone, east Chinas Jiangsu province. The project is scheduled to be operational before 2024 and will create nearly 1,000 jobs. And the expanded manufacturing base is expected to become one of the three global manufacturing centers of Mercks life science business sector. Data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) showed that 185 new contracts entailing foreign direct investments worth over $100 million each were signed in China during the first four months of the year, which meant that an average of 1.5 large-scale foreign-funded projects were introduced into China every day. The fundamentals of the foreign trade industry for long-term growth remain unchanged. Aerial photo shows the exterior of an assembly shop at a factory operated by BMW Brilliance Automotive Ltd., a Chinese-German joint venture, in Tiexi district, Shenyang city, northeast Chinas Liaoning province. (Photo/China Construction Second Engineering Bureau Ltd. Northern Branch) Compared with international trade, which depends more on the current state of market supply and demand, international investment places more emphasis on the long-term fundamentals and development potential of an economy, said Bai Ming, deputy director of international market research at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, who believes that in the face of challenges, Chinas huge market potential, strong and effective supportive measures, and continuously improving business environment have boosted foreign investors confidence in the Chinese market. According to Jin Xiandong, a spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission, China revised the negative lists for foreign investment access in the country and in its pilot free trade zones (FTZs) for five consecutive years from 2017 to 2021, which have cut special management measures for foreign investment access from 93 and 122 to 31 and 27, respectively. Besides, it has launched a number of major measures for further opening-up in the areas of finance and automobiles, providing a broader space for foreign investment. In recent years, China has moved increasingly faster to formulate and improve relevant laws and regulations, with the Foreign Investment Law and related regulations now being fully implemented, which has fundamentally guaranteed the interests of foreign investors and created a more law-based business environment for foreign investors and foreign-invested enterprises. In response to the pandemic, Chinas timely and effective policies, including the largest tax rebate and reduction moves in its history totaling 2.5 trillion yuan ($371 billion), as well as rent cuts and exemptions and loan extensions at the central and local levels, have also encouraged foreign companies to enhance their investments in the country. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) KIEV, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday met with Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin and discussed Ukraine's European integration and post-conflict recovery, Zelensky's press service reported. At the talks in Kiev, Zelensky thanked the Finnish government for providing financial, defense and humanitarian aid for Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia. He also stressed the importance of visits of foreign high-ranking officials to the Ukrainian capital. "These are very important direct signals of support, first of all for the Ukrainian people, our people, who see that they are not left alone with today's ordeals," Zelensky said. Finland's support for Ukraine's future membership in the European Union (EU) is very important, Zelensky said, adding that Kiev expects that the EU will decide on Ukraine's membership prospects soon. The Ukrainian leader also invited Finland to take part in his country's post-conflict recovery by taking patronage over a region, city, or industry. For her part, Marin said that her country and people today understand Ukrainians very well, given their historical experience. "The heroic spirit of the Ukrainian people, who are fighting for their freedom and for the whole of Europe, is admirable," Marin said. The Finnish prime minister arrived in Kiev earlier in the day for her first visit to Ukraine. BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Thanks to its rich legacy of people-oriented thoughts, the fine traditional Chinese culture is an important source of reference for the advancement of public well-being and the protection of human rights in modern society. As the 17th-century Chinese scholar Wan Sida said: "No matter is too small if it delivers benefits to the people." These words epitomize the ideal governance philosophy prioritizing the well-being of the people. President Xi Jinping has cited the aphorism to highlight the Party's people-centered philosophy as well as to call for efforts to deliver tangible benefits to the public. The people-centered philosophy is the underpinning principle in the country's various endeavors -- from poverty elimination, anti-pandemic fight, to human rights protection. "It is important to take the people's interests as the fundamental purpose and goal, make continuous efforts to address the most pressing and immediate issues that concern the people the most, and strive to deliver a better life to the people. That is the biggest human right," said Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission. The Chinese people today enjoy more extensive and comprehensive democratic rights, and their human rights are guaranteed like never before. "The people's aspiration for a better life is what we are striving for," said Xi. Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights in several major territories to Sylvain Chomets upcoming English-language feature The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol. Here are the details: The first Niigata International Animation Film Festival (NIAFF) will unspool March 17-22, 2023 in the Japanese port city of Niigata, about 200 miles north of Tokyo. Here are the early details: Laverde graduated high school in 1953 and started studying agriculture at university before dropping out to work as a director of photography and documentary filmmaker for Televisora Nacional de Colombia. Eventually, he was promoted to producer and director. In 1956, he moved to Madrid and got his first job working in animation as an assistant on Las Aventuras de Mumu (1967) for Television Espanola (TVE). Later, he directed La guitarrita espanola and was director of photography on La historia de musica and the documentary Ernesto Bitetti. During his time in Europe, he became fascinated by stop motion films, particularly those of legendary Czech filmmakers Jiri Trnka and Jiri Barta. He returned to Colombia in 1969, and directed Colombias contribution to Ninos del mundo. That same year, he was invited by UNESCO to represent Colombia at a screenwriters course hosted by the National Institute of Cinematography in Buenos Aires. All the while, he continued working in cinema and served as director of photography on 1971s Una tarde un lunes, which won the Kodak Award for Best Photography. In 1972, his first animated short El pais de Bellaflor premiered at the Cartagena International Film Festival (FICCI), Colombias largest film festival and the oldest in Latin America, where it won Best Film. He later directed shorts including Colorin colorado (1973), La maquinita (1973), La cosecha (1974), Fuegos de artificio, La promesa (1975), and La chamba (1975). During those years, he also worked on several documentary films. Animation production in Colombia at that time was almost entirely regulated to advertisements and independent short films. When Laverde began developing his features, he did so mostly on his own and leaned heavily on skills and knowledge acquired during his time in Europe. With limited resources and few peers to lean on in Colombia, he made his films at an in-home studio, shooting them on a single lens Kingstone camera and using his daughters toys for characters and props. Family was always paramount to Laverde, who considered his filmmaking a family business. His greatest support came from three sources. His wife Karina was a professional actress who helped design the costumes for his models, and more than just contributing their toys, his children also played key roles in Laverdes filmmaking as they got older. His daughter Ana Maria would eventually become his assistant director and design sets, while his son Fernando Enrique built those sets, was Laverdes director of photography, and operated the camera crane. In 1975, he founded the Grupo de Cine Familiar where he later made the short film Rincones de Boyaca (1977). His feature debut came in 1978, with the stop motion film La pobre viejecita, which won the Colcultura award for best feature film. The following year, his animated short Un planeta llamado tierra won best short at the Festival of Colombian Cinema while another of his films, Pepitas Rojas, won best short at the first International Childrens Film Festival. In 1983, he directed his second feature, Critobal Colon, which won the Coral Prize at the International Festival of New Ibero-American Cinema in Havana, Cuba. In 1989, he directed his final feature Martin Fierro, based on the popular Argentine character of lore El Gaucho Martin Fierro, the protagonist of an epic poem by writer Jose Hernandez. Pictured above: Fernando Laverde. Credit: Juan M Pedraza Photo: The Canadian Press A man has been shot and killed by police outside a Toronto school. Officers were called to reports of a man carrying a firearm near William G. Davis Junior Public School in Scarboroughs Port Union area. Witnesses said they heard three gunshots and then officers attempting to revive a man lying on the ground. Several other schools in the vicinity were locked down. The police chief, James Ramer, told reporters that it was an isolated event and there was no further threat to public safety. He added that police would increase patrols in the area. The Special Investigations Unit, Ontarios police watchdog, has been called in. In a news release, the SIU says it is investigating after two Toronto Police Service officers fatally shot a man in Scarborough Thursday afternoon. Preliminary information suggests the officers responded around 1:35 p.m. EDT to the area of East Avenue and Maberley Crescent for reports of a man carrying a firearm. The SIU says there was an interaction between the two officers and the man and the two officers shot the man, who was pronounced dead at the scene. Four investigators and three forensic investigators have been assigned to the case. Frantic parents rushed to schools after hearing about the incident. They could be seen crying and hugging their children after the frightening incident. It happened just two days after a lone gunman killed 19 elementary school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Photo: The Canadian Press A person navigates to the on-line social-media pages of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on a cell phone in Ottawa on Monday, May 17, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick Smaller internet service providers (ISPs) are cautiously optimistic about the new telecom policy directives unveiled by the federal government Thursday that are aimed at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Brad Fisher, chief revenue officer at an independent telecom company Distributel, says he is "disappointed" in Ottawa's decision not to overturn a controversial CRTC ruling made last year that reversed the regulatory agency's own 2019 decision to reduce the fees big telecom providers charge smaller internet service providers for access to their broadband networks. "It's a missed opportunity to put money back in the pockets of Canadians," he said. After assessing petitions from smaller ISPs on the issue, Ottawa says it concluded that the 2019 rates included a series of errors and that it would be "irresponsible" to implement them. The government says the rates implemented in 2016 will remain in place. Fisher adds that the decision will make the market a difficult one for smaller ISPs to operate in, although the government has provided a "clear set" of directives that are "pro-competition longer term." Meanwhile, telecom researcher Ben Klass says that the measures don't do enough to support competition. "This direction appears primarily to be an effort by the government to deflect attention from its refusal to address the CRTCs failure to support competition through fair rate regulation for internet providers," he said. Although the government stopped short of implementing the CRTC's 2019 proposed rates, the directives also require the CRTC to "take action to have more timely and improved wholesale rates available." The government is also directing the CRTC to improve its hybrid mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) model and says it is prepared to move to a full MVNO model to support competition if necessary. MVNOs are wireless providers that buy cell phone network service from the big carriers at a wholesale rate and then sell access to customers at a more affordable rate. Ottawa is also calling on the CRTC to address what it calls unacceptable sales practices and lay out new measures to improve clarity around service pricing and the ability for customers to cancel or change services. It also wants to see service providers implement mandatory broadband testing so Canadians will understand what they're paying for. Ottawa's telecom policy proposal lands as concerns increase about Rogers Communications Inc.'s $26 billion acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc. Photo: The Canadian Press In this undated photo provided by Al Jazeera Media Network, Shireen Abu Akleh, a journalist for Al Jazeera network, stands next to a TV camera in an area where the Dome of the Rock shrine at Al-Aqsa Mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem is seen at left in the background. The Palestinian Authority on Thursday announced the results of its investigation into the shooting death of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, saying it had proven she was deliberately killed by Israeli forces as she tried to flee. The conclusion echoed the results of a preliminary investigation announced nearly two weeks ago and were widely expected. Israel rejected the findings, with Defense Minister Benny Gantz calling them, a blatant lie. Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeeras Arabic service, was shot in the head on May 11 during an Israeli military raid in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses and Palestinian officials have said she was hit by Israeli fire. Israel says she was shot during a battle between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants. It says that only a ballistic analysis of the bullet which is held by the Palestinian Authority and the soldiers guns can determine who fired the fatal shot. Announcing the results of his probe at a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah,, Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al Khateeb said he had determined there were no militants in the immediate area where Abu Akleh was located. The only shooting was by the occupation forces, with the aim of killing, he said. Abu Akleh was in a group of journalists wearing helmets and protective vests marked press. Al Khateeb said the army saw the journalists and knew they were journalists. He accused Israel of shooting Abu Akleh directly and deliberately as she tried to escape. He also repeated the Palestinian position that the bullet will not be handed over to the Israelis for study. He said they decided not even to show images of the bullet to deprive (Israel) of a new lie. Al Khateeb said his investigation was based on interviews with witnesses, an inspection of the scene and a forensic medical report. In a speech later Thursday, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi said it was impossible to know who fired the bullet and once again called on the Palestinians to cooperate to get to the bottom of what happened. But there is one thing that can be determined with certainty," the military chief said. "No soldier fired intentionally at a journalist. We investigated that. We checked it. That is the conclusion. There is no other. Israel denies targeting journalists and has offered two possible scenarios, saying Abu Akleh was either shot by Palestinian militants who were firing recklessly at an Israeli army convoy or that she was hit by Israeli gunfire aimed at a nearby militant. The military has identified the rifle that may have been used in that scenario, but says it needs to test the bullet to make any final determination. An AP reconstruction of events has lent support to eyewitnesses who say she was shot by Israeli troops. But a weapons expert interviewed by the AP as part of the reconstruction said that it was impossible to reach a conclusive finding without further forensic analysis. Palestinian witnesses say there were no militants or clashes anywhere near Abu Akleh. The only known militants in the area were on the other side of the convoy, some 300 meters (yards) from her position. They did not have a direct line of sight, unlike the convoy itself, which was some 200 (meters) away on a long straight road. Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation with the PA, with U.S. participation, and has asked the PA to hand over the bullet for testing. But the State Department said Wednesday that it had received no formal request for assistance from either side two weeks after her death. The PA has refused to hand over the bullet to Israel or cooperate with it in any way, saying Israel cannot be trusted to investigate its own conduct. Rights groups say Israel has a poor record of investigating when security forces shoot Palestinians, with cases often languishing for months or years before being quietly closed. The PA administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Hussein Al Sheikh, a top Palestinian official, said Thursday's report would be shared with the U.S. administration. Copies will also be delivered to Abu Akleh's family and to Al Jazeera, he said. The Palestinians say they will also share their results with international parties, including the International Criminal Court, which launched an investigation into possible Israeli war crimes last year. Israel has rejected that probe as being biased against it and is not cooperating with it. The severe distrust means the Israeli and Palestinian investigations into Abu Aklehs death are unfolding separately, with neither likely to accept any conclusions reached by the other. Each side is in sole possession of potentially crucial evidence. Ballistic analysis could match the bullet to a specific firearm based on a microscopic signature, but only if investigators have access to both. Lt. Col. Amnon Shefler, a military spokesman, told the AP the military has additional footage from that day, but declined to say what it shows or when it would be released, citing the ongoing investigation. Palestinians are still mourning Abu Akleh, a widely known and respected on-air correspondent who rose to fame two decades ago, during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israeli rule. The 51-year-old documented the harsh realities of life under Israeli military rule now well into its sixth decade with no end in sight for viewers across the Arab world. Jenin has long been a bastion of Palestinian militants, and several recent attacks inside Israel have been carried out by young men from in and around the town. Israel has continued to carry out near-daily raids in Jenin since Abu Aklehs death, which it says are aimed at preventing more. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war and has built settlements where nearly 500,000 Israelis live alongside nearly 3 million Palestinians. The Palestinians want the territory to form the main part of their future state, but peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, and Israels dominant right-wing parties are opposed to Palestinian statehood. The PA itself is seen by many Palestinians as a corrupt and authoritarian body that aids the occupation by coordinating with Israel on security matters. Any cooperation with Israel on the Abu Akleh investigation would likely spark a popular backlash among Palestinians, who view her as a martyr to both journalism and their national cause. Photo: The Canadian Press Jake (Jacob) Sansom (left) and his uncle Morris (Maurice) Cardinal are shown in a handout photo from the Facebook page "Justice for Jake and Morris." A father and son accused of killing two Metis hunters took the law into their own hands when they chased them on a rural Alberta road, shot them and left them to die, a Crown prosecutor told court Thursday. Jordan Kerr said Roger and Anthony Bilodeau were angry because they thought the two hunters were trying to steal from them and wanted to kill them for it. The Bilodeaus face two counts each of second-degree murder in the deaths of Jacob Sansom, who was 39, and his uncle Maurice Cardinal, who was 57. Both the accused have pleaded not guilty. "You knew you weren't acting lawfully when you shot those two men, right?" Kerr asked Anthony Bilodeau during cross-examination. "I believed our lives were in danger and I was very afraid that these men were going to kill us," Bilodeau replied. The trial has heard a recorded interview between an RCMP officer and Anthony Bilodeau on March 31, 2020 four days after the shooting near Glendon, Alta., about 200 kilometres northeast of Edmonton. In the recording, Bilodeau tells Sgt. Christian Reister that he did not shoot the hunters and didn't know anything about their deaths. Court has also heard that Bilodeau, 33, got a call from his father and younger brother, Joseph Bilodeau, on the night of March 27, 2020, saying they were following a truck they thought had been in their yard. Joseph Bilodeau, then 16, had seen a blue Chevy pickup earlier in the day. Jurors have been told the teen and his father got into a truck to follow the other pickup, so they could ask the people what they were doing. The teen has testified that the vehicle they were following that night turned out to be a white Dodge pickup truck. Anthony Bilodeau has said that he was home when he got the phone call to bring a gun and catch up with his father and brother in case they needed protection from the people in the Dodge. You could have told him, 'Dad, this is ridiculous. Pull over. Were calling police, Kerr told Anthony Bilodeau. I didnt think of it at that time, he replied. Bilodeau has testified that his cellphone was still connected to a Bluetooth speaker in his father's truck when he heard thuds and the sound of a window cracking. The window of Roger Bilodeau's Ford F-150 was punched in before he and his son were allegedly attacked inside it, the jury has heard. Kerr asked Anthony Bilodeau whether it was possible the people were upset because they had just been chased down the road in the dark in an isolated area. I believed that could be a possibility, he replied. He said he showed up at a rural intersection where his father and brother were stopped and could see one of the hunters choking his father. He added that he wasnt sure whether that person had a gun, so he quickly loaded his own rifle and got out of his truck with it. From the witness stand, Anthony Bilodeau, using two hands, demonstrated how he said the man was choking his father. Kerr pointed out that that the man couldn't be holding a weapon if both hands were choking Roger Bilodeau. "So nobody visible to you had a firearm," Kerr said. Thats correct, Bilodeau said. "Youre the first person to introduce a gun to this situation, right?" asked the Crown. Yes, Bilodeau replied. Kerr said Anthony Bilodeau shot Sansom "point blank" in the chest. Anthony Bilodeau has testified that both men were coming at him. After shooting Sansom, he said, Cardinal came at him with a gun and threatened to kill him in retaliation. Bilodeau said at that point he ran over to the side of the road and shot Cardinal once in the shoulder. By then, Roger Bilodeau had turned his truck around and Anthony Bilodeau could have hopped in and left, Kerr said. Instead, Kerr said, Anthony Bilodeau went over to Cardinal, who was hunched by the side of the Dodge, and shot him a second time and then a third time when he was already on the ground. Anthony Bilodeau said the man kept telling him he was going to kill him. "That's a lie," Kerr said. "He never said that to you when you went back around that Dodge truck. He was physically incapable of saying that to you. He was dying." Court heard that Cardinal was found with no gun at his side. Instead, there was an unloaded one in the back passenger seat near where Cardinal had been standing. An evidence photo presented to Anthony Bilodeau showed the gun did not have a clip in it. The photo also showed the clip was under a bag. Anthony Bilodeau testified that after the shootings, he cut up his gun in four to five pieces, took a set of lights off his truck bumper and disposed of the items separately. He said he didn't recall talking to his father or brother about reporting the shooting to police. Anthony Bilodeau has said he destroyed evidence and lied to police because he was afraid of going to jail for protecting his family. Call me a cynic but there must be an election coming up in the not too distant future. Our city (Kelowna) wants to discuss crime. Just a few weeks back it led a joint petition to the province on this issue and yet, just eight months ago, it seemed it really wasnt crime, it was a health care issue and needed to be treated as such. Strictly policing and locking people up doesnt fix this problem, it said Homelessness and petty crime are likely the biggest blight on this beautiful city and valley. I cannot imagine what tourists coming here must think of what they are seeing on our streets, hearing about and reading about. I do believe many of the issues are the result of mental health and drug addiction issues. But city council and (our) mayor cannot on one hand say its not crime, its a health care issue and on the other hand say it wants better prosecution services to deal with criminals. Why is it so difficult to see that the majority of the criminals are the people on our streets with mental health and drug issues? I know that dealing with these issues is not a simple matter when our courts and justice system seems to ignore crime and provide so many get-away-with-it verdicts. It was the drugs that caused it. It was the alcohol addiction that caused it, It was the mental state of mind that caused it. The result is the catch and release system we now have across our region, province and, indeed, our country. But it is really up to our elected officials to get these legal interpretations corrected, to get our provincial and federal lawmakers to establish clarity in our laws and legal system to deal with these issues and not allow the Supreme Court of Canada justices to put their interpretation of the law into the mix. On top of that, they Supreme Court justices also bring in all the excuses they can find thanks to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. If the city wants to see changes to prosecution services, then it should rethink its health care issue stance or push that argument and stop trying to rethink the law. It cant have it both ways because I believe it is really one and the same Spending time and money on this just appears to be a vote-getting stance. Malcolm Roberts, Kelowna BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, on Friday presided over a meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee to deliberate a regulation on the Party's work regarding political consultation. Photo: The Canadian Press Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos speaks with reporters before Question Period, Wednesday, May 4, 2022 in Ottawa. Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos played a pivotal role in helping to push through an international resolution on rebuilding Ukraine's besieged health-care system. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld Canada has tapped into its own strategic stockpile of emergency medical supplies stored for a national emergency to help Ukraine. It has donated over 375,000 items of medical equipment and medicines from Canada's strategic stockpile since the invasion by Russia began. This includes first aid and trauma kits, medicines and surgical instruments, as well as gloves, masks and gowns. Canada's health minister also helped push through an international resolution on rebuilding Ukraine's besieged health-care system in Geneva this week. Jean-Yves Duclos held bilateral talks to help get the votes required for the resolution, which Canada co-sponsored with Ukraine at the World Health Assembly meeting. The Ukrainian motion, voted for by 88 countries to 12, with 43 abstentions, follows attacks on Ukraine's health-care facilities and equipment, including ambulances, by Russian forces. Secil Group rebrands ICR Newsroom By 27 May 2022 Portugal-based cement producer Secil has undergone a rebranding exercise to demonstrate how its four business areas complement each other in terms of flexibility and knowledge. The UNIBETAO concrete brand will become known as Secil Concrete, while the aggregates brand Secil Britas will now be known as Secil Aggredos. The cement business will be renamed Secil Cimento. Seciltek, the groups range of construction solutions and materials, will remain the same. Published under You have permission to edit this collection. Edit Close This service applies to you if your subscription has not yet expired on our old site. You will have continued access until your subscription expires; then you will need to purchase an ongoing subscription through our new system. Please contact The Chanute Tribune office at 620-431-4100 if you have any questions Anthony Albanese reacts after winning Australia's 2022 federal election in Sydney, Australia, on May 21, 2022. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei) An open letter written by 15 Australian scholars called for improving the China-Australia relationship. "The change in government presents the opportunity for a circuit breaker in the poor diplomatic relations that have developed between Australia and China in the recent past," said the letter. CANBERRA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen scholars from Australian universities called for improvement of China-Australia relationship in an open letter released on Thursday. The open letter, to the new federal government elected last Saturday, was published on the blog platform Pearls and Irritations. The scholars included former diplomat and visiting professor in the University of Sydney Jocelyn Chey, Australian National University (ANU) professor and economist Jane Golley, Director of the China Studies Center at the University of Sydney David Goodman, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute in the University of Technology Sydney James Laurenceson, and Ben Hillman, director of the Australian Center on China in the World in the ANU. Students visit the University of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, on March 11, 2021. (Xinhua/Bai Xuefei) Addressing to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the letter said, "The change in government presents the opportunity for a circuit breaker in the poor diplomatic relations that have developed between Australia and China in the recent past." "As professors of China Studies who undertake research on various aspects of China's society and politics, we acknowledge that the new government is likely to avoid the over-aggressive approach of its predecessor. In our view less public aggression is likely to be more effective in dealing with China: international engagement should replace the language of war," it said. The scholars said the growth of China, as a significant regional and would-be global power, is bound to be disruptive, and two-way communication, rather than "megaphone diplomacy", is needed so that the changing environment is managed as effectively as possible. "A China policy informed as much by diplomatic and economic interests as by great power strategic concerns may well and more sustainably ensure Australia's national and economic security," they said. "While appreciating the tremendous difficulties ahead we urge this adjustment in approach to China." Many citizens attending a packed meeting of the Walker County Commission on Thursday night urged commissioners to work out their differences with Chairman Shannon Whitfield. A number of those who spoke at the lengthy session said they were concerned about the high cost of adding a county manager and the fact there might be expensive turnover in that position. The meeting did reveal strong frustrations by some of the commissioners with Chairman Whitfield, who previously was the sole commissioner prior to the change of government 18 months ago. Commissioner Mark Askew claimed that Chairman Whitfield had "slow walked" several issues and said actions passed by the commission often got stalled. He said, "You've ignored or slow walked things. That's why we're here. We make decisions, then they sit there." Commissioner Askew said, "It's high time after a year and a half and 30 meetings" to look into the hiring of a county manager, who would take over many of the duties now handled by Chairman Whitfield. He did acknowledge that Chairman Whitfield "does a great job with the budget and the county's money." Vice Chairman Robert Blakemore, who joined with Commissioner Askew to call for the county manager discussion, said currently on many issues "our hands are tied behind our backs." Commissioner Robert Stultz was also vocal, saying, "To sum it up in one word, it's frustration." He said the chairman had poor communication with the commissioners and they were left out of key decisions. Saying that "we've hit a bottleneck," he said citizens deserved services "in a timely manner." He said animal control was one of the biggest unresolved issues. He said a decision was made over a year prior to bring into an animal control officer to head both the animal shelter and the animal control, but there had been no action. Several citizens hit conditions at the animal shelter. Commissioner Stultz said, "The issue is still on our chairman's desk." He said a former Whitfield Oil employee had been hired for one position in the county government, but he said he did not have the qualifications. Commissioner Stultz said, "I know this is a G-rated audience, but "this is damn frustrating." Chairman Whitfield acknowledged he had "slow walked" on two issues. He said one was the animal control, saying a budget and positions had to be laid out. He said those were presented to the commissioners on Feb. 10, "and I was later told they didn't like any of it." He also said he slow walked on a proposal that the county take over ball fields in Rossville. He said that would have required a lot of maintenance, and he said the county had no recreation department or budget. Chairman Whitfield said there were other ways to help relieve him of some duties, including hiring of an administrative assistant. He said he gets about 100 business emails per day and tries to respond himself to all he can. Ken Jarrard, a local government attorney from Woodstock, Ga., who was hired by some of the commissioners to take a look at the county manager issue, said the commission had the authority to hire a city manager. Chairman Whitfield now is over the day to day operations of the county, including hiring and firing and making decisions on merging or adding or deleting departments. The county manager would take over those jobs. Attorney Jarrard said with that change it would be necessary for a majority of the commission to vote on back to back meetings to hire a city manager. The Secretary of State would need to be sent details of the changes. He acknowledged that a county manager could cost the county in the range of $150,000 or more. The attorney said only 29 of Georgia's 159 counties do not use a county manager. He said only two have more residents than Walker County's nearly 70,000 - Carroll County and Rockdale County. He said governments now are heavily regulated and subject to litigation and liabilities and a county manager can help with that. Attorney Jarrard is getting $200 per hour under a resolution passed by the Commission earlier. He said he believed his bill thus far was under $5,000. County Attorney David Gottlieb said neither attorney Jarrard or the commissioners had consulted with him about use of the "secondary counsel." Jim Pope told commissioners, "It seems like you are trying to make a complicated system out of a simple one. How about communicating with each other?" One of the commissioners replied that "sometimes it takes days to get in contact with the chairman." Stanley Jackson said Carroll County has a much larger population than Walker County. "If they can get along without a county manager, why the heck can't Walker County?" Dean Kelly, who was part of the committee that helped set up the commission form, said the average time a county manager stays around is two years. He said, "They're very expensive." He added, "Having said that, Shannon may very well need some help." Mr. Kelly recommended that another citizen task force be named to look into the situation and make a recommendation. Stan Porter said, "What I'm hearing is a failure to communicate. Why don't you guys go fight it out and come back with a solution. You guys should sit down and work this out. That's a cheaper solution." Jim Bowman, who said he has lived in the county for a year, said it's important that costs not be increased that could lead to higher taxes. He said, "We do not need to spend $150,000 or $300,000 for an additional level of government." Nathan England said, "I don't want to pay more taxes. I don't want to pay for another form of government and another bureaucrat." Richard Westbrook was among citizens asking for a referendum of citizens on the issue. Attorney Jarrard said there was not a government mechanism for that, though he said the political parties could sponsor straw polls. Jill Wyse also favored a vote of the people, saying, "We should have something to say about this." She said county managers bring their own problems with them. Look at all the cat fighting and in fighting in Catoosa County." Greg Wood said, "There seems to be a sense of contentiousness that has no place on this board." He said Commissioner Askew is "contentious to the point of being unprofessional." He stated, "You should come together and give these people the value they deserve." Chairman Whitfield said he and Commissioner Askew had talked for two hours together earlier in the day. Andrew Underwood pointed out that the county manager would have large powers, while "not being elected by the people." Karen Bradley said, "Y'all really need to work together." A speaker who said she had been one of the biggest critics of Chairman Whitfield said, "You are all men up here. You can handle this." She added, "This is a very big decision for the people not to be consulted." Zeboim Cartter Patten, who made a fortune with patent medicines, was an early Cameron Hill resident. Patten fought in the Battle of Chickamauga with the 115th Illinois, where he received a foot wound that sent him back to New York to recover. He later joined the 149th New York Infantries in Dalton in May of 1864. He was wounded again this time in the left arm in the Battle of Resaca. Patten joined the Quartermaster Corps and was assigned to Chattanooga in 1865. He was living in 1876 "near Missionary Ridge." Then for several years he resided on Cameron Hill on the west side of Pine Street just north of Fifth Street. He was there at the time young Adolph Ochs published his 1878 city directory. He was living there still in 1882. At the time, Patten had a partnership with T.H. Payne in the Patten and Payne stationery business. At one time the pair had ownership of the struggling Chattanooga Times. They passed it on to Washington Irving Crandall and Sumner Archibald Cunningham. Patten and Payne then dissolved their partnership. Payne kept the Market Street store, which endured for over a century. Patten accepted the notes for the sale of the Times. The two former business partners remained close friends, and they met each Christmas with their families and the John B. Nicklin family. At the time of the yellow fever epidemic, Z.C. Patten escaped to his home area of Illinois. Back in Chattanooga, Patten was able to purchase the rights to two very promising proprietary medicines. One of these was a "liver regulator" that Patten renamed Black Draught. Another was Wine of Cardui, which was for female ailments. These were the backbone for the new Chattanooga Medicine Company. George Washington Patten, a brother of Z.C. Patten, came to Chattanooga to become the superintendent of the medicine company. He had been wounded in the Battle of Chickamauga, but he recovered in time to fight at Missionary Ridge. He was promoted to captain for his bravery in leading his company in the charge up the ridge. He married Charlotte Holmes in 1866. The George W. Pattens were briefly on Cameron Hill. They were living in 1884 at 309 W. Fourth St. The Chattanooga Medicine Company established its plant in St. Elmo, and George W. Patten built a home near the plant. Z.C. Patten also moved away from Cameron Hill. In 1897 he acquired the D.J. Chandler home on E. Fourth Street for the sum of $29,000. It was said that Chandler spent $40,000 constructing the home in 1888. It was "the most completely modern house in Chattanooga." Patten later built a showplace at Ashland Farm in Chattanooga Valley. Tucker Carlson, a news commentator for Fox, knows the same as I do; guns and the gun lobby had nothing in common with the mental illness that has occurred twice in the past two weeks in America. Oh, the guns were the tools of mass destruction but a firearm has never harmed a body without an operator. Two teenaged gunmen are the latest to have wrecked an America we once knew but is spiraling in a rapid descent towards out and out terror. Following the reprehensible grisly school attack in Texas, Tucker aired a program that all of our elected and unelected leaders should read. Gun confiscation is so ridiculous it will never work and mass shootings will only escalate unless we begin to identify and rein in those who threaten our country. No, I have no earthly idea how to go about recognizing a crazy God forbid somebody might eyeball me but the time for age-limits on automatic weapons, thorough background checks, and other restrictive legislation is overdue. Here in Tuckers commentary from Wednesday night and it is a must read: * * * THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THESE KILLINGS (This was aired on Fox News Wednesday May 25,2022 by commentator Tucker Carlson) In the past 10 days, two separate teenage boys have committed horrifying massacres in public places. On May 14th, 18-year-old Payton Gendron murdered ten shoppers in a grocery store in Buffalo and then (Tuesday), 18-year-old Salvador Ramos killed 19 small children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas. Both Gendron and Ramos were very obviously mentally ill. The people around them knew that. Both killers had told other people they planned to commit a mass shooting and then they did. So, what can we learn from this? Well, the first most obvious answer is that the system in place didn't work. Gendron's teacher sent him to a mental hospital for evaluation. They knew he was a threat. They tried their best. He committed a massacre anyway. So, we know for a fact that what we're doing isn't working, but we should also be honest enough to acknowledge that it's very hard to know what to do instead. Despite what you may have heard, the problem isn't that we don't care enough. There's not a person in this country who was not horrified by the sight of murdered children. It's the worst thing, and everybody thinks that. The problem is that the human mind is much more complex and harder to control than we like to admit. A person who is intent on committing violence is very hard to stop under any circumstances. An act of Congress isn't going to do it, neither will gun control. There are more guns in this country than there are people. There always have been. However you feel about that fact, you can acknowledge that we will never get rid of all of those guns. The Constitution prohibits that, and you would set off a civil war if you tried to do it. [Image of suspected Uvalde, Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos. His mother, Adriana Reyes, was looking for him when she returned to the city Tuesday night after seeing her mother in a hospital, whom he allegedly shot before going on a rampage at an elementary school, according to mother of her boyfriend. (Uvalde Police Department)] So gun control, whether you find the slogans appealing or not, will not stop the next Payton Gendron or Salvador Ramos and every rational person knows it. The only way to stop these killings is to figure out why American society is producing so many violent young men. There is a reason they are acting this way. What is that reason? And it's not just mass shooters, by the way, the ones you see on television. It's gang bangers and carjackers and armed robbers and indiscriminate haters who push strangers in front of subway trains. We have a lot of people like that in this country all of a sudden, more than you like to think about. Why are they acting this way? That's the only question that matters. Of course, it's the only question our leaders hate to address because there's nothing in it for them. The president of the United States went on television just hours after 19 small children had been murdered. He didn't do that to uplift or unite the country, which was already united in its sorrow. Instead, he took the opportunity to once again harangue anyone who didn't vote for him, and he did it, as always, with a series of stale talking points leftover from the 1980s. It was a shameful display. Here's part of it. * * * PRESIDENT BIDEN: As a nation, we have to ask: When, in God's name, are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When, in God's name, we do we all know in our gut needs to be done? What, in God's name, do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone? The deer aren't running through the forest with Kevlar vests on, for God's sake. It's just sick and the gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons, which make them the most and largest profit. For God's sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry. Children are dying because the gun lobby is profiting. It's disgusting he would say something like that. It's also untrue. It's mindless. The New York Times, by the way, said the same thing within hours of the shooting. The gun lobby. Please. The NRA declared bankruptcy last year. The NRA is a husk. In 2021, for example, the tech company spent more than $70 million lobbying Congress. Big Pharma spent $92 million lobbying Congress in the first quarter of 2021 alone. The NRA spent just $2.2 million total lobbying in all of 2020, a presidential election year. Spare us. Whatever the problem is, it's not the gun lobby. They're not the reason those children were murdered yesterday. It's insulting and divisive and stupid. This is too serious a moment for nonsense like that. Stop. But over at MSNBC, they were completely convinced. Watch. * * * JOE SCARBOROUGH: And again, as President Biden said, I thought he did an extraordinary job last night and I really do. I feel sorry for those who actually saw that and were actually forced to say something really sh---- about him after he did it. I mean that that's how they make their money. It really makes me really sad for them that they have that dark of a soul, that they're that twisted. * * * Oh. Joe Scarborough said a naughty word on TV. This must be serious. And fact, i is very serious. In fact, it's too serious for tired partisan platitudes from the Reagan era. Update your profile. Politicians offering solutions to the tragedy that in the end serve only to make their political party more powerful should be excluded from this conversation. It is too important. They are speaking in bad faith, obviously, and so is anyone whose bodyguards carry extended magazines or other so-called weapons of war. They're hypocrites. They have no standing. Get back to us when you follow your own demands and anyone on TV who's been accused of a crime should also take this opportunity to be very quiet. No wants a moral lecture from you, but unfortunately that's essentially all we're getting, more wind, at a time when we need more than that. Beto O'Rourke, who is running for office again because he has no marketable skills, just stormed a press conference to berate Texas officials. He did this in front of the families of some of yesterday's victims. Watch. * * * DAN PATRICK: Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me. BETO O'ROURKE: The time to stop this was after Santa Fe High School. TED CRUZ: Sit down. PATRICK: You're out of line and an embarrassment. CRUZ: Sit down and don't play this stuff. Democrat Beto O'Rourke, who is running against Greg Abbott for governor in 2022, interrupts a news conference headed by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in Uvalde, Texas Wednesday, May 25, 2022. O'ROURKE: It was after El Paso, Texas. The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing. You are offering us nothing. UVALDE MAYOR DON MCLOUGHLIN: No, he needs to get his a-- out of here. This isn't the place to talk this over. O'ROURKE: You said this is not predictable. This is totally predictable when you chose not to do anything. MCLOUGHLIN: Sir, you are out of line. Sir, you're out of line. Sir, you're out of line. Please leave this auditorium. I can't believe you're a sick son of a b---- that you would come to a deal like this to make a political issue. O'ROURKE: It's on you until you choose to do something about it. MCLOUGHLIN: It's on a------- like you. Why don't you get out of here? * * * Oh, come on. That's saving lives? That's making us a better country? Beto O'Rourke sounds like one of those lunatics from the Westboro Baptist Church, gets off on making a scene, but that's essentially the answer we've gotten to how to fix and prevent what happened in Uvalde. Please, anyone who talks like this should be quiet for a minute and leave it to everybody else to figure out why this is happening and this is bigger than a single mass shooting or even two of them in 10 days. There has been a huge increase in violence in America on our streets, on public transportation, in our schools. It's not a guess, it's measurable. From January 1st to April 10th of this year, robberies in the New York transit system are up more than 70% year over year. Felony assaults in the subway have increased by 28%. Grand larceny, according to NYPD, is up by more than 100%. Those are all crimes of violence and that's just underground. The same thing is happening on the streets and if you don't know it, you just got back to the country after a while. According to ABC News, "about 11% of violent crime in the city of Los Angeles involved a homeless person in 2018, 13% in 2019 and 15% in 2020." If that was a graph, it would look like that. Keep in mind, the homeless make up about 1% of the total population of Los Angeles, but they're involved in nearly a fifth of all violent crimes in the city. Oh, but ignore it. It's not happening. And yet everyone who lives here knows that it is happening because the numbers go up every year and if you have kids, you know what's happening because it's the same story in the schools. The executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, Mo Canady, told Fox Business that schools are, "seeing more aggression in terms of fights. Sometimes they're shoving matches and sometimes they're flat-out assaults. It's more misbehavior, thefts and those kinds of things" in schools. It didn't used to happen. It's happening now. Why? It's not guns. It's not a gun lobby. More American families had guns at home 50 years ago than they do now. According to the Rand Corporation, which studied this, 45% of American homes had a gun in 1980. In 2016, that had dropped to 32%. So the problem is not that we're more armed than we were. The problem is that people have changed. Young men have changed. They are more violent. Why? That's the bipartisan conversation we need to have now. And that conversation has been drowned out by lunatic attention seekers who are hoping to win the next election, but we don't need them now. Never mind your election. There's something really wrong and we can figure it out if we try. There are probably a lot of causes. The use of antidepressants in this country is increasing dramatically. Between 1991 and 2018, total SSRI consumption increased in the US by more than 3,000%. 3,000%! Remember, these are supposed to reduce mental illness. Now, that's a real stat. It was published in the medical journal "Science of the Total Environment" and it's not just this country. In Canada, state-funded antidepressant prescriptions for young people doubled over the last decade. Then during the lockdowns, SSRI prescriptions increased even more. A pharmacy group called "Express Scripts" reported that antidepressant prescriptions went up by more than 20% during COVID. According to latest figures, more than 40 million Americans are now taking psychoactive drugs. That's roughly 1 in 10. So, again, the point of these drugs is to make you healthier mentally, to reduce suicide and violence, and yet suicide rates and rates of violence are spiking. Now, we don't know that that's causation, but it's worth looking at. Of course, it's immoral to criticize Big Pharma. Could we use an honest conversation about this? Yes, immediately. Clearly, something's going on. Watch. * * * GILLIAN TURNER: Three major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have together declared a national state of emergency in children's mental health caused by COVID. Parents report grief, anxiety and depression among children, citing school closures and forced isolations as the primary culprits. Suicide attempts among adolescents are rising sharply, most acutely among 12 to 17-year-old girls by 51% since the start of the pandemic. * * * Oh, so the lockdowns dramatically increase the incidence of mental illness among young people and in 10 days, we've seen two mass shootings by mentally ill young people. Could there be a connection? Now, that's not finger-pointing. It's not to blame Fauci for yesterday's shooting. We're not that low. We're not Joe Biden, but if people are becoming mentally ill because they're disconnected from others, what can we do to connect them to others and thereby reduce the incidence of mental illness? That's a real conversation. Is there a more important one? Meanwhile, more than 100,000 people just died of (drug overdose) and the pandemic is responsible for some of that. Watch. * * * GEOFF BENNETT: New numbers out today from the CDC show how drug overdoses have surged during the pandemic. More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses in 2021. That's the highest annual death toll ever recorded and a 15% increase from the year before. Deaths involving fentanyl, meth and cocaine rose sharply. * * * Ok. So, people are doing more drugs, they're more unstable, they're killing themselves more often and in some rare cases, they're killing others. Now, what kind of mindset would it take to go murder children in an elementary school? You are so disconnected from other human beings that that seems okay to you. What could be adding to the feeling of disconnection we have from one another? Well, in 2020, adults in the United States spent an average of 8 hours every day on digital media staring at a screen. The lockdowns made it worse. They're not the only cause, but they definitely exacerbated it. That's a 20% jump from 2019. One of the people who spent an awful lot of time online during the pandemic was the shooter in Uvalde. He reportedly played a lot of Call of Duty instead of going outside. The shooter in Buffalo also spent a lot of time online as well. In fact, he blamed the Internet for radicalizing him: "I spent almost a year planning this attack," he wrote on April 26. "Oh, how time flies. If I could go back, maybe I'd tell myself to get the f off 4Chan and the worldtruthvideos and get an actual life. Too late for that now." Now, that's not an argument for censoring those or any other sites. It's an argument for experiencing real life, nature, other people, animals, anything but a screen. Staring at a screen all day puts you into your own world, and in some small number of cases, it drives you insane. It makes you mentally ill and violent. That's very obvious. That's one of the reasons that people in Silicon Valley, the tech executives, don't their own kids lose themselves in their stupid iPads. Back in September of 2013 after a mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard, the late Charles Krauthammer identified the problem. We have a lot of mentally ill people and we need to stop ignoring them. Obviously, we've ignored that warning, so here it is again. * * * CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: He needed help. 30 years ago, the cops would have brought him to a psychiatric emergency room. He probably would have gotten antipsychotics and he probably would have been hospitalized for a couple of weeks. That's the way it was done in the seventies when I practiced psychiatry, but today that doesn't happen. The cops left. He was left on his own. He was a man who shouldn't have been on his own. He should have had the state looking after him and he ended up killing people in a way that. Look, you want to respect the civil liberties of everybody, but there is a point in which if you don't take control of people who are clearly out of touch with reality, you are damaging them, exposing them, and, of course, tragically exposing a lot of innocents around them. * * * Yeah, exactly. The stuff is complicated, the human mind is complicated and if the environment changes, so does the mind. People can't go outside or talk to other people or spend 8 hours a day staring at a screen. If they're on brain-changing chemicals in huge numbers, tens of millions of people, you think that has an effect? Yeah. What effect? Well, is anyone studying what murderers, not just mass murderers, but all murderers, have in common? Apparently not. It would be nice to know. Instead of telling us about the gun lobby. Please, no one believes that. And why, by the way, is the answer to mass shootings always universal gun confiscation? Shouldn't we be focused on the people who did it, on the dangerous people? It's like forcing the entire population into drug rehab in response to the fentanyl crisis. Probably better to focus on the addicts. Why did they get addicted? How can we help them? Let's be serious about this. Children died. It's real. Stop with the talking points. Be honest. royexum@aol.com The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is bound by a trial courts order expunging criminal charges and must comply even if the TBI disagrees with the order. In 2015, the plaintiff, an unnamed citizen of McNairy County, Tn., negotiated a guilty plea agreement in the McNairy County Circuit Court. Under this court-approved agreement, if the plaintiff successfully completed four years of probation, the charges would be expunged. When expunged, a criminal charge is removed from all public records. In February 2019, after the plaintiff completed his probation, he petitioned the circuit court for expungement of his records. The State of Tennessee, acting through an assistant district attorney general, agreed on behalf of the State for the plaintiffs records to be expunged. The circuit court entered an agreed order directing that all public records relating to the offense, including any records held by a state agency, be destroyed. As required by statute, the TBI received a copy of the order, which became final thirty days after it was entered. Under another statute, the TBI had to remove any expunged records from the plaintiffs criminal history within sixty days. Later in 2019, the plaintiff learned the TBI did not remove the expunged records from his criminal history because the TBI determined the charges were ineligible for expungement. The plaintiff sued the TBI and TBI Director David Rausch in the Davidson County Chancery Court to require the TBI to comply with the expungement order. The chancery court first ruled that the TBI was not immune from suit as a governmental agency. Then the chancery court held that generally the TBI had to comply with an expungement order except if the evidence showed the records came within an exception for sexual offenses. The chancery court allowed the plaintiff to seek an appeal of this ruling before going further with the case. The Court of Appeals denied review, but the Tennessee Supreme Court granted review to decide under what circumstances, if any, the TBI may refuse to comply with a trial courts final order of expungement. On review, the Tennessee Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the chancery courts decision that the TBI could be sued based on a statutory waiver of sovereign immunity for suits seeking declaratory or injunctive relief in challenging illegal or unconstitutional governmental action. The Court then ruled that the TBI lacked authority to refuse to comply with the final expungement order. The Court reasoned that under the expungement statutes, the trial courtsnot the TBIdecide whether an offense is eligible for expungement. The Court emphasized that nothing prevents a district attorney general from consulting with the TBI on expungements, and noted that the State may appeal or otherwise challenge an expungement order it believes to be unlawful. But here, the State agreed to entry of the expungement order, which became final after thirty days. Thus, the Court explained, the TBI was bound by the order and could not refuse to comply with it because state agencies lack the power to alter a judicial order, even one they deem to be incorrect. The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court, granted the plaintiffs motion for partial judgment on the pleadings, and remanded the case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with the opinion. To read the opinion of the Court in Recipient of Final Expunction Order in McNairy County Circuit Court Case No. 3279 v. David B. Rausch, Director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, authored by Justice Sharon G. Lee, please visit the Opinions section of TNCourts.gov. The Tennessee Pro Life Leadership Conference, hosted by Students for Life of Southeast Tennessee, will be held July 23, at Apison Baptist Church near Chattanooga. Speakers will include Tina Whittington, vice president of Students for Life of America, along with numerous other inspiring and informative speakers from around the southeast. Limited spots are available and signup is available here before July 15. The day will include main sessions, with headline speakers and programs, and smaller, more casual breakout sessions on a variety of topics surrounding the fight for the unborn. The conference is free and lunch will be provided. For more information email William at williamereynolds06@gmail.com. The BLVD Project and Rossville Downtown Development Authority are teaming up to host a series of open-air markets on June 3, July 1, and Aug. 5 from 4-8 p.m. this summer. The BLVD is a grassroots organization that seeks to improve food access, safety, transportation, aesthetics, and business along the Rossville Blvd corridor. The markets will be located at 207 Chickamauga Ave. Rossville, and will feature vendors selling locally grown produce, flowers, original artwork, and consumable personal goods. Executive Director of The BLVD Project Heather Herweyer said the group decided to host open-air markets after completing a series of workshops led by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The workshops were granted to a select few cities across the country to stimulate economic development, repurpose vacant lots, and increase community access to fresh produce. A market in this area seemed like it would have the most potential to lead to future development," said Ms. Herwyer. "Residents in our area are always traveling to other parts of Chattanooga/North Georgia to have fun and procure goods. We wanted to test our hypothesis that if fun events were offered in our area, people would stay here and spend their money on our local businesses here." Executive Director for Rossville Downtown Development Authority Tobey Hill said the markets will give residents a chance to feel Rossville. This event gives us a much-needed opportunity to be a destination - even if it is just for a few hours. We want people to begin to see and experience Rossville differently, and I think this outdoor market series will be a vital step forward in inviting people to come in and experience our community, said Mr. Hill. The markets will feature local businesses like Flora de Mel. Owner Jay Martin says the events will be a welcomed change. As a new business in Rossville, Flora de Mel is thrilled to see more light coming to the area. Artist markets bring energy, creativity, and much-needed love to downtown Rossville, and we very much look forward to participating, said Mr. Martin. The Blvd is a group of neighbors, businesses, property owners, and passionate citizens. Several sponsors are committed to the inaugural markets, including Bridge Innovate, Simply Bank, and CSL Plasma. To become a vendor, learn more about the event, or donate, visit www.rossvillega.gov/rossville-blvd-market for more information. Brittany Davis, the operations manager at BASF in Chattanooga, was recognized nationally as an Emerging Leader in the industry at The Manufacturing Institutes tenth annual STEP Ahead Awards. Focusing on science, technology, engineering, and production (STEP), the program honors women who have demonstrated excellence and leadership in their careers across all levels of the manufacturing industry, from the factory floor to the executive level. To date, more than 1,000 women have been recognized as STEP Ahead Award recipients, and those women have impacted more than 300,000 individualsfrom peers in the industry to school-age children. Ms. Davis found her career in manufacturing through many different opportunities and mentors. From a young age, she looked up to her grandfather who was a college math professor for 51 years. Ms. Davis attended a residential high school in North Carolina that focused on math and science. This is where she first realized that she enjoyed the real-world problem solving and hands-on experience that careers in engineering offer. She then went on to pursue a chemical engineering degree where she was first truly introduced to her manufacturing experience through internships with BASF, where she has been full-time for the past 7 years. My advice to any women interested in a career in manufacturing is to seek out STEM programs, internships, job shadows, mentors and anything else that may be available, said Ms. Davis. You can do it. Your perspective and approach to challenging situations are needed. We should celebrate other womens successes and continuously look for ways to mentor the next generation of women in manufacturing. Ms. Davis is actively involved in the BASF TECH Academy, a program that introduces students to technical and craft careers through hands-on demonstrations and experiments at Chattanooga State, tours of local employers and career-focused discussions with BASF employees. I am so honored to be recognized as a STEP ahead emerging leader, said Ms. Davis. While Im already actively involved in many STEM programs such as BASF TECH Academy, I am so excited to learn from other women in manufacturing so that I can be a better mentor for the future generation of women in manufacturing. Two additional BASF employees, Julie Fay, polyurethane systems operations director in North Geismar, Louisiana, and Elba Lizardi. site director in Seneca, South Carolina, were recognized during the ceremony. The biggest challenge facing manufacturers continues to be the growing workforce crisisthe shortage of skilled talent to fill open positions. Manufacturers could close the skills gap by 50% by bringing 10% more women into the industry. Women account for about half of the U.S. labor force but represent less than one-third of the manufacturing workforce. STEP Ahead empowers and inspires women in the manufacturing industry. The goal is to build networks for women to have support in their industry and to elevate the role models who can motivate and mentor the next generation. The STEP Ahead Awards are central to the industrys efforts to recognize and empower women, said Manufacturing Institute President Carolyn Lee. Our Honorees and Emerging Leaders serve as role models and have their own multiplier effect on the number of women in the workforce, paying it forward to help others find their way into a successful, rewarding career in modern manufacturing. BASF sponsored the annual awards ceremony, which was held virtually and in-person in Washington, D.C., on April 28. For more information about BASF careers and efforts that promote women in manufacturing, visit www.basf.us/women. View the video of Brittany Davis, 2022 STEP Ahead Emerging Leader: https://youtu.be/pHZeqbv52uM HONIARA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- China and the Solomon Islands reached a series of important consensuses after friendly, in-depth and productive communication on deepening bilateral mutually-beneficial cooperation, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Thursday. Wang expounded on the eight-point consensus at a joint press conference with Solomon Islands Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele. Both sides agreed to jointly cement the political foundation of China-Solomon Islands relations, build the Belt and Road Initiative, implement the China-proposed Global Development Initiative, foster a secure and stable environment, promote connectivity, address climate change, enhance sub-national exchanges and safeguard the interests of developing countries. Wang stressed that China-Solomon Islands relations, which grow with the trend of the times in compliance with people's wishes, will surely flourish and embrace an even brighter future. It has taken me a few days to process all that has occurred in the past few weeks. With the recent killings in both Buffalo, N.Y. and Uvalde, Tx., one can either be filled with rage or in a perpetual state of numbness. Yet, I believe there is a time when righteous indignation has its place, and this is the time for such. The issue we are facing is much broader than partisan politics or the right to bear arms. The issue before us is our inability to pass common sense gun laws. We lack this ability because we are being held captive by a few leaders who seek to impose their will upon our nation and refuse to pass comprehensive gun reform. We are also faced with the rise of white nationalism whose ambers are being stoked by domestic terrorist. Such supremacy has always been there woven into the fabric of our nation, but of late, it has found the strength of heart to raise its head. As a Christian minister, it is my job to examine the ills of society and try to articulate through scripture a way forward with Christ as our example. America must examine where it is morally and ethically and be honest about what it sees. There is a moral obligation to create and maintain a society where we all are safe. Our places of worship are starting to look more like armed fortresses rather than houses of prayer. Schools, which have historically been safe places for our children, have increased security guards and procedures to safeguard our most vulnerable. Grandma and grandpa who are simply shopping at the grocery store must be on high alert for the intentions of the wicked. Something must change. I still believe in the goodwill of humanity and the power of righteousness to overcome evil. I still believe that God works through people and that through us God will make a way. We must not only pray for legislation and victims, but we must hold our elected officials accountable. We must teach our children the importance of civic engagement and love for all mankind. We must teach our children that what is often the most politically expedient is not always morally right. We must become engaged in community. It is a critical time to stand for common sense gun laws, for not to do so is a sin. James 4:17 If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesnt do it, it is sin for them. Rev. Dr. Ernest L. Reid, Jr. Our recent history is calling for a radical and strategic change to turn around the social economic ills that are plaguing our communities today. This change must start with policies that govern our public school system. It is time to Invest in all our children and our teachers in Hamilton County. I grew up in the public-school systems of Chattanooga, Hamilton County. When I was a young student, school was all about the 3 Rs. But Hamilton County mayoral candidate Matt Adams has appropriately added another letter to the educational menu: E for equitable. This formula need not be that complicated. An economic strategy to include equitable distribution of resources simply requires conscious leadership, collaboration, and compassion. Our teachers desire consistency and compensation for hard work. Our children and parents deserve the type resources that are designed to meet the full developmental needs of the child. Matt Adams, the serious, thoughtful Democrat in the race, has made equity in education one of the cornerstones of his campaign. He rightly points out that where students go to school determines the quality of the education they receive and eventually their success. As Hamilton County mayor, Adams pledges to champion equitable funding for all our schools so students in every zip code learn in safe, modern buildings; have access to broadband both in school and at home; and are taught by teachers who are not among the lowest paid in the nation. Matt Adams knows that an investment in our school system is an investment in the countys future. Our children are our future. Matt knows that a strategic and well-developed plan requires the collaboration of teachers, students and parents working together to impact the curriculum and instruction in our public school system. Adam deserves our support on Election Day, Aug. 4. Audrey Ramsey Former 90 Day Fiance star, Paul Staehle shows off his new friend after splitting from his wife, Karine Martins. The reality TV star posted photos of this new woman in his life and labeled her a friend. Heres everything we know. Paul Staehle, 90 Day Fiance | TLC Paul Staehle and Karine Martins split Fans were first introduced to Paul and Karine on 90 Day Fiance: Before the 90 Days Seasons 1 and 2. During these seasons, audiences watched their journey from the moment Paul met Karine in Brazil to when they got married and had their first son, Pierre. The couple returned for 90 Day Fiance: Happily Ever After? Season 5, where the fairytale wore off. Paul and Karines fighting became constant as he struggled to work in Brazil to provide for his new family. They decided to pack up their lives and move across the world to Kentucky. While the couple thought their marital issues would subside once they were in the states, it only seemed to magnify their problems. They decided to move back to Brazil, where the couple had their second son, Ethan. However, after the cameras left, the fighting continued. The relationship imploded after Paul shared many of his arguments on his Instagram. Early 2022, a video surfaced of Karine physically abusing Paul. Thats when Paul decided to move out of their home. After four years of marriage, the couple has split. Paul told fans he plans to divorce his Brazilian wife. Paul shows off his new lady friend on Instagram It appears that Paul is moving on from his marriage to Karine. On May 27, the former 90 Day Fiance star posted a series of photos of a new woman in his life, which he calls his friend. In the Instagram photos, Paul is pictured smiling in a car with a woman, tagged as Instagram user @kas__idy. Paul and his friend then appear to be in a hotel room together. He captioned the post, Met a new friend. Check out the post below: Pauls friend, whose name on Instagram is Kas, then posted one of the photos to her Instagram profile. She captioned the series of photos, It was lovely to meet a new friend @pauljasonstaehle #90dayfiance #tlc #groovy. Where are Karine and the kids? Paul posting these photos of his new female friend clearly indicates that its really over between the on-again-off-again couple. During their divorce, Paul claimed he was attempting to gain full custody of their sons, Pierre and Ethan. So what happened to Karine and Paulss children? The last thing fans knew was that Karine and Pauls sons were living with Pauls mother, Edna Staehle, in Kentucky. And while Karine is originally from Brazil, she told her followers that she decided that she would remain in the United States. In February 2022, Karine posted a statement on her Instagram for curious fans regarding who has custody of her children. She wrote, As everybody knows, I have an ongoing process, and I cant provide any more specific information about that. It appears that this 90 Day Fiance couple is finally moving on. Maybe Paul will appear on 90 Day: The Single Life with his new lady friend. RELATED: 90 Day Fiance: Shaeeda Defends Bilal in Instagram Post He Is Not a Narcissist BTS are heading to the White House. On May 26, it was announced that Jin, Suga, J-Hope, RM, Jimin, V, and Jungkook will meet with President Joe Biden as part of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month (AANHPI Heritage Month). During BTS visit with Biden at the White House, the band will discuss diversity, representation, and combating anti-Asian hate crimes. BTS | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic BTS will visit the White House at the end of May On May 26, members of the press close to the White House shared a press release detailing BTS visit with the president. According to the press release, BTS will join President Biden to discuss Asian inclusion and representation, and to address anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination which have become more prominent issues in recent years President Biden and BTS will also discuss the importance of diversity and inclusion and BTS platform as youth ambassadors who spread a message of hope and positivity across the world. BTS will visit the White House on May 31. K-pop supergroup BTS is coming to the White House next week pic.twitter.com/muC8CJyOeQ Betsy Klein (@betsy_klein) May 26, 2022 BTS: Jungkook Thinks the Bands Grammy Awards Rehearsal Was Better Than Their Performance Big Hit Music released a statement about BTS visit After it was announced BTS will meet with Biden, Big Hit Music released a press release on the evening of May 26. In the press release, the label confirmed that BTS will be joining President Biden at the White House to discuss Asian inclusion, representation and anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination. They will also address the importance of diversity, impact of BTS platform as youth ambassadors and BTS thoughts on art and culture. Big Hit Music also shared an official statement about the visit, writing, We are honored to be invited to the White House. As we are visiting as artists representing South Korea, we look forward to discussing various topics including inclusion, diversity, anti-Asian hate crimes, culture and art. RELATED: 5 K-Dramas Recommended by BTS for Fans to Watch This is not the first time BTS have entered the political sphere. In 2021, BTS attended the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly as Special Presidential Envoy for Future Generations and Culture for South Korea. The septet has also taken part in different philanthropic and global initiatives including the LOVE MYSELF campaign with UNICEF, Black Lives Matter, and Stop Asian Hate. BTS will release a new album in June Following their meeting with Biden on May 31, BTS are expected to have a busy next few weeks. On June 10, BTS will release an anthology album titled Proof. The album will consist of three CDs and will include hit songs from BTS discography, previously unreleased songs and demos, and new BTS songs. According to a press release, Proof celebrates the nine years of BTS journey since their debut, and opens a new chapter upon their 10th year as artists. The new album will include various tracks that presents BTS thoughts on their past, present and future including three new tracks. RELATED: BTS 2022 Grammy Awards Performance Is Now Available to Watch Online Mad Men star Jon Hamms road to Hollywood started in his hometown of St. Louis, Missouri. He was attending John Burroughs School a private high school in the upscale suburb of Ladue when he first dabbled in acting. And his flirtation with the profession continued in college. After earning his degree, Hamm relocated to Los Angeles to pursue a full-time acting career. However, the future Emmy winner took a brief detour back home before moving to Southern California. For one year, Hamm taught an acting class at his alma mater in St. Louis. And one of his students was a future star of The Office. Jon Hamm | Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images Mad Men star Jon Hamm didnt start thinking about an acting career until college Hamms very first acting role was as Winnie the Pooh in the first grade, but he didnt get back on stage until high school when he was cast as Judas in Godspell. Even though he enjoyed acting, Hamm didnt take it seriously and he definitely didnt think it would be his career. But when he was at the University of Missouri getting his BA in English, he answered an ad from a local theater company that was seeking players for a production of A Midsummer Nights Dream. Hamm was cast in the production, which led to other roles. And by the time he graduated, he had dreams of going to Hollywood. Before he took the risk and made the big move, Hamm went home to St. Louis for a year and worked as a drama teacher at his former high school. Jon Hamm taught acting to The Office star Ellie Kemper Hamm returned to John Burroughs School in 1993 and taught improv to high school students in a theater class. One of those students was Ellie Kemper, future star of The Office and the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. He was not ugly. He was a wonderful teacher, Kemper said at a Television Critics Association panel, per People Magazine. I was in ninth grade and he taught me the improv section of my theater class, and everyone loved him. Kemper also said that the Hollywood leading man was a hunk of a teacher. In a room full of freshmen girls he was definitely just as handsome back then, and having this grown, tall man teach you theater, it was like having a hunk in the class, Kemper tells The A.V. Club. For his part, Hamm remembers teaching Kemper and says she was one of his best students. She and her sister [Carrie Kemper] were incredibly diligent students and very, very talented. The proof is in the pudding. Theyre both working in the industry, Hamm told The Today Show. The Mad Men star worked with Ellie Kemper on The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt Twenty years after their teacher/student experience, Hamm and Kemper reunited when he was cast on her Netflix series The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt as Rev. Richard Wayne Gary Wayne. However, when she first heard the news, Kemper admitted she was a little scared. When they told us that he would be playing the reverend, it was fantastic. But I was a little scared, Kemper said. I think theres still a teacher-student dynamic, and acting with him was a little bit nerve-racking just because I felt like he was still grading me on some level. But hes a wonderful man and it was a lot of fun. The Office is now playing on HBO Max. Mad Men is available on Amazon Prime Video, and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is on Netflix. RELATED: Jon Hamm Was Arrested in College After Allegedly Lighting a Fraternity Pledges Pants on Fire If youre reading this, youre likely over halfway through Stranger Things 4 Volume I, and what a ride so far. Nobodys having a particularly great time at this point, but were at least getting closer to some answers. Lets talk about three of the big plot points in Dear Billy. [WARNING: This article contains MAJOR spoilers for Stranger Things 4 Volume I Episode 4, Dear Billy.] Caleb McLaughlin as Lucas, Sadie Sink as Max, Joe Keery as Steve, Gaten Matarazzo as Dustin in Dear Billy. | Cr. Courtesy of Netflix Dear Billy primarily focuses on Max and Vecna targeting her The Duffer Brothers promised fans a Max-heavy season, and theyve delivered in spades. While this spells trouble for Max, it gives fans a chance to watch Sadie Sink flex her acting muscles. Nightmares, headaches, and visions plague Max in the first four episodes of Stranger Things Season 4. She eventually realizes that Fred and Chrissy, both now murdered by Vecna, experienced the same symptoms. Max figures she has roughly less than 24 hours before Vecna claims her life too. As Max prepares for the possibility of dying, she writes letters to all her friends, her mom, and her stepbrother, Billy (Dacre Montgomery,) who died in Stranger Things Season 3. Max forces Steve (Joe Keery,) Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo,) and Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin) to drive her to the cemetery so she can read her note to Billy. As Max reads the letter in Dear Billy, Vecna conjures a vision of Billy blaming Max for his death. (This is the one episode Montgomery returned to film.) Max escapes Billy, but she somehow makes her way into what looks like Vecnas lair. She sees the bodies of Chrissy and Fred wrapped up in vines as red storm clouds thunder overhead. Vecna attempts to kill Max, but just as he raises his hand, Steve, Dustin, and Lucas start blasting her favorite song Kate Bushs Running Up That Hill into her headphones. This gives her the chance to escape Vecna, and she does. RELATED: Stranger Things 4 Episode 2 Recap: Vecnas Curse Gives Fans the First Peek Into Victor Creels Backstory Hopper escapes the Russians, but Joyce and Murray dont escape Yuri Joyce (Winona Ryder) and Murray (Brett Gelman) finally make it to Alaska, while Hopper sees his chance to escape Russia. After removing his shackles in a shack outside with the grossest sound effects ever, he faces off with a guard who caught him trying to sneak out of the gulag. However, this is Chief Jim Hopper were talking about, and he doesnt let one measly guard stand in the way. Other guards notice the commotion in the shack and come to their coworkers rescue, only to be met with a giant explosion. Hop escapes unscathed on a snowmobile. However, his victory is short-lived, thanks to double-crosser extraordinaire Yuri. When Joyce and Murray arrive in Alaska to hitch a ride with Yuri in Dear Billy, he tells them he needs to count the money first. He offers them coffee to warm up, which he secretly drugged to knock them out. Yuri realized he could make more money by turning Joyce and Hopper over to the Russians. ST4 VOLUME 1 IS NOW STREAMING pic.twitter.com/8KpNc3hBNi Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) May 27, 2022 Nancy and Robin finally meet Victor Creel in Dear Billy The much anticipated Robert Englund appears as an eyeless Victor Creel in Dear Billy, and Robin and Nancy get some backstory on the Creel murders. They pretend to be college students writing a thesis on paranoid schizophrenia and convince the director of Pennhurst to let them speak to Victor alone. Victor tells them about the strange occurrences soon after his family moved into the house. Dead animals began showing up on the property, and the lights would flicker constantly. Then he started to see visions of a cradle in flames while a baby screamed. Victor fought in World War II and mistakenly ordered a shelling of a house he thought was filled with Nazis. Instead, civilians hid inside, including a baby. At dinner one night, the radio cuts on by itself just before Vecna murders Victors wife, Virginia. Victor tries to get out of the house but gets lost in the Mindscape. He hears Dream a Little Dream of Me playing and manages to escape. However, his daughter is dead, and his son slipped into a coma and died a week later. Just as the director of Pennhurst tries to apprehend Nancy and Robin, Robin realizes music is the key to escaping the Mindscape. The director previously told them they discovered music reached a part of the brain that little else could reach. When they get in the car, they hear the radio call from Dustin asking how to save Max, and thats how Kate Bushs song, Running Up That Hill, allows Max to escape. Check in with Showbiz Cheat Sheet for all your Stranger Things 4 updates! RELATED: Stranger Things 4 Star Elodie Orkin on Playing Elevens Bully, Angela, Shipping Mileven, and More [EXCLUSIVE] Before Josh Duggars trial kicked off in November 2021, the defense and the prosecution debated whether the prosecution could discuss his teenage behaviors at the trial. In a hearing just a day before the trial began, Judge Timothy L. Brooks ruled that the prosecution could openly discuss the previous molestation allegations. While it didnt appear to factor heavily into the guilty verdict, U.S. Attorney, Clay Fowlkes, said he believed Joshs past behaviors did factor into his sentence. Bobye Holt testified about Josh Duggars sexual abuse of his sisters at the December 2021 trial In December 2021, Bobye Holt, a former Duggar family friend, took the stand to testify about Josh Duggars previous sexual abuse allegations. Holt told the judge and jury that she and her husband, Jim Holt, were approached by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar in 2003 when they learned Josh had been inappropriately touching his sisters. The Holt family was not seen at Josh Duggars sentencing. According to Holt, Josh was in a relationship with her eldest daughter, Kaeleigh Holt, at the time. The relationship ended immediately, although the Holts continued to counsel the Duggars and Josh. A letter that Kaeleigh penned after she learned of the abuse later fell into the hands of a family friend. The letter was the catalyst for a police report filed regarding the abuse inside the home. Josh nor his victims ever received professional counseling. U.S. Attorney Clay Fowlkes says he believes the testimony factored into Josh Duggars sentence The defense worked tirelessly to suppress any mention of Josh Duggars prior sexual abuse. They lost the battle just a day before the trial started. While his previous acts did not factor into the guilty verdict he received, U.S. Attorney Fowlkes said he believes the prior behavior was considered when Judge Brooks handed down his sentence. 5 News streamed the press conference immediately following Josh Duggars sentencing. During the press conference, Fowlkes said he believed Joshs prior behavior showed a pattern of abuse. He went on to say that information factored into the sentencing recommendation and the judges decision. He stated that while Judge Brooks did not sentence Josh to the recommended 20 years behind bars, the prosecution was happy with the outcome of the sentencing hearing. Josh Duggars defense team stated that they plan to appeal the decision within 14 days, as required by law. Previous motions to acquit and a motion for a new trial have been dismissed. An appeal is not uncommon in this type of case. The disgraced former reality TV star will need to take part in a sex offenders program while behind bars Josh Duggars sentencing ended with the proclamation that he would spend 12 and a half years behind bars for downloading and possessing child pornography. By the time he is released from prison, four of his seven children will be over 18. His youngest child, Madyson Lily Duggar, will be nearly 13. She was born just a month before Joshs trial began. Josh Duggar | Kris Connor/Getty Images Josh wont be sitting around waiting to walk out of a federal detention center. Judge Brooks suggested Josh participate in a sex offenders program while behind bars. The prison the judge recommended, FCI Seagoville, has a strong program for sex offenders. Fernando Rivas, the composer famous for his work on Sesame Street, is currently serving his sentence for creating and sending child pornography at the detention center. FCI Seagoville is located in Texas, more than five hours from the Duggar familys Springdale, Arkansas compound. How to get help: If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for free and confidential support. RELATED: Josh Duggar Sentenced in Child Pornography Case The company Sasol and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) will lead a consortium to develop and optimise next-generation catalysts that will play a key role in decarbonising the aviation sector through sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). At a ceremony at Sasols global headquarters in Johannesburg, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attended the launch of CARE-O-SENE (Catalyst Research for Sustainable Kerosene) research project, to be funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and Sasol. Sasol joins forces with five other world-leading organisations in Germany and South Africa to accelerate the development of catalysts that are essential to produce green kerosene on a commercial scale through Fischer-Tropsch (FT) technology. We are delighted to have been selected to lead this important project, said Fleetwood Grobler, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sasol Limited. Our expertise in FT technology and catalysts makes us the ideal partner to help Germany and the world decarbonise the aviation sector and make it sustainable over the long-term. Prof. Dr. Bernd Rech, Scientific Managing Director of HZB adds, CARE-O-SENE will enable us to accelerate innovation in a crucial field of green energy. This can only be achieved in a global partnership by deeply integrating fundamental research and technology development on an industry relevant scale. Other CARE-O-SENE project partners include the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the University of Cape Town, Department of Chemical Engineering (UCT) and INERATEC GmbH. The consortium expresses its sincere gratitude to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research for supporting these important efforts. CARE-O-SENE will run for three years and pursues the goal of setting the course for large-scale commercialisation of green kerosene production by 2025 with its research on catalysts. Catalysts are used to speed up chemical reactions, increase the yield and improve the quality of refined products. The new FT catalysts are expected to increase the fuel yield of the process to over 80 percent, thereby optimising use of resources. Unlike conventional kerosene derived from fossil feedstocks, SAF can be made from green hydrogen and sustainable carbon dioxide sources. Developing SAF is key to a sustainable decarbonisation of the hard-to-abate aviation industry, and the main lever for net zero aviation. The underlying technology to developing SAF at scale from green hydrogen and sustainable carbon sources is FT technology, in which Sasol has been a global leader for more than 70 years. UNITED NATIONS, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy on Thursday called for a well-tailored approach to the Israeli-Palestinian issue as drivers of violence are fermenting. During the past month, the security situation in the occupied Palestinian territory has remained turbulent, with multiple clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinians, resulting in the continued increase in Palestinian civilian casualties. Attacks against Israeli civilians also occurred from time to time, said Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations. "The various factors contributing to the rising tensions were brought into sharp relief recently. A number of these factors are still fermenting. We are extremely worried about this," he told a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. "The recent developments between the two sides have raised a red flag for the international community, and a call for a well-tailored approach." The current situation once again testifies to the importance of upholding the status quo of the holy sites. China calls on all parties concerned to learn from history, jointly safeguard the historical status quo of religious sites, and refrain from any unilateral action to change the status quo. Jerusalem Day is just around the corner. China calls on all parties concerned to exercise maximum restraint and avoid conflict resurgence, said Zhang. The current situation once again testifies to the importance of achieving common security. The ever-rising civilian casualties only aggravate the animosity between Palestinians and Israelis, and undermine their mutual trust. Palestinians and Israelis are and will remain neighbors. They have a stake in each other's security and they should find a way to live side by side in harmony and shared security. The Israeli security forces should abide by the principle of proportionality and should not use excessive force, he said. The current situation once again testifies to the importance of implementing international consensus, he said. Building settlements in the occupied territory violates international law. China is concerned about Israel's announcement of a new settlement construction plan and urges Israel to stop all settlement activities, he said. A two-state solution is the fundamental way forward for achieving peace between Palestinians and Israelis. The international community cannot substitute crisis management for a just solution to the question of Palestine. The relevant parties with major influence on this question should uphold objectivity and impartiality, proceed from the fundamental interests of the Palestinian people and regional countries, and take practical steps to advance the Middle East peace process, he said. Palestine is faced with existential and developmental challenges. The international community should take concrete actions to help Palestine fight COVID-19, develop its economy, and improve livelihoods, with a view to achieving economic independence at an early date, he said. China supports the establishment of a fully sovereign and independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side by side in peace with Israel. China supports the common development of Arabs and Jews and will continue to play a constructive role alongside the international community toward an early settlement of the question of Palestine, said Zhang. Rebuilding the destruction of war is more than just fixing roads or cleaning up cities, but bringing true healing. A friend of mine from Ukraine reached out on Easter Sunday. She was grieving. She had lost everything when her family left home at the beginning of the Russian invasion. Nearly two decades of community, torn to shambles. They lost their church family, the park where their children used to play. This is important: The loss of material goods isnt really what hurts. What hurts us the most is the loss of security, the loss of relationships wed cultivated for years. The impact of such a catastrophe is hard to understate, especially for young children who are still developing emotionally and socially But that kind of loss, important as it is, can be tough to understand. We can document and measure the number of roads and apartment buildings destroyed. We can count the cities hollowed out by war. We can count the displaced Ukrainians: 11 million. But we cant quantify the lasting, intangible effects of the war. Rebuilding lives is about so much more than rebuilding roads or cleaning up cities. Its about healing deep, durable and complex wounds. So, Christian witness is likely to look very different in light of this kind of trauma, for many years to come. The Church must provide safety and community to millions of people whove had these precious, basic human needs torn away from them. Some will recover more quickly than others. Some, like children, might need a lifetime of help. We need to be there for them. I havent lived through war, but Ive lived through catastrophe. My familys lives were suddenly upended, along with so many others, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Everyones journey through these kinds of sudden, drastic changes is their own and a war and a hurricane are very different forces. But they both have the potential to wipe out communities overnight. When my family and I left our home in New Orleans a few days before Katrina hit, we knew wed be coming back home soon. We took three days worth of clothes and left town, just like wed done so many times before. But we woke up one morning, and everything was gone. When we were allowed to return, we spent most of our time hugging people wed known and weeping for what wed never have again: each other, as we had been before the storm. We lost family heirlooms. We lost a way of life. Of course, with time, we found a new normal. And, God willing, so will many who now suffer in the Ukraine war. But what they go back to wont be what they left. The experience of sudden, stunning loss will leave marks on their hearts and minds. We must bring the hope of the gospel to bear and trust Christ to heal the wounds of war. There will be many heavy days even for those who are blessed to return to a home after the war, back to the broken silence of their old homes. And this is the darkness and pain the Church must enter. We must bring the hope of the gospel to bear and trust Christ to heal the wounds of war. We must minister patiently, with tenderness, to the millions who now mourn a loss most of the world doesnt recognize. The Easter promise can shine in the midst of despair, too. For example, Christ met His disciples on the road to Emmaus. They were downcast, the Bible tells us. And with good reason their whole lives had been taken from them with His crucifixion and death. Jesus didnt reveal himself immediately. He took time to be present with them. He walked with them. He listened to them, and shared a meal with them. And suddenly, in their despair, they recognized Him. They knew He had risen. This is the calling of the Church. After all, it is thanks to the grace and provision of God that were here at all. These moments of weakness and difficulty can bring us face to face with God in a way few other things will. We can either choose to seek Him in suffering whether it be our own or that of others or we can try to clean up the mess on our own. Only one path leads to true restoration. Only one path leads to healing. Only one path leads to Life, and he is the greatest need of Ukraine. The Church must prepare to walk in the tangible pain of Ukrainians, now and for years to come, and point them to the only real hope: Jesus. The Better Samaritan blog is produced by the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, a research institute which specializes in resilience and spiritual fortitude. To learn more and apply for a M.A. in Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership, visit our website Dr. Rick Morton is the vice president of Engagement at Lifeline Childrens Services. Most notably, Dr. Morton is the co-author of the popular Orphanology: Awakening to Gospel-Centered Adoption and Orphan Care and the author of KnowOrphans: Mobilizing the Church for Global Orphanology. He and his wife Denise have been married for over 30 years and have three children, all of whom joined their family through international adoption from Ukraine. As the father of two elementary-aged children, the news of the May 24 mass shooting in Uvalde, Texasjust three hours south of my home in Austin, which resulted in the death of 19 children and 2 teachersshook me deeply. Driving my daughter to school the morning after, I felt acutely the fragility and unpredictability of life, and I found myself becoming intensely afraidand increasingly angry. Only 10 days prior, a racially motivated 18-year-old man, dressed in body armor and wielding a rifle with a high-capacity magazine, shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket, wounding 3 others. Eleven of the 13 victims were Black. A day after the mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Markets store in upstate New York, a gunman entered Geneva Presbyterian Church, in Laguna Woods, Californiawhere a group of parishioners had gathered for a lunch to honor a former pastor of a Taiwanese congregation that uses the church for its worship servicesand shot and killed one person and wounded five others. One nation bombs another, a denomination keeps a secret list of abusive pastors, a man is profiled because of his skin color, a Christian is persecuted because of her faith, and thousands are cruelly displaced from their homesall of it occurring against the backdrop of a global pandemic. Its tempting to shut down emotionally in light of all of this violence. Its tempting to give into despair. So goes the world, we might say, wishing it were otherwise but feeling powerless to make a difference. Its tempting to distract ourselves with busywork or to reach for spiritual platitudes to numb the pain. Let go and let God. God works in mysterious ways. Heavens our real home. But our world is a violent one and the Bible does not allow us to ignore its violence or to explain it away with tidy theological slogans. It asks us to face our world squarely, together, and, where needed, to yell our rage to God. The Bible invites us to get angry at God, because he can handle all our bitter, angry tears and curses. And such words need to be said out loud, because that's partly how we keep the chaos of violence from taking root in our own hearts. As I write in my book on the psalms, there is no faithful prayer in Israels official book of worship, the Psalter, that trivializes evil, no genuine faith that ignores the destructive powers of sin, and no true witness that turns a blind eye to the violence of our world. It is for this reason that we turn to the psalms for guidance in times such as these, for they show us what we canand indeed shouldbe praying in a violent world. But a question remains: How exactly do we pray in the aftermath of such violence? What words of lament can we put on our lips that make sense of the senseless? To what could the whole people of God possibly say amen in light of the corrosive power of hate that allows neighbor to irrationally kill neighbor? What do an exhausted and dispirited people say to God at such a time? These questions are, of course, far from easy to answer, but over the past couple of years I have attempted to give language to such matters in the form of Collect Prayersin the hopes that they might prove useful, and perhaps comforting, to people who face the terrors and traumas of violent activities in one form or another. May the Lord, in his mercy, hear our prayers. A Prayer of Anger: To the God whose holy anger heals; To the Messiah whose righteous anger overcomes evil; To the Spirit who keeps our anger from turning destructive: Receive our wounded hearts; Take our burning words; Protect us from the desire for revenge. May our righteous anger become fuel for justice in our fractured world and for the mending of broken relations in our neighborhoods and homes. For Gods sakeand ourswe pray. Amen. Article continues below A Prayer After a Mass Shooting: O Lord, you who abhor those who murder the innocent, be not deaf to our bitter cries, we pray, and do not abandon us to our pain this day. Hear our raging words of protest, O God of Jacob, heed our groans for justice and meet us in this lowly and desperate place. Awake, Lord! Rouse yourself! Deliver us from evil, for your names sake! We pray this so that we might witness your might to save and your power to heal. We pray this in the name of our Fortress and Refuge. Amen. A Prayer of Bitter Lament: Merciful God, you who weep with those who weep, who rescue the oppressed, who incline your ear to the needy and who bind up the brokenhearted: hear our prayer. Bring an end to our distress. Preserve our lives. Rescue us. Heal us. Be near to us this day. We pray this in Jesus name, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, on whom we cast all our cares. Amen. A Prayer for Peace in a Time of War: O Lord, you who are the True King, have mercy, we pray, on the people who suffer the ravages of war this day. Silence the warmongers, scatter the bloodthirsty, shatter the weapons of war, and take pity on the vulnerable, so that true peace and justice might be restored to this land. We pray this in the name of the Prince of Peace. Amen. A Prayer Against Bloodthirstiness: O Lord, you who abhor the bloodthirsty, rebuke the murderous, we pray, and break the sword of the violent, so that we might witness you as the God of Justice and the Lord of Righteousness under the light of the noonday sun. We pray this in the name of Christ our King. Amen. A Prayer in Response to Death: O Wounded Christ, you who have gone to the monstrous depths and swallowed death whole, tasting its bitter finality and conquering it once for all, we pray that you would free us from the fear of death and comfort us in the losses that we experience on account of death, so that our hearts might be infused this day with your resurrection life. We pray this in the name of the One who is the Resurrection and the Life. Amen. A Prayer for Police Officers: Oh Lord, you who love righteousness and justice, we pray for all police officers today, that you would support and bless them in their duties, and that you would strengthen them to defend the cause of the vulnerable, maintain the right of the oppressed, serve the good of the community, and preserve the peace in our cities, so that they might be emissaries of your justice in the world. We pray this in the name of the Ruler of the Nations. Amen. A Prayer for Our Enemies: O Lord, you who ask us to do the impossibleto bless our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, and to love those who seek us harmwe pray that you would do the impossible in us: Help us to love our enemies as you love them and to remember who our true enemies are: Satan, death, and the spiritual forces of evil. Perform also a miracle in our enemies by your Spirit, and in your sovereign might restrain the power of evil in this world. We pray this in the name of the One who does impossible things. Amen. A Prayer Against Neighbor Hate: O Lord, you who command us to bless our enemies, protect us, we pray, from turning our neighbors into enemies, worthy only of hatred and deserving of nothing but insults and curses, and grant us instead the heart of Jesus, so that we might love our neighbors as you love them. We pray this in the name of the One who causes the sun to rise both on the evil and on the good. Amen. A Prayer for Loving a Hurting Neighbor: O Lord, you who do not look away from the pain of this world, open our eyes, we pray, to see the pain of our neighbor and, by grace, to become the healing presence and power of Jesus to them, so that our hearts might be kindled with your neighbor love this day. We pray this in the name of the Merciful One. Amen. Article continues below A Prayer to Become a Justice-Loving People: O Lord, you who hate those who record unjust decisions, may we be a people who stand against injustice that occurs anywhere as a threat to justice everywhere, so that we might become worthy representatives of your righteous kingdom and extremists for Christs love. We pray this in the name of the One who sets the oppressed free. Amen. A Prayer For Those Who Weary of Doing Justice: O God, you who see the hearts of all with perfect clarity, I confess my irritation with those who bully their way with words, who think no one sees what they do in the shadows, and who live in a world of denial. Im angry and scared and tired of doing the right thing. Strengthen my heart, I pray, so that I might not lose hope. I pray this in the name of the Good Shepherd and Just Judge. Amen. A Prayer Against Duplicity of Heart: O Lord, you who were cheered and jeered by the very same crowd, have mercy, I pray, on my own duplicitous ways: confessing one sin openly yet hiding another; blessing God out of one side of my mouth, while cursing my neighbor out of the other; smiling in public but raging in private; loving God and money equally much; and all other sins besides. Grant me the grace of integrityof being one thing through and throughno matter what the cost. I pray this in the name of the One Who Remains True. Amen. A Prayer for the Peaceable Kingdom of God: O Lord, you who were manifested to the world at the visit of the Magi, manifest yourself to the world today as the King who refuses to use the violence of the world to the achieve the peace that we so eagerly desire, so that we might be strengthened to do the work of your peaceable kingdom in our own time and place. We pray this in the name of our Redeemer and King. Amen. A Prayer of Allegiance to the Prince of Peace: O Lord, you who deserve all our loyalties, we pledge allegiance this day to the Lamb of God and to the upside-down kingdom for which he stands, one holy nation under God, the Servant King and the Prince of Peace, with liberty and justice for all without remainder. We pray this in the name of the Holy Trinity. Amen. W. David O. Taylor is associate professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary. He is the author of Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life and accompanying illustrated psalms prayer cards. [ This article is also available in espanol and Francais. ] The Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News collect 380 allegations spanning 20 states in an unprecedented look at sexual misconduct across the denomination. | Image: Houston Chronicle A landmark investigation into hundreds of cases of sexual abuse in Southern Baptist churches opened with a collage of pictures of the offenders, row after row of headshots and mugshots of men who had been accused of abusing a total of 700 victims over the past 20 years. In Sundays report, the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News were able to do what victims say the nations largest Protestant denomination has failed to for years: provide a picture of the extent of the abuse within the Southern Baptist Convention and a database of those found guilty of their crimes. With allegations against 380 church leaders in 20 states (a majority of whom were convicted or took plea deals), its believed to be the biggest report on sexual abuse among Southern Baptists in the movements history. The report confronts the longstanding defense that the organization can only do so much to monitor abuse since affiliated congregations operate autonomously. Another set of pictures captures a sense of the impact of abusers in Southern Baptist congregations. In response to the investigation, Southern Baptist women and fellow Christians shared childhood photos on Twitter from the age when they first suffered abuse. Dozens joined a thread started by Living Proof Ministries founder and popular Bible teacher Beth Moore, including advocate and abuse survivor Jules Woodson and other ministry leaders. Over the past couple years, the #MeToo campaign has raised awareness about abuse within the SBC and galvanized official efforts to improve the denominations response. Last December, as the Fort Worth Star-Telegram rounded up more than 400 allegations among independent Baptists, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission ... Jill and Oscar Schmidt vowed that they would travel from their home in Washington State to Oberammergau, a small village in the south of Germany, to see the world-famous passion play about the death of Jesus. They wanted to go in 2010 but didnt get tickets in time. So they decided they would not miss the next performanceno excuses!and made plans for the spring of 2020. Then they were cancelled, said Jill. The Schmidts understood, of course. Everything was shutting down at that time, as the pandemic swept across the world and dominated the headlines. But that makes this moment, two years later, very sweet. We are so glad to finally be here, Jill told CT, and experience the play at least once in our lifetime. This desireto experience the Oberammergau Passion Play once in a lifetime has driven millions of tourists and pilgrims to visit the village over the years. It began in 1633 with another vow. Suffering the ravages of the bubonic plague, the inhabitants of the Bavarian village promised to perform a play of the suffering, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ" on stage every ten years if God would spare them further death and devastation. The plague ended, and the people of Oberammergau have been putting on the passion play ever since. In the 19th century, it began to draw in international visitors, mostly Catholics and Lutherans. Today, a third of the 1 million guests are from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia. The play resonates in this moment with the feeling of surviving a pandemic, but it has long spoken to the themes of crisis and overcoming hardship. The production, after all, retells the story of Jesus suffering and death. But the Passionsspiele, as its called in Germany, is also a festival and public celebration. It might be more celebratory than normal this year. Its like Oktoberfest, Holy Week, and the end of the pandemic all rolled into one, said Alex Schwarz, owner of a local bookstore selling passion play literature and souvenirs alongside the cookbooks and notebooks you could find in any German bookstore. On May 13, the day before opening, locals declared themselves glad to get back to normal. They recounted to each other how, two years ago, director Christian Stuckl announced the postponement with tears in his eyes. Performing the play while practicing social distancing would have been impossible. When up to 1,000 people appear on the stage at one time, a safe distance between them would have required a stage almost two-and-a-half acres in size. It just wasnt practical. Stuckl put a temporary halt to the tradition that had been running for 400 years before. Now, however, the crowds have returned. The visitors find a village that seems, at moments, sacred, but more often appears as a peculiar kind of film set. Some 1,800 of the 5,000 villagers are directly involved in the production. The rest play host. As visitors wander around, they can see Nicodemus eating ice cream, members of the Jerusalem Council getting tested for COVID-19 across from the train station, or even the man who plays Jesus shepherding his children through the crowds. Jake Krengel, a guide with Bavaria and Beyond Tours, in nearby Garmisch-Partenkirchen, is happy to be back. He said there was a lot of uncertainty over the last two years. Its a beautiful thing to see years of anticipation being realized, Krengel said. Even a few months ago, everyone in Oberammergau was still wearing masks and social distancing, there were so many questions left to be answered and fears that it actually wouldnt happen. The pandemic created hard times for everyone. During difficult times in Oberammergau, people remind each other to hang on until the next passion play. Theres even a saying in the village for when money gets tight: Passion wirds sho richten, meaning Passion will fix it. Over the last two years, many started to wonder if that would be true. Now that the plays are actually happening, Krengel said, we couldnt be happier. The joy was palpable on opening day, especially during the pre-premiere ceremony and ecumenical worship service. Catholic Cardinal Reinhard Marx and Protestant Bishop Heinrich Bedford-Strohm presided over a service that felt like a celebration, though there were somber moments too. In a joint sermon, the two religious leaders echoed how much the return of the plays meant for not only Oberammergau, but the world. The passion play these days cannot be seen simply as a historical play, said Bedford-Strohm. The passions of people are far too much in front of us today. He mentioned those suffering from disease and war, famine and persecutions, racism and climate change. For all of them, he said, and for all of us, Jesus passion contains a message of hope. The greatest story of all time, Marx said, reminds the audiences in Oberammergau that violence does not have the last word, power does not have the last word. It is with these themes in mind that the director has modernized the play. Christian Stuckl has reworked the 100-year-old script, which was originally written by a local pastor, Joseph Alois Daisenberger. Stuckl has been working on this revision since about 1990, and in the two-year delay, he revised it some more. I had to take another look, he said, because for me, the religious ballast recedes into the background and the social comes to the fore. An angry, energetic Jesus takes center stage in Stuckls retelling, calling followers to fight for mercy and justice on behalf of the oppressed. In this play, Jesus is presented as a reformist Jew who wanted to renew the religion of his fathers. While Christ may appear less Christian than he has in the past, the changes address persistent concerns about the antisemitic implications of the version in which Jesus didnt appear to be Jewish at all. Stuckl and his ensemble have also added more nuance to characters like Joseph of Arimathea and Judas, the latter framed as a betrayed traitor rather than an inherently evil foil. The idea, Stuckl said, is to confront the audience with questions he and his team have long wrestled with. Margaret Hinchey of Denver, Colorado, who is hosting an August tour with her husband Donald, a Lutheran pastor, said they are looking forward to the conversations the play provokes. The changes, they say, do not diminish the opportunities to start a dialogue that can lead to lasting spiritual change in someones life. I am not under any illusion that someone is going to go to the Passion Play and have a conversion experience, said Donald, but there may be some openings. Some questions. It can start a conversation. To help people on their tour prepare for these conversations, the Hincheys will be leading daily devotionals on some of the Gospel characters, such as Mary Magdalene and Malchus, a servant of the Jewish high priest Caiaphas, who participated in Jesus arrest. Another tour leader, David Mahsman, will also be leading his group through discussions about how the play matches up with the narratives of the four Gospels. The conversations that come after the performance are almost as important as the production itself, according to Mahsman, but its not all religious. Its a mix of a pilgrimage and a tour, he said. We enjoy the sights and sounds of Europe, but then have discussions and devotions while drinking German beer. Donald Hinchey feels the same. Hes simply been looking forward to traveling again. And, after more than a decade away, hes eager to see Oberammergau and thankful to be finally, maybe, putting the pandemic behind him. But hes also hoping this trip will have a deeper significance. I find as I get older, my faith can be somewhat jaded. Every so often I need a bit of a reboot, Donald said. Last time, I just couldnt get the passion play out of mind. I am hoping the same thing happens again. In the quiet, 16,000-person town of Uvalde, Texas, nearly everyone has connections to the children, families, and teachers shaken by the deadly elementary school shooting. I was watering my flowers in the front yard when I heard shots ring out, said Julian Moreno, former pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista. Moreno lives two blocks from Robb Elementary School, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 kids and two teachers on Tuesday. Within minutes of hearing the shots, Moreno said he saw two policemen running down the street. Then, an exchange of gunfire so close he could smell the powder. Knowing his great-granddaughter, Lexi, was a student at the school, Moreno walked to the campus once the shots ceased. He later learned that the attack took place in 10-year-old Lexis classroom, and she was among the victims. Outside the school, Moreno said, the atmosphere radiated with fear, as parents clamored to get into the barricaded building. Officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) and Border Patrol shouted at one another as they put on their gear and approached the school. People were talking loudly, a lot were crying, he said. They were saying, My son or my daughter is in that building, and the officers were just saying Im sorry, you cant go any further. Located 80 miles west of San Antonio, an hour from the Mexican border, the town of Uvalde is 82 percent Hispanic, with sizable Catholic and Baptist populations. Around 20 local churches have joined together to support their community, now known as the location of the third-deadliest school shooting in the US. Because hes a faith leader, people in the community have turned to pastors like Moreno for guidance in their grief. Moreno has been praying most with his granddaughter Kimberly Mata-Rubio, Lexis mother, who went into complete shock. After the honor roll ceremony earlier in the day, Mata-Rubio wrote, We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye. She sobbed as her husband spoke about Lexi on CNN on Wednesday. I need to be as strong as I can to be able to minister to my family in particular, Moreno said. In such a small town, many of the people called on to help provide spiritual support are themselves grieving. The whole place is devastated. Its a small town. Everybody knows everybody, said Joe Aguilar, Texas Baptists area representative for the Rio Grande Valley. They are going to need a lot of help. Texas Baptists reported that Aguilar drove to Uvalde to pray with community members outside the school on Tuesday and has helped coordinate chaplains to assist local pastors. You want to make sure the people that are providing care are trained, because we want to give the best help, the best assistance, to these families who are in their worst part of life. And not just anybody is prepared for something like this, he said. Anyra Cano, an adjunct professor at Baptist University of the Americas and pastors wife at Iglesia Bautista Victoria en Cristo in Fort Worth, made plans to travel to Uvalde to work with parents to help their children address their fears. Neftali Barboza, pastor of Iglesia Nueva Jerico, had just picked up his son early from Robb Elementary before the attack occurred. The funeral home across the street from the school was filled with terrorized children, and Barboza was called to comfort them. I stayed and helped take care of the kids, he told Baptist Press. I let as many parents as I could know their child was safe. The Pew Research Center has found that 24 percent of Americans report their faith becoming stronger in times of tragedy, and churches often have high attendance weekends after a horrific event. Pastors like Barboza are preparing for full services, funerals, and prayer meetings as members of the community gather to process and cry together. On Wednesday night, ministers organized a packed prayer vigil at the Uvalde Fairplex Arena, attended by Gov. Greg Abbott and US Sen. Ted Cruz. Amid worship songs and remarks, Baptist Temple Church pastor Tony Gruben prayed that God will heal their little hearts and their little souls. Some prayed in small groups, while others sobbed during a solo violinists rendition of Amazing Grace. On Thursday, Sacred Heart Catholic Parish in Uvalde held a prayer service for victims as well. Pastor Doug Swimmer of The Potters House Church told ABC News that he went to pray with families at the hospital. In addition to the 21 people killed, 17 others were injured in the attack. I know that one thing that is going to help us through is Gods grace and Gods love, he said. What the world needs and what our community needs is a light that shines in the darkness. [ This article is also available in espanol. ] The Russian invasion of Ukraine hasn't gone the way the experts -- or Russia -- expected. When Russia began to amass troops along the Ukrainian border, the talking heads on the news shows began to make their predictions. Russia would invade and overrun the Ukrainian army in a matter of days. The Russian army was too large and its weaponry too massive for Ukraine to survive long. But Ukraine did survive. As of this writing, Ukraine is not only surviving but also winning on some fronts of the war. The Russian army has been pushed back after their initial gains in the north and northeast of Ukraine. Depending upon what expert you trust, the Russian army has lost as many as a third of its invading army. How could this happen? Well, the secret has begun to seep out. For the past several years, the Ukrainian forces had been training with NATO forces. NATO and Russia have very different philosophies of battle. Russia is still using the same philosophy used in World War II. Massive armies, massive armor, and artillery moving across the open fields of Europe, blasting towns into rubble as they advance. The Ukrainians have adopted the new model the U.S. has used since Viet Nam. Instead of large armies moving across miles of battlefronts, small, highly trained units carry out surgical strikes to cripple the enemy's war-making abilities. With a much smaller army, the Ukrainians have blown up bridges, cut communications, and ambushed strangling units. Unless you are a student of military history, you may have missed the big debate at various levels of military leadership trying to learn the lessons of Viet Nam. The American forces never lost a direct battle with the North Vietnamese army or the Viet Cong. The problem of Viet Nam was the enemy never chose a direct battle with American forces. They would hit a target and then melt away into the jungle. The result of all of the studies was a transition to smaller, highly trained units to make surgical strikes to inflict major damage without encountering the major forces of the enemy. The development of special forces was one of the results of this new thinking. Funny thing is, a lot of businesses have adopted the same strategy. Instead of one large office downtown, businesses like banks, are breaking up into small, well-trained, and agile units that are away from headquarters, but closer to their customers. Colleges and universities are putting classrooms in office parks and strip malls closer to the students. Guess what? Churches in the near future will be doing the same thing. Instead of large central buildings, churches will be in the neighborhoods nearer to where people live, go to school, and shop. A couple of realities are driving this. First, the Builders and Boomers are moving off the scene. These two generations have provided most of the funding for many of the large building projects for churches across North America. Gen Z and Millennials are moving into positions of leadership. These generations give and give generously, but they give very differently. They, in general, dont give well to building projects. Church leadership will find it difficult to secure funding for large capital campaigns. Second, more and more, people are looking for a church that makes a difference where they are. Local churches need to earn street cred. Whether it is tutoring students in local schools, feeding the homeless, or receiving refugees, churches will have to have some kind of ministry that opens the doors for the gospel message. Members want opportunities to engage their talents in ministry and missions in ways that make an impact they can see. Like the army, churches are going to become small, well-trained units that love their communities well. Third, Gen Z and Millennials want to be involved in leadership. They want to be involved in whats going on. They want their voices to be heard. Youve probably read an article in some business publication about how difficult it is to blend the generations into a coherent workforce. Churches are facing the same challenges. The churches that are able to adapt to the new realities of Gen Z and Millennial leadership will be the most successful in the years just ahead of us. As you read about the fragmentation of America, remember each fragment will need a different kind of gospel presentation. Pastors will be needed to work with different people groups. People who understand what someone is going through who have been through it themselves will be needed. These smaller churches will be focused and agile, able to swivel their ministry focus onto the local needs of their neighborhood at a moments notice. Megachurches wont disappear, but more and more of their focus will be on the success and impact of the local micro churches. The gospel wont change. It never has. The only thing that ever changes is the wrapping in which the gospel is presented to our neighbors and friends. Arizona Dept. of Education promotes chat room for students to talk about gender, sexuality The Arizona Department of Education's list of student resources provides minor children with links to LGBT-themed chat rooms where they can discuss gender and sexuality, possibly without their parents' knowledge. The ADE website directs students to the Gender Spectrum and Q Chat Space under its "Online Chat Spaces" tab. The links are included in a list of resources ADE assembled for students, educators, school leaders and parents "to assist in the support of LGBTQ students in our schools and communities." In addition to the chat rooms, the website also includes information about local and national LGBT organizations. The list of resources was collected by "members and allies of the LGBTQ+ community as part of ADE's Equitable and Inclusive Practices Advisory Council." The Arizona Department of Education, Gender Spectrum and Q Chat Space did not respond to The Christian Post's request for comment. Gender Spectrum advertises online chat rooms for "transgender, non-binary, and gender-expansive pre-teens," inviting them to join discussion groups sorted by age and facilitated by moderators "who have navigated gender in their own lives." The group provides chat room spaces for students ages 13 to 16, 17 to 18 and 10 to 12. "Gender Spectrum hosts free online groups for pre-teens, teens, parents, caregivers, and other family members and adults," ADE's description of the group reads. "These groups provide you with the opportunity to connect with others, share experiences, and feel the comfort of a supportive community." Gender Spectrum told The National Desk that its online groups require parental consent for pre-teens but do not require parental consent for its teenage users. The other chat room, Q Chat Space, is targeted at children ages 13 to 19, according to its website. Q Chat Space's upcoming chat room discussions consist of a Friday session titled "FOR TRANS/NON-BINARY YOUTH: Hormones! What do they do, what don't they do? HRT Q&A," and another called "Queer Hair" on June 1. The LGBT-themed chat room is operated in collaboration with the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the nation's largest abortion provider whose clinics have been accused of dispensing hormones to trans-identifying teens without verifying medical records or parental consent. Q Chat Space's other partners include CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers and PFLAG, the "largest organization for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, their parents and families, and allies." Q Chat is facilitated by "experienced staff who work at LGBTQ+ centers around the United States," but the website acknowledges that its "facilitators are NOT mental health professionals." According to a Monday Libs of TikTok tweet, the discussion room hosted by Q Chat Space has a "quick escape" feature, speculating that this is in case kids want to conceal their online activity from their parents. Arizona Dept of Education provides a resource link for LGBT students. The link takes you to an online chat room with LGBT adults and teens where they talk about sex and gender. The online chat room has a quick escape feature in case a kid wants to hide it from their parents. pic.twitter.com/ogCiYtU73i Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 23, 2022 The issue of promoting ideas about sexual orientation and gender identity that may conflict with the values of students' parents has surfaced in several schools throughout the country. In April, two sets of parents of the Ludlow Public School District in Massachusetts filed a federal lawsuit against school officials at Baird Middle School. They allege that school officials encouraged their children to adopt new gender identities without their parent's knowledge or consent. One set of parents, Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri, accused the school of violating their request that they refrain from discussing gender identity issues with their children. A teacher informed them in December 2020 that their 11-year-old daughter was struggling with her self-esteem. The 11-year-old sent the defendants an email where their daughter claimed that she was "genderqueer" and told them that she used "any pronouns (other than it/its)" and requested to be called by a different name. A reply email from the child's school counselor told the other defendants that she was "still in the process of telling [her] parents and is requesting that school staff refer to [her] by" her given name and "use she/her pronouns with her parents and in written emails/letters home." The complaint characterizes this email as indicative of an effort to conceal "the fact that school staff were affirming an alternative name and identity for their daughter." The parents claim they would provide their daughter with the help she needed from a "mental health professional" but believe the school ignored their request. Foote and Silvestri say their daughter "changed her preferred name at least twice since December 2020" without their knowledge, and the school continues to address their daughter by "whatever iteration of her name she has indicated she prefers." The complaint also states that the two other plaintiffs "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 one's identity, and biological reality, as either male or female." In March, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill 1557, a piece of legislation that critics have labeled a "Don't Say Gay" bill. The law prohibits classroom instruction of gender identity and sexual orientation for students in kindergarten through third grade. It also requires schools to notify parents about changes to their child's well-being and prevents them from withholding this information from parents. "Parents have every right to be informed about services offered to their child at school, and should be protected from schools using classroom instruction to sexualize their kids as young as 5 years old," DeSantis said in a March 28 statement about the bill. Last year, two schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, generated public attention after reports surfaced of two sexual assaults committed at two different high schools by the same male student, one of which occurred in a girls' bathroom while he was wearing a skirt. The incidents reportedly occurred before Loudoun officials implemented a bathroom policy allowing trans-identifying students to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity. Last July, parents in Fairfax County, Virginia, protested against a policy allowing trans-identifying students to use the restroom aligned with their gender identity. According to The Washington Post, the guidelines implemented by the school district also required that official lists of students, including in yearbooks and newspapers, refer to them by their chosen pronouns. Doctor suspended for prescribing trans hormone drugs without properly assessing patients A doctor based in the United Kingdom has had his license suspended over allegations that he prescribed cross-sex hormones to patients without adequately assessing them beforehand, one of whom took their own life a few months later. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal ordered the erasure of Dr. Michael Webberley's license to practice medicine Wednesday following a six-month suspension. Webberley is alleged to have run an online clinic that prescribed puberty blockers to kids as young as 9 without being assessed by a doctor. According to the General Medical Council, which works "to protect patient safety and improve medical education and practice across the U.K.," Webberley's erasure is "not yet in force, pending an appeal period." His erasure follows a Nov. 14 suspension. Allegations of wrongdoing against Webberley prompted the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service, which makes "independent decisions about whether doctors are fit to practice medicine" in the U.K., to investigate Webberley's medical practices. A hearing took place Wednesday. In the ruling ordering the revocation of Webberley's medical license, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal determined that "erasing Dr. Webberley's name from the Medical Register is the only appropriate sanction in order to meet the overarching objective, which is to protect patients, maintain public confidence in the medical profession and uphold proper professional standards." A group of volunteer citizen reporters has created a Twitter account devoted to covering Webberley's misconduct tribunal. The account, which has the handle @tribunaltweets2, live-tweeted the proceedings of Webberley's trial. The group's corresponding Substack account outlined the allegations against Webberley, who founded the gender clinic GenderGP along with his wife, Helen. "The tribunal will inquire into the allegation that, between April 2017 and June 2019, Dr. Webberley failed to provide good clinical care to 25 patients. It is alleged that Dr. Webberley's failings related variously to consultation, history taking, examination, diagnosis, prescribing, communication, follow up, informed consent, assessment, working with colleagues, working within the limits of his expertise and working within guidance," a summary of the allegations against him posted at the beginning of the trial stated. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal accused Webberley of a "wide range" of failures in relation to the numerous patients. Webberley is said to have failed to conduct or obtain adequate psychological and mental health assessments and made "inappropriate diagnoses" without "accurate information." The doctor is accused of prescribing patients "without clinical indication and/or sufficient information." Additionally, he is charged with failure to obtain informed consent. Webberley also allegedly failed to "adequately engage with other clinicians involved in a patient's care," did not "provide adequate follow-up care" and engaged in "dishonesty linked to the obtaining of consent." "The Tribunal's findings included findings of dishonesty in relation to the consenting of the androgen patient," the order from the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Services states, according to the copy shared by the Twitter account. Webberley is said to have inappropriately diagnosed male patients with hypogonadism and prescribed them androgen hormones. Hypogonadism results in the reduced production of sex hormones. Some of those patients "experienced androgen toxicity." The determination of the facts compiled by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service revealed that one of seven trans-identified patients he treated "took his own life" after "receiving hormone treatment from GP." The tribunal accuses Webberley of diagnosing a trans-identified patient with gender dysphoria without conducting a "physical assessment" or a "face-to-face video consultation," instead relying on counselors who aren't registered with a recognized regulatory body. The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service also found that Webberley "prescribed oestrogen and anti-androgens to Patient S without" adequately monitoring their physical and psychological response to the treatment and failing to discuss "alternative treatments." The determination of the facts noted that Webberley continued to prescribe "excessive" doses of estrogen to the patient even though the patient was experiencing "known risks." Webberley reportedly failed to consider that the patient was on the autistic spectrum. When treating another patient, identified as "Patient V," Webberley provided the parents with a leaflet that "incorrectly advised that hormone blockers are fully reversible." He also allegedly provided false information to parents asserting that "testosterone could be prescribed to patients under 16 in exceptional circumstances." In a statement, GenderGP said that Webberley had not been involved with the practice for "some time" but praised his "courage in putting everything on the line to provide the best care possible for his patients." "Gender Affirming Healthcare has made great strides, producing better care outcomes for trans people around the world, and providing protocols that transform peoples lives," the May 19 statement reads. "Dr. Michael Webberleys patients have been united and unwavering in their support, feedback, and thanks for his role in helping progress models of care that have aided them to live as themselves." The erasure of Webberley's medical license comes more than three years after his wife Helen faced a fine the equivalent of $15,000 for running Gender GP illegally out of her home. While Mrs. Webberley had her license to practice medicine suspended in 2018, it was reinstated earlier this year with conditions including a "ban on prescribing any drugs, and a requirement to keep a log detailing every consultation with a transgender patient." GenderGP claims that despite "equal healthcare" moving forward globally, "there is further progress to make in the UK." "The contradictory findings of the Drs. Webberleys cases demonstrate two things: the importance of having the opportunity to defend yourself, and the lack of key expertise, and a united approach, in the provision of trans care within the UK," the statement adds. "GenderGP as an international provider has continued the fight for equal access to healthcare, applying globally recognised protocols and standards, and will continue to do everything we can to provide vital care and support to our patients and the trans community." Duggar sister reacts to her brother's 12-year prison sentence: 'God has carried out his vengeance' Josh Duggar's sister and brother-in-law Jill and Derick Dillard say they are relieved he was finally held "accountable" after the 34-year-old was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison Wednesday for possessing child pornography. The Dillards released a statement on their blog Thursday, the day after the oldest son of Christian reality TV parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar was sentenced to 151 months in prison. The former "Counting On" stars are "thankful" the case "is finally over" but stressed that the sentencing was part of God's "vengeance." The Duggars, a conservative Christian family from Arkansas, were featured on the television shows "19 Kids and Counting" and "Counting On." In 2021, authorities found images of child pornography on a computer at a cardealership owned by Josh Duggar. Investigators accused Duggar of having over 200 images of child porn on his devices "ranging from about 18 months of age to 12 years of age." Duggar pled not guilty to the charges, and his defense claimed someone else was responsible for the illegal files on the computer. Investigators contend Duggar's claim is unlikely. The judge rejected a defense motion for retrial on Tuesday. Along with the prison time, the father of seven will have to pay fines amounting to $50,100 and undergo 20 years of parole after his release. He also can't have unsupervised contact with minors, including his own children. He will be required to attend sex offender treatment and is prohibited from watching pornography of any kind. The Dillards, who married in 2014, said they are "neither rejoicing nor disappointed" over her brother's prison sentence. "The last several weeks and months have been difficult emotionally. Yesterday was another one of those hard days," they wrote. "The Bible clearly states that God [affects] justice and vengeance through the governing authorities," the Dillards added. "Though some believe Josh should have received a greater sentence and still fewer believe he should have received a lighter sentence, God has carried out his vengeance today for his unspeakable criminal activity." "Until now, he has yet to be held accountable to the extent necessary to cause change in his dangerous pattern of behavior," the Dillards continued. "It is unfortunate, but it seems that it may take spending over a decade in federal prison, and still more on probation, for Josh to have any potential for rehabilitation to the point he can safely live in society again." The couple hopes Duggar can "get treatment and begin to work toward a lifestyle where he is less likely to re-offend." "If for nothing else, the notoriety of this case has hopefully contributed to the deterrence of potential offenders and will help protect children by decreasing the demand for CSAM," the statement concludes. "We continue to love Josh and his family and will be there for them however we can." After the verdict, Josh Duggar's defense attorney said in a statement they are "grateful the judge dismissed Count 2 and rejected the Government's request for a 240-month sentence." Duggar will be on parole for 20 years after his release and can't have unsupervised contact with minors, including his own children. In 2015, it was revealed Duggar previously admitted to molesting his sisters when they were younger. The revelation led to the canceling of "19 Kids and Counting." Duggar's cousin Amy King told Celebuzz that she thinks the 12.5-year sentencing "isn't enough." "I hope that every single second he's there feels like an eternity," she said. King, the outspoken daughter of Jim Bob Duggar's sister, posted a video reaction on Instagram Wednesday night. "I knew him getting the maximum sentence wasn't going to be the easiest to prove since it's his first offense in the judge's eyes which I hate but at the same time, he cannot have his computer, he cannot hurt [and] exploit any more children and when he sees his kids, he has to be supervised," she said. "Josh's sickness stems from somewhere, and eventually we will hear about the trauma. I don't know when, or how, or who but eventually I think more will come out. But hopefully tonight, I can sleep for the first time ever and rest assured that another monster will be put behind bars makes my heart feel a little lighter."] Josh Duggar's younger brother, Jason "Jase" Duggar, also reacted to the news in a lengthy statement posted to his Instagram Story on Thursday. "In my opinion, judge Timothy L. Brooks was fair in his ruling giving Josh a sentence that would be considered below the median for the crimes he has committed," he wrote. "My heart is grieved over the choices my brother has made, his actions do not reflect that of a Christian believer and have doubtlessly defamed my Lord and Saviors name!! Joshua's poor decisions have greatly effected [sic] those around him, in particular his wife, seven children and our family as a whole." The former TLC star said he has forgiven his older brother for "his wrongdoings." "With that said, I will never stop loving my brother, regardless of what he does, just as my savior has forgiven me so I have forgiven my brother of his wrongdoings!" he wrote. "My prayer is that God will use this circumstance to truly humble him and bring about a true change in his life!" A resident interacts with a pet dog in Lianqin Village of Beicai Town, east China's Shanghai, May 26, 2022. Due to the emerging of COVID-19, all villagers in Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16. In order to take care of the villagers' pet animals, Lianqin Village set up two boarding centers for pets where veterinarians and volunteers could take care of them. As the epidemic has abated in the village recently, pets returned to their owners on May 26. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) A resident carries her pet dog in the arm in Lianqin Village of Beicai Town, east China's Shanghai, May 26, 2022. Due to the emerging of COVID-19, all villagers in Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16. In order to take care of the villagers' pet animals, Lianqin Village set up two boarding centers for pets where veterinarians and volunteers could take care of them. As the epidemic has abated in the village recently, pets returned to their owners on May 26. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) A staff member prepares to feed a pet dog at a boarding center for pet animals in Lianqin Village of Beicai Town, east China's Shanghai, April 29, 2022. Due to the emerging of COVID-19, all villagers in Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16. In order to take care of the villagers' pet animals, Lianqin Village set up two boarding centers for pets where veterinarians and volunteers could take care of them. As the epidemic has abated in the village recently, pets returned to their owners on May 26. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) A staff member transports pet animals to meet their owners in Lianqin Village of Beicai Town, east China's Shanghai, May 26, 2022. Due to the emerging of COVID-19, all villagers in Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16. In order to take care of the villagers' pet animals, Lianqin Village set up two boarding centers for pets where veterinarians and volunteers could take care of them. As the epidemic has abated in the village recently, pets returned to their owners on May 26. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) A staff member takes care of a newborn puppy at a boarding center for pet animals in Lianqin Village of Beicai Town, east China's Shanghai, April 29, 2022. Due to the emerging of COVID-19, all villagers in Lianqin Village were transferred to a quarantine site on April 16. In order to take care of the villagers' pet animals, Lianqin Village set up two boarding centers for pets where veterinarians and volunteers could take care of them. As the epidemic has abated in the village recently, pets returned to their owners on May 26. (Xinhua/Jin Liwang) New Oklahoma law requires students to use bathrooms that match their biological sex Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed into law a measure that requires students in public schools to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex as opposed to their gender identity. Stitt signed Senate Bill 615 Wednesday, which requires each public school and public charter school that serves students in prekindergarten through twelfth grades in this state to require every multiple occupancy restroom or changing area designated either for the exclusive use of the male sex or for the exclusive use of the female sex. The bill defines sex as the condition of being male or female based on genetics and physiology, as identified on the individuals original birth certificate. The measure contains a provision requiring schools to provide a reasonable accommodation to any individual who does not wish to comply with the requirement that students use bathrooms and changing areas designated for their biological sex. It cites access to a single-occupancy restroom or changing room as the reasonable accommodation schools can offer. In other words, trans-identified students who do not want to use bathrooms that match their biological sex can use single-occupancy restrooms. A school districts failure to comply with the law will result in a 5% decrease in state funding for the fiscal year following the year of noncompliance. The bill took effect immediately following its approval. Stitts signature followed the Republican-controlled Senates 38-7 vote to approve the measure on May 19 and the House of Representatives approval of the legislation in a 69-14 vote that same day. The bill was nearly unanimously opposed by Democrats, with one Democrat voting in favor in the Senate and no Democrats supporting it in the House. Tanya Cox-Toure, the executive director of the ACLU of Oklahoma, condemned the legislation in a statement. Transgender people are part of our families, our workplaces, and our neighborhoods, and they, like everyone else, need to be able to safely access restrooms, she said. By singling out transgender students for discrimination and excluding them from restrooms that match their gender identity, SB 615 discriminates based on transgender status and sex in violation of the United States Constitution and Title IX of the Civil Rights Act, Cox-Toure added. These violations put Oklahoma at risk of losing hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding, and harms transgender youth, all to solve a problem that plainly does not exist. The activist insisted that transgender individuals go to the restroom just like everyone else, and their presence harms no one. SB 615 has and will continue to cause severe harms to transgender students who are just trying to live their lives and go to school alongside their peers," Cox-Toure stressed. Policies allowing trans-identified students to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity have received increased scrutiny across the U.S. The proposed implementation of such a policy led to massive protests in Loudoun County, Virginia, where school district leadership assured concerned parents that no sexual assaults had taken place in girls bathrooms at the hands of male students. However, three weeks before the contentious Loudoun County school board meeting, a sexual assault did occur in a girls bathroom at one of the high schools in Loudoun County, committed against a girl by a boy reportedly wearing a skirt. The two students had a previous history of romantic involvement. Emails released by the Loudoun County Sheriffs Office showed that district leadership was aware of the sexual assault on the day that it occurred, leading to a conclusion by outraged parents that Superintendent Scott Ziegler misled parents at the June 2021 school board meeting. Critics of the Loudoun County Public Schools claim that the district deliberately concealed the sexual assault in an effort to avoid the derailment of a proposed policy that would allow trans-identified students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. The school board ultimately approved the policy in August 2021, and news of the sexual assault broke two months later. Concerns about biological males using areas where women are partially or completely undressed extend beyond public schools. Last year, a video of a woman confronting employees at a Korean spa in Los Angeles for allowing a trans-identified male with his genitals exposed to enter an area where females, including little girls, were naked went viral. When employees defended letting the man use womens facilities based on his self-identified sexual orientation, the woman responded What sexual orientation? I see a d***! Besides Oklahoma, other states that have passed laws requiring students to use bathrooms that correspond with their biological sex include Tennessee and North Carolina. The North Carolina law was derided as a bathroom bill by critics, and backlash led to the bills repeal in 2017. Abby Johnson slams claim that sex is just 'a man's need': Wives should be able to enjoy it too Abby Johnson highlighted the importance of women having pleasurable sex, warning that Christians can sometimes reduce procreation to "a man's need and a woman's duty." In the May 16 episode of her podcast "Politely Rude," Johnson discussed God's design for marriage and sexual pleasure within the covenant of biblically defined marriage relationships. The pro-life activist and licensed therapist noted that some married Christian women tend to struggle with sexual pleasure and low libido more than married Christian men, due to more frequent orgasms and more pleasure during sex. Johnson said Christian husbands can sometimes treat their wives "selfishly," as though it's the wife's "duty" to please the husband because men "need" sex. "There is a lack of pleasure for women in the bedroom. I know this because I'm friends with a lot of women. And I talked to many women, and women come to me saying, 'You know, I've never had an orgasm in my life. I don't know how to have an orgasm. Talk to me about orgasm,'" said Johnson. Other times, Johnson said, when women struggle with sexual pleasure, it could be due to "a hormonal problem," such as "prolonged use of birth control" or other medications. "Depending on what studies you look at, generally, about 20 percent of women are on some sort of antidepressant, some sort of [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors], [which] have sexual side effects. Almost all of them have some sort of sexual side effect, and so we're putting women on SSRIs, and then we're not counseling them on sexual side effects," she said. Johnson also said that the "over-sexualized culture" might also contribute to the shame that makes Christian women afraid to orgasm during sex with their husbands. "It makes me wonder if [based on] pornography and pornography culture, if there's any sort of link to women feeling like that's dirty. Like [I wonder if women are saying]: 'Oh, if I have an orgasm, that's filthy, that's dirty. That's like something you see in a porno film?'" Johnson said. "But it's not. It's beautiful. It's intimate. That's what God meant for a husband and wife to experience together. That's how He created your body." Guest speaker Francie Winslow, a writer and women's conference speaker whose work focuses on the topic of "intimacy in marriage," joined Johnson for the podcast discussion. Winslow believes some Christian women struggle with connecting to their bodies due to layers of "shame, confusion [and] silence," and feeling "disembodied" while "fearing" sex. Winslow said that, in many cases, Christian women struggle with connecting to their bodies as a result of the Church's emphasis on "separating the body from spiritual experience." "In the Church, we focus so heavily on the spirit and morality, and we've given it such weight that it's been silent on the physicality side and the fact that our bodies are good; they were handcrafted by God," Winslow said. Winslow added that while she "loves" the idea of purity, she believes that Christian women are often programmed to fear their own bodies due to an over-emphasis on purity culture. "Our clitoris that has 8,000 nerve endings was God's idea. A man's penis has 4,000 nerve endings. That is evidence in and of itself that this was God's generous gift to incorporate into intimacy. Yes, procreation. Absolutely. But also pleasure and also the grand purpose of 'be fruitful, multiply and take dominion,'" Winslow said. "Sex is not a chore or duty," she stressed. She encouraged Christians to twist that perspective around and "try and seek God's Genesis dream." "[God] handcrafted our sexuality and called it 'good.' And so I think because of church history, having such an unfortunate, long track record of separating the body from the spirit, it's been so much silence. And then, I think you add on to that the sexual revolution and then just blatant, painful immorality, we're just afraid of it," Winslow added. "And so we don't want anything to do with that. And we've made it so [much] about morals that we've also just kind of overlooked in the process, 'What does it look like to be connected to my body?' [Christian women tend to think], 'I'm so afraid of doing something bad. I'm completely disembodied at this point.'" At the start of the podcast, Johnson said she was inspired to focus on sex in marriage after reading an article from Focus on the Family about how to resolve mismatched libido. She posted a comment to the article in response, which received thousands of likes and hundreds of replies. According to her, dozens of women messaged her privately to tell her that they, too, are struggling with their sex drive and libido in their marriages. "One of the most common things I hear from women is, 'I don't like having sex. It is a chore for me.' And I say, 'Oh well, do you orgasm?' [And they say], 'No, never.' And I tell them, 'It would not feel like a chore if you had pleasurable sex.' So that is one of the things that I feel like is women are struggling within their marriages," she said. "Why do guys always want to have sex? Because they always receive pleasure from it. It's always pleasurable for men. If it wasn't pleasurable for them. They wouldn't want to do it all the time. Right? If sex was always pleasurable for a woman, then she would always want to do it. The women I know who have high sex drives have consistent orgasms." Johnson advised Christian women struggling with sexual pleasure to talk with their husbands and encourage them to "switch things up" in the bedroom. Sexual intimacy should be about both partners, not just one, she emphasized. "Sex should never just be something that you do. It should never just be a habit or something that you just sort of knock out once a week," Johnson posited. "It should be something that is enjoyable for both people. And sex should be something that's experienced by both people in a couple. It should be something that's enjoyable. And that's really the way that God intended it." AME Church sues former executive, alleged accomplices for plundering millions from retirement fund The African Methodist Episcopal Church has filed a lawsuit against the former head of its retirement service Rev. Jerome Harris and 10 other individuals and entities, alleging involvement in a sophisticated scheme to defraud millions from the retirement funds of thousands of clergy and employees. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee in Memphis. The litigation comes about two months after retired pastor Rev. Cedric V. Alexander filed a proposed class-action lawsuit claiming the denomination lost 70%, or nearly $100 million, from its retirement plan through "foolish" and risky investments. About 5,000 plan participants were impacted financially. Along with Harris, who served as executive director of the AMEC Department of Retirement Services from July of 2000 until 2021, the nine-count complaint lists Symetra Financial Corporation as a cross-defendant. Third-party defendants are Robert Eaton, Jarrod Erwin, Randall Erwin, Financial Freedom Group, Inc., Motorskill Asia Venture Group, Motorskill Asia Ventures 1, LP, Motorskill Venture Group, Motorskill Ventures 1, LP, and Rodney Brown & Company. Eaton, who resides in Illinois, was designated by Harris as the financial advisor for the Department of Retirement Services. The Erwins, both of Sugar Land, Texas, served as principals of Motorskill Ventures, Inc. Financial Freedom Group, Inc. is a corporate entity established in 2007 and owned by Harris and Eaton jointly. Motorskill Venture Group, Motorskill Ventures 1, LP, Motorskill Asia Venture Group and Motorskill Asia Ventures 1, L.P. are private equity funds into which Harris, in consultation with Eaton and Erwin but without any authority from AMEC, invested millions of dollars from the annuity plan, the complaint claims. Rodney Brown & Company is an external certified public accounting firm retained by the AMEC to perform annual financial statement audits for the last 15 years, including in 2020 and 2021. The complaint alleges that the denomination only discovered the fraudulent scheme after they elected a new director for the Department of Retirement Services in 2021 and immediately hired an expert legal and forensic team to conduct an investigation. "Dr. Harris and/or Eaton, without the knowledge (and accordingly, without consent) of AMEC General Board, the AMEC Commission on Retirement Services, or any other AMEC bodies or officers, created various entities that purported to either perform services for the Department or use Department and/or Annuity Plan funds," The AMEC lawsuit says. In the complex scheme alleged by the historically black denomination, Harris repeatedly stole through his professional capacity with AMEC and the help of his alleged accomplices while presenting investors with "a deceptive, false, and grossly inflated value for the Annuity Plan." "AMEC learned that only about $37,000,000.00 of Dr. Harris's previously reported $128,000,000.00 valuation of the Annuity Plan was held by Symetra," the complaint states. AMEC claims there is no evidence that the total value of the retirement fund reported by Harris was ever the actual value of the funds. "The $128,000,000.00 valuation reported by Dr. Harris was a baseless representation recklessly and deceptively made to plan participants without any third-party verification," the complaint reads. The complaint filed by Alexander in March claims Harris was "given sole authority to invest tens of millions of AMEC clergy's and other Church servants' retirement savings in a questionable and potentially unlawful purchase of undeveloped land in Florida, a promissory note to an Illinois installer of solar panels, and an even more foolish investment in a now non-existent capital venture outfit." While this was happening, church officials kept reporting to the plan's beneficiaries that their retirement funds were safely flourishing as investments in annuities from Symetra Financial. During a meeting of the denomination's general board on Jan. 31, participants in the church's retirement plan were told that "more than $90 million of [the denomination's] $126.8 million [retirement fund] was missing." Investors were informed no one connected with the denomination except Harris knew where the "money and other plan-related records went." AMEC accused Symetra Financial Corporation of approving requests from Harris to electronically wire annuity plan funds to Motorskill Entities "without confirmation that Dr. Harris had the authority to do so." The Christian Post reached out to Symetra Financial for comment on the lawsuit. A response is pending. "From 2005 to 2021, Dr. Harris via Department and/or Annuity Plan funds paid about $37 million to Motorskill Entities," the complaint said. AMEC Council of Bishops President Anne Henning Byfield said the lawsuit is part of the church's effort to hold the perpetrators accountable. "This financial crime has been committed against the AME Church community, and specifically our clergy and Church employees," she said in a statement to The Christian Post. "With the help of our legal team, the AMEC community is committed to holding those responsible accountable and recovering embezzled funds." Not a faith issue: Churches address mental health stigma in the pews during awareness month With May being Mental Health Awareness Month, pastors and church leaders are urging their congregations to shatter the stigma and advising that mental health isn't always a "spiritual issue." Licensed clinical social worker Ryan Albrecht, a private psychotherapist practitioner, preached a guest sermon Sunday at The Experience Vineyard Church in Rockville Centre, New York. In the sermon titled "Emotional Awareness," the 40-year-old social worker who plays guitar and sings for the church's worship team told the Vineyard movement-affiliated congregation that Christians tend to stigmatize mental illness. "[Mental illness] is a stigmatized and an uncomfortable issue for a lot of people," he said. "My experience has been that the big 'C' Church doesn't like going into this realm too much." He said people often assume those struggling with mental illness look a certain way or that people who seem to be living great lives aren't experiencing mental health problems. "If [someone with mental illness] was in this church, you'd be like, 'Hey, he's good, he's not showing outward signs, right?' And that's the stigma we don't want to push," Albrecht preached. Albrecht said the Church needs to actively approach mental illness in a way that does not judge based on what someone has attained in their life or what someone looks like because anyone can have a mental illness. Never would have expected Albrecht shared about a past client he helped who was suffering from a severe suicidal health crisis. But most people would never have expected that person to be in need of mental health therapy because he was a "good looking dude, with a good job, a great house." Albrecht spoke with the client during an emergency therapy session. As he listened, the psychotherapist realized that his client spent the entire day allocating his financial assets to allow his wife access to his money. The client had planned to commit suicide and wanted to ensure his wife had financial support when he was gone, Albrecht said. Before becoming a social worker, Albrecht said he struggled with drug addiction. He urged Christians to seek therapy because Jesus can work through the therapy process. He cited Romans 12:2-3, noting that Jesus wants to partner with anyone starting on a journey of "renewal and healing." "I love the combination of spiritual direction and therapy at the same time because the whole process [involves getting] to understand our heart, our emotions, how our body is responding. We're going to separate trauma, emotional content, family relationships all that," Albrecht said. "And we become kind of segmented, but we have to reintegrate, as well, ideally in the therapeutic process. That's why it takes time. That's why it's a process. You can't just do this stuff. You need to remain accountable. That's why having a relationship you take part in every week with somebody is super important. So start where you are." 'God can miraculously heal you of anything' Lead Pastor Lee Grzywinski at Montclair Community Church in New Jersey told his congregation in a sermon on May 15 that he struggles with what his counselor classifies as "severe anxiety," which he seeks continual therapy for. He told his church that medically diagnosed "anxiety is not sinful." He contends that churches and Christians stigmatize by labeling mental illness "sinful." "If you are concerned about anxiety in your life, I can't stress this enough: please seek professional help. ... This is not a faith issue." "Yes, God can miraculously heal you of anything. I really believe that. But, if I break my leg, I'm going to pray and go to the hospital," Grzywinski preached in a sermon titled "The Spiritual Side of Anxiety (Mental Health from a Biblical Perspective)." 'Not always a spiritual issue' Pastor Dave Hazel of New Life Church of The Nazarene in El Cajon, California, also encouraged churchgoers not to neglect themselves if they are suffering emotionally. In a sermon, he advised Christians with medically diagnosed mental health illnesses to seek Jesus, declaring, "Jesus is the answer to our mental health dilemma." But he also urged the need for some to incorporate therapy and medication into their lives to find healing. "The fact of the matter is, I'm not trying to discount or minimize mental health issues that are ongoing and real, and things that we didn't cause," Hazel, who holds a master of divinity from Nazarene Theological Seminary, said. "Please, don't misunderstand me. Mental health issues are not really always spiritual issues." The pastor said there are many people who are suffering from various issues where their brains are not firing correctly, such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Unlike other serious health problems, he said it can often be hard to people to grasp or see mental health disorders for what they are. He said when people have issues with their heart or other organs, doctors can do scans to show where the abnormalities may lie. Hazel warned that many churches stigmatize mental illness by holding the belief that anyone struggling with mental illnesses needs to get closer to Jesus. "[Oftentimes] we want to make [mental illnesses] spiritual issues [by saying]: 'It's all about Jesus. If you had more faith, if you kind of just pulled up the bootstraps and went to church more, you wouldn't deal with [it],'" Hazel said. "Stop that silliness because there are some real issues that we need to deal with when it comes to mental health. But, I do think there are some truths to some disciplines and habits that God's Word teaches us, [which] give us a healthy balance for our mental health." He believes more Christians would "have a healthier mental health perspective" if they "truly lived for and embraced and experienced the God who ultimately created them." Hazel noted a few spiritual disciplines found in Philippians 4:4-8, when Paul addresses the church at Philippi with instructions on how to live. Verse 4 says, "Rejoice in the Lord always." According to Hazel, Christians are to praise God with joy regardless of their circumstances. He believes doing this can potentially create better mental health outcomes. "I like to say to some people 'if you are happy, you need to remind your face that that's the case.' Because that means that you need to smile every once in a while. Have some joy and rejoice. And [Paul] says: don't just rejoice about just anything. 'Rejoice in the Lord,'" Hazel continued. Hazel said the command to "pray" can be seen in Philippians 4:6-7, which says: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer present your requests to God." "I don't think Paul is instructing us to push emotions away. I think Jesus modeled plenty of emotions as we look in the Gospels. He laughed. He cried. Jesus wept when he looked over Jerusalem. He wept when His friend Lazarus was dead. He got impatient with the disciples and the Pharisees. He turned over tables for goodness sake," Hazel preached. "So, it's not an issue that somehow our emotions are bad or wrong. In fact, they're God-given. [But] showing and expressing our emotions tends to lead to this aspect of worry and fear. And so as a result of that, I think Paul is instructing us to [teach] us that there's a pattern of discipline that you can do that will help you in your worry. And that is the discipline of prayer." Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick urges Americans to read 2 Chronicles 7:14 after Uvalde school shooting Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is urging Christians in the United States to "take hold of our country" through prayer as the nation continues to mourn the loss of more than a dozen children slaughtered in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday. Patrick, a Republican, appeared on Fox News Wednesday to discuss the mass shooting that killed 19 elementary school children and two teachers. Patrick said the tragedy and the political reaction is evidence that "we are in a sick society where we are at each other's throats all the time." He called on the American people to ask themselves "who we are." "I believe we're a nation of godly people and godly people need to pray," he said. "2 Chronicles 7:14, everyone should read tonight. Go to the middle of the Bible, turn right, 2 Chronicles 7:14. Christians have to pray for God to heal our land and we have to take a stand." The Bible passage reads: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal our land." Patrick acknowledged that not everyone is Christian but stressed that those who are Christians "need to take hold of our country." "And we do that through prayer," he said. "You cannot change the culture of a country without changing the character of the people, and you just cannot change character without changing a heart and you can't do that without turning to God." Patrick's interview with Fox News came after Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke disrupted Gov. Greg Abbott's press conference Wednesday. O'Rourke used his unscheduled remarks to condemn his opponent in the upcoming Texas gubernatorial election for failure to enact what he views as common-sense gun control laws. "The time to stop the next shooting is right now and you are doing nothing," O'Rourke proclaimed. Using expletives, Uvalde's Republican Mayor Don McLaughlin told the candidate to leave. McLaughlin criticized O'Rourke for making a "political issue" out of the tragedy. As O'Rourke exited the auditorium, he told Abbott, "this is on you," insinuating that his failure to enact gun control laws caused the mass shooting. Patrick, who was about to speak at the press conference when O'Rourke interrupted, rejected the idea that stronger gun control laws would have prevented the tragedy. He lamented the state of political discourse in the U.S. "This problem is a much larger problem than the infrastructure, the gun issue, [and] the mental health issue," he asserted. "Whether it's on the internet, whether it's in any walk of life, people are just at each other every day." The lieutenant governor offered a similar analysis when appearing on Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Tuesday. He suggested that the rise in mass shootings stems from a "coarse society." "When I grew up and most of the people watching grew up and you, we didn't have these situations," Patrick said. "We didn't have mass shooters in our schools." .@TuckerCarlson asked me to come on this evening and I shared with him what a heartbreaking night this is for everyone. pic.twitter.com/RHKc9WmpIl Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) May 25, 2022 "This was a country founded on faith," he added. "That's why we have to come together as a people" and resist the urge to "politicize" the mass shooting. Texas has experienced several mass shootings in recent years, including a 2017 shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs that killed 26 people, a 2018 shooting at a high school in Santa Fe that left 10 dead and a 2019 shooting at a Walmart in El Paso that took the lives of 23 people. O'Rourke mentioned the previous mass shootings during his confrontation with Abbott Wednesday. O'Rourke, who previously represented Texas' El Paso-based 16th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives and unsuccessfully ran for the U.S. Senate in 2018 and the Democratic nomination for President in 2020, is running against Abbott as he seeks a third term in this November's gubernatorial election. The RealClearPolitics average of the most recent polls taken of the Texas gubernatorial race shows Abbott leading O'Rourke by 6.7 percentage points. Two days after the school shooting, details still emerge about the gunman killed by police. Shortly after the shooting, Abbott identified 18-year-old Salvador Ramos as the perpetrator. Evangelical Christian sues US Postal Service over mandatory work on Sundays An evangelical Christian in Pennsylvania has taken legal action against the U.S. Postal Service for forcing him to quit by requiring him to work on Sundays after the USPS partnered with Amazon for delivery. Gerald Groff, a former mail carrier in Lancaster County who didnt want to miss church or to observe Sunday as the day of worship, filed a motion for summary judgment before a federal district judge against the USPS earlier this month for not accommodating his religious beliefs, Independence Law Center, which is one of the law firms representing the Christian, said in a statement. The USPS had never required Groff to work on Sundays until it started parcel delivery in partnership with Amazon. Initially, the Post Office accommodated Groffs religious beliefs for not working on Sundays, as he worked on holidays, in the evenings and on Saturdays when other carriers werent willing to work. However, later, the USPS started enforcing a mandatory Sunday policy on Groff and disciplined him. As a result, he was constructively discharged from the job. In a free and respectful society, government should recognize those differences among us that make us great, rather than punishing those differences, particularly when those differences result from our sincerely held religious beliefs, David Crossett, one of the attorneys representing Groff, said in the statement. Just as the Supreme Court recognized in a case involving the right of a Muslim worker to wear a head scarf at a clothing store, a government employer like the Post Office should reasonably accommodate an employees religious beliefs. The Post Office had plenty of other options for delivering Amazon packages on Sundays without making this employee violate his religious conscience, said Randall Wenger, ILCs Chief Counsel. In a free society, government employers can and should do better at respecting their employees rights. ILC lawyer Jeremy Samek told abc27 that its not uncommon for people to request reasonable accommodations at their workplace. Employers are actually required to provide reasonable accommodations. Its something that happens every single day. Samek continued, We should, as a society, seek to reasonably accommodate people with unique religious beliefs, that we can all live and work together in a pluralistic society. At the end of the day, Mr. Groff wants his job back. Its important for him, but its also important for lots of other people who work for the federal government or the post office that they be able to continue their employment and to continue to observe their religious beliefs. DeVon Franklin is expert in new Married at First Sight season despite 'shame' of divorce Hollywood filmmaker and preacher DeVon Franklin says he was recruited as a celebrity expert for the hit show "Married at First Sight" amid his recent divorce. The Christian preacher, who recently got divorced from actress Meagan Good after nine years of marriage, has frequently spoken publicly about relationships. Along with sharing his faith on social media, Franklin has often offered advice for couples and singles on prayerfully staying in God's will when it comes to relationships. He and Good co-authored the relationship book The Truth About Men: What Men and Women Need to Know and The Wait. According to Essence.com, Franklin was recruited to replace Dr. Viviana Coles on the new season of "Married at First Sight." Coles has served as a celebrity expert along with Dr. Pepper Schwartz and Pastor Calvin Roberson for the last few seasons of the series. Franklin will be joined by expert Dr. Pia Holec, a celebrated sex and couples psychotherapist who will make her debut on Season 15 of the show. "Married at First Sight" is a social experiment that brings together compatible singles who are willing to marry a stranger in hopes of living happily ever after. This season of the reality series will take place in San Diego, California. In an Instagram post about his involvement in the new season, Franklin revealed that he almost turned the opportunity down. "Moment of Truth: Last year, Married At First Sight (@mafslifetime) invited me to come on the show. I agreed to do it and then the divorce hit," he wrote. "They came to me and said that didn't matter to them because they still felt like I could help their couples. I was going to tell them 'No' because I felt shame, and that voice in my head said, 'you're a failure; how can you help anybody save their marriage when yours didn't work out?'" Franklin disclosed that the voice in his head had him focusing on public opinion. "Then I had to ask myself: Is this how I'm going to live the rest of my life? In fear about what 'people' say? And who are 'people' anyway? So I went back to the @mafslifetime team and told them YES, I'll still come. I REFUSE TO LIVE IN FEAR OR SHAME!'" He maintained that he would draw from his own life experiences to help couples have successful relationships. "A lot of times, that voice in our heads is our worst enemy. It tries to talk us out of what God is trying to talk us into," Franklin continued. "I was trying to get through this life perfect, and without failure, now I'm just living to get through it truthfully and if what I've learned about love and relationships can help someone, then I'm here for it," he concluded. Franklin and Good announced their divorce in December in an Instagram post. They shared a photo of themselves embracing while sitting down together outdoors with their backs turned away from the camera. "After much prayer and consideration, we have decided to go into our futures separately but forever connected," Franklin and Good shared in the joint statement. "We celebrate almost a decade of marriage together and a love that is eternal," they continued. The couple met while filming the 2011 movie "Jumping the Broom" and got engaged in May 2012. They were married one month after their engagement. "There's no one at fault," the two shared of their split, adding: "We believe this is the next best chapter in the evolution of our love." "We are incredibly grateful for the life-changing years we've spent together as husband and wife. We are also extremely thankful to God for the testimony being created inside us both and for blessing our lives with each other," the statement concluded. The news of their divorce comes as a shock to many because, in 2019, Good revealed that she and Franklin were ready to start a family. USPS can require Christian postal carrier to work on Sundays, appeals court rules A federal appeals court panel has ruled against a U.S. Postal Service employee who sought religious exemptions from working on Sundays because of his faith. A three-judge panel for the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Pennsylvania postal worker Gerald Groff in a decision released Wednesday. Groff, a former employee of the Quarryville Post Office in Lancaster County who opposed working on Sundays, argued that he could only avoid working on Sundays by switching shifts with other employees. Circuit Judge Patty Shwartz, an Obama appointee, wrote that if Groff were to receive exemptions from working on Sundays, the accommodations "would cause an undue hardship" for the postal service. "Exempting Groff from working on Sundays caused more than a de minimis cost on USPS because it actually imposed on his coworkers, disrupted the workplace and workflow, and diminished employee morale," the ruling reads. Although USPS doesn't typically deliver mail on Sundays, it will occasionally do so under "certain circumstances," such as priority mail or delivering Amazon packages. As a rural carrier associate, Groff had never been asked to work Sundays until the U.S. Postal Service expanded about four years after he started the job. The expansion involved employees working Sundays for Amazon package delivery in rural areas. Following the expansion, Groff was not in attendance for dozens of his work shifts that fell on Sundays. The only option Groff felt he had was to swap shifts with another employee. The USPS brass told Groff that due to the shortage of staff, it is bound by a collective bargaining agreement that mandated that a Sunday rotation be part of rural carrier associates' job requirements. For missing multiple shifts, Groff received disciplinary action. In response, Groff resigned from his job and filed his lawsuit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. In April 2021, U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Schmehl, an Obama appointee, dismissed Groff's case because the plaintiff failed to show that he was "treated differently with regards to Sundays because he was a Christian." Clinton appointee and Circuit Judge Julio Fuentes joined the Shwartz opinion. Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, a George W. Bush appointee, authored a partial dissent in which he wrote that "a conflict had to be totally eliminated to result in reasonable accommodation under Title VII." "Inconvenience to Groff's coworkers alone doesn't constitute undue hardship. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stayed Gerald Groff from the completion of his appointed rounds," Hardiman wrote. "But his sincerely held religious belief precluded him from working on Sundays. Because USPS has not yet shown that it could not accommodate Groff's Sabbatarian religious practice without its business suffering undue hardship, I respectfully dissent." Baker Botts attorney Christopher Tutunjian, who represented Groff, said in a statement that he was "pleased with the Third Circuit's unanimous holding that a 'reasonable accommodation' under Title VII must completely eliminate the work-religion conflict." "This holding correctly addresses a circuit-splitting issue and will protect the religious rights of employees throughout the Circuit," stated Tutunjian, as reported by Courthouse News Service. "However, as Judge Hardiman persuasively explained in his partial dissent, the majority's erroneous conclusion that USPS established undue hardship only underscores the need for the Supreme Court to address the continued vitality of the Court's decision in TWA v. Hardison. We are considering our options for further review." Uvalde shooter fired gun outside elementary school for 12 minutes prior to shooting: authorities Shots were reportedly fired at funeral home across the street Authorities say the Uvalde, Texas, shooter fired his gun outside Robb Elementary School for several minutes before going on a shooting rampage that ultimately left 21 dead, including 19 students. The gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, fired his gun outside the school for approximately 12 minutes before making his way onto school grounds, according to The Wall Street Journal. Victor Escalon with the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) said the shots were fired at a funeral home across the street from Robb Elementary. Ramos is then believed to have scaled a fence onto school grounds. Escalon couldn't explain why Ramos was not stopped from entering the school during that 12-minute window. "We got a crash and a man with a gun, and then you have responding officers. That's what it is, if that's 12 minutes," he said, according to NBC News. "At the end of the day, our job is to report the facts and have those answers. We're not there yet." The majority of shots fired by Ramos occurred in the first few minutes of the shooting, according to Escalon. Authorities laid out a timeline where Ramos first began his spree early Tuesday morning. He allegedly shot his grandmother in the face before taking her truck and driving to the school, located about 90 miles west of San Antonio. Ramos crashed the truck into a ditch near the school just before 11:30 a.m., according to Escalon. Despite an initial statement from DPS that Ramos was confronted by an armed school officer upon his arrival at the campus, Escalon told the Journal that information was inaccurate. "There was not an officer readily available and armed," Escalon was quoted as saying. Responding law enforcement officers later killed Ramos, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday. The shooting marks the deadliest school shooting in Texas history and the third-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, behind the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting and 2012 Sandy Hook shooting. Questions have been raised about whether responding law enforcement acted quickly after arriving on the scene. Escalon could not say whether officers quickly responded once they got to the scene. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw told reporters Wednesday that the shooter was at the school for up to an hour before law enforcement entered the classroom. "It's going to be within like 40 minutes, within an hour," McCraw said, according to NBC News. A Texas GOP congressman appeared to backpedal from statements he made Thursday night on Fox News. He said, "the shooter was arrested years ago, four years ago, for having this plan for basically saying, for saying, you know, when I'm a senior in 2022, I am going to shoot up a school." Rep. Tony Gonzales, R-Texas, whose district includes the town of Uvalde, published a statement on social media Friday stating that police "identified credible threats to a local school" and made arrests four years ago. He added that it is "unclear if the shooter was one of the two kids detained." "There are multiple agencies on the ground and I am getting updated information by the minute. We will continue to revise as we learn more," he wrote. "If this was not the shooter, we need to find out who these kids are, where they are now, and if they were classmates of the shooter," Gonzales added. "There is a clear need for mental health resources in our community." Officials have confirmed Ramos sent a private Facebook message indicating he was about to commit the shooting just moments prior, The Wall Street Journal reported. On Tuesday morning, Ramos reportedly sent a message to a "teenage girl overseas" saying, "I'm going to shoot my grandma" and "I shot my grandma," according to Abbott and an unidentified law enforcement official. The shooting has revived a national debate over the Second Amendment and has left behind a trail of shock and grief. A number of victims have been identified on social media: Xavier Lopez, 10; Amerie Jo Garza, 10; Uziyah Garcia, 8; Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10; teachers Eva Mireles, 44; and Irma Garcia, 46. Lisa Garza, 54, of Arlington, Texas, told The Associated Press that Xavier was her cousin and he loved life. "He was just a loving 10-year-old little boy, just enjoying life, not knowing that this tragedy was going to happen today," she said. "He was very bubbly, loved to dance with his brothers, his mom. This has just taken a toll on all of us." Academy Award-winning actor and Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey took tosocial media to share his heartbreak and called on Americans to "rearrange our values" in response. "Once again we have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us," the "Dallas Buyers Club" actor said. He urged Americans to ask themselves several questions and urged the country not to accept mass shootings as the norm. "What is it that we truly value? How do we repair the problem? What small sacrifices can we individually take today, to preserve a healthier and safer nation, state and neighborhood tomorrow?" he asked. "As Americans, Texans, mother and fathers, it's time we re-evaluate, and renegotiate our wants from our needs," the father of three continued. "We have to rearrange our values and find a common ground above this devastating American reality that has tragically become our children's issue." AOC criticized by non-Christians after blaming 'fundamentalist Christians' for abortion opposition Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's recent comments blaming "fundamentalist Christians" for the "theocratic" push against abortion and suggesting that Judaism is OK with abortion have drawn the ire of some non-Christians. In a lengthy Instagram post last Thursday, the progressive lawmaker from New York City criticized the argument of abortion opponents who believe that abortion is "harming a life." "Well, some religions don't [believe that]," she responded. "Our Jewish brothers and sisters, they are able to have an abortion according to their faith." "[T]here are so many faiths that do not have the same definition of life as fundamentalist Christians," she said, expressing concern about the ability of non-Christians to "exercise their faith." "It's ridiculous and it is theocratic, it's authoritarian, it is wrong," she declared. Terrisa Bukovinac, a pro-life atheist and the founder of the Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising, described Ocasio-Cortez's "claim that you have to be religious to oppose killing children in their earliest stages of life" as a "lie" being "perpetuated by the Abortion Industrial Complex since before Roe v. Wade." "You don't have to be religious to recognize that abortion is murder," Bukovinac said in a statement to The Christian Post. "Pro-life people are the ones working towards a separation of church and state," Bukovinac asserted. "We want the law to reflect the scientific reality that life begins at conception, not just whenever we believe life begins. The concept of a human non-person has been used exclusively to discriminate against whole groups of human beings and in the case of the unborn, that discrimination is lethal almost 100% of the time." The Daily Wire's Ben Shapiro, an Orthodox Jew and conservative political commentator, pushed back against Ocasio-Cortez's assertion that Judaism permits abortion. "Explain to me where in Jewish law abortion is widely permissible," he said on Monday's episode of "The Ben Shapiro Show." "I'm waiting to hear, rabbi." An amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court last year by the Jewish Pro-Life Foundation, the Coalition for Jewish Values and other Jewish organizations and rabbis contends that "Jewish law prohibits abortion and Judaism obligates us to protect innocent life in the womb." Ryan Jones, an editor for Israel Today who is Christian, wrote in an op-ed that Ocasio-Cortez's assertion about Judaism might seem "well-founded in light of how easily Israel approves the procedure." "But in reality it betrays an ignorance of Judaism's position on the subject," Jones wrote. "In broad strokes, Judaism views a fetus as living creature, but refrains from granting it the status of personhood. However, Judaism is largely noncommittal about the entire affair. And it certainly shouldn't be portrayed as pro-abortion or pro-choice." Protests have occurred nationwide in recent weeks following the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that indicates that the nation's high court could overturn the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Defending Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban, the law at the center of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Courtcase, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch argued in a brief that a human heart begins beating at five to six weeks gestation and that the baby begins to "move about" in the womb around eight weeks. "At 9 weeks, 'all basic physiological functions are present' as are teeth, eyes, and external genitalia," she wrote. Citing additional findings from the state legislature, Fitch said that "at 10 weeks, 'vital organs begin to function' and '[h]air, fingernails, and toenails begin to form,'" "at 11 weeks, an unborn human being's diaphragm is developing and 'he or she may even hiccup'" and that "at 12 weeks' gestation, he or she can 'open and close fingers,' 'starts to make sucking motions,' and 'senses stimulation from the world outside the womb." She also stated that 15 weeks into a pregnancy, an unborn baby "has taken on the human form in all relevant respects." Ocasio-Cortez used her Instagram video to announce her intention to spearhead a fundraiser for National Abortion Funds. She characterized the group as "a national network of several different individual abortion funds that help facilitate people being able to access ... their right to healthcare." She told pregnant women in states that have enacted abortion restrictions like Texas or Oklahoma that they are "welcome in New York." "We will do what we can to welcome you," she said. "We have taken actions on a state level, including opening up abortion funds to help people get the transportation needed to get here and I also know that there's just an enormous amount of organizing efforts that are launching for people to open up their homes to people who are seeking an abortion or needing that care." After detailing her experience with sexual assault, the member of Congress accused Republicans of "taking women's bodies" and "forcing their opinions, forcing their perspective on women's bodies without their consent." She believes Republicans are "violating not just women but trans people and non-binary people in this country." As she spoke, Ocasio-Cortez wore a shirt advocating for the abolition of the government agency tasked with removing undocumented immigrants from the U.S., reflecting the "Abolish ICE" movement embraced by the most progressive faction of the Democratic Party. The leaked initial draft opinion by Justice Samuel Alito in the Dobbs case, which is not final, proclaims that Roe was "egregiously wrong from the start" and "must be overruled." A final decision in the Dobbs case is expected by the end of June. Should the Supreme Court overturn Roe, the legality of abortion would be up to each state. While 21 states would either ban or severely restrict abortion in the absence of Roe, 16 states would continue to allow abortion throughout most or all of pregnancy. In 10 states, existing abortion restrictions would remain in effect. Voters in the remaining three states could decide the fate of abortion laws at the ballot box later this year. UNITED NATIONS, May 27 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday strongly condemned Wednesday's killing of some 50 people, reportedly by extremist armed groups, in Madjoari in the east of Burkina Faso, said his spokesman. The secretary-general expressed his condolences to the bereaved families and called on the Burkinabe authorities to spare no effort in identifying and swiftly bringing the perpetrators to justice, said Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman, in a statement. Guterres reaffirmed the commitment of the United Nations to continue supporting Burkina Faso in its efforts to counter and prevent terrorism and violent extremism and ensure the protection of civilians, said the statement. The despicable attack followed two similar incidents on May 14 and 19 in Madjoari, in which 17 civilians and 11 soldiers were killed, respectively, it noted. Benham brothers say predators needs Jesus, not more gun laws in wake of Texas shooting As the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left at least 21 people dead reignited a fierce political debate over gun-control Tuesday, conservative twin brothers David and Jason Benham said predatory young men who commit mass shootings need Jesus, not more "gun laws." Theres not enough gun laws on earth to turn a young man from a predator to a protector. But there is a King, whose name is Jesus that can step into the heart of a man and change him from the inside out, the Texas natives said in a now-viral statement shared on their Facebook page to their more than 130,000 followers Wednesday. Unfortunately, we dont want this King. Our nation glorifies everything that stands against King Jesus and His Kingdom fruit love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. As a result, were losing our young men and have lost the soul of our nation, they wrote. The comments from the brothers come after a lone 18-year-old gunman went on a shooting rampage in a single classroom at Robb Elementary School that left at least 19 children dead. The shooter has since been identified as Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School, who was shot and killed at the scene. He reportedly shot his grandmother prior to the attack at the school, which took place at about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. Democratic lawmakers have been publicly pushing for gun control legislation, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D., N.Y., has conceded that there is no current path forward for gun measures, the Journal reported Wednesday. Schumer accused his GOP colleagues of being beholden to pro-gun groups, which he said has prevented the Senate from reaching the 60 votes needed to pass proposed gun-control legislation. The Senate is evenly divided at 50-50. Its unacceptable that there are not 10 members of the Republican caucus willing to save lives, find a way to do it. And yet, thats where we are, Schumer argued. However, Sen. Ted Cruz, R., Texas, accused Democrats of politicizing the school shooting. You see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That doesnt work, Cruz said. He suggested that it would be better to prevent felons, fugitives and people with serious mental illness from buying guns, while some of his colleagues called for more armed guards at schools. The Benham brothers further asserted that America does not have a gun problem but a heart problem. The radical Left says its all about the guns but its the heart that holds the gun! A gun in the hand of a good man brings peace and protection, but a gun in the hand of a bad man brings pain and destruction. Our nation has a heart problem not a gun problem, they said. Exalt Jesus once again. Teach our young men to deny themselves, become men of God, and fight against evil instead of perpetrate it. Our boys need to be called up to something much higher than video games, binge shows, and porn! Theres so much more in Christ, they added. Lets do our part as we grieve with the families in TX today. Lets look at our own kids, our sphere of influence, our churches and schools and lets call these young men to lay down their lives, bow to Jesus, and pick up His cross and follow Him. Until then, this path of destruction will never stop. Florida suspends abortion clinic after 2 women hospitalized for botched abortions A prominent abortion clinic that has operated for decades in Florida has had its license suspended by state officials due to multiple hospitalizations tied to botched procedures. American Family Planning of Pensacola was suspended by the Agency for Health Care Administration, with the suspension taking effect on Saturday, according to The Associated Press. The Agency for Health Care Administration cited two incidents from earlier this year in which women who had abortions performed at the Pensacola clinic had to be hospitalized due to complications. In one of the incidents from this year, a woman was transported to a hospital due to hemorrhaging and low blood pressure and had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy. The suspension order said the abortion clinic failed to properly monitor the patients and did not provide medical records when the patients were transferred to other facilities, noted the AP. A third cited incident involved a woman who underwent an abortion at the clinic in August 2021, with the patient having to have parts of her colon removed as a result, according to the Pensacola News Journal. Reportedly the only abortion clinic in Pensacola and one of the few in the general area, American Family Planning has long been a focal point in the debate over abortion, as well as violence. In 1984, when the facility was known as the Ladies Center, it was bombed twice, first in June and then in late December after it had moved its practice to another location. On New Years Day 2012, 41-year-old resident Bobby Joe Rogers set the facility on fire, eventually being sentenced to 10 years in prison for arson and damaging a reproductive health facility. This defendant destroyed this clinic because of its lawful work in providing reproductive health services, said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, in a press release dated October 2012. Such violent extremism will not be tolerated. The Department of Justice will continue to vigorously prosecute interference with services provided by the health community. Last year, the clinic was the focal point of months of protests between activists, with local media interviewing a pro-life protester identified as David. We're here to offer them other hope besides murdering their child, whether it be adoption or medical attention that's provided to women for free, David told WEAR at the time. If I could adopt every child here, I would do it. In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill known as the Reducing Fetal and Infant Mortality Act, that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of gestation, which is scheduled to take effect on July 1. School district pays $225K to end atheist group's lawsuit over Bible class A school district in West Virginia has agreed to pay $225,000 in plaintiffs costs and attorney fees to end a lawsuit filed by an atheist group over once hosting an elective Bible class. Mercer County Schools agreed to the settlement with the Freedom From Religion Foundation last week, ending litigation that began in 2017 over its Bible in the Schools program. "We are pleased that this violation involving the illegal proselytizing of youngsters has come to a mutual resolution," said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president, as quoted by the Bluefield Daily Telegraph. "But it should not take a lawsuit and years of effort to stop blatantly unconstitutional school programs." The Christian Post reached out to Mercer County Schools for this story. The school district directed CP to a spokesperson who did not return comments by press time. Known as the Bible in the Schools program, the course was first offered at Bluefield High School in 1939 and then was added to other schools in the county as time passed. In January 2017, the FFRF filed a lawsuit against Mercer County for the Bible class on behalf of Elizabeth Deal, whose daughter had been reportedly ostracized for refusing to take the course. "This program advances and endorses one religion, improperly entangles public schools in religious affairs, and violates the personal consciences of nonreligious and non-Christian parents and students," read the lawsuit. "Forcing Jane Doe to choose between putting her child in a Bible study class or subjecting her child to the risk of ostracism by opting out of the program violates the rights of conscience of Jane and Jamie Doe and therefore their First Amendment rights." U. S. District Court Judge David A. Faber dismissed the lawsuit in November 2017, pointing out that the school was mulling possible revisions to the Bible course curriculum. "Indeed, whether or not this court were to undergo an (albeit incomplete) factual analysis of the past BITS program, defendants might remain capable of developing, adopting, and teaching a new BITS curriculum in conformity with Establishment Clause jurisprudence," ruled Faber. "As a result, the clouded future of BITS classes in Mercer County would hang over the heads of the Does regardless of the court's substantive review. Nevertheless ... if BITS returns and it is clear the new BITS program violates constitutional law, this district is more than capable of granting a preliminary injunction." Faber added that "Supreme Court jurisprudence has by no means established an absolute bar to the Bible being taught and studied in the public school system." In December 2018, however, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit overturned the earlier ruling and remanded the case back to the lower court. In sum, the County has not carried its burden of showing that subsequent events make it absolutely clear that the suspended version of the BITS program will not return in identical or materially indistinguishable form, ruled the panel. Appellants current claims are therefore not moot. Of course, this does not prevent the district court from addressing mootness in the future if presented with that issue. In January 2019, the Mercer Countys board of education passed a resolution that ended the Bible class program rather than simply make revisions. State Farm abandons support for LGBT book program targeting kids after whistleblower email release State Farm has withdrawn its support for a program that distributes LGBT-themed books to schools and libraries after a whistleblower leaked an email showing the company encouraged staff to donate books about gender identity to children as young as 5. The insurance company's Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President of Public Affairs, Victor Terry, announced the end of the collaboration with the organization behind the program, GenderCool Project, in a Monday email to staff obtained by the Twitter account Libs of TikTok. The GenderCool Project describes itself as a "youth-led movement" designed to highlight "transgender and non-binary youth who are thriving." BREAKING: @StateFarm sent out a mass email to their staff today stating we will no longer support that program after they were exposed for supporting a project to push LGBTQ books into schools. A source tells me the agents were really upset when we found out. W pic.twitter.com/55P1QJ0oLa Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) May 23, 2022 "State Farm's support of a philanthropic program, GenderCool Project, has been the subject of news and customer inquiries. This program that included books about gender identity was intended to promote inclusivity," the email reads. "We will no longer support that program." Terry also wrote that State Farm does not support mandating school curriculum on gender identity, stating that "[c]onversations about gender and identity should happen at home with parents." The chief diversity officer said that the company supports organizations that provide "resources for parents to have these conversations." State Farm confirmed in a Wednesday statement to The Christian Post that it's no longer affiliated with the organization, insisting again that the program was created to promote "inclusivity." "We will continue to explore how we can support our associates, as well as organizations that align with our commitment to diversity and inclusion, including the LGBTQ+ community," the company told CP. "We recognize and value the diversity of all people and support a culture of respect and inclusion in the communities in which we live and work, as well as our workplace." State Farm's announcement about the discontinuation of its partnership with The GenderCool Project followed the release of a Jan. 18 email leaked to the nonprofit organization Consumers' Research by concerned employees at the insurance company. Consumers' Research, an organization that educates people about policy issues and corporate activities, has launched the "Like a Creepy Neighbor" public awareness campaign in response to State Farm's partnership with the GenderCool Project. The title of the campaign is a play on the company's catchphrase, "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there." The leaked email was sent by Jose Soto, a corporate responsibility analyst for State Farm in Florida. It reveals that State Farm was "partnering with The GenderCool Project to help diversify classroom, community center and library bookshelves with a collection of books to help bring clarity and understanding to the national conversation about being transgender, inclusive and non-binary." ???? Emails leaked to @ConsumersFirst from concerned @StateFarm employees show the company engaged in the woke indoctrination of kids age 5+. State Farm partnered with The GenderCool Project which aims to have conversations with children about being Transgender and Non-Binary. pic.twitter.com/MYcZSW8Yp1 Will Hild (@WillHild) May 23, 2022 The collection of books created by The GenderCool Project that State Farm sought to distribute includes works titled, A Kids Book About Being Transgender, A Kids Book About Being Inclusive and A Kids Book About Being Non-Binary. The books are designed to help children 5 years old and older have "challenging, important, and empowering conversations about the toughest and most pressing topics we face today." "The project's goal is to increase representation of LGBTQ+ books and support our communities in having challenging, important and empowering conversations with children age 5+," Soto's email reads. "This is a fantastic way to give back and an easy project that will help support the LGBTQ+ community and to make the world around us better." The company reportedly intended to recruit six insurance agents to "[receive] these books in March, then [donate] them to their community by the end of April." While the email only referenced recruiting agents in Florida, it indicated that the program is not just a regional initiative. "Nationwide, approximately 550 State Farm agents and employees will have the opportunity to donate this three book bundle to their local teacher, community center, or library of their choice," Soto wrote. Hild told The Washington Examiner and other news organizations in a Zoom call that the program likely would not be allowed in Florida schools come July 1, when the Parental Rights in Education Bill takes effect. Critics of the bill, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis in March, have derided it as a "Don't Say Gay" bill that could stigmatize LGBT students. The legislation prohibits public schools and third parties from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity with students in kindergarten through third grade. "We would hope State Farm would ... cooperate with the governor's office or law enforcement in [Florida] and retrieve any of these books that may have been donated to public schools that by law now do not belong there," Hild said, adding that such discussions with children are inappropriate according to "any reasonable understanding." The issue of gender identity in schools has appeared in several learning institutions throughout the country in recent months. Earlier this month, Fairfax County Public School Board, which oversees the largest school district in Virginia, reviewed a student handbook that includes suspension as a potential punishment for students who "maliciously" misgender their trans-identifying peers. The proposed revisions to the district's Students' Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R) handbook indicates that students can face a five-day suspension for "malicious deadnaming," which is defined as "[w]hen someone, intentionally or not, refers to a person who is transgender or gender-expansive by a name other than their own chosen name." In April, two sets of parents of the Ludlow Public School District in Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against school officials at Baird Middle School in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts Springfield Division. The complaint maintains that the school officials reportedly encouraged their children to secretly adopt new gender identities without informing their parents. The lawsuit accused the school of having a "protocol and practice of concealing from parents information related to their children's gender identity." Our open border crisis Bidens border crisis is dangerous enough already, and it may soon get worse. But his Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, paints a rosier picture, We are preparing for the end of Title 42. We continue to enforce the laws of this country. Title 42 from the Trump era stipulates that until potential immigrants are tested and shown to not have the virus, they should remain in Mexico. Title 42 was scheduled to expire on May 23. The Center for Immigration Studies notes, Title 42 is the only thing standing between the current chaos at the Southwest border, and no border there at all. Biden has promised repeatedly to lift this provision, abandoning testing and opening the floodgates for illegal immigrants. But for now, his plan to abolish Title 42 has been blocked by a Trump-appointed judge. Meanwhile, Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., told Maria Bartiromo of Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures on Sunday that the border crisis is acute. Marshall has visited the border and wants the president to do the same. The senator said: Maria, this is a human tragedy here. At nighttime, it looks like a war zone. Theres a sea of humanitarian crises here every evening. And every day, its lived out as well. The numbers of illegal immigrants swarming in is staggering. Writing in the Washington Examiner, Paul Bedard observed: Last years 1.7 million border encounters is expected to reach 2.1 million, according to Princeton Policy Advisors, an economic analysis outfit that has correctly predicted recent border surges. The Constitution says it exists to insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty. Do open borders for any nation help achieve such lofty goals? On a recent radio segment, I spoke with former Congressman Allen West who has seen the border crisis firsthand more than 10 times. He told me: Government is supposed to protect people within [our national] borders. Thats their No. 1 duty and responsibility. If were not going to follow the rule of law, then what are we supposed to base the Constitutional republic on? He added: America is not just a piece of land in between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and Canada and Mexico. It is a sovereign nation, and it should be regarded and treated as such. How can a nation remain sovereign if it has no borders? Some open borders advocates imply that its the Christian thing to do to just let everyone in. Yet surely these same people lock their doors at night. Rev. Erwin Lutzer, the author of We Will Not Be Silenced, recently told our D. James Kennedy Ministries television audience: One of the big mistakes that Christians sometimes make is that they want to apply the ethics of the Church to the state. I heard a pastor saying I'm sure that he was compassionate and meant well when he said, Of course, we should invite people into America and basically have open borders because, after all, the Gospel is for everyone. Yes, of course, the Gospel is for everyone, but that's not the role of the state. The role of the state is to keep order, to punish crime and to keep its citizens safe. That's the role of the state. Lutzer added: It is important that the Church welcomes everyone. That's the ministry of the church, but that is not the ministry of the state. Meanwhile, critics of Bidens open border crisis note that known terrorists are sneaking into the country as more than 40 on the terrorist watch list were arrested at the border last year alone. Also, human trafficking is taking place, and drugs are pouring in in record numbers. In fact, Chinese-produced fentanyl and other drugs are being smuggled in through the southern border, and the results are making headlines. Earlier this year, The New York Timesreported, Drug overdoses now kill more than 100,000 Americans a year more than vehicle crash and gun deaths combined. Open borders cause this problem or at least greatly exacerbate it. Kerby Anderson, the host of the syndicated radio program Point of View recently told our D. James Kennedy Ministries television audience why he thinks the left pushes for open borders: I think the hope is that these might be future Democratic voters. And so what we'll do is we'll just kind of incrementally allow non-citizens to vote. Anderson points to the recent move by New York City to allow 800,000 noncitizens to vote as an example. Sen. Marshall, who said our border is like a war zone right now, noted that the public safety department of Texas is trying to hold the line: All of those people are doing their best, but theyre just simply overwhelmed. This is an unsustainable crisis. With your help, Israel will outlast these barbaric terrorist attacks While the world is focused on the devastating war and horrifying amount of civilian casualties in Ukraine, Hamas and other violent terrorists have seized the moment to inflict violent harm on innocent civilians in Israel in a new wave of terror. As Israelis go about our daily business, we are subjected to the most heinous acts of terror on a weekly, and often daily basis. Stabbings, car rammings, ax attacks, and shootings have become common this year, even killing innocent civilians during our Independence Day celebrations. Two weeks ago, 16 children went fatherless in just one day due to a barbaric terror bloodbath. As a Jewish man with my heritage tied to the Holy Land, 10 years ago, I joined like-minded individuals and families and immigrated to Israel. This beautiful country is extraordinarily appealing. Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East. It is a place where people of all races and creeds, if they choose to, can live together in harmony. It is a place with equal opportunity where anyone can accede to the highest levels of political and economic power, even serving in Parliament. These attacks are intended to disrupt the peace of a nation, terrorize the Jewish people, and return us to an era when we once again dont have a safe place to call home. There would be more breaking news of bloodshed if it werent for the many plots that are thwarted by highly trained and skilled police. Earlier this month, a stabbing was prevented near the Temple Mount. Yet my extended family and many of my friends here in Israel returned to the land of their ancestors for the same reasons I did. They all long to live in peace again. My own grandfather and his family lived through Kristallnacht in Germany, and when they fled they ended up in the U.K. My grandmother escaped from Poland and also ended up in the U.K. where she met and married my grandfather. Then at the age of 87, he made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) with my grandmother who was 75 at the time. They moved to Jerusalem after decades of longing to return home to Israel. My friend Karina and her grandfather Jacob have quite a story too. Jacob fled Europe before World War I, leaving his beloved chocolate factory behind. After a long and tumultuous journey, he ended up in Argentina quite by accident. He did what so many Jewish people have done and put down roots wherever he landed. Jacob instilled in his family a passion for both Israel and chocolate. His beloved granddaughter Karina proudly took the family legacy he left her and when she was able, followed her heart and moved from Argentina to Israel. In 2006, she opened De Karina boutique chocolate shop just 20 miles northeast of the holy sites around the Sea of Galilee. She is proud to walk in her grandfathers shoes. My friends and I all understand the history that has tied both our ancestors and ourselves to this Holy Land. We know the struggles we as a people have faced for millennia. And for all of us, the Holocaust, pogroms, perpetual war, and now weekly terror attacks don't accomplish what the wicked think they will accomplish. They only serve to make our bond stronger. They only give Israel a steely resolve never to give in, never to quit fighting for their right to live in peace. I ask the friends and allies I dont yet know who read these words to speak out against even a hint of anti-Semitic rhetoric or behavior whenever you encounter it. Let legislators know, wherever you may live, that Israel is a democracy and is a reliable ally in the quest for freedom from tyranny and oppression. Lets together stamp out bigotry against Jews and all minority groups on the neighborhood level before these dangerous ideologies fester and bloom into violence. I would ask you to let the world around you know that my friends and I, in the nation of Israel, are just like you we want to live in peace. We want to encourage tourism and pilgrimage to this beautiful Holy Land. We want to get our businesses up and running again and, like you, have the ability to put food on the table for our families. And at the very least, would you also please pray for peace? The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 122:6, Pray for peace in Jerusalem. May all who love this city prosper. History proves we can overcome violence and evil. Century after century, my ancestors have endured genocide and bigotry, and a miraculous remnant remains. And yet victory in the face of evil requires a concerted effort on everyones part to confront anti-Israel and pro-terror ideology wherever we find it. Just a few years ago, automation was looked upon as something mystical. Would it make half the workforce redundant, lead to mass unemployment and universal basic income? People wrote books about robot takeovers, and the media wrote articles with titles like "Will AI Replace [insert job function]?" Today, it seems like we have a more pragmatic view of automation. We no longer seem to be afraid of mass unemployment. On the contrary, labor shortage and Great Resignation waves are on everybody's lips. This gives automation an entirely new dimension as a technology that helps modern businesses stay afloat in a difficult talent economy. In addition to that, we seem to have realized that automation is not here to replace us. It's here to augment us, make us better at our jobs and help us get rid of tedious and mundane manual work. So, we get more time to be creative and strategic or even go home early to spend more time with our families. As a CEO of a SaaS business that provides automation, I've experienced this development. The market is more mature, the customers have more realistic expectations, and it also seems like the automation providers have a better understanding of what they need to offer. At least, we do. Nevertheless, some companies still have trouble navigating the automation market and understanding where to start or how to proceed with automating workflows. So, here comes my take on what you need to consider when automating your workflows. Related: 11 Ways to Automate Your Business and Boost Efficiency Begin with high frequency/low complexity tasks Not every part of a workflow can or should be automated. You should focus on the tasks you often do. It makes little sense to introduce scalability where there is no scale, so automating high frequency has the highest impact. And you should focus on relatively simple tasks. Things like data entry, data extraction, moving files between systems, generating stuff from templates, etc. Creative work and social interactions are still too complicated for machines, so there is no reason to focus on this right now. Get rid of the simple tasks first. Let's take a sales process as an example. One half of the sales process is creating a human connection and building trust. The other half is updating a CRM, generating proposals and contracts and notifying stakeholders simple manual tasks like that. Focus on the latter. Let humans focus on the job's social, creative and strategic aspects, and let machines take care of all the mundane busywork. Focus on the value not the technology AI is overrated ...That got your attention, right? Well, AI has a lot of use cases and might very well have a great future, but you shouldn't fixate on the technology when automating workflows. Focus on the value: Does the solution make you more efficient? Does it lead to more consistent results with fewer errors? Will it give you more time to pursue other tasks? In most cases, you don't need over-complicated AI solutions to do that for you. You can use simple automation systems based on deterministic logic to get rid of all your busywork. It might not be as appealing, and you might not be able to write a fancy press release about it, but it does the job. The fact is, most companies aren't even ready for AI yet, so let's get back to basics. Begin with the low-hanging fruits, and solve some problems with existing, proven technologies. Related: Automation Is Becoming a Business Imperative: Don't Wait Until It's Too Late Sort out your data One of the more overlooked aspects of automation is data. Your AI is feeding on data. Most deterministic logic-based automation tools use data. What prevents most companies from creating smooth automated workflows is that they haven't structured and harnessed their data. So, before you can get to the point of hyperautomation, where everything runs smoothly, and you are free to focus on what matters, you need to sort out your data. Use structured and data-rich formats, choose applications that integrate well, and focus on streamlining your dataflows, so that everything speaks together across the entire organization. Automation is key to getting through the current labor shortage challenges. It's an advantage that will give your business a competitive edge by making you more efficient. And getting rid of tedious manual work is crucial to ensuring happy employees in a modern workplace. This is how you get started! Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Delta Air Lines is taking proactive measures to improve reliability ahead of the busy summer travel season. On Thursday, Atlanta-based Delta announced it was reducing its flight schedule by about 100 daily departures from July 1 to August 7 to prevent summer travel disruptions. According to the airline, surging post-pandemic demand has forced the carrier to make these adjustments, saying it will "build additional resilience in our system and improve operational reliability for our customers and employees." Delta chief customer experience officer Allison Ausband explained a number of factors have resulted in Delta not consistently performing at its desired operational standard, including increased sick calls due to COVID, poor weather, and vendor staffing. Related: Major U.S. Airline Announces New Ticket Type With Added Perks "We deeply appreciate the energy and efforts of our people and the confidence of our customers as we adapt and pivot to ensure we provide the airline-of-choice experience we're so proud to be known for," she said. Delta said that it would be in contact with customers whose flights are affected by the summer changes. The decision comes as the company takes other measures ahead of the expectedly chaotic summer, including working with the Federal Aviation Administration to improve air traffic control, hiring hundreds of new crew members each month, and launching initiatives to better its on-time performance. Despite the mounting challenges, Delta is anticipating a busy Memorial Day weekend. According to the carrier, 2.5 million passengers will fly on its planes over the holiday, which is a 25% increase from 2021. Related: Passengers Furious After Southwest Airlines Leaves Thousands Stranded Delta is not the only airline struggling to meet summer demand. Carriers like Alaska Airlines and JetBlue Airways have also cut flight schedules this summer, with JetBlue nixing 8%-10% of its May flights, CNN reported. Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci apologized in a YouTube video on May 13 for the mass cancelations caused by the pilot shortage. In April, the carrier said it would reduce its schedule through June by 2% to "match our current pilot capacity," but Minicucci admitted in the video that the carrier was still 63 pilots short. To increase summer reliability, Alaska is hiring 150 new pilots, 200 more reservation agents, and 1,100 flight attendants. "This, along with the reductions we've made to our schedule, will ensure we run an operation that you can count on," Minicucci said. Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Though they are both global eCommerce companies that were founded in the 1990s and have names that begin with the letter A, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma Yun wants you to know that's all Alibaba and Amazon have in common. In a conversation at the World Economic Forum, the Alibaba founder and former executive chairman explained where he and Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos differ in their approaches to running their companies. He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that there is no one right business model for digital commerce - if that was the case, the world would be a boring place. But Mr. Ma said that no matter what model you follow, you should believe in the work you are doing. Related: By the Numbers: Amazon vs. Alibaba (Infographic) When asked about Amazon's apparent goal to own its entire supply chain, from servers to warehouses to delivery vehicles, Ma said that wasn't the path he saw for Alibaba. He said he viewed Amazon as an empire, and Alibaba as an ecosystem. "We want to empower others to sell, to service, to make sure that other people are more powerful than us," he said. "Making sure that with our technology and innovation, our partners and 10 billion small-business sellers, they can compete with Microsoft and IBM. ... We think, using our technology, we can make every company become Amazon." Keep scrolling to learn more about Jack Ma. Who Is Alibaba founder Jack Ma? In Jack Ma's youth, he studied the English language, and after failing the entrance exam to the Hangzhou Teachers College, now called Hangzhou Normal University, twice, he was eventually admitted and graduated from the school, per Britannica. After struggling to find work, he found himself working on behalf of the Chinese government in the United States. With the rise of the internet, Ma saw a void in the market for resources about China and created the China Pages. After building websites for several Chinese companies, he eventually went off on his own to create his e-commerce website Alibaba. His Alibaba stock broke records in 2014 with his IPO selling for $25 billion, which is still the largest global IPO ever to date. In 2016, author Duncan Clark released his book Alibaba: The House That Jack Ma Built, unpacking his career and his brand's global impact. What Is Jack Ma's Net Worth? Alibaba's Jack Ma not only made waves in the media for his advancements in digital commerce, but for the riches his hard work brought him. In 2014 his net worth was estimated to be a whopping 21.8 billion, according to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the richest man in China at the time. Despite stepping down as executive chairman in September 2019, per Forbes, and handing the reins to CEO Daniel Zhang, his fortune only continued to grow. In 2021 he had an estimated net worth of $48.4 billion, ranking in 26th place in the "2021 Forbes Global Rich List," however, his net worth has continued to fluctuate, and as of May 2022, his fortune is estimated to be $23.6 billion. Despite the slight drop in his value, he's still one of the top five richest people in China, behind Ma Huateng, founder of tech giant Tencent. Asides from his work in tech, he also founded the Jack Ma Foundation in 2014, and he has a stake in the Chinese media company Huayi Brothers. In addition to his work on Alibaba Group Holding, he also founded Ant Financial, now known as Ant Group or AliPay, a division of Alibaba Group that owns the largest digital payment platform in China. In October 2020, the company was set to raise the world's largest IPO, but according to the Wall Street Journal, the Chinese Communist Party leader President Xi Jinping put a halt to the transaction after Ma's criticism of Chinese regulators at the annual People's Bank of China financial markets forum. According to the outlet, the company was set to be transformed into a financial holdings company, overseen by the Chinese government. Where Is Jack Ma? After Chinese authorities stepped in to regulate Ant Financial, the Financial Times reported that Ma hadn't been seen in the public view since. Following fears of forced disappearance, he made his first public appearance since the dispute in January 2021 during a video call for a charity event. He has reportedly been seen a handful of times thereafter. He most recently made headlines after selling his shares of the digital payment system Paytm E-commerce, the parent company of Paytm Mall, a retail platform. Copyright 2022 Entrepreneur.com Inc., All rights reserved Kelly Presnell/AP TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) A federal judge has rejected a request by Native American tribes to stop Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals Inc. from preparing a planned new Arizona copper mine's site in the Santa Rita Mountains near Tucson. U.S. District Judge James Soto refused to issue a temporary restraining order and dismissed the lawsuit filed by the Tohono O'odham, Pasqua Yaqui and Hopi tribes and the group Save the Scenic Santa Ritas, the Arizona Daily Star reported. ADDIS ABABA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia repatriated about 28,000 undocumented nationals from Saudi Arabia in the past two months, the government has said. The repatriated nationals were in difficult conditions, stranded across mainly prisons and detention centers in the Gulf nation, state-affiliated Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC) quoted foreign ministry officials as saying late Thursday. State Minister of Foreign Affairs Birtukan Ayano said the 28,000 nationals were repatriated as part of the government's ongoing efforts to repatriate about 100,000 undocumented nationals from Saudi Arabia in seven to 11 months. The government has arranged nine weekly flights from Saudi Arabia to Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, since March 30 as part of its renewed operation to bring back citizens from the Gulf nation, according to the foreign ministry. Ethiopia has established nine centers in Addis Ababa to accommodate the large number of returnees. According to the Ethiopian foreign ministry, more than 750,000 Ethiopians are living in Saudi Arabia, 450,000 of them without proper documents. Estimates suggest that thousands of Ethiopians are trafficked to the Arabian Peninsula via Djibouti and war-torn Yemen every year, risking imprisonment and killings along the way. In recent months, Ethiopia has stepped up efforts to take back its citizens stranded overseas, mainly Saudi Arabia, as part of the government's "citizen-centered diplomacy." The government is also working to dismantle sophisticated human trafficking networks and create economic opportunities for nationals with low incomes. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DJIBO, Burkina Faso (AP) African leaders gathered for a summit Friday in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, to address growing humanitarian needs on the continent, which is also facing increased violent extremism, climate change challenges and a run of military coups. Leaders called for increased mobilization to resolve a humanitarian crisis that has left millions displaced and more than 280 million suffering from malnourishment. For people in Djibo, a town in northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, any help cant come soon enough. The city in the Sahel region -- the large expanse below the Sahara Desert -- has been besieged since February by jihadis who prevent people and goods from moving in or out and cut water supplies. Few truckers want to run the jihadist gauntlet. Residents are suffering with no food or water, animals are dying and the price of grain has spiked. The goods are not arriving anymore here. Animal and agricultural production is not possible because the people cannot go back to their villages, U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator Barbara Manzi told The Associated Press from Djibo this week. Unless (a solution) is found, its going to be really a tragedy for the entire group of people that are here. Djibo has been at the epicenter of the violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that has killed thousands and displaced nearly 2 million people. While Djibo and Soum province where the town is located experienced periods of calm, such as during a makeshift ceasefire between jihadis and the government surrounding the 2020 presidential election, the truce didnt last. Since November, insecurity in the region has increased. Jihadis have destroyed water infrastructure in the town and lined much of Djibos perimeter with explosives, blockading the city, say locals. The towns population has swollen from 60,000 to 300,000 over the last few years as people flee the countryside to escape the violence. Blockading cities is a tactic used by jihadis to assert dominance and could also be an attempt to get Burkina Fasos new military junta, which seized power in January, to backtrack on promises to eliminate the jihadis, said Laith Alkhouri, CEO of Intelonyx Intelligence Advisory, a group that provides intelligence analysis. Militants resort to blockading when they see an opportunity to gain incentives in negotiating with the government and simultaneously send a message to their base that they are in control. Its a bargaining card and a winning one, he said. A U.N. team flew in briefly to assess the situation. The AP was the first foreign media to visit the town in more than a year. Today there is nothing to buy here. Even if you have cash, there is nothing to buy. We came here with four donkeys and goats and some of them died because of hunger. We were forced to sell the rest of the animals and unfortunately prices of animals have decreased, said cattle owner Mamoudou Oumarou. The 53-year-old father of 13 fled his village in February and said the blockade in Djibo has prevented people from coming to the market to buy and sell cattle, decreasing demand and lowering prices for the animals by half. Before the violence, Djibo had one of the biggest and most vital cattle markets in the Sahel and was a bustling economic hub. Some 600 trucks used to enter Djibo monthly, now its less than 70, said Alpha Ousmane Dao, director of Seracom, a local aid group in Djibo. Burkina Faso is facing its worst hunger crisis in six years, more than 630,000 people are on the brink of starvation, according to the UN. As a result of Djibos blockade, the World Food Program has been unable to deliver food to the town since December and stocks are running out, said Antoine Renard, country director for the World Food Program in Burkina Faso. Efforts to end the blockade through dialogue have had mixed results. At the end of April, the emir of Djibo met with Burkina Fasos top jihadist, Jafar Dicko, to negotiate lifting the siege. However, little progress has been made since then. Locals say the jihadis have eased restrictions in some areas allowing freer movement, but that the army is now preventing people from bringing food out of Djibo to the surrounding villages for fear it will go to the jihadis. The army denied the allegations. Meanwhile residents in Djibo say theyre risking their lives just trying to survive. Dadou Sadou searches for wood and water in the middle of the night outside of Djibo, when she says the jihadis are not around. We no longer have animals, we dont have food to buy in the market If you have children, you dont have a choice, she said. I did not follow the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard it followed me. A few weeks ago, images from the courtroom began to saturate my social media feeds. Platforms that fed me soothing cake decoration tutorials and Sopranos-themed therapy memes now served up regular dispatches from the proceedings, all filtered through the glorification of Depp and mockery of Heard. Heard blows her nose during her testimony, and a TikTok appears accusing her of snorting cocaine on the stand. Depp adjusts a phone cord near Camille Vasquez, his attorney, and the gesture is replayed in slow motion and exalted as a chivalrous deed. Heards attorneys introduce a series of violent text messages between the couple, and a TikToker films herself absorbing Depps words with panting, orgiastic reverence. Depp is suing Heard, arguing that she defamed him in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed where she called herself a public figure representing domestic violence; she is countersuing, arguing that he defamed her when his lawyer accused her of perpetrating an abuse hoax. Many of the trials central incidents were previously aired in court in 2020, when Depp sued the British tabloid The Sun for calling him a wife beater. He lost that case, with the judge ruling that Heards abuse claims were substantially true. But I didnt hear about any of that, because that trial was not broadcast live and replicated obsessively across the internet. In the 1990s, the O.J. Simpson murder trial ushered in a new era of 24-hour tabloid news, in which celebrity worship and domestic violence were fused into an unceasing national spectacle. Judge Lance Ito later defended his decision to allow that trial to be televised. If you take the cameras out of the courtroom, then you hide, I think, a certain measure of truth from the public, Ito said. A journalist reporting on the trial, he added, might unconsciously skew its events through the filtering effect of that persons own biases. Nearly three decades later, as the Depp-Heard trial makes clear, a cameras presence in a courtroom is an invitation for the proceedings to be deliberately, even gleefully tailored to a viewers whim. Platforms like TikTok and YouTube are practically built to manipulate raw visual materials in the service of a personality cult, harassment campaign or branding opportunity. CRAIG HUDSON/AP You might expect a defamation trial pitting one movie star against another to unleash a fire hose of debased memes in both directions, but thats not whats happening here. The online commentary about the trial quickly advanced from a he-said she-said drama script to an internet-wide smear campaign against Heard. As one of Hollywoods most legendary heartthrobs, Depp enjoys a large and besotted fan base. But his campaign has since attracted the support of mens rights activists, right-wing media figures, #BoycottDisney campaigners eager to capitalize off Depps status as a fallen Disney franchise star, sex abuse conspiracists, armchair true-crime detectives, anyone wary of the mainstream media and plenty of opportunists eager to draft off the trial traffic. Seemingly harmless YouTube channels and TikTok accounts dedicated to legal commentary or body-language analysis have pivoted to pro-Depp content en masse. A husband-and-wife team of personal injury lawyers now spends its days posting trial-themed dance breaks and humoring Depp fans; a TikToker who previously ranted almost exclusively about anime has racked up millions of views with videos of fake Heard text messages he splashes over a looming Disney logo. TikTok is a bandwagon platform that rewards users for jumping unthinkingly on ascendant trends, so figures as innocuous as Lance Bass and the Duolingo owl mascot have thought it wise to contribute their own Heard mockery to the platform. If youre following the trial on social media, youre unlikely to encounter Heards defense at all. Importantly, there is not just one camera in the Virginia courtroom. The pool camera system, which is operated by Court TV, films the proceedings from multiple angles, which continually shift to provide simultaneous shots of the witness stand and the judge, or the defendants and the gallery, which is packed with Depp supporters who have lined up overnight to secure seats. The sheer amount of material recorded each day enables viewers to examine every inch of the courtroom with a conspiratorial zeal, as empty gestures and meaningless asides are whipped into dubious case clues, spliced into humiliating Heard reaction GIFs or leveraged to build a charmingly unbothered bad-boy court presence for Depp. (He doodles in court! He cant remember the names of his own movies!) Exhibits supporting Heards claims like a video she recorded of Depp pouring himself a gigantic cup of wine and violently smashing glasses in their kitchen one morning are stripped of evidentiary value and bandied about as memes. Each day of the trial begins with Depp fans convening online and joking about downing their breakfast megapints of wine. Viewers assess both Depp and Heards court appearances as studied performances, but it is as if they have been cast in separate genres, with Depp playing the suave comedy hero and Heard pegged as the histrionic villain from an 80s erotic thriller. YouTube thumbnails freeze their visages into masks of comedy and tragedy he is perpetually smirking, she is permanently aggrieved. (Except when she smiles, in which case her expression is proffered as evidence of her calculated heartlessness.) The cartoonish construction of the double standard (animated hearts for Depp, devil horns for Heard) is the point many TikToks are soundtracked with the circuslike theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm, trapping Heard in the role of sad clown. CRAIG HUDSON/AP Anyone else who appears in court risks being lifted into an internet folk hero or smeared as a liar. Heards attorney Elaine Charlson Bredehoft is branded a Karen (once a term for a racist white woman, it has since been flattened into an all-purpose misogynistic slur) and conspiratorially constructed as an undercover Depp fan, while Vasquez is cast as a Depp love interest, hailed as an internet sensation for her intimate interactions with her client. Seemingly every woman tangentially involved in the case has been imbued with imagined Depp-lust. Dr. Shannon Curry, an expert witness called by Depps team, has been celebrated for exchanging glances with Depp on the stand; even Currys husband, who she mentioned once delivered muffins to her office, has been inflated into a treasured fan fiction character referred to as the muffin man. Meanwhile, Depp supporters have harassed two of Heards expert witnesses off the medical professional site WebMD, flooding their profiles with one-star reviews. The internet livestreaming of the trial has created its own virtual sport. Each day hundreds of thousands of viewers congregate on YouTube livestreams, like the one hosted by the Law & Crime Network, and type comments into a racing sidebar chat. Some pay as much as $400 to have their comments highlighted and pinned to the top of the chat the more you pay, the longer your commentary lords over the proceedings. During Wednesdays stream, one participant paid to say that Heard has a nesting snake on her head; another promoted his YouTube novelty song about Heards legal team. The immediacy of the livestream and its commentary gives viewers the illusion that they can somehow influence the outcome of the case; someone is always pleading for an internet artifact to be forwarded to Camille, as if obsessive fan attention alone might crack the case. This week, Depps team called a witness who surfaced after he posted a tweet in response to a pro-Depp Twitter accounts coverage of the trial. Even if they cannot influence the trial itself, viewers can shape public opinion in real time. Once a fan fiction scenario gains enough momentum to achieve escape velocity, it is elevated into mainstream tabloids, which are rife with reports of Depps courtroom flirtations and epic witness-stand one-liners. Once gossip journalists had to craft celebrity story lines themselves, but now the narratives are lifted straight from social media and enshrined as Hollywood canon. Gossip sites are regurgitating banal celebrity internet activity as heartwarming Depp content: Jennifer Aniston followed Johnny Depp on Instagram as a subtle sign of support, the magazine claimed, and Depp followed Aniston back as a sweet gesture. But when Julia Fox supported Heard on Instagram, she soon became the focus of articles about how she was hypocritical and downright stupid. When a celebrity does not provide such dubious material, it may simply be invented: recently a YouTuber edited and dubbed trial footage to make it seem as if Heards Aquaman co-star, Jason Momoa, has appeared on the stand to fawn over Depps lawyer. Its tempting to ignore all of this to refuse to feed the machine with even more attention. But like Gamergate, which took an obscure gaming-community controversy and inflated it into an internet-wide anti-feminist harassment campaign and a broader right-wing movement, this nihilistic circus is a potentially radicalizing event. When the trial ends this week, the elaborate grassroots campaign to smear a woman will remain, now with a plugged-in support base and a field-tested harassment playbook. All it needs is a new target. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Three years ago, I visited the island of San Giorgio Maggiore, in Venice, to see the 16th-century church of the same name, designed by Andrea Palladio. This was during the Venice Biennale, so the church was also hosting an exhibition called "Human" by the Irish-born American abstract artist Sean Scully. I was both intrigued and annoyed by the show; intrigued because I had never seen so many works by Scully in one place before, and annoyed because the installation seemed to compete with the church itself. A giant tower of colorful panels rose up below the central dome, and in other spaces, Scully's watery brush work seemed to dissolve the church itself, flooding it in the ubiquitous water of Venice's canals and lagoon. The show also included touching figurative sketches, which is rare for Scully. He is a thoroughly well-branded artist, and his work is most often encountered in museums singularly, one large painting in a gallery of other abstract works, suggesting a gorgeous carpet of color, like an enticing decorative object. Now there is an opportunity to see the full scope of Scully's career in a generous and comprehensive survey of his painting since he emerged as a young partisan for abstraction in London in the early 1970s. "Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas" opened in April at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, with more than 100 works, including some of his most monumental paintings, along with drawings, woodcuts, etchings and aquatints. It is a seductive show, and may convert skeptics, especially those who feel Scully has been too settled for too long in his personal comfort zone of big, brick-like grids of bold color. Scully was born in Ireland in 1945, and emerged on the scene as abstraction - especially large, heroic, painterly abstraction - was largely in retreat. His early work was inspired, in part, by a visit to Morocco, where he encountered a rich legacy of textile works. It was there that he began considering an idea that has preoccupied him ever since: how geometry can inspire and suppress order and chaos. Among the earliest works on view in the Philadelphia exhibition (first seen in a slightly smaller version at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth) is Scully's 1972 "Harvard Frame Painting," in which sacking and fabric are woven on a frame into an irregular grid of overlapping and woven bands. Despite its title, "Frame Painting" is essentially sculptural, existing in a narrow plane of three-dimensional space. It also raises the central issues of abstraction that Scully would explore in his first decades: How strict a grid? How clean the lines? How to control the tension between surface and depth? Should all this be austere or sensuous? His early responses lived in the world of mod fashion colors and the computer fetish of the 1970s and '80s. He must have depleted a few warehouses full of masking tape to keep all his lines digitally crisp and sharply edged. Works like "Overlay #11" from 1974 are typical: Line for line, the grid is strict, but the use of different colors and densities, and the subtle overlapping of lines, creates multiple grids within the grids, rhythmic patterns that strike the eye like a fusion of Philip Glass and Mondrian. Later, the masking tape comes off, the edges become free-form and the paintings go from digital to analogue. The grids are looser and the paint, applied wet on wet, suggests yet more ideas about depth, layers within layers on the surface, through which you sense an "other side" to the two-dimensional canvas or panel. As soon as you can see through a painting, it also begins to suggest architecture, a sense of space in front and behind, and the possibility of passing through. The architectural presence of Scully's work is furthered by the scale of his largest paintings, the brick-like patterning of many works, and the physical cobbling together of multiple panels, including insets and overlaid pieces. One begins to think in terms of doors, hatches, coffers and windows, and yet there is often a sense of impenetrability, as if the walls suggest the possibility of passage yet limit egress. These walls can feel like a terminus, defining the impassable limits of a prisonlike space. Scully has certainly limited his concerns to a very small subset of abstraction. The larger field includes a host of ideas that continue to animate other abstract painters: Is there a focus to the image or are its events evenly distributed? Does the painting suggest mathematical or biomorphic ideas? Is it mapping another reality or avoiding any sense of reality at all? For the past 50 years, Scully has resided in the small but fertile province of the grid, rotating the crops of his color fields to avoid depleting the soil. Curiously, he reminds me a bit of Romantic English landscape artist John Constable: infinitely inspired by what is near to hand, deeply at home, keenly alert, as only a provincial can be, to the nuances of the space he inhabits. Scully finds analogues in his home place for larger themes from art history, so in his 2015 "Doric Blue and Blue," the grid resolves into the pure brushstroke, the squarish daub of Cezanne. In the four panels of the 2000 "Land Sea Sky" and other more recent works, Rothko is summoned. In yet other images, the grid becomes mere substrate for cultivating Barnett Newman's "zips," now laid out horizontally for better yield. Perhaps the most touching works in the Philadelphia show are those that suggest the longer arc of Scully's career, from purity to messiness, rigidity to freedom, self-containment to self-expression. The 2002 "Mooseurach," named after a Bavarian town where Scully maintains a studio, has bits of red or salmon and blue and green peaking through the interstitial spaces of his darker, more somber-colored bricks. These hints of color suggest light and fire, sky and sunset, cold and heat, while also giving us a sense of the depth of color underneath the color. The particular presence of the brown or tan or white we see on a densely painted canvas is determined not just by the pigment or the light in the room, but by the colors beneath the surface color. So these glimpses of color are both metaphors for things in life and small indexical signs of how Scully creates those illusions. They are fantasy and process at the same time. They also are worlds away from the strict, surface patterns of the artist's early work, as if he has found freedom or release from the grid space he laid out a half-century ago. One thinks of Richard II's speech in prison, as he tries to hammer out an imaginary world from his confinement. Like Richard, Scully has begot "a generation of still-breeding thoughts,/ And these same thoughts people this little world." That's an impressive accomplishment for any artist: to escape their comfort zone without ever leaving it. The Philadelphia survey takes us along for that ride, and it's a moving journey. - - - "Sean Scully: The Shape of Ideas" Through July 31 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. philamuseum.org. It's official: Houston native Evelyn Garcia is in the "Top Chef" finale. As we've discussed before, she's been a strong contender throughout the season and, even if we weren't biased as Houstonians, it's clear that she's always been a favorite to win. The "Top Chef: Houston" finale will air next Thursday, June 2. In the meantime, here's whyobjectively speakingwe think Garcia should, and will, win the whole thing. 1. She won this week's Elimination challenge. Let's start with the obvious. In the last round, there was a lot of competition from Buddha Lo, Garcia's perpetual main challenger, and Last Kitchen comeback queen Sarah Welch. But Garcia powered through it to ultimately win the challenge with her take on a chile relleno with nopal cactus and her judge-favorite dessert. 2. She impressed a local legend. The "Top Chef" finale is being held in Tucson. The first of two episodes in Arizona welcomed guest judge Carlotta Flores, chef-owner of El Charro, the country's oldest Mexican restaurant. In the Quickfire challenge, Flores loved Garcia's dish, which she said convinced her to cook more with grits. In the next round, when discussing Garcia's dessert, Flores said: "It had so many layers of goodness, you should be very proud of that one." 3. She has a winning personality. On top of her cooking chops, Garcia has delighted viewers with her wholesome, endearing personalitybut she's also fiery and determined when she needs to be. In episode 13, host Padma Lakshmi comments that the contestant has a big smile on her face when she comes to the judges' table to present her dishes. Garcia responds: "I'm always happy, I'm cooking." 4. She had the best dessert of the night. Contestants on "Top Chef" sometimes excel at savory dishes but fall flat on their face when it comes to anything baked or sweet. But Garcia can do it all: Her sour orange and sweet lime curd dessert with meringue, prickly pear granita, basil flowers and quince tossed in chile piquin sugar was dubbed best dessert of the night by Lakshmi. 5. She cooks from the heart, and with a mission. Guest judge Maria Mazon, a contestant on "Top Chef: Portland" and a Tucson native, left some kind words for Garcia during the last round. "Evelyn did something that I've been doing my whole career as a Mexican chef, trying to showcase that Mexican cuisine is elegant," she said. When it came time to announce Garcia was the winner of that round, the judges said she cooked dishes that had a lot of story, heart and creativity. In conclusion... We've made our case, now it's up to the "Top Chef" gods to deliver justice. At the end of episode 13, Garcia left us with her reaction from going to the finale: "This win is definitely not just for me, it's for my family, it's for all the Mexican Americans out there." This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Take a gander at the real estate listing supplements that often come with your newspaper, and youll find no shortage of city, suburban, beach and mountain Shangri-Las. One recent edition of View, a publication of Coldwell Banker Realty, touted, in no particular order: a backyard oasis in northern New Jersey, an elegant sunlit Tudor and a stunningly luxurious French Provincial with breathtaking panoramic views in Watchung, New Jersey. Then there was the 7,700-square-foot stately manor in Mendham, New Jersey, nestled on 6 acres (though one might ask how a 7,700-square-foot house can nestle). The people tasked with writing such descriptions generally, the listing agents for the properties have a tricky assignment. In a paragraph, maybe a few sentences, they need to convey the ineffable appeal of the home while also addressing practical matters, like the size of the lot, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the special features pool, terrace, doorman, whatever that the discriminating buyer couldnt possibly live without. They say a picture is worth a thousand words; one video or virtual tour may be worth several thousand more. But actual words still carry weight, and some choice nouns and adjectives can spark the interest of a prospective buyer, according to industry professionals. The things that people tend to forget is that advertising has only one goal in the real estate industry: get the person to go look at the property, said Frederick Peters, the president of the real estate firm Coldwell Banker Warburg, part of Coldwell Banker Realty. Accomplishing that goal is a huge communication challenge, said Allen Adamson, a marketing consultant. The trick is to go beyond the facts about the house and to make an emotional connection with the consumers. That might be done by identifying one core theme country living close by or antidote to civilization and then adding some rational support like recently renovated to make buyers know the house wont be a money pit, he said. If its all evocative, consumers will tune out, Adamson continued. Some detail helps, he added, but the more you try to tell them everything, the less theyll hear anything. Putting the best possible face on a property requires finesse. But its not always clear what listing agents are getting at. Were here to explain. The Real Estate Translation Guide Description: Interesting design Translation: This house is odd. Description: Cozy Translation: Small and dark. Description: Room to grow Translation: See: cozy. Description: Natural beauty Translation: Its not landscaped. Description: Good bones Translation: Its a wreck. Get out your checkbook. Description: Loads of original details Translation: Its a wreck. Get out your checkbook. Description: Right on the water Translation: Right in a flood zone. Description: Walk to the beach Translation: Lace up your sneakers and pack a lunch. Description: Create your dream house Translation: Its a teardown. Description: For the discerning buyer Translation: See: interesting design Description: Be the first to see this Translation: You can be sure the listing agent has already shown it to many others, said Diane Saatchi, an associate broker in the East Hampton, New York, office of the real estate firm Saunders & Associates. Description: Priced to sell Translation: Shouldnt all properties be priced to sell? Saatchi asked. Description: Price reduced Translation: The previous price was too high. Description: Price upon request Translation: Its overpriced, Saatchi said. Description: Like new Translation: The house could be 3 years old. Or 30 years old. Description: Close to transportation Translation: Inquire further. The house could overlook the railroad tracks. ______ Too often, ads are written to gratify sellers rather than bring in buyers, according to Saatchi. They want you to say everything about their property including that the pavers are 2 years old, she explained. Or there will be things like Relax by the pool, which sounds stupid, she said, adding: Are you going to tell buyers what to do in the bathroom? Peters is amused by new construction developments in which you have the brand of every appliance and the name of the marble in the bathroom, he said. For Gods sake, who cares about the source of the marble? I think its done to convey luxury. Judy Szablak, an associate broker at Coldwell Banker Realty in Westport, Connecticut, feels differently. Some buyers may not know what Carrara marble is, but theyd rather read Carrara marble than just plain marble, she said. Absolutely, I think that flowery language is valuable, maybe not with all buyers but with what I think of as expressive buyers. A particular descriptive phrase can help them identify with a property, see it and put an offer in. Unsurprisingly, the coronavirus pandemic has reshaped the content and language of some ads. Retreat, secure and private are frequently deployed. Highlighting features like the home office, tech infrastructure and internet speed, particularly in rural environments, is now incredibly important if prospective buyers have a hybrid work arrangement, said Brad Nelson, the chief marketing officer for Sothebys International Realty. Further, Nelson said, what might have been billed before the pandemic as a nanny suite might now be more flexibly labeled a secondary principal bedroom, i.e. accommodations for quarantining friends or family. Its the same feature but youre describing it in a different way now. To make sure listings are boiled down to their essence, Sothebys International recently imposed a 350-character count on property descriptions in the advertising supplements. This way, Nelson said, agents are forced to focus on the most important feature that will capture a buyers attention. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. BERLIN (AP) Two climbers were killed Friday and nine others injured by falling blocks of ice in the Alps in southern Switzerland, police said. Police in Valais canton (state) were alerted shortly after 6 a.m. to the emergency in the Grand-Combin massif. Seven rescue helicopters were dispatched. LONDON, Ky. (AP) Three correctional officers at a federal prison in eastern Kentucky have been indicted on charges alleging civil rights violations, officials said. A federal grand jury in London returned an indictment Thursday charging the officers at U.S. Penitentiary Big Sandy in Inez with violating an individuals rights under the color of law and of falsifying records to impede an investigation, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Carlton S. Shier IV. JERUSALEM (AP) The Al Jazeera news network says it will submit a case file to the International Criminal Court on the killing of reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead earlier this month during an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank. The Qatar-based network and the Palestinian Authority have accused Israeli soldiers of deliberately killing her. Israel rejects those allegations as a blatant lie." It says she was shot during a firefight between soldiers and Palestinian militants, and that only ballistic analysis of the bullet which is held by the PA can determine who fired the fatal shot. An AP reconstruction lent support to witnesses who say the veteran Palestinian-American correspondent was killed by Israeli fire, but any final conclusion may depend on evidence that has not yet been released. Al Jazeera said late Thursday it has formed an international legal team to prepare a case dossier to be submitted to the ICC. The court launched an investigation into possible Israeli war crimes last year. Israel is not a member of the ICC and has rejected the probe as being biased against it. Al Jazeera said the case file would also include the Israeli bombing of the building housing its offices in Gaza City during last year's war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, as well as the continuous incitements and attacks on its journalists operating in the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel said the building which also housed the Gaza office of The Associated Press contained Hamas military infrastructure, but has not provided any evidence. The AP was not aware of any purported Hamas presence in the building and condemned the strike as shocking and horrifying. No one was hurt in the strike, which came after an Israeli warning to evacuate. The Network vows to follow every path to achieve justice for Shireen, and ensure those responsible for her killing are brought to justice and held accountable in all international justice and legal platforms and courts, Al Jazeera said. Israel says it cannot determine whether Palestinian militants or its own soldiers fired the fatal shot unless the PA hands over the bullet that killed Abu Akleh for ballistic analysis. The PA has refused to cooperate with Israel in any way, saying it doesn't trust Israel to investigate itself. The PA announced the results of its own probe on Thursday, saying Abu Akleh was deliberately killed by Israeli forces and that there were no militants in the area. Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz rejected the findings, saying any claim that the IDF intentionally harms journalists or uninvolved civilians is a blatant lie, referring to the Israeli military. Palestinian Attorney General Akram Al Khateeb, in announcing the results of the probe, said the bullet that killed her was an armor-piercing 5.56 mm NATO round and that it appeared to have been fired by a Ruger Mini-14 semiautomatic rifle. The Israeli military declined to comment on whether the gun described by the Palestinians matches one the military has previously identified as having possibly fired the fatal shot. It also declined to say whether the army uses the Ruger Mini-14 or whether any were in use during the May 11 raid in which Abu Akleh was killed, in the West Bank town of Jenin. Israel has publicly called for a joint investigation with the PA, with the participation of the U.S. The State Department said this week that neither Israel nor the PA have formally requested its assistance. Each side is in sole possession of potentially crucial evidence, and neither is likely to accept any conclusions reached by the other. ___ Associated Press writer Aya Batrawy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. Houston Ship Channel launches $1B expansion project The dredging work will last from now until the end of 2025. The best Amazon one-piece swimsuits & bikinis From a tummy-control black one-piece to a floral bikini, here are the top picks. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) A 13-year-old arrested for having a loaded gun at a South Carolina mall apparently sneaked a second loaded weapon into the facility where he was taken, authorities said. A Columbia Police Department spokesperson called the incident an egregious failure on many levels, WLTX-TV reported. It started Tuesday when the boy and a relative were arrested for having guns at Columbiana Centre Mall. Police said officers did an initial search of the boy and confiscated a loaded, 9mm handgun but they missed another gun he was hiding. Department of Juvenile Justice Director Eden Hendrick told the television station that when the teen was transferred to their custody hours later, he was patted down, showered and dressed in facility clothes but the second weapon went undetected. It was not until the next day that the second weapon was discovered and later recovered by facility staff, Hendrick said. In a statement to WLTX, Columbia Police called the lack of a thorough search by officers unacceptable and a risk to public safety. The department says the arresting officers who missed the gun have been put on administrative duty pending completion of training programs. This incident represents an egregious failure on many levels, including a violation of policy and procedure, the police department said in a statement. This lack of a thorough search is unacceptable and risked public and officer safety. Hendrick also said the Department of Juvenile Justice will revamp its intake process and all staff will be retrained on intake, search, and other safety procedures. She added that employees involved in the initial search have been suspended. In addition to the teen, police also arrested LaKenyatta Moore-Rhodes, 40. Police said that after reviewing surveillance video, investigators discovered Moore-Rhodes initially had the gun and gave it to the teen. Police charged the teenager with unlawful gun possession by a minor, unlawful carrying of a gun and pointing and presenting a gun, The State reported. Moore-Rhodes was charged with unlawful carrying, pointing and presenting a gun and contributing to the delinquency of a minor, the newspaper reported. It was unknown if either of the suspects has an attorney who could comment for them. MANILA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines will no longer require a pre-departure COVID-19 test from May 30 for inbound travelers who have got a booster jab as part of the government's measures to revive the pandemic-hit economy. Tourism Secretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat said the new rule to ease further the travel requirements is to encourage more tourists to visit the country and "make it more convenient for tourists." "All types of vaccination certificates, regardless of country of origin, will also be accepted," she said. "The Department of Tourism (DOT) sees this development as a win for the local tourism industry as welcoming more tourists in the country will yield more revenues for our small businesses and restore more jobs and livelihoods in the sector," she added. Puyat said travel insurance "is no longer required but still highly encouraged for arriving passengers." She noted over 500,000 foreign tourists visited the country from Feb. 10 when the government allowed foreign travelers to enter. The United States, South Korea and Canada are among the top foreign tourist markets during this period. "The government is looking forward to an uptick in tourist arrivals in the coming weeks following the further easing of entry requirements into the country," Puyat said. The Philippines barred the entry of foreign visitors when it imposed a lockdown in March 2020 amid the fast-spreading COVID-19 virus. The Southeast Asian country now has over 3.68 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, including more than 60,000 deaths. NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) The biggest convoy of aid since Ethiopias government declared a unilateral humanitarian cease-fire in the countrys long-encircled Tigray region two months ago has departed for Tigray, a U.N. official told The Associated Press, as the conflict gripping Africas second most populous nation continued to ease. A convoy of 215 trucks of food aid left the capital of the neighboring Afar region on Friday and is due to arrive in the Tigray capital on Saturday. An AP witness observed many of the trucks lining the road outside Semera on Thursday as they waited for clearance to leave. But aid workers say much more is needed. The U.N. World Food Program estimates that 500 trucks a week are required to feed the 5.2 million people in Tigray who need food, medicine and other humanitarian assistance but have been largely denied it for almost a year. Ethiopias government in March declared the humanitarian cease-fire to allow aid to reach Tigray, whose leaders have been engaged in a war against federal forces and their allies since November 2020, with thousands of people killed. In response, the Tigray forces said they would observe a cessation of hostilities. Initially, aid was slow to arrive, with a handful of trucks reaching Tigray in the first weeks of the truce, prompting the Tigray side to accuse the government of reneging. But the number of aid trucks has increased sharply since the Tigray forces announced their withdrawal from parts of Afar in late April. Humanitarian workers say federal authorities have now eased restrictions previously imposed on aid to the region. Tigray has been largely cut off from the world since Tigray forces recaptured the regional capital, Mekele, in June 2021, a situation the European Unions humanitarian chief likened to a siege. The United States has warned that 700,000 people in Tigray could face famine because of restrictions on aid. A survey by Tigrays regional health bureau recently found that at least 1,900 children under age 5 died from malnutrition between June last year and April 1. Tigrays banking services, road links and telecommunications remain down. But for humanitarian aid, the only delivery issues that remain are operational ones including the number of trucks available and how quickly partners can organize aid, the U.N. official said on condition of anonymity because the person wasnt authorized to speak to the media. However, the official said four trucks carrying high-energy biscuits were recently turned back by customs officials, who claimed the biscuits could be used to feed Tigray forces. DOVER, Del. (AP) House leaders in Delaware on Friday chastised a fellow Democrat who suggested in an online discussion that those who dont support mask wearing amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases but do support gun rights should kill themselves with their guns. House leaders gave no indication, however, that they want to pursue formal disciplinary action against Rep. John Kowalko. Kowalko made the comment in a post following the Texas school shooting but later deleted his Facebook comments and apologized. Kowalko, a Newark Democrat who once described himself as your textbook liberal, progressive Dem, made the offensive comment earlier this week in an online back-and-forth with a conservative commenter over whether people should wear masks. Kowalko, who has a history of making inflammatory statements, later posted the apology for remarks that question the sincerity and intentions of those individuals who feel that their personal rights are being abrogated or threatened. House Speaker Pete Schwartzkopf, Majority Leader Valerie Longhurst and Majority Whip Larry Mitchell said in a joint statement released Friday that Kowalkos comments were offensive and indefensible. We understand the circumstances surrounding his remarks were tense the ongoing issue of people arguing against wearing masks to protect against COVID, and questions about gun rights but intimating violence and self-harm against another person is not conduct that should be tolerated, the statement read. Were grateful he deleted the comments and apologized, but this behavior should not be normalized, the statement added. Lastly, suicide is something we take very seriously and should never be encouraged, even in a joking manner. Kowalkos online comments were directed at Chris Rowe, who resigned as chairman of the New Castle County Republican Party in 2020 after using a derogatory term for homosexuals in a Facebook post. In 2020, Kowalko drew fire for a profane email targeting lawmakers and others who supported minimum wage legislation that would allow employers to pay a lower wage to new hires and to young people. At a local school board meeting in 2015, Kowalko referred to state education officials and to then-Gov. Jack Markell, the nations only Jewish governor at the time, by what is widely considered to be an anti-Semitic slur. Kowalko apologized in both those instances. Kowalko has been a state representative since 2006. Now 76, he announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election. MYRTLE CREEK, Ore. (AP) A Douglas County Sheriff's Office deputy shot and killed a man south of Roseburg on Wednesday, Oregon State Police said. Deputies went to a residence in Myrtle Creek at about 8 a.m. Wednesday to investigate a domestic violence complaint, The World reported. Spencer Heckathorne, 60, had fled but probable cause was established for his arrest for alleged menacing and recklessly endangering, police said. Deputies and Myrtle Creek Police officers located him in a vehicle on a road near his house and he rammed two deputy vehicles and crashed into a ditch, according to police. Heckathorne exited the vehicle, remained uncooperative and was shot once after he engaged a uniformed deputy, police said. No further explanation was given and the deputy's name wasn't made public. He died at the scene, police said. State police Major Crimes detectives from Springfield and Roseburg responded to help the Douglas County Major Crimes Team investigate the incident. The Douglas County Major Crimes team is comprised of members from the Roseburg Police Department, Douglas County Sheriffs Office, the Douglas County District Attorneys Office and the Oregon State Police. Additional details about the investigation will be made available through the Douglas County District Attorneys Office, police said. Electric truck maker Rivian plans to install electric vehicle charging stations at 15 state parks in Michigan, right in the backyard of its closest competitors. The decision to install EV chargers at popular outdoor destinations in Michigan, such as state parks, where EV charging infrastructure has been absent will help Rivian move into the pickup truck and SUV segment that's dominated by gas-powered vehicles from Ford Motor Co., General Motors and Ram. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer celebrated the first of many charging stations opening at state parks on Thursday. Rivian installed its first charger at Holland State Park in Ottawa County and promised more to come, according to a press release issued Thursday by the governor's office. "This partnership to install charging stations in our state parks speaks to the collaborative approach we are taking to grow our economy and address climate change head-on through clean, reliable energy," Whitmer said in the release. The public charging stations in state parks come through an operating agreement with the Adopt a Charger program and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources at no cost to taxpayers, according to the release. The nonprofit Adopt a Charger is providing technical support and sponsorship of the Rivian charging stations at state parks. ITC, which works on electrical transmission systems, paid for two years of electricity at the charging stations while Consumers Energy paid for upgrades to the electric grid at each park, according to the release. "Our state parks charging program is how we come together with our partners to offer a solution to EV-charging gaps," Chris Nevers, senior director of public policy at Rivian, said in the release. "Were making this investment because we believe that exploring the natural world should be possible without contributing to local air pollution, climate change or damaging the environment." An estimated total of 30 chargers are scheduled to be installed at 15 parks from now through the end of 2022, according to the release. The rollout of the chargers across the state is being done in phases. Parks in the Upper Peninsula are scheduled to be part of the second phase, targeted to take place next year. Additionally, the units are compatible with most electric vehicles beyond just Rivian models. Michigan state parks receiving Rivian charging stations this year along the Lake Michigan shore include: Warren Dunes in Berrien County. Holland and Grand Haven in Ottawa County. P.J. Hoffmaster in Muskegon County. Charles Mears in Oceana County. Ludington in Mason County. Orchard Beach in Manistee County. Leelanau in Leelanau County. Young in Charlevoix County. Petoskey, Wilderness and Oden State Fish Hatchery in Emmet County. Interlochen in Grand Traverse County. Palms Book in Schoolcraft County. Fayette in Delta County. "This project will not only benefit Michigan in the near term but will also pay dividends far into the future as we move toward a sustainable energy future," DNR Director Dan Eichinger said in the release. BALTIMORE (AP) The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has awarded $175,000 in grants to community organizations from a fund established to make reparations for systemic racism and slavery. The diocese announced Thursday that six organizations doing the work of restoring African American and Black communities were selected to receive funds through the inaugural reparations grant process, news outlets reported. YUCCA VALLEY, Calif. (AP) Firefighters have stopped the spread of a wildfire in the Southern California desert. The Elk Fire scorched about 250 acres (101 hectares) near Yucca Valley before its forward movement was halted Thursday night, the San Bernardino County Fire Protection District said. At one point 10 homes were threatened but none were lost. Yucca Valley is about 100 miles (161 kilometers) east of Los Angeles. Elsewhere, California entered the Memorial Day weekend free of red flag warnings and the triple-digit heat that baked the Central Valley earlier in the week. A cooling trend in Northern California was expected to include a slight chance of showers in the Sierra Nevada and parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. Forecasts called for wind advisories to be in effect along the northeastern border with Nevada and in the Mojave Desert on Saturday. Parts of California will likely see a return of fire weather concerns early next week, the weather service said. WASHINGTON (AP) A former U.S. Army reservist described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer was convicted Friday of storming the U.S. Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying President Joe Bidens 2020 electoral victory. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked a security contractor at a Navy base when he joined the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, was also convicted of disorderly conduct and other misdemeanors. Hale-Cussanelli took the stand in his defense and claimed he didn't know that Congress met at the Capitol building. I know this sounds idiotic, but Im from New Jersey, Hale-Cusanelli said, according to WUSA-TV. In all my studies, I didnt know there was an actual building that was called the Capitol. Its embarrassing and idiotic. Hale-Cusanellis trial was the fifth before a jury and the seventh overall for a Capitol riot case. The first four juries unanimously convicted the riot defendants of all charges. Roughly 300 others have pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the riot, including seditious conspiracy and assault. Prosecutors said Hale-Cusanelli openly espoused white supremacist and antisemitic ideology and wore an Adolf Hitler-style mustache to work. On his cellphone, investigators found photos of him with the distinctive mustache and combed-over hairstyle associated with the Nazi leader. Hale-Cusanelli had a secret security clearance for his job as a security contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, New Jersey. He also lived on the base with a roommate who reported him to the Naval Criminal Investigation Service and secretly recorded a conversion about the Capitol riot. During the trial's opening statements Tuesday, a Justice Department prosecutor said Hale-Cusanelli stormed the Capitol because he wanted to kick off a civil war and create a clean slate." Defense attorney Jonathan Crisp told jurors that groupthink and a desperate desire to be heard drove Hale-Cusanelli to follow a mob into the Capitol. Crisp described Hale-Cusanelli as a bombastic agitator prone to making extreme statements to get attention. In pretrial court filings, prosecutors framed Hale-Cusanelli's bigoted, antisemitic views as motivating factors for his participation in the Jan. 6 riot and his desire for a civil war. One Navy seaman said Hale-Cusanelli told him he would kill all the Jews and eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and he wouldnt need to season them because the salt from their tears would make it flavorful enough, according to prosecutors. Other coworkers recalled Hale-Cusanelli making derogatory remarks about women, Black people and other minorities, prosecutors said. Before the trial, Crisp argued that any testimony about Hale-Cusanellis alleged statements about Jewish people and their role in the U.S. government would be highly prejudicial in nature without substantive value. Crisp acknowledged Hale-Cusanelli shouldnt have entered the Capitol building. But the question of why he was there is what is important, he told jurors Tuesday. Hale-Cusanelli wasn't charged with engaging in any violence or property destruction. He was indicted on five counts: obstruction of an official proceeding, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or destructive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. The obstruction charge is a felony. The rest are misdemeanors. Crisp said Hale-Cusanelli believed then-President Donald Trumps false claims about a stolen election. But the defense attorney said Hale-Cusanelli went to Washington to peacefully protest, wearing a suit while many others wore tactical gear. A video captured Hale-Cusanelli yelling profanities at police officers and screaming, The revolution will be televised! This was not a peaceful protest, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn Fifield said. More than 800 people have been charged with Capitol crimes stemming from the riot. Many of then are military veterans. Hale-Cusanelli is among a few defendants who were on active duty on Jan. 6. U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who presided over Hale-Cusanellis trial, decided two other Capitol riot cases after hearing testimony without a jury. McFadden acquitted one of the defendants of all charges and partially acquitted the other after bench trials. Hale-Cusanelli was arrested less than two weeks after the attack and has remained jailed since February 2021. He was discharged from the U.S. Army Reserves and barred from the Navy base after his arrest. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California man pleaded guilty Friday to plotting to blow up the state Democratic Partys headquarters in what prosecutors said was the first in a planned series of politically-motivated attacks after the defeat of former President Donald Trump. Ian Benjamin Rogers, 46, of Napa, pleaded guilty to conspiring to destroy a building by fire or explosives, possessing an explosive device and possessing a machine gun under a plea agreement that could bring him seven to nine years in federal prison. U.S. prosecutors in San Francisco charged Rogers and Jarrod Copeland with conspiring to attack targets they associated with Democrats after Trump's defeat in the November 2020 presidential election. The pair hoped their attacks would prompt a movement, prosecutors said when they announced the charges in July. Copeland, 38, previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy and destruction of records. I want to blow up a democrat building bad, Rogers wrote in one of the messaging apps he used to communicate with Copeland, according to the indictment. In a different message he said that after Democratic President Joe Biden was inaugurated, we go to war. Their first planned target was the John L. Burton Democratic Headquarters in Sacramento, prosecutors said. Law enforcement officers who searched Rogerss home in January 2021 seized nearly 50 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and five pipe bombs, prosecutors said. He was taken into custody then on state charges after the FBI said he sent text messages that agents perceived as threats against the unoccupied Governors Mansion and social media companies Facebook and Twitter. Under a universal agreement, the federal sentence will be served concurrently with a 10- to 12-year state sentence on similar Napa County charges of possessing fully automatic weapons and explosive devices, said Rogers' attorney, Colin Cooper. Rogers has never been in trouble before, Cooper said. Hes accepted responsibility and he is desirous of paying his debt to society and resuming a life of productivity, of being a good father and good husband and a good family man with an 11-year-old son, Cooper said. He feels awful about what happened and what hes done to his family, and hes a guy I think well never see again in the (criminal justice) system. Rogers remains in custody awaiting his sentencing, set for Sept. 30. SAO PAULO (AP) Brazils airport authority Infraero said Friday it has notified the Federal Police over an apparent hack into electronic displays at an airport in Rio de Janeiro. Instead of advertisements and flight information, travelers were shown pornographic movies. Video clips on social media showed travelers in the Santos Dumont airport laughing at the displays, hiding them from their kids or just stunned. ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced vetoes of 18 bills Friday, including a measure that would have allowed voters who forget to sign their mail-in ballot envelope to do so after mailing it to get it counted. The Republican governor also vetoed a bill that would have allowed union dues to be tax deductible, as well as a bill that would have stayed eviction proceedings against tenants who could show they are awaiting a determination about rental assistance. The Maryland General Assembly, which has a supermajority of Democrats, won't have the chance to override these vetoes when they convene in January for their regular 90-day session, because it is the last year of the term. On the ballot bill, Hogan said the measure did not address election security concerns as more people in Maryland are voting by mail. While this legislation allows a voter to provide a missing signature by one of several ways including in person, mail, email and text it remains silent on basic security measures such as signature verification with Maryland being one of only nine states that does not conduct signature verification and does nothing to address ballot collection, Hogan wrote in his veto letter. Del. Marc Korman, a Montgomery County Democrat, criticized the governor's veto. He said Hogan was putting national political ambitions ahead of legislation that Hogan described in his veto letter as including some positive changes, including early canvassing of ballots. The governor noted that early canvassing of absentee ballots would allow hard working election officials to get a much needed head start on the deluge of ballot envelopes that, under current law, must wait until after Election Day for processing." Wow, if you want to see some real Repub presidential politics at work, the Guv vetoed a bill he says has positive changes to State election law because it did not also address other election matters, Korman wrote on Twitter. Hogan has not ruled out a 2024 presidential bid. The governor also said allowing union dues to be tax deductible promoted an unfair advantage to unions and activists. By using the tax code to confer political power to unions, it creates a political advantage not only to the unions but also to the political parties and candidates supported by them, Hogan wrote. The term-limited governor also vetoed two measures relating to evictions, including a bill to require a landlord to comply with a countys licensing regulations before filing for repossession of a property. The other stayed eviction proceedings for tenants awaiting a determination about rental assistance. Maryland already has some of the strongest tenant protection laws in the nation and these bills impose additional burdens on small property owners who are already struggling to stay in business," Hogan said. A measure that creates requirements related to virtual education for public schools also was vetoed by the governor. Giving the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) discretion to shut down underperforming schools as currently drafted in this bill gives too much influence to political whims, instead of putting learning at the forefront, Hogan said. Hogan also vetoed a bill that aims to ensure the state's transportation planning is more equitable. The governor said the regulatory landscape could change later in the year, with new federal guidance and regulations. Adopting new state requirements as the federal requirements are being updated will result in conflicts, inconsistencies, or other unintended consequences, Hogan wrote. Bills that would have required Senate approval to appoint the executive director of the Governor's Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victim Services, and a bill to create a professional qualification requirement for the state health secretary also were rejected by the governor. Senate Bill 819 and House Bill 287 create a dangerous precedent and significantly undermine the voters and the Maryland Constitution, which entrusts the executive branch with making appointments to critical government roles," Hogan wrote. Separately, the governor said 294 additional measures will take effect without his signature. Commentary: Washington pitches Indo-Pacific Strategy in vain attempt to reshape Asia Xinhua) 11:30, May 27, 2022 BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden, in a belated and hasty manner, has concluded his first trip to Asia since taking office, seeking in vain to rope regional countries into Washington's anti-China agenda. During his five-day journey to Asia, Biden pitched his Indo-Pacific Strategy and the so-called Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF), in an attempt to create small cliques and turn Asia into a geopolitical arena for containing China. But behind all that sugarcoating, Washington's ulterior motives can fool nobody. In fact, a Cold War mentality is in the DNA of the warlike United States, which is in the habit of stoking divisions and confrontations, eclipsing its rivals in that regard and raking in profits. As a long-established global superpower that continues to manipulate global issues and meddle in regional affairs, the United States has to face squarely, albeit unwillingly, its fading clout. With compounding woes at home, it can no longer spare enough time to play "cop of the world" like before, nor retain its economic hegemony. That is why the IPEF may end up another hollow promise in Washington's stockpile of lies. There is no real beef in the framework, which is neither complete nor clear at the macro level to outline an integrated regional economic order, and is more symbolic than it is effective. A Bloomberg report said that many officials in Asia do not understand the IPEF, with some even asking "what is it that we want to join?" The Associated Press commented that the framework lacks practical elements such as market access, and its true appeal is in question. The deal is in essence a "blueprint" for creating another exclusive U.S.-led economic bloc to isolate and counter China, and again by means of forcing regional countries to take sides and disrupting the regular regional economic order. Such attempts were further exposed when Biden chose a Samsung Electronics Co. semiconductor plant as his first destination in South Korea. The trip was undertaken as "the U.S. seeks to strengthen supply chains and reboot its own manufacturing amid competition with China," according to the Wall Street Journal. As the world economy is sailing through rough seas, Washington's attempt to deliberately create economic decoupling, technological blockades, and industrial chain disruptions will aggravate the supply chain crisis, damage the regional cooperation structure and strain regional integration. This anachronistic move can fool no sober minds. When Biden arrived in Japan on Sunday, about 750 protesters took to the streets against the planned U.S.-Japan summit and the summit of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). Takakage Fujita, director-general of a civil group dedicated to upholding and developing the Murayama Statement, told Xinhua that the United States "cooked up the IPEF to use Japan and ASEAN countries for the benefit of its own." It is also worth noting that Biden was the only one of the four leaders who mentioned "China" during the Second In-Person Quad Leaders' Summit on Tuesday. It not only laid bare Washington's devious plans to counter China militarily through the geopolitical bloc of Quad, but also indicated that each country in the region has its own worries and is hesitant to get on Washington's anti-China chariot. A few years ago, Washington waged a trade war on Beijing, sending shockwaves across the world. Most recently, following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the U.S.-led NATO has kept on fanning the flames, which has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis, heightened international security concerns and jolted the global market. However, a self-serving Washington remains on the wrong track. It continues to peddle a so-called "deterrence" and "containment" policy, seeking to manipulate Asia-Pacific countries as pawns to retain its hegemony and to build an Asian-Pacific version of NATO. Its divisive attempt is doomed here in Asia, an inclusive region which embraces globalization and free trade, and a region that has created a world-inspiring "Asia-Pacific miracle." Bloc politics can never engage Asian countries in any frameworks, but win-win cooperation can. Peace and prosperity in the Asia-Pacific are not only important for the region, but also for the world. Washington should quit inventing pretexts to destabilize other regions, and focus instead on solving its own crises and engaging in equal-footed, inclusive cooperation that delivers concrete results. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Photo taken on May 28, 2022 shows an oxygen producing plant in Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. An oxygen producing plant has been built in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province to overcome the shortage of essential gas in hospitals, the state-run news agency Bakhtar reported Friday.(Photo by Mehrabuddin Ibrahimi/Xinhua) KABUL, May 27 (Xinhua) -- An oxygen producing plant has been built in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province to overcome the shortage of essential gas in hospitals, the state-run news agency Bakhtar reported Friday. Constructed at a cost of 120,000 U.S. dollars, the plant with a capacity of filling 60 cylinders of oxygen gas within 24 hours was given to provincial health authorities on Thursday, the news agency reported. The oxygen shortage would be solved in all hospitals of Baghlan province with the inauguration of the oxygen plant in the province, according to the news agency. The shortage of oxygen in some Afghan hospitals had led to death of COVID-19 affected persons in 2020-21 when the contagious disease was in its peak in Afghanistan. The Afghan government has already built oxygen-producing plants in some provinces including Kabul, Herat and Nimroz to overcome the oxygen shortage in hospitals. Photo taken on May 28, 2022 shows an oxygen producing plant in Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. An oxygen producing plant has been built in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province to overcome the shortage of essential gas in hospitals, the state-run news agency Bakhtar reported Friday.(Photo by Mehrabuddin Ibrahimi/Xinhua) Photo taken on May 28, 2022 shows an oxygen producing plant in Baghlan Province, Afghanistan. An oxygen producing plant has been built in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan province to overcome the shortage of essential gas in hospitals, the state-run news agency Bakhtar reported Friday.(Photo by Mehrabuddin Ibrahimi/Xinhua) When the United States military calls on its members to serve, people will answer no matter how many times they've already served. Stephen Young, the director of Huron County Veterans Affairs, has been called to active military duty with the Michigan Army National Guard. Young anticipates that he will be activated on or around July 1, and stay on active duty until approximately September 2023. He was informed of this late last year. Its just a normal Department of Defense rotation, Young described it. Young has been part of the Michigan Army National Guard since 1992 and has been called to service on three previous instances. The first was right after 9/11 and he was deployed to the Detroit Airport for six months, the second was from 2008-09 when he was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, and the third was from 2011-12 when he was deployed to Afghanistan. While Young did not exactly say where he will be deployed to, he will be part of Operation Inherent Resolve, which is the U.S. militarys name for its operation against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Syria and Iraq. For National Guard units that get activated to go on rotation, there are one to two months of training and evaluation to make sure they are good to go, approximately nine months doing their mission, then about a month where the soldiers return to the states to go through the demobilization process. Its normally a 12-month rotation, nine with boots on the ground and three months for pre-mobilizing and post-mobilizing, Young said. Young has been part of the Veterans Affairs office since he was hired as a casual employee in 2007, becoming director in 2009. We do anything and everything, Young said. So when veterans come in, we talk to them and determine what kind of benefits they are eligible for. Some services the Veterans Affairs office takes care of include: Helping file disability claims. Helping with non-service connected pensions. Making sure surviving spouses and dependents receive benefits they are eligible for. Administering Huron County burial funds. Being the local agent for the Michigan Veterans Trust Fund. In Youngs place, the Huron County Veterans Council voted that Aaron LaPonsie, another department employee, will serve as acting director of the Huron County Veteran Affairs. Even with me deployed, the office will still be running as normal, Young said. Upon completion of his service, Young will return to the director position. BOISE, Idaho (AP) A woman charged in Idaho with killing her two youngest children and her new husbands previous wife will be tried alongside her husband and their trial has been delayed until early next year because the judge says that will give her lawyers enough time to effectively prepare a defense. Judge Steven Boyce on Thursday ruled that delaying Lori Vallow Daybells trial another 90 days to Jan. 9 would not violate her rights for a speedy trial. Vallow and her husband Chad Daybell have pleaded not guilty and could face the death penalty if they are convicted. The Daybells are charged with murder, conspiracy and grand theft in connection with the deaths of 7-year-old Joshua JJ Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan. Idaho law enforcement began investigating the Daybells in November 2019 after extended family members reported the children were missing. While the children were missing, police said the couple lied about the childrens whereabouts. Their bodies were found buried later on Chad Daybells property in rural Idaho. Chad and Lori Daybell married just two weeks after his previous wife, Tammy Daybell, died unexpectedly. Tammy Daybells death was initially reported as natural causes, but investigators had her body exhumed after growing suspicious when Chad Daybell quickly remarried. Lori Vallow Daybell is also charged with conspiracy to commit murder in Arizona in connection with the death of her previous husband. Charles Vallow was shot and killed by Lori Daybells brother, Alex Cox, who claimed it was self-defense. Cox later died of what police said was natural causes. Vallow in April entered a not guilty plea and invoked her right to a speedy trial, which legally needed to take place by October. That complicated plans for a combined trial for her and her husband. On May 19, prosecutors asked that Vallows trial be postponed until Jan. 9. Prosecutors expressed concern that if Vallow was separately in October that an improper severance would happen with the couples cases. Boyce also expressed concern whether Vallows recently appointed attorneys had enough time to prepare for the trial and said the 90-day delay would give them more. He noted that prosecutors have worked on the case since 2020. ST. LOUIS (AP) A federal judge has ordered St. Louis County to pay $300,000 to two people who sued after police barged into their home six years ago with guns drawn and without a warrant. A final judgment in the case was entered Thursday against the county, ordering it to pay Jon Luer and Andrea Steinebach for damages stemming from the home intrusion, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri said in a news release. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) A federal court panel on Friday ordered Ohio to hold an Aug. 2 primary using the third set of Statehouse maps approved by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, despite a rebuke of the plan by the state's high court. The court acted after giving Ohio a Saturday deadline to come up with a new map for legislative districts, a divided three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio said in its ruling. That deadline will be missed, as the GOP-controlled commission did not schedule any meetings. We recognized from the outset that choosing a remedy would be challenging, Circuit Judge Amul Thapar said in the 2-1 majority opinion. And between the standoff among state officials and the delay in getting the case, our options were limited, Thapar wrote. So we chose the best of our bad options. The federal court's decision came in a lawsuit brought by a group of Republican voters that initially sought to salvage legislative primaries scheduled for May 3 by using the commission's third set of district lines, which also was found unconstitutional. Friday's ruling was a victory for that GOP group, as well as for the Republican-dominated redistricting commission, which passed five straight sets of legislative maps that couldn't meet constitutional muster. A directive to the state's 88 elections board regarding the primary will be sent Saturday, said Rob Nichols, spokesperson for Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose, the state's elections chief and a member of the redistricting commission. Federal Judge Algenon Marbley dissented in Friday's ruling, pointing out that the state Supreme Court reiterated this week that the third map remains unconstitutional. The best option remained the map drawn by two experts, one selected by Republicans, one by Democrats, Marbley said. The two men Douglas Johnson, president of National Demographics Corporation, and Michael McDonald, a University of Florida political science professor were nearly finished when the commission suddenly set aside their work and passed a different map. The two had been paid $450 an hour for the previous four days to draw new maps in work viewed step-by-step online. Ohios map fight comes amid the once-per-decade political mapmaking process that all states must undertake to reflect population changes from the census. A combination of Republican foot-dragging and legal wrangling has extended redistricting well into the 2022 election season and stymied Ohios legislative primaries. Maps were supposed to be completed last fall. A 2015 constitutional amendment, passed overwhelmingly by voters, required the commission to at least attempt to avoid partisan favoritism and to try to proportionally distribute districts to reflect Ohios political makeup, which is split at about 54% Republican, 46% Democrat. Republican commissioners have argued the set of maps they resubmitted to the court most recently met those requirements. By GOP calculations, the boundaries would create a 54-45 Republican majority in the Ohio House and an 18-15 Republican majority in Ohio Senate. Democrats have challenged their numbers, saying many districts counted in Democrats column are very closely divided. Both LaRose and the association representing election officials in Ohios 88 counties, who administer elections, previously said they wanted the legislative primaries to be held Aug. 2. The court's Friday decision was disappointing, said state Sen. Vernon Sykes, an Akron Democrat and redistricting commission co-chair. But he noted the ruling only affects elections this year. The Ohio Redistricting Commission still has the responsibility to draw fair, constitutional maps for the rest of the decade and I will continue to work toward that goal, Sykes said. FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) Incoming Kentucky high school seniors who have previously taken the ACT will be eligible to retake the test for free, Gov. Andy Beshear announced. A statewide ACT retake day will be held this fall on a date chosen by Kentucky's Department of Education. More information on the date and locations will be shared with schools in the coming months, Beshear said Thursday. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate KHARKIV, Ukraine - Yulia Yuliantseva's journey home took longer than her flight to safety, yet each step was accompanied by many of the same fears. Nearly three months ago, she and her 12-year-old son, Mattvii, fled their apartment in Kharkiv and ran through the snow to the nearest subway station - she in flip-flops, her son in stocking feet - as Russian forces pounded the city with rockets and heavy artillery. Though no part of the city was spared, Yuliantseva's neighborhood of Saltivka, in the northeastern part of the city, was among the hardest hit. Thousands of her neighbors sheltered with her in the Studentska station. This week, as Yuliantseva and her son packed to go after nearly three months in their makeshift bomb shelter, mixed emotions flooded over them. They missed their home but were afraid of periodic shelling. They were reluctant to leave the safety of the station but couldn't bear to spend another day underground, in close quarters with dozens of other families. Most of all, Yuliantseva worried about her son's fragile mental state. Would he be able to sleep at night? Would his speech impediment get worse? "It's scary to return home," said Yuliantseva, 41, adding that it was even scarier knowing there was nothing but sky between her fifth-floor walk-up and a Russian airstrike. "I'm always going to be afraid." As the Ukrainian military continues to drive Russian forces back in the north, residents of Ukraine's second-largest city have begun to dig out. City officials estimate 2,500 to 5,000 residents have returned each day, even as Russian Grad rockets continue to terrorize the populace. "It's really difficult to restart life in the city when the Russian aggressor continues hitting it," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said in an interview. On Thursday, seven people were killed and 17 injured in indiscriminate shelling, a regional official reported on Telegram. Yet residents are determined to return things to normal. Workers swept broken glass, unsnarled downed electric wires and trimmed the grassy medians of mostly deserted boulevards. A humanitarian aid station handed out flour, sugar and pasta to hundreds of people waiting in line. Others bought bread or produce from the backs of delivery trucks. Near the city center, at Specialty Cafe, baristas drew pictures in the foam of freshly brewed cappuccinos and a group of Ukrainian soldiers downed breakfast as one of them FaceTimed with someone back home. But there is destruction everywhere. Large apartment towers scorched, peppered with shrapnel or partially collapsed. Businesses gutted. On the side of a disabled van used as a roadblock, a spray-painted message: "Warning!!! Shelling!!!" "I just ducked and tried to hide inside the apartment," said Galyna Chorna, sitting on a bench outside her apartment building, which was untouched but mostly vacant. Chorna, a former factory worker who waited 15 years to get her spot in the building when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, said she was still in shock over the Russian invasion. "I couldn't believe they would attack us because we're intertwined," the 76-year-old said. Nearby, a similar apartment building had partially collapsed, killing at least one tenant, according to neighbors. The mayor wouldn't say how many residents have been killed since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the war Feb. 24. He said bodies are still being found beneath the rubble. "This was really a genocide against Ukrainians," Terekhov said. Nearly 2,500 apartment buildings and approximately 1,000 single-family homes were damaged, he said. Russian forces also struck more than 200 schools, 55 medical buildings, five churches and nearly 50 cultural institutions, including the Kharkiv Art Museum. "The numbers are staggering," Terekhov said. Even during the heaviest attacks, though, city workers maintained basic public services - water, electricity, even garbage collection. City courts operated via remote hookups. Only transportation came to a halt, including the subway, as people sought shelter in stations throughout the city. Before the war, about 450,000 passengers passed through the turnstiles on an average day, said Yulia Fedianina, station manager at the Heroes of Labor stop. Restarting service this week has meant coaxing people to leave, she said, and getting them to cart out all the things they retrieved from home during lulls in the fighting. And there was still a lot left: beds, cots, mattresses, at least one geodesic tent and a double bunk set up near the eTicket kiosks. Also tables, chairs, stools, stools doubling as tables, crockery, silverware, food tins, bottles of water, clothing, shoes and - here and there - touches of color: a pair of framed religious icons, a print of a bird on a silk scarf, freshly cut lilacs in a vase. And there were pet carriers, litter boxes, water dishes and kibble bowls for dogs and cats. Somehow, despite the circumstances - including a single primitive toilet - hundreds of strangers managed to get along. (If anything, Fedianina said, the pets got along even better.) In the cramped space - with individual plots often walled off with cardboard boxes - friendships formed. So did romances. There were breakups, too. Fedianina said she thought about setting up two tables for counseling - one for marriages, the other for divorce. "Some of them even said, 'I never loved you. I stayed with you 15 years because of the kids!' " Fedianina remembered. Some couples were bold enough to have sex on the crowded platforms. "I did!" a man said, overhearing her talking about it. Only about 80 people were still living full-time in the Heroes of Labor station; another 60 returned at night to shelter from possible shelling. There were fewer at Studentska. Oksana Yarmok, 35, who worked as an editor for a small social media company before the war, ventured home last week, only to have Russian explosives chase her back into the metro station. "It's a 30-minute walk from here, 20 minutes if you run," she said. "It's not really safe." Yuliantseva was also wary about returning home. "If it was the end of the war, I'd be the first one out of here," she said, as she packed her things the day before she planned to move and less than an hour after the city had been shelled again. Nearby, Mattvii sat hunched over his phone. Their white housecat, Semyon, presided from the foot of her bed. Even before the war, Yuliantseva - a single mother and a psychologist by training - had taken time away from work to devote extra care to her son's special needs, including a speech impediment. Now she worried about the effect of war on his psyche. Before they were driven out of their home, she had a rule for her son: no more than one hour on the phone - but so much for that in a bomb shelter. "Mattvii, don't do that," she said at one point, interrupting her conversation because he was being a little rough with the cat. When it came time to go Tuesday, she cleaned out the litter box, gathered her things and walked down a flight of stairs, holding the cat carrier and towing a heavy wheeled bag. Mattvii followed with his belongings. They crossed the platform past idled trains, climbed a set of stairs, spoke with a security guard who asked whether she would be coming back, then headed down a corridor to yet another set of stairs. Out in the bright sunlight, she hugged her son. It took an hour for their bus to arrive. Three stops later, they got out near a checkpoint and passed several damaged buildings before turning onto their street where - just beyond the sidewalk's edge - a blast had carved a crater eight feet wide. Then five more flights of stairs and a search for her key before she could open the door. "I'm home." - - - The Washington Post's Serhii Korolchuk contributed to this report. WASHINGTON - White House officials are currently planning to cancel $10,000 in student debt per borrower, after months of internal deliberations over how to structure loan forgiveness for tens of millions of Americans, three people with knowledge of the matter said. President Biden had hoped to make the announcement as soon as this weekend at the University of Delaware commencement, the people said, but that timing has changed after the massacre Tuesday in Texas. The White House's latest plans called for limiting debt forgiveness to Americans who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly, two of the people said. It was unclear whether the administration will simultaneously require interest and payments to resume at the end of August, when the current pause is scheduled to lapse. The people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the deliberations, cautioned that some details of these plans could change before the White House makes the decision official. The likely decision follows months of uncertainty over the fate of student debt for tens of millions of Americans, with Biden at times sounding skeptical of canceling loans but under pressure from his collapsing approval ratings among young voters ahead of November's elections. The decision will also ignite new fights between Democrats and Republicans over federal spending and could prove to be a defining issue on the campaign trail, as GOP lawmakers have already said the idea amounts to wasteful spending that primarily benefits affluent college-educated professionals. The White House said no final determination has been made about the matter. Biden said he would come to a decision on student debt in the "next couple of weeks" on April 28, nearly a month ago. "No decisions have been made yet," Vedant Petal, a White House spokesman, said in a statement Thursday. Wiping out $10,000 of debt per borrower could cost roughly $230 billion, according to estimates by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan think tank. However, restarting payments for borrowers, which have been on hold since March 2020, would bring additional money into federal coffers. The think tank said in March that pausing payments had cost the federal government $100 billion and would run around $50 billion per year to maintain. The Washington Post had previously reported that the administration was considering making only undergraduate debt eligible for forgiveness. The White House has been looking for economic measures it can enact without congressional approval since the collapse of Biden's Build Back Better economic agenda at the end of last year. But while the administration has looked at polling suggesting a large majority of young voters support debt cancellation, the politics of the move remain unclear. Biden's approval ratings on the economy have sagged amid the fastest price increases in four decades, and his plans to improve housing, health care and child poverty have been blocked by failed negotiations with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. Republicans will further pillory the decision for being made unilaterally, without Congress, and even some centrist Democrats are uneasy about the idea. Biden told a meeting of Hispanic lawmakers last month that he was open to canceling student loan debt. He had pledged during the 2020 presidential campaign to forgive at least $10,000 in debt per borrower, after Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and other liberals pushed the idea. Most of the nation's 41 million student borrowers stand to benefit. Canceling $10,000 in debt for everyone with federal student loans would settle the balances of roughly a third of borrowers, while cutting total debt by at least half for another 20%, according to the latest data from the Education Department. It's unclear, however, how income limits would affect those numbers. An estimated 97% of all student debt was held by people earning below the threshold of $150,000 per person and $300,000 per couple in 2019, according to Matt Bruenig, founder of the left-leaning think tank People's Policy Project. The White House is not expected to immediately release all the details of the process borrowers would use to get their debts canceled. But it could be quite complicated logistically. For instance, the administration is imposing an income cap on who qualifies to ensure that high earners do not receive government help they do not need. But there are hurdles to using income to target debt relief. The Education and Treasury departments cannot readily share borrowers' tax information, and legislation easing the restriction won't take effect for two years. Relying on tax data could also exclude millions of lower-income Americans who do not file taxes but do owe student loans. A self-attestation process, whereby people would certify that their income qualifies, could pose challenges for the government to verify the information. Even asking borrowers to apply for forgiveness could limit the reach of the policy. And because it probably will take months for the Education Department to implement any program, the political benefits could be limited. Proponents of student debt forgiveness, including Warren and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., have urged the administration to go much further and cancel at least $50,000 per borrower, if not all outstanding federal education loans. They say reducing the burden of student loans would help stimulate the economy and close the racial wealth gap, as Black borrowers shoulder a disproportionate amount of debt. Before a rally at the White House earlier this month, Wisdom Cole, the national director of the NAACP's youth and college division, said, "The Black community continues to be shackled by student debt, and $10,000 in cancellation will not break the chains." But some economists have argued that lavishing loan forgiveness on college graduates is an irresponsible and costly policy. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that roughly 70% of the benefit will go to those in the top half of the income spectrum. Critics of debt forgiveness also say it does nothing to address college costs or the troubled lending system. It's not clear whether people who need to borrow to start college this fall, for instance, would be eligible to have brand-new loans forgiven. Still, even by capping forgiveness at $10,000, the Biden administration could help people who are arguably most in need of cancellation - those in default on their loans. Defaults and delinquencies on student loans were concentrated among borrowers with less than $10,000 in debt before the pause of federal student loan payments, according to the Federal Reserve. Economists at the Fed say borrowers with the least amount of debt often have difficulty repaying their loans, in part because they did not complete a degree needed to improve their earnings. Narrowing the parameters of loan forgiveness is in line with the Biden administration's targeted approach to debt relief. The administration has already wiped out $18.5 billion in loans for more than 750,000 people by temporarily expanding or streamlining existing forgiveness programs, including those designed to help public servants and borrowers defrauded by their colleges. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) A New Hampshire man convicted of killing his wifes co-worker and forcing her to behead him was sentenced Friday to life in prison, plus 45 years. Armando Barron, 32, was convicted Thursday of first-degree murder, which carries a mandatory sentence of life without parole. A judge imposed additional time as recommended by prosecutors for other crimes, including kidnapping, criminal solicitation and assault. Your actions were brutal. They were also horrific, they were selfish, and they were completely senseless, Judge Elizabeth Leonard told Barron. The abject cruelty, the pain and suffering and all that you inflicted on Jonathan that night is unfathomable. Barron was accused of assaulting his wife after discovering she had been texting with her co-worker, 25-year-old Jonathan Amerault, in September 2020. Prosecutors said he used his wifes cellphone to lure Amerault to a park, where he beat and kicked him before forcing him into his own car and fatally shooting him. Barron's lawyers argued that his wife shot Amerault, which she denied. Britany Barron, 33, testified that after Amerault was shot, she was forced to drive the car 200 miles (320 kilometers) north to a remote campsite, with Armando following behind her. There, she said, she was forced to behead Amerault. Her husband eventually left her at the site, telling her to dispose of the body, she testified. Their voices shaking with anger and sadness, Ameraults parents both called Barron a disgusting leech Friday. The only good thing I see about all this heinous, heinous crime is that you are not 40 years old, 50 or 60, but only 30 years old. You have a long, long time to fade away and rot in prison, Kenny Amerault said. My son Jonathan was a thousand times more of a man than this lowlife could ever even dream of being, Justine Amerault said. The loss of Jonathan to this world is incredibly sad. "But the saddest part of all is that in spite of him being surrounded by so many wonderful people, this evil creature just slithered right through us all and took him from us. And the last hours of Jonathans beautiful life were in the company of this ugly, hideous, demented creature. Barron, who did not speak at the sentencing hearing, plans to appeal his convictions, his lawyer said. The Associated Press had previously not been naming the couple in order not to identify Britany Barron, who said she suffered extreme abuse. Through her lawyer, she recently agreed to the use of her name. The suspects in the shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket were both just 18, authorities say, when they bought the weapons used in the attacks too young to legally purchase alcohol or cigarettes, but old enough to arm themselves with assault-style weapons. The Buffalo suspect was taken to a hospital last year for a mental health evaluation, but the incident didn't trigger New York's red flag law and he was still able to purchase a gun. The Texas suspects mother told ABC he gave her an uneasy feeling" at times and could be aggressive ... If he really got mad." But authorities say he had no known criminal or mental health history. The state has no such red flag law. They are just the latest suspected U.S. mass shooters whose ability to obtain guns has raised concerns. In some cases shooters got guns legally under current firearms laws, or because of background check lapses or law enforcements failure to heed warnings of concerning behavior. After the shootings, which together left 31 people dead, President Joe Biden renewed calls for stronger gun laws and questioned whether people as young as 18 should be allowed to purchase firearms. In the past, Biden has called for banning assault-style weapons and expanding background checks. Many Republicans oppose the measures. A look at how suspects in mass shootings over a decade obtained guns, based on police accounts, court documents and contemporaneous reporting: UVALDE, TEXAS: MAY 24, 2022. 21 DEAD. Salvador Ramos legally purchased two guns in the days before the attack that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School an AR-style rifle from a federally licensed gun dealer in the Uvalde area on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. Ramos made the purchases just days after turning 18, the minimum age under federal law for buying a rifle. He also purchased several hundred rounds of ammunition. At least one of the rifles was a DDM4, made by Daniel Defense and modeled after the U.S. militarys M4 carbine rifle, though without the M4s ability to switch to fully automatic or fire a three-round burst. The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong, Biden said hours after the shooting Tuesday. What in Gods name do you need an assault weapon for except to kill someone? Ramos was killed at the school by a Border Patrol team. ___ BUFFALO, NEW YORK: MAY 14, 2022. 10 DEAD. Payton Gendron legally purchased the Bushmaster XM-15 E2S used in the attack on Tops Friendly Market from a federally licensed gun dealer near his home in Conklin, New York, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Buffalo. In a personal, online diary that surfaced after the attack, Gendron said he bought the AR-15-style weapon in January, bought a shotgun in December and received a rifle as a Christmas present from his dad when he was 16. Last year, Gendron was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation under a state mental health law after writing murder-suicide in response to a teachers question. New York is one of 19 states with red flag laws that allow courts to take guns from people posing immediate danger, but that didnt happen with Gendron, who was 17 at the time. State police described his threat as general in nature and said it didnt specifically mention shooting or firearms. After the shooting, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order underscoring the need for red flag interventions and said she would seek to bar people under 21 from buying some semi-automatic weapons in the state. A similar law in California was ruled unconstitutional. Gendron is charged with murder. ___ SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: MAY 26, 2021. 9 DEAD. Samuel James Cassidy legally purchased the three 9 mm handguns he used to kill co-workers and then himself at a Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority rail yard. He also stockpiled a dozen guns and 25,000 rounds of ammunition at his home, which he set ablaze before the shooting, and had high-capacity magazines that may have been illegal under California law, depending on when they were purchased. Santa Claras district attorney said authorities wouldve sought to take Cassidys weapons away under the states red flag law had U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed them of a Significant Encounter with Cassidy upon his return to California from a trip to the Philippines in 2016. Customs agents said in a report that Cassidy harbored dark thoughts about harming two specific people and had a memo book in which he expressed his hatred of the transit agency. ___ BOULDER, COLORADO: MARCH 22, 2021. 10 DEAD. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, a semi-automatic weapon with a capacity of up to 30 rounds, six days before the shooting at King Soopers grocery store, police said. Alissa was prone to sudden rage and was convicted of misdemeanor assault and sentenced to probation for attacking a high school classmate. Colorado has a universal background check law covering almost all gun sales, but that misdemeanor would not have prevented him from buying a weapon, experts said. Had it been a felony, federal law wouldve barred his purchase. Days before the shooting, a judge struck down city ordinances banning assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines in Boulder, citing a state law prohibiting local gun bans. The NRA backed the lawsuit challenging the ordinances. A judge ruled last month that Alissa is mentally incompetent to stand trial. ___ ATLANTA: MARCH 16, 2021. 8 DEAD. Robert Aaron Long purchased a 9 mm handgun just hours before going on a shooting rampage at three massage businesses in the Atlanta area, police said. A lawyer for the gun shop said it complies with federal background check laws. Georgia, like the majority of states, has no waiting period to obtain a gun. Long claimed to have a sex addiction, police said, and he spent time at an addiction recovery facility last year. Federal law bans guns for people who are unlawful users of or addicted to a controlled substance or whove been court-ordered to a mental health or substance abuse treatment facility, but doesnt mention treatment for other compulsions as a barrier to ownership. Long is serving a sentence life without parole. ___ MIDLAND, TEXAS: AUG. 31, 2019. 7 DEAD. Seth Aaron Ator purchased an AR-style rifle through a private sale, allowing him to evade a federal background check, and fired it indiscriminately from his car into passing vehicles and shopping plazas. He also hijacked a mail truck, killing the driver. Ator had been blocked from getting a gun in 2014 after his background check was flagged because a court determined he was mentally ill, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the matter. Private sales, which account for up to 40% of all gun sales according to some estimates, are not subject to a federal background check and private sellers aren't required to determine if a buyer is eligible to own a gun. Ator was killed by police. ___ DAYTON, OHIO: AUG. 4, 2019. 9 DEAD. Connor Betts classmates said he was suspended in high school for compiling a hit list and a rape list, but authorities said nothing in his background prevented him from purchasing the AR-15-style pistol used in the shooting at Ned Peppers Bar. Ohio law requires that sealed records of any juvenile crimes be expunged either after five years or once the offender turns 23. Betts, who was 24 at the time of the shooting, bought the gun online from a Texas dealer. It was then shipped to a Dayton-area firearms dealer, in accordance with federal law. Betts was killed by police. ___ EL PASO, TEXAS: AUG. 3, 2019. 23 DEAD. Patrick Crusius bought an AK-47-style rifle and 1,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition online 45 days before he walked into a Walmart store and opened fire, killing 23 people and injuring two dozen others, before confessing that he had been targeting Mexicans, according to prosecutors. A Crusius family lawyer said his mother raised concerns about the purchase in a call to police on June 27. Police said she asked if Crusius, who was 21 at the time, was old enough to buy a gun. Police said she was assured he was and that he'd qualify if he passed a background check. Police said she expressed concern only about his safety and said shed seen no recent change in his behavior. Crusius posted a racist screed online just before the attack and appeared to target Mexicans. He's charged with capital murder in Texas and federal hate crimes and firearms offenses. ___ VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA: MAY 31, 2019. 12 DEAD. Former Virginia Beach city employee DeWayne Craddock legally purchased six firearms in the three years before he opened fire on a municipal building, including the two .45-caliber pistols used in the attack. An independent review of the shooting, commissioned by the City of Virginia Beach, found that Craddock displayed no warning signs or prohibited behaviors associated with a pathway to violence, and that he had no known history of mental health treatment. Craddock was killed by police. ___ THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA: NOV. 7, 2018. 12 DEAD. Ian David Long, a former Marine machine gunner who served in Afghanistan, used a legally purchased .45-caliber pistol with an extended magazine in the shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill. California tried to outlaw high-capacity magazines, but a federal judge reversed that after a pro-gun group sued. Months before the shooting, sheriffs deputies called to Longs home found him acting irrationally, but a mental health specialist didnt feel he needed to be involuntarily committed. California has a red flag law, but theres no indication authorities sought a court order to take away Long's guns. Long killed himself. ___ PITTSBURGH: OCT. 27, 2018. 11 DEAD. Robert Gregory Bowers had a carry license and legally owned the Colt AR-15 SP1 and three Glock .357 handguns police said he used to kill worshipers at Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers spent months posting rants against Jews on Gab, a social media site favored by right-wing extremists. He also posted photos of his "glock family. Just before the attack, he posted a screed against a Jewish organization that resettles refugees, saying: I cant sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, Im going in. None of the rhetoric appeared to raise red flags. His case is pending. ___ SANTA FE, TEXAS: MAY. 18, 2018. 10 DEAD. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student, used a shotgun and a .38-caliber handgun that his father purchased legally and stored in a closet at their home, authorities said. It wasnt clear if his father knew hed taken the guns. Prior to the attack, Pagourtzis posted a photo on social media of a T-shirt with the phrase Born to Kill and had writings indicating he planned to attack his high school. A judge sent him to a mental health facility after ruling he was incompetent to stand trial. high school. ___ PARKLAND, FLORIDA: FEB. 14, 2018. 17 DEAD. Nikolas Cruz legally purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle in February 2017 from a licensed dealer a few miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, authorities said. Hed been treated at a mental health clinic but hadnt been there in more than a year. Federal law prohibits gun purchases if a court declares a person a mental defective or commits that person to an institution, but not if the person seeks treatment voluntarily. Cruz was 19 at the time of the shooting. He pleaded guilty in October. A four-month penalty trial is scheduled to begin this summer that will determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole. ___ SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS: NOV. 5, 2017. 25 DEAD. Devin Patrick Kelleys history of domestic abuse barred him from buying guns. He was able to because information about his crimes was never entered into a federal database used for background checks. The Air Force failed to follow rules requiring that it inform the FBI about his conduct. Kelley purchased four guns, including an AR-15-style rifle found at First Baptist Church, from licensed Texas and Colorado dealers over a four-year span. Kelley killed himself. ___ LAS VEGAS: OCT. 1, 2017. 58 DEAD. Stephen Paddock purchased 33 of the 49 weapons found in his hotel room and at his homes in the year before he opened fire on a country music festival. Paddock passed all background checks. His gradual accumulation of guns went undetected because federal law doesn't require licensed gun dealers to alert the government about rifle purchases. Paddock killed himself. ___ ORLANDO, FLORIDA: JUNE 12, 2016. 49 DEAD. Omar Mateen purchased an AR-15-style rifle, a Sig Sauer MCX, and a handgun from a licensed dealer on separate days about a week before the Pulse nightclub attack. He passed a background check and had a security license that allowed him to be armed while on duty. The FBI investigated Mateen in 2013 and 2014 over co-workers concerns that hed spoken about ties to terrorist groups. Neither inquiry led to charges. Even if he'd been placed on a terrorism watch list, Congress in 2015 rejected attempts to prevent people on the list from purchasing guns. Mateen was killed by police. ___ SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA: DEC. 2, 2015. 14 DEAD. Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used weapons the FBI said his neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased from a licensed dealer in 2011 and 2012. Marquez pleaded guilty to charges he conspired to provide support to terrorists and made false statements to acquire a firearm. He told investigators Farook asked him to buy the weapons because he would draw less attention. Farook and Malik were killed by police. ___ ROSEBURG, OREGON: OCT. 1, 2015. 10 DEAD. Christopher Harper-Mercer and his family members legally purchased the handguns and rifle used in the Umpqua Community College shooting from a licensed dealer. Investigators found six guns at the college and eight at an apartment. Neighbors said Harper-Mercer and his mother went target shooting together. Harper-Mercer killed himself after he was wounded by police. ___ CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA: JUNE 17, 2015. 9 DEAD. A drug arrest should've prevented Dylann Roof from purchasing the pistol he used at Emanuel AME Church, but a record-keeping error and background check delay enabled the transaction to go through. The FBI said a background check examiner never saw the arrest report because the wrong arresting agency was listed in state criminal history records. After three days, the gun dealer was legally permitted to complete the transaction. He was convicted and is on federal death row. ___ WASHINGTON: SEPT. 16, 2013. 12 DEAD. Aaron Alexis, a former reservist turned civilian contractor, passed background checks and legally purchased the shotgun used in the Washington Navy Yard shooting despite recent mental health treatment and a history of violent outbursts. He previously fired a gun in anger twice but wasnt prosecuted in either case. Alexis was killed by police. ___ NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT: DEC. 14, 2012. 26 DEAD. Adam Lanza used his mothers weapons, including a .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle, in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanzas mother, whom he fatally shot before going to the school, also purchased the ammunition. Lanza killed himself. ___ AURORA, COLORADO: JULY 20, 2012. 12 DEAD. James Holmes was receiving psychiatric treatment when he passed required federal background checks and legally purchased the weapons he used in his movie theater assault. As in the Parkland and Navy Yard cases, treatment alone did not prevent him from buying guns. He was convicted and sentenced to 12 life terms and thousands of years in prison. ___ Follow Michael Sisak on Twitter at twitter.com/mikesisak This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate VATICAN CITY (AP) The new president of the Italian Conference of Bishops on Friday said he would launch an independent inquiry on sex abuse by Catholic clergy in Italy, but the announcement disappointed victims advocates because it will only go back 20 years. The Italian church is coming under mountain pressure to confront its legacy of clerical sexual abuse. Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who was appointed this week by Pope Francis, said the investigation will limit its scope to two decades in order to be more accurate and accountable. Zuppi promised a report would be delivered by Nov. 18 by a panel of independent experts selected among university professors. We are starting from them (the victims), Zuppi told a news conference. It is clear that their suffering drives us, and it should stimulate us to give responses that are trustworthy and serious. Victims advocates say the initiative does not go far enough. They want investigations to span 50 years, and they want to be directly involved in drafting the report. Francesco Zanardi, founder of Rete LAbuso (Abuse Network), one of Italys main victims advocacy groups, said most of the victims report the abuse only after decades have passed. The maturation of a trauma takes between 30, 35 or 40 years, when it goes well, Zanardi told reporters in Rome. I, for example, spoke about my trauma (when I was) 40 years old ... more than 30 years went by ... this says that 20 years is not enough." The Italian Catholic Church is one of the few in Western Europe that has not opened its archives to independent researchers to establish the scope of abuse and cover-up in recent decades. Whether by government mandate, parliamentary investigation or church initiation, such reports in Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and France have shown systematic problems that allowed thousands of children to be abused by Catholic priests. The churches in Spain and Portugal have recently agreed to launch similar investigations. By Zanardis count, 164 priests are under investigation for abuse in Italy and another 162 have been convicted. His group has gathered information another 161 new cases that have come to light this year. PARIS, May 27 (Xinhua) -- French President Emmanuel Macron is willing to work with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to "rebuild" French-Australian relations, the French Presidential Palace Elysee said Thursday. The announcement came after the two leaders spoke on the telephone on Thursday night in the wake of Albanese's election victory last Saturday. Macron's office said the two leaders agreed to "rebuild a relationship ... (of) trust" after ties were ruptured last year over a scrapped submarine deal. The two leaders agreed to work together on pressing global issues, including the climate emergency and in the Indo-Pacific region, the Elysee said. Work will start on a joint agenda, identifying areas of strategic cooperation between the two countries, Macron's office said. After terminating the submarine program with France last year, Australia signed the AUKUS deal with the United Kingdom and the United States. Under this deal, the U.S. and the United Kingdom pledged to help Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines. CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The New Hampshire Supreme Court on Friday released a congressional redistricting plan that moves just five towns from the state's 1st District to the 2nd, rejecting a last-minute attempt by Republicans to block its takeover of the process. Both the House and Senate approved a new map Thursday on the last day of the legislative session. But Republican Gov. Chris Sununu quickly said he would veto it, and the state Supreme Court had said it would release a map Friday if the Legislature failed to enact one. Under the court's map, the towns of Albany, Campton, Jackson, New Hampton and Sandwich would move from the 1st District to the 2nd. A perfect population plan can be achieved by moving whole towns containing the exact number of people necessary to achieve a one-person deviation between the two districts, wrote Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford Law School professor who was appointed by the court as a special master to develop the map. The court denied a motion filed by Senate President Chuck Morse and House Speaker Sherm Packard late Thursday asking the court to dismiss the case or halt the release of its map until after Sununu takes action. The Constitutional lawmaking process does not anticipate that when the Governor is considering an act of the General Court that he will be provided with a judicially created backup proposal that allows him to choose a favorite between a legislative created redistricting map and a judicially created redistricting map, attorneys for the Republican leaders wrote. Sununu, who called the plan unfair in part because it puts both Democratic incumbents in the same district, vetoed the bill Friday, though it's unclear whether he did so before or after the court released its plan. New Hampshire is one few states yet to finalize new U.S. House districts as required every 10 years to reflect population changes. The issue must be decided by June 1, the first day of the filing period for the September primary. Under the vetoed plan, the 1st District would have covered the southeast corner of the state and be tilted slightly toward Republicans, while the 2nd District would have covered the western half of the state and the north country and become slightly more Democratic. More than two dozen towns and cities comprising nearly a third of the states population would have switched districts, including Manchester. Oral arguments on the court's plan will be held Tuesday. WICHITA, Kan. (AP) Authorities have identified a man killed earlier this week following an exchanging gunfire with a Wichita SWAT team during a more than 10-hour standoff. Police said Gregorio Merced Banuelos, 39, of Wichita, died following the shootout. Officers were called to a home in west Wichita after a report of a shooting. Arriving officers found a woman and child in the front yard and saw a man with a gun go into a home as other people inside the house left the residence. After about 10 hours, SWAT team members entered the home and exchanged gunfire with the suspect, later identified as Banuelos, in the home's basement, television station KAKE reported. Wichita police Capt. Jason Stephens said in a news conference that as officers retreated from the home through the garage and that Banuelos followed them and aggressively advanced on officers. Two officers positioned outside saw this, believed he was moving towards those officers armed with a gun, and fired in defense of those officers," Stephens said. Banuelos died at the scene. No one else was injured, police said. Two Wichita police officers and two Sedgwick County sheriff's deputies have been placed on administrative leave per department policy, Stephens said. Police said Banuelos was wanted on two felony warrants out of Sedgwick County and was a convicted felon who was prohibited from owning a gun. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation is investigating his shooting death. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PHOENIX (AP) An Arizona man was facing multiple theft charges Friday after detectives found more than 1,200 catalytic converters packed into a storage unit, a case that highlights a national surge in thefts of the pricy auto parts that play a critical role in reducing vehicle emissions. The discovery followed a months-long investigation that began with a January tip that someone was storing stolen catalytic converters in an industrial area near Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. We were very surprised at the amount in there, Phoenix police Det. Adam Popelier said in a police video taken Thursday as officers were pulling converters from the jam-packed storage locker. The 48-year-old man who police say was buying and selling the convertors was charged with 40 counts of theft and may face additional charges. The huge rise in catalytic converters thefts across the nation has hit tens of thousands of car and truck owners in the pocketbook and frustrated police, who are faced with a crime that takes just minutes to commit and is difficult to solve even if they find the stolen parts. Catalytic converters are not imprinted at the factory with serial numbers and stolen converters end up on a black market where they are chopped open for the valuable metals they contain. Replacing one can cost a motorist from $1,000 to $3,000, according to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, an insurance industry group that works to combat insurance fraud and crime. Police say thieves can get from $100 to $150 for each converter. The insurance group counted just 3,969 reports of stolen catalytic converters in 2019, more than 17,000 in 2020 and more than 52,000 last year. Lawmakers across the nation have taken notice, introducing legislation designed to make it harder for criminals to unload their loot. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, 150 bills have been introduced this year in 36 states and enacted in 16 states. That includes Arizona, where Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill this month that makes possession of a catalytic converter in many instances a crime and adds detailed reporting requirements for scrap dealers that buy legitimate used devices. They must mark the item with the donor vehicle's serial number and retain it for at least a week in original condition. Scrap dealers caught with unregistered or stolen converters face a $500 fine for the first offense, a $2,000 fine for a second and at least double that for each additional time they are caught. Those possessing or trying to sell a used catalytic converter that don't meet new requirements could face a six-month jail sentence. Federal legislation is also in the works. Indiana Rep. Jim Baird is sponsoring a bill backed by the National Insurance Crime Bureau that would require serial numbers on new devices, offer grants for programs to stamp numbers on existing cars and trucks and make it easier to prosecute thefts. The insurance group's President and CEO David Glawe called it a critical step in helping bring relief to people directly impacted by the thefts. Insurance often does not cover a car owner's losses. Someone carrying just liability coverage or liability and collision is on the hook for the full bill. Even with comprehensive coverage, there is a deductible that may be high enough that it is not worth filing a claim. Lastly, some victims even with coverage may treat the problem as a mechanical issue and just pay for it themselves and never notify their insurer, insurance crime bureau spokesperson Tully Lehman said Friday. Southern Baptist leaders on Thursday evening released a list of alleged church-related sexual abuse offenders that denomination heads had kept secret for more than a decade. The Executive Committee for the Southern Baptist Convention said earlier this week it would publish the names after it issued a third-party investigation that suggested a widespread coverup by top leaders who ignored and even "vilified" people who came forward with stories of abuse. The database, which an SBC attorney said includes people who have been criminally convicted of abuse and those who have confessed to abuse, is expected to show what top leaders knew behind the scenes while telling Southern Baptists they could not create a list of accused abusers because the denomination is not hierarchical and churches operate independently from one another. A description at the top of the document reads: "This is a fluid, working document." It consists of more than 600 entries, the date the person was reported and information largely pulled from news articles, compiled from 2007 until 2022. "It is incomplete. It has not been proofed. It has not been adequately researched. It is not Southern Baptist specific," the document reads. It notes that, after June 2008, "only alleged/convicted names of abusers and [titles] of articles were catalogued." The release of the database comes 15 years after Christa Brown began sounding the alarm that Southern Baptists needed to keep such a list to prevent abusers from transferring from church to church. She first told SBC leaders in 2004 that she had been abused by a youth pastor who went on to serve in other Southern Baptist churches in multiple states. But the report published Sunday by the SBC said she was met with hostility when she suggested the idea in 2007. Brown, 68, was emotional Thursday when she learned that the man she alleges abused her was listed in the database -- an official acknowledgment by the Southern Baptist Convention. "This means so much to us survivors," she said. "It's a reflection of how cruel it was to stonewall any kind of validation for decades. For survivors to heal, this kind of validation is an acknowledgment of the truth of the horror of what was done to us." The man she alleges abused her, who has not been charged or convicted, hung up the phone in response to a Washington Post request for comment. She said the man began to abuse her in 1968 and that when she initially pursued a civil case against him in 2005, the statute of limitations had expired. But, Brown said, the list is also a "very small measure of justice." "They don't get to pat themselves on the back for this," Brown added. "I'm sorry. God only knows why they were keeping it secret. It's the very tiniest thing of what needs to be done." Before releasing the list, attorneys for the SBC said they would redact survivors' names and try to ensure that they only include names of people who were "credibly accused." That includes pastors, denominational workers, ministry employees or volunteers who have confessed to abuse, been convicted in a court of law, or had a civil judgment rendered against them. Also, an independent third party could determine that someone was "credibly accused" by a "preponderance of the evidence." "This is a critical first step," said Rachael Denhollander, an attorney and former gymnast who outed former USA Gymnastics team physician Larry Nassar over his serial sexual assaults and is now an adviser on a Southern Baptist task force on the issue. "It at least begins to demonstrate a level of transparency and accountability." The SBC has long sought to distinguish itself from the Catholic Church's sexual abuse scandal by saying its churches were independent from one another. But University of Pennsylvania professor Marci Hamilton, an expert on laws aimed at preventing child abuse, said the SBC has no standing in distinguishing itself legally from the Catholic Church in terms of its responsibility to victims, be they minors or adults when incidents happen. The SBC, she said, is the "governing body of the whole church, so they are responsible for the policies and for the coverup, which is evident." As penalties including billions of dollars have been levied in the past 20 years against the Catholic Church, Hamilton said, other non-Catholic religious groups have argued that their structure and beliefs make them different when it comes to liability. Southern Baptist and nondenominational groups have said they are too loosely affiliated to be liable, but she said courts have found otherwise when they have looked at other faith groups. "The question is: Did they act recklessly, endangering children and adults? And the answer is yes," Hamilton said. "They took unreasonable risks, lacked effective prevention policies, and put individuals in their flocks at risk of being sexually assaulted and abused, by leaving the abusers in positions of authority and not alerting the public and by bypassing going to the authorities. This defense they've been saying -- 'We're organized differently' -- is full of holes. That is no defense." Hamilton said victims who were minors at the time of the abuse and came forward as adults can have a harder time because of slowly changing statutes of limitations. However, more states are extending deadlines for people to bring civil cases. The third-party investigation by Guidepost Solutions, commissioned by Southern Baptists at their annual convention last year and released Sunday, focused narrowly on the SBC's Nashville-based Executive Committee, the second-smallest organization within the SBC that handles the finances and administration, including distributing funds that come in from churches around the country to its other organizations. Two Southern Baptist leaders, Kevin Ezell of the North American Mission Board and Danny Akin of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, said this week that they would invite Guidepost to investigate allegations in their organizations. Akin said in an interview that he knew of maybe three or four instances of alleged sexual abuse in his 19 years at Southeastern, including one that ultimately led to the firing of former Southeastern president Paige Patterson, who was named in the Guidepost report. Akin said he is recommending to his board of trustees that Patterson's name be removed from one of the seminary's buildings. Patterson was fired from another seminary in 2018 after his board of trustees said he had mishandled two women's cases of sexual abuse, including one at Southeastern. The Guidepost report also alleged that Johnny Hunt, a former North American Mission Board vice president and longtime pastor, sexually assaulted a woman, which he has denied on Twitter. Akin said the seminary has already removed his name from programs and facilities. Akin said he was close to both Patterson and Hunt and called the last several days "some of the saddest of my life." "My heart's just crushed, but that has not changed my love for [Johnny], and I'm praying he'll respond appropriately and know Southern Baptists are forgiving people," Akin said. "I think if he tells us what is right, he will receive that forgiveness. Doesn't mean he'll be a pastor or anything, but I believe he could serve significantly. But we'll see." Several sexual abuse survivors have said they plan to fly to Anaheim, Calif., for the SBC's annual meeting next month because they see momentum for potential change. Among them is Jules Woodson, whose 2018 allegation that her Southern Baptist youth pastor sexually assaulted her was viewed as one of the major points that led the denomination to confront sex abuse. On Thursday night, Woodson sobbed when she knew that Andy Savage, whom she says abused her when she was 17, was listed in the database. In 2018, Savage, who has not been charged or convicted, publicly admitted to "a sexual incident," said he was "deeply sorry" and received a standing ovation from his congregation. "I feel acknowledged for the first time in a long time," Woodson said. "They knew. They knew, and they did nothing." Savage, who is a pastor at a non-SBC church in Tennessee, could not be reached for comment. Woodson said leaders of the SBC church she was attending when she was abused in 1998 had told her to remain quiet, and by the time she decided to speak out, the statute of limitations had expired. Her story went viral in 2018, and this is the first time the SBC has acknowledged Savage's name publicly. Woodson said she was later committed to a psychiatric ward because she was depressed and had PTSD, lost her college degree and the career that she wanted, as a pilot (she is now a flight attendant). "I've lost so much," she said while sobbing. Her mother said she would lose her children if she came forward with the story of her abuse. Woodson, said she hopes the SBC will pursue more action than releasing the database Thursday, including establishing a survivor compensation fund and a memorial for survivors in Nashville. "Am I glad for the database?" said Woodson, 41. "Yes. It's one piece of the puzzle." In 2019, Woodson wrote to the leaders of Germantown Baptist Church in Tennessee to see if they would revoke the ordination of the man who confessed to his congregation that he had "a sexual incident" with Woodson when she was a teenager. According to Woodson, a church leader wrote back to her to say that the church had no comment. It did not respond to requests from The Washington Post for further comment. The Executive Committee on Wednesday set up a third-party hotline for sexual abuse survivors, run by Guidepost. The hotline may be reached at 202-864-5578 or SBChotline@guidepostsolutions.com. Mike Holloway, pastor of Ouachita Baptist Church in Louisiana and a board member on the Executive Committee, said while he is in favor of releasing the names to the public, he's nervous about the list including anyone who has denied abusing someone. "My fear is that we crucify and then we find out six months later we were wrong," Holloway said. "There may need to be reparations made . . . I'm all for that, that's where the churches have to step in." Holloway was also nervous about the idea floated earlier this week that the Executive Committee could take retirement benefits from longtime SBC leader August Boto, one of the leaders named throughout Guidepost's report who told members they couldn't develop a database. Guidepost's report revealed that a staff member working him was maintaining a secret list of accused ministers, including the minister's name, year the accusation was reported, relevant news articles, state and denomination. Boto could not be reached for comment. "Are we saying a person has to live a perfect life and makes a mistake in judgment, we're going to do everything we can to punish him and take his retirement?" Holloway said. "There's not much grace in that." - - - The Washington Post's Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report. MANISTEE COUNTY The following includes reports made to the Manistee County Sheriffs Office from May 3-4. All calls may not be reported. This is part of a lengthy report and is compiled by assistant editor Arielle Breen. UMM AL-QUWAIN, United Arab Emirates (AP) The hulking, Soviet-era cargo plane has sat for decades under the blazing sun in a remote corner of the United Arab Emirates, its four jet engines silent after years in the employ of a Russian gunrunner known as the Merchant of Death. But instead of a missile or gunfire finally taking out this Ilyushin Il-76 tied to arms smuggler Viktor Bout, the plane appears to be doomed, destined for scrap to make way for a force more powerful in this federation of seven sheikhdoms: Luxury real estate. The emirate of Umm al-Quwain plans a $675 million development on a island just across a lagoon from the deactivated airport where Bout's plane sits. His legacy, however, lives on even as workers disassemble the aircraft's wings Bout is in the news again as Russia has suggested America trade him for U.S. citizens held by Moscow amid its war on Ukraine. I had not realized that the plane was there to this day," said Stephen Braun, the co-author of a book on the gunrunner called Merchant of Death." "But the irony is that this, this junk or whatever its use now has, in essence, far outlived Viktor Bouts enterprise. For imbibers coming from Dubai, some 40 kilometers (25 miles) southwest along the curving coast of the Persian Gulf, the iconic bulging nose of the Ilyushin Il-76 represented a landmark for the low-cost liquor store at the emirate's Barracuda Beach Resort. That's even with large green letters painted on the Ilyushin for the last 20-odd years as an aviatic billboard for another hotel. The Ilyushin's tail number and two others on jet engines' inlet covers link back to Bout-operated airlines that once plied the skies between Africa, Europe and the Middle East. Soviet-era ammunition, Kalashnikov rifles, rockets and other instruments of destruction traveled on Bout's airliners into war zones such as Afghanistan, Angola and Liberia. The Ilyushin planes were designed for landing in such harsh conditions. Bout used Sharjah, a neighboring emirate of Dubai straining under debt at the time, as a base for much of his fleet, even though the planes were registered in third countries like the Ilyushin, flying under the flag of the Central African Republic. But when the Ilyushin became too dangerous to fly even for Bout's daredevil pilots, he came up with a plan to sell the plane to serve as advertising, Braun said. After convincing a pilot to fly the aircraft on just three of its four engines, the plane just barely made it into Umm al-Quwain. It was touch and go, but they managed to belly up along the highway just outside of Sharjah," said Braun, a former investigative journalist and editor at The Associated Press. "And so they pocketed, I think, 20 grand out of the deal. And so the Ilyushin sat until the last few months as Umm al-Quwain prepared to build a bridge to connect the mainland to its planned development on Siniyah Island. Satellite photos from Planet Labs PBC analyzed by the AP show that the work began in earnest in April. Umm al-Quwain has no oil or natural gas of its own, and as the UAE's smallest emirate by population, it has not enjoyed the financial success of Dubai or the energy-rich capital of Abu Dhabi. But a growing demand for real estate in the country has the emirate betting its new development could spur new life into the otherwise-sleepy sheikhdom. A visit Friday by AP journalists to the site saw red rope marking the bridge's future path, with an estimated 84 workers taking part in building the roadway that will cut across the land of the former airport. The Ilyushin's four jet engines lay on the sand, the big plane's wings cut away from its fuselage. Contractors on the site declined to speak to journalists, referring questions to the court of Umm al-Quwain's ruler, Sheikh Saud bin Rashid Al Mualla. Emails sent to governmental offices were not immediately acknowledged. Extradited from Thailand, Bout was convicted in 2011 and is now serving a 25-year sentence in a federal prison in Illinois on charges he conspired to sell millions of dollars of weapons to kill Americans to rebels in Colombia who actually were Drug Enforcement Administration agents. He denied the charges. However in the years since, Russia has repeatedly floated his name in possible exchanges for American citizens held by Moscow. His prominence and rise in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse has Braun and other investigators suspicious that Bout had ties to Russia's GRU military intelligence agency. As recently as May 13, the Russian news agency Tass quoted an anonymous official suggesting Bout could be traded for Brittney Griner, a WNBA All-Star detained for allegedly possessing a cannabis derivative just before Russia's war on Ukraine began. Also detained is corporate security executive Paul Whelan, who is serving a 16-year sentence on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have said are false. In April, a surprise swap saw Marine veteran Trevor Reed freed by Moscow in exchange for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot whod been serving a 20-year federal sentence for conspiring to smuggle cocaine into the United States. For Bout, whose gunrunning fueled wars worldwide, an estimated release date is in 2029. The Russians want him back and the Biden administration obviously would like to get Paul Whelan back. Theyd like to get Brittney Griner back. But again, this is the problem, Braun said. The armaments that he transported, you know, were partly and certainly indirectly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in Africa, Afghanistan. ... So do you want to reward that? ___ Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) Two fires that merged to create the largest wildfire in New Mexico history have both been traced to planned burns set by U.S. forest managers as preventative measures, federal investigators announced Friday. The findings shift responsibility more squarely toward the U.S. Forest Service for initiating a natural disaster that has destroyed at least 330 homes as flames raged through nearly 500 square miles (1,300 square kilometers) of high-altitude pine forests and meadows. The wildfire also has displaced thousands of residents from rural villages with Spanish-colonial roots and high poverty rates, while unleashing untold environmental damage. Roughly 3,000 firefighters, along with water-dropping planes and helicopters, continue to fight the blaze as it approaches mountain resorts and Native American communities. Firefighting costs already surpass $132 million, climbing by $5 million a day. Fire and law enforcement officials offered a cautious but hopeful Friday night status report, with fire behavior analyst Stewart Turner noting they need to watch the so-called red flag conditions warm, dry weather with high winds starting Saturday. The weather is a big concern for us, Turner acknowledged, saying even an errant pine cone rolling down a slope and crossing a control line could spread flames. Red flag warning is a big message for tomorrow. He said dry conditions are expected through Tuesday, but some moisture and even thunderstorms are possible starting Wednesday. Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez described a rising sense of outrage as the fire triggers new evacuations of families and livestock. Fear of flames is giving way to concern about erosion and mudslides in places were superheated fire penetrates soil and roots. The destruction these two fires caused is immeasurable and will be felt for generations, said Leger Fernandez, sponsor of a bill that would reimburse residents and businesses routed by the fire. The Forest Service has not yet released detailed planning documents for the original planned burns that might indicate whether fire protocols were followed. Scientist and forest managers are racing to develop new tools to forecast the behavior of planned fires amid climate change and an enduring drought in the American West. The intentionally set blazes, known as prescribed burns, are aimed at limiting the accumulation of timber and underbrush that, if left unattended, can fuel extremely hot and destructive wildfires. The Biden administration announced in January a $50 billion plan to stave off catastrophic wildfires that would more than double the use of planned fires and logging to reduce trees and other vegetation that serve as tinder in the most at-risk areas. Prescribed burns often are used in wildland areas that are too vast to thin by hand or machine. The two fires east of Santa Fe joined in April to form the massive blaze at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains, in the Sangre de Cristo range. One of the fires was previously traced to April 6, when a planned burn, set by firefighters to clear out small trees and brush, was declared out of control. On Friday, investigators said they had tracked the source of the second fire to the remnants of a planned winter fire that lay dormant through several snowstorms only to flare up again last month. Investigators said the prescribed pile burn was initiated in January at Gallinas Canyon in the Santa Fe National Forest outside Las Vegas, New Mexico, and concluded in the final days of that month. Fire was reported again in the same vicinity April 9 and escaped control 10 days later amid dry, hot and windy conditions, Forest Service investigators found. Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham in a statement called the investigation results a "first step toward the federal government taking full responsibility" for the New Mexico wildfire. She highlighted her pending request to President Joe Biden to direct the Federal Emergency Management Administration to pay for 100% of costs related to a broad range of recovery efforts. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore last week announced a 90-day pause and review of protocols for planned fires that limit the buildup of flammable vegetation. He cited extreme fire danger and unfavorable weather and did not specifically link the review to New Mexico's fires. It will also ensure the prescribed burn program nationwide is anchored in the most contemporary science, policies, practices and decision-making processes, and that employees, partners and communities have the support they need to continue using this critical tool to confront the wildfire crisis, the agency said in a statement Friday. Moore said prescribed fires go as planned in more than 99% of cases. Notable exceptions include the 2000 Cerro Grande Fire that swept through national security installations and residential neighborhoods at Los Alamos. So-called pile burns can often include wildland debris collected over months or even years. Forest managers cut back trees and gather debris into mounds, preferring to burn forest fuels in the winter when planned burns are easier to control. In January, Santa Fe National Forest workers started burning through a series of piles across an area of 0.6 square miles (1.5 square kilometers), after advising the public of possible smoke hazards. ___ 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. DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard seized two Greek oil tankers Friday in helicopter-launched raids in the Persian Gulf, officials said. The action appeared to be retaliation for Athens' assistance in the U.S. seizure of crude oil from an Iranian-flagged tanker this week in the Mediterranean Sea over violating Washington's crushing sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The raid marks the first major incident at sea in months as tensions remain high between Iran and the West over its tattered nuclear deal with world powers. As Tehran enriches more uranium, closer to weapons-grade levels than ever before, worries mount that negotiators won't find a way back to the accord raising the risk of a wider war. The Guard issued a statement announcing the seizures, accusing the tankers of unspecified violations. Nour News, a website close to Irans Supreme National Security Council, warned a short time earlier that Tehran planned to take "punitive action" over Greece assisting the U.S. in seizing oil days earlier from the Iranian-flagged tanker Lana. Greece's Foreign Ministry said it made a strong demarche to the Iranian ambassador in Athens over the violent taking over of two Greek-flagged ships in the Persian Gulf. These acts effectively amount to acts of piracy, a ministry statement said. The ministry called for the immediate release of the vessels and their crews, warning the seizure would have particularly negative consequences in bilateral relations and in Irans relations with the European Union, of which Greece is a member. An Iranian helicopter landed on the Greek-flagged Delta Poseidon in international waters, some 22 nautical miles off the coast of Iran, the ministry said. Armed men then took the crew captive, it said, adding that two Greek nationals were among the crew. A similar incident has been reported on another Greek-flagged vessel, that was carrying seven Greek citizens, close to the coast of Iran, the ministry said. A Greek official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details of the attack with a journalist, identified the second ship as the Prudent Warrior. Its manager, Polembros Shipping in Greece, earlier said the company was cooperating with the authorities and making every possible effort to address the situation effectively. Greek officials did not identify the nationalities of the other crew on board the vessels. Both vessels had come from Iraq's Basra oil terminal, loaded with crude, according to tracking data from MarineTraffic.com. Prudent Warrior just before had been off Qatar and likely loaded oil there as well, the data showed. A U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said it appeared the two ships had come close to but not into Iranian territorial waters Friday. After the hijacking, they drifted into Iranian waters. The ships also had turned off their tracking devices another red flag, the official said. However, neither had issued a mayday or a call for help, the official said. Irans seizure on Friday was the latest in a string of hijackings and explosions to roil a region that includes the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil passes. The incidents began after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Iran's nuclear deal with world powers, which saw Tehran drastically limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. The U.S. Navy blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021. Iranian hijackers also stormed and briefly captured a Panama-flagged asphalt tanker off the United Arab Emirates last year, and briefly seized and held a Vietnamese tanker in November. Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war between Iran and the West has played out in the regions volatile waters. Tanker seizures have been a part of it since 2019, when Iran seized the British-flagged Stena Impero after the United Kingdom detained an Iranian oil tanker off Gibraltar. Iran released the tanker months later as London also released the Iranian vessel. Iran last year also seized and held a South Korean-flagged tanker for months amid a dispute over billions of dollars of frozen assets Seoul holds. This incident is assessed to be a retaliatory action in line with a history of Iranian forces detaining vessels in a tit-for-tat manner, maritime intelligence firm Dryad Global warned. As a result, Greek-flagged vessels operating within the vicinity of Iran in the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman are currently assessed to be at a heightened risk of interception and it is advised to avoid this area until further notice. Underlining that threat, Iran's semiofficial Tasnim news agency warned in a tweet: There are still 17 other Greek ships in the Persian Gulf that could be seized. Meanwhile, the Guard is building a massive new support ship near the Strait of Hormuz as it tries to expand its naval presence in waters vital to international energy supplies and beyond, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press. Talks in Vienna over Iran's tattered nuclear deal have been stalled since April. Since the deal's collapse, Iran runs advanced centrifuges and has a rapidly growing stockpile of enriched uranium. Nonproliferation experts warn Iran has enriched enough up to 60% purity a short technical step from weapons-grade levels of 90% to make one nuclear weapon if it choose. Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, though United Nations experts and Western intelligence agencies say Iran had an organized military nuclear program through 2003. Building a nuclear bomb would still take Iran more time if it pursued a weapon, analysts say, though they warn Tehran's advances make the program more dangerous. Israel has threatened in the past it will carry out a preemptive strike to stop Iran and already is suspected in a series of recent killings targeting Iranian officials. ___ Paphitis reported from Athens, Greece. Associated Press writer Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. A survivor of Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas says suspected gunman Salvador Ramos played menacing music and taunted her teacher before killing her amid a spree of violence that took the lives of 19 students and two educators at Robb Elementary School. Speaking to CNN's Nora Neus on Thursday, 11-year-old Miah Cerrillo recounted harrowing moments inside a shared classroom space where Ramos shot and killed all 21 of his victims before he was killed by a responding Border Patrol tactical unit. Miah said her class was watching "Lilo & Stitch" when Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, two teachers present in the conjoined classrooms, received an email about an active shooter on campus. One teacher went to check the door, according to Miah, and found 18-year-old Ramos peering into the room. At this point the teacher and Ramos made eye contact, Miah said, and the gunman proceeded to back her into the classroom. The teacher and the gunman then made eye contact a second time, at which point Ramos said "good night." He then shot and killed the teacher, Miah said. After killing her teacher the gunman opened fire on students in the room, killing many of Miah's friends and leaving her with bullet fragments in her side, shoulder, back and neck. She recounted that Ramos then stalked into the adjoining classroom space and continued shooting. The 11-year-old told Neus she heard screams, gunshots and music coming from the other room over the course of the nearly hour-long attack. "She thinks it was the gunman that put it on," Neus said. "She just said it sounded like 'I want people to die' music." Miah said she survived the ordeal by covering herself in her friend's blood and lying motionless on a classmate's still-breathing body. At one point she and another student grabbed their dead teacher's phone and used it to call 911. "Please send help because we're in trouble," Miah told the dispatcher, according to Neus. The 11-year-old said she believed the attack lasted three hours before responding officers entered the classroom and killed Ramos. Her mother later informed Miah the attack had lasted an houra duration that outraged many Uvalde parents cordoned behind a police perimeter set up outside the building. Neus reports that Miah became emotional when informed that police officers waited outside the building and "didn't understand why they didn't just come inside and get them." Texas DPS Regional Safety Director Victor Escalon on Thursday told reporters that responding officers entered the building but pulled back to await additional resources after coming under fire from Ramos, who had locked himself in a classroom. The tactical unit that ultimately killed Ramos arrived "approximately an hour" after the shooter entered Robb Elementary, Escalon said. "Officers were calling for additional resources. Tactical teams. We needed specialty equipment, we need body armor. We need sharpshooters. We need negotiators," Escalon said. "It's a complex situation." Miah's mother Abigale Veloz created a GoFundMe on Thursday seeking $10,000 in donations to cover her daughter's medical expenses and mental health care. As of this writing, the campaign has raised $105,000. "My daughter is an amazing person and is a very good sister to her siblings," Veloz wrote in the fundraiser's description. "We will need help with her medical expenses that were caused by the bullet fragment in her back." wwing/Getty Images Leaders of Southern Baptist released a 205-page list Thursday evening, May 26, that mentions two pastors from San Antonio-area churches. Southern Baptist leaders compiled the list through information "largely pulled from news articles" from 2007 until 2022. It has been kept secret until Thursday. The list names John O. McKay, Jr. and Erbey Valdez, two pastors that were charged with sex crimes with minors. McKay was sentenced to 10 years in prison for sexual assault of a 15-year-old girl in 2004. He was a former pastor at the First Baptist Church in Hondo, west of San Antonio, and Highland Hills Baptist Church in San Antonio. McKay was on the registered sex offender list until his death in 2018. The Biden Amendments at the WHO are Still Active NEWS PROVIDED BY May 27, 2022 WASHINGTON, May 27, 2022 / Christian Newswire / -- Earlier this week at the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA) meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, it appeared that 12 of the 13 amendments presented by the Biden administration were temporarily paused. However, the United States' representative is still pushing the amendments to pass before the session ends on May 28. The amendments would empower the World Health Organization (WHO) to unilaterally declare a "public health emergency" for any reason. On January 18, 2022, officials from the Biden administration quietly sent the WHO the original 13 amendments to the current International Health Regulations without an official statement or a single press conference. These were not made public until April 12, 2022, when a researcher, James Roguski, discovered them. The proposed amendments, in combination with the existing ones, enables Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus and any future Director-General to have unrestricted powers to define and then implement their interventions and to declare "health emergencies" at will. After 12 of those 13 amendments could not immediately reach a consensus, a new document dated May 24, was created, "Conference Page 7," which includes the last amendment of the original 13 and adds additional amendments. On May 25, in regards to those current proposed amendments, the presiding president of the World Health Assembly stated during the Sixth Committee A Session starting at 2:34:44, "... in reference to Conference Page 7, 'Strengthening WHO preparedness for and response to health emergencies,: Proposal for amendments to the International Health Regulations,' further discussion seems to be needed. With your permission and for transparency purposes, I will ask the secretary to share by email the outcome of the discussions today on behalf of the co-sponsors. I will also ask the secretary to make a room available for further discussions." It appears that instead of using the actual majority vote of the 194 delegates, there seems to be "backroom discussions" occurring in order to persuade those countries that are objecting to the amendments. In fact, it is possible that the original amendments are, in fact, still in these discussions as well. In addition, on May 24, a U.S. representative of the United States implied that the Biden administration is still trying to push his 13 amendments to be passed. The US representative gave this presentation at the WHO World Health Assembly Agenda 16.2: Int'l Health Regulation Amendments, Comm. A, 3rd: "The United States supports the ongoing efforts to strengthen WHO and make it more agile, transparent and effective. Going forward, we have collectively developed a plan to analyze and build consensus on important amendments to the Internal Health Regulations of 2005 to strengthen the instrument and improve implementation, compliance and effectiveness. On behalf of the United States and our co-sponsors, we have proposed resolution containing conference paper A75 A-7 to amend IHR Article 59 in order to make the instrument more agile and responsive to technological communications or other developments. This resolution is an expression of Member-State consensus to reduce the period for entry into force for any amendments to the IHR from the current 24 months to 12 months. We are mindful of the importance of respecting national sovereignty and the ability of domestic authorities to make health decisions in their territory which is inherent in the IHR. The IHR depends on and reinforces the sovereignty of member-states to take appropriate health measures and fight diseases together. It is essential that states' parties comply with the legally binding commitments undertaken when the IHR was revised over 15 years ago. Strengthening the IHR will provide an immediate and tangible step forward in demonstrating to the world that we are learning from the challenges we have faced battling COVID-19 and working to improve the global health architecture systems and tools to prevent and prepare for the next response to the pandemic to come. Improving and modernizing the IHR is critical to ensuring the world is better prepared for and can respond to the next pandemic. There is no greater duty for governments than keeping their citizens safe and free from danger. This includes health threats that can so easily move across borders and spread across the globe in a matter of days and weeks. COVID-19 demonstrates that we must do better in working with each other and communicating effectively when risks are detected. Failure in this regard is not acceptable. The United States of America looks forward to working with member-states to move forward on this important issue, strengthening our collective ability to prevent, detect and respond to future pandemics in making real progress toward the next one. The United States commends the WHO for its efforts to support the implementation of the IHR amidst the many challenges of COVID-19 and we look forward to continuing our critical work together with WHO and member-states to strengthen and further our current response to build a safer more secure and be better prepared for the future." Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver stated, "Amendments to give the World Health Organization unprecedented authority to declare a public health emergency could be passed in the blink of an eye when no one is paying attention. The WHO must not become the global authority on public health issuing directives influenced by its funding stakeholders that impact the sovereignty of independent nations. We cannot hand America's sovereignty over to the WHO." Liberty Counsel provides broadcast quality TV interviews via Hi-Def Skype and LTN at no cost. SOURCE Liberty Counsel CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org Related Links lc.org/ Two nationally watched Democratic primary runoffs in South Texas remain too close to call two days after election day, and there is unlikely to be much more clarity before early next week. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, is leading his challenger, Jessica Cisneros, by 177 votes, while the margin is even smaller in the 15th Congressional District, where Michelle Vallejo is ahead of Ruben Ramirez for the open seat. Cuellars 28th Congressional District includes San Antonio, Laredo and counties farther south, while the 15th District stretches from the Rio Grande Valley to outside San Antonio. Cuellar declared victory on election night, but Cisneros has not conceded and told reporters Thursday she is within reach to go and win this thing. After speaking with election offices, she said, it is very clear there are still hundreds of uncounted mail-in and provisional ballots. Due to the upcoming holiday weekend, many probably will not get counted until early next week, she said. In the 15th District, Vallejo came out of election night with a 23-vote lead, and both she and Ramirez agreed it was too close to call. At least two counties Hidalgo and Jim Wells have since updated their results, changing her lead to 27 votes. But like in Cuellars race, a final resolution likely will not come into focus until early next week. Michelle Vallejo, candidate for Texas 15th Congressional District, after a Futuro RGV candidate forum in McAllen on Jan. 11, 2022. Credit: Veronica Cardenas for The Texas Tribune Both runoffs have national implications. The moderate Cuellars long political career is on the line against Cisneros, a progressive. The race was upended twice, first by an FBI raid of Cuellars Laredo home before the primary and then by the leaking of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion overturning Roe v. Wade in the runoff. That cast a harsh spotlight on Cuellars status as one of the few remaining Democrats in Congress who oppose abortion. And Republicans see the 15th District as one of their top pickup opportunities nationwide and the centerpiece to their new push to turn South Texas red. Ramirez ran as a moderate, while Vallejo campaigned as a progressive. A timeline is now playing out at the county level where outstanding ballots can still be counted. Mail ballots that were postmarked by 7 p.m. Tuesday could still be counted if they were received by 5 p.m. Wednesday. The deadline for military and overseas ballots is Tuesday, May 31, a day later than usual due to Memorial Day. And then counties have until Thursday to finalize their results and report them to the state. Tuesday is also the deadline for voters to "cure" mail ballots that were rejected. Cisneros' campaign is urging mail voters to check online to make sure their ballot was accepted, if not, to call the campaign's "voter protection hotline" to see if they can fix it. Cisneros said the hotline "has been ringing nonstop all day since yesterday when we put out that call." In the 15th District, both Vallejo and Ramirez are also urging mail voters to ensure their ballot was accepted before the Tuesday deadline to cure rejected ballots. A candidate can request a recount if their margin is less than 10% of the votes received by their opponent. Both Cisneros and Ramirez are well within that, though candidates typically wait until all the outstanding ballots are counted before deciding whether to pursue a recount. This is a decision that either campaign wont be able to make until next week, Cisneros said, raising the possibility that it would be Cuellar who may want a recount given the quantity of uncounted ballots she believes there are. Cisneros said it was very irresponsible and kind of insulting to the voters for Cuellar to declare victory. He has expressed confidence that his win will hold. I know what it is to do a recount in an election contest, Cuellar told reporters on election night, referring to his 58-vote win in his first congressional race. We have very good attorneys, and if we need to, we will defend our election victory The Texas Tribune is a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org. WFO BINGHAMTON Warnings, Watches and Advisories for Friday, May 27, 2022 _____ AREAL FLOOD ADVISORY Flood Advisory National Weather Service Binghamton NY 502 PM EDT Fri May 27 2022 ...FLOOD ADVISORY IS CANCELLED... The Flood Advisory is cancelled for a portion of central New York, including the following counties, Cayuga, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben and Yates. The heavy rain has ended. Flooding is no longer expected to pose a significant threat. Please continue to heed remaining road closures. ...A strong thunderstorm will impact portions of central Dutchess County through 545 PM EDT... At 503 PM EDT, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm near Red Oaks Mill, or 7 miles southeast of Poughkeepsie, moving north at 25 mph. HAZARD...Wind gusts up to 50 mph, pea size hail, and heavy rain. SOURCE...Radar indicated. IMPACT...Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs and blow around unsecured objects. Minor damage to outdoor objects is possible. Heavy rains could cause flooding. Locations impacted include... Pleasant Valley, Amenia, Millbrook, Hopewell Junction, Red Oaks Mill, Myers Corner, Stanfordville, Dover Plains, Beekman, Smithfield, Stormville, Salt Point, Lithgow, Hoxie Corner, Clove Valley, Poughquag, Billings, Shunpike, Pleasant Ridge and Washington Hollow. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS... If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building. Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm and may lead to localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded roadways. This storm may intensify, so be certain to monitor local radio stations and available television stations for additional information and possible warnings from the National Weather Service. LAT...LON 4160 7390 4195 7375 4189 7350 4186 7350 4154 7371 TIME...MOT...LOC 2103Z 198DEG 22KT 4165 7380 MAX HAIL SIZE...0.25 IN MAX WIND GUST...50 MPH _____ Copyright 2022 AccuWeather ZZ Top pulled into the Thunder Bay Community Auditorium Wednesday evening for a rocking performance. The band has been together for over five decades and sold over 30 million records across 15 studio albums. The loss of long-time bassist Dusty Hill in 2021 did not stop the band as his spot o Since its launch in 1967, the FSWP has been a leading immigration pathway for skilled workers. How to immigrate to Canada using the Federal Skilled Worker Program Since its launch in 1967, the FSWP has been a leading immigration pathway for skilled workers. How to immigrate to Canada using the Federal Skilled Worker Program Since its launch in 1967, the FSWP has been a leading immigration pathway for skilled workers. How to immigrate to Canada using the Federal Skilled Worker Program Since its launch in 1967, the FSWP has been a leading immigration pathway for skilled workers. Edana Robitaille Aa Accessibility Font Style Serif Sans Font Size A A Potential immigrants to Canada have over 100 different economic class immigration programs that they can use to get status as a permanent resident. The Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) was established in 1967 and has proven to be one of the most popular options for skilled workers looking to call Canada their home. What is the FSWP? The FSWP is designed as a pathway for candidates with skilled work experience who want to immigrate to Canada permanently. It was the first such program in the world to feature a points system that evaluates candidates objectively and has inspired other countries such as Australia and New Zealand to adopt the same approach. Who is eligible for the FSWP? Coming to Canada through the FSWP is a multistep process. To get started, candidates must meet the following criteria: At least one year of skilled work experience A minimum Canadian Language Benchmark of 7 on their English or French language test At least one educational credential Demonstrate proof of funds (if applicable) Get at least 67 out of 100 points on the FSWP scoring grid Get a Free Canadian Immigration Assessment Work experience To be eligible to apply for the FSWP, you will require at least one year of skilled worked experience in an occupation listed in Canadas National Occupation Classification (NOC) system. In short, the NOC is a system that Canada uses to determine the level of skill and education necessary to an occupation or career within the same industry in Canada. For FSWP, and any Express Entry program, there are three eligible NOC categories: NOC 0: Management positions NOC A: Careers that typically require a university degree NOC B: Skilled trades professions Education To satisfy the education requirement, you need to have completed at least secondary school education either inside Canada or overseas. If completed overseas, you must get an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) showing that your education is equal to a Canadian diploma, degree, or certification. Language It is important to be able to show proficiency in one of Canadas official languages (English or French). FSWP candidates need a minimum score of 7 on the Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB). You will be graded on reading, writing, speaking and listening. Proof of funds Candidates must also demonstrate they have enough proof of funds to support themselves and their families if necessary. This does not apply if a candidate is already working in Canada or has a valid job offer. The minimum funds will vary depending on the number of people seeking to immigrate. Proof of funds can be demonstrated by a letter from the bank or financial institution where you keep your money. The letter must show any outstanding debts, account numbers, loans and the average balance for the past six months. Number of family members Funds required in CAD 1 $13,310 2 $16,570 3 $20,371 4 $24,733 5 $28,052 6 $31,638 7 $35,224 Each additional family member $3,586 FSWP points grid In addition to the above criteria, you need to obtain at least 67 out of 100 on the FSWP points grid. The grid assesses the following six factors. Factors Points Education Up to 25 Language Skills Up to 28 Work Experience Up to 15 Age Up to 12 Arranged employment Up to 10 Adaptability Up to 10 I am eligible for the FSWP: Now what? The FSWP is one of the three economic immigration pathways managed by Express Entry. The other programs are the Canadian Experience Class and the Federal Skilled Trades Program. If you are eligible for any of these three programs, you can create a profile on the website of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). You will receive a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score based on human capital factors such as age, language skills, work experience, and education, among others. Candidates scores are ranked against others in the pool and the highest scoring candidates receive an invitation to apply (ITA) for permanent residency. ITAs are issued every two weeks. If you receive an ITA, you have 60 days to submit your permanent residence application to IRCC. FSWP invitations resume in early July 2022 Due to the pandemic, the FWSP was temporarily put on hold in 2021 as the federal government sought to prioritize in-Canada applications to achieve its goal of landing over 400,000 permanent residents in 2021. IRCC has recently announced that in early July of this year it will begin inviting new candidates under all three Express Entry-managed programs, including the FSWP. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser has said that IRCC will try to process all new Express Entry applications within six months. Express Entry will grow in prominence over the coming years as Canada seeks to welcome more skilled workers to support its economy. By 2024, Canada will look to welcome over 110,000 immigrants through Express Entry. Get a Free Canadian Immigration Assessment CIC News All Rights Reserved. Visit CanadaVisa.com to discover your Canadian immigration options. Liberty Mutual is one of the most experienced and advanced cloud adopters in the nation. And that is in no small part thanks to the vision of James McGlennon, who in his role as CIO of Liberty Mutual for past 17 years has led the charge to the cloud, analytics, and AI with a budget north of $2 billion. Eight years ago, McGlennon hosted an off-site think tank with his staff and came up with a technology manifesto document that defined in those early days the importance of exploiting cloud-based services, becoming more agile, and instituting cultural changes to drive the companys digital transformation. Today, Liberty Mutual, which has 45,000 employees across 29 countries, has a robust hybrid cloud infrastructure built primarily on Amazon Web Services but with specific uses of Microsoft Azure and, lesser so, Google Cloud Platform. Liberty Mutuals cloud infrastructure runs an array of business applications and analytics dashboards that yield real-time insights and predictions, as well as machine learning models that streamline claims processing. As the Boston-based insurance companys journey to the cloud has unfolded, it has also maintained a select set of datacenters from which to run legacy applications more economically than they would on the cloud, as well as software from vendors that make licensing on the cloud less attractive. And while McGlennon believes that will change over time, he is far more focused on technologies that will define the next generation of applications. Were really trying to understand the metaverse and what it might mean for us, says McGlennon, whose mild Irish brogue bares his Galway, Ireland, upbringing. Were focused on augmented reality and virtual reality. Were doing a lot on AI and machine learning and robotics. Weve already built up blockchain and well continue with all those. And that ability to push the envelope, especially around machine learning and AI, finds its foundation in Liberty Mutuals rich cloud capabilities. The benefits of a solid cloud foundation Despite his laser focus on embracing emerging technologies, McGlennon remains highly enthusiastic about Liberty Mutuals use of and expertise in the cloud. Sixty percent of the insurers global workloads run in the cloud, delivering significant savings in hardware and software purchasing, but the big benefit comes in the form of business insights from analytics on the cloud that are immeasurable, he says. The cloud has been a huge positive impact on us economically and surely you hear this story all the time, but it didnt necessarily start out that way, he says. It tended to be additive to our legacy platforms when we started building out our cloud initially, but more recently, weve become far more mature in our use of the cloud and in our ability to optimize it to make sure that every single cycle of a CPU that we use out in the cloud is adding value. Here, McGlennon says governing controls, instrumentation, and observability metrics are key. The CIO would not specify how much the multinational company has saved by deploying workloads to the cloud but estimated it has saved about 5% over the past two and a half years. Its a big number, he says. Implementing cloud-native architectures for autoscaling and instrumenting Liberty Mutuals applications to control how theyre performing have been crucial to realizing those savings, McGlennon says. Like many other early cloud adopters, Liberty Mutual deploys off-the-shelf tools such as Apptio to monitor costs and automate scaling depending on workloads, he says. Weve worked with our cloud partners to better instrument our applications and better understand how theyre performing, says McGlennon, who was a finalist for the MIT Sloan CIO Leadership Award for 2022. That gives us greater insight into where we are potentially wasting resources and where we can optimize such as moving workloads to smaller cloud platforms. McGlennon is proud of his teams use of Apptio, for example, to best exploit its consumption-oriented model for not just its data on the cloud but for its internal services, software, and SaaS offerings, which, when linked to Liberty Mutuals business portfolio, essentially provides the insurers partners with a bill of materials for all of the resources used. The payoff of AI Over the past eight years, the Liberty Mutual IT team, which consists of 5,000 internal IT employees and about 5,000 outside contractors, has used a variety of development platforms and analytical tools as part of its cloud journey, spanning from IBM Rational and .NET in the early days to Java and tools such as New Relic, Datadog, and Splunk. Liberty Mutuals data scientists employ Tableau and Python extensively to deploy models into production. To expedite this, the insurers technical team built an API pipeline, called Runway, that packages models and deploys them as Python, as opposed to requiring the companys data scientists to go back and rebuild them in Java or another language, McGlennon says. Its really critical that we can deploy models quickly without having to rebuild them in another platform or language, he adds. And to be able to track the effectiveness of those machine learning models such that we can retrain them should the data sets change as they often do. The insurer also uses Amazon Sage Maker to build machine learning models, but the core models are based on Python. Liberty Mutuals IT team has also created a set of components called Cortex to enable its data scientists to instantiate the workstations they need to build a new model so the data scientist doesnt have to worry about how to build out the infrastructure to start the modeling process, McGlennon says. With Cortex, Liberty Mutuals data scientists can simply set their technical and data-set requirements, and a modeling workstation will be created on AWS with the right data and tools in an appropriately sized GPU environment, McGlennon explains. The insurer also deploys software bots in its claims model to enable customers to initiate a claim, e-mail a digitized photograph of their damaged vehicle, answer a few questions, and arrange a car rental quickly. On the back end, a machine learning model analyzes the photograph of the damaged vehicle to detect whether its airbag has been deployed, for instance, and to determine immediately whether a vehicle is totaled or the damage is limited to a fender bender. The insurers computer vision models may also tap into IoT devices and sensors deployed outside to generate more data for the claim. Liberty Mutual has come a long way from its technology manifesto to its advanced use of the cloud and AI, and embracing next-generation technologies such as augmented reality and blockchain will yield further advances, McGlennon notes. But this CIO is happy enough with the cloud and AI platform of today. Weve already seen significant economic payback from being able to use machine learning models to fine-tune quotes and pricing, in fraud detection, and our coding process to make it easier for customers to do business with us, McGlennon says, pointing to advanced cloud applications benefits in its core business of processing claims. We use it all over the place. Although his is a property and casualty company, McGlennon believes CIOs must drive innovation and take risks to create a culture where people feel there is the latitude to try something. Risk is our business, McGlennon said during a panel at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium this week, adding that CIOs need to show that when things go wrong, and sometimes they will, no one is going to be made to feel that the risk wasnt worth it. You have to incubate something, nurture it, give it support, he said. Sorry, no valid subscriptions were found for this Publication. Please select from an option below to start a subscription. SUBSCRIBE TODAY! 24 Hour Access Agentia de Guvernare Electronica anunta Concurs de angajare pentru suplinirea postului vacant de Dezvoltator de software Book Aid International has sent 10,070 childrens books to a Polish literacy organisation as a refuge to Ukrainian children who have fled conflict. The Universal Reading Foundation in Warsaw will receive the books, which were donated to Book Aid International by UK publishers. The charity has thanked Oxford University Press and Green Bean Books in particular, which financially contributed to the shipment of books. Almost six million Ukrainians have sought shelter in neighbouring countries since Russia invaded their country, of which 1.8 million are children. 'Books are a refuge' 50,000 Ukrainian children will be helped by the Universal Reading Foundation, which is working with a network of orphanages, libraries and schools in Poland that are sheltering Ukrainian children. Maria Deskur, CEO of the Universal Reading Foundation, spoke of the value of books for these Ukrainian children. She said: Books are a refuge. For small kids reading is a peaceful and close moment with someone they trust: a fundamental sign that they are ok, they can spare a moment to smile together over a book. For older children reading is a crucial mind opener; a huge empathy strengthening training; a great critical thinking lesson which especially for teenagers is so immensely important! Thanks to the Book Aid International donation, we plan to start an extensive cooperation with refugee centres where Ukrainians stay on their way to other countries. We would love all these children to be able to get the chance to read at least one book. When conflict strikes, books offer hope Alison Tweed, CEO of Book Aid International, said: When conflict strikes books offer the chance to find hope and to continue to learn even while fleeing war. We think it is vital to support the Universal Reading Foundations important work at this incredibly difficult time and we would like to warmly thank everyone who made this shipment possible. We could not send a single book without the support of publishers who donate these wonderful, brand new books to our charity. sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector, The Trussell Trust has seen a staggering increase in the number of food parcels distributed over the last five years. Food banks in the food charity network provided more than 2.1 million emergency food parcels between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022. Of these, 832,000 were for children. This represents an 81% increase compared to the same period five years ago. The Trussell Trust supports a nationwide network of more than 1,300 food bank centres. Food banks under pressure In a blog post on NPCs website, Grace Wyld, a member of the policy research team at the Trussell Trust, wrote that food banks around the country are under increased pressure as the cost-of-living crisis bites hard. She said: In recent weeks we have been encouraged by politicians to cut back on luxuries and shop around for cheaper supermarket staples. But for people already struggling to afford the essentials, there is simply nothing left to cut and food banks across the UK are picking up the pieces. Wyld said that people referred to food banks in the charitys network have on average just 57 a week to live on after housing costs. While charities will do everything they can to support people facing financial hardship, they cannot and should not be expected to pick up the pieces for the UK government and an increasingly threadbare social security system, she added. Citizens Advice Merthyr Tydfil: requests for food bank vouchers up 500% Speaking in parliament on Wednesday, Gerald Jones, a Welsh shadow minister, said that requests for food bank vouchers and other charitable support in his constituency have increased by more than 500%. He said: My local food banks operate in challenging times and, on a number of occasions recently, have come close to running out of food, given the huge demand. His comments followed a meeting with Citizens Advice Merthyr Tydfil, a charity that provides advice and campaign on big issues affecting peoples lives. According to the charitys case management system, 104 food bank vouchers were issued in Merthyr and surrounding areas between October 2020 and March 2021. This compares with 669 between October 2021 and March 2022. The number of charitable support issues, which include the Discretionary Assistance Fund, baby banks, food pantries and help from churches, rose from 71 to 256. The power of data NPC has created an interactive databank that helps charities and funders better understand communities needs around the country. Wyld said this data can be used to better understand the changing picture of inequality across the UK. She wrote in the blog post: The Trussell Trusts mission is to end the need for food banks in the UK, and the stats being added to NPCs databank are a sobering reminder of just how steep a hill there is to climb. However, it is also through data that we can better equip ourselves, food banks, organisers, and campaigners - many of whom have their own experience of turning to a food bank in a time of crisis - to meet the challenges we face. Through open data and innovative tools like the local needs databank, we can gain a greater understanding of where needs are most acute across the UK and what we need to do to achieve our mission. We arent going to end the need for food banks through data alone, but we certainly cant get there without it. sign up to receive the Civil Society News daily bulletin here . For more news, interviews, opinion and analysis about charities and the voluntary sector, On Wednesdaythe day after a gunman killed nineteen children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TexasTed Cruz, the states Republican US senator, attended a vigil in the city and faced some tough questions from Mark Stone, a journalist with the British network Sky News. Stone asked whether now is the right moment to pursue gun reform; Cruz tried to brush off the question as a politicized media talking point; Stone countered that mourners were asking the question, too. Stone then told Cruz that people around the world cannot fathom why mass shootings keep happening only in the US, asking, Why is this American exceptionalism so awful? Cruz said that Stone had a political agenda, then tapped him on the shoulders and said God love you before turning heel and walking away. Stone followed, politely insisting that this is purely an American problem, and saying, You cant answer that, can you? Cruz suddenly turned and hissed at Stone about American greatness. Then he left. Also on Wednesday, Greg Abbott, the Republican governor of Texas, hosted a press conference at a local high school. He said that the shooting could have been worse if law enforcement hadnt done what they do and shown amazing courage. When Abbott stopped talking, Beto ORourke, his Democratic opponent in the states upcoming gubernatorial election, made a dramatic intervention, approaching the stage and speaking up at Abbott from the floor of the auditorium. You are offering up nothing, ORourke said. You said this was not predictable. This was totally predictable when you choose not to do anything. Abbott stayed quiet, but others on stage shouted back, including Don McLaughlin, the mayor of Uvalde, who called ORourke a sick son of a bitch. ORourke was eventually ushered out by law enforcement as a media scrum formed around him; it continued into the parking lot, where dozens of journalists soon found that they had been locked out of the auditorium. The footage of the confrontation was shared far and wide, as were instantly iconic images taken by news photographers showing ORourke standing calmly as officials towered over him and pointed in unison for him to leave. The takes soon flowed; Newsweek wrote that the episode could cost ORourke the governors race. Related: A massacre in Uvalde, and the numbing script of gun-violence coverage Also on Wednesday, just after 7pm local time, CNNs Anderson Cooper, on the scene in Uvalde, interviewed a local med aide named Angel Garza, who explained how he found out that his daughter Amerie had been killed in the shooting from a friend of hers to whom he was tending. Amerie was trying to call the police when she was shot. She was ten. The camera zoomed in on a photo of Amerie that Garza was cradling in his arms as he bowed his head and sobbed. Cooper put a hand on Garzas shoulder and kept asking questions. She was so sweet, Mr. Cooper, Garza said. She was the sweetest little girl who did nothing wrong. Cooper took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. Garza apologized for breaking down again. Cooper said it was okay. Yesterday, Victor Escalon, an official with the Texas Department of Public Safety, convened a press conference with the stated aim of clarifying the events of the shooting. He failed. Escalon did offer that the gunman had stayed outside of the building for twelve minutes before entering and that a school police officer did not, contra other officials prior claims, confront the gunman on entry, but he also made confusing statements about officers entry into the school and didnt answer other, simple questions from reporters, including officers response time to the initial 911 call. Journalists seized on the mixed messaging and gaps in the official timeline. Weve been given a lot of bad information, CNNs Shimon Prokupecz told Escalon, so why dont you clear all of this up now? Escalon said he would circle back. As he walked off, reporters clamored for him to take a question in Spanish. (Uvalde is heavily Latino.) He did not. Also yesterday, parents and other members of the local community talked to reporters from various outlets about their frustration with the police response to the shooting and subsequent lack of clarity, amid growing reports, and videos circulating on social media, showing parents urging law enforcement to enter the school and suggesting that they might have to go in themselves. One parent, Angeli Rose Gomez, who has two children at the school, told the Wall Street Journal that as she desperately urged law enforcement to go in, US Marshals arrested her for interfering with an investigation, and handcuffed her. (Local police officers persuaded the Marshals to free her; the US Marshals Service denied cuffing anyone.) Gomez said she saw other parents being pushed to the ground, pepper-sprayed, and Tasered. They didnt do that to the shooter, but they did that to us, she said. Thats how it felt. Sign up for CJR 's daily email Back on Wednesday, in France, Le Monde ran an editorial about the massacre in both French and English. America is killing itself, as the Republican Party looks the other way, the headline read. If an American exceptionalism still exists, its in tolerating schools regularly being transformed into blood-soaked shooting ranges, the piece itself said. Always more weapons: thats the only Republican credo. The editorial was widely read, and various major US news organizations deemed it noteworthy enough to share with their readers. HuffPost described it as damning. The New York Times described it as scathing. The three interviews, two press conferences, and editorial mentioned above were all shared or referenced widely. Of course, they are far from the only notable examples of journalismor public informationto come out of Uvalde since Tuesday; they just stood out to me through an impressionistic blur of grief, outrage, and fatigue. Taken together, though, they illustrate broader truths about the coverage as a whole. I wrote in Wednesdays newsletter, borrowing from the Texas Tribunes Matthew Watkins, about the numbing scriptparts of it necessary; others regrettablethat the press as a whole tends to follow in the aftermath of atrocities like this one. The six stories above collectively show different elements of that script: the factual struggle to piece together what happened, efforts to learn about the victims and center their grieving relatives, and the impulse to slot all the horror into a framework of national political debate and electoral contestation. These stories illustrate something more, too. The official obfuscation and heavy-handed policing of traumatized parents, in particular, fit a script that is not limited to mass shootings; similarly, the rush of coverage that follows such events, while repetitive and distinctive in its rhythms, cannot be divorced from the way we approach other big stories across the sweep of society. In all such cases, the need to probe and scrutinize the official line, rather than just regurgitate it, is paramount. And Stones questioning and the Le Monde editorial, in particular, show wayssharpened in each case by outside eyesin which we might think about flipping the script, both on mass shootings and more generally. All of us should assess how America is exceptionaland how its notwith the clearest of eyes. Below, more on Uvalde: Other notable stories: ICYMI: Facebooks new data-sharing plans raise old concerns Has America ever needed a media watchdog more than now? Help us by joining CJR today Jon Allsop is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, among other outlets. He writes CJRs newsletter The Media Today. Find him on Twitter @Jon_Allsop. The U.S. Senate on Thursday confirmed by voice vote President Joe Bidens nominee to serve as the top auto safety regulator, the first to win approval since January 2017 and as U.S. traffic deaths have risen to the highest level in 16 years. Steven Cliff has been serving as deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) since February 2021 and was nominated by Biden for the top job in October. His approval by the Senate comes amid soaring U.S. traffic deaths and several ongoing investigations into safety issues at Tesla Inc TSLA.O. Cliff, a former deputy executive officer at the California Air Resources Board, was a key figure in the Biden administrations rewrite of fuel economy standards through 2027. NHTSA is beginning to hold discussions about the next round of fuel economy increases. The Governors Highway Safety Association praised Cliffs approval and noted NHTSA went more than five years without a confirmed leader. NHTSA says U.S. traffic deaths jumped 10.5% in 2021 to 42,915 the highest number killed on American roads in a single year since 2005. The yearly increase was the highest reported since NHTSA began using its current traffic fatality tracking system in 1975. The number of pedestrians killed jumped 13% to 7,342, hitting the highest number since 1981. The number of people on bicycles killed rose 5% to 985, the highest number since at least 1975. NHTSA in August opened a formal safety probe into Teslas Autopilot system in 765,000 U.S. vehicles after a series of crashes involving Tesla models and emergency vehicles. In October, NHTSA asked Tesla why it has not issued a recall to address software updates made to its Autopilot driver-assistance system. Cliff in December said he hoped NHTSA would soon finish its investigations into Tesla crashes involving automated driving systems. Last week, NHTSA said it opened a special crash investigation into a May 12 Tesla fatal crash in California that resulted in three deaths and could have been caused by its advanced driver assistance system. By Wednesday morning, it was all over except for the speeches. The five-day special session on the insurance crisis turned into just three days, and without seeing adoption of a single significant modification to two bills that had been carefully crafted to help some property insurers with reinsurance costs and help everyone else with litigation and roof claims. Find exactly what you need. Search our database of more than 700 companies and 22,000 market listings. Both chambers passed SB 2D and SB 4D with overwhelming support, a testament to the lock-step relationship between Floridas governor and Senate and House leadership. The fact that the passage of the bills seemed a foregone conclusion early on in the session did not stop several lawmakers, though, from blasting colleagues for failing to do more to help homeowners who have seen soaring premiums in the last two years. This is called corporate welfare, market manipulation, trickle-down economics, said Rep. Michael Grieco, D-Miami Beach. He was referring to the $2 billion Reinsurance to Assist Policyholders, or RAP fund, authorized by SB 2D. It gives insurers a one-year layer of reinsurance below what the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund provides, saving some companies millions on additional reinsurance from private reinsurers. Instead of paying premiums into the RAP fund, participating carriers will have to provide premium reductions to policyholders within a month. Still, Grieco called it a slush fund for insurance companies. A former deputy Florida insurance commissioner, Lisa Miller, now a lobbyist and consultant, said in a conference call Thursday that Griecos labels were offensive. The RAP fund is more of a bailout for consumers and will result in some savings, she said. Other lawmakers and industry representatives agreed the legislation didnt go far enough to solve all of Floridas insurance woes. But many said it was a good first step. I give it a grade of C, said Donald Brown, a former legislator who now is a registered lobbyist for the Association of Bermuda Insurers and Reinsurers, the Florida Insurance Council and Associated Industries of Florida. Rep. Ralph Massullo praised the bill and said it was filled with great initiatives that address major cost drivers. The Senate vote was 30-9 in favor of SB 2D. The House approved it 95-14. Some 27 amendments were offered, including a freeze on insurance rates and a ban on insurers cancelling policies while a claim or litigation is pending. But all amendments were handily voted down. A second bill, SB 4D, ended up being two measures rolled into one. One part modifies the state building code, which until now has required that entire roofs be replaced if just 25% of the surface is damaged. The bill opens the door to less-costly repairs, as long as the rest of the roof surface meets code requirements. A second part of SB 4D is the condominium reform bill. Gov. Ron DeSantis added that to the agenda at the last minute after the regular session did not address the issue. It, too, passed. The measure met with plenty of emotional speeches but no nay votes. The roof/condo bill, adopted almost 11 months to the day after the deadly condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, now requires high-rise condominiums to be inspected more often. Inspection reports must be provided to unit owners and prospective buyers, and condo association can no longer defer maintenance and funding for repairs. The condo section of the bill makes the trip to Tallahassee worth it, Grieco said on the House floor. Insurers will appreciate the bill, once it is signed into law, because it will provide needed information on the condition of buildings, supporters said. The both bills will take effect upon the governors signature. It wasnt clear when the governor will sign the legislation, but the ink is expected to flow this week. Several lawmakers and insurance representatives said the industry wont have to wait long to know if the legislation has helped smooth the turbulent waters of the Florida market. Many reinsurance programs must be renewed by June 1, and insiders predicted that as many as four carriers wont complete their programs and will face insolvency or rehabilitation in coming weeks, despite the RAP fund in SB 2D. Were not done, said Rep. Matt Willhite, D-Wellington, suggesting that more legislation may be needed later this year or at the 2023 regular session of the Legislature. Beyond the bills that were passed, the special session has put state regulators under the microscope. A number of lawmakers, on both sides of the aisle, charged that OIR has fallen short in monitoring for potential insolvencies, limiting rate increases, providing information on the industry, and other areas. Some argued that the entire structure of insurance regulation, with some duties split between OIR and the Department of Financial Services, was partly to blame for Floridas recent troubles. I find the Office of Insurance Regulation to be incredibly flawed, said Rep. Anna Eskamani, D-Orlando. When you have a position that is not elected, but is appointed by a position that is well-funded by insurance companies, you have a serious situation of the fox guarding the hen house. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) The family of a Black man who yelled that he couldnt breathe before he died in a North Carolina jail in 2019 has reached a $3 million settlement in its wrongful-death lawsuit, according to court documents filed Wednesday. John Nevilles family reached the settlement with all five former jailers who were initially charged with involuntary manslaughter in his death as well as with Forsyth County government and Forsyth County Sheriff Bobby Kimbrough Jr., the Winston-Salem Journal reported. The settlement was reached during a mediation meeting April 19. In that settlement, the detention officers, Forsyth County and Kimbrough do not admit liability. The family said Nevilles civil rights were violated when detention officers and a nurse ignored his medical distress and pinned him on a mattress as he yelled that he couldnt breathe. Neville died on Dec. 4, 2019 after having a medical emergency at the Forsyth County jail. Body camera videos showed him struggling with guards to get up from where he lay on the floor, calling out for his mother and yelling I cant breathe! more than 20 times as he was being restrained. Neville had been arrested several days earlier. Kimbrough did not publicly acknowledge Nevilles death until about six months later, when he was questioned by the Journal in June 2020. Claims are still pending against Michelle Heughins, a nurse who worked at the Forsyth County jail, and Wellpath LLC, the jails former medical provider. In July 2020, Forsyth County District Attorney Jim ONeill announced involuntary manslaughter charges against Heughins and the five former detention officers. In April, a Forsyth County grand jury declined to indict the five former jailers on involuntary manslaughter charges. Heughins was indicted, and her case is pending in Forsyth County Superior Court. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Workers compensation claimants dont have to prove that the physicians appointed to resolve medical disputes have an actual bias the mere appearance of a conflict of interest is enough to disqualify them from evaluating a claim, the Utah Supreme Court ruled Thursday. The decision could mean trouble for the Rocky Mountain Center for Occupational and Environmental Health. The center provides about half of the independent medical evaluations conducted in Utah even though it receives funding from the WCF Mutual Insurance Co., formerly known as the Workers Compensation Fund, said Virginius Jinks Dabney, a claimants attorney based in St. George, Utah. They are appointed and they are doctors who owe their allegiance to the Fund, he said. Its one thing for the Fund to create this unholy alliance and its another when the Labor Commission allows it and protects them. Dabney represents Luis G. Gamez, who sought workers compensation benefits after he injured his left shoulder and low back in a workplace accident. WCF accepted the shoulder injury but contested the low-back injury. An administrative law judge appointed Dr. Jeremy Biggs to a medical panel to review the claim. Biggs selected an occupational physician to serve with him on the evaluating panel. Gamez objected to the appointment because Biggs is an occupational medicine physician, not a low back pain specialist. Gamez also charged that Biggs has a conflict of interest because his employer receives funding from WCF. Dabney said he and his co-counsel presented evidence at trial that the Rocky Mountain center has received $250,000 annual contributions from WCF since at least 2015. The insurers chief counsel, Dennis Lloyd, is chairman of an advisory board that oversees the centers operations. Dabney said WCF holds training sessions for doctors employed by the center. Its an incestuous relationship, he said. After an administrative law judge appointed Briggs to the evaluating panel, Dabney appealed the decision to the Labor Commissions Appeals Board. The board rejected his arguments, ruling that the statute requires that only one member of a medical panel must be a specialist in the claimants medical condition and that Gamez would have to show that Biggs had an actual bias to disqualify him. The medical panel concluded that the industrial accident had aggravated Gamezs low back pain, but the injury had returned to baseline and was not permanent. Gamez appealed and the Supreme Court took up the case. In a 5-0 decision, the high court agreed with the Labor Commissions Appeals Board that only one physician on a medical panel must be a specialist. But the court said the boards ruling that Gamez must show an actual bias was in error. The opinion says nothing in the Workers Compensation Act states that medical evaluators cannot be biased, but the statute does say, indirectly, that claimants are entitled to an impartial medical evaluation. In a 2013 case, Johnson v. Labor Commission, the Court of Appeals rejected a claimants argument that a medical evaluator was biased because he shared office space with insurance medical examiners. Since then, the Labor Commission Appeals Board has routinely cited that case to assert that anything less than actual malice is insufficient to prove claims of bias or conflict of interest. The Court of Appeals did not use that term in Johnson, the Supreme Court said. To be impartial, a person must be disinterested, the opinion says. That means they must be free of a conflict of interest. Requiring actual bias to prove a claim that a medical evaluator is biased obscures the element of disinterestedness, the opinion says. Bias includes both real and seeming incompatibility between ones private interests and ones public or fiduciary duties. And recognizing the scope of the term impartial, we hold that where a medical panelists impartiality could reasonably be questioned, the statutory requirement for an impartial medical evaluation has not been met, the opinion says. The ruling requires the Appeals Board to hold a hearing to consider Gamez has proved his bias claim without insisting on the actual bias standard. The court did not rule on whether Biggs affiliation with the Rocky Mountain center constitutes a conflict of interest or if the medical panels opinion about his condition is legitimate. Biggs is the medical director for the Rocky Mountain centers Specialty Services Clinic. Dabney said he will be able to present ample evidence to present a reasonable question that the WCFs regular contributions to the Rocky Mountain Center create a disqualifying conflict of interest. Theyve got their fingers all over that place, Dabney said. WCF held 50% of the Utah workers compensation market in 2021, according to its latest annual report. Executives at the Rocky Mountain Center and at WCF did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf found amid the ashes of the nations largest wildfire as calving season approaches its peak in New Mexico and fires rage across the American West. Missoula, Montana-based firefighter Nate Sink said Tuesday that he happened upon the motionless elk calf on the ground of a fire-blackened New Mexico forest as he patrolled and extinguished lingering hot spots. The whole area is just surrounded in a thick layer of ash and burned trees. I didnt think it was alive, said Sink, who was deployed to the state to help contain a wildfire that by Wednesday had spread across 486 square miles (1,260 square kilometers) and destroyed hundreds of structures. Its is one of five major uncontained fires burning in New Mexico amid extremely dry and windy conditions. More than 3,000 firefighters battling the biggest blaze have made significant progress halting its growth in recent days ahead of more dangerous fire conditions forecast to return into the weekend, crew commanders said Wednesday night. Wildlife officials in general discourage interactions with elk calves that are briefly left alone in the first weeks of life as their mothers forage at a distance. Sink says he searched diligently for traces of the calfs mother and found none. The 32-pound (14.5-kilogram) singed bull calf, dubbed Cinder, was taken for care to a nearby ranch and is now regaining strength at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Espanola, north of Santa Fe. Veterinarian Kathleen Ramsay at Cottonwood Rehab says she paired Cinder with a full-grown surrogate elk to be raised with as little human contact as possible. They do elk things, they dont do people things, said Ramsay, noting Cinder arrived at a tender days-old age with his umbilical cord still attached. Ramsay said the calf hopefully can be released into the wild in December after elk-hunting season. The strategy has worked repeatedly with elk tracked by tags as they rejoined wild herds. The calfs rescue was reminiscent of events 70 years ago in New Mexico involving a scalded black bear cub and the fire prevention mascot Smokey Bear. The U.S. fire-safety campaign took on new urgency in 1950 with the rescue by firefighters of a black bear cub that was badly burned by wildfire in southern New Mexico. The cub named Smokey Bear after the mascot recovered and lived at the National Zoo until its death in 1976. Wildfires have broken out this spring in multiple states in the West, where climate change and an enduring drought are fanning the frequency and intensity of forest and grassland fires. Crews battling the biggest U.S. fire in northern New Mexico took advantage of one last day of favorable weather Wednesday before hotter, drier and windier conditions are forecast to return late Thursday and continue to worsen into next week. All across the fire, were making a lot of really good progress over the last few days, incident commander Carl Schwope said at a briefing Wednesday night. We do have some more critical fire weather moving in starting now and getting warmer and drier throughout the weekend. (But) feeling real confident that we are ahead of the curve on that, he said. Bruno Rodriguez, an inter-agency meteorologist assigned to the fire, said gusts should continue to increase by about 5 mph (8 kph) per day, from 25 mph (40 kph) Thursday to as strong as 50 mph (80 kph) by Monday. Its definitely going to be a critical fire weather pattern and unfortunately its going to be fairly prolonged and persistent, he said. Associated Press writer Scott Sonner contributed to this report from Reno, Nevada. About the photo: In this photo provided by Nate Sink, a newborn elk calf rests alone in a remote, fire-scarred area of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains near Mora, N.M., on Saturday, May 21, 2022. Sink says he saw no signs of the calfs mother and helped transport the baby bull to a wildlife rehabilitation center to be raised alongside a surrogate gown elk. (Nate Sink via AP) Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Biden to visit Uvalde in aftermath of school mass shooting Xinhua) 11:32, May 27, 2022 WASHINGTON, May 26 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to Uvalde, Texas on Sunday in the aftermath of a school mass shooting that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Biden and first lady Jill Biden plan to "grieve with the community that lost twenty-one lives in the horrific elementary school shooting," the White House announced on Thursday. The gunman -- identified as 18-year-old Uvalde High School student Salvador Rolando Ramos -- was killed by responding officers. He used two AR-style rifles, both legally purchased, for the attack. "The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong," Biden said in a speech from the White House on Tuesday night. He has also called out the influential gun lobby in the United States and urged Congress to pass gun control legislation in the wake of rising firearms-related violence. Senate Republicans have signaled a willingness to talk with Democrats on gun legislation that has long been stalled on Capitol Hill. Students across the United States held walk-outs on Thursday to protest against gun violence and the inaction of politicians. In Rhode Island, students from schools in Providence lay down for three minutes outside the Rhode Island State House, according to a tweet from state lawmaker Tiara Mack. Hundreds of gun control activists gathered on the lawn outside of the northeastern corner of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to demand action on what they called the "gun violence epidemic." "This is a uniquely American crisis," Moms Demand Action gun control advocacy group founder Shannon Watts said. "Parents across the rest of the developed world kiss their kids goodbye as they head off to school and don't have to give it a second thought, because they don't have 400 million guns flooding their streets, homes, and schools," Watts added. The United States has seen at least 214 mass shootings so far this year, according to an online database that keeps a record of the country's gun violence incidents. More than 17,000 people have died in gun-related episodes across the United States over the past five months, including at least 653 children and teenagers. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Colorado Politics is published both in print and online. Our website features subscriber-only news stories daily, designed for public policy arena professionals. Member subscribers also receive the weekly print edition of our award-winning newspaper, containing outstanding features and news stories, in their mailboxes every Saturday. The ex-wife of Eric Greitens has said in a sworn statement that the former Missouri governor and current U.S. Senate candidate has become erratic and unhinged since she accused him of abuse in a previous court filing The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form Modi reiterates Indias Ukraine stand during Quad summit Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated the nation's stand on the importance for ending hostilities, resumption of dialogue and diplomacy, in Tokyos Quad Leaders Summit. The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of delivering on Quad's positive and constructive agenda and show tangible benefits for the region. Photo courtesy: MEA Modi participated along with other Quad leaders in the fourth iteration of the summit, which saw criticism of Russian military action in Ukraine, from Australia, Japan and the United States. India on several bilateral and multiracial forums has said that it stands for the diplomacy path amid the Ukraine conflict that has led to heavy casualties on both sides and a large scale humanitarian crisis in Europe. During the summit, the leaders reiterated their shared commitment to a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific and the importance of upholding the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity and peaceful resolution of disputes. They exchanged perspectives on developments in the Indo-Pacific and the conflict in Europe. According to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the leaders reiterated their desire to combat terrorism, denounced the use of terrorist proxies and emphasized the importance of denying any logistical, financial, or military support to terrorist groups which could be used to launch or plan terror attacks, including cross-border attacks. Reviewing Quad's ongoing efforts to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, the leaders welcomed the enhanced manufacturing capacity of the Biological-E facility in India and called for the expeditious grant of EUL approval by the WHO so that delivery of vaccines can commence. "The leaders welcomed the gift of 525,000 doses of Made in India vaccines by India to Thailand and Cambodia in April 2022 under the Quad Vaccine Partnership. They will continue to pursue a holistic approach to pandemic management by addressing last-mile delivery and distribution challenges, augmenting regional health security through cooperation in genomic surveillance and clinical trials, and bolstering global health security architecture," the MEA said in a statement. "The leaders agreed to provide countries in the region resources on earth observation data through a Quad satellite data portal to help track climate events, disaster preparedness and sustainable use of marine resources. India will play a proactive role in this effort given its longstanding capabilities in using space-based data and technologies for inclusive development," the MEA said. The Prime Minister emphasised the importance of delivering on Quad's positive and constructive agenda and show tangible benefits for the region. The leaders agreed to continue their dialogue and consultations and look forward to the next summit hosted by Australia in 2023. Read more India News and Breaking News here 05/27/2022 Photo (c) da-kuk - Getty Images COVID-19 tally as compiled by Johns Hopkins University. (Previous numbers in parentheses.) Total U.S. confirmed cases: 83,864,802 (83,745,827) Total U.S. deaths: 1,004,300 (1,003,858) Total global cases: 528,007,458 (527,529,231) Total global deaths: 6,285,128 (6,283,923) COVID-19 numbers dont accurately portray current surge New cases of the coronavirus are continuing to trend higher across the U.S., surpassing 100,000 per day. However, the statistics that are currently available may not be capturing the true scope of the recent surge. White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha recently told reporters at a press briefing that officials are clearly undercounting infections. He said one of the reasons for this is that consumers have come to rely on at-home tests. While these tests are useful for quickly figuring out whether or not a person has COVID-19, they are not processed in official case counts. While experts can get a good ballpark estimate of the number of new cases through official reports and wastewater testing, getting a truly accurate number has only gotten harder as the pandemic wears on. Pfizer to support poorer countries at no profit Pfizer has announced that it will be sending medicines and vaccines to 45 lower-income countries on a not-for-profit basis as a way to close the worlds health equity gap. Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, and Uganda will be the first five nations to receive aid from the company. Officials in those countries will work to help Pfizer spot and resolve any initial hurdles so that aid can be provided more easily to the rest of the countries who will join the Accord for a Healthier World. Included in the aid are 23 medicines and vaccines that will be used to treat infectious diseases, certain cancers, and inflammatory diseases that take millions of lives in low-income countries each year. Misinformation about COVID-19 and pregnancy persists COVID-19 misinformation has been a threat to response efforts since the very beginning of the pandemic. Unfortunately, it doesnt seem to be going away. Survey results from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) show that pregnancy-related misinformation is still especially persistent. The findings suggest that 14% of adults and 24% of women who are pregnant or are planning to become pregnant believe that pregnant women should not get vaccinated for COVID-19. The CDC estimates that around 30% of pregnant women in the U.S. are not vaccinated. Around the nation 05/27/2022 Photo (c) Richard Drury - Getty Images In its mission to keep as many people healthy and safe as possible, Pfizer has announced a major goodwill effort that it calls Accord for a Healthier World. The initiative will provide all of Pfizer's current and future patent-protected medicines and vaccines on a not-for-profit basis to 45 lower-income countries. By taking this step, the company says it could close the health equity gap for more than a billion people. Rwanda, Ghana, Malawi, Senegal, and Uganda are the first five countries that have committed to joining the Accord. Health officials in these countries will help spot and resolve any hurdles that Pfizer may face so that the company can learn and enhance the rollout in the rest of the lower-income countries. As we learned in the global COVID-19 vaccine rollout, supply is only the first step to helping patients. We will work closely with global health leaders to make improvements in diagnosis, education, infrastructure, storage and more. Only when all the obstacles are overcome can we end healthcare inequities and deliver for all patients, said Pfizer Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla. The types of medicines Pfizer is providing Pfizer says its commitment includes 23 medicines and vaccines that treat infectious diseases, certain cancers, and rare and inflammatory diseases. These diseases and conditions affect millions of lives each year in the countries the Accord will serve. As Pfizer develops and launches new medicines and vaccines, it will also make those products available on a not-for-profit basis. One particular focus will be on Group B Streptococcus, a bacteria that commonly lives in peoples gastrointestinal and genital tracts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the bacteria is not harmful and doesn't make people feel sick most of the time, but it is a leading cause of stillbirth and newborn mortality in low-income countries. Working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Pfizer is also discussing opportunities to support Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine development. Everyone, no matter where they live, should have the same access to innovative, life-saving drugs and vaccines, Bill Gates said. The Accord for a Healthier World could help millions more people in low-income countries get the tools they need to live a healthy life. Pfizer is setting an example for other companies to follow. Dr PC Navani, Director, Geological Survey of India, who worked at the Tehri dam site for 15 years, told a leading magazine Frontline that the accident happened because work was still continuing in the 'unlined' area of the shaft during the rains. "Work in the rainy season in the unlined area should've been avoided at all costs." A worker Ganesh also was rescued from a tunnel told 'Down to Earth' magazine, "How can they allow this to happen? Even earlier, small accidents have been taking place and many workers have lost their lives in these tunnels." Soon after Tehri disaster, on August 7 2004 twenty workers were trapped inside a tunnel in the Parbati hydel project in Himachal Pradesh, about 60 km. from Kulu. They were rescued, but at one time there was a real danger of their lives being threatened. On February 14, 2010 six workers died and 16 were seriously injured in Kinnaur district (Himachal Pradesh) when stones and boulders destabilised by the blasting work carried out for dam construction fell on a temporary settlement of workers. This accident occured at the 1000 MW hydel project Karcham Waangtu. Two workers tried to save themselves by jumping into Satluj river but later their whereabouts could not be ascertained. The government later announced a paltry grant of Rs 10,000 each for the families of dead workers and Rs 5,000 each for injured workers. Some news reports said that the number of workers who died could be higher and it was difficult to get reliable information as job cards had not been prepared for most workers, violating labour laws. Several of the workers who died or were injured were migrant workers. In another tragedy in the same Kinnaur district of Himachal Pradesh in November 2015,, two workers died and six workers were injured in a blast in Shongtong-Karcham project. The tragic accident at Tehri dam site should have awakened the authorities to the crying need for better and secure working conditions for dam workers toiling in extremely difficult conditions in distant parts of the country. As a lot of dam construction work takes place in very remote areas, several construction companies adopt the strategy of bringing workers from very remote, impoverished areas. Then attempts are made to shut them off from the local population so that whatever happens to these workers remains a secret. This arrangement enables the employers to get away with glaring violations of minimum wage laws, neglect of safety requirements and non-payment of compensation. Unfamiliar with risky local conditions, five workers who perished were from West Bengal, three others were from Assam and Nepal Some years back Odishas Minister of State for Labour who also headed a committee of the Odisha Assembly on migrant labour, said after visiting the Salal dam site in Jammu and Kashmir that those migrant laborers of Orissa employed there who resisted oppression were being thrown into the Chenab river ( as reported in newspapers at that time). It was revealed in the findings of this committee that these workers were unable to communicate with persons other than their employer and supervisor. When the work for the dam was over they were herded into ramshackle huts and locked from outside. According to a probably incomplete list of workers who died at the Ramganga dam worksite in UP, in the plains close to Himalaya foothills, published by a local newspapers "Bijnore Times", 88 workers perished at this dam. In addition as many as 501 workers were injured, many of them rendered physically handicapped for the rest of their lives. In the case of the controversial gigantic Tehri dam project, very serious violations of labour laws were reported from time to time. This information could come to light because of the initiative taken by some local trade unionists in bringing the existing deplorable conditions to the notice of the Supreme Court and the subsequent inquiry ordered by the court. R.C. Aggarwal, a judge of Tehri Garwal, conducted an inquiry into the living conditions of workers employed at the Tehri dam project. The allegation made against the employers of the project were confirmed by this inquiry and incredible evidence of ill-treatment of workers and violation of safety requirements came to light. When this was published, workers were thrown out and assaulted with the help of local goons. Subsequent investigations by journalists revealed conditions to be equally bad at some other hydro-electric projects in neighbouring areas. These are only a few cases of the glaring exploitation of labourers employed at dam-sites which have come to light. For every case reported it is certain that many others go unreported. As highway and dam workers in Himalayan region often face high risks and isolation together with exploitation the government should take significant steps on the basis of urgency for their protection and safety. --- *Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now; recent books include A Day in 2071, Planet in Peril' and Protecting Earth for Children' The extremely tragic death of 10 workers at a tunnel construction site in Ramban on Jammu-Srinagar highway has again drawn attention to the serious hazards faced by workers employed in highways and dams in Himalayan region, several of them in very remote areas. These workers were trapped after a landslide hit the under-construction tunnel on May 19, followed later by one more landslide. Apart from these deaths, the remaining workers suffered injuries.While overall conditions at many such construction sites are known to be hazardous, according to preliminary reports the risks here increased due to sub-contracts which resulted in work being handled by those who did not have much experience or knowledge of such hazardous conditions.Sub-contracting is a common practice in such work and the principal employer gets away with less legal liability for hazardous conditions. Workers face more risks under this system and their rights are adversely affected.This was a well-known landslide zone and even before this serious accident several commuters had suffered injuries or near escapes in the middle of falling boulders. Surely better protection steps should have been taken well in advance when work was to be taken up in such a hazardous area.Five of the workers who perished in this accident were from West Bengal while three others were from Assam and Nepal. The serious risks which such workers from very far away areas, isolated and unfamiliar with local conditions, face can be well-imagined.Numerous cases of landslides and accidents in the course of construction and widening work on highways have been reported from the Himalayan region. In addition the work on dams and hydro projects in the Himalayan region has also involved increasing risks for workers, generally migrant workers from remote areas with hardly any local resource base.In one of the worst dam-site accidents, at least 29 workers were killed in a serious accident at the Tehri dam site (in Uttarakhand) on August 2 2004. Many other workers were injured and/or rescued amidst great difficulty.The Tehri dam project had long been controversial as one of India's most unsafe dam projects posing a grave risk to the teeming cities and villages of the vast Gangetic plains below. This accident at this dam site further confirmed several doubts raised from time to time about the weakness of the nearby mountains and the safety of the dam. It also focused attention on highly hazardous conditions in which dam workers toil in many distant parts of India.It was subsequently realized that the death toll in the Tehri dam disaster on August 2, 2004 could easily have been much higher. District officials conceded that as many as 109 workers were present in the Diversion Tunnel T-3 of Tehri Dam when the rockslide took place. In fact some reports expressed apprehensions that the death toll was actually higher.It has been pointed out that micro-silica treatment which could've helped to avert this tragedy should've been completed much before. Adequacy of other safety and rescue arrangements have also been questioned. The UK government is seeking input on enhancing the security and resilience of the nations data centres and online cloud platforms. Views are sought on tools and strategies for protecting data storage and processing infrastructure as well as cloud services which provide remote, shareable computing via the internet. Proposals will also help to support small businesses that use cloud platforms as a cheaper, more efficient way to access essential IT services, shielding this infrastructure against disruption. The work is part of the governments National Data Strategy and National Cyber Strategy to ensure the security and resilience of the infrastructure on which data relies. Addressing security and resilience in UK data centres, cloud platforms The UK government has invited contributions from data centre operators, cloud platform providers, data centre customers, security and equipment suppliers, and cybersecurity experts to understand the risks data storage and processing services face. Its aim is to establish steps to address security and resilience vulnerabilities. The call also asks companies which run, purchase, or rent any element of a data centre to provide details of the types of customers they serve. Based on feedback, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will decide whether any additional government support or management is needed to minimise the risks that data storage and processing infrastructure face. New protections would build on existing safeguards for data infrastructure, including the Networks and Information Systems (NIS) Regulations 2018 which cover cloud computing services, a DCMS press release stated. Data Minister Julia Lopez commented, Data centres and cloud platforms are a core part of our national infrastructure. They power the technology which makes our everyday lives easier and delivers essential services like banking and energy. We legislated to better protect our telecoms networks and the internet-connected devices in our homes from cyberattacks and we are now looking at new ways to boost the security of our data infrastructure to prevent sensitive data ending up in the wrong hands. Data centres, cloud platforms underpin UK data infrastructure Data centres and cloud platforms are integral to the UKs data infrastructure, underpinning the digital technologies and services upon which all citizens and organisations increasingly rely, said techUKs CEO Julian David. The technology sector already plays an important role in strengthening resilience across the UK economy and techUK welcomes the opportunity to engage with government on these significant issues. One particular focus will be how these proposals will align with wider efforts to strengthen resilience across sectors as well as the wider ambitions outlined in the UKs National Cyber Strategy which is a continuation of UK governments longstanding leadership in cybersecurity. The call for views closes on July 24, 2022. By Cynthia Hubert Wayne Linklater, a Sacramento State Environmental Studies professor, has spent more than two decades researching, writing, and teaching about the ecology and behavior of mammals, from voles to rhinos. Recently, his interest in the worlds most abundant large animals, humans, and their impact on the natural world, has grown. His newest work to study the health effects of pollution in disadvantaged local communities aligns with this research focus. The project, funded by a $10,000 grant from the national nonprofit group Second Nature, will allow Linklater and his students to collaborate with local community organizations while conducting critical research on air quality in disadvantaged neighborhoods. The data gathered will help illuminate the link between air quality and respiratory health in the areas studied. Environmental justice is Professor Wayne Linklater's focus, the latest important area he has addressed in his research. (Courtesy photo) We want to use our expertise to produce a credible report that communities can use to advocate for themselves, Linklater said. Linklater has traveled around the country and the globe to study varied topics, including conflict created by urban deer populations in El Cerrito, and black rhinoceros habitat use in South Africa. Lately, he has become keenly interested in environmental justice, including the effects of pollution on human health. Studies have shown that communities of color in poorer neighborhoods are disproportionately exposed to air pollution, specifically particles emitted by vehicles and factories. Such exposure can contribute to health problems, including respiratory diseases. Residential areas in these communities typically are closer to industrial areas and freeways, where pollution levels are higher and trees, which can act as air filters, are less abundant. Sac State, working with project partners including Breathe California and United Latinos, will establish air-monitoring networks in South Sacramento and North Highlands. Student interns and community members will then measure levels of potentially dangerous airborne particulates in those areas of the city. Linklater will analyze the data and create a report documenting how emissions change throughout the day, week, and seasons. Researchers will work with Sacramento Countys public health department to link air quality with health outcomes, he said. The information also could educate residents and inform future policies, programs, and resources to improve quality of life in affected neighborhoods, said Linklater. One of the solutions could be a collaborative effort to improve tree coverage, Linklater said. These communities have some of the lowest tree coverage in the city. The data could influence elected leaders decisions about urban development. Student participants will engage in a mix of technical and community work, Linklater said. Thats a very important aspect of their early career development. We want to use our expertise to produce a credible report that communities can use to advocate for themselves. - Wayne Linklater Richard Falcon, lead organizer for United Latinos, said his organization benefits from Linklaters knowledge and passion for environmental justice. Working with Dr. Linklater has been a privilege, he said. His knowledge of these issues and the science behind them has been helpful to me as I navigate our mission of engaging the community in processes that are of benefit to their well-being. Linklater breaks down the science into digestible information that I can take back to our constituency to help them understand the data and the impacts on them, Falcon said. He should be commended on his efforts to bring Sac State and community resources together to benefit the greater Sacramento area as well as students who attend Sac State. Second Nature, which is funding the research, is dedicated to supporting climate projects driven by colleges and universities. President Robert S. Nelsen said the work helps support Sac States efforts to connect the University and the region to address key problems. This is another example of the important work being done by our faculty and students with community partners to advance knowledge and social justice while making our region a better, safer place for all, Nelsen said. Share This Story email copy url url copied! TIVAOUANE, Senegal (AP) Police were on guard and nearby residents and parents stood mourning outside a hospital in Senegal where a fire in the neonatal unit killed 11 newborns. Only three infants could be saved, President Macky Sall said before calling on Thursday for three days of mourning for the young lives lost. Mamadou Mbaye, who witnessed the fire Wednesday at the Abdoul Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane, a town 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of the capital, Dakar, told The Associated Press that conditions inside the hospital were atrocious. It was hot and smoky inside with a suffocating heat, and there was a power outage, Mbaye said. Grieving parents were still in shock. I baptized my child on Wednesday and he was baptized here in the hospital. To my great shock, I got a call to tell me that the neonatal section had been destroyed by a fire, said Badara Faye, who lost his son. Moustapha Cisse, who also lost a newborn, said they are still awaiting answers on how such a tragic fire could take the lives of their children. The fire was blamed on an electrical short circuit, according to Mayor Demba Diop. Interior Minister Antoine Diome announced that authorities would be opening an investigation into the condition of the hospitals facilities as well as other health care centers, Senegalese media reported. President Sall called for three days of mourning. To their mothers and families, I express my deepest sympathy, Sall had tweeted upon hearing the news of the fire. His chief of staff, minister Augustin Tine, visited the remains of the hospital Thursday. We have come to be close to the people, in particular the parents, he said. We have come to share the suffering, he added, to share our condolences and to say again it is a misfortune that has hit our country, but we keep our faith. The deadly fire comes a year after four other newborns died in a hospital fire in Linguere in northern Senegal. A series of other deaths also have raised concerns about maternal and infant health in the West African nation known for having some of the best hospitals in the region. Earlier this month, authorities discovered a baby that had been declared dead by a nurses aide was still alive in a morgue. The infant later died. Last year a pregnant woman died in Louga, in the north of the country, after waiting in vain for a cesarean section. Three midwives were given six-month suspended sentences for not giving help to a person in danger. Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, who was attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, cut short his trip to return to Senegal. ___ This story has been corrected to show the correct spelling of the hospital is Abdoul Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital. ___ Dione contributed from Dakar, Senegal. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BEIJING (AP) On a balmy Sunday night, residents of an upscale Shanghai compound took to the streets to decry lockdown restrictions imposed by their community. By the following morning, they were free to leave. The triumphant story quickly spread on chat groups across the Chinese city this week, sparking one question in the minds of those who remained under lockdown: Shouldnt we do the same? By the end of the week, other groups of residents had confronted management in their complexes, and some had won at least a partial release. While its unclear how widespread they are, the incidents reflect the frustration that has built up after more than seven weeks of lockdown, even as the number of new daily cases has fallen to a few hundred in a city of 25 million people. They also are a reminder of the power of China's neighborhood committees that the ruling Communist Party relies on to spread propaganda messages, enforce its decisions and even settle personal disputes. Such committees and the residential committees under them have become the target of complaints, especially after some in Shanghai and other cities refused to allow residents out even after official restrictions were relaxed. More than 21 million people in Shanghai are now in precaution zones, the least restrictive category. In theory, they are free to go out. In practice, the decision is up to their residential committees, resulting in a kaleidoscope of arbitrary rules. Some are allowed out, but only for a few hours with a specially issued pass for one day or certain days of the week. Some places permit only one person per household to leave. Others forbid people to leave at all. We have already been given at least three different dates when we are going to reopen, and none of them were real, said Weronika Truszczynska, a graduate student from Poland who posted vlogs about her experience. The residential committee told us you can wait a week, we are going to reopen probably on June 1st, she said. No one believed it. More than a dozen residents of her complex, many under umbrellas on a rainy day, confronted their managers on Tuesday, two days after the Sunday night breakout at the upscale Huixianju compound. The residents, who were mostly Chinese, demanded to be allowed to leave without time limits or restrictions on how many per household. After the demands were not met, some returned to protest a second day. This time, four police officers stood watch. On Thursday afternoon, community representatives knocked on the doors of each resident with a new policy: Write their name and apartment number on a list, take a temperature check, scan a barcode and they were free to leave. "We got the possibility of going out just because we were brave enough to protest, Truszczynska said of her fellow residents. The Shanghai lockdown has also prompted resistance from people being taken away to quarantine and workers required to sleep at their workplaces. Videos on social media showed what were said to be employees of a factory operated by Taiwans Quanta Computer Inc. trying to force their way out of the facility in early May. The partys strict anti-virus campaign has been aided by an urban environment in which hundreds of millions of people in China live in gated apartment compounds or walled neighborhoods that can be easily blocked off. The front line for enforcement are the neighborhood committees that are responsible for keeping track of every resident in every urban household nationwide and enforcing public health and sanitation rules. Many tend to err on the side of over-enforcement, aware of the example made of public officials who are fired or criticized for failing in their pandemic prevention duties. The importance of neighborhood committees dwindled in the 1990s as the Communist Party relaxed restrictions on the movement of citizens, but they have been undergoing a resurgence in an ongoing tightening of societal controls under President Xi Jinping. The incident at Huixianju prompted others to speak out. In a series of videos that circulated this week, about two dozen people march toward the Western Nanjing Road Police Station, chanting Respect the law, give me back my life. Residents of a compound in Jingan district saw the gates of neighboring compounds open over the past month yet theirs remained locked. On Wednesday, about two dozen gathered at the gate, calling out to speak with a representative. I want to understand what are the neighborhood leaders planning? one woman asks in a video of the incident. Another woman chimes in: Are you making progress? A third resident points out that they should be free by now, since the compound has been case-free for a while. Didnt they say on television that things are opening up? We saw it on television, an older man says. The next day, the community issued one-day passes residents were allowed out for two hours on Friday, with no word on what would happen after that. Shanghai authorities have declared a June target for life to return to normal. But some people arent waiting, pushing the boundaries bit by bit. On Thursday night, more than a dozen young people gathered for a street concert in the same district where Sundays protest took place. Video of the last song, Tomorrow will be better, was shared widely on social media. A police car parked nearby with its flashing red and blue lights and headlights on. As the final song drew to a close, an officer wearing a face shield strode toward the group and said, OK youve had enough fun. Its time to go back. The crowd dispersed. ___ Associated Press researcher Si Chen in Shanghai and writer Joe McDonald in Beijing contributed to this report. WASHINGTON (AP) A lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign hid his partisan interests from the FBI as he pushed pure opposition research related to Donald Trump and Russia in the weeks before the election, a prosecutor asserted Friday during closing arguments of the attorney's trial. But Michael Sussmann's legal team denied prosecutors claims that he lied. And even if jurors believed Sussmann did lie, the defense said the alleged false statement did not matter because he was presenting national security information that the FBI would have looked into no matter the source. At the time of Sussmann's meeting with the FBI in September 2016, the bureau was already investigating whether Russia and the Trump campaign were colluding to sway the election won by Trump that November. It was a very contentious time. The Russians had hacked the DNC. They were leaking emails. And there was an ongoing FBI investigation irrespective of this," Sussmann lawyer Sean Berkowitz told jurors, referring to the Democratic National Committee. And that was viewed as incredibly serious. The case is the first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham's work since his appointment three years ago to search for government misconduct during the investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trumps campaign. Jurors began deliberating Friday afternoon. A guilty verdict would be cheered by Trump and his supporters, who have looked to the Durham investigation to undercut the original Trump-Russia probe that they have long seen as politically motivated. But the case against Sussmann is narrow in nature, involves a peripheral aspect of that probe and alleges misconduct by a tipster to the government rather than by anyone at the FBI or any other federal agency. Nonetheless, the two weeks of testimony in federal court in Washington have exposed the extent to which Democratic interests, opposition research, the media and law enforcement all came to be entangled in the run-up to the presidential election. Prosecutors have portrayed Sussmann as determined to gin up investigations into Trump that could then be disclosed to the media and yield stories negative to his campaign. It wasnt about national security, said Jonathan Algor, a Durham team prosecutor. It was about promoting opposition research against the opposition candidate, Donald Trump. Sussmann is charged with a single count of making a false statement. That charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence, though if convicted, Sussmann is likely to get far less if any prison time. He did not take the stand during the trial. The case turns on a Sept. 19, 2016, meeting in which Sussmann presented the FBI's top lawyer, James Baker, with computer data that Sussmann said suggested a secret communications backchannel between a Russia-based bank and the Trump Organization, the candidate's company. Such a backchannel, if it existed, would have been explosive information at a time when the FBI was examining links between Trump and Russia. But after assessing the data, the FBI quickly determined that there was no suspicious contact at all. Prosecutors say Sussmann lied to Baker by saying he was not participating in the meeting on behalf of a particular client. They say he was actually there on behalf of the Clinton campaign and another client, a technology executive whom the Durham team says tasked researchers with looking for internet traffic involving Trump associates and Russians. Sussmann lied about his clients, prosecutors allege, to give the data extra credibility because he figured the information would not be investigated if the FBI thought it was mere opposition research being pushed by the Clinton campaign. The defendant knew he had to hide his clients if there was any chance of getting his allegations to the FBI and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the defendant lied, Algor said. To convict, prosecutors need to show not only that Sussmann lied but that the lie was material namely, that it mattered or at least could have mattered to the FBI's work. Algor said the fact Sussmann repeatedly billed the Clinton campaign for his work on the Alfa Bank matter is proof he was acting on the campaign's behalf when he met with the FBI. But Berkowitz noted that Sussmann billed his taxi ride to FBI headquarters for the meeting itself to his law firm, rather than to the campaign. Berkowitz also tried to cast doubt on what exactly was said in the meeting. Prosecutors showed jurors a text message Sussmann sent Baker the night before the meeting in which he requested a sit-down on a sensitive matter and said he would be coming by himself and not on behalf of a client. But Berkowitz reminded jurors that the only false statement that was charged took place during the following day's meeting, and that no one can be sure exactly what was said because Baker and Sussmann were the only participants and neither took notes. Berkowitz also suggested it was technically accurate if Sussmann said he was not acting on behalf of a client because Sussmann never asked the FBI do anything with the information he was providing. When you go somewhere on behalf of a client, youre advocating for the client, youre asking for something, Berkowitz said. Mr. Sussmann didn't ask Jim Baker for anything. The two sides also quibbled over Baker's testimony, with Berkowitz citing dozens of instances in which Baker said on the stand that he did not recall or could not remember something. Prosecutors, meanwhile, seized on the fact that Baker said he was 100% confident that Sussmann had told him that he was not acting on behalf of a client and that he probably wouldn't have taken the meeting if he had been told otherwise. Ladies and gentlemen, would James Baker come on the stand under oath, a former high-ranking FBI official, and subject himself to the penalty of perjury if it weren't true, another prosecutor, Andrew DeFilippis, told jurors on Friday. No, he wouldnt do that. None of us would do that, would take that risk. Durham has so far charged three people. The case against Sussmann is the only one to have reached trial. ___ Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP The police official blamed for not sending officers in more quickly to stop the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting is the chief of the school system's small police force, a unit dedicated ordinarily to building relationships with students and responding to the occasional fight. Preparing for mass shootings is a small part of what school police officers do, but local experts say the preparation for officers assigned to schools in Texas including mandatory active shooter training provides them with as solid a foundation as any. The tactical, conceptual mindset is definitely there in Texas, said Joe McKenna, deputy superintendent for the Comal school district in Texas and a former assistant director at the state's school safety center. A gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. As students called 911, officers waited more than an hour to breach the classroom after following the gunman into the building. The district's police chief, Pete Arredondo, decided officers should wait to confront the gunman on the belief he was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms and children were no longer at risk, officials said Friday. It was the wrong decision, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a news conference Friday. A group of Border Patrol tactical officers would later engage in a shootout with the gunman and kill him, officials said. Arredondo could not immediately be reached for comment Friday by the AP. Across the country, police officers who work in schools are tasked with keeping tabs on whos coming and going, working on building trust so students feel comfortable coming to them with problems, teaching anti-substance abuse programs and, occasionally, making arrests. The police department for the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District says on its website that its primary goal is to maintain a safe and secure environment for our future leaders to learn and our current leaders to educate while forming partnerships with students, teachers, parents, and the community while enforcing laws and reducing fears. The active shooter training was mandated by state lawmakers in 2019 in response to school shootings. Under state law, school districts also are required to have plans to respond to active shooters in their emergency response procedures. Security can sometimes become lax because school officials and officers may not believe a shooting will ever happen in their building, said Lynelle Sparks, a school police officer in Hillsboro, Texas, and executive director of the Texas Association of School Resource Officers. Its always making sure that you are prepared, she said. People get relaxed. It happens in every district. You cant say that it doesnt. It happens everywhere. We get to the point, Oh my gosh. This is horrific. Safety Safety Safety. The school year goes by, Oh, why do I have to lock my door everyday, you know? I wish that every teacher would teach behind a locked door. It doesnt make it a prison system. Its about saving lives. Under the incident command approach that was widely adopted after 9/11, it is unsurprising that the school police chief would be considered the commander, even following the arrival of officers from other agencies, McKenna said. The designated person would be considered the commander until relieved by a higher-ranking officer, but that doesn't necessarily happen immediately when efforts to save lives are continuing, he said. Obviously its still an ongoing investigation, but it would make sense that a police chief of a school district would be the initial incident commander," McKenna said. While many schools around the country host school resource officers who report to their municipal police departments, it is not uncommon especially in some Southern states and large cities for school districts to have their own police forces, like Uvalde. McKenna said his research on school policing indicated that training and other factors mattered more than which agency was managing the officers. It doesn't matter if you're in a school police department or an SRO, its more about the components of any good officer, he said. ___ The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting Every holiday comes with an invitation to dig into history. And, of course, some lure us into Americas unique story, including Presidents Day, the Fourth of July and Juneteenth. But none seem as personal as Memorial Day. Death, after all, eventually comes to every household. And if any group of people earned an annual day of recognition, it is those soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. Death is never a comfortable subject. Perhaps its one of the reasons Memorial Day has become more synonymous with barbecues and sales. But Memorial Day is as good a time as any to pause for reflection on death as part of the daily landscape in 2022. It arrives in the shadow of another massacre at an elementary school in America. It arrives a few weeks after the COVID-19 death toll in the United States passed the mark of 1 million people. And it arrives as the United States weighs its support of Ukraine in its war with Russia. Each of these narratives remain unfinished, but they are history lessons children will carry forward for the rest of their lives. Will America figure out a way to reverse the scourge of public massacres? Will we ever return to pre-COVID living conditions? What will Americas ultimate role be in confronting Russia? These questions arent all that different from what Americans faced in the days leading up to past wars. The Americans we honor each offer lessons on the defining of the nation. In the shadow of the Civil War about 150 years ago, there was a recognition that those who gave their lives for our country deserved a day of honor. It was essentially a local tradition for generations, a day when the graves of soldiers were decorated with U.S. flags. Concerns over the fading meaning of the holiday are not new. Such complaints were already being voiced shortly after World War II. Memorial Day was marked for years on March 30, before the Uniform Monday Holiday Act parked it on the final Monday of May to establish a three-day weekend for federal employees. That didnt take effect until 1971, during the Vietnam War. If anything, a long weekend means it should be easier to carve out time to mourn. Back in 2000, a year before 9/11, Congress passed the National Moment of Remembrance Act. It was intended as a reminder of the meaning of Memorial Day, encouraging Americans to pause for a minute at 3 p.m. on the holiday to remember those who died shielding our freedoms. It was well-intended, but has already been largely forgotten. A day on the calendar should be enough of a motivation to establish personal traditions to thank the fallen. A pause to consider a soldiers gravestone. An hour or so at a local ceremony. A dive into family history. A conversation with a veteran. The sharing of posts on social media about the people this day is designed to honor. Its not hard to salute. But we all should raise our hands to participate in this most American of holidays. JEAN-BAPTISTE LACROIX / Contributor via Getty The True Detective anthology is getting ready to kick off its fourth season, and while its still in development, Jodie Foster has just won a starring role in the newest storyline. Her casting in the latest season, called Night County, is the" Silence of the Lambs" actors first time on the small screen in almost 40 years. According to HBO, the new season will focus on the disappearance of six men working on an Arctic research station in Ennis, Alaskaand on the case are detectives Liz Danver Fosters character and Evangeline Navarro. To solve the mystery, the pair will have to confront the darkness they carry in themselves, and dig into the haunted truths that lie buried under the eternal ice. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE, Texas (AP) Tuesday should have been a day of triumph for 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez. Instead, it was the day she died. Maite was among 19 grade school students who, along with two teachers, were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in the southwestern Texas town of Uvalde. The 18-year-old gunman also died. Maite liked and excelled at physical education after her death, her teacher texted her mother to say she was very competitive at kickball and ran faster than all the boys. She had always been a straight-A student until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the school to cancel in-person classes. Zoom didn't work well for Maite she got all Fs. But with school back in session, Maite rebounded all As and Bs. She was among the honor roll students recognized at an assembly Tuesday morning. She worked hard, I only encouraged her, her mother, Ana Rodriguez, said in an interview Thursday at her dining room table, which displayed a bouquet of red roses, the honor roll certificate and photos of Maite. Hours later, Maite was gone. Her mother described her as focused, competitive, smart, bright, beautiful, happy." As a kindergartner, Maite said she wanted to be a marine biologist and held firmly to that goal. She researched a program at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi and told her mother she was set on studying there. She was just so driven. She was definitely special. She was going to be something, she was going to be something very, very special, Rodriguez said. Jacklyn Cazares, who would have turned 10 on June 10, was a tough-minded firecracker who wanted to help people in need, her father said. Jacklyn and her second cousin, Annabell Rodriguez, were especially tight with three other classmates at Robb Elementary School. They are all gone now, Javier Cazares said. All her little best friends were killed too. Despite her young age, Jacklyn was tough-minded and compassionate. She had a voice, her father said. She didnt like bullies, she didnt like kids being picked on. All in all, full of love. She had a big heart. She was a character, a little firecracker. Cazares drove his daughter to school Tuesday for the awards ceremony. About 90 minutes later, the family got a call about an active shooter. I drove like a bat out of hell, he said. My baby was in trouble. There was more than 100 people out there waiting. It was chaotic, he said of the scene at the school. He grew impatient with the police response and even raised the idea of rushing inside with other bystanders. Cazares said his niece followed an ambulance to the hospital and saw Jacklyn being taken inside. The entire family soon arrived and pressed hospital officials for information for nearly three hours. They begged, cried and showed photos of Jacklyn. Finally, a pastor, police officer and a doctor came to them. My wife asked the question, Is she alive or is she passed? Cazares said. They were like, No, shes gone. Ryan Ramirez also rushed to Robb Elementary when he heard about the shooting, hoping to find his daughter, Alithia, and take her home, KTRK-TV reported. But Alithia, too, was among the victims. Ramirezs Facebook page includes a photo, now shown around the world, of the little girl wearing the multi-colored T-shirt that announced she was out of single digits after turning 10 years old. The same photo was posted again Wednesday with no words, but with Alithia wearing angel wings. The grief only grew Thursday with confirmation that the brokenhearted husband of one of the slain teachers, 48-year-old Irma Garcia, had died. Joe Garcia, 50, had dropped off flowers at his wifes memorial on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported. He pretty much just fell over after returning home and died of a heart attack, his nephew John Martinez told the newspaper. The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcias death to The Associated Press. AP was unable to independently reach members of the Garcia family on Thursday. Married for 24 years, the couple shared four children. In a post on the schools website at the start of the school year introducing herself to her class, Irma Garcia wrote of her love of barbecue, listening to music and taking country cruises to the nearby town of Concan. The school year, scheduled to end Thursday, was Irmas 23rd year of teaching all of it at Robb Elementary School. She had been previously named the schools teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University. For five years, Irma had co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed. Mireles also posted on the site as the school year began, noting she had been teaching 17 years. She cited her supportive, fun, and loving family. Welcome to the 4th grade! We have a wonderful year ahead of us! she wrote. Two of the victims had hoped to skip school that day. Carmelo Quirozs grandson, Jayce Luevanos, 10, had begged to go along with his grandmother on Tuesday as she accompanied her great-granddaughters kindergarten class to the San Antonio Zoo. But, he said, the family told Jayce it didnt make sense to skip school so close to the end of the year. Besides, Jayce liked school. Thats why my wife is hurting so much, because he wanted to go to San Antonio, Quiroz told USA Today. He was so sad he couldnt go. Maybe if he would have gone, hed be here. Jayces cousin, 10-year-old Jailah Nicole Silguero, also wanted to miss school that day. Jailahs mother, Veronica Luevanos, tearfully told Univision that Jailah seemed to sense something bad was going to happen. Jailahs friend, Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo, also was killed and her aunt noted Neveahs first name is heaven spelled backward. In a Facebook posting, Yvonne White described Nevaeh and Jailah as Our Angels. Two men who responded to the shooting discovered their own children among the victims. Uvalde County Sheriffs Deputy Felix Rubio and his wife had been at the school Tuesday morning to celebrate with their daughter, 10-year-old Alexandria Lexi Rubio, since the fourth-grader had made honor roll with all As and received a good citizen award. In a Facebook post, Kimberly Rubio wrote: We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye. Medical assistant Angel Garza also hurried to the school and immediately found a girl covered in blood among the terrified children streaming out of the building. Im not hurt. He shot my best friend, the girl told Garza when he offered help. Shes not breathing. She was just trying to call the cops. Her friend was Amerie Jo Garza Angel Garzas stepdaughter. Amerie was a happy child who made the honor roll and loved to paint, draw and work in clay. She was very creative, said her grandmother Dora Mendoza. She was my baby. Whenever she saw flowers she would draw them. GoFundMe pages were set up for many of the victims, including one on behalf of all victims that has raised more than $3.7 million. ___ This story has been corrected to show Lexi's last name is Rubio, not Aniyah. It also corrects the spelling of another victim's name. She was Annabell Rodriguez, not Annabelle. ___ Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report from Los Angeles. ___ Find more of the APs coverage of the Uvalde school shooting at https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 1 of 3 AP Show More Show Less 2 of 3 AP Show More Show Less 3 of 3 TEHRAN, Iran (AP) Rescue teams at the site of a 10-story collapsed building in southwestern Iran pulled seven more bodies from the rubble on Friday, bringing the death toll in the disaster to 26, Iranian state TV reported Friday. A tower at the Metropol Building that was under-construction in the city of Abadan, collapsed on Monday. Thirty-seven people were rescued, three of them are still being treated in hospital. It remains unclear how many more people are buried beneath the rubble. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BRIDGEPORT - State Sen. Dennis Bradley and former city board of education member Jessica Martinez will be sitting together in federal court when their campaign finance fraud trial begins next week. On Friday, U.S. District Judge Victor Bolden denied Martinezs request to sever her case from Bradley. She is contending Bradley maneuvered her in an effort to cover up his own misconduct. Ms. Martinez has not indicated that she will present evidence of multiple instances of [Mr. Bradleys] purported lies, deceptions, and misrepresentations. Rather, Ms. Martinezs claim that Mr. Bradley maneuvered her in an attempt to cover up his misconduct appears to turn primarily on her reliance on his advice during her testimony before the grand jury, which is not necessarily prejudicial to him, the judge ruled. We are going forward with the trial and both Jessica and I will be vindicated and the truth will prevail, Bradley commented Friday. Im looking forward to continuing my fight for my district. Martinez did not return calls for comment. Last year, Bradley and Martinez were indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. In addition, Martinez was indicted for making false statements to the FBI and lying to the grand jury. The government alleges in the indictment that Bradley and Martinez, who served as his campaign treasurer for his 2018 campaign for state senate, conspired to defraud the Connecticut State Election Enforcement Commission, the Citizens Election Fund and the State of Connecticut by making misrepresentations concerning Bradleys compliance with state election law and the Citizens Election Programs statutory restrictions and requirements in order to fraudulently obtain or attempt to obtain $179,850 in campaign grants. The criminal charges are related to an event held at Dolphins Cove on March 15, 2018. Federal prosecutors claim that the event at Dolphins Cove was a campaign event and that it should have been disclosed as such to the State Enforcement Election Commission, as the disclosure would have made the campaign ineligible for CEP funding. Jury selection for the case is scheduled to be held Tuesday with the trial to begin possibly the next day. Federal prosecutors have stated in court documents that they intend to present 33 witnesses. Included among those witnesses is Tina Manus, a volunteer for the 2018 Bradley senate campaign who earlier pleaded guilty to a charge of wire fraud in the case. In her motion to sever, Martinez claimed in court documents that Bradley used his authority as her lawyer to convince her to allegedly commit fraud. Mr. Bradley had enormous power over Ms. Martinez because of their attorney-client relationship, their employer-subordinate relationship, and their personal relationship; that Mr. Bradley exercised considerable sway over Ms. Martinez; and that Ms. Martinez finds herself charged with federal crimes because Mr. Bradley maneuvered her in an effort to cover up his own misconduct, the documents state. The documents state that although Martinez held the title of campaign treasurer, her role was almost entirely nominal and the evidence at trial will show that other individuals, not Martinez, handled the actual duties of treasurer, including filings with SEEC. Ms. Martinezs defense team plans to argue that Ms. Martinez was fundamentally a victim of Mr. Bradley, the documents state. That Ms. Martinez relied on Mr. Bradleys counsel before her grand jury testimony does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that Mr. Bradley engaged in the alleged conspiracy and scheme to defraud SEEC, and Ms. Martinez has not pointed to other instances in which she will argue that Mr. Bradley used Ms. Martinez to cover up his alleged fraud, the judge stated. Indeed, to the extent Ms. Martinez intends to argue that Mr. Bradley advised her that the event at Dolphins Cove was not a campaign event, Ms. Martinezs defense is consistent with Mr. Bradleys, insofar as he asserts that he did not misrepresent or seek to intentionally misrepresent his campaign expenditures or receipt of contributions to SEEC, he ruled. An American friend emailed me in the wake of Tuesday's horrific mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, to say 'concerned' friends had recently gifted him so much weaponry he now had 'enough guns and ammunition to fight off a Russian attack or even an alien invasion'. He was only half-joking. 'I now have a very expensive sniper rifle to pick off the enemy at long range,' he explained, 'some automatic rifles for closer defence, and a shotgun, plus pistols, if it really gets difficult. I'm guessing that my armoury is not that dissimilar to many around the country.' He's right. America is now awash with guns as never before roughly 400 million in civilian hands at the last count, which means there are now more guns than people in the U.S. If they were spread evenly between households every family would have four or five guns. Most are never fired. But those that are often exact a terrible toll. The Uvalde atrocity alone claimed the lives of 19 primary school children and two of their teachers. There are now more than 45,000 firearm-related deaths a year in America a new record for a country that already had more gun deaths than any comparably advanced nation. Guns are now the leading cause of death among youngsters. More than car accidents. More than drugs. America is now awash with guns as never before roughly 400 million in civilian hands at the last count, which means there are now more guns than people in the U.S. The prevalence of firearms makes the police inclined to shoot first and ask questions later. Last year police in England and Wales shot dead two people. America? More than 1,000. Even allowing for a US population five times bigger than ours, the U.S. death rate from police shootings is 100 times greater. And when it comes to the slaughter of innocents, often children, by deranged gunmen, America is truly in a league of its own. In the two decades to 2019 the U.S. experienced 101 mass shootings defined as incidents in which four or more people are killed. The next 17 countries endured 38 mass shootings combined. France was second with eight, often terrorist-related. Britain brought up the rear with one. This week's Texan tragedy brought back memories of Sandy Hook, Connecticut, where 20 primary school children and six of their teachers were gunned down a decade ago. Then, as now, the cry went up 'something must be done'. But nothing was done. Mass shootings are now more common than ever. There have been 900 incidents involving gunfire at schools since Sandy Hook. Uvalde was the 27th school shooting this year and it's only May. It's the 119th since 2018. The inability of the U.S. political system to confront this carnage was once summed up by a headline in the satirical Onion website: 'No Way to Prevent This' says only nation where this regularly happens.' Indeed, far from doing anything to prevent it, America seems determined to make matters worse. The last successful attempt at gun control was under Bill Clinton almost three decades ago, when the purchase of semi-automatic weapons was banned and tougher background checks imposed. But these laws were allowed to wither on the vine so that, within days of his 18th birthday this year, the Uvalde shooter was able to purchase two AR-15 assault rifles this in a state where he was still deemed too young to buy a beer. Yes, it's madness. But nothing will change. Only recently Texan Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, was happily signing new rights for gun owners into state law and boasting that Texas was a 'safe sanctuary' from gun controls. Pity the same can't be said of the schools he presides over. Nor has slaughter in his own backyard given him second thoughts. He was due to appear at the annual conference of America's most powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Houston, Texas, this weekend. But last night it was announced that he would give a pre-recorded speech instead. Former President Trump will still be there, as will Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz, who, like almost every Republican lawmaker, enjoys substantial financial support from the NRA. Uvalde notwithstanding, they will pledge total opposition to even the most modest of gun controls such as background checks. The NRA faithful will lap it up. Incredibly, even as America stumbles from one scene of carnage to another, things continue to go the gun lobby's way. Some crime-ridden cities, such as Washington DC and Chicago, once tried to enforce handgun bans. In two Supreme Court rulings, in 2008 and 2010, for the first time ever, the banning of handguns was deemed in conflict with the infamous second amendment's 'right to bear arms', and therefore unconstitutional. The Supreme Court is now on the brink of another landmark ruling which will please the gun lobby. For more than 100 years it has been the law in New York state that to carry a gun in public you must have a licence, be over 21, have no criminal record, be of 'good moral character' and have 'proper cause' to carry a gun. I've long felt that, if the 2024 presidential election is as close as the last one with either the Right or the Left refusing to recognise the victor (a precedent set by Trump) then America will face a constitutional crisis, writes ANDREW NEIL The Supreme Court is expected to rule that unconstitutional, too, with horrendous consequences for states trying to grapple with surging gun crime. Contrary to popular belief, this promiscuous attitude to guns is new. For most of America's history, the second amendment was seen as the founding fathers intended: a way of ensuring state militias were properly armed. It places the right to bear arms in the context of its opening words: the need for 'a well-regulated militia'. The U.S. constitution as originally framed gave huge power to the federal government. Many states, which had just liberated themselves from British rule, feared the federal government could be a new George III, the British monarch who lost the American War of Independence. The ten amendments in the Bill of Rights were designed to reassure them that the individual states would still be powerful including the second amendment guarantee that the power to arm their own militias could not be 'infringed'. And that's broadly the way things stayed well into the 20th century. But it didn't mean there were no gun controls. The federal government stayed out of it but individual states introduced all manner of restrictions, especially in the big cities. And even in the Wild West. Indeed, a frontier town like Tombstone, Arizona, scene of the legendary gunfight at the OK Corral, had more gun controls in the 1880s than it has today. Wyatt Earp and his lawmen were forced into a showdown with a group of desperados because they would not check in their guns as they entered town. The gunmen were killed, the law was enforced. Today Earp would be out of a job. You can now carry your gun in the streets of Tombstone. The sad fact is that mass shootings change nothing. The power of the gun lobby is often blamed for this. But the NRA is wracked by scandal and a shadow of its former self. The real gun lobby is made up of the millions and millions of Americans who now own guns. They tend to be Republican and will not tolerate any of their candidates suggesting even the mildest threat to their right to bear arms. So none does. The result is a blocking phalanx of pro-gun Republicans in the Senate who can vote down any attempt at reform, even when the Democrats have a majority because Senate rules require major changes to have the support of 60 out of 100 senators, not a simple majority. And there is no prospect of the Democrats having 60 Senate seats any time soon. The very structure of the Senate conspires against gun controls. Republican Wyoming population under 600,000 has two pro-gun senators. Democratic California population 40 million has two pro-gun control senators. No matter how many polls show a majority for gun control, there's an in-built senate vote from rural and southern states which can stop it. National polls do indeed show widespread support for gun controls but, significantly, it's fading somewhat. This suggests that the more Americans have guns the more they want to keep them, unhindered. My American friend suggests another factor. People are not just gathering guns because of the crime wave. There's a growing feeling, he says, that America is heading for big trouble in the form of civil disorder, and that perception is shared by people on both the left and the right. And so they are preparing for the worst by buying guns. I've long felt that, if the 2024 presidential election is as close as the last one with either the Right or the Left refusing to recognise the victor (a precedent set by Trump) then America will face a constitutional crisis. Democracies can handle crises. But when, unusually, a democracy has a populace armed to the hilt which is today's America who knows what violent mayhem could ensue. The cost of living crisis is hitting many families hard, but high earners who are still able to splash out on luxuries have revealed what it is they spend their cash on every month. In an eye-opening thread on the parenting website Mumsnet and unnamed woman, 27, who lives an hour outside London, explained that she and her doctor husband, 29, earn just under 140,000 a year combined. Her post entitled: 'High earners - how do you spend your salary?' explained that they contribute to their pensions and give 10 per cent a month of their earnings to charity, but wanted to know if they could be allocating their income in a better way. Other responders listed expenditure such as private school fees and chilcdare, trips to the opera and hiring help for household tasks. A Mumsnet user (not pictured) sparked debate after asking fellow 'high earners what they spend their disposable income on The poster revealed that they invest 1,000 a month, and also put 1,000 aside for holidays, as well as general savings In an eye-opening thread on the parenting website Mumsnet and unnamed woman, 27, who lives an hour outside London, explained that she and her doctor husband, 29, earn just under 140,000 a year combined Another said that she'd been helping to buy each of her five children their first property, while one said their money goes into investments, taken care of by her banker husband. Expensive food, exercise classes and taxis made the list as did travel, athough one admitted that she finds holidays 'a chore' and would rather spend money on home decor. Kicking off the thread, the woman said she wanted to 'ask other high earning households how they tend to allocate their money?' to 'see if we could be using it better or this is about right for comparables.' She explained: 'We plan to start overpaying the mortgage. We invest 1,000 a month (so 500 each) and save 1,000 for holidays. High earners revealed that they spend money on luxuries including holidays, home help, and the opera Other responders listed expenditure such as private school fees and chilcdare, trips to the opera and hiring help for household tasks 'We of course do general/specific savings but then have a good chunk left over for disposable income.' One revealed: 'Combined gross salary is 220,000. It goes on large pension contributions, sons school fees, savings and investments, holidays, we have people over for dinner quite often, eating out, a whopper of a mortgage. A second wrote: 'Apart from opera, not much. Everything's paid for and the children are grown up. Oh wait, half of son's forthcoming wedding reception. 'Still both working full time because we like work. There is nothing we need or want particularly so the money just gets reinvested.' Another simply listed: 'Home help, holidays and activities/ lessons.' Many users felt that speaking about financial matters can be helpful, as well as interesting, and defended the poster's question However, the post also received some negative feedback, with some commentators branding it insensitive, especially given the current cost of living crisis. One poster wrote: 'What a boastful thread and rather insensitive given the current financial situation a lot of people are facing. Why dont you just go and pay a financial advisor to tell you what to do with your bloated salaries instead of bragging on Mumsnet?' Another agreed, adding: 'Good grief. What a truly unpleasant thread. At least there aren't any comments about 'giving back' and charitable donations. Then I might puke.' However, others inisted there's nothing wrong with questioning how other people spend their money. Another forum user added: 'Making it taboo to talk about earning well is not helpful. I earn ok and tend to think I should be grateful (and I am) and be satisfied with that - something a lot of posters on here would no doubt agree with. 'Well, I read a salaries thread on here recently and it gave me the confidence to ask for the pay rise that Ive suspected I was due for a while. Not because the posters on there were in my situation, but because I saw that there are a lot of women out there on very good salaries. You dont have to settle for good enough because its greedy to have more.' And a third added: 'It may not be detailed financial advice, but op is quite clearly trying to get a feel for ways in which people like her are apportioning their earnings to different things. 'Are other people prioritising pensions or mortgages? What about fun stuff? How much does someone in her salary bracket splurge vs save? Its not something that is spoken about openly, and we are all curious about how we compare to others.' For decades, my bleach-white limbs were seen as ghoulish. Boys trailed after me at school, clicking along to the theme tune of The Addams Family. Yet something seismic is finally happening to complexions. After 100 years of golden-girl rule, skin untouched by orange tans, real or fake, is now in vogue. Take the red carpet at Cannes, usually a catwalk of Californian sun. Not this year. From Jennifer Connelly and Anne Hathaway to even Kylie Minogue, sun-kissed figures gave way to natural beauty in front of the flashing cameras. And at last week's Downton Abbey: A New Era premiere in New York, Downton's damsels displayed their natural skin tones, despite the movie celebrating the epoch when Riviera tans first took the world by storm. Natural look: Australian actress Nicole Kidman glowing in 2012, left, and this March Just don't call me Arter-tan: Bond girl Gemma Arterton in 2008, inset, and last week Goodbye caramel: Star Anne Hathaway in 2009, left, and looking much fairer in Cannes this year As ever, it was Lady Mary who led the charge. Michelle Dockery glowed like the silver-screen goddess she is, dressed in lustrous sequins and showing lavish expanses of back and calf. Elizabeth McGovern was dressed in barely-there shades, and even Downton newcomer Laura Haddock played ball at the London launch, an English rose unsullied by layers of Towie tan. It's striking how many celebrities are eschewing the bronzed look they used to love. As recent appearances testify, Gemma Arterton, Keira Knightley and Emmas Watson and Stone have all banished the tangerine tone. Meanwhile, a new generation will have never even considered the sun-scorched look. Behold, luminous luminaries Lucy Boynton, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Nicola Coughlan at this month's Met Gala and Anya Taylor-Joy pretty much everywhere she goes. Minogue's in vogue: Kylie in 2002, left, and without the bronzing this week Stone-washed: Actress Emma Stone in her golden era, 2011, left, and earlier this month Spray Gun! Top Gun actress Jennifer Connelly in 2004, left, and radiantly translucent last week I just think our true colours are our best colours, as these red-carpet beauties prove. It's about working with what nature gave us black, white or, in my case, an insipid off-green. At 51, I've been waiting wanly for this moment for decades. Since my teens in the 1980s, I've been hiding in the shadows. No Club Tropicana tans and Sun-In streaks for me. Where other girls basted in oil next to foil, I resisted the pressure to chase what I saw as an unappealing obsession. I would cover myself in sunblock then a petrol-blue gunk which gave me a sheen akin to a dead fish. The New Natural marks a return to a fashion that existed before Coco Chanel's Riviera set made bronzing the symbol of globe-trotting glamour. Before the 20th century, the fair look was a token of aristocratic leisure. These days, with tans available to all via a bottle or a bucket flight think of all those influencers basking in Dubai they're no longer a status symbol. So the world's A-listers are once again turning a cold shoulder to the sun, deeming artificial bronzing too obvious, too banal, a faux pas. Faking it? Potter star Emma Watson in 2010, left, and last year Keira Lightly: Actress Ms Knightley in 2005, left, and two years ago After all, why spend top dollar on your red carpet facial only to cover up the benefits of your newly radiant skin with satsuma-coloured gloop? And let's not forget the dangers of actual tanning from prematurely ageing to cancer. So put up your parasols and slide off those sun loungers. You have nothing to lose but your age spots. Prince Charles has been snapped having an animated conversation during a hike on his Transylvanian estate in Romania. The royal, 73, whose estate is in Valea Zalanului, Szeklerland, has ancestry in Transylvania. His maternal great-great-great-grandmother Klaudia Rhedey was born and raised in the region. Charles, who bought the estate in the late '90s, and has been a regular visitor to Romania since, was spotted wearing sensible walking shoes and slacks for the hike. He also carried a pair of binoculars, slung around his neck, and carried a stick for tackling some of the visibly uneven terrain. Prince Charles (pictured, centre) was snapped while taking a walk on his Transylvanian estate yesterday, a day after visiting Ukrainian refugees in Romania At one point, the 73-year-old royal was seen gesturing animatedly to one of his walking companions, while the pair were in conversation During the hike, he was accompanied by a group, and was seen talking with them, and gesturing animatedly. The walk came a day after the royal visited Ukrainian refugees, during an unannounced tour of the Romexpo donation centre for refugees in the capital Bucharest. Prince Charles was joined by local and national politicians during the appointment. He was also accompanied by a distant relative, Margareta, head of the Romanian royal family. At some points during the hike, the royal was seen sporting a pair of sunglasses to shield his eyes from the sun. He also carried a wide-brimmed hat The royal appeared to be in good spirits as he tackled the uneven terrain, using a stick as he navigated rough ground, and even trekked through shallow water Prince Charles (pictured, centre) bought the estate in Transylvania in the late 90s, and has been a regular visitor to Romania since While Margareta does not use her title of Queen of Romania, she is known as the Custodian of the Romanian Crown. More than a million Ukrainians have crossed the border into Romania since the Russian invasion, after having to flee their homeland. During the tour, the royal met a number of those who'd been displaced, telling them he is 'full of admiration for the Ukrainian people', describing the situation as a 'nightmare'. The prince's tour of the donation centre is the latest in a series of events he has attended to show solidarity with the plight of Ukraine and its people. He has been a regular visitor to Romania over the past 20 years and set up the Prince of Wales Foundation Romania to support the development of farming, traditional skills and the preservation of historic buildings through training. It is thought Charles is spending time privately in the country ahead of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations which begin next week. Prince Harry knows he needs a sprinkle of the Royal Family's 'magic fairy dust' if he wants to continue making money in California, a royal expert has claimed. Author and historian Tessa Dunlop told True Royal TV's the Royal Beat that the Duke of Sussex, 37, is in a difficult position because he is trading on his royal ties but does not want to expose too much in case he is completely cut off. It comes as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex prepare to fly to the UK with their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, 11 months, to take part in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations next week. Dunlop, along with royal biographer and journalist Duncan Larcombe and royal reporter Alan Jones, was discussing Harry's upcoming memoirs, which are due to shed light on his time as part of the Firm. Prince Harry knows he needs a sprinkle of the Royal Family's 'magic fairy dust' if he wants to continue making money in California, a royal expert has claimed Author and historian Tessa Dunlop told True Royal TV 's the Royal Beat that the Duke of Sussex, 37, is in a difficult position because he is trading on his royal ties but does not want to expose too much in case he is completely cut off from the Firm However a publication date has not yet been set, suggesting it has hit roadblocks. The Sussexes are also reportedly filming an 'at-home docuseries' - branded a royal Keeping Up with the Kardashians - for Netflix, as the streamer secures its 'pound of flesh' in return for its $100million Megxit streaming deal. Dunlop says Harry might feel anxious about overstepping the mark. 'It can feel very lonely if the institution shuts you out,' she said. 'And I think Harry, more than anyone, realises hes walking a tightrope. 'Yes, he needs to make money, and yes, the Royal Family has made him feel excluded and he feels unsupported. But he also realises, on a professional level, he needs some of their magic fairy dust. And, on an emotional level, theyre family. It comes as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex prepare to fly to the UK with their children Archie, three, and Lilibet, 11 months, to take part in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations next week. Pictured, Harry and Meghan with the Queen in 2018 'So how much "tell-all" does he really want to do? I think that's going to be the great conundrum for him and his wife.' The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will not join working members of the Royal Family on the Buckingham Palace balcony following Trooping the Colour, they will take part in other events including the Service of Thanksgiving on Friday. Wills and Kate should thank Harry and Meghan for 'star quality' makeover Larcombe said: 'Since the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary last year, we've seen a transition of this couple. It's been a monumental transition. 'Theyve swapped their wax jackets and walks with the dogs for tiaras, ball gowns and velvet, and walks down the red carpet with Tom Cruise. This is about that coming of age the Prince and Princess of Wales in waiting. Dunlop added: 'I think we have got to give some of the credit to Harry and Meghan, because I think they forced the couple to slightly kickstart their star quality.' Advertisement Larcombe said: [It] may be the only chance we get to see a glimpse of both [Harry and Meghan] . we can expect to see massive crowds 'Thousands and thousands of people that you would describe as royalists, who love the pomp and ceremony. 'The reality is Harry and Meghan are very divisive characters It will be fascinating to see the reaction and mood of the public [towards them].' Dunlop added the family will be wanting to put their 'best foot forward' for the event and will put on a united front for the cameras. Dunlop commented on the historic nature of the celebrations, saying: 'It is very unlikely we will see a Jubilee like this for decades. 'Prince Charles would need to be King for 25 years before he can celebrate his Silver Jubilee, which is highly unlikely given the fact he is already in his seventies. 'This is a standalone moment, our first Platinum Jubilee, and perhaps it will be the last for a long time.' It comes after Meghan Markle paid tribute to the victims of a school shooting in Texas by visiting a memorial near the site of the massacre and laying a bouquet of white 'peace' roses. The Duchess of Sussex was photographed on Thursday laying the flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse, not far from the scene of the senseless slayings at Robb Elementary School. Star power: Royal experts said Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge have embraced their celebrity after being inspired by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex She also stopped by an Uvalde community center that is hosting a blood drive, where she toured the facility and donated food, a volunteer there told DailyMail.com. 'She did not want anybody to know who she was,' the person said. The duchess dropped off of two 'large' bags filled with sandwiches, beverages, and desserts for blood donors, reports said. She took the trip in a personal capacity as a mother, to offer her condolences and support in person to a community experiencing unimaginable grief, her spokesperson told People. Markle did not address the press on the visit, and it was unclear whether she was accompanied by camera crews filming content for her deal with Netflix. A Netflix spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Duchess departed by private jet several hours later. The Queen has a 'soft spot for Prince Harry' because of the 'tragic nature of his mother Princess Diana's death and his struggles to cope with it', royal biographer Andrew Morton has claimed. Speaking on Lorraine when promoting his new book, The Queen, the British author said Her Majesty, 96, would have recognised the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's need to make a life for themselves. However, Morton, best known for penning Princess Diana's authorised biography, added that Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to quit the royal family in 2020 and move to California was 'abrupt' and 'a lot of it was uncalled for'. The Queen has a 'soft spot for Prince Harry (pictured together in 2016 to promote the Invictus Games)' because of the 'tragic nature of his mother Princess Diana's death and his struggles to cope with it', royal biographer Andrew Morton has claimed The Princess Of Wales pictured with Prince Harry at Hyde Park in May 1995. Princess Diana died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, aged 36 Speaking on Lorraine when promoting his new book, The Queen, the British author (pictured) said Her Majesty, 96, would have recognised the Duke and Duchess of Sussex's need to make a life for themselves He said: 'The Queen's got a soft spot for Harry, he can jump over, I mean courtiers will have an appointment with the Queen and it'll be three weeks hence, he can turn up at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle walk in say "Hi" and get the Queen to say be involved in the Invictus Games. 'So yeah the Queen has got a soft spot for Harry, because obviously, the tragic nature of his mother's death, and he struggles to cope with that. His mental struggles. 'He's cursed with charisma in a way. When I see him on royal engagements it's very much like watching Diana, kneeling down and hugging kids. It's remarkable.' Princess Diana died in a Paris car crash on August 31, 1997, aged 36. Prince Harry was just 12-years-old at the time, while his brother Prince William was aged 15. Morton was also asked by presenter Ranvir Singh what he believed the Queen's thoughts were regarding Megxit. 'Well it was abrupt, a lot of it was uncalled for,' he said. 'But at the same time the Queen will recognise, they've got a young family, she's American, and she'll cast her mind back to her own life. However, Morton (pictured right), best known for penning Princess Diana's authorised biography, added that Harry and Meghan Markle's decision to quit the royal family in 2020 and move to California was 'abrupt' and 'a lot of it was uncalled for'. The author was also asked by presenter Ranvir Singh what he believed the Queen's thoughts were regarding Megxit. Pictured, Meghan Markle, Prince Harry and the Queen in 2018 'Because she and Prince Philip went off to Malta for a few years, shortly after they married, and they expected to be on the fringes of the royal family, of duty as it were, for 20 years or so. 'Prince Philip expected to go through the ranks in the navy. it was very unexpected for them and she will appreciate the fact that Harry and Meghan want to make a life for themselves.' The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will join The Queen at a thanksgiving service at St Paul's Cathedral next week to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee, it emerged yesterday. The LA-based couple will honour the monarch's seven decades on the throne on Friday June 3 alongside Her Majesty's children, grandchildren and her older great-grandchildren, The Telegraph reported. Next Friday will be the first time the Sussexes, the Cambridges and the Prince of Wales and Camilla (pictured at the Commonwealth Day Service in 2020) have been together in public for years But the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and the Duke of York will not be joining other royals on the Buckingham Palace balcony at the Trooping the Colour that kicks off the Queens platinum jubilee celebrations next Thursday. Only senior serving royals such as Prince Charles, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and Prince William are invited. 24 hours later the eyes of the world will be on the Sussexes at St Paul's, because it will be the first time the couple will be surrounded by such a large number of Windsors since their wedding at St George's Windsor in 2018. Harry has hardly seen his father and brother since they emigrated to California, and Meghan has not seen them at all. But the Sussexes eldest son Archie, three, and daughter Lilibet, who turns one on Saturday, are unlikely to attend the service of celebration, with only the eldest great-grandchildren expected to attend. Prince George, eight, and Princess Charlotte, seven, are expected to be with their parents alongside cousin Mia Tindall, also eight. The Queen's presence is expected but a decision may be left to the 11th hour due to her ongoing mobility issues. A lavish maid of honour dress from the Queen's Coronation has been painstakingly restored and will go on display to mark the Platinum Jubilee. The outfit, designed by the Queen's dressmaker Norman Hartnell, was worn by Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill at the 1953 Westminster Abbey ceremony. It has a tiny 22-inch waist, with a motif of gold leaf and pearl white blossom. The dress was recently rediscovered at Blenheim Palace, in Woodstock, after being in their archive for 40 years. It will be showcased at the Palace - Winston Churchill's birthplace - following its restoration by textile conservator Emma Telford. The dress was worn by Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill (second left) for the Queen's Coronation in 1953 After the frock was recently rediscovered in Blenheim Palace, Oxon, it required restoring, to bring it back to its former glory Pictured after the restoration, the dress, which features a motif of gold leaf and pearl white blossom, is back to looking pristine Alongside it will be the gloves she wore that day and a brooch presented to the six maids of honour. Lady Rosemary first learnt of her major role at the Coronation by written invitation in January 1953. The letter read: 'Madam, I have it in command from the Queen to inform you that Her Majesty has been graciously pleased to appoint you as a Maid of Honour to assist the Mistress of the Robes in bearing Her Majesty's train on the occasion of Her Majesty's Coronation.' She had four dress fittings and attended eight rehearsals before the Coronation on June 2, 1953. As the most senior maid of honour, she rode in the carriage as part of the procession to the abbey. Textile conservator Emma Telford, pictured at her studio in Hereford, worked on the frock after it was discovered after being lost for four decades The lavish frock boasts a tiny 22-inch waist. It also features a gold leaf and pearl white blossom motif, cap sleeves and wide v-neck Lady Rosemary recalled in a 2013 BBC interview: 'The noise was absolutely fantastic. 'The roar of the crowd, I do remember that very well. 'And of course, it was a pretty awful day. It wasn't raining non-stop but it was cold and we had nothing but our gloves. 'We were in the carriage with Lord Tryon who was Keeper of the Privy Purse. 'In this wonderful embroidered purse he gave us sweets to eat on the way round London. 'I was excited. I don't think one was too apprehensive. Textile conservator Emma Telford poses with the restored dress, with Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, who first donned the gown back in 1953 'Like everything we'd been so well-schooled for so long that we knew exactly what we had to do and when we had to do it. 'The Queen was very relaxed and full of confidence. 'When we were all in place and holding her train she said 'Are you ready girls?' and we set off. 'When the Queen made her oath and she was anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury with oil on her forehead, dressed in just a little linen shift, she looked very vulnerable, but she was completely calm and fantastic.' The Queen's gown for the Coronation was made of ivory silk satin and encrusted with 10,000 seed pearls. Queen Letizia of Spain cut an elegant figure as she attended the 81st Madrid Book Fair earlier this morning. The 49-year-old wore a chic pink midi dress as she was greeted by the Spanish Education Minister Pilar Alegria in the city on Thursday. Her bohemian style flowing number was perfect for warmer weather, and she rolled up the sleeves as she arrived at the event. She completed her ensemble with glamorous matching pink wedges and a beige leather handbag. Queen Letizia of Spain, 49, cut an elegant figure as she attended the 81st Madrid Book Fair earlier this morning Her brunette locks were styled in a sleek centre parting and her glam makeup enhanced her flawless features Keeping accessorises to a minimum she donned gorgeous diamond earrings. Her brunette locks were styled in a sleek centre parting and her glam makeup enhanced her flawless features. She was effortlessly elegant as she arrived alongside Madrid's Mayor Jose Luis Martinez Almeida at the book fair earlier this afternoon, before being greeted by the Book Fair's Director Eva Orue. The mother-of-two went on to chat to attendees of the event, including speaking with school children. The 49-year-old wore a chic pink midi dress as she was greeted by the Spanish Education Minister Pilar Alegria in the city on Thursday Her bohemian style flowing number was perfect for warmer weather, and she rolled up the sleeves as she arrived at the event The mother-of-two beamed as she chatted with schoolchildren taking part in an activity during the book fair It is also Letizia's first appearance in public since Spain's scandal-hit former King Juan Carlos returned to the country last week, bringing to an end his nearly two-year exile in the Middle East It is also Letizia's first appearance in public since Spain's scandal-hit former King Juan Carlos returned to the country last week, bringing to an end his nearly two-year exile in the Middle East. Juan Carlos, 84, flew by private jet from Abu Dhabi to Vigo, in northwest Spain, where he was met by his daughter Elena, 58. His wife Sofia, 83, and son King Felipe, 54, the reigning monarch, were not present. The royal was spotted at the Royal Sailing Club of Sanxenxo, where he sailed alongside his 'Bribo' boat during the regatta of the InterRias trophy of the 6mR class Copa Espana 2022 circuit. His daughter Infanta Cristina, 56, was also present. She was effortlessly elegant as she arrived alongside Madrid's Mayor Jose Luis Martinez Almeida at the book fair earlier this afternoon, before being greeted by the Book Fair's Director Eva Orue The royal was staying with his close friend Pedro Campos, a former America's Cup sailor, at his home near the Galician resort of Sanxenxo, one of his favourite destinations where he has often been spotted in the past sailing with friends and family. He was expected to remain in the country for a few days, and understood to be meeting members of his family at Zarzuela Palace in Madrid. Juan Carlos, who ruled from 1975 until his abdication in 2014, left Spain in August 2020 after becoming the target of several probes in Spain and abroad over alleged tax avoidance and questionable dealings in the Middle East. In March Spanish state prosecutors paved the way for Juan Carlos' temporary return to Spain by shelving the criminal probes against him, saying any alleged crimes were spent or his Head of State status at the time protected him from prosecution. The mother-of-two went on to chat to attendees of the event, including speaking with school children It marked the first public outing for the royal, who could be seen browsing books at the fair, since Spain's scandal-hit former King Juan Carlos returned to the country last week The decision was taken after he paid millions of pounds in tax regularisations. Felipe and his wife, Queen Letizia, have worked hard to restore public trust in the royal family his father's scandals that have tarnished the reputation of the royal family. Felipe has publicly distanced himself from his father. He failed to meet up with Juan Carlos during an official visit to Abu Dhabi earlier this month to pass on his condolences following the death of the United Arab Emirates' president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan aged 73. Advertisement Charming photos of the Queen performing in pantomimes as a teenager are expected to fetch 4,000 at auction. The then Princess Elizabeth took to the stage alongside her sister Princess Margaret in wartime productions of Aladdin (1943) and Old Mother Red Riding Boots (1944). The pantomimes, performed at Windsor Castle, raised money for the Royal Household Wool Fund, which supplied knitting wool to make comforters for soldiers fighting on the front line. They were performed to fellow royals, members of the Armed Forces and local schoolchildren. A young Prince Philip is also said to have seen his future wife in the lead role in Aladdin. Third royal performance: Pricesses Margaret and Elizabeth in the 1943 play Aladdin in Windsor, Berkshire Memorabilia: A signed picture of Princess Margaret (left) and Princess Elizabeth (right) from the play Aladdin in 1943 Fundraising: The pantomimes, performed at Windsor Castle, raised money for the Royal Household Wool Fund, which supplied knitting wool to make comforters for soldiers fighting on the front line. Pictured, the princesses in Aladdin In the spotlight: Margaret in a production of Old Mother Red Riding Boots in 1944, which she performed with Elizabeth (right) Curtain call! Pictured: Elizabeth and Margaret take a bow following a production of Old Mother Red Riding Boots in 1944 Treasured memories: The photos are up for sale alongside programs and tickets from the intimate royal performances Elizabeth and Margaret became so involved in the productions that they even helped make their own costumes. George VI also pulled strings to make his daughters' performing dreams come true, enlisting an Academy Award-winner to design the set and bringing in a sound technician from the BBC. Photos of the sisters on stage, as well as programmes from the performances, will go under the hammer at TW Gaze, of Diss, Norfolk, on June 14. The albums originally belonged to artist and illustrator Sylvia Salisbury, who attended the pantomimes. Her father, Frank O. Salisbury, befriended the royals after illustrating the Princess Elizabeth Gift Book in 1935. Showstopping: Elizabeth, left, played Lady Christina Sherwood in Old Mother Red Riding Boots in 1944 Leading lady: Margaret took on the role of The Honourable Lucinda Fairfax in Old Mother Red Riding Boots in 1944, pictured Taking centre stage! Princess Margaret steps up to perform in Old Mother Red Riding Boots in Windsor in 1944 Feeling shy? Margaret looks somewhat uncertain as she poses for a photo with one of her co-stars in 1944 Getting into the festive spirit: Elizabeth (second from right) and Margaret (right) in a Christmas production of Aladdin in 1943 Robert Henshilwood, specialist at TW Gaze, said: 'During the Second World War, Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret spent much of their time in Windsor, safely away from the bombing in London. 'The Christmas pantomimes were an enjoyable distraction from the harsh realities of war. The princesses really threw themselves into them and even helped make the costumes. 'King George VI found the performances incredibly moving, writing in his diaries about how he was in floods of tears watching them each year. The pantomimes were performed in front of friends and close relations of the Royal Family. These fantastic photos very rarely come up on the market.' Royal stars: Princess Elizabeth (right) and Margaret in Old Mother Red Riding Boots, 1944, at the Royal School, Windsor Treasured memories: Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret photographed in costume following their 1944 production Dynamic duo! Princess Elizabeth starred opposite each other in the light-hearted productions in 1944 (left) and 1943 (right) Ready for her solo! Elizabeth (in white, alongside Princess Margaret) played Lady Christina Sherwood in Old Mother Red Riding Boots and sang 'Swinging on a Star', which won an Oscar that year for best original song for the film Going my Way Getting into character: Margaret and Elizabeth in a Christmas production of Aladdin in 1943. Right, Elizabeth in a 1944 play Royal stars! Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret, pictured in 1944, performed for local schoolchildren in Windsor Stars of the show! Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are front and centre in this photo from Christmas, 1944 In the 1943 production of Aladdin, Elizabeth, then aged 17, sparkled in the lead role as Aladdin while a 13-year-old Margaret played the laundry boy's girlfriend, Princess Roxana. The Queen's Governess Marion 'Crawfie' Crawford said in her memoirs: 'The pantomime went off very well. I have never known Lilibet more animated. There was a sparkle about her none of us had ever seen before.' In the audience was Prince Philip of Greece whose eye was said to have been caught by Elizabeth on this occasion. A year later, they returned to the stage for Old Mother Red Riding Boots, with Margaret taking on the role of The Honourable Lucinda Fairfax. Elizabeth played Lady Christina Sherwood and sang 'Swinging on a Star', which won an Oscar that year for best original song for the film Going my Way. Main character: Elizabeth, then aged 17, sparkled in the lead role as Aladdin while a 13-year-old Margaret played the laundry boy's girlfriend, Princess Roxana, in a 1943 production of Aladdin Well maintained: The photographs are presented in an album that will make a perfect memento for royal fans Say cheese! Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret are centre stage for this light-hearted scene in Windsor in 1944 Pretty as a picture! The princesses, pictured centre, took on roles in Old Mother Red Riding Boots at Windsor in 1944 Taking a bow: Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret curtseyed alongside their co-stars following the performance Mementoes: The programmes for Aladdin (1943) and Old Mother Red Riding Boots (1944) are also going under the hammer A single mother who was determined to prove naysayers wrong has travelled to 22 different countries with her son. Chelsea Ruby, 28, who lives between London and Marbella, was just 20 when she unexpectedly fell pregnant with her son Reginald, now seven. She claims family members told her she was 'too young' and would never be able to travel now she was a mum. Determined to prove that she hadn't ruined her life, Chelsea worked three jobs and sold everything she owned to buy a one way flight to Thailand for herself and then two-year-old Reginald in 2015. Chelsea Ruby, 28, who lives between London and Marbella, has travelled to 22 countries with her seven-year-old son Reginald (both pictured) Chelsea claims family told her that she had 'ruined' her life after she unexpectedly fell pregnant at age 20. Pictured: Chelsea with Reginald as a baby in London Chelsea said she decided to go travelling with Reginald after realising that she wasn't compatible with his father. Pictured: In Florida Chelsea who was aged 22 when their adventure began, said: 'I fell pregnant unexpectedly. I had broken up with Reginald's dad to go and do season in Zante and whilst I was there I had fainted and then found out was 10 weeks pregnant. 'I then flew home and stayed with his dad for a year and half but realised we just weren't compatible, we just had good friendship instead. 'I decided that I wanted to take Reginald travelling so I sold everything I had and when he was two we flew to Thailand, and spent three years travelling around the world together. 'We visited the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Miami, Florida and then spent seven weeks in Europe and drove across the whole coast of southern Europe - from Spain to Italy, it was beautiful. 'We have visited 22 countries together and he is only seven. 'Europe was definitely our favourite, there is something about the freedom of driving through Monaco, Portofino and all of the beautiful places that you cant beat. Chelsea said she sold everything and worked three jobs to fund their travel to countries including the Philippines (pictured), Cambodia and Thailand Chelsea said there are 'risks in everything you do' and they went travelling to prove everyone who thought she was 'too young' wrong. Pictured: In Oslob, Philippines 'I wanted to prove I could do this when people said I was too young and it was too dangerous. I would rather die with elephants than crossing a road in London going to work every day. There are risks in anything you do so why not make the most of life. 'Yes I sold everything before I left which meant we came home and had to go into temporary accommodation but I didn't care because I had two years of memories and life is so short. 'In his seven years I have gained more with him than what people would get in 70 years. I always complimented on the bond me and my son have. Chelsea said Reginald has gained more in his seven years than what some people would get in 70 years. Pictured: In Miami Chelsea claims she received 'awful' trolling on social media throughout their travels around the world. Pictured: In Liloan, Philippines Chelsea insists that her parents didn't fund her adventure and she wants to show that anyone is capable of doing it 'When I was travelling, the trolling on social media I received was awful. When we were in the Philippines we stayed in high end hotel for the first week as it was very nerve wracking when we first landed.' Chelsea said that some people have assumed her parents paid for her trips but insists it isn't true. She said: 'I worked so hard to afford it, and that's what I want people to realise that if I can do it anyone can. Chelsea revealed they spent just under seven weeks in Thailand and with flights and accommodation plus spending money it only cost 1500. Pictured: Orlando, Florida Chelsea said she and Reginald would live in hostels Monday to Friday and then lived as a king and queen at the weekends Chelsea said the food in Thailand (pictured) was cheap, they would eat local food as well as luxury meals 'We stayed in hostels Monday to Friday and then lived as a king and queen at the weekends so we got to experience the culture and then had luxury as well. 'We were in Thailand for just under seven weeks and with flights and accommodation plus spending money it only cost me 1500 in total. 'I just feel that there is no excuse, we would eat local food as well as luxury food but even still, it is so cheap there. 'If you want it you can work for it, you make these temporary sacrifices but you make the memories.' Chelsea said she ended up going down a 'bad path' after being given a flat from social services at age 17. Pictured: In Santorini, Greece Chelsea, who is now a make up artist, said she worked in Kavos for three seasons before falling pregnant with her son Chelsea claims travelling made her realise that memories mean more than handbags, shoes and nights out Chelsea, who is now a celebrity make up artist, admits that her life was spiraling as a teenager. Chelsea said: 'When I turned 17 I left social care and got given a flat from social services but I ended up going down bad path. 'I saw friend was working in Kavos and I wanted to do the same so I sold everything and went out there to work and ended up doing three seasons before I got pregnant. 'I was quite materialistic when I was younger but when I went travelling it made me realise that moments meant more than handbags, shoes and nights out. It opened my eyes to how big and beautiful the world is. Chelsea said she hopes Reginald will continue travelling, and she hopes to gift him enough air miles to travel around the world at age 18 Chelsea said she wants to encourage Reginald to go find himself and not to be stuck to one friendship group. In Monaco Chelsea said she still has many places to visit with her son, and their two-and-a-half years exploring the world has given her a 'life time of happiness'. Pictured: In Chiang Rai, Thailand 'It made me realise that smaller less expensive things are most precious, and travelling with my son helped me find myself. 'I really hope Reginald will continue to travel. For his 18th would love to get him enough air miles to travel around the world, I want to encourage him to go and find himself, and don't want him stuck in one friendship group. 'I learnt that the world is your oyster and feel like I became so wise from travelling so I want him to do the same. 'Our travelling together definitely hasn't ended, we have still go to so many places to visit but already, those two-and-a-half years have given me a life time of happiness.' Reginald was home-schooled until he was six years old after returning from their travels to 22 countries. Pictured: In Florence, Italy Chelsea said she didn't want Reginald to be 'corrupted by school' and thinks experiences such as travelling and learning how to deal with debt are more beneficial When Chelsea and Reginald returned from their travels, Reginald was home-schooled until he was six years old by choice as Chelsea felt that he didn't need to be in school until then. Chelsea added: 'I liked the freedom of showing him places myself and not having to comply to school regulations. 'When he started he wasn't even behind. 'He started in October last year and I think he has really taken in the experiences he formed at such a young age. 'Reginald was progressing so much independently already, I didn't want him to be corrupted by school, and if I had it my way he wouldn't be at school at all, I think he needs to be shown life experiences such as travelling, how to deal with debt, credit ratings instead. 'I know I am very different with my mindset, it was just the social aspect of school which drew me to letting him go.' The Queen paid tribute to her parents by wearing a rarely seen platinum brooch featuring two leaves given by them on her 21st birthday for an engagement earlier this week. The monarch, 96, donned the sparkling diamond and platinum ivy brooch, as she met Emir of Qatar in her latest public engagement. The piece, which was made by Cartier, was a birthday gift to then-Princess Elizabeth from her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, when she was just 21-years-old. The jewel is rarely worn by Her Majesty. Her Majesty was all smiles as she shook hands with the monarch of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, at the royal residence in Berkshire on Tuesday this week. The Queen, 96, paid tribute to her parents by wearing a rarely seen platinum brooch featuring two leaves given by them on her 21st birthday for an engagement earlier this week The monarch donned the sparkling diamond and platinum ivy brooch, as she met Emir of Qatar in her latest public engagement Made by Cartier, the Queen reportedly received the exquisite present as part of a large Greville bequest. The collection of jewels belonged to the Hon. Mrs. Ronald Greville and was bequeathed to the future Queen Mother in 1942. Each leaf includes a central brilliant diamond and pave-set leaves in platinum. The brooch is rarely worn by the royal - she last wore the special brooch during a 2016 Royal Academy of Arts Reception. The piece, which was made by Cartier, was a birthday gift to then-Princess Elizabeth from her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, when she was just 21-years-old It comes just one day after she opted for another rarely seen brooch gifted to her by her parents as she visited the Royal Chelsea Flower Show in London. The monarch wore the pretty floral brooch, made with pink and blue sapphires, rubies and diamonds, as she arrived at the event earlier this week. The piece, which was made by Cartier, was a birthday gift to then-Princess Elizabeth from her parents, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, in 1945 when she was just 19-years-old. The jewel is rarely worn by Her Majesty. Making her third appearance in a week, the 96-year-old donned a lavender and green floral dress, accessorised with pearl earrings and a matching necklace, with simple black loafers. Earlier this week, the Queen, 96, appeared to give a nod to her parents by wearing a rarely seen ruby and saphhire flower brooch given to them on her 19th birthday as she attended the Royal Chelsea Flower Show The monarch donned the pretty floral brooch, made with pink and blue sapphires, rubies and diamonds, as she arrived at the event in London In mere days, the nation will gather to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee during an extended four-day Bank Holiday weekend. The celebration will see a service of thanksgiving held, Trooping the Colour and a Jubilee pageant staged. The monarch is expected to limit her appearances at the Platinum Jubilee to the Trooping the Colour - the parade and flypast that kicks off the celebrations on Thursday June 2 - and a service of celebration at St Paul's Cathedral the next day, which will be attended by the entire Royal Family including Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, who have been banned from the Buckingham Palace balcony 24 hours earlier. But her presence is unlikely to be confirmed until the day itself. Marks and Spencer is set to include bowel cancer signs and symptoms on it's toilet roll packaging in a move inspired by Dame Deborah James. The former deputy head teacher turned cancer campaigner, 40, from London, has been living with stage four bowel cancer since she was diagnosed in December 2016, and was told early on that she might not live beyond five years - a milestone that passed in the autumn of 2021. At the start of the year, the mother-of-two, who shares her children Hugo, 14, and Eloise, 12, with her husband Sebastien, announced she had 'nearly died' in hospital, calling it the 'hardest' part of her 5-year cancer battle, and was admitted as an in-patient earlier this month. She is now receiving end of life care bowel cancer at her parents' home in Woking and has raised over 6 million in the weeks since she announced the news. Now, M&S, in partnership with Bowel Cancer UK, have announced their plan to include signs and symptoms for bowel cancer on the labelling of the everyday product. Marks and Spencer is set to include bowel cancer signs and symptoms on it's toilet roll packaging in a move inspired by Dame Deborah James, 40 M&S employee Cara Hoofe originally came up with the idea, having herself been diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in 2016 at the age of 32. She submitted it to M&S' newly launched Straight to Stuart colleague suggestion scheme. Introduced by new CEO Stuart Machin, the scheme encourages colleagues to share ideas and views with him directly via Microsoft Teams, with a quick response guaranteed. She said: 'Deborah is a huge inspiration to me and so many other young people diagnosed with bowel cancer. 'I feel fortunate my journey since diagnois has taken a different path but I want to give a voice to all those who can no longer use theirs to raise awareness. 'Early detection is so important and my main message to people is don't feel embarrassed, get things checked out and speak to your doctor. The changes will come into place nationwide from September, and there will also be signage about bowel cancer symptoms in-store and across support centre toilets 'I've worked at M&S for over ten years and am so happy they are putting my idea into action and so quickly I'm hoping other companies will consider joining us.' M&S will also be making a 50,000 donation to Bowel Cancer UK. The changes will come into place nationwide from September, and there will also be signage about bowel cancer symptoms in-store and across support centre toilets. Shoppers will also be able to scan a QR code to find out more about the disease on Bowel Cancer UK's website. Symptoms of bowel cancer - Change in bowel habits with diarrhoea, constipation or the feeling of incomplete emptying - Thin or loose bowel movements - Blood or mucous in stools - Abdominal pain, bloating and cramping - Anal or rectal pain - Lump in the anus or rectum - Unexplained weight loss - Fatigue - Unexplained anaemia Advertisement Deborah was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in December 2016, and was told early on that she might not live beyond five years - a milestone that passed in the autumn of 2021. She shared an Instagram post earlier this month revealing that 'nobody knows how long she has left'. She wrote: 'The message I never wanted to write. We have tried everything, but my body simply isn't playing ball. 'My active care has stopped and I am now moved to hospice at home care, with my incredible family all around me and the focus is on making sure I'm not in pain and spending time with them.' She is receiving hospice care at her parents' home in Woking, to spare her children the difficult memories of her spending her final days at the family home in London. The news comes days after she told The Sun that she was 'scared to fall asleep' because she does not know how long she has got left. She added she had felt a 'deep love' from her family, saying: 'I think my family are knackered, they have all been incredible - going above and beyond to look after me and nurse me.' And speaking of her end of life care recently she said: 'I feel very strongly that I don't want my kids to see me agitated and distressed. I want to make sure they see me when I'm having a good days.' Saying the 'pressure' on her young children was 'huge', she continued: 'I want them to have nice memories. 'I don't want them to take on the burden of having to care for me, massage my legs because I can't walk. That would break my heart.' Deborah is now receiving end of life care bowel cancer at her parents' home in Woking and has raised over 6 million in the weeks since she announced the news In recent days, she has won praise from Prince William who called her 'brilliant, brave and inspirational' as he met some of the staff who treated her. Speaking at the Royal Marsden to patient Lorraine Kimber, 59, from Essex, who is currently undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer and knows Mrs James well, the prince described his meeting with her. 'She was incredible, incredible. She was surrounded by her family, we had a lovely afternoon,' he said. 'You know she's had over 100 tumours. Which is unbelievable. I couldn't believe that. The resilience you have to have to keep going back again, it's got to be very draining on you.' In recent days, she has won praise from Prince William who called her 'brilliant, brave and inspirational' after meeting her William said: 'She was jokingbecause they are a very tight family, very close, you could see that.she was joking that at last she could now drink. 'She said it was brilliant. She was 'triple parked' and kept on joking about how many drinks she could get lined up in front of her. 'She's realising that being at home is just where she wants to be right now, surrounded by all her loved ones.' He added: ' I love Deborah, she's fantastic. Her legacy is massive.' The dress worn by the Queen for her Coronation at Westminster Abbey is set to go on display at Windsor Castle to celebrate her Platinum Jubilee. Her Majesty's Coronation dress, which was designed by British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell, is made from white duchesse satin. It is famously embroidered with the emblems of the seven independent states of which she were to become monarch, as well as those of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, with gold and silver thread. The embroidery also features pastel-coloured silks, as well as seed pearls, sequins and crystals. The lavish gown, worn by Her Majesty at her Coronation in 1953, will go on show at Windsor Castle between July 7th and 2022 September 26th Her Majesty wearing her Coronation dress, designed by British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell, made from duchesse satin and gold embroidery Also on show at Windsor Castle will be Her Majesty's Robe of Estate, which she wore on her Coronation day. The purple silk velvet garment, made by royal robe-makers Ede and Ravenscroft, also features a goldwork embroidery design, which was embroidered at the Royal School of Needlework. The stitching shows wheat ears and olive branches, symbolising prosperity and peace, surrounding the crowned intertwined EIIR cipher. Creating the art work took 12 embroideresses more than 3,500 hours. They used 18 different types of gold thread. Both of the items will be put on display at Windsor Castle from July 7th until September 26th. The Queen, pictured here with her maids of honour on her Coronation day, is wearing the Robe of Estate that is going on show at Windsor Castle to mark the Platinum Jubilee The purple silk velvet garment, which was made by royal robe-makers Ede and Ravenscroft, features gold and silver embroidery The Queen's dress and robe are not the only Coronation garments going on display to mark the Platinum Jubilee. A lavish maid of honour dress from the event, which has been painstakingly restored, is also set to go on show. The gown, which features a tiny 22-inch waist and motif of gold leaf and pearl white blossom, went missing for almost 40 years. It was recently rediscovered at Blenheim Palace, in Woodstock, and painstakingly restored by textile conservator Emma Telford. The outfit, designed by the Queen's dressmaker Norman Hartnell, was worn by Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill at the 1953 Westminster Abbey ceremony. Lady Rosemary recalled in a 2013 BBC interview: 'The noise was absolutely fantastic. 'The roar of the crowd, I do remember that very well. And of course, it was a pretty awful day. It wasn't raining non-stop but it was cold and we had nothing but our gloves. Textile conservator Emma Telford (pictured, left) recently restored a maid of honour dress from the Coronation dress, worn by Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill (pictured, right) The recently restored dress boasts a tiny 22-inch waist, and features a gold leaf and pearl white blossom motif, cap sleeves and wide v-neck 'We were in the carriage with Lord Tryon who was Keeper of the Privy Purse. In this wonderful embroidered purse he gave us sweets to eat on the way round London. 'I was excited. I don't think one was too apprehensive. 'Like everything we'd been so well-schooled for so long that we knew exactly what we had to do and when we had to do it. 'The Queen was very relaxed and full of confidence. When we were all in place and holding her train she said 'Are you ready girls?' and we set off. 'When the Queen made her oath and she was anointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury with oil on her forehead, dressed in just a little linen shift, she looked very vulnerable, but she was completely calm and fantastic.' A couple with a 21-year age gap have shared the details of their relationship revealing how friends and strangers alike call their coupling 'creepy' and tell them to 'find people their own age'. Kat Lyons Berg, 34, and Robrecht Berg, 55, live in Colorado, and have been together for three years. The couple first met at a science fiction exhibition in 2019, where they immediately bonded over their shared love of cosplay. Kat, an adult model and content creator, and Robrecht, who is a retired military man and a father-of-two, hit it off immediately with sparks flying on their first date, despite there being more than two decades between them. They have now been married for seven months and although the pair are very happy, they have been met with criticism from people who don't approve of their union - and have even Robrecht 'creepy' for marrying a woman who is so much younger than him. A 33-year-old model who married a father-of-two 21 years her senior has hit back at critics who brand their age-gap relationship 'creepy' Kat Lyons Berg, from Colorado, met her husband Robrecht Berg, 55, in 2019 at a science fiction exhibition, where they bonded over their shared love of cosplay 'We both didn't feel odd about it in any way,' Kat told Jam Press. 'We are both open-minded people, but I do get a lot of questions about our relationship from people.' In fact, when Kat and Robrecht first started dating, she admits that some of the most outspoken criticism came from within their own inner circles, with the model noting that her mother in particular was very upset about her daughter dating someone so much older. 'Some of Robrecht's female friends were skeptical one of them even got mad that he was with me but his family was extremely accepting. 'My family not so much, my mom especially, I ended up moving out because I didn't want to live in an awkward situation anymore. 'But by the time I moved out my family and I were back on good terms.' Some of Kat's friends also questioned the couple's relationship at first, however, once they realized the pair were the real deal, they have come to terms with the age gap. Still, the couple continues to face with negative reactions from the public and online, where they are regularly met with furious backlash over their age-gap romance. The newlyweds, who tied the knot seven months ago, admit that they faced furious backlash from Kat's family when they first started dating - and also face criticism from strangers However, Kat insists that she sees nothing 'odd' in their age-gap romance - and even claims that sex is better with older men because they are more 'tender' and 'adventurous' The model has previously admitted that she struggled to come to terms with Robrecht's responsibilities as a full-time father, but says she has a wonderful relationship with his two kids 'I notice it more than Rob does,' she admitted. 'The comments online are like, "Geez how old is that guy", "He is creepy" or, "Why can't he get someone his own age." 'One time he paid for me to get a pedicure and when he went to give me a kiss the lady was looking at us with such shock. 'But I love the fact that he is older, I've always preferred older men.' Kat also claims having an older man makes for better sex - claiming that younger men are too focused on 'watching porn' and don't have as many skills in the bedroom as a result. 'The sex is better with older men because they are so tender,' she said. 'Younger men watch too much porn and get so excited it's over so quickly, but we always are adventurous in bed.' However, Kat has shared some advice on anyone going into a relationship with a larger age gap. When Kat and Robrecht began dating, some of the harshest criticism they faced came from within their own inner circles 'My family [was not so accepting], my mom especially,' Kat said. 'I ended up moving out because I didn't want to live in an awkward situation anymore' She said: 'If they're older, you should consider their health, depending on that they might not be around for long. 'You also have to have tough skin because people will make comment and even stare. But the bottom line is do what makes you happy. 'If it's an age gap relationship go for it, it's your happiness.' Although Kat and Robrecht are now happily married - and insist that they don't see anything wrong with their age gap - they admit that they've still had to conquer their fair share of hurdles during the three years that they have been together. Initially, Kat says she struggled to come to terms with Robrecht's responsibilities as a full-time father to his younger child; the military veteran has a six-year-old and an 18-year-old from previous relationships, and has sole custody over the younger sibling. 'Rob has two kids from previous marriages and with him having sole custody over his six-year-old, it does affect our ability to go and do things as a couple,' she shared. 'But I share an amazing love with both his six-year-old and 18-year-old so there are no issues there.' Former President Barack Obama had a heartwarming reunion with Jacob Philadelphia the boy who touched his head in the iconic 2009 'Hair Like Mine' photo to celebrate his high school graduation. The 60-year-old reflected on his unforgettable meeting with Philadelphia and the resulting image captured by White House photographer Pete Souza in a video shared by the Obama Foundation. The nearly-five-minute clip included footage of Obama's recent conversation with Philadelphia on Zoom ahead of his graduation from the International School of Uganda on May 27. 'It's Barack Obama, man. Do you remember me?' the former commander-in-chief asked the now-teenager. Former President Barack Obama, 60, reunited with Jacob Philadelphia - the boy who touched his head in the iconic 2009 'Hair Like Mine' photo - to celebrate his high school graduation Philadelphia was five years old when he asked then-President Obama, 'Is your hair like mine?' The commander-in-chief had the boy touch his head to see for himself, a moment that was captured by White House photographer Peter Souza 'I remember you telling me that your hair was going to be gray next time,' Philadelphia said, prompting a laugh from Obama. 'And I was not lying,' he replied. Philadelphia was five years old when he and his family visited the Oval Office with his father, then-National Security Council staffer Carlton Philadelphia. During the meeting, he asked then-President Obama, 'Is your hair like mine?' The commander-in-chief kindly bent down and told the boy to touch his head, inspiring Souza to photograph the endearing moment. Over a decade later, Philadelphia is graduating from the International School of Uganda. He plans to attend the University of Memphis and study political science When Obama asked Philadelphia what he thought, he replied, 'Yeah, I think that's pretty much what I've got.' The iconic photo which Souza later named 'Hair Like Mine' remains an important reminder of why representation matters. The heartwarming image was framed and hung in the West Wing for years during his presidency,' according to the video. 'I think this picture embodied one of the hopes that Id had when I first started running for office,' Obama said. 'I remember telling Michelle and some of my staff, you know, I think that if I were to win, the day I was sworn into office, young people, particularly African American people, people of color, outsiders, folks who maybe didnt always feel like they belonged, theyd look at themselves differently,' he continued. Obama reflected on his unforgettable meeting with Jacob Philadelphia and the resulting photo in a video shared by the Obama Foundation on Thursday 'I think this picture embodied one of the hopes that Id had when I first started running for office,' Obama said 'To see a person who looked like them in the Oval Office. It would speak to Black kids and Latino kids and gay kids and young girls how they could see the world open up for them.' Philadelphia also shared his memories of that day in the video, explaining he was too young at the time to really understand the significance of meeting the world leader. 'When I was younger, I just thought the President was just my dads boss. I didnt know how powerful he was,' he said. 'I was a little shy and I kind of remember touching his hair and him towering over me. That was a pretty big highlight of my life. 'It is very wonderful to see representation in the government because if I get to see another Black man be at the top, be at that pinnacle, then I want to follow that lead,' he added. As the son of a State Department employee, Philadelphia has already had the opportunity to travel the world. He told Obama that he plans to attend the University of Memphis and study political science after his high school graduation. Obama's conversation with Philadelphia on Zoom ahead of his graduation was also featured in the video 'I think the White House visit clearly inspired you, I hope,' Obama said. 'Yes, it really has,' Philadelphia agreed 'I think the White House visit clearly inspired you, I hope,' Obama said. 'Yes, it really has,' Philadelphia agreed. Obama shared the video on his social media pages on Friday, a few days after he faced backlash for linking the Texas massacre to the two-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder. 'As we grieve the children of Uvalde today, we should take time to recognize that two years have passed since the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer,' he tweeted. 'His killing stays with us all to this day, especially those who loved him.' The message was shared on Wednesday, one day after Salvador Ramos murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Philadelphia also shared his memories of that day in the video, explaining he was too young at the time to really understand the significance of meeting the world leader 'When I was younger, I just thought the President was just my dads boss. I didnt know how powerful he was,' he said. 'I was a little shy and I kind of remember touching his hair and him towering over me. That was a pretty big highlight of my life' Wednesday also marked two years to the day that Floyd was killed by arresting Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin who knelt on his neck until he passed out. The message was quickly slammed online by many social media users, including conservative pundits, who were angry that Obama would connect the two events. 'It sucks those kids died, but remember George Floyd? He's who I'm still thinking about.' Barack Obama,' tweeted Seth Dillon, the CEO of the right-wing news publication The Babylon Bee. 'What in the world does the former have to do with the latter?' conservative commentator Ben Shapiro asked. Kira Davis, editor at the conservative blog Redstate, added, 'Not a single grieving parent today gives a rip about what happened to Floyd or anyone right now. For crying out loud. This is not the time to be advertising for your favorite activist group. How utterly vile.' Obama was in New York when he reached out to Philadelphia via Zoom. He also met with the Obama Foundation Scholars from around the world who are studying at Columbia University On Wednesday, Obama faced backlash online for linking the Texas massacre to the two-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder in a series of tweets about police reform Others defended Obama's tweet and insisted there was nothing wrong with him mourning two tragedies at once. 'Barack's post is NOT saying forget the kids, it is not a comparison post, it is an also post, simply pointing out that there is a long way to go to provide safety in America for ALL,' one person tweeted. 'Neither the kids nor George Floyd should have died. Too many kind of tragedies.' 'For the folks in the peanut gallery, George Floyd was killed 2yrs ago today, May 25th 2020,' someone else noted. 'Its not disrespectful to the children who were murdered yesterday to memorialize him on this day. We live in a violent country. One where yesterday 19 children & 2 teachers were gunned...' Another agreed, 'I think it's a shame how people are acting like George Floyd's murder isn't related to the Uvalde shooting. Both remind us that our police need oversight desperately. Both remind us that murder is too easy in this country. And both deserve [remembrance] and grief.' Obama, who was in New York City this week, had previously called on legislators to take action and reform gun control in wake of the Robb Elementary School massacre. The message was quickly slammed online by many social media users, including conservative pundits, who were angry that Obama would connect the two events However, others defended Obama's tweet and insisted there was nothing wrong with him mourning two tragedies at once Obama and his wife, former First Lady Michelle Obama, issued a statement about the Texas elementary school massacre on Tuesday Taking to Twitter after the shooting, he said that both he and former First Lady Michelle Obama 'grieve with the families in Uvalde who are experiencing pain no one should have to bear.' 'Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed, reading stories, singing lullabies and in the back of their minds, they're worried about what might happen tomorrow after they drop their kids off at school, or take them to a grocery store or any other public space,' he wrote. Obama then recalled the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, which occurred while he was in office. 'Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook and ten days after Buffalo our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies,' he said. The statement concluded: 'It's long past time for action, any kind of action. And it's another tragedy a quieter but no less tragic one for families to wait another day. May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.' A horrifying new documentary exposing the rampant sex abuse in the Amish community details how girls are brainwashed into thinking being raped or molested by a family member is normal and a result of their 'carelessness.' The two-part Peacock TV series 'Sins of the Amish' follows four women from different Amish and Mennonite backgrounds Meg, Mary, Misty, and Audrey as they share their personal stories of sexual abuse and their attempts to seek justice. Mary opened up about being sexually abused by her father and her brothers Johnny, Eli and David when she was growing up in an Amish community in Wisconsin, saying, 'My first perpetrator was my biological father. I was five.' She uncovered a sex education pamphlet she was given as a child while going through her things and read out loud from it, according to The Daily Beast. Titled 'To the Girl of Eleven,' the guide taught girls that incest was a natural occurrence and their fault. Mary opened up about being sexually abused by her father and her brothers Johnny, Eli and David in the Peacock TV documentary 'Sins of the Amish' 'This sex urge, once it is awakened and active in a young boy at the age of puberty and beyond, can become a powerful driving force within. Every decent girl will do her best to help him, and not make it harder for him. Even in your own home, if you have brothers in your teens, you should be mindful of this,' she read. 'Your brother innocently coming upon you and seeing your partly uncovered body may suddenly have strong sexual desires aroused within him. His intentions were not bad, but he suddenly finds himself a victim of your carelessness in the lust of his own body.' The pamphlet also advised young girls to avoid wearing revealing clothes around their male family members and to keep their bedroom doors closed at night to prevent sexual abuse. Mary, whose father died when she was a young child, said nothing would deter her brother from raping her even a locked door. The two-part series follows four women from different Amish backgrounds as they share their personal stories of sexual abuse and search for justice (stock image) 'He would take off the hinges,' she said tearfully. 'I remember him grabbing me and then I remember instantly splitting into two people. Like I wasnt even there. When I came back, the door was closing, and he was gone.' Women and girls in the insular religious community are taught to forgive their abusers. Speaking out against rape is considered worse than the act itself. 'It's a predator's paradise,' Mary said. She found the strength to leave the community after finding out her brother was sexually abusing her little sister. She said her mother encouraged her sister to keep quiet, telling her, 'You have to forgive.' 'It clicked, that if I don't do anything, my sister is gonna grow up and have the exact same hell as her childhood, as I did,' she explained. Mary uncovered a sex education pamphlet titled 'To the Girl of Eleven' that she was given as a child and read out loud from it. The guide taught girls incest was a natural occurrence and their fault 'Amish communities view going to the police as a greater sin than the rape itself,' explained fellow survivor Misty, who reported being raped by a bishop in the church When Mary brought her brothers to court, busloads of Amish community members attended the hearing to defend her rapists. Her mother even went as far as dismissing the abuse in a letter to the judge. 'I have a feeling she is doing this out of spite more than anything,' she wrote. 'Ever since I learned to know Mary personally, she had a habit of making things sound worse than they really are.' Mary's elder brother Johnny, who confessed to raping her upwards of 200 times, was sentenced to just one year in jail with work release and 10 years of probation. 'Amish communities view going to the police as a greater sin than the rape itself,' explained fellow survivor Misty, who reported being raped by a bishop in the church. Meanwhile, Meg and her sister Rebekah shared similar stories of sexual abuse while growing up in Amish communities in Michigan and North Carolina. Their brother started sexually abusing Rebekah when she was six and confessed to Meg shortly after that he had raped her. When Meg told their parents, Rebekah was blamed for the abuse. Audrey, a mother of five who recently left the Amish community, took her ex-husband, Mike, to court after learning he had sexually abused three of her daughters Audrey's eldest daughters Marlena and Dorthea came forward about the abuse after she filed for divorce from her husband Audrey, a mother of five who recently left the Amish community, took her ex-husband, Mike, to court after learning he had sexually abused three of her daughters. After she had filed for divorce, her eldest daughter, Marlena, confessed that Mike had sexually molested her from when she was 10 until she turned 16, according to The Cinemaholic. Dorthea came forward with a similar story of abuse, and Audrey's younger daughter Angie later revealed that Mike had repeatedly raped her, starting when she was five years old. 'Sins of the Amish' chronicles the family's struggle to find justice after Mike applied for a plea agreement that Audrey's lawyers advised her to sign off on rather than take the case to trial. Audrey's ex-husband was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in prison and 10 years of additional probation, per his plea deal, in November 2021. Australian 'dessert king' Adriano Zumbo has joined forces with quirky boutique hotel chain QT to launch a unique high tea experience in Sydney's CBD. The menu features a daring range of sweet and savoury treats - including macarons dubbed 'Zumborons', scones and tarts. Disregarding traditional high tea foods like cucumber sandwiches and cupcakes, guests can expect to be impressed by the combination of interesting and curious flavour pairings. Australian dessert king Adriano Zumbo (pictured) and QT Sydney have partnered to offer a unique high tea experience. The menu designed by Adriano himself features a daring demeanour of sweet and savoury treats Disregarding traditional high tea foods like cucumber sandwiches and cupcakes, guests can expect to be amazed by the combination of interesting flavours with every bite How to make Adriano Zumbo's macarons at home: Ganache ingredients: 40g cream 1 vanilla bean, scraped 80g strawberry puree 200g white chocolate 65g unsalted butter Macaron shell ingredients: 125g caster sugar 40g water 50g egg whites 135g pure icing sugar, sieved 135g almond meal, sieved 45g egg whites Few drops of red colouring Method: 1. To make ganache: Bring the cream, vanilla and strawberry puree to the boil. Pour the hot cream mixture over the white chocolate to make a ganache. Cool to 50C. Blitz in the butter. Cover with cling film and cool. 2. To make shells: Boil caster sugar and water to 118C. Place 50g egg whites in electric mixer fitted with whisk attachment. Slowly stream hot sugar mix down side of bowl and whisk until it cools to about 50C. In a large bowl place sieved icing sugar, almond meal, colouring and 45g egg whites on top. Add meringue mixture to this and mix until combined. 3. Pre-heat oven to 150C. Pipe 20cent-sized pieces on to a baking sheet lined with silicone baking paper or silicone mat. Tap the base of the tray to remove any air bubbles. Leave for 30-60 minutes until a skin forms and they are touch dry. Bake for 16 minutes at 150C. Allow the macaron shells to cool. Flip the shells over and pair them on a clean baking tray. 4. Place ganache in piping bag and pipe on to one shell from the pair, then place the other side on top to make a sandwich. Advertisement The food is perched on a modern rotating centrepiece with removable tiles for easy serving, and guests can enjoy a cup of limited-edition burnt blueberry tea or glass of champagne. Savoury menu offerings include a lobster roll, smoked salmon and caviar topped on a potato blini, a Caesar slider with parmesan cheese and a goat cheese tart. Popular options among the sweets include the 'Just Love Me' heart-shaped cake with chocolate mousse, raspberry glaze and pistachio, as well as a passionfruit tart and 'reinvented' scone. Adriano, 40, told FEMAIL he was inspired by the 'mysterious, quirky' vibe of the QT Hotel when curating the menu. 'We started off with a few classic dishes and made a few twists here and there,' he said, adding: 'I wanted to create a high tea that you'd never expect.' At the moment Adriano is also working on developing an entire plant-based alternative for vegans. In true Zumbo style, the whole event and menu is well thought through with perfection in every minor detail. QTea will be available to book from $95 per guest from Saturday 29 May QTea will be available to book from $95 per guest from Saturday May 29. While Adriano often doesn't reveal his baking secrets, on this occasion he has shared his macaron recipe for foodies to replicate at home. You'll need a variety of ingredients to make the ganache and macaron shells - including cream, vanilla bean, white chocolate, egg whites, icing sugar, caster sugar and unsalted butter. The key to make the macaron shells fluffy is to ensure all the air bubbles are removed from the mixture by tapping the base a few times. Advertisement Tucked away on 16 hectares of land awaits a one-of-a-kind mansion that features a 'medieval throne room' equipped with stone-like features and two replica knights. The astonishing seven-bedroom home perched on a mountain and surrounded by sweeping views of Cedarton in the Moreton Bay Region of Queensland would be perfect for any Game of Thrones fan. The throne room itself leads onto a 25-metre underground cinema lined with red carpet and Hollywood-style movie posters on the walls. The astonishing seven-bedroom in Cedarton, Queensland features a Game of Thrones-style room (pictured), complete with stone-like features and two replica knights The throne room leads onto a 25-metre underground cinema lined with red carpet and Hollywood-style movie posters on the walls (pictured) The 'ultra-rare' property is situated on 16.19ha of land in the Sunshine Coast hinterland is would be ideal for an investor looking to turn the house into an AirBnB rental, or for a large family The 'ultra-rare' property is deemed to be ideal for an investor looking to turn the house into an AirBnB rental or for a large family wanting privacy. Other striking features include a resort-style pool, sauna and spa, huge main kitchen with electronic cooking appliances, and formal dining room. The bedrooms have more of a neutral flair that oppose the intense style of the downstairs medieval-inspired rooms. There's also a cosy saloon bar featuring wooden walls and flooring (pictured) Other striking features include a resort-style pool, sauna and spa, huge main kitchen (pictured) with electronic cooking appliances, and formal dining room In recent years owners Victor and Lana refreshed the main entrance to create more of a modern look. Speaking about the property to realestate.com.au, Lana said: 'It needs someone with some big plans and the ability to make them happen. 'The views, the privacy, the grounds, the possibilities are endless.' The bedrooms have more of a neutral flair that oppose the intense style of the downstairs medieval-inspired rooms Outside there's more astonishing areas and features to look at, including three natural dams, sweeping views, Roman columns and replicas of several European fountains The property listing is currently open for expressions of interest to make an offer Outside there's more astonishing areas and features to look at, including three natural dams, a wraparound veranda, Roman columns and replicas of several European fountains. There's also a four-bay garage, 11-bay industrial shed, a worker's cottage, and more than 300,000L of water supply. The property listing is currently open for expressions of interest to make an offer. To view the home, click here. Kayla Itsines might be one of Australia's top fitness stars, but she's also a hard working mum who often deals with toddler tantrums. The 31-year-old, from Adelaide, South Australia, said her daughter Arna, two, is 'never fussy about what she eats', but instead is more concerned about the look, shape and colour of the food. On Instagram, Kayla said at the moment Arna is obsessed with the colour blue - so she had to turn her oats turquoise using blueberries to ensure the toddler ate her breakfast. Aussie fitness queen Kayla Itsines (pictured, right) said her daughter Arna (left) is a fussy eater when it comes to the shape and colour of food On Instagram, Kayla said at the moment Arna is obsessed with the colour blue - so she had to turn her oats turquoise using blueberries to ensure her toddler ate her breakfast (pictured) 'Like any mum, working out what my toddler will and won't eat every day has been a process. Often people ask me what Arna eats and if she is a fussy eater...I say yes and no!!' Kayla wrote and shared a series of images. 'She's never fussy about WHAT she's eating...but when it comes to the LOOK or SHAPE or COLOUR of her food, that's when the tantrums start!! 'Last week my sweet girl who loves eating oats decided she now only likes to eat BLUE oats. Honestly this child.' To turn the oats blue, Kayla opted to add blended blueberries together with the oats and milk. While the parenting trick worked, Kayla was left with blue-stained hands and had to explain the situation to her co-workers. On Instagram Kayla wrote: 'She's never fussy about WHAT she's eating...but when it comes to the LOOK or SHAPE or COLOUR of her food, that's when the tantrums start!!' Kayla also shared a photo of what she often backs in Arna's lunchbox for the day when they're out and about. On one occasion, she packed fresh strawberries, red grapes, pomegranate seeds, plain cooked pasta and pieces of a cheese and bacon roll. As Arna is only two, she's not yet at kindergarten. Kayla often shares photos of Arna on Instagram to share precious moments with her fans Kayla also shared a photo of what she often backs in Arna's lunchbox for the day when they're out and about. On one occasion, she packed fresh strawberries, red grapes, pomegranate seeds, plain cooked pasta and pieces of a cheese and bacon roll (pictured) In the comments of the Instagram post, other parents shared the unusual requests they've been given by their children. 'We call everything chicken. if it's fish it's chicken everything is just chicken. I can't be bothered with the arguments! Apparently we don't eat corn at the moment because he doesn't like yellow things,' one mum wrote. 'Mine wanted a cheese sandwich but without a cheese,' another added. A third said her son wanted his sandwich 'cut into round triangles', while another mum said she had to serve grapes in multiple bowls. A young Aussie beauty entrepreneur who declined a $300,000 offer on Shark Tank for her innovative eyeliner 'stamps' has made the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 list just four years on. Iris Smit, 27, has built a $15million beauty empire since rejecting Andrew Banks' offer for her product The Quick Flick stamp, a beauty fridge that keeps skincare products cold and adhesive eyeliner for false lashes. The idea for The Quick Flick came in 2016 when she was searching for an easier way to do her winged eyeliner everyday. The young Perth woman told FEMAIL she is honoured to have made the list in what has been a difficult time for businesses in the Asia Pacific region - and has big plans for the years ahead. Iris Smit, 27, has been named on the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 list The sharks were hugely interested in her $35 product with Andrew Banks choosing to invest $300,000 in the business (pictured on Shark Tank) 'I am honoured to receive this prestigious recognition, especially as a young female entrepreneur who has been business to her bootstraps since day one,' she said. 'The Quick Flick started for me in my living room, and to have watched it grow from local business to now being represented in major international retailers really is a dream come true.' 'It is very encouraging for an industry and group of people who deserve as much recognition as possible for their hard work. I am so proud to be representing the Perth small business industry in Forbes,' she said. The young woman soared to fame after her appearance on Shark Tank where she turned down a $300,000 offer for 25 percent of her beauty business Iris Smith (pictured) turned the very simple makeup idea into an incredible $10 million profit within a year Iris was one of 4,000 people to be put up for a place on the coveted list this year. The youngest person to make the list is just 14 - while the average is 26.8. Following her success with the Quick Flick and Beauty Fringe Iris created the Quick Screen range featuring a three-in-one moisturiser, primer and SPF50+ formula. She spent two years coming up with the products that offer full sun protection over makeup - and leaving skin glowing without any white marks or a 'cakey' mess. What is The Quick Flick? The stamp that promises the perfect cat eye in just seconds For years, Iris would spend 20 minutes a day creating the perfect cat eye by hand, laboriously trying to fix mistakes and dealing with more than a few puffy eyes. She figured there had to be a quicker way to get the perfect cat eye, and so this self-taught make up devotee turned into a self-taught businesswoman. The $35 product is pre-loaded with ink and comes with two stamps - one for each eye - and a felt tip liner to complete the popular look. Advertisement Not only does the sunscreen shield your face from the sun, but it also protects your skin against blue light damage from digital gadgets. 'Growing up in sunny Western Australia, SPF has always been the most important thing I've done for my skin. However, finding a multi-tasking sunscreen that I felt excited to put on my face proved tricky,' the beauty innovation queen said. 'I wanted to challenge myself to really innovate and improve upon the existing products available to consumers', the entrepreneur said. She created a new collection of SPF50+ products designed to be worn with your makeup She spent two years coming up with a simple solution by creating products that offer full sun protection over makeup - and leaving skin glowing without any white marks or a 'cakey' mess 'I'm really proud to bring not one, but two products to the market that perfectly blend skincare and suncare and solve a lot of the problems that consumers face when using suncare products.' Iris first found herself in the beauty world after she launch her brand The Quick Flick, which offers women an easier way of 'stamping' a perfect winged tip onto your lids in just seconds. The young entrepreneur - who invested $10,000 of her own money into the brand - appeared on Shark Tank in May 2018 just three months into her business. The 'sharks' were interested in her $35 product with Andrew Banks offering to invest $300,000 - a deal for 25 per cent of her company - just three months after she launched in 2016. She also invented these for those who like to chill their skincare Iris has built a stunning $15million beauty empire after creating Quick Flick and Beauty Fridge But five months later, when it was time to sign the contract, Iris realised her business was worth far more than the offer, with deals from giants such as Priceline. 'When the Shark Tank show was filmed, i'd only been in business for three months. It was early days, however, I was already turning over $100,000 a month by that stage,' she told Daily Mail Australia. 'My business was valued by the sharks on the show at $1 million, however by the time the show aired in May, its valuation had already tripled. I wasn't in the position where I really needed the $300,000. The Quick Flick first made headlines in December 2017 after Iris, the then-university interior architecture student, launched her brand in her two-bedroom apartment - and dropping off orders at the Post Office via a shopping trolley 'I was cash flow positive and I already had plenty of retail deals lined up. Signing the deal would have also restricted me from starting other brands such as Beauty Fridge. 'I had so many ideas for other products and brands, I didn't want to limit my career and lock myself in. 'Despite having so many friends and family pressuring me to sign the deal, the thought of it gave me anxiety. I trusted my gut, so I knew it wasn't right.' Her products including The Quick Brow are now stocked right across Australia The winged eye-liner queen went out on her own - and within 12 months, she turned over $10 million dollars. 'I didn't ever imagine that The Quick Flick would blow up like it did after the Shark Tank show. The publicity we received was invaluable,' she said. 'I honestly believe the company grew overnight what other businesses would grow in a few years. It was definitely tough and I had to put procedures in place pretty quickly to ensure we could keep up with the demand.' Advertisement Americans traveling abroad are being told to take 'enhanced precautions' to protect themselves from the monkeypox virus as testing confirms two cases in Utah, bringing the tally of verified infections to three. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued the Level 2 warning Wednesday, which is one rung off the top-level which advises against all but 'non-essential' travel. It told those outside the U.S. to avoid sick people and animals, not to eat game meat, and not to use any creams, powders or lotions made from wild animals. Anyone who experiences an unexplained rash a common symptom of the virus was urged to seek immediate medical attention. Monkeypox has been detected in 23 countries where it is not native over the last month, including the UK, France, Italy, Israel and Australia. In the U.S. there are now three confirmed and five suspected cases of the virus, with officials in Utah revealing Wednesday that testing by the CDC had shown their two suspected patients who live in the same house have contracted the virus. Cases are being disproportionately detected among gay and bisexual men, with health chiefs saying it has been spread through skin contact during sex. But there are also warnings that it can be transmitted through contact with wild animals, such as squirrels in West Africa where it is native. Experts including Dr Romulus Breban, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France have been warning for years that an outbreak of the virus was bound to happen because so many people no longer have immunity to its closely-related cousin smallpox. Utah yesterday revealed its two reported cases of monkeypox had been confirmed, raising the tally to three confirmed cases. There are five suspected cases in the country The above map shows which countries have detected monkeypox where it is not native. Cases have been disproportionately detected among gay and bisexual men British patients are warned that stroking animals could spread monkeypox Monkeypox patients in the UK will be told to keep their distance from family pets in official guidance to be issued later this week. The advice from Britain's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs will warn of a potential risk of human-to-animal transmission. European health officials have already expressed concerns that animals on the Continent could become permanent reservoirs of disease if it is allowed to make the jump. This would increase the odds of it becoming endemic in Europe. Now the UKs Defra is drawing up guidelines in an attempt to limit the risk of monkeypox patients infecting the likes of cats, dogs and rabbits. There are also fears infected patients could contaminate their pets fur and the illness be passed on to others in their household. Advertisement The CDC's travel advisory applies to all international travel outside the U.S. Explaining the decision to activate Level 2, the CDC said: 'None of [the cases] reported having recently been in Central or West African countries where monkeypox usually occurs, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, among others.' A spokesman for the Salt Lake County Department of Health in Utah yesterday revealed the CDC tests had come back positive for the virus. The two adults who have not been named live in the same house and came down with a 'mild illness' after returning from abroad. They have been isolating at home since Wednesday, with local health chiefs saying there is 'no risk' of wider transmission. It was not revealed where the individuals had returned from, except that it was an area 'currently experiencing monkeypox cases'. The CDC is currently carrying out tests to confirm the two cases in Florida, and one each in California, Washington and New York City. A case was confirmed in Massachusetts early in the outbreak. The cases are all in men who have recently returned from travel abroad, the CDC said in a statement Wednesday. At least 200 people are being monitored for possible infection after being exposed to someone who had the virus. But health chiefs advise that the risk of transmission is low because the virus is 'very difficult' to spread. It normally requires sustained skin-to-skin contact with infectious lesions, but can also be spread in droplets expelled by an infected person. Infections begin with a fever and 'flu-like' symptoms up to 21 days after catching the virus. These then progress into a rash that appears on the face before spreading across the rest of the body. Painful skin lesions also appear. Health chiefs say that in the current outbreak these skin lesions are more commonly appearing on the genital area, driving theories it is being spread through sex. Monkeypox is a rare viral infection which kills up to one in ten of those infected but does not spread easily between people. The tropical disease is endemic in parts of Africa and is known for its rare and unusual rashes, bumps and lesions (file photo) Most cases clear up on their own within four weeks, but about one in 100 people who catch the currently circulating strain of the virus die from the infection. People who are exposed to the virus are offered smallpox vaccines which also work against this virus as the two are closely related to bolster their immunity. Patients are also given antibiotics to help curb the illness. It comes after experts warned yesterday that the outbreak was 'inevitable' because so many people now do not have protection against smallpox. Americans were routinely jabbed against this virus until the early 1970s, when the scheme was deemed no longer necessary because the virus had been beaten into submission. Similar programs were wound down globally. Scientists say waning immunity from the mammoth inoculation programs may help explain why monkeypox outbreaks are becoming more common across the world. Dr Romulus Breban, a researcher at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said the current global outbreak was 'waiting to happen' because of the world's 'almost zero' immunity level. Nineteen countries have detected cases in the past month, which has sparked alarm because infections usually only occur in west and central Africa. Vet who caught monkeypox from prairie dog in 2003 outbreak says he suffered 'flu-like' symptoms and feared he would lose his thumb Dr Kurt Zaeske, who is now retired and living in Wisconsin, said he caught the virus in 2003 A veterinarian who caught monkeypox in America's biggest ever outbreak nearly two decades ago says he suffered 'flu-like' symptoms and feared he'd lose his thumb after lesions erupted all over his body. Dr Kurt Zaeske, who is now retired and living in Wisconsin, caught the virus in 2003 after tending to sick prairie dogs at a breeding farm. The illness initially left him with a fever and feeling dizzy, nauseous and very tired all the time. Within a few days, small lesions erupted across his body, and a 'very painful' blister appeared on his thumb leaving him fearing it could be amputated. Doctors administered Zaeske with antibiotics after a positive test for monkeypox and he was put in self-isolation. The illness cleared up within a few weeks. Zaeske detailed his harrowing experience to NBC, saying that suffering the tropical disease was 'scary' initially, but also 'fascinating' to be part of the outbreak. Monkeypox is now sweeping the western world, with more than 221 cases detected in 24 countries mostly in Europe including up to eight in the United States. But experts warn the outbreak of the disease which is endemic to West Africa was just waiting to happen as the end of smallpox vaccination drives in the 1970s have left people less than 50 years old with no protection against the virus. Advertisement How DO you catch monkeypox and what are the symptoms? EVERYTHING you need to know about tropical virus How do you catch monkeypox? Until this worldwide outbreak, monkeypox was usually caught from infected animals in west and central Africa. The tropical virus is thought to be spread by rodents, including rats, mice and even squirrels. Humans can catch the illness which comes from the same family as smallpox if they're bitten by infected animals, or touch their blood, bodily fluids, or scabs. Consuming contaminated wild game or bush meat can also spread the virus. The orthopoxvirus can enter the body through broken skin even if it's not visible, as well as the eyes, nose and mouth. Despite being mainly spread by wild animals, it was known that monkeypox could be passed on between people. However, health chiefs insist it is very rare. Human-to-human spread can occur if someone touches clothing or bedding used by an infected person, or through direct contact with the virus' tell-tale scabs. The virus can also spread through coughs and sneezes. In the ongoing surge in cases, experts think the virus is passing through skin-to-skin contact during sex even though this exact mechanism has never been seen until now. How deadly is it? Monkeypox is usually mild, with most patients recovering within a few weeks without treatment. Yet, the disease kills up to 10 per cent of cases. But this high rate is thought to be in part due to a historic lack of testing meaning that a tenth of known cases have died rather than a tenth of all infections. However, with milder strains the fatality rate is closer to one in 100 similar to when Covid first hit. The UK cases all had the West African version of the virus, which is mild compared to the Central African strain. It is thought that cases in Portugal and Spain also have the milder version, though tests are underway. How is it tested for? It can be difficult to diagnose monkeypox as it is often confused with other infections such as chickenpox. Monkeypox is confirmed by a clinical assessment by a health professional and a test in the UK's specialist lab - the UKHSA's Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory. The test involves taking samples from skin lesions, such as part of the scab, fluid from the lesions or pieces of dry crusts. What are the symptoms? It can take up to three weeks for monkeypox-infected patients to develop any of its tell-tale symptoms. Early signs of the virus include a fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion meaning it could, theoretically, be mistaken for other common illnesses. But its most unusual feature is a rash that often begins on the face, then spreads to other parts of the body, commonly the hands and feet. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming a scab, which later falls off. People who are infected with monkeypox often suffer from severe rashes, skin lesions and flu like symptoms. The virus kills around one-in-ten people it infects, though there is belief that the current strain making its way around the world has a mortality rate of one percent How long is someone contagious? An individual is contagious from the point their rash appears until all the scabs have fallen off and there is intact skin underneath. The scabs may also contain infectious virus material. The infectious period is thought to last for three weeks but may vary between individuals. What do I do if I have symptoms? Anyone with an unusual rash or lesions on any part of their body, especially their genitalia, should contact NHS 111 or call a sexual health service. Britons are asked to contact clinics ahead of their visit and avoid close contact with others until they have been seen by a medic. Gay and bisexual men have been asked to be especially alert to the symptoms as most of the cases have been detected in men who have sex with men. What even is monkeypox? Monkeypox was first discovered when an outbreak of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research in 1958. The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the infection has been reported in a number of central and western African countries since then. Only a handful of cases have been reported outside of Africa and they were confined to people with travel links to the continent. The UK, US, Israel and Singapore are the only countries which had detected the virus before May 2022. A mother claims she was left trying to deliver her dead baby for nine hours at a scandal-hit NHS trust. Sarah Hawkins, a physiotherapist who worked at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust (NUH), gave birth to her stillborn daughter Harriet there in 2016. She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that she knew something had gone wrong as soon as she and her husband, who also worked at the hospital, were told their baby had died. 'Being two clinicians here at the time we thought "you've seriously got this wrong" and I was then left for nine hours trying to deliver a dead baby because of communication errors,' she said. 'This whole time, I can't even describe the confusion, I felt like I was dying.' Her comments come after senior midwife Donna Ockenden, who is now leading an independent probe into maternity failings at NUH, claimed something 'very, very wrong' is happening there. Ms Ockenden was yesterday appointed to investigate services at the trust following fierce backlash at the health service's previous review, which critics feared wasn't truly independent. She is famed for producing the landmark report on Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, which revealed 201 babies and nine mothers had died needlessly during a two-decade spell of appalling care. Speaking today she said: 'What I know at the moment is that there are so many families who have been through, for the most of us anyway, unimaginable grief. 'And of course the pain they will have suffered through the loss of their babies will have been compounded by having to push for effective investigations or inquiries. 'So the first priority has got to be to listen to and engage with families.' Invited to comment on the failings at the trust, Ms Ockenden also told the BBC it was clear something is wrong. 'Im not yet familiar with the situation in the trust, but there is clearly something that is very, very wrong at the trust,' she said. Donna Ockenden, who produced the landmark report on Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, is now chairing a review into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals. In comments today she said 'there is clearly something that is very, very wrong at the trust' At least nine babies and three mothers are believed to have died over the past three years at NUH, which runs 15 hospitals in the Midlands. Pictured: Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham Some 100 mothers urged Sajid Javid to appoint Ms Ockenden in April but the NHS initially opted for senior NHS manager Julie Dent (pictured) What did the families say about Donna Ockenden's appointment into the review into A statement on behalf of families affected said: 'We cannot describe the immense sense of relief that we feel at the news that Donna Ockenden has been appointed to conduct the review into maternity services in Nottingham. 'We'd like to thank the Rt Hon Sajid Javid for finally listening to us after many years of campaigning by the families affected by failures of care. 'Donna Ockenden's appointment is a significant step towards restoring confidence in Nottingham maternity services. 'We are confident that she will conduct a robust review to ensure the scale of failings at NUH are recognised and essential improvements are made. 'Improvements that will protect future babies and mothers from death and harm. Improvements that will ensure women are properly listened to. 'Improvements that will guarantee staff have the right qualifications, training, and skills. 'Improvements that will create a new culture of transparency, openness, and willingness to learn from mistakes. 'This signals the start of the next stage in the journey where families can now stop fighting and instead dedicate their strength, knowledge, and experiences to uncover the truth and improve maternity service for the people of Nottingham.' Advertisement The Hawkins were incorrectly and repeatedly told by staff that Harriet had died as the result of an infection, but they challenged this. Her death was eventually revealed to be due to mistakes by staff. The couple have since campaigned alongside other families for a public inquiry into the trust. It comes after the Care Quality Commission issued a safety warning notice, saying NUH must make 'significant and immediate improvements' to its maternity services as it admitted women and babies may not be safe. 'The service did not have enough staff to care for women and keep them safe,' the notice reads. At least nine babies and three mothers are believed to have died over the past three years at the trust, which runs 15 hospitals in the Midlands. It has already paid out millions of pounds over 30 baby deaths and 46 infants who were left brain damaged. Ms Ockenden also urged women who are due to use maternity services at the trust to speak up if they have concerns. However, she added they should feel confident the enhanced scrutiny on the trust could only be positive. Ms Ockenden stated she knew many members of the midwifery staff at Nottingham University Trust go into work giving 'their very best'. And she insisted the UK is still one of the safest places in the world to have a baby, adding: 'Thats my belief and the evidence does show that.' Some 100 mothers urged Sajid Javid to appoint Ms Ockenden in April but the NHS initially opted for senior NHS manager Julie Dent. Families said they were 'severely let down, confused, and further traumatised'. They raised concerns about the independence of the old review which was first set up in August last year. Ms Dent quit at the start of this month citing 'personal reasons'. Ex-Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt earlier this week claimed the Department of Health had scored 'an own goal' in not appointing Ms Ockenden earlier. He suggested that Mr Javid's department thought 'she is too independent'. Ms Ockenden's team will start their inquiry as soon as possible with new terms of reference. The previous, now abandoned review, covered almost 600 cases. It was expected to be completed in November this year. It looked at data from 2006, when the NUH trust was formed, until mid-October 2021 and was set up by the local clinical commissioning group (CCG) and NHS England. But NHS England yesterday published its interim findings. It raised concerns about a lack of respect and bullying between members of staff and towards parents. '[There is] evidence of a lack of respect, appreciation and listening by some staff members in relation to their colleagues and to service users with some indications of bullying behaviour,' it read. 'There appears to be a small number of staff who display unacceptable behaviours such as being "rude" and "abrasive", with some staff members describing being "scared" of named colleagues.' Sharon Wallis, director of midwifery at NUH, said the trust was determined to make changes as quickly as possible. 'Our teams are working hard to make the necessary improvements but recognise we have more to do and are absolutely determined to speed up the pace of change and deliver quality services for women and their families,' she said. A spokesperson for the affected families said yesterday they 'cannot describe the immense sense of relief' they feel at Ms Ockenden's appointment. 'We'd like to thank the Rt Hon Sajid Javid for finally listening to us after many years of campaigning by the families affected by failures of care,' they said. 'Donna Ockenden's appointment is a significant step towards restoring confidence in Nottingham maternity services. 'We are confident that she will conduct a robust review to ensure the scale of failings at NUH are recognised and essential improvements are made.' Ms Ockenden's damning report of Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust earlier this year showed mothers were made to have natural births despite the fact they should have been offered a Caesarean at the hospital. The review found around 200 babies and nine mothers could have survived if it had provided better care while the trust's low Caesarean rate was regarded nationally and locally as a positive. In the review, she found the trust presided over catastrophic failings for 20 years and did not learn from its own inadequate investigations which led to babies being stillborn, dying shortly after birth or being left severely brain damaged. The Shrewsbury and Telford inquiry found some babies suffered skull fractures, broken bones or developed cerebral palsy after traumatic forceps deliveries, while others were starved of oxygen and experienced life-changing brain injuries. The report said midwifery staff were 'overly confident' in their abilities, and there was a reluctance to involve more senior staff. The family of a widower whose wife was shot dead in the Texas school massacre say he died from a 'broken heart'. Joe Garcia, 43, was pronounced dead on Thursday, just hours after visiting the memorial site in Uvalde where his wife Irma was slain two days earlier. While preparing for the funeral, Mr Garcia collapsed and died. Although the exact circumstances have not been revealed yet, Mrs Garcia's cousin Debra Austin said: 'I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear.' Broken heart syndrome is a real phenomenon. The condition occurs when the body is overwhelmed with stress hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline, according to Helen Wilson, head of research at charity Heart Research UK. Excess adrenaline can weaken the heart muscle and thin the arteries, significantly reducing its ability to pump blood around the body. When the body does not have enough blood, vital organs can shut down. Broken heart syndrome, medically known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, affects up to 3,000 Britons and 11,000 Americans every year. Bereavement, divorce and even bankruptcy can be triggers. But it's not usually fatal and most patients recovering within weeks. Just one per cent are estimated to die from the condition. Joe Garcia (right), who was married to fourth grade teacher Irma Garcia (left) died on Thursday from a broken heart, his family claim Broken heart syndrome, medically known as takotsubo cardiomyopathy, affects around 3,000 Britons and 11,000 Americans every year. It causes part of the heart to enlarge to resemble a 'Japanese octopus trap' WHAT IS BROKEN HEART SYNDROME? Broken heart syndrome, known medically as stress-induced cardiomyopathy or takotsubo syndrome, happens when the heart fails because of extreme stress. It is usually triggered by an emotional event such as the death of a loved one. The condition affects around 3,000 people a year in the UK and 11,000 in the US, and is more common among women than men. It causes part of the heart to become temporarily enlarged, preventing the organ from pumping blood properly. It can cause it to stop altogether. Although broken heart syndrome is not triggered by disease it isn't linked to blocked arteries or high blood pressure it is believed to be able to cause long-lasting damage by weakening the heart and affecting its pumping motion. Spokesperson for Cardiomyopathy UK, Dr Daniel Hammersley, said: 'Patients who develop this condition generally experience symptoms of chest pain or breathlessness. 'Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases the heart muscle function recovers within a few weeks. It is a rare condition overall. Most frequently it affects people in their 50s or 60s, although it has been seen in other age groups.' Sources: Cardiomyopathy UK and the American Heart Association Advertisement Professor Sian Harding, a cardiac pharmacology expert at Imperial College London, told MailOnline the surge of adrenaline from emotional shock is 'well known' as part of broken heart syndrome. 'Bereavement is often a trigger, but the hugely shocking and tragic circumstances here would have magnified the effect,' she said. Takotsubo's symptoms can feel similar to a heart attack, causing sudden and intense chest pain, shortness of breath and palpitations. But the rare condition is not caused by blocked arteries as heart attacks generally are. Instead, the rush of adrenaline shuts down the bottom of the left ventricle, its main pumping chamber. Unable to contract, the bottom of the ventricle balloons outwards. This characteristic shape is visible on X-rays of the heart and is key in diagnosing the syndrome. Its what led Japanese researchers in 1990 to name it after a 'takotsubo' a traditional narrow-necked, wide-bottomed pot used to trap octopuses when fishing. Mr Garcia, who was also a teacher, was filmed visiting a memorial to his late wife with red roses two days after her death just hours before his own. At one point, Mr Garcia was seen weeping as he was overcome with the week's horrific events. John Martinez, Mrs Garcia's nephew, said Mr Garcia died from 'grief' after returning home from delivering flowers to a memorial for his late wife. But he also told the New York Times that his uncle had died from a heart attack. A GoFundMe page set up to help their four orphaned children Cristian, 23; Jose, 19; Lyliana, 16; and Alysandra, 12 has so far collected more than $1.7 million (1.35million). Broken heart syndrome is difficult to diagnose and is often mistaken for a heart attack. Blood tests and scans are usually required to confirm it. It is usually temporary and most patients recover within a few weeks. Helen Ross, from Canterbury in Kent, almost died from a broken heart in 2006 after discovering her partner of seven years was leaving her for a friend. Just days after the breakup, the model collapsed on a work trip to Orlando, Florida on the first day of a shoot. Staff on the photo shoot called an ambulance and she was rushed to hospital, where she woke up 30 minutes later. Doctors informed her that her heart had stopped beating twice and were dumbfounded at her case as she was a healthy young woman. They asked if she had experienced a recent trauma which might have triggered the heart problem and, when she explained the break-up, they diagnosed her with broken heart syndrome. Ms Ross said at the time: 'I told them how hard the break-up had been for me, how devastated I was and they nodded and immediately said it was to blame. She added: 'I felt distraught by the break up, but I didn't realise it had actually broken my heart.' When back in the UK, Ms Ross was fitted with a pacemaker to regulate her heart, which she had removed in 2014 after no further complications. The condition can also be treated with medication, such as beta blockers and ACE inhibiters to take the strain off the heart and make it work more effectively. Blood thinners may also be prescribed to reduce the risk of developing clots, which can cause a stroke. Broken heart syndrome is usually a temporary and most patients recover within a few weeks. Another British woman was struck by the condition twice. Sarah Woodward, a veterinary nurse, suffered a stabbing pain at her chest while at work in 2018, after receiving a phone call to say her best friend's father had died. Ms Woodward, from Worthing, West Sussex, said: 'I'd known him for 45 years. It was like losing my own father.' Her chest pain spread to her back, jaw and down her left arm and she was struggling to breathe all classic signs of a heart attack. But after being rush to hospital in an ambulance, tests confirmed she was actually suffering from broken heart syndrome. She was prescribed ACE inhibitors, beta blockers and blood thinners. However, she became the one in 10 patients who suffer a recurrence of broken heart syndrome. Around three years after her first episode, she felt the same stabbing pain in her chest after receiving upsetting news about an unrelated medical condition. She now suffers from ongoing chest pain and breathlessness and lives in fear of having another attack. A woman has claimed she was diagnosed with cancer just a month after a doctor dismissed a lump on her neck as being down to a cold. Paris Wells, 28, noticed the unusual bump this March and went to have it checked out immediately. The beautician called her GP but was allegedly told she could only get a telephone consultation in five days time. She went to an externally-run urgent care centre, at the Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington, Kent, the following day instead. Doctors there said the lump did not 'feel cancerous', she claims. Ms Wells said the doctor told her it was caused by a cold she had the week before and sent her on her way. But the lump grew larger and harder over the next few weeks. Ms Wells then claims she asked her auntie, a radiologist at the same hospital, if she could help arrange CT and MRI scans to double-check in April. Results confirmed it was caused by stage two Hodgkin lymphoma a rare cancer that develops in the lymphatic system and spreads throughout the body. Paris Wells, 28, from London, has been diagnosed with cancer just a month after a doctor told her a lump on her throat (pictured right) was caused by a cold, she claims Ms Wells said doctors in March told her the lump was caused by a cold she had the week before. But CT scan results in April confirmed it was caused by stage two Hodgkin lymphoma a rare cancer that develops in the lymphatic system and spreads throughout the body Around 2,100 people are diagnosed with the disease in the UK and and 8,500 in the US each year. Three quarters of people with the disease survive for at least 10 years. Ms Wells will start chemotherapy in the coming months after having her eggs frozen for fertility treatment in May. She said: 'As soon as I noticed the lump the next day I went to [urgent care] to get checked because I phoned my doctors and they could only offer me a telephone appointment in five days time.' The cold meant she could not come in to her doctor's office, with restrictions on people with Covid symptoms coming in still in place. Ms Wells said: 'The A&E doctor said because I had a cold the week before it was due to that. He also said it doesn't feel cancerous and I was sent away.' Common colds can cause the lymph nodes in the neck to become swollen as the body fights infection, causing lumpy appearances. Since her diagnosis, Ms Wells has been fundraising for cancer charities. Pictured: The lump on Ms Wells' neck Ms Wells will start chemotherapy in the coming months after having her eggs frozen for fertility treatment in May. Pictured: Ms Wells after she underwent the MRI and CT scans The glands which can swell in the neck, armpits and groin act as a filter for viruses and bacteria, trapping them from reaching other parts of the body. Discussing the lump, Ms Wells added: 'It grew bigger and harder so then I had a biopsy with an MRI scan and a CT scan which confirmed it was cancer. 'It's only because my auntie works in radiology that she got me an ultrasound scan. I was diagnosed within four weeks thanks to her.' She added: 'My mum came with me to the appointment at the hospital for biopsy results, they asked me if I knew about Hodgkins lymphoma and I said yes and the doctor said thats what your results have come back to be. 'I was just crying with my mum but they said they can treat it with chemotherapy. I chose to have my eggs frozen for fertility treatment and I completed that in May.' She went to an externally-run urgent care centre, at the Princess Royal University Hospital in Orpington, Kent, when she first noticed the lump Hodgkin lymphoma can develop at any age but mostly affects people between the ages of 20 and 40, as well as those aged over 75. The most common symptom of Hodgkin lymphoma is a painless swelling in a lymph node, usually in the neck, armpit or groin Signs of the disease also include weight loss, night sweats, a persistent cough and swelling in the neck, armpit and groin. Actor Michael C. Hall the star of Dexter was treated for the cancer in 2010, going into remission after undergoing chemotherapy. The disease starts in the white blood cells and spreads through the lymphatic system. It is named after Thomas Hodgkin, an English doctor who first identified the disease in 1832. Greenbrooks Healthcare, which runs the urgent care centre at Princess Royal University Hospital Ms Wells visited, has been approached for comment. Spravato, made by Covid jab maker Janssen, has been rejected for use as antidepressant on the NHS A nasal spray treatment for depression derived from the illegal party drug ketamine has been rejected for use on the NHS. Esketamine is said to work by changing brain chemicals responsible for mood, combatting feelings of depression in a matter of hours. It is a chemical cousin of ketamine, which itself was first developed as a horse tranquiliser. Esketamine is made by Covid vaccine maker Janssen under the brand name Spravato and reportedly costs about 10,000 per course of treatment. The spray is already approved for use in the US and EU where medics say its fast-acting nature can help save lives. Traditional anti-depressants can take weeks to work. But today the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) rejected its use on the NHS as an antidepressant for the third time. NICE said it was concerned about the lack of evidence it would keep depression at bay once a patient stopped taking the drug - and it is too costly. The watchdog said further research needed be conducted to address these uncertainties. Mental health charities and drug's manufacturer said they were deeply disappointed with the decision. FROM PARTY DRUG TO BIPOLAR TREATMENT: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT KETAMINE Ketamine is a powerful general anaesthetic that is used to stop humans and animals experiencing pain during operations. It started being used as a party drug in the late 2000s, with people taking it before raves for a more intense experience. What are the side effects? Ketamine causes a loss of feeling and paralysis of the muscles. It can also lead to people experiencing a distortion of reality, which many call entering the 'k-hole'. This is when people believe they have spoken to God or a higher power, which can lead to addiction as they crave that experience. Ketamine may also cause people to feel incapable of moving, experience hallucinations or lead to panic attacks, confusion and memory loss. Regular users can seriously damage their bladders, which may need to be surgically removed. Other risks include a raised heart rate and blood pressure. Paralysis of the muscles can leave people vulnerable to hurting themselves, while not feeling pain properly can cause them to underestimate any damage. Many claim ketamine withdrawal is worse than any other drug, with some feeling so depressed they contemplate suicide. If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the Samaritans here. How is it taken and what is the law around it? For medical use ketamine is liquid but the 'street' drug is normally a grainy, white powder, with one gram costing around 20. As a class B drug in the UK, possession of ketamine can result in people facing up to five years in jail, while supplying it could mean up to 14 years in prison. Both cases may result in people facing an unlimited fine. Source: Talk to Frank Advertisement Under the proposal considered by NICE, esketamine would have been offered to adults with severe depression who had not responded to at least two different antidepressants. People would have had to go to hospital to get the drug and be supervised by a healthcare professional as they took it. In its rejection, NICE acknowledged that there was an unmet need for people who have treatment-resistant depression on the NHS. About 3 per cent of the British population is believed to suffer from depression, with an estimated 6,000 Britons and 48,000 Americans dying by suicide each year. Attempted suicides thought to be 10 to 20 times higher than these figures. Amanda Cunnington, Janssen's senior director of patient access, said they were 'deeply disappointed' by the rejection and were considering an appeal. 'In treatment-resistant major depressive disorder, there continues to be systemic issues in introducing innovative treatment options on the NHS, which we have tried to overcome,' she said. 'We remain steadfast in collaborating with stakeholders and are considering all options including an appeal, to enable access to this important treatment for people living with the condition.' Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of mental health charity SANE also said the rejection was a 'huge disappointment' and would prevent 'desperate' patients from getting treatment. 'We have little in our armoury to combat treatment-resistant major depressive disorder and the real shame is that NICE are rejecting one of the very few innovations in treating this condition,' she said. There have been no major pharmaceutical innovations for depression since the launch of Prozac and related antidepressants in the late 1980s. Those drugs target the feel-good brain chemical serotonin, and can take weeks or months to kick in. Esketamine instead works by targeting a chemical called glutamate that is thought to restore brain connections, helping relieve depression, and can work in four to five hours. The drug is made from a part of the ketamine molecule, which has been used for decades as a powerful anesthetic to prepare patients for surgery. Ketamine has also been used illegally as a party drug since the late 2000s with people taking it before raves as users can experience a distortion of reality and loss of feeling. But in February this year French researchers said it could also alleviate suicidal thoughts within days. Doctors tested the therapy on 160 patients who were admitted to hospital because of their severe suicidal thoughts. Almost two-thirds of the participants on ketamine were no longer suicidal after three days. For comparison, the figure was slightly less than a third among patients on a placebo. NICE first rejected a submission in January 2020, and then a second time in September that year. These rejections were also based on concerns over the cost of the treatment. Current NHS practice for helping people with treatment-resistant depression is to provide oral antidepressants and switching to a second drug if symptoms do not improve. This treatment can also be combined with psychological therapy. Colorado officials are probing a suspected case of monkeypox in a 'young' gay or bisexual man who has recently returned from Canada with the state becoming the eighth to report a presumptive case of the virus. Local health chiefs revealed late Thursday that the individual came to a clinic in the Denver area the state's biggest city suffering symptoms of the virus. The patient who has not been named is now isolating at home and contact tracing is underway. The risk the virus has spread to others is believed to be 'low'. It brings the U.S. monkeypox tally to ten cases across eight states, amid warnings that the virus may now be spreading within America's borders. The vast majority of infections are in gay and bisexual men, and most are thought to be linked to international travel. Experts in Europe where most cases are being detected say the outbreak there may have been sparked by unsafe sex at two mass gatherings in Spain and Belgium. Globally, more than 300 cases have been detected across more than a two dozen countries. Colorado today became the eighth state to report a case of monkeypox, as the tally of confirmed and suspected infections rises to double-digits Dr Rachel Herlihy, the Colorado's top epidemiologist, said: 'We want to reassure Coloradans that the risk to the public is low. 'But we also want them to know of the symptoms so that we can catch other cases as soon as possible. 'We are grateful for the collaborative efforts of [health chiefs] in learning about, treating and investigating this case.' Pet hamsters could be culled to stop monkeypox spreading in Europe Pets could be culled to protect from monkeypox under 'last resort' guidelines drawn up by health officials. A cull could be ordered for hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs if they are unable to be isolated, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) admitted. Rodents have been identified as carrier of the disease in west and central Africa. The ECDC said it is 'theoretically possible' that people in Europe could pass on monkeypox to their domestic pets, which could then act as a reservoir and transmit it back to humans. Advertisement Swabs from the patient will now be sent to a laboratory run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for tests to confirm the infection. It was unclear whether the case was linked to the one in Massachusetts which had also recently returned from travel to Canada. The agency revealed yesterday that all other cases reported had now been confirmed as monkeypox. This includes two in Florida and Utah, and one each in California, Massachusetts, New York City, Virginia and Washington. Canada has now reported more than 26 cases of monkeypox with every case in Quebec except one in nearby Ontario. Monkeypox is a rare virus typically only found in West Africa, although recently it has spread into Europe and North America. It is mostly passed on through skin-to-skin contact with infectious lesions and rashes on patients, which can appear all over the body including the genital area. Most cases are mild but about one in 100 lead can lead to a fatality estimates suggest. Treatment focuses on vaccinating close contacts against smallpox, which can also spark immunity against this virus because they are closely related. Drugs may also be administered to help reduce the symptoms. Experts have warned for years that an outbreak of this disease was inevitable because immunity levels against smallpox had fallen substantially. America was vaccinating everyone against this disease until the early 1970s, when the jabs had successfully beaten the virus into submission. The scheme was then abandoned across other nations. But this has now left people less than 50 years old with little immunity to monkeypox. It comes as a UK scientist warns monkeypox may now be endemic in the UK and Europe forever as the virus normally confined to Africa continues to spread globally. Dr Adam Kucharski, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it was unlikely the current outbreak would spiral into a pandemic like Covid because it spreads through prolonged close contact. Health chiefs have warned monkeypox, a virus endemic in parts of Africa and is known for its rare and unusual rashes, bumps and lesions, could also spread to some pets and become endemic in Europe. Undated handout file image issued by the UK Health Security Agency of the stages of Monkeypox But the epidemiologist, who is also a member of the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), warned the 'biggest risk' is that cases will 'not be eliminated in some places'. He said any persistent transmission increases the risk that the virus closely related to smallpox could be passed onto pets, meaning there will be permanent reservoirs of infection, as is the case in Africa. EU health chiefs have already acknowledged this threat and are considering a cull for all hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs owned by monkeypox patients. In the UK, officials are also expected to release guidance telling infected Britons to keep their distance from family pets. Monkeypox has now been identified in all four nations of the UK, as the number of confirmed domestic cases yesterday rose to 90. A disproportionate number are among gay and bisexual men. Twenty countries across the world have now been affected by the current outbreak, with Finland today becoming the latest to confirm an infection. Argentina, Bolivia and Sudan are all probing suspected cases. Until now, cases outside of western and central Africa were confined to a handful of people with travel links to the Advertisement Chicago has become the latest city to enter a level of 'high' Covid alert according to CDC guidelines, but officials in the Windy City are choosing not to re-instate a mask mandate, and instead just make a recommendation to use face coverings, amid rising case figures but limited deaths. The change, announced Thursday night, has affected Cook County - which includes Chicago - and others in the surrounding area, the state Department of Health announced this week. It comes just before Memorial Day weekend, one of the most important times of the year for the city's tourism industry with over a million expected to arrive during the holiday. While usually such a move would trigger the reimplementation of a mask mandate, officials will hold off this time as the mortality from the virus has largely fallen in recent months. The city is averaging 1,081 infections per day, but only around 0.1 deaths in the city of 2.7 million. It follows a nationwide trend of death figures remaining low despite rising cases, as the actual risk people face from Covid every day falls due to the effectiveness of the vaccines, widespread availability of therapeutics and the more mild nature of the Omicron variant when compared to other strains. As a whole, the U.S. averages 109,237 cases per day and 356 deaths, both figures growing six percent over the past week. While a mask mandate is not on the way, experts are giving other recommendations as to how residents and visitors can stay safe during this busy weekend. 'One of the easiest things we can do to ease the risk of COVID is most things outside, or have a celebration outside,' Dr Allison Arwady, the city's public health commissioner said, reports NBC Chicago. 'For me, that takes my concern way down and I know as folks are gathering for Memorial Day, if you can do that, especially for somebody who's higher risk, I strongly recommend that.' Windy city officials are taking lead from the New York City, which also entered a level of 'high' Covid transmission earlier this month, but chose not to abide by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines by reinstating a mask mandate. Early last week, the Big Apple also crossed the threshold of hospitalizations and case figures that place it in the 'high' risk category. Mayor Eric Adams was reportedly pushed by health officials to reinstate mask orders as a result, but chose not to. 'I'm proud of what we are doing and how we are not allowing Covid to outsmart us,' he said, reported the New York Daily News. 'We're staying prepared and not panicking. When I look at the hospitalizations and deaths, the numbers are stable.' Officials feeling more comfortable living alongside Covid, and not reacting in fear to swings in cases, is a trend that seems to be coming from the top. Dr Ashish Jha, the newly named White House Covid response coordinator, said this week that Covid is not anywhere near as dangerous now as it was just a short time ago. 'What has been remarkable in the latest increase in infections we're seeing is how steady serious illness and particularly deaths are eight weeks into this,' Jha told the AP. 'Covid is no longer the killer that it was even a year ago.' Between the therapeutics, the widely available COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots, and the more-mild nature of the Omicron variant, Jha says that deaths from the virus are now preventable. 'We are now at a point where I believe fundamentally most COVID deaths are preventable, that the deaths that are happening out there are mostly unnecessary, and there are a lot of tools we have now to make sure people do not die of this disease,' he said. Not all blue cities agree, though. In Philadelphia, officials reinstated school mask orders this week amid rising cases. 'To help protect everyones health and well-being as COVID-19 case counts continue to rise in the Philadelphia area, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) has recommended that we resume universal mask wearing,' Dr William Hite, the city's school superintendent, said in a statement. The move came weeks after the city decided to bizarrely institute an indoor mask mandate in late April, before lifting the orders only four days later. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has put out its first vaccine guidance related to a recent outbreak of monkeypox cases across the U.S. and Europe - with health workers and others responding to the uptick in cases first in line to get the shots. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), the CDC's leading experts on vaccines, issued the recommendation Friday, and it will include lab workers who research orthopoxviruses, people who work in lab testing environments, and health care personnel who are treating infected patients. The JYNNEOS vaccine in question is tailored to both smallpox and monkeypox - just as many other smallpox drugs are also believed to be effective against the rare virus. It comes as the U.S. records its tenth presumptive case of the virus, with a man in Colorado having a suspected infection after a recent trip to Canada, state officials announced Thursday night. Colorado today became the eighth state to report a case of monkeypox, as the tally of confirmed and suspected infections rises to double-digits 'Certain laboratorians and health care personnel can be exposed to orthopoxviruses through occupational activities,' ACIP wrote in its report. The panel notes that orthopoxvirus vaccines, like JYNNEOS, were regularly distributed to children in the U.S. to combat smallpox in the past. Smallpox, a highly devastating, deadly, virus, was eradicated in 1980, though, and use of the vaccines has since been dropped from mandatory to scarce. Officials still recommend that some parts of the population do continue to receive the shots, though, including people who may be exposed to these viruses at work. America has a stockpile of over 1,000 doses of the two-dose vaccine in place for a situation like this. Pet hamsters could be culled to stop monkeypox spreading in Europe Pets could be culled to protect from monkeypox under 'last resort' guidelines drawn up by health officials. A cull could be ordered for hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs if they are unable to be isolated, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) admitted. Rodents have been identified as carrier of the disease in west and central Africa. The ECDC said it is 'theoretically possible' that people in Europe could pass on monkeypox to their domestic pets, which could then act as a reservoir and transmit it back to humans. Advertisement The country also has 100 million doses of ACAM2000, another pox vaccine, in its stockpile, though that jab has been replaced by JYNNEOS because of its increased risk of negative side-effects. On Monday, the CDC reported that the country had planned to distribute the shots to the most high-risk group. Rollout of the vaccines to the high risk groups is expected to begin soon. The recommendation comes as the U.S. monkeypox tally to reaches ten, with nine cases having been confirmed by the CDC on Thursday. Colorado recorded the most recent suspected case in a 'young', gay or bisexual, man who had recently traveled to Canada. On Thursday, the CDC confirmed nine positive cases of the virus, with the most recent being a woman in Northern Virginia who has recently traveled to an African country where the virus is common. The vast majority of infections are in gay and bisexual men, and most are thought to be linked to international travel. Officials have not reported any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission of the virus in the U.S. Experts in Europe where most cases are being detected say the outbreak there may have been sparked by unsafe sex at two mass gatherings in Spain and Belgium. Globally, more than 300 cases have been detected across more than a two dozen countries. The virus is primarily spread via touch with infected lesions, making it tougher for it to spread than other infectious disease like COVID-19. Monkeypox is a rare virus typically only found in West and Central Africa. The current strain that has escaped into Europe and North America is the less-deadly West African strain that kills around one percent of infected persons. No deaths from monkeypox have been reported as part of this recent outbreak across the western world. A Georgia woman decided to travel across the world to receive a root canal after finding out the exorbitant price it would cost to receive it stateside - and saved nearly $2,000 in the process. Delia O'Malley, 26, who immigrated to Atlanta from Ireland, went to the dentist for a root canal when she was suffering extreme pain in one of her teeth. Delia O'Malley (pictured), 26, ended up saving around $2,000 by getting a root canal done in Turkey instead of locally in Atlanta, Georgia She received a quote for the operation, finding it would cost her $3,099 even after her insurance paid part of it, and decided it was unfeasible. Instead, she traveled all the way to Izmir, Turkey, spent a week sightseeing and received the operation, for only a fraction of what it would has cost her to get the same procedure done at home. 'I ain't paying over three grand to get my tooth done. That's insane. So guess what I'm doing? I booked flight to Turkey, I fly out tomorrow morning,' she said. O'Malley said she had previously received dental care in Turkey, when a dentist on Turkey's Aegean coast. When she received the quote from her local dentist, she almost immediately set up travel plans to see the same dentist abroad. 'I got the bill on Thursday and flew out on Friday morning at 11 a.m.,' she said. Not only could she get the procedure done in the European nation, but she could enjoy a nice vacation as well. Her family was already in the area on holiday, she explained, and she chose to spend a week at a hotel to take in the beautiful sights and weather of the region. 'I'm going to go enjoy myself and work and sit in the sun and live my best life and have no more pain in my tooth and not have spent three grand,' she said. She reports that that total trip cost her $1,167, including $807 to fly roundtrip and under $200 for the root canal procedure itself. When O'Malley, who had been suffering severe tooth pain, asked her dentist how much a root canal would cost, she was given a quote of over $3,000 after insurance 'The holiday was wonderful and it was definitely worth it. I spent less than if I had the work was carried out in Atlanta,' she said. '[My experience with the dentist] was really good. The dentist is amazing and I'd highly recommend them.' While the decision may seem bizarre to some, O'Malley recommends that other people consider medical tourism to deal with sky-rocketing prices in the U.S. Upwards of 300,000 Americans travel abroad for medical reasons every year, the United States International Trade Commission reports, a staggering number for a nation that is often regarded for its quality medical offerings. Medical costs in the U.S. can be exorbitant, though. Monthly health insurance premiums can run into the thousands for large families, and that does not include high deductibles many have to pay before their insurance kicks in. In response to the bill, O'Malley (pictured) decided to get the procedure done by a Turkish dentist she had visited before. She was also able to meet up with her family in Turkey, who was already there on vacation Many on insurance actually can not afford to use unless they are met with a dire emergency situation, in a category officials describe as being 'functionally uninsured'. There are some worries about going abroad for cheaper treatment, though. While many nations like the UK, France and Germany may have doctors that are on par with the medical offerings in America, not all countries can offer top tier medicine. Some end up worse off after receiving treatment than they were before they went. Amanda Turner, 34, of Belfast, Irelands - which is also the country of O'Malley's origin - told The Sun that her attempt to get discount veneers in Turkey left her teeth ruined, and cost her thousands to fix. Still, though, O'Malley, who was able to so easily travel on a moments whim because she is self-employed said her family and friends agreed with her decision. 'My mother was very supportive of my decision. When I told people about it, they got thinking and thought it was a very clever way to get the dental work completed,' she said. 'Others have said they want to do the same thing.' UK drivers had 71.2million of parts stolen from their cars last year as a report shows how our motors have become an increasingly easy target for criminals looking to cash in on expensive components they can easily pinch. An estimated 474,600 parts were unlawfully taken from vehicles in 2021, according to an investigation by insurer Direct Line. While registration plates were the most commonly taken item, it is almost 40,000 thefts of precious-metal-laden catalytic converters are causing victims of car crime the biggest financial headaches. Not only are these expensive to replace, the damage caused when hastily removing them can - in worst cases - write a car off entirely. Rise of the cat burglars: An estimated 474,600 parts were unlawfully taken from vehicles last year and 40,000 of these were catalytic converts, according research by Direct Line Direct Line said it sourced its figures from a Freedom of Information request to local policing authorities. The data suggests that in the last three years the total value of stolen car parts has reached a whopping 744million - that's the equivalent of nearly 680,000 being stolen every day. Of the 474,000 components pinched in 2021 alone, 53,400 were number plates. The insurer says the increased use of ANPR (automatic number plate recognition) cameras to patrol our roads has led to a rise in criminals stealing registration plates to put on a similar vehicle they're using to commit offences to avoid detection. But while getting replacement plates is relatively inexpensive (Halfords chargers 5 per plate) the second most commonly stolen car part is a lot pricier to not just replace but also repair the damage caused during their illegally removal. Catalytic converters, the exhaust emission control devices that are often referred to as 'cats', have become an easy target for criminal gangs - and some 39,900 were taken by thieves last year. The combined value of all cats taken since 2019 is over 16million, Direct Line calculates. The catalytic converter takes gases produced by petrol engines and converts them into water vapour and less harmful emissions via a series of chemical reactions before it comes out of the exhaust pipe Palladium inside the devices is extremely valuable, hence why gangs are targeting cars to steal them This photo provided by the Metropolitan Police shows a number of stolen catalytic converters recovered by officers in London in 2021 They are fitted to all cars with a petrol engine manufactured after 1993 and are designed to reduce the harmful pollutants emitted from vehicle exhaust pipes. They do this by taking the gases produced and converting them into water vapour and less harmful emissions via a series of chemical reactions. The devices are made up of an array of valuable materials including palladium, rhodium and platinum. Criminal gangs are now well aware of this small fortune stored beneath your vehicle and the financial return of stealing the devices to extract the metals from them. Driving a vehicle that's had its catalytic converter stolen can land motorists with a fine of up to 1,000 because the car will be producing higher levels of pollution than they are allowed to Direct Line, working with the University of Huddersfield on a new Truth about Car Theft campaign, interviewed former prolific car thieves to understand the motive, means and opportunities for vehicle crime - and it highlighted the desirability of catalytic converters. One convicted car thief said: 'Cats are worth good money all day long. I know...onesminimum 150. Even if youre just doing them in a night, you could get 30 or 40.' Rachel Armitage, Professor of Criminology at the university, said car parts theft is seen by criminals as 'high reward and low risk'. 'Many of the convicted thieves in our study were returning to the crime as it is an easy to commit opportunist offence, especially with many cars being left unsecured,' she adds. 'Ease of entering or stealing vehicles was a recurring theme, with a streamlined process of selling parts and property stolen from unattended vehicles to gain cash.' Catalytic converter thefts can write off cars Drivers will definitely know if the catalytic converter has been stolen from the underside of their car, even if the damage isn't visible at first. The exhaust will no longer be connected and make a much louder noise when driving - so much so that it will be impossible to not detect. While the vehicle will still be driveable, removal of the device will trigger a warning light on the dashboard, reduce fuel economy and cause plenty of headaches from the additional exhaust roar. While more skilled thieves are unscrewing them from the underside of cars, others are taking a more ham-fisted approach and sawing cats off, causing irreversible damage and resulting in some owners having to replace entire exhaust systems. The catalytic converter is part of a vehicle's exhaust system. Criminals in a hurry are sawing them off, causing irreversible damage that can result in repair bills of up to 3,000 And because there is often no third party to claim against, drivers using their polices to cover repair costs are also losing their No Claims Discount, unless otherwise protected. You can buy devices to secure your catalytic converter Concerned drivers can purchase devices that lock in around the converter to make it more difficult to remove. Providers include Catloc and Catclamp, which can be installed on a number of different vehicles. However, they're not cheap, with prices as high as 250 for some models. Motoring association MotorEasy estimates the average cost to replace a catalytic converter is up to 1,300, with over 900 of the cost being parts. However, the AA says claims have amounted to anything between 2,000 and 3,000 when the devices have been sawed away from the exhaust. In some instances, thefts have resulted in vehicles being written off entirely. That's because the cost of repairing damage caused can be deemed uneconomical by insurers if the car is of low value. Victims of this crime can also face long waiting times to obtain a new catalytic converter to be fitted. Toyota said in 2020 that it not envisaged the 'rapid rise' in thefts, which in turn had 'impacted our ability to source enough of the parts we need in some cases'. This means victims are unable to use their cars until a replacement part is fitted, else face a penalty. Motorists caught by police driving a vehicle knowing the catalytic converter has been removed can be fined up to 1,000 because the car will be producing higher levels of pollution than they are allowed to. Which cars are most commonly targeted by catalytic converter thieves? While cats are fitted to all petrol-powered cars produced from 1993, criminals are most commonly going after those fitted to petrol-electric hybrid models. These have been earmarked by the black market for having the best-quality parts because they contain a higher concentration of precious metals and are generally less corroded. Insurer Admiral says the most susceptible hybrid models are the Honda Jazz, Toyota Prius, Toyota Auris and Lexus RX of all generations and ages. Hybrid cars are ripe for thieves as the catalytic converters contain a higher concentration of precious metals and are generally less corroded. It's no surprise then that the Toyota Prius - the most-bought hybrid in the UK - is among the list of cars criminals are preying on Honda's hybrid version of the Jazz is also on the shopping list of these organised criminals. The Jazz is popular among older drivers and therefore tend to have accumulated fewer miles, meaning their catalytic converters will be in good condition The Toyota Auris hybrid (left) - the sister car to the Prius - has also been identified by Admiral as a prime target. The Lexus RX hybrid SUV (right) is another model that's often preyed on by thieves of catalytic converters Lorraine Price, Head of Direct Line Motor Insurance, said: 'Our research shows the most popular car parts stolen, number plates and catalytic converters, are both on the outside of the car, meaning it is simply not enough to just double lock your vehicle. 'Motorists should make sure to park in well-lit, populated areas and look out for CCTV cameras.' > Want to know which are Britain's most stolen car models? Read our exclusive report here The last thing the country needs is yet another tax coming so soon as it does after the April imposition of the NHS and Social Care hike in national insurance, which affects every business and employee in the country. Yet that is precisely what Rishi Sunak has done with the infliction of a whopping 25 per cent surcharge on the extraordinary profits being made by oil and gas companies in an effort to raise 5billion extra of revenues. In the context of the cash flows currently being achieved by Britains oil majors, this might seem like a flea bite. Gushing profits: Shell notched up 7.4bn or so of profits in the first quarter and BP some 5bn. But BP ended up with a 16.3bn loss after it exited from Moscow-controlled Rosneft After all, Shell notched up 7.4billion or so of profits in the first quarter and BP some 5billion. But it is also worth noting that BP ended up with a 16.3billion loss after it exited from Moscow-controlled Rosneft and wrote down its Russian operations. The shares of BP and Shell have shrugged off Sunaks tax raid. The blow has been softened by a promise of a super deduction for new investment, which on paper will provide tax relief of 91.25 per cent. That should encourage further North Sea drilling as well as major new renewable projects such as hydrogen plants on Teesside. The Government makes much of the fact that even after the surcharge, taxes on explorers in Norway from where we buy much of our gas will be higher. It may be easy for the UK majors such as Shell and BP to ride out the new levy, but the bigger worry post-Brexit is the impact it has on inward investment in the North Sea and on renewable projects. One of the big factors favoured by overseas investors is certainty about the tax regime. By constantly moving the goalposts, the Treasury risks driving investment away to locations where future returns on new projects can be relied upon, even if the headline tax rate is higher. In many ways, the Chancellors threat to impose a future tax on the electricity suppliers is even more worrying, causing share prices to slump. Threatening a future tax is damaging to shareholders, dividends and investment. How disturbing it would be, for instance, if Scottish & Southern Energy (SSE) were to push back on its ambitious 24billion renewable plans. The Treasury is playing with fire. EY challenge Barely a day passes without some audit disgrace. KPMG is once again in the frame, this time over its failure to notice bribery payments by aero-engine giant Rolls-Royce. Doubtless accounting enforcers may at some point catch up with Glencore after the commodity giant owned up to bribery and corruption in seven African countries. Meanwhile, PwC has found itself at the vortex of a dispute over the audit of Martin Sorrells S4 Capital. Given the urgency of the issue of audit reform, one might have thought it deserved more prominence in the Governments legislative programme than a background note to the Queens Speech. In spite of three high-profile studies, the shape of the reforms is still in doubt largely because of push back by the all-powerful audit lobby. It is all but decided that the new regulator the Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority proposed by Lord Kingman way back in 2018, will get the go ahead. But Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng is caught in the middle of a battle royal over the future shape of the profession. Kwarteng, with clear support from EY which is to carve out its audit practice favours a formal split with the burgeoning consulting arms of the big firms, hived off as separate companies, ending conflicts of interest which have bedevilled the profession. There has been heavy lobbying by much of the profession for a less dramatic separation. This is hardly surprising given the huge partner incomes generated by consulting. Other firms must be encouraged, if not forced, to follow the EY lead. It is essential if the credibility of the profession is to be shored up. Ringing change When it comes to potential overseas takeovers, the Government is showing steel. The decision to use new powers under the National Security and Investment Act to probe telecoms billionaire Patrick Drahis 18 per cent stake in BT has caused a sharp intake of breath. Not least at BT itself where chief executive Philip Jansen may have nurtured hopes of using the Drahi firepower to speed up change. Kwasi Kwarteng is taking no prisoners. Billionaire Patrick Drahi faced fresh scrutiny over his BT stake after the Government launched a review amid national security concerns. There are fears that the Frenchman could launch a takeover bid for the telecoms giant as soon as next month, which could hand him control of BTs Openreach broadband empire as well as sensitive state contracts. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng has deployed powers granted under the National Security & Investment (NSI) Act to examine Drahis decision to increase his holding in the FTSE 100 group from 12.1 per cent to 18 per cent in December last year. Kwarteng now has up to 45 days to assess the national security implications of the shareholding. BT said it will fully cooperate with the Governments review. Drahi owns the BT stake through his firm Altice and is the companys largest shareholder. The 58-year old, who also owns auction house Sothebys, stunned the market last June when he declared he had bought just over 12 per cent of BT. He increased the holding in December but said he did not intend to make an offer for the company despite speculation. Under City rules, the statement meant Drahi was barred from making an offer for BT for six months unless he agreed a takeover with the firms board or another buyer tabled a bid. However, this prohibition is set to expire on June 14, which may have spurred the Government into action. Altice declined to comment on the review but it is understood the firm will cooperate with the Governments investigation. Ben Barringer, research analyst at investment manager Quilter Cheviot, said: The timing of this review into Drahis stake in BT is interesting. The fact he has been raising his stake has been well known and is not news, so the fact the Government has decided to act now shows it may want to be seen to flex its muscle on key national infrastructure. BT shares fell 2.3 per cent, or 4.35p, to 185.55p following the news. While Drahi keeps a low profile publicly, in the business world he is known as a corporate swashbuckler and deal maker. He has also garnered a reputation for ruthlessness and is dubbed the cost killer by French trade unions for cutting workforces and slashing salaries and spending. The probe into Drahis stake in BT came less than a day after the takeover of Newport Wafer Fab, the UKs largest microchip maker, was called in for review amid concerns about its owner, a subsidiary of Chinese firm Wingtech. It is also thought other takeovers have been quietly called in since the NSI Act came into force at the start of this year. Concern over who controls BT comes as the firm embarks on a massive effort to expand the UKs fibre broadband network in a bid to boost growth in Britains regions. It also performs sensitive work for the Government, raising its importance in terms of national security. Additionally, Drahis stakebuilding has sparked speculation other potential buyers are eyeing up BT. It also comes amid wider interest in the British telecoms sector from overseas investors, with Abu Dhabi-based telecoms group Etisalat revealing earlier this month that it had snapped up nearly 10 per cent of Vodafone for 3.6billion, making it the companys largest shareholder. Vistry has kicked off a 35million share buyback programme after enjoying a 'strong start' to the year. The housebuilder, formerly Bovis Homes, said it was returning excess capital to investors after 'robust trading' and debt falling below its 100million target. Last week, Vistry posted an upbeat update and said profits would top expectations thanks to strong demand for its homes and higher prices. Upbeat: Vistry said it was returning excess cash to shareholders after a strong start to the year Housebuilders started 2021 on a strong foot as home hunters continued to rush to buy its new-built homes before the stamp duty holiday ended in July last year. Vistry said last week that 2022 had been even more profitable so far, with the company selling 0.86 homes per week at each of its outlets, compared with 0.75 a year ago. On the back of the strong performance, it upped its profit forecast for the current year to the top range of its forecasts, or around 415million, from 396million. 'The board considers that it is returning a prudent level of cash to shareholders, which reflects the robust trading of the group, while also retaining a strong balance sheet,' it told investors today. In 2021, Vistry accelerated its dividend payout to a two times cover, which remains unchanged. Analysts at Peel Hunt said the buyback should have a small positive impact on the company's earnings per share. 'While 35million is not huge in the context of the group, it demonstrates management's commitment to returning excess capital, as well as its view on the current share price,' they added. FTSE 250-listed Vistry shares rose 2.2 per cent to 902p in morning trading on Friday. They have dropped by around a quarter so far this year, which analysts at Peel Hunt say is in line with the sector average. Other major British housebuilders have come under pressure in recent months after the industry committed over 2billion to remove dangerous cladding from buildings. Poolbeg Pharma shot up 55 per cent this week to 6.8p after it was granted US patents protecting two key assets. The assets are POLB 001, a potential flu treatment, and POLB 002, a nasal spray for virus infections. The additional US patent protection of POLB 001 and POLB 002 is an important step in the commercialisation of these novel infectious disease products, said Poolbeg chief executive, Jeremy Skillington. Struggling doorstep lender Morses Clun hit the skids again after it delayed its full-year results Elsewhere in the medical sector, Angle saw its shares soar after the US Food and Drug Administration approved a blood diagnostics device developed by the AIM-listed company that can identify metastatic breast cancer in patients. UK-based biotech company Angle's Parsortix technology is the first product ever to be cleared by US regulators that harvests cancer cells from a blood sample. Later in the week, the company highlighted new research that indicates its Parsortix harvesting technology captured circulating lung cancer cells in frozen as well as fresh blood samples. Italys National Cancer Institute of Milan undertook a study on advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and sarcoma patients with the results published in the Clinical Chemistry journal. It was by any measure a good week for the liquid biopsy specialist, which saw its share rise 45 per cent to 143.5p. On to the software sector and Pelatro, which describes itself as a precision marketing software specialist; its shares were up precisely 38.7 per cent on the week after the company slashed its full-year adjusted loss to half a cent from 5.5 cents in 2020. The loss before tax narrowed to US$666,000 from 2.1million the year before. SEED Innovations said its portfolio company Fralis LLC, trading as Leap Gaming, has been granted a content supply license by the UK Gaming Commission (UKGC). SEED, the AIM-quoted investor with a focus on medical cannabis, health and wellbeing, has roughly 4.7million invested in Leap, representing 43.75 per cent of the Israeli company. We feel this key milestone was critical before any liquidity event for Leap's shareholders, said Ed McDermott, the chief executive of SEED. Newmark Security, a provider of electronic and physical security systems, hit the comeback trail with its year-end trading update. We are delivering on our targets for revenue growth and cost management initiatives whilst focusing on our new product pipeline that provides us with the ability to offer complete solutions to our clients continuously, said Maurice Dwek, the chair of Newmark. The companys shares rose 27 per cent on the week to 37.5p after the company confirmed year-on-year revenue growth in the year to the end of April 2022. The shares are now close to the 41p level they were at in January before the shares fell off a clip following the half-year results. In the ever excitable resources sector, Cornish Metals Inc jumped 29 per cent to 23.75p after it closed its previously announced 40.5million fundraising. The completion of this financing allows Cornish Metals to push ahead with the dewatering of the mine and delivery of a feasibility study in order to make a production decision for the South Crofty tin project, said Cornish Metals chief executive Richard Williams. The top faller this week was Randall & Quilter Investment Holdings, which plunged 31 per cent to 89p after a proposed 482million takeover and $100million fundraising hit the buffers. The group said it had received a letter from proposed acquirer Brickell - controlled by Miami-based investment group 777 Partners - alleging that it was in breach of certain obligations under the terms of the deal. As a result, Brickell said it was exercising its right to terminate the offer immediately. Randall said it did not agree it had breached the terms or that Brickell could make that move. Brickell owns 23.2 per cent of Randall but only controls voting rights over 9.9 per cent but that is still enough to cause problems if Brickell votes against the insurance groups proposed equity fundraising. DCD Media lost 30 per cent of its value after it announced plans to delist. This was on the cards after the company sold the bulk of its businesses and assets to 108 Media late last year. Morses Club, the struggling doorstep lender, hit the skids again after it said its full-year results, which had been scheduled for release this month, will now be announced no later than 26 August 2022. The company gave no reason for the delay and as usual, the market suspected the worst. Self-employed people are twice as likely to be rejected for a mortgage than salaried employees, new research from specialist home loan provider The Mortgage Lender has shown. It said nearly one quarter of self-employed individuals had had a mortgage application denied in the past, compared to just 12 per cent of salaried workers. Self-employed workers are often subjected to tougher checks, mainly because they are considered to have a more irregular or complex income and are therefore viewed as riskier by lenders. Tricky: Many self-employed workers say it is a challenge to get a mortgage from a high street bank or building society, especially if their income fluctuates Peter Beaumont, chief executive at The Mortgage Lender said: 'There are around 4.2million self-employed people in the UK, and it is typical for that number to grow when coming out of a recession, or in this case a pandemic also. 'While it may offer those workers more freedom, the major drawback of self-employment is the perception of income inconsistency, and consequently a greater challenge when it comes to borrowing large sums of money.' Whilst many mortgage lenders offer exactly the same deals to self-employed borrowers as salaried employees, it is much harder for the self-employed to prove their income. Salaried employees typically only need to provide their latest three months of payslips, whereas self-employed workers often have to provide up to three years of tax returns and business accounts. This can make it more challenging for someone who has recently become self-employed to access finance to either buy or remortgage a property. David Hollingworth, associate director at mortgage broker, L&C Mortgages says: 'Whilst an employed borrower will typically have a regular basic salary that's easy to demonstrate with payslips, self-employed workers may have more fluctuation in their month-to-month income. 'In order to get an overall picture of their income, lenders will typically require a two year track record, in some cases three years, of income demonstrated through self assessment or accounts. 'That therefore will make things more difficult for the self-employed especially where they have gone self-employed more recently. 'Some lenders may be able to consider one year in the right circumstances but most lenders will expect the two year minimum.' What other barriers are the self-employed up against? During the pandemic some self-employed workers saw their income reduce, and this resulted in lenders carrying out stricter checks to ensure that mortgages would be affordable. Lenders such as HSBC, Metro and TSB required evidence that a person's business had recovered from the pandemic. In some cases, lenders were demanding higher deposits or equity from self-employed workers - and some major lenders still have limitations in place. For example, Nationwide will only offer up to 85 per cent of the property value for self-employed applicants, and Santander restricts this to 75 per cent. Lower limits: Self-employed applicants may not be able to get as big a mortgage as their salaried counterparts, as lenders often impose tougher restrictions For salaried employees it is possible to borrow up to 95 per cent of a property's value with both lenders under the right circumstances. However, some lenders have withdrawn the limits that were in place on self-employed workers during the peak of the pandemic. For example, TSB is now offering mortgages covering up to 95 per cent of a property's value and will lend as much as 5 times a self-employed person's annual income. How can they get approved for a mortgage? Using a mortgage broker is a sensible place to start, and there are now a large number of free online mortgage brokers. Ten tips to boost your credit rating 1) Register on the electoral roll at your current address 2) Use a credit card responsibly, and always try to retain a good amount of available credit 3) Check your credit report regularly and ask for any errors to be corrected 4) Never withdraw cash from your credit card 5) Limit applications for new credit 6) If you have bad credit, stop applying for more 7) If you don't have a credit card, get one: but make sure you pay it off monthly 8) Don't miss repayments 9) Let your credit history mature 10) Don't keep unused cards Like with any other broker, they are paid a commission by lenders but this won't impact either your rate or any upfront fee you pay. Self-employed workers are also typically subjected to longer wait times and more rigorous checks, sop having all the necessary documentation ready in advance will help save time and make the process less painful. They may find smaller mortgage lenders more amenable than big high-street banks, as these tend to be more flexible when it comes to considering individual circumstances. However, they usually charge higher rates. Hollingworth says: 'Self-employed workers should look at the mainstream market where their situation will allow as that is likely to yield the cheapest rates. 'Using an adviser should help to target the right lender especially where income and track record may be more complex. 'Having the right paperwork to hand and ensuring it's up to date will be a key factor in determining the right option and will also help with the speed of processing of the application. 'Not providing the requested paperwork will only hold things up and could result in lots of back and forth as the underwriter poses more questions. 'Other more specialist lenders may also be an option especially if there is less track record or there have been blips along the way. 'The rates are likely to be higher but it may offer an option if the mainstream lenders can't take it on.' It's also wise to check your credit file through an agency such as Experian or Equifax, making sure you have no errors or issues that might lead a lender to reject an application. A credit report shows a list of a person's credit accounts, such as bank accounts, credit cards, utilities and mortgages. It will also display their repayment history, including late or missing payments. When a person applies for a loan or mortgage, the lender will look at their credit report on top of their proof of income and bank statements. Scientists have been raising the alarm about monkeypox's potential to spill out of Africa and fill a gap left by smallpox since 2018. But the warnings went unheeded. A British scientist at a level four biosecurity lab - which works with smallpox-like viruses - first warned about its epidemic-causing potential four years ago. They warned how the emergence of monkeypox could have 'potentially devastating consequences' due to declining smallpox vaccination rates leaving the majority of the world's population completely unprotected from the virus. The following year a group of international experts estimated that 70 per cent of the world was vulnerable to monkeypox because they had not been jabbed against smallpox. It comes as another 12 Britons were diagnosed with the tropical illness on Thursday bringing the UK total to 90. The virus has been spotted in 19 countries outside of it usual range so far, making it the widest ranging outbreak ever. Previously monkeypox has only ever been spotted in a handful of cases outside of central or western Africa and experts say they are surprised by the current outbreak. But a World Health Organization report also warned about the tropical illness in 2020, saying the 'epidemic potential' of monkeypox was increasing with modern farming techniques and rising populations, which increase the chance of animal-to-human transmission. Then, in November last year, experts ran a hypothetical scenario that found a genetically engineered version of the disease could kill 300 million people. The final warning came in February this year just weeks before the fresh outbreak. A review conducted by smallpox vaccine manufacturer Bavarian Nordic warned that cases were rising rapidly in Africa. Here MailOnline details the five crucial warnings that were missed: September 2018: Porton Down scientist warns of potential 'devastating consequences' of monkeypox Allen Roberts first raised the alarm about monkeypox in September 2018. The scientist was working with 'high consequence pathogens' at the level four biosecurity lab Porton Down in Salisbury at the time. This Government research site is used to work with smallpox and other viruses with biological warfare potential. In the paper, he said the emergence of monkeypox would have 'devastating consequences'. Titled 'Approaches to Handling High Consequence Pathogens', he wrote that declining rates of smallpox vaccination had left the vast majority of world's population vulnerable. 'Only a fraction of the worlds population now retains immunity from previous vaccination, leaving the remainder of the population susceptible to this disease,' he said. 'Consequently, the risk of deliberate reintroduction of smallpox in a bioterrorism event, as well as the emergence of monkeypox, would have potentially devastating consequences.' In 2018 a scientist working at Porton Down said the emergence of monkeypox could have 'devastating consequences' due to declining rates of smallpox vaccination across the globe He also discussed the process of using monkeypox for conducting tests on potential smallpox vaccines on primates. Tests on new vaccines to combat smallpox are tested on the closely related monkeypox due to the former being eradicated by a global health campaign and scientists considering it too risky to bring it back even for research purposes. June 2019: Coalition of experts warn 70% of world is vulnerable to monkeypox Dozens of British and international experts met at Chatham House in London to discuss how monkeypox 'might fill the epidemiological niche vacated by smallpox'. Members of the meeting included British and Nigerian virologists and experts on tropical medicine, as well as Public Health England, scientists from Porton Down, the US's Center for Disease Control, and smallpox vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic. Their meeting came after a series of monkeypox cases in the UK, Israel, and Singapore in 2018 and 19 which spread from travellers infected in Nigeria. At what was described as an 'ad-hoc conference', the experts also warned how the eradication of smallpox left the world vulnerable to monkeypox. Smallpox vaccines provide 85 per cent protection against monkeypox as the diseases come from the same family of viruses, called orthopoxvirus. But with smallpox being eradicated just over 40 years ago, routine vaccination against it ended shortly after. In Britain, the last smallpox vaccines were given in 1971. Publishing the results of the discussion in the journal Vaccine in 2020, experts said this meant 70 per cent of the world's population is no longer protected against smallpox, and therefore, monkeypox. 'Monkeypox is now a re-emerging disease,' they wrote. 'Vaccination and protective Variola minor [a minor smallpox strain] exposure contributed to smallpox eradication and likely reduced the number of other human orthopox infections.' Dozens of scientists from around the world met in the UK in 2019 to discuss how monkeypox might fill the 'niche' left behind by the now eradicated smallpox Concluding their paper, they called for more research on how monkeypox spreads and how to prevent it, including the development of vaccines and antiviral treatments, warning it had increasing potential to spread beyond central Africa. 'With the cessation of widespread smallpox vaccination, increased study of the monkeypox virus, the human disease it causes, and its epidemiology are important,' they said. 'Global travel and easy access to remote and potentially monkeypox-endemic regions are a cause for increasing global vigilance.' The experts highlighted how sex was a potential avenue of monkeypox transmission. 'Sexual transmission has been hypothesised for some cases with genital and groin lesions,' they said. September 2020: WHO warns 'epidemic potential' of monkeypox is rising Two years ago, a paper published by the WHO warned the 'epidemic potential' of monkeypox was increasing. The article warned the end of routine smallpox vaccination could lead to the rise of monkeypox in people. 'In a population with diminishing herd immunity against orthopoxvirus species, the epidemic potential of monkeypox will continue increasing,' they said. Mathematical modelling by the authors found monkeypox immunity in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where the disease is endemic, fell from 85 per cent in the early 1980s to 60 per cent in 2012. The authors of the WHO paper concluded their work by saying declining immunity as a result of the end of routine smallpox vaccination meant the virus posed 'an ever-increasing threat for health security' Smallpox vaccination ended in the DRC in 1980, but monkeypox cases have been rising since then with entire parts of the country now considered endemic for the disease. The authors added previous flare-ups in Britain showed imported monkeypox cases could go on to infect others, as happened to a healthcare worker in 2018. However, they said such cases were unlikely to lead to an epidemic as long as stringent infection prevention and control measures were followed. But they also said rises in international travel could make dealing with monkeypox outbreaks increasing costly and a 'poorly effective strategy' to prevent disease. They concluded: 'With declining immunity to orthopoxvirus species, monkeypox can pose an ever-increasing threat for health security. The study was written by experts from Institut Pasteur in France and published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. November 2021: Monkeypox pandemic model warns virus could kill 300million A pandemic/bioterroism preparation exercise ran a hypothetical scenario where a bioengineered monkeypox virus goes on to kill 300million in about 18 months. The exercise was run by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), a nonprofit organisation that campaigns for greater controls on nuclear and biological threats, coincidentally chose May 15 this year as the start date for the pandemic. This date has been seized by conspiracy theorists have seized as 'proof' monkeypox has been unleased intentionally. The fact ex-Microsoft head and philanthropist Bill Gates, a favourite target of conspiracies about the Covid pandemic, made a $250,000 (213,000) donation to the NTI back in 2018 further fuelled these unproven claims. However, the NTI scenario was radically different from the current outbreak. It used a fictional and a far more deadly monkeypox strain intentionally genetically altered to be resistant to vaccines. Experts met in November 2021 to discuss how the world would respond to a hypothetical pandemic caused by monkeypox. The exercise included fake news reports on how the fictional virus was spreading in May 2022 The timeline of the Nuclear Threat Initiative's fictional pandemic. In a statement this week, NTI said their choice of monkeypox for the exercise was based on recommendations from experts on potentially pandemic causing pathogens In the scenario, terrorists managed to convince a scientist working at a virology lab to develop this virus and then go on to unleash in a fictional country. A variety of other nations then go on to adopt different strategies in response as to the rapidly escalating pandemic. By the end of the scenario, dated December 1, 2023, the new monkeypox virus had gone on to infect 3.2billion people, killing 271million of them. The NTI issued a statement following the real monkeypox outbreak, explaining the scenario was one of many 'worst-case' exercises created to raise awareness about potential global threats. They claim it was used to highlight gaps in national and international biosecurity and pandemic preparation. They said there is no current evidence the real monkeypox outbreak is anything like their fictional scenario. 'We have no reason to believe that the current outbreak involves an engineered pathogen, as we have not seen any compelling evidence that would support such a hypothesis,' they said. 'We also do not believe that the current outbreak has the potential to spread as rapidly as the fictional, engineered pathogen in our scenario or to cause such a high case fatality rate.' NTI said they chose monkeypox for their scenario from a range of potential pandemic pathogens put forward by their health advisers. Monkeypox was eventually selected due to it being such a different virus compared to Covid, which NTI said 'encouraged exercise participants to consider issues beyond those that have already been highlighted by the current pandemic.' February 2022: Scientists say monkeypox is a disease in 'resurgence' A monkeypox research review in the Neglected Tropical Diseases journal published just a few months before the current outbreak warned of a 'escalation' in cases, and of a disease in 'resurgence'. The team of European and American experts analysed 66 studies which covered both the West African monkeypox clade - responsible for the current outbreak - and the more deadly Central African strain. They found that cases had increased 10-fold since the 1970s. This map, published in the study, details the number of confirmed, probable, and/or possible monkeypox cases in the world between 19701979 And this map details the number of confirmed, probable, and/or possible monkeypox cases in the world between 2010-2019, demonstrating not only the rise in the number of cases but how far they had spread. DRC figure reflects suspected cases 'There are mounting concerns about the geographical spread and further resurgence of monkeypox,' they said. 'Over the past five decades, monkeypox outbreaks have been reported in 10 African countries and four countries outside of Africa.' They theorized the end of regular smallpox vaccination and deforestation leading to closer contact between humans and infected animals could be two factors behind the rise. 'At the time when smallpox was rampant, no cases of monkeypox were reported,' they said. 'In our review of the literature, we found that unvaccinated individuals accounted for approximately 8096 per cent of monkeypox cases.' They concluded: 'The waning population immunity associated with discontinuation of smallpox vaccination has established the landscape for the resurgence of monkeypox.' 'This is demonstrated by the increases in number of cases and median age of individuals acquiring monkeypox as well as the re-emergence of outbreaks in some countries after an absence of 3040 years. 'The appearance of cases outside of Africa highlights the risk for geographical spread and the global relevance of the disease.' The authors called for increased international support for the surveillance and detection of monkeypox cases. Convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein is locked in a legal dispute with a young female artist over two crude sketches he made of her posing topless in 2019, DailyMail.com can reveal. The New York City graffiti artist widely known as ANNA!, who for the first time is agreeing to reveal her true identity as 29-year-old Anna Barratt, is attempting to sell the two sketches as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Barratt, who first met Weinstein through an art gallerist after he had been charged with sex crimes, declined to accuse him outright of sexual misconduct in an essay on her website and an interview with DailyMail.com. After selling Weinstein three works for $5,000, Barratt says that she initially came up with the idea to pose topless for the disgraced movie mogul in a photo shoot with a disposable camera. She said that he made the sketches and gave them to her during an 'impromptu rehearsal' for the proposed photo session, which never ultimately occurred. Now, Weinstein's attorneys are trying to block Barratt from selling the two sketches on the NFT auction site OpenSea, filing a complaint with the company insisting that as the artist of the two rough figure drawings, he is the copyright holder -- and noting that he wrote 'not to be reproduced' on the sketches. Convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein is locked in a legal dispute with a young female artist over these two crude sketches he made of her posing topless in 2019 The New York City graffiti artist Anna Barratt is attempting to sell the two sketches as NFTs. She is seen above posing for a photo shoot in 2019, similar to the one she had asked Weinstein to shoot with a disposable camera, though that idea never came to fruition Weinstein, 70, is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence on sex offense convictions in New York and faces additional charges in California. In a notice filed with OpenSea last week, and viewed by DailyMail.com, his attorneys wrote that the sketches 'were drawn by our client Harvey Weinstein and given to Anna Barratt as a gift, without the conveyance of any of the underlying copyright.' Barratt's attorney Todd Spodek furiously disputes that claim, and has filed a counternotice with OpenSea citing legal precedents that allow the purchaser of a copyrighted work to re-sell or gift the work as they please. 'The artwork and the underlying copyright are Anna's and she can dispose of it any way her little hipster heart desires,' Spodek told DailyMail.com. A spokesman for Weinstein accused Barratt of extortion, saying in a statement that she 'requested that Harvey pay her for the pieces that he sketched, signed and gave to her' and in exchange offered 'not go to media if he gave her money.' 'She said she would tell the story of them meeting and sketching, but if he paid her, she wouldnt put this out there,' said Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer. A spokesman for Weinstein (seen at trial in 2020) accused Barratt of extortion, saying that she demanded money not to share her story and publish the sketches Barratt (above) denies trying to extort Weinstein, saying: 'Harvey is very good at weaving small delightful consumable tales, and that's just simply not the truth' Weinstein's attorneys are trying to block Barratt from selling the two sketches on the NFT auction site OpenSea, filing a complaint (above) with the company Barratt denies trying to extort Weinstein, saying: 'Harvey is very good at weaving small delightful consumable tales, and that's just simply not the truth. This is real life, this is not Hollywood.' The twisted and at times confusing saga first unfolded in the summer of 2019, when Barratt was effectively homeless after an unexpected eviction. When an art dealer friend offered to take her in temporarily, and said that Weinstein was a potential buyer for her work, Barratt says that she jumped at the opportunity. She recalls being excited to meet Weinstein and sell him her artwork, despite the avalanche of sexual misconduct allegations, and criminal charges, that he faced at the time. 'I liked Harvey Weinstein, he is charismatic as hell,' she said, recalling that at the time, she didn't believe he would be convicted of the charges he faced. (The following year, a New York jury found Weinstein guilty of one count of criminal sexual assault in the first degree and one count of rape in the third degree.) Both sides say that Weinstein purchased artwork from Barratt, a total of three pieces for $5,000. 'They had a tentative deal for about ten paintings in total, and more would be paid when they were delivered, but the rest were in fact never delivered,' Weinstein's spokesman told DailyMail.com. Barratt (above in a modeling shoot) says that in 2019, she looked up to Weinstein and did not think he would be convicted of sexual assault charges NYC graffiti artist Anna Barratt argues that she has the right to sell two sketches by Weinstein After the initial sale of her artwork, Barratt says that she got a call from Weinstein, asking her to come by his office without her gallery owner friend. It is at that meeting on August 23, 2019 where Weinstein sketched the drawings of Barratt topless. Barratt says that the two haggled over whether she would undress as a kind of rehearsal for the topless photos she hoped that he would take of her, which she conceived of as an artistic commentary on the MeToo movement. 'We negotiate the terms of my dress rehearsal, and we agree that in exchange for such an impromptu rehearsal, I would receive two drawings of me from life, signed and dated as compensation,' she recalled in an essay about the saga. Barratt told DailyMail.com that she encouraged Weinstein to be free in his sketching and not worry about the quality of the drawing, and that the movie mogul took to the task eagerly, his pen moving 'furiously' across the paper. The two drawings from two different poses were created with a five minute time limit each, she recalls. Weinstein's spokesman says of the sketches: 'it was just two people having fun with no pretenses.' 'Harvey did sign them and, on the drawing, wrote "not for reproduction or use". That was the intent. He didnt do it for compensation, he didnt make any prerequisites,' the spokesman added. Barratt's tag ANNA! (seen above) is ubiquitous across New York, though she says she is now giving up the life of illegal graffiti to focus on her work as a legitimate artist Weinstein's attorneys in a letter to DailyMail.com wrote: 'Barratt begged our client to draw her, as she stated that he was her "idol" and "it would mean so much to her."' The letter notes that Weinstein wrote the disclaimers 'Not To Reproduce' and 'Not For Reproduction' on the two sketches respectively. 'Although the two Drawings were lawfully possessed by Ms. Barratt, they both explicitly include a disclaimer written on the each one. Our client explained to Ms. Barratt that "these are not for sale, or to be reproduced",' wrote Weinstein's attorneys. Barratt says that after the sketching session, she then pulled out of the proposed photo shoot, and had a falling out with Weinstein and the gallery owner friend. In October 2019, the tale took another strange twist when someone forged a check on Weinstein's account, listing Barratt as the recipient of the funds. Barratt insists that the check fraud was perpetrated by gangster friends of hers who duped her into gaining access to her bank account. No criminal charges appear to have been filed in the case. Former film producer Harvey Weinstein listens in court during a pre-trial hearing in Los Angeles after he was extradited from New York to California last year Weinstein is currently being held at Correctional Facility Twin Towers (above) in Los Angeles 'I cannot speak to allegations of gangsters and such,' Weinstein's spokesman Engelmayer told DailyMail.com. 'We just may never know who it was. The bank caught the attempts and that was the end of it.' Barratt is now offering an image of the forged check as an NFT for sale on the OpenSea auction site. But as of now, the two topless sketches have been removed for sale by OpenSea, after Weinstein's attorneys filed a complaint with the site on May 17. OpenSea said in a statement: 'Infringement of intellectual property rights is a violation of our Terms of Service.' 'When we receive a [Digital Millennial Copyright Act] notice for an NFT, we act in compliance with the DMCA and remove the item, per our policy,' the company added. 'If we receive a counternotice, and the individual or entity who sent the initial notice does not file a lawsuit, the item or collection will be restored, as outlined by the DMCA.' Barratt's attorneys did file a counternotice with OpenSea on Tuesday, a copy of which was obtained by DailyMail.com. 'Mr. Weinstein gifted the work in question to our client, and did so without reservation. Pursuant to the first sale doctrine our client, Ms. Barratt has every legal right to sell the work in question, whether by NFT or other means,' the counternotice argues. Barratt told DailyMail.com that by auctioning off the sketches, she was 'trying to make light of what is ultimately a s**tty situation.' 'Harvey told me he would make me a star,' she said. 'He backed it up and I really believed him.' Australia's second richest woman and her husband are facing fierce criticism from protestors demanding they pull their multi-billion-dollar graphics company out of Russia. Melanie Perkins' DIY graphic design platform Canva is now worth more than $55 billion, of which she and co-founder/husband Cliff Obrecht own 30 per cent, a stake which is over $16.4 billion. But the tech darlings - who have pledged to give most of their fortune for charity - found their company in an unusual position this week, when Ukrainian protestors lined the street outside of their Sydney office. The protesters assembled on Kippax Street, Surry Hills, on Tuesday demanding that the tech company withdraw its business from Russia. Armed with posters and megaphones, protestors were heard shouting, 'Canva stop funding war' and 'completely withdraw from Russia'. Protestors lined the street outside of Canva's Sydney office, on Kppax Street in Surry Hills, on Tuesday demanding that the tech company completely withdraw its business from Russia Canva had previously announced it had cut off payments in and out of Russia, including subscriptions, on March 1 but its decision not to pull its software entirely from the country has triggered a furious response. 'Canva is still trading in Russia and hence funding the war in Ukraine,' the protestors said. 'It's time that Canva goes on the right side of this war and stops trading in Russia.' Canva co-founder Mr Obrecht has condemned the Russia's invasion of Ukraine as 'illegal acts of aggression' but said its free service remained accessible in the country so that users were able to design protest images against the war. 'Like billions of people around the world, we are strongly opposed to the ongoing war in Ukraine and strongly condemn Russia's continued and illegal acts of aggression,' Mr Obrecht wrote. 'Our pro-peace templates have been used more than 275,000 times since the start of the war. 'Our hope is that we can provide the Russian community with a platform to champion important causes, communicate their opposition to the war, and to join in the resounding global calls for peace.' Canva creator Melanie Perkins, 34, (right) and co-founder/husband Cliff Obrecht (left) came under criticism after they condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine but left its free service accessible in Russia However, Ukrainian expat and software engineer Uvi Levitski, who is part of a group monitoring the actions of companies following Russia's invasion, said they were 'appalled' by Canva's 'inconsistent' and 'unprincipled position'. 'It wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that, in the absence of any moderation of private content, the amount of pro-war material made using Canva by users in Russia will similarly outweigh anti-war material,' Mr Levitskii told the Guardian. 'Thus disproportionately benefiting the already all-powerful Kremlin propaganda machine. 'And that's even ignoring the fact that public opposition to the war has been effectively criminalised and is punishable with up to 15 years of imprisonment.' Canva's free service remains accessible in the country so that users are able to design protest images against the war (pictured) Canva, which services 60 million customers in 190 countries, faced severe criticism as it became the only Australian company to earn the worst ranking on a list of global company's responses to Ukraine's invasion. Yale University ran a tracker that found close to 1,000 companies that were voluntarily curtailing operations beyond the minimum required by legal sanctions against Russia. The tracker had marked Canva with an 'F' rating but after it clarified its position and condemned the war the Australian company was moved up to a 'C' ranking. After humble beginnings, the ultra-ambitious Perkins, just 34, has come to be regarded in tech circles as a friendly but 'intense' visionary. In a video call to the company's 2,500 staff in December Perkins said: 'We want every single person on the planet to use Canva.' She also told staff the company was set to become one of the most valuable companies in the world, having already surpassed Telstra and nearing Andrew Forrest's Fortescue Metals Group in value. Perkins and Obrecht don't plan to keep that wealth as they have pledged their fortune to charity. Pictured, is a residential building in Northern Saltivka in Kharkiv, Ukraine after repeated shelling by the Russian military on May 25 In December, they signed up to Bill Gates' the Giving Pledge, committing to giving away their fortune during their lifetimes in a mission to eliminate extreme poverty. 'We have this wildly optimistic belief that there is enough money, goodwill, and good intentions in the world to solve most of the world's problems,' their pledge letter read. 'We feel like it's not just a massive opportunity, but an important responsibility, and we want to spend our lifetime working towards that.' 'Who needs all that money? Personally?' Ms Perkins said. Daily Mail Australia contacted Canva for comment. NASA is finally getting involved in the search for UFOs, DailyMail.com can reveal. Following the first public congressional hearing on 'Unidentified Aerial Phenomena' (UAP) in 54 years this month and a new law mandating a government UAP task force, sources say that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is ramping up its efforts to help the investigation. The new NASA project could see the administration throw its considerable scientific weight behind a search for possible signs of extraterrestrial life, not just on far-flung planets, but right here on Earth. A NASA spokesperson confirmed it is 'evaluating how to provide our expertise in space-based Earth observations to improve understanding of UAPs' and 'has consulted with multiple government entities' but denied it was setting up its own dedicated UAP office. The statement marks a giant leap for the administration which has previously dismissed all suggestions it had anything to do with unidentified flying objects. NASA has officially confirmed it is joining the search for UFOs amid a growing interest in unidentified aerial phenomena in the US. Pictured: NASA administrator Bill Nelson at a hearing on the proposed budget estimates for NASA earlier this month The move comes a week after the House Intelligence Committee held its first public hearing on UFOs in 54 years where panel members grilled Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray (left) and Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security Ronald Moultrie (right) A source affiliated with the US government and familiar with NASA's UAP research told DailyMail.com that the project will likely include gathering evidence from any astronauts who encountered unidentified objects in space, and reviewing footage and data from previous missions to help investigate any anomalous encounters. The source added that NASA's work will complement the Department of Defense's UAP task force, charged by Congress with investigating the threats posed by strange objects in US airspace and beyond. 'It's going to be some sort of working group that will help support the DoD,' the source said. 'It's looking to be complementary. 'I suspect it will be a combination of efforts that will include perhaps firsthand eyewitness testimony of NASA employees and astronauts, and then perhaps a review of old archival footage to assess if there are some findings within the NASA archives that can help AOIMSG,' the source added, referring to the Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group, the DoD's awkwardly-named official UFO task force. The source revealed that the Pentagon's UFO team has already requested footage from shuttle cameras on some of NASA's space missions as part of their investigations. 'There have been several alleged incidents involving NASA astronauts and NASA missions that involve UAP,' the source, who is familiar with NASA's UAP investigations, told DailyMail.com. 'Rather than ignoring it, I think NASA's doing the right thing by actually taking this topic head on.' One clip shown at last week's congressional hearing was taken from a Navy cockpit in a training area and shows a spherical object floating by the aircraft This file video grab image obtained April 28, 2020 courtesy of the US Department of Defense shows part of an unclassified video taken by Navy pilots that have circulated for years showing interactions with 'unidentified aerial phenomena' Deputy Director of Naval Intelligence Scott Bray plays a video of an 'unidentified aerial phenomena', commonly referred to as UFOs, at last week's hearing A spokeswoman for the space administration said it has 'consulted with multiple government entities regarding how to apply the tools of science to shed light on the nature and origin of unidentified aerial phenomena information that is important to the agency for a scientific perspective.' The spokeswoman, senior science communications officer Karen Fox, pointed out that aliens are not the only explanation for strange phenomena in the skies. 'The limited number of high-quality observations of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, which includes reported objects that cannot be immediately identified by individuals, currently makes it impossible to draw scientific conclusions about the nature of UAPs,' she said. NASA spokeswoman Karen Fox confirmed the agency 'has consulted with multiple government entities' about the project 'NASA is evaluating how to provide our expertise in space-based Earth observations to improve understanding of UAPs.' The administration promised it would keep DailyMail.com readers updated with its 'next steps'. 'NASA already has admitted it has been looking for extra-terrestrial life within our solar system,' the government-affiliated anonymous source said. 'They've just decided to focus a little closer to home this time.' Last year, the administration's chief Bill Nelson revealed that he spoke with Navy pilots who encountered objects flying with extraordinary capabilities off the US coast in 2004, and has expressed his openness to the idea of advanced alien life. 'I've talked to those pilots and they know they saw something, and their radars locked on to it,' Nelson said in an October 2021 talk hosted by the University of Virginia. 'They don't know what it is. And we don't know what it is. We hope it's not an adversary here on Earth that has that kind of technology. But it's something.' The NASA chief said 'I don't know the answer' to whether the 'tic-tacs' encountered by pilots are extraterrestrials, but he added: 'Who am I to say planet Earth is the only location of a life form that is civilized and organized like ours?' During a talk at the University of Virginia last October, Nelson revealed that he spoke with Navy pilots who encountered objects flying with extraordinary capabilities off the US coast in 2004 UFO researchers have pored over footage from previous NASA missions which some believe show signs of intelligently controlled craft. One of the most storied is film from September 12, 1991 (pictured) shot by the space shuttle Discovery on NASA's mission STS-48 A camera on the shuttle caught glowing objects which appeared to fly above the earth, change direction, and accelerate rapidly off into space UFO researchers have pored over footage from previous NASA missions which some believe show signs of intelligently controlled craft. One of the most storied is film from September 12, 1991 shot by the space shuttle Discovery on NASA's mission STS-48. A camera on the shuttle caught glowing objects which appeared to fly above the earth, change direction, and accelerate rapidly off into space. NASA told the History Channel it no longer has the footage, but researchers kept copies and have shared them publicly. 1973 mission Skylab 3 commander Alan Bean said he saw a bright red flashing object for 20 minutes, and made a note of it in his diary. 'Out the ward room window we saw a bright red light with a bright dim period of 10 seconds,' he wrote in the voyage log. 'It got brighter and drifted along with us for 20 minutes or more. It was the brightest object we'd seen.' His crew member Owen Garriott took pictures, and experts calculated the object to be around 600ft long based on the photos and the time it took to disappear behind the horizon. Perhaps the most outspoken former astronaut on UFOs is the late legend Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man on the moon, who claimed a 'cabal of insiders' are covering up historic UFO crash retrievals and alien contact. NASA has said it does not share his views. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin answered a question about aliens on an 'Ask Me Anything' session on web forum Reddit in 2014, saying he saw 'a light out the window that appeared to be moving alongside us' on his way to the moon. He added: 'There were many explanations of what that could be, other than another spacecraft from another country or another world', including sun reflecting off jettisoned panels. In 1973, Skylab 3 commander Alan Bean saw a bright red flashing object for 20 minutes, and made a note of it in his diary Bean and his crew members' observation were documented in a Skylab 3 report Late Astronaut and former senator John Glenn, the first American to orbit earth, helped establish the DoD's UFO office along with late senator Harry Reid in 2007. He described seeing objects like 'snowflakes' or 'fireflies' flitting around his craft while in space. Skeptics believe they were ice crystals. Gemini VII astronaut Jim Lovell was radioing to ground control during his 1965 mission when he said he saw a 'bogie', using air force terminology for a potential enemy aircraft. 'Gemini 7, is that the booster or is that an actual sighting?' the operator said, asking if he was seeing their jettisoned rocket boosters. 'We have several, looks like debris up here. Actual sighting,' Lovell replied according to a transcript of the interaction. 'We also have the booster in sight.' Former flight controller at the Johnson Space Center James Oberg said the object was likely space debris. The cousin of Texas gunman Salvador Ramos has revealed the teenage killer had asked her young son for details about his elementary school, just a week before going on a murderous rampage. Shelby Celeste Salazar said her son was a third grade student at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where her 18-year-old cousin opened fire Tuesday in a horrific shooting spree that killed 19 children and two teachers. Speaking to DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview, Salazar, 28, said days before the massacre, Ramos had spoken to her son and had asked him which school he attended and what time students were let out for lunch. 'At the time I didn't think anything of it, they had a good relationship. They are second cousins,' the mother-of-four said. Salazar and her children were living with Ramos and their grandmother, Celia Gonzalez, who was shot in the face by her grandson just before the massacre. She is the daughter of Ramos's mother's half-sister. Shelby Celeste Salazar, 28, told DailyMail.com how her cousin Salvador Ramos had asked her young son for details about his school, a week before going on his deadly rampage Salazar is still trying to understand why her cousin would target an elementary school let alone their grandmother Celia Gonzalez (pictured with Salazar's son) Ramos, who was living with Salazar and their grandmother in Uvalde, Texas, drove to her son's school armed with an AR-15 assault rifle Tuesday before storming inside and killing 21 people Salazar's son, a third grade student at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was in class when Ramos opened fire, but was fortunately not harmed in the shooting A week after his conversation with Salazar's son, Ramos would drive to the little boy's school armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and shoot up the building and kill 21 people. The third grader was in class when Ramos began his killing spree, but was fortunately unscathed in the mass shooting. Salazar said she has no idea if her cousin targeted her son or intentionally avoided going into his classroom. 'No one knows why he did what he did. That's the truth,' she said. 'No one can say they knew what he was thinking or how he felt, or even why he felt he need to shoot our grandmother and all those innocent babies.' Salazar said Ramos had been living with them after he was kicked out of his mom's house across town. Authorities revealed Ramos had shot and critically wounded his grandmother at her home before heading down to the school to continue his rampage. Gonzalez, 66, is currently recovering in a hospital in San Antonio. Salazar said she is still struggling to wrap her head around her cousin's senseless act of violence and why he would target a school and even their own grandmother. 'I don't know why he would have targeted an elementary school. I mean, he didn't know how to drive, so I really do not know. I'm at a total loss for words,' she said. Salazar (far left) who was related to the shooter through her mother Natalie and his mother Adriana Reyes, said Ramos had been living with her family (pictured) at their grandmother's home in Uvalde The mother-of-four said she does not know if Ramos had targeted her son or intentionally avoided going into his classroom during his killing spree. Pictured: Salazar's four young children Salazar is still trying to understand why her cousin would target an elementary school let alone their grandmother Celia Gonzalez (pictured with Salazar's son) Ramos was shot dead after his shooting spree left 19 children and two teachers dead as well as his grandmother Celia Gonzalez (pictured) fighting for her life after he blasted her in the face 'He knew my baby went to school there. I can't grasp this. That's why I'm at a loss for words. I just saw the news with text messages and started freaking out.' 'If he could do that to my grandma I don't know how to feel about the school thing, knowing my baby went to school there. 'My son and him were so close this is why I'm shocked. 'I thought nothing of it when they were talking about school and his grade and lunch. I mean you don't just assume someone will do something like this, you know?' Salazar said Ramos was a quiet teen but had changed in the past couple of months after his mother threw him out of the house and called the police. 'Before he would joke and laugh, and then he was quiet. He didn't speak much, no more smiles, just silence. He became less and less of any communication with us.' She said she never saw any guns around their grandmother's house where they lived. She said she last saw Ramos on Friday evening and last spoke with him on Saturday. Salazar left Uvalde for the weekend to visit friends and was in San Antonio when Ramos shot up the elementary school. Police said he had bought two AR-15 assault rifles for his 18th birthday days before the shooting, bragged about them on social media and suggested he would commit an atrocity before the deadly attack. Salvador Ramos first shot his grandmother at her house, before driving half a mile to Robb Elementary and crashing a truck outside the school. He stormed the building and killed 21 before he was shot dead Ramos's home in Uvalde is seen on Tuesday as police try to fathom a motive for the shooting One video at the scene appears to show the suspected gunman, named by Governor Greg Abbott as Salvador Ramos, approach the school while what sounds like gunfire is going off in the background Ramos reportedly had a strained relationship with his mother Adriana Reyes, which she denies. In an interview with DailyMail.com on Wednesday, Reyes said she was 'surprised' by her son's murderous act but admitted he was a loner who 'kept to himself and didn't have many friends'. She shot down reports that she had a toxic relationship with him. She also did not address claims she was a drug addict who saw the boy ditch her and go to live with his grandma. In an interview with CNN in Spanish on Friday, Reyes said of her son: 'I have no words. I have no words to say. I don't know what he was thinking. 'He had his reasons for doing what he did and please don't judge him,' she continued. 'I only want the innocent children who died to forgive me. Forgive me, forgive my son. I know he had his reasons.' When asked why he targeted the elementary school, she simply said it was 'to get closer to those children.' Salazar was related to the shooter through her mother Natalie (far right) and his mother Adriana Reyes (far left). The two sisters are pictured with their mother Celia Adriana Reyes, who said she was 'surprised' at her son's horrific killing spree at Robb Elementary School, was seen leaving home clutching her glasses and keys one day after she attended church where she broke down in tears 'Instead of paying attention to the other bad things, I have no words. I don't know,' she said. But Salazar has claimed her aunt 'has been the problem', and ironically, had threatened to shoot her own mother last week. 'She (Reyes) has been the problem. This is ridiculous how everyone believes the filth that comes from her mouth,' she said. 'She was a sh***y mother and sh***y daughter, and all over just a just sh***y person.' 'She hasn't been at her mother's bedside the entire time as she has been quoted. She had been by the hospital for short stays and then left.' She claims Reyes has now been banned from seeing her mother at the hospital. Ukrainian, German FMs discuss heavy weapon supplies Xinhua) 11:33, May 27, 2022 KIEV, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Thursday he had discussed the supplies of heavy weapons to Ukraine with German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock. "We need more heavy weapons delivered as soon as possible, especially MLRS (Multiple Launch Rocket Systems), to repel Russian attacks," Kuleba tweeted after the talks. The Ukrainian foreign minister added that he had briefed Baerbock on the difficult situation in the Donbass region. Other topics of the discussion included further sanctions on Russia and Ukraine's prospects to achieve a European Union (EU) candidate status, Kuleba said. Earlier this month, Baerbock said the government of Germany is working with German enterprises to provide modern weapons to Ukraine. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Social media had some harsh words for Meghan Markle after her surprise appearance at the site of the Uvalde, Texas massacre that killed 21, including 19 children. Markle was spotted on Thursday laying a bouquet of white roses at a makeshift memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse, not far from the scene of the senseless slayings at Robb Elementary School. She also stopped by an Uvalde community center that is hosting a blood drive, where she toured the facility and donated food, a volunteer there told DailyMail.com. 'She did not want anybody to know who she was,' the person said. The duchess took the trip in a personal capacity as a mother, to offer her condolences and support in person to a community experiencing unimaginable grief, her spokesperson told People. However, some took umbrage with what they felt was the duchess' attempt to take center stage after an unimaginable tragedy. They also highlighted the fact that her estranged father Thomas is currently in hospital after suffering a stroke - and that Meghan has not visited him. Meghan Markle places a bouquet of white roses at the memorial outside Uvalde County Courthouse Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, visits a memorial site in Uvalde, Texas on Thursday, to honor the victims killed in this week's elementary school shooting Paying her respects in Texas, Markle was dressed incognito in a simple T shirt, jeans and ballcap, but nevertheless sported on her left wrist a $6,900 Cartier Love Bracelet and Princess Diana's $23,000 Cartier Tank Watch Her top bodyguard Alberto Alvarez (left) looked on as Markle walked around the memorial, looking at the white crosses bearing the names of the other victims Britain's Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, places flowers as she mourns at a makeshift memorial outside Uvalde County Courthouse in Uvalde, Texas on Thursday 'I find her posing like this with no doubt her own photographer utterly disgusting,' one user tweeted. 'Im used to her PR stunts but this actually makes me angry. By all means, pay your respects but posing 4 photographs & releasing to the media is SICK' Another pointed out that Markle's father, Thomas, has been hospitalized after having a stroke. 'All the way from California to Texas, camera in tow, to strike a pose at the memorial site of dead children,' tweeted one user. 'You are callous. Your PR is dark. A flight to Texas but not to your Dad.' 'Her dad had a massive stroke a few days ago. Apparently no call, card or white roses for him yet,' wrote another. Jill Kargman, the author and star of Bravo's Odd Mom Out, was also critical: 'This rings hollow and feels opportunistic. I thought she stepped down for privacy? Using dead kids for a photo op isn't drawing attention to the tragedy it's drawing attention to her obvious quest to be our People's Princess. No thanks.' Speculation has swirled about whether she would visit his bedside in Chula Vista, California, only a few hours' drive from the home she shares with Prince Harry in Montecito, following years of strain in her relationship with her father. Thomas Markle appears on 'Good Morning Britain.' Meghan's father recently suffered a severe stroke Others made it into a political statement, comparing them to other shootings across the country. 'Meghan Markle and other celebrities are showing up for photo ops at Uvalde... where were they for Waukesha and Brooklyn?' asked comedian Tim Young. On Tuesday in Uvalde, gunman Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, perpetrated the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade, killing 19 small children and two teachers before being shot dead by police. Paying her respects in Texas, Markle was dressed incognito in a simple T shirt, jeans and ballcap, but nevertheless sported on her left wrist a $6,900 Cartier Love Bracelet and Princess Diana's $23,000 Cartier Tank Watch. It was unclear whether Markle's husband Prince Harry, who lives with her and their two children in Montecito, accompanied her on her journey to Texas, but he was not seen at the memorial or the community center with her. Accompanying the duchess was the head of her security team Alberto Alvarez, who once handled protection for Michael Jackson. The bodyguard looked on from a respectful distance as Markle toured the impromptu memorial. Britain's Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle pays respect at a makeshift memorial outside Uvalde County Courthouse in Uvalde, Texas, on Thursday Markle's visit to the small community roughly 80 miles west of San Antonio was unannounced, and came as a surprise to the town, which is still reeling in shock from the deadly tragedy As the cameras rolled, Markle made her way around the makeshift memorial to pay her respects to those killed Markle placed a bouquet of simple white roses at the memorial site outside of the Uvalde County Courthouse Bodyguard Alberto Alvarez, who once handled protection for Michael Jackson, watched over Markle on her tour of mercy 'I had no idea who she was. She just was carrying on a conversation like her and I knew each other for years,' volunteer Gloria Contreras, 40, told BuzzFeed, which first reported Markle's visit to the Herby Ham Activity Center as part of her Uvalde trip. 'We were just talking about, you know, the situation and what happened what we were doing here. I told her about us giving out water to the people and and feeding them,' Contreras said. 'I even talked about my personal life, telling her about my son and my family and, you know, coming to Texas because she told me she was from Santa Barbara and I said, 'Well, you need to come to Texas!'' added Contreras. 'We were talking about Texas and Uvalde and how it is to be in a small town and how everybody is so kind and warm-hearted and know we know each other and stuff and how the faith is deep-rooted.' Though Markle did not address the press on her visit to the memorial, the American-born duchess has previously made known her views in favor of stricter gun control laws. President Joe Biden also plans to visit Uvalde in the coming days. He has called on lawmakers to take on America's powerful gun-rights lobby and enact 'common sense gun reforms.' The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 elementary-age children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. A Texas law enforcement official said Thursday that the Uvalde shooter entered the elementary school building 'unobstructed' through a door that was apparently unlocked. People drop off flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the Robb Elementary School on Thursday in Uvalde, Texas Salvador Ramos legally purchased two AR-15 style rifles (right) including the one he used in yesterday's attack after his 18th birthday last week. The gunman also bought more than 300 rounds of ammunition The shooting rampage began at 11am when Ramos shot his grandmother. At 11.15am, he sent a message to a girl in Germany telling her he was on his way to 'shoot an elementary school'. He crashed his truck at 11.30am and made his way to the school with one AR-15 rifle. At 11.32am, he bypassed at least one cop at the school entrance. He got inside, barricaded himself in a classroom and managed to stay there for up to an hour - terrorizing kids - before he was finally gunned down Victor Escalon, a regional director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the gunman did not initially encounter any law enforcement officers when he entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire. Law enforcement authorities faced mounting questions and criticism Thursday over how much time elapsed before they stormed a Texas elementary school classroom and put a stop to the rampage. Many other details about the timing of events and the police response remained murky. The motive for the massacre remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. The gunman shot his own grandmother in the face minutes before attacking the school, and his text messages indicated that he was in an argument with the 66-year-old grandma about his phone bill. A man dubbed the 'son of Satan' has been locked up for 25 years after carrying out some of the worst violent acts and sexual abuse on women ever seen in Victoria. Andrew Males, 43, was jailed on Thursday over horrifying attacks on four women in Melbourne. The women he preyed on were vulnerable, some homeless or young single mothers, before they were brutally beaten and raped. One teenager was forcibly held in a bungalow at the back of Males' home where he abused her for weeks, while another woman was raped in his mum's dining room, The Age reported. His trial heard the horrific abuse he inflicted on women, including choking one, raping another while she was unconscious and beating a third with a hammer. Andrew Males, 43, was jailed on Thursday over horrifying attacks on four women in Melbourne including raping and violently beating them The County Court heard there were no other examples of sexual violence ever recorded like the ones Males carried out. His reign of terror on women in Melbourne spanned two decades and came to an end when he was finally arrested in 2015. Males befriended his female victims, building relationships with them before unleashing and abusing them. After two separate trials last year, Males was found guilty of 24 charges against the four women, including nine counts of rape and 10 counts of intentionally causing injury. Males has spent the majority of his adult life in and out of jail due to violence, weapons and robbery offences. He was previously jailed in 2016 for two years over the vicious assault of another woman, which left her with a fractured nose and ribs. Males was also on bail and parole for other offences when he assaulted the four victims. During his sentencing, the 43-year-old shouted abuse at his victims as they testified against him but his words were muffled by the glass barrier. Males showed no remorse and was found to be in the highest risk category of reoffending. He was sentenced to 25-and-a-half-years behind bars and will be on the sex offenders register for life. Males will be eligible for parole after serving 20 years and ten months. One victim said she hoped 'things would get better' with Males. 'But I think I always knew there was evil in him. He's like the son of Satan,' the victim said. Underworld figures believed to be linked to a wave of unsolved gangland murders in Sydney have been rounded up in large-scale drug raids, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has claimed. Police revealed on Friday that heavily-armed officers attached to two organised crime taskforces - Erebus and Hawk - have arrested 45 since October, seizing eight firearms, a hydraulic press and more than 20kg of MDMA in state-wide raids. Teams from Taskforce Erebus on Tuesday took down 18 people after busting down the doors of 29 properties accused of running a 'dial-a-dealer' drug business raking in over $250,000 a week. Images from the raids show accused drug dealers handcuffed, face down on the ground as officers in full tactical gear from Strike Force Raptor watch on. Members of the notorious Alameddine crime network were among those taken into custody following the 10-month long organised crime investigation. Commissioner Webb made an appearance on morning TV Friday in an attempt to quell public fears that police have lost control of the streets after 13 deadly shootings in the past 18 months on Sydney's streets. Members of the notorious Alameddine crime network were among those taken into custody following the 10-month long organised crime investigation She was asked by Karl Stefanovic on the Today show if police have 'any leads' on some of the highly-planned hits which often involve high-tech tracking devices and two burnt out luxury getaway cars left in neighbouring suburbs. 'We believe that some of those in custody during this week are linked, she said. 'But certainly it's an ongoing investigation, it's a great inroads this week just to get these people off the street.' There were 36 phones seized in the raids alleged to be part of the alleged dial-a-dealer syndicate with one of the phones having more than 700 customers. 'Without access to those contacts we believe we have really nipped this in the bud,' Ms Webb said. 'It's a very complex web, though. We are talking about a whole network of people involved in this. 'It's not just the importers, we are talking about distributors, we are talking about street level and the enablers who have actually supported these people in this enterprise. We have really disrupted this.' Each of the 18 people arrested, men aged between 19 and 39, have been taken to police stations and will be charged with a variety of offences Operation Hawke which has now launched state-wide, contains specialist units and commands across NSW and is focused on associates and facilitators of Sydney's organised crime networks. Detective Superintendent Jason Weinstein said on Friday police had seen success in disrupting Sydney's drug supply but also know the 'tentacles of illicit activity stretch far beyond our cities.' 'NSW attracts around 40 per cent of Australia's national organised crime population - many of whom attempt to evade the attention of police by operating outside of the Sydney metropolitan area,' he said. Police estimate the sale of prohibited drugs in NSW is worth at least $3.7billion a year at street level and is a root cause of the state's recent spate of killings. A major alleged 'dial-a-dealer' drug syndicate has been shut down by police with 18 people arrested across Sydney and accused members of the Alameddine crime network arrested 'These arrests send a clear message to anyone involved in organised crime; that we are aware of your illicit activities and will hold you accountable irrespective of your location,' Det Supt Weinstein said. Police say 23 kg of ecstasy, 2.5 kg of cocaine and a substance suspected of being methylamphetamine, collectively worth an estimated $4 million, were seized at two properties at Fairfield in Sydney's west on Tuesday afternoon. In the Hunter Valley, a search at the home of a Life and Death bikie gang member recovered two rifles a pistol, 350 rounds of ammunition, gel blasters, an electronic stun device, drugs and cash on Wednesday. The 49-year-old has been charged with 33 offences. Two revolvers were also found during a stolen car search at Summer Hill in Sydney's inner west, while a shotgun, other prohibited weapons, drugs, $30,000 cash and stolen goods were seized in Riverina house raids in southern NSW. Pictured from left to right are alleged Alameddine associates Ali Younes and Masood Zakaria, and Rafat Alameddine and Hamdi Alameddine. None were arrested in Tuesday's raids An asylum seeker family's bid to remain in Australia is expected to be resolved imminently, the prime minister has confirmed. Anthony Albanese said interim Home Affairs Minister Jim Chalmers would make a statement on Friday about the Tamil Murugappan family, who have been in a long-running legal battle to return to their home in the regional Queensland town of Biloela. The statement will be consistent with the view that Australia can have strong borders without being weak on humanity, Mr Albanese said. Home Affairs Minister Jim Chalmers (pictured at Parliament House in Canberra) is expected to make a statement on Friday about the Tamil Murugappan family, who have been in a long-running legal battle to return to their home in the regional Queensland town of Biloela The Murugappans (pictured in 2021 after being reunited on the Australian mainland), who escaped from Sri Lanka by boat during a protracted ethnic conflict targeting the minority Tamils, were given temporary protection visas in Australia but uprooted from Biloela by authorities in March 2018 and placed in a Melbourne detention centre 'This is a family that were welcomed and were a part of the Biloela community and at the cost of many millions of dollars have been treated in a way which just is not appropriate with Australian values,' he told ABC's AM program on Friday. 'The community want this family back to Biloela and that would be an entirely appropriate outcome.' The family of four have been living in Perth in recent months, following the medical evacuation from Christmas Island in 2021 of youngest daughter Tharnicaa, 4. 'This is a family that were welcomed and were a part of the Biloela community and at the cost of many millions of dollars have been treated in a way which just is not appropriate with Australian values,' Anthony Albanese (pictured at the Quad leaders Summit in Tokyo on Tuesday) told ABC's AM program on Friday Anthony Albanese said 'the community want this family back to Biloela (pictured) and that would be an entirely appropriate outcome' The Murugappans, who escaped from Sri Lanka by boat during a protracted ethnic conflict targeting the minority Tamils, were given temporary protection visas in Australia but uprooted from Biloela by authorities in March 2018 and placed in a Melbourne detention centre. They were then detained on Christmas Island in August 2019. That night, Wahid was taken from his cell and forced to kneel on the floor of another room in the police station. Under earlier interrogation, the blindfolded father of four had not told his Taliban captors what they strongly suspected and he knew to be true. Wahid had worked as an interpreter for the British Special Forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban would not accept his desperate denials. He knew all too well what the next step would be. What has happened to so many of Britains abandoned Afghan allies since the Taliban regained power last August. And so the first savage beating and torture with electric probes began. Wahid, a former interpreter for the British, was tortured by the Taliban in Afghanistan Twice, Wahid underwent intense physical abuse as his assailants sought a confession that would have been his death sentence. He endured but knew he could not do so for ever. It was only when local elders intervened that he was granted a reprieve and released with the promise that if he was found to have lied he would be killed. He immediately went into hiding, where he has remained. That was December. Last week, a letter was delivered to his brothers home. It warned Wahid to give himself up, or we [the Taliban] will enjoy killing you. This week Wahid moved to a new hiding place. He had applied for relocation to the UK under the Governments Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) scheme last August and has heard nothing since the first, standard, acknowledgement of receipt. If the Taliban find me, I am dead, he tells the Mail. Why do the British take so long? Do they not care? His despair at our shameful inaction is understandable. There are still thousands like him, living underground existences, waiting for London to fulfil what so far has been an empty promise, in a land that is racked by hunger. The UKs chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, Whitehalls sluggish response and the human cost of the aftermath are scandals that surely put the Partygate and Beergate furores in the shade. On Tuesday, the UKs abandonment of the Afghans after 20 years of war was described by an MPs inquiry as a disaster and a betrayal that will damage the nations interests for years. The report by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee said its members had lost confidence in the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Offices top civil servant, Sir Philip Barton, and urged him to consider his position. The Permanent Under-Secretary, who earns 185,000 a year, was on holiday when Kabul fell on August 15 last year and remained so for 11 days. The then Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, was also on holiday, at a luxury resort in Crete, although he returned the day after Kabuls capitulation. Their absence marks a fundamental lack of seriousness, grip or leadership at a time of national emergency, said the inquiry, and mismanagement of the evacuation ahead of the advancing Taliban likely cost lives. There is nothing likely about it. Lives were and are being lost every week as a result of our failure to stand by those who helped Britain during its long war. Its probably too late for AM, 36. He was arrested at a money market in Kabul by the Taliban some 18 days ago, and his colleagues told us they fear he is dead. A member of the Afghan Special Forces who worked closely with the UK military for 14 years, AM was among those awaiting a decision on his ARAP application. Too late now? One wonders when, if ever, he would have been notified. His is not an isolated case. According to military sources, two former Coalition interpreters and at least half a dozen members of the UK-backed Afghan military have been murdered in Taliban revenge attacks in the past month. Dozens are said to have been beaten. The Taliban is stepping up its hunt for these traitors. As a result, every week this newspapers award-winning Betrayal Of The Brave campaign is being contacted by desperate Afghans pleading for help. Most have applied to the resettlement schemes, but say they feel lost and angry that they go for months without a word about their case. Afghans wave papers at Western forces in Kabul during the evacuation last August Launched more than six years ago to help translators who had served Britain so loyally during the 20 years of conflict, our campaign is credited with helping save lives and pressuring the Government to change the law relating to the relocation of Afghans. The bureaucratic process was already fatally and we use that word accurately slow. Now there is a very real sense that the plight of the UKs Afghan allies is being sidelined and forgotten thanks to events elsewhere. Vital Government resources are said to have been diverted from processing UK visas for Afghans to help with applications from Ukrainians fleeing the conflict in their homeland. We know that they are being fast-tracked compared with their Afghan counterparts because the family of one of the Mails own interpreters in Kyiv is now living in the UK, having arrived little more than a month after applying. The UKs original Afghan evacuation Operation Pitting rescued 15,000 people. A further 4,000 have been helped after escaping into third countries since August. It is understood the processing of cases is being stepped up, but hundreds who qualify remain in Afghanistan, while many thousands are still waiting to hear if they are eligible. The Home Office insists enough resources remain on the ARAP scheme to work on both Ukraine and Afghanistan. But insiders say the new focus on Ukraine has resulted in the numbers escaping Afghanistan into neighbouring Pakistan the first step to reaching the UK reduced to a trickle; from more than 300 in February to around 20 in April, with even fewer expected this month. The impact of Ukraine is also being felt in the Pakistan capital Islamabad, where hundreds of Afghans whose relocation applications have been approved wait at British-funded hotels some for many months for UK visas. The number issued is said to have been reduced at one point from up to 40 a day before Vladimir Putins invasion of Ukraine to fewer than 40 a week. Rafi Hottak, an Afghan former supervisor of translators, survived being blown up in Helmand, in a blast that killed a British officer, and now works to help those who are still in Afghanistan. He says: With so much focus on Ukraine, it is essential that those at risk because of their work with Britain are handled as a matter of urgency. It is shameful that so many have to wait in hiding for months with no word from the UK about their cases. The Taliban knows they cant hide for ever. Britain must honour its promises and not forget those who risked their lives beside them . . . act now before it is too late. Who then are those still stranded? We can tell the stories of a handful among the thousands. Mashal, 31, was another UK Forces interpreter. When the then Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited British forces in Kabul, Mashal was trusted sufficiently to provide translation for him. He applied for ARAP more than ten months ago and has heard nothing since. He is still waiting for the decision that could save my life . . . and the Taliban are on his trail. Earlier this year, they lured him into a trap. He narrowly survived with a badly broken nose after Taliban sympathisers failed to pick him out at an identity parade. I was incredibly lucky, he tells the Mail. I would have been killed if they had confirmed my identity. They suspected it was me . . . they punched me in the face and hit me. But I kept denying I was Mashal, who had worked for the British. The Taliban is stepping up the search for those they call spies, who worked with the foreign forces. It is a very dangerous time to have been an interpreter. Mashal says he spent two years with British Forces from 2009 to 2011. It was during this period that he translated for Gordon Brown. He also helped to translate during a visit by David Cameron, then leader of the Opposition. He says he resigned from the military because his family lived in an area controlled by the Taliban and he was being threatened because of his work. Angry and frustrated, he accuses Britain of cruelty for the months of silence around his case and believes that Afghans who risked their lives for UK troops are being forgotten, despite the support of the soldiers they worked with. On at least three occasions, his familys home has been visited by the Taliban looking for Mashal. Once, his mother was beaten so badly by fighters demanding to know where he was, she ended up in hospital for two weeks while her injuries were treated. Mashals brother was also beaten up and is now in custody. I am very scared and dont know what to do, Mashal says. I know that people are looking for me and I cant hide for ever. Sumaya sobs as she makes clear her contempt for the way she and other women who worked for the British have been treated. I bitterly regret working on behalf of the UK, says the pregnant 30-year-old, who was a teacher with the British Council. Britain has no problem making visas for women in Ukraine a priority, but we who taught their values, language and virtues are forgotten. There are no visas for those now at constant risk of punishment because of their work. She lives in hiding with her husband and three-year-old daughter, moving house on a monthly basis to avoid capture. For two years she was one of a dozen female teachers employed by the British Council to teach in rural Afghanistan. It is for this work that she believes she is being targeted by the Taliban. She and her husband applied to relocate to the UK before the Taliban swept into Kabul last August. They were initially rejected as they had not been directly employed by Britain, but then told to reapply. We live in fear for being the face of Britain, We just do not know what is happening, there is so much uncertainty, says Sumaya, (a pseudonym we are using to protect her identity). I taught the language of the Christian enemy, promoted Western values to women and children. It makes me a Taliban target and if I am caught I will be punished. I just do not understand why Britain chooses and it is a choice not to help us. She said Afghanistan is a prison for women who helped the West and highlighted the Talibans recent decree to make the burka mandatory for all women. The Taliban had previously decided against reopening schools for girls over the age of 11, and, as well as being forced to cover their faces, women are no longer allowed to travel unless accompanied by a male family member. Day by day, life is stricter and harder for women, says Sumaya, They will not hesitate to make examples of us, and I appeal to the UK Government to help us. It does not matter under which scheme we are saved just help us and make good on your promise that no one will be left behind. If I had worked for virtually any other country, I would have been safe now. Wahid, whose torture we described earlier, was given away by his smartphone when he was stopped at a checkpoint. They found Facebook and WhatsApp exchanges with friends in the UK, certificates relating to his work with British troops, and crucially his application to relocate to this country. He had worked with UK Forces between 2003 and 2005, and then a British Special Forces unit. He said he was forced to resign because Taliban fighters who lived in his rural village had threatened his family. After moving away, and finding work with aid agencies, initially he felt safe. Then, in 2007, he began receiving threatening calls saying that as a spy of the infidel he would be killed. He moved again and in his submission to the ARAP team said he had lived in peace until 2017, when he was warned of a plot to kill him because he was suspected of having spied for the British. Gunmen attacked his home, he said in his statement, their bullets narrowly missing his wife and their children. He moved yet again . . . and then the Taliban swept into Kabul. Our lives are at risk now because of our work with British Forces, whom I served bravely and loyally, he says. The last attack on me shows the danger my family faces. I appeal to the British Government to recognise this. Britains attention is understandably focused on events in the Donbas region of Ukraine. But we must not forget those who stood beside us in a previous time of need. Britain's most senior Asian police officer has pulled out of the race to become the head of the National Crime Agency amid reports the Prime Minister wanted controversial former Met Chief Lord Hogan-Howe appointed to the role. Neil Basu, the Met's former head of counter-terrorism, had made it into the final two candidates in the bid to succeed Dame Lynne Owens as NCA director. But he and the other shortlisted candidate - acting head of the NCA Graeme Biggar - were last week told that the application process was to begin again, but they were welcome to reapply, The Telegraph reports. The news comes amid claims that Lord Hogan-Howe, who had applied for the job but did not make the final shortlist, was Boris Johnson's preferred candidate. Mr Basu is now reportedly considering launching an official complaint over the handling of the application process amid claims neither he nor Mr Biggar were told the reasons behind the decision. A Home Office spokesman said that a fair recruitment campaign is underway to make the best possible appointment. Lord Hogan-Howe - a close ally of the PM - applied for the 223,000-a-year role at the National Crime Agency (NCA) but failed to make it into the final round of candidates for the coveted role. Neil Basu, the Met's former head of counter-terrorism, had made it into the final two candidates in the bid to succeed Dame Lynne Owens as NCA director But he and the other shortlisted candidate - acting head of the NCA Graeme Biggar (pictured) - were last week told that the application process was to begin again, but they were welcome to reapply, reports say However, it is believed Downing Street have rejected two highly qualified police chiefs who were interviewed by the Home Secretary Priti Patel, reports The Times. The bid to make the ex-Metropolitan Police Commissioner head of the NCA comes despite him being in charge when officers raided homes of leading Establishment figures as part of the force's disastrous VIP paedophile ring probe. If successful, Mr Hogan-Howe will succeed Graeme Biggar, the interim director-general of the NCA after Dame Lynne Owens retired from the position on health grounds in September last year. During his time as head of Scotland Yard, Hogan-Howe was in charge of the force's VIP abuse inquiry, which ruined the reputations of several public figures including retired Armed Forces chief and D-Day hero Field Marshal Lord Bramall, ex-home secretary Leon Brittan and former Tory MP Harvey Proctor. The news comes amid claims that Lord Hogan-Howe, who had applied for the job but did not make the final shortlist, was Boris Johnson's preferred candidate Mr Hogan-Howe oversaw an inquiry about child sex abuse based on false claims targeted at Lady Brittan's late husband Lord Brittan (pictured together) Prime Minister Boris Johnson reportedly was unhappy that Lord Hogan-Howe was not initially shortlisted for the job (pictured together in 2012) They were smeared by fantasist Carl Beech, known as 'Nick', whose lies were swallowed whole by the Met. Earlier this week Lord Brittan's widow has blasted moves to appoint the Scotland Yard chief who presided over the shambolic VIP child sex abuse inquiry as head of the National Crime Agency. In a scathing attack, Lady Brittan whose late husband was falsely accused of VIP sex abuse and murder by serial liar Carl 'Nick' Beech said there is 'little evidence' that Bernard Hogan-Howe is a 'suitable candidate'. She called for the recruitment process for the director-general of the NCA to be transparent and 'thoroughly' consider candidates' track records for the 223,000-a-year post. A teenage boy has been brutally bashed and put in hospital after he stepped in to help his young girlfriend, allegedly being harassed by two men in their 40s. The 15-year-old was with his girlfriend on a tram headed for Southern Cross Railway Station, in Melbourne's south, at 9.15pm on April 23. The tram stopped at a station near Ferrars Street before two men, aged in their 40s, boarded the vehicle. Police are hoping to speak to these two men pictured after a teenage boy was allegedly bashed and left with serious head injuries on a tram Police allege the two men began to harass the young girl and when her boyfriend stepped in to help, the trio began to argue. The men then allegedly assaulted the boy, stomping on his head several times in front of horrified commuters. Police said the alleged assault left one passenger 'seriously affected' by the incident. The two men then left the tram when it stopped at another station and fled the scene. The teenage boy was taken to hospital to be treated for serious head injuries. Police have released CCTV footage of two men they believe can assist them with their inquiries. Both men are seen wearing caps with one of the men dressed in a black Lonsdale shirt. Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000. An Australian woman who disappeared in Mexico sent a strange text message to a friend before she went missing. Tahnee Shanks, 32, had informed a friend to remember a man's name. In the text message, Ms Shanks said 'I know this is gunna sound weird but keep (his) name. Jorge Luis Aguirre Astudillo! Just in case anything happens to me they can go after him.' 'Not that anything will! But I just want to keep that as a backup.' Australian woman Tahnee Shanks (pictured right), 32, who disappeared in Mexico sent an eerie text message to a friend before she went missing, telling them to remember a man's name In the text message (pictured), Ms Shanks said 'I know this is gunna sound weird but keep (his) name. Jorge Luis Aguirre Astudillo! Just in case anything happens to me they can go after him' News of the text message came as Dan Shanks, Tahnee's brother, said he was disturbed by a mysterious eight-hour gap after his sister left a hotel in Cancun and passed through a road toll. According to Mr Shanks, footage shows his sister and Mr Aguirre Astudillo leaving a hotel in Cancun to head home after a mini-holiday. They passed through a toll road checkpoint before the vehicle turned around and headed back to the holiday town, where Ms Shanks' toddler Adelynn was found abandoned at a church on the evening of May 2. 'There's an eight-hour period from them going through that toll and Adelynn being dropped off in Cancun at that church,' Mr Shanks said. 'Then her phone stopped pinging pretty soon after that. It might have been a couple of hours I understand.' 'There's an eight-hour period from them going through that toll and Adelynn (pictured left) being dropped off in Cancun at that church,' Mr Shanks said Mr Shanks added that the couple must have used a different route to return to Cancun. Both Ms Shanks and Mr Aguirre Astudillo are considered missing persons in the police investigation. Mr Shanks, who has offered a one million peso reward (A$70,000) for information on his sister's disappearance, said he'd received 'not one email, not one phone call, not one WhatsApp message' about his sister's disappearance, according to the Daily Mercury. 'All the authorities said I would be swamped and it was a bad idea,' Mr Shanks said of the reward. 'We need closure...if she's dead, we need a body. 'I just can't leave it like this because all I can think of is that something worse than being murdered has happened, like she is being trafficked. 'It's in my nightmares... that if she is alive, she's not in a very nice place and what are (the authorities) doing about it? Nothing.' 'This is why we need answers.' Dan Shanks, the brother of missing woman Tahnee, who has put out a one million peso reward (A$70,000) (pictured), has stated that 'not one email, not one phone call, not one WhatsApp message' about his sister's disappearance on Monday May 2 Two-year-old Adelynn is seen with her grandmother and uncle after landing safely in Australia. She was found wandering barefoot in Mexico While the search for Ms Shanks continues, her two-year-old child Adelynn is settling into life in Australia after being brought to Mackay by her grandmother and uncle earlier this month. Police investigations continue to determine whether the couple were targeted by criminals in a random attack. Mr Shanks also revealed Australian authorities had put in a request for information on the investigation because he had not received any update from Mexican police. Advertisement Barack Obama continues to enjoy his New York City break as he was seen leaving his five-star hotel one day after he was blasted on social media for his comments about the Texas school shooting. Obama was pictured smiling and waving at bystanders as he exited The Pierre Hotel on Thursday, one day after he was slammed on Twitter for comparing the Texas massacre to the two-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder. He was escorted by Secret Service out of his Upper East Side accommodations, which houses a presidential suite costing $20,000 per night. The former president is likely rooming in the top tier suite, however DailyMail.com was unable to confirm the exact details of his stay at the swanky hotel, where rooms cost a minimum $1,000-a-night. Thursday marks the second day of Obama's Manhattan adventure, which on Wednesday included a trip to a the theater and a three-hour dinner at a five-star Italian restaurant. He met with the Obama Foundation Scholars from around the world currently studying at Columbia University to discuss the 'strategies they're implementing globally to preserve democratic practices in their home communities'. The former president also called Jacob Philadelphia to congratulate him graduating from high school - 13 years after touching his hair in the Oval Office in a photo captured by White House photographer Pete Souza. His outing also comes as he is taking the heat for sharing a 'tone deaf' tweet on Wednesday remembering Floyd and calling for police reform, just one day after Salvador Ramos murdered 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Wednesday was also two years to the day after Floyd was killed by arresting Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin who knelt on his neck until he passed out. 'As we grieve the children of Uvalde today, we should take time to recognize that two years have passed since the murder of George Floyd under the knee of a police officer,' wrote, who was seen enjoying a night out in New York City later that evening. 'His killing stays with us all to this day, especially those who loved him.' The message was quickly slammed online by many social media users who were angry that Obama would compare the two unconnected events. Barack Obama was spotted leaving The Pierre Hotel in Manhattan's Upper East Side on Thursday Obama was pictured smiling and waving at bystanders as he left the hotel on Thursday The former president is seen entering a black car outside of his five-star NYC accommodations on Thursday ''It sucks those kids died, but remember George Floyd? He's who I'm still thinking about.' Barack Obama,' Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon tweeted. 'What in the world does the former have to do with the latter?' Ben Shapiro asked. Redstate editor Kira Davis added that: 'Not a single grieving parent today gives a rip about what happened to Floyd or anyone right now. 'For crying out loud. This is not the time to be advertising for your favorite activist group. How utterly vile.' Obama has been a proponent of police reform for many years. He tried to push for police reform through a task force he formed in 2014, nearly six years before Floyd's death. One of that task force's recommendations was an expansion of an already existing database of officers who had been decertified. On Thursday, the former president met with the Obama Foundation Scholars from around the world currently studying at Columbia University to discuss the 'strategies they're implementing globally to preserve democratic practices in their home communities' Barack Obama is under fire over his 'tone deaf' tweet comparing the two-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder to the massacre at an Uvalde elementary school ''It sucks those kids died, but remember George Floyd? He's who I'm still thinking about.' Barack Obama,' Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon tweeted 'What in the world does the former have to do with the latter?' Ben Shapiro asked Obama's Thursday adventure in NYC and his arguably distasteful tweet come as President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday to improve accountability in policing. When announcing the measure, Biden, who served as Obama's second-in-command, and Vice President Kamala Harris also addressed the Texas shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers. Biden and Harris gave remarks that tried to comfort those affected by the shooting as well those who have suffered from police brutality, promising them that change could come eventually despite the partisan divides on Capitol Hill. 'I know progress can be slow and frustrating,' Biden said. 'Today we're acting. We're showing that speaking out matters. Being engaged matters. That the work of our time, healing the soul of this nation, is ongoing and unfinished and requires all of us never to give up.' Floyd's family was in the audience at the White House as the president declared that 'what we do in their memory matters.' Relatives of Breonna Taylor were also in the East Room for the signing. Taylor was killed during a fast-entry police raid of her home in Louisville, Kentucky. Biden has been walking a tight rope on the issue of police reform. Progressives, in the wake of Floyd's death and the nation-wide protests that sparked up around it, wanted to go stronger, including a tightened use-of-force option, which police chiefs objected to. It was not included in the final version Biden signed Wednesday. Biden also has been dealing with criticism from Republicans who have falsely accused him of defunding the police. The order requires federal agencies to update their use-of-force policy, restrict the flow of surplus military equipment to police departments and restrict federal funding to police departments that did not ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants. It directs all federal agencies to create a national registry to track officers who were fired for bad conduct. Obama is spotted outside The Pierre Hotel in Manhattan on Thursday. He is currently staying in the hotel which has a presidential suite costing $20,000 per night Obama and his security detail are seen looking at something to the left in a picture taken Thursday outside The Pierre Hotel Obama waves as he enters a car in Manhattan on Thursday Obama is staying at The Pierre Hotel in Manhattan The hotel houses a presidential suite costing $20,000 per night. The former president is likely rooming in the top tier suite, however DailyMail.com was unable to confirm the exact details of his stay at the swanky hotel, where rooms cost a minimum $1,000-a-night Obama was also spotted leaving his Manhattan hotel Wednesday donning a smart all-black ensemble and a friendly smile as he ventured for his night of fun. The Democrat made his first stop at New World Stages theatre on W. 49th Street, where he visited for around an hour. The playhouse hosts multiple shows, but it is currently home to Americano, a musical about dreamers which would likely appeal most to the liberal president. He was then escorted by his Secret Service detail and NYPD to Portale, an Italian restaurant in Chelsea, where he dined in a private room on the establishment's upper level with several guests. He stayed at the restaurant, where a meal will easily cost $50 to $100 per person without booze, for three hours before returning to his hotel, a DailyMail.com photographer recalled. While we don't know specifically who he dined with on Wednesday, one can assume he was deep in conversation with his guests due to the length of their stay at Portale. It's also unclear if his dining engagement was social or business related. The former president was seen carrying a tablet and several a handful of documents throughout the evening. Social media users slammed Obama's remarks about the shooting and George Floyd's death Obama's fun filled NYC excursions came just days after he called on legislators to take action and reform gun control in wake of the Robb Elementary School shooting. The 44th president, taking to Twitter after the shooting, said that both he and former First Lady Michelle Obama 'grieve with the families in Uvalde who are experiencing pain no one should have to bear.' 'Across the country, parents are putting their children to bed, reading stories, singing lullabies and in the back of their minds, they're worried about what might happen tomorrow after they drop their kids off at school, or take them to a grocery store or any other public space,' he penned. He then recalled the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, which occurred while he was in office. Obama said: 'Nearly ten years after Sandy Hook and ten days after Buffalo our country is paralyzed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies.' The statement concluded: 'It's long past time for action, any kind of action. And it's another tragedya quieter but no less tragic onefor families to wait another day. May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds.' Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, issued a statement about the Texas elementary school massacre on Tuesday Obama is seen smiling and apparently engaged in conversation with members of his security detail in NYC on Wednesday. He is pictured outside New World Stages theatre He then went to Portale, an Italian restaurant in Chelsea, where he dined Wednesday night in a private room on the establishment's upper level with several guests An elderly couple have told of their shock at being threatened with a hefty fine from the local council after not one but two cars ploughed into and damaged their home. Pensioners Laraine and Phillipe live in a century old home near a busy intersection in the inner Melbourne suburb of Princes Hill. The side of the property is still boarded up and covered with a tarpaulin six weeks after a car slammed into the room Laraine was working in, missing her by centimetres. As they wait for repairs to be completed, Yarra Council sent the couple a notice, threatening to fine them $90,500 for not complying with building standards. Laraine was working in her office when a car (pictured) slammed into the room and caused extensive damage to her home 'I've always paid my rates on time and they've been rather dismissive about everything,' Laraine told A Current Affair. 'I don't think I've ever had $100,000.' Since the segment aired, the council has admitted the letter was sent by mistake - and has reassured the couple that they won't be fined. 'A standard letter was issued to the property owners in error which council deeply regrets,' a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia. 'Council spoke with the couple in April, explained this was a standard letter, apologised for any distress caused and reassured them no fine of any nature would be issued.' It's not the only issue. The couple fear a third car will slam into the home in the wake of the last incident on April 14. 'I was just sitting at my computer and suddenly I heard a big bang. I just fell over backward on my seat and all the things on my desk came flying on top of me,' Laraine recalled. Laraine and Phillipe (pictured) were shocked to receive a threatening letter from Yarra Council 'All the bricks and the windows smashed. 'Once before there was a similar accident at night and I guess I didn't think it would happen again.' The unwanted stress has taken a toll on her partner in his 10 year ongoing battle with cancer. 'I'm afraid because of what's happening, something could happen,' Phillipe said. The couple want the council to implement safety measures to avoid another accident in the future. The footpath outside their home is level with the road, unlike surrounding homes which have gutters, flower beds and benches. 'The engineer was worried about doing repairs because he said it would be useless as the same thing could happen again and that the council needs to out a proper gutter in,' Laraine said. While surrounding homes in Princes Hill have gutters, flower beds and seating to stop cars veering into the properties, the couple's home (circled) doesn't But Yarra Council says extra measures aren't necessary after conducting a comprehensive traffic engineering assessment of the road outside the home. 'Council does not believe any additional road safety treatments would assist in this case due to the location of the house and its proximity to the road,' the spokesperson said. Council also understands that in this case driver error was the cause of the accident. 'Council has also provided assistance to the couple by making their property waterproof and ensuring it was safe to live in, as well as helping them work with their insurance company. Extensive repairs needed to Laraine and Phillipe's home (pictured) are yet to be completed The couple 's insurance company APIA is working 'as fast as possible' to complete repairs. 'We will continue to support our customers through the claims process, including offering temporary accommodation,' a statement said. 'We are currently working as fast as possible with our tradespeople and engineers to ensure the best way to repair the home.' Ratepayers Victoria vice-president Dean Hurlston urged the council to rethink its decision and accused it of being out of touch with the community. 'There is an existing safety issue and council's responsible to make that road safe,' he said. 'I think council's pretty negligent and should be doing everything they can to stop cars going through this person's home.' Holiday firm TUI has told pilots and cabin crew to no longer address passengers as 'ladies and gentlemen' in favour of more gender-neutral terms. Other major airlines, including Lufthansa, easyJet and Air Canada, have already adopted gender-neutral language. Critics labelled fellow carrier British Airways as 'woke' after it made a similar move in in October last year. The Sun reports that TUI holidaymakers will instead hear lines such as: 'Good morning, passengers, this is your captain speaking.' Andrew Allison, from pressure group The Freedom Association, said: 'TUI have their head in the clouds. 'Ladies and gentlemen' has always been the traditional polite greeting. Holiday firm TUI has told pilots and cabin crew to no longer address passengers as 'ladies and gentlemen' in favour of more gender-neutral terms 'There no need to change this in order to placate the tiny minority who feel offended.' Toby Young, of the free Speech Union, added: 'Most surveys put the percentage of the trans people in the population at around 0.5 per cent and I cannot imagine more than ten per cent of them object to the phrase, 'ladies and gentlemen.' TUI has stated it is committed to making sure its customers feel welcome. A spokesman said: 'We therefore encourage all our pilots and crew to ensure all public announcements on board our aircraft are inclusive.' The news comes after frustrated holidaymakers have been waiting more than 40 hours to board a TUI flight from Cardiff Airport to the Greek island of Zakynthos. Passengers on flights to Ibiza and Dalaman have also reportedly been delayed by more than 24 hours. Passengers say there have been angry scenes caused by a lack of information and claim that people, including children and the elderly, have been left with little or no food. The flight to Zakynthos was due to leave Cardiff Airport at 2pm on Tuesday (May 24), but passengers were still waiting to fly out on Thursday morning. The current information is that it is due to fly at 10.10am on Thursday. They did board a flight at the airport on Wednesday evening, but were then taken off the plane again after a health emergency meant it was too late to fly because the airport in Greece closes for the night. Holidaymakers at Exeter Airport have also reported delays of nearly 20 hours. A spokeswoman for TUI said: 'As the UK's biggest holiday company we will never cancel flights as we know how much our customers look forward to their holiday with us. We are doing everything we can to limit any flight delays, which can happen from time to time for various operational reasons.. On the rare occasion flight delays do take place we will do everything we can to support our customers. 'We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to our customers travelling from Cardiff Airport today which have been delayed due to technical issues with an aircraft. 'Customers have been offered overnight accommodation where required, and meals and refreshments. They also have the option to amend or cancel their holiday if they no longer wish to travel. 'The safety and wellbeing of our passengers and crew is always our highest priority, and we would like to thank passengers for their patience and understanding at this time.' Press freedom will remain under threat unless ministers honour a vow to protect legitimate journalism from censorship, MPs were told yesterday. The Government has promised to strengthen the Online Safety Bill so that social media platforms have to notify recognised news publishers if they intend to block or take down news content. The amendment, which will also ensure such content remains online until an appeal, was announced in March but has yet to be revealed in detail. The News Media Association, which represents local, regional, and national publishers, yesterday said it believed the Government was trying to protect free speech but would fail to do so unless extra protections were added. Giving evidence to a committee scrutinising the Bill, NMA chief executive Owen Meredith said in its current form the legislation failed to properly and adequately protect Press freedom. He added: Although the Governments stated intention is to have recognised news media content outside the scope of the Bill, we dont believe the drafting as was, and still is, actually achieves that. Ministers and the secretary of state have confirmed both in public appearances and the second reading of the Bill that they wish to table further amendments to achieve the aims the Government set out, which is to make sure content from recognised news publishers is fully out of scope of the Bill. The Government has promised to strengthen the Online Safety Bill so that social media platforms have to notify recognised news publishers if they intend to block or take down news content Asked by digital minister Chris Philp whether the Bill respects and protects free speech, Mr Meredith replied: The current draft I do not believe properly and adequately protects Press freedom, which is why I think you will be bringing forward amendments. While the Bill has an explicit exemption for news websites and their comment sections, it does not offer blanket exemptions for content on third-party platforms. One of the most contentious pieces of the legislation is for tech giants to remove lawful but harmful content or face heavy fines. There are fears this will cause companies to set their algorithms far too strictly to avoid huge fines or even criminal sanctions and in doing so take down legitimate journalism. One of the most contentious pieces of the legislation is for tech giants to remove lawful but harmful content or face heavy fines As it stands, platforms must offer a fast-track appeals process to put journalistic content back up online if it is taken down inadvertently. But publishers have warned a news article would probably be out of date by the time it was reinstated. They have further warned that the expedited process could get clogged up by appeals if algorithms are too narrow. Matt Rogerson, director of public policy at The Guardian, yesterday told MPs there was not enough detail on the definition of legal but harmful. An ailing San Francisco start-up has laid off 250 of its 900 staff just five months after it was hailed for moving to a permanent four day working week. Bolt, which manufactures payment software, announced the layoffs in an email sent to staffers on Wednesday by new CEO Maju Kuruvilla, according to SFGate. He was vague about the exact reasons for the layoffs, hinted that Bolt was losing money, and didn't mention whether letting staff have a three day weekend was to blame. 'To laser focus on our core business and products, we will be prioritizing our roadmap and making several structural changes,' Kuruvilla wrote. 'Unfortunately, this includes reducing the size of our workforce and parting ways with some incredibly talented people on our team as of today.' 'The leadership team and I have made the decision to secure our financial position, extend our runway, and reach profitability with the money we have already raised,' he added. Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla, pictured, laid off 250 of his firm's 900 staff Wednesday Bolt, a Silicon Valley-based tech startup that made headlines for moving to a permanent four-day work week, announced Thursday they were laying off over 250 employees Many of those laid-off had just been given pay rises a few weeks ago. They watched their co-workers Slack accounts disappear over the course of the day the lay offs were announced to see who'd been culled. Former CEO Ryan Breslow announced last September that the company would be moving to a four-day work week to keep staff happy. 'Whats the rationale? Work is changing and the biggest obstacle we have to face is burnout,' he wrote at the time. 'The four day workweek speaks to a shift in peoples working styles - namely, that if you can get your work completed from Monday to Thursday, then there should be no latent expectation that Friday is time on,' he continued. 'Instead, it can be time off - a period to rest, recover, engage with loved ones, think creatively and all the other things that enliven us.' Breslow, 27, stepped down in February to become its executive chairman and promoted Kuruvilla to replace him. The payments company, launched in 2014, secured over $963million in venture capital after a $355million funding round in mid-January put the companys valuation at $11billion. Former CEO Ryan Breslow announced last September that the company would be moving to a four-day work week Breslow, 27, stepped down in February to become its executive chairman and promoted Kuruvilla to replace him However, the company has run recent problems, as they are currently entangled in a lawsuit from its biggest customer, Authentic Brand Group - who own Brooks Brothers, Forever 21, and Reebok - which claimed Bolt's tech doesn't work as promised. The company also recently provided loans to employees, allowing them to buy more shares in the company's stock, Forbes reported. A Bolt spokesperson claims that the number of employees who did that and were laid off was 'in the single digits' and the value of those loans was under $200,000. Multiple firms have begun experimenting with a four day working week, after it was claimed doing so does not harm productivity, and that it can boost staff retention. Bolt was one of the highest-profile firms to make the move. Its bosses have yet to give any indication of whether they plan to reinstate a traditional Monday-to-Friday working week as the firm tightens its belt. It comes after Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins came forward to claim she was raped at Parliament House. A related case will come before the court at a late date Federal parliament is at the centre of another sexual assault allegation. The Department of Parliamentary Services on Thursday confirmed it is investigating a matter reported in March. The news comes as the halls of power are still reeling from the alleged rape of political staffer Brittany Higgins. In the latest case, police have confirmed they received a report of a man indecently assaulting his female colleague in December. The people involved were employed at parliament house at the time, but are not politicians or political staff. A report about the incident involving 'building support staff' was received in March, an ACT Police spokesman said. 'Specialist investigators from the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Team have spoken to the complainant and they have advised they do not wish to proceed with an investigation,' he told AAP. 'Support services have been offered to the complainant and if (she) wishes to proceed the matter can be re-opened at any time.' A department spokeswoman said an investigation into the allegation is under way, separate of any action that might be taken by police. 'This issue is ongoing and for matters of privacy no further comment will be made,' she said. The spokeswoman noted the department 'is committed to the safety of all building occupants'. The halls of power have been rocked by another alleged scandal as another woman comes forward to say she was indecently assaulted in March 'Allegations of sexual assault reported to (the department) are referred to police as a matter of course.' Police described the report as one of 'indecent assault' and not sexual assault. The allegation occurred within a year of News Corp revealing Ms Higgins, a former Liberal staffer, was allegedly raped in Linda Reynolds' ministerial office in March 2019. That allegation sparked an Independent Review of Commonwealth Parliamentary Workplaces by Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins, released in November 2021, which found one-in-three people working at parliament house had been sexually harassed. A Senate estimates committee was told in April, a trial was taking place to monitor federal government staff visiting parliament. All political staffers accessing the building between 11pm and 5am will be recorded. Under the trial, management or the parliamentarian should be notified the next business day of the attendance, but politicians can also 'opt out' of receiving the information. A club for pagans, witches and devil-worshippers has been stopped from meeting at a university over fears they could summon Satan. The Adelaide University Occult Club was informed that one person had made a complaint against them to the Adelaide University Union. The complainant said they were scared the club would try to summon Satan and that its members were occultists who were always 'involved in criminal activity'. The club was launched in 2020 for students who had an interest in witchcraft and paganism. A club for pagans, witches and devil-worshippers has been stopped from meeting at a university over fears they could summon Satan (pictured, Adelaide University Occult Club president Ashley Towner) The Adelaide University Occult Club was informed that one person had made a complaint against them to the Adelaide University Union Student clubs are only allowed to convene meetings on university grounds if they are registered with the AUU. The Adelaide University Occult Club provisionally registered with the student union in 2021 and submitted an application for full registration in 2022. Full registration would have allowed the club's 30 members to access funding and equipment and to permanently meet on the grounds. The AUU then dismissed the application in March after receiving the complaint. 'Even if we did want to summon Satan, it's not against university or union policy to do so, so it's still not really grounds to reject us,' president Ashley Towner told the ABC. The club president, whose pronouns are they/them, penned an angry letter to the student union and accused it of discrimination. 'I have personally worked and fought for the right to create an Adelaide University Occult Club that is a dedicated and welcoming social and spiritual space for witchcraft and paganism,' the letter read. 'We are now deeply concerned to hear that our right to enjoy this space, a space afforded to many mainstream religious beliefs and social identity groups without discrimination, is yet again being challenged.' Towner claimed the refusal of the application was 'damaging to freedom of speech on campus' and 'discriminatory'. The Adelaide University Occult Club was launched in 2020 for students who had an interest in witchcraft and paganism (pictured, photo of carved pumpkins uploaded to club's Facebook page) 'It should disgust all students that our Union's Clubs Committee is willing to pick and choose which clubs it accepts and doesn't accept based on governing party's personal beliefs,' the letter read. 'A union that cannot support the democratic rights of the people that it represents is a union that has failed.' An AUU spokesperson said the club's application was not accepted because not enough members of the committee voted. A motion must receive three votes before it can be carried out, but only two committee members voted. 'These people have just made this decision based on their own political gain rather than what's actually democratically desired at the university,' Towner said. Pets could be culled to protect from monkeypox under 'last resort' guidelines drawn up by health officials. A cull could be ordered for hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs if they are unable to be isolated, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) admitted. Rodents have been identified as carrier of the disease in west and central Africa. The ECDC said it is 'theoretically possible' that people in Europe could pass on monkeypox to their domestic pets, which could then act as a reservoir and transmit it back to humans. A cull could be ordered as the last resort for hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs if they are unable to be isolated UK records TWELVE more monkeypox cases: Outbreak toll hits 90 as virus finally reaches Wales and Northern Ireland Another 12 monkeypox cases were detected across the UK yesterday as the tropical virus usually only seen in Africa continues to sweep the world. UK Health Security Agency bosses confirmed cases have hit 90, after England logged eight more infections and Scotland spotted another two. Wales and Northern Ireland also declared their first cases. Officials stated the 'majority' have occurred among gay and bisexual men but didn't provide an exact breakdown. No gender or age details have been shared, either. Despite the rising cases, health chiefs have insisted the risk to the population 'remains low'. However, the UKHSA has asked the public, especially men who have sex with men, to be alert to any new rashes or lesions on any part of their body. Nineteen countries across the world mainly in Europe have now detected the smallpox-like virus over the past three weeks. At least 265 infections have been spotted worldwide. Infections are usually only detected sporadically outside of west and central Africa, where the virus is endemic in animals. Imported outbreaks have always fizzled out naturally after a few cases. UKHSA's chief medical adviser Dr Susan Hopkins said new monkeypox cases were being spotted 'promptly' due to 'extensive surveillance and contact tracing networks'. The agency is considering an online dashboard which tracks case numbers a method which sparked controversy during the coronavirus pandemic. It comes as experts today warned Britain is not prepared to embark on a mass monkeypox vaccination scheme if the current outbreak continues to spiral. The UK has around 5,000 jabs and has ordered 20,000 more. Close contacts are the only group being offered the jab. But leading scientists have suggested the next step could involve a rollout to gay and bisexual men, given a 'notable proportion' of cases are among that community. Some scientists have suggested that the virus may have been spreading silently in the UK since 2018, and that the current flare-up may have actually taken off 'by chance' after entering 'the population that is at present amplifying transmission'. Ministers are expected to tell those with an unusual rash a tell-tale sign of monkeypox to stay away from their pets. Experts have raised alarm that spread to cats, dogs and other pets may allow the virus to become endemic among animals in Britain. Advertisement The report states: 'Currently, little is known about the suitability of European peri-domestic (mammalian) animal species to serve as a host for monkeypox virus. 'However, rodents, and particularly species of the family of Sciuridae (squirrels) are likely to be suitable hosts, more so than humans (see disease background), and transmission from humans to (pet) animals is theoretically possible. 'Such a spill-over event could potentially lead to the virus establishing in European wildlife and the disease becoming an endemic zoonosis.' The ECDC noted that the likelihood of this spill-over is 'very low', however. But it said national health authorities should work with veterinary experts to ensure there is a sufficient testing capacity to swab and quarantine pets which have been exposed to monkeypox. The agency said exposed rodent pets should be isolated in monitored facilities and tested again before their quarantine ends. These pets should only be killed 'as a last resort' if there is no testing or isolation capacity, the report states. Mammalian pets, such as cats and dogs, can be isolated at home if there is a suitable outdoor space and a vet can check on them, the ECDC said. The same report told European countries to draw up an inoculation strategy to control the spread of the tropical virus. The disease, first discovered in lab monkeys in the late 1950s, is usually mild but can cause severe illness in some cases. It can kill up to 10 per cent of people it infects. The milder strain causing the current outbreak kills one in 100 similar to when Covid first hit. Monkeypox has an incubation period of anywhere up to 21 days, meaning it can take three weeks for symptoms to appear. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. A rash can develop, often beginning on the face, which then spreads to other parts of the body including the genitals. The rash can look like chickenpox or syphilis, and scabs can form which then fall off. UK health officials are contacting high-risk contacts of confirmed cases and advising them to self-isolate at home for three weeks and avoid contact with children. They are also being offered the Imvanex vaccine to form a buffer of immune people around a confirmed case to limit the spread of the disease. The strategy, known as ring vaccination, has been used in previous monkeypox outbreaks and is also being carried out in some EU countries. Outside of the UK, Spain has logged the most infections, with 84 so far being confirmed and another 55 people being tested. The outbreaks have been traced to a gay sauna in Madrid and a Gran Canaria pride festival attended by 80,000 people from Britain and other European countries. News of the suspected Fuerteventura case follows warnings by chief medical advisor Dr Susan Hopkins for people to be 'alert to the virus' on holiday. Dr Hopkins, of the UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA), told the BBC: 'The risk to the general population remains extremely low. 'People need to be alert to it, and we really want clinicians to be alert to it.' Spain has been one of the worst affected countries so far. Yesterday, Britain's monkeypox outbreak hit 90, as England logged eight more cases, Scotland spotted another two and Wales and Northern Ireland confirmed their first infections. EU health chiefs published a risk assessment today which will advise member states to prepare a programme for rolling out jabs to control the spread. No monkeypox vaccine exists, but the smallpox vaccine, which was routinely offered to Britons until the virus was eradicated more than four decades ago, is 85 per cent effective at stopping a monkeypox infection Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's emerging diseases lead, said: 'We want to stop human-to-human transmission. We can do this in the non-endemic countries' Timeline of monkeypox 1958: Monkeypox was first discovered when an outbreak of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. 1970: The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the infection has been reported in a number of central and western African countries since then. 2003: A Monkeypox outbreak occurred in the US after rodents were imported from Africa. Cases were reported in both humans and pet prairie dogs. All the human infections followed contact with an infected pet and all patients recovered. SEPTEMBER 8, 2018: Monkeypox appeared in the UK for the first time in a Nigerian naval officer who was visiting Cornwall for training. They were treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London. SEPTEMBER 11, 2018: A second UK monkeypox case is confirmed in Blackpool. There is no link with the first case in Cornwall. Instead, the patient is though to have picked up the infection when travelling in Nigeria. They were treated at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital. SEPTEMBER 26, 2018: A third person is diagnosed with monkeypox. The individual worked at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and treated the second Monkeypox case. They received treatment at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. DECEMBER 3, 2019: A patient was diagnosed with monkeypox in England, marking the fourth ever case. MAY 25, 2021: Two cases of monkeypox were identified in north Wales. Both patients had travel links to Nigeria. A third person living with one of the cases was diagnosed and admitted to hospital, bringing the total number ever to seven. MAY 7, 2022: A person was diagnosed with Monkeypox in England after recently travelling to Nigeria. The person received care at the expert infectious disease unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London. MAY 14, 2022: Two more cases were confirmed in London. The infected pair lived in the same household but had not been in contact with the case announced one week earlier. One of these individuals received care at the expert infectious disease unit at St Mary's Hospital in London. The other isolated at home and did not need hospital treatment. MAY 16, 2022: Four more cases were announced, bringing the UK total to seven. Three of these cases are in London, while one of their contacts is infected in the north east of England. The spate of cases was described as 'unusual' and 'surprising' as experts warn gay and bisexual men to look out for new rashes. MAY 19, 2022: Two more cases were revealed, with no travel links or connections to other cases. The cases were based in the South East and London. Fears began to grow that infections are going undetected. MAY 20, 2022: Eleven more cases are announced, meaning Britain's monkeypox outbreak have doubled to 20. Minsters discuss the possibility of a public health campaign to warn gay men the disease may be more prevalent for them MAY 23, 2022: Scotland logs its first ever monkeypox case and 36 more infectioned announced in England. It brings the UK total to 57. MAY 24, 2022: England logs another 14 cases, bringing the UK total to 71. MAY 25, 2022: Another seven infections are spotted in England, meaning 78 cases have been detected in the UK. MAY 26, 2022: Wales and Northern Ireland detect their first monkeypox cases in the recent outbreak, Scotland spots two more and England logs eight, bringing the UK total to 90. Advertisement UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) bosses have now logged 57 cases in little over a fortnight. Authorities described the outbreak which has disproportionately struck gay and bisexual men as 'significant and concerning' but insisted the risk to the UK population remains low. Health officials said yesterday the virus can be stopped but could become endemic to Europe unless the outbreak is thwarted soon. In a rallying cry urging nations to act immediately, a senior World Health Organization (WHO) executive called the situation 'containable'. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's emerging diseases lead, said: 'We want to stop human-to-human transmission. We can do this in the non-endemic countries.' However, she warned: 'We can't take our eye off the ball on what's happening.' The ECDC simultaneously warned monkeypox may become endemic to the continent, if transmission continues and it spreads to pets or wildlife. Sixteen countries, including the US, Australia, Canada, and Spain, have all detected the virus. Until this worldwide outbreak, the rash-causing virus had only been detected in four countries outside of western or central Africa, where the virus is entrenched in animals and spillover events occur. The ECDC, which oversees the EU response to infectious diseases, said: 'If human-to-animal transmission occurs, and the virus spreads in an animal population, there is a risk the disease could become endemic in Europe.' Health chiefs are alarmed about the 'unprecedented' cluster of cases, which has disproportionately struck gay and bisexual men. Speaking at a WHO live Q&A on monkeypox, Dr Van Kerkhove said: 'This is a containable situation, particularly in the countries where we are seeing these outbreaks that are happening across Europe, in North America as well.' She added: 'We're in a situation where we can use public health tools of early identification, supported isolation of cases. 'We can stop human-to-human transmission.' She said transmission was happening via 'close physical contact: skin-to-skin contact', and that most of the people identified so far had not had a severe case of the disease. Dr Rosamund Lewis, who heads the smallpox secretariat on the WHO emergencies programme, said 'this is the first time we're seeing cases across many countries at the same time and people who have not travelled to the endemic regions in Africa'. She said it was not yet known whether the virus had mutated to become more transmissible but viruses in the wider orthopoxvirus group 'tend not to mutate and they tend to be fairly stable'. 'We don't yet have evidence yet that there is mutation in the virus itself,' Dr Lewis said. Virologists are studying the first genomic sequences of the virus, she added. Andy Seale, strategies advisor at the WHO's global HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections programmes, stressed that while the virus could be caught through sexual activity, it was not a sexually transmitted disease. He said: 'While we are seeing some cases amongst men who have sex with men, this is not a gay disease, as some people in social media have attempted to label it. That's just not the case. 'This demographic is generally a demographic that really does take care of health screening... They've been proactive about responding to unusual symptoms. 'Anybody can contract monkeypox through close contact.' Dr Van Kerkhove added that as surveillance widened, experts did expect to see more cases. No monkeypox-specific vaccine exists but smallpox jabs, which were routinely offered to Brits until the virus was eradicated four decades ago, are up to 85 per cent effective. The report said using the smallpox vaccine within four days of exposure to monkeypox could have a 'significant protective effect' and urged countries to consider vaccinating those with an infection and their close contacts. Britain's only black police chief has revealed how he had been stopped and searched by officers six times despite never breaking the law. One suspicious officer asked Festus Akinbusoye, who used to serve as a special constable: 'What are you doing round here?' Another time he was told he 'matched the description' of a suspected criminal police were hunting for. Mr Akinbusoye, who was elected police and crime commissioner for Bedfordshire in May last year, welcomed the new Race Action Plan from the National Police Chiefs' Council. Festus Akinbusoye, police and crime commissioner of Bedfordshire, pictured, has revealed he has been stopped and searched six times by officers, who used excuses such as he 'matched the description' of a suspect and 'what was he doing around here?' Mr Akinbusoye said 'black communities face poorer experiences with policing and the wider criminal justice system' He said: 'I bring my own lived experiences into this role, of growing up as a young black man in London, and now as a parent to three black teenagers in Bedfordshire. 'It is sadly still the case both here in Bedfordshire and across the country, that people from our black communities face poorer experiences with policing and the wider criminal justice system overall. 'The poor experience and disproportionality that affects black people is found across the spectrum of interactions with the police, including stop and search, use of force, victim care and court sentencing. 'Within policing, black people's experiences of recruitment, retention, promotion and conduct issues are more negative than for their white colleagues. 'The data is indisputable, and despite the Macpherson Report of nearly three decades ago, not nearly enough has been done by those in police leadership nationally or locally to improve these very long-standing issues.' 'But I am reassured by the work that has gone into the Race Action Plan and the commitment from chief constables and the College of Policing to its delivery. 'I am assured that tangible change is coming. I am pleased that having acknowledged and accepted these longstanding issues still exist, police leadership is facing up to the need to ensure we need to do more to build trust and confidence within our black communities, and to reduce the disproportionality that continues to exist. 'Our Chief Constable here in Bedfordshire, Garry Forsyth, has been at the forefront of driving this national change, and we all benefit from his leadership and commitment to the Race Action Plan. Bedfordshire Police has the lowest disproportionality rate for stop and search in England and Wales - an achievement recently recognised by Her Majesty's Inspectorate. 'It is just part of the progress we have made here in Bedfordshire.' President Putins protege Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic, has threatened to launch a military attack on Poland in retaliation for its steadfast support for Ukraine. Warsaw has been one of President Zelenskys strongest allies throughout the three-month invasion by Russian forces. Poland has acted as a gateway for thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing to the west, and it has also stood up to Russia in the European Parliament by urging a ban on Russian gas and oil imports, The Telegraph reports. But Poland has now been caught up in the Russian propaganda campaign which seeks to justify its onslaught of Ukraine. In a video message on Monday, Kadyrov, 45 who calls himself Putins footsoldier said: Ukraine is a done deal. What Im interested in is Poland. Putin's loyal 'footsoldier' Ramzan Kadyrov, 45, leader of the Chechen Republic, has threatened to attack Poland in a sinister online message Kadryrov - accused of using medieval torture on his enemies in Chechnya - has been called 'the son Putin never had' for his devout loyalty to the Kremlin leader (pictured: Vladimir Putin) What is Poland trying to achieve? Once Ukraine is done, we can show you what were capable of in six seconds if there is an order. As one of Putins most loyal acolytes, Kadyrov has frequently shared his criticisms of the West in bold statements on social media, particularly Instagram. In his latest directive, he demanded an apology over an act of vandalism in Warsaw earlier this month. On the anniversary of the Allies victory of 1945, a Ukrainian activist threw red paint over Russian ambassador Sergey Andreev as he attempted to lay flowers at the Soviet military cemetery in the Polish capital. Kadyrov had warned: You better take away your weapons and your mercenaries and officially apologise to our ambassador. Kadyrovs troops have been accused of war crimes in Ukraine and Kadyrov himself has been known to follow them on excursions, although he has denied taking part in any extrajudicial killings. Chechen forces were known to be at the siege of Mariupol and were said to be among occupying forces who killed civilians in suburbs of Kyiv. Footage which purported to show Kadyrov in Mariupol was later found to have been filmed in Russia. Kadyrov has been repeatedly accused by the United States and European Union of human rights abuses, which he denies. Tens of thousands of Russian troops are now heading to the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk known collectively as the Donbas. Kadyrov has demanded an apology after a Ukrainian activist threw red paint over Russian ambassador Sergey Andreev as he attempted to lay flowers at the Soviet military cemetery in the Polish capital earlier this month The Kremlin is seeking a victory there to prevent losing face over its 'special military operation'. According to Western officials, Russian commanders believe the Donbas represents their best chance of success. They have retreated from other areas, including around Ukraine's capital city Kyiv, to focus their efforts there. But Ukrainian forces are determined to push them back. Russia is believed to be seeking a link between occupied Crimea and Moscow-backed separatist territories Donetsk and Lugansk in Donbas. Moscow fought two wars with separatists in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia, after the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union. But it has since poured huge sums of money into the region to rebuild it and given Kadyrov a large measure of autonomy. Kadryrov - accused of using medieval torture on his enemies in Chechnya - has been called 'the son Putin never had' for his devout loyalty to the Kremlin leader. The Chechen supremo was promoted to the rank of Lt-General in the Russian national guard in April. -For two days running, he claimed he had met and been briefed by Andrey Mordvichev, one of the senior commanders that the Ukrainians claimed to have killed earlier this month. Kadyrov was seen introducing the boy to the Russian army general, saying: 'Here is my Adam'. Anthony Albanese has ditched his pyjamas for a flannelette shirt and jeans to welcome senior members of his team and top public servants into his home for a kitchen cabinet-style meeting. Just after 6am on Friday morning, the Prime Minister had stepped out of his comfy home in Marrickville in Sydney's inner west , his favourite Peter Alexander pants with cartoon rabbits on them, Newtown Jets jersey and a pair of Ugg boots to collect the newspaper. Then, after a series of media interviews, a cheerful Mr Albanese opened his front door to a number of senior government officials, including Stephanie Foster, the new Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The meeting was held at his family home as he is yet to move into Kirribilli House, the prime minister's Sydney residence, despite winning the election six days ago. But with Scott Morrison, his wife Jenny and their two daughters set to return to their home in the Sutherland Shire, in Sydney's south, on Friday, Mr Albanese is likely to move into his new taxpayer-funded abode - and the site of future 'casual Fridays' meetings - this weekend. Anthony Albanese has ditched his pyjamas for a flannelette shirt and jeans to welcome likely members of his ministry and government officials into his home Mr Albanese is seen opening the front door of his Marrickville home in Sydney's inner west as senior bureaucrats strolled inside Mr Albanese hosted a kitchen-cabinet style meeting at his home in Marrickville on Friday morning Stephanie Foster, the new Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, was one of the officials at the Prime Minister's home on Friday The meeting was held at his home in Marrickville as he is yet to move into Kirribilli House Mr Albanese donned a check shirt and jeans as he welcomed officials into his home Mark Butler, who is tipped to be Labor's health and ageing minister, was also seen at Mr Albanese's home on Friday Moving vans were also seen at The Lodge in Canberra on Thursday. Ms Foster famously appeared to wink while answering a question about Christian Porter in a Senate hearing in October last year. Mr Porter resigned from Cabinet after revealing he had accepted anonymous donations to fund his legal battle against the ABC over its article that accused a senior minister of rape. Ms Foster was grilled about investigations into Mr Porter's anonymous donation which he disclosed on September 13. She revealed discussions about whether accepting anonymous donations breached ministerial standards 'took place between the 15th and the 19th of September'. She then turned her head to the right, brushed her hair back and appeared to wink at Government senate leader Simon Birmingham while on camera. Labor senator Penny Wong later asked Ms Foster if she had winked, to which she replied: 'I can say categorically I have at no stage intentionally winked at Senator Birmingham. 'It's either capturing me with an eye closing or there's some other reason,' she said. She later said after watching the footage she was acknowledging another colleague who'd just come to the table. Mark Butler, who is tipped to be Labor's minister for health and ageing, was also seen outside Mr Albanese's home on Friday. Mr Albanese's neighbours, who love having 'Albo' in the street, have previously told Daily Mail Australia they hope he moves half-an-hour away to Kirribilli to keep their smart street out of the headlines. 'Fingers crossed,' said retired neighbour Jon. 'It'd be impossible for him to stay here with all the security that's needed as PM - but we'd be sad to see him go.' Anthony Albanese stepped out in his pyjamas and a pair of Ugg boots to collect the daily newspaper on Friday morning The prime minister donned the same pair of Peter Alexander pyjama pants and his Newtown Jets jersey as he did when fetching the paper on Thursday His pyjama pants have pictures of cartoon rabbits printed on them Another neighbour said he even takes her bins out for her when the family goes on holiday, and buys her children Christmas presents each year. 'He's a lovely neighbour and he is very chatty,' said mother-of-two, Jane. 'He's gorgeous with the children. He's always got time for them - I find that amazing.' Mr Albanese lives in a modest home in Marrickville and owns several other investment properties - some on the same street as his house, and has a real estate portfolio worth about $5million. Mr Albanese is seen heading back inside his Marrickville home The new PM is yet to move into Kirribilli House, six days after winning the election Mr Albanese lives in a modest home in Marrickville and owns several other investment properties - some on the same street as his house Mr Albanese is seen with his partner Jodie Haydon (above) Mr Albanese, who grew up at Camperdown, is a life member of the South Sydney Rabbitohs but also attends Newtown Jets home games at Marrickville's Henson Park. 'Where I grew up people went to church on Sunday, they voted Labor every three years, and they went to the footy on Saturday - either Souths, Newtown or Balmain,' he told Daily Mail Australia during the election campaign. 'One of the things I still do is go to Henson Park to watch Newtown play and we sit on the hill - 8,972 of us - it's a cracker.' The crowd at all of Newtown's fixtures at Henson Park is announced as being 8,972 the number of fans at the club's last game before it was kicked out of the first grade competition at the end of the 1983 season. Newtown now plays in the second-tier NSW Cup. Just days after becoming the country's new leader, Mr Albanese has already had to deal with controversy in his own party, after Tanya Plibersek likened Peter Dutton to bald-headed Harry Potter villain 'Voldemort'. Ms Plibersek, who is expected to become the nation's next education minister following Labor's historic election win, said children who had watched the films would be very 'frightened' of the former defence minister when they see him on TV. 'I am saying he looks a bit like Voldemort and we will see whether he can do what he promised he would do when he was last running for leader, which is smile more,' Ms Plibersek told 4BC radio. Sunrise host Natalie Barr on Thursday grilled Mr Albanese about the brutal insult made against Mr Dutton, pointing out there would be 'hell to pay' if a man mocked a female MP's looks. Mr Albanese is seen with Foreign Minister Penny Wong after arriving in Japan for the QUAD Leaders' meeting Tanya Plibersek (right) is pictured with her husband Michael Coutts-Trotter (left). Ms Plibersek is under fire for a comment she made about Peter Dutton's looks The new PM replied: 'She has already apologised'. 'There are a few comments made by the former prime minister about my appearance you might recall as part of the election campaign,' he said. 'We should not refer to people's appearance, let's discuss policy differences.' People in Wales will no longer be legally required to wear face coverings in health and social care services from Monday. First Minister Mark Drakeford has announced today that the country will end its last remaining coronavirus regulations, which have existed in some form since March 2020. Wales is currently at alert level zero, with the wearing of face coverings in health and social care settings the only remaining legal requirement. But the First Minister urged people to keep taking steps to protect their health as the country moves beyond the emergency response to the pandemic. He repeated the warning the four UK chief medical officers issued this week about the risk of new variants. Mr Drakeford said: 'The pandemic has had a profound impact on all our lives - everyone has made sacrifices and changes over the last two years. The First Minister Mark Drakeford (above) will announce that face covering restrictions will no longer be mandatory in health and social care settings as Covid cases continue to fall steadily Wales is currently at alert level zero, with the wearing of face coverings in health and social care settings the only remaining legal requirement. Pictured: NHS staff at a vaccine centre 'But it is thanks to all your efforts that we can move beyond the emergency response while still living safely with this virus. 'I want to thank everyone for all you have done to protect yourselves and your loved ones. You have followed the rules and you have kept Wales safe. 'This three-week review of the coronavirus regulations is a significant milestone - we are completing our careful and gradual transition away from legal protections and away from the emergency response to the pandemic.' He added ministers would 'remain alert to the threat of new and emerging variants'. 'Continuing to take simple steps, including staying up to date with vaccinations, self-isolating if you have Covid-19 symptoms and maintaining good hand hygiene, will be important in helping us all to enjoy a safer and brighter future together,' he said. The latest results from the ONS Coronavirus Infection Survey are said to show the percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus in Wales is falling. The number of Covid-19 related patients in hospitals has also fallen to less than 700 and is at its lowest level since December 28 2021. Welsh Conservative shadow health minister Russell George MS said he was 'delighted' at the news while criticising what he claims was Labour's 'overreaction' to the Omicron variant. 'Not only do we need to remember all those who lost lives and loved ones to lockdowns and the virus itself, but learn the lessons of the pandemic about how we can counter another one and assess the impact of deploying harsh emergency restrictions on our population,' he said. He joined his colleagues in calling on the Welsh Government to carry out a Wales-specific inquiry, accusing them of being 'scared of scrutiny'. From Monday, masks will no longer be required in healthcare settings, the last Covid rule in place in Wales. Pictured: NHS staff and members of the public in Newbridge, Wales, in 2021 Most of the rules that impacted the daily lives of people in Wales, such as face masks in shops and on public transport, were removed in March. The Welsh Government said public health guidance, including staying up to date with Covid vaccinations and self-isolating with Covid-19 symptoms, will stay in place. It said in a statement: 'Over the last three weeks the public health situation has continued to improve and the number of Covid-19-related patients in hospital is gradually falling, although the NHS continues to experience emergency and pandemic pressures.' Wales was the last UK nation with Covid restrictions still in place. Scotland removed its final restrictive laws in April this year while the Scottish Government continues to encourage people to wear face masks at busy indoor spaces. Meanwhile, England's remaining Covid restrictions were removed in February as part of the Government's 'Living with Covid' plan. The move meant requirements to self-isolate after testing positive were dropped a month earlier than planned. One local stalwart said the mural shouldn't be in a public space A council said it would make changes to the art to address community concerns The giant risque artwork shows flowers looking like male and female genitalia A rate-payer funded mural has angered locals over its depiction of sexual organs A graphic mural of flowers has caused a stir with locals complaining about its explicit depiction of male and female genitalia. The giant wall artwork, funded by rate-payers, was painted on a wall near a local train station at Werribee in Melbourne's west. It depicts a blending of coloured 'local and international flowers' emerging around moist petals and leaves. Locals have been up and arms about the mural (pictured), saying the images are bordering on pornography and are too graphic for a public space Wyndham Council said the objective of the new laneway mural was to transform the laneway into a vibrant and colourful space and reflect themes of sexual and gender diversity but admitted the resulting images expressed the idea 'more strongly than was intended' Outspoken local Lisa Heinrichs asked why the mural (pictured) should be in a public space Locals have been up and arms about the '72 Genders' mural, saying the images are bordering on pornography and too graphic for a public space. Wyndham community activist Lisa Heinrichs told Bay 93.9 it was improper for the council to allow the art to be put on view. 'Does council seriously think it's appropriate to commission public artwork depicting flower penises and vaginas?' Ms Heinrichs asked. 'Art is always subjective, but is this what should be in a public space?' Wyndham Council said the objective of the new laneway mural was to transform the laneway into a vibrant and colourful space. 'The concept of flowers fusing local flora and fauna was designed to reflect the diverse and culturally rich background of the people of Wyndham,' its website said. 'The flowers were also intended to subtly reflect themes of accepting gender and sexual diversity.' Council admitted these themes had been represented more strongly in the delivered artwork than had been intended. 'Council will ensure changes are made to the mural to address the adult themes and community concern,' it said. The mural was painted by artist David Lee Pereira whose art 'delves into the fluidity of gender, sexuality and identity'. His bio describes his floral artistic expressions range from 'beautifully brutal to joyous and intimate and are overflowing with symbolism and narrative.' Ms Heinrichs asked if the Wyndham council 'seriously think it's appropriate to commission public artwork (pictured) depicting flower penises and vaginas?' Two 17-year-old boys were among four people arrested for plotting an AK-47 massacre at a school in southern Texas. Nathaniel Montelongo and Barbarito Pantoja, both 17, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. They are being held on a $750,000 bond and their mugshots were released Thursday evening. Two other students, both minors, were also arrested in connection to the plot and will face a judge on Friday, The Brownsville Herald reported. The four were arrested after police in Donna, a small community in the Rio Grande Valley, received an anonymous type that they were planning to attack the school. Officials declined to reveal which district campus was targeted in the plot. A source familiar with the investigation told the newspaper on Wednesday that cops had found an AK-47 and a list of targeted students in the home of one of the suspects. However, on Thursday police denied the existence of the alleged hit list and refused to provide any details about a potential weapons seizure, citing that the information was 'critical to the case' and 'will not be disseminated.' News of the plot, which prompted a shutdown order at the school late Wednesday, came a day after a gunman slaughtered 19 kids and two teachers at an elementary in Uvalde, about 300 miles north of Donna. Nathaniel Montelongo (pictured) and Barbarito Pantoja, both 17, were arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon Montelongo and Pantoja (pictured) are two of four suspects arrested for plotting an AK-47 massacre at a school in Donna, Texas. The other suspected conspirators are minors and will face a juvenile magistrate on Friday Police held a press conference on Thursday announcing the arrests. 'We stopped an act of physical violence and harm on our students,' Donna Police Department Chief Donald Crist said during the briefing. He said the two adult males, referring to Montelongo and Pantoja, had been arraigned, but noted the other suspects would face a juvenile magistrate. Authorities, who reiterated that the threat against the school was 'credible,' denied the rumors circulating on social media about a list targeting specific students. 'There was no target list. There was supposedly some rumors going around, but there was no such thing,' Police Chief Gilbert Guerrero said, according to KVEO-TV. The chief added that the incident remains under investigation and encouraged parents to be more observant of their children. 'Keep an eye on your kids, make sure about what they're doing. Look at what they have in their rooms, be vigilant,' he said. Officials also stated they believe Donna students are safe within the district due to the additional support of several law enforcement agencies. The district had cancelled classes on Thursday and Friday after the school shooting threat prompted a lockdown on Wednesday. School will resume next Tuesday following the Memorial Day holiday. Officials in Donna, Texas, a small community in the Rio Grande Valley, shut down school after a 'credible threat' of a shooting plot Officials in Donna, a small community in the Rio Grande Valley, issued the shutdown order late on Wednesday The conspirators' plot involved shooting up a school in the district, a source familiar with the matter told The Monitor. The insider also alleged cops found an AK-47 and a list of targeted students in the home of one of the suspects. Authorities have denied the list and refused to comment on the alleged seized gun. While the AK-47 gained fame as a Soviet-era machine gun, there are semi-automatic versions of the rifle that are legal for private ownership in the U.S. The Donna Independent School District confirmed the threat in a statement on Wednesday, saying: 'We've received a credible threat of violence that is currently under investigation. In light of the recent events and in an abundance of caution, we will be cancelling school district-wide and staff will work from home.' The cancelled school days will impact a number of end-of-year awards ceremonies and advancement celebrations in Donna's elementary school, according to the school calendar. The district's high school graduation is scheduled for June 3. In a social media post, officials said that the senior class prom, which had been scheduled for Friday with the theme of 'Enchanted Forest' after two years of pandemic disruptions, would be postponed, but not cancelled. Donna ISD administrative offices are seen above. The alleged plot in Donna involved a conspiracy between two or three people who planned to shoot up a school in the district The disturbing investigation in Donna came just one day after the deadliest school shooting in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Connecticut nearly a decade ago. On Tuesday, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, after shooting his grandmother in the face in a dispute over his phone bill. The shooter, identified as Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, was killed by police after barricading himself inside a classroom and slaughtering the fourth graders inside. Ramos was trading text messages with a girl in Germany and sent the chilling final message 'Ima go shoot up a elementary school' minutes before the attack. The gunman shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face at their Uvalde home, then fled in her pickup truck as she summoned help, officials said. A short distance away, Ramos crashed the truck outside the school, got out with a rifle and approached a back door, officials said. They said an officer assigned to the school 'engaged' Ramos, but the gunman got into the building and down a hallway to a fourth-grade classroom. After locking the classroom door, he opened fire around 11.30am with an AR-15-style rifle, carrying multiple magazines. A team including local officers and Border Patrol agents ultimately forced the door open and shot Ramos to death after he fired at them, police said. Salvador Ramos legally purchased two AR-15 style rifles (right) including the one he used in Tuesday's attack after his 18th birthday last week. The gunman also bought more than 300 rounds of ammunition The threat in Donna came just a day after a shooter killed 19 kids and two teachers at Robb Elementary, seen above on Thursday morning The above graphic details the timeline of Tuesday's massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas President Joe Biden called for stricter gun laws following the Tuesday massacre: 'Gun manufacturers have spent two decades aggressively marketing assault weapons which make them the most and largest profit.' 'For God's sake, we have to have the courage to stand up to the industry.' Ramos had legally purchased two semi-automatic rifles from a local outdoor and hunting store, according to officials and multiple news reports. 'The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is just wrong,' Biden said on Tuesday. 'As a nation, we have to ask: When in God's name will we stand up to the gun lobby?' He added: 'Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep on letting this happen? Where in God's name is our backbone?' Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday he is ashamed the U.S. is 'becoming desensitized to the murder of children' and that action is needed now to prevent more lives from being lost in school shootings. 'After Columbine, after Sandy Hook, after Parkland, after each of these and other massacres, we as educators did our best to look parents in their eyes and assure them that we'll do everything to protect their babies,' Cardona said, referencing school shootings in Colorado, Connecticut and Florida. President Joe Biden called for stricter gun laws following the Tuesday massacre. He is pictured at the White House on Wednesday Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said Thursday he is ashamed the U.S. is 'becoming desensitized to the murder of children' and that action is needed now to prevent more lives from being lost in school shootings. Cardona is pictured in April 2022 But he said all the actions taken in response to those earlier school shootings - including active shooter drills, online early detection tools and more secure building entrances and perimeters - 'are no match for what we're up against.' Providing no specifics, he said, 'we need action now' to protect America's children. 'Let's not normalize this,' he said. 'Let's use every ounce of influence that we have to get something done to help prevent this from happening again.' Cardona told lawmakers that he would be 'failing you as secretary of education if I didn't tell you I was ashamed, I am, that we as a country are becoming desensitized to the murder of children. I'd be failing you as secretary of education if I didn't use this platform to say that students and teachers and school leaders are scared.' The Cabinet member did not go as far as his boss, Biden, who has previously had called for a ban on assault-style weapons, tougher federal background check requirements and laws aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of people with mental health problems. The fight over guns has largely been split on party lines. Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a domestic terrorism bill that would have opened debate on gun safety. Rather than regulate guns, some Republicans have proposed arming teachers to deter school shootings. Cardona rejected that idea. 'And the solution of arming teachers, in my opinion, is further disrespect to a profession that's already beleaguered and not feeling the support of so many folks,' he said. Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy gave a creative answer when asked by a reporter on Thursday about possibly banning assault weapons in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. Cassidy, 64, in his second term in the Senate, was asked by a reporter from Vice why someone would need an AR-15. He responded: 'Well, if you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you would take it away from them? I'm law abiding, I've never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right.' Cassidy, according to anti-gun activist group Brady United, has received $2.8million in donations from the National Rifle Association, 10th most among active senators. The question comes as the gun control debates rage anew after gunman Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, perpetrated the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade, killing 19 small children and two teachers before being shot dead by police. .@elizlanders asked Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy why anyone would need an AR-15. His answer: Feral pigs pic.twitter.com/MaTvWoPxQq VICE News (@VICENews) May 26, 2022 Louisiana Senator Bill Cassidy gave a creative answer when asked by a reporter on Thursday about possibly banning assault weapons in the wake of the Uvalde shooting Cassidy, 64, in his second term in the Senate, was asked by a reporter from Vice why someone would need an AR-15 'Well, if you talk to the people that own it, killing feral pigs in the middle of Louisiana, they wonder why would you would take it away from them? I'm law abiding, I've never done anything, I use it to kill feral pigs. The action of a criminal deprives me of my right.' President Joe Biden also plans to visit Uvalde on Sunday. He has called on lawmakers to take on America's powerful gun-rights lobby and enact 'common sense gun reforms.' The Uvalde shooting was the deadliest since 20 elementary-age children and six staff were killed at the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012. Ramos, notably, used an AR-15 to commit the mass killings. Democratic Senators, as well as independent Bernie Sanders who caucuses with the Dems, have renewed their call for an assault weapons ban, while Republicans remain ardently opposed and focused on mental health and school secutiry. A Texas law enforcement official said Thursday that the Uvalde shooter entered the elementary school building 'unobstructed' through a door that was apparently unlocked. People drop off flowers at a makeshift memorial outside the Robb Elementary School on Thursday in Uvalde, Texas Salvador Ramos legally purchased two AR-15 style rifles (right) including the one he used in yesterday's attack after his 18th birthday last week. The gunman also bought more than 300 rounds of ammunition The shooting rampage began at 11am when Ramos shot his grandmother. At 11.15am, he sent a message to a girl in Germany telling her he was on his way to 'shoot an elementary school'. He crashed his truck at 11.30am and made his way to the school with one AR-15 rifle. At 11.32am, he bypassed at least one cop at the school entrance. He got inside, barricaded himself in a classroom and managed to stay there for up to an hour - terrorizing kids - before he was finally gunned down Victor Escalon, a regional director at the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the gunman did not initially encounter any law enforcement officers when he entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and opened fire. Law enforcement authorities faced mounting questions and criticism Thursday over how much time elapsed before they stormed a Texas elementary school classroom and put a stop to the rampage. Many other details about the timing of events and the police response remained murky. The motive for the massacre remained under investigation, with authorities saying Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. The gunman shot his own grandmother in the face minutes before attacking the school, and his text messages indicated that he was in an argument with the 66-year-old grandma about his phone bill. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern urged Harvard graduates not to cancel people they disagree with in her commencement speech at the college. Speaking at the Massachusetts college Thursday, Ardern, 41, urged the Ivy League graduates to pursue 'genuine debate and dialogue' to keep conversations and 'solutions' going instead of ending in a dead-end. 'If we don't find, once again, our ability to argue our corners - yes, with the passion and fire that conviction brings, but without the vitriol, hate, and violence; if we don't find a way to ensure difference - that space where perspectives, experiences, and debate give rise to understanding and compromise - [and] doesn't instead become division,' she said on Thursday. 'The place of entrenchment: where dialogue departs, solutions shatter, and a crevice between us becomes so deep that no one dares cross to the other side,' she continued. 'We are at a precipice, and rather than ask what caused it today, I want to talk about how we can address it,' she said. 'Now, I am not an academic. I accept that the robes on this occasion aren't exactly truth in advertising. Rather, I am a politician from Morrinsville.' Scroll down for video Ardern, 41, urged the Ivy League graduates to pursue 'genuine debate and dialogue' to keep conversations and 'solutions' going instead of ending in a dead-end and to engage in social media cautiously in her commencement speech on Thursday at Harvard University The Kiwi went on to say that her small 'rural town of 5,000' sat her between difference and division. Ardern appeared to speak in reference to the multiple US colleges - including Harvard and its Ivy League rivals - that have been rocked by shocking woke scandals. Academics have been fired for expressing seemingly innocuous views about race. And students - most notably those at Yale Law School - have protested against speakers whose views they deem 'harmful', in what critics say is a direct attack on Americans' First Amendment right to free speech. Ardern rose from humble beginnings to become one of the world's most-recognized global leaders. She was praised for her handling of the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacre, which saw 51 Muslim Kiwis slaughtered by racist gunman Brenton Tarrant. Ardern was also initially hailed for her zero-COVID strategy at the start of the pandemic, but was later condemned for authoritarianism and turning New Zealand into a sealed-off 'hermit kingdom' as the rest of the world reopened. Nonetheless, she remains a popular figure among young liberals and progressives, many of whom welcomed her to Harvard with open arms. 'I was raised Mormon in a town where the dominant religions were Catholic and Anglican and rugby,' she joked. She went to say that she was interested in left-wing politics in a part of the world that had never 'in it's entire democratic history elected anyone other than a conservative candidate.' Despite her vast differences from her peers, the politician said it never a 'source of isolation,' and as the internet came about and the ability to connect with strangers far and wide expanded, she found the world not using it as a source of good. 'We found a place to share information, facts, fiction dressed up as facts, memes, and more cat videos than you ever thought possible,' she said. 'We found a place to experience new ways of thinking and to celebrate our differences, but increasingly, we used it to do neither of those things.' Rather than celebrating differences, she said, humans tend to fall in pockets of similarities. And instead of 'entering into a respectful dialogue' with different views to 'better understand alternative perspectives,' people tend to 'reinforce our own views.' She connected how these pockets of similarities and algorithms can create a space for 'violent extremism,' as it had on March 15, 2019, in her country when 51 people died in a terrorism attack on two mosques. The devastating tragedy was 'live-streamed on social media and the terrorist had been 'radicalized online.' Her speech was met with an a standing ovation and she was seen taking photos with graduates after the ceremony (pictured). She warned students that 'violent extremism' online will only get worst and rather than focus on 'differences and division' to focus on 'genuine debate' and 'kindness' 'We knew that we needed significant gun reform, so that is what we did,' she said as the crowd cheered. Her push for gun reform comes on the cusp of America's second-deadliest school shooting which happened in Texas on Tuesday. However, instead of drowning on about hot topic debate of American gun reform, she went on to demonstrate how New Zealand put in preventative measures to ensure that similar tragedies wouldn't happen again and called out social media platforms for continuing its silence. 'We also knew that if we wanted genuine solutions to the issues of violent extremism online, it would take government, civil society, and the tech companies themselves to change the landscape. The result was the Christchurch call to action. 'And while much has changed as a result, important things haven't. The time has come for social media companies and other online providers to recognize their power and act on it,' she laminated. The Kiwi politician said tech companies needed to 'uphold their own basic terms of service,' alongside 'recognizing the role they play in constantly curating and shaping the online environments we're in.' 'Algorithmic processes make choices and decisions for us, what we see and where we are directed,' she told the newly minted graduates and their loved ones. She said at the 'worst,' social media can radicalize and the need for 'responsible algorithm development and deployment' are needed. 'We have every reason to do it, let's start with transparency in how algorithmic processes work and the outcomes they deliver.' Wrongful algorithms can lead to keyboard warriors, which Ardern said she imagined them as 'a lone person unacquainted with personal hygiene practices, dressed in a poorly-fitted superhero costume - one that is baggy in all the wrong places.' Whether good or bad, Ardern says the words of said keyboard warriors have 'been written by a human' and 'read' by one too. And the fast-paced media and the modern ability to consume news as it's happening, 'corrodes the foundation of liberal democracy' and grows 'enormous' stakes for 'disinformation.' She said 'our ability to access facts on their merits' allows for consumers to 'self-correct [it] accordingly.' 'In the disinformation age, we need to learn to analyze and critique information,' she told the graduates. 'That doesn't mean teaching "mistrust," but rather, as my old history teacher Mr. Fountain extolled: "To understand the limitations of a single piece of information, and that there is always a range of perspectives on events and decisions." 'You are and will always be surrounded by bias,' she reminded the graduates. 'You will continue to be exposed to disinformation. And over time, the "noise" you are surrounded by will probably only get worse.' She told the young students who are stepping into the adult world that how they 'choose to engage with information' and how they choose to 'confront debate' matters and will be 'overwhelmingly challenging.' The Kiwi smiled as she received her honorary degree from Harvard University Ardern told them not 'overlook' how 'systems and power' influence the world around them and the 'impact that we each have as individuals.' 'To make a choice to treat difference with empathy and kindness, those values that exist in the space between difference and division - the very things we teach our children, but then view as a weakness in our leaders. 'The issues we navigate as a society will only intensify. The disinformation will only increase. The pull into the comfort of our tribes will be magnified, but we have it within us to ensure that this doesn't mean we fracture. 'We are the richer for our differences and poorer for our division,' she continued. 'Through genuine debate and dialogue, through rebuilding trust in information and one another, through empathy, let us reclaim the space in between. 'After all, there are some things in life that make the world feel small and connected. Let kindness be one of them.' Arden's speech was met with a standing ovation from graduates and attendees. Seaplanes have been used to evacuate a group of injured tourists from a notorious outback tourist attraction after they were involved in a 'serious' boating incident. The 'major incident' occurred at Horizontal Falls in Western Australia's Kimberley region, 250km east of Broome, just after 8.30am on Friday morning. Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures released a statement hours later, explaining the injuries had occurred while the boat attempted to drive through the swirling rapids. 'Falls Express, guided by an experienced skipper during an early-morning tour, was involved in the incident while travelling through the falls,' the statement said. 'The vessel immediately returned to the pontoon.' A Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventures plane was spotted landing at Broome Airport on Friday afternoon, where up to 15 people, some wrapped in bandages, were met by health staff. A number of boat tours are run through the falls The king tides create the 'horizontal waterfall' phenomenon There were 26 passengers and two crew on the boat when the vessel got into trouble. The Royal Flying Doctor Service said it had helped more than 20 patients injured in the incident with four planes rushing to the scene. The passengers with minor injuries were already airlifted and taken to Broome Hospital for treatment. The further 12 patients 'with more serious injuries' were transferred to Perth. Local helicopter services were providing assistance to winch some patients to safety. Earlier, a WA Country Health Service spokeswoman described it as a 'serious' incident and said a major medical response was underway. 'Kimberley Hospitals are on stand-by and Broome Health Campus has activated an emergency alert in anticipation of patient arrivals the first of which are expected within the hour,' the spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia. In an update just after 1pm local time, WA Police said it was still dealing with the incident 'but no injuries are believed to be life threatening'. The ocean phenomenon is home to some of the highest tides in the world, creating what's been dubbed a 'horizontal waterfall'. Horizontal Falls in Western Australia are a popular tourist attraction Thousands of litres of water gush through the narrow gap in Talbot Bay, triggered by the region's king tides, which sometimes fluctuate up to 10m a day. Tourists are able to experience the falls a number of ways, with local tourism operators offering jet boat tours that speed through the dangerous rapids. Seaplane and helicopter tours also operate in the area, allowing people to witness the raging water from the air. Western Australia Police said it was responding to the incident after receiving reports 'several people on board were injured'. The Royal Flying Doctors' Service has also been called in to assist and regional medical centres are on standby. Broome Hospital has also been put on 'brown alert', an order that means it must be ready for an influx of patients. A Sydney cleaner who murdered her 92-year-old client in a ferocious bashing and stabbing attack has been jailed for 22 years. After losing hundreds of dollars on the pokies, Hanny Papanicolaou climbed the back fence of Marjorie Welsh's home where she attacked the vulnerable 92-year-old on January 2, 2019. The 39-year-old gambler, whose guilty plea to manslaughter was rejected by the Crown, was found guilty of murder by a NSW Supreme Court jury in February. Hanny Papanicolaou (pictured), 39, was jailed for 22 years for the brutal murder Marjorie Welsh (pictured), 92, died in hospital six weeks after being bashed and stabbed in her inner west Sydney home Ms Welsh died in hospital six weeks after being bashed and stabbed in her inner west Sydney home. Justice Robertson Wright on Friday jailed Ms Papanicolaou for 22 years with a non-parole period of 15 years. Ms Papanicolaou will be eligible for parole in 2034. 'I am satisfied on all the evidence that the murder was unplanned and impulsive,' he said. 'I am satisfied on all the evidence that the murder was unplanned and impulsive,' Justice Robertson Wright said on Friday (Pictured: Ms Welsh's home) He found Ms Papanicolaou had gone to the house with the intention of stealing from her employer, but later developed an intention to kill her. Ms Welsh gave two police interviews when in hospital, naming her assailant as 'Hanny the housekeeper' and describing the 'utterly ferocious' attack in detail. When asked if she could think of a reason for the attack, she replied: 'It would be a peace of mind if I could.' 'There are usually logical reasons for things that happen in this world, but I cannot see any logic in this.' Justice Robertson Wright found Ms Papanicolaou (pictured) had gone to the house with the intention of stealing from her employer, but later developed an intention to kill her The judge found Ms Papanicolaou was not suffering from a major depressive illness at the time, but did have some symptoms of depression and anxiety. 'The death was a great human tragedy especially for her family and for all others affected by this sad matter,' he said. Angela MacLeod, one of her two daughters, previously said their mother was someone who could achieve anything she wanted in life. 'Life wasn't always perfect for mum ... but she was strong, intelligent, loving, protective, all those things that you'd want in a mum. We were always very proud of her,' she said. The judge said she was taken from her daughters and families in a way they found was unthinkable and inexplicable. Investigators believe a retired federal agent may have been privy to the Buffalo supermarket shooter's plot more than 30 minutes before he opened fire in the grocer and killed ten people. The former agent, believed to be from Texas, was one of six people who regularly communicated with accused murderer Payton Gendron, 18, in an online racist hate forum, law enforcement sources told The Buffalo News. He has not been named, and further details of the exact agency he worked for have not been shared. But the agent and Gendron's other online friends would regularly chat online about their hatred of Jews and non-whites, investigators say. Sources allege Gendron shared his mass shooting plans and details about the target locations about half an hour before he attacked the upstate New York supermarket on May 14. It is not clear if the agent accepted Gendron's invitation to review his plans or if the individual read them. However, officials have confirmed that none of the six invitees contacted authorities to warn them about the shooting, which the FBI has called a 'racially motivated [act of] violent extremism.' The FBI is also trying to unmask the true identity of the individual Gendron referred to as 'Sandman,' and 'Saint Sandman' in his online diaries published on Discord, a social media platform that allows users to communicate through private servers. The gunman's posts suggest Sandman counseled him on weaponry before the massacre. Gendron, who carried out the attack with an AR-15-style rifle while cloaked in body armor, has been charged with murder and is being held without bail. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime and the teen still be hit with additional charges. Investigators believe a retired federal agent may have been privy to Payton Gendron's mass shooting plot more than 30 minutes before he opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY and killed ten people. Gendron is pictured wearing tactical gear The former agent, believed to be from Texas, was one of six people who regularly communicated with Gendron in an online racist hate forum. People are pictured hugging outside the grocer the day after the shooting Law enforcement sources allege the FBI is in the process of locating and interviewing the six people, including the former agent, who may have had prior knowledge about the fatal attack. The agency's probe hopes to determine if any of the six could be charged as accomplices to Gendron. 'What is especially upsetting is that these six people received advanced notice of the Buffalo shooting, about 30 minutes before it happened,' the insiders said. 'The FBI has verified that none of these people called law enforcement to warn them about the shooting. The FBI database shows no advance tips from anyone that this shooting was about to happen.' The officials added: 'These were like-minded people who used this chat group to talk about their shared interests in racial hatred, replacement theory and hatred of anyone who is Jewish, a person of color or not of European ancestry.' Sources allege Gendron shared his mass shooting plans and details about the target locations about half an hour before he attacked the upstate New York supermarket on May 14. Pictured is Gendron's hand drawn map of the supermarket posted to Discord ahead of the attack A photo posted to Gendron's online diary shows supplies he gathered prior to shooting It remains unclear exactly how many people may have had prior knowledge about the attack. The law enforcement sources allege six people are under FBI investigation after Gendron invited them to review the plan, but just last week The Washington Post reported that 15 people had accepted his invitation to a private Discord group where he posted the plans and later live streamed his killings. Two other people familiar with the FBI investigation also told The Buffalo News that officials are investigating Gendron's relationship to the former federal agent. Those sources claim the federal agency is probing whether the retired agent provided Gendron with any information before he went on his killing spree. None of the insiders disclosed the agent's name or confirmed what federal agency he previously worked for. Members of the FBI and Buffalo Police Department collect evidence at the Tops in Buffalo on May 15, the day after Gendron allegedly opened fire and killed 10 people Before the massacre, Gendron detailed and photographed the ares he believed he was going to park his car during the shooting. The image was included in his Discord diary Gendron also posted an image of the gun he used in the attack. He wrote vulgar words, including the names of other white supremacists on it The FBI is also trying to determine the true identity of Sandman, whom Gendron seemingly praises in his online diaries. The 18-year-old accused killer claims Sandman offered insight about AR-15 manufacturers and product quality before he purchased the gun used in the shooting. Gendron, who referenced Sandman three times in his writings, allegedly quoted the individual in a post he made on May 2. 'When the time finally comes to deal decisively with a whole host of society's problems, and not go to prison for it, you'll know. Just be ready. You have spent your entire life, from the day you were born, right up to this very moment, reading this sentence, coming to where you are right now,' Sandman allegedly told the teen. 'Look around you. Are you content with where you are right now? Are you where you want to be? If so, continue to march. If not, what are you going to do? What's your plan? Get and keep your mind, body, and spirit right. Pray. Lift. Run. Read. Shoot. And teach your kids to do those things.' The FBI is also trying to unmask the true identity of the individual Gendron (pictured in his booking photo) referred to as 'Sandman,' and 'Saint Sandman' in his online diaries published on Discord Shortly before the attack, Gendron posted hundreds of pages of writings online, detailing his plans for the assault and his racist motivation. The diary said Gendron planned his attack in secret, with no outside help, but Discord has since confirmed that an invitation to access his private writings was sent to a small group of people about 30 minutes before the assault began. Officials have confirmed that some of them accepted the invitation but did not clarify as to how many read what Gendron had written or logged on to view his assault in real time. Investigators are continuing their work to obtain, verify and review Gendrons online postings and have been examining all of his documents. Meanwhile, attorneys familiar with the case say it is not surprising an ex-law enforcement agent may have been involved. 'As outrageous as this may sound, based upon what we are finding in our investigation, it is not surprising,' Attorney Terrence M. Connors, who represents several of the victims' family members, told The Buffalo News. The lawyer declined to provide details about the investigation or found evidence. Buffalo civil rights attorney John V. Elmore, who represents the family of victim Andre Mackniel, pointed out that former agent had a duty to report the shooting as soon as he was made aware of it. 'If he had advance notice, he had a moral obligation to get on the phone and try to notify someone about it,' Elmore explained. Gendron, sporting orange prison fatigues and a white face mask, appeared in Buffalo court last week for his pre-trial felony hearing Gendron, sporting orange prison fatigues and a white face mask, appeared in Buffalo court last week for his pre-trial felony hearing. The self-declared white supremacist, who also faces federal terror charges, remained silent throughout the proceeding despite being heckled by a victim's distraught family member who yelled out: 'Payton, you're a coward!' The first-degree murder indictment, which covers all 10 deaths, was handed up on May 18, Assistant district attorney Gary Hackbush announced in court on May 19. In New York, prosecutors can charge a defendant with first-degree murder only under special circumstances, including when multiple people are killed in a single incident, like in the Buffalo shooting that claimed the lives of 10 people on Saturday. The single count against Gendron covers all 10 deaths at Tops Friendly Market. No domestic terror charges have been filed in federal court at this time. Gendron will be back in court on June 9. He is being held without bail. The courtroom remained quiet until the end as Gendron, cuffed and shackled was escorted out by a heavy security detail, only the sounds of his chains clinking, when one of the victims' family members yelled out angrily at him from the courtroom gallery. Thirteen people were struck by gunfire at the supermarket on Saturday, most of them black, and 10 of the victims died, before the gunman surrendered to police confronting him inside the store. Gendron has pleaded not guilty to the single count of first-degree murder. Writer and activist Yassmin Abdel-Magied says she may never return to Australia and can't even bear to hear an Aussie accent more than five years after she fled the country to escape the backlash from her infamous Anzac Day Facebook post. Living in self-imposed exile in London since July 2017, Ms Abdel-Magied has only been back to Australia a handful of times, sometimes only for visa reasons to stay in the UK. The Sudanese-born, 31-year-old told an interviewer in London that if she even hears an Australian accent now, 'I will leave'. Yassmin Abdel-Magied who created a storm of outrage with an infamous Facebook post on Anzac Day in 2017 says the backlash impacted her so badly she might never return to Australia In her new book, Talking About A Revolution, Ms Abdel-Magied wrote about giving up her Australian citizenship after deciding that Britain or perhaps the US would be her permanent home in the future. 'I've emigrated, I'm not going back. I've emigrated in the same way my parents left Sudan, I have left Australia,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald. When invited to Australian writing festivals, Ms Abdel-Magied has begun appearing only by video. If Ms Abdel-Magied gives up her Australian passport, she would only be left with a Sudanese one and it would be much harder for her to enter Australia. And despite recently marrying a UK man, Ms Abdel-Magied will have to wait a number of years to become a British citizen. Ms Abdel-Magied's 2017 Anzac Day post drew widespread condemnation online, in the media and even death threats, which continued even after she took it down and apologised Ms Abdel-Magied's 2017 Anzac Day Facebook Post created a storm online and she was hit by death threats after writing 'LEST.WE.FORGET. (Manus, Nauru, Syria, Palestine ...)'. Then Immigration Minister Peter Dutton was one of a number of conservative politicians who weighed in. He called the post a 'disgrace' and condemned using 'Lest We Forget', a phrase associated with remembering the war dead, to make political points about Australia's foreign and immigration policy. New Liberal leader Peter Dutton (right), here seen with his wife Krilly, was one of a number of politicians who condemned the 'Lest we forget' Facebook post, which he called a 'disgrace' Although she apologised and took the post down, the controversy dogged Ms Abdel-Magied for years. Despite being Young Queenslander of the Year in 2010 and being touted employed a cultural ambassador by the Australian government Ms Abdel-Magied came to describe herself as Australia's 'most publicly hated Muslim'. She told the Sydney Morning Herald the hurt she feels towards Australia runs deep. '(Australia) expelled me and it was cruel, and it was cruel in a way it didn't need to be and it was cruel to somebody who loved it and only wished it well,' she said. 'I've compared it in the past to an abusive partner because it's such a complex relationship. On the one hand, there are lots of good times there and on the other hand, there's been so much harm and hurt that you can never quite be sure what that relationship was like at all.' Ms Abdel Magied said it was because of the abuse, she chose to appear virtually, rather than in person, at the Sydney Writers' Festival on Saturday. Ms Abdel-Magied says that she is so reluctant to return to her once adopted and beloved country that for writers' festivals in Australia she now only appears by a video link Ms Abdel-Magied's parents still live in Brisbane, where, as skilled migrants, they emigrated with their 18-month-old daughter in 1992. They might have to wait a while to see their daughter in person again. 'I grew up in Brisbane, and I don't really have any problems with Brisbane, but I don't miss it,' Ms Abdel-Magied said. 'And sometimes I feel like a terrible person for that. How can you not miss somewhere where you spent the majority of your life? Yet, I'm very fine [with] not going back.' Ms Abdel-Magied has become a sought-after commentator in the British media but has built a more lucrative profile as a speaker in the US, where she mainly talks about racial and cultural relations. A little boy has died in hospital after being hit by a car while crossing the road in Sydney's west. Emergency services rushed to Richmond Road in Doonside just before 1pm. The six-year-old boy who was crossing the road, was found with critical injuries after being struck by the car. A 6-year-old boy who was crossing the road, was found with critical injuries after being struck by a vehicle (Pictured: Richmond Road, Doonside) Paramedics treated the child at the scene before he was taken to the Children's Hospital at Westmead. However, the young boy sadly passed away soon after. The driver of the car assisted police with the investigation. Paramedics treated the child at the scene before he was taken to the Children's Hospital at Westmead (pictured) A crime scene was established and has been examined by the Crash Investigation Unit. The cause of the crash is yet to be determined. Anyone who may have witnessed the incident, has details or dashcam footage, is urged to contact police. A family of Tamil asylum seekers who captured the hearts of Australians has been permitted to return to their home in the regional Queensland town of Biloela on bridging visas. Nadesalingam and Priya Murugappan fled Sri Lanka after the country's civil war, arriving separately on people-smuggling vessels in 2012 and 2013. Home Affairs Minister Jim Chalmers said on Friday he had exercised his power under Section 195A of the Migration Act. In a one-word tweet, new prime minister Anthony Albanese shared simply posted: 'proud' in response to the news. The Tamil family have been in a high-profile battle to remain in Australia after spending years in detention Jim Chlamers makes the call to the Biloela family informing them of the good news Kopika (left) and Tharunicaa (right) were pulled out of school in Queensland and sent to a detention centre 'The effect of my intervention enables the family to return to Biloela, where they can reside lawfully in the community on bridging visas while they work towards the resolution of their immigration status, in accordance with Australian law,' Mr Chalmers said in a statement. 'I have spoken to the family and wished them well for their return.' The couple met in Australia and married in 2014, and both were granted temporary visas settling in Biloela, where they had two daughters, Kopika, six and Tharunicaa, now four. Nades worked at the local meatworks and Priya was a community volunteer. In March 2018, immigration officers took the family from their Biloela home after Priya's bridging visa expired and Nades' refugee status claim was rejected. They were taken to a detention centre in Melbourne. This sparked a national campaign for the family to be allowed to stay in Australia and return to Biloela. Anthony Albanese vanquished Scott Morrison to become only the fourth Labor leader to win government from opposition since World War II It has been more than three years since they were separated from their friends on mainland of Australia In late August 2019, the coalition government put the family on a plane bound for Sri Lanka. But their deportation was sensationally halted mid-flight when a Federal Court judge granted a last-minute injunction. The plane was forced to land in Darwin and the family was moved to the Christmas Island detention centre. Facing pressure from community groups, lawyers, doctors and politicians, and with Tharunicaa needing medical care, then federal Immigration Minister Alex Hawke announced in June 2021 the family would live in suburban Perth under a community detention placement while legal action continued. But he insisted the decision would not create a pathway to a visa. In September, 12-month bridging visas were granted to Pria, Nades and Kopika, but not to Tharunicaa, which still meant the family could not return to Biloela. Tharnicaa Murugappan (pictured) was medically evacuated to Perth in June 2021 after being hospitalised on Christmas Island with a suspected blood infection Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the cost to the family's health and the economic cost of their detention provided a clear reason to resolve the case. 'You can have strong borders without being weak on humanity,' he said on Friday. A friend and advocate for the family Bronwyn Dendle says the Biloela community was eagerly awaiting the decision, following Labor's announcement during the election campaign to help the family if elected to government. 'They've been watching the news just like everybody else to hear what's coming,' Ms Dendle told Sky News on Friday. 'They would definitely be welcomed back with open arms and all of Biloela is just relieved that this has come to pass and that they (could be) allowed home. 'We are that town in central Queensland that stands up for their mates and leaves no one behind.' Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the cost to the family's health and the economic cost of their detention provided a clear reason to resolve the case A second 'pensioner pilot' flying for Vladimir Putin's air force in Ukraine has been shot down and killed. Nikolai Markov, 63, a retired air force colonel, died when his Su-25 bomber was shot down over the Luhansk region of Donbas on an unknown date. There are conflicting reports about how he died. Some claim he was killed by friendly fire while flying low to the ground, but Ukraine says he was shot down by one of their Stinger missiles. Markov was wingman to retired Major General Kanamat Botashev, 63, whose death was reported this week, after he was hit in a separate incident by Ukrainian fire. Nikolai Markov, 63, a retired Russian air force colonel (left and right) has been killed fighting for a private Russian military contractor in Ukraine Major General Kanamat Botashev, 63, another retired Russian fighter pilot, was also shot down in Ukraine this week, friends confirmed Both were flying for private military companies taking part in Putin's war in Ukraine. Markov was Russian-born but had Belarusian citizenship and was buried in Lida, Belarus. The exact date of his burial was not made clear. Disgraced general Kanamat 'Flop Gun' Botashev was also shot down by a Ukrainian Stinger missile. He had been fired from the Russian air force after an unsanctioned joyride aerial acrobatics stunt - but was taken on as a mercenary pilot. Separately, Russia lost another serving Lieutenant-Colonel as Sergey Nikitin, 43, a father-of-three whose death was revealed by sister Nadezhda. It continues a trend of Russian top brass being massacred in Ukraine, as Russia's military is mauled in its bungled invasion of the country. 'It's impossible to contemplate this terrible loss,' she said in a heartbroken eulogy. 'The whole world is blackened by grief, and the sun is not shining any longer. 'I can't believe you left us, brother. Our grief is endless. Markov had served in the Russian air force and retired, but had returned to the battlefield to fight for a private military contractor Colonel Sergey Nikitin, 43, was also confirmed dead fighting in Ukraine - just the latest in a series of military top brass to be killed 'You will be forever alive in our memory, and always loved.' Russia is now known to have lost 44 serving colonels, although the toll may be higher because it has refused to provide detailed statistics of its full toll in Ukraine. Nine Russian generals apart from Botashev are also known to have died with reports that the US has assisted Ukraine with intelligence to allow them to target Putin's most high ranking soldiers. Nikitin was from Zvenigovo in Mari El republic, on the left bank of the Volga River. A female friend, Olesya, said: 'A day of deep sadness we mourn the loss of a dear person together with his family.' A male friend, Alexey, said: 'I just can't believe he's gone. 'It feels like he is far, far away, but alive.' There is growing evidence of a backlash against the war in Russia. Rock concerts have become venues for protest against the conflict in Ukraine. As many as 16 military recruitment offices have been hit by Molotov cocktails in defiance over bids to surge enlistment into the army through conscription. A Perth fisherman had to manhandle a monster fish onto his boat by hand after the massive catch wrecked his tackle. Now he reckons he won't need to buy seafood for six months after reeling in the whopper 50kg bass grouper. Cameron Winsor caught the brown beast near Rottnest Island, out from Perth, earlier this week following a 40 minute battle with the determined deep-sea dweller. Mr Winsor told Daily Mail Australia he first thought his line was stuck due to the sheer weight of the giant fish. 'Initially I thought I was snagged. After a few minutes of trying to drive upcurrent to release it, I realised the GPS was still showing me moving,' he said. Cameron Winsor caught a 50kg bass grouper (above) after a 40-minute battle earlier this week 'Then the fish started to take a few runs, so we knew we were onto something solid. 'I think the bass was just cruising about his business without even realising it was hooked.' But then Mr Winsor's electric reel failed, leaving him and his crew to pull up the 50.6kg fish on their own. 'I was using an electric reel, but during the fight the reel overheated so I had to take over manual winding,' he said. The monster-sized bass groper was caught in the waters near Rottnest Island near Perth, WA 'After about 40 minutes of fighting we were pulling it through the last 20m, still not knowing what it was. 'Finally we saw a burst of bubbles come to the surface and the screams erupted on the boat as we pulled it in. 'After a few high fives I gave the line a pull to test how strong the drag was...I couldn't get any line off the reel, it's a wonder nothing else broke. 'We went out there to test out the Dhubite snelled deep drop rigs, and we certainly proved them strong enough!' Cameron Winsor said the entire fish - carcass and all! - has been divvied up between his family, friends, workmates at Rio Tinto, and neighbour Luckily Mr Winsor's managed to put the big fish to use feeding his family, friends, workmates at Rio Tinto, and neighbour. 'They are one of the few fish that still taste amazing at that size,' he said. 'Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do to release the fish as they come from over 300m and suffer barotrauma on the way up. 'The best thing you can do is make the most of the meat, which certainly we did. 'We kept all of the fish, fillets, and wings were frozen into packs and shared. I even took some up to Mesa A to share with my production crew! 'The head and carcass was given to my neighbour who loves getting the rest of the meat and boiling up the leftovers for her family. 'It will keep everyone going for months.' There is no maximum size limit on bass groupers in Western Australia. A Picasso painting owned by Sir Sean Connery has sold for 17.7million at auction with proceeds set to help causes in Scotland and the Bahamas. The late James Bond star's family put the artwork up for sale to raise funds for the Sean Connery Philanthropic Fund. It will donate money to good causes in Scotland and the Bahamas, where the star lived with his wife Micheline for more than 30 years. Edinburgh-born Sir Sean bought Buste d'homme dans un cadre a few years before his death aged 90 in October 2020. The 1969 painting was sold in Hong Kong yesterday by auction house Christie's and had been expected to fetch at least 15million. Auctioneer Georgina Hilton wore a Bond-style tuxedo in tribute to 007 and described the painting as 'sensational'. Sold: The James Bond star's family put the work up for auction after his request a philanthropic trust be set up in his name after his death. Pictured: Picasso's Buste d'homme dans un cadre The bidding started at 10million and received five offers before attracting a final price of 17.7million, including the buyer's premium. The most expensive Picasso ever sold at auction was Les femmes d'Alger (Version 'O') with sold for $179.4million or 142million in 2015. Speaking before the sale, his stepson Stephane Connery, an art adviser, said: 'Sean had an extraordinary sense of aesthetics, composition and movement honed by his career in a visual medium as well as his long marriage to Micheline, a fine and internationally exhibited painter. 'He loved and owned numerous works by Picasso, and upon seeing 'Buste d'homme dans un cadre' he was captivated by its expressive power and freedom. Sir Sean bought Buste d'homme dans un cadre a few years before his death aged 90 'It seems fitting that this work would be sold in Asia as Sean had a tremendous affinity for Asia and its culture.' He added: 'Before Sean passed away in 2020, he allocated a sizeable portion of his estate to be used for philanthropic purposes. 'We - his family - are now working to create a fund that will offer support to organisations that reflect Sean's interests and passions, and serve to keep his legacy of integrity, opportunity and effectiveness alive. 'These efforts will be focused in Scotland, where Sean was born, and the Bahamas, where he lived for over 30 years and adored like his homeland.' The painting is one of Spanish artist Picasso's musketeer portraits and is described by art experts as 'one of the finest and most striking of the artist's paintings from the last decade of his life.' Adrien Meyer, Co-Chairman of Impressionist and Modern Art at Christie's, said: 'It is a privilege for Christie's to have been entrusted by the family of Sir Sean Connery with the sale of this fabulous Picasso self-portrait. 'No wonder is it that a titan of the film industry was drawn to this tour de force by the greatest modern art titan of all. 'This is simply one of the best works by the artist of his late period to ever come to market.' Oscar-winner Connery died peacefully in his sleep at home following a battle with dementia in October 2020. Police are looking for a man who appeared to point a pistol at a news crew from a Fox affiliate station while they were filming a segment on gun violence in Chicago. Fox 32 Chicago said it was broadcasting live in the River North neighborhood when the man slipped into view from behind pointing what looked like a gun behind reporter Joanie Lum. The man quickly jumped in front of the camera, moving too quickly for the camera to focus on the object, before side-stepping down the street. Holding the item in the air a second time, he then skipped further down the street and out of view. The incident occurred at around 7am on Wednsday, at the corner of Clark and Hubbard while the station was filming its 'Good Day Chicago' news segment. Lum was reporting on the city's rise in gun-related crime, where shooting incidents had increased by 66% from 2019 to 2021. A man on Wednesday quickly jumped in front of the camera pointing what appeared to be a pistol during a live Fox32 Chicago broadcast segment highlighting gun violence in Chicago He side-steps before skipping down the street and out of view after jumping past the camera Fox32 thanked viewers who wrote in asking if the crew was unhurt. It said both Lum and her photographer were safe Police are asking for help tracking down a man who pulled out a pistol in front of a Fox32 live broadcast while they were filming a segment on gun violence in Chicago. The incident occurred at around 7 am, at the corner of Clark and Hubbard while Fox32 was filming its 'Good Day Chicago' news broadcast Police are asking for help identifying the man, described as being between 18 and 25, standing 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 8 inches tall with a thin build, and weighing 130 to 150 pounds. He was previously filmed buying drinks from Starbucks wearing a dark hoodie, a black jacket, light ripped blue jeans, and dark shoes. Fox32 thanked viewers who wrote in asking if the crew was unhurt. It said both Lum and her photographer were safe. As the footage was not clear, social media users questioned whether the man had drawn a gun on live TV - with some suggesting the item could have been a remote control or another similar household object, held as though it were a weapon. Chicago police can be contacted with information regarding the suspect on 312-744-8261. The city's murder rate went up by 60% between 2019 and 2021 according to the Chicago Police Department. Theft had also gone up by 21% in the year before December 2021, with criminal sexual assault up 27% over the same period. And the number of crimes, ranging from robbery to aggravated battery, is now higher than the same point in 2021. On Thursday May 19, a shooting near Chicagos Magnificent Mile shopping district left two people dead and seven injured outside a fast food restaurant. The trend in crime is causing problems for Chicago, which saw tourists virtually disappear during the Covid-19 pandemic and now is eager to draw back crowds. The Chicago Loop Alliance, a membership organization for businesses, said pedestrian traffic downtown is recovering but still around 65 per cent compared to a typical year prior to 2020. Demand for hotel rooms in the Loop, the city's business district, remained below pre-pandemic figures in March but far exceeded the same time last year about 64 per cent this year compared to 36 percent in 2021. Two black men were declared dead from Thursday's incident after emergency medical services tried to revive them Antonio Wade, 30, a father of two, was awaiting twins when he was fatally shot at the fast food restaurant two days ago Police have arrested a man over a 25-year-old Queensland woman who died after she was dropped off at the door of a Sunshine Coast hospital with an alleged gunshot wound to the head. Detectives say the Currimundi woman died shortly after arriving at Caloundra Base Hospital with at about 9.30am on Friday. Investigations led officers to an address on Coolum Street in Dicky Beach, near Caloundra, where a crime scene has been declared. Police have established a forensic crime scene (above) at a Sunshine Coast home after a 25-year-old woman died with what is believed to be a gunshot wound to her head Police arrested a 30-year-old Narangba man at 3.30pm in relation to the case after intercepting his vehicle on Fitzwilliam Street at Sippy Downs, some 22km from the Dicky Beach home. Police said he was arrested without incident and is currently assisting in their investigations. The 58-year-old man who dropped the woman at the hospital was known to her and is voluntarily assisting in police investigations. Early investigations indicate there was a disturbance at the home at about 9am, which was shortly followed by the woman's hospital visit. The 30-year-old man and woman were known to each other but police do not believe her death was the result of a domestic dispute. Both were visiting the Coolum Street home and were friends with the homeowner - a woman police have since spoken to. Detectives say the woman died shortly after arriving at Caloundra Hospital (above) with what is believed to be a gunshot wound to her head at about 9.30am on Friday 'We have a number of people that we're trying to identify and interview, and when we have more information we'll have a better picture of what's taken place,' Detective Inspector David Drinnen said. The cause of death is yet to be determined and the woman has not been formally identified. Police have urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers. Chechens are being snatched from their homes in 'mass abductions' and forced to fight as 'volunteers' in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, human rights groups have claimed. A group that fights against Chechen corruption and Russian propaganda called 1Adat said hundreds were being forced to fight in Ukraine. President Putin's protege Ramzan Kadyrov, 45, the leader of the Chechen Republic, is one of the Russian despot's most ardent followers and has frequently shared strong criticisms of the West. His fighters, known as Kadyrovites, reportedly called the people they abducted 'scum' and sent them to the front line as 'cannon fodder'. 1Adat said: 'Throughout the republic, mass abductions are again taking place. 'We are informed about hundreds of people from different regions of our occupied state. Ramzan Kadyrov, 45, leader of the Chechen Republic, is Russian President Putin's loyal 'footsoldier' Fighters of the Chechen special forces unit stand in a street during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine April 21 Kadyrovites posing in front of a destroyed building in Mariupol, Ukraine, which has seen some of the most intense fighting 'The abducted are required to sign a paper stating that they are volunteers to be sent to Ukraine, otherwise they are threatened with fabrication of criminal cases. 'Everyone who goes to Ukraine in this way will be used on the front line, like cannon fodder. 'The Kadyrovites themselves say: "They are scum, they are not sorry, so there is nothing to worry about." That is, the abductions are purposefully carried out in order to send cannon fodder to Ukraine.' Human rights association Vayfond said in May it had received 'dozens' of messages from Chechens without military experience saying they were being forced to go to war. Early this month the UK's Ministry of Defence said: 'The so-called 'Kadyrovites' began to enter the territory of Ukraine in the first days of the large-scale military invasion of Russia. 'In attempting to overcome Ukrainian resistance, Russia has made significant use of auxiliary personnel. Kadryrov - accused of using medieval torture on his enemies in Chechnya - has been called 'the son Putin never had' for his devout loyalty to the Kremlin leader This includes a deployment of Chechen forces, likely consisting of several thousand fighters primarily concentrated in the Mariupol and Luhansk sectors. 'The combat deployment of such disparate personnel demonstrates Russia's significant resourcing problems in Ukraine and is likely contributing to a disunited command which continues to hamper Russia's operations.' Kadyrov has been accused of using medieval torture on his enemies in Chechnya and has been called 'the son Putin never had' for his devout loyalty to the Kremlin leader. The Chechen supremo was promoted to the rank of Lt-General in the Russian national guard in April. His troops have been accused of war crimes in Ukraine and Kadyrov himself has been known to follow them on excursions, although he has denied taking part in any extrajudicial killings. Kadyrov has demanded an apology after a Ukrainian activist threw red paint over Russian ambassador Sergey Andreev as he attempted to lay flowers at the Soviet military cemetery in the Polish capital earlier this month Chechen forces were known to be at the siege of Mariupol and were said to be among occupying forces who killed civilians in suburbs of Kyiv. Moscow fought two wars with separatists in Chechnya, a mainly Muslim region in southern Russia, after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union, but has since poured huge sums of money into the region to rebuild it and given Kadyrov a large measure of autonomy. Kadyrov has been repeatedly accused by the United States and European Union of human rights abuses, which he denies. In his latest outburst, he Kadyrov threatened war on Poland for its support of Ukraine. In a video message on Monday, Kadyrov who calls himself Putin's 'footsoldier' said: 'Ukraine is a done deal. What I'm interested in is Poland. 'What is Poland trying to achieve? Once Ukraine is done, we can show you what we're capable of in six seconds if there is an order.' He has demanded an apology after a pro-Ukrainian activist threw red paint over Russian ambassador Sergey Andreev in Warsaw as the diplomat lay flowers at a Soviet military ceremony on the anniversary of the Allied victory in WWII. Kadyrov warned: 'You better take away your weapons and your mercenaries and officially apologise to our ambassador.' Russia's armed forces have begun deploying sixty-year-old tanks to the southeastern regions of Ukraine, raising questions over the extent of Putin's losses after three months of bitter fighting and countless strategic blunders. A long line of T-62 tanks, which began production as early as 1961, was photographed at a train station in Ukraine's southeastern city of Melitopol on Wednesday, just days after footage emerged of the aged armour being pulled out of storage across the border. Russia has around 2,900 of its more modern T-90, T-80 and T-72 tanks currently in service, according to the International Institute for Security Studies, with up to 10,000 more tanks from different generations in storage. But the Land Forces of Ukraine estimate more than 1,300 of Russia's tanks have been destroyed or heavily damaged since the invasion began on February 24, at least 700 of which have been visually confirmed according to open source intelligence analyst Oryx. And of the 10,000 tanks waiting in storage, many of them are likely to be inoperable due to Russia's harsh and varied climate and poor long-term maintenance. Putin's deployment of his armoured relics comes as his forces are locked in a brutal and bloody conflict along the eastern front of Ukraine. Russian troops yesterday launched an all-out offensive to capture Severodonetsk and Lysychansk - the only urban centres still under Ukrainian control in the Luhansk region. 'Extremely fierce fighting is taking place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk. They are simply destroying the city, they are shelling it every day, shelling without pause,' Luhansk regional governor Sergei Gaidai said yesterday. The mayor of Severodonetsk Oleksandr Stryuk said the city is holding out for now, but added at least 1,500 people have been killed and 60 per cent of residential buildings have been destroyed. But Russia's painstakingly-slow progress in Luhansk has come at a huge cost. As of this morning, the Land Forces of Ukraine estimate almost 30,000 Russian soldiers have been killed in the conflict thus far - losses which prompted Russia's parliament on Wednesday to scrap the upper age limit for people signing up to join the army. T-62 tanks are pictured being loaded onto trains in western Russia on May 23 A T-62 tank is pictured arriving in Melitopol, Ukraine, on May 25 A long line of T-62 tanks, whose production began as early as 1961, were photographed at a train station in Ukraine's southeastern city of Melitopol on Wednesday The Land Forces of Ukraine estimate more than 1,300 of Russia's tanks have been destroyed or heavily damaged since the invasion began on February 24 A boy looks at a destroyed Russian tank during an exhibition displaying destroyed Russian military vehicles, amid Russia's invasion, in central Kyiv, Ukraine May 21, 2022 Russia's deployment of T-62 tanks to southwestern Ukraine is puzzling. Designed in the late 1950s, the T-62 had already grown obsolete by the mid-70s and was relegated to reserve duty in favour of the improved T-64 and T-72 models. Some T-64s underwent combat upgrades in the later years before the collapse of the Soviet Union and were retrofitted with improved armour and weapons systems. But Ukraine's Armed Forces - equipped with modern anti-tank weapons such as Javelin launchers and Bayraktar TB-2 drones - have already made short work of Russia's most combat-capable tanks, as evidenced by countless images of wreckage littering the streets of eastern Ukraine. The T-62's slow speed, short range, poor maneuverability and obsolete parts in comparison to the more modern T-90s and T-80s mean the Russian troops operating them would be obliterated should the sixty-year-old vehicles be deployed to the front lines. As a result, analysts have speculated the T-62s may be used in a support capacity for crowd control and reinforcement in the territories already occupied by Russia such as Mariupol, Kherson, and Melitopol, where the tanks were first pictured arriving on Ukrainian soil. But the T-62 is notoriously prone to breaking down, have half the range of modern tanks and use different parts to their successors, making them challenging to maintain. Their deployment therefore suggests Russia's armed forces are not willing to commit any of its more modern tanks in reserve to such support roles, highlighting the scale of their losses on the front lines. People look at the remains of Russian equipment displayed at Saint Michael's (Mykhailivska) Square in front of the bell tower of St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery on May 23, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine The T-62's slow speed, short range, poor maneuverability and obsolete parts in comparison to the more modern T-90s and T-80s mean the Russian troops operating them would be obliterated should the sixty-year-old vehicles be deployed to the front lines (a man lights a cigarette next to a destroyed Russian tank in Mala Rohan, Ukraine, May 25) Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar told journalists yesterday that fighting in the east had reached 'its maximum intensity' since Russia invaded on February 24. Pro-Moscow separatist groups have since 2014 controlled parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions known as the Donbas, but Russia now appears set on taking the whole region. 'Enemy forces are storming the positions of our troops simultaneously in several directions. We have an extremely difficult and long stage of fighting ahead of us,' Malyar said. Western military analysts see the battle for the urban centres of Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in western Luhansk as a possible turning point in the war after a shift in momentum towards Russia following the surrender of Ukraine's garrison in Mariupol last week. Having lost thousands of troops in scattered fighting along the eastern front in recent weeks, Russian forces yesterday launched a targeted assault from three sides to try to encircle Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. If the two cities straddling the Siversky Donets river fall, nearly all of the Donbas province of Luhansk would be under Russian control. Service members of pro-Russian troops drive a tank along a street past a destroyed residential building during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region, Ukraine May 26 The Russian advance in the east has been backed by massive artillery bombardment across as many as 50 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk to force Ukrainian troops to retreat (destroyed residential building in Popasna, Luhansk, Ukraine, May 26) Having lost thousands of troops in scattered fighting along the eastern front in recent weeks, Russian forces yesterday launched a targeted assault from three sides to try to encircle Ukrainian forces in Severodonetsk and Lysychansk (Russian troops pictured May 26 in Luhansk) The Russian advance was backed by massive artillery bombardment across as many as 50 towns in Donetsk and Luhansk to force Ukrainian troops to retreat, according to officials, leading Zelensky to request further Western aid in the form of more missile systems and long-range weaponry. 'We are fighting for Ukraine to be provided with all the weapons needed to change the nature of the fighting and start moving faster and more confidently toward the expulsion of the occupiers,' Zelensky said in his nightly video address to the nation. He said Russian forces are wiping some eastern towns from the face of the Earth and the region could end up 'uninhabited.' 'They want to turn Popasna, Bakhmut, Lyman, Lysychansk and Severodonetsk into ashes as they did with Volnovakha and Mariupol,' Zelensky said. Ukraine's foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba meanwhile tweeted: 'We need more heavy weapons delivered as soon as possible, especially MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) to repel Russian attacks.' Zelensky also said Russia had resumed shelling of second city Kharkiv yesterday, reporting at least nine people had been killed and 19 wounded. A comparison of Russian tanks: T-62 The T-62 is a Russian-made Main Battle Tank (MBT) which was produced between 1961 and 1975. It was designed to compete with the British FV4201 Chieftain and the American M60 Patton of the same era, but by the late sixties and early 70s had already become obsolete. Though the T-62 has been retrofitted to improve its combat capabilities, the armour would prove no match for modern anti-tank weapons and strategic warfare on display in Ukraine. Production: Soviet Union Production date: 1961-1975 Crew: 4 Length: 21.8ft Width: 11.5ft Height: 7.9ft Weight: 91,492lbs Power: 580 horsepower Top speed: 28mph Range: 280 miles Weaponry: 1x115mm main gun 1x12.7mm machine gun turret roof 1.7.62 machine gun front turret T-62 at the Russian Museum of Military History Advertisement Advertisement Monkeypox may now be endemic in the West forever, leading experts have warned as the virus normally confined to areas of Africa continues to spread around the world. Dr Adam Kucharski, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said it was unlikely the current outbreak would spiral into a pandemic like Covid. Monkeypox spreads through prolonged close contact or interaction with contaminated surfaces or clothes, unlike Covid which is predominantly transmitted in the air sometimes in a matter of minutes. But the epidemiologist, who was a member of the UK's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), warned the 'biggest risk' is that cases will 'not be eliminated in some places'. He said any persistent transmission increases the risk that the virus closely related to smallpox could be passed onto pets, meaning there will be permanent reservoirs of infection, as is the case in Africa. EU health chiefs have already acknowledged this threat and are considering a cull for all hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs owned by monkeypox patients. In the UK, officials are also expected to release guidance telling infected Britons to keep their distance from family pets. Monkeypox has now been identified in all four nations of the UK, as the number of confirmed domestic cases yesterday rose to 90. A disproportionate number are among gay and bisexual men. Twenty countries across the world have now been affected by the current outbreak, with Finland today becoming the latest to confirm an infection. Argentina, Bolivia and Sudan are all probing suspected cases. Until now, cases outside of western and central Africa were confined to a handful of people with travel links to the continent. Timeline of monkeypox 1958: Monkeypox was first discovered when an outbreak of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. 1970: The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the infection has been reported in a number of central and western African countries since then. 2003: A Monkeypox outbreak occurred in the US after rodents were imported from Africa. Cases were reported in both humans and pet prairie dogs. All the human infections followed contact with an infected pet and all patients recovered. SEPTEMBER 8, 2018: Monkeypox appeared in the UK for the first time in a Nigerian naval officer who was visiting Cornwall for training. They were treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London. SEPTEMBER 11, 2018: A second UK monkeypox case is confirmed in Blackpool. There is no link with the first case in Cornwall. Instead, the patient is though to have picked up the infection when travelling in Nigeria. They were treated at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital. SEPTEMBER 26, 2018: A third person is diagnosed with monkeypox. The individual worked at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and treated the second Monkeypox case. They received treatment at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. DECEMBER 3, 2019: A patient was diagnosed with monkeypox in England, marking the fourth ever case. MAY 25, 2021: Two cases of monkeypox were identified in north Wales. Both patients had travel links to Nigeria. A third person living with one of the cases was diagnosed and admitted to hospital, bringing the total number ever to seven. MAY 7, 2022: A person was diagnosed with Monkeypox in England after recently travelling to Nigeria. The person received care at the expert infectious disease unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London. MAY 14, 2022: Two more cases were confirmed in London. The infected pair lived in the same household but had not been in contact with the case announced one week earlier. One of these individuals received care at the expert infectious disease unit at St Mary's Hospital in London. The other isolated at home and did not need hospital treatment. MAY 16, 2022: Four more cases were announced, bringing the UK total to seven. Three of these cases are in London, while one of their contacts is infected in the north east of England. The spate of cases was described as 'unusual' and 'surprising' as experts warn gay and bisexual men to look out for new rashes. MAY 19, 2022: Two more cases were revealed, with no travel links or connections to other cases. The cases were based in the South East and London. Fears began to grow that infections are going undetected. MAY 20, 2022: Eleven more cases are announced, meaning Britain's monkeypox outbreak have doubled to 20. Minsters discuss the possibility of a public health campaign to warn gay men the disease may be more prevalent for them MAY 23, 2022: Scotland logs its first ever monkeypox case and 36 more infectioned announced in England. It brings the UK total to 57. MAY 24, 2022: England logs another 14 cases, bringing the UK total to 71. MAY 25, 2022: Another seven infections are spotted in England, meaning 78 cases have been detected in the UK. MAY 26, 2022: Wales detects its first monkeypox case in the recent outbreak, bringing the UK total to 79. Advertisement Dr Kucharski said on Twitter: 'For me, biggest risk with monkeypox isn't that it will rapidly grow into a pandemic (it's not a novel flu or coronavirus). 'Instead, the the risk is that 'after initial superspreading events and focused control efforts, case numbers will slow down but not be eliminated in some places. 'And transmission will continue to persist in new places at low-ish levels via highly connected parts of the interaction network and hence further risk of spilling back in humans.' The current outbreak, first detected in a traveller from Nigeria to the UK on May 6, has been linked to several super-spreader events, including a gay pride festival in Gran Canaria, a fetish festival in Belgium and a 'sauna' in Spain. Experts this week revealed sexual transmission at these events is the leading theory behind the origins of the current cluster of cases. Dr Kucharski's comments echo a warning made by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) this week that monkeypox may become endemic if transmission continues and that it spreads to pets or wildlife. The ECDC said it is 'theoretically possible' that people in Europe could pass on monkeypox to their domestic pets, which could then act as a host and transmit it back to humans. This is because rodents and squirrels have already been identified as carriers of the virus in west and central Africa, it noted. The report states: 'Currently, little is known about the suitability of European peri-domestic (mammalian) animal species to serve as a host for monkeypox virus. 'However, rodents, and particularly species of the family of Sciuridae (squirrels) are likely to be suitable hosts, more so than humans (see disease background), and transmission from humans to (pet) animals is theoretically possible. 'Such a spill-over event could potentially lead to the virus establishing in European wildlife and the disease becoming an endemic zoonosis.' The ECDC noted that the likelihood of this spill-over is 'very low', however. But it said national health authorities should work with veterinary experts to ensure there is a sufficient testing capacity to swab and quarantine pets which have been exposed to monkeypox. The agency said exposed rodent pets such as hamsters, gerbils and guinea pigs should be isolated in monitored facilities and tested again before their quarantine ends. These pets should be killed 'as a last resort' if there is no testing or isolation capacity, the report states. Mammalian pets, such as cats and dogs, can be isolated at home if there is a suitable outdoor space and a vet can check on them, the ECDC said. The UKs Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is already drawing up guidelines in an attempt to limit the risk of monkeypox patients infecting their pets. There are also fears infected patients could contaminate their pets fur and the illness be passed on to others in their household. Justine Shotton, president of the British Veterinary Association, said the association was monitoring the situation closely. She believes the risk of infecting pets remains low but is 'supportive of a cautious approach' while officials seek to learn more about the virus. Ms Shotton said: 'It would be a sensible decision to keep your distance from a pet while in quarantine. 'If I was diagnosed with monkeypox I would do whatever I could to limit contact, such as asking a friend or relative to take care of it.' She added: 'There is currently no evidence of transmission between humans and cats and dogs but we know rabbits and rodents are susceptible. 'If you have concerns about your pets health if they have a fever, respiratory issues, poor appetite or lethargy speak to a vet. Health chiefs have warned monkeypox, a virus endemic in parts of Africa and is known for its rare and unusual rashes, bumps and lesions, could also spread to some pets and become endemic in Europe. Undated handout file image issued by the UK Health Security Agency of the stages of Monkeypox Dr Adam Kucharski, a former UK Government scientist and epidemiologist, said that while new cases may slow down, the 'biggest risk' is that they will 'not be eliminated in some places'. The smallpox vaccine, called Imvanex in the UK and Jynneos in the US, can protect against monkeypox because the viruses causing the illnesses are related 'The chances are it will be something other than monkeypox but it's worth getting it checked.' It comes after an ex-WHO official claimed monkeypox may have been spreading under the radar in Europe for four years. Professor David Heymann, a former former director-general for health security and environment at the WHO, said the current global outbreak may date back to a handful of isolated cases in the UK in 2018. Two Britons were diagnosed with the tropical disease in September 2018 after returning from Nigeria. A third case was found in an NHS worker who treated one of the patients. In December 2019, a fourth person unrelated to the previous three tested positive for the virus after returning from Nigeria. Three further cases with similar travel history arrived in 2021. Professor Heymann suggested the virus may have been seeded in around this time and spread unchecked. All of the cases are believed to have had the milder western African clade of the virus the same one that is spreading now. It comes as monkeypox has now been detected in every UK nation, as Northern Ireland and Wales yesterday confirmed their first cases of the tropical virus. Some 90 patients in Britain have been sickened with the illness in the past three weeks. Health chiefs are alarmed about the ever-growing cluster of cases, given the smallpox-like infection is usually only spotted in Africa. A disproportionate number are among gay and bisexual men. Teams from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) are contacting high-risk contacts of confirmed cases and advising them to self-isolate at home for three weeks and avoid contact with children. They are also being offered the Imvanex vaccine to form a buffer of immune people around a confirmed case to limit the spread of the disease. The strategy, known as ring vaccination, has been used in previous monkeypox outbreaks and is also being carried out in some EU countries. The disease, first discovered in lab monkeys in the late 1950s, is usually mild but can cause severe illness in some cases. It can kill up to 10 per cent of people it infects. The milder strain causing the current outbreak kills one in 100 similar to when Covid first hit. Monkeypox has an incubation period of anywhere up to 21 days, meaning it can take three weeks for symptoms to appear. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. A rash can develop, often beginning on the face, which then spreads to other parts of the body including the genitals. The rash can look like chickenpox or syphilis, and scabs can form which then fall off. How DO you catch monkeypox and what are the symptoms? EVERYTHING you need to know about tropical virus How do you catch monkeypox? Until this worldwide outbreak, monkeypox was usually caught from infected animals in west and central Africa. The tropical virus is thought to be spread by rodents, including rats, mice and even squirrels. Humans can catch the illness which comes from the same family as smallpox if they're bitten by infected animals, or touch their blood, bodily fluids, or scabs. Consuming contaminated wild game or bush meat can also spread the virus. The orthopoxvirus can enter the body through broken skin even if it's not visible, as well as the eyes, nose and mouth. Despite being mainly spread by wild animals, it was known that monkeypox could be passed on between people. However, health chiefs insist it is very rare. Human-to-human spread can occur if someone touches clothing or bedding used by an infected person, or through direct contact with the virus' tell-tale scabs. The virus can also spread through coughs and sneezes. In the ongoing surge in cases, experts think the virus is passing through skin-to-skin contact during sex even though this exact mechanism has never been seen until now. How deadly is it? Monkeypox is usually mild, with most patients recovering within a few weeks without treatment. Yet, the disease kills up to 10 per cent of cases. But this high rate is thought to be in part due to a historic lack of testing meaning that a tenth of known cases have died rather than a tenth of all infections. However, with milder strains the fatality rate is closer to one in 100 similar to when Covid first hit. The UK cases all had the West African version of the virus, which is mild compared to the Central African strain. It is thought that cases in Portugal and Spain also have the milder version, though tests are underway. How is it tested for? It can be difficult to diagnose monkeypox as it is often confused with other infections such as chickenpox. Monkeypox is confirmed by a clinical assessment by a health professional and a test in the UK's specialist lab - the UKHSA's Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory. The test involves taking samples from skin lesions, such as part of the scab, fluid from the lesions or pieces of dry crusts. What are the symptoms? It can take up to three weeks for monkeypox-infected patients to develop any of its tell-tale symptoms. Early signs of the virus include a fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion meaning it could, theoretically, be mistaken for other common illnesses. But its most unusual feature is a rash that often begins on the face, then spreads to other parts of the body, commonly the hands and feet. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming a scab, which later falls off. How long is someone contagious? An individual is contagious from the point their rash appears until all the scabs have fallen off and there is intact skin underneath. The scabs may also contain infectious virus material. The infectious period is thought to last for three weeks but may vary between individuals. What do I do if I have symptoms? Anyone with an unusual rash or lesions on any part of their body, especially their genitalia, should contact NHS 111 or call a sexual health service. Britons are asked to contact clinics ahead of their visit and avoid close contact with others until they have been seen by a medic. Gay and bisexual men have been asked to be especially alert to the symptoms as most of the cases have been detected in men who have sex with men. What even is monkeypox? Monkeypox was first discovered when an outbreak of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research in 1958. The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the infection has been reported in a number of central and western African countries since then. Only a handful of cases have been reported outside of Africa and they were confined to people with travel links to the continent. The UK, US, Israel and Singapore are the only countries which had detected the virus before May 2022. Monkeypox is a rare viral infection which kills up to one in ten of those infected but does not spread easily between people. The tropical disease is endemic in parts of Africa and is known for its rare and unusual rashes, bumps and lesions (file photo) Nurses and doctors are being advised to stay 'alert' to patients who present with a new rash or scabby lesions (like above) Is it related to chickenpox? Despite causing a similar rash, chickenpox is not related to monkeypox. The infection, which usually strikes children, is caused by the varicella-zoster virus. For comparison, monkeypox like smallpox is an orthopoxvirus. Because of this link, smallpox vaccines also provide protection against monkeypox. Are young people more vulnerable? Britons aged under 50 may be more susceptible to monkeypox, according to the World Health Organization. This is because children in the UK were routinely offered the smallpox jab, which protects against monkeypox, until 1971. The WHO also warns that the fatality rate has been higher among young children. Does it spread as easily as Covid? Leading experts insist we won't be seeing Covid-style levels of transmission in the monkeypox outbreak. A World Health Organization report last year suggested the natural R rate of the virus the number of people each patient would infect if they lived normally while sick is two. This is lower than the original Wuhan variant of Covid and about a third of the R rate of the Indian 'Delta' strain. But the real rate is likely much lower because 'distinctive symptoms greatly aid in its early detection and containment,' the team said, meaning it's easy to spot cases and isolate them. Covid is mainly spread through droplets an infected person releases whenever they breathe, speak, cough or sneeze. How is the UK managing the outbreak? MailOnline revealed close contacts of monkeypox cases, including NHS workers, are being offered the Imvanex smallpox vaccine. The strategy, known as ring vaccination, involves jabbing and monitoring anyone around an infected person to form a buffer of immune people to limit the spread of a disease. Additionally, close contacts of those with a confirmed monkeypox infection are being told to stay at home for 21 days and avoid contact under-12s, immunosuppressed people and pregnant women. The Government said unprotected direct contact or high risk environmental contact includes living in the same house as someone with monkeypox, having sexual contact with them or even just changing their bedding 'without appropriate PPE'. As with Covid, someone who has come within one metre of an infected person is classed as a monkeypox contact. This lower category of contact, which also includes sitting next to a person with monkeypox on a plane, means a tracer will call the person every day for three weeks and they will be advised to stay off work for 21 days if their job involves children or immuno-suppressed colleagues. The UK has stopped short of requiring people by law to quarantine if they develop monkeypox, but ministers are considering a public health campaign to alert gay and bisexual men, because of the number of cases in this group. What if it continues to spread? Experts told MailOnline they 'could see a role' for a targeted jab rollout to gay men in the UK 'if this isn't brought under control quickly'. Close contacts of the UK's known cases are already being offered the jab, which was originally designed for smallpox. The two rash-causing viruses are very similar. A health source told MailOnline 'there would be a number of strategies we'd look at' if cases continued to rise. Professor Kevin Fenton, London's public health regional director, said if the outbreak in the capital continues to grow then the rollout of vaccines and treatments could be broadened to more groups. He said there are 'plans in place' to have more antivirals if the outbreak keeps growing. What other countries have spotted cases? Around 20 countries including the US, Spain and Italy have detected cases of monkeypox. The most cases have been detected in Spain, Portugal, Canada and the UK. Within Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland have also confirmed cases. Australia, Israel and the Canary Islands also have monkeypox patients, while health chiefs in Argentina are investigating a possible case. There are a handful of antivirals and therapies for smallpox that appear to work on monkeypox, including the drug tecovirimat, which was approved for monkeypox in the EU in January Is there a vaccine for it? The smallpox vaccine, called Imvanex in the UK and Jynneos in the US, can protect against monkeypox because the viruses behind the illnesses are closely related. Data shows it prevents around 85 per cent of cases, and has been used 'off-label' in the UK since 2018. The jab, thought to cost 20 per dose, contains a modified vaccinia virus, which is similar to both smallpox and monkeypox, but does not cause disease in people. Because of its similarity to the pox viruses, antibodies produced against this virus offer cross protection. Are there any drugs to treat it? There are a handful of antivirals and therapies for smallpox that appear to work on monkeypox. This includes the drug tecovirimat, which was approved for monkeypox in the EU in January. Tecovirimat prevents the virus from leaving an infected cell, hindering the spread of the virus within the body. An injectable antiviral used to treat AIDS called cidofovir can be used to manage the infection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also works by stopping the growth of the virus. The clean-cut lawyer who allegedly gang raped a teenage girl on a bucks weekend has also been charged with molesting a second girl the previous night. Maurice Hawell, 28, was arrested earlier this month after a three month investigation into the alleged attacks at the warehouse-style unit in Newcastle West, NSW. The western Sydney solicitor is a former private Catholic school boy at the private Patrician Brothers' College in Fairfield and works at a firm in Sydney's CBD. Police allege he and groom-to-be Andrew David, 28, sexually assaulted a 19-year-old girl around 11pm on February 26 after she was allegedly lured back to the Airbnb. But Daily Mail Australia can now reveal Maurice Hawell is also facing a charge of sexually touching a second, different, girl between 10pm and midnight on February 25. Maurice Hawell, 28, was arrested earlier this month after a three month investigation into the alleged attack at the warehouse-style unit in Newcastle West, NSW (pictured) Clean-cut lawyer Maurice Hawell who allegedly gang raped a teenage girl on a bucks weekend has also been charged with molesting a second girl the previous night The gang rape is alleged to have taken place at the $555-a-night three-bedroom converted industrial-style flat in Parry Street, close to the city's party zone. The alleged attacks happened just a few days after civil engineer David's 28th birthday on February 22. A third man Marius Hawell, 20, is also alleged to have been part of the attack and was arrested in a dawn raid on his Edensor Park home on Wednesday. David was simultaneously arrested at his parents' plush $3million five-bedroom mansion, set in two acres of ground, on the semi-rural outskirts of Horsely Park. His wedding arrangements on June 18 have now been 'amended' over issues between the guest list and possible witnesses, Fairfield Local Court was told on Wednesday. Groom-to-be Andrew David, 28, was arrested at his parents' plush $3million five-bedroom mansion, set in two acres of ground, on the semi-rural outskirts of Horsely Park The groom and his wife-to-be now have no plans for a honeymoon, the court heard. Police allege the rape was carried out in one of the unit's bedrooms by the two older men between 10.35pm and 10.50pm while the younger man watched on The listing for the apartment says it can cater for up to six guests and boasts of its two king-size beds and one queen-sized. Photographs from inside the unit reveal a plush leather lounge suite and giant TV, with an open plan kitchen and upmarket walk-in shower and wet room bathroom. The listing for the apartment says it can cater for up to six guests and boasts of its two king-size beds and one queen-sized One reviewer praised its 'good location and nice space for larger groups' while another commented on its 'very nice bed'. Maurice Hawell also left a rating and review for the unit in the wake of the weekend, although the review is now blank, but he was thanked for it by the letting agent. The two 28-year-olds were charged with two counts each of aggravated sexual assault on February 26 in company with other persons. Maurice Hawell faces the extra charge of sexually touching without consent a different girl on February 25. The attack is alleged to have taken place at the $555-a-night three-bedroom converted industrial-style flat in Parry Street, close to the city's party zone Maurice Hawell also left a rating and review for the unit in the wake of the weekend, although the review is now blank, but he was thanked for it by the letting agent Marius Hawell was charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault on February in company with other person/s, being that of principal in the second degree. All three accused have been granted bail to return to court on July 4, with police investigations continuing. Maurice Hawell was unavailable at his office on Thursday. Colleagues said he was on personal leave and 'taking some time off'. This is the shocking moment a vicious thug punched and kicked a taxi driver more than 30 times to put him in a coma. Callum McDermott, 32, was confronted by the cabbie after he was spotted deliberately stopping traffic in the middle of the road in Saffron Lane, Leicester, at 6.40am on August 23 last year after a cocaine and alcohol fuelled night out. Dash-cam footage captured the man then launching his frenzied attack, kicking and punching his victim more than 30 times while he was lying on the ground. Callum McDermott, 32, of Leicester, was jailed for ten years and eight months The 45-year-old sustained multiple facial fractures and was placed in an induced coma in hospital with life-threatening injuries. The dad-of-three was left physically and mentally scarred and will never be able to return to work as a taxi driver. Body-cam video shows how McDermott also violently attacked a number of officers who arrived at the scene and threw a wheelie-bin at them. One officer was punched in the face and was left with a broken nose in four places as well as cuts and bruises to his face. McDermott was sprayed with an incapacitant, arrested and taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary where he made racist comments to staff. He went on to admit grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, two counts of assault on an emergency worker and a Section 5 racially-aggravated public order. He was also charged with attempted murder but following a trial earlier this month he was found not guilty of that offence at Leicester Crown Court. McDermott, of Leicester, was jailed for ten years and eight months at the same court on Thursday. McDermott was confronted by the cabbie after he was spotted deliberately stopping traffic in the middle of the road in Saffron Lane, Leicester, at 6.40am on August 23 last year after a cocaine and alcohol fuelled night out Dash-cam footage captured the man then launching his frenzied attack, kicking and punching his victim more than 30 times while he was lying on the ground Detective Constable Berni Smith, of Leicestershire Police, said: 'This was a horrific attack on a man in a public place, in front of a number of members of the public. 'Many were left extremely distressed by what they had witnessed. 'Fortunately, the victim survived the attack, although he is still receiving ongoing medical treatment and life for him will never be the same. 'McDermott didnt just stop at attacking the victim, he then assaulted a number of officers, one of whom sustained significant facial injuries.' Temporary Chief Constable Rob Nixon added: 'This was a shocking incident and my thoughts are with the victim and his family. 'McDermotts actions that day were inexcusable. Not only did he attack a member of the public but officers doing their duty. 'Any attack on any police officer is very concerning to us and completely unacceptable. 'Your police officers and staff are normal people who do incredible things. Drawn from our local communities, they are doing an excellent job at the most challenging of times. The 45-year-old sustained multiple facial fractures and was placed in an induced coma in hospital with life-threatening injuries Body-cam video shows how McDermott also violently attacked a number of officers who arrived at the scene and threw a wheelie-bin at them 'Being attacked and assaulted while they carry out this duty will simply not be tolerated.' Following the case, the victims 36-year-old wife said in a heartbreaking interview: 'He wishes the man had killed him - life will never be the same again.' She added: 'Hes been extremely depressed and can be tearful - he knows something has happened to him he just cant remember what. 'We originally come from Sri Lanka and he often says he just wants to go back to his homeland and leave the UK. 'My older daughter is 10 years old, she knows something has happened and her dad has changed. 'She was an extremely intelligent girl and as a result of whats happened her school work started to suffer. 'Luckily the school have been able to support her and provide some wellbeing counselling to help her. One officer was punched in the face and was left with a broken nose in four places as well as cuts and bruises to his face The dad-of-three was left physically and mentally scarred and will never be able to return to work as a taxi driver 'The detectives who have been investigating this case have been supportive and making adjustments so my husband is able to provide evidence via a video recording and didnt have to stand up in court and talk about what he remembers or the impact on him now. 'When the officers came to our home on the morning of the assault I thought they were just there to speak to me or tell me something - I never expected it to be about my husband being seriously assaulted. 'I was in shock for days, luckily family and friends rallied around us and were there to support me and the children through the traumatic time. 'That day changed our lives forever and I dont know whether life will ever be the same for us again. 'How can someone do that to another person, does he not have a family, doesnt he have a heart? 'I can only hope now that my husband will recover in some way and be able to return to work and we can be a normal family again.' The former partner of billionaire Lord Ashcroft's son has given her first in-depth account about how she shot dead a police chief in the tropical paradise of Belize. Jasmine Hartin, 33, admitted that she shot Superintendent Henry Jemmott when his gun went off by accident while she handled it as they had a late-night drink together on a pier. But she insisted that she did not realise at the time that his service pistol was loaded, meaning she was not responsible for his death. She said: 'How could I be charged with manslaughter by negligence where I truly thought the weapon was empty?' In an exclusive interview with discovery+, the Canadian-born socialite told of her regret at initially making up a story that he had been shot by a man in a passing boat, saying she had lied out of panic and fear. The former partner of billionaire Lord Ashcroft's son has given her first in-depth account about how she shot dead a police chief in the tropical paradise of Belize Jasmine Hartin, 33, admitted that she shot Superintendent Henry Jemmott when his gun went off by accident while she handled it as they had a late-night drink together on a pier She insisted that she did not realise at the time that his service pistol was loaded, meaning she was not responsible for his death. Pictured: The pier the pair were sitting on In an exclusive interview, the Canadian-born socialite told of her regret at initially making up a story that he had been shot by a man in a passing boat, saying she had lied out of panic and fear Lord Ashcroft's son Andrew, 43, and his former partner Jasmine Hartin, 32, who is facing a manslaughter charge in Belize The latest shocking episode in the Hartin saga comes as she prepares to stand trial later this year over the death of Superintendent Henry Jemmott Hartin insisted that she and Supt Jemmott were only friends rather than lovers, even though her relationship with Lord Ashcroft's son Andrew was disintegrating at the time. She said the Belizean police chief had earlier shown her his Glock 17 pistol while advising her to get a gun to defend herself after she was the victim of an attempted sexual assault. Hartin claimed that Supt Jemmott had invited her and partner Andrew, 44, the son of the former Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party, for a drink as he was staying nearby But she went alone to meet up with him after Andrew opted for an early night in their apartment in San Pedro on the holiday island of Ambergris Caye off Belize. Jasmine Hartin, 33, is back in custody over explosive new allegations that she ordered a hit on the country's police commissioner In the early hours of May 28, 2021, Jasmine Hartin shot Henry Jemmott dead with his own service pistol Andrew Ashcroft claims his ex Jasmine Hartin is unfit to care for twins Charlie and Ellie After spending the weekend behind bars, Hartin gave a statement saying the off-duty officer was showing her how to handle his firearm as the pair drank and hung out Hartin told how the off-duty police chief, nicknamed 'King', had made the fatal decision to take along his gun, after returning to his room to fetch it as they made their way to the pier. She said: 'He grabbed it before we went out and I remember making a joke with him about it, like, 'We're just going right here, there's security here, like you don't need it', But he brought it anyways.' Speaking in the documentary One Bullet in Belize which is available on discovery+ UK from Saturday, May 28, she shuddered as she recalled the gun, saying 'Didn't need to be there, didn't need to be there.' She recalled: 'It was a full moon. It was a beautiful night. We were just talking, listening to music, having fun and we went to the pier. I wanted to put my feet in the water.' Last year, after she was first arrested, the blonde socialite was holed up in a tiny concrete cell at the stiflingly hot police and magistrates court complex in San Pedro, the tropical island of Ambergris Caye's only town Hartin told interviewer Sarah Hunt how her policeman friend once again suggested she got acquainted with handling a gun and bullets in a magazine, as he had done a few days earlier following the attack on her. She said: 'I had the magazine. I was just emptying it and reloading it without it being in the weapon. It was like a game to see how fast I could take them out and then put them back in. 'And then he took the bullets and put them to his left. I had the empty magazine - fully empty - and I popped it in [the gun] and then put it down. 'We were sitting on the side of the dock. Both of our feet were over the dock, so I have the weapon on my right, the bullets are to the left of Henry.' She said her friend who had recently told her he was single after the end of a long relationship, then asked her to rub his shoulder as it was sore after his day's fishing. Hartin said she recalled making a joke with him, saying 'I said, 'Don't you have like a bunch of girls to do this for you?' 'I shuffled back a little bit, I still have my right leg straight, but my left leg was bent behind his back and I'm rubbing his shoulder. 'Then at some point, he says he wants to go back inside, to hand him the magazine, so he was going to refill it real quick. 'So, I lean forward. I pick it up. I'm trying to get the magazine out [of the pistol]. I'm still sitting. He's still sitting. 'I'm using the Moon to see and I'm pushing to try to get the magazine out, and it was like it was stuck. 'I don't ever remember touching the trigger at all. Next thing I know, the gun goes off.' Hartin who is on bail after being charged with manslaughter by negligence, added: 'I thought it was a safe weapon [that] it was clear, empty.' The 20 stone officer fell backwards on top of her, trapping her against the boardwalk after a bullet from the pistol blasted him through the back of his head. Hartin who has five-year-old twins with Andrew Ashcroft, added: 'There's blood on me, so I know something's wrong. 'I have Henry on top of me. As I'm wiggling out from under him, he begins to slip into the water. 'I tried to hold him, and he was way bigger than me, there's no way I could have kept him on that dock, but I tried to get under his arms and hold him up, and I could not.' Eventually, police officers found the body of the police chief floating in the water. Hartin went on: 'They said they found him, and I said, 'Is he OK?' And they said, 'No, he's dead.' And that's when I found out he was actually dead. I didn'tyeah.' She said she then made the statement which she now bitterly regrets, saying he had had been shot by a man in a passing boat, before later retracting it and telling the truth. Hartin said: 'Once the adrenaline settled down, once I calmed down, once everything hit me then I was like, 'No, like I remember what happened, it was an accident'. Describing how she regretted her earlier statement, she said: 'Yeah I was so in shock when I initially said that, that I barely remember what I said. 'To be honest, I regret I should have probably just been honest from the moment. But when you're in that much shock and mental trauma, youI don't know. It doesn't make sense why I said that. I don't know why I said that. 'I'm exhausted, I'm in shock. I'm scared, you know, I'm covered in my friend's blood. I, I don't know. You can't explain why people do things when they're in shock.' She emphatically denied rumours that she was having an affair with Supt Jemmott, and insisted their relationship was one of friendship. Hartin said: 'It just didn't seem risky or like anything sexual, I didn't think about that like at all. It was more like just friendship and we trusted each other. The blonde beauty was living the high life before the tragedy occurred on May 28 'He didn't break up and come to me. I know he made some jokes to some friends about having a date. So he may have just been pulling their leg.' She also insisted that the fact that they met in a public place close to the Grand Colony apartment which she shared with Andrew Ashcroft, supported her insistence that they were not lovers trying to meet discreetly. Hartin who is due to stand trial in Belize any time from June 13, said: 'It was my front yard and Andrew was supposed to be coming down with me. 'He [Henry] was not hitting on me. And he really thought that Andrew and I were still quite an item, nobody knew really that we weren't together. We kept that very secret.' The blonde is pictured with her two kids in a social media snap captured before the May shooting She also attacked other wild rumours swirling around Belize including gossip suggesting that the gun had gone off after Andrew Ashcroft had caught her and Supt Jemmott on the pier. Hartin said: 'The stories are completely absurd. The most recent is that Henry and I were having a fiery affair on the pier and Andrew caught us and so they were struggling for the weapon. 'I'm like, this is so dramatised, you can't make this what it's not, there was only the two of us on the pier and it was an accident. Responding to claims that she had murdered the police chief, she said: 'What was my motive? I just thought, 'Hey, I'm going to take my friend to my front yard where my children are sleeping upstairs. And I'm just going to for no reason cause it's a Thursday, and I feel like it, I'm just going to cold-blooded kill him? In my front yard? In front of my security? 'I'm so sick of telling people I'm not a murderer. Like the fact that that has to come out of my mouth as a sentence is insane. It's completely ridiculous.' Protesting her innocence of the manslaughter charge, she added: I did not know that Henry handed me a loaded gun. 'I emptied the magazine. I figured that it's empty, so I don't understand how that is manslaughter by negligence. 'I don't feel I was negligent. I really don't. I feel like it was an accidental death.' Former dental assistant Hartin described how she was raised by a single mother in rural Canada before arriving in Belize in 2014 after a long-term relationship ended, and she landed up in the bustling holiday island of Ambergris Caye. She became an estate agent in the island's main town, San Pedro, where she met businessman Andrew Ashcroft whose father owned the Belize Bank Hartin said she has been ready to return to Canada, but fell for Andrew's sense of humour and vowed to make Belize her home. The couple became parents to twins in 2017, but never married although they referred to each other in public as being husband and wife. Jasmine admitted she was blissfully happy after the birth of her children, saying: 'It was the best decision I ever made, my whole life, I wanted to be a Mom.' But cracks had begun to privately appear in the golden couple's relationship by the time they opened their luxury Alaia resort in San Pedro in early May 2021. Andrew had beamed at the official opening as he insisted that he and his 'wife' Jasmine and their children were 100 per cent committed to Belize. Hartin smiled for the cameras but inside she was cringing as their seemingly perfect relationship was a sham None of the prominent guests at the ceremony realised that the couple were leading separate lives, and sleeping apart. Hartin is seen in an old video carrying a pump-action shotgun, then pretending to blow smoke from the barrel Hartin said she was the target of an attempted sexual assault two weeks later, at a female friend's birthday party, when an unknown man attacked her. She said: 'He was forcing himself on me and tugging at my pants' Hartin recalled how she fought off the man, but was left scared and immediately contacted her friend Supt Jemmott for support and advice. She said that he arrived to help her on the night, recalling: 'He scolded me like a big brother, telling me off for putting myself in a bad situation.' The police chief advised her to apply for a gun license for personal protection, as many others did in a country which is notorious for its high murder rate. Supt Jemmott then handed over his Glock 17 service weapon so she could practice loading and unloading the magazine. Just 24 hours later on May 24 last year she saw a message on his Facebook page, saying he was single after being in a relationship for many years. She wrote asking if he was OK, and he replied that 'he was better than ever' and asked her if she could book him into her hotel because he needed a break. Supt Jemmott returned to the island within 24 hours and went on a fishing trip on May 27, catching barracuda and snapper in the plentiful waters of the Caribbean. He then spent the evening at the home of Panny Arceo, a fishing guide and close friend, who recalled that he was 'was in good spirits'. Ashcroft and Hartin jointly ran the luxurious Alaia Belize Hotel on the resort island of Ambergris Caye off Belize's Caribbean coast Hartin and Andrew Ashcroft were at a rooftop bar with friends, but she said that she was not enjoying herself. She said she had returning to her apartment shortly after 10pm to relieve the babysitter, when she received a text from her policeman friend. He joked that he had been in San Pedro for two days, but still hadn't seen her and Andrew, and suggested they join him for a nightcap, she said. Hartin said she changed into jeans and grabbed a bottle of wine for their fateful meeting while Andrew decided to stay behind. She is now estranged from Andrew and is fighting a bitter custody battle with him over their twins. He has accused her of being an unfit mother. A new airline is selling tickets plane tickets for flights from London to New York for a bargain price of 255, but anyone looking to take extra bags could have to pay an extra 111. Norse Atlantic Airways is commencing flights from Gatwick Airport to JFK Airport on August 12 at less than half the price of current transatlantic flights on those dates. But passengers will have to travel extremely light to take advantage of this, as the airline is charging fees of 55.50 to check in a 'standard' 23kg bag, meaning the depending on how much luggage you're taking the price could go up. The new airline is charging fees of around 20 for carry on bags up to 10kg in weight, and around 48 for 'light' checked bags weighing up to 15kg. Even with the extra fee to bring the bag onboard, the flight is still hundreds of pounds cheaper than other flights to New York, with other services from Gatwick by Jet Blue and British Airways costing more than 600. It is also more than 100 cheaper than an anytime return train ticket from London Euston to Manchester Piccadilly, which would set you back 369.40 for a journey leaving on that same date. Norse Atlantic Airways is launching its first flights from June 13, with the first flights from Gatwick to New York leaving on August 12 Daily flights on the route will use the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft which can carry up to 344 people across the Atlantic. It is set to offer flights to other US destinations shortly, with the first confirmed destinations being Oslo in Norway, London in the UK, as well as Fort Lauderdale, Los Angles, New York and Orlando in the United States. The Norwegian airline is set to start operations on June 13, and comes as ticket prices rocket as the price of fuel goes up and demand for flights increases. The airline industry is trying to get back on its feet after a torrid couple of years, with the Covid pandemic causing some airlines to go bust and many to lay off staff. The new flight is hundreds of pounds cheaper than the next cheapest flight to the Big Apple from the UK Norse Atlantic Airways is looking to succeed where Norwegian Air Shuttle failed. Norwegian operated transatlantic flights with low fares but axed its long-haul operations in January 2021 due to heavy losses. It was founded by Bjorn Kjos, who resigned as chief executive in July 2019 and holds a minority stake in Norse. Bjorn Tore Larsen, boss of Norse, said: 'We are very pleased to now be able to welcome customers looking to book great value flights between London Gatwick and New York JFK. 'Customers now have an affordable option allowing them to book a last-minute trip or a holiday of a lifetime with an airline that offers choice and flexibility.' The launch of Norse flights from Gatwick will be a major boost for the West Sussex airport, which has been badly affected by the coronavirus pandemic. It closed one of its two terminals between June 2020 and March due to the collapse in passenger numbers. People looking to travel to New York could be delighted by the new service, although they will have to pay extra to check in their bags Gatwick chief executive Stewart Wingate said: 'We are delighted to welcome Norse Atlantic Airways to Gatwick. 'It's always great to see a new tail on the airfield but the arrival of a new airline following the turbulent past two years for the industry, and one that will be offering fantastic long-haul routes across the Atlantic, is particularly exciting news. 'Passengers across London and the South East will now be able to benefit from another transatlantic service from Gatwick, with Norse offering excellent value for money for those flying out for a dream holiday, or important business trip, to New York, one of the world's most famous and dynamic cities.' A Love Island star's mother has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction - after a missing eight-year-old girl who vanished from school was found safely. Lancashire Constabulary had been increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of youngster Darcy Shea. She had last been seen outside St Cuthbert's Primary School in Blackpool at 9am this morning and officers believed she was picked up by Jane Prior, 60. But just after 3pm both of them were found safely and Mrs Prior, who is the mother of Love Island star Kendall Rae Knight, was arrested on suspicion of child abduction. Officers had carried out searches and conducted a number of enquiries to try and find them both. Jane Prior, 60, and Kendall Rae Knight beaming for this happy mother-daughter picture Today Jane Prior, 60, was arrested for child abduction as Darcey was found safe and well Lancashire Police were urgently searching for missing eight-year-old Darcey this afternoon Ms Prior - who has modelled on ITV favourite This Morning - has links to Preston and North Wales but was in the Blackpool area. The pair were thought to be in a blue Mitsubishi Colt car registration SP56 RHO. A Lancashire Police spokesperson said: 'Further to our earlier appeals, Darcy, missing from Blackpool, has been found safe and well in the resort this afternoon. 'A 60-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction and is in custody. Ms Prior is mother of Love Island star Kendall Rae Knight, pictured, and known to Darcey The pair were thought to be in a blue Mitsubishi Colt car registration SP56 RHO pictured here 'Thank you to everyone who shared our appeals for information.' Three years ago Ms Prior appeared on This Morning where she was wined and dined in Italy during a special dating section. The Matchmaker Mountain segment featured her and explained her motivations for going on the show She told the programme: 'My daughter Kendall (Rae Knight) was on Love Island last year and although she didn't find love on the show, I thought I hopefully might have more luck!!' A Russian news site has reported that Britain will soon turn to cannibalism amid horrendous food shortages caused by war in Ukraine - based entirely on a Jeremy Clarkson column. Pro-Kremlin channel and website Tsargrad TV reported on May 23: 'Things are not going well in the UK... their own population is preparing for starvation.' It also claimed a 'state of emergency' had been declared in Britain due to food shortages and explained, entirely seriously, in a May 18 article how 'British TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear warned about the dangers of cannibalism in the UK'. The laughable claim, which has been repeated in a number of Tsargrad TV's articles, was derived from a Sunday Times column in which the former TV presenter-turned-farmer expressed his concern over the global food crisis exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. The article covered some very real concerns such as the skyrocketing prices of fertiliser and gas, and considerable grain and oil shortages as a result of the conflict. But it was peppered by a series of jokes and tongue-in-cheek statements such as: 'Politicians say they are ''monitoring the situation'', which means they aren't doing anything at all, but one day they will have to because while people can live without heat or clothing or even sex, they cannot live without food. 'Hunger makes people eat their neighbours.' The oligarch-owned, pro-Putin channel decided this was all it needed to declare British citizens fledgling cannibals. A Russian news site has reported that Britain will soon turn to cannibalism amid horrendous food shortages caused by war in Ukraine - based entirely on a Jeremy Clarkson column (Clarkson pictured last year at launch of 'Clarkson's Farm' series) Pro-Kremlin channel and website Tsargrad TV reported on May 23: 'Things are not going well in the UK... their own population is preparing for starvation and journalists begin to say terrible things aloud, reminding them of the risk of cannibalism' (Russian President Vladimir Putin pictured yesterday) Russian Orthodox billionaire launched Tsargrad TV in 2015 with the help of a former Fox News producer. He accused of funding and advising Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine and funding nationalist groups across Europe A military vehicle is pictured in a grain field previously mined with explosives, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine, in Chernihiv region, Ukraine May 24, 2022 'Residents of the UK are very frightened that Ukraine - the world's leading supplier of grains and vegetable oils - no longer supplies anything to anyone... store shelves are empty, and because of this, the country is rolling down an inclined plane,' the Tsargrad article read. 'The British are already being pushed towards... cannibalism!' Tsargrad TV is owned by Konstantin Malofeev, an Russian Orthodox billionaire and ultra-conservative Putin supporter. The oligarch in 2015 launched the channel which quickly earned the moniker 'Russia's Fox News', thanks in part to its conservative content, but also to Malofeev's decision to hire former Fox News producer John Hanick to help create the platform. Malofeev is also accused of being heavily involved in the financing and advising of Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, playing a key part in Russia's annexation of Crimea and resulting unrest in the Donbas region since 2014. The war in Ukraine, together with Western sanctions against Russia, have sent the price of grain, cooking oil, fertiliser and energy soaring. That in turn is threatening a global food crisis as many countries count on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat imports, including some of the poorest. Russia and Ukraine together account for nearly a third of the global wheat supply, and their importance has been underscored by an Indian export ban and adverse crop weather in North America and Western Europe. Ukraine is also a major exporter of corn, barley, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil, while Russia and Belarus - which has backed Moscow in the war and is also under sanctions - account for over 40 per cent of global exports of the crop nutrient potash. The war in Ukraine is threatening a global food crisis as many countries count on Russia and Ukraine for more than half of their wheat imports, including some of the poorest (man collects wheat at grain silos in Egypt) A Ukrainian army officer inspects a grain warehouse earlier shelled by Russian forces on May 06, 2022 near the frontlines of Kherson Oblast in Novovorontsovka, Ukraine Jeremy Clarkson, pictured at the Diddly Squat Farm in Chipping Norton. The ex-Top Gear presenter has been farming his own land in recent years and opened up about his concerns over the knock on effect of the war in Ukraine on food production in the UK Clarkson, who in recent years has been learning to farm his own land in the Cotswolds and struck a deal with Amazon Prime to televise the journey, discussed his concerns over the knock-on effect of the war in Ukraine for food production in Britain. 'I don't pretend to be an expert in geopolitics any more than I pretend to be a farmer, but I really think the world has slipped into a pair of margarine trousers and is now hurtling down a well-watered slide into the pit of hunger, misery and death,' he wrote. 'The problem is that next year many farmers will decide that, because of the costs involved, they'll use less fertiliser. Some will doubtless try to use none at all... Others will try to use cardboard or lawn clippings or faeces instead. Either way they will produce less food. 'Prices are already going up, not by 7 per cent or 10 per cent but by a massive 37 per cent. And the World Bank says it won't stop there. 'The British government could take a lead and force farmers to farm their land, with grants to pay for the fertiliser... But that isnt going to happen for a couple of reasons... the British government is run by Carrie Johnson, who thinks the countryside should be for badgers and not for growing food.' Boris Johnson today warned that Russia is 'chewing through ground' in eastern Ukraine as he urged more support for Kyiv's forces. The PM said Vladimir Putin's military is making 'palpable progress' in the Donbas region despite the 'incredible heroism' of the resistance. In an interview with Bloomberg, he said more offensive weapons including long-range multiple-launch rocket systems are needed to help counter the threat. The Ministry of Defence says Putin's invading troops have recently captured several villages as they attempt to surround Severodonetsk and Lysychansk in the Donbas. Pro-Russian troops drive past a destroyed residential building in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk region yesterday Boris Johnson (pictured today) said Vladimir Putin's military is making 'palpable progress' in the Donbas region despite the 'incredible heroism' of the resistance. But it said President Volodymyr Zelensky's defending forces are holding 'multiple defended sectors' as Russia deploys 50-year-old Soviet-era T-62 tanks. These, the intelligence update said, 'will almost certainly be particularly vulnerable' to anti-tank weapons and shows Russia's lack of 'modern, combat-ready equipment'. Mr Johnson said: 'I think it's very, very important that we do not get lulled because of the incredible heroism of the Ukrainians in pushing the Russians back from the gates of Kyiv. 'I'm afraid that Putin at great cost to himself and Russian military is continuing to chew through ground in Donbas, he's continuing to make gradual, slow but I'm afraid palpable progress. 'And therefore it is absolutely vital that we continue to support the Ukrainians militarily.' Footage of the shocking moment a failed Australian anti-vaxxer politician allegedly savages a female police officer has been shown in court. Raina Cruise, 38, is seen in a violent 2021 confrontation with officers in the bodycam video which was played to Adelaide Magistrates Court. The mother-of-three is alleged to have ripped two patches of hair from a female officer in the incident and screamed a string of obscenities including taunting her as 'weak'. Footage of the shocking moment failed Australian anti-vaxxer politician Raina Cruise allegedly savages a female police officer has been shown in Adelaide Magistrates Court Ms Cruise infamously posed in a bra made from surgical masks on social media last year and unsuccessfully stood for the senate for the Informed Medical Opinions Party in the federal election. She was charged with causing harm with intent, aggravated assault and failing to provide personal details. The incident began when Ms Cruise was ejected from the Exeter Hotel in Adelaide's Rundle Street last October after allegedly pulling the face mask off a bartender. She was spoken to by police outside the hotel when they allege she became increasingly aggressive and eventually abusive. Video viewed by Adelaide magistrate Briony Kennewell shows Ms Cruise shouting and swearing at police, then striking an officer multiple times, the prosecution alleged. Among the abuse Cruise is alleged to have directed at police were the taunts 'do you want a f***ing go, b***h?' and 'Ill smash you, one-on-one', AdelaideNow reported. She was also allegedly heard telling e female officer 'you are so f***ing weak'. Prosecutor Karen Ingleton described Cruise's behaviour during the incident as 'aggressive and obnoxious'. Raina Cruise (pictured in her political promotion material left ) has been charged with assault after a night out in an Adelaide pub. The Bachelor of Health Science Student recently posted a picture on Instagram in a Covid mask bra saying she had finally 'worked out how to use them' (right) Raina Cruise (pictured) has denied assaulting anyone and will reappear in court in May '[She] eventually grabs [the officer] by the hair and drags her to the ground,' Ms Ingleton alleged. 'Despite a number of directions to let her go and get off, Cruise does not do that and ultimately rips hair from (the officer's) head.' Ms Cruise's lawyer Andrew Graham claimed the case should be thrown out, arguing his client was unlawfully arrested. But Ms Kennewell decided she did have a case to answer and she will now return to court next month. Ms Cruise has addressed the incidents on a video she posted to YouTube in which she admits she pulled a Covid mask from a bartender but says she assaulted no one. 'If I hadn't had a few drinks, it wouldn't have happened,' she said. Twitter has today been hauled into a free speech row after locking a feminist entrepreneur out of her account over a Tweet which she claims 'quotes UK law'. Angela Wild says she is no longer allowed to use her business account after Tweeting: 'All men should be banned from women-only spaces - and they are'. She says the comment is a quote of UK equality law - which allows single sex services to be provided in certain circumstances. However she claims the social media giant has suspended her profile until she agrees to delete the Tweet, which moderators say breaches the site's 'hate speech' rules. The 44-year-old businesswoman, who uses the Twitter account to promote her company's feminist art and clothing, says she has pleaded her case with the social media firm in a bid to get her account back. However she claims moderators have told her she will not be able to wrestle back full control of account - which has more than 11,000 followers - until she deletes the Tweet. Feminist groups claim Twitter has given in to pressure by trans activists by locking Ms Wild's account and have attempted to rally around the entrepreneur. And today Harry Potter author JK Rowling - who has become a leading feminist voice on social media - shared her support, by retweeting a post from Ms Wild's friend about her situation. Speaking about her experience to MailOnline, Ms Wild said: 'I'm outraged at the thought that moderators on Twitter are making decision like this and taking action against a Tweet about something that is legal in the UK. Ms Wild, 44, who lives in Wales, started her own business in September 2017 designing slogan-printed t-shirts and badges, which campaign for women's sex-based rights The message was retweeted by JK Rowling, who has become a prominent voice in campaigning for women's sex-based rights and who was once pictured with Ms Wild at a campaign meeting Friends say Ms Wild has been locked out of 'several' social media accounts and that people are now 'actively sabotaging' her business Angela Wild says the social media giant has suspended her account until she agrees to delete the Tweet, which moderators claim breaches the site's 'hate speech' rules The 44-year-old businesswoman, who uses the Twitter account to promote her company's feminist art and clothing, says she has pleaded her case with the social media giant in a bid to get her account back 'This is not just about respecting freedom of speech it's about democracy and having the right to state the law. And all of that is being taken away.' It comes as JK Rowling today backed Ms Wild in her battle with the social media giant, by retweeting a post claiming she was being 'sabotaged' by trans activists. The world-famous writer, 56, took to Twitter to retweet a message of support for the entrepreneur - who started her own business in September 2017 designing slogan-printed t-shirts and badges, which campaign for women's sex-based rights. So what does UK law say about sex-based rights? The Equality Act 2010 legally protects people from discrimination in the workplace and in wider society. The main body of the act makes it illegal to discriminate based on someone's sex. But it does make exceptions to the general prohibition of sex discrimination - to allow the provision of separate services for men and women. Under the act, a service provider can deliver separate services for men and women where providing a combined service would not be as effective. And it lists the instances where single sex services are permitted where, including those where only people of that sex require it - or where there is joint provision for both sexes but that is not sufficient on its own. Sex based services can also be utilised when a service is by more than one person and a woman might object to the presence of a man (or vice versa). The act also gives an example, saying it would not be unlawful for a charity to set up separate hostels, one for homeless men and one for homeless women, where the hostels provide the same level of service to men and women because the level of need is the same but a unisex hostel would not be as effective. But i each case, the separate provision has to be 'objectively justified'. This was backed up earlier this year when the UK's human rights watchdog, the Equality and Human Rights Commission, issued new guidance. It said that services such as bathrooms and domestic abuse refuges can be single sex in certain circumstances. It did however add that such services should be open to trans people wherever possible. Exceptions are only acceptable if there are 'proportionate and justified reasons', the EHRC said in its guidance. Advertisement Ms Rowling once famously wore one of Ms Wild's 'This Witch Doesn't Burn' t-shirts - sparking fury from trans activists who have branded the author and others like her as 'transphobic' for their gender- critical views. Ms Wild said she was 'thankful' for the support of Ms Rowling - who she once met when the author hosted some of Britain's most prominent feminists and women's activists to support the 'Respect My Sex' campaign. She said of Ms Rowling: 'She was very nice and very humble for someone of that celebrity status. 'I have a huge amount of respect for her. I think many celebrities are afraid to speak up and to put their ahead above the parapet about what is going on and what they really believe. She's very brave.' Ms Wild also thanked Ms Rowling and other feminists who had shown support, insisting that her business remained 'busy' despite the loss of her main Twitter account. 'I've had lots of support - because I think people are starting to realise what is happening. So I'm still busy and I have other accounts which I can use - though it took me a long time to get up to 11,000 before.' The row started after Ms Wild posted a tweet about sex-based rights. In the post, which copied in Ms Rowling, she wrote: 'All men should be banned from women's spaces.' Ms Wild said her account was later suspended following complaints by trans activists. But despite appealing, she received a message from Twitter moderators, which said under the header 'violating our rules against hateful conduct', that: 'Our support team has determined that a violation did take place, and therefore we will not overturn our decision. 'You will not be able to access Twitter through your account due to violations of the Twitter rules, specifically our rules around: In order to restore functionality, you can resolve the violations by logging into the account and completing the onscreen instructions.' Sharing the message on another account, Ms Wild said: 'My case has been reviewed. And just like that Twitter had determined that women-only spaces, which are legal in UK, protected in the Equality Act 2010, are 'hateful conduct'. 'When companies place themselves above the law are we still in a democracy?'. One of Ms Wild's friend, Jess DeWhals, flagged the entrepreneurs battle with Twitter. In a post she wrote: 'My friend Angela has been locked out of several social media accounts. 'People are mass reporting & actively sabotaging her business. I for one will go on a lil' shopping spree in her shop now. Need some feminist art and merch? Look no further.' The post was retweeted by Ms Rowling, who has more than 13million followers on her Twitter account. Ms Wild started her own business in September 2017 designing slogan-printed t-shirts and badges, which campaign for women's sex-based rights. She began selling her products on Etsy but many of them were banned for 'hateful conduct' after she was targeted by 'cruel' trans rights activists who sent her threatening messages and reported her items. Despite setting up her own website last year, the mother-of-one has had three different suppliers refuse to work with her and has been forced to call the police on several occasions to report the 'frightening' abuse she receives online. The single mother-of-one started her own business in September 2017 making slogan-printed products campaigning for women's sex-based rights She has blasted trans activists for trying to 'intimidate' her by sending her daily death and rape threats. Pictured: A threat she has received via Facebook Speaking exclusively to the MailOnline, Angela said: 'The past five years of my life have been hell. 'I've been relentlessly targeted by trans rights activists and their witchhunt campaign to instil fear into anyone who doesn't agree with their views. 'I've been labeled a 'terf' - a trans exclusionary radical feminist - a transphobic bigot, hateful, a Nazi, over social media and had some of my personal details published online. 'My products are based on my own views. I do not accept the idea that anyone can have a cervix. It's simple biology that only women do. It's ridiculous that we can't even say that - how is biology now viewed as hate speech? 'What I have experienced first-hand from trans activists has been intimidating and frightening - it shouldn't be allowed to happen. 'No one should have to be subjected to the abuse I and many other women receive on a daily basis. It's disgusting and simply not right. 'Transgender activists are trying to stifle free speech by tearing down anyone who wants to express gender critical views - It's unacceptable!' The single mother-of-one (above) has been labeled a 'terf' - a trans exclusionary radical feminist - a transphobic bigot, hateful, a Nazi, over social media and had her personal details published online Angela says her products are based on her own views and have been popular with customers 'Lesbian not Queer' is another of the store's popular designs that have attracted attention One of Angela's t-shirts which references the term 'Cis', which describes a person whose gender identity is the same as their sex assigned at birth Angela receives hateful messages daily from transgender activists on social media (pictured) and has been forced to contact the police several times concerned for her safety Angela, who is originally from France, has an array of products that she sells on her website, Wild Womyn Workshop, which include badges that read 'Trans women are men', 'Protect women-only spaces' and 'Female biology is not bigotry' to name a few. She started her business in September 2017 but was instantly met with abuse and opposition from trans activists who labelled her a 'worthless b***h'. She added: 'I was in an abusive relationship with a man for a very long time. I struggled severely with my mental health and when we broke up I decided I wanted to create something I believed in that reflected my values. 'I set up an Etsy shop in 2017 but after a few months, many of my products were being repeatedly reported. Over the years it kept happening until I was given a final warning in 2019. 'Messages on social media from trans activists sending me abuse became the norm - but as time went on they got more severe. It started to get quite scary and I had to contact the police. 'Fed up of having to constantly justify myself, I decided to set up my own website and it's been the best thing I've ever done. I love it!' The single mother-of-one, who is also the co-founder of lesbian feminist activist group Get The L Out, shot to prominence when J K Rowling purchased a t-shirt with the slogan 'This witch doesn't burn' under a pseudonym last year. The author, 56, has faced accusations of transphobia after she mocked an online article in June 2020 which used the words 'people who menstruate' instead of 'women'. Angela shot to prominence when J K Rowling purchased a t-shirt with the slogan 'This witch doesn't burn' under a pseudonym last year and tweeted about it (pictured) Angela says: 'I have been fortunate enough to always have consistent sales, but they went through the roof when J K Rowling posted a tweet wearing one of my t-shirts. I couldn't believe it! 'I support her and am a huge fan - it really was the boost I needed. I was so grateful. 'However, it massively increased the abuse and on one occasion I received a bomb threat to my studio followed by rape and death threats in their masses. 'Three different suppliers refused to work with me and one claimed my products were inciting hate. I've also had people pretend to place orders and message me to try and find out my home address - It's crazy. 'One person wrote to me on Facebook, ''Trans women are more of a woman than you. Looks like you burn pretty well to me.' 'My activism and products seem to highlight the conflict of interest between women's rights and trans rights activists. It's baffling to me that I am a woman and my right to free speech is taken away because I want to express gender critical views. 'My opinions aren't hurting anyone. We live in a democracy. Yet, with trans rights activists they seek to cancel you and make you feel as if you are nothing. Angela has said her activism and feminist products seem to highlight the 'conflict of interest between women's rights and trans rights activists' 'The more we are harassed the more we will stand up and fight. Women who are critical of gender ideology are routinely accused of being on the 'wrong side of history' but enough is enough. There needs to be a voice heard for the lesbian community.' Angela opened up about how trans lobby group Stonewall, which is paid millions of pounds for advising public bodies including Government departments, police forces and universities has branded lesbians 'sexual racists' for raising concerns about being pressured into having sex with transgender women. She said: 'We are now under huge pressure within the LGBT+ groups to accept trans women as sexual partners but there needs to be a voice for the other side. In my opinion, trans women are men. They do not have cervixes and they do not menstruate. That is simple biology. That is fact. Saying otherwise is ridiculous. 'Lesbians are women who are sexually attracted to women exclusively. We get called by organisations such as Stonewall and the LGBT community as transphobic and hateful because we don't conform to the ideology that we should be attracted to trans women. 'I believe nobody can change sex - you can identify as whoever you want but it doesn't make you that. Lesbians are being targeted. I have spoken to many who have been harassed and it's not okay. 'At the end of the day, we live in a democracy that prides itself on free speech. Trans activists have their voices heard and are supported by charities like Stonewall, however what about women like me who speak for the other side? 'You cannot simply shut us up. We are entitled to our opinion and I will make sure mine is heard every day.' You can visit the Wild Womyn Workshop here. MailOnline has attempted to contact Twitter for a comment but did not receive a response in time for publication. NATO scrambled F-35 fighters to intercept Russian aircraft on Thursday after the Norwegian Air Force identified two jets flying near the Finnish border. Tensions between Russia and the Nordics have escalated since Finland and Sweden submitted their applications to join NATO on May 18, expanding the border between Russia and the military alliance. Norway identified the Russian aircraft as one Mikoyan MiG-31 'Foxhound' and a Sukhoi Su-24 'Fencer' jet. The Russian planes flew to the Norwegian Sea before returning east, said the air force. The Srreisa Control and Reporting Centre, in the north of Norway, reported on the jets. The Norwegian F-35 fighter aircraft (left) is pictured next to the Russian Su-24 'Fencer' fighter (right). The Russian planes flew to the Norwegian Sea before returning east, said the air force Norway identified Russia's aircraft as the Mikoyan MiG-31 'Foxhound' (top) pictured next to NATO's F-35 (bottom). The Srreisa Control and Reporting Centre, in the north of Norway, reported on the jets Stine Barclay Gaasland, communications manager in the Air Force, said the Norwegian Armed Forces has two F35 fighter jets that are always on standby, in what they call the Quick Reaction Alert for NATO. 'In 15 minutes they must be in the air and be ready at all times. It is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,' Gaasland told Norway's TV 2 Nyhetene. A total of 58 similar identifications were made based on 34 scramblers, or missions, in 2021, while the year before there were a few more, according to the Armed Forces. The Russian jets were observed outside Finnmark, in the far north of the county, but were never in official Russian airspace. Trespassing into Norwegian airspace would have provoked 'a more aggressive action', said Gaasland. Asked if the activity was a threat to Norway, she replied: 'I do not want to say that, because we are used to it happening, and there is nothing illegal in it. We pay close attention to all activity in our local areas.' Finnish President Sauli Niinisto (R) and Prime Minister Sanna Marin (L) announced the nation's intention to apply for NATO membership Sweden and Finland are attending the NATO summit in Madrid on June 28-30 to cement their bid to join the military alliance, according to announcement made during the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos. Finland and Sweden submitted their applications together and said they had been spurred into joining NATO by Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, bringing about the biggest shakeup in European security in decades. Putin has repeatedly pointed to the post-Soviet enlargement of NATO toward Russia's borders as a key driver behind his war in Ukraine. Finland's prime minister Sanna Marin has been visiting Ukraine amid the Russian invasion, photographed in the towns of Irpin and Bucha where Ukraine suspects Russian troops carried out atrocities. She said on Thursday Russia's actions in Ukraine were a turning point for the world and relations with Moscow could not go back to how they were before its invasion. A Brazilian man has died after being handcuffed and asphyxiated with gas inside a police car in a viral video, sparking outrage across the country. Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, could be heard screaming as he was being held by two officers of Brazil's Federal Highway Police inside an SUV's smoke-filled trunk. His legs, which stick out of the vehicle, kick for a time, until they eventually stop moving in the clip. The officers appeared undisturbed by surrounding onlookers. Social media erupted over the images of Tuesday's police stop in Umbauba, in the northeastern state of Sergipe. Dozens of people gathered to protest in the area on Wednesday, with demonstrators blocking a road and burning tires. A Brazilian man has died after being handcuffed and asphyxiated with gas inside a police car in a viral video, sparking outrage across the country 'The population is outraged,' a man can be heard saying in a video of the protest posted on Twitter. 'They murdered the guy!' another told the crowd through a loudspeaker. Mr Santos was described by his family as suffering from schizophrenia. According to Wallyson de Jesus, a nephew of Santos', he was approached by the officers while riding his motorcycle through the area. He became nervous when the officers found his schizophrenia medicine in his pocket, Mr de Jesus told news website G1. Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, could be heard screaming as he was being held by two officers of Brazil's Federal Highway Police inside an SUV's smoke-filled trunk He said: 'They threw some kind of gas inside the trunk and went to the police station, but my uncle was unconscious. They took him to the hospital, but it was already too late.' In a statement, the Federal Highway Police said the man had displayed aggressive behaviour and was 'actively resisting' the officers who pulled him over. The agents immobilized him, the statement said, then used 'instruments of lesser offensive potential' to contain him. The statement says Mr Santos fell ill as he was being transported to a police precinct and was taken to a hospital, where his death was confirmed. A preliminary autopsy concluded the man died of respiratory failure due to 'mechanical asphyxia,' George Fernandes, a spokesperson for Sergipe state's forensic institute, told The Associated Press. His legs, which stick out of the vehicle, kick for a time, until they eventually stop moving in the clip. The officers appeared undisturbed by surrounding onlookers The statement says Mr Santos fell ill as he was being transported to a police precinct and was taken to a hospital, where his death was confirmed The incident 'shocked Brazilian society due to the level of its brutality, exposing the institution's lack of preparedness to guarantee that its agents obey basic procedures,' the Brazilian Public Security Forum, an independent group, said in a statement. President Jair Bolsonaro said he would find out from the Federal Highway Police what happened. He also mentioned a separate incident two weeks ago when a man shot two on-duty highway officers. The Federal Police opened an investigation. The forensic institute must submit its final, more in-depth report to the Federal Police within 10 days. The incident comes just days after officers of the highway police participated in an operation in Rio de Janeiro that left more than 20 people dead. Police have said they had no choice but to use lethal force, but accounts from residents published in local media have raised doubts on that claim. An autistic man is taking Sainsbury's to court after the supermarket refused access to his assistance cat - which he insists should be treated like a guide dog. Web designer Ian Fenn, who was diagnosed with autism two years ago, says Chloe the rescue cat sits on his shoulders and stops him from feeling 'overwhelmed' and 'anxious'. But the 51-year-old says his confidence was knocked after he was asked to leave a branch of the supermarket in south London in March because of his feline friend. Mr Fenn, who says Chloe is allowed into other supermarkets such as Tesco, has subsequently tried to convince Sainsbury's to let him take Chloe into stores. Web designer Ian Fenn, who was diagnosed with autism two years ago, says Chloe the rescue cat sits on his shoulders and stops him from feeling 'overwhelmed' and 'anxious' Mr Fenn says Chloe is allowed into other supermarkets such as Tesco, while he also takes her on the train Sainsbury's, which welcomes assistance dogs, argues that cats pose a food hygiene risk but has asked its environmental health team to try to find a solution. Mr Fenn looks set for a court showdown with the supermarket giant which could set a new legal precedent. The Equality Act 2010 puts a duty on employers to make reasonable adjustments to the workplace or its practices to ensure disabled people are not at a substantial disadvantage. Mr Fenn, of Tooting, south London, says he has been taking Chloe out with him for about a year. He has owned her for five years after he adopted her from a cat rescue centre in Canning Town and estimates she is 12 or 13. But when he visited the store in Clapham Common in March he claims he was approached by staff and thrown out mid-shop. He added: 'In the end I was so upset I left the store and went home. 'Essentially, I shut down. I became overwhelmed. I was very upset as well and that would have happened much sooner had Chloe not been there. The 51-year-old says his confidence was knocked after he was asked to leave a branch of the supermarket in south London in March because of his feline friend 'I did lose confidence because... these kind of things happen so often to disabled people they have a name, which is access refusals. 'Chloe does not affect anyone else. 'I just want to go to a supermarket, get my stuff and go. 'I had plans for the following day and I cancelled them because I didn't have the confidence to leave the house. 'Because having a cat like this is unusual I'm pragmatic about it so I email or contact every business I visit in advance, if I possibly can. I have done that with over 200 places.' Mr Fenn said he contacted Sainsbury's ahead of his visit in March, and was told it should be fine. Mr Fenn looks set for a court showdown with the supermarket giant which could set a new legal precedent A Sainsbury's spokesperson said: 'We want to be an inclusive retailer where people love to work and shop, and understand that some of our colleagues and customers may need support in our stores. 'At the same time, safety is our highest priority and our colleagues are trained to balance maintaining our high food hygiene standards with supporting all our customers who shop with us. 'We are in contact with the local environmental health team to see if there are ways we can help Mr Fenn to visit our store without compromising this.' Chris Fry, a leading disability rights lawyer representing Mr Fenn, said he has issued proceedings against Sainsbury's after going through the 'pre-action protocol stage'. He said: 'Fundamentally we have not been able to find a compromise so we had to issue proceedings in the county courts.' He added that they 'hope a trial will happen within the next 12 months'. America will cross a 'red line' if it sends long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, Russian state media has warned today, saying it could provoke a 'very harsh response'. Olga Skabeyeva, known as one of Putin's chief propagandists, issued the warning after it was reported Joe Biden is preparing to announce another shipment of weapons to Kyiv as soon as next week - with highly-prized MLRS artillery on the list. Kyiv had begged for the artillery to help counter similar Russian systems being used to deadly effect in Donbas, which have forced Ukrainian troops to retreat from several key cities this week. But, Skabeyeva said, 'if the Americans do that, they'll clearly be crossing a red line. We'll have witnessed an attempt to provoke a very harsh response from Russia.' Olga Skabeyeva, known as one of Putin's chief propagandists, warned today that America supplying long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine would cross a 'red line' The US is preparing to send long-range rocket artillery to Ukraine, to counter Russian systems which have devastated defences in the Donbas this week (pictured) The line seems intended to play into fears being voiced in the White House about exactly how far the US can go in supporting Ukraine without risking an escalation in the war or retaliation against America itself. Sources close to the deliberations said those exact issues were raised at two separate meetings of security officials which took place this week, CNN reports. Chief among those concerns was whether Ukraine would use the new weapons to attack Russia itself, rather than Russian forces within Ukraine. The two systems that American would likely send to Kyiv are the M270 MLRS or M142 HIMARS, both of which have a theoretical maximum range of around 300 miles. America has already sent long-range artillery - the M777 Howitzer - to Ukraine, but it has a maximum range of around 25 miles when fired with high-precision rounds. Officials are thought to have proposed mitigating that risk by only supplying Ukraine with shorter-range rockets, which have an effective range of just over 50 miles. Concerns were also raised over whether drawing down so heavily on US stocks would create security issues. Mark Milley - chief of the general staff - said last week that he will be watching 'very, very carefully' to avoid such a risk. None-the-less, the White House seems to be in favour because of how decisive rocket artillery is proving to be in Donbas when used by Russian forces. Ukraine is thought to have been forced to abandon the city of Lyman, a key defensive outpost on the east bank of the Donets River, in the last several days after it was reduced to rubble by rocket barrages. America is likely to send the M270 MLRS (pictured), which can range up to 300 miles if fired with precision rockets Russia's rocket artillery is the TOS-1 (pictured), which can fire up to 24 thermobaric rockets more than 200 miles Russia has been operating the system since the early days of the war (pictured), but it is proving particularly adept in the wide-open battlefields of the Donbas A dramatic video from the region showed the devastating shockwaves produced by Russia's TOS-1 rocket system which fires thermobaric warheads - known as 'lung-crushers' because of the vacuum they create when they explode. The vacuum blast is also prized because of its devastating effect on nearby defensive positions. TOS-1 systems have a range of up to 340 miles and carry 24 rockets, meaning they can shoot much further than anything in Ukraine's current arsenal. Kyiv does have some rocket artillery, but they are largely old Soviet systems such as the Grad. It is not clear how many of the systems are left after months of fighting. The base-model Grad has a range of up to 250 miles and can carry up to 40 rockets. Ukraine has adapted some of its Grad launchers into more modern systems, dubbed Bastion and Verba, though their capabilities are not clear. The American M270 can carry up to twelve rockets, though each of them are equipped with 'bomblets' that scatter and explode over the target area when the missile strikes. Twelve rockets are capable of dropping almost 8,000 bomblets. As a sign of how effective the artillery batteries are likely to be, Poland - which has been watching the war in Ukraine closely amid fears it could be next on Russia's target-list - has recently ordered 500 of the systems from the US. America has already provided long-range M777 artillery cannons, but even these can only strike up to 25 miles when fired with precision ammunition Russia and Ukraine are now locked into a bloody fight over the Donbas, which President Zelensky says has been 'totally destroyed' by the fighting Mariusz Baszczak, the country's defence minister, announced the purchase on Thursday - saying they would be used to form 80 new artillery battalions, making Poland's army one of the largest artillery forces in Europe. Russia and Ukraine are currently locked into a bloody struggle for control over the Donbas, an industrial region in eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border. Though the area has little monetary or strategic value, it has huge propaganda value for Putin because it contains sizable minorities of Russian-speaking citizens. The despot justified his invasion of Ukraine by claiming - falsely - that Ukraine was about to massacre these citizens and it was his duty to step in an protect them. For years he has been supporting separatist groups fighting in Donetsk and Luhansk - the two regions which make up the Donbas - and has declared the 'liberation' of the region to be the primary goal of his invasion. Taking Donbas is far less ambitious than Putin's original war aim of overthrowing the government, but is within the capabilities of his armed forces. Ukraine has been forced into a series of retreats in recent days and is reportedly taking heavy losses along the frontline here, with Russia creeping forwards. The battle is viewed as pivotal to the outcome of the war - a Russian win could weaken Ukraine to the point where it would be forced into a peace deal favourable to Moscow, while a win for Kyiv could see it start to retake lost territory. An HIV-positive tenant who stabbed his landlords to death in 'a bloodbath' in lockdown over fears Covid-19 would kill him has been jailed for at least 33 years. Spaniard Daniel Briceno Garcia, 46, murdered devout Catholics Sonia Butron Calvi, 66, and Edgar Aguilera Daza, 60, on April 1, 2020 - just days after the first lockdown began. Briceno Garcia claimed he was suffering from paranoid delusions and believed the Bolivian couple were trying to kill him at their shared five-bedroom maisonette in Stockwell, southwest London. He was HIV positive and thought contracting Covid 19 would end his life. Briceno Garcia was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 33 years after being found guilty of two charges of murder by an Old Bailey jury. Assisted a Spanish interpreter, he showed no emotion as he was sentenced. He had admitted two lesser charges of manslaughter claiming his mental condition meant he was not in control of his actions but the jury found he knew what he was doing when he killed the couple. Reading the victim impact statement of their daughter Laura Aguilera, prosecutor Tom Little told the court: 'My parents gave up a comfortable life in South America to find their children and grandchildren a better life. Daniel Briceno Garcia, 46, was paranoid about catching coronavirus when he attacked his landlords with a knife in Stockwell, south London , on April 1, 2020 Garcia attacked he attacked landlords Sonia Butron Calvi, 66, and Edgar Aguilera Daza, 60 'They were not only wonderful parents, grandparents and friends, but many members of the church looked up to them.' Ms Calvi and Mr Daza had 'an infectious humour that would make everyone feel better.' 'This is why I find it so difficult to accept how their life was taken in such a cruel way,' said Ms Aguilera. 'Grief and pain overwhelm acceptance of their absence.' Ms Aguilera also criticised him for 'not understanding the damage he has done to the entire Bolivian community in London.' The Recorder of London, Judge Mark Lucraft told him: 'You launched a brutal attack, on Edgar and then on Sonia.. He added: 'I am entirely satisfied that there is nothing that affected you at the time [of the murders]. 'You are a difficult person and at times have shown your unwillingness to engage in the process of this case. It was claimed Briceno Garcia had become worried about the risks of Covid and paying his rent in the pandemic in the shared property The defendant lived with the couple and a number of other people in a maisonette property Ms Butron Calvi and Mr Aguilera Daza had rented the property since 2015 and sub-let the four remaining bedrooms to other tenants including Briceno Garcia. Briceno Garcia had become 'paranoid' about the coronavirus, said Mr Little. 'Witnesses describe that the defendant had become concerned, if not paranoid about the risk that Covid was going to pose and was concerned about that in this property,' he said. 'That in itself you may think is understandable. 'But it's quite another thing to react to the risks which Covid posed and any arguments that flow from it with the use of a knife.' Flatmate Maria Bobadilla last saw Ms Butron Calvi alive at noon on April 1 the landlord told her: 'I don't know what the matter is with Daniel, he's constantly in a bad mood.' Ms Bobadilla went to her room and was watching a film with her partner Galo Perez Brit when she heard shouting. 'She looked down the stairs and saw the defendant and Edgar,' Mr Little said. 'They both hit the wall in the corridor on the ground floor leading to the front door. 'The defendant had his left arm around Edgar's neck. 'Edgar's back was against the wall and the defendant pushed off the wall and, while still holding Edgar with his left arm, he stabbed repeatedly at Edgar's stomach area with his right hand. 'Maria Bobadilla could not see clearly what it was but described it as a white long object. 'But as the fatal injuries to Edgar reveal, and as we will see the presence of a knife in the defendant's bedroom, it must have been a knife. 'Ms Bobadilla heard Sonia scream: 'Daniel, no, Daniel'. 'The last thing Ms Bobadilla heard Sonia say was: 'Daniel, I'm going to call the police.' Ms Bobadilla went back into her room and locked the door. Her partner, minutes later, suggested she leave the room and pretend to go to the bathroom to see if the fight had stopped. 'Maria Bobadilla looked out and saw the defendant at the door of his bedroom,' Mr Little said. 'He was holding his telephone to his ear. His face was completely red. 'By this stage he had attacked both Edgar and Sonia and they had been left dying downstairs.' Briceno Garcia shouted: 'Go back into your room and lock the door. I'm calling the police.' Mr Little said: 'Maria Bobadilla did as she was told and did not hear or see anything further until the police arrived.' The other occupants, Alejandro Deleg, Esguin Riofrio and Jose Chancusi, were in the flat in their rooms the court heard. Briceno Garcia called police six times, asking them to come to the flat. He opened the door to two police officers, PC Rose and PC Glen. 'He was holding a mobile telephone in his hand and he immediately lifted both hands up,' Mr Little said. 'PC Rose could see that there was some blood coming from both of his hands. 'What police found at the property can only properly be regarded as a bloodbath.' The officers entered the flat and found Mr Aguilera Daza 'surrounded by a pool of blood', the prosecutor said. Ms Butron Calvi was found lying in the kitchen. 'She was face down and had a knife clenched in her hand. She was also surrounded by a large pool of blood.' Police and paramedics tried to resuscitate them both but life was pronounced extinct for Mr Aguilera Daza at 4:30pm and for Ms Butron Calvi at 4.35pm. The killer told psychiatrists that his flatmates were 'psychologically and physically violent to him'. He also said the landlords were trying to kill him and that he was hearing voices. His defence barrister Clare Wade said Garcia suffers from HIV, and would have been particularly anxious about catching Covid because he needed 'to keep himself free of the disease.' Briceno Garcia, of Dorset Road, Stockwell, southwest London, was sentenced to life imprisonment for a minimum term of 33 years for the murder of Sonia Butron Calvi, and Edgar Aguilera Daza. Advertisement England's Covid wave is still collapsing, with infection rates having plunged to the lowest level seen in more than seven months. Office for National Statistics (ONS) analysts estimate that 874,400 people in England were infected with Covid in the week to May 21 equating to 1.6 per cent of people, or one in 60. The figure, calculated from swabs taken from thousands of Britons, is the lowest logged since October before the Omicron variant emerged and threatened to send the nation into another lockdown. Cases also continued to fall in Wales and Northern Ireland last week. But the ONS claimed the trend in Scotland was uncertain. The Government statisticians released an interactive map, which allows you to look up the case rate in your local area in the most recent week. Sarah Crofts, head of analytical outputs for the infection survey, said that cases are trending in the 'right direction across much of the UK'. She said: 'While Scotland and some regions of England saw an uncertain trend in the most recent week, it is too early to say if these uncertain trends mark the end of recent declines.' Statisticians at the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimate that 874,400 people in England were infected with Covid in the week to May 21, equating to 1.6 per cent of people or one in 60 The ONS figures show infections fell in most UK nations last week. In Wales, 52,900 people were thought to be infected around 1.7 per cent of the population or one in 55 people. Another 23,300 individuals were carrying the virus in Norther Ireland, translating to 1.3 per cent or one in 80. However, the trend was uncertain in Scotland, where twice as many people (2.6 per cent) were infected equating to 135,400 people or one in 40 people Lockdowns saved 10,000 lives in Europe and US combined, study finds The first Covid lockdowns saved 10,000 lives in Europe and US and had 'little or no effect' on the virus death rate, updated analysis suggests. A review by an international team of economists found draconian shutdowns only reduced Covid mortality by 3 per cent in the UK, US and Europe in 2020. The experts, from Johns Hopkins University in the US, Lund University in Sweden and the Danish think-tank the Center for Political Studies, said that equates to 6,000 fewer deaths in Europe and 4,000 fewer in the US. This marks a revision from the group's first report last year, which found lockdowns cut Covid deaths by just 0.2 per cent. The team said the updated figure is down to changes in their calculations and new studies. But they still conclude: 'Stricter lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the Covid pandemic.' MailOnline was one of only three major British media outlets to cover the initial findings when they were released back in January. Experts at the time claimed it was unsurprising that some left-wing publications avoided the story because they wanted to 'maintain fear around the pandemic'. Their 3.2 per cent figure is the average effect of all lockdown measures combined. When looking at stay-at-home orders specifically, the team estimate this had even less of an impact, reducing the death toll by just 2 per cent. Their report does not look at the effect of lockdowns excess deaths, which includes people who died from other causes because hospitals were shut, for example. It did find mask wearing to be the most effective intervention, leading to a 18.7 per cent drop in virus fatalities however this result was based on just three studies. Advertisement The 874,400 cases in England marks a 15.7 per cent decline on the previous week's estimate. And it is the first time that infections have fallen below one million per week since December. Infections are now five-times lower than they were at the peak in early April, when 4.1million people in England, or 7.6 per cent, were carrying the virus. In Wales, 52,900 people were thought to be infected around 1.7 per cent of the population or one in 55 people. Another 23,300 individuals were carrying the virus in Norther Ireland, translating to 1.3 per cent or one in 80. However, the trend was uncertain in Scotland, where twice as many people (2.6 per cent) were infected equating to 135,400 people or one in 40 people. The ONS said it was not clear whether cases were rising north of the border. But the figures are higher than one week earlier when 122,200 people (2.3 per cent, one in 45) were thought to be infected. UK-wide data shows 1.1million people were estimated to have the virus, down from 1.3million one week earlier. This is the lowest logged since the end of November, when virus levels were creeping upwards as Omicron took hold. The ONS data is considered as the gold-standard way of measuring the outbreak now that the Covid dashboard is reporting figures less regularly. Experts had warned that the daily infection numbers had become extremely unreliable following the end of free Covid tests for the majority of Britons. The latest ONS update also shows that Covid cases fell across most of England. Cases fell in the North West, where 1.4 per cent are infected the lowest rate in England. They also dropped in the East Midlands (1.4 per cent), East of England (1.5 per cent), London (1.5 per cent) and the South West (1.7 per cent). But the ONS said it was unclear whether cases were rising or falling in the West Midlands (1.7 per cent), the North East (2.1 per cent), Yorkshire and The Humber (1.7 per cent) and the South East (1.8 per cent). Covid rates also fell in almost all age groups, with infection levels lowest among 11 to 15-year-olds (0.8 per cent), followed by two to 10-year-olds (1 per cent) and 16 to 24-year-olds (1.3 per cent). The trend in cases was uncertain among 25 to 34-year-olds (2.1 per cent) where Covid prevalence appeared to be highest. Virus rates were slightly lower among the over-70s (1.8 per cent), 50 to 69-year-olds (1.9 per cent) and 35 to 49-year-olds (1.6 per cent). It comes as a study yesterday suggested that Covid lockdowns during the first wave of the virus had 'little or no effect'. A review by an international team of economists found draconian shutdowns only reduced Covid mortality by 3.2 per cent in the UK, US and Europe in 2020. The experts, from Johns Hopkins University in the US, Lund University in Sweden and the Danish think-tank the Center for Political Studies, said that equates to 6,000 fewer deaths in Europe and 4,000 fewer in the US. This marks a revision from the group's first report last year, which found lockdowns cut Covid deaths by just 0.2 per cent. The team said the updated figure is down to changes in their calculations and new studies. But they still conclude: 'Stricter lockdowns are not an effective way of reducing mortality rates during a pandemic, at least not during the first wave of the Covid pandemic.' Their 3.2 per cent figure is the average effect of all lockdown measures combined. When looking at stay-at-home orders specifically, the team estimate this had even less of an impact, reducing the death toll by just 2 per cent. The latest ONS update also shows that Covid cases fell across most of England. Cases fell in the North West, where 1.4 per cent are infected the lowest rate in England. They also dropped in the East Midlands (1.4 per cent), East of England (1.5 per cent), London (1.5 per cent) and the South West (1.7 per cent). But the ONS said it was unclear whether cases were rising or falling in the West Midlands (1.7 per cent), the North East (2.1 per cent), Yorkshire and The Humber (1.7 per cent) and the South East (1.8 per cent) Covid rates also fell in almost all age groups, with infection levels lowest among 11 to 15-year-olds (0.8 per cent), followed by two to 10-year-olds (1 per cent) and 16 to 24-year-olds (1.3 per cent). The trend in cases was uncertain among 25 to 34-year-olds (2.1 per cent) where Covid prevalence appeared to be highest. Virus rates were slightly lower among the over-70s (1.8 per cent), 50 to 69-year-olds (1.9 per cent) and 35 to 49-year-olds (1.6 per cent) Their report does not look at the effect of lockdowns excess deaths, which includes people who died from other causes because hospitals were shut, for example. It did find mask wearing to be the most effective intervention, leading to a 18.7 per cent drop in virus fatalities however this result was based on just three studies. Meanwhile, a separate study found that people with asymptomatic Covid infections are two-thirds less likely to pass the virus on to others. A global study of nearly 30,000 people has found asymptomatic carriers are about 68 per cent less likely to pass the virus on than those who get sick. No10 used concerns about asymptomatic spread to justify forcing Britons to obey lockdowns and wear masks. They were thought to account for up to a third of all infections and many scientists claimed asymptomatic patients were just as infectious as the sick. But the study spanning 42 countries, including the UK and US, found they were only responsible for as little as 14 per cent of cases. Researchers also estimate that asymptomatic peoples' overall risk of passing the virus to someone else 'about two-thirds lower'. Scientists claimed Covid's ability to spread asymptomatically was one of the reasons for harsh social curbs. During one of the national lockdowns in January 2021, the Government said about a third of people with Covid had no symptoms and urged people to 'act like you've got it'. Boris Johnson today suffered a Government resignation and saw another Tory MP submit a no confidence letter as the fallout from this week's damning Partygate report continued. Paul Holmes quit his Home Office role as he lashed out at the 'distasteful' and 'toxic' culture in Number 10 that Sue Gray's report uncovered. Hours later, senior backbencher Sir Bob Neill became the latest Conservative MP to submit a no confidence letter to Sir Graham Brady, the chair of the powerful 1922 Committee. Sir Bob, who has been a frequent critic of the Prime Minister, claimed Mr Johnson's explanations this week for 'wholly unacceptable' Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street were not 'credible'. 'Trust is the most important commodity in politics, but these events have undermined trust in not just the office of the Prime Minister, but in the political process itself,' the Bromley and Chislehurst MP wrote in a statement. 'To rebuild that trust and move on, a change in leadership is required.' Sir Bob, chair of the House of Commons' Justice Committee, revealed he submitted his letter to Sir Graham on Wednesday afternoon, following the publication of Ms Gray's report. A total of 54 letters from Tory MPs are required to trigger a confidence vote in the PM's leadership. Sir Bob Neill claimed Boris Johnson's explanations this week for 'wholly unacceptable' Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street were not 'credible' Mr Holmes earlier quit as a Parliamentary Private Secretary (PPS) to Home Secretary Priti Patel. The Eastleigh MP claimed there was now 'a deep distrust in both the Government and the Conservative Party' due to the Partygate scandal. His resignation came at almost the same time as the Prime Minister insisted he was confident he retained the backing of his party in the wake of Ms Gray's 37-page document. Mr Johnson also pointed to his 'pretty vintage and exhaustive answers' on the Partygate report earlier this week, as he swerved further questions on the details of Ms Gray's findings on a visit to Stockton-on-Tees. But the PM has been warned he is still not out of danger over Partygate. And a new poll revealed Labour have opened up their largest lead over the Conservatives since the start of the Ukraine war. Eastleigh MP Paul Holmes quit his Home Office role as he lashed out at the 'distasteful' culture in Number 10 that Sue Gray's report uncovered Boris Johnson today insisted he was confident he retained the backing of the Tory party in the wake of Sue Gray's report Mr Holmes is one of the Tory MPs first elected to Parliament in 2019, as part of Mr Johnson's landslide election victory. He previously worked as a special adviser to Theresa May's deputy, Damian Green, as well as ex-education secretary Damian Hinds. In a statement on his website announcing his resignation, Mr Holmes said he had been 'shocked and angered' by the revelations about Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street. He revealed the 'distress' of the last few weeks had caused him to decide to 'focus solely' on his efforts as an MP and to relinquish his role as a ministerial aide. The 33-year-old also said it was 'distressing' that his work on behalf of his Hampshire constituents 'has been tarnished by the toxic culture that seemed to have permeated Number 10'. 'I am disappointed that all of this has taken a great deal of time away from the good work that Government has been doing and should be continuing to do, including dealing with the issue of the cost of living, focusing on our economic recovery and delivering for the people of Eastleigh and the wider country,' he added. Although Mr Johnson this week declared he had been 'vindicated' by Sue Gray's report into Covid rule-breaking in Downing Street, there is continuing angst among Mr Johnson's MPs about the senior civil servant's findings. Alicia Kearns, another of the Tory MPs first elected in 2019, reiterated that the PM 'continues not to hold my confidence' Alicia Kearns, another of the Tory MPs first elected in 2019, hit back at suggestions the country needed to 'move on' from the Partygate row. She added that the PM's account of events to Parliament was 'misleading' and suggested those around Mr Johnson 'clearly did not advise a policy of being honest and transparent with the British people'. 'This protracted affair has brought our Government and my Party into disrepute,' she said in a statement on Facebook. 'It has made good, hard-working and law-abiding Conservatives feel ashamed and has been a complete distraction from the many challenges we should be focused on at this difficult time. 'There are broader issues with the culture that breeds under this regime in Parliament, from the shameful lengths some will pursue to preserve this premiership, to some of the individuals and actions permitted to continue under it.' Ms Kearns reiterated that the PM 'continues not to hold my confidence'. Ex-Cabinet minister Sir Robert Buckland, a former top law officer, told Mr Johnson he was 'wrong' to claim it had been his 'duty' as PM to attend boozy leaving dos for Downing Street staff during the pandemic. The ex-justice secretary also put the PM on notice that MPs would be eagerly awaiting the results of a further investigation into whether Mr Johnson lied to the House of Commons, when he previously insisted all Covid rules had been followed in Number 10. Following the publication of Ms Gray's report - which found Downing Street parties had lasted until 4am, drunken attendees had thrown up, and there was even a fight between staff - five Conservative MPs have called for Mr Johnson to quit. A new survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, conducted immediately following the release of Ms Gray's report, found Labour had opened up a nine-point lead over the Tories Sir Keir Starmer has now seen his party enjoy a poll lead over the Tories for almost six months, with Labour having retaken the lead in December when the Partygate scandal first erupted Ex-Cabinet minister Sir Robert Buckland told the PM he was 'wrong' to claim it had been his 'duty' to attend boozy leaving dos for Downing Street staff during the pandemic However, despite the PM's defiance, many Tory MPs are likely to be spooked by a growing poll lead for Labour following the release of Ms Gray's damning 37-page document. A new survey by Redfield & Wilton Strategies, conducted immediately following the release of Ms Gray's report, found Labour had opened up a nine-point lead over the Tories. Sir Keir Starmer's party moved to 40 per cent support (up one point from the polling firm's last Westminster voting intention survey) while the Tories fell two points to 31 per cent. This is Labour's largest lead since Russian began its brutal invasion of Ukraine in late February. Sir Keir has also now seen his party enjoy a poll lead over the Tories for almost six months, with Labour having retaken the lead in December when the Partygate scandal first erupted. The Liberal Democrats, who are aiming to take a number of 'Blue Wall' seats off the Conservatives at the next election, rose two points to 14 per cent and reached the highest voting intention score Redfield & Wilton have recorded. Meanwhile, the Prime Minister's personal approval rating has also fallen to its lowest level since Russia's invasion began by plummeting eight points to -28 per cent. Sir Keir's own approval rating has rebounded slightly but remains negative at -4 per cent. Appearing on the BBC's Question Time programme last night, Sir Robert said the PM was 'wrong' to claim it had been his 'duty' to say farewell to Downing Street colleagues at leaving dos throughout the pandemic. 'We have seen that report, it was pretty damning and she (Ms Gray) didn't pull her punches at all, as I thought she wouldn't - she's a very independent-minded person,' the former Cabinet minister added. 'She produced a very thorough and hard-hitting report.' Sir Robert said he had given the issue of the PM's position in No10 'a lot of anxious thought' but pulled back - for now - from joining those Tory MPs calling for Mr Johnson to resign. He added he 'accepted' Mr Johnson's denial that he had deliberately lied to MPs over Partygate. 'I asked him direct question on Wednesday, I asked him whether he'd deliberately lied to the Commons,' Sir Robert told the programme. 'He denied that he deliberately lied to the Commons. He's given me a direct answer and I accept that answer.' But Sir Robert also put Mr Johnson on notice that he would be keeping a keen eye on the findings of the Commons' Privileges Committee, which is due to investigate whether the PM lied to Parliament. 'What I would be interested to see is what happens with the Privileges Committee, who are going to look at that very issue,' he added. Labour MP Chris Bryant, the Privileges Committee chair, today confirmed he will stand down to allow the inquiry to go ahead. He previously said he would recuse himself from the role as it was important that the House be seen to proceed fairly without any imputation of unfairness following his public criticism of the PM over Partygate. Harriet Harman, the former Labour deputy leader, has been lined up to replace Mr Bryant as chair. If the Privileges Committee finds Mr Johnson in contempt of Parliament, it could recommend he is forced to apologise, suspended from the Commons, or even expelled. Any sanction would need to be approved in a vote by all MPs. Advertisement Texas cops said last night that they didn't immediately rush in to find the shooter on Tuesday's attack after being shot at because they feared they might be killed, and even suggested that they deliberately locked the gunman in the classroom where he slaughtered 21 people in order to trap him. Department of Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez made the astonishing comments during an appearance on CNN last night. He was being challenged by Wolf Blitzer over why the first officers who responded to the shooting retreated after Salvador Ramos shot at them with his AR-15 and then waited an hour for tactical SWAT teams to take him out, leaving him alone in a classroom with the 19 fourth graders and two teachers who he slaughtered. 'Dont current best practices, Lieutenant, call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible, regardless of how many officers are actually on site?' Blitzer asked. He replied: 'In the active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing, you want to preserve life. But also one thing that, of course, the American people need to understand is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots.' He then appeared to try to take credit for the gunman being locked in the classroom with the kids for an hour - including some he shot at the start of the rampage who later died in the hospital - claiming it saved other lives. Police initially said that the gunman barricaded himself inside the classroom and that they had trouble gaining access to the room, and one unnamed law official anonymously spoke out to say SWAT teams had to wait for a different school staff member to bring them a key to the class. 'At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they couldve been shot, they could've been killed, and at that point that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school. 'So they were able to contain that gunman inside that classroom so that he was not able to go to any other portions of the school to commit any other killings,' Lt. Olivarez said. Scores of Border Patrol agents also rushed to the scene after hearing the incident unfold on scanners. When they arrived, the Uvalde Police Department also told them not to go inside, according to a law enforcement official who spoke anonymously to The New York Times. Eventually, the agents joined parents and a handful of local police officers in pulling kids through windows from other classrooms. Scroll down for video Department of Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez made the astonishing comments during an appearance on CNN last night. He said the 'American people need to understand' that the cops could have been shot so they retreated This is how the shooting played out over the course of nearly two hours from when Ramos killed his grandmother at home. He arrived at the school at 11.28am and the first 911 calls were made. He then walked unobstructed into the building with his AR-15 and headed towards the classroom. He fought off cops at 11.44am, then was left alone in the room with the victims until around 12.44pm - when SWAT arrived. The incident was declared over at 1.06pm As the gunman unleashed terror inside the school, desperate parents were forced to wait outside and some were even put in handcuffs after they tried to enter the school to find their kids and rescue them The agents did not understand why they were being told not to go inside when the gunman was still in the building. Experts have slammed the decision to wait for back up as 'outdated' and 'disgusting'. 'Waiting an hour is disgusting. If that turns out to be true, then it is a disgusting fact,' Sean Burke, a retired school resource officer from Massachusetts who now is the president of the School Safety Advocacy Council, told NBC. 'If youve got somebody you think is actively engaged in harming people or attempting to harm people, your obligation as a police officer is to immediately stop that person and neutralize that threat. 'We dont expect police officers to commit suicide in doing it. 'But the expectation is that if someone is about to harm someone, especially children, youve got to take immediate action to make that stop,' Don Alwes, an ex-instructor for the National Tactical Officers Association, added. US Border Patrol agents were among the hundreds who responded to the shooting but when they got there, the local police department told them not to advance Surgeons at the hospital in Uvalde have also suggested that the delay in responding to the shooting may have cost some kids their lives. It remains unclear exactly how many children were in the classroom when the shooter opened fire, how many were killed immediately and how many were still alive but injured when police arrived. Uvalde Memorial Hospital received two kids who had died by the time they got to the hospital. Now, doctors are highlighting the importance of treating gunshot wounds as soon as they happen. 'You can't wait until patients go to a trauma center. 'You have to act quickly,' Dr. Ronald Stewart, the senior trauma surgeon at the University Hospital in Antonio, said. He added that uncontrolled bleeding was the top cause of deaths among gun shot wound victims and that it can happen in as little as five minutes. Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, officers across the nation have been advised not to wait for backup and to proceed into the school to find the shooter. Instructions from the Texas Police Chiefs Association says: 'The first two to five responding officers should form a single team and enter the structure.' Why that advice was ignored in Uvalde is among the many aspects of the slow response that are now under investigation. Another is why police falsely claimed at first that the shooter exchanged gunfire with a school resource officer before he even made it to the classroom. On Thursday night, Olivarez said that was the information police received. Video shows Texas cops holding down a parent outside Robb Elementary School on Tuesday while a shooting unfolded inside The girl explained she wasn't hurt and the blood was from her best friend 'Amerie.' It was then that Angel Garza (above) realized the blood he was looking at came from his own daughter 'So thats information that we received early on in this investigation. 'The Texas Rangers are now conducting interviews with those officers trying to establish exactly what was their role, and that will help us establish a more factual, concrete timeline,' he said. There is growing anger and frustrating among parents who were pepper sprayed, pinned to the ground and even placed in handcuffs. Angeli Gomez (above) jumped the school fence and ran inside the school where she rescued her children herself 'The police were doing nothing,' Angeli Rose Gomez told the Wall Street Journal. 'They were just standing outside the fence. They weren't going in there or running anywhere.' Gomez has two children in second and third grade and she reportedly drove 40 miles to the school after hearing of the attack. She was one of the desperate parents who encouraged police with increasing urgency to enter the school. Eventually, federal marshals put Gomez in handcuffs and told her she was under arrest for intervening in an active investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gomez said she was able to convince a Uvalde officer whom she knew to have the marshal free her and she took the opportunity to move away from the crowd, jump the school fence, and ran inside the school where she rescued her children herself. She said that other parents also trying to get to their kids were tackled and even pepper-sprayed by police. Angel Garza, whose daughter was killed, was handcuffed after trying to run into the school when he heard that a 'girl called Amerie' had been shot. Garza later told his heartbreaking story to Anderson Cooper. He explained that when he arrived on the scene he tried to help a young girl covered in blood, because he is a trained medic. The girl explained she wasn't hurt and the blood was from her best friend 'Amerie.' It was then that Angel realized the blood he was looking at came from his own daughter. He later found out that she was among those who died. The man who jumped 32 stories off a New York City balcony Thursday was a French banker who was once rebuffed by Rod Stewart's ex-wife, during a swanky gathering for French socialites. The man, identified as renowned financier Charles-Henry Kurzen, 43, was viewing the $2.9 million apartment on the 32nd floor of 100 United Nations Plaza in Midtown when a realtor said he 'suddenly' leapt to his death at roughly 1:15pm. Kurzen, a partner at Manhattan-based finance firm Saltbox Partners LLC, reportedly asked the broker if he could view the balcony before the deadly jump took place. Cops said the man, who lived Clinton Hill after moving to New York from Paris nearly two decades ago, reportedly landed on a third-floor patio, where he was pronounced dead. Its not yet clear why the man decided to take his own life. The man who jumped 32 stories off a New York City balcony Thursday was identified as 43-year-old French banker Charles-Henry Kurzen, an affluent financier who financed billions in deals in the US and overseas Cops said the man, who lived Clinton Hill after moving to New York from Paris nearly two decades ago, reportedly landed on a third-floor patio, where he was pronounced dead. Pictured are cops retrieving his body from the outdoor area The renowned financier was reportedly once rebuffed by Rod Stewart's supermodel ex wife, Rachel Hunter, during a gathering for French socialites in the early 2000s. Pictured is Hunter and Stewart in 2003, around the time of the altercation, which was reported by the New Yorker Kurzen, a renowned banker and graduate from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris Business School, had a storied career in the French and New York financial industry - with one coworker telling the New York Post he was 'a dear friend.' He was appointed a partner at Saltbox Partners in 2011, after serving as the vice president of French Banker Credit Agricole's Manhattan office for several years upon moving to the city in the early 2000s. Previously, Kurzen was an analyst for the Mergers and Acquisitions Group at Lazard Freres & Co., a respected finance firm - valued at nearly $300 billion - in Paris. Upon moving to New York, the young banker - then in his early 20s - found success fast, and quickly found himself entrenched in the city's upper crust. In 2004, a New Yorker article wrote of how the young banker frequented an exclusive set of weekly parties known as 'French Tuesdays' - weekly-held, celerity studded events held at various night clubs, organized by French ex-patriots living in the city. At one such event, the article reveals, Kurzen made a pass at New Zealand supermodel Rachel Hunter, who was at the time wed to Rod Stewart. Hunter, pictured here in 2004 - the same year as the reported altercation - declined the man's invitation to join him and friends at the 'French Tuesday's party. Kurzen old the New Yorker at the time that despite her being nine years his senior at 34, he still pined for the 'mature woman' Speaking to the magazine, Kurzen - then a brash, young banker aged 25 - detailed how he tried to make contact with Hunter, who was seated at a VIP area in the club, but was ultimately rebuffed. 'I was determined to go upstairs, because Rachel Hunter was there,' Kurzen told the outlet. He went on to remark how despite her being nine years his senior, that he still pined for the 'mature woman.' 'She is a woman born in 1969she is thirty-four!but she is a beautiful, mature woman,' he said, adding 'a woman of character, a woman of history, a woman who has lived!' Kurzen said that he attempted to persuade Hunter to join his party downstairs, but she declined. 'Maybe because her party was a business gathering and she could not leave,' he speculated as to the slight. 'Maybe because she found me too young - maybe because she did not like the idea of a French party.' He added: 'Or maybe it was a question of chic. I do not know.' Hunter and Stewart, then just under 60, would divorce in 2006. The two-bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom apartment property Kurzen had been viewing prior to his death was listed at $2.9 million. Kurzen was looking at the $2.9 million apartment at the luxury high-rise (pictured) when he asked to see the balcony and leaped to his death Public records show that he owned properties in both Clinton Hill, where cops say he resided, and on the Lower East Side. Both are valued at around $1 million. The listing for the apartment he had been looking at touted the 1,985 square-foot unit as an 'expansive home' - mentioning its two private balconies. It also touted the luxury residence's floor-to-ceiling windows, solid brass detailing, marble flooring and a separate formal dining room. The master bedroom has a walk-in closet, a bathroom with a jacuzzi and the entrance of a second private balcony. The death recalls another suicide last year when a 22-year-old woman fell to her death from the 16th floor after a fight with her boyfriend on January 29, 2012. Nearby: The United Nations (pictured) is directly south of the building where the man jumped Samantha Kwek, a Columbia University student, had apparently wanted to break up with her boyfriend on the night she jumped. She had sent several text messages to her boyfriend Benjamin Small before she died, according to the New York Post. 'I really dont know why [she jumped]. She was really, really sad, I guess... Im mortified,' he told the paper. She landed on East 48th Street in front of 100 United Nations Plaza, a 52-storey building across the street from the Algerian Embassy. A pocketbook was lying a few feet from her body, which was draped with a white sheet as police investigated. Heartbroken friends and family have shared tearjerking tributes to the tragic woman who died from an apparent shot to the head after she was dropped off at a hospital. Feebie McIntosh, 25, was rushed by car to Caloundra Base Hospital on Queensland's Sunshine Coast after suffering the alleged gunshot wound to the head about 9.30am on Friday. She was dropped off at the hospital door by a 58 year old man who police say was known to her, but she died shortly afterwards. The tragic death comes just three weeks after Ms McIntosh shared her partner Mitch White's touching proposal online. Friends and family have flooded social media with tributes to Feebie McIntosh (above), 25, after she died with an apparent gunshot wound to her head She posted a photo of the heartfelt letter Mr White, 31, wrote to her alongside a word search puzzle which spelled out the question 'Feebie will you marry me?' 'Youre the most sweetest man ever and the best part is, youre all mine!,' Ms McIntosh captioned the post. Detectives believe there was a disturbance at a home on Coolum Street in Dicky Beach in north Caloundra about 9am on Friday when Ms McIntosh was allegedly shot in the head. Ms McIntosh was believed to have been visiting a woman friend who lives at the Coolum Street home at the time of the incident. She was then driven to hospital by the 58-year-old man who police say is voluntarily assisting their investigation. Feebie McIntosh (above) was dropped off at Caloundra Base Hospital at about 9.30am on Friday by a 58-year-old man known to her who is now voluntarily assisting police inquiries Devastated loved ones have shared tributes to the Currimundi woman who was 'taken way too young'. '20 years of memories, good times and constant laughter,' one friend shared. 'Your laughter and smile would light a room up. I have so much to say and I don't know how to put it all in words. 'I'm so beyond gutted that you grew wings early. I still remember sitting in class in Year One when we became friends. Feebie McIntosh's (right) death comes just three weeks after she shared her engagement to partner Mitch White (left) on Facebook 'Dancing in the rain after school on our way home. Talking about our crushes and planning our weekends. 'You were one friend that always put a smile on my face. I'm going to miss you so much, this is so painful to write. Fly high babe, this isn't goodbye. But until next time. 'Love you always Feebs.' 'I can't believe you're gone, you had such a good soul,' another person wrote. In a touching post Feebie McIntosh shared the heartfelt letter (above) and puzzle in which her partner Mitch White proposed to her 'Whenever I needed someone you would be there, you helped me through some of my hardest times. 'I'm blessed to have had such a good friend and hold so many happy memories. You will be missed by many. Rest easy.' Another wrote: 'You're a beautiful girl taken way too young, Ill forever hold the memories we have together over the last 15 years Ive known you. 'May you rest in peace, you will never be forgotten.' Police arrested a 30-year-old Narangba man at 3.30pm on Friday after intercepting his vehicle on Fitzwilliam Street at Sippy Downs, 22km from Dicky Beach. Police said he was arrested without incident and is currently assisting their inquiries. An autopsy on Ms McIntosh's body will be carried out as part of the investigation. Police have urged anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers. Advertisement An unsettling painting by a Victorian artist who some experts believe was notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper has sold for 14,000. Walter Sickert's 'Figures in the Rain' went for more than double its upper sale estimate of 6,000 at an Oxford auction house on Wednesday. The creepy artwork shows figures walking along a street whilst shielding themselves from the rain with umbrellas - and appears to be from the perspective of someone lurking in the shadows. Sickert, who died aged 91 in 1942, was an important influence on British art in the mid and late-20th century. He was known for his depictions of ordinary people and urban scenes, using often dark colours. With the identity of Jack the Ripper remaining one of crime's most enduring mysteries, some have speculated that Sickert was the murderer. Sickert claimed he lived in Jack the Ripper's old home and painted a scene called Jack the Ripper's Bedroom, which included his own figure. The Ripper is believed to have killed six women in 1888 but was never identified, sparking dozens of books on the subject and the naming of numerous suspects. Whilst most have dismissed Sickert as being a potential candidate, acclaimed author Patricia Cornwell has named him as the killer in two separate books. Another author, Paul Christian, also believes Sickert was the Ripper. He outlined his theory in a 2018 book. An unnerving painting by a Victorian artist who some experts believe was notorious serial killer Jack the Ripper has sold for 14,000. Walter Sickert's 'Figures in the Rain' went for more than double its upper sale estimate of 6,000 at an Oxford auction house on Wednesday Sickert, who died aged 91 in 1942, was an important influence on British art in the mid and late-20th century. He was known for his depictions of ordinary people and urban scenes, using often dark colours WHO WERE JACK THE RIPPER'S VICTIMS? Jack the Ripper's victims were Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly. Nichols was discovered at around 3.40am on August 31, 1888 in Buck's Row (now Durward Street), Whitechapel. Her throat was cut twice and her lower abdomen had some incisions. Chapman's body was discovered at about 6am on September 8 near a doorway in the back yard of 29 Hanbury Street, Spitalfields. Her throat was also cut twice, her abdomen was slashed open and her uterus was removed. The corpse of Elizabeth Stride, pictured The corpse of Annie Chapman, pictured Stride and Eddowes' murders were referred to as a 'double event' as they were both found within an hour of each other on September 30. Kelly's mutilated and disembowelled body was discovered at 13 Miller's Court, off Dorset Street, Spitalfields, November 9. Her throat had been severed down to the spine, the abdomen almost emptied of its organs and her heart was missing. Advertisement Figures in the Rain had been tipped to sell for between 4,000 and 6,000. It was sold by Mallams Auctioneers in Oxford. A spokesman for the auction house told the Oxford Mail: 'Having a work by Walter Sickert is obviously very exciting his works are displayed at the Ashmolean here in Oxford. 'His works are always dark with his palette, and it's achieved a great price here.' Other authors who suspect Sickert could have either been the Ripper or been involved in the killings of Mary Ann Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly include Stephen Knight and Jean Overton Fuller. Whilst Knight believes he was complicit, Fuller joins Cornwell in believing he was the killer, who struck in London's Whitechapel. Cornwell's two books on the subject were Jack the RipperCase Closed and Ripper: The Secret Life of Walter Sickert. She claimed in her second book that dated music hall sketches by Sickert defeat the alibi that Sickert was in France as the killings took place. She instead alleged that this evidence puts the post-impressionist 'within days or even hours of at least three of the killings'. The author also said Sickert was in Cornwall at the same time a guestbook at a bed and breakfast there was vandalised with sexually crude imagery and the signature 'Jack The Ripper, of Whitechapel'. The author also supported the claims of picture-framer, Joseph Gorman, who insisted he was the illegitimate son of Sickert and that the artist confessed Ripper details to him. The man was dismissed as a fantasist and died in 2003 but Cornwell said she had proof that he received Sickert's publishing royalties after his death in 1942. Although she admitted previously that the identity of the Ripper can never really be proved, the Miami-born writer believes her book provides a compelling case. 'The majority of the book is new material,' she said at the time. ' I'm more convinced than ever of Sickert's guilt.' Other suggestions for the Ripper's identity include Monatgue John Druitt, a schoolmaster who was fired in 1888 and died of suspected suicide a month later. Crime historian Dr Jan Bondeson named Dutch sailor Hendrik de Jong as a prime suspect for the most notorious set of unsolved murders in history. At the time of the Whitechapel murders, de Jong is believed to have worked as a steward on board a ship which made frequent trips from Rotterdam to London. This provided him with the perfect means of getting out of the country after his heinous crimes. He later murdered two of his ex-wives in his native Netherlands in 1893 and bludgeoned to death two women above a pub before attempting to set their bodies on fire in Belgium in 1898. Another theory suggests Queen Victoria's grandson, Prince Albert Victor, the Duke of Clarence, was the killer. In 2018, author Mr Christian highlighted how one of Sickert's paintings suggested he may have been the Ripper. The Ripper is believed to have killed six women in 1888 but was never identified, sparking dozens of books on the subject and the naming of numerous suspects Sickert claimed he lived in Jack the Ripper's old home and painted a scene called Jack the Ripper's Bedroom, which included his own figure The painting shows a scene on the streets of London featuring three figures - one is believed to be the Ripper and two are thought to be his victims, including Mary Kelly. In the artwork, a person believed to be the Ripper walks towards a woman resembling Kelly, the last of the Ripper's five victims. A second woman wears a shawl decorated with many red spots. This could refer to the 39 times that another Victorian murder victim, Martha Tabram, was stabbed. Tabram is believed by some to have been another Ripper victim. The above painting, La Hollandaise, was painted by Sickert in 1906. It is one of several of his works that depicts naked women A set of railings in the artwork also appear to show the numbers 1888 - the year of the Ripper's gruesome campaign. On the back of Sickert's painting is a sketch which Mr Christian claims is supposed to be the police chief in charge of the investigation to find the Ripper, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Charles Warren. Mr Christian, 36, said in 2018: 'The evidence I have unearthed can allow us to now confidently point the finger at Walter Sickert and a conspiracy of arty types behind the Jack the Ripper case. 'Sickert was certainly a major suspect before this, but there are details in the painting that only the killer could have known.' A man who was drugged and sexually abused at the age of 12 by a teacher at a Scottish prep school has won a six figure settlement more than 30 years later. John Findlay took legal action against Aberlour House School, which was a prep school for Gordonstoun in Moray, north Scotland, over the abuse in 1990. When he was a child a teacher came into his room, drugged him and sexually abused him after he had asked for help for an injury. He remained fully conscious during the attack - which was photographed by the teacher - but he was unable to move or speak. When he told his parents they decided not to go to the police, so no charges were brought against the teacher, who is now dead. He says his parents, who regretted this decision, instead contacted Arberlour's headmaster, who told them the teacher would never work a school again. John Findlay, pictured, was 12 years old when he was drugged and abused by a teacher at Aberlour House School Mr Findlay, who is now 44, has given up his right to anonymity after getting the settlement from the school. He said his victory against Aberlour was 'an important admission of liability', which would 'act as a warning to institutions tempted to cover up for abusers in their midst'. He added: 'I hope it also shows other victims that it is still possible to stand up and be counted many years later. 'It is well recognised that many children who have suffered abuse hide their experiences until they can no longer conceal their true feelings. No-one should have to suffer in silence.' More than 30 years later Mr Findlay has received a six figure settlement from the school for the abuse Mr Findlay, who has suffered clinically severe post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety since the abuse, spent years pursuing his claim against Aberlour House. He thanked Thorntons Solicitors for their 'unswerving support and determination to bring forward my claim'. He added: 'I hope my case reassures people that there is light at the end at the tunnel and it gives others confidence to speak out.' The settlement comes after he told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry how the teacher gave him medicine before abusing him, and described how he was 'horrendously conscious' but unable to stop the attack. Mr Findlay became determined to seek justice after learning his abuser went on to teach elsewhere and abused more victims. Thorntons began pursuing the case against Aberlour House for Mr Findlay in 2018. Aberlour House School (pictured), in Moray, is a prep school for Gordonstoun, a boarding school in the same town Personal injury solicitor Danny McGinn, who led the claim, said: 'Mr Findlay has lived with severe psychological injuries because of what happened to him, affecting his life in so many ways. 'His settlement will allow him to get the specialist help that he needs and that will make a huge difference to his life. 'Mr Findlay's success shows that the passage of time need not be a barrier to justice. Changes to the legal time limit and introduction of the Redress scheme have made it possible for survivors to pursue claims even after many years. 'With these changes, and with the examples of brave people like Mr Findlay, I expect that we will see more survivors coming forward to confront those responsible.' A planned tube strike that would have caused chaos on first day of the Jubilee bank holiday weekend has been suspended. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union had been due to walkout at Euston and Green Park tube stations in London on Friday, June 3, affecting the Piccadilly, Jubilee and Victoria lines. The strike would have caused significant disruption at stations that are vital for anyone planning to attend celebrations for the Queen's Platinum Jubilee, with Green Park being the one of the closest to Buckingham Palace. The proposed 24-hour walkout was prompted by claims workers at the stations had faced bullying and intimidation from a single manager for years, leading to a breakdown of industrial relations, the union says. However, the RMT has no said that strike will no longer take place on that date, after making 'significant progress' in talks with with London Underground (LUL). It said that an agreement has been reached with tube bosses to have a review into the bullying issue that would involve the union. Plans for strikes at Euston (pictured) and Green Park tube stations have beeen suspended by the RMT union News there could be strikes on the first day of the Platinum Jubilee bank holiday weekend prompted fury As a result it has suspended the strike, but the RMT says if there are no immediate improvements and a 'just settlement' is not reached it will call for action on a different day. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: 'London Underground (LUL) has finally seen sense to take the union's arguments seriously regarding workplace bullying and we will now suspend to the strike on June 3 to hopefully reach a resolution quickly.' Nick Dent, London Underground's Director of Customer Operations, said: 'We are pleased that the RMT has suspended their industrial action involving station staff at Euston and Green Park stations on June 3 and we will continue to work with them to find a resolution to the issues raised.' News that workers were planning on striking on the first day of the Jubilee bank holiday weekend was met with fury earlier this month. Downing Street slammed the strikes, with the Prime Minister's official spokesman telling reporters: 'I don't think we want to see any disruption to London's transport system at such a moment when people are trying to come together to honour this Jubilee year.' A spokesman for Labour leader Keir Starmer said: 'We never want to see industrial action that's going to disrupt the public, particularly on an occasion like the Platinum Jubilee weekend where obviously we want the focus to be on celebrating the great service of Her Majesty to this country.' Sir Keir said he hoped the issues could be resolved, adding: 'We want to make sure that there isn't disruption for the public. 'It's for the parties themselves to get together and discuss the issues but we would hope that they could resolve the issues before the Jubilee weekend.' People wait to get on buses at Liverpool Street station in central London during a previous RMT strike on the Tube on March 1 Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union protest outside Tottenham Court Road station in London on Tuesday, May 24 What is happening for the Platinum Jubilee on Friday, June 3? The Queen and the Royal Family are seen at St Paul's Cathedral during the service of Thanksgiving to mark the Golden Jubilee in 2022 A Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen's reign will be held at St Paul's Cathedral. During the service, the church's bell, named Great Paul, will be rung. It was made in 1882 but fell silent in the 1970s due to a broken mechanism. It was restored in 2021 and has been rung on eight occasions since then. However, this is the first royal occasion for which it has been rung. The service will start at 11.30am and Great Paul will be rung between 10.50am and 10.55am, followed by a peal of bells. It is understood that the service is closed to the public. Throughout the weekend, big screens will be placed in The Mall and St James's Park in London for Trooping the Colour on Thursday, the Platinum Party at the Palace on Saturday and for the Pageant on Sunday. Advertisement Stephen Hammond, the Tory MP for Wimbledon, said it would be 'utterly shameless of the RMT to strike on the weekend of national celebration'. Transport for London (TfL) insisted there would be no disruption and that despite the strike it would keep the two stations open due to their strategic importance for the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. This was in contrast to the RMT, which said it would cause 'significant disruption' to those wanting to get a glimpse of Buckingham Palace. While Green Park is one of the closest stations to the palace, St James's Park, also half-a-mile away, would have been unaffected with services on the District and Circle lines. Euston is home to the UK's busiest inter-city railway, with thousands of people expected to arrive at the station from outside London ahead of the Saturday and Sunday celebrations. However, despite news the strike next Friday has been called off, a much larger day of action called by the RMT is still set to go ahead less than a week later. Around 4,000 tube staff are set to walk out on Monday, June 6, in a dispute over job losses. The RMT has accused TfL of trying to 'bulldoze through 600 job losses', with Mr Lynch saying its members are 'not prepared to accept that'. 'Station staff play a crucial role in serving the travelling public and were heroes during the 7/7 terrorist attacks,' he said. 'Instead of seeking to cut jobs, TfL and Mayor Sadiq Khan need to put further pressure on the government to secure increased funding for the network so we can have a properly staffed modern 21st century tube.' Mr Lynch also refused to rule out walk outs lasting four days a time when RMT members working for Network Rail and 15 train operators go on strike this summer. RMT boss Mick Lynch has not ruled out four consecutive days of strikes in the summer when thousands of members take industrial action He said strikes will not be 'excessive' to start with as industrial action takes place during a dispute over pay and jobs. The union legally has to give two weeks' notice for industrial action, meaning walkouts could begin from mid-June. The dispute is over pay and claims that Network Rail, which is in charge of infrastructure, plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs. There are concerns there could be blackouts due to the impact on freight services by these strikes. Industry insiders point to Drax power station in North Yorkshire, which can only stockpile supplies sufficient for two or three days and services millions of homes. Tesco and Puma Energy, which supplies garage forecourts, have also raised concerns about supply lines. Shadow Foreign Secretary and Labour MP David Lammy has today said he will not be silenced by the far right after a 'vile racist' who sent him death threats was sentenced in court. Glenn Broadbent, 62, was sentenced at Leeds Magistrates' Court on Tuesday after sending the MP a death threat via Twitter message. Broadbent of Greenside Road, Leeds, was handed a 12-month suspended prison sentence and fined 2,000. The message read: 'Are you hanging off a tree monkey boy? You will hang from a lamppost if you're not careful.' Labour MP David Lammy is a prominent anti-racism campaigner and is currently the Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy is a close ally of Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer (left) Mr Lammy said on Twitter today: 'Pleased to report a vile racist who sent me this death threat using a pseudonym has finally been convicted, given a suspended sentence and fined thanks to @WestYorksPolice. 'The far right will never silence me or stop me standing up for justice.' He was ordered to pay a victim surcharge of 128 and costs of 85. The court confirmed that Broadbent was made subject to a restraining order banning him from contacting Mr Lammy. The defendant admitted sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message which was grossly offensive and sending by means of a public electronic communications network a message which was menacing, contrary to the Communications Act 2003. Supporters of the MP have flocked to support him on social media. One user wrote 'Lammy for MP' and a second 'Stay Strong David! Our country needs you.' Another wrote: 'It is a shock that people like this even exist. Why would you even think of sending such a message. I read it and it send shivers down my spine. 'Mr Lammy I have great respect for what you represent and despair at this persons thought processes. Mr Lammy is Labour MP for Tottenham and has held the position since first being elected in 2000. Currently Shadow Foreign Secretary he has also held the roles of Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice since the Conservatives came to power. He is a prominent anti-racism campaigner and hit headlines last year after the release of the governments so-called 'race review', which found the UK was not institutionally racist. At the time he told his listeners on LBC, where he regularly presents a radio show, that Boris Johnson 'let an entire generation of young white and black British people down.' He continued: 'This report could have been a turning point, a moment for us all to come together. Instead it has chosen to divide us once more and keep us debating the existence of racism rather than doing anything about it.' 'I tell myself that the arc of the moral universe bends towards justice...it would help if this Government were not so determined to bend the arc backwards.' A grandfather was left covered with blood after Staffordshire bull terriers mauled him and his pet dog in a brutal attack. Michael Campbell, 80, was walking his French bull tzu called Bo in Birkenhead Park, Wirral, on May 15 when he was attacked by three dogs. The Staffies 'ripped apart' six-year-old Bo before a passerby, Jan Majer, 33, tried to help Michael and Bo. Jan, a factory worker and originally from the Czech Republic, was left with a leg injury where you 'could see his bone' and was rushed to hospital. Police seized two of the terriers, no arrests have been made and an investigation into the incident is ongoing. Denise, Michael's daughter, told The Mirror: 'Dad let Bo off the lead and these Staffies came out of nowhere and started attacking his dog. 'He went over to pick Bo up and fell over. They were jumping on him and trying to get past him to Bo, who he was protecting. 'He had bites all over him and scratches on his face. Dad tried to protect Bo but couldn't and had to move. The Staffies then started mauling Bo, ripping him apart in front of my dad.' Michael Campbell (pictured with his partner Maureen), 80, was walking his French bull tzu called Bo in Birkenhead Park, Wirral, on May 15 when he was attacked by three dogs The Staffies 'ripped apart' six-year-old Bo before a passerby, Jan Majer, 33, tried to help Michael and Bo (Michael's hands are still bandaged up) Denise set up a GoFundMe, which to date has received more than 4,160, to pay for Bo's ongoing vet bills and wrote: 'My 80-year-old dad was out walking his dog Bo when they were both attacked by three dogs in Birkenhead Park. 'My dad, who celebrated his 80th birthday the day before the attack, took his best mate for a walk on a nice Sunday afternoon and three Staffies attacked them. 'My dad, who isnt a well man, fell to the floor trying to shield his dog and was bitten by the dogs repeatedly. 'The dogs managed to get my dad's dog and started to maul him in front of my dad. 'A man who was so heroic ran over and pulled my dad's dog out of the mouths of the dogs and was attacked himself leaving him with awful injuries. 'Bo has survived the first night but has suffered horrific injuries. The vets are doing all they can to help but dont know if he will survive. Denise, Michael's daughter, set up a GoFundMe, which to date has received more than 4,160, to pay for Bo's ongoing vet bills 'The bill is already over 3000 and he has a long way to go. Why should my dad be left with this bill after this horrific ordeal as well as being left emotionally scarred?' A spokesman for Merseyside Police said: 'At around 11.50am we received a report that a man and his small dog were being attacked by two Staffordshire Bull Terriers in Birkenhead Park on Cavendish Road, Birkenhead. 'A man who was driving by stopped to help the victim, an 80-year-old man. 'The Good Samaritan, a 33-year-old man, lifted the small dog and as he did was bitten on his leg and arm by the two Staffordshire Bull Terriers. The 80-year-old victim received minor injuries. 'Police attended the scene, both victims were taken to hospital for their injuries and are recovering from the incident. 'The small dog was taken for veterinary treatment. 'Officers have seized the two Staffordshire Bull Terriers and their two owners will attend for police interviews at a later date.' Police seized two of the terriers, no arrests have been made and an investigation into the incident is ongoing Community Policing Inspector Peter Rexwinkel said: 'This was a frightening incident for all involved and an investigation to establish the full circumstances surrounding the incident is continuing. 'Although Staffordshire Bull Terriers are not a banned breed, they were reportedly out of control in a public place and as such officers have seized the dogs and the owners will be attending an interview. Inspector Rexwinkel added: 'Merseyside Police takes such incidents seriously and have a dedicated Sergeant who reviews all cases concerning dogs. 'Anyone walking their dog in our local parks need to be mindful of their dogs behaviour at all times and keep their pet on a lead if it is liable to be aggressive towards other park users. 'We will not tolerate irresponsible dog ownership on Merseyside and want to maintain all our parks as safe and welcoming places to be.' Anyone who witnessed this incident or with any information is asked to contact @MerPolCC on Twitter or Merseyside Police Contact Centre on Facebook with reference 22000333218. One of the country's leading academy chains has been warned its school could be stripped of funding over rampant homophobic, bullying and derogatory language by students. The Ark Schools academy chain has been ordered to make drastic and urgent improvements to the Ark Kings Academy in Birmingham by the education watchdog. A recent Ofsted inspection found that secondary pupils did not feel safe, while 'bullying, derogatory language and homophobic behaviours are commonplace'. As a result, the Department of Education has handed the school a Termination Warning Notice, threatening that Government funding will be withdrawn if changes are not made immediately. Regional Schools Commissioner Andrew Warren warned that the school would be transferred to an alternative academy trust if improvements were not made. A spokesman for the trust said work was already underway to improve the school. Ark Schools has been warned its school Ark Kings Academy (pictured above) could be stripped of funding over rampant homophobic, bullying and derogatory language by students The school was deemed 'inadequate' in four out of five areas in its latest inspection, which took place in March this year. During their visit, inspectors found pupils had 'no confidence that staff will support them when they raise concerns'. They also said 'lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) pupils experience repeated discriminatory behaviour against them'. The DfE said the school's leaders had not recognised these issues so they could not take the 'right steps' to prevent them. In the school's Ofsted report, pupils said there were 'high levels of bullying and prejudiced behaviour' which went unrecorded. 'Pupils feel that they have to tolerate the frequent sexual harassment towards them,' the report said. It added: 'Some pupils, particularly those who identify as LGBT, experience repeated name-calling and prejudiced behaviour. This means that pupils do not feel safe in the school.' Ofsted noted that pupils with special educational needs and disabilities were also more likely to receive sanctions than their peers, with a 'high and increasing' number of suspensions. In the school's Ofsted report, pupils said there were 'high levels of bullying and prejudiced behaviour' which went unrecorded, and they had to endure sexual harassment (stock image) Inspectors also found that teachers were using suspensions and exclusions to manage behaviour, creating a 'culture of sanctions' while failing to recognise good behaviour. It judged the academy, which educates pupils aged three to 16, to be inadequate, and said school leaders did not make 'adequate checks' on pupil absences, while 'too many pupils are truant from lessons'. Ark Schools is one of the largest academy chains in the country, operating 39 schools all over the country including in the West Midlands, London, Essex and Hampshire. Regional Schools Commissioner Andrew Warren said in his notice to the school: 'I need to be satisfied that the trust has capacity to deliver rapid and sustainable improvement at the academy. 'If I am not satisfied that this can be achieved, I will consider whether to terminate the funding agreement in order to transfer the academy to an alternative academy trust.' An Ark spokesperson said: 'Whilst very disappointed with the inspection judgment, we fully accept the findings of the inspection report. 'We had identified many of the issues prior to the inspection and had taken action to begin to address these ahead of the inspection. 'That work has gathered pace since, and we are very confident the school will improve rapidly over the coming months. 'We have appointed an executive principal and a new secondary principal to lead this work and the school will have the support and resources of our large, successful network to ensure all pupils experience a consistently high-quality education.' The school was formerly named one of the most improved schools in England after their GCSE results rose by 27 per cent in 2013, while the national average was down by six per cent. Communist MP Leonid Vasyukevich, 69, is pictured. He has appealed to Putin to stop military action and bring his troops home. 'Young men die and are maimed during the operation, even though they could have benefited our country,' he told legislators A veteran Russian legislator has issued an appeal to Vladimir Putin to stop military action, bring his troops home and end the war in Ukraine. Communist deputy Leonid Vasyukevich, 69, blasted the use of Moscows servicemen in Ukraine, as a Russian court dismissed more than 100 national guardsmen in the first case of soldiers refusing to fight in Ukraine as politicians demanded the army return home. Members of the National Guard of the Russian Federation, a separate military branch from the Russian army refused to carry out an assignment related to Moscow's 'special operation' in Ukraine. A military court in Russia's southern republic of Kabardino-Balkaria found that the defendants 'arbitrarily refused to perform an official assignment' and turned down their appeal. The hearing was held behind closed doors to avoid revealing 'military secrets,' according to the Moscow Times. Vasyukevich, 69, blasted the use of Moscows servicemen in Ukraine as the war continues His blast has caused ructions within the political assembly as the politician was seen to break some of the strictest controls on any public dissent about the war Putins supporters have branded him a 'traitor' and he may now face legal action for dishonouring the Russian army The veteran local MP defied attempts to gag him and told legislators in Primorsky region he and his fellow lawmakers were making an appeal to the Russian president The veteran local MP defied attempts to gag him and told legislators in the Primorsky region he and his fellow lawmakers were making an appeal to the Russian president. Putins supporters have branded him a 'traitor' and he may now face legal action for dishonouring the Russian army. 'We are backing measures to support families of servicemen killed during the special military operation,' he told the regional legislator in Vladivostok, Russias Pacific capital. 'We understand that unless our country stops the special military operation, there will be even more orphans. 'Young men die and are maimed during the operation, even though they could have benefited our country.' Three months have passed since the start of the war 'and it is clearly impossible to reach success by a military way', he said, amid interruptions from the assembly. Vasyukevich said three months have passed since the start of the war 'and it is clearly impossible to reach success by a military way' Vladimir Putin meets the governor of Primorsky Krai Oleg Kozhemyako (right) in Vladivostok, in the far east of Russia. Governor Kozhemyako accused Vasyukevich and his supporters of defaming the Russian army, and demanded he should be removed from the assembly If Putin continues his war, it 'will inevitably lead to an increase in numbers of killed and wounded servicemen. 'We demand the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine' Throughout his brave speech - the loyalist chairman of the parliament Alexander Rolik tried to halt his outburst. 'I am warning youYou are abusing the agenda', he was told. 'You are violating the order to speak without permission.' His blast has caused ructions within the political assembly as the politician was seen to break some of the strictest controls on any public dissent about the war. Anatoly Dolgachev, head of his faction, told Vasyukevich: 'You defame the honour of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation with such a statement.' Service members of pro-Russian troops drive an armoured vehicle along a street during Ukraine-Russia conflict in the town of Popasna in the Luhansk Region 'We are backing measures to support families of servicemen killed during the special military operation,' said the politician. 'We understand that unless our country stops the special military operation, there will be even more orphans' A young boy sits in front of a damaged building after a strike in Kramatorsk in the eastern Ukranian region of Donbas Governor Oleg Kozhemyako accused him and his supporters of defaming the Russian army, and demanded he should be removed from the assembly. 'These actions discredit the Russian army and our defenders who stand in the fight against Nazism. A traitor,' stormed the angry governor. Another MP hitting out at the war, Gennady Shulga, demanded that Vasyukevich should be heard and not abused. But other MPs voted to deny the pair the right to vote. Vasyukevich is the grandson of a Finnish-born explorer and whaler Fridolf Heck, who died in Vladivostok in 1904. There is growing evidence of a backlash against the war in Russia as rock concerts have become venues for protest against the conflict in Ukraine, which Moscow calls a 'special operation'. As many as 16 military recruitment offices have been hit by Molotov cocktails in defiance over bids to surge enlistment into the army through conscription. GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert pushed back on calls for gun control after the Uvalde shooting, reasoning that the nation should not ban guns because it did not ban planes after 9/11. The Colorado Republican said the shooting demonstrated the need for armed teachers, no to 'take guns away from law-abiding citizens.' 'When 911 happened. We didn't ban planes,' she reasoned. 'We secured the cockpit.' The gunman who mowed down 19 kids and two teachers at an elementary school had legally purchased two AR-style rifles days before just after his 18th birthday. 'Once again, unfortunately, we've proven that gun free zones are deadly and we cannot legislate evil,' she continued. 'I want teachers that can protect themselves and their students. And you know what, we can achieve this without trying to disarm law abiding citizens,' Boebert said. 'For me, this is my equalizer. I need a way to protect myself and my children. And my firearm is my equalizer, my tool to do that.' The staunchly pro-gun congresswoman tore into Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer for blocking a school safety bill backed by Republicans, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for picking a fight with her on Twitter. On Wednesday the New York Democrat clapped back on Twitter after she wrote a tweet arguing 'You can't legislate away evil.' GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert pushed back on calls for gun control after the Uvalde shooting, reasoning that the nation should not ban guns because it did not ban planes after 9/11 Boebert has incorporated guns into her public persona, displaying guns in the background of a virtual House committee hearing 'Why even be in Congress if you dont believe in doing your job? Just quit and let someone who actually gives a damn do it instead of acting like a useless piece of furniture when babies are shot with AR15s that we let teen boys impulse buy before they can legally have a beer,' Ocasio-Cortez wrote. Boebert then asked her to meet up and talk about it. 'Ms. Defund the Police, Gun Free Zones have proven to be deadly. Let me know when youre ready to do your job and effectively protect our schools with armed security. Lets meet and solve this.' Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., asked Thursday for the Luke and Alex School Safety Act to be passed by unanimous consent, a proposal which Schumer shot down. The bill, named after victims of the Parkland, Florida shooting, would require the Department of Homeland Security to establish a standard of best practices for preventing and quickly shutting down violent events. The so-called 'Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Best Practices' is already available at SchoolSafety.gov, but the bill would codify it, and make sure the clearinghouse publishes materials for training both education workers and law enforcement on incident mitigation and response. 'When 911 happened. We didn't ban planes,' GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert reasoned. 'We secured the cockpit' Boebert tweeted out a photo of her young children brandishing weapons at Christmas time Schumer quashed the bill because he claimed it could lead to 'more guns in schools.' 'GOP Sen. Johnson just tried for a bill that could see more guns in schoolsI blocked it. The truth: There were officers at the school in Texas. The shooter got past them. We need real solutionsWe will vote on gun legislation starting with the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act,' he tweeted. Boebert has incorporated guns into her public persona, displaying guns in the background of a virtual House committee hearing and tweeting out a photo of her young children brandishing weapons at Christmas time. Andy Dick will no longer faces charges for sexual battery after his male accuser refused to cooperate with the investigation, the authorities said. The 56-year-old actor was accused of a felony of sexual assault at a trailer park in Irvine California on May 11 when police in Orange County, California arrested him. The Orange County District Attorney's office found there was not 'sufficient evidence,' to charge the actor and sent the case back to the sheriff for 'further investigation.' Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Scott Steinle told DailyMail.com on Thursday 'after re-interviewing the alleged victim, OC Sheriff's Department decided to drop the case .' 'The victim did not want to participate in our investigation,' Steinle said. 'Since the victim does not want to co-operate any more, the investigation will go no further.' Steinle said if the victim decides in the future that he does want to participate then the case could be re-opened. After hearing that the charges were dropped, Dicks attorney, Daniel Kapelovitz told DailyMail.com: The second I heard about the arrest, I knew there was no case. Nothing happened. A 2019 photo of comedian and actor Andy Dick Dressed in a gray hoodie and black joggers, Dick was hauled away in handcuffs before being placed inside a patrol car Officers are seen here handcuffing Dick before placing him in the patrol car Police from the Orange County Sheriff's Department swarmed his modest trailer parked at California's O'Neill Regional Park Kapelovitz is also representing the News Radio star in another alleged sexual battery case that is set to go to a jury trail in Los Angeles next week. The misdemeanor incident in which a Lyft driver accused the News Radio star of groping him during a car ride four years ago. Dick has pleaded not guilty and after a pre-trial hearing last Monday, the comic told DailyMail.com that the April 2018 incident, in which the driver told police that Dick had grabbed his genitals, 'did not happen.' On Friday, another hearing was taking place at LA's Airport Courthouse and jury selection due to start on Tuesday. But that schedule could be delayed since the prosecuting deputy District Attorney in the case has been sick and may not be able to return to court till next week. Dick is facing up to 180 days in jail if hes convicted in his jury trial. Last month, Las Vegas police conducted a welfare check at the home the comedian was staying in, after a man he was with pulled a gun during an argument that was featured on a live feed, TMZ reported. According to the news outlet, fans of Dick were concerned and believed the actor's life was in danger, but when police arrived, Dick told them he was fine and said authorities he wanted to stay. Over the decades, Dick has been transparent about his alcohol and drug abuse, and have had a string of arrests that have made news headlines. In November 2021, Dick was arrested for felony domestic battery after he allegedly hit his boyfriend in the head with a liquor bottle. According to police, Dick and his boyfriend had been at his home when they got into a heated argument that quickly turned physical. When police were called, they determined there was enough evidence to arrest the comedian, as his boyfriend was allegedly bleeding from a sizable wound on his head. Dick was released after he posted $50,000 bond. Last month, Las Vegas police conducted a welfare check at the home the comedian was staying in, after a man he was with, pulled a gun during an argument that was featured on a live feed, TMZ reported. Over the decades, Dick has been open about his alcohol and drug abuse, and has had a string of arrests that have made news headlines A mugshot of comedian Andy Dick taken in 2011 In October 2021, Dick was arrested for allegedly hitting his boyfriend in the face with a frying pan. In June 2021, the actor was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon for allegedly attacking a male partner with a metal chair. Dick also made his $50,000 bail after that altercation. In 2019, the actor was sentenced to 14 days in jail after being convicted of sexual battery for allegedly squeezing a woman's rear end. He was released after a single night due to jail overcrowding. The same year, he was seen on video being slammed to the ground after he got into a fight with an Uber Eats driver while seemingly intoxicated. He previously pleaded not guilty to one count of misdemeanor sexual battery in April 2018 after he allegedly groped an Uber driver's crotch. Dick's estranged wife Lena Sved received a domestic violence restraining order against him in 2018, which required him to move out of their home and remain 100 yards away from her and their adult children: Lucas, 33, Jacob, 27, and Meg, 24. In 2012, he was arrested for allegedly grabbing a 17-year-old girl's top and pulling it down to expose her breasts. He was later found with marijuana and pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drug and battery charges, for which he was sentenced to three years of probation. In 2010, he was arrested for allegedly grabbing a man's genitals while intoxicated at a West Virginia bar. In 2007, Dick groped Ivanka Trump during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live and was pulled off stage by Kimmel's security staff. A Victorian mum allegedly goaded her new husband into executing her former partner over a bitter custody dispute but both men ended up dead. Biannca Edmunds, 36, is on trial before a jury for the shooting murder of her ex-fiance Michael Caposiena in Melbourne. Prosecutors allege she ordered her new husband, Glen Cassidy, to carry out the shooting. She has pleaded not guilty to murder. Cassidy, 49, died from blood loss after being stabbed with a carving knife as he shot Mr Caposiena, 32, in the head at his Westmeadows unit on March 12, 2016. A Victorian mum allegedly goaded her new husband into executing her former partner over a bitter custody dispute but both men ended up dead Biannca Edmunds, 36, is on trial before a jury for the 2016 shooting murder of her ex-fiance Michael Caposiena (pictured) in Melbourne Victorian Supreme Court heard Edmunds, 36, supplied Cassidy with a gun and gave him Mr Caposiena's Pascoe Street home address. The motive for the murder plot, the court heard, was that Edmunds wanted Mr Caposiena dead over a row about him wanting shared access to their son. Prosecutors alleged she also mocked and goaded Cassidy, telling him he wasn't a 'real man' if he didn't 'deal' with her ex. 'If you had any f***ing balls, you'd go and deal with this bloke. You're a spineless coward.' '[Edmunds] assisted or encouraged or directed the murder of Michael Caposiena, and she did that using the hand of Glen Cassidy,' alleged crown prosecutor Neil Hutton. Biannca Edmunds (right) is accused of ordering a brutal hit against her former partner in an effort to keep him out of their child's life The jury heard Cassidy went to Mr Caposiena's unit and shook hands with him But he then pushed Mr Caposiena backwards and pulled out a gun, aiming it at the younger man's head. Mr Caposiena managed to grab a a kitchen knife and stab Cassidy with it before Cassidy pulled the trigger, shooting Mr Caposiena in the head through his ear. The desperate final struggle was witnessed by Mr Caposiena's girlfriend, Silvana Silva. Police arrived to find a grisly scene: Mr Caposiena dead from a gunshot wound inside the unit and Cassidy dead outside with multiple stab wounds. Prosecutors alleged Edmunds mocked and goaded Cassidy, telling him he wasn't a 'real man' if he didn't 'deal' with her ex. He ended up dead in a pool of blood, stabbed to death by Mr Caposiena outside his unit Michael Caposiena used this bloodied knife to stab Glen Cassidy moments before he was shot through the head The jury in the murder trial was shown photos of the grim double murder, including the bloodied knife found near Mr Capoiena's body and a pool of blood where Cassidy's body lay. The court also saw photos of gun parts found at the murder scene. It was also reported a black cap, emblazoned with the words 'Fear the grim reaper', lay near Cassidy's body. Prosecutors told the court police retrieved a map from Cassidy's body, which they allege Edmunds drew, showing where barking dogs and security lights were located. The jury was also told that before the horrific incident, Edmunds told her mother-in-law, Maree Cassidy, that she wanted 'someone to shoot [Mr Caposiena]'. The accused's mother Ellen Edmunds told the court that Mr Caposiena had been violent towards her and she didn't want him in her daughter's or her grandson's life. A hat branded 'Fear The Reaper' was found at the scene of the crime The jury in the murder trial was shown photos of the grim double murder, including the bloodied knife found near Mr Capoiena's body Ellen Edmunds told the court her daughter said both men were dead, that she was 'hysterical' and that 'Glen wasnt the one who was supposed to die'. Edmunds' mother added that the day after the deaths, her daughter told her that 'her troubles were over' and she had no more child custody worries. The defendant's legal team produced a text message alibi apparently from Cassidy to Edmunds taking full responsibility for the shooting. Another piece of Cassidy's mangled weapon Pieces of the revolver Cassidy used to shoot Michael Caposiena were found scattered after he used it to assault Silvana Silva But the prosecution claimed it could not have been sent by Cassidy because it used spelling and language beyond his literacy levels. Edmunds denied knowing of Cassidy's plans and her lawyer John Kelly SC told the court no conversation indicating guilt happened with her mother. The trial continues. A young woman was left permanently disfigured after her ex-boyfriend allegedly kidnapped her and tattooed his name into her face after she left him. Tayane Caldas, 18, of the southern Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, was on her way to school last Friday when she says her boyfriend Gabriel Coelho, 20, approached her and forced her to get in his car, which was being driven by his father, Jose Coelho. The teen said she was driven to her ex-boyfriend's home in the municipality of Taubate, where he forcibly tattooed his full name on her face, starting near the side her right ear and ending on the side of her right chin area. Tayane Caldas (pictured) was on her way to attend a class last Friday when her ex-boyfriend Gabriel Coelho, who was accompanied by his father, allegedly forced her to get in his car and drove her to his home in the southern Brazilian city of Taubate, where he held her against her will, beat her, tied her up and tattooed his first and last name down the right side of her face Gabriel Coelho is being investigated for reportedly kidnapping his ex-girlfriend and forcing her to get a tattoo with his first and last name inscribed on her face. He is also being held for failing to comply with a restraining order that barred him for contacting and being near her Gabriel Coelho reportedly kept Caldas trapped at his home where he physically and verbally abused her while her mother Deborah Velloso panicked that she had disappeared. Velloso filed a missing person's report before she tracked her daughter down to Coelho's house on Saturday and took her home. Once at the family residence, Coelho used makeup to cover the tattoo and bruises and was planning to leave for work, but her mother stopped her instead and accompanied her to the local police station where they filed an incident report. 'She told me she was screaming for help when he was tying her up,' Velloso said. 'She told me,"Either I stopped screaming and let him do the tattoo or he was going to kill me in there."' Coelho was taken into custody Saturday and is being held in preventive detention as authorities continue to investigate the incident. He will also have to remain in jail for not complying with a restraining order that Caldas filed in 2022. She had also obtained a restraining order in 2021. Coelho denied kidnapping his girlfriend and claimed she'd been happy to let him tattoo her. Tayane Caldas visited a clinic in Taubate, Brazil, on Wednesday to undergo the removal of the facial tattoo that her ex-boyfriend allegedly forced her to get last Friday Tayane Caldas visited a clinic in the southern Brazilian city of Taubate where she underwent the first of several dozen procedures to remove the facial tattoo that her ex-boyfriend allegedly did on her last Friday. In addition to removing the tattoo that features his first and last name, she will also remove his name that appears near her breast and crotch area Tayane Caldas told news outlet G1 that she was feeling 'a sense of relief, of happiness. To feel the beginning, to feel free' after she completed her first of several dozen sessions to remove the facial tattoo of her ex-boyfriend after he inked his name on the right side of her face. She had previously tattooed his name near her breast and groin area - both will be removed as well His father, who works for the city of Taubate, has already been interviewed by the police but is not in custody. He backed up his son's account. Caldas and Coelho met six years ago and dated for two years before recently ending the relationship. 'I am afraid of him,' Caldas told TV Band Vale. 'The law these days, everyone knows he doesn't stay in (jail) for long, and with this whole situation, I'm afraid of him.' Her mother shared with G1 a series of text messages, pleading with Coelho to accept that his relationship with her daughter was over. Tayane Caldas (left) knew Gabriel Coelho (right) for six years and dated him for two years before she decided to terminated the abusive relationship. Despite a restraining order, Coelho approached the 18-year-old last Friday and allegedly forced her to go into his car, which was driven by his father. She said her ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and took her to his home where he beat and tied her before tattooing his first and last name on the right side of her face Velloso texted him, 'you will be arrested if you don't stop.' Coelho responded by telling her that 'I have no reason to be arrested' and added that 'I don't need to go to prison for anyone.' Velloso then replied, 'go live your life and leave us alone.' Coelho sent audio message asking her to stop texting him while adding, 'nothing you say or stop saying will change what I'm going to do, okay? That's it, big hug.' Caldas is now undergoing laser treatment to remove the tattoo off her face as well as the other two tattoos of his name. She attended the first of a couple dozen visits at a clinic on Wednesday following a show of support local clinics and influencers after her lawyer revealed her horrific ordeal on social media. Caldas told news outlet G1 that she was feeling 'a sense of relief, of happiness. To feel the beginning, to feel free' after she completed her first session. Boris Johnson today suggested he won't benefit personally from the Government's energy bills handout - unlike Rishi Sunak - despite having more than one property. The Prime Minister insisted his 'arrangements are different' to those of the Chancellor, who has promised to donate his estimated 1,200 benefit from the new cost-of-living support to charity. The huge 21billion bailout unveiled by Mr Sunak yesterday includes 400 towards energy bills for all 28million households in the country. But the subsidy will be applied to properties rather than individuals, so those with multiple homes could rack up significantly higher savings. The Chancellor - who recently featured on the Sunday Times Rich List with billionaire heiress wife Akshata Murty - today urged people who do not need the money to 'join me' in giving the cash to good causes. Mr Sunak is believed to own three homes in the UK, including a house and a flat in central London and a sprawling estate in his Yorkshire constituency. That would potentially give a 1,200 benefit. Boris Johnson's properties are all listed as being rented out while he uses official residences in Downing Street and at Chequers - where he does not directly pay utility bills But, asked if he would follow the Chancellor's lead in donating payments to charity, the PM suggested he wouldn't be benefiting from the energy bills handout. 'My arrangements are different because I live in a Government flat,' he told reporters on a visit to Stockton-on-Tees. According to his register of interests as an MP, Mr Johnson has a 20 per cent share of a property in Somerset, a 50 per cent share of a property in London, and also owns a home in Oxfordshire. But they are all listed as being rented out while he uses official residences in Downing Street and at Chequers - where he does not directly pay utility bills. The Chancellor has not registered any rental income from his UK property portfolio. He was also reported to have moved out of his official residence in Downing Street last month in the wake of the controversy over his family's tax affairs. Asked about his own intentions on ITV's Good Morning Britain today, Mr Sunak said: 'I'm sure you will join me in giving that money to charity.' Justifying the way the new cost-of-living support was being delivered to all households rather than just the poorest, the Chancellor said there are only a couple of 'practical' ways of delivering payments, either universally or through the council tax system, which could exclude some deserving individuals. He told BBC Breakfast: 'Second homes account for one or two per cent of the property stock.' Rishi Sunak - who recently featured on the Sunday Times Rich List with heiress wife Akshata Murty - urged people who do not need the money to 'join me' in giving energy bill handouts to good causes Mr Sunak is believed to own three homes in the UK, including a house and a flat in central London and a sprawling estate in his Yorkshire constituency (pictured) Mr Sunak said there are only a couple of 'practical' ways of delivering payments, either universally or through the council tax system, which could exclude some deserving individuals An estimated 770,000 households own two homes that are not routinely rented out, and 60,000 have three. The Chancellor, aged 42, recently became the first frontline politician to be named in the Sunday Times Rich List together with his wife. The couple are credited with a joint fortune of 730million, putting them at 222 in the top 250 richest people in the UK. Ms Murty owns a 430million stake in her Indian tech billionaire father's IT business, and was recently embroiled in a row over having non-dom tax status. A 21-year-old groom-to-be has died after being hit by a stray bullet fired by his friend at his own engagement party. Mustafa Magdy was accidentally gunned down by one of his friends moments before arriving at the party in Agamy, in the Alexandria governorate of Egypt, on May 25. The barber, who was being held aloft by his friends and carried to the celebrations, fell to the ground drenched in blood when one of the negligent shooter's bullets clipped him. He was rushed to Mabaret Al-Asafra Gharb Hospital with massive blood loss, where medics were unable to resuscitate him. Celebratory gunfire is often seen at various festivities in parts of the Middle East, and in the context of weddings and engagements is viewed as a symbol of force and honour joining two families. But the traditional practice is dangerous, particularly at crowded events, and countless examples of people dying or sustaining serious injuries in accidental shootings have come to light in recent years. Mustafa Magdy died after he was shot with a stray bullet during his own engagement celebration in Alexandria governorate, Egypt, on May 25, 2022 Mustafa Magdy was accidentally gunned down by one of his friends moments before arriving at the party in Agami, Egypt, on May 25. Mohammed Yusuf, a friend of the groom-to-be, told local media: 'We were heading to a beauty salon where the bride was having her makeup done to take her to the lounge where the engagement was to be celebrated.' He said they were carrying Mustafa on their shoulders in celebration as they waited for the bride to exit the salon and head to the lounge. But before she left the salon, Mustafa tumbled to the ground badly wounded after a rattle of gunfire. Yusuf admitted that one of the group had fired the shot, but refused to name the gunman. Medics reported the shooting to police and officers from Amreya police station were dispatched to the hospital, where the 21-year-old sadly succumbed to his critical injuries. Police in Agamy have opened an investigation into the barber's death and the case is with regional prosecutors. But no more details had been shared at the time of the reporting and Yusuf declined to give any further details on the shooting or the injuries sustained by his friend. Mohammed Yusuf, a friend of the groom-to-be (pictured), told local media: 'We were heading to a beauty salon where the bride was having her makeup done to take her to the lounge where the engagement was to be celebrated' Yusuf admitted that one of the group had fired the shot which killed Mustafa (pictured), but refused to name the gunman Shooting an firearm into the sky in celebration is a popular practice throughout the Middle East. But it is a potentially fatal activity which sometimes results in the deaths of bystanders when the bullets run out of steam and fall back to earth. Others meanwhile are unfortunate enough to be hit directly as careless attendees accidentally squeeze off shots amid wild celebrations. Though falling bullets impact the ground - or unsuspecting bystanders - with far less velocity and force than if they had been fired directly, a typical bullet will fall with a speed of about 150mph if fired straight up in the air - more than enough to pierce through skin and bone. Advertisement Another 16 cases of monkeypox have been spotted among Britons, pushing the UK total above 100 as health officials plan to start isolating infected people's pets. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said the new patients were all based in England. There have been 106 across Britain since the first was detected on May 6. Wales and Northern Ireland yesterday declared their first cases, while Scotland has so far logged three. Health chiefs are alarmed about the ever-growing cluster of cases, given that until now the smallpox-like infection was confined to a handful of people with travel links to Africa. The majority are among gay and bisexual men. A scientific group advising the UK Government has called for the pet hamsters, rabbits and other rodents owned by infected patients to be isolated for three weeks. The Human Animal Infections and Risk Surveillance (HAIRS) group said these animals were at the highest risk of catching the virus, and they could spread it into wild populations. Experts fear that if the virus is unleashed into wild animal populations then it will become endemic and be hard to eradicate, as is the case in parts of western and central Africa. In new guidance issued today, the group said: 'Based on current evidence, for pet rodents in households where there are infected people, temporary removal from the household for a limited quarantine period (21 days) and testing to exclude infection is recommended, particularly where there are infected human contacts who have had close direct and prolonged contact with the animal or its bedding and/or litter.' The panel warned that hedgehogs, rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits and hares could all harbour the virus if monkeypox was to spill into Britain's wildlife populations. Officials are confident the monkeypox outbreak will not grow exponentially like Covid, saying the risk to the public remains low. However, they have urged Britons, especially men who have sex with men, to be on the look out for any new rashes or lesions, which appear like spots, ulcers or blisters, on any part of their body. Timeline of monkeypox 1958: Monkeypox was first discovered when an outbreak of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research. 1970: The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the infection has been reported in a number of central and western African countries since then. 2003: A Monkeypox outbreak occurred in the US after rodents were imported from Africa. Cases were reported in both humans and pet prairie dogs. All the human infections followed contact with an infected pet and all patients recovered. SEPTEMBER 8, 2018: Monkeypox appeared in the UK for the first time in a Nigerian naval officer who was visiting Cornwall for training. They were treated at the Royal Free Hospital in London. SEPTEMBER 11, 2018: A second UK monkeypox case is confirmed in Blackpool. There is no link with the first case in Cornwall. Instead, the patient is though to have picked up the infection when travelling in Nigeria. They were treated at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Royal Liverpool University Hospital. SEPTEMBER 26, 2018: A third person is diagnosed with monkeypox. The individual worked at Blackpool Victoria Hospital and treated the second Monkeypox case. They received treatment at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. DECEMBER 3, 2019: A patient was diagnosed with monkeypox in England, marking the fourth ever case. MAY 25, 2021: Two cases of monkeypox were identified in north Wales. Both patients had travel links to Nigeria. A third person living with one of the cases was diagnosed and admitted to hospital, bringing the total number ever to seven. MAY 7, 2022: A person was diagnosed with Monkeypox in England after recently travelling to Nigeria. The person received care at the expert infectious disease unit at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London. MAY 14, 2022: Two more cases were confirmed in London. The infected pair lived in the same household but had not been in contact with the case announced one week earlier. One of these individuals received care at the expert infectious disease unit at St Mary's Hospital in London. The other isolated at home and did not need hospital treatment. MAY 16, 2022: Four more cases were announced, bringing the UK total to seven. Three of these cases are in London, while one of their contacts is infected in the north east of England. The spate of cases was described as 'unusual' and 'surprising' as experts warn gay and bisexual men to look out for new rashes. MAY 19, 2022: Two more cases were revealed, with no travel links or connections to other cases. The cases were based in the South East and London. Fears began to grow that infections are going undetected. MAY 20, 2022: Eleven more cases are announced, meaning Britain's monkeypox outbreak have doubled to 20. Minsters discuss the possibility of a public health campaign to warn gay men the disease may be more prevalent for them MAY 23, 2022: Scotland logs its first ever monkeypox case and 36 more infections are announced in England. It brings the UK total to 57. MAY 24, 2022: England logs another 14 cases, bringing the UK total to 71. MAY 25, 2022: Another seven infections are spotted in England, meaning 78 cases have been detected in the UK. MAY 26, 2022: Wales and Northern Ireland detect their first monkeypox case in the recent outbreak, while Scotland spots two more cases and England logs eight, bringing UK total to 90. MAY 27, 2022: England detects 16 more cases, meaning 106 people in Britain have confirmed infections. Advertisement Anyone worried about a rash is advised to call their sexual health clinic immediately. Twenty countries across the world have now been affected by the current outbreak, with Finland today becoming the latest to confirm an infection. Additionally, Argentina, Bolivia and Sudan are all probing suspected cases. Teams from the UKHSA are contacting high-risk contacts of confirmed cases and advising them to self-isolate at home for three weeks and avoid contact with children. Both confirmed cases and close contacts are being offered the Imvanex vaccine to form a buffer of immune people around a confirmed case to limit the spread of the disease. The strategy, known as ring vaccination, has been used in previous monkeypox outbreaks and is also being carried out in some EU countries. Dr Susan Hopkins, the UKHSA's chief medical adviser, said: 'We are continuing to promptly identify further monkeypox cases in England through our extensive surveillance and contact tracing networks, our vigilant NHS services, and thanks to people coming forward with symptoms. 'We are asking people to look out for new spots, ulcers or blisters on any part of their body. 'If anyone suspects they might have these, particularly if they have recently had a new sexual partner, they should limit their contact with others and contact NHS 111 or their local sexual health service as soon as possible, though please phone ahead before attending in person.' The disease, first discovered in lab monkeys in the late 1950s, is usually mild but can cause severe illness in some cases. It can kill up to 10 per cent of people it infects. The milder strain causing the current outbreak kills one in 100 similar to when Covid first hit. Monkeypox has an incubation period of anywhere up to 21 days, meaning it can take three weeks for symptoms to appear. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion. A rash can develop, often beginning on the face, which then spreads to other parts of the body including the genitals. The rash can look like chickenpox or syphilis, and scabs can form which then fall off. The current outbreak, first detected in a traveller from Nigeria to the UK on May 6, has been linked to several super-spreader events, including a gay pride festival in Gran Canaria, a fetish festival in Belgium and a 'sauna' in Spain. Experts this week revealed sexual transmission at these events is the leading theory behind the origins of the current cluster of cases. There are already fears the global outbreak of monkeypox may mean it can never be eradicated in the UK and Europe forever. The concerns are centred around the virus leaking into animal populations, with rodents known harbourers of monkeypox. The HAIRS group today said that it was 'unlikely' that an infected pet could spread the disease to wild animals but added it 'cannot be ruled out'. It is recommending that rodent pets are removed from households where there are infected patients and put in 'secure accommodation', where they will be PCR tested and isolated for 21 days. Dogs, cats and other pets will be allowed to stay in the home with their owner but must undergo 'regular vet checks' after their isolation period to make sure they do not have the virus. Justine Shotton, president of the British Veterinary Association, said the association was monitoring the situation closely. She believes the risk of infecting pets remains low but is 'supportive of a cautious approach' while officials seek to learn more about the virus. Ms Shotton said: 'It would be a sensible decision to keep your distance from a pet while in quarantine. 'If I was diagnosed with monkeypox I would do whatever I could to limit contact, such as asking a friend or relative to take care of it.' She added: 'There is currently no evidence of transmission between humans and cats and dogs but we know rabbits and rodents are susceptible. 'If you have concerns about your pets health if they have a fever, respiratory issues, poor appetite or lethargy speak to a vet. Health chiefs have warned monkeypox, a virus endemic in parts of Africa and is known for its rare and unusual rashes, bumps and lesions, could also spread to some pets and become endemic in Europe. Undated handout file image issued by the UK Health Security Agency of the stages of Monkeypox Dr Adam Kucharski, a UK Government scientist and epidemiologist, said that while new cases may slow down, the 'biggest risk' is that they will 'not be eliminated in some places'. The smallpox vaccine, called Imvanex in the UK and Jynneos in the US, can protect against monkeypox because the viruses causing the illnesses are related 'The chances are it will be something other than monkeypox but it's worth getting it checked.' It comes after an ex-WHO official claimed monkeypox may have been spreading under the radar in Europe for four years. Professor David Heymann, a former former director-general for health security and environment at the WHO, said the current global outbreak may date back to a handful of isolated cases in the UK in 2018. Two Britons were diagnosed with the tropical disease in September 2018 after returning from Nigeria. A third case was found in an NHS worker who treated one of the patients. In December 2019, a fourth person unrelated to the previous three tested positive for the virus after returning from Nigeria. Three further cases with similar travel history arrived in 2021. Professor Heymann suggested the virus may have been seeded in around this time and spread unchecked. All of the cases are believed to have had the milder western African clade of the virus the same one that is spreading now. How DO you catch monkeypox and what are the symptoms? EVERYTHING you need to know about tropical virus How do you catch monkeypox? Until this worldwide outbreak, monkeypox was usually caught from infected animals in west and central Africa. The tropical virus is thought to be spread by rodents, including rats, mice and even squirrels. Humans can catch the illness which comes from the same family as smallpox if they're bitten by infected animals, or touch their blood, bodily fluids, or scabs. Consuming contaminated wild game or bush meat can also spread the virus. The orthopoxvirus can enter the body through broken skin even if it's not visible, as well as the eyes, nose and mouth. Despite being mainly spread by wild animals, it was known that monkeypox could be passed on between people. However, health chiefs insist it is very rare. Human-to-human spread can occur if someone touches clothing or bedding used by an infected person, or through direct contact with the virus' tell-tale scabs. The virus can also spread through coughs and sneezes. In the ongoing surge in cases, experts think the virus is passing through skin-to-skin contact during sex even though this exact mechanism has never been seen until now. How deadly is it? Monkeypox is usually mild, with most patients recovering within a few weeks without treatment. Yet, the disease kills up to 10 per cent of cases. But this high rate is thought to be in part due to a historic lack of testing meaning that a tenth of known cases have died rather than a tenth of all infections. However, with milder strains the fatality rate is closer to one in 100 similar to when Covid first hit. The UK cases all had the West African version of the virus, which is mild compared to the Central African strain. It is thought that cases in Portugal and Spain also have the milder version, though tests are underway. How is it tested for? It can be difficult to diagnose monkeypox as it is often confused with other infections such as chickenpox. Monkeypox is confirmed by a clinical assessment by a health professional and a test in the UK's specialist lab - the UKHSA's Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory. The test involves taking samples from skin lesions, such as part of the scab, fluid from the lesions or pieces of dry crusts. What are the symptoms? It can take up to three weeks for monkeypox-infected patients to develop any of its tell-tale symptoms. Early signs of the virus include a fever, headache, muscle aches, backache, swollen lymph nodes, chills and exhaustion meaning it could, theoretically, be mistaken for other common illnesses. But its most unusual feature is a rash that often begins on the face, then spreads to other parts of the body, commonly the hands and feet. The rash changes and goes through different stages before finally forming a scab, which later falls off. How long is someone contagious? An individual is contagious from the point their rash appears until all the scabs have fallen off and there is intact skin underneath. The scabs may also contain infectious virus material. The infectious period is thought to last for three weeks but may vary between individuals. What do I do if I have symptoms? Anyone with an unusual rash or lesions on any part of their body, especially their genitalia, should contact NHS 111 or call a sexual health service. Britons are asked to contact clinics ahead of their visit and avoid close contact with others until they have been seen by a medic. Gay and bisexual men have been asked to be especially alert to the symptoms as most of the cases have been detected in men who have sex with men. What even is monkeypox? Monkeypox was first discovered when an outbreak of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research in 1958. The first human case was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the infection has been reported in a number of central and western African countries since then. Only a handful of cases have been reported outside of Africa and they were confined to people with travel links to the continent. The UK, US, Israel and Singapore are the only countries which had detected the virus before May 2022. Monkeypox is a rare viral infection which kills up to one in ten of those infected but does not spread easily between people. The tropical disease is endemic in parts of Africa and is known for its rare and unusual rashes, bumps and lesions (file photo) Nurses and doctors are being advised to stay 'alert' to patients who present with a new rash or scabby lesions (like above) Is it related to chickenpox? Despite causing a similar rash, chickenpox is not related to monkeypox. The infection, which usually strikes children, is caused by the varicella-zoster virus. For comparison, monkeypox like smallpox is an orthopoxvirus. Because of this link, smallpox vaccines also provide protection against monkeypox. Are young people more vulnerable? Britons aged under 50 may be more susceptible to monkeypox, according to the World Health Organization. This is because children in the UK were routinely offered the smallpox jab, which protects against monkeypox, until 1971. The WHO also warns that the fatality rate has been higher among young children. Does it spread as easily as Covid? Leading experts insist we won't be seeing Covid-style levels of transmission in the monkeypox outbreak. A World Health Organization report last year suggested the natural R rate of the virus the number of people each patient would infect if they lived normally while sick is two. This is lower than the original Wuhan variant of Covid and about a third of the R rate of the Indian 'Delta' strain. But the real rate is likely much lower because 'distinctive symptoms greatly aid in its early detection and containment,' the team said, meaning it's easy to spot cases and isolate them. Covid is mainly spread through droplets an infected person releases whenever they breathe, speak, cough or sneeze. How is the UK managing the outbreak? MailOnline revealed close contacts of monkeypox cases, including NHS workers, are being offered the Imvanex smallpox vaccine. The strategy, known as ring vaccination, involves jabbing and monitoring anyone around an infected person to form a buffer of immune people to limit the spread of a disease. Additionally, close contacts of those with a confirmed monkeypox infection are being told to stay at home for 21 days and avoid contact under-12s, immunosuppressed people and pregnant women. The Government said unprotected direct contact or high risk environmental contact includes living in the same house as someone with monkeypox, having sexual contact with them or even just changing their bedding 'without appropriate PPE'. As with Covid, someone who has come within one metre of an infected person is classed as a monkeypox contact. This lower category of contact, which also includes sitting next to a person with monkeypox on a plane, means a tracer will call the person every day for three weeks and they will be advised to stay off work for 21 days if their job involves children or immuno-suppressed colleagues. The UK has stopped short of requiring people by law to quarantine if they develop monkeypox, but ministers are considering a public health campaign to alert gay and bisexual men, because of the number of cases in this group. What if it continues to spread? Experts told MailOnline they 'could see a role' for a targeted jab rollout to gay men in the UK 'if this isn't brought under control quickly'. Close contacts of the UK's known cases are already being offered the jab, which was originally designed for smallpox. The two rash-causing viruses are very similar. A health source told MailOnline 'there would be a number of strategies we'd look at' if cases continued to rise. Professor Kevin Fenton, London's public health regional director, said if the outbreak in the capital continues to grow then the rollout of vaccines and treatments could be broadened to more groups. He said there are 'plans in place' to have more antivirals if the outbreak keeps growing. What other countries have spotted cases? Around 20 countries including the US, Spain and Italy have detected cases of monkeypox. The most cases have been detected in Spain, Portugal, Canada and the UK. Within Europe, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland have also confirmed cases. Australia, Israel and the Canary Islands also have monkeypox patients, while health chiefs in Argentina are investigating a possible case. There are a handful of antivirals and therapies for smallpox that appear to work on monkeypox, including the drug tecovirimat, which was approved for monkeypox in the EU in January Is there a vaccine for it? The smallpox vaccine, called Imvanex in the UK and Jynneos in the US, can protect against monkeypox because the viruses behind the illnesses are closely related. Data shows it prevents around 85 per cent of cases, and has been used 'off-label' in the UK since 2018. The jab, thought to cost 20 per dose, contains a modified vaccinia virus, which is similar to both smallpox and monkeypox, but does not cause disease in people. Because of its similarity to the pox viruses, antibodies produced against this virus offer cross protection. Are there any drugs to treat it? There are a handful of antivirals and therapies for smallpox that appear to work on monkeypox. This includes the drug tecovirimat, which was approved for monkeypox in the EU in January. Tecovirimat prevents the virus from leaving an infected cell, hindering the spread of the virus within the body. An injectable antiviral used to treat AIDS called cidofovir can be used to manage the infection, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It also works by stopping the growth of the virus. Newlyweds jetting off on their honeymoon were kicked off a TUI flight at the last minute because the plane was too full. Alex and Willow Rymer, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, were blocked from boarding the flight from Manchester to Cape Verde after being told the plane had been overbooked. They were two of 26 people hauled off the plane at Manchester Airport just 25 minutes before it was due to depart. Mr Rymer, 52, is a full-time carer for his 94-year-old mother, who has dementia, and said it had been incredibly difficult to organise the time away. Alex and Willow Rymer, from Harrogate, North Yorkshire, were blocked from boarding the flight from Manchester to Cape Verde after being told the plane had been overbooked The couple were offered 600 in compensation but Mr Rymer claimed TUI had made things difficult. 'I spent 20 plus years working for a FTSE 100 banking group and am a stickler for good customer service,' he said. 'This is the worst I have ever experienced. The thing is we had done everything to make it go as smoothly as possible. 'We booked extra legroom seats both ways on the 787 Dreamliner and private transfers as a treat as it was our honeymoon. 'We even booked a night's stay in a Manchester Airport Hotel with parking to ensure everything went smoothly and we didn't get stuck on the notorious M62.' Mr Rymer said the experience ruined what was meant to be 'the perfect getaway'. Mr Rymer, 52, is a full-time carer for his 94-year-old mother, who has dementia, and said it had been incredibly difficult to organise the time away 'We had booked an adults only all-inclusive resort right by the beach and perfect for relaxing with excellent food and wonderful staff,' he said. 'I'm a full-time carer. This type of holiday while combining it as our honeymoon would have been the ideal break. 'My brother had made special arrangements with his work and partner in order to move in to look after our mother. 'Willow had also taken specific time off work which clearly cannot now be altered so a complete waste of time.' The couple had already been put through the wringer after having to wait two years to get married due to changing Covid restrictions. Mr Rymer popped the question to Willow in June 2019 but didn't get married until July last year. After nearly a year of waiting to go on their honeymoon, they were looking forward to jetting off to TUI Blue Cabo Verde resort in Cape Verde, having been there three times before and loved it. But when Mr Rymer tried to check-in online the day before they were due to depart, he received an error message, prompting him to call the TUI helpline. After being told there was no problem, Mr Rymer noticed the spacious 787 Dreamliner had been changed for a smaller 767 aircraft but notably the seats remained the same. The couple were offered 600 in compensation but Mr Rymer claimed TUI had made things difficult Mr Rymer said: 'I became suspicious things were not all as they seemed when I was unable to check-in online and print boarding passes. 'I phoned TUI but had lengthy delays and kept getting cut off. I was eventually told there was no problem and I would just have to print them at the airport. 'Then I tried to order champagne for the flight but was told this wasn't possible. Obviously alarm bells were ringing here. 'We arrived at the airport three hours early, checked in, printed boarding passes which had the correct seat numbers, so there didn't seem to be anything to worry about. 'The bags were dropped, went through security and then waited in departures. Did the normal things you do, bought sun cream and coffees and just waited. 'Then we heard our names on the tannoy and went to the information desk to be told by the Swissport employee we were two of 26 to be offloaded from the flight due to it being downsized.' Mr Rymer popped the question to Willow in June 2019 but didn't get married until July last year Mr Rymer said he was unable to speak to TUI customer service assistants at the airport and when he phoned up customer services only received 'fake emotionless apologies'. 'It's not the holiday cancellation itself it's all the before and after nonsense and the inability of TUI to hold themselves accountable or take responsibility,' he said. 'In my opinion, they knew the 787 Dreamliner was never going to make the trip so why sell tickets based on that aircraft?' A spokesman for TUI said: 'We would like to apologise for the inconvenience to our customers on flight TOM586 from Manchester to Sal, Cape Verde, on Sunday 22 May who were affected by an aircraft change due to operational issues. 'We contacted affected customers as soon as we became aware of the change, offering the options to cancel their holiday for a full refund, amend their holiday with an incentive or change onto an alternative flight. 'We understand how frustrating and disappointing this will have been and are very sorry for the inconvenience caused.' A soldier who deliberately drove his car into a group of teenagers after downing six pitchers of cocktail has been jailed for eight years. Cameron Bailey, 25, of the Mooltan Barracks in Tidworth, Wiltshire, had spent the afternoon of March 27 drinking with three fellow soldiers in Salisbury. Cameron Bailey (above), 25, of the Mooltan Barracks in Tidworth, Wiltshire, had spent the afternoon of March 27 drinking with three fellow soldiers in Salisbury They started off in a Wetherspoons pub in the village of Amesbury, where Bailey drank an 'unconscionable, unrealistic and ridiculous' amount of alcohol, prosecutor Charles Gabb QC said. The four then piled into Baileys blue Skoda and headed for Salisbury and began a pub crawl. Over the course of the day, the defendant admitted drinking five to six pitchers of cocktail by himself, as well as two pints of beer and Jagerbomb shots. After being refused entry to a pub at around 9.30pm, Bailey and his friends got into a verbal argument and then a scuffle with a group of teenagers, which was broken up by bouncers from nearby bars. During the fight, Bailey was heard yelling insults of 'gratuitous offensiveness' including threatening to rape their sisters and kill their mothers, Salisbury Crown Court heard. The group then decided to leave Salisbury and head back to the barracks with Bailey at the wheel, but drove past the group of teenagers in Fisherton Street. Bailey was caught on CCTV deliberately turning his car around once he spotted the group, driving slowly in their direction, pausing for around 21 seconds before accelerating towards them Bailey was caught on CCTV deliberately turning his car around once he spotted the group, driving slowly in their direction, pausing for around 21 seconds before accelerating towards them. He hit the group of five at a speed of at least 27mph, forensic analysis showed, throwing one 17-year-old girl into the air and onto the windscreen, leaving her with severe injuries to her feet and ankles. She was in hospital for four days following the attack, and has suffered extreme anxiety as a result, particularly in crowds and close to roads, the court heard. A 17-year-old boy also suffered cuts and bruises and will have a permanent scar on the left side of his face, the court heard. The other three teens present were knocked to the ground, but were uninjured. Bailey then drove off and was found in bed by his sergeant 'reeking of alcohol' at around 11pm. He hit the group of five at a speed of at least 27mph, forensic analysis showed, throwing one 17-year-old girl into the air and onto the windscreen, leaving her with severe injuries to her feet and ankles Bailey then drove off and was found in bed by his sergeant 'reeking of alcohol' at around 11pm The defendant, who was a qualified driver of the Warrior armoured vehicles used in combat, initially claimed it was an accident and that he had hit the accelerator while looking for a cigarette. He later admitted causing two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent against the two teens and one of dangerous driving. Jailing Bailey for eight years, Judge Susan Evans QC said: 'In your rage you deliberately drove at (the teenagers) using your car as the most fearsome weapon against them.' She continued: 'You drove off, there was no attempt to stop, call an ambulance or show any concern whatsoever. The court heard that Bailey has a previous conviction dating back to 2018 for bottling a man at a house party (pictured outside Manchester Crown Court in 2019) Since his conviction, Bailey has been sacked from the army, the court heard. He was a qualified driver of the Warrior armoured vehicles (pictured) used in combat 'You drove all the way back to the barracks putting other road users in extreme danger.' Judge Evans told Bailey he must serve two-thirds of his sentence in custody instead of the usual half because of the seriousness of his offence and because he has a previous conviction for alcohol-fuelled violence. The court heard that Bailey has a previous conviction dating back to 2018 for bottling a man at a house party who tried to intervene when he was harassing his ex-girlfriend. Bailey was further convicted of assaulting his ex on the same evening by grabbing her around the throat and given an eight-month sentence suspended for two years. Since his conviction, Bailey has been sacked from the army, the court heard. Three in four adults in Britain are now travelling to work at some point during the week - up from two-thirds a month ago, an official survey suggested today. But the data published by the Office for National Statistics also found around a third of people are continuing to spend part of their week working at home. The figures point to a shift in certain types of public behaviour over the past two months - a period coinciding with a steady fall in Covid-19 infections. The trend will also be welcomed by the Government which has been struggling to end the working from home culture that developed during the pandemic. Huge numbers of civil servants are reluctant to go back to their desks, prompting fears for productivity and the survival of businesses in city centres that rely on them. People board an Elizabeth line train in London on what was its first day of service on Tuesday Commuters cross Waterloo Bridge in London during the morning rush hour earlier this month Some 75 per cent of adults quizzed between May 11 and 22 said they had travelled to work in the past seven days, either exclusively or while spending part of their time working at home. This is up from 66 per cent of those polled from April 13 to 24. The proportion of people working at home at some point during the week is broadly unchanged, at 37 per cent in mid-May compared with 36 per cent in mid-April. Workers should return to the office to avoid spats escalating out of control, says property company boss Christian Ulbrich Workers should return to the office to avoid spats escalating out of control and souring staff relations, the boss of a top property firm has said. Christian Ulbrich, chief executive of JLL, warned that conflicts were more easily resolved when staff were physically together - and that communicating virtually required far more empathy. Speaking at the World Economic Forums annual conference in Davos, Mr Ulbrich told Bloomberg: You get a better outcome if you are in a room together. It is much easier to upset people on video calls, he added. Another thing I have experienced, conflicts between people are much easier resolved when people are together in an office, he said. Whereas when you are on a video call its easier to miss that somebody is not happy with the way you are wording things, or behaving and in your facial expressions. There is a much higher need when people work remotely to be really focused on empathy with others. Mr Ulbrich also accused workers of having a bit of an attitude if they do not want to come back to the office. Advertisement The Bank of England is still allowing staff to work from home four days a week, but its Governor Andrew Bailey admitted earlier this week that such perks are now necessary when trying to recruit staff. Many companies have been struggling to hire enough staff, especially in the technology sector, and have been offering better terms to try to attract them. Firms across the UK are being forced to address the idea of flexible working, following the Covid lockdowns. While some staff find it easier to work from home some or all of the time, many managers are concerned that long-term flexible working could reduce productivity, hamper teamwork and affect workers social lives. And the Government fears that increased home working could affect the economy, as workers make fewer trips out to shop and buy lunch and shun office space. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is leading the calls to get people back into the office, having claimed recently that working from home is not working. Mr Johnson told the Daily Mail: 'My experience of working from home is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you're doing.' Other findings in the latest ONS survey suggest an easing of public attitudes towards some aspects of the pandemic. Just over half (54 per cent) of adults in the latest survey said they had used a face covering while outside their home, down from nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) in April. Some 34 per cent said they always or often maintained social distancing when meeting people outside their household, down from 38 per cent. And just 23 per cent of adults reported taking a rapid lateral flow test in the past seven days, down from 34 per cent. Covid-19 infections across the UK have fallen sharply in recent weeks, after hitting a record high at the end of March due to the spread of the Omicron BA.2 variant. The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 has also dropped and is now at levels last seen in late summer 2021. Prime Minister Boris Johnson (pictured in Stockton-on-Tees today) calling for people to get back into the office, having claimed recently that working from home is not working Jacob Rees-Mogg has also been leading the charge, having left notes on empty desks in the Cabinet Office saying: Sorry you were out. I look forward to seeing you in the office very soon But while the most recent wave of infections is now in retreat, a sizeable minority of people are still concerned about the virus. Some 40 per cent of adults in the latest ONS survey said they were very or somewhat worried about the effect of Covid-19 on their life - largely unchanged on 39 per cent a month earlier. It comes after a major report by the ONS released last week that fewer than one in ten workers plans to go back to the office five days a week. That survey also found that just 8 per cent of employees who had to work from home during the pandemic now intend to return to the workplace permanently, down from 11 per cent during last year's lockdown. And the proportion of workers who said their future plans were based around 'mostly working from home' rose from 30 to 42 per cent over the past year. China hit out against Sec. of State Antony Blinken's bold address Thursday that called it a threat unlike any other, accusing the secretary of 'smearing' China. The secretary's speech 'spreads false information, exaggerates the China threat, interferes in China's internal affairs and smears China's domestic and foreign policies,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters Friday. Wang said that China 'firmly opposed' the speech and said it proved Washington is looking to 'contain and suppress China's development and maintain US hegemony and power.' Sec. Blinken's speech speech 'spreads false information, exaggerates the China threat, interferes in China's internal affairs and smears China's domestic and foreign policies,' Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, above, told reporters Friday Blinken issued a stark warning Thursday morning that the threat of China will 'test U.S. diplomacy like nothing we've ever seen before' - but insisted America does not want another Cold War and does not support Taiwan independence. He also said in the speech at George Washington University that China's cooperation with Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine 'raises alarm bells', Beijing under Xi Jinping has 'more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad' and accused the communist party of trying to undermine global order. Blinken laid out the Biden administration's policy towards China after the president raised eyebrows by saying the U.S. would get involved 'militarily' if there was an invasion of Taiwan. It marked what seemed to be a more aggressive stance towards defending Taiwan and the 'One China' that the U.S. has recognized since the Cold War. The Secretary of State said U.S. approach to Taiwan has not changed to decades and does not support independence. Sec. of State Antony Blinken issued a stark warning Thursday morning that the threat of China will 'test U.S. diplomacy like nothing we've ever seen before' - but insisted America does not want another Cold War and does not support Taiwan independence However he did say that he opposes any chances to the 'unilateral status quo' and said China is engaged in 'increasingly provocative' rhetoric and activity' related to Taiwan. 'On Taiwan: Our approach has been consistent across decades and administrations. As the President has said, our policy has not changed, he said. 'The United States remains committed to our One China Policy ... we do not support Taiwan independence.' 'China is the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and, increasingly, the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it,' Blinken said in a speech at George Washington University outlining U.S.-China policy. 'Beijing's vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world's progress over the past 75 years,' Blinken added. 'But we will defend and strengthen the international law, agreements, principles, and institutions that maintain peace and security, protect the rights of individuals and ... nations, and make it possible for all countries..to coexist.' 'We must defend and reform rules-based international order,' Blinken said. 'The foundations of the international order are under serious and sustained challenge.' 'Under President Xi, China has become more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad.' The secretary underscored that the U.S. was focused on international order, and not sparking up a new Cold War. 'We aren't looking for conflict or a new Cold War. To the contrary, we're determined to avoid both,' he said. But, he added, 'We cannot rely on Beijing to change its trajectory.' 'China is also integral to global economy. Put simply, the United States and China have to deal with each other for the foreseeable future.' He also said in the speech at George Washington University that China's cooperation with Vladimir Putin after his invasion of Ukraine 'raises alarm bells', Beijing under Xi Jinping has 'more repressive at home and more aggressive abroad' and accused the communist party of trying to undermine global order Blinken also brought up the detention camps in the Xinjiang region, and accused Tibet and Hong Kong of violating the UN charter and human rights declaration by their actions in Tibet and Hong Kong. 'The U.S. stands with countries and people around the world against the genocide and crimes against humanity happening in the Xinjiang region, where more than a million people have been placed in detention camps because of their ethnic and religious identity,' he said. He also said China is 'taking advantage of the openness of our economies to spy to hack to steal technology and know how to advance its military innovation and entrench its surveillance state.' Tensions have soared between Beijing and Taiwan, and last week as Biden traveled to Asia to bolster Indo-Pacific alliances China conducted military drills in the disputed South China Sea as a show of force. China also flew a pair of long-range nuclear-capable H-6 bombers through the area on Wednesday, Chinese media reports said. Biden's visit to the Asian came amid escalated tensions with both China and North Korea. In addition to meeting with world leaders, Biden met with executives at a microchip facility. Both China and Taiwan have dominance over the microchip market. If China were to invade Taiwan, it could cut off U.S. supply to the chips that are used in electric vehicles, TVs, and other every day electronics. Taiwan has come under increasing risk of a Chinese invasion as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is thought to be taking notes from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 'Beijing's defense of President Putin's war to erase Ukraine's sovereignty and secure a sphere of influence in Europe should raise alarm bells for all of us who call the Indo-Pacific region home,' Blinken said on Thursday. 'This is a charged moment for the world.' In an alarming move earlier last month, China's regulators held an emergency meeting on April 22 between officials from China's central bank, the finance ministry, domestic banks operating within China, and international lenders such as HSBC. The West's harsh economic sanctions on Russia prompted the emergency meeting, with the Ministry of Finance stating that President Xi's administration had been put on alert by the surprise dollar freeze. Last week in Japan Biden affirmed he would be willing to get involved militarily if China invaded Taiwan drawing parallels between that threat and Russia's invasion of Ukraine during a press conference Monday in Tokyo. 'Yes,' Biden said. 'That's a commitment we made,' Biden responded when asked about the hot button diplomatic issue. Biden reiterated that the United States agrees to the so-called 'One China' policy - that only the People's Republic of China is 'China,' thus the U.S.'s diplomatic relationship with Taiwan is unofficial. 'But the idea that it can be taken by force, just taken by force, is just not appropriate,' Biden said. 'It will dislocate the entire region and be another action similar to what happened in Ukraine.' Additionally, Biden said: 'My expectation is it will not happen, it will not be attempted.' But he condemned military exercises China was conducting. 'They're already flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the maneuvers that are undertaken,' the president said. A White House official asked to clarify the comment homed in on Biden's 'One China' policy remark. 'As the President said, our policy has not changed. He reiterated our One China Policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the military means to defend itself.' Blinken condemned military exercises China was conducting. 'They're already flirting with danger right now by flying so close and all the maneuvers that are undertaken,' the president said'. A Chinese guided-missile destroyer takes part in exercises in the South China Sea in October 2021 Biden was asked at the very end of a press conference, held at Tokyo's Akasaka Palace: 'You didn't want to get involved in the Ukraine conflict militarily for obvious reasons. Are you willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, if it comes to that?' - to which the president answered in the affirmative. In response, China's foreign ministry told Reuters that the U.S. should not defend Taiwan's independence. China blasted Biden's comments, with Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin expressing 'strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition.' 'China has no room for compromise or concessions on issues involving Chinas core interests such as sovereignty and territorial integrity,' he said. The U.S. is providing billions worth of weapons and aid to Ukraine, but Biden has steadfastly refused to get Americans involved in the fighting. The U.S. already provides fighter jets and Patriot missiles to Taiwan, but official policy is deliberately ambiguous in keeping with the 'one China' policy Biden referenced. 'Our policy toward Taiwan has not changed at all. We remain committed to supporting the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and ensuring that there is no unilateral change in the status quo,' Biden said minutes before. Earlier this month the State Department dramatically shifted its language toward Taiwan in a summary on its webpage, again prompting Chinese ire. The new summary touts the U.S.'s 'robust unofficial relationship' with Taiwan, while striking the previously included line: 'The U.S. does not support Taiwan independence.' The White House had to clean up Biden comments last year that also stated a 'commitment' to come to Taiwan's aid. Former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in October following the comment: 'There has been no shift. The president was not announcing any change in our policy, nor has he made a decision to change our policy. There is no change in our policy.' A shocking video shows the moments a woman riding a New York City subway pleads with passengers to help her as she is assaulted by a thug as other riders appear to ignore her pleas. In the video, taken on Wednesday and posted on Daily Dot, the hoodlum is seen dressed in black leggings, a white cropped zippered hoodie and white sneakers, storms around the train car while screaming expletives. After the frenzied fit the person sits down as many of the passengers rush to another area of the train. As one female passenger, closest to the hoodlum, tries to flee, the thug grabs her and terrorizes the victim. The female victim visibly distraught is crying out: 'Help! Help!' as other riders ignore her pleas The bandit is seen in the video grabbing hold of the woman's hair while pushing her down into the seat. The victim is visibly distraught and crying out: 'Help! Help!' as other riders ignore her pleas, as the disturbing scene plays out. Moments later, the vandal screams to the woman, 'Get Up!' before shoving her to another area of the subway car, before walking away. The hooligan proceeds to scream obscenities and trashes around the subway car before kicking in the window of the moving train. When the subway pulled into the station platform, the terror-filled ride ceased and the hooligan walked into the crowd of people nowhere to be seen. It is not clear what time the incident occurred and what train line it was. When DailyMail.com contacted the New York Police Department on Friday for more information on the attack, they said they were 'looking into it,' but had no reports of incident filed at this time. The bandit is seen grabbing hold of the woman's hair and pushing her down into the seat The hooligan proceeds to scream obscenities and trashes around the subway car before kicking their leg into the window of the moving train New Yorkers have been frazzled by the latest spite in violence and crimes on the city streets and subways. On Sunday, Daniel Enriquez, a 48-year-old Goldman Sachs employee was riding the Q train from his home in Park Slope, Brooklyn to Manhattan when a gunman, believed to be Andrew Abdullah, opened fire as the train was crossing the Manhattan Bridge in an unprovoked attack. In April, during the morning commute, suspect Frank James opened fire on a Manhattan-bound N train. No one was killed. James was charged with carrying out a terror attack against a mass transit system and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, reports said. While murders and shootings are down 11 and three percent from the already crime-riddled 2021 under lame duck Mayor Bill de Blasio, overall crime in the Big Apple is up 40 percent so far in 2022. That includes a 19 percent rise in felony assaults, a 12 percent increase in rapes and a 42 percent jump in robberies. Transit is up the highest at 62 percent as well - and the the recent rise in subway crime has set New Yorkers on edge. If anyone has information on the victim or the perpetrator, please contact ruth.bashinsky@mailonline.com A disabled man who was left stranded on a plane for two hours has vowed never to travel through Manchester Airport again. Ray King, 68, who has osteoarthritis in both knees and one hip, landed on a Jet2.com flight from Dalaman, Turkey, at 4.45pm earlier this month. Ray's wife Pauline had pre-booked assistance to help him from the aircraft and through the hub as he cannot negotiate steps or walk long distances. However, on landing and after all other passengers had disembarked, Ray claims both they and another couple waited a further two hours for staff from assistance agency ABM - despite repeated attempts from the cabin and crew to speed up the process. The plane had been due to fly out again to Sicily at 6.15pm but the delay meant the next set of passengers didn't get going until after 8pm, says Ray. In the meantime, he says he was taken by ambulift to the terminal, where, with the support of his wife, he had to tackle the walk to passport control on foot as no wheelchair was made available, despite having requested one. It comes days after BBC journalist Frank Gardner was left in a similar situation when there were not enough staff at Heathrow Airport to get his wheelchair, leaving him stuck on an aircraft. Ray King, pictured here with his wife Pauline, was stuck on a Jet2.com plane at Manchester Airport for two hours awaiting assistance Speaking to the Manchester Evening News Ray said during his ordeal at Manchester Airport was a huge contrast compared to his experience in Turkey. 'Despite needing a wheelchair to negotiate the many areas of the airport I was dumped at a door and told "there is the lift",' he said. If it hadn't been for my wife's help I would have been helpless. 'Both Jet2.com captains, the one who flew us in and the one who arrived to fly the next passengers out, were amazing and really tried to help. I don't blame the airline, they tried their utmost. 'When they finally got us they had no wheelchairs after the ride to the terminal so I just had to walk a bit, sit down, then walk again, and suffer with the help of my wife. 'We will never fly through Manchester Airport again. It was the complete opposite at Dalaman, they couldn't help enough. 'We live equal distance to Newcastle and Leeds and we go away three times a year. We've always travelled from Manchester but we will not do that again. 'Even in the terminal there were no lights on and we had to shout to get the passport control guy. 'Our baggage was just plonked on the floor and my wife had to go hunting for it. No explanation, no staff.' Ray said the staff on the plane were 'amazing and really tried to help', but despite there best efforts he was left there for more than two hours. Pictured is a Jet2.com aircraft (file photo) A Manchester Airport spokesman said Mr King had been in contact with their customer feedback team and confirmed it was agency ABM who had dealt with the request for special assistance. It's understood a 'technical outage' on the day in question may have contributed to the incident. He added: 'We are sorry to hear this passenger had a disappointing experience upon arrival. 'Our whole industry is facing resource challenges at present, following the most damaging two years in its history. 'This includes not only airports and airlines, but also third parties operating on our site, including the special assistance providers who are responsible for supporting passengers such as Mr King with additional requirements. 'We will continue to work with our partners to understand the challenges they're facing, mitigate these pressures in the interim and deliver the best passenger experience we can.' An ABM spokesperson said: 'We understand the importance of the special assistance service we provide passengers, and delivering that service with efficiency, respect, and care is critical. 'We regret any time when our service does not meet that standard, and are working with our teams and partners in examining Mr King's experience. 'We are currently experiencing higher volumes of passengers who require special assistance than our busiest pre-pandemic peak while the entire industry continues to face resource challenges. 'We know that we are not alone in managing these issues and understand the inconvenience and emotional impact this all may have on individuals travelling, particularly those requiring additional assistance. 'We are working in collaboration with all our clients and partners to minimise the impact as we navigate this phase of the pandemic recovery.' It comes days after BBC Security Correspondent Frank Gardner was left in a similar situation after there were 'no staff to get his wheelchair off' when he landed at Heathrow Airport. The veteran journalist, who has been using a wheelchair since he was shot six times by militants in Saudi Arabia in 2004, accused the airport of treating disabled passengers as 'lowest priority'. He had been on a flight from Estonia when he was left with no way off the plane due to the lack of staff to get his wheelchair. Security correspondent Frank Gardner was left on the empty flight from Estonia and says he was told that no staff were available to help him get off the plane Tweeting about the incident, which took place on May 15, the 60-year-old said: 'It's happened again. Stuck on an empty plane at Heathrow airport long after everyone else is off 'no staff to get my wheelchair off the plane'. 'I am SO disappointed with @HeathrowAirport as disabled passengers are once again apparently the lowest priority.' Around 22 minutes after his original tweet, he confirmed he was 'in the terminal while I'm guessing all other passengers are on their way home'. A spokesperson for Heathrow Airport replied on Twitter: 'Hi Frank, we apologise unreservedly for this incident and we regret that the service fell short of the experience we aim to provide at Heathrow. 'We're looking into it as a matter of urgency and if you have any further info you'd like to share with us, please feel free to DM us.' Mr Gardner said his latest issues are 'incredibly minor' when the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is considered but that it was 'objectionable' how frequent 'cr**p treatment' is given to disabled people. A deaf woman slammed Dutch Bros Coffee after she says her receipt called her 'the most difficult customer ever' after she struggled to order her drink. Ashley Vallejo, 34, revealed she visited her local coffee chain in Waco, Texas, this week outlet where she described their interaction as 'a little bit awkward.' In a TikTok video, she revealed the common difficulties of ordering at cafes and restaurants as someone with a disability, and said that servers often got her order wrong. Vallejo said: 'I read lips, I can talk a little bit, but my voice is not perfect. '(Disabled people) are like you. We try to order food, and stuff like that, like everyone else. Don't punish us. Please have a lot of patience with us.' She said that after her 'awkward' ordering experience, she went to collect her coffee and was upset to find that the server had referred to her as 'the most difficult customer ever' on her receipt. Vallejo said that the incident occurred on her first visit to Dutch Bros Coffee 'God, you have no idea what it's like being deaf,' Vallejo said in her video, becoming emotional. 'Have patience.' On her Facebook page, Vallejo said that despite highlighting the incident, she did not want to attack the employee and that the point of the video was to 'spread awareness to educate employee and upgrade your training for DA awareness.' Dutch Bros Coffee have since apologized for the incident. In a statement, they called the incident 'deeply disappointing, unacceptable and against everything Dutch Bros stands for.' The company said that they have addressed the issue internally. They continued: 'It's our hope we can work with her and the deaf community to ensure we always provide an excellent experience and meet the exceedingly high bar we've set for ourselves.' There are 538 Dutch Bros Coffee outlets in the United States across 12 states. According to her Facebook page, Vallejo has three children and operates two business, a cleaning service and a children's clothing boutique. She lives in Riesel, less than 20 miles outside of Waco. Back in October 2021, Vallejo told KWTX that she had suffered through a difficult experience at a McDonald's drive-thru. Vallejo said that when she presented the person at the window with a note, it was rejected. She said that the manager had to get involved before she got her order. She said: 'I looked at him and just tried to explain what was going on a few times and, again, he rejected service to us and told us that we had to keep going through, which wasn't fair and wasn't right.' Vallejo continued: 'Then, they were mocking us for being deaf and making fun of us. I was trying to explain to them that I was deaf and we couldn't hear, and then they were acting they couldn't hear us and making gestures toward their ear back to us and mocking us in a way.' She concluded by saying: 'I think better training being provided to the drive-thru and others in the customer service industry. That would be my goal.' The owner of the McDonald's, Bob Frazier, told the KTWX: 'At my McDonald's, we work hard to build an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome. We are looking into this incident to see if there are changes we can make to better serve our customers.; A vicar faces being kicked out of the Church of England after meeting a Hezbollah commander and posting an article entitled: '9/11: Israel did it.' Reverend Dr Stephen Sizer has been formally accused of anti-semitism by the Board of Deputies of British Jews for the first time in its 260-year history, a tribunal was told. The 68-year-old is facing removal from the Church because of accusations that he posted anti-semitic articles online and promoted and shared platforms with Holocaust deniers. Church tribunals are normally private but Rev Sizer has chosen to hold it in public as he wants to clear his name. He denies his actions were anti-semitic arguing they were political and aimed at the state of Israel, not Jewish people. Reverend Dr Stephen Sizer, 68, is facing removal from the Church of England because of accusations that he posted anti-semitic articles online and promoted and shared platforms with Holocaust deniers. (He is pictured outside St Andrew's Courthouse, London, on Monday) Dr Sizer met the senior Hezbollah commander Sheikh Nabil Kaouk in summer 2006 (pictured together) and is accused of promoting the idea that Israel was behind the September 11 attacks by posting an article entitled: '9/11: Israel did it' Church tribunals are normally private but Rev Sizer has chosen to hold it in public as he wants to clear his name. He denies his actions were anti-semitic arguing they were political and aimed at the state of Israel, not Jewish people. (Above, Rev Sizer in Tehran in 2014) Dr Sizer faces 11 separate instances of anti-semitism, beginning in 2005 where he participated in a conference run by the Islamic Human Rights Commission entitled: 'Towards a New Liberation Theology.' He met the senior Hezbollah commander Sheikh Nabil Kaouk in summer 2006 and is accused of promoting the idea that Israel was behind the September 11 attacks by posting an article entitled: '9/11: Israel did it.' Alongside the article he wrote that it 'raised so many questions'. The complaint was brought by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and it is the first time the organisation has raised a complaint of antisemitism to a Church member in its 260-year history. Nicholas Leviseur, presenting the case, said the Board of Deputies is representative of the opinion of the majority of British Jews. He said: 'With some 400,000 Jews in the UK, it is not hard to find some who do not want to be part of any representation, but to say that the Board of Deputies, established in 1760, does not in the present represent the views of a vast majority is, in our view, a silly submission.' He also said that the clergy are held to a higher standard than lay people and must exercise 'prudence, caution and sensitivity'. He added: 'I summarise I hope not unfairly. There is considerable debate in academia about something called the new antisemitism. 'It is not new, it is the same antisemitism, it just finds new expressions, just as the gas chambers gave us new expressions in 1945 but not before. 'Hezbollah is a parastatal organisation with its own army which exists for the extermination of Israel and the Jews within it, but its use of language is what makes it so serious. 'They never speak of Israel, it is always Jew, Jews and Jewry. 'Many years ago, a very little-known former serviceman with a gallantry award wrote a book in which he set out his views facing the world and in particular Germany. Dr Sizer is not currently a practising vicar having been suspended from his church by the Bishop of Winchester pending the outcome of the tribunal 'People failed to believe what he said. Hitler said quite clearly that the Jews were a very significant problem and in due course people were terribly surprised when it became clear he meant it and when he took power he did it. 'In that context, no Jew can possibly be blamed for taking Hezbollah at its word. Extermination of the Jewish state. That is what they say.' Stephen Hofmeyr, representing Sizer, said the vicar had met with the Hezbollah commander because he was asked to. He said: 'Imagine if he had refused. Instead, he used the opportunity for good. He went to proclaim freedom for the captives.' Earlier in the hearing, Mr Hofmeyr told the tribunal that Dr Sizer had gone to negotiate the freedom of Israeli soldiers. He added: 'There is no evidence to show that Dr Sizer defended the views of those with whom he shared a platform. 'It is significant that not one word or statement from Dr Sizer has been shown to be anti-semitic. There are none.' In 2015, Dr Sizer posted a link to a website that also suggested Israel was behind 9/11. He then took it down after 48 hours and after apologising to the Bishop of Guildford, agreed to cease writing, speaking, preaching or teaching about anything to do with the Middle Eastern conflict. Mr Hofmeyr told the tribunal it would be an abuse of process to punish him again for this. He also said it would be inappropriate to judge Dr Sizer using the definition of anti-semitism set out by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) as it is still being debated. He said: 'The IHRA working definition is not fit for purpose for anyone who seeks to use it as an adjudicative standard.' He added: 'One cannot determine what words or conduct are anti-semitic without knowing the full context. 'Association with others who are recognised to have anti-semitic views is by itself insufficient, as is where the association is for good reason such as challenging or presenting views.' Dr Sizer is not currently a practising vicar having been suspended from his church by the Bishop of Winchester pending the outcome of the tribunal. David Pittaway QC has now heard all of the evidence and will publish his ruling on a date yet to be decided. America has a crisis of courage, a crisis of character and a crisis of apathy. Each day we see large and small examples of the erosion of resolution, fellowship, and sympathy in this country. It is hard to watch and it is nothing short of an existential threat to our future and our children. We often see cellphone videos of people, usually women, being harassed and even accosted by seemingly deranged people on the New York City subways. In some instances, these victims beg their fellow passengers for help, but everyone just stands around holding their iPhones. Outside of Philadelphia last year, a woman was raped on a commuter train while as many as 10 passengers did nothing. Some of them even filmed the attack but no one intervened or even called 911. This sadly and terrifyingly has become the norm instead of the exception. If the instinctual reaction is -- if it isn't happening to me, it isn't my problem -- then we have reached a truly petrifying state in America. But by-and-large Americans still look to our law enforcement professionals and first responders, firemen and emergency personnel as the people that will run towards danger and not away from it. Now stunningly, as the nation comes to grips with the horror of Uvalde that core assumption appears to be in question. While we are still searching for answers, emerging details of the law enforcement response to the Uvalde shooting appear damning and strike me as possible dereliction of duty on the part of the police officers who were there. Video shows Texas cops holding down a parent outside Robb Elementary School on Tuesday while a shooting unfolded inside What we know is that the gunman was outside the school for 12 minutes even after shooting his grandmother and crashing his truck then entered the school without challenge. What we know is that even though officers were on scene and engaged with the shooter within minutes of him entering the school, the killer remained in the school for an hour before law enforcement finally entered the classroom where he was barricaded with his victims and killed him. And now, we're seeing gut-wrenching videos of parents pleading with armed police officers to go into the school as these officials instead waited outside. The videos are very difficult to watch in some case the officers stopped frantic parents from going into the building themselves. Panicked mothers and father were even handcuffed, restrained and pepper-sprayed by officers standing with their backs to the school. It is truly every parent's worst nightmare, and it is hard to understand what protocol could possibly justify first responders waiting outside a school, while a shooter remained inside. On CNN Thursday night, a spokesperson with the Texas Department of Public Safety explained it this way. 'In the active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing, you want to preserve life, said Lt. Chris Olivarez. 'But also, one thing that, of course, the American people need to understand is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots.' 'At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could've been shot, they could've been killed, and at that point that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school.' Clearly, this response is not sitting well with many. One reason that many Americans respect and revere law enforcement officers is they are willing to put their lives on the line, every single day, for the well-being of our communities. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (above, attending a vigil on May 25, 2022) needs to take the lead, investigate and release the entire Uvalde police force if it is necessary to send a message that this kind of dereliction of duty will not stand in Texas and America And I believe that most police officers truly do live up to that commitment. I am well-aware of what police officers and their families go through and have always had the deepest and utmost respect for our law enforcement --so much so that I have been vilified for coming out against the absurdity of defunding the police and defending the slogan 'Blue Lives Matter.' But what I will also say is that a group of police officers waiting outside a school holding back hysterical parents as a gunman is inside slaughtering children is a moral and ethical abomination. One can only ponder what would have happened and what lives would have been saved if the police officers went in and stormed the shooter. Police are not expected to commit suicide, but they are expected to confront the threat. Already, surgeons at the hospital in Uvalde have suggested that the delay in responding may have cost some injured kids their lives. Any police officer who stood around as small children were being slaughtered should be removed from their jobs as they have shown themselves to be incapable of serving and protecting their community. Panicked mothers and father were even handcuffed, restrained and pepper-sprayed by officers standing with their backs to the school. I understand, these life or death situations are intense and not for everyone. Not everyone is equipped to be a first responder and willing to put their life on the line. But if that is the case, please do not become a first responder, let alone a police officer. We cannot have people serving in the police force who are victims themselves of the crisis of courage that is engulfing our society. Texas Governor Greg Abbott needs to take the lead, investigate and release the entire Uvalde police force if it is necessary to send a message that this kind of dereliction of duty will not stand in Texas and America. It doesn't matter how pro-law enforcement you are, and I am, when police officers neglect their duty and innocent people die as a result, they need to be held accountable for their behavior and not be allowed to serve in the police force. We can only hope and pray that the cultural tides start to turn regarding the crisis of courage, particularly when it comes to our first responders showcasing what seems to be extreme cowardice. Democratic Kurt Schrader, a centrist who was endorsed by President Joe Biden, has been ousted in the Democratic primary in Oregon by progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner after results were delayed more than a week by a ballot-printing issue. The vote count in the state's 5th Congressional District was slowed because tens of thousands of ballots were printed with blurry barcodes, making them unreadable by vote-counting machines. Workers in Clackamas County, the state's third-largest county, had to transfer votes by hand to fresh ballots so they could be tallied. That process continued Friday for other races yet to be called. McLeod-Skinner had the backing of the local Democratic parties in all four counties covered by the redrawn seat, which now leans a little less blue. She was also endorsed by prominent progressives in D.C such as Senator Elizabeth Warren. In her campaign, she urged stronger action to combat climate change and complained that Schrader, who has been referred to as the 'Joe Manchin of the Senate', was too conservative. She also portrayed Schrader as a politician who had lost touch with his party's base and in the pocket of large pharmaceutical companies on issues like prescription drug prices. McLeod-Skinner will face Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer in November. Chavez-DeRemer is the former mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon. She has said she will support businesses and police and address 'the crisis on our southern border.' In a statement on Twitter, McLeod-Skinner thanked Schrader for his years of service and said Oregon Democrats should see the contest's outcome as 'an evaluation of our ideas and as a confirmation of our values.' 'From Sellwood to Sunriver, Oregonians never stopped believing we can protect our families, our climate and our civil rights,' she wrote. 'Oregonians - this is your victory.' Democratic Kurt Schrader (left), a centrist who was endorsed by President Joe Biden, has been ousted in the Democratic primary in Oregon by progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner (right) after results were delayed more than a week by a ballot-printing issue McLeod-Skinner had the backing of the local Democratic parties in all four counties covered by the redrawn seat, which now leans a little less blue. She was also endorsed by prominent progressives in D.C such as Senator Elizabeth Warren Biden made Schrader his first endorsement of the year but it didn't help the moderate Democrat in a district that now includes Bend, one of the state's fastest-growing Democratic areas where McLeod-Skinner had more name recognition. Schrader has voted against some of Bidens priorities, including a money-saving plan to let Medicare negotiate the price it pays for prescription drugs. A year ago, he was one of only two members of his party to vote against a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill because, among several reasons, he did not support including an increase to the minimum wage. Those decisions may be what cost him re-election, said John Horvick, political director at the nonpartisan public opinion firm DHM Research. 'He's a moderate, but it's more specific to the issues where he went against the party,' he said. 'The big one is really his reluctance to support Democrats on prescription drugs. You can break with your party in a lot of different areas but a highly salient, deeply held position in the party - that was a deal breaker.' What remains to be seen is if McLeod-Skinner will compete well in the general election in a district that is split fairly evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats' hold on the seat could be at risk if moderate voters perceive her as too progressive, he said. The Republican nominee, Chavez-DeRemer, is endorsed by the third-ranking House Republican, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York - an endorsement Chavez-DeRemer highlighted in her primary campaign in a crowded field. That might play well in more conservative parts of the redrawn district, which for the first time stretches from the Pacific Coast to central Oregon. 'To me, it's a toss-up race going forward and candidate quality is going to matter,' Horvick said. 'The opportunities for Oregon to be central in the national conversation is higher this cycle than any cycle I can think of in recent memory.' Two members of a nationwide criminal network have been jailed for life for an EncroChat murder plot involving a James Bond-style gun. Jurors heard how fixer Paul Fontaine had supplied a 9mm Makarov self-loading pistol used to murder Abdullahi Mahamoud in a bagel shop in Enfield, north London, on March 19 2020. Weeks later, he helped arrange to supply a new Walther PPK handgun to Cardiff career criminal Frankie Sinclair to murder Keiron Hassan, and others in a rival group. Paul Fontaine had supplied a 9mm Makarov self-loading pistol used to murder Abdullahi Mahamoud Weeks later, he helped arrange to supply a new Walther PPK handgun to Cardiff career criminal Frankie Sinclair to murder Keiron Hassan, and others in a rival group. In messages on EncroChat, Sinclair referred to the gun - made famous by Sean Connery in the 007 film Dr No - as a 'James Bond ting'. Following an Old Bailey trial, Fontaine, 36, from Hackney, north London, and Sinclair, 34, from Cardiff, south Wales, were found guilty of conspiracy to murder and a string of other offences. On Friday, Judge John Hillen jailed the pair for life with a minimum term of 18 years. The judge noted the plot had arisen from an ongoing dispute over who was 'going to dominate the drug dealing' in Cardiff. He said Sinclair wanted to 'create a drug dealing empire' which would 'bring misery' to addicts while Fontaine was more than just the armourer. He told the defendants: 'You were both part, via Encrochat, of a nationwide criminal network. Police at the scene of the shooting in Enfield, North London, shortly after the attack last year 'It's plain from the verdict of the jury, based as it was from the messaging involving both of you, that you (Sinclair) intended to kill Keiron Hassan, to kill his cousin, and possibly another person would be killed.' 'They were to be murdered by shooting them with a firearm or firearms with ammunition you, Paul Fontaine, were to supply for that purpose.' He described Fontaine's interest in the earlier Enfield killing as 'unfeeling', 'unnatural' and 'chilling'. Last year, Khallid Hogan, 21, from Enfield, was found guilty of murdering Mr Mohamoud and jailed for at least 27 years. Sinclair and Fontaine are the first to be found guilty of an EncroChat-related conspiracy to murder. Previously prosecutor Kevin Dent QC told jurors that the defendants did not 'beat about the bush' in the encrypted messages. But law enforcement agencies were later able to get hold of EncroChat data at a time the users thought nobody would ever be able to find out what they were saying. Mr Dent said that the murder conspiracy was in revenge for an attack on the Cardiff home of Sinclair's mother on March 31 2020. He told jurors: 'Frankie Sinclair wanted help from Mr Fontaine supplying a firearm and ammunition so that Mr Sinclair could carry out a revenge murder for the shooting that had happened at his mother's house.' At the time, Fontaine was 'low on stock of firearms' and turned to a third party, known as Chestbridge, jurors were told. In messages on EncroChat, Sinclair referred to the gun - made famous by Sean Connery in the 007 film Dr No - as a 'James Bond ting'. It was alleged that the Walther PPK handgun and ammunition was supplied to Sinclair for the planned revenge attack. Chat referred to 'straps' and 'sweets' said to be slang for firearms and bullets, and 'duppy', slang for ghost. While the defendants came together over the attack in Cardiff, messaging on EncroChat also revealed they were separately involved in other crime. Sinclair admitted being involved in the supply of cocaine and heroin, while Fontaine denied all the charges against him, including plotting to supply heroin and possess counterfeit currency. Sinclair was accused of amassing 'significant amounts of cash' from his drugs business. Mr Dent said the defendants both used EncroChat mobile devices, which cost 1,000 per handset. It is ironic that the steps taken by both Mr Sinclair and Mr Fontaine to conceal their conspiracies sealed their fate, presenting us with the very evidence to convict them Khallid Hogan has been jailed for life and must serve a minimum of 27 years after a court found him guilty of assassinating Abdullahi Mohamoud (pictured) with a pistol in March last year Fontaine and Sinclair were found guilty of the offences against them after a jury deliberated for more than 14 hours. Judge Hillen ordered sentences for other offences should run concurrently to the life term. Previously, Detective Chief Inspector Driss Hayoukane, from Scotland Yard, said the defendants were both 'dangerous men' and the conviction was 'testament to the hard work of officers across England and Wales'. He said: 'Paul Fontaine and Frankie Sinclair clearly believed using encrypted devices rendered them untouchable and sought to commit the most violent of crimes. 'However, the Metropolitan Police is unceasing in its efforts to target and dismantle organised criminal networks which seek to blight our communities. 'It is ironic that the steps taken by both Mr Sinclair and Mr Fontaine to conceal their conspiracies sealed their fate, presenting us with the very evidence to convict them.' Advertisement Texas' Director of Public Safety broke down in tears as he admitted 19 cops stood outside the classroom where the gunman in Tuesday's shooting had his victims trapped and did nothing because they thought everyone inside was dead, despite ongoing 911 calls from inside from children begging for help. Col. Steven McCraw made the admission at a press conference on Friday where he said it was 'the wrong decision' and came as the result of the Chief of the Uvalde School District Police Department Pete Arredondo mistakenly believing all of the kids in the classroom had already been killed. Police say they thought that every shot the gunman fired after that was aimed at the door and designed to keep them at bay. 'The incident commander thought at that time there was no more children at risk. Obviously there were children that were at risk,' he said. It remains unconfirmed how many children died while those 19 cops stood outside the classroom door. McCraw also revealed at the press conference; The gunman fired more than 100 rounds after at 11.33am within seconds of walking into the school He had purchased 1,000 rounds of ammo in total and been talking about buying guns for months In March, he asked his sister to help him buy a gun and she 'flatly refused' but it's unclear if he was reported In May, he spoke about school shootings with friends on Instagram and on May 14 he wrote: '10 more days, you'll see' The shooter's final shots were fired at 12.21pm and it's unclear if those were at kids or at the door Children who were trapped inside the classroom made seven 911 calls in the hour that they were trapped, begging for help There was no resource officer at the scene but one arrived within seconds of hearing the first 911 call. He however didn't see the gunman hiding between cars in the parking lot and drove right past him The gunman was able to get into the school because a teacher had propped open a door Ramos entered the classroom and locked the door at 11.34am. In the first few minutes, he fired more than 100 shots inside classrooms 111 and 112. He carried on shooting 'sporadically' until 12.21pm, and it wasn't until 12.50pm that police eventually gained access to the classrooms with a key from the janitor. 'With the benefit of hindsight, from where I am sitting now - of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. There is no excuse,' McCraw said. Scroll down for video Heartbreaking new photos show kids running out of Robb Elementary School on Tuesday after the gunman opened fire. It's unclear what time these gut wrenching images were taken. They show cops pulling children through windows U.S. Border Patrol agents rush Robb Elementary school children to safety moments after they were freed from inside a classroom via the window Terrified kids run out of the school in Texas on Tuesday morning as a shooter terrorized a fourth grade class Cops and border patrol agents are shown looking for kids in other classrooms during the shooting on Tuesday Terrified kids run to safety after being rescued through windows from Tuesday's school shooting in Uvalde, Texas Col. Steven McCraw cried as he admitted it was the 'clearly the wrong decision'. Police still do not know whether the shooter's victims were killed before or after police arrived at the scene He latter sobbed as he said he and other police officers 'take an oath to protect people' but failed. 'We want to know why this happened and know if we can do better next time,' he said. Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief Pete Arredondo was in charge and mistakenly thought there were no other kids alive in the room once the shooter had barricaded himself inside Arredondo, whose decision it was not to advance because he thought all of the kids had died, was not at the press conference to answer questions and it remains unconfirmed if he was even inside the school at the time of the shooting. There was no school resource officer there when the shooter opened fire, contrary to previous reports from the police that he engaged in a shootout with the gunman. Instead, a school resource officer who was nearby and heard the first 911 call about the gunman crashing his truck rushed to the scene. They however drove directly past the gunman when he hid between cars in the parking lot. Instead, the school resource officer went to the back of the building and confronted a male teacher, mistaking him for the gunman. In the meantime, Salvador Ramos started advancing on the school, firing at classrooms. He then walked through an unlocked front door which was propped open by a teacher who had gone to retrieve their phone a minute before he arrived. While those officers stood inside waiting and he was shooting, parents were being put in handcuffs outside and held back from entering the school. The police response is now under investigation. Earlier, Department of Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez made the astonishing comments during an appearance on CNN last night. The shooter's abandoned AR-15 next to his pick-up truck. He bought the gun two days after his 18th birthday The gunman crashed his truck into a ditch before he entered the school on Tuesday morning He was being challenged by Wolf Blitzer over why the first officers who responded to the shooting retreated after Salvador Ramos shot at them with his AR-15 and then waited an hour for tactical SWAT teams to take him out, leaving him alone in a classroom with the 19 fourth graders and two teachers who he slaughtered. TIMELINE OF UVALDE SCHOOL KILLING INCLUDING 911 CALLS AND HOW COPS WAITED OUTSIDE 11.28am: Gunman crashes truck, gets out of car with AR-15 He is seen by witnesses in a funeral home next to the school who tell 911 they see a man with a gun walking towards the school 11.31: Gunman is now in the parking lot of the school hiding in between vehicles, shooting at the building 11.32: School resource officer who arrives in a patrol car after hearing 911 call about truck crash drives past the shooter 11.33: Gunman enters the school and begins shooting into room 111/room 112. He shoots more than 100 rounds 11.35: Three police officers enter the same propped-open door as the suspect from the Uvalde PD. They were later followed by another four, making total of seven officers on scene Three initial officers went directly to the door and got grazing wounds from him while the door was closed. They hang back 11.37: Another 16 rounds fired inside the classroom by the gunman 11.51: Police sergeant and USB agents arrive 12.03: Officers continue to arrive in the hallway. As many as 19 officers in that hallway at that time At the same time, a girl from inside the classroom calls 911 and whispers that she is in room 112 12.10pm: The same girl calls back and advises 'there are multiple dead' 12.13pm: The same girl calls again 12.16pm: The same girl calls 911 for the fourth time in 13 minutes asking for help 12.15pm: BORTAC (SWAT) members arrive with shields 12.16pm: The same unidentified girl calls 911 and says there are 8-9 students alive in classroom 112 12.19pm: A different child from classroom 111 calls. She hangs up when another student tells her to in order to be quiet 12.21pm: Gunman fires again 12.26pm: One of the girls who previously called 911 calls back again. She says the shooter has just shot at the door 12.43pm: The girl on that girl is still on the line. She says please send the police now 12.50pm: Police finally breach the door using keys from the janitor and kill gunman 12.51pm Officers start moving children out of the room Advertisement 'Dont current best practices, Lieutenant, call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible, regardless of how many officers are actually on site?' Blitzer asked. He replied: 'In the active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing, you want to preserve life. But also one thing that, of course, the American people need to understand is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots.' He then appeared to try to take credit for the gunman being locked in the classroom with the kids for an hour - including some he shot at the start of the rampage who later died in the hospital - claiming it saved other lives. Police initially said that the gunman barricaded himself inside the classroom and that they had trouble gaining access to the room, and one unnamed law official anonymously spoke out to say SWAT teams had to wait for a different school staff member to bring them a key to the class. 'At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they couldve been shot, they could've been killed, and at that point that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school. 'So they were able to contain that gunman inside that classroom so that he was not able to go to any other portions of the school to commit any other killings,' Lt. Olivarez said. Scores of Border Patrol agents also rushed to the scene after hearing the incident unfold on scanners. When they arrived, the Uvalde Police Department also told them not to go inside, according to a law enforcement official who spoke anonymously to The New York Times. Eventually, the agents joined parents and a handful of local police officers in pulling kids through windows from other classrooms. The agents did not understand why they were being told not to go inside when the gunman was still in the building. Experts have slammed the decision to wait for back up as 'outdated' and 'disgusting'. 'Waiting an hour is disgusting. If that turns out to be true, then it is a disgusting fact,' Sean Burke, a retired school resource officer from Massachusetts who now is the president of the School Safety Advocacy Council, told NBC. 'If youve got somebody you think is actively engaged in harming people or attempting to harm people, your obligation as a police officer is to immediately stop that person and neutralize that threat. 'We dont expect police officers to commit suicide in doing it. 'But the expectation is that if someone is about to harm someone, especially children, youve got to take immediate action to make that stop,' Don Alwes, an ex-instructor for the National Tactical Officers Association, added. Surgeons at the hospital in Uvalde have also suggested that the delay in responding to the shooting may have cost some kids their lives. It remains unclear exactly how many children were in the classroom when the shooter opened fire, how many were killed immediately and how many were still alive but injured when police arrived. Uvalde Memorial Hospital received two kids who had died by the time they got to the hospital. Now, doctors are highlighting the importance of treating gunshot wounds as soon as they happen. 'You can't wait until patients go to a trauma center. US Border Patrol agents were among the hundreds who responded to the shooting but when they got there, the local police department told them not to advance This is how the shooting played out over the course of nearly two hours from when Ramos killed his grandmother at home. He arrived at the school at 11.28am and the first 911 calls were made. He then walked unobstructed into the building with his AR-15 and headed towards the classroom. He fought off cops at 11.44am, then was left alone in the room with the victims until around 12.44pm - when SWAT arrived. The incident was declared over at 1.06pm 'You have to act quickly,' Dr. Ronald Stewart, the senior trauma surgeon at the University Hospital in Antonio, said. He added that uncontrolled bleeding was the top cause of deaths among gun shot wound victims and that it can happen in as little as five minutes. Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, officers across the nation have been advised not to wait for backup and to proceed into the school to find the shooter. Instructions from the Texas Police Chiefs Association says: 'The first two to five responding officers should form a single team and enter the structure.' Why that advice was ignored in Uvalde is among the many aspects of the slow response that are now under investigation. Another is why police falsely claimed at first that the shooter exchanged gunfire with a school resource officer before he even made it to the classroom. On Thursday night, Olivarez said that was the information police received. Video shows Texas cops holding down a parent outside Robb Elementary School on Tuesday while a shooting unfolded inside The girl explained she wasn't hurt and the blood was from her best friend 'Amerie.' It was then that Angel Garza (above) realized the blood he was looking at came from his own daughter 'So thats information that we received early on in this investigation. 'The Texas Rangers are now conducting interviews with those officers trying to establish exactly what was their role, and that will help us establish a more factual, concrete timeline,' he said. There is growing anger and frustrating among parents who were pepper sprayed, pinned to the ground and even placed in handcuffs. 'The police were doing nothing,' Angeli Rose Gomez told the Wall Street Journal. 'They were just standing outside the fence. They weren't going in there or running anywhere.' Gomez has two children in second and third grade and she reportedly drove 40 miles to the school after hearing of the attack. She was one of the desperate parents who encouraged police with increasing urgency to enter the school. Eventually, federal marshals put Gomez in handcuffs and told her she was under arrest for intervening in an active investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Gomez said she was able to convince a Uvalde officer whom she knew to have the marshal free her and she took the opportunity to move away from the crowd, jump the school fence, and ran inside the school where she rescued her children herself. She said that other parents also trying to get to their kids were tackled and even pepper-sprayed by police. Angel Garza, whose daughter was killed, was handcuffed after trying to run into the school when he heard that a 'girl called Amerie' had been shot. Garza later told his heartbreaking story to Anderson Cooper. He explained that when he arrived on the scene he tried to help a young girl covered in blood, because he is a trained medic. The girl explained she wasn't hurt and the blood was from her best friend 'Amerie.' It was then that Angel realized the blood he was looking at came from his own daughter. He later found out that she was among those who died. A police dog known for having a 'larger than life character' has died after chasing down two moped thieves, the Metropolitan Police said. Six-year-old PD Xavier Charles, better known as 'Stanley', collapsed on Sunday morning while on duty. The dog, who worked across London as a general purpose and firearms support animal, was described as 'one of the very best police dogs' by the force. The Met Police believe Stanley died from heart failure after collapsing on a job. Six-year-old PD Xavier Charles, better known as 'Stanley', collapsed on Sunday morning while on duty. He died after chasing down two moped thieves, the Metropolitan Police said Stanley (right), who worked across London as a general purpose and firearms support animal, was described as 'one of the very best police dogs' by the force Stanley 'loved to work', the force said, while he also competed in the national police dog trials in 2019. In a post on Twitter, a spokesperson for the Met Police said: 'It is with the heaviest of hearts that we share the news of the sudden passing of one of our very own serving dogs whilst on duty. 'Six-year-old PD Xavier Charles, aka 'Stanley', was one of the very best police dogs who worked across London as a general purpose and firearms support dog alongside PD Stella, his best friend, & handler Pc Williams. 'A larger than life character, Stan loved to work and amassed over 280 results in his shorter than average career & making it to the national police dog trials in 2019. 'In the early hours of Sunday morning whilst chasing down two moped thieves, Stanley collapsed and sadly passed away, believed of heart failure. 'Whilst this is still very raw, we have been asked to share this sad news to remember this wonderful, faithful and loyal friend.' The White House is closing in on a decision regarding student debt forgiveness, a cause being pushed by progressives, with President Joe Biden leaning toward canceling $10,000 per borrower. The administration cautions no final decision has been made, but multiple reports out on Friday indicated Biden considered using a scheduled commencement speech this weekend to make the announcement. 'No decisions have been made yet but as a reminder no one has been required to pay a single dime of student loans since the President took office,' assistant press secretary Vedant Patel told DailyMail.com. Biden spoke at the Naval Academy on Friday but made no mention of student loans. He will speak at the University of Delaware, his alma mater, on Saturday. The Washington Post reported the timing was changed in the wake of a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children dead. The White House is closing in on a decision regarding student debt forgiveness with President Joe Biden leaning toward canceling $10,000 per borrower Federal loan payments currently on hold due to covid pandemic Graduates cheer during a graduation ceremony for New York University at Yankee Stadium The loan forgiveness plan would apply to those who earned less than $150,000 in the previous year, or less than $300,000 for married couples filing jointly, the Post reported. The executive order has been drafted and Biden is weighing whether or not to sign it, CNN reported. Prominent liberals in the Democratic Party - including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - have been pressuring Biden to forgive student loans. Ocasio-Cortez commented on the reports, saying $10,000 wasn't enough. '$10k means tested forgiveness is just enough to anger the people against it *and* the people who need forgiveness the most. $10k relieves most the people who owe the least. What relief is there for the most desperate? For them, interest will undo that 10k fast. We can do better,' she wrote on Twitter. Republicans have blasted the idea, saying it wastes federal dollars. According to a study by New York Federal Reserve economists, forgiving $10,000 per student would amount to $321 billion of federal student loans and eliminate the entire balance for 11.8 million borrowers, or 31 per cent. 'Administration actions have already provided more than $18.5 billion in targeted debt relief to more than 750,000 borrowers. Not to mention tens of billions more saved by the 41 million borrowers who have benefited from the extended student loan payment pause,' Patel noted. Loan payments have been on hold since March 2020, a move made during the coronavirus pandemic. The issue could come into play during the midterm election. Canceling student loans is a popular issue among young voters. But Biden has seemed reluctant to unilaterally cancel college debt owned by the U.S. government, a move that would test his legal authority and could be subject to lawsuit. Instead, Biden has asked Congress to pass a bill forgiving debt that he could sign. In April, Biden said he was 'considering dealing with some debt reduction.' 'I am not considering $50,000 debt reduction, but I'm in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there will be additional debt forgiveness and I'll have an answer on that in the next couple of weeks,' he said on April 28. Advertisement New photos have emerged depicting part of the law enforcement response to the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, as questions mount about why police didn't engage the shooter more quickly. The photos released on Friday were taken outside Robb Elementary as the siege unfolded on Tuesday, and show US Customs and Border Protection agents alongside local police and sheriff's deputies, lifting children out of a window at the school. After a siege lasting nearly an hour, it was eventually Border Patrol agents who used a master key to open the locked door of a classroom where they confronted and killed gunman Salvador Rolando Ramos, who killed 19 students and two teachers while barricaded inside. Officials admitted on Friday that nearly 20 officers stood in a hallway outside of the classrooms during the attack, believing any potential victims inside were already dead. 'Of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision,' Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said at a news conference. US Customs and Border Protection agents (left) are seen alongside local police (center) and sheriff's deputies (right) working to rescue kids from Robb Elementary on Tuesday Police try to gain entry to a classroom at Robb Elementary during the siege on Tuesday in Uvalde U.S. Border Patrol agents and local police rush Robb Elementary school children to safety moments after they were freed from inside a classroom via the window. The rescue took place early Tuesday afternoon New photos have emerged depicting part of the law enforcement response to the school massacre in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday, as questions mount about why police didn't engage the shooter more quickly The on-site commander 'was convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children and that the subject was barricaded and that they had time to organize' to get into the classroom, McCraw said. McCraw said there was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where they killed Ramos but that shots were 'sporadic' for much of the 48 minutes while officers waited outside the hallway. He said investigators do not know whether or how many children died during those 48 minutes. Ramos entered the classroom and locked the door at 11.34am. In the first few minutes, he fired more than 100 shots inside classrooms 111 and 112. He carried on shooting 'sporadically' until 12.21pm, and it wasn't until 12.50pm that police eventually gained access to the classrooms with a key from the janitor. Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including a girl who pleaded: 'Please send the police now,' McCraw said. 'With the benefit of hindsight, from where I am sitting now - of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision. There is no excuse,' McCraw said. After a siege lasting nearly an hour, it was eventually Border Patrol agents who used a master key to open the locked door of a classroom where they confronted and killed gunman Salvador Rolando Ramos The on-site commander 'was convinced at the time that there was no more threat to the children and that the subject was barricaded and that they had time to organize' to get into the classroom, an official said Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including a girl who pleaded: 'Please send the police now,' He latter sobbed as he said he and other police officers 'take an oath to protect people' but failed. 'We want to know why this happened and know if we can do better next time,' he said. Scores of Border Patrol agents also rushed to the scene after hearing the incident unfold on scanners. When they arrived, the Uvalde Police Department also told them not to go inside, according to a law enforcement official who spoke anonymously to The New York Times. Eventually, the agents joined parents and a handful of local police officers in pulling kids through windows from other classrooms. The agents did not understand why they were being told not to go inside when the gunman was still in the building. Experts have slammed the decision to wait for back up as 'outdated' and 'disgusting'. 'Waiting an hour is disgusting. If that turns out to be true, then it is a disgusting fact,' Sean Burke, a retired school resource officer from Massachusetts who now is the president of the School Safety Advocacy Council, told NBC. Texas cops said last night that they didn't immediately rush in to find the shooter on Tuesday's attack after being shot at because they feared they might be killed, and even suggested that they deliberately locked the gunman in the classroom where he slaughtered 21 people in order to trap him. This is how the shooting played out over the course of nearly two hours from when Ramos killed his grandmother at home. He arrived at the school at 11.28am and the first 911 calls were made. He then walked unobstructed into the building with his AR-15 and headed towards the classroom. He fought off cops at 11.44am, then was left alone in the room with the victims until around 12.44pm - when SWAT arrived. The incident was declared over at 1.06pm As the gunman unleashed terror inside the school, desperate parents were forced to wait outside and some were even put in handcuffs after they tried to enter the school to find their kids and rescue them Department of Safety Lt. Chris Olivarez made the astonishing comments during an appearance on CNN last night. He was being challenged by Wolf Blitzer over why the first officers who responded to the shooting retreated after Salvador Ramos shot at them with his AR-15 and then waited an hour for tactical SWAT teams to take him out, leaving him alone in a classroom with the 19 fourth graders and two teachers who he slaughtered. 'Don't current best practices, Lieutenant, call for officers to disable a shooter as quickly as possible, regardless of how many officers are actually on site?' Blitzer asked. He replied: 'In the active shooter situation, you want to stop the killing, you want to preserve life. But also one thing that, of course, the American people need to understand is that officers are making entry into this building. They do not know where the gunman is. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots.' He then appeared to try to take credit for the gunman being locked in the classroom with the kids for an hour - including some he shot at the start of the rampage who later died in the hospital - claiming it saved other lives. Police initially said that the gunman barricaded himself inside the classroom and that they had trouble gaining access to the room, and one unnamed law official anonymously spoke out to say SWAT teams had to wait for a different school staff member to bring them a key to the class. 'At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they could've been shot, they could've been killed, and at that point that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school. 'So they were able to contain that gunman inside that classroom so that he was not able to go to any other portions of the school to commit any other killings,' Lt. Olivarez said. TIMELINE OF UVALDE SHOOTING - COPS WAITED OUTSIDE THINKING EVERYONE IN CLASS WAS DEAD WHILE SHOOTER FIRED MORE ROUNDS SHOOTING TIMELINE 11.28: Gunman crashes truck then walks to the school parking lot where he hides behind a vehicle 11.31: Gunman is shooting from the vehicle. Multiple shots fired. 11.32: School resource officer who arrives in a patrol car after hearing 911 call about truck crash drives past the shooter 11.33: Gunman enters the school 11.33: Begins shooting into room 111/room 112. He shoots more than 100 rounds. 11.35: Three police officers enter the same door as the suspect from the Uvalde PD. They were later followed by another four. Seven officers on scene. Three initial officers went directly to the door and got grazing wounds from him while the door was closed. 11.37: Another 16 rounds fired 11.51: Police sergeant and USB agents arrive 12.03: Officers continue to arrive in the hallway. As many as 19 officers in that hallway at that time 12.15pm: BORTAC (SWAT) members arrive with shields 12.21pm: Gunman fires again 12.50pm: Breach the door using keys from the janitor and kill gunman 911 CALL TIMELINE 12.10pm: Same person called back and advised 'there are multiple dead' 12.13pm: Calls again 12.16pm: Calls back and says there are 8-9 students alive 12.19pm: Another person from room 111 calls. She hung up when another student told her to hang up 12.21pm: Hear on the 911 call that 3 shots were fired 12.26pm: 911 call lasting 21 seconds - initial caller called back, the child. They were told to stay on the line and stay quiet. She told 911 'he shot the door' 12.43pm: Student asks 'please send the police now' 12.46pm: She said she could hear the police next door 12.50pm: Shots fired 12.51pm: Very loud, officers are moving children out of the room Advertisement Surgeons at the hospital in Uvalde have also suggested that the delay in responding to the shooting may have cost some kids their lives. It remains unclear exactly how many children were in the classroom when the shooter opened fire, how many were killed immediately and how many were still alive but injured when police arrived. Uvalde Memorial Hospital received two kids who had died by the time they got to the hospital. Now, doctors are highlighting the importance of treating gunshot wounds as soon as they happen. 'You can't wait until patients go to a trauma center. 'You have to act quickly,' Dr. Ronald Stewart, the senior trauma surgeon at the University Hospital in Antonio, said. He added that uncontrolled bleeding was the top cause of deaths among gun shot wound victims and that it can happen in as little as five minutes. Since the Columbine shooting in 1999, officers across the nation have been advised not to wait for backup and to proceed into the school to find the shooter. Instructions from the Texas Police Chiefs Association says: 'The first two to five responding officers should form a single team and enter the structure.' Why that advice was ignored in Uvalde is among the many aspects of the slow response that are now under investigation. Another is why police falsely claimed at first that the shooter exchanged gunfire with a school resource officer before he even made it to the classroom. On Thursday night, Olivarez said that was the information police received. A mother accused of trying to kill her severely disabled son by plying him with painkillers and antidepressants has been cleared of attempted murder. Pembe Mehmetaliogullari, 48, was on trial in Hove over the death of her adopted ten-year-old son Mustafa 'Musti' Mehmetaliogullari. The single mother raised him alone and he weighed under 30kg when he was admitted to Royal Alex children's hospital in Brighton where he died in September 2018. Pembe Mehmetaliogullari, pictured outside Lewes Crown Court, said she would do anything to have her son here with her Her son suffered from cerebral palsy and epilepsy which meant his complex health needs required care at all hours. The boy also had severe scoliosis (curvature of the spine), could not swallow food and could only communicate by opening or closing his eyes. When he slept, Musti had to be checked every 20mins. Mrs Mehmetaliogullari, of Hove, was cleared of giving him painkillers prescribed to her in order to hasten his death as he lay dying at the Royal Alex children's hospital in Brighton. Musti was admitted to hospital in Brighton after his mother found him unresponsive at home and dialled 999. A Do Not Resuscitate order meant doctors would not try to bring him back to life. Mustafa 'Musti' Mehmetaliogullari died three days later in September 2018 in Brighton. A post-mortem examination and toxicology report found he died after being given non-prescription medication. Traces of painkillers and antidepressants prescribed to the mother were found in his system. A tearful Mrs Mehmetaliogullari told the court she could never do anything to hurt her son. She said: 'I would never do anything to hurt Musti, he was my life. 'I just wanted him to be with me.' A break from being a carer or respite care for Mrs Mehmetaliogullari was cancelled days before her son was admitted to hospital. Overnight help had also been cut back which meant she had been caring for him 24/7. Prosecutors say Mehmetaliogullari (pictured) gave a noxious substance to her son Mustafa, 10 Mustafa, known as Musti, died at Royal Alexandra Children's Hospital in Brighton (pictured) in September 2018 'He was what I lived for. 'He was the one thing in my life that made me happy. 'I would do anything to have him here with me,' Mrs Mehmetaliogullari said. Lewis Power QC who defended Mrs Mehmetaliogullari said his client had been deeply traumatised by the death of her son and the trial. 'She has said she has nothing left to live for. 'She is a very sad and lonely figure, ostracised by friends and family. 'Says her life is empty,' he told the court. The jury at Lewes Crown Court in Brighton found Mrs Mehmetaliogullari guilty of giving her son Musti her antidepressants weeks before his death. Cross-examining the mother, Miranda Moore QC, said: 'You decided to give nature a helping hand. She said: 'No, I didn't. I wouldn't do that to him. I couldn't do that to him. I just wanted him to be with me.' When asked by Ms Moore if she was at the 'end of her tether', the mother responded: 'No, I wasn't.' Ms Moore asked her if she could offer any sensible alternative suggestion how the drugs got into Musti's body. In response, Mrs Mehmetaliogullari said: 'No, I can't. I really wish I could.' Mrs Mehmetaliogullari will be sentenced next month. A lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign hid his partisan interests from the FBI as he pushed 'pure opposition research' related to Donald Trump and Russia in the weeks before the election, a prosecutor asserted Friday during closing arguments of the attorney's trial. But Michael Sussmann's legal team denied prosecutors' claims that he lied, and said the alleged false statement did not matter because he was presenting national security information that the FBI would have looked into no matter the source. The case against Sussmann centers on whether he lied by claiming he was not representing any clients when in September 2016 he arranged a private meeting with the FBI's general counsel James Baker to pass along a now-debunked tip alleging the Trump Organization was secretly communicating with Russia's Alfa-Bank. At the time of Sussmann's meeting in September 2016, the bureau was already investigating whether Russia and the Trump campaign were colluding to sway the election won by Trump that November. 'They wouldn't have done anything different. And it makes sense: They were given actual data that had national security implications,' Sussmann lawyer Sean Berkowitz said. The case is the first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham's work since his appointment three years ago to search for government misconduct during the investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's campaign. 'It wasn't about national security,' Jonathan Algor, a prosecutor on John Durham's team told the jury in his closing argument. 'It was about promoting opposition research against the opposition candidate, Donald Trump.' Sussmann is charged with a single count of making a false statement. Michael Sussmann, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign, hid his partisan interests from the FBI as he pushed 'pure opposition research' related to Donald Trump and Russia in the weeks before the election, a prosecutor asserted Friday during closing arguments of the attorney's trial That charge carries a maximum five-year prison sentence, though if convicted, Sussmann is likely to get far less - if any - prison time. He did not take the stand during the trial. The criminal case turns on a September 19, 2016 meeting in which Sussmann presented the FBI's top lawyer, James Baker, with computer data that Sussmann said suggested a secret communications back channel between a Russia-based bank and the Trump Organization, the candidate's company. The case is the first courtroom test of special counsel John Durham's (above) work since his appointment three years ago to search for government misconduct during the investigation into potential ties between Russia and Trump's campaign Such a back channel, if it existed, would have been explosive information at a time when the FBI was examining links between Trump and Russia. But after assessing the data, the FBI quickly determined that there was no suspicious contact at all. Prosecutors say Sussmann lied to Baker by saying he was not participating in the meeting on behalf of a particular client. They say he was actually there on behalf of the Clinton campaign and another client, a technology executive whom the Durham team says tasked researchers with looking for internet traffic involving Trump aides and Russia. Sussmann lied about his clients, prosecutors allege, to give the material extra credibility and because he figured that the information would not be investigated if the FBI thought it was being pushed by the Clinton campaign. 'The defendant knew he had to hide his clients if there was any chance of getting his allegations into the FBI - and that, ladies and gentlemen, is why the defendant lied,' Algor said. Algor said the fact that Sussmann repeatedly billed the Clinton campaign for his work on the Alfa Bank matters is proof that he was acting on the campaign's behalf when he met with the FBI. But Berkowitz noted that Sussmann billed his taxi ride to FBI headquarters for the meeting to his law firm, rather than the campaign. Berkowitz also tried to cast doubt on what exactly was said in the meeting. Prosecutors showed jurors a text message Sussmann sent Baker the night before the meeting in which he requested a sit-down on a sensitive matter and said he would be coming by himself and not on behalf of a client. Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks on stage during 'Below The Belt' New York Premiere at Museum of Modern Art on May 24. Her alleged role in approving the sharing of the debunked information has been brought into question during the trial But Berkowitz reminded jurors that the only false statement that was charged took place during the following day's meeting and that no one can be sure exactly what was said because Baker and Sussmann were the only participants and neither took notes. Berkowitz also suggested that it was technically accurate if Sussmann suggested he was not acting on behalf of a client because he never asked the FBI do anything with the information he was providing. 'When you go somewhere on behalf of a client, youre advocating for a client, youre asking for something,' Berkowitz said. 'Mr. Sussmann didn't ask Jim Baker for anything.' Though Baker testified under questioning from a prosecutor that he was '100% confident' that Sussmann had told him that he was not acting on behalf of a client, Berkowitz cited 116 instances in which Baker suggested that he could not recall or remember the answer. A serving Metropolitan Police officer has been charged with rape after allegedly attacking a woman on Brighton Beach last summer. Laurence Knight, 33, has been summoned to appear in court next month. He was arrested on suspicion of rape on July 28, 2021 after a woman reported that she was assaulted on July 17. Knight was then bailed. Earlier today Knight was summoned to appear at Brighton Magistrates' Court on June 23. He is suspended from duty. Brighton Beach, where the incident is alleged to have taken place last July, is a popular spot Sussex Police said in a statement: 'The officer was not on duty at the time of the reported offence. 'The victim will continue to receive support from specialist officers throughout the judicial process.' Chief Superintendent Pete Gardner, head of custody command Met Detention said: 'We know people will rightly be concerned to hear about this very serious charge against a serving police officer. He told PA: 'We absolutely share that concern and I am thankful to Sussex Police for their thorough investigation and the continued specialist support they are providing to the victim. 'The Mets Directorate of Professional Standards are fully aware and misconduct matters will be dealt with once the criminal proceedings have concluded.' Scotland Yard made a mandatory referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which determined the misconduct investigation should be led by the Met. Nina Jankowicz claimed Thursday that the Disinformation Board she will no longer be heading could have had a hand in preventing mass shootings such as the one in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. She reasoned that internet disinformation is often what radicalizes people to violence, and pushed back against the idea that her job would have been to censor. 'I think another example that's important, that's also within the Department's portfolio, especially given the events of the past few weeks, is that disinformation plays a role in radicalizing people to violence,' Jankowicz said on NPR's Fresh Air podcast Thursday. 'You know, we're seeing continued mass shootings here in the United States, and in many of those cases, violent extremism is begotten by things people see on the Internet.' 'That's the sort of thing that we would be looking to address,' Jankowicz said. On Tuesday a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 kids and two teachers. She tried to set the record straight on the now-defunct 'Disinformation Governance Board,' which would have been under the purview of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), amid uproar that the board would function as a sort of dystopian 'Ministry of Truth.' Nina Jankowicz claimed Thursday that the Disinformation Board she will no longer be heading could have had a hand in preventing mass shootings such as the one in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas. 'Well, there were a lot of folks, mostly on the conservative side of the spectrum, who said that the board was going to be a Ministry of Truth, a la George Orwell's '1984,' that we were going to adjudicate what was true and false online and that I was a czar, a disinformation czar, a minister of truth,' Jankowicz explained. 'Nothing could have been farther from the truth,' she declared, 'Again, this was an internal working group that was meant to support and advise the operational components of DHS. We had no operational authority or capability.' The Republican National Committee dubbed the committee the 'Ministry of Truth' in a nod to George Orwell's novel '1984,' and raised fears that the group will deem as disinformation 'any speech we don't like.' Jankowicz asserted that her job would have been 'much more boring' than critics made it out to be. 'We can't just fact-check our way out of the crisis of truth and trust that we face. And I would have never taken a job that was all about that. It was about something much more anodyne, much more boring,' the woman told NPR. She added that the idea wasn't about 'labeling or censoring individual facts,' but rather helping DHS officials 'put good information out there' and making sure 'Americans were equipped with information that kept them safe and secure.' Jankowicz reasoned that internet disinformation is often what radicalizes people to violence, and pushed back against the idea that her job would have been to censor. On Tuesday a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 kids and two teachers The controversial head of the Department of Homeland Security's disinformation governance board resigned earlier this month following weeks of attacks on her appointment. The panel itself was put on 'pause' only three weeks after it was set up. Critics compared her to a 'disinformation Mary Poppins' after she was widely mocked for a TikTok video of her discussing misinformation to the tune of 'Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.' After it was announced Jankowicz would head the board, critics questioned her expertise after it emerged she had dismissed the 2020 discovery of Hunter Biden's laptop as being a 'Trump campaign product.' And in 2016 she spread claims about then candidate Donald Trump's links to President Vladimir Putin of Russia, which have since been debunked. A 26-year-old graduate who died from 'catastrophic' blood clots on his brain two weeks after receiving the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine was given out-of-date information about blood clot risks, an inquest has heard. Jack Hurn, from Redditch, died in June last year, less than two weeks after receiving the jab at a Dudley vaccine centre. A week-long inquest at Birmingham Coroner's Court heard that a GP informed Mr Hurn the risk of blood clots on the brain for his age group was one in 250,000, when the latest NHS guidance estimated it to be one in 50,000. Jack Hurn, 26, died less than two weeks after receiving the AstraZeneca vaccine in June last year. An inquest heard the design graduate was told there was no Pfizer jab in stock and was given out-of-date information in relation to blood clot risks associated with the vaccine An inquest at Birmingham Coroner's Court heard that a GP informed Mr Hurn the risk of blood clots on the brain for his age group was one in 250,000, when the latest NHS guidance estimated it to be one in 50,000 The inquest heard the automotive design graduate chose to go ahead with the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine on May 29 2021, after being told there was no Pfizer jab in stock. Mr Hurn, originally from Devon, began suffering with headaches within days and died on 11 June last year at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital despite emergency surgery. Doctors allegedly described him as having 'catastrophic' blood clots on the brain. The automotive design graduate, originally from Devon, began suffering with headaches within days of having the jab and died on 11 June last year at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital despite emergency surgery Mr Hurn had recently moved in with his girlfriend Alex Jones (pictured), who had the same jab at the same time. Ms Jones found out that he was planning to propose in the summer The 26-year-old's family (pictured) are set to take legal action over his death and have raised concerns about the advice given at the clinic and the standard of care received in hospital Risk of blood clots in Covid-19 vaccines Safety concerns over AstraZeneca's jab first emerged in January 2021, and prompted EU nations to shun the British-made vaccine en masse. AstraZeneca's jab is thought to cause blood clots in one in 100,000 people. Johnson & Johnson's single-dose jab which works in a very similar way has also been linked to the same complication. However, regulators have not spotted any consistent trend between Pfizer's mRNA vaccine and blood clots. Its jab linked to a very rare kind of heart inflammation is based on pioneering technology. Several countries in Europe stopped using the Oxford-designed AstraZeneca jab in March 2021 after a series of blood clots, with younger people facing a slightly higher risk. Regulators analysed the data and found benefits vastly outweighed the risk for most. In the absence of doubt, UK health chiefs opted against routinely offering the jab to under-30s on April 7, 2021, who face a vanishingly rare risk of dying from Covid. In a Spanish research study, Pfizer's vaccine was found to be just as likely to trigger blood clots as AstraZeneca's. Since findings first emerged, there has been concern about the vaccine and its side effects, which experts fear has fuelled hesitancy among some groups in the UK and overseas. Advertisement The graduate's family, who live in Devon, stated there was 'confusion' about whether Jack had suffered a stroke while at a hospital in Redditch when he first became unwell and 'could get no clear answers' about his condition. It wasn't until Mr Hurn was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital a consultant informed the family there was numerous bleeds on his brain which were 'catastrophic'. NHS guidance at the time was for patients under 40 to be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca vaccine, although they could decide on 'an informed choice' to receive it. Mr Hurn had recently bought his first home with his partner Alex Jones, who also received the same jab at the same time. Ms Jones found out after his death that he was planning to propose to her that summer. Recording a narrative verdict on Friday, area coroner for Birmingham Emma Brown said: 'It is agreed that Jack was told the risk was one in 250,000. 'There can be no doubt that he took that on board. 'At that time the Joint Committee in Vaccines and Immunisation had advised that it was preferable that adults under 40 without underlying conditions be offered an alternative to the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine. 'But people could make an informed choice to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine for earlier protection. Ms Brown added: 'Jack was not given all of the information to make an informed choice. 'In particular the risk of complications for his age group was understated.' The heartbroken family of Mr Hurn are set to take legal action over his death. They have instructed clinical negligence specialists at Midlands law firm Manby Bowdler after raising concerns about the advice given at the vaccine clinic and the standard of care received in hospital. The department, which presides over the town's school seven-school district, is comprised of four officers, one police chief, and a detective 'With the benefit of hindsight, from where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period,' McCraw said Uvalde's school district police chief is under fire for refusing to let his officers engage the active shooter at Robb Elementary School, after the gunman barricaded himself in a classroom as kids cowered inside and called 911. During a bombshell presser Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety head Steven McCraw slammed Chief Pete Arredondo for failing to engage 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, mistakenly believing the teen had finished his killing spree and was hiding out from cops. 'With the benefit of hindsight, from where I'm sitting now, of course it was not the right decision. It was the wrong decision, period,' McCraw said. The assertion from the state safety official comes as the the school district's police force continues to face scrutiny for their handling of the shooting. McCraw revealed that 911 calls had been made by students while locked in the classroom with Ramos, as Arredondo and his men waited outside the room for more than an hour. Eventually, Border Patrol agents who rushed to the scene after hearing the incident unfold on scanners, breached the locked classroom door, with one fatally shooting Ramos. Uvalde's school district police chief Pete Arredondo is under fire for refusing to let his officers engage the active shooter at Robb Elementary, after the gunman barricaded himself in a classroom and continued to fire at cowering kids as they called 911 Video footage from the scene shows angry parents pleading with officers parked outside the school to enter the building, as they wondered as to the fate of their children According to a law enforcement official who anonymously spoke to The New York Times, the agents had been puzzled as to why they were being told not to enter the school and engage the gunman. McCraw asserted that Arredondo, identifying the district chief by title and not by name, made a miscalculation assuming the active shooter situation had become a barricade event. Arredondo, 50, become the focus of backlash from parents wondering if their children could have been saved. Arredondo, who was born in Uvalde and was elected to city council just days before the massacre, has had an unremarkable career as a cop. He started his law enforcement career as a 911 dispatcher for Uvalde's town police department in 1993, and over the course of the next 20 years, worked his way up to eventually assume the role of assistant police chief at the department in 2010. Video shows Texas cops holding down a parent outside Robb Elementary School on Tuesday while a shooting unfolded inside. It took police an hour to get inside the building and bring down the shooter, due to Arredondo's orders Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief Pete Arredondo was in charge and mistakenly thought there were no other kids alive in the room once the shooter had barricaded himself inside Afterwards, he worked various roles at Webb County Sheriffs Office in Laredo - a small Texas town a little more than 100 miles from Uvalde. He then moved to the city's school district police force, United ISD, which is comprised of 88 sworn peace officers. In March, during the early days of the pandemic, Arredondo got the chance to return home, when he was offered the position of school district police chief in his native Uvalde. 'Its nice to come back home,' Arredondo, who has family in the small, rural town, told the Uvalde Leader News upon accepting the gig. The department, which only presides over the town's school seven-school district, is comprised of four officers, one police chief, and a detective. 'All four of us are on a group text,' Arredondo said at the time, adding 'they are very knowledgeable, and I encourage them to give ideas.' He went on to assert: 'Of course, my title is important, but having a good group is also important,' Arredondo said, adding, somewhat prophetically, 'If not, you can surely fail.' During Friday's presser, state director McCraw corrected information released by Arredondo's department Thursday that the gunman entered the building unimpeded, contradicting prior assertions that one of their officers exchanged fire with Ramos before the gunman entered the building. Law enforcement are seen at the scene of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday Arredondo, who was born in Uvalde and was elected to city council just days before the massacre, has had an unremarkable career as a cop, starting out as a 911 dispatcher in the town's police force in 1993 before accepting the school police chief gig in March 2020 In fact, police now say that the officer had actually passed by Ramos while rushing to the scene, as the gunman crouched behind a vehicle outside of the building. Arredondo was not at Friday's press conference to answer questions and it remains unconfirmed if he was even inside the school at the time of the shooting. In this aerial view, law enforcement works on scene at Robb Elementary School where 21 people were killed Meanwhile, Uvalde police are also facing growing criticism over first-hand accounts and videos showing them handcuffing and restraining frantic parents, who were urging them to storm the Robb Elementary school building amid the massacre. 'The police were doing nothing,' Angeli Rose Gomez told the Wall Street Journal. 'They were just standing outside the fence. They weren't going in there or running anywhere.' Gomez has two children in second and third grade and she reportedly drove 40 miles to the school after hearing of the attack. She was one of the desperate parents who encouraged police with increasing urgency to enter the school. Eventually, federal marshals put Gomez in handcuffs and told her she was under arrest for intervening in an active investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Angeli Gomez (above) jumped the school fence and ran inside the school where she rescued her children herself Gomez said she was able to convince a Uvalde officer whom she knew to have the marshal free her and she took the opportunity to move away from the crowd, jump the school fence, and ran inside the school where she rescued her children herself. She said that other parents also trying to get to their kids were tackled and even pepper-sprayed by police. Angel Garza, whose daughter was killed, was handcuffed after trying to run into the school when he heard that a 'girl called Amerie' had been shot. Garza later told his heartbreaking story to Anderson Cooper. He explained that when he arrived on the scene he tried to help a young girl covered in blood, because he is a trained medic. The girl explained she wasn't hurt and the blood was from her best friend 'Amerie.' It was then that Angel realized the blood he was looking at came from his own daughter. He later found out that she was among those who died. Vandegrift is being held without bond at Habersham County jail The father attempted to flee in a white Camaro but was detained for questioning, cops said Vandegrift's daughter told investigators her father battered her male friend before shooting at him and struck her Vandegrift's daughter told investigators her father battered her male friend before shooting at him and struck her Vandegrift, 36, admitted to police that he tracked his daughter's whereabouts to a church parking lot to 'check on her ' Vandegrift, 36, admitted to police that he tracked his daughter's whereabouts to a church parking lot to 'check on her ' Enraged dad, Dustin Vandegrift faces multiple charges including aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony A 36-year-old Georgia man has been charged with multiple felonies, including aggravated assault after he allegedly shot at a 17-year-old boy that he found with his daughter after tracking her location via her cell phone to a church parking lot. On Wednesday, deputies from the Habersham County Sheriff's Department responded to a call of shots fired in the parking lot of Central Alliance Church around 10:15 a.m. The church is located across the street from two schools in Mount Airy. Habersham Central High School district and the Ninth Grade Academy were immediately put on lockdown. School officials and police were on high alert after the deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas just one day prior that claimed the lives of 21 people, including 19 children and two adults. Once police ensured both schools were secure they located a 17-year-old male, who was transported to Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville with non-life-threatening injuries. Police later revealed that the male victim was not hit by a bullet, but suffered injuries from a physical assault and ricochet debris. When police arrived, Dustin Vandegrift, the teenage girl's father was attempting to flee in his white Camaro, but he was detained for questioning, authorities said. A search warrant executed on Vandegrift's car revealed a .45-caliber pistol that he had fired, according to the police investigation. Dustin Vandegrift, has been charged with aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony, simple battery involving family violence, two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, two counts of third-degree cruelty to children, and two counts of recklessly causing harm or endangering safety Police arrive at the Central Alliance Church parking lot in the area of Mount Airy, a town in Habersham County, Georgia A 911 call from a local business alerted police to the church parking lot after hearing reports of a gun shot behind the church and saw a young male and female fighting. The police immediately put the schools on lockdown since the church is located across the street from a private academy and and a high school Vandegrift was later charged with aggravated assault and possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony. He was also charged with simple battery involving family violence, two counts of first-degree cruelty to children, two counts of third-degree cruelty to children, and two counts of recklessly causing harm or endangering safety. Vandegrift's daughter told investigators that her father appeared behind the church and battered her male friend before shooting at him. She also said told police that her father struck her. Vandegrift admitted to police that he tracked his daughter's whereabouts to the church parking lot to 'check on her.' He told authorities that he confronted both teens and physically attacked the boy and fired a shot. Vandegrift is currently being held without bond at Habersham County Detention Center. When police arrived, Dustin Vandegrift, the teenage girl's father was attempting to flee in his white Camaro, but he was detained for questioning, authorities said On Wednesday, deputies from the Habersham County Sheriff's Department responded to a call of shots fired in a the Central Alliance Church parking in Mount Airy. At that point, law enforcement officials were unaware it was not a school shooting The Biden administration is bringing in enough baby formula from Australia to fill 27.5 million full-size, 8-ounce bottles, the Food and Drug Administration announced on Friday. 'Bubs Australia plans to provide at least 1.25 million cans of several varieties of its infant formula,' the agency said. Some of the product is already in stock and more is being manufactured, the FDA said. President Joe Biden also shared the news, which comes as his administration battles criticism it didn't do enough to head off the formula shortage that came about afteer Abbott Laboratories' manufacturing plant in Michigan recalled some of its products in February. 'Ive got more good news: 27.5 million bottles of safe infant formula manufactured by Bubs Australia are coming to the United States. Were doing everything in our power to get more formula on shelves as soon as possible,' Biden tweeted. 'Ive got more good news: 27.5 million bottles of safe infant formula manufactured by Bubs Australia are coming to the United States. Were doing everything in our power to get more formula on shelves as soon as possible,' President Joe Biden tweeted The Biden administration is bringing in enough baby formula from Bubs Australia to fill 27.5 million full-size, 8-ounce bottles The FDA didn't have details on when the Australia formula would be flown into the US but White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Thursday more flights were in the works. 'Youll expect more flights. I just dont have anything to announce at this time,' she said at her press briefing. She also said President Biden has faith in the FDA to fix the shortage. 'So the FDA has an important mission, right? Its to make sure that the infant formula on the shelf isnt just available but also that its safe,' she said. 'The President believes that FDA, and particularly its food division, needs to be well resourced to do its critical work and do regular annual inspection.' Two shipments of formula have come in from Europe under Biden's 'Operation Fly Formula.' Jill Biden and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy greeted the second overseas shipment on Wednesday with the first lady vowing the administration won't stop working until parents have all the food they need for their infants. 'I'm here today to say to parents, you aren't alone at the highest levels of Joe's administration. He and his team understand what you're going through and they are finding solutions. And they won't stop until all parents can get the formula all their children need,' she said. Biden and Murthy were at Dulles International Airport, just outside of Washington D.C., to see the 100,00 pounds of baby forumla being unloaded, equivalent to 1 million 8-ounce bottles. From Dulles, the formula will be transported to a Nestle facility in Pennsylvania via cargo trucks. The infant formula was flown in under the administration's Operation Fly Formula, which is bringing in baby food to cover the shortage in the United States. The two shipments brought in total 1.5 million, 8-ounce bottles of infant formula to the United States. Jill Biden and Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy greeted the second overseas shipment of baby formula into the US Jill Biden vowed her husband's administration 'won't stop until all parents can get the formula all their children need' Shipment arriving at Dulles International Airport contained 100,00 pounds of baby forumla - equivalent to 1 million 8-ounce bottles 'I want every parent who is concerned about the formula supply chain challenge to know something for a lot of people across the administration including myself. This is a deeply personal issue. I have two small kids at home,' Murthy said. 'And it was just a few years ago that my own son was on infant formula. I know firsthand just how important it is to parents that they have confidence in their ability to safely and securely feed their child and I know how frustrating and scary it can be when that security is out of reach. That is why we will not rest until every parent has the formula they need for their child,' he added. Biden also thanked the pilots who flew the shipment and the cargo workers at Dulles who unloaded it. She posed for photos with the group. The shipment from Ramstein Air Force base in Germany contains 114 pallets of Gerber Good Start Extensive HA infant formula. This is the remainder of the 1.5 million bottles of three formulas - Alfamino Infant, Alfamino Junior, and Gerber Good Start Extensive HA - the administration was bringing in this week from Europe. They are speciality hypoallergenic formulas for children with cow's milk protein allergy. These formulas have been prioritized because they serve a critical medical purpose and are in short supply in the United States because of the Abbott Sturgis plant closure, the White House said. Wednesday's shipment was the second round of formula brought in under the administration's 'Operation Fly Formula' initiative. Over the weekend roughly 78,000 pounds of baby formula was flown into Indianapolis, Indiana from Ramstein Air Base in Germany in the first installment. The president also invoked the Defense Production Act forcing suppliers to prioritize directing resources to infant formula production above all other contracts. On Friday, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra used the DPA for a third time to ensure Cargill Inc. can deliver the raw materials to maximize production of infant formula, HHS announced. The department previously used it to help Abbott Nutrition and Mead Johnson/Reckitt to obtain raw materials needed to further accelerate production of infant formula. The crisis began when Abbott Nutrition, the nation's biggest manufacturer of infant formula, had to close its Michigan plant over bacterial contamination. The Federal Trade Commission announced Tuesday that it has launched an inquiry into the formula shortage. The agency said it also aims to shed light on what led to the concentration in the baby formula market and the weak supply chains. Abbott officials said Tuesday they expect to restart the plant on June 4 and begin shipping new formula to stores about three weeks later. Additionally, lawmakers are holding three hearings on the issue this week, calling on company executives, government regulators and outside experts to testify on the shortage. Nearly 98% of baby formula is manufactured domestically. Four companies account for roughly 90% of the market: Abbott, Reckitt, Nestle and Perrigo. The Queen was joined by members of the Royal Family on the Buckingham Palace balcony today in front of tens of thousands of cheering Britons as the Platinum Jubilee celebrations marking her 70-year reign got underway. The 96-year-old monarch, who wore her Guards brooch and the blue Angela Kelly outfit used in her official Platinum Jubilee portrait, exclaimed 'incredible!' when she took the salute after arriving from Windsor Castle. The Queen then returned to the balcony around half an hour later to watch the RAF flypast featuring the Red Arrows along with senior royals including Prince Charles , Camilla, Prince William and Kate and their children. While Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis all appeared, there was no place on the Palace balcony for Prince Harry, Meghan Markle or Prince Andrew given that none of them are no longer working royals. Meghan did however join in the celebrations when she was seen putting her finger to her lips next to Mia Tindall and Savannah Phillips from a balcony at Horse Guards Parade in an apparent attempt to quieten the children. She was also seen speaking with Harry and the Duke of Kent, who joined the Queen for her first trip to the balcony. A human trafficking gang who made 500,000 exploiting 300 Polish women across seven London brothels have been jailed for a total of 20 years. Husband and wife team Sebastian Zimoch, 48, and Anna Zimoch, 46, along with Gregaor Borowka, 44, Michael Lozinski, 52, and Rafal Lacki, 41, were convicted at Isleworth Crown Court in March of this year of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate human trafficking and conspiracy to control prostitution for gain between 1 January 2015 and February 9 of last year. The trafficking gang was run by Sebastian Zimoch, with his wife running it during a period when he was absent. The husband began the escort business, known as Golden Kiss, in 2015. It became one of the largest in London and the south east. Lozinski alone was also convicted of a second count of controlling prostitution for gain between 1 January 2017 and February 9 of last year, in relation to a massage parlour business called Massage Bunnies. One teenage girl, called Bella, who was 18 at the time of her abuse, told the court of how she was starved for two days once. She asked to eat food from the Zimochs' full fridge, but was told: 'You dont deserve to eat.' A human trafficking gang who made 500,000 exploiting 300 Polish women across seven London brothels have been jailed for a total of 20 years at Isleworth Crown Court. Sebastian Zimoch, 48, pictured, was jailed for eight years for his part in running the gang Husband and wife team Sebastian Zimoch, 48, and Anna Zimoch, 46 (pictured), along with Gregaor Borowka, 44, Michael Lozinski, 52, and Rafal Lacki, 41, were convicted at Isleworth Crown Court in March of this year of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate human trafficking and conspiracy to control prostitution for gain between 1 January 2015 and February 9 of last year The Polish victim was sent to the UK after being promised work following the death of her mother in Poland. She was picked up by two men in Gravesend, Kent, to be taken to one of the brothels the gang controlled. The court heard that the gang ran seven brothels, with two in Paddington and Dudding Hill which were run directly by the Zimochs, and White City, which was run by Lozinski. Brothels in Harrow, Hayes, Forest Gate, Docklands and Harlow, were run by the three of them at different times. Over the course of several months, the teenage victim was 'forced to have sex all day and night like a machine'. The court heard how Arabic clients in the West End of London would pay up to 3,000-a-night for her services, but she was only left with 200. Bella told reporters: 'When I arrived at the house, they said, "She's young, she's blonde, they're going to like her",' the Evening Standard reported. 'I asked, "Sorry, what am I here to do?", they replied, "Are you stupid or blind, bitch?" 'Within five minutes the first man came. He was 16-years-old and I will remember that for the rest of my life. That first day I had 10 or 12 guys. The court heard that the gang ran seven brothels, with two in Paddington and Dudding Hill which were run directly by the Zimochs, and White City, which was run by Lozinski (pictured right). Brothels in Harrow, Hayes, Forest Gate, Docklands and Harlow, were run by the three of them at different times. Pictured left, Rafal Lacki, 41, who was jailed for 18 months 'The times when it was five or six clients, they would say, "That's too small". The 18-year-old was also given cocaine to stop her from sleeping. She overdosed on two occasions. One of the enforcers spat in her face once when she refused to sleep with a man she described as 'dirty' and 'too old'. 'I never in my life thought this would happen to me. It was a shock - someone just took my freedom. I was scared for my life,' she said. She managed to escape and tell police of her ordeal in April 2020. The gang were convicted at Isleworth Crown Court in March of this year of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate human trafficking and conspiracy to control prostitution for gain between January 1 2015 and February 9 of last year. Lozinski alone was also convicted of a second count of controlling prostitution for gain between January 1 2017 and February 9 of last year, in relation to a massage parlour business called Massage Bunnies. Gareth Munday, prosecuting, told the court that the women had no autonomy while inside the brothels. 'While the girls were in the brothels they had no choice over what they wanted to do. 'Men were being brought to them and they had to get on with it. 'They had absolutely no autonomy.' Mr Munday said that 232,000 in unexplained earnings had been found in a bank account belonging to Mr Zimoch. Lacki and Borowka were two of the main drivers for the business, ferrying girls to outcalls around London. Borowka also doubled as a receptionist. The prosecutor told the court that women were exposed to the risk of serious physical and psychological harm on these outcalls. 'The women were all exposed to risk of serious psychological and physical harm. 'They were left at the mercy of men who could have done anything to these women.' The court heard from the victim impact statement of one 19-year-old woman who reported the gang to the police. Mr Munday paused to wipe away tears as he read the statement to the court. In the statement, the woman told of the emotional toll of what had been done to her. Lacki and Gregaor Borowka, 44, pictured, were two of the main drivers for the business, ferrying girls to outcalls around London. Borowka also doubled as a receptionist. He was jailed for three years and nine months 'I have been spat at in the face by a client, made to feel stupid, and like I did not matter.' She said that she cries when she remembers what has happened to her. 'I cry when I think about everything that has been done to me,' she said. The woman added that she now struggles to trust men. 'When someone is being nice to me, especially men, I always think why are they being nice?' In her sentencing remarks, Judge Fiona Barrie paid tribute to the 19-year-old victim. 'She has shown herself to be a very brave young woman,' she said. She said the 19-year-old was in tears when she was picked up by Lozinski after fleeing from an abusive pimp. 'It should have been to obvious to anyone that she was extremely vulnerable,' she said. The gang were convicted at Isleworth Crown Court (pictured) in March of this year of conspiracy to arrange or facilitate human trafficking and conspiracy to control prostitution for gain between January 1 2015 and February 9 of last year 'To the contrary she was put to work straight away, sent out to outcalls for the remainder of the night.' Sebastian Zimoch of Carlton Road, Romford, was jailed for eight years. Lozinski, of Berwick Avenue, Hayes, was jailed for seven years. Borowka, of Yeading Avenue, Harrow, was jailed for three years and nine months. Lacki, 41, of Felmongers, Harlow was jailed for 18 months - however he was released on licence as he had already served nine months by the time of the sentencing. Anna Zimoch, of Carlton Road, Romford was given a two-year jail sentence suspended for two years, and was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work. Acting Detective Inspector Esther Richardson, from central specialist crime, said: 'I am pleased we have been able to uncover the true scale of this illegal operation. 'My team worked tirelessly to identify and safeguard hundreds of other women across London who were being exploited by this organised criminal group.' Marisa Randazzo, Ph.D. is the former chief research psychologist for the U.S. Secret Service and Executive Director of Threat Management for Ontic After school shootings, I'm often asked 'what is the profile of school shooter?' It's human nature to want to understand why bad things happen in large part so we can figure out how to avoid them in the future. With over 20 years of experience studying school shootings, interviewing shooters in prison, and managing thousands of active threat cases, here's what I can tell you about school shooters in the U.S. Author Marisa Randazzo, Ph.D. is the former chief research psychologist for the U.S. Secret Service There was no accurate or useful profile of a school shooter meaning no common demographic or external characteristics that described all or most of the school shooters. This information comes from research conducted primarily by the U.S. Secret Service and FBI. However, the behavior of school shooters is very similar and it suggests that many of these killers can be stopped before they decide to attack. Here's how: First, most school shooters planned their attacks in advance - sometimes for weeks, months, or even years before actually carrying out the shooting. Their behavior followed a similar progression: (i) they came up with an idea to do harm, (ii) they planned it out in more detail (sometimes researching previous school shootings for guidance or inspiration), (iii) they prepared for the attack, meaning they got the weapon(s) and other gear they intended to use to do harm, and (iv) they carried out the shooting. In the field of behavioral threat assessment, we refer to this behavioral progression as the 'pathway to violence.' There are indications that Salvador Ramos, the killer behind the Uvalde shooting, fit this behavior progression. It's human nature to want to understand why bad things happen in large part so we can figure out how to avoid them in the future. (Above) A man mourns at a makeshift memorial outside the Uvalde County Courthouse on May 27, 2022 The killer's co-workers at the Wendy's where he worked indicated that he informed them that he was saving money to buy weapons. 'He told us he was saving up money for guns and ammo. We would ask him, "Why would you spend your money on that, spend it on a car or something useful," said co-worker Grace Cruz. 'I guess once he got enough money, he quit and stopped showing up.' Because these shootings are planned in advance, rather than impulsive, we stand a chance at discovering that someone is on that 'pathway to violence' and getting them off of it before they can do harm. I suspect more evidence of Ramos' advance planning will arise. If the attack was impulsive, it would be an extremely rare example of this type of attack. We can get potential killers onto a better path by connecting them to medical or psychiatric help, as well as resources to help them solve the underlying problems that got them on a 'pathway to violence' in the first place. When my colleagues and I spoke with school shooters in prison, they told us they felt ambivalent about their attacks before they carried them out; not indifferent, but ambivalent that a part of them wanted to or felt they had to do it, but a part of them didn't want to do it. When working an active threat case, I encourage people to think about that ambivalence that part of the person whom they are assessing that likely doesn't want to do violence. Most school shooters planned their attacks in advance - sometimes for weeks, months, or even years before actually carrying out the shooting. (Above) Texas Department of Public Safety's Steven C. McCraw speaks at a news conference on May 27, 2022 showing a crime scene outline of the path of the gunman I encourage them to find a way to use that to change that person's dangerous trajectory. Second, we know that most school shooters were despondent or even suicidal when they carried out their shootings. Some were facing problems (such as being bullied) that they felt they couldn't solve, or experienced losses that felt overwhelming, and didn't see any way out of their own pain or desperation. In the case of Ramos, there are multiple reports that he experienced bullying from his peers. Of course, there is no excuse for taking innocent lives and this analysis in no way justifies the violent feelings of these individuals. It is important to note signs of depression, desperation, and suicidality in boys and young men, whom often have active symptoms like rage, quick tempers, aggression, and even attraction to the feelings of hate. Now to be clear, most people who are suicidal are not a risk to others. But when we are investigating a threat made by someone who seems filled with rage, it may actually be a symptom of clinical depression a condition that is quite treatable with counseling and/or medication. Third, most school shooters told other people about their violent plans BEFORE they engaged in any harm. It is still unclear whether Ramos told anyone about this plans in any timeframe that would have allowed for intervention. But we do know that he was in direct communication with someone on Facebook before and after shooting his grandmother and minutes before he attacked the school. Shooters typically told fellow students or other peers, whether directly, in written assignments, and/or on social media posts and videos. It will be extremely rare if more evidence of Ramos' advance communications don't emerge. When my colleagues and I interviewed school shooters in prison, they said they had told other people about their violent plans because they were hoping someone would stop them. So how can we put all this information into action to help prevent school shootings? Behavioral threat assessment is the best available tool to prevent school shootings. While a lot of schools, universities, and workplaces already have trained behavioral threat assessment teams in place, there are some critical missing pieces that we should start to add immediately: Nuri Perez, 6, who lost one of her friends in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, pets Exon, a crisis response canine, in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. May 26, 2022 1. Provide training for all local law enforcement and state-level law enforcement on how to conduct a threat assessment investigation. While federal law enforcement agents often get this training, local and state law enforcement usually do not. Most people report threats to their local police, so we need to ensure that local law enforcement knows what to do. 2. Enlist the help of students in school safety. We must find ways to let students know they are likely to hear about violent plans first and therefore are critical to keeping schools safe. 3. Require a depression screening at every doctor's visit for children, teens, and adults. Identifying undiagnosed depression earlier can help reduce the incidence of suicide, mass shootings, and other problems like substance abuse. These efforts can't bring back the lives lost and forever changed by these horrific events. But combined with continued efforts to train and use threat assessment teams in schools, colleges, workplaces, and communities, these three strategies can help us start to make our schools and our children safer. The mellifluous voiceover on the short video guide to the recent history of Ukraine has all the hallmarks of the professional: a mastery of cadence, pauses in all the right places and, of course, flashes of passion where appropriate. But, as the seconds tick by, its narrative becomes more and more extreme until it borders on the deranged. Parallels are drawn between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the operation to overthrow Nazi rule during World War II. It is suggested that the Russian-speaking population is being subjected to mass genocide, and that 'concentration camps' have been set up where women and children have 'died a painful death'. There's also talk of a network of U.S. 'bio-laboratories' producing 'deadly viruses'. When the Mail tracked him down this week to the Moscow home where he lives with his Russian wife Marina, 65, it was to find him in bullish and unrepentant mood not to mention all-too happy to expand on his opinions Of course, there is no shortage of this sort of material being foisted on Russia's population of 144 million it's just not often narrated by a genial Englishman. But the three-minute clip released by Putin's foreign ministry on Monday features a voiceover by a 78-year-old Briton called Bruce Grant, who has been based in Moscow since 1994. Speaking in English, he parrots the Kremlin line on Russia's 'special military operation' that has become wearily familiar to everyone in the West. Perhaps inevitably, his performance has led to this translator, interpreter and bit-part actor being compared with William Joyce, the American-Irish fascist known as Lord Haw-Haw, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain from Germany during World War II, a betrayal for which he was later hanged. Not that Grant sees it that way. Indeed, when the Mail tracked him down this week to the Moscow home where he lives with his Russian wife Marina, 65, it was to find him in bullish and unrepentant mood not to mention all-too happy to expand on his opinions. President Zelensky of Ukraine? 'A drug addict and an imbecile.' Boris Johnson? 'Stupid.' As for Joe Biden, he's nothing short of a 'criminal'. Grant is equally forthright on the West in general. 'I don't give a damn what a lot of Western opinions are because most of the people there are rather stupid in their thinking and very ignorant of what is going on,' he says. 'The words used about what the video says are that it is all conspiracy theory, which is absolute bunkum. President Zelensky of Ukraine? 'A drug addict and an imbecile.' Boris Johnson? 'Stupid.' As for Joe Biden, he's nothing short of a 'criminal' 'The facts are that all the evidence that is being provided in this video is historically accurate, be it Nazism in Ukraine, and other atrocities which have been committed by the Ukraine government's army 'tools' the word I like to use to refer to his army.' This is not the first time Grant has taken the Kremlin's shilling. In 2017, he provided the voiceover for a YouTube project called the 'MH17 Inquiry', which questioned claims that Russian forces shot down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine as it flew from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur in July 2014, killing 283 passengers and 15 crew. 'So much speculation from the UK, from the U.S. and other countries,' Grant said of his involvement at the time. 'It seemed to me that I could do something good. So I began to voice this programme. I am not afraid of the U.S. government, the CIA, the FBI, MI6, MI5 or other organisations that are responsible for security.' Five years on, his scepticism of the West is as keen as ever. 'Biden's son Hunter was ostensibly trying to get shale oil [when he did business in Ukraine] but was in fact after the diamond deposits that exist under the Donbas sand,' he says. Putin could not have put it better himself. Indeed, 28 years after he first arrived in Mother Russia, it appears the country has completely captured Grant's affections and loyalties. Grant certainly takes a view of the current conflict that we have heard many times since the war in Ukraine began on February 24. He admits he was initially against military action when the invasion began but, having 'learned a hell of a lot' in the months since, has changed his position entirely. He's now signed up to the narrative that Putin has entered Ukraine to 'neutralise the Ukrainian army and prevent civil war and the murder of civilians'. But that hasn't happened, has it? 'To a very great extent it has,' Grant says. Even if you believe this, I suggest, it is at the expense of a catastrophic loss of innocent civilian life. Perhaps inevitably, his performance has led to this translator, interpreter and bit-part actor being compared with William Joyce, the American-Irish fascist known as Lord Haw-Haw, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain from Germany during World War II, a betrayal for which he was later hanged 'The Russian soldiers have been falsely accused of shooting civilians but when one looks at the reality that isn't the case,' Grant replies. 'There have been a couple of occasions when a multi-headed rocket has killed a few, maybe ten or 15 people.' What about the carnage in Mariupol, a city reduced to rubble under Putin's merciless shelling? 'It deserves it because the Ukrainian president is an imbecile he's a drug addict without any scruples whatsoever,' Grant insists. This view, as provocative as it is robust, extends to other global leaders, among them Boris Johnson, who Grant believes is 'stupid', along with much of Britain. 'You only have one side of the story,' he says. 'No authority has bothered to listen to anyone else, and that includes Boris, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Joe Biden, who is a criminal and an out-and-out maniac.' One could never accuse Grant of lacking the courage of his convictions, although he insists that he is simply an impartial 'gun for hire' when it comes to his voiceovers. 'Work is work,' he says. 'On this occasion with the latest video I happened to agree with the content, but that's coincidence. 'My voice was used for the Russian commercial for their Covid vaccination and I don't agree with that. In fact I think anyone who had the vaccination is stupid because the vaccination promotes the virus.' This is the sort of talk that starts fights around the dining room table, and Grant admits it has recently led his younger brother, whom he declines to name but who is still resident in the UK, to cut off all contact. 'He just refused to speak to me again until I accept what he has to say, but it's difficult to change one's opinion when that would be changing it to fantasy,' he says. Nor are his feelings shared by his daughters, Kristian and Stephanie, by his first wife. The former lives in Canada and the latter in the U.S. And while they remain close, Grant acknowledges that he doesn't talk politics or religion with them in order to preserve their relationship. 'It's safer for everyone's sanity that way,' he says. 'I don't try and change their views. They believe what they believe.' Kristian told the Mail last night: 'I speak for both my sister Stephanie and myself, that we do not agree with my dad's opinion of the Russians and what they are doing. We both believe that what is happening is wrong and Russia should be held responsible and is not innocent.' As do so many of us. Many might believe that making videos like the one Grant narrated this week makes him little more than another mouthpiece for Putin. What does he make of that? 'People can say whatever they like,' he says. 'I don't give a damn.' This is fighting talk of a quite different variety from the kind that Grant grew up with as the son of Flight Lieutenant Douglas Ross, an RAF veteran who served in Egypt during World War II repairing military aircraft. Grant is proud of him, detailing his father's ingenuity and derring-do in a promotional video for War Thunder, a computer game for which he provides the voiceover. 'My dad was the fairest man I had ever known, as he always looked at two sides of the argument,' he says now. The same cannot be said of his son. Indeed, Grant's life is littered with run-ins with authority. After graduating from Aberdeen University with a degree in agriculture, he embarked on what can only be described as a colourful career that has ranged from professional harmonica playing to selling caravans. He started out in 1966 as a chauffeur for the Iranian Embassy in London, where his duties included ferrying around the Shah of Iran and his wife during their visits to London. But he fell foul of another of his passengers, the then British ambassador to Iran, who fired him. 'He was a short, stupid little self-righteous man who looked down on almost all forms of life,' says Grant. 'The reason he fired me was because I refused to call him Your Excellency I called him Sir.' Grant quickly found new employment working as a chauffeur for the chairman of a British holiday company, before making a move into Britain's budding computing industry. He married in 1970 and a year later irritated by everything from the UK's politics to its people emigrated to Canada. The family settled first in Ontario and then the province of Nova Scotia in 1980. Along the way, Grant tried his hand at everything from flogging English caravans to establishing an advertising agency. His next move, he says, was made at the personal request of Steve Jobs, who asked him to join the Canadian arm of the then burgeoning Apple computers. By 1994 even this badge of honour, along with Canada's big skies and ample natural beauty, could not compensate for his growing disillusionment with his newly adopted country. 'I got fed up with the lack of honesty, lack of discipline, the lack of honour and care,' he says. There was another push factor, too, in the form of his first wife. 'I was looking to leave her,' Grant confides. He duly did so and arrived in Moscow in 1994, setting up home within a rather eye-popping ten days with Marina, a retired journalist, whom he married in 1996. Moscow was the backdrop to yet more professional hiccups, including a hair-raising confrontation with a colleague when Grant was made director of technologies at a Moscow hotel. 'I was threatened by the then deputy general director, who pressed a gun to my stomach as he was not happy that an Englishman had the job,' he says. Grant then branched out into more creative work, including small roles in Russian language films and television series. Intriguingly, as well as being cast as a Russian admiral, he has played the director of the CIA and a Nato admiral's assistant. Of one thing we can be sure, with views like his, he would never get past the vetting stage for either role in real life. He was launched on to the property ladder as a student by his parents. Now, aged 38, Euan Blair has not only surpassed his father Sir Tonys multi-million-pound fortune thanks to his own 700million business but has got himself a far grander house too. He has bought and moved into a five-storey west London townhouse costing 22million. It features an iceberg basement with swimming pool. Euan Blair, pictured, has purchased a 22m townhouse in west London which has an iceberg basement The property was converted from two town houses and has seven bedrooms Tony Blair, pictured with his wife Cherie following the wedding of their son Euan to Suzanne Ashman on September 14, 2013 in Wooton Underwood, Buckinghamshire Euan created his business, Multiverse, with a merchant banking friend in 2016, and now is the major owner, with up to half the shares. The company is paid by blue chip firms to recruit and train apprentices in the tech field. Venture capitalist investors last year gave chief executive Euan the go-ahead to sell a portion of his shares which were worth up to 320million in total to buy a home. The grand frontage of his seven-bedroom house, originally two terrace properties but long knocked-together, really is the tip of the iceberg. The two-storey basement has an indoor pool and gym among numerous facilities. A vehicle lift ferries cars to the underground garage. Above, a 50ft-long, double-height reception room on the lower ground floor has a galleried landing leading to the bedrooms. Former PM Sir Tony has an impressive property empire, with his Georgian five-storey townhouse in London believed to be worth around 10million, as is his Grade I-listed manor house in Buckinghamshire. A source close to Euan said last night: Its a joint property with his wife Suzanne and there is a mortgage. People might be surprised he has such a house so young but hes doing a good thing, trying to make apprenticeships grow. Euans mother Cherie famously gave him a leg up on to the property ladder 20 years ago, when she bought a 265,000 flat, plus a second one to rent out, for him to live in while studying ancient history at Bristol University. The former PM and his wife own a magnificent townhouse in London - although it is smaller than their son's The Charles Manson follower known as Big Patty has been recommended for release after more than five decades behind bars. Patricia Krenwinkel, 74, has been denied parole 14 times for the murders of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. She helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the next night, using their blood to scrawl Helter Skelter, Rise and Death to Pigs on the walls. Krenwinkel claimed her actions came after Manson told her to do something witchy. Patricia Krenwinkel, 74, has been denied parole 14 times (pictured in March 2020) The new recommendation by Californias parole board is the closest Krenwinkel has been to release. The decision is likely to go to Governor Gavin Newsom for a final decision. He has previously rejected parole recommendations for other followers of Manson, who died in prison aged 83 in 2017. New laws since Krenwinkel was last denied parole in 2017 required the panel to consider that she committed the murders at a young age 21 and is now an elderly prisoner. She had claimed in 2017 that she was affected by battered womens syndrome when she helped in the bloody slayings by the Manson Family cult. Krenwinkels attorney Keith Wattley said his client was no longer a danger to society. Shes completely transformed, he added. Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary when she first met Manson, then 33, at a party. DPP slammed for seeking "Taiwan independence" by using pandemic Xinhua) 11:34, May 27, 2022 BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Experts from the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have criticized the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities for using misleading language regarding the region's participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA), denouncing its claim of a "gap" in global anti-pandemic efforts as a "groundless political lie." "It is entirely for the political ends of seeking 'independence' that the DPP authorities have deliberately denied and smeared the work of the mainland and the World Health Organization (WHO)," said Li Zhenguang, a Taiwan affairs professor at Beijing Union University. There are no obstacles for Taiwan to obtain pandemic containment information and resources from the WHO, and experts from the island often take part in international seminars on public health and epidemic prevention, Li noted. The Chinese mainland has given Taiwan around 400 updates about the epidemic situation since the start of COVID-19. The General Committee and the Plenary Session of the 75th WHA recently rejected a proposal to invite Taiwan to participate in the WHA as an observer submitted by certain countries. From 2009 to 2016, Taiwan participated in the WHA as an observer in the name of "Chinese Taipei," a special arrangement made through cross-Strait consultations on the basis of the 1992 Consensus that embodies the one-China principle upheld by both sides of the Taiwan Strait. But since the DPP came to power in 2016, it has obstinately adhered to the separatist position of "Taiwan independence" and refused to recognize the 1992 Consensus, Li noted. Chang Li-chi, a lecturer at Huaqiao University from Taiwan, voiced his discontent over the DPP's response measures as the island is now battling a record wave of infections. The DPP has pursued its own political maneuvering while neglecting the life and health of the people, leading to the runaway spread of the virus across Taiwan, Chang added. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) President Biden mistakenly claimed Friday in his commencement address to graduates at the Naval Academy that North Korea side with the U.S. against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine. 'Did anybody think, when I called for sanctions against Russia, in addition to NATO, did Australia, Japan, North Korea, some of the [Association of Southeast Asian Nations] countries would stand up and support those sanctions?' Biden asked the more than 1,200 midshipmen in the class of 2022. Biden charged Russian President Vladimir Putin with trying to wipe out Ukraine's culture. 'Not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, he's really trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people - attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose,' he said. He called it a 'direct assault on a fundamental tenets of rule based international order.' The president used his classic stage whisper to remind the class: 'I'm your commander-in-chief.' President Biden mistakenly claimed Friday in his commencement address to graduates at the Naval Academy that North Korea side with the U.S. against Russia after its invasion of Ukraine Biden addressed more than 1,200 midshipmen in their graduation ceremony Naval Academy graduates throw their hats in the air at the conclusion of the ceremony North Korea was one of the four countries to vote against a United Nations resolution condemning Russia' invasion of Ukraine, along with Belarus, Eritrea and Syria. Cuba, Nicaragua and China abstained from the vote. A North Korea spokesperson blamed the U.S. for Russia's invasion of Ukraine shortly after it began. 'The root cause of the Ukraine crisis totally lies in the hegemonic policy of the U.S. and the West, which enforce themselves in high-handedness and abuse of power against other countries,' the spokesperson said. On Thursday Russia and China used their permanent veto power to block further UN sanctions on North Korea over nuclear proliferation, North Korea has so far refused to engage with the Biden White House in denuclearization talks. Biden told reporters last week in a trip to South Korea and Japan. North Korea, led by Kim Jong Un (above) was one of the four countries to vote against a United Nations resolution condemning Russia' invasion of Ukraine, along with Belarus, Eritrea and Syria. Cuba, Nicaragua and China abstained from the vote A local civilian walks amid a destroyed building in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People's Republic, eastern Ukraine, Friday, May 27 At least four people were killed and seven injured during Russian shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine on May 26 'We are prepared for anything North Korea does,' Biden told reporters. 'I'm not concerned if that's what you're asking,' he said to a question about North Korea. The president also claimed that the U.S. had offered Covid-19 vaccines to North Korea, which purports to be facing its first outbreak of the virus, and gotten no response. North Korea fired three ballistic missiles off the Sea of Japan early Wednesday in the hours following Biden's departure from Asia. U.S. Indo-Pacific confirmed the launches, along with South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and Japan's defense minister. 'While this event does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies, the missile launches highlights the destabilizing impact of the DPRK's illicit weapons program,' a statement from U.S. Indo-Pacific said. 'The U.S. commitment to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remains ironclad.' McCarthy has long made it known he did not plan to comply with the committee GOP Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy announced through his lawyer that he will not be complying with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, citing 'procedural deficiencies.' Attorney Elliot Berke wrote in a letter Friday that the committee had failed to establish its legitimate legislative purpose and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had failed to seat McCarthy's picks on the committee. Pelosi rejected some of the minority leader's picks, citing their 2020 election fraud claims or, in the case of Rep. Jim Jordan, his proximity to the investigation. McCarthy pulled all of his nominees in protest, and Pelosi later appointed GOP Reps. Liz Cheney, Wyo., and Adam Kinzinger, Ill. 'The words and actions of the Select Committee and its members have made it clear that it is not exercising a valid or lawful use of Congress' subpoena power,' Berke wrote in a letter to chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss. 'Its only objective appears to be to attempt to score political points or damage its political opponents acting like the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee one day and the Department of Justice the next,' the letter read. The move comes as no surprise, as McCarthy has already said he would not comply if subpoenaed. This week he penned an op-ed with Jordan in the Wall Street Journal accusing the committee of 's trampling on fundamental Constitutional rights.' 'While Americans are struggling to put gas in the tank and food on the table, Democrats are busy weaponizing government to attack Republicans,' Jordan and McCarthy wrote. 'By subpoenaing us and three other Republican members, the Select Committee is escalating its abusive tactics. This attempt to coerce information from members of Congress about their official duties is a dangerous abuse of power, serves no legitimate legislative purpose, and eviscerates constitutional norms,' the lawmakers wrote. 'For House Republican leaders to agree to participate in this political stunt would change the House forever. Every representative in the minority would be subject to compelled interrogations by the majority, under oath, without any foundation of fairness, and at the expense of taxpayers.' Earlier this month the committee summoned McCarthy along with GOP Reps. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Mo Brooks of Alabama. McCarthy's attorney requested from the committee 'a list of subject and topics the Select Committee would like to discuss with the Leader, and the constitutional and legal rationale justifying the request.' He also asked the committee to say whether it would agree to limited questioning of 'one hour per side and alternating between majority and minority counsel.' The letter did not say whether the GOP leader could change his mind about testifying if such conditions are met. The lawmakers subpoenaed with McCarthy either participated in meetings at the White House, had direct conversations with President Trump leading up to and during the attack, or were involved in the planning and coordination of certain activities on and before January 6th, the committee said in a statement. If any of the lawmakers refuse, the Democratic-controlled House could vote to hold them in contempt of Congress. From there, the Justice Department would decide whether or not to formally pursue charges. 'I have not seen this subpoena. I guess they sent it to you guys before they send it to me,' McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill. 'Look, my view on the committee has not changed. They're not conducting legitimate investigation. That seems as though they just want to go after their political opponents.' He didn't answer questions on whether he would comply with it. Biggs said it was a 'witch hunt.' 'The January 6 Committee's ongoing, baseless witch hunt is nothing more than an effort to distract the American people from the Democrats' and Biden's disastrous leadership,' he tweeted. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy was subpoenaed by the committee investigating January 6th insurrection at Capitol - reporters in the Capitol surround him to ask about the news The panel also has subpoenaed Rep. Jim Jordan (above), a close Trump ally Committee wants to know about lawmakers' conversations with Donald Trump - above then President Trump at the January 6 rally outside the White House All five had been asked previously - and refused - to voluntarily testify before the panel. 'We're forced to take this step,' the Jan. 6 panel said of the subpoenaes. The move was a dramatic escalation in the committee's investigation and follow weeks of internal debate on whether to try to force Republicans to testify behind closed doors. Congressional subpoenas for sitting members of Congress, especially for a party leader, are almost without precedent. They come as the panel is preparing for a series of public hearings this June. Rep. Perry said the subpoenaes were sent for 'headlines.' 'This is all for headlines and sensationalization,' he said. 'The fact that they send it to the press before they send it to the members just proof it's all about headlines.' McCarthy has admitted to speaking with Trump on the day MAGA supporters stormed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of the 2020 election. But he's offered few details of that conversation. Jordan also spoke with Trump. He is a close ally of the former president and was deeply involved in efforts to contest the 2020 election results. Perry has continuously disputed the validity of Biden's victory in Pennsylvania. The panel previously said it wants to discuss Perry's attempted effort to install former Department of Justice official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general when the DOJ resisted Trump's false claims of voter fraud. It also said it believed Perry was communicating with Mark Meadows, who was then the White House chief of staff, via an encrypted app, Signal. In Biggs' case, the committee wants to know about his participation 'in certain planning meetings' with the White House before Jan. 6th. They also want to know about his conversations about having former Vice President Mike Pence 'unilaterally refuse' to accept votes certified states. The committee's interest in Biggs is on the heels of an April 22 court filing in which lawmakers accused him of being an active participant in White House meetings after the 2020 election, where he and other Republicans brainstormed ways to keep Trump in power. Biggs is also accused of encouraging protesters to come to Washington on Jan. 6 as well as persuading state legislators and officials that the election was stolen. The January 6th panel also has subpoenaed Republican Reps. Mo Brooks of Alabama (left), Andy Biggs of Arizona (center) and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania (right) The panel wants to ask Brooks about his recent comments following a spat with Trump after the former president pulled back his endorsement. Brooks said Trump 'asked me to rescind the election of 2020' weeks before leaving office. Brooks spoke at the Jan. 6th rally on the Ellipse, where he famously said: 'Today is the day American patriots start down names and kicking ass.' He also came up on a leaked House leadership call where leaders fretted about lawmakers calling out fellow members of the conference. The committe also has expressed an interest in talking to Republican Rep. Ronnie Jackson of Texas but he was not among those subpoenaed. Jackson served as Trump's personal physician and has been an ardent defender of the former president. Durham Polices lenient treatment of Dominic Cummings for breaking lockdown rules could help Sir Keir Starmer escape a fine from the same force over Beergate, sources say. The senior investigating officer who investigated Boris Johnsons former adviser over lockdown breaches in spring 2020 is also leading the inquiry into Sir Keirs beer and curry night in April last year. The circumstances in which Mr Cummings is said to have broken Covid restrictions are different to the social distancing breaches allegedly committed by Sir Keir. Starmer, dubbed 'Sir Beer Korma' by Boris Johnson, is unlikely to be implicated, sources claim But sources with knowledge of the probe believe it is highly unlikely retrospective action will be taken against Sir Keir recently dubbed Sir Beer Korma by Boris Johnson unless a game-changing smoking gun which implicates him emerges. A row erupted in 2020 after Mr Cummings made a 260-mile trip to Durham with his wife and son at the height of lockdown. The couples trip included a journey to Barnard Castle, which Mr Cummings said was to test his eyesight for the drive back to London. Durham Police did not take action against him, saying Mr Cummings might have committed a minor breach of rules with the Barnard Castle journey. Six officers are working on the Beergate inquiry, which is expected to last a further month and cost in excess of 50,000, the Daily Mail can reveal. Should police conclude the event was a party which breached social distancing rules, the Crown Prosecution Service is expected to be consulted on whether fines should be issued to the likes of Sir Keir and his deputy Angela Rayner, who also attended the Durham Miners Hall function. Dominic Cummings's controversial trip to Barnard Castle in May 2020 caused national outcry A final decision is likely to rest with Durham Police Chief Constable Jo Farrell. There is widespread expectation in the force that Sir Keir will not be fined. An informed source said: Durham is towards the bottom of the Covid fixed penalty notice enforcement league. It was a lot more lenient than many other forces, and adopted a strategy of policing by consent. Although the allegations of lockdown breaches made against Dominic Cummings and Sir Keir Starmer are different in detail, the same force and senior officer are investigating. It would be truly remarkable if action is taken against Sir Keir, after Cummings escaped sanction. An ex-colleague of Mrs Farrell said: You could argue that Cummings is Starmers get out of jail card. Jo is a very solid and cautious chief constable, and she will be very aware of the implications of fining the Labour leader. Knowing her as I do, I cannot see a situation where she would authorise a fine unless there is clear evidence of rule-breaking. Earlier this month the Labour leader, who insists he did no wrong and the Beergate function was a work event, vowed to quit if he is fined. Britain has been gripped by a Platinum Jubilee frenzy with spending predicted to reach 3billion over the extended bank holiday weekend. Gloom at the cost of living crisis is being pushed aside with millions keen to relax, have fun and participate in special events as the four-day break brings back the 'feel good factor'. The retail sector, pubs and hospitality, including tourist attractions, are expected to be the biggest beneficiaries. Britain has been gripped by a Platinum Jubilee frenzy with spending predicted to reach 3billion over the extended bank holiday weekend Our one-mile street party Two neighbouring villages hope to stage what could be Britain's longest jubilee street party on June 5. Goring and Streatley, in Oxfordshire and Berkshire respectively, want to welcome up to 5,000 people for a mile-long celebration, said organiser Ron Bridle. The villages previously united to mark the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in 2012. Goring and Streatley, in Oxfordshire and Berkshire respectively, want to welcome up to 5,000 people for a mile-long celebration, said organiser Ron Bridle Advertisement An estimated 90million pints will be sold, resulting in a 105million boost for the pub trade around 50 per cent more than a regular bank holiday according to the British Beer & Pub Association. On Monday, brewery Greene King will kick off celebrations by selling customers a pint of IPA for just 6p the same price as in 1952 at its 408 sites. Millions will enjoy street parties and other events from Thursday to Sunday, with spending predicted to be around 40 per cent higher than for the Diamond Jubilee ten years ago. Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, appears to be Britain's street party capital with 331 events approved by the council, up by 99 on the Diamond Jubilee. Booming sales forced the Royal household's online shop to temporarily halt taking orders after it ran out of memorabilia. Supermarkets are selling out of Jubilee ranges. Marks & Spencer is offering everything from Corgi-themed cakes to patriotic cheeseboards, supersize HRH sausage rolls, ales and liqueurs. Tesco predicts it will sell 60,000 rolls of bunting enough to wrap around Windsor castle 10 times and 50,000 Union Jack plates. The retailer has ordered in an extra 4million bottles of gin, 150,000 bottles of champagne and the same of Pimm's. The extended bank holiday is particularly good for hospitality, the third largest private sector employer in the UK. Chief Executive of the British Beer & Pub Association, Emma McClarkin, said: 'Pubs are looking forward to leading celebrations in their communities.' A consumer survey said average spending per person over the bumper bank holiday is set to reach 52 which equates to 2.8billion as a nation. Separate estimates by the Centre for Economics and Business Research suggest extra spending across the four days would be 1billion 80 per cent to retailers and 20 per cent to hospitality. Pictures provided by Ron Bridle showing the 2012 Jubilee street party between Goring and Streatley One in five (19 per cent) will mark the event at the pub and more than one in seven plan to host or attend a street party. Nearly half (47 per cent) of Britons planning to celebrate said they would do so on Saturday, with 28 per cent on Sunday and 9 per cent on Monday. The survey was commissioned by TopCashback, whose spokesman said: 'Many of those choosing to celebrate are picking lower cost activities such as spending time with family and friends, going to the beach or having a picnic.' A carjacker allegedly targeted an 81 year-old woman as she fed the homeless in a supermarket, then dragged her with her car when she tried to stop him. Nina Steinman, of Redlands in California, was handing out food to the homeless at Stater Bros Markets on E Colton Avenue around 3.30pm on Monday - something she had been doing since January While she was performing the charitable act, a carjacker, who police say is Carlos Sanchez Jr., 24, 'forcefully took the keys from her and got into the driver's seat.' The market was the last stop she had to make as she pulled in to hand three men food and homemade iced tea when Sanchez reportedly approached her car. 'I said I don't have anymore food, it's all gone, but I can give you some iced tea,' she told KTLA. Steinman says she attempted to stop Sanchez by holding onto the driver's side door handle, but the suspect quickly back up the vehicle with the trunk still open, pulling Steinman several feet across the ground. 'Let me tell you, Im not afraid,' she told KTLA. 'I was going to grab his shirt and just drag that little puppy right out of the front seat, but I couldnt get the door open.' Surveillance footage shows the woman being thrown off the car, causing her to violently roll across the ground. Three young men appear to chase after the car, but Sanchez reportedly managed to escape. The men then go to help Steinman off the ground and hand her the things she dropped. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) located Sanchez in the driver's seat of the Kia Sportage on East 11th Street in the City of Angels and taken to the LAPD Newtown Community Police Station, where Redlands police met them. Scroll down for video Nina Steinman, 81, (pictured on the ground) was violently thrown to the ground after she tried to open the driver's side door. Suspect, Carlos Sanchez Jr., 24, backed out of the space, dragging Steinman several feet Steinman rolled several times as Sanchez peeled out of the parking lot. Police reported she was unharmed, only suffering from a few bruises Sanchez reportedly 'forcefully' took an elderly woman's car keys from her at Stater Bros Markets on E Colton Avenue around 3.30pm on Monday before dragging her across the parking lot as he stole her Kia Sportage Steinman said she was planning on pulling him out of the car, but was unable to get the door open The department said that 'based on evidence and witness statements,' officers were able to confirm Sanchez was the parking lot suspect. Sanchez is being held at the West Valley Detention Center on a $250,000 bond and has been charged with carjacking and elder abuse. Redlands PD reported Steinman was unharmed the incident, only suffering from a few bruises. Steinman told KTLA that Sanchez took off with her purse and keys and she had to 'change the locks' at her home because she was 'so afraid that he would try to break in.' Despite the horrific experience, Steinman said she will still continue to help the misfortunate. 'I'm 81, and the Lord is going to take me home probably soon, so while I'm here, I'm not going to stop. It's just what I'm called to do,' she said. A total of 2,064 vehicles have been stolen in LA County in the last 30 days and a total of 10,192 for the year. Meanwhile, only 1,440 have been arrested for the crime in 2022. Earlier this month, LA's County sheriff has likened woke District Attorney George Gascon to an ego-crazed Moses with rules written in stone as he blasted the DA for rejecting 13,238 of his deputies cases. Sheriff Alex Villanueva claims Gascon dismissed the huge number cases presented to him since taking office in 2020 because they 'don't conform to his special directives.' 'He showed up like Moses with his 10 commandments with his tablets and said, "Here's my special orders, take 'em or take 'em,"' Villanueva told Fox News. 'That does not promote a good working relationship. 'The deputies are going to continue doing their job, they make the arrests, theyll write the reports, but then what happens after its submitted to the DA is where it all falls apart' It comes as the city continues to see a spike in violent crime, which has gone up by more than 15 percent since 2020 while Gascon faces his second recall attempt since taking office. Gascon has been vocal about his belief that the criminal justice system needs to focus more on intervention and rehabilitation, blasting 'tough on crime' policies as racist and a failure. And following his first 100 days in office, he touted the changes he has made to the city's justice system - including limiting the use of sentencing enhancements. Sanchez was seen entering the driver's seat after stealing the keys while Steinman was handing out food to the homeless Three young men, who were collecting food from Steinman, help her up and handing her back the items she dropped The incident happened in State Bros Market parking lot on Colton Ave (pictured) The California penal code has more than 100 enhancements that could add time to a convict's sentence depending on the situation, most of which date back to when California was facing soaring crime in the 1980s and 1990s. But under Gascon's reign, the use of those enhancements have been greatly reduced, with the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office 5,138 enhancements during his first three months - a 71 percent drop when compared to the same time the year before. His first three months also saw prosecutors filing only 106 gun enhancements - an 85 percent decrease. Gascon also barred prosecutors from charging juveniles as adults, regardless of the severity of their alleged crimes. Villanueva - who is himself a Democrat - slammed the woke policies, telling Fox, 'I think the entire woke universe of progressive reform has failed epically throughout the entire nation. 'These are people that did bad things that left a victim, have the evidence presented and [the DA's office] said: "Don't bother."' A wet Tuesday in March and Steve Hedley, senior assistant general secretary of the hardline RMT trade union, is standing on a picket line outside a West London Tube depot. There's nothing strange about this. In fact, it's one of the things Mr Hedley does best. Over the past three years, he and his RMT comrades have balloted for strike action 204 times, managing to clock up 49 strike votes even in 2020, when Covid shut down much of their industry. It makes them arguably the most militant trade union in the land. The GMB, for example, gets by with a mere 50 ballots annually, despite having 600,000 members to the RMT's 82,000. Today, Steve and his sidekick, a burly gentleman identified as 'Sev', are helping to stage a two-day strike over pay, pensions and working conditions that has brought much of London to a halt. It has been caused, he tells onlookers, by the Government's 'absolute hatred of working-class people'. Hedley's remarks are not, however, what make this scene interesting. Not in the current news cycle, at least. For this picket is being staged on March 1, just four days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. And the most unusual thing about the RMT boss who is running it can be found on his raincoat. RMT Assistant General Secretary Steve Hedley poses in a Soviet-style soldier's hat with an assault rifle Not far from his RMT armband and a couple of socialist pin-badges, Hedley is wearing a striking black-and-orange ribbon. To those in the know, which might include anyone who follows Soviet or Baltic politics, it's a Ribbon of St George. These accoutrements are currently popular in Moscow, where people wear them to demonstrate support for the invasion of Ukraine. Similar ribbons are sported by Russian military chiefs and ambitious politicians, and you will often see one on the lapel of Vladimir Putin's designer suit. The black-and-orange ribbon is, in consequence, banned in Ukraine and many Baltic states, where it is regarded as an ugly symbol of Russian military aggression. Canadian analyst Michael MacKay, who worked as an observer during the 2014 elections in Kyiv, has described it as 'an anti-Ukrainian hate symbol . . . as deeply offensive as the swastika'. Why, then, was Steve Hedley, the deputy head of a British trade union, wearing something so provocative on an official RMT picket line, as Putin's tanks were rolling across the border? Well, it turns out Hedley belongs to a powerful far-Left cabal at the RMT who have spent much of the past decade supporting Putin's murderous adventures in Ukraine. Sympathisers include two of the union's three most senior officials, along with two more members of its ruling NEC, plus two of its regional organisers, one other senior staff member and an unknown number of RMT activists. Like many extremists, they regard an enemy's enemy as a friend. And since Russia's despotic leader opposes Nato and the West, by their twisted logic he should be regarded as an ally. Senior RMT power-brokers have spent recent years advancing Moscow's interests in various ways, from parroting pro-Kremlin PR lines to founding anti-Kyiv lobby groups and, in one case, even travelling to eastern Ukraine to meet a notoriously violent pro-Russian warlord. This malign track record will attract scrutiny in the coming weeks as Britain's weary commuters, already grappling with a cost-of-living crisis exacerbated by Putin's invasion, face a 'summer of discontent' on the rail networks, to use the activists' own phrase. On Tuesday, the RMT announced that 89 per cent of its 40,000 members who work in the rail sector had voted for industrial action over plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs and reorganise the troubled industry following the 25 per cent decline in passenger numbers caused by Covid. In interviews, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has said strikes could start in mid-June, bringing trains to a halt nationwide. Not far from his RMT armband and a couple of socialist pin-badges, Hedley is wearing a striking black-and-orange ribbon (pictured). These accoutrements are currently popular in Moscow, where people wear them to demonstrate support for the invasion of Ukraine. Such disruption will raise questions about where exactly the RMT's loyalties lie. Which brings us back to Steve Hedley, a notorious controversialist who, despite a union pay and benefits package approaching six figures, has said he is motivated by a desire to 'overthrow capitalism and create a socialist form of society'. On Facebook, he has 1,200 followers and has appeared in pictures brandishing an automatic rifle while wearing a Russian fur hat emblazoned with a hammer-and-sickle badge. The combative Left-winger has devoted considerable time recently to sharing pro-Kremlin material on Facebook to 'counter the one-sided media narrative on Ukraine', as he puts it. On February 27, he attacked plans to ban the Kremlin propaganda outlet Russia Today: 'The fact that the governments are banning a channel that gets 80,000 views a day should give the lie, to anyone with a brain cell, that freedom of speech is a right of living in a bourgeoisie democracy [sic],' he wrote. On March 8, he posted a video message online: 'People are asking 'can we assassinate Putin?' Well look, the reality is all countries, occupied countries like Ireland may have something in common with the Ukraine. 'But the reality is as well that the British are occupying Ireland, have done for 800 years, and I don't see anybody advocating that we assassinate Johnson and neither should we.' It was music to the ears of many of Hedley's followers, including 'Sev', his picket-line companion. Sev's full name is Seva Sergeich and he is an RMT activist who was born in St Petersburg. His Facebook page is a sewer of pro-Kremlin propaganda: adorned with a photo of the 'Z' symbol of the invasion, it contains endless pictures of Russian military symbols, plus links to YouTube films peddling fake news about the conflict. In one post, Sergeich argues that 'the bombing of civilians in Ukraine is [being] done by Ukrainian nationalists, not by Russian forces'. Such opinions seem to be widely shared in the upper echelons of the RMT. Not least by Eddie Dempsey, who became the union's senior assistant general secretary four weeks ago, when Hedley (who was briefly suspended by the RMT in 2020 for saying he would 'throw a party' if Boris Johnson died of coronavirus) retired. Dempsey, who has said the RMT is 'trying to create a culture of civil disobedience in this country', is a long-standing supporter of far-Left campaigns against the Ukrainian government. In 2015, he decided to travel to the eastern Ukrainian city of Luhansk, where he met Aleksey Mozgovoy, a misogynistic paramilitary leader of the pro-Russian 'Ghost Brigade' militia branded a 'terrorist organisation' by Ukraine's supreme court. A year earlier, Mozgovoy had ordered his troop patrols to arrest any woman sitting in a pub or cafe, because 'a woman must be the guardian of the hearth, a mother'. He had also ordered the murder of several members of a family whose car was riddled with bullets in a shooting that left a ten-year-old girl with life-changing injuries. Alex Gordon (pictured), rail union activist and member of the Communist party Popular Sovereignty, gave a speech claiming Nato policy in Ukraine 'relies on the promotion of the resurgence of fascism' and parroting Putin's line that Ukraine is a 'failed state held hostage by neo-Nazis' Dempsey nonetheless regarded this fellow Leftist as a natural ally, posing for a chummy photo with him. Following Mozgovoy's death a few weeks afterwards, the RMT boss wrote a glowing obituary for the pro-Kremlin Russia Insider website, lavishing praise on the 'charismatic' terrorist. Today, as Luhansk burns and its people are murdered by Russian invaders, those words make grim reading. Which is why, when they came to light a few weeks ago, the Labour MP Chris Bryant demanded that Dempsey 'apologise and be ashamed', saying: 'The writing has been on the wall in relation to Putin and his territorial ambitions for more than a decade now, and anybody who has not been able to see that should step aside from the political arena.' Then there is the RMT's president Alex Gordon, who besides his 57,000-a-year role chairing the union's ruling NEC, is a senior figure in the Communist Party of Great Britain. In March, in the latter role, he gave a speech claiming Nato policy in Ukraine 'relies on the promotion of the resurgence of fascism' and parroting Putin's line that Ukraine is a 'failed state held hostage by neo-Nazis'. Back in 2017, Gordon said on Facebook that the Holodomor, the notorious forced starvation of four million Ukrainians in the 1930s under Stalin, was a 'myth'. To support this false claim, he posted links to two articles on Sputnik News, a propaganda website controlled by the Kremlin. And in 2015, after Russia's invasion of Crimea, he protested outside the Ukrainian Embassy in London wearing (like his comrade Steve Hedley) the black-and-orange Ribbon of St George. What normal RMT members, who pay a combined 18 million in subscriptions each year, make of such behaviour is anyone's guess. But the union's questionable record on Ukraine runs deep. It can be traced back to 2014, when Gordon, Dempsey and Steve Skelly now one of the RMT's regional organisers helped to found 'Antifascist Resistance in Ukraine' [SARU], a far-Left group devoted to defending the Russian invasion of Crimea and paramilitaries fighting on Moscow's behalf elsewhere in the country. Over the ensuing months and years, SARU's website would circulate endless items of pro-Kremlin propaganda, revolving largely around the premise that to quote a speech by Dempsey at a SARU meeting covered by the Morning Star the 'Western-backed government of Ukraine . . . included open Nazis'. One particularly abhorrent post, on the group's Facebook page in late 2015, linked to a deeply anti-Semitic YouTube video claiming that Alexei Mozgovoy (the warlord previously photographed with Dempsey) had been killed as part of a Jewish blood sacrifice. This output didn't seem to faze anyone at the RMT. Indeed, prior to its annual meeting that year, the union's then general secretary, Mick Cash, wrote to branch secretaries urging them to support a motion to affiliate their organisation formally with SARU. The motion duly passed, thanks in part to what the Morning Star later described as a 'devastating' speech by Steve Hedley, who argued that opponents of the proposal would be 'dancing on the graves of 30,000 merchant seamen who died under Nazi bombs in the Second World War'. Eddie Dempsey previously visiting warlord Alexander Mozgovoy, an uber-nationalist, uber-misogynistic paramilitary leader in the pro-Russian militias during the war in eastern Ukraine It is unclear whether the RMT remains affiliated to SARU. In a BBC podcast aired yesterday, general secretary Mick Lynch said: 'I don't think we are.' Yet recent public statements suggest support for Ukraine in its struggle against Putin's barbarity is limited at RMT headquarters. For example, the union's South West organiser, Brendan Kelly, gave an interview about the war last month to Left-wing website The Bristol Cable. 'You've got two imperialist blocs really, which is Putin and the East, and you've got Nato, which has clearly set its path out in recent decades to try and push the boundary back on Eastern Europe and Russia.' He added: 'It has created a lot of instability.' Back in 2018, RMT head of industrial relations Alex Reid criticised the EU for 'backing fascists in Ukraine' and in April he called for the 'dismantling of Nato'. NEC member Ian Allen said of Ukraine in 2014: 'Just give it back to the USSR,' adding, 'what the funk has Ukraine got to do with America feck off up your own end [sic]'. Another member of the RMT's NEC (which contains just two women alongside 14 men) is Joe Kirby. A few weeks ago he, along with Alex Gordon and Eddie Dempsey, signed Stop the War's controversial open letter blaming the invasion of Ukraine on Nato's 'disdain for Russian concerns' and Britain's 'aggressive posturing'. The letter caused a huge row within the Labour Party because 11 of its MPs, who had originally signed, withdrew their support for it on the orders of Keir Starmer. A third NEC member, Paul McDonnell, chose the day of Russia's invasion to post to Facebook a link to a lecture entitled: 'Why is Ukraine the West's fault?' Asked about such remarks, an RMT spokesman said last night: 'The RMT does not support Vladimir Putin or the war in Ukraine. Both Eddie Dempsey and Alex Gordon agree with that position.' As to the decision of the RMT's former number two, Steve Hedley, to wear the Ribbon of St George on an official RMT picket line less than a week after the invasion, the spokesman would say only: 'Steve Hedley has retired from his role in the RMT.' One thing that doesn't seem to have been retired is the ugly hard-Leftism that, when it comes to Ukraine, has placed this powerful trade union firmly on the wrong side of history. Ten people were killed in a mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo, New York on May 14. Aaron Salter Jr., 75 Salter is a retired Buffalo police officer who worked as a security guard at the supermarket. He was fatally shot after confronting accused shooter Payton Gendron inside the store. Salter's shots failed to penetrate Gendron's armored vest, officials confirmed to CBS News, After he shot at Gendron, the teen returned fire, killing Salter. Retired Buffalo Police Department cop Aaron Salter was killed after trying to shoot back at the alleged shooter Ruth Whitfield, 86 Whitfield had just visited her husband in a nursing home and decided to stop at the Tops on her way home to get something to eat, WGRZ reported. She was also the mother of Former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield, according to the television station. Following the shooting, he said during an interview with the Buffalo News: 'My mom was the consummate mom. My mother was a mother to the motherless. She was a blessing to all of us. She loved God and taught us to do the same thing,' he said. Ruth Whitfield, 86, the mother of former Buffalo fire commissioner Garnell Whitfield, was also killed in the attack Katherine Massey, 72 She had gone to the supermarket to do her grocery shopping when she was fatally shot. Her brother was supposed to pick her up after she finished her errands, but arrived to the grisly aftermath of a mass shooting. Massey was a civil rights and education advocate. Former Erie County Legislator Betty Jean Grant, who had known Massey for over 20 years, told The Buffalo News that she 'did everything she could to lift up Buffalo's black community.' Last year, Massey wrote a letter calling for more federal regulation of firearms, citing both urban street violence and mass shootings. Katherine Massey, 72, had gone to the supermarket to do her grocery shopping when she was fatally shot Pearly Young, 77 Young fed needy residents in Buffalo's Central Park neighborhood for 25 years. Young, originally from Alabama, moved to New York as a young adult and married a pastor. She had gone to lunch with her sister-in-law on Saturday and was dropped off at the grocer afterwards. Her son was expected to pick her up, but when he arrived at the store, all was in chaos. Her relatives told Alabama.com Young will be remembered for her love for God and her family. Pearly Young, 77, who fed needy residents in Buffalo's Central Park neighborhood for 25 years, was also killed Celestine Chaney, 65 Chaney was a breast cancer survivor, was at the supermarket with her older sister, JoAnn Daniels, because she wanted to buy strawberries for shortcake. The loving mother and grandmother-of-six was also picking up some shrimp for her husband, Raymond. Daniels told The Buffalo Times she never saw Gendron, but heard the sounds of his assault rifle. She and Chaney were trying to flee when the 65-year-old was shot. 'She fell and I thought she had got up and was behind me, but she wasn't behind me,' Daniels recalled. Celestine Chaney, 65, who was at the supermarket to buy strawberries for shortcake at the time of the shooting Roberta Drury, 32 Drury was at the store to buy groceries for dinner when the shooting began. She had moved to Buffalo from the Syracuse, New York, area to be with her older brother after his bone marrow transplant, her sister, Amanda Drury, told Reuters. Drury helped him with his bar, The Dalmatia, and with his family. 'She was vibrant and outgoing, could talk to anyone,' Amanda said. Roberta Drury, 32, was at the store to buy groceries for dinner. She had moved to the area to close to her older brother Heyward Patterson, 68 He often give people rides to and from the supermarket and would help them carry their groceries. This role earned him the nickname 'Jitney.' He was also a church deacon and would welcome parishioners and escort them to their seats. 'He would give the shirt off his back,' his wife, Tirzah Patterson, told The Buffalo News. 'That's who he is. He wouldn't hurt anybody. Whatever he had, he'd give it to you.' Heyward Patterson, 68, often give people rides to and from the supermarket and would help them carry their groceries Geraldine Talley, 62 Talley is a mother of two children - Genicia Talley, 42, and Mark Talley, 32, and was also like a second mother to her niece, Kesha Chapman. She had entered the store to just pick up a few items, her sister, Kaye Chapman-Johnson told ABC News. She had told her fiancee to go to another aisle to retrieve something off one of the shelves when the gunfire started. Talley is now remembered for her mouth-watering cheesecake, People reports. 'She was truly an amazing woman, and I'm going to miss her dearly,' Chapman-Johnson said of her sister. Geraldine Talley, right, entered the store with her fiancee to pick up a few items for dinner Andre Mackniel, 53 Andre Mackniel, who also went by Andre Elliot, was in town visiting relatives. He was at the store to pick up a surprise birthday cake for his grandson, USA Today reports. But 'he never came out with the cake,' his cousin Clarissa Alston-McCutcheon said, describing her cousin as a 'loving and caring guy' who 'loved family' and 'was always there for his family.' He was listed as 'engaged' on his Facebook page. Mackniel, of Auburn, New York, was self-employed, but used to work at Buffalo Wild Wings, according to Finger Lakes Daily News. Andre Mackniel, 53, was in town visiting relatives and went to the store to pick up a surprise birthday cake for his grandson Margus Morrison, 52 Margus Morrison was a father of three who was an active bus aide for Buffalo schools since February 2019, USA Today reports. His family later confirmed he was killed in the deadly shooting. A super-Earth covered in oceans of lava and another exoplanet that is completely airless have been chosen as the first targets of NASA's James Webb Telescope. One of the planets, known as 55 Cancri e, has surface temperatures reaching 4,400 F (2,400 C) far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals. The day side is thus thought to be covered in lava, which could also fall as rain depending on its orbiting pattern. The rocky planet has a diameter almost twice that of Earth and is therefore known as a 'super-Earth' meaning it is larger than our planet but smaller than Neptune. It orbits less than 1.5 million miles from its Sun-like star one twenty-fifth of the distance between Mercury and the Sun and completes one circuit in less than 18 hours. The telescope will also observe LHS 3844 b, which orbits a star that is smaller and cooler than 55 Cancri e's host star. This planet is not hot enough for its surface to be molten, and is unlikely to have a substantial atmosphere, meaning scientists can analyse the solid rock on its surface. Illustration comparing rocky exoplanets 55 Cancri e and LHS 3844 b to Earth and Neptune. Both are between Earth and Neptune in terms of size and mass, but they are more similar to Earth in composition. The planets are arranged from left to right in order of increasing radius. 55 Cancri e has a surface of mostly graphite surrounding a thick layer of diamond, below which is a layer of silicon-based minerals and a molten iron core at the centre The Webb telescope now awaits a final instrument calibration before it officially begins studying distant stars and planets next month, like 55 Cancri e and LHS 3844 b The $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope is currently about 1,500,000 kilometres away from Earth after it was launched in December 2021. With its instruments aligned, the Webb telescope now awaits a final instrument calibration before it officially begins studying distant stars in a few weeks time. Instruments on the James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam (Near InfraRed Camera) an infrared imager from the edge of the visible through the near infrared NIRSpec (Near InfraRed Spectrograph) will also perform spectroscopy over the same wavelength range. MIRI (Mid-InfraRed Instrument) will measure the mid-to-long-infrared wavelength range from 5 to 27 micrometers. FGS/NIRISS (Fine Guidance Sensor and Near Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph), is used to stabilize the line-of-sight of the observatory during science observations. Advertisement NASA researchers will train the onboard, high-precision spectrographs onto 55 Cancri e to understand its geology. This will give an insight into the geologic diversity of planets across the galaxy, and the evolution of rocky planets like Earth. Planets that orbit very close to their star, like 55 Cancri e, are thought to be tidally locked and have one side facing the star at all times. Tidal locking happens because both astronomical bodies exert gravitational force on the other, which is stronger on the sides facing each other. This force causes the orbiting body to stretch and distort, which in turn slows down its rotation. Eventually it is slowed down to the point that the speed of the planet's orbit and its rotational speed match, and one side only ever faces the star just as only one side of the Moon ever faces Earth. The hottest spot on the planet should be the one that faces the star most directly, and the amount of heat coming from the day side should not change much over time. However, observations of 55 Cancri e from NASAs Spitzer Space Telescope suggest that the hottest region is offset from the part that faces the star most directly, and the total amount of heat detected from the day side varies. One explanation for this phenomenon is that the planet has its own dynamic atmosphere that moves the heat around. Researchers will use Webbs Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) to capture the thermal emission spectrum of the day side of the planet. Renyu Hu, from NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, said: '55 Cancri e could have a thick atmosphere dominated by oxygen or nitrogen. 'If it has an atmosphere, [Webb] has the sensitivity and wavelength range to detect it and determine what it is made of.' Illustration of 55 Cancri e that has surface temperatures reaching 4,400 F (2,400 C) - far above the melting point of typical rock-forming minerals Lift off: NASA's James Webb Space Telescope successfully blasted into space on December 25 However, 55 Cancri e may not be tidally locked at all, and could rotate three times for every two orbits, as Mercury does, meaning it has a day-night cycle. Alexis Brandeker, researcher from Stockholm University who leads another team studying the planet, said: 'That could explain why the hottest part of the planet is shifted. FACTS AND FIGURES: NASA's $10 BILLION JAMES WEBB SPACE TELESCOPE Operator: NASA & ESA Launched: December 25, 2021 Full operation begins: Summer 2022 Location: SunEarth L2 point Orbit type: Halo orbit Mission duration: 20 years (expected) Telescope diameter: 21 feet (6.5 m) Focal length: 431 feet (131.4 m) Wavelengths: 0.628.3 m Advertisement 'Just like on Earth, it would take time for the surface to heat up. 'The hottest time of the day would be in the afternoon, not right at noon.' Brandekers team plans to test this hypothesis using NIRCam to measure the heat emitted from the lit side of 55 Cancri e during four different orbits. If the planet does rotate three times for every two orbits, they will observe each hemisphere twice and should be able to detect any difference between the hemispheres. In this scenario, the surface would heat up, melt, and even vaporise during the day, forming a very thin atmosphere that the James Webb Space Telescope could detect. Then, in the evening, the vapour would cool and condense to form droplets of lava that would rain back to the surface, turning solid again as night falls. The James Webb Telescope is intended to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope as NASA's flagship mission in astrophysics. It is composed of 18 hexagonal mirror segments, fitted together into one large, 21-foot-wide mirror. During its decade or more in orbit, Webb will be used by teams of astronomers to study a wide variety of celestial phenomena, from exoplanets to black holes. It is able to peer further into the history of the universe than any space telescope before it, in part due to its position 930,000 miles from the Earth. The telescope won't be the only exoplanet the Webb Telescope will be observing when it begins its in-depth science next month. An airless planet called LHS 3844 b also orbits very closely to its star, completing a single revolution in 11 hours. Its star is smaller and cooler than the one 55 Cancri e orbits, so the planet is not hot enough for its surface to be molten, meaning scientists can analyse the solid rock. Additionally, Spitzer observations indicate that the planet is very unlikely to have a substantial atmosphere. While researchers won't be able to image the surface of LHS 3844 b directly with Webb, the lack of an obscuring atmosphere makes it possible to study the surface with spectroscopy. Laura Kreidberg at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy said: 'It turns out that different types of rock have different spectra. 'You can see with your eyes that granite is lighter in colour than basalt. 'There are similar differences in the infrared light that rocks give off.' Kreidbergs team will use MIRI to capture the thermal emission spectrum of the day side of LHS 3844 b, and then compare it to spectra of known rocks, like basalt and granite, to determine its composition. If the planet is volcanically active, the spectrum could also reveal the presence of trace amounts of volcanic gases. Kreidberg said: 'They will give us fantastic new perspectives on Earth-like planets in general, helping us learn what the early Earth might have been like when it was hot like these planets are today.' The observations of 55 Cancri e and LHS 3844 b will be made available to the worldwide astronomical community. James Webb's primary mirror consists of 18 hexagonal segments of gold-plated beryllium metal, and measures 21 feet 4 inches (6.5 metres) in diameter. It is supported by three shallow carbon fiber tubes, or struts, that extend out from the large primary mirror, which is comprised of 18 hexagonal segments Advertisement With their fluffy coats and teddy bear-like faces, crossbreeds like Cockapoos and Goldendoodles have become a favourite with dog lovers and celebrities. But while these breeds are now some of the most popular in the UK, vets have warned that poor breeding to meet the 'current craze' could lead to a surge in unexpected health and behavioural issues. Lack of regard for health during the breeding process could result in an increase in debilitating conditions such as hip dysplasia, genetic eye disease and Addison's disease in Labradoodles in the future, the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) warns. Behavioural issues could also increase, including aggression and biting. 'Sadly, designer dogs often do not come from "designer" breeding programmes but are farmed indiscriminately to meet the current craze for breed-crosses with catchy names such as Frug and Jackalier,' said Dr Dan O'Neill, Associate Professor in Companion Animal Epidemiology at the RVC. 'Check out the seller before buying, visit your puppy several times before you bring them home, and always make sure you see the puppy with its mum.' The warning comes as figures released this week revealed that the price of a puppy has dropped by 40 per cent after hitting a record high during the pandemic as families across the country rushed to get lockdown companions. With their fluffy coats and teddy bear-like faces, crossbreeds like Cockapoos and Goldendoodles (pictured) are some of the most popular dogs around the world Crossbreeds tend to sell for much more than either of the parent breeds, with the average price of Cavapoos a Poodle and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel cross hitting a whopping 2,800 in 2020 The most popular designer crossbreeds The five most common designer crossbreeds purchased from 2019-2020 were: Cockapoo (Cocker Spaniel x Poodle) Labradoodle (Labrador x Poodle) Cavapoo (Cavalier King Charles Spaniel x Poodle) Sprocker (Cocker Spaniel x Springer Spaniel) Goldendoodle (Golden Retriever x Poodle) Advertisement Designer crossbreeding is the planned mating between pure breeds to create new dogs with catchy names. For example, a Peke-a-poo is a cross between a Pekingese and a Miniature Poodle, while a Sprocker is bred from a Cocker Spaniel and a Springer Spaniel. These new crossbreeds tend to sell for much more than either of the parent breeds, with the average price of Cavapoos a Poodle and Cavalier King Charles Spaniel cross hitting a whopping 2,800 in 2020. A recent study found that there was a huge increase in demand for designer crossbreeds amid the pandemic. While fewer than one in five puppies in 2019 was a designer crossbred, this rose to one in four puppies in 2020. Now, vets from the RVC have looked at the main factors behind this increasing demand. Using the online Pandemic Puppies survey, the researchers surveyed 6,300 UK dog owners who purchased a puppy between 2019 and 2020 including 1,575 owners of designer crossbreeds. The five most common designer crossbreeds purchased during this time were found to be the Cockapoo, Labradoodle, Cavapoo, Sprocker, and Goldendoodle. The surveys revealed that the main drivers for buying a designer crossbred puppy rather than a pure breed were perceptions that these dogs were a good size, were generally healthy, good with children, easy to train and hypoallergenic. Using the online Pandemic Puppies survey, the researchers surveyed 6,300 UK dog owners who purchased a puppy between 2019 and 2020 including 1,575 owners of designer crossbreeds. The five most common designer crossbreeds purchased during this time were found to be the Cockapoo, Labradoodle, Cavapoo, Sprocker (pictured), and Goldendoodle Designer crossbreeds are popular among celebrities, with Chrissie Brinkley, Katy Perry and Chris Hemsworth all proud owners What's the issue with puppy farming? Puppy farming is the term used when unscrupulous breeders prioritise profit over animal health and welfare. Dogs are often kept isolated in small pens and used to produce multiple litters a year. Puppies are then sold to unsuspecting owners. Vets see first hand the tragic consequences of puppies being bred in deplorable conditions and taken away from their mothers at a very young age. They often suffer from disease, other health problems, and poor socialisation, leading to heartache and financial costs for the new owners. Source: BVA Advertisement Designer crossbreed owners were more likely to prioritise convenient purchasing of their dog over welfare factors. This included favouring breeders that lived within a suitable distance or had available puppies at the desired time, over those who provided relevant health tests. Designer crossbreed owners were also less likely to be provided with DNA or veterinary screening tests for their puppies. In addition, these owners were more likely to source their puppy online via a general selling website. 'Designer crossbreed buyers overlooked more "red flags" during the purchasing process that put them at increased risk of being deceived and purchasing their puppy from unscrupulous sources,' the researchers said. 'This included placing a deposit on their puppy before they had seen it in-person, being less likely to see their puppy in person before purchase and being less likely to see their puppy with its littermates or mother when collected.' The researchers warn that ignoring these 'red flags' risks unintentionally supporting puppy farming and the illegal import of puppies and can inflict major early-life stresses on puppies, with lifelong consequences. 'The UK public are flocking towards designer crossbreeds based on perceptions that they are "off the shelf" easy family dogs; trainable, healthy, and hypoallergenic dogs that fit into their owners' existing lifestyles,' said Dr Rowena Packer, a Lecturer in Companion Animal Behaviour and Welfare Science at the RVC. 'Unfortunately, it is unlikely that reality will meet all of these high expectations, with little evidence to support these claims. 'These misconceptions risk poor outcomes for both dogs and their owners in the future, including rehoming, unexpected health problems and bite risks.' Worryingly, the surge in popularity of crossbreeds poses a serious risk to these dogs' health, according to the team. The price of a pet puppy has dropped by 40 per cent after hitting a record highs during the pandemic as families across the country rushed to get lockdown companions. Pictured: The most expensive and cheapest breeds and the price difference compared to this time last year Owners of designer crossbred puppies were significantly more likely to live in London than owners of purebred puppies Without due regard to health, we could see an increase in debilitating conditions such as hip dysplasia, genetic eye disease and Addison's disease in Labradoodles in the future, they warn. Behavioural issues could also increase, including aggression and biting. 'In some cases, behaviour in designer crossbreed offspring is less desirable than the behaviour of the parent breeds, including increased levels of aggression in the Goldendoodle (Golden Retriever x Poodle),' the team said. The researchers hope the findings will encourage prospective pet owners to purchase puppies safely, with the dog's health and welfare as a priority. 'Would-be owners should avoid being enticed by designer labels and rose-tinted expectations, and instead conduct thorough research to help decide if these are really the dogs for them,' Dr Packer added. The study comes shortly after data from Pets4Homes revealed how puppy mania fuelled by multiple Covid lockdowns in the UK drove average prices up to 2,237 last year but the demand for puppies has started to recede, according to the latest data from pet experts Pets4Homes. One of the main reasons for the drop in price is the surge in the number of hobby breeders who are meeting the demand, fuelled by people now working from home and having more time to tend to litters, Pets4Homes found. The average price between January and April this year has fallen by almost 1,000 and now sits at 1,329 as the country returns to normal following months of strict Covid measures, while the price of cats has declined by just 20 per cent. Demand - measured by prospective buyers per pet - fell by 42 per cent in January to April compared with the same period last year, according to the report by Pets4Homes, the UK's largest online pet marketplace. The number of would-be buyers per puppy or dog advertised on Pets4Homes in April 2022 was 168, down from more than 300 at the start of the pandemic - a drop in demand of 44 per cent. It's the 'scone' vs 'scone' of the palaeontology world; how DO you correctly pronounce 'diplodocus'? A dinosaur expert from the National History Museum in London has finally settled the debate, and revealed the phonetically accurate way to say the long-necked beast's name. Brits tend to say 'diplo-docus', splitting the word into two sounds that rhymes with 'lip-low-focus'. But Americans will splice the word after the first syllable, using softer vowel sounds and pronounce it as 'di-plodocus' - rhyming with 'lip-lod-uh-cus'. However, according to Professor Paul Barrett, a senior dinosaur expert at the museum, neither are technically right. Instead, he says that the correct was to pronounce diplodocus is 'dip-low-DOCK-us'. The question was asked once more as Dippy the Dinosaur returned to the Natural History Museum yesterday for a brand new installation. Dippy is a plaster cast replica of a of Diplodocus carnegii skeleton found in Wyoming, Colorado in 1898. Dippy, the Diplodocus skeleton cast, has returned to the Natural History Museum in London following its tour of the UK HOW DID THE DIPLODOCUS GET ITS NAME? The word was first coined by US paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh in 1878, who merged the Greek words 'diplos' meaning 'double' and 'dokos' meaning 'beam'. This refers to a set of unusual two-pronged bones on the underside of Dippy's tail called chevrons, which are different to other dinosaurs. The 'carnegii' is a reference to Andrew Carnegie who founded the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh in 1896, where the first discovered Diplodocus skeleton is housed. Advertisement The word diplodocus is formed from two Greek words, and thus the c in 'docus' is actually a 'k' - the Greek letter kappa. This would mean a soft 'o' is what was originally intended in the word - making the correct pronunciation as 'dip-low-DOCK-us'. Professor Barrett told The Telegraph: 'Technically it's two Greek words so the "c" in docus is actually a "k"- a Greek kappa. 'So no one is getting it right.' The word was first coined by US paleontologist Othniel C. Marsh in 1878, who merged the Greek words 'diplos' meaning 'double' and 'dokos' meaning 'beam'. This refers to a set of unusual two-pronged bones on the underside of Dippy's tail called chevrons, which are different to other dinosaurs. The 'carnegii' is a reference to Andrew Carnegie who founded the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh in 1896, where the first discovered Diplodocus skeleton is housed. Carnegie funded the excavation of the original skeleton, and gifted the replica to King Edward VII. The king, and trustee of the British Museum, requested the plaster skeleton after he became enamoured with a sketch of the real bones. He paid 2,000 for the 292 cast pieces, which were sent to London in 36 crates. Dippy was displayed in the Natural History Museum from 1905 until 2017, when it was replaced by the huge skeleton of a diving blue whale, named Hope. The 85ft-long (26m) skeleton has been touring Britain for the past three years but is back in an special exhibition where it will remain until January. The word 'diplodocus' is formed from two Greek words, and thus the c in 'docus' is actually a 'k' - the Greek letter kappa, and making the correct pronunciation as 'dip-low-DOCK-us' Dippy will be welcomed back home to the Natural History Museum with an exhibition titled 'Dippy Returns: The Nation's Favourite Dinosaur' The new installation, Dippy Returns: The Nation's Favourite Dinosaur will share all the places Dippy visited on his national tour, where over two million people visited the dinosaur. The Natural History museum said that Dippy's national tour was a success as it boosted local economies in eight regions where fans flocked to see the marvel. Museum director Dr Doug Gurr said: 'We are beyond thrilled to welcome Dippy home to the Natural History Museum. 'Always proving popular and having just completed a smash-hit tour where over two million people around the UK visited our Jurassic giant, we are certain Dippy will bring a smile to visitors' faces this summer at the Natural History Museum. 'While on tour Dippy encouraged people to engage with nature and inspired them to protect it, and we hope that our new installation will continue to do just that. 'At a time when biodiversity is under threat, it is more important than ever to protect the natural world and build a future where both people and planet thrive.' Before the installation opens on May 27, London schoolchildren visited Dippy at the museum and were given a talk about the diplodocus to learn about Dippy's prehistoric and more recent history. Dippy the Diplodicus has been with the Natural History museum for 113 years but dates back to the late jurassic period so is 161 million to 146 million years old Dippy Returns will highlight visitors' reflections after meeting the dinosaur on his UK tour and how it inspired them to reconnect with the nature around them. The impressive dinosaur visited Dorchester, Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cardiff, Rochdale, and Norwich Cathedral on his tour of the nation. The installation will be on show in the Natural History Museum's Waterhouse Gallery, where it was previously displayed in the 1970s. Dippy has been displayed in many different areas of the museum, including the Reptiles Gallery and Hintze Hall, as well as a brief stint in the basement to protect the impressive cast during the Second World War. The Natural History Museum is currently seeking a new partner to host Dippy on a long-term loan at the end of the installation in January, applications are now open. Dippy Returns: The Nation's Favourite Dinosaur will be on display from today to January 3 2023 at the Natural History Museum. Admission is free but tickets must be booked in advance. The 'most powerful meteor storm in generations' could light up skies above North America next week. Fragments of dying comet SW3 are predicted to be visible from the United States and parts of Canada when the Earth crosses through its orbital path on Tuesday. The SW3 comet, full name 73P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 3, is responsible for the fragments of dust that causes meteor shower Tau Herculids. SW3 split into large fragments in 1995, and has continued to fragment further since. Next week the Earth could have a direct interaction with the debris from the comet for the very first time. However, NASA is uncertain whether the debris will make it to us this year and has cautioned the Tau Herculids will be 'all or nothing'. Images of 48 comet fragments from SW3 recorded in May 2006 by the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on board the Spitzer Space Telescope. Emission from the dust particles warmed by sunlight appears to fill the space along the cometary orbit A meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet or asteroid 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 A meteor shower occurs when the Earth passes through the trail of debris left by a comet or asteroid. Most meteor showers are predictable, recurring annually when the Earth traverses a particular trail of debris. However, occasionally the Earth passes through a particularly narrow and dense clump of space dust which turns into thousands of fast-moving shooting stars. This is known as a meteor storm, and provides a dazzling spectacle for stargazers. The starry pattern associated with the Tau Herculids is the Hercules constellation, the fifth largest constellation in the sky, and the shower appears to radiate from a point about ten degrees from the star Arcturus. SW3 was first spotted in 1930 by German observers Arnold Schwassmann and Arno Arthur Wachmann, who determined it to have a 5.4 year orbit. Over time it became very faint, but in 1995 it unexpectedly became nearly 400 times brighter and was even visible from the naked eye. The comet's icy core had split into four, releasing huge amounts of gas and debris, which continued as it orbited the Sun. By 2006, the shattered comet was in 68 pieces, and is likely to have broken down even more since. Computer modelling suggests that fragments of SW3 have been spreading out of its orbit like tentacles. However, these fragments are not visible until the Earth ploughs into them. This year, our planet is due to cross its path on May 31, although the comet itself isn't supposed to pass by until a few months later. The brightness of the meteor storm will depend on how much debris SW3 has thrown in front of it, if any. This will be the first time the Earth and the significant comet debris shed in 1995 have come together since the fragmentation event. If we pass through a heavy concentration of the debris, then there is a possibility of a dramatic meteor storm. Bill Cooke, who leads NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space Flight Center, describes it as 'an all or nothing event'. He said: 'If the debris from SW3 was travelling more than 220 mph (354 km/h) when it separated from the comet, we might see a nice meteor shower. 'If the debris had slower ejection speeds, then nothing will make it to Earth and there will be no meteors from this comet, 'It's a perfect opportunity for space enthusiasts to get out and experience one of nature's most vivid light shows.' Some models suggest that there will be a strong display from the meteor shower while others predict the cosmic fragments will just fall short of the Earth's path. Positions of Earth, SW3 ('1995') and presumed train of meteoroids on May 31 2022 using orbital simulator. Left - Assuming meteoroids are trailing behind the parent comet. In this situation no interaction with Earth can take place. Right - Assuming meteoroids are moving ahead of the parent comet. Interaction with the Earth takes place between comet samples #12 and #13 Map of the geographic visibility of the potential meteor outburst. Radiant elevations are presented as concentric circles at 10 intervals. The radiant of a meteor shower is the celestial point in the sky from which the paths of meteors appear to originate to a terrestrial viewer The Earth should cross the debris stream that SW3 left in 1995 between 00:45 and 01:17 am ET early Tuesday morning, and is predicted to last up to two hours if visible. The phenomenon should be visible from North and South America as it is due to be a new moon, so the very dark sky will allow for maximum brightness. The best view will be from the southwest of the USA and Mexico, while it could also be seen from the southeastern provinces of Canada. However it won't be seen from Alaska, Washington and the north and western provinces of Canada as it will be twilight at the time of the shower. In Australia the storm will also be over before it is dark enough to be seen, and it is unlikely to be visible in the UK. The Earth will also cross SW3's orbit that it made in 1892 on Monday May 30 at about 2 pm ET, and then through its 1897 passage at about Tuesday May 31 at 6 am ET. Unfortunately the debris left from these orbits will have spread out over time, so only a few meteors will be expected. Scientists have detected a new type of extremely reactive substance in the Earth's atmosphere that could pose a threat to human health, as well as the global climate. Researchers from the University of Copenhagen have demonstrated that trioxides chemical compounds with three oxygen atoms attached to each other are formed under atmospheric conditions. Trioxides are even more reactive than peroxides which have two oxygen atoms attached to each other, making them highly reactive and often flammable and explosive. Peroxides are known to exist in the air surrounding us, and it was predicted that trioxides were probably in the atmosphere as well, but until now it has never been unequivocally proven. 'This is what we have now accomplished,' says Professor Henrik Grum Kjrgaard, at the University of Copenhagens Department of Chemistry. 'The type of compounds we discovered are unique in their structure. And, because they are extremely oxidising, they most likely bring a host of effects that we have yet to uncover.' Scientists have detected a new type of extremely reactive substance in the Earth's atmosphere that could pose a threat to human health, as well as the global climate When chemical compounds are oxidised in the atmosphere, they often react with OH radicals, typically forming a new radical. When this radical reacts with oxygen, it forms a third radical called peroxide (ROO), which in turn can react with the OH radical, thereby forming hydrotrioxides (ROOOH). Reaction: ROO + OH ROOOH How hydrotrioxides are formed When chemical compounds are oxidised in the atmosphere, they often react with OH radicals, typically forming a new radical. When this radical reacts with oxygen, it forms a third radical called peroxide (ROO), which in turn can react with the OH radical, thereby forming hydrotrioxides (ROOOH). Reaction: ROO + OH ROOOH Advertisement The specific trioxides they have detected called hydrotrioxides (ROOOH) are a completely new class of chemical compounds. Hydrotrioxides are formed in a reaction between two types of radicals (molecules that contain at least one unpaired electron). In laboratory experiments using a free-jet flow tube at room temperature and a pressure of 1 bar air, combined with very sensitive mass spectrometers the researchers demonstrated that hydrotrioxides are formed during the atmospheric decomposition of several known and widely emitted substances, including isoprene and dimethyl sulfide. Isoprene is one of the most frequently emitted organic compounds into the atmosphere. It is produced by many plants and animals and its polymers are the main component of natural rubber. The study shows that approximately one per cent of all isoprene released turns into hydrotrioxides. However, the researchers expect that almost all chemical compounds will form hydrotrioxides in the atmosphere, and estimate that their lifespans range from minutes to hours. This makes them stable enough to react with many other atmospheric compounds. The researchers estimate that the concentrations of hydrotrioxides in the atmosphere are approximately 10 million per cubic centimetre. In comparison, OH radicals (one of the most important oxidants in the atmosphere) are found at concentrations of about one million per cubic centimetre. 'We can now show, through direct observation, that these compounds actually form in the atmosphere, that they are surprisingly stable and that they are formed from almost all chemical compounds,' said Jing Chen, a PhD student at the Department of Chemistry and second author of the study. 'All speculation must now be put to rest.' Laboratory set-up of the free-jet flow experiment, which provided the first direct evidence that the formation of hydrotrioxides (ROOOH) also takes place under atmospheric conditions. The research team claims that the hydrotrioxides are likely to be able to penetrate into tiny airborne particles, known as aerosols, which pose a health hazard and can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. 'They will most likely enter aerosols, where they will form new compounds with new effects,' said Prof Kjrgaard. 'It is easy to imagine that new substances are formed in the aerosols that are harmful if inhaled. But further investigation is required to address these potential health effects.' There is also a high probability that hydrotrioxides impact how many aerosols are produced, according to the researchers, which in turn has an impact on climate. 'As sunlight is both reflected and absorbed by aerosols, this affects the Earth's heat balance that is, the ratio of sunlight that Earth absorbs and sends back into space,' explained co-author and PhD. student Eva R. Kjrgaard. 'When aerosols absorb substances, they grow and contribute to cloud formation, which affects Earth's climate as well.' The researchers hope that the discovery of hydrotrioxides will help scientists learn more about the effect of the chemicals we emit. 'Most human activity leads to emission of chemical substances into the atmosphere,' said co-author and postdoc, Kristan H. Mller. 'So, knowledge of the reactions that determine atmospheric chemistry is important if we are to be able to predict how our actions will affect the atmosphere in the future.' Prof Kjrgaard added: 'These compounds have always been around we just didn't know about them. 'But the fact that we now have evidence that the compounds are formed and live for a certain amount of time means that it is possible to study their effect more targeted and respond if they turn out to be dangerous.' The study was published in the journal Science. The moment that Top Gun fans have waited more than 30 years for is finally here, with the UK release of Top Gun: Maverick today. The sequel to the cult classic sees Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise, training a cohort of graduates to become test pilots in the Navy. Maverick's age is a key plot point in the film, with some colleagues questioning whether, at 57-years-old, he is too old to be a test and fighter pilot. So does Maverick really have what it takes to be still be a fighter pilot after 30 years of service? Here we delve into the details and reveal that, while his age likely wouldn't stop him, his lifestyle might. The moment that Top Gun fans have waited more than 30 years for is finally here, with the UK launch of Top Gun: Maverick today What do Navy Fighter Pilots do? Navy Fighter Pilots' missions are 'among the most daring and most important,' the US Navy explains. 'Complete complex air maneuvers while flying at Mach speeds. Catapult off carriers at 170 mph and land on moving runways only 300 feet long, it said. 'Gather intel, drop ordnance and conduct defensive missionsall in the most versatile strike fighters on the planet, the F/A-18 Hornet and the cutting-edge F-35C Lightning II.' Advertisement Age While Maverick is in his early 20s in the original Top Gun film, he is now 57 in the sequel. According to Zippia, the average age of a military Pilot in the US is 45 years old, while 67 per cent of pilots are aged 40+. Writing for The Conversation, Dr Guy Gratton, an Associate Professor of Aviation and the Environment at Cranfield University, reassured that Maverick would still be young enough to be a test pilot. '57 is not too old. I've met many test pilots in their 60s, and fighter pilots in their 50s,' he said. However, it is unlikely he would have been able to join the Navy at such an advanced age if he wasn't already in it. To become a pilot now with the US Navy, you must have begun pilot training between the ages of 19 and 33. Height At 5ft 7', Tom Cruise is known for being quite short, and is believed to regularly wear inserts in his shoes to make him look taller. Thankfully though, Cruise's height means Maverick is well within the Navy's height requirements for pilots. According to Zippia, the average age of a military Pilot in the US is 45 years old, while 67 per cent of pilots are aged 40+ Dr Gratton claims that Maverick's short stature - he stands at 5ft 7' - could come in handy as a test pilot Although the film crew had clearance to put Cruise and other actors in the F-18s for filming, they were merely passengers in the cockpit Did Tom Cruise actually fly the planes? Cruise has had his pilot's licence since 1994 and did genuinely fly planes in the film. However, his request to pilot a $70 million F-18 Super Hornet fighter plane was turned down by the Navy. Veteran producer Jerry Bruckheimer said that Cruise had filed a request to be allowed to fly the plane, but was denied clearance by the Navy. This was presumably on the grounds that the $70 million plane was simply too expensive to be entrusted someone who is not actually a fighter pilot. Advertisement A Navy pilot candidate must be at least 5 feet 2 inches tall and no taller than 6 feet 5 inches. In fact, Dr Gratton claims that Maverick's short stature could actually be beneficial as a test pilot. 'Maverick is not exactly the tallest pilot in the business,' he wrote. 'That would make him an ideal candidate to be declared "shortest test pilot" and lined up to test out smaller sized equipment.' Lifestyle As his nickname suggests, Maverick has a reckless attitude and cocky demeanour, which often puts him at odds with other pilots. Unfortunately, this might go against him as a fighter pilot in the real world, according to Dr Gratton. 'Good professional pilots shouldn't be people who indulge in risky behaviours or who are poor team players,' he wrote. Dr Gratton points to a 2020 study by researchers from the Florida Institute of Technology, which looked at personality trends in the pilot population. The study, published in Collegiate Aviation Review International, found that pilots tend to exhibit personality traits lower in neuroticism, higher in extroversion, equivalent in openness, lower in agreeableness, and higher in conscientiousness than the general population. 'Pilots, specifically military pilots, may be less agreeable due to being more concerned with aspects of mission performance over relationships,' the researchers wrote. Cruise, 59, famously insists that he does his own stunts and has been banging the drum for the authenticity of Top Gun: Maverick What about Tom Cruise himself? Cruise has had his pilot's licence since 1994 and did genuinely fly planes in the film. However, his request to pilot the $70 million F-18 Super Hornet fighter plane was turned down by the Navy. The film shows his character flying supersonic jets on a dangerous secret mission at 'Mach 2 with his hair on fire,' as Cruise puts it. Cruise and others have spoken in numerous interviews about how they went through months of training to be able to handle G-Forces and say their lines in the film without passing out or vomiting. However, veteran producer Jerry Bruckheimer has come clean and admitted that although they had clearance to put Cruise and other actors in the F-18s, they were merely passengers in the cockpit. Bruckheimer said that Cruise had filed a request to be allowed to fly the plane, but was denied clearance by the Navy presumably on the grounds that the $70 million plane was simply too expensive to be entrusted someone who is not actually a fighter pilot. Chelsea will have to fork out 45million during the summer transfer window to secure the services of Brighton defender Marc Cucurella, according to reports. The 23-year-old has established himself as hot property heading to the summer window after completing a successful debut campaign in the Premier League. Cucurella - who has been capped once by Spain - has picked up interest from Premier League giants Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham. Chelsea will have to fork out 45million for Brighton defender Marc Cucurella this summer Brighton paid Getafe 15.4m for Cucurella's services but, according to The Sun, Chelsea would need to pay more than double that figure to sign him this summer. Chelsea would also have to fight off interest from Premier League rivals Manchester City and Tottenham to land the player who spent six years at Barcelona's academy. The Spanish left-back has risen to stardom after a standout first season in England following his transfer from LaLiga. Thomas Tuchel will also have to fight off interest from Manchester City and Tottenham Cucurella has kept eight clean sheets and successfully won 67 per cent of his tackles this term Cucurella joined Brighton last summer from Getafe and has made 35 league appearances, scoring once and providing one assist. Cucurella has also established himself as a defensive fortress given the fact no other full-back in the Premier League won possession more than his 241 times. He also kept eight clean sheets and successfully won 67 per cent of his tackles during the 2021-2022 campaign. Cucurella could be tempted by Manchester City as he said interest from the Premier League champions City is hard to dismiss and that he would have to 'take advantage of it' Chelsea are eager to add Cucurella to their ranks as they are preparing for life without without Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen and possibly Cesar Azpilicueta. However, Cucurella could be tempted by Manchester City after admitting that interest from the Premier League champions is hard to dismiss. He said: 'If the opportunity arises, you have to take advantage of it. There are teams that you can't say no to.' Bayern Munich have reportedly mapped out their summer pursuit for Sadio Mane, with a growing belief in Bavaria that he will 'say goodbye' to Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool after the Champions League final. Mane has so far refused to be drawn on his future in the build-up to Saturday's huge showdown against Real Madrid in Paris. The 30-year-old is entering the final year of his contract at Liverpool and a new report by German newspaper Bild has detailed how Bayern believe they can snare Mane this summer. The future of Sadio Mane at Liverpool remains under scrutiny heading towards the summer A report in German outlet Bild suggests there is growing belief he will go to Bayern Munich An extension to remain at Anfield has so far not materialised for Mane and so Bild report that Bayern are lurking, provided they pay no more than 25million to get him. No significant talks are believed to have taken place given Liverpool's season is still to reach its conclusion, but the belief in Germany is that official talks will commence following Saturday's Champions League final. Sportsmail revealed the link to Bayern, which emerged at the start of the month, took Anfield officials completely by surprise. Bayern have historically found themselves in the middle of big transfer stories in April or May which have come to fruition - such as when they signed Mats Hummels, Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski from German rivals Borussia Dortmund. The reports in Germany say that Mane will bid farewell to Jurgen Klopp after Saturday's final Mane has said he will only reveal his future plans after Liverpool's Champions League final Speaking this week when quizzed about his future on Merseyside, Mane remained coy. He said: 'For sure it will be special to win it, and make it seven (European Cup wins for the club). And this question (my future) I will answer after the Champions League. Stay or not - I'll answer after the Champions League.' The agency which looks after Mane, Bild claim, held a meeting about a potential deal in Mallorca but it's understood the player himself has held no such talks as Liverpool have spent recent months battling for an unprecedented quadruple. The future of Liverpool's famed front three of Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah has been a subject of debate for some time. Salah took a different approach to Mane, looking to address his future head on to ease the concern of supporters. 'In my mind, I don't focus on the contract,' Salah said this week. Bayern Munich are keen to make a statement signing - but 'don't want to pay more than 25m' 'I don't want to be selfish. I said that two months ago: it is about the team now. I am just focused with the team. I want to win the Champions League again. I want to see Hendo with the trophy again and hopefully he will give it to me after (he lifts it). 'But I am staying (here) next season, for sure - I'm staying next season.' After scoring the winner against Aston Villa earlier in the month, Mane told reporters that he's 'honestly very happy' at the Merseyside club. He said: 'Yeah, I am happy here, I think when we win trophies I am happier! But I think I am trying to enjoy every moment, trying to assist my team-mates and I think the boys make it a lot easier for me. 'I am honestly very happy. I am just trying to enjoy every moment and assist my team-mates. Without my team-mates I'm nothing.' Antonio Conte has reportedly chosen to stay at Tottenham for next season after guiding the team back into the Champions League. Spurs thrashed Norwich 5-0 on Sunday to pip rivals Arsenal to fourth spot, but Conte refused to commit his future to the club in the aftermath of that victory. However, after holding talks with managing director Fabio Paratici in Turin on Friday, where the pair are believed to have discussed summer transfer targets, Conte has now opted to remain at Tottenham, according to The Telegraph. Tottenham beat Norwich on Sunday to secure a top-four finish in the Premier League Having guided Tottenham back into the Champions League, Antonio Conte is now set to stay The 52-year-old had had a major impact on Tottenham's fortunes after arriving in November with the side down in ninth place. Having replaced Nuno Espirito Santo, Conte won 17 of his 28 league games in charge as Tottenham finished their campaign strongly under the Italian. Conte staying is just the latest positive news at the north London club in recent days. It was announced on Tuesday that Tottenham's majority shareholder ENIC will be injecting 150million into the club to 'enable further investment'. Harry Kane is believed to be open to a new contract, which could be more good news for Spurs This should allow Conte to potentially spend heavily when the transfer window opens as he looks to close the gap to Manchester City and Liverpool at the top of the league. Meanwhile, England captain Harry Kane is also understood to be considering signing a new contract. The 28-year-old was strongly linked with a move to Manchester City last summer, but with Spurs back in Europe's elite club competition, and Conte at the helm, it now appears that he sees his long-term future at Tottenham. His current deal runs until 2024, but a contract extension could be on the cards for the forward. Formula One stars have been granted an exemption to continue wearing jewellery in their cars until the end of June, with further discussions between drivers and the FIA set to take place over the next month. The FIA has enforced its International Sporting Code more strictly so far this season, clamping down on the wearing of piercings and chains in both the Australia and Miami Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton was left furious with the move, but the Brit has been told he will be able to wear his nose piercing for the next three races after FIA chiefs extended their rule exemptions. Hamilton, whose piercing is not easily removable, called the potential ban 'unnecessary' and a 'step backwards' after new F1 race director Niels Wittich looked to bring in the changes. When they [the FIA] told me about the jewellery, they were saying safety is everything, the seven-time world champion said earlier this month. I said, Well, whats happened for the last 16 years? Ive had jewellery on for 16 years. So was safety not an issue back then? I feel like its almost like a step backwards, if you think about the steps we are taking as a sport, and the more important causes that we need to be focused on. F1 drivers have been granted an exemption to continue wearing jewellery until the end of June New F1 race director Niels Wittich has tried to enforce rules on jewellery more strictly this term FIA chiefs tried to clamp down on drivers wearing piercing and chains in the Miami Grand Prix I think weve made really great strides as a sport. This is such a small thing. However, the FIA has now provided a rule exemption for the next three races in order to allow dialogue between drivers and medical staff over the issue to continue. The latter are trying to find a way for regulations in Appendix L of the ISC concerning jewellery to be enforced in a safe manner, with discussions taking place after a recent drivers' briefing in Spain. There is an uncertainty about which items are deemed safe and unsafe in cars, nevertheless, including wedding rings. Haas driver Kevin Magnussen said on Thursday: 'I'll take a little bit of extra burn on my finger to race in my wedding ring. And if something was going to happen, something bad, I would want to wear my wedding ring. It kind of feels bad to take it off. 'With something like that, like your wedding ring, let us take that responsibility. There must be somehow to remove liability.' Lewis Hamilton was left furious with the FIA's jewellery stance and branded it 'unnecessary' Though when faced with a potential fine, Magnussen didn't hesitate to remove his wedding ring since rules were enforced more strictly after the Miami GP. 'I took it off once they said there was a 50,000 fine,' he said. 'Thats it I put it right in my drawer! Not gonna take the risk.' Despite criticism from drivers, Alex Wurz, chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association, recently backed the FIA's stance on jewellery in the cockpit. While urging the governing body to enforce it in a more collaborative manner, Wurz branded it 'a rule for the right reasons'. Advertisement Caribbean charm: The Queen and Princess Margaret in Mustique in 1977 No one has ever attempted to tot up all the miles but it must run into the millions. The Queen has certainly travelled further than all of her predecessors put together. This is, in part, down to technology. She has been fortunate to have reigned in the age of the jet engine, although she was globetrotting by sea long before long-haul flights. It is also, in part, down to politics. She has reigned through an era of world peace which has not only made travel a good deal safer and easier than it was for her predecessors. It has also made it important for her to maintain existing friendships and alliances by a steady round of state visits and tours. The other key factor has been her robust health. She has, on the whole, been a good traveller. From her very first overseas tour, to South Africa in 1947, to her last foray abroad, to Malta in 2015, she has stuck to certain rules. She has always avoided shellfish (too risky) and stringy pasta (too messy). She has always been accompanied by a ready supply of Malvern water (to be on the safe side) and the red boxes have never been far behind. When possible, she has also preferred to avoid helicopters (ever since a senior aide was killed in one). She has never had to worry about the more irksome travel problems faced by the rest of us. No flight or train was ever going to leave without her. Her luggage has never ended up in Miami when it was supposed to be in Manchester. However, on the debit side, she has never been able to go anywhere on a whim; or to tear up her plans at the last minute and head for the beach. As for blending in with the locals, forget it. However, one thing has always been true. When the Queen has been somewhere, her hosts have always wanted to show her the very best of what they have to offer. So, as we mark the Platinum Jubilee of the most widely-travelled head of state on Earth, lets celebrate all the places she has been to along the way. Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip in Malta in 1949. '[The Queen] has never had to worry about the more irksome travel problems faced by the rest of us,' says Robert Hardman. 'No flight or train was ever going to leave without her' 1950s: NEWLY CROWNED With King George VI laid low through illness, Princess Elizabeth and her husband were expected to travel the world on his behalf. In 1951, they made their first trans-Atlantic tour of North America, crossing Canada coast to coast in a special train. They had a go at square-dancing (providing a rare picture of Prince Philip in jeans) and went for a ride in a horse-drawn sleigh. In the U.S., the future Queen paid her first visit to the White House as a guest of President Truman. At the start of 1952, the Princess and the Duke of Edinburgh had to leave Prince Charles and Princess Anne behind once again as they set off round the world for Australia, on behalf of the King. Their first major stop was Kenya where they travelled from Nairobi to Nyeri to view Sagana Lodge, a wedding present from the Kenyan government. While there, they spent a magical night in a giant treehouse in the Aberdare National Park, inspecting wildlife. During the course of that night, the sudden death of the King meant that, when the Princess came down from the tree, she was Queen. Once the Coronation was over, it was time to start replanning that round-the-world tour. This time, the royal couple would travel in the opposite direction, via Bermuda and Jamaica and then by ship through the Panama Canal to the Pacific. After stops in Fiji and Tonga, the Queen arrived in New Zealand in time for Christmas. Her arrival in Australia drew the largest crowds in the countrys entire history, as she visited everywhere from Bondi Beach to the Outback. The Queen is pictured here in Brisbane, Australia, in 1977 during her Silver Jubilee celebrations The tour returned via Ceylon and then the Mediterranean where, in Libya, the couple were introduced to a new mode of transport. The newly-completed Royal Yacht sailed out to meet them carrying their children and they all sailed home together. In 1955, the Queen made her first state visit to Norway followed, a year later, by one to Sweden. In 1957, she made two particularly significant state visits to key allies. In the aftermath of the Suez debacle, she travelled to France. In Paris, a dinner at the Louvre was enlivened when the Queen revealed that she had never seen the Mona Lisa. Moments later, two workmen appeared and leaned it next to a chair. On a trip to the U.S., meanwhile, she had her first glimpse of a supermarket and a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. HOW TO DO IT: Sixteen-day coast-to-coast train holidays in Canada from 4,695 pp with hotels and flights (greatrail.com). Thirteen-day East Africa Safari Tours from 7,499 pp with hotels and flights (hayesandjarvis.co.uk). Four-night breaks in Washington DC with hotel and flights from 843 pp (virginholidays.co.uk). 1960s: AN EPIC DECADE Having avoided travel while she was expecting Prince Andrew, the Queen embarked on a series of epic Commonwealth tours in 1961, starting in India. Millions turned out to greet her in Delhi, while she arrived in Jaipur by elephant and viewed the Taj Mahal by moonlight. There was polo in Pakistan and a tiger hunt laid on by the King of Nepal (the Duke of Edinburgh developed a mysterious infection on his trigger finger which conveniently prevented him from shooting). Her final stop was to stay with the Shah of Iran. Later in the year, her African tour was best remembered for the sight of the Queen dancing with the new president of republican Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah. Her 1965 state visit to Germany was seen as a vital step in securing a new post-war friendship. Arriving at the Schloss Bruhl, near Cologne, she wowed her hosts by wearing a dress which matched the decor of the castle. The next year saw her first full tour of the Caribbean where Jamaica was holding the Commonwealth Games. By the end of the decade, the Queen became the first reigning monarch to tour South America. Her visits to Brazil and Chile coincided with the very first royal TV documentary. Filmed in colour, Royal Family showed her sailing into Rio in the Royal Yacht and receiving a ticker-tape welcome on the Copacabana. HOW TO DO IT: Eleven-day tours of India covering the Taj Mahal and Jaipur from 2,770 pp including hotels and flights (audleytravel.com). Thirteen-day guided tours of Ghana from 2,840 pp, excluding flights (responsibletravel.com). 1970s: FAR FLUNG The Queen meets Maoris while on tour in New Zealand in her Silver Jubilee year The Queen during a walkabout in Muscat during a state visit to Oman in March 1979 There were plenty of trips to Australia and New Zealand all through the decade, not least to open the new Sydney Opera House in 1973. By now, jet travel had made long-distance trips easier. In 1972, the Queen made her first visit to a communist country when she stayed with President Tito of Yugoslavia. Huge crowds in Belgrade and Zagreb were followed by a visit to his holiday home on the Brioni Islands. In the same year, she returned to France where she heralded Britains entry to the EEC, visited Provence and saw her uncle, the Duke of Windsor, for the last time. Landmark visits to Mexico and Japan were followed by exuberant scenes as the Queen toured the U.S. to celebrate 200 years since gaining independence from Britain. Weeks later, she was in Montreal to open the Olympic Games at which Princess Anne was part of the British equestrian team. As well as another Caribbean tour including her first visit to Mustique, the Queen became the first female head of state to visit Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, in 1979. In Dubai, she opened what was then the tallest building in the Middle East, the 39-storey World Trade Centre. She also embarked on her first major Africa tour. HOW TO DO IT: Fourteen-day trips to Sydney and around New South Wales from 1,899 pp with flights and hotels (travelbag.co.uk). Six nights in Dubai from 1,001 pp half-board with hotels and flights (travelrepublic.co.uk). Seven nights B&B at The Cotton House in Mustique, including flights, from 5,400 pp (elegantresorts.co.uk). Thirteen-night Japan Unmasked tours from 2,610 pp with hotels, excluding flights (insidejapantours.com). 1980s: AMERICA BOUND The Queen is pictured here arriving in Shanghai on October 12, 1986, during an official state visit to China The decade began with a ground-breaking tour of French-speaking North Africa, including Tunisia and Algeria. It descended into farce when she arrived in Morocco. The paranoid King Hassan II insisted on altering the schedule all the time for fear of assassination. On a trip to Marrakesh, the Queen spent most of the day waiting for lunch and a dusty horse display at the Kings desert encampment. She never reached Marrakesh. Even monarchs have dreams and bucket lists. In 1983, the Queen finally fulfilled a lifelong ambition when she visited Hollywood and met the stars as a guest of President Reagan. This was the prelude to a series of visits to visit racehorses, ranches and studs in Kentucky and Wyoming. The Queen in Shanghai on October 15, 1986, with Michael Shea, her press secretary (grey hair on the right), accompanying her. The yellow-and-blue dress with matching hat was by fashion designer Ian Thomas Her visit to the 1983 Commonwealth summit in India saw a memorable meeting with Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Three years later, one of the most spectacular tours of the entire reign brought the Queen to China. Britannia sailed in to Shanghai, the Queen and the Duke walked along the Great Wall and also met the Terracotta Warriors of Xian. HOW TO DO IT: Week-long Discover Morocco tours from 1,640 pp with hotels and flights (abercrombiekent.co.uk). Seven nights in Los Angeles with hotels and flights from 1,092 pp (thomascook.com). Sixteen-day Wonders of China tours from 3,340 pp with hotels and flights (wendywutours.co.uk). 1990s: EUROPE REVOLUTION In 1991, in the aftermath of the Gulf War, the Queen visited Washington to stay with President George Bush before heading south to Florida, and then going west to Texas. One of the greatest moments in post-War history, the collapse of the Berlin Wall, led to a complete change of scene for the Queen. With Eastern Europe now opening up to Western visitors, she could look behind the old Iron Curtain. There were lively visits to the former East Germany, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. But the most eye-catching of them all was the Queens 1994 state visit to Russia where she went on a walkabout in Red Square. Unfortunately, Russian security had removed the public. In St Petersburg, she entertained President Boris Yeltsin to dinner on her yacht. That same year, she enjoyed her last old-style tour of the Caribbean as she visited Jamaica, Belize and the Cayman Islands in Britannia. There were visits to France, including one to open the Channel Tunnel and another to mark the 50th anniversary of D-Day. Most poignant of all was the Queens return to South Africa, in Britannia, for the first time since her visit as a young Princess. Waiting on the quayside was a man who would become a dear friend, newly-elected President Nelson Mandela. Come 1997, it was time to say farewell to her yacht. Britannia had logged more than a million miles at sea before finally being decommissioned after the handover of Hong Kong. There were further trips through Africa, including one to the newest member of the Commonwealth, Mozambique. HOW TO DO IT: One-month continuous rail pass for travel in 33 countries in Europe for a tour of Eastern Europe from 563pp (myinterrail.co.uk). Seven nights at Grand Caymanian Resort on Seven Mile Beach in the Cayman Islands from 1,510 pp with flights (britishairways.com). Twelve-night Texas fly-drive holidays with flights, hotels and rental car from 2,099pp (americansky.co.uk). 2000s: OFF TO OZ The Queen exchanges presents with Pope John Paul II during an audience at the Vatican in Rome on Tuesday, October 17, 2000. Dressed in black and wearing a veil, the Queen was greeted by the 80-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church at the door of his study. During a private meeting lasting 20 minutes, they are thought to have discussed progress towards Christian unity and the troubles in Northern Ireland In 2000, the Queen was in Italy where she not only saw the sights of Rome once again but also visited Milan. At a reception the grandees of the fashion industry saluted her style. It was also time for her to return to Australia, having recently been re-endorsed as head of state in the 1999 referendum. She unveiled the new Olympic stadium built for the 2000 Sydney Games and travelled to the Outback once again. During her 2002 Golden Jubilee, she covered most of her Commonwealth realms yet again. During a power cut in Jamaica, enterprising staff kept the state banquet illuminated using the headlights from their cars. Amazingly, it had taken until 2011 and the age of 85 before the Queen was finally allowed to visit her closest neighbour. Her four-day visit to the Republic of Ireland remains one of the highlights of the reign with trips to Croke Park, Guinnesss HQ, a racing stud and the food stalls of Corks English Market There were still parts of the world she had never seen and, in 2006, she paid her first state visits to the young Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. In 2007, she paid her last state visit to the U.S., travelling to Virginia and the Kentucky Derby before being welcomed to the White House by George W. Bush. HOW TO DO IT: Four-night La Scala tours of Milan with hotels, flights, meals and tickets to the opera from 1,790pp (kirkerholidays.com). Flights to Rome from 130 pp (ryanair.com). Nineteen-day escorted Highlights of Australia tours from 4,899pp with flights and hotels (titantravel.co.uk). 2010s: WINDING DOWN Gradually, the Queen was starting to cut back on long-haul travel. Her visit to the 2011 Commonwealth summit in Western Australia would be her last Down Under. It concluded with a huge community barbecue in Perth. Her 2010 tours of Abu Dhabi and Dubai were followed by her visit to the Sultan of Oman who laid on a colossal display of horses and camels, including the worlds only camel-mounted bagpipe band. Amazingly, it had taken until 2011 and the age of 85 before the Queen was finally allowed to visit her closest neighbour. Her four-day visit to the Republic of Ireland remains one of the highlights of the reign with trips to Croke Park, Guinnesss HQ, a racing stud and the food stalls of Corks English Market. For her state banquet at Dublin Castle, she not only spoke in Gaelic but had 1,081 shamrocks hand-stitched into her ballgown. She started to make shorter state visits, including two in a day in 2014 to meet the Pope and the President of Italy. Amazingly, it had taken until 2011 and the age of 85 before the Queen was finally allowed to visit her closest neighbour, explains Robert. Her four-day visit to the Republic of Ireland remains one of the highlights of the reign with trips to Croke Park, Guinnesss HQ (above), a racing stud and the food stalls of Corks English Market On her 2014 state visit to France, she had a Parisian flower market named after her. The following year, huge crowds turned out to see her in Germany. Later in 2015, she made what, to date, has been her final trip overseas when she attended the Commonwealth summit in the place that meant so much to her all those years before Malta. However, no one has championed the staycation quite like our monarch. For the Queen, there is still only one true holiday destination: the Highlands. HOW TO DO IT: Seven nights at the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi Grand Canal from 1,216pp (travelsupermarket.com). Seven-day Best of Scottish Highlands tours from 784 pp including hotels, excursions, meals and flights (newmarketholidays.co.uk). Seven nights at the Kempinski Hotel Muscat in Oman from 1,781 pp half-board with flights (kuoni.co.uk). Queen Of Our Times The Life of Elizabeth II by Robert Hardman is published by Macmillan. Japan will open its borders to foreign tourists in June for the first time since imposing tight pandemic travel restrictions about two years ago, but only for package tours for now. Beginning June 10, Japan will allow the entry of package holiday tourists from 98 countries and regions including Britain, the United States, Australia, France, Spain, Canada, and Malaysia. Japan will also expand the number of airports that accept international flights to seven, adding Naha in its southern Okinawa prefecture and New Chitose near Sapporo in northern Hokkaido. Japan will open its borders to foreign tourists in June for the first time since imposing tight pandemic travel restrictions about two years ago, but only for package tours for now. Pictured is Japan's Mount Fuji All arrivals have to test negative before travel to Japan and many must be tested again on arrival, though triple-vaccinated people coming from certain countries can skip the additional test as well as a three-day quarantine required for others. Japan this week is hosting small experimental package tours from four countries - Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. That experiment, which involves only 50 people who received special visas, not tourist visas, is to end on May 31. 'Free and active exchange of people is the foundation of economy and society, as well as that of Asia's development,' Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said in a speech at a Tokyo hotel on Thursday. Japan, while watching the infection situation, will gradually accept more tourists in stages to the level of arrivals before the pandemic, he added. After facing criticism that its strict border controls were xenophobic, Japan began easing its restrictions earlier this year and currently allows entry of up to 10,000 people a day, including Japanese citizens, foreign students and some business travellers. Japan will double the cap to 20,000 a day in June, which will also include package tour participants, said Makoto Shimoaraiso, a Cabinet official in charge of pandemic measures. Beginning June 10, Japan will allow the entry of package holiday tourists from 98 countries and regions including Britain, the United States, France, Spain, Canada, and Malaysia. Above is a sunset picture of Tokyo The scale of the package tours and other details will be finalised after officials evaluate the results of the current experimental tours, he said. It will take some time before foreign visitors can come to Japan for individual tourism, Shimoaraiso said. Japan this week also eased requests for mask-wearing. While masks are still requested on public transportation, and in hospitals and other public facilities, people can take off masks outdoors where others are not around or talking. Despite the easing, most Japanese so far are seen sticking to wearing masks in public. Japan's tourism industry, hit hard by the border controls, is eager for foreign tourism to resume. Covid-19 infections have slowed in Japan since earlier this year and the government is gradually expanding social and economic activity. Kishida said during a visit to London earlier this month that he planned to ease the border controls as early as June in line with the policies of other Group of Seven industrialised countries, but gave no further details. Foreign tourist arrivals fell more than 90 per cent in 2020 from a record 31.9million the year before, almost wiping out the pre-pandemic inbound tourism market of more than four-trillion yen ($31billion/24.5billion). Spanish holiday resorts offer the best value in the world, according to British holidaymakers. In a poll in which they were asked to rate foreign destinations theyd previously visited for value, Spains Costas on the mainland come first with a 92 per cent rating and Spains Canary Islands (91 per cent) take the silver medal in the ranking. Almost as many gave good-value approval ratings for Greece (third, 89 per cent), Portugal (joint fourth, 88 per cent) and Turkey (joint fourth, 88 per cent). Spanish holiday resorts offer the best value in the world, according to British holidaymakers. Pictured is the Costa Brava The survey of UK adults was carried out by the Post Office, which pointed out that high-ranking Turkey is one of the few destinations where sterling will stretch further than last year. Britons changing 500 can expect to receive over 50 per cent more in Turkish lira -the equivalent of almost 167 extra - for their pounds. Bulgaria, long regarded as a bargain destination and which regularly tops the Post Office Holiday Costs Barometer for its cheapness, does not make the best-value top 10, as voted for by British holidaymakers who have visited the country. With an 80 per cent good value rating, the country can only manage ninth position, four places below its more expensive Balkan rival Croatia (fifth), rated good value by 86 per cent of people who had holidayed there. Mexico (sixth, 85 per cent) achieved the highest number of approval ratings by long-haul holidaymakers who had visited the country. Greece comes third in the ranking of best-value foreign destinations. Pictured is the Greek island of Santorini However, holidaymakers travelling to destinations there such as Cancun and Riviera Maya will need to factor in a rise in the value of the Mexican peso, the Post Office warns. It means they will get around 70 less (-12.2 per cent) to spend when they change 500. Compared with this, sterling will buy just 3.8 per cent fewer Thai baht (-19.83). The destinations receiving the lowest good value ratings are Dubai (44 per cent) and Scandinavia (42 per cent). However, British visitors to Scandinavian countries will get more for their money this year because sterling is up 4.7 per cent year on year against the Swedish krona (22.42), 2.6 per cent against the Norwegian krone (+12.59) and 1.6 per cent against the Danish krone (+7.88). The Post Office survey also asked respondents to rate destinations for value that theyd not visited. Mexico (sixth, 85 per cent) achieved the highest number of approval ratings by long-haul British holidaymakers who had visited the country. Pictured is the country's Cancun coast This ranking is topped by Greece (89 per cent), Portugal (89 per cent) and Bulgaria (89 per cent). Nick Boden, Head of Post Office Travel Money, said: Sterlings fall in value makes it even more important for people planning trips to consider the costs they will face in resorts abroad before they take the plunge and book a holiday. While they weigh up the cost of flights and accommodation or package deals, they will need to watch what is happening with sterling as that will make a sizeable difference to the overall cost of their holiday. By choosing destinations like Turkey or Bulgaria in Europe or Thailand or Mexico further afield, they could save themselves money. SILENT WITNESS, MONDAY, BBC1 Rating: Some things never get old, do they? Silent Witness, one of the BBC's most consistently successful hits, entered its 25th series this week as fresh-faced as ever. It's a significant milestone for any show, let alone one which, over the years, has been as hard-hitting as this one. First broadcast in 1996 long before the advent of streaming it was gritty and menacing at a time of shiny Blairite enthusiasm. The world was all Spice Girls, Bridget Jones and Richard Curtis comedies featuring foppish toffs in emotionally rewarding situations. Against that background of such relentless positivity, Silent Witness came in hard with an opening episode about a dead six-year-old girl. It was quite a departure. Silent Witness is as fresh faced as ever as it enters its 25th series this week, according to Sarah Vine Conceived and written by Nigel McCrery, a former murder squad detective from Nottingham, at the time it felt groundbreaking, sometimes too much. There was a rather unpleasant episode involving a bloody rape in a toilet, which for many viewers was a bridge too far. But it survived that controversy, as well as several cast changes and departures and the rest is TV history. Of course, success breeds familiarity. Over the years the series has spawned countless imitators, transforming the business of cutting up bodies in various stages of decomposition from something on the edges of acceptable into, dare I say it, an exciting career choice. Sarah Vine (pictured) delivers her verdict on this week's TV All crime shows glamorise crime to an extent, but the show's original star, Amanda Burton, did for forensic pathology what Andrew Scott did for the priesthood in Fleabag. That voice, those eyes, that expression: Dr Sam Ryan was and still is a class act. Having parted company with the show in 2004, to be replaced by the no-less-glamorous Emilia Fox as Dr Nikki Alexander (no one should look that good in a hazmat suit), Burton has returned almost two decades later. It's post-pandemic, and her character is now running a commercial enterprise working with government to roll out medical passports. It's rather dodgy and gets dodgier still when the Health Secretary in charge of the policy is shot dead while leaving a press conference with Ryan and her partner, who's also injured. Cut to Dr Alexander on the phone. 'It's Professor Sam Ryan, Nikki. I need your help.' Da-da-daaaa! Saying that, old habits die hard: Ryan hangs around Nikki like a bad smell (although not, one imagines, any worse than the one wafting from the dissecting table) as she squeezes the contents out of the victim's stomach and rummages through her liver (reminder: this is not one to watch over supper). 'There's supervising, and there's taking over,' chides Nikki afterwards. Ryan looks enigmatic. Things get curiouser and curiouser as a succession of questionable characters including members of the constabulary and some sinister individuals linked to government enter the frame, and extras drop like flies. Meanwhile Nikki and her hunky sidekick Jack (David Caves) get increasingly forensic with each other, exchanging meaningful glances over the bloodstains. Death, intrigue and now romance too. What more could you possibly want? THIS IS WHY LUCY IS HISTORY'S HEAD GIRL LUCY WORSLEY INVESTIGATES, TUESDAY, BBC2 Rating: Lucy Worsley (pictured) is presenting a new show re-investigating four chapters of British history including witch hunts and the Princes in the Tower I rather like Lucy Worsley. The historian has an engaging head-girl quality about her, and although her feminist agenda can sometimes seem a little relentless, she underpins everything with thorough research and fascinating detail. I've been enjoying her Radio 4 series Lady Killers, about Victorian villainesses, and this new four-part series is in a similar vein, looking at historical events through a modern lens. In this first episode she tackles the witch-hunts of the 16th century, which began in earnest in Scotland in January 1591 with the execution of one Agnes Sampson a midwife and 'wise woman'. Having been tortured, Agnes confessed to being part of a coven plotting to kill James VI of Scotland, who later succeeded Elizabeth I to the English throne. This led to moral and religious hysteria and the persecution and death of thousands of women. As we've come to expect from shows like this there's rather too much moody re-enactment crows cawing, old women muttering, stony-faced men and so on; but it explains with eloquence and insight how so many innocents lost their lives at the hands of men like John Kincade, aka 'the witch pricker', who would strip women naked, shave them and then stick metal pins into them until he uncovered a so-called 'witch's mark'. And you thought Twitter was brutal. The Great Jubilee this, the Great Jubilee that you can't move for Jubilee-themed programming right now. Grayson's Art Club: Queen's Jubilee Special (Wed, Ch4) was perhaps one of the most bizarre, beginning with Grayson Perry icing Her Majesty's likeness onto a cake and ending with the tremendous Margaret, a lady who knitted an entire Sandringham. In between was a gallery of British eccentrics, artists and national treasures. Perry himself pottered around, literally and figuratively, delivering mildly incisive insights into the nature of royalty. Meanwhile, Prue Leith made a hideous chandelier in honour of the monarch. Love Prue, obviously; but she should probably stick to baking. HURRAH FOR HARRY Harry Trevaldwyn stars in Billi on All4, as a bratty egomaniac with an inflated sense of entitlement A friend told me about Billi (All4), and I watched it because it stars Harry Trevaldwyn, who I only came across recently in Ten Percent (Amazon Prime Video), and rather liked. Trevaldwyn plays the title character, Billi, a bratty egomaniac with an inflated sense of entitlement in this hilarious comedy short. It's a very witty little satire on the vanity and delusional nature of a certain type of modern youth. Roman Kemp has revealed he wants to quit showbiz in five years and 'retire young' because he hates fame and dreams of one day opening a dog sanctuary. The Capital FM breakfast host, 29, told MailOnline he learned from an early age after looking up to his famous parents and godfather George Michael that being a 'celebrity' didn't appeal to him and he's only working now to save money for his future. In an exclusive interview, Roman, whose father Martin was the guitarist in Spandau Ballet, admitted he longs for the day when he can leave 'dangerous' London after growing 'terrified' that his life will revolve around convincing the public to like him. 'I want to be a stay-at-home dad': Roman Kemp has revealed he wants to quit showbiz in five years and 'retire young' because he hates fame and dreams of opening a dog sanctuary Roman, who will present The Platinum Party At The Palace on June 4 in celebration of the Queen's 70-year Jubilee, said: 'When I was a child, I was fortunate to see fame at the level of big people in terms of my godfather and my parents. 'You have one level being my mum and dad, which is being recognised at restaurants and all those types of things but then fame at George Michael's level, I wouldn't want that ever. 'If my children one day wanted to become an artist I would back them but personally that level of fame doesn't appeal. 'I am not doing this job to become famous; I know for a fact it doesn't interest me. 'The reason I work, and my agent knows this, and my mum and dad know this, the only reason I'm doing it is because I want to retire as a young person. 'It doesn't interest me': The Capital FM breakfast host told MailOnline he learned from an early age after looking up to his famous parents and godfather George Michael that being a 'celebrity' didn't appeal to him 'I am terrified that I will spend my life on a tiny island that is the UK trying to get people to like me. 'I want to get to the point where I start a family and do what I want to do. I want to be a stay-at-home dad and open a dog sanctuary.' Roman, whose mum was one half of pop duo Pepsi and Shirley, confessed to feeling envious of former Radio 1 breakfast show host Nick Grimshaw's life now he's left the station, admitting he often doubts whether his current lifestyle, which sees him work long hours and attend high-profile events, is healthy. He said: 'I have done the Capital breakfast show for five years now, which has gone by in an instant. 'I remember when I first got the gig, I spoke to Nick Grimshaw, and I said "what am I in for?" He said "it's tough but it's the most fun you will ever have." I can only say that he's right. 'I want to retire young': Roman, whose father Martin was the guitarist in Spandau Ballet, admitted he longs for the day when he can leave 'dangerous' London after growing 'terrified' that his life will revolve around convincing the public to like him 'I am so jealous of Nick's life now because he's having so much fun, he's doing whatever he wants, he looks so happy, and he looks healthy. I can see the benefits of not doing a radio show. 'I have needed to take a realistic look at it and ask myself "is this life making me happy? Is it making me healthy?" I am constantly trying to deal with that. 'I was saying to my best friend yesterday that my life is monotonous, and I feel like I'm on this constant treadmill of a city. I see it for what it is now, London is a dangerous place for someone's mental health.' Roman isn't ready to take his foot off the pedal just yet and still aspires to work another five years in the hot seat at Capital. He added: 'I want a decade on air at least. I would love to be able to say I did a decade on that show whether my bosses will allow that I don't know. 'Radio takes a long time it takes two years to build a relationship with an audience so really I've only had two years with them.' 'He looks healthy': Roman admits he feels 'jealous' of former Radio 1 breakfast show host Nick Grimshaw now he's left the station but says he still wants to work at Capital for the next five years The impact of Roman's intense schedule led him to believe he was suffering with narcolepsy, a brain condition that causes a person to suddenly fall asleep. After seeing a doctor he's since been diagnosed with sleep apnoea, which is when your breathing stops and starts when you're asleep. To tackle the problem, Roman, who's currently single, must wear an oxygen mask to bed, which he says is sure to ruin his love life. He explained: 'I recently got diagnosed with sleep apnoea, which has been rubbish. 'My tiredness levels were debilitating, and they said to me it was because of my job and I said this is different. 'I was talking with people where I thought I was verging on narcolepsy because I was mid conversation and would be snoring and not realising, it was very strange. 'The doctors told me I must wear an oxygen mask. There is absolutely nothing sexy about going back to Roman Kemp's house. 'They are expecting candles and mood lighting but they're getting a Darth Vader impression into an oxygen tank. My love life will look a niche Channel 5 documentary!' Good cause: In line with his ambassador work for The National Lottery, Roman visited charity Age Well East, who aim to empower people in their later years, and quickly learned he's not the best knitter Roman is an ambassador with The National Lottery, who over the past six months have granted 22million of National Lottery funds to community led organisations in the UK to give them a chance of celebrating the Queen's Jubilee in style. Roman visited charity Age Well East, who aim to empower people in their later years, to see first-hand how they are using the funding to rejoice in the momentous week. He said: 'It was such a lovely afternoon heading over to Age Well East. 'These people have been given a social life again. It ties into everything I have stood for so far in terms of mental health about keeping conversations going and making sure coming out of the pandemic that we're able to express ourselves. 'It was great being able to meet some of the women there, who tried teaching me how to knit but sadly, my knitting career lasted about 7 seconds. 'All the women there are widows after losing their husbands. They didn't know how to live their lives or look after their money; it's debilitating to be left in that situation and to be placed into lockdown with no prior warning. 'It was great to be there and see that Age Well East is being supported by the National Lottery and ahead of the Jubilee weekend seeing all of the events they're putting on for everyone to make us feel like we're a part of something special.' EASTENDERS Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall pay a surprise visit to Walford to mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Pictured, with Linda and Mick Honey, dressed as Ginger Spice, who's said to have pinched Charles's bottom when they met in 1997, greets Prince Charles in the special Jubilee episode You can always rely on Linda to dip into her Quality Street selection of attire for the big occasions. So, when the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall pay a surprise visit to Walford, you know Linda is set for a collision course of Big Purple One meets the rest of the tin after a day melting in the sun. And she doesn't disappoint. Neither does Honey, dressed as Ginger Spice, who's said to have pinched Charles's bottom when they met in 1997. True to form, the locals throw themselves into the Jubilee celebrations but are stunned when Mick and Linda greet the special guests. Mick, of course, is in awe (although not as in awe, I fear, as he was when Harry Redknapp turned up last year), and after introducing the royal couple, everyone joins in a toast to the Queen. Gawd bless 'er. THE PRINCE OF CHIVALRY The visit by the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall to the EastEnders set was thoroughly entertaining off camera, by all accounts. Complaining about the freezing cold during the photo shoot, Letitia Dean (Sharon) was enamoured with a chivalrous Prince. 'I would love your coat and your ear muffs,' said the shivering actor, before the heir to the throne put his coat around her. 'Hang on, mind me wig,' she added, struggling with the huge collar. She described the occasion as 'one of the best days of my life'. Advertisement The occasion might prove to be something of a turnaround for Linda, who decides to throw herself into organising the festivities rather than indulge in a bottle of wine (is there any left? I hear she's drinking it faster than producers in Burgundy can pick the grapes. There's talk of just hooking her up to the vine and cutting out the middleman). Mick is thrilled to see Linda hosting a planning meeting, but she's deflated when he implies he doesn't trust her enough to use her newly acquired cash to expand the Vic's business (who can blame him? I suspect that expansion involves putting in another three cellars). Instead, Linda invests in the salon and becomes co-owner. Now, finally, maybe she'll get a decent hairdo. Talking of future plans, Zack and Nancy are hard at work on their new restaurant, but it all goes horribly wrong (yer don't say: this pair couldn't sell an ice cream in a heatwave). Nancy is furious when Zack doesn't pick up the keys after taking Jada to see famous London sights; the future looks less than bright when Zack rejects Jada's advances, and the hurt youngster tells Sharon he kissed her. Brother or not, don't expect the walking foghorn to keep quiet about that for long. CORONATION STREET Imran and Toyah (pictured) are left unconscious after a car accident on Coronation Street The week sees high drama involving a flashforward of Imran leaving a message for Toyah, confessing his transgressions. Moving back and forth, we witness a car crash that leaves both Imran and Toyah unconscious in the wreckage. BEHIND THE SCENES 'Filming the crash aftermath was very intense,' says Charlie de Melo (Imran). 'It felt like we were making a movie. But we kept the mood light in between takes, despite being covered in fake blood.' Advertisement Small wonder, I've seen more substantial pancakes than those air bags. The two good things to emerge, though, are that Imran's suit and tie remain perfectly intact, and that something has finally wiped the smirk off Toyah's face. Do they survive, or are we set for another funeral? I can already hear Tracy snipping those stems for a wreath (or two?). With the police unconvinced that the crash was an accident because the car didn't brake, attention turns to Kevin, who'd worked on the vehicle. Well, for 'worked on', read 'held spanner in hand while making a brew'. Despite having aided Abi in trying to do a runner with Alfie, Kevin's an unlikely suspect (if he goes to the pub, he needs a nap en route), but then the Weatherfield police are not the sharpest tools in the box. The week's events see Kevin wanting Abi back in his life; let's hope he utilises her supposed mechanical prowess to check out the air bags in other cars. EMMERDALE: A TOPLESS NATE SETS TONGUES A-WAGGING In Emmerdale Chas questions whether Moira and Nate (pictured) have rekindled their affair when she catches Nate topless and Moira in her dressing gown The half-dressed male wrapped in nothing but a towel has long been a feature of Soapland, and now Emmerdale is at it again with Nate half baring all. But why is Moira in her dressing gown? Have the pair rekindled their affair? That's the conclusion Chas jumps to when she plots to catch the couple in the act and walks in on them; but is all as it appears to be? And why does nobody ever lock their doors in this village? Is anyone buying Leyla's sudden transformation into the Pablo Escobar of the Dales? Desperately searching for coke in Suzy's bag, she's caught redhanded (or white-handed?) and later unsympathetically lashes out at Priya, who is understandably devastated. David is trying to hide his money troubles from Victoria and tells Eric how much the pandemic affected his business. Trust me, his problems started long before that. As I've pointed out before, selling one jar of chutney a year doth not a Jeff Bezos make. Will Eric come to his son's rescue? Knowing Eric's natural propensity for dodgy business deals, he might be the right person for the job or the wrong one. Heck, buying just one jar of chutney would double David's income. The Unfriend (Minerva Theatre, Chichester) Rating: Verdict: No plot, Sherlock The Father And The Assassin (Olivier, National Theatre, London) Rating: Verdict: Murder most jolly They've assembled a television dream team down in Chichester for a new comedy by Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat. And Moffat's co-writer on Sherlock, Mark Gatiss, directs a play that also stars Gatiss's League Of Gentlemen colleague Reece Shearsmith. Not only that, the great stage actress Frances Barber adds theatrical heft of her own. 'How fast can I book tickets?' I hear you asking. Well, if I were you, I'd pause before reaching for the plastic. They've assembled a television dream team down in Chichester for a new comedy by Doctor Who and Sherlock writer Steven Moffat The Unfriend is about a suburban English couple who inadvertently invite an American serial killer (Barber) to stay in their home, after meeting her on a cruise. Apparently based on a true story, it struck me as a paper-thin sitcom in which our charming murderess seems also to have done away with plot. All that happens is that the couple (Shearsmith and Sherlock's Amanda Abbington) feel too embarrassed to ask her to leave. Best seat in the house WONDER BOY Sally Cookson directs Bristol Old Vic's production of Ross Willis's story about a 12-year-old boy who invents a super-hero to help him cope with his stammer (until Sunday May 29), ages 12+, contains some strong language,digitaltheatre.com). Advertisement Comedies of procrastination can only go on so long before something must give. Only here, it doesn't. There are some good gags including Shearsmith's quip that 20 years of marriage gives you a talent for telepathy, 'only more hostile'. Moffat religiously follows the comic rule of running a routine three times. One such trilogy includes the teenage son (a permanently aghast Gabriel Howell) failing to answer the phone. Although this may have the ring of truth for parents, the eventual punchline also has the ring of painful predictability. The show's best feature is Barber, who turns her serial killer from Denver into a kind of bling, Midwest, female Donald Trump. She may fire off lines worthy of Bette Davis, but casting her here is like keeping a Rolls-Royce for popping to the shops. Abbington's role is merely to reflect that discomfort, while Maddie Holliday brings familiar adolescent indignation as her daughter Rosie. The action plays out on a show home set without a trace of personality. Yet I was astonished to find myself surrounded by people nearly popping with laughter. Now that, folks, was a mystery worthy of Sherlock. What larks it must have been to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi! That, at least, is the dubious tone struck by Anupama Chandrasekhar's jolly drama at the National Theatre. Because she is an Indian writer, few of us in the UK will feel willing or able to challenge her, but I suspect it's a deliberately provocative gesture, designed to wake us from our reflex veneration of India's founding father. Played by an endlessly chipper Shubham Saraf, Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse gives us a tour of his life, explaining why he did it, and teasing us for taking a prurient interest in him. He relates how he was raised as a girl by parents who feared their male line was cursed. He went on to become a tailor's assistant and fell under the spell of Hindu nationalist Vinayak Savarkar, who rejected pacifism and scoffed at Gandhi's failure to resist partition of India and Pakistan. At first enamoured of Paul Bazely's tall, thin, urbane Gandhi, he gradually becomes a servile flunky to Sagar Arya's surly Savarkar. Indhu Rubasingham's two-and-a-half hour jaunt through half a century of Indian political history is always entertaining. But I wonder how appropriate its tone really is. This Legally Blonde is, like, totally a hit Legally Blonde (Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park) Rating: Verdict: So fun you guys! Oh My God, you guys! It looks like Regent's Park has a hit on its hands to open the summer season, thanks to a new musical production of the 2001 movie Legally Blonde revamped for the approval of today's 'Gen Z' social media radicals. The anti-stereotype comedy (that's famously packed with stereotypes) originally starred Reese Witherspoon as Elle, the ditzy blonde who proves detractors wrong by flying high at Harvard Law School. The film went on to spawn a West End musical starring Sheridan Smith. Here, though, they've ousted the all-white characters and have cast mixed-heritage Courtney Bowman as Elle. The show also references Instagram influencers, plus size models . . . and Timothee Chalamet. Despite this, I'm pleased to report that it remains the most deliciously cheerful kitsch. It is, after all, a tale where wisdom consists of such timeless maxims as 'the number one reason for all bad hair decisions is . . . love'. Directed by Lucy Moss, one of the tireless pioneers behind the historical musical Six, it's performed with lashings of verve and a modicum of finesse (a quality that's about as welcome in Elle's world as a Latin primer in a Kardashian nail salon). The anti-stereotype comedy (that's famously packed with stereotypes) originally starred Reese Witherspoon as Elle, the ditzy blonde who proves detractors wrong by flying high at Harvard Law School. The film went on to spawn a West End musical starring Sheridan Smith. Here, though, they've ousted the all-white characters and have cast mixed-heritage Courtney Bowman as Elle The lip-shaped stage is painted and accessorised in shades of our heroine's beloved pink not previously conceived by man, woman or gender intersectional. Choreography amounts to little more than synchronised cheerleading, but it does get a delighted crowd screaming 'stop-IT!' particularly whenever Elle's lapdog Bruiser (an actor in a pooch costume) prances onstage. As Elle, Bowman is huge fun a comic actor who reminded me of Dawn French. She loves to be loved by the adoring crowd and holds her own in undemanding tunes. What she lacks in agility, she more than makes up for in twinkly personality. The main threat to her star status is Nadine Higgin, as her confessor and hairdresser Paulette, who has swagger, timing, moves and big gospel pipes. Elle's only other rival is Lauren Drew, as the fitness guru she defends in court, who sings her workout number, Whipped Into Shape, while doing extreme skipping. Romantic tragedy will float your boat The Wreckers (Glyndebourne Festival) Rating: Verdict: Blazing rendering of an Edwardian classic Perhaps the eccentric Dame Ethel Smyth, suffragette and campaigner for women's rights, will be taken more seriously as a composer after this production. My own admiration for her has steadily increased over the decades but The Wreckers, her tragic Romantic operatic masterpiece, has remained problematic up to now. As so often, Glyndebourne's solution is radical. They go back to Henry Brewster's French libretto and restore half an hour of music, which in places has had to be orchestrated by Tom Poster. You quickly adjust to Cornish shipwreckers singing in French. Most vital is the contribution of conductor Robin Ticciati, who clearly believes in every note of the piece, whipping up the superb chorus and the London Philharmonic into an absolute fervour of excitement at times. I predict a triumph when a semi-staged version comes to the Proms on July 24. You can hear Smyth's influences but she makes them very much her own. The adulterous love duet between Marc and Thurza, wife of hellfire preacher Pasko, is a highlight, as the great conductor Bruno Walter recognised. To this basic triangle, strongly sung and characterised by Rodrigo Porras Garulo, Karis Tucker and Philip Horst, is added the complication of lighthouse keeper's daughter Avis, also in love with Marc. Well sung by Lauren Fagan, she is absurdly got up in pink tights (I almost hear Stanley Holloway intoning 'Pink tights! I ask yer, pink tights!'), with a 21st-century coiffure. The chorus sport a dreadful assortment of old tat, and not even period tat it is the one false note in Melly Still's production, while Ana Ines Jabares-Pita's sets are atmospheric. Lancaster (PG 110mins) Rating: Verdict: Compelling and moving Top Gun: Maverick (12A 131mins) Rating: Verdict: Cheesily enjoyable A terrific 2018 documentary called Spitfire told, wonderfully, the enduringly uplifting tale of the iconic aircraft that helped Fighter Command to win the Battle of Britain. Now, from the same team, comes Lancaster, switching the focus to Bomber Command and the RAF's mission to 'take the war' to Nazi Germany. It is an even better film, because it tells with admirable sensitivity a more morally complicated story, and of course at the heart of it is the mighty Lancaster bomber and the courageous men who crewed it. RAF BBMF's Lancaster PA474 banks away at dusk Lancaster highlights the bravery of the crew At the heart of the film is the mighty Lancaster bomber and the courageous men who crewed it More than 55,000 of them died at the time and not many of them are still alive now, but 37 of those who are or were when the project got under way share their compelling recollections. They include bomb-aimer 'Johnny' Johnson, now 100 and the only surviving original member of the famous 617 'Dambusters' Squadron. He is scathing about those who, applying what he considers to be modern sensitivities to wartime imperatives, criticise the ruthlessness of Bomber Command under the direction of Air Marshal Arthur Harris, who ordered the thunderous 1945 attack on Dresden. Other veterans in this tremendously poignant film, sonorously narrated by Charles Dance but heavily reliant on talking heads, are more ambivalent about what they were ordered to do. Yet they still lament the way Winston Churchill distanced himself from Bomber Command's activities as soon as the war was over, allowing Harris to take the 'blame'. The Dambusters squadron and the crew of Lancaster ED285/`AJ-T' More than 55,000 of the Lancaster bomber crew died at the time and not many of them are still alive now, but 37 of those who are or were when the project got under way share their compelling recollections One, flight engineer Jack Watson, recalls his wife turning to him at an RAF reunion, astonished, because he had never even told her he'd served with Bomber Command. He had become too accustomed, he explained, to being looked at as if he was a murderer. At the time they had been married 35 years. To their huge credit, co-directors David Fairhead and Ant Palmer manage to navigate their way through all this with real finesse, laying the moral complexities out before us (and interviewing a German woman who remembers what the inferno looked like from the ground) yet leaving us in no doubt that these very old men, all of them in their mid-90s at least, were heroes before most of them had left their teens, risking their lives night after night. At the start, they recall, it was left to them to divide into seven-man crews. They milled around checking each other's 'brevets' (uniform insignia) to see who did what, and then picked a team like kids in the school playground. Charles Clarke, a bomb-aimer, finds another analogy. 'It was like a dating agency,' he says. This brilliant documentary is full of nuggets like that. But it is also beautifully orchestrated, with stirring aerial footage (by John Dibbs) of one of the only two Lancasters still airworthy, and a terrific original score (by Chris Roe). Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick The film ends with a male-voice choir singing a wartime aircrew song, We Are The Heavy Bombers, which might not sound like a contender to bring tears to the eyes. But it did to mine. The anonymity of the 37 heroes interviewed in Lancaster rather underlines the absurdity of the spectacular hoopla surrounding Tom Cruise when he arrived at the Cannes Film Festival last week to promote Top Gun: Maverick. There was even a fly-past of fighter jets. Still, within the realms of make-believe heroism, it's a very enjoyable film. After seeing it in Cannes I'd say it's nothing if not formulaic, and at times the script is cheesier than a croque monsieur. But the action scenes are splendid, and Cruise, at almost 60 but as willing as ever to whip his shirt off, looks predictably great. Tom Cruise proves Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell is still the guy to lead a ridiculously perilous bombing raid 'egress is a steep high-G climb!' Merely by showing his gleaming teeth he makes a mockery of one especially clunky line, when an upstart in a bar calls him 'Pops'. A long-awaited sequel to the 1986 hit, this one, directed by Joseph Kosinski, has Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Cruise) confounding his stiff commanding officer (Jon Hamm) by proving that he's still the greatest pilot up there. Yep, he's still the guy to lead a ridiculously perilous bombing raid 'egress is a steep high-G climb!' on a uranium enrichment plant in an unnamed rogue state, even though he a) is just an instructor these days and b) has been grounded. The plot gives us some friction with 'Rooster' Bradshaw (Miles Teller), who blames him for the death of his father 'Goose', Maverick's erstwhile colleague and best pal, all those years ago. And there is friction of a different kind with Jennifer Connelly's Penny, the obligatory love interest (Cruise's squeeze in Top Gun, Kelly McGillis, presumably being ruled too old for him now). But really this film is about the flying. And in that respect, if in no other, it soars. Lancaster is in selected cinemas from today, and on digital, DVD & Blu-ray from Sunday. Visit altitude.film for more info. Top Gun is in cinemas now. Brian Viner's Cannes Film Festival Review The 75th Cannes Film Festival hasn't unleashed many humdingers, despite the fuss around Elvis and Top Gun: Maverick, so it feels fitting that the best film I've seen on the Riviera this year is a quiet, beautifully observed, low-budget British charmer called Aftersun. Aftersun Rating: A hugely promising debut feature for Scottish writer-director Charlotte Wells, Aftersun is the story of a divorced Scotsman, Calum (Paul Mescal, superb), and his 11-year-daughter Sophie (newcomer Frankie Corio), on holiday in Turkey. Francesca Corio and Paul Mescal in Aftersun The charm lies mostly in Corio's miraculously natural and self-assured performance, because although she and her dad have a lovely, easy-going relationship, it gradually becomes clear that he is bedevilled by difficulties at home, as well as memories of his own childhood. Nothing much happens, but it is a film that radiates warmth and human empathy. I also really liked Armageddon Time, James Gray's semi-autobiographical drama about a boisterous, loving but fractious blue-collar Jewish household in Queens, New York, during the 1980 presidential election campaign. Armageddon Time Rating: A fine cast is led by Anthony Hopkins as the kindly, doting grandfather to rebellious schoolboy Paul (Michael Banks Repeta), with Anne Hathaway and Succession's Jeremy Strong as Paul's parents and a cameo for Jessica Chastain as Donald Trump's sister Maryanne. I was reminded a little of Paul Thomas Anderson's delightful Licorice Pizza, and various films by Noah Baumbach and even Woody Allen. The episodic narrative makes strong points about racism and anti-Semitism, but never in a bludgeoning way. It's a really engaging picture. Triangle Of Sadness completes Swedish director Ruben Ostlund's trilogy, following his acclaimed movies Force Majeure and The Square, the latter of which won Cannes' prestigious Palme d'Or. I wouldn't rule this out, either. It's an English-language film set partly aboard a luxury cruise (captained by a drunk, played by Woody Harrelson), which starts as a comedy of manners, develops into a social satire about wealth and beauty, and finally mutates into a full-on farce about capitalism. Triangle of Sadness Rating: It's a little heavy-handed at times, but at its best, scabrously funny. Elizabeth, new star of the big screen To add to Jubilee fare, there's a new documentary, Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts, which tracks the Queen through moments of intimacy to pageantry over her 70-year reign. Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts ( 12A, 90 mins) Rating: The director, the late Roger Michell, perks up the usual royal footage by intercutting it with newsreel and clips from contemporaneous films such as Cleopatra, tossing in some ska and rap music, too, but his technique is more clunky than illuminating. It's also now hard to detach the fictional Queen in The Crown, if you've seen her, from reality. Air time: The Queen with Prince Philip and Anne, Andrew and Charles Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts tracks the Queen through moments of intimacy to pageantry over her 70-year reign Some parts still surprise: Her Majesty having a laugh before recording her Christmas Day speech, leaping up in girlish excitement at the races, and her side-saddle riding skills as she controls a terrified horse. You can only feel deep admiration at the dedication, the tens of thousands of hands shaken, the smiles bestowed, the boredom politely hidden. From her annus horribilis speech when Prince Charles and Diana were on the verge of separating, to other moments scripted by courtiers, you become increasingly aware of the disconnect between the stiff public persona and a charming enthusiasm when off duty. In cinemas May 27, Amazon Prime June 1. Between Two Worlds ( 12A, 107 mins), Rating: Between Two Worlds develops a rich female friendship as a journalist goes undercover We go from upstairs to downstairs in Between Two Worlds starring Juliette Binoche as investigative journalist Marianne who goes undercover as a zero-hours cleaner. Living in poverty, her worst job is on the fetid ferry from France to Portsmouth: staff get four minutes to clean each cabin including the toilet and sheets. The film can be as grinding as the job itself, but develops as rich female friendships grow. The Bob's Burgers Movie (PG, 102 mins) Rating: The Bob's Burgers Movie takes the long-running family animation from television to the big screen and is probably for those who appreciate the dry humour of the series. Three children fight to keep their parents' burger bar from after a giant sinkhole appears in front of it Three intrepid children fight to keep their parents' burger bar from failing as a giant sinkhole appears in front of it. This may be cartoon fast food, but there's a great voice cast including Zach Galifianakis and Kevin Kline. Kate Muir Tom Hanks seemed in high spirits as he caught up with celebrity friends at the amfAR gala at Cannes Film Festival on Thursday. The actor, 65, looked dapper in black blazer and matching trousers as he attended the star studded event alongside Maria Bravo and Baz Lurman. The Forest Gump star seemed in high spirits as he teamed the suit with a matching black tie and a crisp white shirt. Looking good: Tom Hanks seemed in high spirits as he caught up with celebrity friends at the amfAR gala at Cannes Film Festival on Thursday The actor rocked a pair of clear glasses as he beamed alongside pals at a dinner table. Maria, 54, looked sensational in an extreme plunging red silk gown and a radiant palette of makeup. The actress styled her dark tresses in loose waves as they cascaded past her shoulders from a side parting. Smart: The actor, 65, looked dapper in black blazer and matching trousers as he attended the star studded event alongside fellow celeb pals (pictured Tom Hanks and Maria Bravo) Amazing: The star seemed in high spirits as he teamed the suit with a matching black tie and a crisp white shirt On Tom's other side was Elvis director Baz Luhrmann who cut a smart figure in a black suit, crisp white shirt and a matching dickie bow. Also in attendance on Tom's table was Australian actress Natasha Bassett who dazzled in a green plunging gown. The 29-year-old commanded attention in the mint dress which featured sheer embellished sleeves. High spirits: Maria Bravo, 54, looked sensational in an extreme plunging red silk gown and a radiant palette of makeup Amazing: On Tom's other side was Elvis director Baz Luhrmann who cut a smart figure in a black suit, crisp white shirt and a matching dickie bow She beamed in a glamorous palette of makeup and styled her red tresses in a chic up-to leaving her fringe down shaping her face. amfAR is one of the world's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and advocacy. Since 1985, amfAR has invested nearly $617 million in its programs and has awarded more than 3,500 grants to research teams worldwide. amfAR Gala Cannes has raised a cumulative total of more than $245 million for amfAR's lifesaving AIDS research. Zach Braff was spotted in West Hollywood on Thursday, enjoying a dinner with a female friend at the exclusive San Vicente Bungalows. The Moonshot actor, 47, looked casual-cool for the occasion, sporting a black windbreaker and grey button-up shirt, as he waited for the valet to bring his car around. The outing comes after his girlfriend Florence Pugh, 26, denied rumors of a romance between her and her Midsommar co-star Will Poulter, 29, following a friendly holiday in Ibiza. Grabbing dinner: Zach Braff was spotted in West Hollywood on Thursday, enjoying a dinner with a female friend at the San Vicente Bungalows The director finalized his look with black pants. Meanwhile his brunette gal pal sported a navy dress and black sweater. Following their dinner at the luxe members-only club, the two were seen getting into Braff's car and driving off. Meanwhile Braff's girlfriend took to Instagram on Tuesday to shut down the recent speculation of a romance between her and Poulter. Casual: The Moonshot actor, 47, looked casual cool for the occasion, sporting a black windbreaker and grey button-up shirt, as he waited for the valet to bring his car around The co-stars were pictured on a beach together on Monday, during a trip to Ibiza, with Florence looking sensational in a pale blue bikini. The pair landed on the Spanish Island to attend the opening of the luxurious new Standard Hotel, and were also thought to be celebrating the birthday of mutual friend Harris Reed. 'This is getting a little silly now. No, Will Poulter and I are not dating. We went to the beach with our friends,' the Oscar-nominated Little Women star stated on her Instagram Stories. Relaxed: The director finalized his look with black pants. Meanwhile his brunette gal pal sported a navy dress and black sweater Taking off: Following dinner at the luxe members-only club, the two were seen getting into Braff's car and driving off The star then shared a more serious message against bullying, as she urged people to 'think about' their statements and who they may affect. 'There's no need to drag people through this. Regardless of your opinion on who I should or shouldn't be with, at the end of the day if you're complimenting someone by trolling another person.. you're just bullying,' she went on. 'There's literally no need to be horrible online no need,' she stated, adding, 'Think about what you write. Think about who it affects.' Florence and Zach have been an item since 2019 after first working together on the short film In The Time It Takes To Get There. Not true: The outing comes after his girlfriend Florence Pugh, 26, denied rumors of a romance between her and Midsommar co-star Will Poulter, 29, following a friends holiday in Ibiza Just friends: 'This is getting a little silly now. No, Will Poulter and I are not dating. We went to the beach with our friends,' the Oscar-nominated Little Women star stated Pugh confirmed their relationship on Instagram with a clapback at a troll who pointed out the couple's age difference. When one of her followers wrote 'You're 44 years old,' to a princess emoji Braff left underneath a photo of her, she wrote back stating, 'And yet he got it.' The pair have been working together on his upcoming drama A Good Person, where he recently said she was 'one of the best actresses working' right now. 'Florence Pugh's performance in the movie, I know I'm biased, but it's the most miraculous thing you will ever see,' he told Collider. Going strong: Florence and Zach have been an item since 2019 after first working together on the short film In the Time It Takes to Get There; Pictured in 2020 In the film which Braff also wrote and produced with Pugh she plays the lead role of Allison, a young woman who strikes up an unlikely relationship with her would-be father-in-law years after a fatal accident. 'It's her going toe-to-toe with Morgan Freeman. You haven't seen Morgan like this in years,' Zach said of the 'dramedy.' He heaped more praise on his other half in a March interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying: 'Some people say that Florence Pugh is the greatest actress of her generation. I would say that she's one of the greatest actors working today, period. She's a phenomenon.' It's official, Yara Shahidi is a college graduate. The actress, 22, graduated from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts after beginning her studies at the prestigious Ivy League institution in 2017. Haven taken a gap year during her tenure, Shahidi finished her four-year undergraduate degree studies, all while juggling her busy career in Hollywood, which included starring in the hit ABC sitcoms Black-ish and the spinoff Grown-ish. Family pride: Yara Shahidii, 22, graduated from Harvard University and her parent's marked the milestone occasion by sharing both their love and pride in her achievement on Instagram; her father, Afshin Shahidi, called the graduation a 'beautifully surreal moment' In an interview with Vogue, Shahidi revealed that she focused her studies within the Social Studies & African American departments, with an emphasis on 'Black political thought under a neocolonial landscape.' Before accepting her diploma, the Minnesota native completed a 136-page thesis paper, titled 'I Am a Man: The Emancipation of Humanness from Western Hegemony Through the Lens of Sylvia Wynter, which explores the work of the Jamaican writer. 'It's surreal to have finally hit this major milestone,' Shahidi told the publication, before confessing that her college graduation is a life-long goal, realized. 'I've known I wanted to go to college since I was four. By 17, I knew exactly what I wanted to study, so to see that come to fruition is a goal fulfilled.' Family Pride: Yara's mother, Keri Shahidi, serenaded the new college graduate as she was decked out in her traditional cap and gown Milestone: Mother and daughter snuggled up for a photo on the Harvard University campus Life-long goal realized: 'I've known I wanted to go to college since I was four,' the actress told People, before adding, 'By 17, I knew exactly what I wanted to study, so to see that come to fruition is a goal fulfilled' Shahidi'sparent's marked the milestone occasion by sharing both their love and pride in their daughter's achievement in a few Instagram posts. 'Beautifully surreal moment seeing our delicate petal in full bloom,' her father, Afshin Shahidi captioned a graduation photo, along with a cherry blossom emoji. The selfie snap shows the proud papa snuggled up next to Yara, who's decked out in her traditional cap and gown. Equally proud, Keri Shahidi posted a series of snaps of herself serenading her daughter by pointing at her while all dressed up in her graduation ensemble. 'THE CELEBRATION CONTINUES,' she wrote, in part, the day before the actual ceremony was held at the Harvard University campus. Yara also shared her 'special moment' with her two younger brothers: Sayeed, 19, and Ehsan, 14,, who both posed with their sister at Harvard. Family support: Yara also shared her 'special moment' with her two younger brothers: Sayeed, 19, and Ehsan, 14,, who both posed with their sister on the Harvard University campus Stylin': For her graduation day, Shahidi wore a custom Dior two-piece suit in crimson red, one of Harvard's school colors, underneath her traditional cap and gown Shahidi only just completed and handed in her final college paper six days ago. But it was her 136-page thesis 'Through the Lens of Sylvia Wynter' that will forever leave a lasting impression when looking back at her experience at Harvard. 'Writing my thesis pushed me as an academic, because the question I was asking was one I care about in my everyday life and in the world,' says Shahidi. 'For example, "What could the future of equality and equity look like?" My thesis was a moment to connect these past four years of education to something that connects to what I'm passionate about, and have ground myself in my entire life.' For her graduation day, Shahidi wore a custom Dior two-piece suit in crimson red, one of Harvard's school colors, underneath her cap and gown. Sofia Richie flashed her massive glittering engagement ring when she was spotted out in Los Angeles this week. The daughter of Lionel Richie has agreed to marry her longtime beau Elliot Grainge, whose father Lucian is the chairman of Universal Music Group. During her latest outing Sofia, 23, showed off her sensational legs in a high-waisted pair of acid wash jeans with flared hems. Blonde bombshell: Sofia Richie flashed her massive glittering engagement ring when she was spotted out in Los Angeles this week Looking fab: The daughter of Lionel Richie has agreed to marry her longtime beau Elliot Grainge, whose father Lucian is the chairman of Universal Music Group She emphasized her trim waistline by tucking her print t-shirt into her trousers and wore her luxurious blonde locks down. Warding off the California rays with a pair of bronze-tinted sunglasses, she accessorized with a black leather handbag. Sofia added an extra splash of dazzle to her look by wearing a ring on her right hand, plus a pair of glinting earrings. She announced her engagement late last month on Instagram, posting a picture of Elliot proposing to her at sunset surrounded by candles. Stepping out: During her latest outing Sofia, 23, showed off her sensational legs in a high-waisted pair of acid wash jeans with flared hems 'Forever isnt long enough,' she wrote with her Instagram caption, which included a romantic picture of her and Elliot kissing. Elliot has joined the family business and gone into the music industry, founding an indie record label called 10K Projects. Sofia and her husband-to-be have apparently been an item for over a year, having first set off dating rumors at the start of 2021. On the move: Warding off the California rays with a pair of bronze-tinted sunglasses, she accessorized with a black leather handbag Glitz: Sofia added an extra splash of dazzle to her look by wearing a ring on her right hand, plus a pair of glinting earrings Back in 2020 Sofia had ended her relationship with the reality TV heartthrob Scott Disick, 39, who has three children with Kourtney Kardashian. Sofia dated Scott for more than two years before they broke up in 2020, briefly reunited and then split for good. Kourtney and Scott have retained a close and amicable relationship as they co-parent their children Mason, 12, Penelope, nine, and Reign, seven. Gorgeous: She announced her engagement late last month on Instagram, posting a picture of Elliot proposing to her at sunset surrounded by candles During the last season of Keeping Up With The Kardashians Scott revealed that his close co-parenting bond with Kourtney caused problems for him and Sofia. Over the weekend Kourtney enjoyed a luxurious wedding with Travis Barker of Blink-182 fame, gathering her nearest and dearest in Portofino for the occasion. An insider has since told People that 'Scott isn't taking this well. He's spending time with friends....to keep his mind off of it. It's been hard for him to process and digest even though he knew it was coming.' Disney+ released the first trailer for the upcoming Star Wars related series Andor on Thursday. Andor follows Cassian Andor, a character who first appeared in the 2016 movie Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The series will serve as a prequel to the film in the early days after the Galactic Republic became the Empire. The trailer begins with a shot of a man waking up a small, idyllic town with loud clangs from a bell in a tower. First look: Disney+ released the first trailer for the upcoming Star Wars related series Andor on Thursday A ship then crashes down to the earth and stormtroopers begin to march on the town and the planet. Citizens rush around town, hiding weapons and huddling in their homes while ships that ferried clones around in Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones and and Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith bring a legion to the small town. As clones march through the city, Andor first appears in the trailer, hiding behind a wall and waiting in the shadows. Bell tower: The trailer begins with a shot of a man waking up a small, idyllic town with loud clangs from a bell in a tower Ship crashing to earth: A ship then crashes down to the earth and stormtroopers begin to march on the town and the planet Bring soldiers in: Citizens rush around town, hiding weapons and huddling in their homes while ships that ferried clones around in Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones and and Star Wars: Episode 3 - Revenge of the Sith bring a legion to the small town Tense moment: As clones march through the city, Andor first appears in the trailer, hiding behind a wall and waiting in the shadows Drinking to themselves: 'They're so proud of themselves,' Luna says, referring to the newly established Empire. 'So fat and satisfied' 'They're so proud of themselves,' Luna says, referring to the newly established Empire. 'So fat and satisfied.' Genevieve O'Reilly also appears in the trailer, reprising her role as Mon Mothma from both Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One. She says she's being watched as she walks through a crowded dinner party. Stellan Skarsgard pops up and looks out at something far in the distance through a pair of high powered binoculars. 'Soon enough, these days will end,' he says as he stands on the grassy knoll. 'There will be no rules going forward.' Coming back to a role: Genevieve O'Reilly also appears in the trailer, reprising her role as Mon Mothma from both Revenge of the Sith and Rogue One Star actor: Stellan Skarsgard pops up and looks out at something far in the distance through a pair of high powered binoculars Time of transition: 'Soon enough, these days will end,' he says as he stands on the grassy knoll. 'There will be no rules going forward' On the hunt: A member of the Galactic Empire seems to be hunting Andor as he stares down at a hologram of the noted spy's face Jumping around: The trailer then jumps through a few different shots of characters from behind with an unknown person saying, 'People are standing up,' over the images A member of the Galactic Empire seems to be hunting Andor as he stares down at a hologram of the noted spy's face. The trailer then jumps through a few different shots of characters from behind with an unknown person saying, 'People are standing up,' over the images. Cassian can then be seen jumping a ship into light seed and quickly taking off before an older woman says, 'That's what a reckoning sounds like.' Andor is set for release on August 31 on the popular streaming platform. The show will star Luna, O'Reilly, Skarsgard, Alan Tudyk, Adria Arjona, Kyle Soller and many more stars. The show will be the latest in a long line of Star Wars content released to Disney+. The first two episodes of the series Obi-Wan Kenobi is set for release on Friday, May 27 and the television show Ahsoka starring Rosario Dawson is also set for release in the near future. Kakinada: The family of Veedhi Subrahmanyam is unable to get a death certificate because officials were passing the buck, though he was murdered last week and his last rites were performed at his native village in Gollalamamidada of Pedapudi mandal in Kakinada district earlier this week. Subrahmanyam was the Dalit youth for whose murder YSR Congress MLC Anantha Udaya Bhaskar is in jail. Who should issue the death certificate has become the point of contention among officials. Pedapudi tahsildar T. Subhash directed G. Mamidada panchayat secretary Yaswant to issue the death certificate, but official refused stating that the death did not happen in his jurisdiction. The tahsildar wrote to Kakinada revenue divisional officer B.V. Ramana against Yaswanth, pointing out that the body of Subrahmanyam was cremated at G. Mamidada Village. Despite this he was hesitating to give the death certificate. The family members of the deceased have been wandering in the gram panchayat office for the past four days from Sunday, seeking the death certificate to get other benefits. The panchayat secretary is very reluctant and he is not receiving the application, the tahsildar wrote the the RDO. After repeated instructions and requests from the deputy tahsildar, tahsildar and even the mandal parishad development officer (MPDO), to receive the application and issue the certificate or an endorsement to the applicant explaining the circumstances which prevented him from doing so, he (village secretary Yaswant) did not respond and not even receive the application from the family members of the deceased,Subhash wrote. This is very unbecoming on the part of the panchayat secretary. The family members of the deceased are suffering from the indecent attitude of the village secretary of G. Mamidada, Subhash stated in his letter to the RDO. But, Kakinada divisional panchayat officer Y. Ammaji supported the village secretarys stand. She told Deccan Chronicle that the official should not issue the death certificate as the death had not taken place at the village. She said that the death certificate should be issued at the municipality, where he died. But, according to the confession statement of the accused Bhaskar, the death took place at Sriramnagar under Two Town police station limits, but the case was registered under Sarpavaram police station limits. A senior panchayat officer told Deccan Chronicle that, according to panchayat raj rules, if any person dies in another place and the cremation or final rites are performed in the native village, the death certificate can be given by the panchayat secretary. But, in medico-legal cases, the municipalities concerned or the hospital where the post-mortem has been conducted would give the death certificate. A super-fan of Nova host Michael 'Wippa' Wipfli has had a restraining order against her withdrawn ten months after police alleged she sent him dolls wrapped in bubble wrap, 'hundreds' of messages and wanted him to father her baby. NSW Police took out an Apprehended Violence Order (AVO) last year against Lisa Christian after she turned up outside the Nova radio station and Wippa expressed fears her behaviour was escalating. They claim Ms Christian, who ran a Wippa fan site online called 'All My Love' had bombarded the radio presenter and comedian with messages after initially making contact with him via Instagram in August 2019. At first, Ms Christian's messages weren't threatening and didn't always make sense, but then police said Wippa became 'became increasingly concerned when the defendant mentioned one of (the star's) children and knowledge of his residential address'. On Ms Christian's fan site, she had spoken about attending live Fitzy and Wippa shows and described him as 'very romantic and caring'. In June last year, Ms Christian allegedly sent Wippa images of herself wearing underwear, court documents filed in 2021 said. That same month, she also allegedly sent an image of herself with a toy baby, and claimed that Wippa would be 'the father of her child'. Police dropped an apprehended violence order against Lisa Christian taken out on behalf of Nova star Michael Wippa Wipfli (above, the fan with the radio host) at the Downing Centre Court on Friday Wippa, above with his wife Lisa, has co-hosted 'Fitzy and Wippa' on Nova since 2011 and recently featured on the Nine Network's Celebrity Apprentice program In late June 2021, Ms Christian allegedly sent a message containing a Domain article which described details of Wippa's $6.5million property in Sydney's east. She allegedly asked if she could send 'monkey dolls' directly to his home, rather than to Nova's offices, court documents relating to the now withdrawn AVO said. On July 1, 2021, Wippa opened a parcel at home and found dolls wrapped in bubble wrap with a pink note stuck to them, and reported it to police. The AVO documents said Wippa feared 'the defendant may show up at his address ... and is concerned about the defendant's behaviour escalating and is concerned about what she may do next.' Police claimed at a previous point she had turned up outside Nova headquarters. The super-fan shared online images of plasticine dolls she makes on social media, and Wippa told police he had opened a parcel at home with dolls wrapped in bubble wrap Police withdrew an AVO against superfan of Nova star'Wippa' Wipfli, Lisa Christian (above) in the Downing Centre Local Court on Friday The super-fan Lisa Christian (pictured above with the Nova star) was running a website dedicated to Wippa, named 'All My Love' 'I'm stunned, blocked all of Nova and blotting him out of my life if I can,' she said. 'I don't need lies and made up baloney'. Ms Christian said she thought Wippa was perfect, 'now I see he has flaws and insecurities.' Wipfli has starred on Nine's The Celebrity Apprentice, where he raised $184,500 for the charity, the Cooper-Rice Brading Foundation. He has co-hosted the network's Fitzy and Wippa show since 2011 and has three children with his wife Lisa Wipfli, nee Robertson. After years of blood, sweat and tears Pip Edwards finally has her own P.E Nation store. And the activewear designer celebrated at the shop's official opening on Thursday evening. The 42-year-old and her P.E Nation co-founder Claire Tregoning looked ecstatic as they greeted guests at The Galeries in George St in Sydney's CBD. Open for business! Ecstatic Pip Edwards showed off her ripped abs in a crop top and a pair of tight flared trousers as she celebrated the opening of her new P.E Nation store in Sydney on Thursday Pip was her own best advertisement for the athleisure brand, showing off her ripped abs in a crop top and tight black flares. She teamed the trousers with a matching black crop jacket and a pair of chunky sneakers with huge colourful laces. The Bondi 'It girl' wore her blonde locks back in a ponytail to show off her youthful complexion. Looking good! Pip was her own best advertisement for the athleisure brand Super chic: She teamed the trousers with a matching black crop jacket and a pair of chunky sneakers with huge colourful laces Pip said she was excited that retail was finally back in business after the Covid lockdowns. 'We see all around us the resurgence of retail,' she told The Daily Telegraph this week. 'Bricks and mortar stores are a way to connect again after all that time when we couldn't, and to really feel those connections. Gorgeous and glowing: The Bondi 'It girl' wore her blonde locks back in a ponytail to show off her youthful complexion Stylish: The interiors of the store feature stone walls and backlit mirrors 'It's not just us, lots of other brands feel the same way, and you can see it in Sydney especially with the huge retail developments that are happening in the city.' Pip and Claire recently showed P.E. Nation at Afterpay Australian Fashion Week. In an in-depth chat with The Sydney Morning Herald last December, Pip spoke about her religious and supernatural views. Inspirational: The mother of one has built an incredible fashion empire for herself with P.E Nation, alongside co-founder Claire Big moment: The 42-year-old and her P.E Nation co-founder Claire Tregoning looked ecstatic as they greeted guests at The Galeries in George St Pip revealed she was born and raised a Catholic and still ticks the religion on the census, but doesn't really 'identify' with the faith anymore. She also said she loves astrology, the practice of forecasting life events through the interpretation of the sun, moon and planets. 'You can take it with a grain of salt, but it adds another layer of colour and richness to what's right in front of us,' she told the publication. 'I am a massive animal card-reader. I have tea ceremonies. I have crystals. I burn sage, palo santo,' she added. Pip went on to say she experiences doubt in her 'emotional life' but not in business, where she has 'strong convictions'. The mother of one has built an incredible fashion empire for herself with P.E Nation, alongside co-founder Claire. Bridgerton's Ruby Barker explained that she is 'taking a little break' after being hospitalised during her 'mental health struggle' in a brave video on Thursday. The actress, 25, who plays Marina Thompson on the show, added that she had been 'struggling since Bridgerton' but is now looking forward to 'continuing with her life.' Taking to Instagram, Ruby addressed her followers in the honest clip as she thanked her fans and family for their support as well as Netflix for 'saving her'. 'I am going to take a bit of a break': Bridgerton's Ruby Barker, 25, has revealed she is in hospital during 'mental health struggle' after being 'really unwell' on Instagram on Thursday She began: 'I am better, I have been really unwell for a really long time. I want to be honest with everyone. I have been struggling. 'I am in hospital at the minute and I am going to be discharged soon and hopefully get to continue with my life. 'I am going to take a little bit of a break for myself and I would encourage others, if you are struggling, do yourself a favour and take a break, stop being so hard on yourself.' Candid: The actress, who plays Marina Thompson on the show, added that she had been 'really unwell' since starring on the series but is now looking forward to 'continuing on with her life' (Pictured on set with co-star Luke Newton as Colin Bridgerton) Speaking in the video, she began: 'I am better, I have been really unwell for a really long time. I want to be honest with everyone. I have been struggling' Explaining her feelings she continued: 'I was raged-filled, angry, all this intergenerational trauma bundled up inside me. 'I was carrying the weight of the world on my back and now I am at the point where I have a diagnosis, I am drawing a line in the sand. 'I can't carry on the way that I was, I need to change so that is what I am trying to do. I want to survive and I will survive, I am going to.' Ruby concluded the video as she gave thanks to her friends and family, as well as streaming service, Netflix, for giving her an opportunity and 'saving her.' Brave: She continued: 'I was carrying the weight of the world on my back and now I am at the point where I have a diagnosis, I am drawing a line in the sand' Tough: She captioned the post: 'Mental health week is every week for me. Off my chest. I feel like I've not been completely honest so this is for my followers' She captioned the post: 'Mental health week is every week for me. Off my chest. I feel like I've not been completely honest so this is for my followers. Time to be transparent. 'I've been struggling since Bridgerton, this is the truth. Thank you all for supporting me, your love holds me up. #mentalhealthawareness.' It comes as Ruby said it 'means everything' to have been in the diverse show after thinking she wouldn't get to star in a 'period drama because of her race'. In an exclusive clip shared with MailOnline from the PrettyLittleThing: Behind Closed Doors podcast, Ruby also revealed she's absolutely not watched the racy series with her family, cheekily declaring: 'I don't need to look at Rege's bottom with my dad!' Star: It comes as Ruby said it 'means everything' to have been in the diverse show after thinking she wouldn't get to star in a 'period drama because of her race' Ruby laughed off any suggestion that she watch the series - which contains several racy sex scenes - with her family. When asked if she's watched it back, Ruby said: 'NOO oh god no, I don't watch it with my family I don't need to look at Rege's bottom with my dad! 'I'm perfectly fine watching it on my own, my sisters watched it and my grandad in the states has watch it as well.' Sensation: The actress (pictured in character) also said it 'means everything' to have been in the diverse show after thinking she wouldn't get to star in a 'period drama because of her race' Ruby also explained how the diversity in Bridgerton and getting to play a key role in such a fabulous period drama means alot to her. She said: 'It literally means everything you know I never thought I'd be in a period drama, in a role like Marina. 'I'd seen Belle the film about Dido Elizabeth Belle who was a mixed race aristocrat in the Georgian period of time and I saw that film and was like 'wow it would be so amazing to play that character but it's already been made, I'm probably not gonna be in a period drama simply because of my race''. Lala Kent has revealed how her ex Randall Emmett would allegedly prevent her from leaving their home with daughter Ocean in the immediate aftermath of their split. Kent, 31, split with Emmett on October 15, 2021 after he landed at the center of cheating rumors, but she claims she was unable to move out of their home for another 12 days until he left for a trip to Miami. Lala claimed during an appearance on the SiriusXM show Jeff Lewis Live that Emmett would threaten to call the police should she leave the home with Ocean and not return her. 'He would give me time periods that I could take her': Lala Kent has revealed how her ex Randall Emmett would allegedly prevent her from leaving their home with daughter Ocean in the immediate aftermath of their split She also alleged he allowed her to leave with Ocean only during specific time frames. 'He wasn't letting me leave the house with Ocean during those 12 days,' she said. 'He would threaten to call the police on me if I didn't return her, and he would give me time periods that I could take her,' she claimed. Jeff asked if Randall was behaving this way because he sensed Lala was going to leave. 'I don't think he knew I was leaving. I think he needed to regain control of me,' she responded. Kent, 31, claimed Randall prevented her from leaving their home after she split from him on October 15, 2021 following the emergence of cheating rumors 'I'm like, shaking just thinking about that time period,' she added. 'It was horrific.' Once Randall boarded a plane for Miami, however, Lala used that chance to leave. She said it took her four hours to pack and she relocated to an Airbnb where she spent 'a little less than a month' at. 'We did it quick,' she said. 'I was worried that he was having me watched, which he did send people to watch me. Luckily, they didn't watch me move out.' Speaking up: Kent got candid during an appearance on 'So I packed myself probably in four hours. I took my clothes,' she added. 'I went to an Airbnb that I had rented, it was one that I could eat quickly, and one that was nice enough that I would enjoy staying there but not break the bank. And then I stayed there for a little less than a month,' she said. Once Randall learned they had moved out, Lala claims she received numerous text messages from him. She also discussed the seeing the photograph of Randall allegedly cheating on her in Nashville. The picture showed Randall walking across the street with two other women. 'My intuition was just, you couldn't ignore it. I immediately was sick to my stomach. Something's wrong, this person is not who you think he is,' she said of seeing the picture. Leaving him: 'So I packed myself probably in four hours. I took my clothes,' Lala said as she detailed her departure from the home Asked if Randall was dating one of the women, she replied: 'One of the girls in the photo he had met in March at a nightclub in Miami. He was attracted to her friend, but her friend was not into him so he went to her. 'That's when they started their relationship. They traveled together,' she said, adding she knew 'everything' after guest Josh Flagg asked how she knew the information. 'She was like his main girl, but there were many women,' Lala added. Earlier this month, Lala hilariously recreated the photo of Randall allegedly cheating on her in Nashville. Subtle shade: Seven months after an image of the 51-year-old producer walking with two women outside at a hotel emerged, the reality star, 31, shared an image of herself crossing the same street in Music City Lala Kent left fans stunned with her latest Instagram post, a recreation of a photograph of her ex-fiance Randall Emmett allegedly cheating on her in Nashville. The reality star shared an image of herself crossing a similar street that he did in Music City on Wednesday. While she did not say anything about the picture, her 1.7 million Instagram followers called the move 'savage' and said they were 'dead over' the snap. While she did not say anything about the picture, her 1.7 million Instagram followers called the move 'savage' and said they were 'dead over' the snap; Randall Emmett pictured in In October, fans were shocked when PageSix claimed the mother-of-one had broken off her engagement of three years with Emmett. The site added that he had cheated on the reality TV star when he was working on Nashville, Tennessee. 'Randall always lives a double life,' a source told the site. 'He lives the life of a husband or boyfriend, and then he lives the life of a serial partier and then goes on a bender.' Split: In October, fans were shocked when PageSix claimed the mother-of-one had broken off her engagement of three years with Emmett; seen in 2019 Following the cheating allegations, Kent cleaned her social media pages of her ex and liked a post that accused him of cheating on her. She even took to Instagram to share a video of herself moving into the Beverly Hills Hotel while Beyonce's Sorry played. Their split came just seven months after they welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Ocean. Kent and Emmett initially met in 2015, and they began a relationship not long after they made each other's acquaintance. Prior to becoming involved with the actress, the producer was married to his first wife, Ambyr Childers, with whom he shared two children. The two initially separated in 2015, and although they reconciled, they went on to formally dissolve their union in 2017. The wedding that won't happen: In October, she also showed photos of the wedding dress she was supposed to wear for her 2020 wedding to Randall if the ceremony had not been delayed by the pandemic Emmett and Kent went public with their relationship in 2018, and the Midnight in the Switchgrass director popped the question that same year. The pair initially planned to have their wedding ceremony in April of 2020, although they postponed their plans in response to the ongoing state of the global pandemic. The two later rescheduled their nuptials and went on to announced that they were expecting to bring a child into their lives last September. Sad: Their split came just seven months after they welcomed their first child together, a daughter named Ocean Kent eventually shared a picture of Ocean to her Instagram account for the first time not long after she gave birth in March. Weeks before their parting, she said she was 'ready to go' with regard to having a second baby with Randall. The television personality even spoke with People during Travel & Give's fourth annual fundraiser in West Hollywood about her desire to expand her family. Two of a kind: Kent and Emmett initially met in 2015 and began a relationship not long after they met During the event, Kent noted that the 'second' her daughter turned one, she and Emmett would be 'back at it with the calendar that shows ovulation.' Kent also noted to the outlet that she may be 'oversharing' but 'that's how it goes.' And in October she also showed photos of the wedding dress she was supposed to wear for her 2020 wedding to Randall if the ceremony had not been delayed by the pandemic. Milestones: The pair went public with their relationship in 2018, and the producer popped the big question that same year Lala said she was inspired to post some photos of the gown after a 'beautiful conversation' with her stylist. 'I wanted to share my wedding dress that I was going to wear on April 18th 2020,' the star captioned her slideshow. 'This dress was custom designed by [Alexandra Renee Scott].' When asked if she was still going to be wearing it on her special day by a fan in her comment section, Kent replied she and her designer are 'going to start from scratch.' She usually makes an impeccable appearance on the red carpet. But Penny Lancaster suffered suffered an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction on Thursday as she attended the opening night of the ABBA Voyage concert residency in London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Stratford. The model, 51, accidentally flashed her black underwear beneath her leopard print mini dress as a strong gust of wind whipped up her outfit. Oh dear! Penny Lancaster suffered suffered an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction on Thursday as she attended the opening night of the ABBA Voyage concert residency in London' Penny had rocked up to the event looking as glam as ever in the thigh-skimming animal print number which she teamed with sexy black boots. She added a black belt and a thin black scarf to her stylish look, finishing things off with a smattering of gold jewellery. However, Penny, who sported perfectly blow-dried blonde locks, showed off more than she intended as a strong breeze blew up her skirt. Nothing to see here: Penny clung onto her thigh-skimming dress following the wind incident which accidentally exposed her underwear The Loose Women star was seen clutching onto the hem of her dress as she tried to protect her modesty at the event. Ever the professional, she kept a broad smile on her face and happily chatted to other attendees amid her mishap. Elsewhere, ABBA were seen all together in public for the first time in 36 years as they prepared to watch their digital avatars take to the stage. Benny Andersson, 75, Agnetha Faltskog, 72, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 76, and Bjorn Ulvaeus, 77, pulled out all the stops as they posed on the red carpet at the glitzy launch event. Careful: The Loose Women star was seen clutching onto the hem of her dress as she tried to protect her modesty at the event Mind how you go! Penny was caught out by the windy weather as she rocked up to the opening night of ABBA's Voyage concerts Fans were unsurprisingly delighted as the foursome reunited once more, with legions of hardcore followers seen eagerly waiting outside to catch a glimpse of their idols before heading inside to enjoy the highly-anticipated show. In anticipation of their first show, earlier this month, ABBA released images of their digital selves that will perform. The holograms have been created following weeks and months of motion-capture and performance techniques, with the avatars depicting the pop group as they appeared in 1979. Still fabulous! Penny quickly brushed off her wardrobe malfunction as she happily waved to fans in the crowd Chit chat: The blonde beauty was seen delightedly chatting to a gentleman after walking the red carpet In the shots the pop pioneers resemble their much younger shelves and are dressed in 1970s silver sequinned ensembles. An 850-strong team from Industrial Light & Magic, the company founded by Star Wars creator George Lucas, led the companys first foray into music. The pop pioneers originally split up in 1982, but reformed earlier this year to record ninth studio album Voyage and unveil plans for an immersive digital stage show. Work it! Penny had earlier expertly walked the red carpet in her racy leopard print mini dress Flaunt: The Loose Women star rocked a black and leopard print ensemble for her night out But band members Benny and Bjorn insist the reunion is a one-off, with the band unlikely to record more music following the release of first latest album Voyage, after 39 years in November. The group became household names after winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest with hit single Waterloo. They went on to release tracks including Mama Mia!, Dancing Queen, Take a Chance On Me and Thank You For The Music before walking away from the music industry. Big event: Benny Andersson, 75, Agnetha Faltskog, 72, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, 76, and Bjorn Ulvaeus, 77, pulled out all the stops as they posed on the red carpet The foursome previously said they would never reform despite their huge worldwide popularity, and reaching more than 400 million album sales over 50 years. The Waterloo group went their separate ways at the height of their career, and during their final years Bjorn divorced bandmate Agnetha whilst Benny and Frida split up, too. They performed together for the first time in decades in 2016 at a private event, which marked the 50th anniversary of the first meeting between songwriters Bjorn and Benny. Jill and Derick Dillard have spoken out after her brother Josh Duggar was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in federal prison in connection with his conviction for receiving child pornography. Derick, 33, and Jill, 31, issued a statement on their blog Thursday in which they cited the Bible in reaction to Duggar's prison sentence. 'The Bible clearly states that God effects justice and vengeance through the governing authorities,' the couple said. 'Though some believe Josh should have received a greater sentence and still fewer believe he should have received a lighter sentence, God has carried out his vengeance today for his unspeakable criminal activity.' The latest: Jill Dillard, 31, and Derick Dillard, 33, have spoken out after her brother Josh Duggar, 34, was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in federal prison in connection with his conviction for receiving child pornography. The pair was snapped in December in Arkansas Duggar, 34, was found guilty in the Western District of Arkansas Federal Court in Fayetteville, Arkansas in connection with possessing and receiving child pornography last December; U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks dismissed the possession conviction citing federal law that folded the offense into the receiving offense. Jill and Derick Dillard said Thursday that 'until now, [Josh] has yet to be held accountable to the extent necessary to cause change in his dangerous pattern of behavior,' and that 'it seems that it may take spending over a decade in federal prison, and still more on probation, for Josh to have any potential for rehabilitation to the point he can safely live in society again.' 'Hopefully, Josh can actually begin to get treatment and begin to work toward a lifestyle where he is less likely to reoffend. If for nothing else, the notoriety of this case has hopefully contributed to the deterrence of potential offenders and will help protect children by decreasing the demand for' child pornography. The couple said that the 'last several weeks and months have been difficult emotionally,' and Wednesday's hearing marked 'another one of those hard days.' Duggar was found guilty in the Western District of Arkansas Federal Court in Fayetteville, Arkansas in connection with possessing and receiving child pornography last December Jill and Derick said of Josh's sentence that 'God has carried out his vengeance today for his unspeakable criminal activity' 'We are neither rejoicing nor disappointed by the sentence, but we are thankful its finally over,' they said. The couple ended their statement in saying that they 'continue to love Josh and his family and will be there for them however we can.' Prosecutors in the case had requested Duggar serve the maximum 20-year sentence, citing his 'deep-seated, pervasive and violent sexual interest in children,' the AP reported. U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes said Wednesday, 'While this is not the sentence we asked for, this is a lengthy sentence,' according to the AP. Duggar was initially arrested in April of 2021 after investigators in Little Rock, Arkansas traced child pornography files to a car dealership Duggar had worked at. Authorities in the case said that pictures on Duggar's computer, downloaded in 2019, included graphic images of sexual abuse of children and toddlers. Duggar past made headlines in 2015 when the family's TLC show 19 Kids and Counting was canceled amid accusations he had molested four sisters and a babysitter years before. Duggar was probed over the allegations in 2006 based on a tip from a family friend but he was not charged based on the statute of limitations expiring. 'Twelve years ago, as a young teenager, I acted inexcusably for which I am extremely sorry and deeply regret,' Josh told People in May of 2015. 'I hurt others, including my family and close friends. I confessed this to my parents who took several steps to help me address the situation. 'We spoke with the authorities where I confessed my wrongdoing, and my parents arranged for me and those affected by my actions to receive counseling. I understood that if I continued down this wrong road that I would end up ruining my life.' Josh was seen leaving a courthouse during his trial late last year Josh's parents Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar said that he had admitted to fondling and said he was sorry. In 2015, Josh resigned from his position with the Family Research Council after the past allegations had gone public. Later that year, he had publicly said sorry for being unfaithful to wife Anna Duggar and said he was seeking help for an addiction to pornography. Prosecutors in the recent case said that Duggar's past conduct illustrated 'an alarming window into the extent of his sexual interest in children,' and that 'when viewed alongside the conduct for which he has been convicted, makes clear that Duggar has a deep-seated, pervasive, and violent sexual interest in children, and a willingness to act on that interest.' Prosecutors cited expert testimony that Duggar's computer had been altered for porn-related searches to be undetectable to software his wife had installed to oversee his online activity. 'There is simply no indication that Duggar will ever take the steps necessary to change this pattern of behavior and address his predilection for minor females,' prosecutors said. Ahead of sentencing, Josh's wife Anna Duggar called him a 'loving, supportive and caring father' in her letter to the judge, while his mother Michelle said the court should show leniency due to his 'tender heart' and 'compassionate toward others.' Duggar's cousin Amy (Duggar) King told People Wednesday that she was 'furious at the family that looked the other way and still today, refuse to hold him accountable,' adding that the maximum 20-year sentence 'could never come close to justice for the children harmed.' She added: 'I don't think anyone would make the mistake of assuming I support my cousin ... my heart hurts for his children during this time.' Katie Holmes looked very much in love as she made her red carpet debut with boyfriend Bobby Wooten III at The Moth Ball 25th Anniversary Gala at Spring Studios in New York City on Thursday. The Batman Begins actress, 43, looked elegant in an ankle-length peach-toned pleated high-neck gown, which she paired with toe-ring black heels and a chic art deco purse, while her beau, 33, was dapper in a forest green suit and black shirt. Other stars at the event included the evening's honoree, former Talking Heads leader David Byrne, 70, actress Molly Ringwald, 54, Real Housewives of New York City star Carole Radziwill, 58, and writer Mala Gaonkar, 52. Red carpet debut: Katie Holmes looked very much in love as she made her red carpet debut with boyfriend Bobby Wooten III at T he Moth Ball 25th Anniversary Gala at Spring Studios in New York City on Thursday Holmes wore her long brunette tresses pulled back for the night, and accessorized her stylish look with a pair of gold earrings. The beauty wore minimal makeup for the occasion, letting her natural features shine through, with just a touch of black eyeliner and pink lipstick. The couple made their relationship public last month, as they kissed and strolled hand-in-hand through Central Park in New York City. Stylish pair: The actress, 43, looked elegant in an ankle-length peach-toned pleated high-neck gown, which she paired with toe-ring black heels and a chic art deco purse, while her beau, 33, was dapper in a forest green suit and black shirt All smiles: Bobby and Katie flashed their bright smiles while sitting together at the gala The look: Katie and Bobby beamed while gazing at each other Cute couple: The cute couple embraced as they posed together at the gala Public: The couple made their relationship public last month, as they kissed and strolled hand-in-hand through Central Park in New York City It is the first relationship for the Batman Begins actress since she split with chef Emilio Vitolo Jr., 33, who she broke up with in May last year. A source close to Katie previously told E! News that Katie and Bobby met through friends, adding that their relationship is 'working well.' 'Katie is excited about seeing someone and is very happy," the insider explained. "She enjoys having someone in her life and he is very kind and good to her.' Sidewalk stroll: Katie was spotted earlier on Thursday shopping in the SoHo area Casual style: The actress kept it casual while walking in the city Bobby is a self-taught composer, producer and an instrumentalist. The couple have much in common, both hailing from the Midwest and performing on Broadway. Bobby was in American Utopia, while Katie made her Broadway debut in the 2008 revival of Arthur Millers All My Sons and acted in Dead Accounts in 2012 after her divorce from Cruise. Plugged in: Katie had headphones on as she walked around in a boyfriend shirt and frayed black denim shorts Stunner: Also at the event was The Breakfast Club star Molly Ringwald, 54, who looked incredible in a silver sequin dress with a white fur jacket over her shoulders Meanwhile Ringwald looked incredible at the event, wearing a silver sequin dress with a white fur jacket over her shoulders. The Breakfast Club star paired the look with open-toe chunky silver heels, and wore her short auburn tresses in light curls. The spring gala, which is a fundraising event for the non-profit group dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, honored Byrne with the 2022 Moth Storyteller of the Year Award. 'Every year at our spring gala, we honor extraordinary individuals whom we admire for being passionate and bold in their work, and for that reason, there is no better recipient for this years award than David Byrne,' a press release for the event read. 'Unique, beautiful, tenacious and creative storytelling has been the hallmark of his career from his groundbreaking and brilliant work with Talking Heads to his Broadway tour-de-force American Utopia. There couldnt be a more fitting storyteller to celebrate at our Silver Anniversary gala!' The Scottish-American songwriter, record producer, actor, and writer wore a trendy pink shirt and a black suit to the event. He finalized his look with a pair of well-worn white shoes. Honoree: The spring gala, which is a fundraising event for the non-profit group dedicated to the art and craft of storytelling, honored David Byrne, 70, with the 2022 Moth Storyteller of the Year Award Dynamic duo: The talented artist was also pictured mingling with his business partner and writer Mala Gaonkar, 52, who looked chic in a blue floral dress The talented artist was also pictured mingling with his business partner Mala Gaonkar, who looked chic in a blue floral dress. The duo are set to premiere their innovative theater production, Theater of the Mind, at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Colorado, starting August 31 and running through December 18, 2022. Radziwill stunned at the event in a floor-length figure-hugging shimmery gold dress, with a chic cut-out above the chest. The reality TV beauty accessorized the look with two matching silver bracelets on her wrists. In terms of glam, the star sported bronze eyeshadow and pink lipstick on her pout. Golden girl: Real Housewives of New York City star Carole Radziwill, 58, stunned in a floor-length figure-hugging shimmery gold dress, with a chic cut-out above the chest The American journalist - who was married to the late Polish Prince Anthony Stanisaw Albert Radziwi from 1994 until his passing in 1999 - wore her brunette tresses parted on the side and gently flowing down her shoulders. Also at the event was The Moth's Executive Producer Sarah Austin Jenness, who looked incredible in a plunging black lace gown that showed off her ample cleavage. Jenness paired the look with a unique large feather head crown atop her chocolate tresses, which were curled for the occasion. Guests at the event were treated to 'a cocktail party on a gorgeous NYC roof deck, an elegant seated dinner with fabulous views of the New York skyline at sunset' as well as a 'riveting and rollicking storytelling show.' Lovely: Also at the event was The Moth's Executive Producer Sarah Austin Jenness, who looked incredible in a plunging black lace gown that showed off her ample cleavage Group photo: Darren Aronofsky, Bobby, Katie and David Byrne teamed up for a group photo Irina Shayk put a high fashion spin on business casual when she was spotted stepping out in New York this week. The Russian model, who shares her five-year-old daughter Lea De Seine with Bradley Cooper, could be seen swinging a maroon Hermes Birkin bag. Her purse added a touch of upscale flair to her look, which included a flowing white blouse she left untucked over a pair of charcoal slacks. Mover and shaker: Irina Shayk put a high fashion spin on business casual when she was spotted stepping out in New York this week Irina, 36, swept her dark hair tightly back into a bun and accentuated her screen siren features with makeup including a dark nude lip. Warding off the rays with a large pair of dark sunglasses, she rounded off her ensemble with gleaming black leather loafers. Irina's dating history includes Cristiano Ronaldo and last year she was briefly linked to Kanye West in the wake of his split from Kim Kardashian. Only the best: The Russian model, who shares her five-year-old daughter Lea De Seine with Bradley Cooper, could be seen swinging a maroon Hermes Birkin bag She and Bradley are such close co-parents that they have made sure to live just blocks apart in Greenwich Village in order to raise their daughter. 'Hes a full-on, hands-on dad - no nanny,' Irina told Highsnobiety last year. 'Lea went on holiday with him for almost two weeks - I didnt call them once.' The mother of one added: 'Me and her father are very strict. When she finishes eating, she gets up from the table, takes her plate, says "thank you." Without "please" or "thank you" shes not getting anything.' First Monday in May: Earlier this month she and Bradley both attended the star-studded Met Gala, but were never captured on camera mingling with one another there Earlier this month she and Bradley both attended the star-studded Met Gala, but were never captured on camera mingling with one another there. Irina made a splash at the fete in a head-to-toe black leather suit, complete with a tie and a pair of gloves, in an outfit Vogue reported was Burberry. The ensemble radiated a biker chic quality that was at stark odds with the event's Gilded Glamour theme, which was meant to be a nod to America's Gilded Age. Carrie Bickmore has confessed to a parenting fail after botching a simple cooking task for her daughter Evie's new school. Carrie, 41, who is currently living in the UK after taking a sabbatical from Channel 10's The Project, was asked to bring an Australian dish to International Food Fair day. Selecting to make a pavlova, Carrie quickly realised she had none of the key ingredients and instead turned up at the school with shop-bought meringues - which is not an Australian dish. Parenting Fail: Carrie Bickmore has confessed to a parenting fail after botching a simple cooking task for her daughter Evie's new school. Carrie, who is currently living in the UK after taking a sabbatical from Channel 10's The Project, was asked to bring an Australian dish to International Food Fair day Oops: Carrie, 41, who is currently living in the UK after taking a sabbatical from Channel 10's The Project, confessed to the parenting blunder on her Instagram Adding insult to injury, there were no Australian flags on hand. So a New Zealand flag was proudly flown over her tray of meringues, a dish originating in Switzerland. She also admitted to spelling 'cornflour' incorrectly on the ingredients list, instead writing 'cornflower'. Carrie shared the sorry saga to her Instagram. Full disclosure: She gave a blow-by-blow account of how the International Food Fair catastrophe went down The TV star said she was later told that fairy bread - white bread sprinkled with candy used in cake toppings - could have served as an Australian dish. Meanwhile, Carrie said that despite not being an Australian dish, the meringues were a hit. A few of her 760,000 followers threw in their support behind the TV star. 'Pretty sure that's a parenting win,' wrote one fan. 'You went rogue and they loved it, who wouldn't to be fair?' Carrie moved to the UK in April with husband Chris Walker, and children, Oliver, Evie and Adelaide. Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain were seen dressed as 1960s suburban housewives on the set of Mother's Instinct in Union County, New Jersey. On Wednesday, the Oscar-winning actresses, who play best friends and neighbors Alice (Chastain) and Celine (Hathaway), appeared to be enjoying their first day of shooting the highly-anticipated psychological thriller. In one scene, the Locked Down star, 39, could be seen leaving her home in a blue dress and matching heels to drop off her onscreen sons to school. Glamorous: Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain were seen dressed as 1960s suburban housewives on the set of Mother's Instinct in Union County, New Jersey Her brunettes tresses were perfectly coiffed and she also sported a pair of elegant white gloves and matching sunglasses. Apart from a bright red lipstick, Hathaway sported an otherwise natural makeup look, consisting of foundation, blush and bronzer. Meanwhile, Chastain wore a sleeveless, knee-length mint green dress, pearl earrings, a white purse and heels. In character: For the film, she swapped her signature red tresses for a blonde wig, which was styled in a sophisticated updo Warm greeting: Upon seeing her famous pal, the Molly's Game star shot Hathaway a friendly wave Perfect housewife: In one scene, the Locked Down star, 39, could be seen leaving her home in a blue dress and matching heels to drop off her onscreen sons to school For the film, she swapped her signature red tresses for a blonde wig, which was styled in a sophisticated updo. Upon seeing her famous friend, the Molly's Game star shot Hathaway a friendly wave. Later on set, Hathaway got behind the wheel of a vintage brown vehicle with two child actors, who wore matching blue blazers. Doting onscreen mom: Later on set, Hathaway got behind the wheel of a vintage brown vehicle with two child actors, who wore matching blue blazers And they're off! The little boys both, who appeared to be wearing school uniforms, carried birdhouses with them and light brown leather book bags On route: Hathaway guided them both into the car during the scene while holding a red umbrella over her head The little boys both, who appeared to be wearing school uniforms, carried birdhouses with them and light brown leather book bags. Hathaway guided them both into the car during the scene while holding a red umbrella over her head. This project marks the first time Hathaway and Chastain will both be in the same film since they starred in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar back in 2014. Hot wheels: Hathaway looked confident behind the wheel after ushering her onscreen children into the vintage car Back on screen together: This project marks the first time Hathaway and Chastain will both be in the same film since they starred in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar back in 2014 Another era: The film is adapted from the 2012 novel Derriere le Haine (Behind the Hatred) by Barbara Abel, with the story set in the 1960s Yikes: However, both of their lives are turned upside down by tragedy as their sisterly bond fades and gives way to a psychological war of wits A reimagining: Masset-Depasse will direct from a script by Sarah Conradt (50 States of Fright), adapted from the Abel novel The film is adapted from the 2012 novel Derriere le Haine (Behind the Hatred) by Barbara Abel, with the story set in the 1960s. The story centers on Alice (Chastain) and Celine (Hathaway), who both live a traditional, idyllic lifestyle, each with successful husbands and sons the same age. However, both of their lives are turned upside down by tragedy as their sisterly bond fades and gives way to a psychological war of wits. Behind-the-scenes: Chastain will also produce through her Freckle Films company (The 355) with her partner Kelly Carmichael, alongside Paul Nelson at Mosaic and Jacques-Henri Bronckart Fully supported: European financier Anton will fully finance and produce the film. Masset-Depasse will direct from a script by Sarah Conradt (50 States of Fright), adapted from the Abel novel. Chastain will also produce through her Freckle Films company (The 355) with her partner Kelly Carmichael, alongside Paul Nelson at Mosaic and Jacques-Henri Bronckart. European financier Anton will fully finance and produce the film. 'It takes actors of Jessica and Annes caliber to communicate the intricacy of these two roles,' said director Masset-Depasse in a statement; the actresses pictured in 2015 'It takes actors of Jessica and Annes caliber to communicate the intricacy of these two roles,' said director Masset-Depasse in a statement. 'The relationship between a mother and child is the most powerful connection between two human beings,' the director added. 'When this bond is severed, it calls into question conventional morality and even sanity. In the behind-closed-doors atmosphere of 1960s America, Mothers Instinct becomes a terrifying, high-pressure powder keg,' the director concluded. Vijayawada: Political heat peaked in the scorching summer in AP with the high-pitched programmes of the ruling YSRC and main opposition Telugu Desam attracting the masses. TD chief Chandrababu Naidu gave the Reject Jagan, Save AP call from the Mahanadu meeting of his party to the people, saying the people should get rid of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government in order to safeguard the interests of the state. Countering it, Vijayasai Reddy and other YSRC leaders gave a Kick Babu, Save AP slogan stating that Naidu, a non-resident of AP living in Hyderabad should be permanently kicked out to protect this state from dirty and anti-public politics. The TD Mahanadu was held in online mode due to the Corona crisis for the past two years. Hence Naidu planned the Mahanadu in a grander manner this time to rejuvenate the party cadres and highlight the Jagan Mohan Reddy governments failures, virtually sounding the bugle for the 2024 Assembly and Parliament elections. The ruling YSRC has started the Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam mass contact programme while Naidu embarked on the Badude Badudu protests and public meetings. The YSRC giving priority to BCs drew a new political strategy in the name of the Samajika Nyaya Bheri Bus Yatra for four days to highlight the Jagan Mohan Reddy governments welfare and development programmes for the SC, ST, BC and minority communities. Analysts say BCs form 50 per cent of the population in AP and they were generally supporters of the TD as the party founder NTR had given top priority to BCs in TD and later this was continued by Naidu. For the past 10 years, Jagan Mohan Reddy reached out to the BCs and got their support during his Padayatra. This had helped him win the 2019 Assembly polls with a landslide majority. Now, Naidu is trying to get back the support of the BCs and aims to give top priority to BCs in the ticket distribution process for the next Assembly polls. Analysts say Jagan Mohan Reddy gave top priority to BCs in the Cabinet, government and nominated posts. Further, many BCs won elections from general seats on YSRC tickets due to the peoples preference for Jagan. The YSRC started the Bus Yatra with 17 ministers, explaining to the people the good work the present government did for the BCs. The Yatra is also highlighting the fact that several BC leaders got various posts in the Jagan-led dispensation. Analysts say the YSRC is having the upper hand in the present political campaigns. It is conducting four days of Bus Yatra from May 26 against the two-day Mahanadu on May 27 and 28. It is also noted that the Direct Beneficiary Transfer (DBT) scheme to all on a saturation basis, providing the benefits of welfare schemes to even the supporters of the opposition parties, is also going to yield good results for the ruling party. Minister for education Botsa Satyanarayana said that Bus Yatra was aimed at making the people aware of the Jagan government welfare schemes and development activities and the YSRCs commitment to the causes of the SC, ST, BC and minority segments of the society. The Bus Yatra was hoped to get a good response and a public meeting would be held at Narasaraopet on Saturday. Sniper Elite 5 (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, 54.99) Rating: Verdict: Elite? Almost Down a bit. Slightly to the left. Thats right. Hold it steady steady and BANG! This week, Ive mostly been playing Sniper Elite 5, which means a lot of time spent gazing through a scope at the Third Reich before pulling the trigger. Its a strangely relaxing experience; lying in the grass, spying on Nazi patrols, waiting for the moment to strike. Relaxing, that is, until the final moment of violence. Thats when the seriess notorious x-ray kill cam kicks in, and you see the bullet fly from your rifle in slow motion before connecting with some unfortunate troopers noggin, which suddenly gains all the detail of an anatomical model. This week, Ive mostly been playing Sniper Elite 5, which means a lot of time spent gazing through a scope at the Third Reich before pulling the trigger Thankfully, for those with delicate stomachs, the whole effect can be turned off. And when it is, Sniper Elite 5 might be the closest that gaming gets to the Sunday afternoon experience of watching a war movie like Where Eagles Dare. Across its eight single-player missions, which take you from beachhead to village to chateau in 1944 France, there is plenty of intel to be collected and war machinery to be exploded. The way you go about things is largely up to you. You can be sneaky, or you can just start chucking grenades around. Were not talking Hitman levels of flexibility and inventiveness, but this is no straightforward Call of Duty either. Sniper Elite 5 might be the closest that gaming gets to the Sunday afternoon experience of watching a war movie like Where Eagles Dare All of which will sound very familiar to those who have played Sniper Elites 1 through 4 and thats the problem. This latest instalment is bigger, bolder, but fundamentally more of the same. Still, there is a new mode in which you can have your game invaded by or invade others game as a Nazi sniper. So excuse me as I change uniforms, affect a sneer, and lie in the grass once again. Sniper Elite: The Board Game (50 for main game, 30 for expansions) Rating: Verdict: Hide and seek (then shoot) In an impressive feat of military planning and execution, the Sniper Elite board game arrived at my door just hours after the video game downloaded to my PC. I helped back the project on the crowdfunding website Kickstarter, but Im assured that it will be available through normal channels i.e. shops this summer. Naturally, this cardboard-and-plastic experience is different from the digital one. Theres no zooming in on enemies from leagues away and subjecting them to the judgment of your crosshairs. But, when it comes to the overall mood and feeling, the similarities are remarkable. Youre still tiptoeing around Nazi bases, avoiding patrols, and causing trouble. Youll still imagine yourself as Clint Eastwood in Where Eagles Dare. Unless, of course, youre playing as the Germans. One player of Sniper Elite: The Board Game takes the role of the hero sniper who has to complete a couple of mission goals without being discovered. Up to three others fill in as the Nazis who are trying to do the discovering. Theres also a solo mode, so a single person can do it all. The trick is that this is a hidden movement game. The sniper performs all of his moves and actions on an entirely separate board, although if he makes too much noise, then his position is revealed on the main board too. This kind of mechanic isnt new but rarely has it been put to better, more thematic use. After several hours of play, I did feel as though Id exhausted the possibilities of the two maps included in the main box, but that is what the expansion sets are for. Right now, theres one that takes the action to the Eagles Nest itself, weekend retreat for Hitler and other Nazi high-ups. Just let me at em. Jordan Barrett was the toast of the amfAR Cannes Gala on Thursday night. The Aussie supermodel was spotted mingling with several female models and guests, including Victoria's Secret stunner Stella Maxwell, Fast And The Furious actress Michelle Rodriguez and Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath. He also starred in a catwalk show at the event, and looked in high spirits as he sipped on champagne while strutting his stuff down the runaway. Toast of the town! Jordan Barrett sipped champagne as he strutted down the catwalk shirtless during amfAR Cannes Gala on Thursday evening The 25-year-old was shirtless under a silver blazer paired with matching trousers. His rippling torso was also adorned with silver glitter and he wore a pair of black designer shoes. Earlier in the day, he wore a black shirt and black unbuttoned shirt which featured sheer panel detailing. Metallic: The 25-year-old was shirtless under a silver blazer paired with matching trousers Sparkly: His rippling torso was also adorned with silver glitter and he wore a pair of black designer shoes He spent time at his dinner table with his best girlfriend Stella Maxwell, a former Victoria's Secret Angel. amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research returned to the Cannes International Film for the 28th edition of amfAR Gala Cannes. The event which takes place Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc featured live performances by Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin and Charli XCX, with legendary actor, director and producer Robert De Niro serving as the evening's honored guest. Longtime amfAR supporter Carine Roitfeld curated the annual fashion show, which will include looks from the world's top designers. The exclusive black-tie event included cocktails, dinner and an exciting live auction led by renowned auctioneer Simon de Pury. The auction, sponsored by FTX, will include all show looks, along with a collection of contemporary artworks and one-of-a-kind luxury items and experiences. The theme of this year's fashion show will be Let's Get Married and it will include looks by Oscar de la Renta, Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton Men, Givenchy, Gucci, Chanel, Saint Laurent, and De Fursac. Pals: He spent time at his dinner table with his best girlfriend Stella Maxwell, a former Victoria's Secret Angel Man about town: He also posed up with Emma Thynn, Marchioness of Bath Balenciaga, Fendi, Tom Ford, Jacquemus, Valentino, Giambattista Valli, Armani, Alaia, Burberry, Versace, Alled Martinez, Monot, Nensi Dojaka, and Dior, among many others were also showcasing their looks. Chairs of this 28th edition of amfAR Gala Cannes will include Baz Luhrmann, Carine Roitfeld, Caroline Scheufele, Cynthia Erivo, Ever Gabo Anderson, Kate Hudson, LaKeith Stanfield and Laura Linney. Other chairs include Lauren Remington Platt, Michelle Williams, Milla Jovovich, Mohammed Al-Turki, Sam Bankman-Fried, Vanessa Hudgens, amfAR Board Co-Chairs T. Ryan Greenawalt and Kevin McClatchy, and amfAR Trustee Vin Roberti. Fashion royalty: Jordan poses with former Vogue Paris Editor Carine Roitfeld, Romy Nicole Konjic and Julia Restoin Roitfeld The official beauty partner of the fashion show is Charlotte Tilbury which provided skincare and make-up products for the event as well as professional make-up artists. amfAR is one of the world's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to the support of AIDS research, HIV prevention, treatment education, and advocacy. Since 1985, amfAR has invested nearly $617 million in its programs and has awarded more than 3,500 grants to research teams worldwide. amfAR Gala Cannes has raised a cumulative total of more than $245 million for amfAR's lifesaving AIDS research. Lachlan Murdoch has been flying back and forth between Australia and the U.S. in recent months as he manages his family's media empire. And the 50-year-old billionaire jetted into Sydney on Thursday via private jet with his entourage, including a woman believed to be a personal assistant. The son of media magnate Rupert Murdoch was seen disembarking his $90million plane before making his way through the airport terminal. High flyer: Billionaire media tycoon Lachlan Murdoch jetted into Sydney on Thursday Lachlan, who is married to model and actress Sarah Murdoch, 49, dressed casually for the flight in baggy grey trousers and a white T-shirt. The Fox Corporation CEO wrapped up warm in a beige coat as he pulled his own luggage through the terminal. He also wore a face mask, which is still required at Australian airports even as Covid restrictions are eased across the world. Back on home soil: The son of media magnate Rupert Murdoch was seen disembarking his $90million plane before making his way through the airport terminal The laid-back billionaire: Lachlan, who is married to model and actress Sarah Murdoch, 49, dressed casually for the flight in baggy grey trousers and a white T-shirt Jet-setter: The businessman has been flying back and forth between Australia and the U.S. in recent months as he manages his family's media empire The News Corp co-chairman last visited Sydney in April when he stopped by after a trip to French Polynesia with his family. Before then, he had visited Australia in February with commentator Piers Morgan. During the Covid pandemic, it looked as though the Murdochs planned to settle Down Under permanently. The team: The 50-year-old jetted into Sydney on Thursday via private jet with his entourage, including a woman believed to be a personal assistant (pictured) Previous visits: The News Corp co-chairman last visited Sydney in April when he stopped by after a trip to French Polynesia with his family. Before then, he had visited Australia in February with commentator Piers Morgan New base: During the Covid pandemic, it looked as though the Murdochs planned to settle in Australia permanently. Lachlan and Sarah are parents to sons Kalan Alexander, 17, and Aidan Patrick, 16, and daughter Aerin Elisabeth, 12 Lachlan and Sarah are parents to sons Kalan Alexander, 17, and Aidan Patrick, 16, and daughter Aerin Elisabeth, 12. In April last year, the Sydney Morning Herald reported the Murdochs could be staying in Australia 'for years, not months, as initially believed'. The couple, who own a home in Bellevue Hill, known as Le Manoir, married in 1999. Channel Seven's David 'Kochie' Koch has shared details about his one-on-one encounters with Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise. According to the Sunrise co-host, who has interviewed the sometimes controversial movie legend many times, Cruise is nothing but a perfect gentlemen. Whether Cruise was in front of the cameras or behind the scenes, Koch said he found the diminutive action man perfectly charming and polite. Nice guy! According to Sunrise co-host David 'Kochie' Koch, Tom Cruise is nothing but a perfect gentlemen. Picture: Cruise, Koch and Sam Armytage on Sunrise in 2017 The 66-year-old breakfast host made the remarks during an interview with Andrew Bucklow on the I've Got News for You podcast. The TV veteran ranked Cruise with Tom Hanks, Julie Andrews, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana and Keith Urban among his favourite guest star interviews. Cruise made world headlines after announcing on Sunrise during an interview with Koch and then co-host Samantha Armytage that his 1986 hit Top Gun would have a sequel. Four years in the making, Top Gun: Maverick was made at a cost of US $152 million, with Tom repeating his role of Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell from the first film. Koch said Cruise, 59, was always 'incredibly polite' and gave his time to the camera team and everyone else on the set. Calling the actor 'charming', Koch added, 'He is the politest bloke I've ever met.' Koch did not name names, but compared Cruise favourably to other, more demanding, famous guests he has interviewed. Polite and charming: The TV veteran ranked Cruise with Tom Hanks, Julie Andrews, Hugh Jackman, Eric Bana and Keith Urban among his favourite guest star interviews. Picture: Cruise in Japan on the red carpet for Top Gun: Maverick premiere in Japan He said these celebrity's can be a 'pain' because they want to change the seating, 'to get their good side.' Some stars Koch has interviewed can be aloof or snooty, but not Cruise. 'He's always on point.' Koch gushed. 'He's got lots of energy.' Scoop: Cruise made world headlines after announcing on Sunrise during an interview with Koch and then co-host Samantha Armytage that his 1986 hit Top Gun would have a sequel Koch revealed Cruise is very fond of Australia and that the star, famous for doing his own stunts, first learned to fly a helicopter while shooting Mission: Impossible 2 in Sydney in 1999. Cruise has attracted controversy with the press over the decades, mostly due to his combative responses to questions about his relationships and involvement with Scientology. In 2005, Cruise lashed out at Tom Overton during a 60 Minutes interview after the journalist had asked him about co-parenting with Nicole Kidman. Cruise and Kidman were married in 1990 and divorced in 2001 and share two adopted children - Isabella Jane, 30, and Connor Antony, 27. Cruise told Overton the question was 'stepping over the line.' Nina Dobrev cuddled up to her snowboarder boyfriend Shaun White at the 28th amfAR Cannes Gala this week. The 33-year-old actress, who shot to fame on The Vampire Diaries, flashed the flesh as she posed up a storm at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes. She slipped her hourglass figure into a clinging scarlet peekaboo dress that enabled her to put her amply endowed cleavage on display. Scroll down for video Hot couple: Nina Dobrev cuddled up to her snowboarder boyfriend Shaun White at the 28th amfAR Cannes Gala this week Her sizzling ensemble was sleeveless on one side, while on the other side it featured a raised shoulder and a long sleeve attached to a glove. Sharpening her unmistakable features with makeup, she lent her ensemble a touch of glitz with an elaborate necklace, plus rings and earrings. Nina accentuated the look with a glittering clutch and posed up a storm on the grounds of the hotel in her skintight frock. Meanwhile her sizzling beau, whom she started dating in 2020 and reportedly went into isolation with during the coronavirus lockdowns, wore a classic tuxedo. Swanking about: The 33-year-old actress, who shot to fame on The Vampire Diaries, flashed the flesh as she posed up a storm at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes Looking fab: Sharpening her unmistakable features with makeup, she lent her ensemble a touch of glitz with an elaborate necklace, plus rings and earrings Robert De Niro is the principal honored guest at this year's amfAR Cannes Gala, where Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin and Charli XCX will perform. The gala also features an array of celebrity chairs, including but not limited to Cynthia Erivo, Baz Luhrmann, LaKeith Stanfield, Kate Hudson and Laura Linney. Meanwhile the fashion show was curated by Carine Roitfeld, who became a fashion titan during her years at the helm of Vogue Paris. Simon de Pury was enlisted to a preside over an auction of showpieces by designers ranging from Chanel, Balenciaga and Givenchy to Jacquemus and Nensi Dojaka. Jaw-dropping: Nina accentuated the look with a glittering clutch and posed up a storm on the grounds of the hotel in her skintight frock Over the years it has been thrown, the amfAR Cannes Gala has managed cumulatively to raise over $245 million in aid of AIDS research. The Hotel du Cap has enjoyed a long and storied reputation as a hot spot for the international showbiz A-list during the Cannes Film Festival. Famously, the hotel was also the site of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's torrid affair while they were married to other people, and later of their honeymoon. Kendall Jenner proved she was a good sport on Thursday when she tried to cut up a cucumber again. The 26-year-old Kardashians star was widely mocked on social media earlier this month when she was pictured on the reality series struggling to slice up the green vegetable She had presumably worked on her technique since then, and she seemed ready to go after posting a photo of a sliced cucumber on a confetti-colored cutting board to her Instagram Stories. Take two: Kendall joked that she was going to attempt to cut a cucumber again after she was mercilessly mocked on social media for her poor showing on The Kardashians episode Kendall had a gleaming chef's knife with a black handle lying next to the vegetable, which she had already managed to cut at the ends. 'Here we go again,' she captioned the playful snap. However, she didn't give her 238 million Instagram followers a follow-up glimpse of her technique. Kendall was on the receiving end of some mean, green social media mockery earlier this month, after leaving internet users in stitches with her 'insane attempt' to slice up one on her family's new reality series. Second try: Kendall had a gleaming chef's knife with a black handle lying next to the vegetable, which she had already managed to cut at the ends. 'Here we go again,' she wrote Laughing it up: Kendall was on the receiving end of social media mockery earlier this month, after leaving internet users in stitches with her 'insane attempt' to slice up a cucumber Ironically, Kendall has made just a handful of appearances on the show's premiere season, and after the hilarious backlash to her latest on-camera turn, she may well have wished that she'd kept it that way. In the episode, the model and tequila brand owner is seen visiting her momager Kris' sprawling mansion in Calabasas, near Los Angeles, where she decides that she wants to make herself a snack. Turning down Kris' offer to have the family's professional chef whip something up for her insisting that she's 'making it herself' and that chopping cucumber would be 'easy' Kendall proceeds to try and slice up the fruit, bending her arms around in a very awkward fashion, while her mom looked on in bewilderment. Slice: While checking out the Kardashian-Jenner matriarch's brand new house, she started making herself a snack... revealing that she doesn't know how to slice a cucumber properly Soon after Kendall admitted that she was 'not a good cutter' and that she was 'kind of scared' of the knife, Kris promptly hollered for the chef, asking them to come in and 'cut this up for her'. The hilarious moment has been met with much amusement on social media, where people have been very quick to mock the reality star for her lack of kitchen skills. 'Kendall Jenner not knowing how to cut a cumber and Kris proceeding to call for the chef is hilarious to me,' one fan wrote on Twitter, while another added: 'She probably had to cut her own cucumber 3 times in her life.' Another wrote 'ask Hilaria' in reference to Hilaria Baldwin speaking in a fake Spanish accent and claiming to not know how to pronounce the word cucumber when appearing on national television. Elsewhere, another fan chimed in: 'Why did this scene happen? Kris calling the chef to cut it for her but Kendall is such a big girl! She said she'd cut it. Then Scott comes in and Kris says Kendall is cutting a cucumber! Like she's a 1year old taking her first steps.' 'They have no life skills!' Kendall was savagely mocked online for being unable to cut a cucumber... after momager Kris has to call out for a chef 'Anytime you feel like you're bad at doing something, watch kendall jenner chop a cucumber,' another fan joked. Hilariously, one Twitter user said: 'About an hour ago, I witnessed Kendall Jenner attempt to cut a cucumber on my tv screen. It made me feel a little superior but mostly poor.' 'Watching Kendall Jenner try to cut a cucumber was shocking and yet not surprising they have no life skills,' another fan said. Meme-worthy: Fans set Twitter ablaze after witnessing the cringe-worthy moment on the Hulu show In the episode, Kendall walks up to her mom's new house, with her beloved dog in tow, revealing in confession her, 'secret passion.' 'I feel bad cause I missed my mom's birthday and I didn't get to see her brand new house, which I was really excited about because one of my secret passions in life is interior design and architecture,' Kendall said in confession. 'She killed it, she really did,' Kendall adds,' with Kris telling her she's been working so much and she still doesn't know where everything is. Kitchen: Kendall Jenner might be one of the most sought-after supermodels in the world, though some of the kitchen skills aren't quite up to par, as she revealed in the new episode of The Kardashians Feel bad: 'I feel bad cause I missed my mom's birthday and I didn't get to see her brand new house, which I was really excited about because one of my secret passions in life is interior design and architecture,' Kendall said in confession Killed it: 'She killed it, she really did,' Kendall adds,' with Kris telling her she's been working so much and she still doesn't know where everything is Kendall starts pulling things from the fridge as Kris asks if she wants the chef to make her a snack, but Kendall says she'll do it herself. Kendall says she just has to chop up some cucumber, adding, 'It's pretty easy,' but she starts cutting the cucumber quite awkwardly. Kris tells her to 'be careful because I nicked myself the other day,' as Kendall awkwardly cuts thin slices of cucumber, adding, 'I know, I'm kinda scared.' Fridge: Kendall starts pulling things from the fridge as Kris asks if she wants the chef to make her a snack, but Kendall says she'll do it herself Slice: Kendall says she just has to chop up some cucumber, adding, 'It's pretty easy,' but she starts cutting the cucumber quite awkwardly Scared: Kris tells her to 'be careful because I nicked myself the other day,' as Kendall awkwardly cuts thin slices of cucumber, adding, 'I know, I'm kinda scared' 'Don't cucumbers have seeds?' Kendall asks, before looking at the camera and saying, 'I'm definitely not a good cutter so don't zoom in on me.' The camera does get a few shots of her cutting, as Kris calls the chef over to cut the cucumber for her, but Kendall insists, 'I'll do it, mom, I'm fine.' Scott arrives, saying, 'the house looks even better during the day,' as Kris tells Scott that Kendall is cutting cucumber, which she finishes slicing for her snack. Not a good cutter: 'Don't cucumbers have seeds?' Kendall asks, before looking at the camera and saying, 'I'm definitely not a good cutter so don't zoom in on me' Scott: Scott arrives, saying, 'the house looks even better during the day,' as Kris tells Scott that Kendall is cutting cucumber, which she finishes slicing for her snack They all go sit outside as their dogs are playing with each other, as Scott asks what's happening for Thanksgiving, adding, 'Did I get banned from that yet?' Kris says they are doing Thanksgiving in Palm Springs, as Scott asks if he's invited or not. 'You're invited, I just have to figure out where everybody is staying now,' Kris says, adding there are, 'no more rooms available.' Thanksgiving: They all go sit outside as their dogs are playing with each other, as Scott asks what's happening for Thanksgiving, adding, 'Did I get banned from that yet?' Invited: Kris says they are doing Thanksgiving in Palm Springs, as Scott asks if he's invited or not Kris adds in confession, 'Sometimes Scott can play a bit of a victim, and I feel like that's what's happening here right now. I just want everyone to be happy, but don't put me in the middle.' Kendall asks if they were all together for Kris' birthday and Scott says they were fine, before asking why Kendall didn't invite him to her birthday. 'I didn't really invite anyone to my birthday,' adding that nobody came, but Scott insists that, 'everybody came.' Victim: Kris adds in confession, 'Sometimes Scott can play a bit of a victim, and I feel like that's what's happening here right now. I just want everyone to be happy, but don't put me in the middle' Birthday: Kendall asks if they were all together for Kris' birthday and Scott says they were fine, before asking why Kendall didn't invite him to her birthday 'I love you. I've been helping you throw your birthday parties for the past 10 years,' Scott says, asking if Kourtney and Travis went and Kendall insists, 'nobody went.' 'Oh, at the dinner at my house? Yeah but literally only Kourtney and Travis came, that wasn't a party,' Kendall says. 'Never in a million years would Kendall not invite me to a birthday dinner,' Scott adds, but Kris insists she, 'didn't have a birthday dinner.' No party: 'Oh, at the dinner at my house? Yeah but literally only Kourtney and Travis came, that wasn't a party,' Kendall says Never: 'Never in a million years would Kendall not invite me to a birthday dinner,' Scott adds, but Kris insists she, 'didn't have a birthday dinner' Kris says she had a birthday party at a club, as Scott complains, 'I wasn't invited to that either.' Kendall adds, 'I had a birthday dinner, mom. You were there at my house,' as Scott asks, 'So why wasn't I invited to that?' 'We've already went over this, Scott. It was actually all my friends,' as Scott added, 'Oh so you didn't want me there.' Friends: 'We've already went over this, Scott. It was actually all my friends,' as Scott added, 'Oh so you didn't want me there' Kendall responded, 'No, I wasn't going to invite family members, period,' but Scott added, 'But you invited everybody but me.' 'Just cause Kourt was gonna be there. It was very intimate,' Kendall says, but Scott doesn't understand, 'why I should be left out.' 'I'm not saying you should. That is not my business at the end of the day. Making Kourtney uncomfortable is not part of my business,' Kendall said. Everybody: Kendall responded, 'No, I wasn't going to invite family members, period,' but Scott added, 'But you invited everybody but me' Uncomfortable: 'I'm not saying you should. That is not my business at the end of the day. Making Kourtney uncomfortable is not part of my business,' Kendall said 'I'm so sorry that makes you sad and I'm not ever trying to leave you out, but what I'm saying is, by Kourtney being uncomfortable about something like that, that's not really my business,' Kendall explained. Scott said he didn't never invite them when he had a girlfriend but Kendall says, 'That's so different, Scott.' 'You can't like take a second and like, 'Hey, I'm having a birthday, I think you might be uncomfortable?' Scott asks. So different: Scott said he didn't never invite them when he had a girlfriend but Kendall says, 'That's so different, Scott' Different: Scott said he didn't never invite them when he had a girlfriend but Kendall says, 'That's so different, Scott.' Kendall admits she should have texted him, 'But I've been the one to have that attitude about it the entire time.' Scott asked what that means and Kendall says that on the night of Kourt and Travis' engagement, she's the one who asked, 'What about Scott's feelings?' Kris said that was true, and Scott got upset that she did all that and she still didn't invite him to her birthday. Text: Kendall admits she should have texted him, 'But I've been the one to have that attitude about it the entire time' 'Kourtney, at the end of the day, is my sister, and of course I want her there. This dinner was literally 15 people. If it's an intimate dinner and I'm not willing to have an uncomfortable situation happen' Kendall says before being cut off by Scott who says he's upset. Kendall says she's saying sorry and Scott says, 'I would never not invite you,' and Kendall says, 'But Scott, I'm saying sorry,' as Scott says, 'I've not heard you say sorry.' They keep going back and forth before Kendall says, 'I'm literally I'm out,' before getting up from the table. 'This is so f***ing ridiculous. You won't let me speak, Scott.' Sorry: Kendall says she's saying sorry and Scott says, 'I would never not invite you,' and Kendall says, 'But Scott, I'm saying sorry,' as Scott says, 'I've not heard you say sorry' Ridiculous: They keep going back and forth before Kendall says, 'I'm literally I'm out,' before getting up from the table. 'This is so f***ing ridiculous. You won't let me speak, Scott' 'Because you didn't say anything,' Scott says as Kendall says he's talking over her as Scott says she didn't say, 'she had a f***ing party or a birthday.' 'No I didn't! I literally Scott, that was my mom. I literally said Yes mom I did. Scott, please replay the f***ing video,' Kendall says before walking out of her mom's house. 'I'm so over this s**t, Scott, for real,' Kendall adds before closing the door as Scott says, 'Oooh,' as Kris just hangs her head, as the episode comes to an end.' Literally didn't: 'No I didn't! I literally Scott, that was my mom. I literally said Yes mom I did. Scott, please replay the f***ing video,' Kendall says before walking out of her mom's house Kris: 'I'm so over this s**t, Scott, for real,' Kendall adds before closing the door as Scott says, 'Oooh,' as Kris just hangs her head, as the episode comes to an end' Earlier in the episode Kendall was hanging out with Hailey Bieber in Miami, as Kendall gushes over Dior sunglasses that Kendall says are, so cute, as Hailey adds they are, so vintage. I am in Miami with my friend Hailey. We are on the way to see some friends and we are just going to get some nice IV bags. Its what we consider a really fun day, Kendall adds in confession. She adds that she has been a hypochondriac her whole life, literally since I can remember, and so I am obsessed with health right now. Sunglasses: Earlier in the episode Kendall was hanging out with Hailey Bieber in Miami, as Kendall gushes over Dior sunglasses that Kendall says are, so cute, as Hailey adds they are, so vintage' Miami: I am in Miami with my friend Hailey. We are on the way to see some friends and we are just going to get some nice IV bags. Its what we consider a really fun day, Kendall adds in confession Kendall says health is her, number one priority, Id say, to the point where Im like eating myself alive thinking about my health. She also opens up about having COVID-19, which she admitted during her brief appearance in the series premiere, adding, I wasnt really that sick. Id say I got pretty lucky. Id say that my recovery was harder than my COVID, which was really weird to me, she said in confession. COVID: She also opens up about having COVID-19, which she admitted during her brief appearance in the series premiere, adding, I wasnt really that sick. Id say I got pretty lucky' She tells one of the NAD IV workers in Miami that, I dont know whats wrong with me. I talked to a doctor the other day and they said that post-COVID, sometimes you can have like heightened cortisol and my cortisol levels havent evened out yet, which he agrees with. She tells Hailey that its, very strange, adding she is, two months out now and I still dont feel very good. I just feel f***ing weird. They give her an NAD IV with extra Vitamin C, with Kendall saying in confession that, things like this, they comfort me. They help because it just makes me happy and I dont want anyone to judge me. Strange: She tells Hailey that its, very strange, adding she is, two months out now and I still dont feel very good. I just feel f***ing weird' No judging: They give her an NAD IV with extra Vitamin C, with Kendall saying in confession that, things like this, they comfort me. They help because it just makes me happy and I dont want anyone to judge me' Hailey asks if doing NAD, multiple days in a row is fine, with one of the other workers saying, It wouldnt be harmful, but at a certain point you kind of saturate your receptors. Kendall says that her and Hailey both are, really big on our health journey for sure, as Hailey adds, It makes for a great friendship. Im gonna NAD for the rest of my life and Im never gonna age, Hailey proclaims with a laugh. Multiple: Hailey asks if doing NAD, multiple days in a row is fine, with one of the other workers saying, It wouldnt be harmful, but at a certain point you kind of saturate your receptors' Winnie Harlow flashed the flesh when she attended the glittering 28th amfAR Cannes Gala in the South Of France. The 27-year-old supermodel, who has the skin condition vitiligo, posed up a storm at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes on Thursday. She put her sensational figure on display by modeling a see-through black corset and wrapping herself in a sheer black mesh skirt. Looking fab: Winnie Harlow flashed the flesh when she attended the glittering 28th amfAR Cannes Gala in the South Of France As she strode in front of the Foundation For AIDS Research-themed backdrop, she let the skirt billow open to bare her sensationally svelte pins. Heightening the leggy effect of her outfit by balancing expertly on a pair of sky-high open-toed stilettos, Winnie strutted this way and that for the cameras. Winnie wore her luxurious curls mostly down and lent her ensemble a regal touch by clasping on an elaborate drop necklace. The ubiquitous fashionista, who hails from the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, pulled her best supermodel stare as the cameras snapped away at her. Place to be: Heightening the leggy effect of her outfit by balancing expertly on a pair of sky-high open-toed stilettos, Winnie strutted this way and that for the cameras Swanking about: The 27-year-old supermodel, who has the skin condition vitiligo, posed up a storm at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Cap d'Antibes on Thursday Sizzling sensation: As she strode in front of the Foundation For AIDS Research-themed backdrop, she let the skirt billow open to bare her svelte pins While making her way around the fete, she mingled with some of the other assembled stars, including Emma Thynn, Britain's first black marchioness. Winnie, who shot to fame on America's Next Top Model, could also be spotted hobnobbing with her fellow model Jourdan Dunn. Jourdan brought back memories of Old Hollywood by sliding herself into a sleek floor-length gold gown that shimmered under the lights. As the festivities progressed, Winnie took the stage and spoke alongside Coco Rocha, her fellow model and fellow Torontonian. Terrific: Winnie wore her luxurious curls mostly down and lent her ensemble a regal touch by clasping on an elaborate drop necklace Esteemed company: Robert De Niro is the principal honored guest at this year's amfAR Cannes Gala, where Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin and Charli XCX were scheduled to perform Coco emphasized her vertiginous legs in a white and gold cocktail dress that flared out into extravagant mesh frills over her arms. Robert De Niro is the principal honored guest at this year's amfAR Cannes Gala, where Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin and Charli XCX were scheduled to perform. The gala also features an array of celebrity chairs, including but not limited to Cynthia Erivo, Baz Luhrmann, LaKeith Stanfield, Kate Hudson and Laura Linney. Meanwhile the fashion show was curated by Carine Roitfeld, who became a fashion titan during her years at the helm of Vogue Paris. Glowing: While making her way around the fete, she mingled with some of the other assembled stars, including Emma Thynn, Britain's first black marchioness Dancing queens: Winnie, who shot to fame on America's Next Top Model, could also be spotted hobnobbing with her fellow model Jourdan Dunn Simon de Pury was enlisted to a preside over an auction of showpieces by designers ranging from Chanel, Balenciaga and Givenchy to Jacquemus and Nensi Dojaka. Over the years it has been thrown, the amfAR Cannes Gala has managed cumulatively to raise over $245 million in aid of AIDS research. The Hotel du Cap has enjoyed a long and storied reputation as a hot spot for the international showbiz A-list during the Cannes Film Festival. Famously, the hotel was also the site of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's torrid affair while they were married to other people, and later of their honeymoon. Dynamic duo: As the festivities progressed, Winnie took the stage and spoke alongside Coco Rocha, her fellow model and fellow Torontonian The Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa Giudice has responded to recent remarks made about her by former castmate Caroline Manzo, who said she wanted to 'knock the s*** out of her verbally.' The Bravo beauty, 50, on Thursday spoke with TMZ about the comments Manzo, 60, made about her while appearing on her son Albie Manzo's Dear Albie podcast last week. The Real Housewives of New Jersey star said of Manzo, 'She didn't knock the s*** out of me the entire time she was on the show, that's why I'm still there and she's not. That tells you everything you need to know.' The latest: The Real Housewives of New Jersey's Teresa Giudice, 60, has responded to recent remarks made about her by former castmate Caroline Manzo, 50, who said she wanted to 'knock the s*** out of her verbally Giudice said that Manzo's digs against her were a calculated move, adding, 'She's promoting her son's podcast so she talks about me because otherwise no one is paying attention. 'And she's not the only one doing it. If these people were interesting they would have something else to talk about other than Teresa Giudice. But God bless them all, I wish them nothing but the best.' Giudice said Manzo was not aggressive with her when they filmed a 2020 Super Bowl ad for the hummus brand Sabra. 'She wasn't on that energy when we did the Super Bowl commercial together,' Giudice said of Manzo. 'She couldn't have been nicer to me. In person she was hugging me, on her son's podcast she wants to fight me.' Former friends: Caroline and Teresa were good friends until Teresa accused Caroline of contributing to the the federal investigation that resulted in the entrepreneur and her ex, Joe, going to prison for fraud. Pictured in New York in 2013 Behind bars: Teresa spent almost a year behind bars in 2015. Joe served a three-year sentence and was deported to Italy; Pictured NY May 2022 In a May 18 episode titled Caroline Manzo, Out For Blood on her son's podcast, the 60-year-old replied to a fan question as to whether she would ever come back to The Real Housewives Of New Jersey to 'straighten out Teresa once and for all.' Her answer was 'Yes,' explaining, 'Sometimes, you gotta smack the bully,' adding, 'I am more than happy to go smack the bully.' And she even went as far as to say, 'I would get great pleasure to go in and just knock the s*** out of her verbally and just put her in her place.' The reality star wants to set the record straight on whether she had anything to do with the fraud investigation into Teresa and her ex Joe. Caroline was accused of contributing to the federal investigation that led to the entrepreneur, 50, and her ex-husband, Joe, 50, going to prison. Teresa spent nearly a year behind bars after she and her ex were convicted of mail, wire, and bankruptcy fraud. Joe was locked up for three years and then deported to his native Italy when he was released in March 2019. Takedown: The Manzo'd with Children star said she won't be returning to the show at this time because 'Bravo doesn't wanna pay me;' Pictured 2013 The Manzo'd With Children star has denied having anything to do with the investigation into her former friend and has indicated she would relish an on-air takedown. 'I'm just gonna put it out there 'cause I just don't give a f**k, alright? You know what? I would get great pleasure, fans, community, to go in and just knock the s*** out of [Teresa] verbally and just put her in her place,' she added. 'I am tired. I am tired of certain things,' she continued. 'I am tired of her opening her very uneducated mouth and using me as a weapon to say that I was the one that spearheaded her IRS claim and stuff like that. We are not those people.' None of that will happen, unless Bravo, the network that produces RHONJ, ponies up the money. 'Bravo doesn't wanna pay me,' said Manzo, who left the show in 2013. 'Guess what, Bravo? You don't get this for free. You don't get the dame for free, Bravo. They are paying Teresa, I'm sure, an exorbitant amount of money.' Christian radio hosts Lucy Holmes and Kel McWilliam have shocked fans and announced that they're dating. The pair, who host 89.9's TheLight show, made the surprise announcement on Instagram on Thursday. Lucy and Kel have been friends for 14 years, and said their loved ones are 'beyond thrilled that two best mates ended up falling in love.' Hallelujah! Christian radio hosts Lucy Holmes and Kel McWilliam have shocked fans and announced that they're dating after 14 years of friendship Underneath a selfie of the couple, Lucy explained that they fell in love during Covid-19 lockdowns. 'Through those long months of curfews and isolation, and keeping each other company every morning, laughing at the most ridiculous things on air, we realised our friendship of 14 years ran deeper than we imagined,' she said. 'So quietly, and slowly, we started seeing each other.' Love story: Underneath a selfie of the couple, Lucy explained that the pair fell in love during Covid-19 lockdowns She said they have kept the happy news under wraps as so much of their lives are made public on their radio show. 'So much of our lives have been so public on our show, my infertility, our marriage breakdown over the years, our battle with mental health after that, Kel's back issues, my endometriosis story,' she said. 'But this was special and different, and something we wanted to nurture and protect. So we let our loved ones in, and of course our children. And all of them were beyond thrilled that two best mates ended up falling in love.' Keeping mum: She said they have kept the happy news under wraps as so much of their lives are made public on their radio show She added she is the 'happiest girl in the world' and 'beyond blessed'. Underneath the post, the pair were inundated with congratulatory messages from fans. 'THIS IS THE BEST NEWS EVER. HOW GOOD IS GOD?!!' one fan wrote. 'That makes so much sense to us. Sharing a studio with you both for a very short time, the magnetism is hard to top. Congratulations, big love and best wishes,' another wrote. According to The Herald Sun, Kel's marriage recently ended, while Lucy has just resolved a legal dispute with ex-husband Derek Bailey. Laverne Cox celebrated her 50th birthday at New York City's largest hotel rooftop bar on Thursday evening, following the release of her Barbie. Just 24 hours after the release of her Mattel's Mattels first-ever transgender doll, the Orange Is the New Black actress dressed up in the figurine's exact outfit for her A Very Barbie Birthday celebration. As she strutted down the pink with her doll in her hand, the Emmy winner struck a number of flirty poses as she played with the tulle skirt of her chic ensemble, featuring a leather corset top and shiny white pant boots. Having a blast: Laverne Cox celebrated her 50th birthday at New York City's largest hotel rooftop bar on Thursday evening, following the release of her Barbie Just like her Barbie, Cox sported her blonde hair in cascading platinum waves. Glamorous: Just 24 hours after the release of her Mattel's Mattels first-ever transgender doll, the Orange Is the New Black actress dressed up in the figurine's exact outfit Real-life Barbie: As she strutted down the pink with her doll in her hand, the Emmy winner struck a number of flirty poses as she played with the tulle skirt of her chic ensemble, featuring a leather corset top and shiny white pant boots Posing away: Just like her Barbie, Cox sported her blonde hair in cascading platinum waves Lookalike: The beauty was the spitting image of her Barbie doll Following the announcement about her doll, Cox could barely contain her excitement as she raved about a Barbie being made in her lifelessness. 'I can't wait for fans to find my doll on shelves and have the opportunity to add a Barbie doll modeled after a transgender person to their collection,' she said in a statement, obtained by Page Six. While speaking about making history as Mattel's first transgender Barbie, the Orange Is the New Black actress said the experience was 'surreal.' Chic: Cox's Orange Is the New Black Emma Myles came to support in a cropped hot pink tank top and black pants Radiant: Orange Is the New Black star Alysia Reiner made a stylish entrance in a pink feathered and bright red heels Playful: The actress sported a blonde wig with pink stripes Additionally, the Inventing Anna actress explained to People how the doll is a major win for the LGBTQ community amid disturbing proliferation of anti-trans bills. She went on to describe how this is a bit of 'hope and possibility' for trans people in a year where 'over 250 pieces of anti-trans legislation have been introduced in state legislatures all over the country.' 'In this environment where trans kids are being attacked, that this can also be a celebration of transness, and also a space for them to dream, understand and be reminded that trans is beautiful,' Cox continued. Leggy display: Celebrity fitness instructor Kacy Duke sported a white leotard and thigh-high boots with black stripes Alexis Floyd and Angel Blue were among the celebrity attendees As for the design process, she was 'very involved' and had notes like 'can we make her look more like me' and to be 'more African American.' 'And we had a conversation about highlights and lowlights because I'm blonde most of the time now, but I'm a Black girl, so I need a dark root,' the Emmy-winning producer added. Of the subject, she concluded: 'And we had a whole conversation about how they can't do that, but they could do dark low lights.' Special performance: Laverne Cox appeared to be having a blast as she partied away at her A Very Barbie Birthday celebration at Magic Hour 'I can't wait for fans to find my doll on shelves and have the opportunity to add a Barbie doll modeled after a transgender person to their collection,' she said in a statement, obtained by Page Six, earlier this week As a child, Cox revealed her mother forbid her from playing with Barbie dolls because she 'was assigned male at birth.' Upon reflecting on this traumatizing experience during her upbringing in her 30s, the stars said her therapist reminded her 'it's never too late to have a happy childhood, and what you should do for your inner child is go out and buy yourself a Barbie doll.' 'I played with my Barbie, and I told my mom what my therapist had said. And that first Christmas after that, my mom sent me a Barbie doll,' she gushed. 'And she's been sending me Barbies for Christmas and for my birthday.' For many, the relief will be shortlived as they will be drafted for the bypoll campaign. Besides the heatwave, the legislators were facing a piquant situation when people who were denied welfare schemes questioned. DC Image Nellore: The Gadapa Gadapaku Mana Prabhutvam programme was halted in Nellore district on Thursday as the model code of conduct for the Atmakur bypoll came into effect. This gave a breather to YSRC leaders and activists who were working on the door-to-door campaign to highlight the government welfare schemes under the severe summer sun. For many, the relief will be shortlived as they will be drafted for the bypoll campaign. Besides the heatwave, the legislators were facing a piquant situation when people who were denied welfare schemes questioned. Government officials including ward and village volunteers, who are drawing salaries from the government, cannot go along with peoples representatives because of the election code, said a senior officer, explaining the suspension of the campaign. In a lighter vein, he said the election code helped mandal parishat development officer, the staff of the village and ward secretariats and volunteers apart politicians to escape the summer heat. Brooke Shields looked every inch the cool mom in a fringed white tank top while attending an event for Fashionphile in New York City on Wednesday. As she attended a launch event for the high-end consignment boutique for secondhand luxury handbags and accessories, the 56-year-old supermodel was joined by her two children Rowan, 19, and Grier, 16. Despite more than three decades between The Blue Lagoon star and her teenagers, the trio looked more like siblings than mother and daughters. Glamorous: Brooke Shields looked every inch the cool mom in a fringed white tank top while attending an event for Fashionphile in New York City on Wednesday In addition to a sleeveless blouse, Shields rocked a pair of fitted dark-wash jeans, which hugged every curve of her toned frame, and a quilted purse. Rowan, who has already begun following in her mom's modeling footsteps, sported a black bustier top, white flared trousers and a Chanel purse. Her older sibling sported a white blazer, matching Gucci bag, a pink shirt, light-wash blue jeans and a pair of black high heels. Chic: As she attended a launch event for the high-end consignment boutique for secondhand luxury handbags and accessories, the 56-year-old supermodel was joined by her two children Rowan, 19, and Grier and Rowan, 16 Lookalike daughters: Despite more than three decades between The Blue Lagoon star and her teenagers, the trio looked more like siblings than mother and daughters Fashionatas: In addition to a sleeveless blouse, Shields rocked a pair of fitted dark-wash jeans, which hugged every curve of her toned frame, and a quilted purse Rowan currently is attending Wake Forest University in North Carolina following her graduation from Cold Spring Harbor High School in New York. Meanwhile, Grier, who is still in high school, has been involved with multiple modeling campaigns, including one for a for New York clothing company, Cool Is A Construct. Most recently, the teen was involved in a Victoria's Secret campaign for Mother's Day video. Rising star: Grier, who is still in high school, has been involved with multiple modeling campaigns, including one for a for New York clothing company, Cool Is A Construct Balancing her career and college: Grier is represented by IMG Models In the emotional clip the Momma Named Me Sheriff star fought back tears as she shared the joy and pain that comes with being a mom. 'I don't think that I bargained to feel the pain of loving this much,' explained Shield of Grier and Rowan. 'You think, "Oh, I'm gonna love my babies, oh, they're going to mean the world to me" and feeling, "Wow, did I really want to feel the extent of this love? 'Cause it hurts. All the time.'" The Vogue cover girl added: 'And it doesn't get easier, it just gets hard in different ways, you know.' For their 2022 Real Love campaign, Victoria's Secret has invited models and their mothers, grandmothers and children to share their feelings about family. All together: Shields beamed as she posed for a photo between her two daughters Model siblings: Both teens inherited the supermodel gene from their mama as they stood over five-foot-five and five-foot-eleven Pretty in pink: Rowan sported a white blazer, matching Gucci bag, a pink shirt, light-wash blue jeans and a pair of black high heels In an interview with InStyle, the runway veteran said when she was invited to join in the intergenerational campaign, she new it would be a good opportunity to pass the baton to her daughter. 'It was truly a proud moment to be able to model alongside my daughter for such a meaningful campaign,' she said. The proud mama who has been in the public eye since she was a toddler, said she hopes her child has a chance to take part in other meaningful campaigns. Daisy Lowe and Melanie C put on eye-catching displays as they attended a dinner on Thursday evening to celebrate the new Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet store at Bruton Street, London. The model, 33, put on a busty display in a pale pink cop top which she donned underneath a bright pink blazer and matching trousers. She added stylish trainers to the ensemble and carried a clutch while beaming alongside her pal Mel, 48. Wow! Daisy Lowe and Melanie C put on eye-catching displays as they attended a dinner on Thursday evening to celebrate the new Alice + Olivia by Stacey Bendet store at Bruton Street, London Daisy opted for a blush palette of makeup and styled her dark tresses straight while enjoying a beverage at the lavish event. Meanwhile, Mel C flashed her toned midriff in a florescent green maxi dress with a cut-out detail. The Spice Girl sported a bronzed makeup palette which accentuated her natural features while styling her shot locks in curls. Stylish: The model, 33, put on a busty display in a pale pink cop top which she donned underneath a bright pink blazer and matching trousers Stunning: Princess Beatrice of York looked the epitome of chic in a white blazer dress as she beamed for a snap Fashionista: Mel C flashed her toned midriff in a florescent green maxi dress with a cut-out detail Beauty: The Spice Girl sported a bronzed makeup palette which accentuated her natural features while styling her shot locks in curls Gorgeous: Daisy opted for a blush palette of makeup and styled her dark tresses straight while enjoying a beverage at the lavish event Stacey Bendet, who hosted the event, was also joined by Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice, Lady Mary Charteris, Susan Bender Whitfield and AJ Odudu. Alice + Olivia continues its international expansion, debuting its first free standing store in the UK on May 23. The store is located in Londons Mayfair district and is the brands 18th free standing international retail location, in addition to the 25 US domestic locations. During the opening weekend, in honour of this milestone and to stay true Alice + Olivia's core values of female empowerment and philanthropy, 10% of net proceeds will go to the Princes Trust, specifically benefiting the Women Supporting Women. Stylish: AJ Odudu and Mary Charteris stood out from the crowd as they donned bold patterned blazer and trouser co-ords Amazing: Jenny Mollen showcased her sensational style in a bright satin orange suit as she posed beside Princess Beatrice Celebrating: Alice + Olivia continues its international expansion, debuting its first free standing store in the UK on May 23 Expanding: The store is located in Londons Mayfair district and is the brands 18th free standing international retail location, in addition to the 25 US domestic locations Eye-catching: Stacey Bendet, Creative Director and Founder of Alice + Olivia, looked nothing short of sensational in a vibrant pink gown Recently, Daisy has given a candid insight her sex life and admitted she feels happiest when having sex 'two or three times a day'. The model, who is dating property developer Jordan Saul, 28, also explained that orgasms are a great way to 'relieve stress'. Daisy also discussed her turn ons during the open interview, which included cleanliness, good driving and buying new underwear. Talking to The Sun she explained: 'I always knew good sex made me feel a lot better - orgasms are so good for stress relieving.' Personal: The model, who is dating property developer Jordan Saul, 28, also explained that orgasms are a great way to 'relieve stress' Noting that she mainly has sex 'every other day', Daisy expanded: 'On a great day, two or three times a day if thats where it gets to.' Detailing what get's her in the mood, the star said that lingerie from brand Agent Provocateur makes her feel 'sexiest', but comfy T-shirts also have a similar effect. Further in the chat, Daisy pointed out her biggest 'turn-ons' - noting that good driving and kindness was the key to her heart. Daisy, who has been dating beau Jordan for almost two years, often speaks candidly about body openness and positivity. Lingerie: Detailing what get's her in the mood, the star said that lingerie from brand Agent Provocateur makes her feel 'sexiest', but comfy T-shirts also have a similar effect In March, she revealed she felt like an 'elephant' during her career as she compared her curvy figure to other women's 'stick-thin' bodies. The fashion model admitted that she 'constantly pulled myself apart' and said she was told by others that she was 'curvy' when she was in reality a size six or eight. Speaking on the That Gaby Roslin Podcast, she said: 'Being a model full-time for ten years and throughout my career always being very conscious of wanting to champion real women's bodies and being curvy.' She continued: 'And being told you're curvy even though at the time I was six to eight which looking back is ridiculous, and feeling like an elephant in comparison to all these stick-thin - wonderful, beautiful in their own way - models.' Daisy said that she loved her appearance on Strictly Come Dancing in 2016 as it was the first time in her career that she was told that her body was 'good'. She said: 'For the first time in my career I was actually being told that what my body was doing is really good and being really proud of what my body could achieve - rather than constantly pulling myself apart.' Victoria Beckham cut a chic figure on Friday as she modelled one of her latest dress designs in a sizzling Instagram video. The fashion designer, 48, showed off her incredible physique in the 590 figure-hugging black midi dress. She strut her stuff in a pair of black stilettos while showing off the garment from her collection in a massive mirror. Stunning: Victoria Beckham cut a chic figure on Friday as she modelled one of her latest dress designs in an Instagram video Victoria looked elegant as she accessorised with several gold bracelets and a dainty emerald necklace. The popstar styled her brunette tresses up in a neat bun while sporting a bronzed makeup palette. The natural beauty captioned the post: 'You know I love a little black dress!' Fashionista: The fashion designer, 48, showed off her incredible physique in the 590 figure-hugging black midi dress Stylish: Victoria looked elegant as she accessorised with several gold bracelets and a dainty emerald necklace Gorgeous: She strut her stuff in a pair of black stilettos while showing off the garment from her collection in a massive mirror It comes after Victoria insisted that wanting to be thin is an 'old-fashioned attitude,' after spending much of her youth maintaining a famously slender physique. Talking body confidence, her new VB body range and fitness regimes with Grazia magazine, the fashion designer raised the notion that modern women want to 'look healthy, and curvy' - with the slimmer frame becoming a thing of the past. She said: 'It's an old-fashioned attitude, wanting to be really thin. I think women today want to look healthy, and curvy. Tell all: Talking body confidence, her new VB body range and fitness regimes, the sought-after fashion designer raised the notion that women today want to be 'look healthy, and curvy' - with a desire for a slender frame becoming a thing of the past 'They want to have some boobs - and a bum. The curvier you are, the better my VB Body dresses look.' Victoria's VB Body range - featuring tight knit jersey dresses and separates - was in fact designed with a curvaceous figure in mind. 'Every woman wants a nice, round, curvy bottom, right? For that, you need a really tight knit that nips you in at the waist and holds you in all the right places,' she explained. Gorgeous: Victoria's VB Body range - featuring tight knit jersey dresses and separates - was designed with a curvaceous figure in mind (pictured right in 2006) The mother-of-four, whose only daughter is ten-year-old Harper, finds the attitude and style of curvier women liberating - and inspiring for her children. She said: 'There are a lot of really curvy women in Miami, and they really own it, you know? They walk along Miami beach with not a lot of clothes on, and they look fantastic. 'They show their bodies off with such confidence. I found both their attitude and their style really liberating. And as a mother, I loved the fact that Harper was around women who were really celebrating their curves and enjoying how they look.' Victoria may be an internationally recognised style icon and fashion designer but she admitted her latest venture was also to help her feel 'sexy again.' 'For quite a few years, the more time I spent working in fashion, the more clothes I wore and I ended up buried under all these 'fashion' layers. 'Last year when I was in Miami and starting to go out again, post-Covid, I wanted a change. I wanted to feel sexy again,' she recalled. Scarlet Vas is best known for her time playing police officer Mishti Sharma on Neighbours. But Scarlet's career has taken quite the turn since she exited the series in 2018. The 27-year-old is now a wildly successful OnlyFans model, and on Friday, she took to Instagram to document a recent lavish trip to The Bahamas. The good life! Actress-turned-OnlyFans model Scarlet Vas (pictured) frolicked around a private island in The Bahamas this week The brunette beauty was joined by Bachelor U.S. star Marylynn Sienna on what she claimed was their own 'private island'. The bikini-clad pair frolicked along the shore and played with some local wild pigs, before heading back to a luxury villa where they were staying. Scarlet is usually jet-setting across the globe to glamorous locations, including Dubai, Las Vegas, and Melbourne. Double trouble! The brunette beauty was joined by Bachelor U.S. star Marylynn Sienna on what she claimed was their own 'private island' (pictured together) Pig play! The bikini-clad pair frolicked along the shore and played with some local wild pigs, before heading back to a luxury villa where they were staying In February, she shared a photo of herself boarding a private plane, captioning it: 'My plan this year was to travel more than I ever have I think my plan is going to plan.' She has more than 140,000 'likes' on OnlyFans, indicating that she's a top performer on the site. The stunner appears to be living her best life in sunny California after leaving Australia for the U.S. several years ago. Claim to fame! Scarlet is best known for her time playing police officer Mishti Sharma on Neighbours (pictured) In March, she sparked speculation that she was engaged after posting a photo of herself holding a mystery man's hand while sporting a giant diamond ring on her finger. Since leaving Neighbours, Scarlet has been in Los Angeles modelling and trying to continue her acting career. She now boasts an impressive 220,000 followers on Instagram and has appeared in a number of viral TikTok videos. She has 330,000 followers on TikTok has even been linked to TikTok star Tayo Ricci. Steph McGovern has revealed she once took an emergency trip to the No 10 toilet during an interview with Gordon Brown. The Channel 4 presenter, 40, admitted to partying with Chris Evans and Kylie Minogue the night before the important interview with the Prime Minister at the time as she posed for a photoshoot with Woman & Home magazine. She was originally under the impression she had a day off until the Brown interview was one she couldn't refuse. Oh no! Steph McGovern has revealed she once took an emergency trip to the No 10 toilet during an interview with Gordon Brown She revealed that she arrived feeling wobbly and when Gordon asked if his hair was all right, it left her rushing to the loo. Speaking on the incident, Steph said: 'I feared throwing up on him' The broadcaster managed to make it to the toilet before an accident happened in the famous politicians home. Not good: The Channel 4 presenter, 40, admitted to partying with Chris Evans and Kylie Minogue the night before the important interview with the Prime Minister at the time as she posed for a photoshoot with Woman & Home magazine Elsewhere in the interview, Steph revealed that she protects the identify of her child and partner to protect them from 'trolling'. She welcomed a baby with her girlfriend in 2019 and has never disclosed their names or shared any pictures with the pair. Steph said she doesn't 'think it's fair to put them out there' and subject her loved ones to the 'pressures of everyone having an opinion on them'. Family: Elsewhere in the interview, Steph revealed that she protects the identify of her child and partner to protect them from 'trolling' She added that it's important for her to speak about being in a same-sex family 'in the right context'. Steph explained: 'Someone contacted me on Instagram to say it's nice that I mention my partner and child in a normal way and not by going, "By the way everyone, I'm in a gay relationship! Whoa! Get the rainbow flag out!" 'I talk about it in a way that any parent would, I just don't say their names.' Steph also told the publication that she's been able to find a good balance between her professional and home life as with her role on Steph's Packed Lunch she's able to drop her daughter off at nursery and pick her up daily. However the star added that she doesn't want to overcommit to work at the risk of it negatively affecting her daughter, stressing that she always wants her daughter to know her parents are 'there for her'. While Steph doesn't 'think more children are on the cards', she didn't give a definitive answer because 'you don't know'. Laura Dern has admitted it was emotional returning to the Jurassic Park franchise almost 30 years after the original as she posed with her co-stars for a photocall. The American actress, 55, made her long-awaited return as Dr Ellie Sattler in Jurassic World Dominion, after holding down the female lead in the original trilogy that began with Jurassic Park in 1993. She made little more than a cameo in 2001's Jurassic Park III but has returned with her original co-stars Sam Neal and Jeff Goldblum for the final movie in the Jurassic World trilogy. She's back! Laura Dern has admitted it was emotional returning to the Jurassic Park franchise almost 30 years after the original as she posed with her co-stars for a photocall Stunning: Laura spoke live from London's Trafalgar Square, where she was attending a Jurassic World Dominion photocall with her co-stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff Speaking about her return with stand-in host Ranvir Singh on Friday's Lorraine, Laura admitted that she got 'a bit weepy and nostalgic' during their first day back on set. She said Steven Spielberg was sent a photograph of herself, Sam as Alan Grant and Jeff as Dr Ian Malcolm as the trio reunited on set for their epic return to the dinosaur franchise. She said: 'The first day that myself Sam Neal and Jeff Goldblum had our costumes on and walked back on set, he was sent a photo of the three of us back together. 'We all got a bit weepy and nostalgic about all we have experienced in the family we've become. It's been really special to us. Role: The American actress, 55, made her return as Dr Ellie Sattler in Jurassic World Dominion, after holding down the female lead in the original trilogy that began with Jurassic Park (1993) Emotional: Speaking about her return with stand-in host Ranvir Singh on Friday's Lorraine, Laura admitted that she got 'a bit weepy and nostalgic' during their first day back on set 'We started the film just before the pandemic hit and we were officially the first movie back. It took sacrifice and courage in this predominantly UK crew who came together - living together and leaving their families.' Laura went on to say that she had the 'time of her life' making the original Jurassic Park movie and said she was extremely proud to return as Dr Ellie Sattler for the latest instalment. Laura spoke on the chat show live from London's Trafalgar Square, where she was attending a Jurassic World Dominion photocall with her co-stars Bryce Dallas Howard and Jeff. She captured attention in a stunning high-neck purple gown with a pleated skirt, which she teamed with a pair of silver stilettos. Iconic trio: Laura said Steven Spielberg was sent a photograph of her, Sam as Alan Grant and Jeff as Dr Ian Malcolm as the trio reunited on set for their epic return to the dinosaur franchise Original: Ellie down the female lead in the original trilogy that began with Jurassic Park (1993) alongside her co-stars Jeff and Sam The Wild At Heart star styled her golden locks in glamorous waves and accentuated her natural good looks with a slick of mascara and a touch of blusher. Laura was joined by Bryce at the photocall, who did not fail to capture attention in a vibrant yellow gown with a keyhole cutout. She gave herself a few extra inches in a pair of nude heels and wore her rouge fringed locks in loose curls. The Rocketman star, who stars as Claire Dearing in Jurassic World, shielded her eyes from the bright sunshine with a pair of oversized sunglasses. She was seen posing for group shots with original cast member Jeff Goldblum and her co-stars Dewanda Wise, who plays Kayla Watts, and Mamoudou Athie, who stars as Ramsay Cole. Wow! At the photocall, Laura captured attention in a stunning high-neck purple gown with a pleated skirt, which she teamed with a pair of silver stilettos Group: Laura and Bryce posed with original cast member Jeff Goldblum and her co-stars Dewanda Wise, who plays Kayla Watts, and Mamoudou Athie, who stars as Ramsay Cole Smart: Jeff cut a suave figure in black trousers and a dark shirt, which he teamed with a patterned grey jacket and tie, while Mamoudou, 33, opted for a more colourful look The revived Jurassic World trilogy stars sees Chris Pratt and Bryce leading the cast as characters Owen Grady and Claire, while they will be joined by the original cast in the latest film. Speaking about Laura's return to the franchise, Bryce, 41, said she is grateful that female characters have such a prominent role in the franchise. She said: 'I adore that there are so many female characters who are different because we're not all what would typically present a strong, feminine or a superhero in classic adventure films. ''Jurassic' is a very pro-female franchise. As it started, all the dinosaurs were female. They were women. And they're inherent in the idealisation of that female strength female power.' Return: Laura is returning to the franchise with her co-star Jeff Goldblum, who plays Dr Ian Malcolm, who was seen signing autographs at Trafalgar Square on Friday Women: Bryce, 41, said she is grateful that female characters have such a prominent role in the franchise as she spoke about Laura's return, while newcomer Dewanda also has a key role Bryce also admitted that she was inspired by Laura's 'iconic' character growing up, adding: 'Dr. Ellie Sattler was such an iconic character and such an important character because she's a scientist and palebotanist. 'It was really important to see an inspiring character like that.' Elsewhere at the photocall in Trafalgar Square, Jeff cut a suave figure in black trousers and a dark shirt, which he teamed with a patterned grey jacket and tie. Mamoudou, 33, opted for a more colourful look in a green suit and a paisley patterned shirt, which he styled with a pair of white trainers. Baby Blue: The much-anticipated film opens on June 10, 2022, while a second official trailer for the movie was released at the end of last month Scary: The movie takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed and the fearsome creatures are now all over the planet. Pictured: Bryce as Claire Dearing And Dewanda showed off her sensational sense of style in a polka dot halter-neck dress with a voluminous skirt, which she paired with black heeled sandals. Dewanda is a newcomer to the franchise, playing Kayla, a former Air Force pilot who aids Owen and Claire on their new mission amid a world of ferocious dinosaurs. The much-anticipated film opens on June 10, 2022, while a second official trailer for the movie was released at the end of last month. The movie takes place four years after Isla Nublar has been destroyed and the fearsome creatures are now all over the planet. Big return: Sam Neill returns for the movie, said to be the last in the Jurassic World franchise, as original character Alan Grant Covid: Filming began in Canada in February 2020 and moved to other locations in England the following month. Pictured: Laura and Jeff as Ellie and Ian in the new movie Dinosaurs are seen all over the world as they hunt people. Humans are attacked in the water, on land and in the sky. The film was first planned in 2014, a part of the future Jurassic World trilogy. Filming began in Canada in February 2020 and moved to other locations in England the following month. In March 2020, production was put on hiatus as a safety precaution due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Production resumed in July 2020, and concluded four months later in November. Filming locations were in England's Pinewood Studios and the country of Malta. Elsa Pataky returns to the big screen in her new Netflix movie, Interceptor. And on Friday, the Spanish actress, 45, said that it was her husband Chris Hemsworth who encouraged her to return to work after she took time off to raise the couple's young children. 'He's said to me how difficult it must have been to put aside my career, in a way, to be with the kids,' she told Stellar. Time away: Elsa Pataky (right) returns to the big screen in her new Netflix movie, Interceptor. And on Friday, the Spanish actress said that it was her husband Chris Hemsworth (left) who encouraged her to return to work after she took time off to raise the couple's young children 'He's been a major help in every way, just to get back to work and helping me because he knows how much I love it.' The power couple have three children, daughter India, nine, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, both eight. Chris the executive producer on Elsa's action movie, Interceptor, and she says that it was an interesting experience having him in charge. 'He's said to me how difficult it must have been to put aside my career, in a way, to be with the kids,' she told Stellar. Pictured with their children Family: The power couple have three children, daughter India, nine, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, both eight 'He's my boss. But it was fun. He really wanted me to do this role as he knew how much I would enjoy it,' she said. 'It took us from being parents to creative collaborators on a film project which was a really different experience.' Earlier this week, the actress revealed her action hero husband didn't spare her when it came to giving advice on her fight scenes. Advice: The Spanish actress said her husband didn't spare her when it came to giving advice on her fight scenes. 'He was so bossy!' the 45-year-old said on The Project Tuesday night 'He was so bossy!' she said while appearing on The Project on Tuesday night. 'He was just telling me, like, 'This is the right angle when you punch'. He was just showing me how to do it, what is the right position you have to have,' she went on. 'He has been doing it for a long time. It was great having him. He was supporting me from the beginning, from when he first read the script. 'He said, 'You have to do this, it's going to be fun, you will enjoy it, I know how much you like this kind of movie'. 'He was just telling me, like, 'This is the right angle when you you punch'. He was just showing me how to do it, what is the right position you have to have,' she went on 'And [he told me] how destroyed you will be after, and you wont do it again,' she added with a laugh. Elsa was then asked by the show's hosts how the pair dealt with professional disagreements on set. 'It's like your marriage, in a way, you work things out. It's different when he's an executive producer, he gives you advice, he supports you. It's easier than when we are married every day,' she said. Fit: Elsa's role in the action film Interceptor (pictured), out June 3, sees her playing no-nonsense army lieutenant JJ Collins, who must save the world when 16 nuclear missiles are launched in the United States 'It's like your marriage, in a way, you work things out. It's different when he's an executive producer, he gives you advice, he supports you. It's easier than when we are married every day,' she said of working with her husband on set Elsa's role in the action film Interceptor, out June 3, sees her playing no-nonsense army lieutenant JJ Collins, who must save the world when 16 nuclear missiles are launched in the United States. The Fate of the Furious star and her Thor actor husband have been married since 2010. They reside in a $30million mansion in Broken Head, near the celebrity enclave of Byron Bay. Former TOWIE star James Argent, 34, reunited with pal Mark Wright, 35, as they touched down in the Bahamas on Thursday. The duo, who appeared in the ITV reality show together until 2011, are visiting the Island for Mark's cousin George Wright's wedding - with James revealing he feels like part of the family. In the short clip radio host Mark gave the thumbs up to the camera before turning his phone to show a trimmer than ever James, who collapsed into fits of giggles. Pals: A trim James Argent, 34 (left) reunited with pal Mark Wright, 35 (right ) for a sun soaked family wedding in the Bahamas As they enjoyed drinks in the hotel bar, Mark cut a dapper figure in a black t-shirt with his raven hair slicked back from his handsome face. A slim James, who recently lost 14st following weight lost surgery, looked holiday ready in a silk shirt and black shorts. With his hair also slicked back he slipped his feet into sandals as he accessorised with gold jewellery. Beach time: James looked holiday ready in a silk shirt and black short as she slid his feed into sandals Hunky: As they enjoyed drinks in the hotel bar, Mark cut a dapper figure in a black t-shirt with his raven hair slicked back from his handsome face Later James enjoyed a dance with Mark's mother Carol as they were cheered on by their family and friends. The Wright matriarch looked gorgeous in a stylish figure hugging jumpsuit emblazoned with a polka dot print. As the pair boogied along to the ABBA's Dancing Queen James captioned the fun clip: 'The Dancing Queen herself @Carolwright'. Later James enjoyed a dance with Mark's mother Carol as they were cheered on by their family and friends Reality stars: Mark (right) and James (left) appeared together in TOWIE until 2011 (pictured together in 2009) On his first holiday since his impressive weight loss James posted a gushing tribute to his fellow travellers. Posing on the beach with the large wedding party he wrote: 'I can't remember life with out these people, true family friends and I can't wait for the new arrivals to join us'. Mark who will be best man at the ceremony, seemingly went stag without wife Michelle Keegan, 34, as he shared snaps from his first class as he travelled to the exotic location. Relaxing in the swanky high-backed chair the star shared a smiling selfie writing: 'Off again'. Sweet: On his first holiday since his impressive weight loss James posted a gushing tribute to his fellow travellers Plush: Relaxing in the swanky first class high-backed chair the star shared a smiling selfie writing: 'Off again'. Before offering a glimpse of his first class afternoon tea as he watched Spiderman: No Way Home on his personal television Before offering a glimpse of his first class afternoon tea as he watched Spiderman: No Way Home on his personal television. Mark, who doesn't currently have children, later shared snaps as he kissed his young nephew. He captioned the sweet snaps: 'Can't stop!'. Cute: Mark, who doesn't currently have children, later shared snaps as he kissed his young nephew. He captioned the sweet snaps: 'I can't stop!' They enjoyed a night out with their fellow A-listers at the amfAR gala on Thursday. And on Friday morning, Eva Longoria and Ashley Graham were the first stars to jet out of Nice airport, following their glamorous time in Cannes, France. Both ladies went make-up free and kept things casual in laidback ensembles, with Eva opting for white skinny jeans and an oversized blazer, while Ashley opted for a black tracksuit and camouflage print jacket. Making a move: On Friday morning, Eva Longoria and Ashley Graham were the first stars to jet out of Nice airport, following their glamorous time in Cannes, France Eva kept things elegantly simple, wearing a nude tank top beneath her chic blazer, while carrying her belongings in an oversized tote bag. The Desperate Housewives star looked effortlessly glamorous with shades shielding her face and her brunette tresses styled into a classic bouncy blow. Ashley put comfort first, strolling along in flip flops while clad in her elasticated waist trousers, which she wore with a plain black top. Chic: Eva kept things elegantly simple, wearing a nude tank top beneath her chic blazer, while carrying her belongings in an oversized tote bag All smiles: Eva appeared to be in good spirits as she flashed a huge grin and waved while heading to Nice Airport Stylish: The Desperate Housewives star looked effortlessly glamorous with shades shielding her face and her brunette tresses styled into a classic bouncy blow Chic: Eva showed off her sensational sense of style with her understated ensemble for the outing Airplane ready: She has bid farewell to Cannes Film Festival, where she flaunted her glamorous wardrobe Her camouflage jacket added a splash of interest to her outfit, and the model used a pair of sunglasses to cover her eyes following a night of partying with her celeb pals. Jourdan Dunn also headed to Nice Airport as she bid farewell to Cannes Film Festival on Friday, looking typically chic as she headed off. The model, 31, showed off her incredible physique in wide leg scarlet trousers, which she paired with a skimpy strapless black bandeau. She completed her look with a black and red block-coloured sports jacked and a pair of trainers as she prepared for her flight. Low-key: Ashley put comfort first, strolling along in flip flops while clad in her elasticated waist trousers, which she wore with a plain black top Laughing: Ashley appeared to be in good spirits as she smiled and laughed while walking through the airport Camo: She added a touch of colour to her dark ensemble with a camouflage print jacket Grinning: She accessorised her look with a simple gold necklace and wore a pair of narrow oval sunglasses Jourdan carried her essentials in a black Louis Vuitton duffle bag and shielded her eyes from the sunshine with a pair of gold aviator sunglasses. The star swept her brunette locks back into a slick up-do and flaunted her fresh faced beauty with a light dusting of make-up. amfAR, The Foundation for AIDS Research returned to the Cannes International Film for the 28th edition of amfAR Gala Cannes. The event which took place at Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc featured live performances by Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin and Charli XCX, with legendary actor, director and producer Robert De Niro serving as the evening's honored guest. Longtime amfAR supporter Carine Roitfeld curated the annual fashion show, which included looks from the world's top designers. Style icon: Jourdan Dunn also headed to Nice Airport as she bid farewell to Cannes Film Festival on Friday, looking typically chic as she headed off Wow! The model, 31, showed off her incredible physique in wide leg scarlet trousers, which she paired with a skimpy strapless black bandeau Bombshell: The star swept her brunette locks back into a slick up-do and flaunted her fresh faced beauty with a light dusting of make-up The exclusive black-tie event included cocktails, dinner and an exciting live auction led by renowned auctioneer Simon de Pury. The auction, sponsored by FTX, included all show looks, along with a collection of contemporary artworks and one-of-a-kind luxury items and experiences. The theme of this year's fashion show was Let's Get Married and it included looks by Oscar de la Renta, Loewe, Louis Vuitton, Louis Vuitton Men, Givenchy, Gucci, Chanel, Saint Laurent, and De Fursac. Balenciaga, Fendi, Tom Ford, Jacquemus, Valentino, Giambattista Valli, Armani, Alaia, Burberry, Versace, Alled Martinez, Monot, Nensi Dojaka, and Dior, among many others also showcased looks. Chairs of this 28th edition of amfAR Gala Cannes included Baz Luhrmann, Carine Roitfeld, Caroline Scheufele, Cynthia Erivo, Ever Gabo Anderson, Kate Hudson, LaKeith Stanfield and Laura Linney. Wow: Eva looked incredible at the gala earlier Katie Price flashed a smile while picking up groceries in Horsham, West Sussex on Thursday, after completing community service following a drink-driving conviction for flipping her car, last year. The former glamour model, 44, was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work after flipping her BMW on a country lane near her West Sussex home on September 28 last year. Katie was also handed a 16-week suspended prison sentence, suspended for 12 months, and two-year driving ban following a sentencing at Crawley Magistrates' Court in December. Casual: Katie Price flashed a smile while picking up groceries in Horsham, West Sussex on Thursday after completing community service following a drink-driving conviction While Katie has completed her community service for her conviction, she has now been warned she faces up to five years in prison for a separate offence - after she admitted breaching a restraining order against her ex-husband's fiancee in a text accusing them of having an affair. Katie stepped out in black tracksuit bottoms and a dark blue hoodie, which she teamed with a pair of white trainers. The mother-of-five carried her belongings in a black cross body bag, whilst also clutching onto a plastic Tesco shopping bag full of purchases. Katie sported a very bronzed, heavy make-up look and wore her extremely long platinum blonde hair extensions down to her waist. Outing: The mother-of-five carried her belongings in a black cross body bag, whilst also clutching onto a plastic Tesco shopping bag full of purchases Laid back: Katie stepped out in black tracksuit bottoms and a dark blue hoodie, which she teamed with a pair of white trainers Smiling: She appeared to be in good spirits as she stepped out of Horsham Matters, a Christian charity According to their website, Horsham Matters is a Christian charity that aims to relieve hardship through the provision of essential services such as food, fuel and shelter. The organisation runs a crisis support service for people in need of essential items, along with a foodbank and budgeting support. They also offer counselling services for foodbank clients and run a winter night shelter. MailOnline has previously contacted Horsham Matters for comment on Katie's community service. Katies community service comes after she was warned that she faces up to five years in prison after admitting breaching a restraining order against her ex-husband's fiancee in a text accusing them of having an affair. Groceries: Katie carried a bag that appeared to be filled with potatoes as she left the venue Shop: She stepped out of Horsham Matters, a Christian charity that aims to relieve hardship through the provision of essential services such as food, fuel and shelter Look: Katie sported a very bronzed, heavy make-up look and wore her extremely long platinum blonde hair extensions down to her waist Community service: Katie was ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work after flipping her BMW on a country lane near her West Sussex home on September 28 last year The former glamour model sent Kieran Hayler a message calling his new partner Michelle Penticost a 'gutter sl*g' in a message that read: 'Tell your c***ing whore piece of s*** girlfriend not to start on me.' Katie admitted flouting the 2019 ban on her contacting Miss Penticost, in an extraordinary U-turn having previously denied it. At Lewes Crown Court on Wednesday, the reality star, pleaded guilty to breaching the restraining order on January 21 this year. She was supported by her reality TV star fiance, Carl Woods, 33, who held her hand tightly as he led her into the court building before sitting in the public gallery for the hearing. Outing: Katie kept comfortable in a pair of white and gold trainers to complete her casual ensemble Court: Elsewhere, she was warned she faces up to five years in jail after admitting breaching a restraining order against her ex-husband Kieran Hayler's fiancee Michelle Penticost in a text Admission: Katie admitted flouting the 2019 ban on her contacting Miss Penticost, in an extraordinary U-turn having previously denied it Asked how she pleaded to a single charge of breaching the order, Katie replied: 'Guilty.' Nicholas Hamblin, defending, told the court the case against her rested on the two words 'tell your...', which constituted an indirect message to Michelle. He said he would be placing a great deal of personal information about Katie in front of the court as part of his mitigation. Judge Stephen Mooney warned the glamour model that she risks an immediate custodial sentence, with the offence carrying a maximum term of up to five years' imprisonment. She was bailed until sentencing on June 24. Prime minister Narendra Modi at the graduation ceremony of the Post Graduate Programme in Management class of 2022 at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad. (Photo by arrangement) HYDERABAD: Prime Minister Narendra Modi said here on Thursday the people of Telangana has already made up their mind to defeat the family-run and corrupt Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) and vote the BJP to power in the next Assembly polls. The people here are looking forward to have an imandar sarkar (honest government), the PM said. Addressing party activists who greeted him at Begumpet airport, the Prime Minister also took a dig at Chief Minister Chandrashekar Rao and his penchant for superstitions. Without naming the CM, the PM termed him as andh viswas ka gulam, (a slave to superstitions). The PM wondered how people are being superstitious even in the technology-driven 21st Century. Modi expressed his concern that the state and the people would suffer because of the CMs belief in superstitions and declared himself as a strong believer in science and technology. The PMs observations gained significance in the backdrop of the Chief Minister not stepping into the Secretariat for years and even building a new Secretariat by razing the old one to rubble, by citing problems of vaastu. Amid loud cheers and sloganeering by party activists, the prime minister foresaw the BJPs victory in the next state polls. Telangana logon ne man bana liya hai..Telangana mein badlaav pakka hai.. Telangana mein bhajapa thay hai (People of Telangana have already decided to bring in change and its certain that the BJP will come to power), Modi said. Modi announced that the leadership was aware of the attacks being carried out on BJP activists in TS and there would be a befitting reply. He called upon the people to get rid of the pariwaarvadi (dynasts) party which alone has reaped the benefits of the separate statehood for Telangana. Dynasty politics, he stressed, is a major threat to democracy and should be rooted out. BJP state president, Bandi Sanjay, Union minister Kishan Reddy, BJP OBC Morcha national president K. Laxman, BJP Madhya Pradesh state in-charge Muralidhar Rao and others welcomed the PM at the airport. Modi said the politics of family rule focused on how a single-family can stay in power and loot as much as they can. The French Riviera provided a fitting backdrop as Chloe Green returned to the public eye on Thursday evening. The daughter of former Top Shop retail magnate Philip Green was in attendance as the annual fundraising amFAR Gala closed this year's Cannes Film Festival. It was her first public appearance in a year, and she ensured it was a memorable one by wearing a form-fitting sequined silver minidress during her visit to the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc. Stepping out: The French Riviera provided a fitting backdrop as Chloe Green returned to the public eye on Thursday evening Chloe, 31, mingled with celebrity guests including Hollywood star Leonardo Di Caprio, supermodel Winnie Harlow and event host Eva Longoria as proceedings got underway. The mother-of-one's presence at social gatherings has become increasingly rare over recent months, with her last notable outing a dinner date in St. Tropez last July. Since then Chloe - who shares four-year old son Jayden with former partner Jeremy Meeks - has been spotted aboard her father's 100million superyacht, Lionheart, with recent boyfriend Manuele Thiella and her mother, Tina. Joining in: The daughter of former Top Shop retail magnate Philip Green was in attendance as the annual fundraising amFAR Gala closed this year's Cannes Film Festival Looking good: It was her first public appearance in a year, and she ensured it was a memorable one by wearing a form-fitting sequined silver minidress There she is: Chloe - who shares four-year old son Jayden with former partner Jeremy Meeks - has been spotted aboard her father's 100million superyacht, Lionheart Following her split from Meeks Chloe briefly dated Italian polo captain Rommy Gianni, who she was also spotted kissing on board her dad's super yacht. Her father's Philip's Arcadia Group went into administration late last year, after unsuccessfully seeking a 30 million cash injection to help it survive lockdown. The former owner of brands including Topshop, Top Man, Miss Selfridge and Burton asked lenders for support after lockdown restrictions hammered sales, disrupting crucial trading up to Christmas. Arcadia, which employed 15,000 people, was in trouble even before the coronavirus crisis. It recorded an operating loss of 138 million on turnover of 1.8 billion in 2018. In 2019, Arcadia carried out an insolvency procedure known as a company voluntary arrangement to cut rents and close some shops. Prior to the crash Philip enjoyed almost two decades of ruling the high street after lucrative takeovers of BHS in 2000 and Arcadia in 2002. Shes an award winning actress with a seriously impressive resume and penchant for chic outfits. And Kate Winslet looked effortlessly stylish in a black tracksuit and white pinstripe blazer as she arrived in Cannes, France on Friday. The Titanic star, 46, was spotted strolling through Nice airport in plain black plimsolls and casual trousers, while pulling a wheeled suitcase behind her. Picture perfect: Kate Winslet looked effortlessly stylish in a black tracksuit and white pinstripe blazer as she arrived in Cannes, France on Friday Smartening up or otherwise low-key look, Kate layered a chic white blazer boasting subtle black pinstripes, on top of a black polo shirt. The Mare of Easttown leading lady draped the short strap of a classic Doctors bag over her arm and shielded her eyes with glamorous black-and-gold shades. She further accessorised with multiple gold necklaces and added a colour pop to her look with the help of a pillar-box red manicure. Here she comes: The Titanic star, 46, was spotted strolling through Nice airport in plain black plimsolls and casual trousers, while pulling a wheeled suitcase behind her Tasteful: Smartening up or otherwise low-key look, Kate layered a chic white blazer boasting subtle black pinstripes, on top of a black polo shirt Finishing touches: The Mare of Easttown leading lady draped the short strap of a classic Doctors bag over her arm and shielded her eyes with glamorous black-and-gold shades Kates arrival in Cannes comes just a few months after she revealed that she is 'craving' her return to acting after taking a two year break to be with her family and enjoy a much-needed 'reset'. The actress worked so hard while starring in and executive producing HBOs Mare Of Easttown in late 2019, she decided to grant herself time to recover. Despite a confession of having to 'physically tackle huge grown men' during the shoot, she assured that she 'loves her job' and is 'ready to throw herself back into it'. Bold: She added a colour pop to her look with the help of a pillar-box red manicure Welcome back: Kates arrival in Cannes comes just a few months after she revealed that she is 'craving' her return to acting after taking a two year break The Oscar winner told Variety: I took last year off to be with my family and to recover from Mare of Easttown. It was good to have a bit of a reset.' And without giving too much away, Kate revealed she's beside herself with excitement as she prepares to 'get going' with upcoming projects. She said: 'For an actor, there's nothing as thrilling as being in a room with other actors. I am craving that again. But I've got heaps going on this year so I'm excited to get going.' Break: The actress worked so hard while starring in and executive producing HBOs Mare Of Easttown in late 2019, she decided to grant herself time to recover Kate married first husband Jim Threapleton in 1998. They welcomed daughter Mia Threapleton, 21, in 2000, and later divorced a year later in 2001. The Titanic actress went on to marry director Sam Mendes from 2003 to 2011, they welcomed son Joe, 18, in 2003. Kate welcomed her youngest child, Bear, eight, with her third husband Edward Abel Smith, they married in 2012. Georgia Fowler welcomed her daughter Dylan late last year. And the Victoria's Secret model enjoyed at day at the beach with the seven-month-old on Friday during her trip to Cannes, France. The 29-year-old New Zealand-born beauty showed off her famous figure in a retro style dress, which she wore tucked up around her waist. Beach babe: Georgia Fowler (pictured) welcomed her daughter Dylan late last year. And the Victoria's Secret model enjoyed at day at the beach with the seven-month-old on Friday during her trip to Cannes, France It was bright yellow and featured a white design throughout as well as fine straps. The slightly loose fit added to the vintage feel of the look and the stunner had on a pair of dark sunglasses to guard against bright rays. She appeared to go makeup free for her outing, while slicking her dark hair off her face. Wow! The 29-year-old New Zealand-born beauty showed off her famous figure in a retro style dress which she wore tucked up around her waist Baby love: Georgia carried little Dylan in her arms, with the tot staying sun safe in a loose bucket hat Georgia carried little Dylan in her arms, with the tot staying sun safe in a loose bucket hat. Georgia welcomed her daughter Dylan Aman with her businessman boyfriend Nathan Dalah, who is the co-founder of restaurant chain Fishbowl, on September 17 last year. 'Dylan Aman Dalah. 17.9.21. Welcome to the world. We love you so much,' she wrote, sharing a series of photos of the adorable newborn. Proud parents: Georgia welcomed her daughter Dylan Aman with her businessman boyfriend Nathan Dalah, who is the co-founder of restaurant chain Fishbowl, on September 17 last year. Pictured: The couple with their puppy Chilli Georgia announced she was expecting her first child with the FISHBOWL co-founder back in April last year. At the time, she shared the news by writing: 'We can't wait to meet you, little one.' The New Zealand native recently shared her delight at becoming a mother, saying it was 'much easier' than she'd envisioned. 'It has been easier than I thought. She's a real angel so it'll be fine,' she told Daily Mail Australia at the Moet & Chandon Effervescence in December. Candid: The New Zealand native recently shared her delight at becoming a mother, saying it was 'much easier' than she'd envisioned 'It's been really nice to be able to hang out with Dylan and have a great baby.' The beauty has wowed the Cannes Film Festival crowd with her stunning red carpet outfits all week. Georgia saved her best look for last as she attended the star-studded amfAR Gala on Thursday evening. The Kiwi supermodel sparkled in a cut-out silver jumpsuit complete with cape and flaunted a hint of underboob. She's recently made a documentary about the harsh realities of living with the menopause. But Davina McCall, 54, looked on the bright side on Friday as she shared a fun clip with her 1.5m Instagram followers. Dancing wildly in a skimpy red bikini the carefree television host revealed that one good thing about the condition is 'you get an instant induction into the zero f***s club'. Fit and fancy free: Davina McCall, 54, flaunted her incredible figure in a stylish red bikini as she danced by the sea in a Instagram post on Friday The stylish crimson two piece contained a gorgeous Bardot neckline with frill detail at the sleeve. While the high-cut bottoms clung to the star's toned thighs, revealing her washboard abs as she danced around on the wooden decking. Davina, who has been very open about her experience with the menopause, shielded her eyes from the scorching sun behind a pair of oversized sunglasses, as she showed off her youthful complexion. The broadcaster slicked her wet chestnut locks back from her beautiful face as she accessorised the summer look with a simple gold cross necklace. Gorgeous: The figure hugging crimson two piece contained a gorgeous Bardot neckline with frill detail at the sleeve Dancing Queen: While the high-cut bottoms clung to the star's toned thighs as she danced around on the beach decking The former Big Brother host danced around to the music as she waved her arms in the air and hopped on each foot. Before realising her boogie was being filmed and she walked towards the camera in fits of giggles. She captioned the clip: 'One good thing about Menopause is you get an instant induction into the zero f***s club, If you've run out of f***s to give this week , sending you so much love'. Fans and famous friends were quick to gush over the star's video as former Strictly Professional Oti Mabuse wrote: 'hahahahahahahaha this song is me on set you look hot babeeee'. Beach bod: Davina slicked her wet chestnut locks back from her beautiful face as she accessorised the summer look with a simple gold cross necklace Boogie: The former Big Brother hot danced around to the music as she waved her arms in the air and hopped on each foot. Before realising her boogie was being filmed and she walked towards the camera in fits of giggles. While television host Angela Scanlan added:' Love you'. This comes after the brunette beauty recently opened up about how her severe menopause symptoms left her feeling like she had a 'brain tumour or Alzheimer's' following a mistake on TV. Speaking to Sophie Raworth on BBC One's Sunday Morning, she said that her menopause 'aged' her and left her feeling 'embarrassed' and 'irrelevant'. Davina, who recently penned a book on the matter, titled Menopausing, said the brain fog she experienced during peri-menopause led her to make a mistake in her job. Pals: Fans and famous friends were quick to gush over Davina's fun post including Oti Mabuse and Angela Scanlan She revealed that during a particularly vulnerable moment, she burst into tears, thinking she was suffering from 'a brain tumour or Alzheimer's or something'. 'During peri-menopause, the hormones go up and down and up and down, so you think you're going completely mad,' Davina said. 'I felt it aged me, I felt it would make me irrelevant, I felt embarrassed because I'd always felt at the top of my game'. 'I'd been in television at that point for 20 years, I really knew what I was doing, I was extremely proud of my kind of list-making and my logistical practicality and the fact that I could multitask,' she said. But Davina revealed her skills were hindered by menopause as she recalled making a mistake on TV. Struggle: Davina recently opened up about her severe menopause symptoms and how they made her fear she had a brain tumour or dementia 'Somebody asked me if I was okay because I messed up on a TV programme, and I said yes, and when she shut the door and went away, I just burst into tears,' she told Sophie. 'Because I thought "I'm not okay, I think I got a brain tumour, or I got Alzheimer's or something, help me",' the presenter added. Writing for the Mail on Sunday today, Davina spoke more of her symptoms as she discussed the ongoing shortage of HRT - Hormone Replacement Therapy - which women use to manage their menopause symptoms. 'I started with symptoms around ten years ago after suffering brain fog and anxiety to the extent I thought I was losing my mind,' she said. 'In my mid-40s, I was considered by my doctor to be too young to be menopausal, so I took the decision to consult a gynaecologist,' she added. Alongside Penny Lancaster and Mariella Frostrup, and MP Carolyn Harris, Davina is campaigning to change the law around HRT prescription for women Georgia Fowler is currently mixing business with pleasure during her trip to Cannes, France, where she has attended several red carpet events. On Friday, the Victoria's Secret model took some time off from the Cannes Film Festival to enjoy a stroll in the sunshine with her daughter, Dylan, seven months. The tot was wheeled along in her pram by Georgia's mother, Kim Fowler, as the trio took a walk through town. Having fun: Georgia Fowler (right) is in Cannes, France. On Friday, the Victoria's Secret model took some time off from the Cannes Film Festival to enjoy a stroll in the sunshine with her daughter, Dylan, seven months, and her mother, Kim Fowler (left) The 29-year-old New Zealand-born beauty turned heads in a slinky yellow dress which featured a white abstract design. The stunner had on a pair of dark sunglasses to guard against bright rays and carried a black purse high on her arm. She appeared have on minimal makeup free for her outing, including a nude pink lipstick, while slicking her dark hair off her face. Sweet: The tot was wheeled along in her pram by Georgia's mother as the trio took a walk through town Looking good: The 29-year-old New Zealand-born beauty turned heads in a slinky yellow dress which featured a white abstract design Casual: She appeared have on minimal makeup free for her outing, including a nude pink lipstick, while slicking her dark hair off her face Georgia added a pair of black flats to the ensemble, which featured fine black straps. The beauty welcomed her daughter Dylan Aman with her businessman boyfriend Nathan Dalah, who is the co-founder of restaurant chain Fishbowl, on September 17 last year. 'Dylan Aman Dalah. 17.9.21. Welcome to the world. We love you so much,' she wrote, sharing a series of photos of the adorable newborn. Heeled: Georgia added a pair of black flats to the ensemble, which featured fine black straps Sun safe: The stunner had on a pair of dark sunglasses to guard against bright rays and carried a black purse high on her arm The New Zealand native recently shared her delight at becoming a mother, saying it was 'much easier' than she'd envisioned. 'It has been easier than I thought. She's a real angel so it'll be fine,' she told Daily Mail Australia at the Moet & Chandon Effervescence in December. 'It's been really nice to be able to hang out with Dylan and have a great baby.' A look: She has wowed the Cannes Film Festival crowd with her stunning red carpet outfits all week. Georgia saved her best look for last as she attended the star-studded amfAR Gala The beauty has wowed the Cannes Film Festival crowd with her stunning red carpet outfits all week. Georgia saved her best look for last as she attended the star-studded amfAR Gala on Thursday evening. The Kiwi supermodel sparkled in a cut-out silver jumpsuit complete with cape and flaunted a hint of underboob. Comedian Jerry Seinfeld's author wife Jessica added another string to her bow on Thursday when she graduated from NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service - with the 50-year-old proudly marking the milestone by sharing several images from her ceremony on Instagram. The mother-of-three flashed wide smiles while celebrating her graduation with several of her close friends and classmates in all of the shots, and she was seen walking during a graduation ceremony in her clip. The media personality also wrote a short message to express her feelings about finishing her time in graduate school. Milestone moment: Jerry Seinfeld's author wife Jessica, 50, graduated from NYU's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service on Thursday Couple: The author shared several photos from her ceremony, however Jerry (seen together in 2019) was not pictured in them and it is thought he may not have been able to attend Happy mom: Jessica - who shares three children with Jerry - did post one photo of herself posing with her sons Julian (right), 19, and Shepherd (left), 16, who both joined her Seinfeld's first shot showed her wearing her cap and gown while spending time in her family's home. The wife of Jerry Seinfeld also included several selfies that she took with her classmates in her photoset. The author notably shared a shot that had been taken with her sons Julian and Shepherd, aged 19 and 16. Her clip showed her making her way across a stage and being celebrated for her achievement. Seinfeld previously shared a shot of a sizable balloon arrangement that had been set up in her home to her Instagram Story. The inflatables spelled out 'congratulations' in big silver letters and took up much of her family's living space. The author also added a text graphic to her image that read: 'Jerry and kids went all out.' Marking the occasion: Seinfeld previously shared a shot of a sizable balloon arrangement that had been set up in her home to her Instagram Story Speaking her mind: Seinfeld began her statement by remarking that she was grateful for the connections that she made during her time at NYU Seinfeld began her statement by remarking that she was grateful for the connections that she made during her time at NYU. 'I spent the last two years learning alongside the best people working in public service,' she said. The media personality appeared to make a reference to the tragic events in Texas and expressed that she and her classmates would likely make a difference in the world. High praise: The author wrote that she had 'spent the last two years learning alongside the best people working in public service' Timely comment: The media personality appeared to make a reference to the tragic events in Texas and expressed that she and her classmates would likely make a difference in the world 'So, on one of the darkest days in our country's history, I feel hopeful that this group will help carry us, elevate us and advance us to a better place,' she wrote. Seinfeld concluded her message by writing that she was happy to have spent time studying at the graduate school. 'I made lifelong friends and I could not feel more proud to be part of this truly remarkable cohort and the Wagner family,' she noted. Jennifer Lopez shares a loving tribute for Ray Liotta on social media. The 52-year-old star took to Instagram to post a photo with him while making comments about how she learned from him while making their TV series Shades Of Blue from 2016 until 2018. 'Ray was my partner in crime on Shades of Blue the first thing that comes to mind is he was so kind to my children,' the fiancee of Ben Affleck began her note. Blue stars: Jennifer Lopez shares a loving tribute for Ray Liotta. The star took to Instagram to post a photo with him while making comments about how she learned from him while making their TV series Shades Of Blue. Seen in 2016 A TV star as well: He worked from 2016 until 2018 on the NYPD cop show Shades Of Blue with Jennifer Lopez, Right, seen in an embrace in 2016 And then she said he was really a softie. 'Ray was the epitome of a tough guy who was all mushy on the inside I guess thats what made him such a compelling actor to watch. The original Goodfella.' They worked closely together. 'We shared some intense moments on set those three years! When I first heard he took the job on Shades of Blue, I was thrilled, and the first time we walked on set to do our first scene together there was an electric spark and a mutual respect and we both knew this was going to be good. Crime connection: 'Ray was my partner in crime on Shades of Blue the first thing that comes to mind is he was so kind to my children,' the fiancee of Ben Affleck began her note 'We enjoyed doing our scenes together and I felt lucky to have him there to work with and learn from. Like all artists he was complicated, sincere, honest and so very emotional. Like a raw nerve, he was so accessible and so in touch in his acting and I will always remember our time together fondly.' And she feels a legend left too soon. 'We lost a great today RIP RAY its so sad to lose you what seems way to soon I will remember you always. Sending so much love and strength to your daughter Karsen, your family and all your loved ones.' Lopez cast Ray in her cop TV series Shades Of Blue as she was one of the top producers. The series aired from 2016 until 2018. On set: And then she said he was really a softie. 'Ray was the epitome of a tough guy who was all mushy on the inside I guess thats what made him such a compelling actor to watch. The original Goodfella' Lopez played New York detective Harlee Santos, a single mother who works with a group of dirty cops. She takes her cut of the bribes and protection money to give her daughter as she wants her to have a good life. But then she is caught by the FBI, which forces her to turn informant on her cop family. Harlee struggles with being a rat. Another close friend also said goodbye. Lorraine Bracco revealed she is 'utterly shattered' following the shock death of her Goodfellas co-star Liotta on Thursday. NY scene: They worked closely together. 'We shared some intense moments on set those three years! When I first heard he took the job on Shades of Blue, I was thrilled, and the first time we walked on set to do our first scene together there was an electric spark and a mutual respect and we both knew this was going to be good' Promoting their show: Liotta, from left, Lopez, and Jack Orman speak at the NBC's Shades of Blue in 2017 The actor - who was best known for the Martin Scorsese movie - died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic, where he was shooting the film Dangerous Waters, his reps confirmed. Deadline was the first to report the news. Soon after news broke, tributes rolled in for the New Jersey native. Bracco, who played his wife in the hit 1990 mobster movie, said: 'I am utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray. 'I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the sameRay Liotta.' And another Goodfellas co-star, Robert De Niro, also paid his respects in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter: 'I was very saddened to learn of Rays passing. He is way too way young to have left us. May he Rest in Peace.' Sad loss: Liotta passed away at the age of 67 this week. And soon after tributes from stars flooded into social media. Seen in 2021 Her tribute: His Goodfellas costar Lorraine Bracco, who played his wife in the hit 1990 movie, said: 'I am utterly shattered to hear this terrible news about my Ray. I can be anywhere in the world & people will come up & tell me their favorite movie is Goodfellas. Then they always ask what was the best part of making that movie. My response has always been the sameRay Liotta'; seen left in Goodfellas and right in 2012 A sad farewell on social media: Bracco also shared an image with the actor at a Hollywood event in 2012 They made movie history together: And another Goodfellas co-star, Robert De Niro, also paid his respects: 'I was very saddened to learn of Rays passing. He is way too way young to have left us. May he Rest in Peace' Melanie Griffith, who worked with Ray in Something Wild, said she admired him. 'Ray and I met in 1981. He was a force of nature and good friends with Steven Bauer, my husband at the time. We moved into his apartment to study acting in NY with Stella Adler, he moved into our place in LA to pursue his career in Hollywood. 5 years later I asked Jonathon Demme to read him for Something Wild, Jonathan had almost chosen someone else. He read him, called me and said Ray was THE ONE. Ray was a magnificent actor, a wonderful man and a great Dad. Sending you love Ray. . Jennifer Love Hewitt, who acted with Liotta on the 2001 film Heartbreakers, shared a sweet tribute as she said, 'I'm heart broken. I loved the time we spent and memories we made. You will be so missed.' The actress shared a broken heart emoji and a photo of a dove with an olive branch. Alessandra Nivola - who recently worked with Liotta on The Many Saints Of Newark (Liotta played two roles: Hollywood Dick Moltisanti, and his brother Salvatore Moltisanti) - wrote: 'RIP Ray Liotta. I feel so lucky to have squared off against this legend in one of his final roles. The scenes we did together were among the all time highlights of my acting career. 'He was dangerous, unpredictable, hilarious, and generous with his praise for other actors. Too soon.' David Chase, who was the writer on The Many Saints Of Newark, added in a statement to Deadline, 'This is a massive, unexpected shock. I have been an admirer of Rays work since I saw him in Something Wild, a movie he wrenched by the tail. 'I was so glad he worked on The Many Saints Of Newark. 'I believed strongly in my heart that he could play that double role. He created two distinctly separate characters and each performance was phenomenal. Ray was also a very warm and humorous person. A really superior actor. We all felt we lucked out having him on that movie.' Jamie Lee Curtis, who worked with Ray on 1988's Dominick And Eugene, said, 'His work as an actor showed his complexity as a human being. A gentle man. So sad to hear.' And Viola Davis shared, 'RIP Ray Liotta!! Loved your work (heart emoji).' Former costars: Jennifer Love Hewitt, who worked with Liotta on the 2001 film Heartbreakers, shared a sweet tribute as she said, 'I'm heart broken. I loved the time we spent and memories we made. You will be so missed.' The actress shared a broken heart emoji and a photo of a dove with an olive branch They worked together: Alessandra Nivola wrote: 'RIP Ray Liotta. I feel so lucky to have squared off against this legend in one of his final roles. The scenes we did together were among the all time highlights of my acting career'; seen in The Many Saints Of Newark Josh Brolin shared a black and white photo of the star as he wrote: 'My buddy. My friend. How so soon? Why? Ill miss you. 'I will think about seeing you at Golds often, talking about what to do next, how to find something together. I always looked up to you the work was always so good, but the man you were always stood out among the rest of them. Yes, I will miss you, pal. Until we meet again, wherever they say that is. ' Helena Christensen wrote in the comments section: 'Oh man what an immense actor he was .' And actor Joe Pantoliano said: 'WHAT!!!! No! Omg! I was watering the lawn this morning and I was thinking about Ray he popped into my head. Oh No! RIP RAY RAY' Hard to hear about: Jamie Lee Curtis said, 'His work as an actor showed his complexity as a human being. A gentle man. So sad to hear'; they worked together on Dominick And Eugene in 1988 Too soon: Josh Brolin shared a black and white photo of the star as he wrote: 'My buddy. My friend. How so soon? Why? Ill miss you' Seth's words: Seth Rogen also took to social media to pay his respects. 'I can't believe Ray Liotta has passed away. He was such a lovely, talented and hilarious person. Working with him was one of the great joys of my career and we made some of my favorite scenes I ever got to be in. A true legend of immense skill and grace.' Seth and Ray co-starred in the 2009 movie Observe And Report Kristin Chenoweth tweeted: 'RIP GOODFELLA Ray Liotta. I adored you. I love knowing you all those years ago.' Jesse Tyler Ferguson worked with Liotta when the actor guest-starred in a 2016 episode of Modern Family. 'He was one of the greatest actors of our generation,' Ferguson told Deadline. 'The day he was on Modern Family was such a special day. We were really lucky to get a lot of great guest stars, and every once in a while there would be one of his stature that would come in a play with us for the day, and it made us feel so special that they wanted to take the time to come and be with us. 'He was a movie star, a huge movie star, and Im just so grateful that he left behind such a beautiful body of work, because that is all we can hope to do with our time on this earth leave behind something for people to remember us by. And he certainly left a wealth of beautiful performances for us to remember him by.' Seth Rogen also took to social media to pay his respects. 'I can't believe Ray Liotta has passed away. He was such a lovely, talented and hilarious person. Working with him was one of the great joys of my career and we made some of my favorite scenes I ever got to be in. A true legend of immense skill and grace.' He took time for this: Recluse Rob Kardashian of Keeping Up With The Kardashians shared a post for Liotta Seth and Ray co-starred in the 2009 movie Observe And Report. Charlie Day, who worked with Liotta on his untitled directorial debut, told The Hollywood Reporter, 'Im devastated to hear of Rays passing. He was fantastic to work with and gave a great performance that I am sorry he never got to see. I was a long time fan and getting to work with him was everything I hoped it would be. My thoughts go out to his family.' Taron Egerton, who stars in the upcoming Apple TV series In With The Devil alongside Liotta, wrote on Instagram: 'I have never felt such an easy, warm connection with another performer. He was so generous. If I went one way he followed me. Always dancing. Always listening. Never self-generated.' Devon Sawa added, 'I try not to do the RIPs but Ray Liotta was truly one of my favorites to watch. 'He just has this magnetic draw to his performances, which is part of the reason Goddfellas remains tied with Aliens as my favorite film(s) ever made. 'This one stung more than usual.' Rosanna Arquette shared: 'Im really sad to hear that Ray Liotta has passed away. He was an friend back in the day and its very sad. We had a lot of laughs Rest In Peace My friend.' They go way back: Kristin Chenoweth tweeted: 'RIP GOODFELLA Ray Liotta. I adored you. I love knowing you all those years ago' He was loved: And Viola Davis shared, 'RIP Ray Liotta!! Loved your work (heart emoji)' Peace: Rosanna Arquette shared: 'Im really sad to hear that Ray Liotta has passed away. He was an friend back in the day and its very sad. We had a lot of laughs Rest In Peace My friend' Melissa Gilbert posted a note from her husband Timothy Busfield who shared a behind-the-scenes story from their 1989 film Field Of Dreams. 'In the iconic moment in Field of Dreams when Ray Liottas character says to Kevin Costners, is this heaven? And Kevins response is, no its Iowa., a fog had settled into the outfield, which was perfect for that moment, but Ray had been wrapped for the day. 'John Lindley and Director Phil Robinson decided to shoot that scene then, against that majestic and mysterious fog bank. It was before cell phones. So they sent production assistants to scour the bars of Debuque to bring him back. 'They found him and he didnt say no, Im off work. He drove the 45 minutes back to Dyersville, changed back into his uniform, and played the scene. Perfectly. He had great great game. In all his movies. He was a sweet man. RIP my brother. Youll be missed.' It stings: Devon Sawa added, 'I try not to do the RIPs but Ray Liotta was truly one of my favorites to watch' Jeffrey Wright posted: 'Ray Liotta. Man. Just met dude for the first time last year. GREAT actor. Nice to have had a chance to say that to him. RIP.' Cary Elwes noted: 'Very sad to hear the news this morning about the passing of #RayLiotta. An extraordinary talent whose remarkable performances left an indelible mark on the screen. Our deepest condolences to his family. RIP Ray.' Lou Diamond Phillips tweeted, 'Absolutely stunned at the passing of Ray Liotta. I never had the privilege of working with him but his reputation as one of the good guys was well known. A tragic loss. #RIPRayLiotta.' Producer Gale Anne Hurd tweeted, '#RIP #RayLiotta We collaborated on #MartinCampbells #NoEscape, which is worth checking out for his terrific performance as a thoroughly engaging action star. Hes gone way too soon.' He leaves behind his fiance Jacy Nittolo as well as his daughter Karsen, 23, with ex-wife Michelle Grace. Liotta's sudden death shocked fans as he embarked on a huge resurgence in recent years, staring alongside up and coming thespians such as Taron Egerton. Prayers for Ray: Cary Elwes noted: 'Very sad to hear the news this morning about the passing of #RayLiotta. An extraordinary talent whose remarkable performances left an indelible mark on the screen. Our deepest condolences to his family. RIP Ray' Hard to take: Jeffrey Wright posted: 'Ray Liotta. Man. Just met dude for the first time last year. GREAT actor. Nice to have had a chance to say that to him. RIP' They were pals: James Mangold said that he was saddened by the bad news But he was perhaps best known for his incredible performance in Scorsese's 1990 classic Goodfellas, where he played Henry Hill while Robert De Niro took on the role of Jimmy Conway. His other roles include Shoeless Joe Jackson in 1989s Field of Dreams, Ray Sinclair in Something Wild (1986). And he was in Unlawful Entry (1992), Cop Land (1997), Hannibal (2001), Blow (2001), John Q (2002), Identity (2003), Observe and Report (2009), Killing Them Softly (2012), and The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). And he worked from 2016 until 2018 on the NYPD cop show Shades Of Blue with Drea de Matteo and Jennifer Lopez. A note from London: TV personality Piers Morgan called Ray a 'brilliant' actor and shared an image from Goodfellas Hit maker: The star was best known for the Martin Scorsese movie Goodfellas In recent years his career heated up again. He was in The Many Saints of Newark, Marriage Story and No Sudden Move back to back. The star told People he felt the change: 'It's weird how this business works, because I've definitely had a career that's up and down. For some reason, I've been busier this year than I have in all the years that I've been doing this. And I still feel I'm not there yet. I just think there's a lot more.' Ray - who was was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1954 - was abandoned at an orphanage before he was adopted at six-months-old by Marty and Alfred Liotta. Liotta was filming on location in the Dominican Republic for an upcoming thriller, Dangerous Waters. The feature film co-starred Euphoria and Grey's Anatomy actor Eric Dane, alongside Odeya Rush and Saffron Burrows. Their casting was announced just a few weeks back, at the beginning of May. His widow: He leaves behind his fiance Jacy Nittolo (pictured) as well as his daughter Karsen Dangerous Waters, from Signature Films, which is directed by John Barr and written by Mark Jackson, was in the midst of shooting when the actor passed away unexpectedly. The film centers on an out of control sailing vacation that goes off the rails when a teenage girl discovers 'the dark past of her mother's new boyfriend,' according to the synopsis. Producers were said to have been pitching the project at this month's Cannes Film Festival to potential buyers, Deadline reported. The producers of Dangerous Waters told The Hollywood Reporter in a statement, 'We were deeply saddened to learn of Rays passing, its a tremendous loss and our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, fiance Jacy and daughter Karsen.' Dangerous Waters was just one of many projects currently on the docket for Liotta at the time of his shocking death. The actor can be seen in the upcoming television drama Black Bird and recently completed two films, Cocaine Bear and El Tonto. In addition to Dangerous Waters, Ray had two other films in production: April 29, 1992 and The Substance. Justin Hartley looked every inch the heartthrob on Wednesday while celebrating his Haute Living cover with wife Sofia Parnas at the Pendry West Hollywood. The This Is Us star, 45, sported a dashing pastel pink suit over a white button-up shirt to the event, which took place following the wrap of his hit TV series. Meanwhile Sofia, 32, dazzled in a sleeveless figure-hugging cream leather dress. The actor's proud wife also gave him a sweet kiss on the cheek inside of the event. Celebrating: Justin Hartley looked every inch the heartthrob on Wednesday while celebrating his Haute Living cover with wife Sofia Parnas at the Pendry West Hollywood Proud: The actor's proud wife was also seen giving him a kiss on the cheek inside of the event The evening was presented by Omega, of which Justin is a brand ambassador, and the SAG Award-winning actor accessorized his look with a gold Omega watch. Justin had his blonde hair tousled with gel and sported a light smattering of facial hair for the night. His other half accessorized her glamorous attire with a slim diamond necklace and drop earrings. Dashing: The This Is Us star, 45, sported a dashing pastel pink suit over a white button-up shirt to the event, which took place following the wrap of his hit TV series The Moroccan actress sported delicate glam for the evening, and wore her long brunette tresses lightly curled, cascading down her shoulders and back. Justin was seen mingling with various guests on the red carpet, and flashed a bright smile as he posed with Arnaud Michon, the Brand President for Omega watches, and US CEO of Swatch Group. There were also Omega watch displays set up throughout the outdoor space at the Pendry. Dazzling: Sofia, 32, dazzled in a sleeveless figure-hugging cream leather dress Happy: Justin flashed a bright smile as he posed with Arnaud Michon, the Brand President for Omega watches, and US CEO of Swatch Group Making the rounds: The stylish couple - have been married for just over a year - posed next to Michon Justin mingled with Haute Editor-in-Chief Laura Schreffler and Haute Media Group Senior Vice President April Donelson. He was also seen posing with Haute Media Group co-founder Seth Semilof, who looked dapper in a blue shirt and black suit jacket. Inside of the event, Michon gave a speech describing why Justin was the perfect ambassador for the Omega brand, as per Haute Living. Guests: Justin was spotted with Haute Editor-in-Chief Laura Schreffler (left) and Haute Media Group Senior Vice President April Donelson (right) Mingling: He was also seen posing with Haute Media Group co-founder Seth Semilof, who looked dapper in a blue shirt and black suit jacket On the cover: The actor posed next to his dashing black and white Haute Living cover The guests were then treated to an intimate dinner, which included hamachi crudo, sweet corn soup, baby kale salad, halibut tom kha, and prime ribeye. While at the dinner table, Justin also made a speech in which he thanked his wife, while she adoringly gazed up at him. He also shared how much he liked the Omega brand and that he was surprised they chose him, seeing as hes such 'a goof.' Sweet: While at the dinner table, Justin also made a speech in which he thanked his wife, while she adoringly gazed up at him Ambassador: The evening was presented by Omega, of which Justin is a brand ambassador, and there were Omega watch displays set up throughout the outdoor space at the Pendry Justin also took the time to pose next to his dashing black and white Haute Living cover. Justin and Sofia have been married for just over a year, after the two tied the knot in March 2021. The lovebirds initially met on the set of The Young and the Restless back in 2015, but say they didn't work closely together. At the time, he was dating his former wife, Chrishell Stause, who was also working for the daytime drama. A good time: Sofia appeared to be having a good time as she mingled with gal pals at the celebration Praise: Inside of the event, Michon gave a speech describing why Justin was the perfect ambassador for the Omega brand Justin and the Selling Sunset star married in 2017, but they separated two years later. The marriage was officially dissolved in 2021. Justin's hit show This Is Us recently came to an end after six seasons, with the last episode airing on May 24. Hartley - who played Kevin Pearson on the NBC family drama - spoked to the The Hollywood Reporter regarding his character's evolution and his redemption in the last episode, which sees him taking care of his sick mother, played by Many Moore. 'People deserve second chances. Hes become a complete and full man. A good man. Sometimes it takes a long time to get there. At least, for him it did.' Lisa Wilkinson has revealed her difficultly wearing trousers with long legs. On Friday, The Project host showed off her new bright green suit in an Instagram post. But there was one problem, the legs on the pants were far too long, trailing far under her feet. Small issue: Lisa Wilkinson (pictured) has revealed her difficultly wearing trousers with long legs. On Friday, The Project host showed off her new bright green suit in an Instagram post 'Here's to short-a***s everywhere!!' the 62-year-old television host joked in her caption. According to reports online, Lisa is 5 feet 6 inches (167cm ) tall, which is actually above the national average for women of 161.8 cm. However, it's unclear if those estimates for Lisa's height are correct. 'Here's to short-a***s everywhere!!' the 62-year-old television host joked in her caption It comes after's new book was been nominated for a prestigious award. The Project host's memoir It Wasn't Meant To Be Like This is in the running for The Australian Book Industry Awards for Book Of The Year (Biography). The 62-year-old announced the good news in an Instagram post on Tuesday, and took the opportunity to thank those who supported her. Award: Lisa Wilkinson's new book has been nominated for a prestigious award 'So unbelievably honoured to find out that 'It Wasn't Meant To Be Like This' has been nominated and now, today, shortlisted in the final five for The Australian Book Industry Awards for Book Of The Year (Biography),' she wrote. 'Thank you @abia_awards and @harpercollinsaustralia and to everyone who has taken the time and trouble to send me so many heartfelt messages over the last six months, and especially to those who have shared with me so much of your own stories' she continued. 'You have no idea how much those precious words have meant to me.' Thandiwe Newton and her boyfriend Lonr were spotted arriving for a sushi date at Matsuhisa in Los Angeles on Friday. The actress, 49, showcased her quirky sense of style in a long coat with a unique print on it while waiting on her toyboy lover, 25, as he had a smoke outside. She sported a pair of chunky sandals and a colourful scarf while holding her vibrant orange beanie hat. Loved-up: Thandiwe Newton and her boyfriend Lonr were spotted arriving for a sushi date at Matsuhisa in Los Angeles on Frida Thandiwe swept her red locks back into a bun while optin for a natural makeup look with a nude lip. Meanwhile, Lonr cut a casual figure in a khaki jumper, blue jeans and a pair of black vans as he strolled along the street. It comes after earlier this month Thandiwe was branded 'crazy' by the step-father of her toyboy lover Lonr. Looking good: She sported a pair of chunky sandals and a colourful scarf while holding her vibrant orange beanie hat Casual: The actress, 49, showcased her quirky sense of style in a long coat with a unique print on it while waiting on her toyboy lover, 25, as he had a smoke outside Pretty: Thandiwe swept her red locks back into a bun while optin for a natural makeup look with a nude lip The star is reportedly living with musician Lonr following her recent split from husband of 16 years Ol. Now the step-father of Lonr - real name Elijah Dias - has spoken out on the surprise romance, insisting the rapper won't settle down with Thandiwe. Speaking to The Sun from his New York home, Jimmy Varner, 58, said his family found out about their romance through pictures in the media. Low-key: Lonr cut a casual figure in a khaki jumper, blue jeans and a pair of black vans as he strolled along the street Trouble: It comes after earlier this month Thandiwe was branded 'crazy' by the step-father of her toyboy lover Lonr, 25 Moving fast: The star is reportedly living with musician Lonr following her recent split from husband of 16 years Ol Jimmy is the ex-husband of Elijah's mum Mikelyn Roderick, 63. He told The Sun that the whole family found out about the romance through media reports, advising the couple: 'Lord have mercy on her - and him. She looks crazy as hell to me. All the pretty ones are crazy like that. 'But when he's ready to settle down and be having kids, he ain't going to settle for her. Elijah said that he is not concerned by the 24 year age gap between the pair, explaining: 'Look, he knows what to do with an older woman, I'm not worried about the age gap. He's mature, he can handle himself... she had better be ready for him.' Last week, it was reported the Line Of Duty star is 'living with 25-year-old musician Lonr', following the pair's recent public display of affection in Malibu, and wants 'everyone to know' about the romance. The actress is said to be acting like a 'love-struck teenager' while pals close to the star have claimed Ol was 'blindsided' by her new romance. A source told The Sun: 'Thandiwe has been staying with Elijah in LA and is acting like a smitten teenager. Her wedding ring is off and it seems she has fallen for him. 'Thandiwe seems like she can't get enough of Elijah. When he isn't working, he is with Thandiwe. They are very much a couple and Elijah is acting like the perfect boyfriend. 'She isn't hiding this romance. She wants everyone to know about it.' Family: Her and Ol share three children Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight (pictured with her husband and daughters in 2019) Thandiwe has been liking and commenting on the rapper's social media posts since at least January 2020. However, there is no suggestion they had a relationship back then. The young musician has insisted Thandiwe's number one priority is the welfare of her three children. Lonr, who at 25 is just four years older than the actress' eldest daughter, has broken his silence on the pair's relationship, insisting Thandiwe is still focused on the upbringing of her children with the filmmaker - Ripley, 21, Nico, 17, and Booker, eight. He told Page Six: 'From the relatively short time I've been fortunate to spend with her, I know Thandiwe and Oliver care deeply about the welfare of their children. That's all I care about right now.' The departure of senior leaders has long stopped shocking the Congress but what could shock its observers is its response to the parting shot of Kapil Sibal, the latest to leave it. The party sought to dismiss it all, saying that it is a large organisation and people and come and go; and that Mr Sibal, in his letter to the party announcing his resignation, has said he still believed in the values of the Congress even in exit. The party appears to have missed the import of Mr Sibals defection. Mr Sibal has joined not the BJP as most other deserters have but chose to ally with a formation which believes that majoritarianism in the country can be resisted only by secular forces. Reduced to the basics, the political foes of Mr Sibal and the Congress remain the BJP; those on whom they both bank are secular formations and their ideological weapons are still the same. Only the platform is different. Mr Sibal has said the present Congress does not reflect Congress values. He also believes there is an alternative to the Congress when it comes to the fight for secular values. Although not a mass leader, Mr Sibal was in the forefront of the legal and parliamentary fight against several of the NDA governments attempts to undermine the Constitution, as per the Congress. These include the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the abrogation of Article 370 and the recent bid by the BJP-run Delhi municipal corporation to raze the homes of people based on allegations of being involved in communal clashes. His unequivocal stand on all these issues had earned him a lot of respect which finally accrued to his party. Now when he joins a new platform, the goodwill could get transferred with him. The Congress must worry about it. The G-23 group of senior leaders calling for a change in the leadership and style of functioning of the Congress Party will now be a weakened force without Mr Sibal. They will have very few options if the party high command does not course-correct. It is up to the leadership of said party to decide if it will listen to voices from the ground or ignore these and get back to business as usual. Kanye West lamented his status as a co-parent to his four children with ex-wife Kim Kardashian on his latest single, True Love, which dropped on Thursday night. The song, with vocals from the late XXXTentacion, features Ye, 44, expressing his dissatisfaction with his custody schedule, as he raps: 'Wait, when you see the kids? I'll see y'all tomorrow/ Wait, when the sun set? I see y'all tomorrow.' The musician also appears to grieve the fact that his kids aren't with him permanently: 'When I pick 'em up, I feel like they borrowed/ When I gotta return them, scan 'em like a bar code.' Custody war: Kanye West lamented his status as a co-parent to his four children with ex-wife Kim Kardashian on his latest single, True Love, which dropped on Friday; Pictured in 2019 West, who shares North, eight, Saint, six, Chicago, four, and Psalm, three with the reality star, 41, goes on to complain about the children's clothing. 'Wait, who got the kids in those "What are thos?"/ Wait, why they can't wear Yeezys with the cargos?' he asks, referring to his own brand. 'Y'all know Nik don't like me, y'all take it too far, though/ At least have 'em in some Mike's, he played for Chicago,' he went on, referencing his dispute with Nike over a financial disagreement. Sad: The song features Ye, 44, expressing his dissatisfaction with his custody schedule: 'When I pick 'em up, I feel like they borrowed/ When I gotta return them, scan 'em like a bar code'; Pictured 2020 In the song, which discusses struggling to keep love alive in a relationship, West seems to complain that the kids can't see him even if they want to. 'I only see three kids, who watchin' Chicago?' he wonders about his youngest daughter. 'And you know all the nannies said, "Daddy in Nebraska"/ Let the kids dig a tunnel to my house like Chapo.' Towards the end of the song Kanye states that his kids can always reach him, as he leaves the light on for them. 'Only neighbor in the hood with a door they can knock on/ I leave the light on/ Daddy's not gone, you see the light on.' Happier times: West shares North (left), eight, Saint (center), six, Chicago, four, and Psalm, three with the reality star, 41 The single comes after Kim tried to make amends with her family for how Kanye had 'treated' them over the years on the latest episode of The Kardashians. Kim shared her regrets over how the superstar rapper had behaved in recent years as she spoke with Khloe, Kendall, Kourtney, Travis Barker and mother Kris Jenner, along with her boyfriend Corey Gamble, over dinner. During the talk Kim and Kris, 66, got the same text message revealing that Kanye was preparing to release a new song. 'It means he's talking s*** about me and probably saying whatever,' Kim explained to her confused siblings. Making amends: The single comes after Kim tried to make amends with her family for how Kanye had 'treated' them over the years on the latest episode of The Kardashians 'You're the mother of his kids and have been nothing but great to him,' Kris said. 'One day your kids are going to read all of it, and see all of it. And that's something that everybody has to be really aware of.' Kim vowed that she would never 'stoop' to her ex's level and suggested that Kanye had 'always' treated her family poorly, hinting the issues preceded his battle with bipolar disorder and their split. 'I protected that for so long, but I said I will never let that happen to you guys again,' Kim said defiantly. 'All I can do is control how I react to something,' she went on to say. 'I can't control how he treats me or, you know, how he's always treated you guys.' In a confessional segment, the beauty said that she understood the 'impact' the split with West 'has had on [her] family' and that she wanted to tell them, 'I'm sorry, guys.' News: During the talk Kim and Kris, 66, got a text revealing that Kanye was preparing to release a new song. 'It means he's talking s*** about me and probably saying whatever,' Kim explained Kardashian filed to divorce West in February of 2021 after more than six years of marriage. She has been dating comedian Pete Davidson, 28, since last fall. Meanwhile West's lawyer, Samantha Spector has filed paperwork to withdraw from the rapper's divorce case from Kim. Spector cited an irreconcilable breakdown with the rapper, The Blast reported, citing court docs. An attorney from Pennsylvania (who is not a divorce lawyer) will represent the Grammy-winning artist in his split from Kardashian the outlet reported. Spector, who has previously represented celebs such as Amber Heard and Dr. Dres ex-wife Nicole Young, was hired by West earlier this year amid his acrimonious split with the reality star. The latest: West's lawyer Samantha Spector has filed paperwork to withdraw from the rapper's divorce case from his ex-wife West brought Spector on his legal team in the wake of his public complaints that Kardashian had prevented him from seeing their children. Kardashian in February took to social media to explain her frustration with West's behavior in the wake of their split, after he publicly complained that their eldest child North had a TikTok account. 'As the parent who is the main provider and caregiver for our children, I am doing my best to protect our daughter while also allowing her to express her creativity in the medium that she wishes with adult supervision - because it brings her happiness,' she said. 'Divorce is difficult enough on our children and Kanye's obsession with trying to control and manipulate our situation so negatively and publicly is only causing further pain for all. 'From the beginning I have wanted nothing but a healthy relationship because it is what is best for our children and it saddens me that Kanye continues to make it impossible every step of the way.' West was seen in NYC earlier this week signing autographs as he arrived to a Balenciaga show Kardashian and West publicly clashed earlier this year amid their ongoing divorce battle Counting Spector (pictured in 2019 in LA), West has been through four attorneys in the case West fired back in an Instagram post responding to Kardashian's statement, saying, 'What do you mean by the main provider? 'America saw you try to kidnap my daughter on her birthday by not providing the address. You put security on me inside of the house to play with my son then accused me of stealing I had to take a drug test after Chicagos party cause you accused me of being on drugs.' Counting Spector, West has been through four attorneys in the case, Page Six reported. Prior to Spector, West relieved attorney Chris Melcher of his duties in the case, TMZ reported in March. Insiders told the outlet at the time that West had been indecisive in his dealings with Melcher, at some times looking to settle and other times looking to battle her in court. At the time West switched representation from Melcher to Spector, Kardashian's lawyer Laura Wasser said that West had been 'strategically' switching lawyers in an effort to slow down the legal process in the split, Mirror reported. The Good Fight is scheduled to come to an end with its forthcoming sixth season. The news about the conclusion of the popular legal drama program, which airs on CBS All Access and Paramount+, was reported by several sources on Friday. Two of the series' co-creators, Robert and Michelle King, also sat down for an extensive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, where they expressed their thoughts about the end of the show. Coming to a close: The Good Fight is scheduled to come to an end with its forthcoming sixth season The Good Fight served as both a spinoff and a sequel to The Good Wife, which was also co-created by the Kings. The older program ran from 2009 until 2016 and starred Julianna Margulies, among other performers. The newer show followed Diane Lockhart, played by Christine Baranski, as she begins working at a Chicago law firm after her life savings are wiped out. Cast members include Delroy Lindo, Rose Leslie and Audra McDonald, among numerous others. Storyline: The newer show followed Diane Lockhart, played by Christine Baranski, as she begins working at a Chicago law firm after her life savings are wiped out The Good Fight's first season premiered in 2017, and four further seasons have been released since then. The show has received consistently positive reviews from critics ever since its debut. Its cast and crew members have also been nominated for numerous awards, including Primetime Emmys and Golden Globes, ever since its inception. The Good Fight was renewed for a sixth season in July of last year, although it was not confirmed that the series would be ending until Friday. Another one: The Good Fight was renewed for a sixth season in July of last year, although it was not confirmed that the series would be ending until Friday The Kings spoke about their work on the show during their sit-down with The Hollywood Reporter, where they noted that they were happy to be able to work with timely subject matter. 'To be able to tell stories about an upside-down world in real time has been a gift,' they said. The married couple then pointed out that they were enthusiastic about the prospect of reuniting with the show's cast and crew members. 'Our hope-slash-scheme is to find ways to work with all of them again in the future,' they said. Happy collaborators: The married couple then pointed out that they were enthusiastic about the prospect of reuniting with the show's cast and crew members The pair told the media outlet that they felt as if the program's sixth season felt like a natural ending to its story. They also noted that they feared falling into repetitive motions if they were to continue with the show. The Kings did point out, however, that they felt as if further spinoffs could focus on the show's characters, although none are currently being developed. Leaving the door open: The Kings did point out, however, that they felt as if further spinoffs could focus on the show's characters, although none are currently being developed Robert concluded by noting that the show's finale had not been written, although he expressed that he and his collaborators were looking to both please and captivate the show's fans. 'We're in the writers' room now thinking it through. We hope it ends in [a] way that seems inevitable but surprising and puts character first,' he said. The Good Fight's sixth and final season is set to premiere on the Paramount+ streaming service on September 8. Val Kilmer's ex-wife Joanna Whalley made a rare appearance this week. The brunette beauty - who came to fame in the 1980s with hit movies such as Scandal and Shattered - looked sensation in all black as she attended the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California. The 60-year-old actress was there to plug the Willow, the new Disney+ series based on the 1988 movie directed about Ron Howard which she starred in with her ex Val as well as Warwick Davis. Back in the spotlight: Val Kilmer's ex-wife Joanna Whalley made a rare appearance this week. The brunette beauty looked sensation in all black as she attended the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim, California The movie icon had on a black blazer with black ruched skirt and a dramatic red stone and silver Native American necklace. The British actress added strappy peep toe heels. Her long hair was worn down in soft waves over her shoulder as she had on pink lipstick and smiled when on stage addressing the crowd. Willow will premiere November 30, 2002, exclusively on Disney+. Still radiant: The movie icon had on a black blazer with black ruched skirt and a dramatic red stone and silver Native American necklace. She added strappy peep toe heels Styled: Her long hair was worn down in soft waves over her shoulder as she had on pink lipstick It takes place 20 years after the film ended. The 1988 fantasy/adventure film from a story by George Lucas was about Willow Ufgood, a Nelwyn dwarf and aspiring sorcerer man (Warwick Davis), who has been tasked with protecting a young woman (Whalley). The movie also starred Kilmer, whom Joanne was married to from 1988 until 1996. Together they had two children: Mercedes and Jack. They go way back: Here Joanna puts her arm around Warwick at the celebration The film: The 1988 fantasy/adventure film from a story by George Lucas was about a young man named Willow (Warwick Davis) who been tasked with protecting a young woman (Whalley) Also at the event was Howard, and costars Ruby Cruz, Jon Kasdan, Davis (who also played an Ewok in Star Wars: Return Of The Jedi), Ellie Bamber and Erin Kellyman. They all participated in a studio showcase panel. Producer Jonathan Kasdan was joined on stage by original film director Ron Howard. Kasdan said, 'The first time I met Ron, I went up to him and I said, I'm a huge Willow fan, and I'm determined to convince Kathy to make a sequel series to Willow. And he said, "Great, but what are you doing in my hotel room?"' Davis added, 'Making the original movie was one of the best experiences of my life. And I've been in Star Wars." The cast: Ron Howard, Ruby Cruz, Jon Kasdan, Warwick Davis, Joanne Whalley, Ellie Bamber and Erin Kellyman attend the studio showcase panel at Star Wars Celebration On stage: (L-R) Howard, Kasdan, Kellyman, Davis, Cruz, Bamber and Whalley Joanne is best known for her role as call girl Christine Keeler in the 1989 film Scandal and for playing the mistress opposite Greta Scacchi in 1991's Shattered. But Whalley's career has never slowed as she has appeared in 1994's Scarlett and the series Daredevil from 2015 until 2018. Meanwhile, Val has been open about his struggle with throat cancer which was explored in his V documentary. They fell in love: He and Whalley met while filming the fantasy film Willow. Kilmer later complained that he only found out he was being divorced after seeing a report on CNN The it couple: They two seen at the Liberty Hill Foundation's Eighth Annual Upton Sinclair Awards in 1990 in Beverly Hills He seems to be doing better these days as he has a cameo in the new Tom Cruise Top Gun sequel called Maverick. Val was once one of the biggest stars of the 1990s, appearing as Batman in Batman Forever in 1993 and as Simon Templar in Hollywood's version of the British TV classic The Saint. He and Whalley met while filming the fantasy film Willow. Kilmer later complained that he only found out he was being divorced after seeing a report on CNN. Kendall Rae Knight has been hit with an influx of hateful messages from trolls via social media following the arrest of her mother, Jane Prior. The love Island star's mother, 60, was arrested on suspicion of child abduction on Thursday, after an eight-year-old girl went missing from her school in Lancashire. Since the arrest, fans have been directing their rage at Kendall, as they sent a wave of hateful messages and comments on her latest Instagram picture. Keyboard warriors: Kendall Rae Knight, 30, has allegedly been attacked by social media trolls after her mother was arrested on suspicion of child abduction (pictured with her mother, Jane) The youngster, named Darcy Shea, was found safely in the afternoon, with police officials believing that she was picked up by Jane - as they arrested her for suspected child abduction. And according to The Daily Star, fans commented on a bikini-clad throwback snap that Kendall posted on Thursday prior to the arrest. With the comments seemingly now removed, the publication reported that one person quizzed: 'Why did your mom steal a little girl and get arrested?' Trolls: Fans seem to have been directing their rage at Kendall, as they allegedly sent a wave of hateful messages and comments on her Instagram Throwback pic: And according to the Daily Star, fans commented on this bikini-clad throwback snap that Kendall posted on Thursday prior to the arrest While another comment allegedly read: 'How's your mum doing?' However, it seems many of Kendall's fans were quick to jump to the ITV star's defence, reportedly reminding the trolls that 'it was her mother, not her'. Other than seemingly removing the comments, Kendall has not commented on the situation - remaining quiet on social media since the holiday post. Eight-year-old Darcy had last been seen outside St Cuthbert's Primary School in Blackpool at 9am on Thursday morning and officers believed she was picked up by Jane. Legal trouble: Jane (pictured left) was arrested on suspicion of child abduction on Thursday afternoon, after eight-year-old Darcy (pictured right) went missing from her school in Lancashire But just after 3pm both of them were found safely and Mrs Prior was arrested on suspicion of child abduction. Officers had carried out searches and conducted a number of enquiries to try and find them both. Ms Prior - who has modelled on ITV favourite This Morning - has links to Preston and North Wales but was in the Blackpool area. The pair were thought to be in a blue Mitsubishi Colt car registration SP56 RHO. Reality star: Kendall rose to fame on the 2018 season of Love Island, and still has a strong social media presence A Lancashire Police spokesperson said: 'Further to our earlier appeals, Darcy, missing from Blackpool, has been found safe and well in the resort this afternoon. 'A 60-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of child abduction and is in custody. 'Thank you to everyone who shared our appeals for information.' Three years ago Ms Prior appeared on This Morning where she was wined and dined in Italy during a special dating section. The Matchmaker Mountain segment featured her and explained her motivations for going on the show She told the programme: 'My daughter Kendall (Rae Knight) was on Love Island last year and although she didn't find love on the show, I thought I hopefully might have more luck!!' Candace Cameron Bure became emotional as she explained why she had been 'silent' in the aftermath of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday. On Thursday, the 46-year-old actress cried in a series of videos that she posted on her Instagram Story while sharing her thoughts about posting on social media after tragedies. 'Hi friends, I wanted actually, I didn't want to come on here but I am,' Candace admitted in the first clip as she addressed her 5.5. million followers. In tears: Candace Cameron Bure became emotional as she explained why she had been 'silent' in the aftermath of the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday The Full House alum continued, 'Because seeing what happened in our country, all of us process things differently and some of us need more time to process it and some of us are ready to scream and yell and shout from the rooftops. 'Some of us need to just feel more and figure out when we feel ready to share those feelings.' The mother of three went on to say, 'I am a deep feeler and I don't always feel like social media is a place I want to run to first to share my heart, particularly when it's grieving and so that's why I have been silent.' Emotional: On Thursday, the 46-year-old actress cried in a series of videos that she posted on her Instagram Story while sharing her thoughts about posting on social media after tragedies The California native explained that people should not be quick to judge someone's reaction to events or emotions based on social media activity. ''I don't think it's right to jump to conclusions, or assume or judge someone for their lack of posting,' she said. 'I don't believe silence or lack of posting is a representation of what someone is thinking, feeling or doing.' 'Hi friends, I wanted actually, I didn't want to come on here but I am,' Candace admitted in the first clip as she addressed her 5.5. million followers The former talk show panelist told her fans that she was becoming more hesitant about sharing her thoughts and feelings about current events on social media. She said, 'The more and more I have this relationship with social media, there's things I love about it and a lot that I am really pulling away from and that is sharing certain things particular when it comes to tragedy, grief, politics and a lot of social issues that our country disagrees on. 'Really, because I don't want to want to pour my heart out and my opinion just for people to nitpick over it. Processing: Candace explained that she needed to time to feel and process her emotions Candace added, 'And by nitpick, I mean over the words. Obviously there are going to be disagreements and arguments but sometimes it's like you just want to share a positive message and there are people who are still just going to tear it apart. Tears began pouring down Candace's face as she discussed the horrific shooting, which left 19 children and two adults dead. Through sobs, she said, 'And so, with the tragedy and the loss of those 21 people, that is just so hard. And as a mother, I grieve and I just want to grieve with the people of Uvalde and the families. Jumping to conclusions: The California native explained that people should not be quick to judge someone's reaction to events or emotions based on their social media activity 'My heart just hurts for you. But that's all I want to say on social media right now. I'm just here and I'm grieving.' The Hallmark Channel regular added that she knew people would also be critical of her for not having earlier addressed the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York which took place almost two weeks ago. She said, 'And I know some of you are going to say, "Well, there was another tragedy that happened in Buffalo at the supermarket and I'm grieving those people too. 'Just some of us don't feel comfortable to have to post everything. And that's all there is to it. I'm not trying to make this about me. I'm just trying to share feelings. Tragedy: Tears began pouring down Candace's face as she discussed the horrific shooting, which left 19 children and two adults dead 'I don't want to have to feel like I have to post it for me to acknowledge my feelings or do what I'm doing or to take action. A post isn't confirming that. Or lack of posting so anyway.' Candace explained that her social media assistant had reached out to her about posting a "graphic" about the Texas tragedy. She added, 'You know my social media gal, who helps me post a lot of things, even texted me yesterday and said, "Do you want me to put up a graphic?" 'And I thought, "No, what's a graphic going to do?" I need to feel this first. I think I would love to post a picture of all those beautiful little faces so we remember them and we remember to pray for their families too. Grieving: The Hallmark Channel regular added that she knew people would also be critical of her for not having earlier addressed the grocery store shooting in Buffalo, New York which took place almost two weeks ago 'But I just have to do that when I'm ready to do that. And now I'm like totally oversharing and I didn't even want to share but I know some of you feel the same way and some of you also want to say, don't be mad when you feel like people should be posting and they are not meeting your expectation.' She asserted, "It's not about you. It's not and everyone processes things differently so let us process how we need. And take action when we are ready and willing and wanting to and speaking up when we feel led to. Just know that.' Candace, who is a devout Christian, added that she was a 'prayerful' person. She also explained that her followers could expect to see posts about her collaborations but they should not read anything into those updates. Reluctant: The former talk show panelist on The View told her fans that she was becoming more hesitant about sharing her thoughts and feelings about current events on social media. Seen in 2019 'And one other thing, you'll see posts, like, I'm talking about Dr. [Harold] Lancer and you'll probably see Dayspring and all those,' she said. 'Those are all scheduled posts so they still just run. I'm not actually feeling them that day and I'm not even posting them. I have people who help post those things so just take social media with a grain of salt and realize that it's not always in real time at that very moment.' Candace has experienced backlash over some of her past social media posts. Last October, she took to Instagram to defend her stance on the COVID-19 vaccines. She stated that she is not anti-vax but 'pro-informed consent,' 'pro-immune system,' 'pro-early intervention' and 'pro-sunlight, exercise, real food, & vitamins.' The former Dancing With The Stars competitor explained that she was not 'anti-vax,' but was 'pro-medical freedom.' Candace previously sparked criticism when she shared a PDA-packed photo of herself with her husband Valeri Bure, 47, who was seen touching her breast. Last July, she apologized to fans after she was criticized for posting a 'seductive' TikTok video where she posed with a bible while lip-syncing to the Lana Del Rey song Jealous Girl. PDA: Candace previously sparked criticism when she shared a PDA-packed photo of herself with her husband Valeri Bure, 47, who was seen touching her breast Kim Kardashian was in a reminiscing mood on Friday, as she took to her Instagram to share a carousel of images from sister Kourtney's lavish Italian wedding. The reality TV beauty, 41, showed off her dramatic sheer black lace gown, as she posed alongside her eldest daughter North, eight, ahead of her sister's nuptials, which took place last week. 'KRAVIS FOREVER,' the SKIMS co-founder captioned the stunning shots, using the social media nickname for Kourtney, 43, and her drummer husband Travis Barker, 46. Looking back: Kim Kardashian was in a reminiscing mood on Friday, as she took to her Instagram to share a carousel of images from sister Kourtney's lavish Italian wedding Kourtney married the musician in a splendid ceremony last Sunday, as the Kardashian/Jenner clan joined them in Portofino, Italy, to celebrate. Kim and North twinned in gothic looks for the occasion, and the star was seen giving her daughter a kiss in one of the adorable photographs. The platinum blonde bombshell paired her sensational gown with an ornate gold and jewel cross choker. She wore her recently-dyed tresses in a chic updo and sported a smoky palette of make-up for the special occasion. Mini-me: The reality TV beauty, 41, showed off her dramatic sheer black lace gown, as she posed alongside her eldest daughter North, eight, ahead of her sister's nuptials Sweet: In another adorable shot, the blonde bombshell was seen giving North a kiss Meanwhile North - who Kim shares with ex-husband Kanye West, 44, alongside younger daughter Chicago, four, and sons Saint, six, and Psalm, three - wore a flowing black robe. The next artistic black and white snap featured Kourtney and Travis walking hand-in-hand underneath a stone tunnel in their wedding garb, with Travis holding a bottle of champagne in his hand. Kim continued with the stunning family throwbacks, sharing a picture of her and younger sister Khloe, 37, all dressed up for the big ceremony. Khloe looked regal in a chic sheer tiered black dress with lace detail and an eye-catching gold headpiece. Long may it last: 'KRAVIS FOREVER,' the SKIMS co-founder captioned the stunning shots, using the social media nickname for Kourtney, 43, and her drummer husband Travis Barker, 46 Memories: Another heartwarming photograph featured Kourtney in her corseted mini-dress squeezing North's face with one hand, and holding her son Reign's hand with the other Tristan Thompson's, 31, ex-girlfriend was seen powdering her face ahead of the wedding, as she posed in the mirror with Kim and North. Another heartwarming photograph featured Kourtney in her Dolce & Gabbana corseted mini-dress squeezing North's face with one hand, and holding her youngest son Reign's, seven, hand with the other. Meanwhile behind Kourtney a group of assistants were seen carrying her embroidered veil, which featured a depiction of the Virgin Mary. It wasn't just Kourtney and Travis who sported the luxury label on their big day. The outfits worn by the entire Kardashian-Jenner family on the trip were designed by the iconic label, so it was no wonder that Kim also managed to get a snap with the famous fashion duo. Glamorous affair: Kim continued with the stunning family throwbacks, sharing a picture of her and younger sister Khloe, 37, all dressed up for the big ceremony Getting ready: Tristan Thompson's, 31, ex-girlfriend was seen powdering her face ahead of the wedding, as she posed in the mirror with Kim and North Kim and North proudly posed with designers Domenico Dolce, 63, and Stefano Gabbana, 59, who were both clad in all-black outfits. In another shot, the star and her daughter were seen posing with Dolce & Gabbanas ambassador and Domenico's partner Gui Siqueira, who looked chic in a white suit and pink silk shirt. The Italian fashion house 'made millions' from the grand European wedding, according to Page Six. Though they shut down reports that they 'sponsored' the event, the company reportedly earned '$25.4 million in media impact value' thanks to the wedding. The romantic ceremony was the third one for the couple, who previously tied the knot in Santa Barbara, as well as in a non-binding wedding ceremony in Las Vegas. Italian fashion: Kim and North proudly posed with designers Domenico Dolce, 63, and Stefano Gabbana, 59, who provided outfits for the entire Kardashian-Jenner family on the trip Fashionable: In another shot, the star and her daughter were seen posing with Dolce & Gabbanas ambassador and Domenico's partner Gui Siqueira, who looked chic in a white suit The post came after Kim's ex-husband appeared to reignite their ongoing custody battle, on his latest single, True Love, which dropped on Thursday night. Ye lamented his status as a co-parent to his four children expressing his dissatisfaction with his custody schedule: 'Wait, when you see the kids? I'll see y'all tomorrow/ Wait, when the sun set? I see y'all tomorrow.' The musician also appears to grieve the fact that his kids aren't with him permanently: 'When I pick 'em up, I feel like they borrowed/ When I gotta return them, scan 'em like a bar code.' Kardashian filed to divorce West in February of 2021 after more than six years of marriage. She has been dating comedian Pete Davidson, 28, since last fall. Stranger Things fans all over the world were treated to spectacular displays on Friday. Over in Australia, they were greeted to eerie thick fog across Bondi Beach as the scene was set to showcase the huge rift to the upside down. Sydney's beach was taken over by actors dressed in forensic costumes assessing the huge branch-like prop which glowed red in the centre. The Upside Down: Stranger Things fans all over the world were treated to spectacular displays on Friday. Over in Australia, they were greeted to eerie thick fog across Bondi Beach as the scene was set to showcase the huge rift to the upside down Team: Netflix took to Instagram to show off their gateways to the Upside Down scattered over the globe Netflix took to Instagram to show off their gateways to the Upside Down scattered over the globe. Hundreds of fans gathered at 14 sites around the world to celebrate the soon to be released season four of the incredibly popular Netflix show. The Upside Down took over New Yorks Empire State Building, Milans Duomo Square, Columbias Malecon Barranquilla and the Gateway of India in Mumbai as well as in London, Tokyo, Malaysia, Germany, Los Angeles, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Stockholm and Madrid. Worldwide: Netflix took to Instagram to show off their gateways to the upside down scattered over the globe from London to Sydney and New York to Mumbai. Pictured: Bondi Beach The sites were limited to only Friday morning, with the scientists in hazmat suits packing up and moving on at midday. Stars of the show will be in Australia next week to promote the highly anticipated season with an exclusive fan event at Luna Park. Gaten Matarazzo, Dustin, Sadie Sink, Max, and Priah Ferguson, Erica, will be in Sydney from 1st June. Caution: Hundreds of fans gathered at the 14 sites around the world to celebrate the soon to be released season four of the incredibly popular Netflix show Skyscrapers: The Upside Down took over New Yorks Empire State Building as well as Milans Duomo Square, Columbias Malecon Barranquilla and the Gateway of India in Mumbai Whilst on tour the talented cast shared their love for the fans, Sadie said: 'Its a really loving, amazing, widespread fanbase that continues to grow. 'Everyone on the show is so fortunate to have such a loyal fanbase. 'It makes us excited when were working to know that theres so many people who are looking forward to it.' Advertisement Kate Winslet nailed sophisticated chic as she led the arrivals at the L'Oreal Lights photocall on Friday during Cannes Film Festival, alongside Andie Macdowell, Gemma Chan and Helen Mirren. The actress, 46, who had only just arrived in the French town earlier in the day, donned a simple black jumpsuit with a plunging halter-neck design, layering a white blazer on top. Kate added black court heels to the ensemble, while stacking lengthy gold chains around her neck, adding some sparkle with a glimmering diamond. Glam girls! Kate Winslet nailed sophisticated chic in Alberta Ferretti as she led the arrivals at the L'Oreal Lights photocall on Friday during Cannes Film Festival , alongside Andie Macdowell, Gemma Chan and Helen Mirren The Titanic actress had her golden blonde locks in a tousled curl, as they fell over her head in a heavy side part. She donned a simple makeup look, showcasing her age-defying complexion - as gold earrings added a hint of bling to the ensemble. Kate seemed in high spirits for the event, smiling for a slew of photographs as she placed one hand on her hip. Extra details: She added black court heels to the ensemble, while stacking lengthy gold chains around her neck - adding some sparkle with a glimmering diamond Black and white: Kate donned a simple black jumpsuit with a plunging halter-neck design, layering a white blazer on top Following closely was 64-year-old Andie MacDowell, who stunned in a satin rainbow gown which ruched in the middle and came into a centre drawstring. The pink and yellow dress featured string tiers and a low cutting V-neckline neckline, coming into a slit in the middle of the hem. She added barely-there clear perspex heels for the evening, adding a gold bangle to accesorise. Golden girl: She had her blonde locks in a tousled curl, as they fell over her head in a heavy side part Splash of colour: Following closely was 64-year-old Andie MacDowell, who stunned in a satin rainbow gown which ruched in the middle and came into a centre drawstring The star had her dark locks in a voluminous blown out spiral curl, as they fell freely to her shoulders. She opted for a pink-toned makeup look with a bright pink lip to match her outfit, with a darker eye. Going from one extreme to another, British actress Gemma Chan went all black for the evening as she made a statement in her ensemble. That hair! The star had her dark locks in a voluminous blown out spiral curl, as they fell freely to her shoulders Gemma, 39, sported a black and white tweed crop top as she flashed her torso, with a bust panelling and softly sweetheart neckline. The Crazy Rich Asians actress paired this with black straight leg trousers, which had a dramatic satin puff bow at the waist. She added a pair of Louboutin suede high heels to elevate her height, sporting dainty silver earrings with the look. Sultry: She opted for a bold red lip and a smokey cat eyeliner, with her hair swept up in a tousled ponytail The beauty had her dark locks pulled away in a tousled ponytail, as some strands were left down to frame her face. She opted for a bold red lip and a smokey cat eyeliner to complete the statement yet stylish look. Helen Mirren certainly dazzled in her ensemble, as she rocked a jewel and sequin encrusted dress, with a long sleeve design and shoulder pads. Eye-catching: Helen Mirren certainly dazzled in her ensemble, as she rocked a jewel and sequin encrusted dress, with a long sleeve design and shoulder pads The number was covered head to toe in silver embellishing, coming up into a high neck on the 76-year-old. But while her dress was eye-catching, it was her footwear, or lack thereof, that caught the eye - as the actress decided to go barefoot for the appearance. Ditching the glitzy shoes that her counterparts were spotted in - Helen kept comfortable as she walked the red carpet without even a sock - after being spotted with black heels on earlier while attending the Mother And Son premiere earlier in the day. Too much dancing! Helen was spotted in a pair of black heels earlier in the day as she attended the Mother And Son premiere Her lengthy silver locks were styled in a sleek straight do', while the top of her hair was gathered in a half ponytail and swept away from her face. She sported a dramatic makeup look to match the ensemble, going for a drawn out black winged liner and a bright pink lipstick. To add one last spot of glitz, Helen donned diamond drop earrings, a silver watch and diamond nail polish. WASHINGTON (AP) - Sweden and Finland's push to join NATO won't require adding more U.S. ground forces into either country, the U.S. general nominated to take over European Command told senators Thursday. But Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli said military exercises and occasional American troop rotations will probably increase. Cavoli, who currently serves as head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said the increased military focus will probably continue to be on eastern Europe - where nations are more worried about potential Russian aggression and any spillover of the war on Ukraine. "The center of gravity of NATO forces has shifted eastward," Cavoli told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his nomination hearing. "Depending on the outcome of the conflict, we may have to continue that for some time." Cavoli was asked about the U.S. troop presence in Europe, which has grown from fewer than 80,000 to about 102,000 since the buildup to Russia's invasion. He said the increase had no ties to the more recent move by Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership. Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week in one of the most significant geopolitical consequences of Russia's war on Ukraine. Cavoli noted that the U.S already has strong military ties with both countries, and that additional exercises and other engagements are likely to grow. FILE - Gen. Christopher Cavoli, Commander of United States Army Europe and Africa, walks past a guard of honor as he arrives to attend the African Lion military exercise in Grier Labouihi complex, southern Morocco, June 9, 2021. Cavoli, the U.S. general nominated to take over European Command tells senators that Sweden and Finland's push to join NATO won't require putting more U.S. ground forces into either country. (AP Photo/Mosa'ab Elshamy, File) If confirmed, Cavoli will be key as the Pentagon assesses its military structure across Europe. Defense officials have noted that historic troop concentrations in Germany, Italy and Britain may well shift and spread out into other eastern nations, such as Poland and the Baltics. Eastern European countries have been clamoring for more U.S. weapons and troops, as a hedge against Russia. Cavoli said the U.S. also has to continue to strike a delicate balance and ensure its actions in Europe don't inflame relations with Russia and spark a broader conflict. "One must not shy away from activity to stay strong and outline our priorities," he said, but the U.S. also must be careful "not to overdue that and create a problem where there wasnt one." Cavoli's nomination to be the top U.S. commander in Europe includes the job of NATO Supreme Allied Commander, which gives him a critical role in the Russian war on Ukraine. Committee members voiced support for his nomination, which is expected to be easily confirmed by the Senate. Cavoli has extensive expertise on Russia. He served as a foreign area officer with a concentration on Eurasia, spent time in Russia, and speaks Russian, Italian and French. He was also the director for Russia on the Joint Staff. He would replace Gen. Tod Wolters, who currently heads European Command but is finishing his three-year tour there. Last month, Allu Arjun (aka Bunny) celebrated his 40th birthday in Serbia (Czech Republic). The photos of the event show him having a blast with his friends but his cousins and nephews, including Ram Charan, Varun Tej and Sai Dharam Tej, were conspicuous by their absence. The cousin sisters were present though. Of late we hear Charan praising Jr NTR and his acting skills but not a word about Allu Arjun, despite the pan India success of Pushpa. The message seems to be that Allu Arjun has moved out from the shadow of the mega clan presided over by Megastar Chiranjeevi. He is establishing himself as an actor in his own right in fact, he has already done that. The super success of Ala Vaikuntapuram Lo and Pushpa have brought him national fame, and he has now got his own following and fan-base. There definitely seems to be some discord between both families. And comparisons between Pushpa and the flop Acharya at the BO clearly state who is better posied at the moment. But Allu and Mega families have repeatedly rubbished these stories. But the fans seems to have taken a clear stand pro and anti. Recently, there was a mega fans get-together held in Andhra Pradesh. In the show, one of the ardent mega fans was seen saying, There is this Cheppanu brother guy (hinting at Allu Arjun) who is an opportunist. He used mega family support to rise to stardom. Once he gained the name and fame he sidelined the family. We mega fans should not support him; his next film should be his last one. Allu Arjun fans are not taking this barb lying low. They are vocal about their heroes super succes is whats sticking like a thorn in the mega family stars flesh. Things have reached to a stage where fans of both Ram Charan and Allu Arjun dont hesitate to troll each others heroes on social media. The cracks seemed to have widened between Allu and Mega families over establishing supremacy. As per latest meteorological indications, westerly winds have strengthened at lower levels over the south Arabian Sea and deepened. (PTI file image) VISAKHAPATNAM: Southwest monsoon is advancing towards Kerala, an IMD report from Amaravati said on Friday. The report pointed out that as per latest meteorological indications, westerly winds have strengthened at lower levels over the south Arabian Sea and deepened. The satellite imagery shows an increase in cloudiness over Kerala coast and adjoining southeast Arabian Sea. Hence, conditions are becoming favourable for onset of monsoon over Kerala within the next two to three days, the report said. Meanwhile, monsoon has further advanced into some more parts of south Arabian Sea, entire Maldives, adjoining areas of Lakshadweep and additional parts of Comorin area. Lower tropospheric westerly winds prevailed over AP and Yanam. As a result, thunderstorms are likely for three days from Saturday onwards in both these areas, the Met report added. KAKINADA: The family members of Dalit driver V. Subrahmanyam were provided Rs 4.12 lakh ex gratia out of the total Rs 8.25 lakh, and rice and essential commodities for three months. The Dalit youth was allegedly murdered by YSRC MLC Anantha Udaya Bhaskar. The compensation was made under the Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes Atrocities Prevention Act provisions. Anaparthi MLA Sathi Suryanarayana Reddy and Kakinada revenue divisional officer B.V. Ramana handed over the ex gratia and essentials. The mother of Subrahmanayam would get Rs 5,000 pension per month and house sites would be sanctioned for her and the deceaseds wife. They would be given Rs 1.8 lakh each for construction of the house. A government job would be provided to one of the family members. They asked Subrahmanyams family members to immediately inform the police if anyone was harassing them. SRINAGAR: Three gunmen believed to be the members of proscribed Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LeT) outfit and part of a fresh group of infiltrators were on Thursday gunned down by the security forces in an encounter in Jammu and Kashmirs frontier Kupwara district. The officials said that the fighting broke out in Kupwaras Jumagund area as the J&K police and the Army together had laid an ambush following specific input developed by the Kupwara police regarding an infiltration attempt by militants. The ambush was laid in Jumagund village close to the Line of Control (LoC) jointly by the J&K police and the Army. As the infiltrating terrorists were intercepted by the joint party, they were challenged but they responded by opening fire indiscriminately which was retaliated to leading to an encounter, a police spokesman said here. The spokesman said that all the three infiltrators were gunned down quickly, adding Based on the source report and as per the documents recovered from them, the killed terrorists were members of the LeT. The police said that three AK series rifles with 12 magazines, one pistol with two magazines and three mobile phones were found on the slain men. Inspector General of Police (Kashmir range), Vijay Kumar, said the identities of the slain men are being ascertained. A report said that a local resident Abdul Latief Mir working with the Army as a porter was injured during the encounter and later died in hospital. The clash comes a day after three Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militants identified by the police as Pakistani nationals Ali Bhai, Hanief Bhai and Shah Wali and J&K policeman Mudasir Ahmad Sheikh were killed in a similar clash in Najibhat village of neighbouring Baramulla district. The officials claimed that, so far, this year as many as 78 militants have been killed by security forces in fifty encounters across the Kashmir Valley. They said that among the slain were 26 foreigners -14 associated with the JeM and remaining 12 with the LeT. Police force deployed in Amalapuram to maintain law and order and check the spreading of violence of other parts of Konaseema district. (Photo by arrangement) AMALAPURAM: Nineteen persons, including a BJP and a YSRC leader, were arrested for Tuesdays violence in Konaseema district over its proposed renaming after Dr B.R. Ambedkar. The district continued to be tense but under control with heavy police deployment. It is learnt that the investigation teams have identified nearly 5,000 persons who participated in the agitation of whom 450 were taken into custody for questioning. Superintendent of police Subba Reddy, who sustained injuries in Tuesday's rioting, said that identifying those who had resorted to violence was a continuous process. As per a complaint given by Samalkot police station Home Guard Vasamsetty Subrahmanyam, the police registered cases against 19 persons under various sections including attempt to murder. BJP leader M.V. Subba Rao, YSRC leader Nalla Ajay and others were among the arrested persons. It is said that Ajay had resigned from the YSRC after the preliminary notification was issued to propose the Konaseema districts renaming after Ambedkar. Six senior police officers including Vishal Gunni and Siddardh Kousal and more than 900 personnel were deployed to keep the situation under control. Meanwhile Jana Sena leaders lashed out at the YSRC government. Party political affairs committee member Settibathula Rajababu told the media at Rajamahendravaram that party activists should not fall for the YSRCs cheap tricks. He claimed that the YSRC has drawn up a conspiracy to damage the Jana Sena as activists from other parties, in particular those from the Scheduled Castes community, were joining it. The YSRC was trying to divide the SC community, he said. Another PAC member, Pantham Venkateswara Rao (Nanaji), said that Jana Sena would not keep quiet if the YSRC booked false cases against its activists under the pretext of Konaseema violence. Party senior leader Pithani Balakrishna said that during the agitation at Tuni for Kapu reservations, some antisocials had entered the agitation and burnt a train and police stations. A similar situation had arisen at Konaseema, Hyderabad: Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao on Thursday said that the country would hear sensational news in the next two months or so, adding that the country would see changes that would put it on the path of concrete development. Rao was speaking in Bengaluru after meeting with former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda, and former Karnataka chief minister, after discussing with them the political situation in the country and the way forward. He said, I would only like to say that with Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy, we discussed everything regarding national politics, and Karnataka politics. Bharat badlega, badalna chahiye (India will change, it has to). I assure you there will be a change at the national level, he said. None can stop it. For far too long, India was mired in various isms, he said, and predicted that politics in the country would change. He did not elaborate on what the news would be but limited himself to saying: Ujwal Hindustan banega (a bright India will emerge). Efforts must be made. This much I will tell. Rao on a days visit to Bengaluru was greeted warmly by Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy at the former orime ministers residence. Rao, along with Kumaraswamy, spoke briefly with reporters after their luncheon meeting. Kumaraswamy also said that some sensational news was in the offing. He, too, did not elaborate. Rao said the question was not who would form the government. Many Prime Ministers came, many governments were formed but the situation in the country has not changed, he said. Taking a dig at the Azadi Ka Amruth Mahotsav being celebrated by the BJP-led Central government to mark the 75th anniversary of Independence, he hinted that it was hype without any real results or action. China which had a lower GDP than India is now a $16 trillion economy, and India is talking about a dream of becoming a $5 trillion economy. This is an insult to India which can be a greater economy than the United States of America. India has the human capital, and youth power, good tropical weather, with rivers whose waters have not been used to their potential, Rao said. Countries that achieved Independence around the same time that India did have progressed further than India. None is happy, be it farmers, Dalits, tribals and others. Conditions in the country are deteriorating each day. Promises are made but not kept, Rao said. Paramilitary troopers stand guard in front of closed shops during the second day of spontaneous strike in parts of Srinagar on May 26, 2022, a day after the sentencing of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik. (TAUSEEF MUSTAFA / AFP) The life term sentencing of separatist and terrorist Yasin Malik by a National Investigation Agency court under Section 17 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, after he pleaded guilty to all the charges, was very deserving. The NIA court of special judge Parveen Singh was fair and just to both the spirit and word of the law in sentencing the chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front to two life terms for terror funding; it also gave five sentences of 10 years imprisonment, besides levying several monetary fines, including one of Rs 10 lakh, for other offences under the UAPA and the Indian Penal Code. Justice Singh was also wise and humane in not, despite strong arguments otherwise from the prosecution, giving the rarest of the rare death penalty, and allowing for the imprisonment terms to run concurrently. Indias rule of law received another pat on the back for having ensured a fair trial and adequate representation for defence to the accused, and now guilty, Malik. The court, also wisely, did not give much credence to the post-crimes transformation claims of the terrorist, who argued that he had subsequently taken the path of non-violence, and had been politically legitimised by several Prime Ministers, by recognising his crimes to be very serious and aimed at striking a blow at the heart of the very idea of India, and separating Kashmir from India. On his party, Malik pleaded guilty to all charges including sedition and criminal conspiracy. The sentencing of Malik, after the death of several separatist leaders over the last several years, effectively ends the era of militant politics, wherein the separatist terrorist funded from across the borders were the only ones who had an effective voice in the politics of the troubled Valley, or would be allowed to play a role. Even though the Gupkar Alliance, including the two major parties National Conference led by the Abduallahs, and the Ms Mehbooba Mufti-led Peoples Democratic Party, have called the sentencing unfortunate and a setback to the process of restoring peace and normalcy, they should not be mistaken to be of the same makeup. Indians need to re-invest in the hope, freedom and democracy of Kashmir, including a quick restoration of a popular government backed by the mandate of the people, and not prolong the writ of a nominated executive government. The sentencing, coming not too long after the delimitation exercise was concluded, gives hope that elections are around the corner. Such hope must not be belied, and it is most likely, the Centre will soon push for elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmir is willing to move beyond the Maliks of the Valley, their guns and their separatist politics, but the rest of India must move fast to embrace them more than halfway. We must make the likes of Malik irrelevant, but for that to happen fully, we must focus on the democratic leaders of the PDP and NC, and everyone else who trusts the ballot over the bullet and are willing to swear by the supremacy of the Indian Constitution. After all, in Kashmir, or elsewhere, with all our disagreements in place, there is much else to agree upon; and once agreed, do the rest of the disagreements matter significantly? Australian scholars call for improvement of China-Australia relationship Xinhua) 11:35, May 27, 2022 CANBERRA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Fifteen scholars from Australian universities called for improvement of China-Australia relationship in an open letter released on Thursday. The open letter, to the new federal government elected last Saturday, was published on the blog platform Pearls and Irritations. The scholars included former diplomat and visiting professor in the University of Sydney Jocelyn Chey, Australian National University (ANU) professor and economist Jane Golley, Director of the China Studies Center at the University of Sydney David Goodman, Director of the Australia-China Relations Institute in the University of Technology Sydney James Laurenceson, and Ben Hillman, director of the Australian Center on China in the World in the ANU. Addressing to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong, the letter said, "The change in government presents the opportunity for a circuit breaker in the poor diplomatic relations that have developed between Australia and China in the recent past." "As professors of China Studies who undertake research on various aspects of China's society and politics, we acknowledge that the new government is likely to avoid the over-aggressive approach of its predecessor. In our view less public aggression is likely to be more effective in dealing with China: international engagement should replace the language of war," it said. The scholars said the growth of China, as a significant regional and would-be global power, is bound to be disruptive, and two-way communication, rather than "megaphone diplomacy", is needed so that the changing environment is managed as effectively as possible. "A China policy informed as much by diplomatic and economic interests as by great power strategic concerns may well and more sustainably ensure Australia's national and economic security," they said. "While appreciating the tremendous difficulties ahead we urge this adjustment in approach to China." (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) We Are Sorry 404 Unfortunately, the page you were looking for could not be found. It may be temporarily unavailable, moved or no longer exists About 200 teaching, non-teaching staff and students at Bangalore University (BU) protested at the Jnanabharati campus condemning the transfer of funds to build the mechanical block at the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE). Protesters barged into the finance officers room and locked the doors. They (BU) were ready to consolidate funds from other heads to transfer to UVCE. They (protesters) didnt want the varsity to disturb this amount as it has been kept for the development of the university and for students welfare. Utilising the funds is a clear misuse of power, said Sudhakar, BU syndicate member. Police complaint filed Varsitys in-charge finance officer, Jayalakshmi, filed a police complaint against some students alleging they verbally abused her. Representatives of the Bangalore University Teachers Council (BUTC) submitted a letter to the vice-chancellor asking him to stop the transfer of funds to UVCE. UVCE has been declared as autonomous institution, then why should Bangalore University lend funds? Transfer of funds will create a fund crunch for pension and other schemes of the university employees, stated BUTC in the letter. Syndicate members alleged that authorities were trying to consolidate funds kept in 28 different accounts in the State Bank of India without getting approval from the Syndicate and Finance Committee. Singapore's Court of Appeal on Friday acquitted two Indian-origin men who were convicted of drug trafficking last year, and one of whom was facing death penalty. The three-judge court, led by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, allowed the appeal of Indian-origin Singaporean Raj Kumar Aiyachami, 40, against his conviction and mandatory death sentence for drug trafficking. The court also allowed the appeal of Indian-origin Malaysian Ramadass Punnusamy, 41, against his sentence of life imprisonment and 15 strokes of the cane. The appeals of both men turned solely on whether each of them knew about the nature of the drugs, The Straits Times reported on Friday. The pair had been charged over a bag of drugs containing not less than 1.875 kg of cannabis. Central Narcotics Bureau officers had observed Ramadass delivering the bag to Raj on September 21, 2015. Raj, who was represented by Ramesh Tiwary, did not dispute the drugs were in his possession but contended that there had been a mistaken delivery. He said he had ordered tobacco laced with a synthetic chemical that mimicked the narcotic effects of cannabis, known as Butterfly, and had gone to pick it up but received a bag of cannabis instead. Ramadass, a Malaysian, did not dispute he had delivered the bag to Raj but contended that he did not know the nature of the drugs. He said he had been told that four bags of chemically sprayed tobacco had been placed in the lorry he was driving. Ramadass, who was represented by Eugene Thuraisingam, contested three statements he had given that appeared to suggest he had knowledge of the nature of the drugs. The pair were convicted by the High Court in June 2020. The trial judge did not believe Raj's account of how he had ordered Butterfly on credit, finding it too incredible. The trial judge also rejected Ramadass' evidence and said that he had ample opportunity to tailor his evidence to fit Raj's defence. Ramadass, who the trial judge found was a courier, was issued a certificate of substantive assistance and was sentenced to life imprisonment and the mandatory minimum of 15 strokes of the cane. On Friday, the Court of Appeal allowed their appeals and overturned their conviction, as reported by the Singapore broadsheet. The court said Raj had succeeded in establishing his defence of mistaken delivery, which was supported by the evidence of other witnesses. The court also concluded that the contested statements could not be relied upon to show that Ramadass had actual knowledge of the drugs. Denmarks ambassador to India H E Freddy Svane said on Wednesday that Denmark has made strides in developing new technology and is more than happy to transfer its gains to India. Speaking at a discussion on framing an outline for a sustainable partnership between Denmark and India, organised by Synergia Foundation, a Bengaluru-based strategic think tank, Svane said India needs new technology and the Indians are good at harnessing the latest technology, and making it both resilient and affordable. Svane said that Denmark is a world leader in renewable energy and a laboratory for green solutions. He said, The country has one of the most ambitious, legally binding climate targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70 per cent by 2030. India and Denmarks bilateral trade in products and services has increased by 78%. Since both countries are largely agrarian economies, Svane felt the Indian government must frame policies that directly benefit the farmers, thus weeding out middlemen. He recalled that the association between the two countries went back a long way. The Royal Navy of Denmark came to India on November 19, 1620. The objective of this visit was to trade and they established a trading post in Silampur in West Bengal. An early contact for the Danes was the Danish Nobel Laureate Niels Henrik David Bohr who interacted closely with Homi J Bhabha, Indias top scientist in the field of atomic energy and cosmic ray, Svane said. He also reaffirmed his commitment to building relations between India and Denmark on a large scale, widening the scope, increasing the speed and making the partnership more sustainable. He emphasised the importance of the private sector to realise the potential of such agreements. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat has become the "gateway of drugs" to the country under his watch, the Congress alleged Friday, questioning the "silence" of the PM and Home Minister Amit Shah and demanding answers from agencies tasked to control narcotics smuggling. Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera told reporters there has been a series of recoveries of drug consignments starting from July 2017 right up to this week from several ports including Mundra and Pupavav in the state. Just on Thursday, 52 kilograms of cocaine, worth Rs 500 crore, was recovered from Mundra Port that had come from Iran, he alleged. Also Read | DRI makes cocaine bust worth Rs 500 crore at Mundra port When under "pressure from the Congress Party", the Mundra port had announced they will not handle cargos from Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, then how the latest consignment of cocaine was recovered from there, he asked. "The Congress Party has questioned the government over the last eight months on why all these recoveries are taking place in Gujarat alone? Why is Gujarat becoming the gateway of drugs to India," he asked. Khera said the Congress had to question the government on the post of Narcotics Control Bureau head lying vacant for 18 months, before the appointment was made under "pressure" from the opposition party. He alleged Gujarat has become a "gateway of drugs" to the country under the watch of PM Modi and Home Minister Shah. "You have the prime minister from Gujarat. You have the home minister from Gujarat. Why are they silent?" "This is a prime minister who talks more and does less. On this particular issue, (he has said) not a word. Why this silence?" The Congress leader said drugs cannot be traded just at a retail level and this trade is always a part of larger global syndicates which enjoy active political patronage in whichever country they operate. "We demand answers from the government on what is your blueprint? What is your roadmap to burst this syndicate and who is the El Chapo or Pablo Escobar of this drug syndicate in this country? "These are important critical questions because as I said, we are dealing with the future of our next generation, they are destroying it. We owe it to them, if not to ourselves to give them a drug-free future," he said. Under this government, Khera alleged, the NCB, Enforcement Directorate, CBI and other agencies have been reduced to dealing with "retail politics" and are being "misused" by the ruling dispensation against political opponents. Instead of "forcing" these agencies to deal in "retail politics", the government should allow them to focus more on recovering the wholesale drug consignments that are coming, he said. He said Congress MP Digvijaya Singh had questioned the government in parliament on these recoveries and Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai had informed on October 6, 2021, that the NIA has been handed over these cases. "What are the findings of the NIA?" Khera asked, saying it was a critical question and not just because the opposition is asking it. "We owe it our future generations." He also referred to a major smuggling of drugs that allegedly happened in June, 2021 and "did not get caught". He said it involved consignments of 25 tonnes and costing around Rs 1,75,000 crore. Inaugurating a festival of drones in the Capital, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the drone sector shows great possibilities for employment generation. At the Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022, Modi said that drone technology has great potential in the fields of defence, disaster management, agriculture, tourism, film and entertainment. The enthusiasm we see in India about drones is promising; it is an indication that the drone industry has grown by leaps and bounds. There is potential for an emerging large sector of employment generation in India, PM Modi said. Drones are smart tools that will soon become part of everyday life of common Indians, whether it is on an agricultural field, or a playground, or in the media or film industry. Drone technology will revolutionise the services sector as well, he added. The function was attended by several union ministers as well as ministers of state including, union ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Giriraj Singh, Jyotiraditya Scindia, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Mansukh Mandaviya, Bhupendra Yadav, among others. PM Modi also distributed 150 drone pilot certificates. Modi said that his government is committed to helping growth in the sector. Our government has removed most of the restrictions that existed on drones in a short period of time. We are also moving towards creating a strong drone manufacturing ecosystem in India through schemes like PLI, Modi said. There was an environment of "indifference" towards the use of technology in governance before 2014 due to which the poor and the middle class suffered the most, he said. During the earlier governments, technology was considered a part of the problem and efforts were made to label it "anti-poor", the prime minister added. "Promotion of drone technology is another medium of advancing our commitment to good governance and ease of living. In the form of drones, we have a smart tool that is going to be part and parcel of people's lives,'' Modi said. There was a time when people used to spend hours standing in line for rations. In the last seven to eight years, we have removed this hurdle with the help of technology, he said. Claiming that earlier technological inventions were considered to be for the elite only, the prime minister said, "Today, we are ensuring that the masses are the first beneficiaries of any new technology. Drone technology is one such example." Technology has helped a lot in ensuring the last-mile delivery of services, he said. One of the schemes where drones will play a pivotal role is the Swamitva Yojana, through which the government aims to digitally map lands using drones, in order to ensure land title deeds are offered to rightful property holders. Under this scheme, for the first time, digital mapping of every property in the villages of the country is being done, digital property cards are being given to the people, Modi said. He said that till now, 65 lakh property cards have been issued under the scheme. Aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that drone demands could reach as much as one lakh drone pilots in the coming years, and that the government will help boost demand. Earlier this month, the government released two drone-related schemes, Drone Shakti and Kisan Drone, which were released by Scindia. Addressing the event, Scindia said nothing is greater than an idea whose time has come and drone is one such idea. India used to be a follower in the technology sector but now it has become a leader, Scindia said, adding technology will become successful only when it comes to the benefit of the less privileged and the poor. He talked about how drones are used for land mapping in villages under the Centre's Swamitva Scheme which was launched by the prime minister in April 2021. "A drone of just two to three kg will help in the government's plan to push 'gram swaraj' (self-reliant village) in India," Scindia said, adding the government has banned the import of drones in February to give domestic manufacturers a push. Scindia talked about steps the government has taken in the last two years to boost the manufacturing and use of drones in the country. Currently, 12 Central government departments and 14 states are using drones, he said. With PTI inputs Accused of hate speeches and calling Prime Minister Narendra Modi the worst PM, Kerala politician P C George, has now turned a hero for the Bharatiya Janata Party after the leader's fiery speeches targeting the Muslim community. The former MLA had, less than two years ago, targeted PM Modi by calling him one of the worst prime ministers of India. As police arrested George in connection with hate speeches in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, the BJP and other Sangh Parivar outfits offered receptions to him and party leaders, including union minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan, even turned up to greet him in police custody. George was remanded to judicial custody by a court in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday, while a bail plea filed at the Kerala High Court would be considered only on Friday. A former leader of the regional party Kerala Congress and an MLA in Kerala for 30 years, George had joined the BJP-led NDA in Kerala in 2019 after floating his own party Janapaksham. But his association with the NDA lasted only a few months. It was while announcing his decision to quit the NDA in December 2019 that George, who is known for his loose tongue, commented that Narendra Modi was a bad prime minister. He also alleged that Modi was looting the Reserve Bank of India. BJP sources pointed out that the same George had earlier praised Modi. In 2013, while being part of the Congress-led United Democratic Front he even inaugurated a Run for Unity campaign by displaying a t-shirt with Modis picture. The BJP seems to be backing George with the intention of getting close to Kerala's Christian vote banks, especially since the Assembly bypoll at Thrikkakkara is on May 31. The BJP has been backing Christian bishops in Kerala who had raised matters of love jihad and narcotic jihad. Countering the BJPs move, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said at a bypoll campaign meeting on Thursday that the BJP was supporting George with the intention of making the Christian community in Kerala feel that the party was protecting them. But the attack on the Christian community in other parts of the country exposes the real attitude of BJP and other Sangh Parivar outfits, he said. George, who hails from Poonjar in Kottayam district, is a seven-time MLA from Poonjar, mostly representing the regional Kerala Congress. In 2016, he contested as an independent MLA and even won but lost in the 2021 Assembly election. His present moves are being looked at as a desperate attempt to grab attention. Reacting to the ongoing Hijab row that rocked Mangalore University on May 26, former minister K S Eshwarappa stated that if they (Muslim students) want to stay in India, they must follow the Karnataka High Court judgement on Hijab row and respect the decision of the government and the Indian Constitution. Also Read Students in Mangaluru protest against wearing hijab in classrooms Speaking to media on Friday, he said, the government is making attempts to convince Muslim students who are attending classes wearing Hijab that they need to obey the law of land and bring those (encouraging students to violate rules) to justice. He also suggested that Muslims need to change their mindset if they want to stay in India. Muslim community leaders must guide the younger generation in this regard. They have to question themselves whether they can adapt to Indian culture or not, he added. Shivamogga MP B Y Raghavendra said it is the duty of all Indians to follow the HC verdict on any issue. So, Muslim students must also follow the same without fail. On allegations that farmer leader Kodihalli Chandrashekhar in the past had taken a bribe to be a part of KSRTC workers' agitation against the government demanding recognition of government employees, Raghavendra said the farmer leader must speak out about it. Karnataka Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Friday suggested that the founding fathers of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) were not native Indians in an attempt to discredit the BJPs ideological parent amid a brewing controversy over lessons in school textbooks. Siddaramaiahs suggestion that the RSS belongs to the Aryan race rattled BJP leaders who lined up to attack the Congress leader. This RSS...are they native Indians? Weve been quiet because we didnt want to rake up a few things. Are Aryans from this country? Are (RSS) Dravidians? We must go to the roots, Siddaramaiah said during a party event to observe former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehrus death anniversary. Who is responsible for a 600-year Mughal rule? If you were united, how could they come and who gave them space? Who is responsible for the 200-year British rule, Siddaramaiah asked. The Congress leader said this in the backdrop of the BJP governments move to revise school textbooks. One person named Rohith Chakratirtha has been given the responsibility of deciding what kids should study in textbooks. Where are we headed? Bhagat Singhs lesson has been replaced with (RSS founder) KB Hedgewars speech...do you need a bigger patriot than Bhagat Singh, Siddaramaiah asked. He accused the BJP of trying to distort history. After the BJP came to power, it has become difficult to know what the right history is, he said. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge also slammed the BJP over the textbooks controversy. They want children to study Hedgewars 1921 speech. What is Hedgewars contribution? Theyre trying to remove Bhagat Singh, Nehru and Gandhi one by one by including divisive ideology in textbooks. We must fight this, Kharge said. BJP national general secretary CT Ravi shot back at Siddaramaiah and questioned his idea of Indian nativity. Time and again, Siddaramaiah and some others get possessed by Macaulay's ghost, Ravi said. Werent Gandhi and Nehru Indians? Who are Indians, if not Gandhi, Nehru, Tilak and Bhagat Singh? UK nursing and midwifery leaders gathered in Derry this week to visit health and social care services across the North of Ireland. The senior figures were from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the independent regulator of 758,303 nursing and midwifery professionals, including 26,854 in Northern Ireland. They were in Derry for a meeting of the Council last Thursday. The Council is the NMCs governing body, which takes key decisions and sets the regulators strategic direction. Beforehand, Sir David Warren, Chair of the Council, and Andrea Sutcliffe, NMC Chief Executive and Registrar, took the opportunity to visit services and education centres in the North. These included Ardlough Care Home, HM Prison Magilligan, Causeway Hospital, Alnagelvin Hospital Education Centre, the Western Trust, and Ulster University. Martina Mullan, Manager at Ardlough Care Home in Derry said: Were delighted the NMC decided to come to Ardlough Care Home. Were a small home and the nurses were delighted with the opportunity to meet the people at the NMC that they wouldnt normally meet. Weve had a rough time through Covid its been all about the residents and keeping everyone as safe as possible. This is something the nurses were able to talk to the NMC delegates about the challenges they met. Sir David Warren was impressed with what he saw at Ardlough and other institutions visited across the North. He said: I was struck by the extraordinarily high morale at Ardlough Care Home and among the Healthcare in Prison team, which is humbling when you think of the tremendous pressures that everybody has been under during the pandemic. Its wonderful to be in Northern Ireland, on our first trip as a Council outside London since before the pandemic. We had a fascinating day learning about health and social care in the community and seeing first-hand the dedication, commitment and tremendous skills of professionals in every walk of life. NMC Chief Executive, Andrea Sutcliffe added: Its been great to hold our latest Council meeting in Northern Ireland, where weve had some important discussions and decisions on the agenda, focusing on standards for community and public health nursing and requirements for education programmes. Its also been fantastic to meet so many dedicated professionals during our visits to health and social care services. Hearing about their experiences through the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the commitment nurses and midwives have for delivering safe, effective and kind care for people here in Northern Ireland. Subscriber content preview Renderings by Hutteball + Oremus Architecture [enlarge] An early rendering for the project. Highline Public Schools is proposing to demolish Pacific Middle School, at 22705 24th Ave. S., and replace it with a new 132,800 square foot building. . . . Subscriber content preview SEATTLE Seattle-based public broadcaster KEXP announced it will be broadcasting a week of live performances and radio programming from Buenos Aires in September. KEXP Live from Argentina will take place on-air and online Sept. 19-23. . . . Please allow ads as they help fund our trusted local news content. Kindly add us to your ad blocker whitelist. If you want further access to Ireland's best local journalism, consider contributing and/or subscribing to our free daily Newsletter . Support our mission and join our community now. New figures released today by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) show that the number of arrivals to Louth of people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, based on Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSN) allocations as of 22 May 2022, is 943. It is the first publication by the CSO providing insights into Irelands response to the Ukrainian crisis. The CSO says that there were 33,151 arrivals from Ukraine in Ireland by the week ending 22 May 2022, of which 29% were aged 14 or under. Of the arrivals to Louth, 209 are in the Dundalk-Carlingford Local Electoral Area (LEA); 320 in Dundalk South; 72 in the Ardee LEA, six in Drogheda Rural LEA and 336 in Drogheda Urban. The CSO's analysis also shows that the rate per 100 of the population ranges across all LEAs in the country from 0.03% to 6.81%. The LEA with the highest rate is Ennistimon in Clare while the LEA of Drogheda Rural in Louth had the lowest rate in the country. The Temporary Protection Directive (2001/55 EC) was activated on the 04 March 2022 by EU Council Decision EU 2022/382, to provide immediate protection in EU countries for people displaced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine that began on the 24 February 2022. Today's CSO publication examines and analyses the population cohort that availed of the temporary protection and received a PPSN. Therefore, the figures quoted should be interpreted as estimates of the numbers arriving from Ukraine. For example, the number of persons who have arrived from Ukraine may not have received a PPSN yet, while the figures may also include those who received a PPSN earlier in the crisis but who are no longer resident in the State. To avail of the Temporary Protection Directive and to reside in Ireland, an Arrival from Ukraine must meet the following criteria: a) A Ukrainian national who was residing in Ukraine before 24 February 2022; b) A national of a third country (other than Ukraine) or stateless person who would have benefited from international protection (for example: Refugee Status) or an equivalent national protection status in Ukraine and were residing there before 24 February 2022; c) A family member* of persons covered by a) and b) above, where the family already existed in Ukraine at the time of events leading to the mass influx prior to 24 February 2022 *Family members include a spouse or partner, unmarried minor children of either of them, and their other close dependent family relatives who have been living with them as part of the family unit. Temporary protection also applies to people who were residing in Ukraine before 24 February 2022 with a permanent Ukrainian residence permit, who cannot safely return to their country of origin. A final call is being made to GAA followers in Louth to have their stories published in the second edition of a grassroots book on the organisation. Last years publication of Grassroots: Stories From The Heart Of The GAA, proved such a success that the GAA and Ballpoint Press are collaborating in a new volume GAA Grassroots, The Second-Half with a planned release this autumn. Im issuing a last call to make sure that if someone has a story to tell, they have the chance to do so, said editor and author, PJ Cunningham. I need them to get in touch by the end of June so that their submissions can be considered for the forthcoming publication. We already have over 100 stories for the second volume but it is important that we trawl again this year as we want to include the most comprehensive treasure trove of Gaelic-related stories ever compiled in the 138-year history of the association, he added. He emphasised that the stories being sought out stand a greater chance of publication if they contain twists and turns rather than historical accounts about clubs or famous ancestors who won medals. It is not a collection of how clubs were founded or run but about the people in them; its more about what they got up to either on or off the pitch, he explained. GAA President, Larry McCarthy, who launched the first volume, said he was delighted a second book is being published, containing stories from the heartlands of the organisation as well as from the Irish diaspora. The GAAs Communications Director, Alan Milton, said the two Grassroots books would complement the work undertaken by the GAA's Oral History Project - commissioned in 2009 as part of the Association's 125th celebrations. Having stories maintained in permanent form is important to the Association and this undertaking fills that role for us, he said. Stories can be submitted on any subject and from any era from the time of British rule, through to the Civil War, The Emergency or indeed the era of The Ban and vigilante committees set up to uncover GAA members attending or playing 'foreign games'. GAA stories always have intrigue, cunning, wit and every member has a unique story to tell about what happened somewhere along the line. Thats why Id love to get a new crop in for Volume 2, Cunningham stressed. If someone out there has a story but would prefer to relate it to me rather than write it themselves, I can write it up for them. If you have a story, write to: pj@gaastories.ie or communications@gaa.ie marked GAA Stories or phone PJ directly on 086-8217631. Staff and retailers at Marshes Shopping Centre are getting ready for a fundraising static cycle in aid of its charity partner Pieta which will take place at the centre on Saturday 11 June from noon until 4pm. Participants will cycle for 20 minutes each on static bicycles on the Marshes Mall to raise funds for the charity, which helps those in suicidal distress and people engaged in self-harm. Miles for Marshes will hopefully see plenty of sweat as at least 20 centre staff and retailers push themselves physically for Pieta, which first opened its doors in 2006. Since then it has seen and helped over 60,000 people in distress and operates 20 locations across Ireland. Pieta employs over 200 therapists and support staff, and the demand for its services is increasing. This event will be a great occasion and Marshes is proud to help contribute to the critical work of our charity partner Pieta, said centre manager Sean Farrell. I would encourage everybody who can to come along, enjoy the spectacle, and if possible, make a contribution to the wonderful work of Pieta on the day. The award-winning Marshes, which opened in 2005, is continually hailed as one of the most modern, high quality shopping environments in Ireland. It has transformed the commercial heart of Dundalk and directly employs over 900 people. The long wait for a home for Gaelcholaiste Dhun Dealgan is over, with the news that An Foras Patrunachta has successfully acquired the lease on Robin House, at the Ramparts in Dundalk, for use as a new school. The long-awaited Gaelcholaiste Dhun Dealgan will be an Irish-Medium, co-educational, multi-denominational, multi-cultural, secondary school, and is opening its doors for First Year students in Dundalk in September 2023. The Department of Education has sanctioned the opening of a satellite Gaelcholaiste in Dundalk, and the school will benefit from all the expertise and resources of the parent school, Colaiste Ghlor na Mara in Balbriggan. Caoimhe Hearun has been appointed Deputy Principal of Gaelcholaiste Dhun Dealgan and she is busy working with Colaiste Ghlor na Mara, parents, and the wider community of Dundalk to best prepare for this new exciting Gaelcholaiste. Speaking in advance of the school opening, Priomhoide Tanaisteach Caoimhe said: Were so excited to open. We are meeting 4th and 5th class pupils in the surrounding area to let them know about this great new school. Renovation work on our building is underway to kit it out with the latest resources and facilities. We will have a state of the art school with the highest standards of education and many extra curricular options for our students. Being joined with a large Gaelcholaiste enables us to provide the widest range of subject choices, sports, excellent teachers and so much more. We look forward to meeting future parents and students of Gaelcholaiste Dhun Dealgan shortly. The new Gaelcholaiste will be under the patronage of An Foras Patrunachta, the largest patron of Irish-medium schools and patron to parent school Colaiste Ghlor na Mara. The Balbriggan secondary school opened in 2014 with 27 students and has gone from strength to strength, reaching 434 students this year. General Secretary of An Foras Patrunachta, Caoimhin O hEaghra is confident that Gaelcholaiste Dhun Dealgan will blossom just as Colaiste Ghlor na Mara has; An Foras Patrunachta are delighted that the Dundalk community will now have a second-level Irish-medium option for their children. With our help and with the expertise of Maedhbh Daltun, Principal of Colaiste Ghlor na Mara, and her staff, Gaelcholaiste Dhun Dealgan will undoubtedly be a fantastic school to all who wish to receive a multi-denominational, Irish-medium education. There will be various open days and information evenings in September 2022 for students, parents and guardians. Gaelcholaiste Dhun Dealgan is open to all children from Co. Louth and neighbouring counties who want to learn through the medium of Irish. Many activities are planned including Easter and Summer camps to support the development of Irish language skills and the transition of students from primary to secondary school. Caoimhe is visiting 4th and 5th class students in the surrounding schools with further information. For further information contact eolas@gcdd.ie or check out their social media pages. This evening local Fine Gael Senator John McGahon has been acquitted by a jury of seriously assaulting a man outside a local bar and nightclub almost four years ago. In a statement released after the verdict, Senator McGahon said: Im extremely relieved and delighted to have been found not guilty. I maintained my innocence throughout this process, and this has been proven. I thank the jury for reaching this verdict having heard all evidence since Tuesday. I would like to thank them for their careful attention throughout. I also want to thank my legal team of Hugh Hartnett SC, James McCullough BL with Conor MacGuill solicitors. Since 2014, I have worked tirelessly on behalf of the people of Dundalk and Louth. There are a lot of issues which affect my constituents and that is my sole focus. A Fine Gael statement said: "Senator McGahon has always maintained his innocence and a jury has found him not guilty. This matter has now concluded. Senator John McGahon, as always, will continue his work as a public representative for the people of Louth. Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) were delighted to recently welcome their friends and collaborators from the Curso de Musica Silva Monteiro, Portugal. This group of music teachers were visiting the Institute to participate and undertake professional development with teaching staff in DkIT. Whilst working with lecturers in the Institute this group also received a workshop from Dr Daithi Kearney on Irish traditional music. DkIT has previously collaborated with this group from Porto on our Erasmus+ funded projects and this Portuguese musical group is also currently involved with the Institute on the Music and Mindfulness for Children project. This venture has been extremely successful to date and has created opportunities for staff and students at DkIT to join forces on international projects aimed at inspiring and supporting teachers to work with arts & mindfulness in their educational practice. During this project the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music has worked with the Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Early Years on the Erasmus + Strategic Partnership 'AMiE' - an acronym that stands for Arts & Mindfulness in Education. The project aims to help to meet the need for preventive measures aimed at children to support their mental health. The aim of the initiative is to provide European teachers with inspirational and supportive tools regarding the introduction of mindfulness in pre-primary and primary education. During their recent visit the team of music teachers from Curso de Musica Silva Monteiro kindly performed at the Institutes concert celebrating DkITs 50th Anniversary which was held in the Droichead Arts Centre. EBRD President to pay her first in-person visit to North Macedonia on 31 May Meetings with government and private sector President Renaud-Basso will speak about green transition at Skopje conference The EBRD President, Odile Renaud-Basso, is to visit North Macedonia on 31 May. She will meet the Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, government, and private sector banks and investors. President Renaud-Basso will participate in the Skopje Economic and Finance Forum and give an address on sustainable growth and low-carbon transition. She will also sign a new loan agreement with Stopanska Banka under a new EBRD programme called Sustainable Reboot SME a 4 million credit line to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). North Macedonia, where the EBRD is a top investor, is an important investment destination for us, as is the whole Western Balkans region, explained Odile Renaud-Basso. I look forward to discussing our upcoming projects with the authorities, including further transport improvements and private sector development. The EBRD stands by North Macedonia in its efforts to improve its energy security and decarbonise its economy, two challenges which are even more topical in the current geopolitical and economic context. The EBRD Presidents visit comes a month after the Banks Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, Mark Bowman, also travelled to Skopje. Some of the investment projects in the country being considered are: constructing a section in North Macedonia of the gas interconnector to Greece and a section of the 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 SMEs. EBRD loans will be supplemented by grants from the EU, the United Nations, Switzerland, Sweden, the USA, Norway, Luxembourg, and other donors. Energy efficiency is only one area where the EBRD and donors work to help North Macedonias low-carbon transition. The Bank has already 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 energy-secure. 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. Upcoming investment projects in North Macedonia are available to view here. The EBRD is a major institutional investor in North Macedonia. To date, it has invested more than 2.2 billion in 161 projects across the country. WHEN Derek Landy walked in the back door of Waterstones earlier this month, an hour before the official 2pm starting time for his book-signing, the shop was absolutely packed and a warm round of applause erupted when he was recognised. Eight hours later, Waterstones bookseller John Breen would reckon that during the signing more than 300 people lined up to meet the writer, with many waiting over six hours for a chat, and the author was warm and engaging with every reader he met. Oh, I slept for pretty much the entire car ride back to Dublin, and my voice was close to giving out, the author laughs over the phone. As exhausting as he finds book-signings, the fantasy writer says they give him an incredible lift. I mean, you cant do an eight-hour signing and not just be hugely grateful for that amount of support from readers and their very patient family members who take some of the readers along. He recalls a signing in Drogheda two years ago which he says encapsulated the broad range of his readership. This big biker guy in his forties, with the jacket and the tattoos and the beard, just standing there and talking about how much he loved the characters and the story, and then I signed his stuff and he headed off, and right behind him is the smallest little eight-year-old girl. Landy says he loves seeing people from eight to 80 mingling together, bonding over a love of imagination and kindness, and he says it blows him away that they will stand for hours on end for a few minutes of chat. Its that wild disparity of ages, and absolutely nobody cares, there is no-one feeling self-conscious, or embarrassed or intimidated. Its a wonderful thing. What is incredible, especially about the Cork signing, is that we reach hour four and Im starting to apologise, in between all of the chat, Im saying Thank you for waiting so long, thank you for being so patient. But, again and again, every time I said that, from the people there with the books to the parents or the guardians or the friends, they all laughed and said, Oh dont worry, weve made great friends in line. Every once in a while, the Dublin native says, hell meet couples who met in one of his signing queues, and sometimes theyll come with babies. They go, We met because of you, and now were married and we have this kid, and for some reason they never call the child Derek. Even though technically I am responsible for the kids existence, but nope, its never Derek. Or Skulduggery, for that matter, although he says he would be delighted if his books resulted in a generation of girls named after his protagonist, Valkyrie Cain. It is 15 years since the first Skulduggery Pleasant novel was written, when publisher Harper Collins offered Landy a 1 million advance. Since then, Landys books, which are an insanely readable blend of horror, comedy, fantasy and detective genres, have sold in the millions and have now been translated into 36 languages. Not bad going for a self-confessed dreamer who failed the Leaving Cert and the first year of college and who then spent a decade picking vegetables on the family farm. For fans of Skulduggery Pleasant, especially those who have read the fifteenth, and allegedly final, book, Until The End (2022), there is only one pressing question: will there more books? There will be more stories, Landy replies carefully. The lovely thing about writing such a long-running series is that, every once in a while, Im given the opportunity to write a short story for use in a foreign translation edition, or a special edition. "Every so often I have to write short stories set in his world. So, there will definitely be more stories, that I can say without hesitation. Anything else? I cant actually say right now. And what are the chances of seeing Skulduggery Pleasant in other media? There was a planned Warner Bros adaptation a few years ago, but its script, which reputedly included a musical number featuring Michael Jacksons Man In The Mirror, was memorably described by Landy as the single worst thing he had ever read. We were with Warners, then we were with Sony, than we were with a few other slightly more independent studios over the last 15 years. The moment the Warner deal ended I took the reins again, and Ive been fairly hands-on, which might explain why the bloody thing hasnt ever been made yet, he says with a chortle. Now Im working with a great bunch of producers. I cant say exactly who yet, but we are quietly optimistic that this time this script is in a good enough shape that potentially something might happen, but no guarantees. Landy recently branched into writing for Marvel Comics, and, as Ballycotton-based Marvel artist Will Sliney pointed out when they met before the Waterstones book signing, hes not writing just any old Marvel characters, hes writing their frontline team book, the Avengers. Its been absolutely a dream come true when it comes to the Marvel stuff, because I do credit Spider-Man with teaching me how to read at such an advanced level. "As a kid, I was always reading Marvel books and Batman and 2000AD, so I was brought up on comics, he says. A tweet from a Marvel editor led to his writing for the House of Ideas, and a number of mini-series followed, starring the likes of Captain America, Iron Man, Falcon, and the Winter Soldier, and it has just been announced that he is writing a new Avengers comic. I get to write all of the classic Marvel heroes, which is my absolute dream. Its just so much fun. Despite a long friendship with Sliney on Twitter, lunch in Perry Street in Cork was the first time they had actually met in person. Ive heard how tight the Irish crew is, when it comes to artists and writers, how much they support each other, and what a tight-knit group it is, but that was my first time meeting Will, and he just took me through the ins and outs and realities of comic book conventions, and how to do it, and, more importantly, why I should do it, Landy says. When you see the conventions being reported, there are hundreds of thousands of people, all dressed up, all chaos, so many people in such a tight space, my claustrophobia would be going crazy, so I never really was that keen, but everything Will Sliney has told me about conventions, its actually tempting me for the first time ever. He describes Sliney as a genuinely friendly and welcoming man who spent their lunch listing industry contacts and offering to introduce Landy to them. Hes just such a nice person. And my God, the amount of stuff hes doing, even apart from comics, the Draw with Will stuff, and all his talks now and lectures, hes quite the burgeoning industry in and of himself really. Returning to Landys comment about Spider-Man effectively teaching him to read, British writer Alan Moore once said Superman had taught him far more about morality than Christianity ever did. Is that something which would find resonance with Landy? Well, all you have to do to find a workable role model in life is look at Spider-Man. Look at Indiana Jones. Look at Daredevil. Look at the flawed heroes who keep trying, despite losing half the time, he replies, reasoning that identifiability must be what draws readers to such characters. Its why I will never understand Star Wars fans or Star Trek fans who are remotely xenophobic, or racist, or sexist or right-wing. Its like they have missed the entire point of the stories they absolutely adore. They have missed the little fact that Star Wars is against fascism, and that Star Trek is against sexism, against racism, against exclusion. I dont understand anyone who can devour these stories and love these characters and not take away every positive from them. Its like a wilful kind of ignorance where Im gonna read Superman, but Im not going to let him turn me into a better man. Finally, asked what advice Landy would offer aspiring young writers, he admits its a question he gets asked all the time, but he obliges with a lengthy reply, which he later jokes is part of his new side-line as a motivational speaker. For every person that asks, I run through about three or four different answers, and each answer is tailored to what I pick up from that particular person, and each of them is as entirely valid as the next one. But if youre a young writer out there and youre reading this, and you want to know how to develop as a writer, it sounds like the stupidest and the most patronising and condescending bit of advice when I say you have to remember to have fun. There is a very specific reason he uses the word fun, and that is because he has learned in life, and in writing, that fun is contagious. What that means for each person out there is: forget about what you think people want to read about. Youve got to focus on what you want to write, no matter how weird or bizarre or off the scale it might be. I mean, I wrote about a skeleton detective who throws fireballs and saves the world in Ireland. And I did that because thats what I wanted to write about. " All of the genres that I cared about, I packed into the very first book, which is why its a horror, and an adventure and a fantasy and science fiction and mystery and crime and comedy. Everything that I possibly would ever have wanted to write is a vital strand of DNA that makes up the entire series. So going in, I was determined to have fun because it leaps off the page. You know when you are reading something from a writer whos having fun. He describes that joy in writing as a transferable energy, and he says everyone knows when a writer is having fun. It comes through your TV screen. It comes through whatever video game youre playing, whatever movie youre watching, whatever comic book youre reading. That type of creative energy is transferable, and it is contagious and thats my biggest piece of advice to any writers out there. Youve got to focus on yourself and youve got to focus on the things that make you happy, and I guarantee no matter how weird your idea, there will be someone else out there who is on the same wavelength and they will appreciate it. Your job is not to find them, your job is just to write it and its their job to find your story. The final curtain is nearing for Live at the Marquee, at least at the tents current docklands location on Monahan Road. For fifteen summer seasons (the Covid crisis notwithstanding), the Marquee served as a central location for big gigs, club nights and other attractions, a large part of the citys summer arts season, playing host to everyone from Elton John and the Eagles to Slayer and Kraftwerk. One of the venues big recurring draws in recent years has been the appearance of 2FM DJ Jenny Greene, taking to the decks to dispense the dance floorfillers, usually with a hefty dose of nostalgia, accompanied in her Leeside appearances by visuals evoking memories of the citys clubbing heyday, including archival video from venues like Sir Henrys. Most recently, shes been accompanied by the RTE Concert Orchestra, who lend their power and weight to new arrangements of 90s club favourites, alongside live vocalists like Voiceworks Studios Gemma Sugrue, lending her pipes to live renditions of vocal hooks and choruses. Jenny Greene knows how to get fans out on the floor. Speaking from her home in Dublin, Greene is about to prepare for an episode of her new RTE 2FM show The Greene Room, airing Sundays to Thursdays at 9pm, and presenting a different genre of new Irish music each night, as part of a solid evening offering of new-music shows alongside fellow disc-jocks Tara Kumar and Dan Hegarty. I'm probably in a better place now. I mean, it's taken until now to feel like the show has an identity. And I feel I know what it is, it's still evolving, and I think there's a way to go. Even now, I can feel it and see it, and I think people know what it is now. There were so many different things I wanted to do on it, and it was trying to find a way to do all of them, and that it made sense, still slowed. I knew it was going to be a good bit of work, but I feel like I don't have a minute now. I spend all day working on it, have a quick bite to eat, and then I go into work. It's a lot more work than I've done before, but I'm actually really enjoying it. So far so good - people seem to be receiving it well, so hopefully it continues that way. The show marks a return to the Irish-music beat for Greene, having become a staple of afternoon radio on 2FM, and maintaining her Saturday night Electric Disco mix for over a decade. But since her last stint in the presenters chair for specialist shows, not only has the way Irish artists release music changed, but podcasting and on-demand listening has completely altered the idea of destination radio. Its a change that Greene has adapted to. I think the thing I've found now, the last time I would have done just purely music shows was probably fifteen years ago, when I started in 2FM, I would do Friday and Saturday nights. You'll remember back yourself, there wasn't quite the volume of music that there is now, and it's a case of, you can't listen to absolutely everything, but I'm doing my best to do as close to that as I can, and trying to ensure that you don't miss something. I've two email accounts and they're full every day. You're wanting to make sure that you go through everything, that you don't miss something. Certainly, in comparison to what I had been doing more recently, a drivetime show, which was playlisted, and the only other things I had to worry about were the guests and the features and the things that we had on the show. The music was taken care of by somebody else. So, to go in and do two hours, six nights a week, and different genres on different nights, it has definitely been a lot more work than I did before. It's definitely more suited to me. Maybe it's possibly what I should always have been doing, but you have to do these other things in order to get to that point, and certainly the feedback has been great from people, but I've been getting sent an awful lot of music from people who maybe aren't signed, or don't have anybody out there pushing their music for them. I've kind of taken a chance on one or two new sounds and said, 'look, I'll play this tonight' - those ones seem to be the ones that are getting the best reaction from people There's some really, really great music out there, particularly in Ireland, that, y'know, has maybe gone somewhat under the radar, and it's lovely to be able to give it a platform and put it out there, and even one or two that I've kind of taken a chance on and said, 'look, I'll play this tonight' - those ones seem to be the ones that are getting the best reaction from people, which is lovely to say, and I hope it continues that way. With the finality of the occasion dawning as the days and weeks pass to showtime, the conversation turns back to the Marquee - and Greenes own memories of taking to the stage under the tent. What started as a pipe dream for a DJ who was just about used to selling out bigger clubs has become an annual appointment, and a marker of her own progress as a draw in her own right. I remember about thirteen, fourteen years ago, maybe, playing regular shows in the Savoy. I remember talking to my manager at the time, and we said, 'god, wouldn't it be great to do the Marquee', and that was the pipe-dream thing that would never happen. Fast forward years later, and the Orchestra comes along, and we end up in the Marquee every year. It's one of those gigs, even to this day, you don't get used to it and go, 'ah, sure, it's just another gig'. And Probably the most magical part of the Marquee is the people of Cork, because you put that tent anywhere else, and it would not have the same atmosphere There's something magical about the Marquee, something about that tent. Probably the most magical part of it is the people of Cork, because you put that tent anywhere else, and it would not have the same atmosphere that it has down there. I remember the very first time we played there, I mean, it was just electric. It still is to this day, and the first year I did it, I remember we all spoke afterwards, and we were sitting around, we were saying to ourselves, 'we won't ever have a gig like that again'. But we did, the following year in the same place. It seems to just keep getting better and better every year. There was one year down there, there was a heatwave. And I remember even going in, in the afternoon for soundcheck, and it was only literally us, and that entire tent was empty, and you couldn't breathe with the heat. And all we kept thinking was, 'how are we going to manage tonight when this is full?' But everyone just got into it. Jenny Green ready to get the Marquee crowd moving. Picture Rich Gilligan Even just getting everybody back together, none of us have seen each other in years. I only spoke to Gemma Sugrue on the phone yesterday. I haven't seen her in two years, and she is just so excited to get back on stage. We're all really looking forward to it, and just getting to see the orchestra and everybody again, because it just hasn't been possible for so long. Jenny Greene and the RTE Concert Orchestra play Live at the Marquee on Friday, June 24. Tickets available at Ticketmaster.ie. Listen to The Green Room, Sundays to Thursdays, 9pm, on RTE 2FM. By David Young, Rebecca Black, Cate McCurry, PA The impasse over Brexits Northern Ireland Protocol is not a real crisis, a senior US Congressman has insisted. Richard Neal said the deadlock was instead a problem to be solved after he and fellow members of a Congressional delegation held talks with Stormonts five main parties in Belfast. Powersharing in Northern Ireland is on ice after the DUP refused to re-establish a devolved executive following the recent Assembly election in protest at arrangements that have created economic barriers on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Mr Neal, who is chairman of the influential House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, has faced intense unionist criticism for describing the protocol dispute as a manufactured issue. Congressman Richard Neal at Stormont (Brian Lawless/PA) On Thursday, Mr Neal acknowledged he could have picked a more artful term to describe the impasse but he said no harm was intended by the comment. Anybody that would suggest that it was maliciously intended would be misguided, he said. Mr Neal suggested the protocol was a slight bump and momentary challenge in the political journey Northern Ireland has been on over the last three decades and paled in comparison to obstacles overcome during the peace process. To describe the protocol issue as a crisis is inconsistent with the success weve had over 25 years of the Good Friday Agreement, he said. I still dont think its a crisis. I think its a problem to be solved, duly negotiated much of it emanates from Brussels and London but it should include the people of Northern Ireland in the discussion and deliberation. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson speaking to the media following his meeting with the Congressional delegation (Brian Lawless/PA) He added: I think that every time we simply use the word crisis to describe everything, then we forget what a real crisis means, and I just continue to believe this is not a real crisis. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson heavily criticised Mr Neal after meeting him at Parliament Buildings, describing the delegations fact-finding mission as the most undiplomatic visit he had ever seen to Northern Ireland. Mr Donaldson branded Mr Neals language in the earlier part of the week as unhelpful, adding it displays an alarming ignorance of the concerns of unionism. However, he said he heard a more realistic approach during the meeting with the delegation at Stormont on Thursday. Mr Neal, who said his meeting with the DUP went very well, said unionist apprehensions about the protocol were legitimate. I think I was very clear in the meeting that I had with the DUP that while I dont want to see a hard border on the island, I also pointed out to them that I understood the apprehension that they have raised about a border in the Irish Sea I thought that they were very receptive to that argument, he said. Mr Neal added: I would like to see the issue negotiated. I thought that the apprehension that they raised was legitimate. I think that there is an acknowledgment that there are some problems with the protocol. We want to see them smoothed over and repaired. Sinn Fein vice president Michelle ONeill (Brian Lawless/PA) Sinn Feins Stormont leader Michelle ONeill, who would be in line to become first minister if the DUP dropped its boycott of the devolved institutions, said the delegations visit was welcome. For many years we have enjoyed the support of successive American administrations in terms of our peace process, so I very much welcome the fact that we have such a strong delegation visiting here, she said. (They are) big supporters of the peace process, big supporters of the Good Friday Agreement and the need to protect that agreement. We have had a very good meeting with them in terms of our shared objective which is to have this Executive and Assembly up and running, supporting people through the cost-of-living crisis, addressing our health service needs. Meanwhile, Mr Donaldson revealed his party confronted Mr Neal about his use of the term planter to refer to unionists in Northern Ireland. He said that during the meeting the DUP compared the stand-off over the protocol to a well-known event in the history of the America revolution, the Boston Tea Party. Mr Donaldson said that when revolutionaries pushed tea chests into the harbour in Boston in 1773 the mantra was no taxation without representation. And I reminded Congressman Neal and his colleagues that this too is our mantra: that today Northern Ireland is subjected to laws and taxes into which it has no say, that not a single member elected to this Assembly can influence many of the laws that now oversee how we conduct trade in our country because they are imposed by the European Union, and there is no democratic accountability to this institution or any democratic institution in this country, he said. Richard Neal spoke to reporters at Stormont after his meetings (Brian Lawless/PA) Stormont was the last stop on the US delegations visit to the island of Ireland. The bipartisan delegation has also held meetings in London and Brussels during its protocol-focused mission. Many unionists and loyalists are vehemently opposed to the protocol, claiming its requirement for checks on goods moving across the Irish Sea has undermined Northern Irelands place in the United Kingdom. The Ways and Means committee would have a key role in approving any future trade deal between the UK and US, and Mr Neal has made clear such an agreement would be at risk if the London government pressed ahead with its plan to unilaterally scrap parts of the protocol. He said a trade deal was very desirable but added: As part of that, we want to make sure that that agreement is reconciled with the idea that we are a co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement and we dont want to see it jeopardised. Mr Neal said his position was entirely in line with the US administration in Washington DC. He insisted his role and that of the US was as an honest broker. Mr Neal said the issue of whether the Biden administration should appoint a special envoy to Northern Ireland was a matter for the US president to decide on. I actually asked the last president (Trump) to do that, to appoint an envoy he told me he was going to but he did not in the end, he added. Asked what he felt the prospect of a visit by President Joe Biden to Northern Ireland might be, Mr Neal said he would like to see a presidential presence at events to mark next years 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement. He said: I would hope that British prime ministers, taoisigh from the Republic of Ireland, American presidents, American members of Congress, members of the Dail, senate and certainly the Assembly would all gather here for the 25th anniversary and say hooray, that challenge 30 years ago should remind the world of what again people of goodwill can do and they did it. Members of the Loyalist Communities Council met Mr Neal to discuss the Northern Ireland Protocol on Thursday. In a statement, the group said that the US could no longer be viewed as honest brokers in Northern Ireland and that the Biden administration has openly taken sides with the nationalist position. They added: Congressman Neal was asked to use his influence on Capitol Hill to require the ending of the Irish Sea Border just as much as he opposed any hard border on this island. Peter Murtagh and Declan Brennan A man who assaulted his partner, fracturing her eye socket and on one occasion threatening to set her on fire, has been given a four-year prison sentence. The 35-year-old man told the woman, who may not be identified, that he hated her, that she was "smelly", a "tramp", and a "dirty rotten cow". He harassed her by telephone and via social media, calling her over 1,000 times to abuse her verbally and threaten her. He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to harassment on various occasions between December 8th and January 2021. He also pleaded guilty to threatening to kill or cause serious harm on December 12th, 2010, to making threats on December 16th, 2020 and to assaulting the woman causing her harm. Judge Elma Sheahan described videos showing the man's conduct towards his partner as "disturbing, terrifying and frightening to watch, saying that the language used by the accused is vile and vicious. The man had "humiliated and degraded" the woman, the judge said. Her victim impact statement, "speaks of [her] mental torture and fear", Judge Sheahan added. She also noted that the man had a "long history of offending and poor engagement with probation service". Violent and jealous The court heard that the man became violent and jealous of his partner when he thought she was seeing someone else. After he hit her, fracturing her eye socket, she had not gone to the doctor out of embarrassment but a friend had taken photographs of her injuries. The man got drunk and would become violent, the court heard. On one occasion, he "smashed up the place" and started roaring again at her. She left the house and, when she returned, he had flung cans around the house. He told her he would stay off the drink and was "full of little promises", the victim told the court. Almost all of the incidents took place in late 2020. The court heard that the man made 1,019 calls to his partner from multiple phones over a 23-day period. On one phone, he called her 278 times; on another 327 times; and on a third, 414 times. He used Facebook to threaten her and her family, sometimes through an alias, Gerard Howe, which was in fact him. In Facebook messages, accompanied by emojis of hammers and an anvil he wrote: "I'll put you up on fire and added dancing on your brains, body pieces - put that in your pipe and smoke it..." He also sent videos through Facebook in which he threatened to harm her and to burn down her house. These videos and recordings of phone calls were viewed by Judge Sheahan. During one phone call he told the woman "Youre dirt, youre vermin. Youll burn in style." In another he said: "Give me back the children, you smelly rotten cow. Ill burn you. Reoffending risk Sentencing him on Friday, Judge Sheahan noted that the man's probation report assessed him as being at "a moderate to high risk of reoffending" and referred to his "unpredictability" with regard to violence. Noting his "remorse" for his conduct and that he was currently drug free, the judge said he had a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. He had 52 previous convictions for a variety of offences, including assault, criminal damage and substance-related crimes. She noted his wish to re-establish relations with his partner, and his children, on his release from prison. She suspended the final year of a five-year prison term and banned him from contacting the victim. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, you can contact Womens Aid (24-hour freephone helpline at 1800 341 900, email helpline@womensaid.ie) or Mens Aid Ireland (confidential helpline at 01 554 3811, email hello@mensaid.ie) for support and information. Safe Ireland also outlines a number of local services and helplines at safeireland.ie/get-help/where-to-find-help/. In the case of an emergency, always dial 999/112. DIVERSITY and inclusion are hard-won in any profession. There are very real reasons why certain professionals look, act, and speak a certain way. Invariably, something must happen to change that, to push against the tide of circumstance and tradition. This year, the Law Society of Ireland marks 20 years of its Access Programme, which has provided financial and practical support to more than 300 aspiring solicitors to date, assisting students from certain socio-economically backgrounds to enter professional legal education, offering financial support right through to qualification. Chairperson of the Law Societys Education Committee, Richard Hammond, S.C., says: The programme helps promote greater diversity within the solicitors profession, and this is vital to help build a legal profession that reflects the diversity of the society it serves. Mariam Olusoji from Nigeria is living in Cork since 2003. Recipient Mariam Olusoji Ms Olusoji, who moved to Cork with her family from Nigeria in 2003, applied for the programme and was granted funding; she credits this as a key factor in her qualifying as a solicitor in Ireland in 2020. Shes fully aware the diversity fight has not yet been won. As far as I know, from what Ive seen myself, Im the only person of colour to qualify as a solicitor in Cork since I came here. At the same time, she couldnt be more enthusiastic about the support she has received from the Law Society and shes certainly keen to spread the word. The programme considers your individual circumstances and provides you with appropriate financial support. They offer maintenance and organise accommodation if needed, but they also support you emotionally. I went through a lot to get where I am, but they were there for me 100%. They gave me a sense of belonging. Whenever I called, they were there for me, telling me to relax, telling me everything would be alright. Not insignificantly, Olusoji arrived in Ireland with over five years of experience in Nigerian law, where the profession is combined so shed worked as both a barrister and a solicitor. She also boasted a Bachelor and Masters degree in law, and the latter qualification afforded her access to a Masters in law at UCC. Mariam Olusoji said the Access programme made her feel fully supporter. She was pregnant with her fourth child at the time and determined to continue her career. I even did a diploma in Legal Secretary training. It was when I was doing that course that I decided I was pursuing my legal career no matter what. Indeed, it wasnt until 2017, after Ms Olusoji had already passed her FE-1 exams, the first stage of the process, that she first heard of the Access Scholarship Programme. The programme and its benefits and Olusojis legal background were a huge asset, but her journey to becoming a qualified solicitor in Ireland was anything but straightforward; the Law Society helped straighten the road considerably. I knew the road to qualifying as a solicitor was difficult, but the Law Society made it so much more manageable. I had to stay in Dublin for six months during my Professional Practice Course (PPC 1). I would come home at the weekend. I would cook, box, and freeze food for my family, go to church, and then take my bag and travel back to Dublin for the week. But they took the worry out of it. I did not need to get anxious about things like where to stay. The Law Society made it all feel possible. Both Nigeria and Ireland are under Common Law, which helped the earnest candidate, but other challenges presented themselves. Life was a lot harder before I got help; trying to organise staying with friends, getting to where I needed to be. Like the vast majority of PPC Access trainees, I had a SUSI grant, but that doesnt cover everything. The Law Society really made the difference. It is certainly an impressive programme on paper. Students are assisted throughout all stages of their professional legal education. Funding is available for expenses directly related to taking FE-1 entrance exams to study to become a solicitor. This includes overnight accommodation during the week of exams, contributions towards additional childcare costs, support with loss of income while taking exams, and travel expenses to and from the exam venue. Access FE-1 candidates are entitled to use the Law Society of Ireland library when preparing for exams. Students living outside of Dublin may have books posted to them. But its the softer side that Ms Olusoji regularly comes back to. Its like when you get customer service that tells you some information. And then you get customer service that makes you feel emotionally supported. This is a fundamental part of the programme. The Law Society assists Access students with best-practice tips on how to secure a traineeship. Law Society staff and experienced practising lawyers work with students to provide vital information on what works best in terms of CVs, cover letters and approaches to interviews. Mentoring appointments are also available at all stages of the programme to help build confidence and communication skills. Determined Ms Olusoji also credits her husband for his support, describing him as her backbone, but its clear that nothing was getting in the way of her and her beloved profession. I am passionate about the law. Do you know that way, when you love something so much, you never get tired of it? I just love my work. She takes pride in her work also. Ireland is now a diverse country, comprising different ethnicities. People from these diverse ethnicities feel comfortable talking to me; they feel more relaxed. I think they feel I understand them better. The Law Society recognises that, and they provide an avenue for people like me to get to where they should be. Its really very good. Mariam Olusoji qualified as a solicitor with the Law Society in December 2020. She now works remotely for Robinson Solicitors, Dublin 7. She works across various fields, a little bit of everything, just as she likes it. She is a former President of Nigerian Community Cork, Ireland and former Chairperson of Nasc, the Migrant & Refugee Rights Centre. She qualified to act as a solicitor in England and Wales in 2021. Mariam is a perfect spokesperson for what sounds like a remarkable programme. So who can apply? Richard Hammond S.C. announces: The programme is open to everyone and theres no age restriction on applicants. Though a common trait amongst applicants is that, but for the assistance of the Access Programme, those individuals feel that they would not be in a position to train as a solicitor. This feeling can be due to a lack of financial resources among other reasons, added Mr Hammond. Each year, the Law Society receives approximately 85 applications to join the Access Programme, about 80% of which are successful. No candidate meeting the assessment criteria has ever been refused funding, he said. To apply for the programme, the next deadline is Wednesday, June 1, 2022. See www.lawsociety.ie/Public/Become-a-Solicitor/fe1-funding Ukrainian lawmaker says time is running out for Ukraine grain exports Yevheniia Kravchuk, a Ukrainian lawmaker, said time is running out to export 22 million tonnes of grain out of the country before the new harvest as Russia continues to blockade Ukraine's Black Sea ports, Reuters reported. She said the country has about a month and a half before the new harvest is collected. As Russia and Ukraine together account for roughly a third of world wheat supply, and Ukraine is also a significant supplier of corn, barley, sunflower oil, and rapeseed oil, fears of a global food catastrophe are mounting. Ursula von der Leyen, chief of the European Commission's, called for talks with Moscow to free wheat supplies stranded in Ukraine due to a Russian naval embargo. According to Interfax, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko said that Moscow is willing to establish a humanitarian passage for ships transporting supplies to exit Ukraine in exchange for the easing of some sanctions. Kravchuk said as part of the fields are now under Russian control or have been mined, Ukraine expects the new harvest to be around 70% of last year's crop. Farmers require diesel for their tractors, and Ukraine had lost much of its refining capability owing to Russian strikes, Because of that, Kravchuk requested assistance in demining areas and fuel. - Reuters China temporarily suspends four Brazil beef plants China's General Administration of Customs has announced a temporary suspension on beef imports from four Brazilian slaughterhouses, two operated by JBS SA and two by rival Marfrig, Reuters reported. The suspension is effective immediately. No reasons were provided for why the beef plants were banned. Brazil's Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Supply confirmed it received the notification about the suspensions from Chinese authorities. One of the suspended factories, according to an industry source who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is located in the town of Promissao in the state of Sao Paulo. For the next four weeks, it is barred from shipping to China. According to the same source, Marfrig's Varzea Grande factory in Mato Grosso has been suspended for a week. The source also said JBS had two units banned for a week, one in Senador Canedo, Goias state, and the other in Lins, Sao Paulo state. Marfrig did not want to comment. JBS did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Beijing's decision comes only hours after Brazilian and Chinese officials met and agreed to forward the bilateral trade agenda, which included the signing of a protocol allowing Brazilian corn to be exported to China. - Reuters A meeting in the Pentagon made a mistake how Ukrainian flags were hung upside down in the noticeable background. This happened when a press conference for packages was held when it was too late to be realized how it appeared in the background. Ukraine Flags Incorrectly Displayed in Pentagon Under the flag of a non-existent country, the US military's top brass unveiled a major aid package for Ukraine, reported RT. Last Monday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley sat in front of four upside-down Ukrainian flags as they met with allies to drum up new weapon sales to Kyiv. Washington politicians at the top level had done it before, making the same mistake with the flag they were financing in hosting a virtual meeting with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, hosted by the two defense officials. The group is a panel of 47 nations ready to supply Kyiv with arms after Russia demolished hardware sent to Ukraine. Supplies will include artillery, ammo, coastal defense weaponry, tanks, and armored vehicles needed as the Ukrainians are getting routed, cited Hollywood LA News. Four Ukrainian flags had been hung upside down in the background of Austin and Milley, with yellow on top instead of blue. The blunder is not the first-time supporters of Ukraine have mucked up a display of its distinctive flag, presumably the work of a Pentagon staffer. In March, AFL-CIO, one of America's largest labor unions, had posted on social media a picture of its executive council mistakenly holding upside-down Ukrainian flags shown on posters with 'Stand with Ukraine,' just like what happened recently in the Pentagon. Read Also: Emmanuel Macron Facts: Interesting Info You May Not Know About The French President Following online mockery, the union re-posted the appearance with the flags digitally manipulated to face the right way before removing it entirely after Twitter users ridiculed the photoshopped images, noted the Press United. US leaders have made errors with Ukraine by making a mistake in identifying them. Many of his critics derided one of Joe Biden's gaffes that drew attention, saying that he's cognitively challenged. Remarked that Putin could block Kyiv with tanks, but said Iranian, not Ukrainian, people that got bashed all over. Ukraine Mistakenly Confused With Other Countries An embarrassing situation involving former President George W. Bush after he condemned what happened to Iraq when it was supposed to be Ukraine in a Freudian slip. He called out his actions in Iraq in 2003. After the Monday meeting that had Austin speak about several countries like Denmark providing ship killer missiles, Czechia will send gunships, while Italy, Greece, Norway, and Poland are sending artillery and ammo. Since February, the US has given Ukraine nearly $4 billion in military aid, with another $40 billion in military and economic aid scheduled for Kyiv, which is more than six times Ukraine's yearly defense budget. Vladimir Putin has called the proxy war against the US and allies, using Zelensky as their puppet. All these weapons and the training with intelligence for Ukraine forces are unfortunate, and the US is fighting an undeclared war. The Pentagon neglected to properly place Ukrainian flags in the background, which caused a stir since Washington was supporting a non-existent country or a Freudian slip. Related Article: Josep Borell Reveals That EU's Weapon Stockpile Has Depleted Due To Supplying of Arms to Kiev @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Vaccine walk-in clinics to continue during TT fortnight The Covid-19 vaccine hub will be providing walk-in clinics during the TT period. From Monday 30 May to 09 June 2022, the Covid-19 vaccination team (based at Chester Street Hub) will be providing walk-in vaccine clinics for those who are due to have a dose. The schedule is as follows: Date Day Time Age Group 30/05/2022 Monday 11am-3pm 5-11's 31/05/2022 Tuesday 11am-3pm Over 18s 01/06/2022 Wednesday 11am-3pm 12-17s 06/06/2022 Monday 11am-3pm Over 18s 07/06/2022 Tuesday 11am-3pm Over 18s 08/06/2022 Wednesday 11am-3pm 12-17s 09/06/2022 Thursday 11am-3pm 5-11s Any Isle of Man resident who has not yet completed their course of vaccines can attend as long as their next dose is due. Those who have not yet had a dose but would like to use the walk-in clinics for their first one are asked to register online first. The team will not be able to vaccinate visitors who are not registered with a GP. Visitors can register as a temporary resident with any GP Practice, and the team can vaccinate if the individual has done so. In addition, we would like to update you on the TT opening times for the Covid-19 swabbing centre at the Crookall Centre, Kensington Road, Douglas: Open Monday - Saturday 08:00 11:00 Closed Bank Holidays 02 June 03 June 10 June The only tests currently available are for either Pre-Assessment or for those who require a PCR test for travel; this can be a resident or a visitor. Anyone with an NHS number can book online. Visitors without an NHS number who require a PCR test should contact 111 to book in for a swab. Wildlife experts inspect Douglas pontoon for invasive species A group of wildlife experts has carried out a rare dive in Douglas harbour to examine a floating pontoon for potentially costly and damaging invasive non-native species (INNS). It was organised as part of INNS Week, which raises awareness of the dangers invasive species pose to biodiversity by outcompeting native wildlife, damaging infrastructure and in some cases, spreading disease. The harbour is considered a high risk location and worthy of monitoring for marine INNS, as boats can carry and spread unwanted sea creatures without knowing. The team of six divers, representing the Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture (DEFA), Manx Wildlife Trust (MWT), IOM Seasearch, and Discover Diving was especially on the hunt for an INNS of sea squirt, which had been previously recorded around the pontoon. Dr Michelle Haywood MHK, DEFAs Political Member for Environment, who took part in the dive, said: Invasive sea squirts may sound harmless, but they can be very costly to get rid of if they take hold. In recent years, carpet sea squirt affected Holyhead Marina and cost the Welsh government hundreds of thousands of pounds to eradicate, so it is worth looking at. On our dive we found the underneath of the pontoon to be encrusted with sponges, nice native sea squirts and mussels and most importantly no invasive species of concern. Squirts feed by filtering water, so the movement of the pontoon on the tide, provides a perfect environment for them to thrive and support an abundance of marine species. Leigh Morris, Manx Wildlife Trust CEO, said: It was good news that the carpet sea squirts and orange tipped sea squirts we feared we might find were not present, and it was fantastic to see such a diverse range of marine biodiversity, which is an indicator of a healthy and thriving ecosystem. The divers did discover one INNS called Sargassum Muticum (Wireweed/Japanese seaweed) in the sand below the pontoon, which is listed on Schedule 8 of the Wildlife Act, but it did not appear to be having a negative impact. This week, Devindra and Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham dive into the latest news around Clearview AI, the controversial facial recognition company thats now seeing pushback from governments and regulators around the world. Will a few fines put a stop to the companys facial recognition search platform? Also, they discuss how Clearviews troubles relate to countries being more restrictive about data in general. Finally, they pour one out for Seth Greens lost Bored Ape RIP NFT! Listen above, or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. If you've got suggestions or topics you'd like covered on the show, be sure to email us or drop a note in the comments! And be sure to check out our other podcasts, the Morning After and Engadget News! Topics Facial Recognition company Clearview AI is on the ropes after several big settlements 1:22 The era of borderless data may be ending 15:04 Privacy focused search company DuckDuckGo quietly allowed Microsoft browsing trackers 23:08 New details about AMDs Ryzen 7000 chips 28:34 Oh no, somebody stole Seth Greens Bored Ape 33:16 Working on 36:29 Pop culture picks 41:36 Livestream Credits Hosts: Devindra Hardawar and Nathan Ingraham Producer: Ben Ellman Music: Dale North and Terrence O'Brien Livestream producers: Julio Barrientos Graphic artists: Luke Brooks and Brian Oh Sony is holding its first PlayStation State of Play event in months, and you'll want to tune in if you're looking forward to PlayStation VR2. The company has announced a stream for June 2nd at 6PM Eastern that will include a "sneak peek" at several PSVR2 games. There aren't any clues as to what those entail, but the company recently noted that there will be at least 20 "major" games for the VR platform at launch we wouldn't be surprised to see some of those during the presentation. The State of Play video will also feature other game reveals from third-party developers as well as some "updates." The event will be available to watch live through PlayStation's Twitch and YouTube channels. Only a few games have been confirmed for PSVR2 so far, including the spinoff Horizon: Call of the Mountain as well as Among Us VR, Cyan Worlds' Firmament and unnamed projects from Coatsink (Jurassic World Aftermath) and nDreams (Fracked). It's not certain if Sony will mention those games, or even show any gameplay, but it's clear the company is ready to shift more of its attention toward the new headset's software. Big guns like Russia's self-propelled heavy artillery Giatsint-S used in Ukraine are a significant factor in barraging Kyiv's army that is struggling despite being armed with US M777 155mm Howitzers is not making a difference at all. Heavy artillery is important for land forces like Russia since it's a standoff weapon using kinetic weapons that are still effective in keeping the enemy hunkered down. Russia Surpasses Ukraine in Big Gun Battle Russian Defense Ministry reported that the Giatsint-S has been making minced meat of the American howitzers in Ukraine, reported the EurAsian Times. Part of an $800m military aid package that includes 90 M-777 howitzers, except one has been received. A few were sent to the front lines where fighting was happening. Regardless of what western reports say about the battlefront success, information that another Ukrainian M-777 howitzer adjacent to the Podgornoye settlement was hit by projectiles fired from a Russian UAV backed by artillery has surfaced, cited TASS. Footage uploaded by the Russian Defense Ministry shows crews of 152mm self-propelled artillery guns actively participating in counter-battery fire against a Ukrainian unit of US howitzers. A battery of Giatsint-S systems, according to the ministry, eliminated a unit of towed artillery guns during counter-battery warfare tasks. Russian heavy artillery has been wrecking the Ukrainian military's strongholds, fortifications, manpower, and military hardware based on the data reported. In the field, the return fire but units with self-propelled heavy artillery Giatsint-S used drones to see where the rounds landed and shift firing positions, noted Contentious. Read Also: Emmanuel Macron Facts: Interesting Info You May Not Know About The French President The war effort has transitioned into an artillery battle between Russia and Ukraine, focus on primarily on eastern Ukraine and the Donbas region. Both sides are focusing their attempts on counter-battery fire. Superior Russian firepower overwhelmed older Ukraine systems Modern howitzers from the USA improved the older artillery pieces used by Kyiv's forces. Those replaced are about 30 years old and too short on range. American, Russian Large Firearms Produced by BAE Systems, which is a 155mm that weighs less than 10,000 pounds, makes it an ultra-light. Using new titanium and aluminum alloys that make up parts of the howitzer. It needs to be transported by a USMC MV-22 Osprey, CH-47 helicopter, or truck; it can be moved anywhere and re-position fast. Late in 1968, the Special Design Bureau of the Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg) Machinery Construction Factory developed the 2S5 Giatsint-S in the Soviet era. The gun is roughly seven times heavier than the M-777, weighing 2800 kg. This M-777 has a 39-caliber barrel and a range of 24.7 km using normal shells but can reach 30 km with rocket-assisted shells. Capable of sustaining two rounds of fire per minute, but a rapid-fire of five shots firing continuously if needed. The Russian gun's range is 28.4 km using the standard HE-FRAG shell but up to 33 km (rocket-boosted shells), but 5 to 6 shells per minute is better. It can fire several rounds, even nuclear projectiles, with a specified target sight. In contrast, the M777A2 has modern shells from Raytheon/ Bofors for longer-range shells reaching 40 km. Since the 2S5 is self-propelled compared to the M-777, which needs towing makes a big difference in mobility. Many nations use the US-made howitzer. Using Russian-made self-propelled heavy artillery, Giatsint-S has destroyed US big guns, which are sending Ukrainians into a panic as they fall back in the onslaught of the army of Russia. Related Article: Chinese Scientists Develop Hypersonic Infrared Homing Missiles That Can Kill F-22 Raptors, Hit Moving Targets @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Former U.S. President Donald Trump must testify under oath in the New York Attorney Generals civil investigation into his business practices, an intermediate state appeals court ruled. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Texas Republicans like things the way they are, re-nominating candidates facing corruption allegations and bullies who harass businesses that dont march to their conservative drumbeat. The Republican primary has been the only statewide election that has counted since 1994, the last time a Democrat won. Tuesdays run-offs made clear the party faithful support incumbents and reject challengers to the status quo. For some, thatll be bad for business. Two-thirds of voters in the run-off dont care that Attorney General Ken Paxton has used every possible legal maneuver to avoid resolving his seven-year-old indictments for securities fraud. As the states top law enforcement officer, who claims hes innocent, youd think hed want to prove it in court. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Texas' most powerful oil family also regulates the industry. That's a problem. Conservatives also dont seem to care that his top deputies reported him to the FBI for corruption. If you need a legal opinion to save your business, want law enforcement files to disappear, or could use a lawyer to go after your enemies, GOP voters think the attorney general should be available to help. Note to any business people who may need some extra legal services in the next four years: Paxtons campaign is accepting donations for the general election in November. So is Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Wayne Christian if youre in the oil and gas business. GOP voters did not mind that he accepted a $100,000 campaign donation from a neighborhood company just weeks after he overruled commission experts and approved the firms plans for an oilfield waste dump. His opponent, attorney Sarah Stogner, exposed Christians suspicious, if perfectly legal, acceptance of donations from the oil and gas interests he regulates. Of course, she had to expose herself in a campaign ad to get into the run-off, but that revealed more about GOP politics than her body. Oil and gas executives may rest easy knowing Christian will likely sweep to victory later this year. They dont need to worry about state inspectors investigating their old wells leaking radioactive brine or any new regulations limiting their release of greenhouse gases. And if you need someone to overrule the commissions environmental scientists, you know whom to call. Texas Republicans also still love former President Donald Trump. He endorsed Paxton and Dawn Buckingham, the nominee to lead the General Land Office. Shell oversee the leasing of public land for fossil fuel and renewable energy projects, managing disaster relief funds and maintaining the Alamo. Dont worry, though. The state senator from the Austin suburbs defends Texas oil and natural gas production and opposes President Joe Bidens plan to expand renewable energy production. Shes in the fossil fuels forever camp. Business leaders will need to get in lockstep with Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick at the top of the ticket. These dedicated defenders of traditional family values no longer bow to the chambers of commerce; they expect fealty as they demonize LGBT people and refugees along the border. Patrick is making an example of Disney, opposing what he considers the companys sexualization of children. Hell call for a boycott of any other business that fights the Dont Say Gay bill he has planned for next year. Companies that think they can get around the states anti-abortion laws by flying women out of state should also think again. Deer Parks state Rep. Briscoe Cain and 13 other lawmakers plan to expel from Texas any company that skirts an expected abortion ban, The Texas Tribune reported. The state of Texas will take swift and decisive action if you do not immediately rescind your recently announced policy to pay for the travel expenses of women who abort their unborn children, Cain and his allies wrote to Lyft CEO Logan Green. S.A. VOTES Voter Guide: What to know for the Texas runoff election A breakdown of key state and local races and candidates in the May 24 primary runoff. TOMLINSONS TAKE: Dan Patrick's attacks threaten innovation that drives Texass economy This group passed the vigilante law allowing people to sue anyone who assists with an abortion inside the state. Their next move is to enable shareholders to sue any corporation that facilitates any abortion anywhere. Executives should also remember that Texass governmental entities are forbidden from doing business with companies that boycott gun manufacturers or fossil fuel producers. Enforcing those laws falls on incumbent State Comptroller Glenn Hegar, a Republican who made his name passing anti-abortion legislation. Hes also up for re-election in November and making a list of companies to target. If you follow Patricks advice, though, and stay out of their culture war, Texas elected officials will reward you. The state constitution bars an income tax, property tax appeals are easy, and lawmakers are more interested in repealing commercial regulations than writing new ones. Democrats offer an alternative future, of course, but they would have to get their act together, raise some money, and collect more votes. Right now, the odds are on more corruption and coercion, not less. Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about business, economics and politics. twitter.com/cltomlinson chris.tomlinson@chron.com CONCORD, N.H. (AP) The New Hampshire Supreme Court will redraw the states congressional map after the Legislature's latest, last-ditch effort failed Thursday to win over Republican Gov. Chris Sununu. New Hampshire is one few states yet to finalize new U.S. House districts as required every 10 years to reflect population changes. Democrats currently hold both seats, and while Republicans control the Legislature, they have struggled to pass what Sununu has referred to a fairness smell test. Both the House and Senate passed a plan in March that would have given the GOP a strong advantage in the 1st District, but Sununu promised to veto it. A House-passed plan that would have clumped together communities along the I-93 corridor later failed in the Senate, leading to a third plan that was approved Thursday in both chambers. I believe it is the compromise New Hampshire needs going forward for the next 10 years, said Sen. James Gray, R-Rochester. Sununu quickly said he will veto the bill, however, in part because it puts both U.S. Reps. Chris Pappas and Annie Kuster into the 2nd District. The citizens of New Hampshire will not accept this map, he said. Our races have to be fair, which is why I will veto this map. Under the latest plan, the 1st District would have covered the southeast corner of the state and be tilted slightly toward Republicans, while the 2nd District would have covered the western half of the state and the north country and become slightly more Democratic. More than two dozen towns and cities comprising nearly a third of the states population would have switched districts, including Manchester. Instead, the state Supreme Court will step in. In a ruling this month, the court said it will use the existing districts as a benchmark and employ a least change approach. That could mean adopting a map favored by Democrats that would move a single town Hampstead from the 1st District to the 2nd. Senate Minority Leader Donna Soucy, D-Manchester, called the GOP plan one of the majoritys most blatant examples of extremism. Once again, theyre out of step with their own governor, out of step with the people of New Hampshire, she said at a news conference ahead of the votes. Its probably one of the best reflections of their tin ear to the folks theyve been elected to serve. The plan passed the House by only five votes. By the same slim margin, the House on Thursday also killed another bill Sununu had promised to veto. That bill, modeled after legislation filed in multiple states, would have given parents greater oversight over their childs curriculum, participation in clubs and conversations with staff. The bill had passed the Senate 14-10 along party lines. Sen. Jay Kahn, D-Keene, argued against it, saying teachers already are looking over their shoulders thanks to a new law regulating classroom discussion of race and other topics. Now, were going to impose another requirement that questions whether educators can have a discussion with a student without reporting on it to parents, he said. It is one more ice cube being added to the chilling effect of our actions on New Hampshire educators. Rep. Melissa Blasek, R-Merrimack, pushed back against criticism that the bill would force teachers to out LGBTQ students to potentially abusive parents and said she equates parental rights to gun rights. There are criminals, yes. And one of the primary purposes of government is to punish wrongdoing, she said. But restricting rights from law-abiding parents and gun owners does not prevent criminals from participating in criminal activities. As for guns, the House also rejected an effort to reintroduce failed legislation would have required criminal background checks prior to commercial firearms sales. Rep. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, said there have been dozens of mass shootings nationwide since the bill was defeated in March, including the recent shootings at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, a church in Southern California and a school in Uvalde, Texas. It is imperative that we act, and act now to curb the flow of blood running toward us, she said. We can do hard things. We can make a change so we dont have to live like this. Her remarks were met with booing from some of her colleagues. The jeering turned to applause for Rep. Terry Roy, a Deerfield Republican who argued that voters dont want further gun control. We should not ever, ever use tragedy to push legislation, he said. Assault-style weapons like the one an Uvalde man used Tuesday to kill 19 children and two teachers, injuring 17 others, should be banned. This is why. Theyre lethal weapons designed for the battlefield. They are highly effective at destroying a human target quickly and with certainty. The bullets fired by these weapons travel at such velocity that a body, or parts of a body, can explode, leaving a cavity. Large areas of tissue go missing. Victims can bleed to death in a matter of minutes and never make it to a hospital. These kinds of descriptions have come from physicians whove treated victims of mass shootings in the United States of America, a nation hell-bent on gun rights with too few obligations and responsibilities for their owners, their makers and the politicians who serve them. After the Parkland, Florida, shootings in 2018, the New York Times spoke to physicians whod treated similar wounds. They described quadrants of abdomens destroyed, skin and fat sheared off bodies, bone fragments cutting through tissue and holes in intestines and bladders. These weapons are meant to kill people. They should be banned. Most of us will never see what the injuries look like. Its a blessing that also has sanitized the debate over assault weapon bans and other forms of common-sense gun control. First responders, trauma surgeons and others at the scenes of such events, or in hospitals, must cope with the horrifying aftermath. Survivors also know what the carnage looks like, and some have become passionate advocates for gun restrictions because of it. Dont mistake this as an attack on the Second Amendment, because its not absolute. Americans understand and support gun ownership for self-protection or hunting. But most see no valid argument for acquiring combat weapons. The public isnt safer because of them. Theyre less safe because of them. Makers of the Daniel Defense DDM4 V7, which the shooter bought at Outback Oasis in Uvalde, didnt answer calls, an Express-News story reported Friday, and didnt respond to an electronic message. The gun shops owner is cooperating with investigators but wouldnt talk to reporters. Also Friday, law enforcement officials revealed that police failed in its handling of the school shooting. They didnt enter the school in a timely way, didnt confront and kill the shooter sooner, failed to rescue children whod survived the attack and after more than an hour, simply got a school employee to open the classroom door where he was barricaded. The shooter was still alive and armed. Students inside the school were making repeated calls to 911 asking for help. All this in the only advanced country in the world where gun violence has become an epidemic and a public health issue. Photos of the aftermath are kept from public eyes for obvious reasons, especially out of respect for the victims and their families. In 1955, Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley allowed the world to see what another form of violence racial hate did to her 14-year-old son Emmett Till in Mississippi, where he was visiting relatives. It energized the civil rights movement. When Emmetts body arrived in Chicago, it was swollen beyond recognition, according to a 2018 Washington Post story that looked back at the heinous crime. His teeth were missing, it said. His ear was severed. His eye was hanging out. The only thing that identified him was a ring. In a chilling parallel, Uvalde parents were asked to provide DNA samples to help identify their children. In the case against assault-style rifles, you get an idea of what happened on the faces of people like Dr. Lillian Liao, a pediatric trauma surgeon at University Hospital in San Antonio. This week she has appeared on several national news programs. Her face spoke volumes. University Hospital learned a lot after the 2017 Sutherland Springs church shootings that killed 26 and wounded 22. Its officials learned that getting cold stored whole blood to the scene can save the lives of the wounded if transfused in time. In one interview, Liao said it probably saved the life of at least one Uvalde patient. After Sutherland Springs, the trauma team also learned such massacres result in few patients. They waited for patients that never arrived. Thats what happened after the 9/11 terror attacks, when hospitals across the country prepared for patients that were not to be. So far, one of the Uvalde survivors has gone home, Liao said on CNN. Three others have been stabilized. CNN interviewed survivor Miah Cerrillo, 11, even though she didnt want to speak on camera and not to a man. She told CNN producer Nora Neus the shooter said, Good night before killing her teacher. Then he kept shooting. She covered herself in a classmates blood, hoping to appear dead. The girl wanted to speak out to prevent others from such trauma. Through Neus, she asked why police didnt rescue them sooner. Its a good question, one of many that remain about the Uvalde massacre, others before it and the gun debate in general. eayala@express-news.net A 10-year-old girl who survived the tragic shooting at a Uvalde elementary school has been discharged from University Hospital in San Antonio. She was one of seven critically injured victims transported Tuesday to local hospitals. Meanwhile, the gunmans first victim his grandmother, Celia Gonzales, who goes by Sally is in serious condition at University Hospital, a Level 1 trauma facility, one of two in the region providing the highest level of trauma care. Salvador Ramos shot his 66-year-old grandmother in the face Tuesday morning before taking off in her truck and driving a couple of blocks to Robb Elementary School. Authorities say he crashed the vehicle and shot at two people across the street before entering the school, where he killed 19 students and two teachers. Additionally, 17 others were injured. LIVE UPDATES: Follow along for the latest news and analysis on the Uvalde school shooting More Information Hospitals use standard language to describe patient conditions to the public. Good - Vital signs are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious and comfortable. Indicators are excellent. Vital signs are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious and comfortable. Indicators are excellent. Fair - Vital signs are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious, but may be uncomfortable. Indicators are favorable. Vital signs are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious, but may be uncomfortable. Indicators are favorable. Serious - Vital signs may be unstable and not within normal limits. Patient is acutely ill. Indicators are questionable. Vital signs may be unstable and not within normal limits. Patient is acutely ill. Indicators are questionable. Critical - Vital signs are unstable and not within normal limits. Patient may be unconscious. Indicators are unfavorable. SOURCE: American Hospital Association See More Collapse University Hospital is treating another 10-year-old girl, who remains in serious condition, and a 9-year-old girl in good condition. A 10-year-old boy is being treated at a Methodist Healthcare hospital in San Antonio. A hospital official said he is in good condition. Two adult patients are in fair condition and being treated at Brook Army Medical Center, which is the regions other Level 1 trauma facility. University Health Foundation established a Uvalde Victims Relief Fund to support the four patients at University Hospital, including unpaid medical expenses and other needs identified by the systems social workers. Bexar County Hospital Districts injury prevention team is distributing free gun locks to encourage safe firearm storage at an Express-News health fair on Saturday. The free community event will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1406 Fitch St. on San Antonios South Side. The gun lock giveaway is part of the GunSafety4Bexar program with the county, Bexar County Sheriffs Office, Be SMART for Kids, Safe Kids San Antonio, VIA and University Health. laura.garcia@express-news.net Kin Man Hui, Staff / San Antonio Express-News Friday is an ozone action day for the San Antonio area, according to the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality. It is the fourth day this year with possibly harmful levels of ozone pollution. Young children, the elderly and others who have respiratory issues, such as bronchitis, emphysema or asthma, are more vulnerable to the pollutions effects. People with such conditions are advised to stay indoors or limit outside activity if possible. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE Nancy Sutton wept as she laid two class photographs of fourth-grade teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia and their students on the counter at Uvalde Photo. Mireles, Garcia and many of their students in the photos were gunned down at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. Those are the babies, Sutton said between sobs. Here are the sweet teachers. Sutton, 59, took the photographs last fall. She and her husband, Art Sutton, own Uvalde Photo. Nancy Sutton slowly flipped through a stack of 8-inch-by-10-inch photographs the classroom pictures and individual portraits of the children. She looked at each face and said the childs names aloud. Nancy and Art Sutton, whose shop is 2 miles northwest of downtown, have been taking class photos for elementary, middle and high schools in Uvalde for nearly 30 years. Theyve watched children grow up and become parents and have taken the school photos of their kids. This week, the Suttons have been sorting through class pictures to donate to the families of those killed in the deadliest school shooting in the United States in a decade. Salvador Ramos, 18, killed Mireles, Garcia and 19 students in a rampage that started late Tuesday morning. Like many residents, the Suttons are getting ready for numerous funerals in coming days. In this small city with a population of 15,217 located 90 miles west of San Antonio, personal connections to the families of the children and teachers who were killed abound. In a series of interviews Friday, several residents talked through tears about how theyre trying to hew closely to work and their routines as they absorb the horror of Tuesday. Jesse Alvarez, 70, spent the early morning mowing the lawn of St. Philips Episcopal Church, about 1.2 miles north of Robb Elementary. He is the lone maintenance worker for the church, which has hosted sessions for grieving families. The church is attached to St. Philips Episcopal School, with about 60 students in kindergarten through fourth grade. Alvarez wiped beads of sweat from his forehead and described how he was struggling to focus on the task of maintaining the green lawn. This was a normal town, but this is unbelievable, he said. Evil came into our town, and nobody is going to be the same. Ribbon-cutting postponed Uvalde buzzed with traffic Friday as locals, well-wishers from out of town and journalists flocked to memorial sites downtown. Fewer cars and pickups clogged the roads on Uvaldes north side, near the city limits. Thats where Vanessa McKeons new business, Saloon Antiques and Collectibles, is located. McKeon had planned a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Wednesday, but she postponed it. Its inappropriate the community needs to heal, she said inside her shop. She retired last year from the Border Patrol she said she was the agent in charge at the Carrizo Springs Station and bought the former Lonestar Saloon two weeks ago. McKeon a mother of two children; one in high school and the other in middle school said its hard to ask people how theyre doing after the the massacre. Shes afraid the question might cause more heartache to anyone who lost a family member or friend. Like many Uvalde residents, she mostly keeps quiet and waves politely. The usual pleasantries are gone, she said. No one in this community is doing OK. Just raw right now Small-business owners, construction workers and auto body shop employees were trying to finish work ahead of the long Memorial Day weekend though most have scrapped vacation plans to spend time at home with their families and to attend funerals. Staff members of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District stood together outside Honey Bowl Stadium. The Uvalde High School graduation was scheduled to take place in the stadium. It has been postponed until a later time, according to the UHS Facebook page. Its terrible, said one employee, crying. Were barely hanging on. Back at Uvalde Photo, the Suttons discussed reaching out to parents and grandparents of the deceased children and teachers to donate portrait packages. Together, the couple have four grown children and seven grandchildren. Every time I look at the photos of the children in school, I see my grand kids, Nancy Sutton said. They plan to spread the word on Facebook that they also would like to donate 16-inch-by-20-inch pictures of victims if family members want to set them in front of their caskets. Its just raw right now, she said. eric.killelea@express-news.net The gunman who killed 21 people in Uvalde this week walked through an unlocked door unopposed, state troopers said Thursday. In a significant departure from initial Texas Department of Public Safety reports, DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said the gunman didnt encounter resistance after he crashed his pickup in a ditch near the school Tuesday and walked to the building while indiscriminately shooting. Previously, DPS State Director Steven McCraw said an officer outside the school engaged with the shooter, Salvador Ramos, but did not exchange gunfire with him. That didnt happen. LIVE UPDATES: Follow along for the latest news and analysis on the Uvalde school shooting In the building for about an hour, Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers in adjoining classrooms before tactical officers killed him. The massacre ranks as the second-deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history. Police first arrived on the scene four minutes after Ramos walked through the back door at the school, Escalon said. Taking fire, the officers retreated, he said. ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images As the gunfire continued, parents of students who remained inside the school urged police to enter and stop the gunman. But it took nearly an hour before a special tactical team was able to assemble and breach a classroom that Ramos had entered and locked. The excruciating delay and discrepancies by the Texas Department of Public Safety in its shifting and incomplete account of the massacres timeline has left law enforcement executives perplexed and elected officials frustrated at still-lingering questions about the police response. On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray urging him to thoroughly examine the timeline of events. The people of Uvalde, of Texas, and of the nation deserve an accurate account of what transpired, Castro wrote. A block of time between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time has yet to be fully accounted for. Police tried to negotiate with Ramos while he was barricaded inside the locked classroom, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said. Once that shooter was in the barricade, I was in there with the hostage negotiator, McLaughlin said. He would answer (the call), hang up. Meanwhile, a mass evacuation of hundreds of other students was underway. Some kids came out windows, some came out the doors, McLaughlin said. There were parents trying to go into the building. It remains unclear when the scene changed from an active shooter to a potential hostage barricade situation, a transition that could have altered the police response, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. The response to someone who is actually actively shooting, that response has to be immediate, and its through the door, McManus said. If it turns into a barricade situation, we are not going to make an entry while nothing is happening. Were going to go in if something happens shooting starts, screaming starts. That thinking reflects changes law enforcement agencies made after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, said Fulshear Police Chief Kenny Seymour, who described that 1999 massacre as the pendulum swing that prompted law enforcements current response to active-shooter situations. We cant wait, he said. These shootings dont allow us to call those specialized units in. We have the training, the tools, to make a difference in these shootings. He understood the anguish parents were feeling waiting outside the school, he said, but added that law enforcement could have been trying to prevent adding more potential victims to the situation. I have six children, he said. Youd be hard-pressed to keep me out of the school. The terror in Uvalde began shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said, when Ramos shot his grandmother in the face. Ramos, an 18-year-old high school dropout, took his grandmothers pickup and drove toward Robb Elementary, crashing into a ditch about 11:28 a.m., Escalon said. The teen jumped out of the passenger side of the vehicle carrying a Daniel Defense assault-style rifle and a backpack containing more than a half-dozen magazines filled with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Escalon said. James Durbin / James Durbin He spotted two people at a funeral home across the street and shot at them, Escalon said, but did not hit them. From there, Ramos climbed over a fence and walked into the west side of the elementary school at about 11:40 a.m. He walked in unobstructed, Escalon said. He was not confronted by anybody. Once inside, the shooter walked into the open door of a classroom and began firing numerous rounds, Escalon said. More than 25 (shots), he said. It was a lot of gunfire in the beginning. Escalon said officials believe Ramos shot most of his victims soon after entering the classrooms. Four minutes after the gunman walked inside, Escalon said, officers from the Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District showed up at the scene. The officers took rounds, Escalon said, and retreated and called for help from nearby agencies. Law enforcement swarmed to the school, including officers from the Uvalde Police Department, DPS troopers, Texas state troopers and, later, members of the Border Patrols elite BORTAC squad, the agencys tactical unit trained to combat human smuggling, active shooters and other dangerous law enforcement operations. Outside the school, parents waited in agony. They urged police to rush the building; video showed angry and horrified parents pleading with officers as gunfire could be heard in the background. It took an hour after Ramos walked into the school for a team of the tactical officers, a Uvalde police officer and a Zavala County deputy to converge on the classroom. A Border Patrol officer killed the gunman. The revelations of the lengthy delay in bringing down the shooter brought reminiscences of shootings in Columbine and Parkland, Fla. We still dont know all the particulars, said former Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, but were starting to learn the response was not consistent with 21st century, modern day responses to active shooters. In Houston, officers are now trained to respond to active-shooter situations by doing whatever necessary to end that threat, said Acevedo, who led the department from late 2016 to March 2021. If youre the first cop, the only cop, you still need to act, to act aggressively to end the threat, he said. You run toward gunfire and engage the suspect. Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle / Staff photographer bchasnoff@express-news.net st.john.smith@chron.com Americans intend to gaslight Taipei using the methods used to control Volodymyr Zelensky as a tool against Russia. Based on a story by the New York Times that is setting up the Republic of China (ROC) to fight the same war in Ukraine against China. The outlet's report on Tuesday mentioned the involvement of US officials in applying it in the Indo-Pacific. Destabilizing the Indo-Pacific for US Hegemony Washington's new strategy honed in on providing Taiwan with asymmetric defense capabilities to help it stave off a far more powerful force, reported RT. Recent Taiwanese purchases show that Washington is beginning to use the method covertly. Arms ordered are F-16s, anti-ship missiles better for defense, but no request for Abrams MBTs and MH-60R Seahawk helicopters were not allowed. Analysts told the outlet that future defense deals would be smart mines, ship killer cruise missiles, cyber security, special forces, and air defense platforms. This explanation came from James Stavridis, former four-star admiral. One of the crucial weapons that US officials think is needed by Taiwan is Stingers, land-based Harpoon ship-killers. Just Like Kyiv, the US might share intelligence with the island enclave. The outlet added is the aim to Taiwan into what some officials call a 'porcupine' due to arms it has in abundance, including US support that will deter attack, noted Hi India. An increase of US arms abroad in the past ten years, from 2010, about more than $23 billion in arms sales to Taiwan was mentioned in a 2021 Pentagon report. In 2020, the Americans allowed arms deals for Taiwan to do a Zelensky, costing about $5 billion in total. The deal included advanced arms sales, including drones, missiles, and artillery. Read Also: Xi Jinping: 5 Things To Know About China's President US Is Turning the Indo-Pacific Into a Powder Keg Despite the successes of Russia in Ukraine and the failed strategy of economic sanctions, if China raided Taiwan. Though Ukraine did not go as planned, these US officials still wanted to do it. It seems that Washington is not sure of going all out for support, remarked officials and analysts. Director of the Asia program, Bonnie Glaser answered the question of what stop or provokes China that it's a no; also, the Biden administration is willing to be reckless about it, cited Up Jobs News. Trump Dropped the US Plans Former President Donald Trump's administration thought of stationing US troops in Taiwan, and the White House and Pentagon also considered sending a high-level military delegation to the island. But the idea was too dangerous, so the Trump administration dropped it but was taken up by his predecessor. Last Monday, a gaffe by President Joe Biden made it clear that the US will fight China if it attacks the island. Furthermore, he added that Washington commits Taiwan. Beijing issued an angry statement that warned the President not to challenge its resolve to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The White House again did damage control, saying the policy did not change; this gaffe was spun to show it's about providing arms. China has been buzzing Taiwan's airspace and sea territory because the island is part of Beijing's reach. Americans are plotting to use Taiwan as they did Zelensky, which has resulted in the wreck of Ukraine; the Indo-Pacific is the next region that the Biden administrations and is Neo-cons want to destabilize allegedly next. Related Article: US Breaks Allies' Trust for Covert Military Plans in Airbase, Greenland Thule @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate AUSTIN The grilling of a witness by a lawyer in the states highest civil courtroom was polite but heavy on legal hair-splitting and it was a judge from San Antonio in the hot seat. The case: what is the difference between government speech and free speech? It pitted the sometimes secretive commission that oversees the Texas judiciary against Judge Rosie Speedlin Gonzalez, who was trying to get out from under the panels discipline. Bexar Countys first openly gay Latina elected to a bench argued that her right to display a rainbow Pride Flag in her courtroom was protected by the First Amendment. Testimony at the special trial to decide her appeal took hours and a ruling might not come for months. It was on the wall with the Texas and U.S. flags for about 10 months after she took office in 2019, but she took it down and moved it into her chambers after a complaint about it resulted in a private warning by the State Commission on Judicial Conduct. The complaint was filed by a lawyer who found it offensive and sought to move all his cases from Bexar County Court-at-Law No. 13, where Speedlin Gonzalez presides. It is one of the countys two misdemeanor courts that focus on family violence cases. Arguing before a three-judge panel assembled by the commission in the Texas Supreme Courts courtroom, Speedlin Gonzalez said the flag is not a political statement, but a symbol of inclusiveness, self-acceptance, unity and pride for a community that she says has been long oppressed and made to feel separate from everyone else. That flag is a flag that symbolizes equality, she said under direct questioning by attorney Phil Robertson, the commissions lawyer. Robertson argued that the flag created the appearance of a partisan bias. Speedlin Gonzalez also is appealing a separate, public admonition issued by the commission for her social media posts congratulating lawyers after they won jury verdicts in her court. On ExpressNews.com: Holey chones: San Antonio judge criticized for video of mock trial over boxers at South Side laundry Speedlin Gonzalez said a training session for new judges she attended after her election encouraged them to commend good work, but she stopped the kudos after being admonished. The special court of review consisted of Bill Pedersen III and Bonnie Lee Goldstein, both justices on the states Fifth Court of Appeals; and J. Wade Birdwell, justice of the Second Court of Appeals. Their eventual decision on the flag dispute could set a precedent, not only in Texas, but across the nation, said Deanna Whitley, who is representing her. The panel sees this as an important decision of significance, Whitley said after the hearing. As a judge and member of the LGBTQ community, upon election, she does not lose her rights. She has to balance them. On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: Not much to like about judges Facebook posts From the moment she took the oath Jan. 1, 2019, and moved into her chambers, she gave it her own touch, hanging artwork and displaying symbols that reflect not only her cultural heritage, but also her identity as a gay woman. The decor spilled into her courtroom and included adornments on her judicial robe. The rainbow flag was a gift from Orgullo de San Antonio, the local LGBTQ council of the League of United Latin American Citizens. Orgullo is the Spanish word for pride. It was a little shorter than the Texas and American colors and some distance away, but all three were just behind the judges bench. Speedlin Gonzalez had unsuccessfully argued before the commission in February 2020 that its not a political symbol. We have, in our country and across the state, numerous I couldnt even state to count them childrens courts and family courts with rainbows all over their courtrooms, she said in her testimony then. But I was directed to take, not only my flag down, but my rainbow frame glasses off, my multicolored pen off the bench, my rainbow flag mousepad off the bench. Speedlin Gonzalez also has stopped wearing a robe with a colorful design taken from a Mexican zarape, which was given to her by her mother-in-law, Phylis J. Speedlin, a former jurist on the Fourth Court of Appeals. She has stopped wearing a pin that recognizes the International Association of LGBTQ Judges. The flag became an issue after local defense attorney Flavio Hernandez filed a motion to recuse Speedlin Gonzalez from presiding over his cases because of it. He also filed the complaint with the commission, It was an anonymous complaint, but he has acknowledged being its author and told Express-News columnist Gilbert Garcia in a written statement in April 2020, I may not be able to turn the dark tide of immorality sweeping through our nation like a virus, but in my small way, I voiced my support of traditional American family values. On ExpressNews.com: State admonishes San Antonio judge for violating due process Testimony established that Speedlin Gonzalez is not the only judge in Bexar County who wears distinctive robes. County Court-at-Law No. 2 Judge Wayne Christian, who presides over Veterans Treatment Court, wears a camouflage robe. Criminal Magistrate Judge Andrew Carrutherss gown has an African daishiki design on the shoulders. And at least one other judge routinely wears a San Antonio Spurs pin, Speedlin Gonzalez pointed out. None of them have been ordered by the commission to stick to basic black gowns and ditch the decorations and none of them should be, she said. Speedlin Gonzalez is up for re-election this year and faces Republican Charles E. Gold in November. ezavala@express-news.net | Twitter: @elizabeth2863 Today, only 72 hours after 19 children and two teachers were slaughtered by a gunman in an Uvalde elementary school, the National Rifle Association will meet as planned in Houston, just 275 miles away. They will hear from former President Donald Trump, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and others owned and controlled by the NRA. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn was scheduled to be there, too, but now says his schedule doesnt permit it. LIVE UPDATES: Follow along for the latest news and analysis on the Uvalde school shooting Also in attendance will be gun manufacturing leaders and lobbyists, a cohort that has successfully ensured Republicans and some Democrats in Congress do absolutely nothing to address mass shootings or any kind of gun control. The Gun Violence Archives, an independent data collection and research group, lists Tuesdays Uvalde massacre as the nations latest, but it wont remain in that spot for long. More than 200 mass shootings have been entered into the database since Jan. 1. Today is only the 147th day in 2022. For his birthday, a young gunman in Uvalde bought two assault-style rifles and 375 rounds of 5.56-caliber ammunition, according to news reports. The power and speed of each round left his victims unrecognizable, requiring their parents DNA to identify them. Sometimes I think such gruesome images need to go public in order to force lawmakers to act and ordinary people to demand change and propel NRA-loving politicians out of office. The Republican Legislature and Republican Gov. Greg Abbott have created a home for mass shooters to continue unabated. So far, Washington has been inept, especially the U.S. Senate, where two pieces of gun-control legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives have not been brought to a vote. Both expand background checks. It seems to make no matter that a Suffolk University/USA Today poll found 90 percent of registered voters support background checks. Other polls have found similar support among Democrats and Republicans. The NRA convention this weekend will celebrate the Senates idleness, the deadly status quo, firearm manufacturers and their lobbyists. Together theyve made gun owners paranoid about a perceived threat to the Second Amendments guarantee of gun ownership. Its a myth that has lined the gun industrys pockets. Theyre all willing to live with the consequences of inaction the mounting deaths of innocents in classrooms, houses of worship, shopping centers and nightclubs, wherever people gather, even at home. A few news reports have said the NRA wont allow conventioneers to carry guns, but thats not exactly true. They wont be allowed to carry firearms into the leadership forum at which Trump will speak. For the former presidents safety, the Secret Service also has banned firearm accessories or knives, among other items, USA Today reported. Thats where Abbott is scheduled to speak, too, though he sounded undecided about attending the event when asked at a Wednesday news conference in Uvalde. The same news conference where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto ORourke became the focal point by confronting Abbott about the school massacre. This is on you, ORourke told Abbott. The NRA event will be safer than any classroom in Uvalde, any grocery store in Buffalo, any Walmart in El Paso. At the top of its website, the NRA offered condolences to Uvalde and praised school officials and first responders. In the next breath, it celebrated its convention offerings, including over 14 acres of the latest guns and gear from the most popular companies in the industry. NRA members and their immediate families, including spouses and children under 18, will be admitted free, the website says. Theyll revel in a Second Amendment they believe is absolute. It isnt, as President Joe Biden said this week, meaning its not free of any restrictions. The First Amendment doesnt guarantee all speech either. You cant shout fire in a crowded theater. You cant reverse the trend of U.S. mass shootings by passing one law or getting more support for mental health services. It will require a multitude of laws and resources that begin with intensive background checks and cautious permitting before gun sales. It will require training, buy-back programs, age restrictions, a registry and other means to limit and control access, especially to young people and unstable people. And especially to people in a hurry to buy them. The Uvalde investigation has just begun and already questions have been raised about the police timeline, their actions and inaction. Funerals arent yet set for grief that will last lifetimes. There are some certainties. Nothing will change if a gun-loving nation fails to stop giving shooters the means to carry out their plans by easily acquiring guns, especially assault-style guns. The other certainty: 19 more precious children will be added to a growing statistic in the United States of America, where guns are the leading cause of death among children. eayala@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Through devotion Blessed are the children Praise the teacher That brings true love to many Devotion, Earth, Wind, and Fire UVALDE At the entrance of Uvalde Memorial Park off Main Street is a plaque dedicated to the young men from Uvalde County who lost their lives in World War I. During the war, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, 35 soldiers from Uvalde were killed. These men gave what President Abraham Lincoln, in his Gettysburg Address, said of the men killed in that Civil War battle: the last full measure of devotion. On Tuesday at Robb Elementary School, a mile from the park, 21 people were shot to death. More than half the number of those whod been killed in four years of war were massacred by a weapon unimagined by men in combat then or our Founding Fathers, all within one horrific hour. Of the slain, 19 were children from 8 to 11 years old. The other two, Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, were teachers who, attempting to save the lives of children, gave their last full measure of devotion at a school to which Getty Street will lead you. RELATED: Editorial: Uvalde suffers, yet the political charade goes on Driving up Main Street are reminders of the normal progression of a childs school years. A banner announced that pre-K enrollment is underway; a yellow school bus across from H-E-B advertised the need for bus drivers; graduation pictures of Uvalde High Schools Class of 2022 could be seen in front of city offices. Turn left at Main and Getty, followed by a couple of other turns, and that will take you to the school where all expectations of the normal progression of 19 childrens school years, and the remaining years of their teachers, were shattered. On Wednesday, the world gathered across the street from Robb Elementary School, at the corners of Old Carrizo Road and Geraldine. Thats where the worlds media camped to report on a unique but frequent American spectacle: a mass shooting, a school shooting with multiple fatalities. Being played out this time in Uvalde is the heartbreaking ritual of strangers saying goodbye to children they never had the chance to say hello to and looking back on lives not given the time to go forward. In a house directly across from the school, a No Trespassing sign and a yellow sign with Respect for Life stood in a yard shaded by a velvet ash tree surrounded by a rose of Sharon bush. Throughout the day, the media tread across the yard, as did mourners who reached across the yellow police tape to hand flowers and stuffed animals to Department of Public Safety officers, who then placed them at the growing memorial below the schools sign. There will be other memorials in the days, weeks and years to come for the 19 children and two women murdered in that school. There will be a plaque engraved with their names, just as there is a plaque engraved with the names of the men killed in war. Memorial Day will forever have deeper and tragic meaning for Uvalde. To memorialize is to remember, and memory begins with bearing witness to lives and events. And to listen to those who bear witness. RELATED: Lingle: After Uvalde just until the next one On Wednesday, reluctantly at first but with growing confidence, Adalynn Garza began bearing witness. The 9-year-old third grader was hiding with her teacher and other students in a dark second grade classroom during the shooting. We did level zero, she said. Asked what that was, she answered, Stay quiet and be still. Theyd practiced active shooting drills. At least three children she was close to died, including 10-year-old Tess Mata. I couldnt sleep last night, she said Wednesday. It kept coming to my head. RELATED: Everybody is crying Uvalde school massacre ripples through little towns on U.S. 90 And while its a silly thing to ask a child who was in the middle of a deadly mass shooting, it must be asked: How was she feeling now? I feel scared, Adalynn said, as she twirled the long hair of her 6-year-old sister, Kinsley, because what happened in this grade will happen again. The child didnt say can. She said will. cary.clack@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE At the end of May, in other years, American flags flying at half-staff are for Memorial Day. On Wednesday, flags across the nation were at half-staff for 19 children and two teachers murdered at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde by a person with an assault rifle. This Memorial Day, America will also mourn these latest victims of our national disease of gun violence as we remember those who died while serving our country. What would those who died for our freedom think of us now? Would they hold an allegiance to weapons of war over the lives of citizens? Would they appreciate politicians who wont have a conversation or try to fix the problem? Would they be OK with acceptance of such carnage? On ExpressNews.com: After Uvalde just until the next one On my drive west Wednesday from San Antonio to Uvalde under the bright sky, my knees and stomach felt hollow a sensation I remember from the aftermath of a mass shooting in Afghanistan in 2014. But those were soldiers in a war zone, not fourth graders in rural Texas. My mind grappled with the senselessness made worse by the ragged script of thoughts and prayers and now is not the time to talk about policy changes. Photos of high school seniors about to graduate lined the streets of Hondo, Sabinal and Knippa, small towns along the way. The caps, gowns and smiles looked different in the shadow of Uvalde. And the sign for a combo gun/liquor store not far from a church and the cutoff for Utopia laid bare Texas sick ironies. At the Uvalde High School theater, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott hosted a press conference where he blamed mental health for the shooting, but he did not mention that the state is 51st in the country for access to mental health care. Nor did he mention anything about how easy access to guns contributed to this slaughter. On ExpressNews.com: My heart will forever be broken: What we know about the victims of the Uvalde school shooting When Abbotts Democratic opponent, Beto ORourke, interrupted Wednesdays press conference to challenge the governor about his gun policies, Abbotts allies yelled, pointed fingers and swore. Their reaction to a simple, rational statement spoke louder than any answer they couldve given. Several dozen media members followed ORourke outside, where he continued speaking. When we tried to return to the press conference, state troopers barred us. Blocking press freedom is a bad look for leaders of a state who talk big about constitutional rights. After the press conference, I met Ann and W.C. Reagan, lifelong Uvalde residents who live three doors down from the high school. Ann, 83, taught for 40 years, including 20 at Robb Elementary. She said she never imagined something like this happening in their community. W.C., 87, called himself a No. 1 believer in the Second Amendment and said, Im all for if you want to have a handgun or rifle for hunting, more power I do not think the public needs an AR-15. He offered lunch at a place called Oatback Oasis on my next visit. Some colleagues and I ended up there for a meal that afternoon. In the barbecue joint and sporting goods shop, we sat under a taxidermied rodeo bull and talked quietly. On ExpressNews.com: Editorial: By doing nothing to prevent gun violence, nation chooses this pain On the way out, I looked at its gun selection. There were handguns, rifles and shotguns, but they must have put away the AR-15s. At the time, we didnt know thats where the shooter picked up at least one of his weapons. A couple miles away, near Robb Elementary, satellite trucks and vans filled the neighborhoods narrow streets as state troopers stood watch. On South Grove Street, a block from the school, after the flatbed carrying the shooters wrecked truck drove off, the sounds of the generators and engines faded for a moment. Dogs barked and roosters crowed. A yellow butterfly flew in front of me, and then I heard the cries from a nearby house. The sobs echoed long after Id walked away. They still do. They remind me that America has become more tolerant of losing kids in school than troops in combat. On Memorial Day and long after, we must acknowledge that we failed these children and teachers. And until we come together to fix this scourge, were failing to honor the sacrifice of those who died serving our nation. Thats a harsh truth in the afternoon light on the drive back to San Antonio as the flags still flew at half-staff. Some were tattered. brandon.lingle@express-news.net This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE Forever sad. That is what 14-year old Uvalde twin sisters told me they will feel. When they learned of an active shooter at an elementary school Tuesday, they panicked about their mom, who teaches at a different elementary school in the district. At a Wednesday night Mass at Sacred Heart Church here, the twins were a part of a group of 18 students who placed single roses at the altar as San Antonio Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller read the names of the 19 murdered students and two teachers, Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles. On ExpressNews.com: My heart will forever be broken: What we know about the victims of the Uvalde school shooting Seeing the faces of the twins and other children in front of the altar was gut-wrenching. Amid so much grief, they were the lucky ones, survivors in a terrorized and heartbroken town. Just days before the final day of school, students at Robb Elementary a school of about 600 students, mostly low-income in second through fourth grade were celebrating. They watched movies, played bingo and enjoyed recess. The days theme was footloose and fancy wear a nice outfit with fun/fancy shoes. The day before they cheered and gave high-fives to Uvalde High School seniors doing their graduation walk. Nineteen students their whole lives ahead of them will never return to school or walk as seniors. And their two teachers wont share their own childrens experiences or witness their milestones. Their lives were stolen by a deeply troubled Salvador Rolando Ramos, 18, who made his way into two adjoining classrooms, locking the door and making it a brutal battleground for up to an hour. The students and their two teachers were defenseless against Ramos, who had purchased two semi-automatic rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition. The horrific scenes are enraging. Parents, desperate to save their children, begged officers to enter the school. Some broke windows to enter, according to the Washington Post. As Amerie Jo Garzas father, Alfred Garza III, waited to see if his daughter, his only child, was safe, he helped terrified students call their parents, he told NBC. Six hours later, he got confirmation Amerie Jo was dead. Steven Garcia told reporters his 9-year-old daughter, Eliana Ellie Garcia, had chosen a quinceanera dress more than five years early for a day that will never come. Yvette Quintero told me her son David, a third grader, was in a different building from the shooter. Within minutes of the alert, she was at the school, trying to find him while her husband checked the funeral home. They found David at 3 p.m. at the local civic center. David said he was playing bingo when someone announced a lockdown. He felt sad and scared as they waited for the cops, and said he saw the shooter walking out of another building. I met another mother, who asked not to disclose her name, and her 9-year-old son at Walgreens, where they were printing photos from her sons class field trip to the San Antonio Zoo the week before. She said when she received the active shooter alert, she assumed it was an immigration bailout, normal for the community about 75 miles from the border. But then she got a call from her sister, who works at Robb Elementary. She called me and told me she didnt know where my son was, she said. Desperate for answers, she went to the school and sent her husband to the civic center. They found him two hours later. I found him the middle of the civic center, crying and alone, she said, wiping tears. He ran into my arms. She said her sister saw the dead. She saw all of the students, and you couldnt even make out their faces, she said. Uvalde is a small town where everyone knows everyone, she said. So everyone I know has lost someone. Uvalde, a friendly, mostly Latino city 85 miles west of San Antonio, will forever be remembered as the place of Americas second-worst mass school shooting. That schools are unsafe and communities endure this recurring nightmare is an injustice. We have seen this all before. Journalists from all over the world camped out, distraught families making funeral arrangements for their young children, some of whom had to be identified with DNA. Partisan politicians making their inadequate and unbelievable promises at news conferences; heartbroken communities trying to come to terms with their anguish. And troubled young American men with access to guns dreaming of more mayhem. Nancy.Preyor-Johnson@express-news.net Robb Elementary School in Uvalde is a beloved place, and we see this in the lives of the 19 students and two teachers we have lost. Jose Flores, 10, loved going to school. Amerie Jo Garza, 10, a teachers pet in the best possible of ways, was murdered trying to call 911. The morning of the shooting, Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez had beamed after earning a certificate for making the A/B honor roll. Alexandria Lexi Aniyah Rubio, 10, had earned A honor roll and a good citizen award. Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia, who had a combined 40 years of teaching experience, had been co-teaching for the past five years. At Robb Elementary School, we see so much that is right in our society so much good. Children chasing their dreams. Teachers cultivating inspiration. Children honored for good citizenship. RELATED: Editorial: Uvalde suffers, yet the political charade goes on As we saw so clearly with the onset of the pandemic, our schools are much more than places of learning. They are community centers, where children make lifelong friendships and grow as leaders into adulthood. Schools also are a place of refuge, and for some children, a guaranteed safe space with quality meals and an internet connection. To have a school turned into a killing field should be unthinkable but it is a hellish possibility that lingers in the minds of parents, students and educators across this country. A school shooting should never happen, but we live in a society where it could happen anytime, anywhere. Listen to the screams, captured on video, of frantic parents desperately trying to enter Robb Elementary School on Tuesday as police stood by. Why do we accept opposition to ending gun violence when we know the consequences of inaction? We are not powerless. We could choose to elect leaders dedicated to preventing gun violence, and yet we continually elect Republican leaders who oppose doing anything. On this front, we have a regret to share. For this years primary elections, we met with more than 100 candidates in both major parties, and while we discussed any number of issues, we only occasionally raised the topic of guns. With only one candidate, Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Beto ORourke, did we speak at length about preventing gun violence, given the El Paso massacre. Not because we dont care about preventing gun violence we desperately want change but because this issue, which should easily unify Americans, has become so intractable that we had lost hope. RELATED: Lingle: After Uvalde just until the next one One of the lessons after Uvalde is that we can never give up hope for change. We can never accept preventing gun violence as politically intractable and we should collectively push every elected official and candidate on how they will end this cycle of carnage. If their answers and ideas are inadequate, unacceptable, as devoid of substance as they are of heart, then voters should reject these candidates. And in Texas, land of lax gun laws and repeated mass shootings, the ideas espoused and policies embraced are wholly inadequate, unacceptable and lacking of heart. In response to mass shootings in El Paso and Midland-Odessa in 2019, state lawmakers made gun laws more permissible, most notably passing permitless carry in 2021. We witnessed a similar Texas playbook in the immediate aftermath of Uvalde with U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz warning of Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. He echoed this absurd sentiment in an interview with British Sky News. Indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also dismissed gun safety measures and instead called for more guns. Id much rather have law-abiding citizens armed and trained, so that they can respond when something like this happens because its not going to be the last time, Paxton said. But it should never have happened. The students and teachers in Uvalde were law-abiding citizens, too. They should all be alive today. RELATED: Preyor-Johnson: Scene in Uvalde a nightmare that wont end Lets dispense with this myth that any regulation of guns is somehow unconstitutional. To quote Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in the landmark 2008 decision District of Columbia v. Heller, Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. (It is) not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose. The flaccid talking points Paxton and Cruz espouse reflect a rote political response to tragedy one we reject and condemn. These slaughters have become so frequent the Buffalo shooting was just May 14 that there is almost a formula in response to each unique tragedy. We saw this in Gov. Greg Abbotts press conference Wednesday. Initial praise for first responders who now appear to have utterly failed these children, standing by instead of acting. Prayers for the families. No interest in gun safety. Abbott was quick to shift the focus to mental health, even though in April he slashed $211 million from Texas Health and Human Services, and Mental Health America has ranked Texas 51st in access to mental health care. Against such a flawed backdrop, we cant fault ORourke for challenging Abbott on gun violence prevention at Wednesdays press conference. It was an entirely human response to the murders of 19 children. The same old routine is failing Texans and we have paid the highest cost. Texas has an F rating from the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which calls for a number of modest proposals. These include universal background checks on gun sales, a red-flag law, the repeal of permitless carry, enacting anti-gun trafficking laws, and strengthening protections for victims of domestic violence and hate crimes. Not nearly enough, but a start. Children are shot every day in the United States, and Texas should adopt aggressive safe storage laws to prevent unintentional shootings and massacres. For school shootings, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility has found over the last 20 years, where the source of the gun could be determined, more than 80 percent of shooters brought their firearms from their own homes or from the homes of friends or relatives. RELATED: Everybody is crying Uvalde school massacre ripples through little towns on U.S. 90 Access to assault-style weapons is way too lax. We would support a ban, but more realistically, we would support barriers to access: Aggressive permitting, safety classes, higher costs, databases to track ownership, increasing the age for ownership. Too often gun violence prevention is framed in either/or terms. It is either gun safety or mental health. As Abbott said Wednesday, People who think, well, maybe we just implement tougher gun laws, its going to solve it, Chicago, L.A. and New York disprove that thesis. We wonder, governor, how can we meaningfully prevent gun violence without considering guns? If mental health is the concern, then why embrace permissive gun laws? Earlier we stressed the importance of not losing hope and refusing to accept intractable politics. While we are mourning, we find a small measure of hope in negotiations between Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat. To both, we say, break the mold. You have nothing to lose no political cost to pay and lives to save. The children at Robb Elementary School reflected all that was right in America just as their murders reflect all that is wrong. Honor them. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has cancelled his appearance Friday at the National Rifle Association convention, joining Gov. Greg Abbott in backing out just days after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at a school in Uvalde. While a strong supporter of the Second Amendment and an NRA member, I would not want my appearance today to bring any additional pain or grief to the families and all those suffering in Uvalde, Patrick said in a statement. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Donald Trump represented a potential threat to the National Rifle Association more than any Democrat when he first took the White House as he espoused gun control measures that were the absolute antithesis of the lobbys desires. While the NRA spent over $30 million to help assure Trumps victory in 2016, it was a far bigger political gamble as many other gun advocates and some Republicans questioned the depth of support Trump had for gun rights. Trump, who unlike his three GOP predecessors wasnt a gun enthusiast or hunter, talked about expanding background checks, limiting gun sales and even scolded Republicans who wouldnt stand up to the group. Yet there he will be tomorrow in Houston at the NRAs annual meetings once again, on display as possibly the president most entwined with the NRA in its history. No American president has spoken more frequently at NRA conventions and meetings than Trump and the raucous applause he gets is evidence of how he has given the group everything it requested. Hes also an example of the influence wielded by one of the most powerful lobbying groups in America. President Trump delivered on his promises by appointing judges who respect and value the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and in doing so helped ensure the freedom of generations of Americans, NRA Executive Vice President & CEO Wayne LaPierre said in announcing Trumps keynote in Houston. The former president's appearance comes at an especially fraught moment, just days after the mass shooting in Uvalde that left 21 people dead, including 19 children. NRA officials and Trump have insisted they wont be deterred and will go on with their meetings despite the tragedy. America needs real solutions and real leadership in this moment, not politicians and partisanship. Thats why I will keep my longtime commitment to speak in Texas at the NRA convention and deliver an important address to America, Trump said. Sure Trump said a lot of things that sounded like they could be dangerous to the NRA for much of the last 20 years, said Robert J. Spitzer, an expert on gun control issues in presidential politics from the State University of New York, Cortland. There is no shortage of public speeches and statements of Trump supporting various gun control measures, most notably after the 2018 massacre of children at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. But they could always reel him in, Spitzer said. As long as they had access to them, they could change his tune. The favors Trump White House did for the industry included administrative actions such as changing the definition of fugitive from justice when it comes to gun possession making it possible for some people with outstanding arrest warrants to buy firearms legally. On top of all that, the NRA always could offer an unspoken trade that was more important to Trump than anything for remaining in its good graces, according to Spitzer: Center stage at the NRAs biggest meeting with roaring crowds who adore Trump. That holds great sway with Trump, Spitzer said. He can always get a cheering crowd at NRA conventions. That is kind of the glue that holds him together with the NRA. But perhaps even more importantly, Spitzer said, was what Trump did with the judiciary. By loading the federal bench with pro-gun judicial appointees, Trump has backstopped gun rights groups at every turn as they push further, with laws the Texas permitless carry measure enacted in Texas last year. Thats why the Supreme Court is poised to strike down the New York gun law and theyre going to expand the definition of gun rights under the 2nd Amendment within the month, Spitzer predicted. That NRA connection started before Trumps 2016 election. A true friend of the NRA During his presidency, Trump gave the NRA key victories, including: He repealed an Obama-era regulation that had the Social Security Administration report people who declared having severe mental illnesses, to make sure they were flagged in gun purchase background checks. His Justice Department changed the definition of "fugitive from justice" when it comes to gun possession - making it possible for some people with outstanding arrest warrants to buy firearms legally. He never installed a full-time director to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives during his presidency, leading the nation's top gun enforcement agency without a leader. And during the pandemic, he declared gun stores, shooting ranges and firearm and ammunition manufacturers essential businesses to assure they could remain open. See More Collapse From foe to friend Even before the Republican primaries were over, the NRA endorsed Trump over U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz as other gun advocacy groups warned that Trump couldnt be trusted because of his past support for gun control measures. He once supported an assault weapons ban and called for longer waiting periods for gun purchases. Trump is not at all satisfactory. Hes not consistent. Sometimes hes conservative, and sometimes hes not, said Larry Pratt in 2015, then the executive director of the Gun Owners of America who endorsed Cruz. That seemed particularly true after Parkland in 2018. After meeting with families of children killed, Trump held a televised meeting with U.S. Senators where he talked about raising the age to buy some weapons and expanding background checks. Trump looked right at U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn, and told him the reason the Senate GOP couldnt get such measures through was because youre afraid of the NRA. Hours later, the conservative Breitbart News posted the headline: "Trump the Gun Grabber: Cedes Dems' Wish List. But Trumps calls for reforms never lasted long. For gun control groups like leaders of Moms Demand Action, Trump broke those promises thanks to late-night phone calls with LaPierre. Even a year later, after the mass shooting in El Paso that left 23 dead, Trump told reporters there was great appetite for background checks. But nothing came close to emerging from Congress. For the past four years, weve seen what happens when the NRA and its allies pull the strings in the White House: gun violence rages unchecked, John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety, said after Trump lost the White House in 2020. Moms Demand Action is among dozens of gun rights groups descending on Houston over the next few days to protest Trump and the NRA. In the end, Trumps talk about even meager gun control measures after Parkland, Santa Fe and other mass shootings was just talk that NRA leaders made sure never became legislative issues with true political capital from Trump, Spitzer said: NRA met with him, and he had changed his tune. China to advance efforts in joining CPTPP, DEPA trade pacts Xinhua) 11:38, May 27, 2022 BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- China will continue to advance its accession into the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), the commerce ministry said Thursday. "China adheres to aligning with high-standard international economic and trade rules and expanding high-level opening-up," said Gao Feng, a spokesperson with the Ministry of Commerce. The spokesperson reiterated China's commitment to achieving a comprehensive and high-level Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), adding China will propose work plans in the field of digital and green economy and actively participate in the formulation of new guiding documents on advancing FTAAP. Gao said China would continue to implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement with high quality and safeguard the security and stability of regional industrial and supply chains. The country will also work with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to actively build version 3.0 of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area and establish more mutually beneficial bilateral and regional economic and trade ties, said the spokesperson. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) The former Indian Foreign Minister Kanwal Sibal reasoned that Moscow is not a threat according to Joe Biden; instead refused to support Russian sanctions. Going against the US, New Delhi convinces members to stay neutral instead. Countries that followed Washington are having a crisis brought about by illegal sanctions. US Fails To Get More Support From Asia Sibal stressed the Quad must focus on the Indo-Pacific, and India refuses to consider Russia an adversary, reported RT. Last Tuesday, heads of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue gave their joint statement after a summit held in Japan. The statement strongly emphasized security concerns in the South China Sea and Asia, slipping in Ukraine as a "tragic conflict" and a "humanitarian crisis," All four leaders spoke about their responses, cited New41 Media. Sibal, a veteran diplomat who served as India's foreign minister between 2001 and 2002, informed RT on Tuesday this was not an accident. Attempts To Subvert the Group to the US' Machinations He added that Moscow was never a threat to the stability and security of the Indo-Pacific region. Warning that attempts by the US to bring in the Ukraine conflict to the affairs of the Quad; is not acceptable, noted Mass News. India has energy relations and pursued investment in Russia's the Far East, and still buying oil from Russia. Another was issued on Monday by the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, a coalition of 13 Pacific countries organized by the United States that did not mention Ukraine or Russia. Read Also: Vladimir Putin: 3 Facts You Didn't Know About Russia's President - From His Judo Records to His KGB Pseudonym The former Indian Foreign Minister said Quad members do not support Russian sanctions, except for humanitarian situations that need assistance. White House claims a readout of US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussing in Tokyo allegedly mentioned that New Delhi condemns Russia's war with Ukraine, which the US supports. It was denied, and the US was charged to be adding facts that never happened because India rebuked the demands it supports the sanctions against Moscow, added Sibal. During the Cold War, India was a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement, equipped with Soviet weapons without really establishing a partnership with the Soviet Union. According to some analysts, about 85% of major Indian weapons systems are of Russian or Soviet make, including its military, economic, and political matters. India and Russia regularly refer to their interaction as a "special and privileged strategic partnership" in official papers. The White House Baits Delhi India refuses to stop buying cheap oil from Russia even as Joe Biden says the US will sell new weapons systems, despite Modi's rejecting the US demand to support sanctions against Vladimir Putin. Countries in Asia are ignoring the ramblings of the White House. Sibal said no to sanctioning Moscow, which has never approved New Delhi, but the US and its allies have liberally sanctioned India at a whim for many years. He added only the United Nations Security Council could sanction Russia, not the US and Western allies doing it illegally. Former Indian Foreign Minister said Russia is no threat to Quad members, and Russian sanctions are illegal. He took a potshot at the US that is allegedly arm twisting to get support from India. Related Article: Biden Administration Demands Its Western Allies To Foot the Bill in Ukraine on the Conflict It Allegedly Started @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Fairfield, MT (59436) Today Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 46F. E winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 20 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 46F. E winds shifting to WNW at 10 to 20 mph. Fairfield, MT (59436) Today A mix of clouds and sun. High 69F. N winds shifting to ESE at 10 to 15 mph.. Tonight Mostly cloudy skies. Slight chance of a rain shower. Low 46F. E winds shifting to W at 10 to 15 mph. Calls are being made for a new multi-purpose agri-hub and market to be built in Cowbridge following the demolition of the old livestock mart in 2020. Industry bodies, including the Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW), are putting forward the idea to bring back a mart in the Vale of Glamorgan town, as well as a multi-purpose resource. The market was closed for good in September 2020, leaving local farmers with a 45-mile trip to sell their livestock. The site is now a car park. The effects of the closure of the market were felt across a wide area, according to the FUW, but especially by the local communities. With the demolition it, the alternative options to sell cattle or sheep are situated an hours' drive in either direction. And with restrictions is place for hauling livestock over 65km, the union says this is an additional cost for producers, along with the impact on their carbon footprint. FUW member Charlotte Llewellyn of Cefncolstyn Farm, Pentyrch said: "If the Welsh government is genuine about promoting sustainable farming, then butchers need local abattoirs processing local livestock from local markets produced by local farmers. "In Glamorgan the nearest livestock markets are Raglan, Ross or Brecon - this does not support farmers trying to be carbon neutral or negative. "Neither does it support restaurants trying to buy ingredients with low green miles nor public attempting to do their part to reduce global warming by choosing to consume local produce." The benefits of having somewhere to chat to other farmers are also huge. "Farming can be a lonely business," Ms Llewellyn added. "Day to day running of a busy farm can be stressful enough and therefore a local market is crucial for the welfare of farmers, their livestock and the environment." As discussions get underway, there is a desire is to enable the surrounding areas to benefit from an asset which will form part of a rural hub or agri hub. The vision is that this resource will have a meeting room, hot desk facilities for all types of business, catering facilities and the building will be as multi-functioning as possible. The FUW says it is in discussion with the local councils to move the project forward. Sharon Pritchard, FUW county executive officer for Gwent & Glamorgan said: "Glamorgan County is very enthusiastic about the potential new agri hub. "With ideas for the project from YFC members and FUW members alike we as a Union are working hard alongside the Vale of Glamorgan Council to bring the agri hub to fruition." Gamekeepers are reminding the public to be vigilant when it comes to ticks as a bite can spread the serious Lyme disease illness. Estate managers who form Scotlands Regional Moorland Groups have launched the campaign '#tickcareinthecountryside' to coincide with May being Lyme Disease Awareness Month. It comes at a time when NHS 24 call handlers are dealing with a rise in tick-related calls as the warmer weather sets in across the country. The most common blood-sucking tick in the UK is the sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus). This species of infected tick can transmit Lyme disease (borrelia) to people, dogs and horses. Ticks are prevalent in areas of dense vegetation including woodland, heathland, and bracken and it is the latter habitat where most people pick up ticks during days out to the countryside. Sheep tick can also spread the louping-ill virus and cause up to 80% mortality in red grouse chicks. High burdens of ticks are also likely to reduce the health of moorland wader chicks. Campaigners say the sheer number of ticks on a bird or small mammal can also be enough to weaken or kill it, even if they are not carrying a disease. Sheep farming is closely integrated with grouse management and flocks of sheep are also an important element of tick management, estate managers explain. Ticks can be killed by treating sheep with an acaricide dip, reducing the danger to the sheep themselves and limiting the chance of ticks attaching themselves to other animals, birds and humans. Bruce Cooper, estate manager at Glen Prosen Estate in the Angus Glens, which is backing the campaign, said: Some years ago one of our Angus Glens head keepers contracted Lyme disease. "Living alone at the time he missed the telltale signs of being bitten by an infection tick. Weeks of feeling tired, progressed to sore heads, which worsened to double vision and eventually falling unconscious. "Luckily his wife raised the alarm and he received a diagnosis and treatment for Lyme disease. 25 years later he is still alive and well. "Thankfully since then there is far more awareness about the disease, how to prevent a tick bite and what symptoms to look out for." Moorland management practices being carried out across Scotland are helping to control the number of ticks in the countryside and limit the spread of Lyme disease in people. Tick control measures include, muirburn, aerial-spraying of bracken together with the management of deer and hare numbers on Scottish grouse moors. As part of the campaign, experts from the NHS have posted advice on social media for anyone concerned over a tick bite Russian President Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine has been going on since Feb. 24 and has taken the lives of thousands of people, both military personnel and civilians, but what happens if he suddenly falls sick or gets forced out by displeased officials in the middle of the war? Kremlin insiders have allegedly been privately discussing a list of potential successors to the Russian leader in the case that he is forced out over the invasion of Ukraine or becomes severely ill. The impact of Western sanctions and the cost of waging the months-long war in Ukraine have crippled Russia's economy. Vladimir Putin's Health Condition The situation has caused discontent to rise among the Kremlin and Russia's government officials. The independent Russian Meduza, citing sources with ties to the Russian government, said that political elites were now discussing "the future after Putin" more than before in order to bring back stability to the region. One source said of those inside the Kremlin that it was not that they wanted to overthrow Putin right now or that they were planning a conspiracy. They said that there was an understanding, or rather a wish, that he will not be governing the state in the foreseeable future, as per MSN. The independent outlet cited another source that said President Putin made many mistakes but could still fix them later on and could come to an agreement with Ukraine. Kremlin officials are allegedly discussing a list of possible successors to the Russian leader in secret. Read Also: Finnish, Swedish Officials Meet With Turkish Counterparts Over NATO Membership Amid Latter's Demand of 'Concrete Steps' Meduza noted that officials were floating the idea of bringing in Mayor Sergey Sobyanin of Moscow, National Security Council Deputy Chairman and former President Dmitry Medvedev, and First Deputy Chief of Staff Sergey Kiriyenko. According to Newsweek, since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began, various claims have appeared in the press and on social media claiming that Putin may have cancer or is otherwise terminally ill. Former UK intelligence officer Christopher Steele claimed in May 2022 that the Russian president broke up meetings of his security council to receive "some kind of medical treatment between those sections." What Do We Know? The former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service said that Putin would be "gone by 2023, but probably into the sanatorium." Some of the rumors regarding the Russian president's allegedly deteriorating health conditions have appeared on the social media platform Telegram, which was founded by a Russian entrepreneur and is prone to misinformation due to the anonymous nature of public channels. The conspiracies include Putin not attending engagements during May 2022 because he was recovering from "cancer surgery." such rumors have become viral worldwide as everyone's attention was drawn to any cracks in Russian leadership. During an interview on Wednesday, Steele said that their understanding was there has been increasing disarray in the Kremlin. The official is a former MI6 operative who, for several years, worked in Russia, including heading up the spy agency's Russia desk for three years. He said that there was no clear political leadership coming from Putin, who is believed to be increasingly ill, and in military terms, the structures of command and so on were not functioning as they should or how they were designed to, Business Insider reported. Related Article: China, Russia Conduct Joint Military Drill With Nuclear-Capable Bombers in East Asia amid Biden's Visit @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Category Select Category Apparel/Garments Textiles Fashion Technical Textiles Information Technology E-commerce Retail Corporate Association Press Release SubCategory Select Sub-Category Bidisha De Majumdar, a bengali actress was found dead at her apartment in Kolkata on Thursday. The 21-year old actress had also left behind a suicide note which was recovered from her house.The Bengali actress was found hanging when the police broke inside her apartment at Kolkatas Dumdum on the 25th of May. She lived in a rented apartment with her parents. A probe has also been initiated to identify if this was a murder or a suicide. The body is now at a hospital in Kolkata for post-mortem.This tragic news comes in just a few days after bengali TV actress Pallavi Dey was found hanging at her apartment.Model Santu Mondal took to his social media to write, "Why did you do this? Only yesterday you changed your Facebook DP, cover pic, and Instagram DP. You had posted after the suicide of serial actress Pallabi Dey that one should not have taken such a hasty step. And now you yourself have done the same thing,"The late actress made her debut with the movie Bhaar- The Clown in 2021. She came from Naihati and was a popular bridal model as well. Kevin Spacey has reportedly been charged with sexual assault against three men. On Thursday, Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) confirmed that the 62-year-old Hollywood actor is facing four counts of sexual assault. The news comes after an investigation by the London police.As per reports on CNBC, Kevin Spacey has also been charged with causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The charges follow a review of the evidence gathered by the Metropolitan Police in its investigation, according to a statement from the Rosemary Ainslie CPS Special Crime Division.The statement also adds, "The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Spacey are active and that he has the right to a fair trial."It has been reported that two assaults took place in London in March 2005 against one victim. A second victim has alleged that an assault happened in August 2008. Another victim reported sexual assault in Gloucestershire in April 2013.To note, Kevin Spacey was accused of sexually assaulting several members of the crew of House of Cards. He was removed from the show and asked to pay $31 million for violating the studio's sexual harassment policy.Kevin Spacey is also trying to make a comeback with a mystery thriller film Peter Five Eight and its trailer was unveiled at the Cannes Film Festival where it's looking for distributors. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the production house behind the film responded to the charges against Spacey in a statement that read - While its unfortunate that increased negative press is timed with Kevin returning to work, its also to be expected. There are those who wish for him not to act, but they are outnumbered by fans worldwide who await an artist they have enjoyed for decades returning to the screen." KELOWNA, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 26, 2022 / Avant Brands Inc. (TSX:AVNT)(OTCQX:AVTBF)(FRA:1BU0) ("Avant" or the "Company"), an award-winning leading producer of handcrafted, high quality cannabis products, held its annual general and special meeting of shareholders of the Company (the "Shareholders") on May 26, 2022 (the "Meeting"). 26,483,507 of the Company's issued and outstanding common shares representing 13.15% of the shares of the Company were represented in person or by proxy at the Meeting. The complete voting results from the Meeting are as follows: 1. Election of Directors Each of the six (6) nominees listed in the management information circular of the Company dated April 18, 2022 (the "Circular") were elected to hold office until the next annual meeting of Shareholders or until his or her successor is duly elected or appointed. Proxies were tabulated as follows: Name of Nominee Votes FOR % Votes FOR Votes WITHHELD % Votes WITHHELD Jurgen Schreiber 21,706,561 81.96% 4,776,946 18.04% Norton Singhavon 21,709,688 81.97% 4,773,819 18.03% Michael Blady 21,659,813 81.79% 4,823,694 18.21% Derek Sanders 21,705,588 81.96% 4,777,919 18.04% Ruairi Twomey 21,291,788 80.40% 5,191,719 19.60% Duane Lo 21,265,786 80.30% 5,217,721 19.70% 2. Appointment of Auditor Manning Elliott LLP was re-appointed as auditor of the Company until the close of the next annual meeting of Shareholders at a remuneration to be fixed by the Board of Directors of the Company. Proxies were tabulated as follows: Votes FOR % Votes FOR Votes WITHHELD % Votes WITHHELD 26,369,403 99.57% 114,104 0.43% 3. Amendments to the Deferred Share Unit Plan The Shareholders approved certain amendments to the Company's deferred share unit plan , including any previous grants of deferred share units and all unallocated awards issuable thereunder, as more fully described in the Circular. Proxies were tabulated as follows: Votes FOR % Votes FOR Votes WITHHELD % Votes WITHHELD 21,563,693 81.42% 4,919,814 18.58% 4. Long Term Incentive Plan The Shareholders approved the adoption of the Company's long term incentive plan and all unallocated awards issuable thereunder, as more fully described in the Circular. Proxies were tabulated as follows: Votes FOR % Votes FOR Votes WITHHELD % Votes WITHHELD 21,589,241 81.52% 4,894,266 18.48% About Avant Brands Inc. Avant is an innovative, market-leading premium cannabis company. Avant has multiple licensed and operational production facilities across Canada, which produce high-quality, handcrafted cannabis products for our highly desired, and award-winning consumer brands, sold across both recreational and medical channels. Avant's recreational consumer brands include: BLK MKT, Tenzo, Cognoscente and Treehugger, all produced from rare and exceptional cultivars, and sold in British Columbia, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and the Yukon. The Company's medical cannabis brand, GreenTec, is distributed nationwide, directly to qualified patients through its GreenTec Medical portal, and through various medical cannabis partners. Avant is a publicly traded corporation listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:AVNT), and cross-trades on the OTCQX Best Market (OTCQX:AVTBF) and Frankfurt Stock Exchange (FRA:1BU0). The Company is headquartered in Kelowna, British Columbia and has operations in British Columbia, Alberta and Ontario. To learn more about Avant, to access the investor presentation, or learn more about its consumer brands, please visit www.avantbrands.ca. For additional information, please contact: Investor Relations at Avant Brands Inc. 1-800-351-6358 ir@avantbrands.ca SOURCE: Avant Brands, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/702969/Avant-Brands-Inc-Announces-Voting-Results-From-2022-Annual-General-and-Special-Meeting-of-Shareholders Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 26, 2022) - Givex Information Technology Group Limited (TSX: GIVX) (OTCQX: GIVXF) ("Givex" or the "Corporation"), today announced that shareholders voted in favour of all items of business put forth by Givex at its annual and special shareholders meeting held on May 26th, 2022 (the "Meeting"). Number of Directors A ballot was conducted to set the number of directors of the Corporation at five (5). According to the proxies received and the ballots cast, the number of the directors of the Corporation was set at five (5) with the following results: Votes For: 42,730,440 Votes Against: 25,500 Election of Directors The five (5) candidates proposed as directors were duly elected directors of the Corporation by a majority of the votes cast by the shareholders present or represented by proxy at the Meeting, as follows: Name of Nominee Votes For % Votes Withheld % Don Gray 42,730,440 99.94 25,500 0.06 Jim Woodside 42,730,440 99.94 25,500 0.06 Miles Evans 42,730,440 99.94 25,500 0.06 Michael Carr 42,730,440 99.94 25,500 0.06 Robert Munro 42,730,440 99.94 25,500 0.06 Appointment of Auditor A ballot was conducted with respect to the appointment of KPMG LLP ("KPMG) as the Corporations auditors and the authorization of the directors to fix the remuneration of the auditors. According to the proxies received and ballots cast, KPMG was appointed as the Corporations auditors and the directors were authorized to fix their remuneration with the following results: Votes For: 43,180,530 Votes Withheld: 25,510 Continuance and Name Change A ballot was conducted with respect to approving a special resolution to continue the Corporation from British Columbia to Ontario and to authorize the Corporation to change the name of the Corporation to "Givex Corp.", as more fully described in the Corporation's management information circular (the "Continuance and Name Change"). According to the proxies received and ballots cast, the Continuance and Name Change was approved with the following results: Votes For: 42,152,717 Votes Against: 725,500 Authorizing Board to Fix the Number of Directors A ballot was conducted with respect to approving a special resolution, subject to the Corporation becoming subject to the Business Corporations Act (Ontario) pursuant to the Continuance and Name Change, the directors shall be empowered and authorized to determine the number of directors of the Corporation to be elected at annual meetings of the Corporation within the minimum and maximum numbers provided in the articles of incorporation of the Corporation, as more fully described in the Corporations management information circular (the "Special Resolution"). According to the proxies received and ballots cast, the Special Resolution was approved with the following results: Votes For: 42,724,405 Votes Against: 31,535 Final voting results on all matters voted at the Meeting are available on Givex's website and on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. About Givex Givex (TSX: GIVX) (OTCQX: GIVXF) is a global fintech company providing merchants with customer engagement, point of sale and payment solutions, all in a single platform. We are integrated with 1000+ technology partners, creating a fully end-to-end solution that delivers powerful customer insights. Our platform is used by some of the world's largest brands, comprising approximately 113,000 locations across more than 100 countries. Learn more at givex.com. Contact Joe Donaldson Chief Marketing Officer joe.donaldson@givex.com 416.350.9660 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125524 MANILA, Philippines, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 26 2022, the vessel Fenghua 21, owned by FiberHome Marine Network Equipment Co., Ltd., finished the cable landing successfully at north of Siargao Island. The completion of cable landing marks that FiberHome has fully delivered five segments of phase II of PLDT DSCPA2 which has total length of 230 km. On May 26, FiberHome project team held a grand ceremony with PLDT high level managements and Siargao Governors at Rizal landing site. Dale Ramos and Debbie Hu from PLDT gave the speeches on the ceremony, they affirmed the efforts what FiberHome partner has done in this project. PLDT gave a high praise to the high-quality and efficient provided service. Siargao Governors expressed sincere gratitude to PLDT and FiberHome for the telecommunication network construction at Siargao area. The project will greatly improve the digital communication at local, and promote employment and economic development at that area. After the ceremony, the representatives of PLDT have embarked the vessel for a visit. The whole DSCPA2 is an EPC full turnkey project whose routes cover mostly areas on all islands in Philippines. The whole routes' network contains around 20 segments which connects more than 10 islands and 30 landing points. Relying on the ability of FiberHome Group in the whole optical communication industry chain, FiberHome Marine has become a marine network system supplier and general integrating contractor with independent intellectual property rights who has integrated the R&D, design and production capacity of a full range of shore end transmission equipment, underwater system equipment, submarine optical cable and core devices. FiberHome Marine can provide seven major services including simulation design, desktop research, marine survey, license handling, product supply, installation and construction Maintain and support. Fenghua 21 is the first cable laying vessel which can be used in the construction of marine optical cable communication system project in Guangdong province, China. The vessel has nearly 7000 tones water draft, and deploys professional equipment and software such as an advanced DP2 dynamic positioning system, the domestic first A-Frame crane, submarine buried plow, dual channels linear cable laying machine, and Makailay software system. With those equipment and system's assistance, Fenghua 21 can independently do the high-precision laying of marine optical cable work in deep water. With the smooth delivery in DSCPA 2 project, FiberHome Marine will continue to move towards the next journey, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with the global industrial value chain, and set sail for the construction of a global marine network. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1826802/FiberHome_0526_ID_e0c895abcf22.jpg BADUNG, Indonesia, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Indonesia and the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) host the Seventh Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2022) in Bali, Indonesia, from 23 to 28 May 2022 as informed by Ministry of Communications and Informatics of the Republic of the Indonesia. The first Global Platform since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and also the first time to be held in the Asia region. The Global Platform is the primary global multi-stakeholder forum that assesses and discusses progress on the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030). This year's event is an important forum as it provides opportunity for all countries to take stock of progress and accelerate the Sendai Framework implementation amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. In his opening remarks, H.E. President Joko Widodo of Indonesia reminded the need for all nations to cope with disaster risk without neglecting sustainable development. "At the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, today, Indonesia offers to the world the concept of sustainable resilience as a solution to mitigate all forms of disasters, including pandemics," said President Widodo. United Nations Deputy Secretary-General H.E. Amina J. Mohammed highlighted the urgent need for rapid actions to build global disaster resiliency. U.N.'s flagship Global Assessment Report, which was published last month, raised the alarm that humanity was on a "spiral of self-destruction", with the potential of reaching 560 - or 1.5 medium- to large scale disasters a day - by 2030 without a radical rethink in how risk is managed and financed. It is particularly relevant for the Asia-Pacific region, where disasters cost on average 1.6 per cent of GDP a year, more than any other part of the world. "Over the next three days, we have a unique opportunity to consider the best policy options to move from risk to resilience and to take important steps to ensure the recovery from COVID-19 puts us back on track for a safe and sustainable future," said Amina Mohammed. Two high-level dialogues on accelerating the global implementation of the Sendai Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals along with ministerial roundtable discussing the challenge posed by the climate emergency are among the main agenda for the first day of the Global Platform. Around 7,000 delegates representing both government and non-government organizations from over 185 member countries and observers participate in this Conference. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1827371/antarafoto_pembukaaan_gpdrr_250522_wpa_4.jpg Former United States President Donald Trump's losses in this year's Republican primaries are a testament to his dwindling influence and control over the GOP and come as his former vice president, Mike Pence is gaining traction in Georgia. Furthermore, the Republican businessman's obsession with litigating the 2020 presidential election that he lost to Joe Biden is backfiring. It is a subject that he has brought up many times since leaving office and argues that the GOP will not have a successful future, either at the ballot box or legislatively if they turn a blind eye to the past. Trump's Dwindling Influence on the GOP But primary voters in Georgia this week have appeared to firmly reject Trump's approach, voting overwhelmingly for two key Republicans, Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger. The two officials have flatly dismissed the former president's claims about election fraud in the 2020 elections. Republicans in the Peace State have sent a clear signal to the former president that his continued fixation with 2020 is not only bad for his preferred candidates but could also turn out to be a liability for him in key battleground states as he considers another presidential run in 2024, as per CNN. A former Trump aide, Bryan Lanza, who remains close to the Republican businessman, said that Georgia was a valuable lesson for the former president. He found that he has altered the rules of politics but not all the rules of politics. Read Also: Georgia Candidate Herschel Walker Supports Total Abortion Ban in State, Says There Is no 'Exception' However, whether or not Trump internalizes any critical lessons at this juncture remains to be seen but he is far less likely to "stick his neck out." with endorsements in upcoming primaries following a series of losses and the still-uncertain outcome of Pennsylvania's Senate GOP primary. According to the Associated Press, the magnitude of Trump-backed endorsements in the primaries, which was more than 50 percentage points, was shocking and raised questions about whether or not Republican voters were starting to move on from the former president. Pence's Opportunity The "Make America Great Again'' movement has stalled and voters are becoming increasingly vocal in saying that the Republican party's future is about more than Trump. David Butler of Woodstock, Georgia, who voted for Kemp on Tuesday, said that he likes the former president a lot but noted that he was in the past. He also said that Trump's endorsements had "no" impact "whatsoever" on his thinking. It was a similar case for 22-year-old Will Parbhoo, a dental assistant who also voted for Kemp in the primaries. He said that he was not really a Trumper and noted that he did not like the former president "to begin with," citing the election fraud claims and urged the former president to "move on." The situation comes as opportunity knocked for former Vice President Pence on Tuesday night after the defeat of Trump's endorsements. They underscored that while many GOP members still believed the former president's election fraud claims, it was not driving their decisions at the ballot box. In a Twitter post on Monday, Pence said that elections were about the future of the country and noted that there were people who wanted to make the election about the past. The former vice president pointedly left out any mention of Trump, Perdue, or the unfounded 2020 election claims, Yahoo News reported. Related Article: Donald Trump Reacts After Robby Mook Claims Hillary Clinton Approves Leak of Russia Allegations @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. President Joko Widodo (R) discusses with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed (L) before the opening ceremony of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2022 in Nusa Dua, Bali, Wednesday. (ANTARA FOTO/Akbar Nugroho Gumay/foc) Nusa Dua, Bali, May 27, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - At the 2022 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) event, the Government of Indonesia offered the world the concept of sustainable resilience as a solution to address the challenges of systemic disaster risk.Indonesian President Joko Widodo highlighted this concept at the opening ceremony of the 2022 GPDRR in Nusa Dua, here, on Wednesday.The sustainable resilience concept is considered to be a solution to tackle all forms of disasters, including facing a pandemic and concurrently supporting the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Jokowi remarked.He highlighted the need to apply several measures to build sustainable resilience."First, we should strengthen an anticipatory, responsive, and adaptive disaster preparedness culture as well as institutions in dealing with disasters," President Jokowi stated.According to the president, disaster mitigation education and government institutions that are synergistic and responsive to disasters must become a shared priority.Jokowi explained that the second measure deemed necessary is for every country to invest in science, innovation, and technology, including in ensuring access to finance and technology transfer."Access to funding is an important issue that we must take seriously. Indonesia has developed a strategy for funding and disaster insurance by establishing a pooling fund and using development funds at local levels to support disaster mitigation and preparedness," he stated.The third measure is by building infrastructure that is resilient to disasters and climate change."(This is) in addition to mitigating (the impacts on) physical infrastructure, such as dams, breakwaters, reservoirs, and embankments; green infrastructure, such as mangrove forests, shrimp seedlings on the coast; ... as well as the development of open spaces to be part of the realization of infrastructure development," Jokowi pointed out."The protection of vulnerable groups living in high disaster risk areas must also get special attention," he stressed.Lastly, the Indonesian president invited all countries to commit to implementing global agreements at the national and local levels."The Sendai Framework, the Paris Agreement, and the SDGs are important international agreements in the efforts to reduce disaster risk and climate change. I invite all countries to be committed and serious about implementing it," Jokowi stated.He affirmed that disaster risk reduction is an effective investment to prevent future losses."To that end, we affirm Indonesia's commitment to implementing the Sendai Framework as well as other international commitments," he stressed.The head of state also expressed Indonesia's readiness to share experiences and knowledge in disaster mitigation."As a disaster-prone country, Indonesia has accumulated knowledge and experience that can be an important lesson for the world, but Indonesia is also eager to learn from international experience," Jokowo emphasized."Let's work together to mitigate (impacts and manage risks with regard to) the rise in disasters for a better life today and tomorrow," he concluded.AppreciationOn the occasion, several United Nations (UN) officials -- President of the 76th Session of the UN General Assembly Abdulla Shahid, UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed, and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori -- lauded Indonesia for being successful in controlling COVID-19, so that the 2022 GPDRR forum could be held in-person in Nusa Dua, Bali."I would like to convey the appreciation of the UN to the president of Indonesia and the people for hosting the 2022 GPDRR," Mohammed stated at the opening ceremony."I would like to congratulate and appreciate Indonesia for the measures that have been taken to address COVID (as a) response that had allowed us to meet in this conference here in-person," she stated.According to the UN deputy secretary general, Indonesia's efforts to vaccinate its population of 217 million people is a major achievement."We applaud the leader of Indonesia for its vaccine program for keeping everyone safe and reacting and responding to the COVID pandemic," she stated.She also affirmed that Indonesia is a critical partner that has taught the world a lot about disaster risk reduction."Your willingness to host this important gathering is a testament to the leading role that you (Indonesia) play in sustaining development and climate action," she remarked.Meanwhile, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Director Ricardo Mena lauded Indonesia as a country that is leading in the global efforts for disaster risk reduction."This is a very important (effort), and I think this is where we think that Indonesia is leading in terms of the global efforts to reduce disaster risks," Ricardo Mena stated in a special interview with ANTARA here on Monday (May 23).Mena remarked that Indonesia has put forth a strong message about the importance of disaster risk reduction efforts by hosting the 2022 GPDRR."We believe that Indonesia is giving a very strong message through the engagement and hosting of the GPDRR here in Bali. We are very thankful to the Indonesian Government for that," he remarked.The UNDRR director also highlighted Indonesia's leadership in adopting the long-term disaster risk reduction plan."I think what I would like to highlight is that Indonesia is one of the few countries in the world that has adopted a very long term plan to reduce disaster risks," he remarked."This is very important because if you want to really address the root causes, and you cannot do it in two, three, or five years. It is impossible, and we look and welcome very much the fact that Indonesia has a plan to reduce disaster risks that goes even beyond 2040," he added.To that end, Mena also encouraged other countries to follow Indonesia's steps in adopting long-term plans for disaster risk reduction.Indonesia hosts a series of meetings of the 7th Session of the Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GP2022) in Bali on May 23-28, 2022.Written by: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga, Editor: Fardah Assegaf (c) ANTARA 2022Source: 2022 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR)Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. RiskMeter provides structure-level location information when assessing a property's exposure to natural disasters CoreLogic, a leading global property data and analytics-driven solutions provider, announced that global insurance carrier Hiscox London Market has adopted the company's PxPoint technology delivered via its RiskMeter platform as its primary source of geocoding. RiskMeter enables Hiscox to drive further insight from property risk data when underwriting insurance policies using advanced geocoding technology. Knowing a property's exact location is crucial to understanding the potential risks of natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and floods. RiskMeter delivers CoreLogic's PxPoint geocoding technology to pinpoint a property's location enabling accurate assessment of its level of exposure to these hazards. PxPoint offers geocoding to a building's footprint level which is an essential level of precision when gauging a property's likelihood of damage from a natural disaster. PxPoint integrates seamlessly with Hiscox's existing technology and workflow via high-capacity APIs. These APIs deliver data in real time, which assists in quickly and efficiently determining a property's risk of disaster-related damages when deciding coverage options and costs. "We worked closely with Hiscox to deliver PxPoint via our RiskMeter platform, providing a critical level of precision that provides insights into specific peril risk and portfolio-level exposure analytics," said William Forde, senior director, at CoreLogic Protect. "This alliance is the crossroads of technology meeting the demands of modern insurance workflow," continued Forde. "The structural level accuracy of the PxPoint geocoding enables us to confidently assess and price a risk at speed for our underwriting APIs," commented Paul Butler, London Market Technology Director for Hiscox. About CoreLogic CoreLogic is a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled solutions provider. The company's combined data from public, contributory and proprietary sources includes over 4.5 billion records spanning more than 50 years, providing detailed coverage of property, mortgages and other encumbrances, consumer credit, tenancy, location, hazard risk and related performance information. The markets CoreLogic serves include real estate and mortgage finance, insurance, capital markets, and the public sector. CoreLogic delivers value to clients through unique data, analytics, workflow technology, advisory and managed services. Clients rely on CoreLogic to help identify and manage growth opportunities, improve performance and mitigate risk. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., CoreLogic operates in North America, Western Europe and Asia Pacific. For more information, please visit www.corelogic.com. CORELOGIC, the CoreLogic logo, RiskMeter, and PxPoint are trademarks of CoreLogic, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. About the Hiscox Group Hiscox is a global specialist insurer, headquartered in Bermuda and listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE:HSX). Our ambition is to be a respected specialist insurer with a diverse portfolio by product and geography. We believe that building balance between catastrophe-exposed business and less volatile local specialty business gives us opportunities for profitable growth throughout the insurance cycle. The Hiscox Group employs over 3,000 people in 14 countries and has customers worldwide. Through the retail businesses in the UK, Europe, Asia and the USA, we offer a range of specialist insurance for professionals and business customers as well as homeowners. Internationally traded, bigger ticket business and reinsurance is underwritten through Hiscox London Market and Hiscox Re ILS. Our values define our business, with a focus on people, courage, ownership and integrity. We pride ourselves on being true to our word and our award-winning claims service is testament to that. For more information, visit www.hiscoxgroup.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220526005772/en/ Contacts: Media Contact: Robin Wachner CoreLogic newsmedia@corelogic.com TOKYO, May 27, 2022 - (JCN Newswire) - Eisai Co., Ltd. announced today the presentation of research across various types of cancer from its oncology portfolio during the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (ASCO22), which is taking place virtually and in-person in Chicago from June 3 to 7. Notable presentations include a poster discussion of safety and efficacy data (NCT03386942; Abstract: #5513) from the platinum-resistant ovarian cancer cohort expansion of a Phase 1 study evaluating the antibody drug conjugate (ADC) co-developed by Eisai and Bristol Myers Squibb (Headquarters: the United States), farletuzumab ecteribulin (MORAb-202), as well as a poster presentation featuring dose optimization findings for farletuzumab ecteribulin (NCT03386942; Abstract: #3090)."Safety and efficacy analyses in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer for farletuzumab ecteribulin suggest antibody drug conjugates may represent a promising therapeutic strategy for these patients with limited treatment options," said Dr. Takashi Owa, President, Oncology Business Group at Eisai. "Eisai's first antibody drug conjugate combines our in-house developed anti-folate receptor alpha antibody and our anticancer agent eribulin using an enzyme cleavable linker, illustrating our dedication to building on our medicines to improve cancer care for more patients."New research from the LEAP (LEnvatinib And Pembrolizumab) clinical program evaluating lenvatinib (LENVIMA) plus pembrolizumab (KEYTRUDA), the anti-PD-1 therapy from Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA, includes subgroup analyses from the pivotal Phase 3 CLEAR (Study 307)/KEYNOTE-581 trial evaluating the combination in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and Phase 3 Study 309/KEYNOTE-775 trial evaluating the combination in patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma (EC). A poster discussion will evaluate the impact of subsequent therapies in patients with advanced RCC receiving the combination (NCT02811861; Abstract: #4514); while a poster presentation will discuss the efficacy of next line therapy after treatment with lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab in advanced EC (NCT03517449; Abstract: #5587)."The combination of lenvatinib plus pembrolizumab has helped to expand physicians' arsenal of treatment options for patients living with advanced renal cell carcinoma and advanced endometrial carcinoma around the world," said Richard C. Woodman, MD, Chief Clinical Officer, Oncology Business Group at Eisai. "Our data at ASCO 2022 demonstrate our commitment to continuing to investigate the combination through post-hoc analyses with the goal of providing healthcare professionals with tools to support them in making better-informed treatment decisions for their patients."In March 2018, Eisai and Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada), through an affiliate, entered into a strategic collaboration for the worldwide co- development and co-commercialization of lenvatinib, both as monotherapy and in combination with pembrolizumab. To date, more than 20 trials have been initiated under the LEAP clinical program, which is evaluating the combination across more than 10 different tumor types.In June 2021, Eisai and Bristol Myers Squibb entered into an exclusive global strategic collaboration agreement for the co-development and co-commercialization of farletuzumab ecteribulin, a folate receptor alpha (FRa)-targeting ADC. Eisai and Bristol Myers Squibb are currently investigating farletuzumab ecteribulin in FRa-positive solid tumors (inclusive of endometrial, ovarian, lung and breast cancers) in two studies: a Phase 1 clinical study in Japan and a Phase 1/2 clinical study in the United States.This release discusses investigational compounds and investigational uses for FDA-approved products. It is not intended to convey conclusions about efficacy and safety. There is no guarantee that any investigational compounds or investigational uses of FDA-approved products will successfully complete clinical development or gain FDA approval.For more information, visit www.eisai.com/news/2022/pdf/enews202241pdf.pdf.Media Inquiries:Public Relations DepartmentEisai Co., Ltd.+81-(0)3-3817-5120Source: EisaiCopyright 2022 JCN Newswire . All rights reserved. HELSINKI, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ponsse launches excellent new products to improve productivity in sustainable harvesting. The new solutions have been developed together with customers, listening to their needs. The PONSSE Scorpion Giant harvester and the PONSSE Mammoth forwarder respond to the highest requirements of modern forestry both in terms of ergonomics and productivity. "These new products strengthen our position as one of the world's leading suppliers of responsible harvesting solutions. The development of both new forest machines started from improved ergonomics, safety and usability, as well as better visibility from the cabin. We believe that we succeeded very well in this, and we are delighted to demonstrate these new products to our customers today here in Surahammar in Sweden," says Marko Mattila, Sales, Marketing and Service Director at Ponsse. PONSSE Scorpion Giant - power in various conditions The PONSSE Scorpion Giant is only a giant in terms of productivity and power. The new harvester adds to the Scorpion product range, which was completely upgraded in 2021. According to customer needs, the Scorpion Giant was developed to have more tractive effort, which helps the harvester to be agile even in challenging conditions, including snow, steep slopes and soft terrain. It is in a league of its own when it comes to crane lifting power, also when handling larger stems. "Even though the Giant is the strongest harvester in the Scorpion range, the Bear is still our most powerful harvester overall. What makes the Scorpion Giant stand out is its versatility, allowing it to be operated at various sites, as it can be fitted with the PONSSE H6, H7, H7HD Euca or H8 harvester head," Mattila says. Unique ergonomics Cabin ergonomics and usability have been one of the leading themes in Ponsse's research and development in recent years alongside the development of safety. The PONSSE Giant has a one-piece windscreen that extends to the roof of the cabin, offering even better visibility for the operator and ensuring safe working in all conditions. The cabin workspace is like a practical and quiet office with a view, developed to support the operator's comfort and wellbeing. The Scorpion Giant features many solutions familiar from the Scorpion product range that have been developed even further. These include increased tractive force and a more powerful C50+ crane whose fork boom offers excellent visibility of the logging site. The Scorpion Giant also features the unique active levelling and stabilisation systems familiar from other Scorpion models. The Scorpion Giant is available with the highly advanced and modern Opti 5G system and the Opti 8 touchscreen computer. PONSSE Opti 5G - the most modern information system on the market PONSSE Opti 5G is the most modern information system on the market. Its smooth and fast operations raise user experiences in information systems to a whole new level. The powerful C50+ crane, combined with the Opti 5G information system, offers a whole new way to control the crane and improve operational efficiency using PONSSE Harvester Active Crane. With Harvester Active Crane, the operator can directly control the movements of the harvester head, instead of just controlling the individual operations of the crane. This allows the operator to focus on wood processing, instead of simply controlling the crane. Harvester Active Crane, available as an option, requires the Opti 5G control system, which is currently available in the Scorpion product range's harvesters in certain market areas. The availability of Harvester Active Crane will be expanded to other machine models and market areas. PONSSE H8 - the next generation's harvester head The new PONSSE H8 harvester head features powerful feed, a strong grip and a sturdy but agile frame. The saw box area is even wider, making the harvester head an excellent choice for trees with a high butt diameter. The harvester head can be fitted in the PONSSE Ergo, Scorpion Giant and Bear, the strongest harvesters in our product range. The automatic features of the Opti control system, developed and built by Ponsse, control the feed speed and saw movement, according to the tree diameter, and ensure fast and precise sawing. With Active Speed, the harvester head's operating speed can be adjusted based on the tree species and stem diameter. Working with the H8 harvester head equipped with the new feature is productive and smooth, regardless of the stem size. PONSSE Mammoth forwarder - an unprecedented load-carrying capacity The PONSSE Mammoth forwarder, powerful in terms of productivity, expands Ponsse's forwarder range to the new category of 25-ton load-carrying capacity. Equipped with the stepless Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) system and the PONSSE K121 loader, the Mammoth's sturdy frame structures and super-strong hydraulics ensure that large stems and heavy loads can be transported effortlessly, even in the most challenging terrain. Ergonomics addressed in every detail in the Mammoth's development In the PONSSE Mammoth forwarder, operator ergonomics has been addressed every step of the way. The new forwarder offers the highest productivity when driving distances are long. Less driving is required because more stems can be transported each time. New features for improved productivity One of the most prominent new features is the PONSSE Active Seat, developed according to forest machine operators' requests. The new Active Seat improves usability, as it turns and follows the work environment according to crane movements, increasing the forest machine operator's productivity. The Active Seat, developed by Ponsse, is only available for PONSSE forest machines. The PONSSE Mammoth can be equipped with PONSSE Active Cabin, an effective cabin suspension system with a simple structure. It helps forest machine operators keep going, even during longer shifts, by suspending any stress on the cabin. In addition to the Mammoth, the Active Cabin is available for the Buffalo, Elephant and Elephant King forwarders. The Mammoth can be equipped with a long rear frame, which enables the transport of oversized stems at plantations in South America, for example. The Mammoth features the largest load space in the Ponsse product range: 6.8 or 8.0 m2, depending on each customer's choice. The PONSSE Active Crane is a loader control system for forwarders, with which the operator controls grapple movements instead of individual functions, allowing the operator to concentrate effectively on working with the loader. Active Crane is easily controlled using two levers, one of which controls the grapple height from the ground, and the other the direction of movement. The new PONSSE Active Manual service offers helps and guidance through videos PONSSE Active Manual is an instruction and maintenance manual service with videos to support the daily work of forest machine operators. The visual PONSSE Active Manual is an owner's manual service that runs on mobile devices and supplements the current Owner's Manual by offering videos alongside the manual. PONSSE Active Manual is available on Apple and Android app stores. Further information Marko Mattila, Ponsse Plc, Sales, Marketing and Service Director, tel. +358 400 596297, marko.mattila@ponsse.com PHOTOS https://materialbank.ponsse.com/ui/shares/w19066155/451099/en/ This information was brought to you by Cision http://news.cision.com https://news.cision.com/ponsse-oyj/r/ponsse-s-new-products-for-responsible-forestry,c3575025 The following files are available for download: 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. Parsortix system harvests intact CTCs for single-cell whole genomic sequencing from frozen and fresh blood samples with the same efficiency Detection of druggable mutations in CTCs enriched from frozen samples may aid treatment decisions in the clinical setting GUILDFORD, UK / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / ANGLE plc (AIM:AGL)(OTCQX:ANPCY), a world-leading liquid biopsy company, is pleased to announce that a leading cancer research institute, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori, Milan, Italy, has published results of work undertaken in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and sarcoma patients. The institute demonstrated that the Parsortix system could successfully isolate circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) samples. PBMC samples contain any blood cell with a nucleus, including white blood cells and CTCs, but has been depleted of red blood cells which do not have a nucleus. The potential ability to process frozen samples could allow for retrospective analyses and improve sample sharing capabilities in multicentre studies. Isolated CTCs were stained to assess phenotype and identify CTCs for single cell retrieval, followed by low-pass copy number analysis through whole genome sequencing. In addition, CTCs were analysed for clinically actionable mutations by digital PCR. The Parsortix system was selected for its ability to harvest CTCs from mesenchymal tumours, such as sarcoma, and CTCs that have undergone epithelial to mesenchymal transition, as may occur in NSCLC. This is clinically relevant because, although the transition to a mesenchymal phenotype is associated with increased metastatic potential and worse prognosis, many CTC isolation methods, including the leading antibody-based system, only identify cells expressing epithelial markers. CTCs could be isolated with the same efficiency from both fresh blood samples and frozen PBMCs. Subsequent automated single-CTC retrieval allowed the authors to identify CTCs based on their abnormal DNA copy number profiles, of which a similar number of CTCs were identified in both fresh and frozen samples. Long-term freezing of samples (1-3yrs), from NSCLC patients, had no detrimental effect on CTC isolation or identification. This study also showed that the majority of CTCs isolated were non-epithelial, further highlighting the importance of marker-independent CTC isolation. Importantly, CTCs isolated from frozen NSCLC patient PBMCs using the Parsortix system were analysed for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, with results showing good concordance with the primary tissue. Analysis and the potential to track druggable mutations, such as EGFR, in CTCs from frozen PBMC samples over multiple time points may help inform treatment decisions and investigate therapy response in the clinical setting, in a retrospective manner. Dr Giulia Bertolini and Dr Vera Cappelletti, Department of Experimental Oncology, National Cancer Institute of Milan, commented: "This study demonstrates the feasibility of CTC analyses in cryopreserved PBMCs and represents an advance in blood sample management for CTC studies, allowing for a better selection of informative time points to longitudinally investigate tumor progression/response to therapy thereby enabling retrospective studies." ANGLE Founder and Chief Executive, Andrew Newland, added: "We are pleased to report on the use of the Parsortix system for the unbiased isolation and molecular characterisation of CTCs from frozen PBMC samples with similar success as from fresh blood samples. This approach may help facilitate studies that require time-dependent sampling or are completed across multiple centres. DNA analysis of the cancer cells harvested by the Parsortix system offers the potential to track druggable mutations in CTCs as an aid to future treatment decisions for patients with NSCLC." The research has been published as a peer-reviewed publication in the Journal Clinical Chemistry and is available online at https://angleplc.com/library/publications/. For further information: ANGLE plc +44 (0) 1483 343434 Andrew Newland, Chief Executive Ian Griffiths, Finance Director Andrew Holder, Head of Investor Relations Berenberg (NOMAD and Joint Broker) Toby Flaux, Ciaran Walsh, Milo Bonser +44 (0) 20 3207 7800 Jefferies (Joint Broker) Max Jones, Thomas Bective +44 (0) 20 7029 8000 FTI Consulting Simon Conway, Ciara Martin Matthew Ventimiglia (US) +44 (0) 203 727 1000 +1 (212) 850 5624 For Frequently Used Terms, please see the Company's website on https://angleplc.com/investor-relations/glossary/ Notes for editors About ANGLE plc www.angleplc.com ANGLE is a world leading liquid biopsy company with sample-to-answer solutions. ANGLE's proven patent protected platforms include a circulating tumor cell (CTC) harvesting technology known as the Parsortix system and a downstream analysis system for cost effective, highly multiplexed analysis of nucleic acids and proteins. ANGLE's Parsortix system is FDA cleared for its intended use in metastatic breast cancer and is currently the first and only FDA cleared medical device to harvest intact circulating cancer cells from blood. Intended use The Parsortix PC1 system is an in vitro diagnostic device intended to enrich circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood collected in K2EDTA tubes from patients diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. The system employs a microfluidic chamber (a Parsortix cell separation cassette) to capture cells of a certain size and deformability from the population of cells present in blood. The cells retained in the cassette are harvested by the Parsortix PC1 system for use in subsequent downstream assays. The end user is responsible for the validation of any downstream assay. The standalone device, as indicated, does not identify, enumerate or characterize CTCs and cannot be used to make any diagnostic/prognostic claims for CTCs, including monitoring indications or as an aid in any disease management and/or treatment decisions. The Parsortix system enables a liquid biopsy (a simple blood test) to be used to provide the circulating metastatic breast cancer cells to the user in a format suitable for multiple types of downstream analyses. The system is based on a microfluidic device that captures cells based on a combination of their size and compressibility. The system is epitope independent and can capture all phenotypes of CTCs (epithelial, mesenchymal and EMTing CTCs) as well as CTC clusters in a viable form (alive). CTCs harvested from the system enable a complete picture of a cancer to be seen; as being an intact cell they allow DNA, RNA and protein analysis as well as cytological and morphological examination and may provide comparable analysis to a tissue biopsy in metastatic breast cancer. Because CTC analysis is a non-invasive process, unlike tissue biopsy, it can be repeated as often as needed. This is important because cancer develops and changes over time and there is a clear medical need for up-to-date information on the status of a patient's tumor. In addition, the live CTCs harvested by the Parsortix system can be cultured, which offers the potential for testing tumor response to drugs outside the patient. The Parsortix technology is the subject of 26 granted patents in Europe, the United States, China, Australia, Canada, India, Japan and Mexico with three extensive families of patents are being progressed worldwide. In the United States, the Parsortix PC1 system has received a Class II Classification from FDA for use with metastatic breast cancer patients. FDA clearance is seen as the global gold standard. ANGLE's Parsortix system is the first ever FDA cleared system for harvesting CTCs for subsequent analysis. ANGLE has applied the IVD CE Mark to the same system for the same intended use in Europe. ANGLE has also completed two separate 200 subject clinical studies under a program designed to develop an ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test, with the results showing best in class accuracy (AUC-ROC) of 95.1%. The pelvic mass triage assay has undergone further refinement and optimisation and a 200 patient clinical verification study has now completed enrolment. ANGLE's technology for the multiplex evaluation of proteins and nucleic acids of all types is called the HyCEADTM platform and is based on a patented flow through array technology. It provides for low cost, highly multiplexed, rapid and sensitive capture of targets from a wide variety of sample types. A proprietary chemistry approach (the HyCEAD method) allows for the capture and amplification of over 100 biomarkers simultaneously in a single reaction. The HyCEAD system is extremely sensitive and is ideal for measuring gene expression and other markers directly from Parsortix harvests and was used in the ovarian cancer pelvic mass triage test to achieve best in class accuracy (AUC-ROC) of 95.1%. ANGLE's proprietary technologies can be combined to provide automated, sample-to-answer results in both centralised laboratory and point-of-use cartridge formats. ANGLE has established formal collaborations with world-class cancer centres and major corporates such as Abbott, Philips and QIAGEN, and works closely with leading CTC translational research customers. These Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) are working to identify applications with medical utility (clear benefit to patients), and to secure clinical data that demonstrates that utility in patient studies. The body of evidence as to the benefits of the Parsortix system is growing rapidly from our own clinical studies in metastatic breast cancer and ovarian cancer and also from KOLs with 60 peer-reviewed publications and numerous publicly available posters from 31 independent cancer centres, available on our website. ANGLE has established clinical services laboratories in the UK and the United States to accelerate commercialisation of the Parsortix system and act as demonstrators to support product development. The laboratories offer services globally to pharmaceutical and biotech customers for use of Parsortix in cancer drug trials and, once the laboratories are accredited and tests validated, will provide Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) for patient management. This information is provided by Reach, the non-regulatory press release distribution service of RNS, part of the London Stock Exchange. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact rns@lseg.com or visit www.rns.com. SOURCE: ANGLE PLC View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/702961/Angle-PLC-Announces-Molecular-Characterisation-of-CTCs Tata Power has commissioned a 100 MW solar project in the Indian state of Maharashtra, while Acme Solar has turned on a 200 MW PV facility in Rajasthan.From pv magazine India Tata Power has revealed that its Tata Power Renewable Energy unit has commissioned a 100 MW/138 MWp solar project in Partur, in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The installation features more than 4,11,900 monocrystalline PV modules and spans 600 acres. It will supply electricity to Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. (MSEDCL). It is expected to help offset around 234 million tons of CO2 emissions per year. ... 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. Dr. Boumediene Soufi, global head of Sandoz AMR (antimicrobial resistance) program, to represent Sandoz as Board member of AMR Industry Alliance (https://www.amrindustryalliance.org/) (AMRIA) The Alliance brings together about 100 life science companies / associations in search of sustainable solutions to curb AMR Sandoz, as largest global provider of generic antibiotics1, is committed to a pragmatic and balanced approach to address this growing global health threat Basel, May 27, 2020 - Sandoz is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Boumediene Soufi, global head of the Sandoz Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) program, as its new representative to the Board of the AMR Industry Alliance (https://www.amrindustryalliance.org/) (AMRIA). The Alliance is a coalition of approximately 100 biotechnology, diagnostic, generic and research-based biopharmaceutical companies and trade associations, formed to drive and measure industry progress towards curbing AMR. Dr. Soufi, who was appointed to lead the Sandoz AMR program earlier this year, assumes the AMRIA role, representing companies in the generics industry section, with immediate effect. He replaces Dominic De Souza, who will now dedicate himself fulltime to his role as Head Product Transformation, Global B2B. Sandoz would like to express its sincere thanks to Dr. De Souza for his committed efforts over the last few years. Dr. Soufi said: "I am very humbled, honored and proud to join the Alliance Board and look forward to working with my colleagues across the industry to ensure a pragmatic and balanced approach to tackling this unprecedented global health threat, which is now estimated to be directly responsible for nearly 1.3 million deaths every year - as many as malaria and HIV combined." "Antibiotics have revolutionized modern medicine, treating previously incurable diseases and drastically reducing the risks of everyday medical procedures including surgery and chemotherapy. AMR, if allowed to spread unchecked, could spell the end of modern medicine. But we have a real opportunity to stop that happening - if we act together now." Dr. Soufi joined Sandoz in 2015 and has held progressively senior positions focusing on sustainable efficiency, digital innovation and leading the entire end-to end Sandoz anti-infectives portfolio / pipeline. He is a biotechnologist by training, specializing in the field of microbial quantitative proteomics. Sandoz is the largest global provider of generic antibiotics1 and the only remaining company with a major end-to-end antibiotics supply chain based in Europe (primarily Kundl, Austria), covering all production steps from active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) to Finished Dosage Forms (FDF) for many leading antibiotics. Disclaimer This media update contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements can generally be identified by words such as "potential," "can," "will," "plan," "may," "could," "would," "expect," "anticipate," "look forward," "believe," "committed," "investigational," "pipeline," "launch," or similar terms, or by express or implied discussions regarding potential marketing approvals, new indications or labeling for the investigational or approved products described in this media update, or regarding potential future revenues from such products. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements are based on our current beliefs and expectations regarding future events, and are subject to significant known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. There can be no guarantee that the investigational or approved products described in this media update will be submitted or approved for sale or for any additional indications or labeling in any market, or at any particular time. Neither can there be any guarantee that, if approved, such generic or biosimilar products will be approved for all indications included in the reference product's label. Nor can there be any guarantee that such products will be commercially successful in the future. In particular, our expectations regarding such products could be affected by, among other things, the uncertainties inherent in research and development, including clinical trial results and additional analysis of existing clinical data; regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the particular prescribing preferences of physicians and patients; competition in general, including potential approval of additional generic or biosimilar versions of such products; global trends toward health care cost containment, including government, payor and general public pricing and reimbursement pressures and requirements for increased pricing transparency; litigation outcomes, including intellectual property disputes or other legal efforts to prevent or limit Sandoz from selling its products; general political, economic and business conditions, including the effects of and efforts to mitigate pandemic diseases such as COVID-19; safety, quality, data integrity or manufacturing issues; potential or actual data security and data privacy breaches, or disruptions of our information technology systems, and other risks and factors referred to in Novartis AG's current Form 20-F on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Novartis is providing the information in this media update as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this media update as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. About Sandoz Sandoz, a Novartis division, is a global leader in generic pharmaceuticals and biosimilars. Our purpose is to pioneer access for patients by developing and commercializing novel, affordable approaches that address unmet medical need. Our ambition is to be the world's leading and most valued generics company. Our broad portfolio of high-quality medicines, covering all major therapeutic areas, accounted for 2019 sales of USD 9.7 billion. Sandoz on social media LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sandoz/ (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sandoz/) Twitter: https://twitter.com/sandoz_global (https://twitter.com/sandoz_global) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sandozglobal/ (https://www.facebook.com/sandozglobal/) Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sandozglobal (https://www.instagram.com/sandozglobal) CEO Richard Saynor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-saynor/ (https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-saynor/) Interview on AMR with Richard Saynor and Lutz Hegemann of Novartis Global Health: Opinion: 4 steps to stay ahead of antimicrobial resistance | Devex (https://www.devex.com/news/sponsored/opinion-4-steps-to-stay-ahead-of-antimicrobial-resistance-103170) # # # References Source IQVIA PADDS Feb 2022 Sandoz Global Communications Chris Lewis Sandoz Global Communications +49 174 244 9501 (mobile) chris.lewis@sandoz.com (mailto:chris.lewis@sandoz.com) Michelle Bauman Sandoz Global Communications +1 973 714 8043 (mobile) michelle.bauman@sandoz.com (mailto:michelle.bauman@sandoz.com) Novartis Investor Relations Central investor relations line: +41 61 324 7944 E-mail: investor.relations@novartis.com (mailto:investor.relations@novartis.com) LONDON, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ATFX was unveiled as the Official Global Partner for the iFX International EXPO 2022, taking place in Cyprus from 7-9 June 2022. Being the official global partner is a coveted honour that is envied by many brokers, given the international nature of the EXPO. The iFX EXPO is the world's first and largest financial business-to-business exhibition that has been taking place for over a decade. The expo brings together businesses and professionals from the broader financial services, online trading, and fintech sectors. The Expo is viewed as a networking event where finance professionals can interact while exploring the different businesses represented at the Expo. As a global partner, ATFX's brand together with it's institutional brand ATFX Connect will be visible to all attendees, attracting significant attention to the broker and its services. In addition, the broker will be showcasing its products and services from booth 156, and all attendees are welcome to see its cutting-edge services in action. Being named a global partner is a significant achievement that a few brokers with well-respected brands bestowed. However, to be given this honour, a broker must have proven that its products and services are a cut above the rest since its brand will be associated with the EXPO organisers. ATFX has established itself as a leading broker serving retail and institutional traders. Founded just a few years ago in 2017, the broker has carved a niche for itself driven by its focus on fintech as the main driver behind its business. The CFDs broker has launched multiple fintech-based services that have improved services such as customer verification and onboarding and provided automated signals to all its clients regarding potential buy and sell trades. ATFX Connect is the broker's institutional business that serves high net worth individuals, institutions, hedge funds, and money managers. Its clients have access to Tier 1 bank liquidity, among other bespoke financial services customised to suit each client's needs. The volume of trades processed by ATFX has risen steadily over time, with the latest figures showing the broker's trading volume surpassed $400 billion in Q1 2022. Therefore, it is clear that ATFX has earned its spot as the global partner for the iFX EXPO 2022. ATFX is looking forward to meeting and interacting with its current and potential clients during the EXPO. ATFX website: www.atfx.com ATFX Connect website: www.atfxconnect.com ATFX ATFX is an award-winning FX/CFD broker with a global presence offering customer support in over 15 languages. With over 300 tradable financial assets, including forex, cryptocurrency, precious metals, energy, indices, and shares traded as CFDs, ATFX is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) in Cyprus. ATFX is licensed by the Financial Services Commission (FSC) in Mauritius, and registered by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. ATFX Connect Back in 2019, ATFX stepped into the Institutional arena to launch its Multi-Access platform ATFX Connect. The management's vision was to expand the broker's global presence and provide award-winning liquidity and customer service to the institutional community. With the focus on the professional investor, the ATFX Connect platform is designed to provide an efficient automated trading venue that delivers tailored liquidity solutions to Hedge Funds, Asset Managers, Brokers, Private Banks, and other financial institutions. Sissako joins Taiwanese Team on International Co-production; Wu Ke-xi Announced as Lead Actress TAIPEI, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2022 Cannes Film Market (Marche du Film) drew to a close on May 25. This year, the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) participated in both the physical and online markets. In addition to attracting interests and attention from film professionals around the world, TAICCA also staged the very first Taiwan Cinema Networking Party, an exciting gathering of over 150 international film industry guests. Participants from Taiwan included director Midi Z, actress WU Ke-xi, producers Vincent WANG, Justine O., Anita GOU, as well as HU Ching-fang, director of Centre Culturel de Taiwan a Paris. TAICCA's 2022 participation in Cannes aims to help connect Taiwan's industry personnel with people networks across the world, increase opportunities for international cooperation, and enhance the visibility of Taiwan's film and TV industry to show that Taiwan can be the best partner in Asia for international production teams. The works presented by TAICAA at this year's Taiwan Pavilion showcased the creative energy of Taiwanese film and television. Many titles that have received support from TAICCA's international co-funding program officially announced their international co-production projects during Marche du Film in Cannes. This included the thriller In My Mother's Skin, which also received support from Singapore's Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), making it the first international co-production between the Philippines, Singapore and Taiwan. In addition, the co-production between Taiwan, France, Luxembourg and Mauritania, The Perfumed Hill, directed by Abderrahmane SISSAKO and produced by Vincent WANG, also officially announced Taiwan's WU Ke-xi as the film's lead actress. The two production teams met at Cannes and will start shooting in Taiwan this September. In 2014, SISSAKO's Timbuktu was selected in official selection at Cannes, also picking up seven awards including Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at France's Cesar Awards, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards. SISSAKO said when he met with TAICCA chairperson TING Hsiao-ching in Paris in March this year, he had already sensed TAICCA's active efforts in facilitating international co-productions. It is his hope to bring attention to the plight of ethnic minorities through his films, he said, noting that the freedom of Taiwan's filming environment is very important to filmmakers. Furthermore, both the assistance from Taiwan government and local film commissions, and the "co-pro ready" skill set of Taiwanese film crews are some of the incentives for international production teams to seek cooperation opportunities with Taiwan, he said, adding that Taiwan is also the most suitable filming base in Asia. Other heavyweights of the global film industry who visited the Taiwan Pavilion this year included Cesar Awards vice-president Patrick SOBELMAN, producer of the Taiwan-France co-production The Last Queen; Brazilian director Kleber MENDONCA Filho, producer of Do Fish Sleep with Their Eyes Open?; and Shozo ICHIYAMA, producer of the Taiwan-Japan-US co-production Black Ox, as well as other industry participants who have worked on projects supported by TAICCA's International Co-funding Program. As the global film and television industry gradually makes its way out of the pandemic, TAICCA will seize opportunities arising from the physical resumption of the most important international film markets and festivals, continue to promote international co-funding and co-productions, and gain the attention of international industry professionals. By introducing its international co-production programs and connecting to global industry and professionals, TAICCA looks forward to bringing in international perspectives and resources for the local industry, as well as sharing Taiwan's support in financing, filming and working with potential partners. About TAICCA ( https://en.taicca.tw/ ) The Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA), established in June 2019 and supervised by the Ministry of Culture, is a professional intermediary organization working to promote the development of Taiwan's content industries including film and TV, publishing, pop music, ACG, and more. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1827495/150__filmmakers_gathering_Taiwan_Cinema_Networking_Party__Photo_source_TAICCA.jpg United States Senate Republicans on Thursday rejected to have a debate on a bill that seeks to battle domestic terrorism, including white supremacy, in the wake of mass shootings and a white supremacist attack that killed 10 Black people in New York. The vote, which ended 47-47, fell short of the 60 affirmative votes required to launch a debate in the 100-member Senate on pa bill that was titled "Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act." The Republican's opposition vote effectively blocked the proposal which would have authorized federal agencies to monitor and report jointly on domestic terrorism within the U.S., including incidents related to white supremacy. Domestic Terrorism Bill GOP members argued that the legislation was unnecessary as Democratic President Joe Biden already had the authority to organize his administration's response to violent extremism. On the other hand, left-wing lawmakers said that the bill was needed to bolster the federal government's response to rising incidents of violent extremism. Democratic lawmakers argued that amendments to any such bill could address potential restrictions on guns. In recent years, mass shootings have provoked discussion in Congress on what to do about gun violence but little has been done as the two parties are deeply divided on gun laws, as per Reuters. Americans have little confidence in the ability of Congress to solve the problem as a poll on Tuesday showed that just 35% believe lawmakers will act on the issue. The House of Representatives passed the domestic terrorism bill along party lines last week in the wake of an 18-year-old fatally shooting 10 Black people in a live-streamed shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Read Also: New York Subway Shooting Suspect Surrenders After Apparently Unprovoked Fatal Attack On Tuesday, a lone gunman stormed a school in Uvalde, Texas, and killed dozens of young children and two teachers. Senate Democrats and some Republicans have already discussed the possibility of bipartisan legislation to address mass shootings, including proposals to expand background checks for the purchase of guns and to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill. According to CNN, the failure of the domestic terrorism bill to pass the Senate underscores yet again the difficulties that lawmakers face in enacting any kind of major policy change in the wake of mass shootings amid a highly polarized political environment and widespread Republican opposition to stricter gun controls. Republican Opposition Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger was the only Republican in the Senate that voted for the measure among the GOP when the Democrat-led House approved it. This comes as the Justice Department is investigating the Buffalo supermarket shooting as a hate crime and "an act of racially-motivated violent extremism." The mass shooting at the Texas elementary school also sparked impassioned calls from Democrats for legislation to counter gun violence. If it passed, the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 would have set up offices specifically focused on domestic terrorism at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the domestic terrorism bill was so important because the mass shooting in Buffalo was an act of domestic terrorism. The official argued that the legislation was needed to address the problem that has plagued the United States for so long, Kansas Reflector reported. Related Article: President Joe Biden Addresses the Nation After Deadly Texas Shooting That Kills 14 Students; VP, Officials Condemn the 'Horrific' Incident @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. SHENZHEN, China, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- ANYX, a fresh and exciting new vape brand powered by Aspire Group, has announced it will release its first pod system e-cigarette globally on 16th June 2022. Dedicated to its brand mission of providing high-quality, aesthetically pleasing products and satisfying sensory experiences to users, ANYX incorporates cutting-edge technology and user-driven design to surprise and delight customers with a game-changing product experience. By connecting global users with a shared passion, ANYX also aims to actively promote a delightful, confident, energetic, and inclusive lifestyle. Despite being a new brand in the market, ANYX is backed by years of experience and industry expertise. In addition to well-known technical experts in the e-cigarette industry, ANYX has built up a team of talents who previously worked for top companies in the sectors of internet, consumer electronics, and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) , allowing it to secure tens of millions of dollars in funding at its inception. To date, the brand has accrued more than 1,500 industry patents and established 120 production lines covering three dedicated production bases. It also boasts a strong R&D team of over 120 engineers, advanced production, sales and digital marketing capabilities. This seasoned team has enabled the brand to provide the global community with safe, dependable, and high-quality atomization products that distinguish it from the competition and add value to the brand's partners. As vaping technology grows in popularity, more people are looking for products that offer enjoyment and sensory pleasure. In line with its mission to create products with social features and build a user-driven brand, ANYX hopes to use its products to strengthen the bonds amongst global vaping enthusiasts and promote communication for a more diverse, pleasant, on-trend and energizing experience. If you want to know more, visit us at: www.anyxglobal.com and follow us on social media : Instagram @ANYX Global Facebook @ANYX Global CONTACT: william@anyxglobal.com - WDHD 2022 is dedicated to raising awareness on colorectal cancer prevention - In Europe more than 519,820 new cases of colorectal cancer (CRC) were diagnosed in 2020 - Adenoma detection rate (ADR) is crucial in the prevention of CRC - Lumeblue outcomes from a phase III study showed increases in the absolute ADR rate of 8.5% BOLOGNA, Italy, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Ahead of World Digestive Health 2022, Italian pharmaceutical group Alfasigma is proud to announce the launch of its new diagnostic drug Lumeblue (per-oral methylene blue). This latest innovation is part of the company's commitment to raising awareness on colorectal cancer (CRC), still the second leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, through a healthy lifestyle and regular screenings. Lumeblue is approved by EMA (European Medicines Agency) for the detection of lesions during colonoscopy. Lumeblue was in a symposium titled "A new tool in colonoscopy: Per-oral methylene blue" at ESGE Days 2022 as a new diagnostic drug to improve the detection of lesions during colonoscopy. In Europe, CRC is the second most common oncological disease in terms of incidence and mortality, with 519,820 new cases and 244,824 deaths registered in 2020. The symposium was held in the presence of about 400 European physicians from the areas of colonoscopy, gastroenterology, surgery, and internal medicine. Main lectures were presented by three of the most influential experts in the field, Michal Kaminski, Prateek Sharma, and Alessandro Repici. "Improving the ADR, even from a threshold above 25%, reduces the risk of interval cancer or colon rectal cancer death in both the screened population and high-risk CRC patients," affirmed professorMichal Kaminski, Head of the Department of Cancer Prevention and Head of Endoscopy Unit in the Department of Gastroenterological Oncology at the Maria-Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland. "Quality parameters in colonoscopy and the significance of the adenoma detection rate (ADR), which, although shows a high variation among endoscopists in clinical practice, is one of the key performance measures in colonoscopy for the identification of the disease in patients at various levels of risk of Colon Rectal Cancer, and is applicable to all indications of colonoscopy." Chromoendoscopy in screening and surveillance starting from current limitations and unmet needs in standard colonoscopy were the topics lectured by professor Prateek Sharma, Section Chief of Gastroenterology at the Kansas City Veterans Affairs Medical Centre and Program Director at the University of Kansas School of Medicine: "Data from the medical literature show that dye-based chromoendoscopy improves polyp detection and ADR compared to HD white light colonoscopy or virtual chromoendoscopy. However, this technique highlights the increased withdrawal time for colonoscopy, while the oral use of methylene blue in colon preparation can be more promising." In conclusion, professor Alessandro Repici, Professor of Gastroenterology at Humanitas University Medical School, introduced his experience with per-oral methylene blue in colonoscopy. He explained how to move out from the cumbersome procedure applied with the dye-spray chromoendoscopy to a new perspective of dye use: "The adoption of traditional chromoendoscopy in routine colonoscopy has several barriers and is not a real time procedure because of practical issues to prepare and dispense the dye during colonoscopy." Repici presented the clinical outcomes from a phase III study showing the use of Lumeblue in patients undergoing screening and surveillance endoscopy, increases the absolute ADR rate of 8.5% as a mirroring result of data that can be currently reported in clinical studies using artificial intelligence. "The use of Lumeblue is targeted to colonoscopy in FIT+ patients, high risk (IBD/hereditary nonpolyposis colorectal cancer), screening or surveillance and is totally safe from warnings of genotoxicity of methylene blue," Prof. Repici concluded. Lumeblue is now available in Italy, after the commercial launch by Alfasigma held in early April and will be launched in the next months in other European countries. In fact, in February 2021, Alfasigma reached a licensing agreement with Cosmo Pharmaceuticals NV (SIX: COPN) in the EU rights (plus Switzerland, UK, European Economic Area countries, Russia, and Mexico) for Lumeblue. About Alfasigma Privately owned, Alfasigma is an Italy-based multinational pharmaceutical company with a presence in over 90 countries through distributors and subsidiaries. The company employs a workforce of around 3,000 people, has in-house R&D capabilities and several production plants. Alfasigma is known for its strong focus on gastroenterology and vascular. More information is available at https://www.alfasigma.com. Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1325576/Alfasigma_Logo.jpg The "Europe Anal Irrigation Systems Market Forecast to 2028 COVID-19 Impact and Regional Analysis by Product, Patient, and End User" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The Europe anal irrigation systems market is expected to grow from US$ 130.76 million in 2021 to US$ 162.93 million by 2028 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 3.2% from 2021 to 2028. Factors such as rising incidence of colorectal cancer and inflammatory bowel diseases, growing geriatric population and increasing developments in minimally invasive procedures boost the market growth. However, the high cost of anal irrigation systems hampers the growth of the Europe anal irrigation systems market. Fecal incontinence and chronic constipation are common health problems among many adults and children. Manufacturers are developing innovative anal irrigation systems that help individuals and healthcare providers treat chronic constipation and support efficient bowel management. The growing geriatric population worldwide is prone to constipation, fecal incontinence, and other neurological disorders. The anal irrigation systems have proven to be simple, safe, and effective in treating fecal incontinence and are also cost-effective. Many studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of the anal irrigation method over conservative bowel management methods, such as constipation medication, manual voiding, and surgery. Caregivers in home care facilities and hospitals increasingly use anal irrigation systems to achieve complete bowel rehabilitation in diaper-dependent patients. Healthcare providers are reaping the benefits of anal irrigation systems to help patients achieve increased bladder capacity. Therefore, healthcare manufacturers are developing new and innovative anal irrigation systems that are minimally invasive, safe, simple, and effective for treating fecal incontinence. Anal irrigation is considered as a minimally invasive technique that has proven to be clinically effective for patients suffering from neurological bowel syndrome. It is a safe, well-tolerated, and effective procedure. Various companies have developed anal irrigation systems with advance technologies. Advancements in medical device technologies have enabled the manufacturers to offer integrated systems with a rectal balloon catheter and a water pump/container. The systems allow patients to avoid body movement to irrigate themselves. Bullen Healthcare Ltd, B Braun Melsungen AG, Wellspect HealthCare AB, Coloplast A/S, and MacGregor Healthcare Ltd are among the companies in the UK offering Aquaflush, IryPump S, Navina Systems, Peristeen, and Qufora, respectively. The minimally invasive anal irrigation systems are widely used among children suffering from myelomeningocele, a severe form of spina bifida. The anal irrigation systems help control stoma output and offers benefits for fecal incontinence, rectocele, and constipation. In November 2019, Wellspect HealthCare, a DentsplySirona Company, applied for 510 (K) application for its Navina Smart System. The updated Navina Classic System of the company has received clearance for premarket notification K170487. On the technical front, both devices differ in design and biocompatibility. Such developments in minimally invasive systems, such as anal irrigation systems, are likely to influence the Europe anal irrigation systems market growth during the forecast period. Opportunity of Anal Irrigation Systems Market The rising awareness regarding minimally invasive procedure and growing financial status of people are expected to increase the demand for anal irrigation systems in home care setting in the coming years. Moreover, the introduction of advanced medical devices and the growing emphasis on preventive care, diagnostics, and treatment are among the major factors that would escalate the adoption of anal irrigation systems in future. Increase in disposable income make households capable of spending good amounts on better healthcare facilities. This eventually leads to rise in the adoption of advanced anal irrigation systems, which would offer opportunity for the growth of anal irrigation providers in the coming years. Anal or trans-anal irrigation systems are being acknowledged as minimally invasive techniques. However, these systems require constant support from experienced healthcare professionals to ensure compliance and efficacy of the system. Also, the initial cost of anal irrigation systems is higher than the long-term cost of other treatments. However, continuous technological advancements by the medical device providers, with continuous investments in research and development, are expected to lead to a wider adoption of anal irrigation systems in the coming years. Moreover, the market players are implementing several strategies to upgrade the existing technologies, which would support the Europe anal irrigation systems market growth during the forecast period. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 1.1 Scope of the Study 1.2 The Publisher's Report Guidance 1.3 Market Segmentation 2. Anal Irrigation Systems Market Key Takeaways 3. Research Methodology 4. Europe Anal Irrigation Systems- Market Landscape 4.1 Overview 4.2 PEST Analysis 4.3 Expert Opinions 5. Anal Irrigation Systems Market Key Market Dynamics 5.1 Market Driver 5.1.1 Rising Incidence of Colorectal Cancer and Inflammatory Bowel Diseases 5.1.2 Growth in Geriatric Population 5.1.3 Developments in Minimally Invasive Procedures 5.2 Market Restraints 5.2.1 High Cost of Anal Irrigation System 5.3 Market Opportunities 5.3.1 Growing Demand in Home Care Settings 5.4 Future Trends 5.4.1 Technological Developments in Anal Irrigation Systems 5.5 Impact Analysis of Drivers and Restraints 6. Anal Irrigation Systems Market Europe Analysis 6.1 Europe Anal Irrigation Systems Market Revenue Forecast and Analysis 6.1.1 Europe Anal Irrigation Systems Market Market Potential Analysis, By Country 6.1.2 Market Share Analysis of Anal Irrigation Systems Market 6.2 Company Analysis 6.2.1 Market Positioning of Anal Irrigation Systems Market 6.2.2 Comparative Company Analysis 6.2.3 Growth Strategy Analysis 6.2.4 Performance of Key Players 6.2.4.1 Coloplast Group 6.2.4.2 B. Braun Melsungen AG 7. Anal Irrigation Systems Market Analysis By Product 7.1 Overview 7.2 Anal Irrigation Systems Market Revenue Share, by Product (2021 and 2028) 7.3 Mini Devices 7.4 Cone Devices 7.5 Bed Systems 7.6 Balloon Catheter Devices 8. Anal Irrigation Systems Market By Patient 8.1 Overview 8.2 Anal Irrigation Systems Market, by Patient, 2021 and 2028 (%) 8.3 Children 8.4 Adults 9. Anal Irrigation Systems Market By End User 9.1 Overview 9.2 Anal Irrigation Systems Market, by End User, 2021 and 2028 (%) 9.3 Hospitals 9.4 Clinics 9.5 Ambulatory Surgical Centers 9.6 Home Care Settings Company Profiles BD ConvaTec Group Plc Consure Medical, Inc. Coloplast Group B. Braun Melsungen AG Dentsply Sirona Renew Medical Inc MBH-International A/S ProSys International Ltd UROMED Kurt Drews KG For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/gqb0ta View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220527005144/en/ Contacts: ResearchAndMarkets.com Laura Wood, Senior Press Manager press@researchandmarkets.com For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900 COEUR D'ALENE, ID / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. (NYSE American:IDR) ("IDR", "Idaho Strategic" or the "Company") is pleased to announce its endorsement of the Thorium Energy Security Act of 2022, a bill which was submitted to Congress on May 18th, 2022, by U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Senator Roger Marshall (R-KS), a member of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The Thorium Energy Security Act aims to prevent the destruction of Uranium 233 (U-233), a critical element used to produce clean energy. "Thorium and U-233 hold the promise to produce clean, safe power and are vital to our national security. Energy will continue to be at the heart of global conflicts, so the United States must invest in energy technology," Senator Tuberville said. "China clearly saw the value in our thorium research-they've taken up where we left off, and we may soon see thorium-powered Chinese aircraft carriers and thorium reactors on the Belt & Road courtesy of American technology." (https://www.tuberville.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/tuberville-marshall-introduce-bill-to-save-clean-safe-nuclear-power/) Apart from controlling the Lemhi Pass Thorium-REE resource; the largest known Thorium resource in the Unites States (per the U.S. Geological Survey and Idaho Geological Survey), Idaho Strategic is endorsing this bill because it is a major step in the right direction toward national defense while helping to realize the U.S.' decarbonization goals. IDR's President and CEO, John Swallow added, "We have commented many times on our view toward China and our lack of readiness as a country - much of which was easily avoidable. It is reassuring to see multiple state Senators willing to come forward and do the work to understand the opportunities that Thorium presents. The reality is that the United States was once the leader in Thorium reactor technology and subsequently gave all our research to China. Nonetheless, it is very encouraging to finally see this kind of public support for Thorium." Building from the nuclear research commenced during World War 2, as part of the Manhattan Project and the ensuing Cold War, there were many across the scientific community who truly believed that when the United States was ready to shift its focus from building nuclear bombs to saving the environment, a natural shift from Uranium to Thorium as the preferred component of nuclear fuel would occur. As the U.S. has committed itself down the path of decarbonization, it only makes sense that Thorium and molten-salt reactor technology begin to resurface as a potential answer to providing safe, environmentally friendly nuclear energy with low weaponization potential. A link to Senator Tommy Tuberville's presentation of the Thorium Energy Security Act of 2022 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com About Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. Domiciled in Idaho and headquartered in the Panhandle of northern Idaho, Idaho Strategic Resources (IDR) is one of the few resource-based companies (public or private) possessing the combination of officially recognized U.S. domestic rare earth element properties (in Idaho), the largest known concentration of thorium resources in the U.S., and Idaho-based gold production located in an established mining community. Idaho Strategic Resources produces gold at the Golden Chest Mine located in the Murray Gold Belt (MGB) area of the world-class Coeur d'Alene Mining District, north of the prolific Silver Valley. With over 7,000 acres of patented and unpatented land, the Company has the largest private land position in the area following its consolidation of the Murray Gold Belt for the first time in over 100-years. In addition to gold and gold production, the Company maintains an important strategic presence in the U.S. Critical Minerals sector, specifically focused on the more "at-risk" Rare Earth Elements (REE's) and Thorium. The Company's Diamond Creek and Roberts REE properties are included the U.S. national REE inventory as listed in USGS, IGS and DOE publications. IDR's Lemhi Pass Thorium-REE Project is recognized by the USGS and IGS as containing the largest concentration of thorium resources in the country. All three projects are located in central Idaho and participating in the USGS Earth MRI program. With an impressive mix of experience and dedication, the folks at IDR maintain a long-standing "We Live Here" approach to corporate culture, land management, and historic preservation. Furthermore, it is our belief that successful operations begin with the heightened responsibility that only local oversight and a community mindset can provide. Its "everyone goes home at night" policy would not be possible without the multi-generational base of local exploration, drilling, mining, milling, and business professionals that reside in and near the communities of the Silver Valley and North Idaho. For more information on Idaho Strategic Resources click herefor our corporate presentation, go to www.idahostrategic.comor call: Travis Swallow, Investor Relations & Corporate Development Email: tswallow@idahostrategic.com (208) 625-9001 Forward Looking Statements This release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended that are intended to be covered by the safe harbor created by such sections. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by forward-looking words such as "assume", "expect", "believe", "potential", "plan", "may", "goal', "estimate", "intend", "anticipate" and "will" or similar words suggesting future outcomes, or other expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions, intentions, or statements about future events or performance. Forward-looking information includes, but is not limited to, Idaho Strategic Resources expectations, intentions, plans, assumptions, and beliefs with respect to, among other things, estimated and targeted production rates and results, the expected prices of gold, rare earth elements, and/or thorium, as well as the related costs, expenses and capital expenditures, and the potential advancement of rare earth element, thorium, or other critical mineral resources. Forward-looking information is based on the opinions and estimates of Idaho Strategic Resources as of the date such information is provided and is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance, or achievements of IDR to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. IDR does not endorse the materials contained in the links provided in this press release as factual, based on scientific facts, and/or coming from the company. The forward-looking statement information above, and those following are applicable to both this press release, as well as the links to which this press release is referring to. With respect to the business of Idaho Strategic Resources, these risks and uncertainties include risks relating to widespread epidemics or pandemic outbreaks, if they occur, including our ability to access goods and supplies, the ability to transport our products and impacts on employee productivity, the risks in connection with the operations, cash flow and results of the Company relating to the unknown duration and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; interpretations or reinterpretations of geologic information; unfavorable exploration results; inability to obtain permits required for future exploration, development or production; general economic conditions and conditions affecting the industries in which the Company operates; the uncertainty of regulatory requirements and approvals; fluctuating mineral and commodity prices; the ability to obtain necessary future financing on acceptable terms; the success of the Thorium Energy Security Act of 2022, (mentioned in this release) the ability to operate the Company's projects; and risks associated with the mining industry such as economic factors (including future commodity prices, and energy prices), ground conditions, failure of plant, equipment, processes and transportation services to operate as anticipated, environmental risks, government regulation, actual results of current exploration and production activities, possible variations in ore grade or recovery rates, permitting timelines, capital and construction expenditures, reclamation activities. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated, or intended. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information. Additional information regarding the factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from this forward-looking information is available in Idaho Strategic Resources filings with the SEC on EDGAR. IDR does not undertake any obligation to update publicly or otherwise revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or other such factors which affect this information, except as required by law. SOURCE: Idaho Strategic Resources, Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/702986/Idaho-Strategic-Resources-Endorses-the-Thorium-Energy-Security-Act-of-2022-Submitted-to-Congress VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / Komo Plant Based Foods Inc. (CSE:YUM)(OTCQB:KOMOF)(FRA:9HB) ("Komo") is pleased to announce the appointment of a U.S. sales consultant, Caboodle Consulting LLC (Caboodle), to develop Komo's retail expansion throughout the United States. Komo will work closely with the Caboodle sales management team to build out the US retail strategy. Heather Barry Whittier will be representing Komo as the Director of Sales. Ms. Whittier has 20+ years experience in the natural products industry including a pivotal role in growing a brokerage, Yin Yang Naturals, from regional to national coverage. Other members of the Caboodle management team include Lisa Thorson and Constance Wolfe. Lisa Thorson comes from a Market Analysis background with 10+ years' experience in Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brokerage and brand management with experience at Laird Superfood and Alliance Sales & Marketing. Constance Wolfe offers 10+ years of brand management experience including specializing in data analysis and trade spend promotional management with experience at Coconut Bliss and Hilary's Eat Well. Caboodle is a consulting group that provides roadmaps for CPG food brands looking to expand in the U.S. grocery marketplace. Depending on their unique goals, strategies are developed utilizing customized programming including data analytics, sales management, and emerging brand fundamentals. Caboodle plans to soon launch an online platform which will serve as a digital hub for growth & management. "The United States represents a significant opportunity for Komo," says Komo Comfort Foods President, Jeffrey Ma. "We're excited to have Heather Whittier representing Komo to build out our U.S. expansion. Her experience and contacts in the industry will be key for our U.S. strategy. We are extremely happy with the dedication of the team at Caboodle so far and look forward to the future of this relationship." Komo has recently secured a US warehouse with HLC Distributing, based in Oregon. About Komo Komo Plant Based Foods Inc. is a premium plant-based food company that develops, manufactures and sells a variety of plant-based frozen meals that are always hearty, satisfying, and made with wholesome ingredients. At Komo, our mission is to help make plant-based meals a staple on every dinner table by sharing our love for feel-good food that connects the people to the planet. We believe plant-based eating is the future and - Change can start with a single biteTM. Our experienced plant-based innovation and development team recreates vegan versions of traditionally cheesy and meaty classics, with 100% plants. Komo's products are sold direct-to-consumer through our eCommerce website and a distribution network of online and brick and mortar grocery, convenience and natural retailer channels. Our operating subsidiary Komo Comfort Foods launched in 2021 with our flagship products: plant-based Lasagna, Shepherd's Pie and Chickenless Pot Pie and Komo Plant-Based Meal HelpersTM - versatile meal starters to allow the creation of many dishes at home. All of our products are 100% plant-based, made with wholesome ingredients, free from preservatives, and frozen for freshness. Komo's plant-based lasagna was award the Best New Vegan Product at the Natural Products Expo West Show in March 2022. Learn more at: www.komocomfortfoods.com and follow on Instagram: @komocomfortfoods For further information, please contact: William White, President & CEO, Komo Plant Based Foods Inc. will@komoeats.com 1-866-969-0882 The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved or disapproved the contents of this news release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events or Komo's future performance. The use of any of the words "could", "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 Komo's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, Komo's product development plans, its ability to launch its products on food delivery apps, its ability to retain key personnel, its revenues, and its expectation as to the acceptance of its products by retailer stores and consumers constitute forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The statements made in this press release are made as of the date hereof. Komo disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable securities laws. SOURCE: KOMO Plant Based Foods Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/702985/Komo-Plant-Based-Foods-Appoints-US-Sales-Management-Consultants Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Sarah Armstrong-Montoya, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cordoba Minerals Corp. (TSXV: CDB) (OTCQB: CDBMF) otherwise "Cordoba" or the "Company"), provides an update on the recently completed exploration diamond drilling at the 100%-owned San Matias Project. Highlights: Cordoba completed a total of 2,152.7 metres (m) of diamond drilling within four holes focused on the suspected buried Alacran Porphyry Target (below the proposed open pit) and two holes within the Alacran Northern Extension Target. Mineralization within drill holes ACD094, ACD096 and ACD096A within the Alacran proposed open pit was consistent with the mineral resource block model (Figure 1 and Table 1). ACD094 - intersected 1.11% copper (Cu) and 0.19 g/t gold (Au) and 12.35 g/t silver (Ag) over 27.35 m (1.21% copper equivalent ("CuEq")). These drill holes did confirm the continuation and down dip edge of the Alacran mineralization, which provided additional support for the mineral resource ; however, the deeper source of the porphyry clasts seen in the previous drilling could not be located (refer to drill holes ACD084A, ACD094, ACD096 and ACD096A in Figure 1). The Alacran Northern Extension Target, drill holes ACD093A and ACD095, in Figure 1, continued to intersect the barren unit 2, sterilizing this northern area of possible mineralization. The origin of the Northern Extension Target's geochemical anomaly remains unexplained. The mineralized porphyry clasts seen so far are "xenoliths" located in restricted portions of a late mineral dacite intrusion (dacite breccia) which has at least some evidence for phreatomagmatic activity. Since these breccias can source material some distance from where they are emplaced, they do not give clear support for the porphyry source to be immediately adjacent or below the Alacran deposit. Nor has any hydrothermal alteration suggesting a vector towards a nearby porphyry source (laterally or at depth) been seen in the host stratigraphy. Therefore, the search for the source porphyry will move outward of the Alacran deposit and will require further mapping and geophysical surveys to provide new targets. "We have received encouraging assay results from the drill holes to further support the Alacran mineral resource/mineral reserve," commented Ms. Armstrong-Montoya, President and CEO of Cordoba. "We look forward to the continued advancement of the San Matias Project." Figure 1: Map showing the completed drill holes (black squares) at the Alacran Porphyry and the Alacran Northern Extension Targets. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3116/125503_d6f6bac2748acb6a_002full.jpg 2021-2022 Diamond Drill Program at the San Matias Project As per the November 29, 2021 press release, Cordoba drilled 2,152.7 m over six holes at the Alacran Porphyry and Alacran Northern Extension Targets. Alacran Porphyry Target Results Four holes were drilled on the northwestern part of the Alacran deposit in search of the suspected buried porphyry target. Drill Hole From (m) To (m) Interval (m) Cu (%) Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) CuEq1 (%) ACD094 10 28 18 0.3 0.1 2.3 0.3 and 79.9 85.75 5.85 0.46 0.21 8.93 0.61 and 95.15 122.5 27.35 1.11 0.19 12.35 1.21 ACD096 0 7.5 7.5 0.88 29.41 0.54 and 19 25.4 6.4 0.47 0.51 4.9 0.78 and 36.2 70.3 34.1 0.42 0.11 3.52 0.47 and 75.5 110.11 34.61 0.67 0.1 6.05 0.72 and 128.2 132.48 4.28 0.68 0.84 5.8 1.17 ACD096A 32.4 82.9 50.5 0.6 0.09 6.63 0.65 and 87.9 92.95 5.05 0.56 0.14 4.13 0.63 and 101.95 127.37 25.42 0.81 0.25 3.99 0.92 and 151.77 170 18.23 0.37 0.22 1.66 0.49 Table 1: 2021-2022 Alacran Porphyry Target significant intercepts2 ACD084A (Figure 2) extended ACD084. The hole sampled the dacitic breccia with occasional unmineralized porphyry clasts down to around 200 m below the collar, when it entered unmineralized unit 2 mudstones. No mineralization or alteration was seen, which was expected since the hole is to the immediate west of the block model. Therefore the western edge of the Alacran mineralization was confirmed by this hole. Figure 2: Alacran Porphyry Target section view on ACD084A To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3116/125503_d6f6bac2748acb6a_003full.jpg ACD094 (Figure 3) was collared in the Alacran village and drilled down dip of the ore body to determine whether the dacitic breccia truncated the Alacran deposit stratigraphy. This was not the case since continuous stratigraphy was encountered with stratabound mineralization observed with the following intersections, summarized in Table 1. 18 m of 0.3% CuEq from 10 m, 5.85 m of 0.61% CuEq from 79.9 m, and 27.35 m of 1.21% CuEq from 95.15 m. Figure 3: Alacran Porphyry Target section view on ACD094 To view an enhanced version of Figure 3, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3116/125503_d6f6bac2748acb6a_004full.jpg ACD096 (Figure 4) was then drilled approximately normal to the Alacran deposit stratigraphy to test whether any alteration related to the suspected porphyry could be located below a known high grade part of the deposit. No alteration was noted below the deposit, but the following mineralized intersections of unit 2 were recorded, corresponding with the Alacran deposit resource block model (Table 1): 7.5 m of 0.54% CuEq in saprolite from surface. This copper equivalency was calculated from gold and silver assays alone since no copper can be recovered from saprolite, 6.4 m of 0.78% CuEq from 19 m, 34.1 m of 0.47% CuEq from 36.2 m, 34.61 m of 0.72% CuEq from 75.5 m, and 4.28 m of 1.17% CuEq from 128.2 m. Figure 4: Alacran Porphyry Target section view on ACD096 To view an enhanced version of Figure 4, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3116/125503_d6f6bac2748acb6a_005full.jpg Based on the results of ACD096, a new drill hole ACD096A was proposed at a shallower dip to ACD096 to sample more of the stratigraphic host dacite breccias. This drill hole was also rotated further to the North to test whether there was evidence for the porphyry below the tonalite sill since no surface expression of mineralization would be seen below this late stage intrusive. ACD096A (Figure 5) used the same platform as ACD096 intersected mineralized unit 2 but did not return any evidence of a porphyry source (Table 1). 50.5 m of 0.65% CuEq from 32.4 m, 5.05 m of 0.63% CuEq from 87.9 m, 25.42 m of 0.92% CuEq from 101.95 m, and 18.23 m of 0.49% CuEq from 151.77 m. Figure 5: Alacran Porphyry Target section view on ACD096A To view an enhanced version of Figure 5, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3116/125503_d6f6bac2748acb6a_006full.jpg Alacran Northern Extension Results Two holes were completed at the Alacran Northern Extension Target. ACD093A was drilled directly below the geochemical anomaly identified on the hill to the north of the Alacran deposit. Figure 6 illustrates the hole intersected the dacite sill previously seen in drill hole ACD039 before intersecting the unit 3 mafic tuff representing the footwall of the Alacran deposit. On this basis, ACD095 (Figure 7) was collared further north, where the sill was interpreted to be thin. This was the case since ACD095 was collared in the sill and exited it at 198 m into unmineralized unit 2 before intersecting unit 3 mafic tuff at 204.1 m. Figure 6: Alacran Northern Target section view on ACD093A To view an enhanced version of Figure 6, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3116/125503_d6f6bac2748acb6a_007full.jpg Figure 7: Alacran Northern Target section view on ACD095 To view an enhanced version of Figure 7, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/3116/125503_d6f6bac2748acb6a_008full.jpg Technical Information & Qualified Person The technical information in this release has been reviewed and verified by Mark Gibson, P.Geo., a Qualified Person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Gibson is the Chief Operating Officer of Cordoba Minerals and of Ivanhoe Electric Inc., Cordoba Minerals' majority shareholder, and is not considered independent under National Instrument 43-101. Cordoba utilizes a comprehensive industry-standard QA/QC program. PQ diamond drill core is sawn lengthwise in two halves, and one half is sampled and shipped to a sample preparation laboratory. The other half of the core is stored in a secure facility for future assay verification. All samples are prepared at ALS Minerals Laboratory in Medellin, Colombia, and assayed at ALS Minerals Laboratory in Vancouver, Canada. ALS Minerals operates in accordance with ISO/IEC 17025. Gold is determined by 50 g fire assay with an AAS finish. An initial multi-element suite comprising copper, molybdenum, silver and additional elements is analyzed by four-acid digest with an ICP-ES or ICP-MS finish. All samples with copper values over 2000 ppm are re-assayed by a method for higher grades, which also uses a four-acid digest with an ICP-ES finish. Certified reference materials, blanks, and duplicates are inserted into the sample stream to monitor laboratory performance About Cordoba Cordoba Minerals Corp. is a mineral exploration company focused on the exploration, development and acquisition of copper and gold projects. Cordoba is developing its 100%-owned San Matias Copper-Gold-Silver Project, which includes the Alacran deposit and satellite deposits at Montiel East, Montiel West and Costa Azul, located in the Department of Cordoba, Colombia. Cordoba also holds a 51% interest in the Perseverance Copper Project in Arizona, USA, which it is exploring through a Joint Venture and Earn-In Agreement. For further information, please visit www.cordobaminerals.com. ON BEHALF OF THE COMPANY Sarah Armstrong-Montoya, President and Chief Executive Officer Information Contact Ran Li +1-604-689-8765 info@cordobamineralscorp.com Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes "forward-looking statements" and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements including, without limitation, that exploration will lead to the discovery of the potential porphyry source of the Alacran deposit and the possible Alacran Northern Extension; the exploration diamond drill program may be increased; and that ongoing exploration will lead to a potential discovery. Forward-looking statements include predictions, projections and forecasts and are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "believe", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "potential", "target", "budget" and "intend" and statements that an event or result "may", "will", "should", "could" or "might" occur or be achieved and other similar expressions and includes the negatives thereof. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of assumptions and estimates that, while considered reasonable by management based on the business and markets in which Cordoba operates, are inherently subject to significant operational, economic, and competitive uncertainties, risks and contingencies. 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations include actual exploration results, interpretation of metallurgical characteristics of the mineralization, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, uninsured risks, regulatory changes, delays or inability to receive required approvals, uncertainties relating to epidemics, pandemics and other public health crises, including COVID-19 or similar such viruses, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators, including those described under the heading "Risks and Uncertainties" in the Company's most recently filed MD&A. The Company does not undertake to update or revise any forward-looking statements, except in accordance with applicable law. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. 1 Copper equivalent ("CuEq") is calculated using the formula CuEq=((Copper%*Copper recovery)+100*((gold grade*gold recovery)/31.10305)/((copper%*copper price)*2204.62)+100*((silver grade*silver recovery)/31.10305)/((copper%*copper price)*2204.62) using the following assumptions: Metal prices of US$3.25/lb copper, US$1,600.00/oz gold, and US$20.00/oz silver, copper recovery of 92.5% (fresh and transition zone only), gold recovery of 78.1% and silver recovery of 62.9%. 2 Saprolite sample excludes copper To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125503 Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Omai Gold Mines Corp. (TSXV: OMG) (OTC Pink: OMGGF) ("Omai" or the "Company") is pleased to provide results from the Company's first diamond drilling west of the Wenot resource1, and from trenching and drilling on the exploration targets west of Fennell, at its Omai gold project in Guyana. Results for two diamond drill holes, stepping out to the west of the new Wenot resource, plus five holes testing exploration targets include the following highlights: Hole 22ODD-038 (West Wenot) 5.01 g/t Au over 8.5 m Hole 22ODD-039 (West Wenot) 2.32 g/t Au over 17.1 m Hole 22ODD-033 (Blueberry Hill) 41.73 g/t Au over 0.9 m Importantly, this drilling was successful at extending the Wenot deposit to the west and further step-out drilling has continued. The intersection in hole 22ODD-039 of 2.32 g/t Au over 17.1 m is down dip of a zone that was drilled by shallow 1990's holes with 21 m @ 1.5 g/t, 15.0 m @ 1.7 g/t Au and 6.0 m @ 1.88 g/t Au, suggesting the continuity of this zone from surface down to at least a 140 m depth. These results open a significant new region for exploration and in un-mined areas in proximity to the Wenot resource area. Elaine Ellingham, CEO noted, "We are very pleased that our drilling has established that the Wenot shear zone extends to the west and continues to host significant gold mineralization. The gold mineralization in these new holes is similar to the main zones at Wenot. We recently deployed the second drill to commence step out drilling on the eastern extension of the Wenot deposit, roughly two kilometers to the east. Our objective is to work towards a revised NI 43-101 Wenot resource, assuming favourable results continue as we explore both the east and west extensions of the Wenot shear. Expanding the Wenot resource into these un-mined areas is significant for an ultimate mine plan as these could contribute to lower-strip-ratio starter pits for the larger Wenot deposit." Drilling commenced along the western extension of the Wenot gold zones at the end of March with five holes completed to date (1,423 m) and one additional hole underway (Table 1, Figures 1 & 2). Results are available for the first two (2) holes, 22ODD-038 and -039 and additional results are pending. Hole ID Including From To Interval (m) Gold grade (grams per tonne) 22ODD-038 160.0 161.0 1.0 2.92 171.0 176.0 5.0 0.48 215.0 223.5 8.5 5.01 including 221.8 223.5 1.7 17.80 22ODD-039 52.3 53.0 0.7 3.81 246.9 264.0 17.1 2.32 including 246.9 253.8 6.9 3.54 and 262.9 264.0 1.1 5.58 277.3 277.9 0.6 1.36 288.8 293.0 4.2 0.56 Holes 22ODD-038 and 22ODD-039 are on the same east-west section line, stepping-out approximately 100 m west of any 2012 drilling and about 400 m west of any historic mining below the saprolite. Hole 22ODD-038, drilled to the north to test for mineralization within the sediments, confirmed a significant zone of 8.5 m grading 5.01 g/t Au on the southern side of the Wenot shear, at a vertical depth of approximately 110 m into fresh rock. Hole 22ODD-039 drilled to the south and intersected 17.1 m grading 2.32 g/t Au within the volcanics at a vertical depth into fresh rock of approximately 140 m, and down-dip of the gold mineralized zones drilled in the 1990s. The gold mineralization occurs within quartz-ankerite veinlets and stockworks, some with coarse visible gold and developed primarily in and along the sheared margins of variably silicified sub-vertical felsic dikes at or near the lithologic contact between the andesite-dominant lithologies to the north and lithic wacke sediments to the south. While the Omai Gold mine was operating, much of this area to the west of the Wenot pit was covered by the mill, other service buildings, access roads and other mine infrastructure, almost all of which has since been removed, now allowing for exploration. Exploration Targets West of Fennell Exploration continued on targets west of the Fennell pit and to the southwest of the Wenot pit, with follow up trenching and sampling, and subsequent drilling of eight holes in four target areas in February and into early April. Results are provided for the initial five diamond drill holes totalling 1,213 m. At Blueberry Hill, high grade gold values were reported from six large trenches in the Blueberry Hill area (see news release dated February 24, 2022)(figure 1). An additional trench (OTR-010) completed on the eastern side of Blueberry Hill, had limited exposure of fresh rock but one channel sample ran 5.13 g/t Au over 1 m. The extent that the trenching was able to expose "fresh" rock exceeded our expectations and greatly assisted in exposing prospective quartz veins and stockworks for sampling. However, at the large Broccoli Hill target area located east of Fennell, attempts to complete similar trenches were unsuccessful even with the large excavator, due to a hardpan or silicrete layer within the saprolite that could not be penetrated. Three drill holes were completed in the Blueberry Hill area (22ODD-033, 034 and 035, figure 1) focused on testing the high-grade structures that were sampled within the trenches. Results included: Hole ID Including From To Interval (m) Gold grade (grams per tonne) 22ODD-033 150.6 151.5 0.9 41.73 22ODD-034 19.5 21.0 1.5 0.53 58.0 59.0 1.0 0.81 63.0 64.2 1.2 1.80 69.5 71.0 1.5 1.71 22ODD-035 46.6 48.1 1.5 1.91 Visible gold was encountered in a narrow quartz vein within quartz-hornblende diorite in hole 22ODD-033 and assayed 41.73 g/t Au over 0.9 m (Figure 3). Holes 22ODD-034 and 035 tested the high-grade mineralization identified in trench OTR-002, where six of the eleven samples taken assayed over 6 g/t Au, including three that assayed over 10 g/t Au. These holes intersected several intervals of Fennell-like diorite intrusion and areas of quartz veining and several intersections with favourable alteration and sulphidization, with only anomalous gold grades. Additional trenching is planned with the goal of further clarifying orientations and extent of the gold-bearing structures prior to further drilling. At the Snake Pond area shown in figure 1, trenching and subsequent drilling followed up on significant gold intersections from 1990s drill holes. Trenching completed in March was not able to reach fresh rock in many areas, but one channel sample graded 5.21 over 1m. Trench OTR-011 exposed a 26-meter zone with quartz veining with several orientations and stockworks. Selective grab samples of quartz veining within the saprolite returning results from north to south of: 1.49 g/t Au over 5 m, 4.51 g/t Au over 5 m, 6.12 g/t Au over 5 m, 0.08 g/t over 5 m, 0.01 over 5 m and 7.68 g/t over 5 m. Two drill holes 22ODD-040 and -042 were completed to test this northeast trending Snake Pond zone with assays pending. Two geophysics targets to the south of the main east-west trending Wenot Shear were tested during this program. Diamond drill hole 22ODD-036 tested a prominent magnetic lineament located approximately 750 m south of the main Wenot Shear. Although the hole intersected a very strongly sheared metasedimentary sequence intruded by a 26 meter-wide quartz-felspar porphyry (QFP) unit, no anomalous gold was returned. A second geophysical target located approximately 220 m south of the main Wenot shear trend and defined by a magnetic anomaly, was tested by hole 22ODD-037. A single hole in the 1990s intersected 15 m at 1.2 g/t Au in this area. Hole 22ODD-037 experienced some core loss, particularly around quartz veined sections. A few anomalous intersections included 6.0 m @ 0.67 g/t Au, 1.0 m @ 0.77 g/t Au and 1.0 m @ 0.96 g/t Au. Quality Control Omai maintains an internal QA/QC program to ensure sampling and analysis of all exploration work is conducted in accordance with best practices. Certified reference materials, blanks and duplicates are entered at regular intervals. Samples are sealed in plastic bags. Samples from holes 22ODD-033 to 22ODD-037 were shipped to the MSALABS Guyana Inc., a certified laboratory in Georgetown, Guyana, respecting the best chain of custody practices. At the laboratory, samples are dried, crushed up to 80% passing 2 mm, riffle split (250 g), and pulverized to 95% passing 105 m, including cleaner sand. Thirty grams of pulverized material is then fire assayed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AA). Initial assays with results above 3.0 ppm gold are re-assayed using a gravimetric finish. Certified reference materials and blanks meet with QA/QC specifications. Samples from holes 22ODD-038 and 039 were shipped to ActLabs, a certified laboratory in Georgetown, Guyana. At the ActLabs, samples were processed following the same procedures through to fire assay as above. Standards and blanks meet with QA/QC specifications. Certain samples with potential for coarse gold were selectively analysed at ActLabs by Metallic Screening whereby a representative 500 gram sample split is sieved at 149m, with assays performed on the entire +149 m fraction and two splits of the -149 m fraction. When assays have been completed on the coarse and fine portions of the large sample, a final assay is calculated based on the weight of each fraction. Qualified Person John Spurney is a Qualified Person (QP) under National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" and has approved the technical information contained in this news release. Mr. Spurney is not considered to be independent for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101. 1The Company filed an NI43-101 technical report titled "TECHNICAL REPORT AND INITIAL MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATE OF THE WENOT GOLD DEPOSIT, OMAI PROPERTY, POTARO MINING DISTRICT NO. 2, GUYANA", prepared by William Stone, P.Geo. Yungang Wu, P.Geo. Jarita Barry, P.Geo. Antoine Yassa, P.Geo. D. Grant Feasby, P.Eng. Eugene Puritch, P.Eng., FEC, CET, of P&E Mining Consultants Inc dated February 18, 2022 on the SEDAR website www.sedar.com in support of the Wenot Mineral Resource Estimate announced January 4, 2022. The Mineral Resource Estimate consists of 16.7 million tonnes of indicated mineral resources averaging 1.31 grams of gold per tonne for 703,300 ounces of gold, and 19.5 million tonnes of inferred mineral resources averaging 1.50 grams of gold per tonne for 940,000 ounces of gold on the Wenot Deposit. ABOUT OMAI GOLD Omai Gold Mines Corp., through its wholly owned subsidiary Avalon Gold Exploration Inc., holds a 100% interest in the Omai Prospecting License that includes the past producing Omai Gold Mine, and a 100% interest in the adjoining Eastern Flats Mining Permits. Once South America's largest producing gold mine, Omai produced over 3.7 million ounces of gold between 1993 and 2005. In 2022, the Company announced an initial Mineral Resource Estimate on the new Wenot gold deposit. The Company's short-term priorities are to build on the known Mineral Resources, while advancing exploration on key targets, providing a solid opportunity to create significant value for all stakeholders. For further information, please see our website www.omaigoldmines.com or contact: Elaine Ellingham P.Geo. President & CEO elaine@omaigoldmines.com Phone: +1 416-473-5351 Greg Ferron VP Business Development greg.ferron@omaigoldmines.com Ph: +1 416-270-5042 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. Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This news release includes certain "forward-looking statements" under applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to the timing of completion of exploration, trenching and drill programs, and the potential for the Omai Gold Project to allow Omai to build significant gold Mineral Resources at attractive grades, and forward-looking statements are necessarily based upon a number of estimates and assumptions that, while considered reasonable, are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results and future events to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; delay or failure to receive regulatory approvals; the price of gold and copper; and the results of current exploration. Further, the Mineral Resource data set out in the Omai Gold news release are estimates, and no assurance can be given that the anticipated tonnages and grades will be achieved or that the indicated level of recovery will be realized. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. 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. Table 1. Drill hole locations for holes 22ODD-033 to 22ODD-039 Hole ID Azimuth (degrees) Inclination (degrees) Elevation (m) Final Depth (m) Easting Northing 22ODD-033 350 -80 51.1 182 303869 602516 22ODD-034 0 -80 44.52 158 304186 602521 22ODD-035 180 -75 44.62 161 304195 602610 22ODD-036 205 -50 22.49 139 303715 600988 22ODD-037 180 -50 25.89 217 303829 601530 22ODD-038 0 -50 20.70 262 304331 601468 22ODD-039 180 -50 33.48 320 304329 601859 Figure 1. Location Map of Drill Holes and Trenches West of Fennell and Wenot To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8712/125548_17f691dae43558d0_001full.jpg Figure 2. West Wenot Extension Drilling - Longitudinal Section (looking north) To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8712/125548_17f691dae43558d0_002full.jpg Figure 3 - Visible Gold in Hole 22 ODD-033, Blueberry Hill To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8712/125548_17f691dae43558d0_003full.jpg Figure 4. Cross-Section of Drill Holes 22ODD-038 and -039 To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8712/125548_17f691dae43558d0_004full.jpg To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125548 Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws. TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / Novamind Inc. (CSE:NM)(OTCQB:NVMDF)(FSE:HN2) ("Novamind" or the "Company"), a leading mental health company specialized in psychedelic medicine, is pleased to announce both Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. ("ISS") and Glass Lewis and Co., LLC ("Glass Lewis") have recommended that holders (the "Shareholders") of common shares (the "Novamind Shares") of the Company vote FOR the previously announced proposed acquisition of Novamind by Numinus Wellness Inc. ("Numinus") by way of a court-approved plan of arrangement (the "Arrangement"). ISS and Glass Lewis are independent proxy advisory firms who provide voting recommendations to institutional shareholders. Under the Arrangement, Shareholders will receive 0.84 of a common share of Numinus (each whole common share, a "Numinus Share") for each Novamind Share held. In reaching its conclusion, ISS noted: "In light of the significant premium, the favourable market reaction, the reasonable strategic rationale and the absence of significant governance concerns, shareholder approval of this resolution is warranted." The Meeting The special meeting of Shareholders to vote on the Arrangement is scheduled to be held at McMillan LLP, Brookfield Place, Suite 4400, 181 Bay Street, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2T3 on June 8, 2022, at 2:00 p.m. (Toronto time) (the "Meeting"). YOUR VOTE IS IMPORTANT - PLEASE VOTE TODAY The proxy voting deadline is 2:00 p.m. (Toronto time) on June 6, 2022. The Novamind Board of Directors unanimously recommends that Shareholders vote FOR the Arrangement Resolution. Full details of the Arrangement are described in the Company's management information circular dated May 6, 2022 (the "Circular") and can be found on the Company's website at www.novamind.ca/ir/. The Circular is also available under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. How to Vote Your vote is important regardless of the number of Novamind Shares you own. Voting for Beneficial Shareholders INTERNET: Go to www.proxyvote.com and enter your 16-digit control number found on your voting instruction form to vote online. TELEPHONE: Call 1-800-474-7493 and enter your 16-digit control number found on your voting instruction form to vote by telephone. Voting for Registered Shareholders INTERNET: Go to www.voteproxy.ca. Enter the 12-digit control number printed on the form of proxy and follow the instructions on the screen. FAX: Complete, date and sign the proxy and fax it to 1-604-200-5061 Shareholder Questions and Assistance If you have questions relating to the Arrangement, or require voting assistance, please contact Novamind's shareholder communications advisor and proxy solicitation agent, Laurel Hill Advisory Group, by telephone at 1-877-452-7184 toll-free in Canada (+1-416-304-0211 for international calls) or by e-mail at assistance@laurelhill.com. About Novamind Novamind is a leading mental health company enabling safe access to psychedelic medicine through a network of clinics and clinical research sites. Novamind provides ketamine-assisted psychotherapy and other novel treatments through its network of integrative mental health clinics and operates a full-service contract research organization specialized in clinical trials and evidence-based research for psychedelic medicine. For more information on how Novamind is enhancing mental wellness and guiding people through their entire healing journey, visit novamind.ca. Contact Information Laurel Hill Advisory Group North America Toll Free: 1-877-452-7184 Collect Calls Outside North America: 1-416-304-0211 Email: assistance@laurelhill.com Yaron Conforti, CEO and Director Telephone: +1 (647) 953 9512 Samantha DeLenardo, VP, Communications Email: media@novamind.ca Investor Relations Email: IR@novamind.ca Forward-Looking Statements This news release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the plans, intentions, beliefs and current expectations of the Company with respect to the Arrangement and the Meeting. All statements other than statements of historical fact included in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. 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. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations including the risks detailed from time to time in the Company's public disclosure. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The Company does not assume any obligation to update forward-looking statements if circumstances or management's beliefs, expectations or opinions should change other than as required by applicable securities laws Cautionary Statements The securities of the Company referred to in this press release 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 state securities laws. Accordingly, the securities of the Company may not be offered or sold within the United States unless registered under the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws or pursuant to an exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any securities of the Company in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its regulation services provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. SOURCE: Novamind Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/702968/Independent-Proxy-Advisory-Firms-ISS-and-Glass-Lewis-Recommend-Shareholders-of-Novamind-Vote-FOR-the-Proposed-Plan-of-Arrangement Not for distribution to United States news wire services or for dissemination in the United States VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / Lucky Minerals Inc. (TSXV:LKY) (OTC PINK:LKMNF), (FRA:LKY) ("Lucky" or the "Company") is pleased to announce a non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of up to 33,000,000 units ("the Units") for gross proceeds of up to approximately CDN $1.848 million. Investors in the Offering include Michael Gentile, CFA who as a result of the Offering, intends to increase his share ownership in the Company potentially up to approximately 19.9% on a partially diluted basis. The Offering consists of approximately 33,000,000 Units of the Company at CDN $0.056 per Unit, for gross proceeds of approximately CDN $1.848 million. Each Unit is comprised of one common share (a "Share") and one full three-year common share purchase warrant (a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire on additional Share at a price of CDN $0.10 per Share, until the date that is 36 months from the closing (the "Closing") of the Offering. All the Shares and Warrants issued in connection to the Offering are subject to a statutory hold period expiring four months and one day from the date of issuance. The Company may pay finders' fees on a portion of the Offering in accordance with applicable securities laws and the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange. The net proceeds of the Private Placement will be used to support the first drill program on the Company's Fortuna Project in Ecuador and for general working capital purposes. The Offering is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval. New strategic investor Mr. Michael Gentile Mr. Gentile is considered one of the leading strategic investors in the junior mining sector, owning significant positions in over 15 small-cap mining companies. Mr. Gentile is currently a strategic advisor to Arizona Metals (AMC-V) and Geomega Resources as well as being a director of Northern Superior Resources (SUP-V), Roscan Gold (ROS-V), Radisson Mining Resources (RDS-V) and Solstice Gold (SGC-V). Mr. Gentile recently co-founded Bastion Asset Management, an investment management firm based out of Montreal, Quebec and was previously a Senior Portfolio Manager with Formula Growth Limited. Mr. Gentile states, "Lucky Minerals is on the cusp of the most exciting and value creating face for a junior exploration company, the discovery phase. With the maiden drill program about to begin on their Wayka property, the potential for a major new discovery is high as the Company begins drilling directly under some of the wide and high grade trenches uncovered in 2021 and 2022. As set out in previous news releases, drilling under trench T-14 which uncovered 8 g/t gold over 9 m and trench T-21 which uncovered 5.24 g/t gold over 14 m, greatly increases the odds of success and positions Lucky Minerals well for the 2022 drill program. This new mineralized system is showing a large footprint that continues to expand with additional surface work and trenching. With a large and growing footprint, drilling about to begin and a small market cap of less than 10 million Canadian, the risk reward proposition in Lucky Minerals is quite compelling." Francois Perron, Lucky's President and CEO states, "We are very excited to have Mr. Gentile join potentially as a significant shareholder of Lucky Minerals. Our project in Ecuador is entering a very exciting phase. Getting the support from a strategic long-term investor at this juncture helps lay the foundation upon which we will continue to build the Company. The entire team is looking forward to first drilling the discovery zone at Wayka in the coming weeks." Shares for services agreement with a consulting geologist Mr. Franklin Viera The Company also announces that subject to regulatory approval, and pursuant to TSX Venture Exchange Policy 4.3, the Company has entered into a shares for services agreement ("Agreement") with Mr. Franklin Viera. Mr. Viera will provide services to the Company as a technical consultant for the drilling phase of the Company's Ecuador property. Services provided will include 3D modeling, GIS, drill hole planning, geochemical analysis, core logging, field geological mapping property evaluation, database management and occasional field program supervision and other duties that may be required by the Company. While the Agreement is in effect, Mr. Viera will receive a portion of his compensation in common shares ("Compensation Shares") of the Company equivalent in value of up to USD $5,000 per month. Mr. Viera is a well known geologist in Ecuador and has been involved in many significant projects including the discovery of Quimsacocha which is now called the Loma Larga project. ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD "Francois Perron" Chief Executive Officer About Lucky Lucky is an exploration and development company targeting large-scale mineral systems in proven districts with the potential to host world class deposits. Lucky owns a 100% interest in the Fortuna Property. The Company's Fortuna Project is comprised of twelve contiguous, 550 km2 (55,000 Hectares, or 136,000 Acres) exploration concessions. Fortuna is located in a highly prospective, yet underexplored, gold belt in southern Ecuador. Qualified Person Victor Jaramillo, M.Sc.A., P.Geo., Lucky's Exploration Manager and a qualified person in accordance with National Instrument 43-101, is responsible for supervising the exploration program at the Fortuna Project for Lucky Minerals and has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this news release. Further information on Lucky can be found on the Company's website at www.luckyminerals.com and at www.sedar.com, or by contacting Francois Perron, President and CEO, by email at investors@luckyminerals.com or by telephone at (866) 924 6484. Or by contacting: Renmark Financial Communications Inc. Kerry Schacter: kschacter@renmarkfinancial.com Tel: (416) 644-2020 or (514) 939-3989 www.renmarkfinancial.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. Cautionary Statement Regarding Adjacent Properties and Forward-Looking Information This news release contains forward-looking statements relating to the future operations of the Company and other statements that are not historical facts. Forward-looking statements are often identified by terms such as "will", "may", "should", "anticipate", "expects" and similar expressions. All statements other than statements of historical fact, included in this release, including, without limitation, statements regarding the future plans and objectives of the Company are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. 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. Such factors include, but are not limited to: uncertainties related to exploration and development; the ability to raise sufficient capital to fund exploration and development; changes in economic conditions or financial markets; increases in input costs; litigation, legislative, environmental and other judicial, regulatory, political and competitive developments; technological or operational difficulties or inability to obtain permits encountered in connection with exploration activities; and labor relations matters. This list is not exhaustive of the factors that may affect the Company's forward-looking information. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the Company's expectations also include risks detailed from time to time in the filings made by the Company with securities regulators. The reader is cautioned that assumptions used in the preparation of any forward-looking information may prove to be incorrect. Events or circumstances may cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted, as a result of numerous known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company. The reader is cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking information. Such information, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect and actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are made as of the date of this news release and the Company will not update or revise publicly any of the included forward-looking statements unless required by Canadian securities law. SOURCE: Lucky Minerals Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/702974/Lucky-Minerals-Announces-New-Strategic-Investor-Michael-Gentile-a-18-M-Non-Brokered-Private-Placement-and-Shares-for-Services-Agreement According to a senior US defense source, Russia has lost almost 1,000 tanks and a not insignificant quantity of soldiers in its now three-month-long aim on Ukraine. The Kremlin has also suffered a not insignificant degree of attrition among its forces, according to the official. Russian troops have also lost almost 350 pieces of artillery, over 30 fighter bomber fixed-wing aircraft, and more than 50 helicopters. US Assumes Nearly 30,000 Russian Soldiers Killed in The Invasion Later, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby stated that the Russians continue to suffer fatalities in this conflict, which began on February 24. The US estimate comes after a Ukrainian defense official stated earlier on Thursday that roughly 30,000 Russian servicemen were killed in the assault. The Pentagon is reluctant to publicly estimate casualty statistics; instead, it stated that Russia still maintains 110 battalion tactical groups in Ukraine, accounting for more than 80% of its fighting troops. According to the official, the Russians continue to have an advantage in the struggle due to the sheer amount of assets at their disposal - both personnel and weaponry. Still, Kremlin soldiers have made little success in their attempt to shut off the Donbas area in eastern Ukraine, where they have concentrated forces for the purpose. According to the official, Russian soldiers are seeking to encircle settlements in the region and make it impossible for Ukrainians to restock themselves, but have only achieved incremental progress, The Hill reported. Read Also: Elon Musk Raises Fear for Italy, South Korea, Hong Kong Amid Threat of Population Collapse Russia Urges Ukraine Troops To Surrender Militants are said to have placed pro-Russia propaganda pamphlets inside rockets and launched them over Ukrainian-held areas. The flyers urge Ukrainian troops to surrender and hand up their weapons to enemy forces. On Tuesday, Zenger News got the footage from the People's Militia of the Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). The clip was shot near the city of Zolote, which is now under the authority of the LPR, according to Zvezda, a Russian state-owned countrywide TV network managed by the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD). It claimed the shells were fused to detonate in mid-air, scattering leaflets across a vast region in Ukrainian-held territory. According to Zvezda, the leaflets provide thorough information on the procedure for turning up weapons and willingly surrendering securely to pro-Russian forces. The shells bearing the leaflets are shown being blasted by 2S1 Gvozdika Soviet self-propelled howitzers in the clip. The 2S1 Gvozdika entered service in 1972 and is still in use by the armies of various nations, notably Russia and Ukraine. When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin referred to the invasion as a unique military operation to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine, according to Newsweek. Meanwhile, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia on Thursday of carrying out an evident genocidal program in his country's eastern Donbas area. Moscow's attack in Donbas might result in the territory being deserted, he added, accusing the Russians of wishing to burn the region's towns to ashes. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered soldiers into Ukraine in late February, claiming the mission was to stop the genocide of Russian speakers in the pro-Western country. Ukraine's parliament voted in April to recognize the Russian military's activities in the nation as genocide. US Vice President Joe Biden used a similar phrase, saying Putin seems focused on eradicating the concept of being a Ukrainian, as per NDTV. Related Article: Russia-Ukraine War: Remains of Russian Soldiers Abandoned, Rot in Kyiv as Veterans Group Calls Vladimir Putin's Operation a "Failure" @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / SouthGobi Resources Ltd. (TSX:SGQ, HK:1878) ("SouthGobi" or the "Company") announces that reference is made to the announcements of the Company dated March 11, March 24, March 28, March 30, March 31, April 14, April 29, May 17, May 18, May 24, and May 25, 2022 in relation to, among others, the delay in publication of the 2021 Audited Annual Results and delay in 2021 Annual Filings (the "Announcements"). Unless otherwise defined herein, capitalized terms used in this announcement shall have the same respective meanings as defined in the Announcements. BI-WEEKLY DEFAULT STATUS REPORT The Company provides this bi-weekly default status report in relation to the management cease trade order dated April 1, 2022 ("MCTO") granted by the British Columbia Securities Commission ("BCSC") pursuant to National Policy 12-203 - Cease Trade Orders for Continuous Disclosure Defaults ("NP 12-203"). With the granting of the MCTO, the Company has until May 30, 2022, being the expiry date of the MCTO, to file the 2021 Annual Filings. The Company is required to file bi-weekly default status reports in accordance with NP 12-203 until such time that as the default in filing the 2021 Annual Filings is remedied. Pursuant to the MCTO, the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer of the Company are not permitted to trade any securities of the Company unless and until such time as the Company files the 2021 Annual Filings. While the MCTO is in effect, the shareholders of the Company will continue to be able to trade the Company's common shares on the TSX and the HKEx. UPDATE ON PUBLICATION OF 2021 AUDITED ANNUAL RESULTS AND 2021 ANNUAL FILINGS As disclosed in the Announcements, the Company has made concerted efforts to obtain an unmodified opinion from the Auditors on the 2021 Financial Statements prior to May 30, 2022, being the expiry date of the MCTO, and to address the going concern issues raised by the Auditors. Taking into account the efforts made and interim progress, the Company has resolved the going concern issue and anticipates obtaining an unmodified opinion from the Auditors on the 2021 Financial Statements on May 30, 2022. As such, the Company anticipates it will be able to file the 2021 Annual Filings on May 30, 2022. As disclosed in the Announcement dated May 18, 2022, at the Board meeting scheduled to be held on May 30, 2022, the Board will review and approve, the publication of the 2021 Audited Annual Results. The Company anticipates these results will be published on May 30, 2022. PUBLICATION OF 2022 Q1 FINANCIAL RESULTS As disclosed in the Announcements, the filing deadline for the Company's 2022 Q1 financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2022 ("2022 Q1 Financial Results") is May 15, 2022 as required under applicable Canadian securities laws. However, the Company cannot issue its 2022 Q1 Financial Results until it first issues its 2021 Annual Filings. Pursuant to the terms of the MCTO, the Company is required to file its 2022 Q1 Financial Results within five business days following the filing of the 2021 Annual Filings. As disclosed in the Announcement dated May 24, 2022, at the Board meeting scheduled to be held on June 6, 2022, the Board will review and approve the publication of the 2022 Q1 Financial Results. The Company anticipates these results will be published on June 6, 2022. Unless and until such time as the Company files the 2021 Annual Filings, shareholders and potential investors of the Company are urged to exercise extreme caution when dealing in the securities of the Company. Other than as disclosed herein, the Company confirms that since May 17, 2022: (i) there have been no material changes to the information set out in the announcement dated May 17, 2022 that has not been generally disclosed; (ii) there have been no failures by the Company in fulfilling its stated intentions with respect to satisfying the provisions of the alternative information guidelines under NP 12-203; (iii) there has been no other, or anticipated, specified default under NP 12-203 concerning the Company; and (iv) there is no other material information concerning the affairs of the Company that has not been generally disclosed. Shareholders of the Company and potential investors are advised to exercise caution when dealing in the securities of the Company. If there is any inconsistency or discrepancy between the English version and the Chinese version, the English version shall prevail. About SouthGobi SouthGobi, listed on the Toronto and Hong Kong stock exchanges, owns and operates its flagship Ovoot Tolgoi coal mine in Mongolia. It also holds the mining licences of its other metallurgical and thermal coal deposits in South Gobi region of Mongolia. SouthGobi produces and sells coal to customers in China. Contact: Investor Relations Office: +852 2156 1438 (Hong Kong) +1 604 762 6783 (Canada) Email: info@southgobi.com Website: www.southgobi.com Forward-Looking Statements Certain information included in this press release that is not current or historical factual information constitutes forward-looking statements or information within the meaning of applicable securities laws (collectively, "forward-looking statements"), including information regarding the anticipated date of filing of the 2021 Annual Filings and the 2022 Q1 Financial Results . Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "could", "should", "seek", "likely", "estimate" and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking statements are based on certain factors and assumptions including, among other things, the ability of the Company to complete and file the 2021 Annual Filings and the 2022 Q1 Financial Results on the anticipated filing dates and other similar factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from what the Company currently expects. Actual results may vary from the forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue importance on forward-looking statements, which speaks only as of the date of this disclosure, and not to rely upon this information as of any other date. While the Company may elect to, it is under no obligation and does not undertake to, update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, further events or otherwise at any particular time, except as required by law. Additional information concerning factors that may cause actual results to materially differ from those in such forward-looking statements is contained in the Company's filings with Canadian securities regulatory authorities and can be found under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. SOURCE: SouthGobi Resources Ltd. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703002/Corporate-Update-Update-on-Publication-Of-2021-Audited-Annual-Results-And-2021-Annual-Filings-And-Publication-Of-2022-Q1-Financial-Results DUBAI, Arab Emirates, May 27, 2022in Dubai yesterday, Centbee announced that consumers living in the UK can send digital cash via the blockchain to their families back home in West Africa. Co-CEO Lorien Gamaroff described the new feature enabling consumers to send digital cash to a recipient's MTN, Vodafone, Tigo or Airtel mobile money wallet or their bank account. The service will be available for people in the United Kingdom to send money to West Africa, including Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger and Benin. "Immigrants living in the UK can now send money home to their loved one's mobile money wallets or bank accounts using their Centbee wallets. By using the BSV blockchain to enable cross-border payments, we're able to significantly reduce the costs of sending money, making it more affordable - under 2 per send - for people to send money home. Remittances take a few seconds to send, so when you send money from the UK, you know your family will receive that money, ready to spend, in seconds," Gamaroff said. The new remittance feature in Centbeewallet builds on their existing functionality: making it easy to buy, send and spend from a mobile phone. Centbee has seen exceptional growth in its Value-Added Services catalogue (which includes hundreds of global brands) over the past few months. The introduction of a blockchain-based loyalty program, Centbee Honey, that gives their 50,000 customers ready-to-spend instant digital cash rewards in their Centbee wallet has significantly impacted sales volumes and in-app usage. "We've worked hard to find solutions leveraging the BSV blockchain to create useful and valuable services for our consumers across the world; our numbers show that consumers like having a digital cash wallet that can do it all - send money, buy products and services that they need and get rewarded instantly. The introduction of remittances to Centbee wallet builds on our vision of making digital cash useful to everyone, everywhere," said Centbee co-founder, Angus Brown. "By using the BSV blockchain, we know that we can deliver regulatory-compliant products to our customers. We've always seen the market potential for digital cash products and services that leverage the BSV blockchain because of blockchain's inherent benefits of being an immutable, transparent and public ledger. Our numbers are showing us that there is a massive demand and potential for digital wallet services and products, and the introduction of cross border remittances positions us for further rapid growth and adoption for our existing and new customers." Ends About Centbee Centbeeis a digital cash wallet that makes it easy for global consumers to buy, spend and send digital cash to their friends and family on their mobile phone using the BSV blockchain. Media Enquiries For further information, please contact Heidi Patmore, Manjaro Marketing, on +27 82 579 9473 or heidi@manjaromarketing.com Related Images Image 1: Centbee Co-CEO's Angus Brown and Lorien Gamaroff at BSV Global Blockchain Convention Dubai This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment The 6-month IFH Lab is a no-fee and no-equity program for 8 early stage startups who are helping to build a more inclusive and accessible financial system. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Non-profit incubator and ecosystem development organization Fintech Cadence kicked off the third cohort of their Innovate Financial Health Lab yesterday. The IFH Lab is a 6-month no-fee and no-equity incubator for pre-seed to pre-series A fintech startups. Companies in the program are using technology to help improve the financial lives of low-income and underserved Canadians by making financial products and services more affordable and inclusive. The cohort was announced at a kick-off party at the Centre for Social Innovation attended by over 150+ guests. This included representatives from Canada's major financial institutions, community organizations such as Prosper Canada, some of Canada's top VCs and investors in the fintech space, government, and founders of several other Canadian fintech startups. The IFH Lab receives funding from JP Morgan Chase, Meridian Credit Union, the Canadian Bankers' Association, and The City of Toronto. This year, over 30+ startups applied from across 6 Canadian provinces. The 8 selected startups are: Billi Labs (BC), Chroma (BC), and Kunye, coCare, Flota, Requity Homes, Solvncii, and Walletifai (ON). The Founders of the IFH Lab 2022 startup cohort kicked off their 6 month journey with the incubator this week in Toronto, ON To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8824/125370_2022cohort.jpg Over the next 6 months the startups will take part in hybrid programming including workshops, founder chats, and a live demo day in November. The journey started this week with 3 days of intensive in-person content. The IFH Lab is the first program in Canada focused on the intersection of fintech and financial health. After two successful cohorts, Fintech Cadence feels they've proven that there is a need from consumers, and an interest from investors and partners for companies that are bridging the gap between social impact and profit. "We are incredibly proud of the work we are doing to support fintech startups in this vertical," say Fintech Cadence Executive Director Layial El-Hadi, "There is no longer a question of whether fintechs can play a role in supporting the financial health of Canadians, but rather the focus is on how can organizations like Fintech Cadence shed a light on the fintechs that are focusing on this objective and how can we create an ecosystem that encourages, supports, and helps them succeed and thrive." The 12 startups that have gone through the program since 2020 have gone on to collectively raise over $11.1M in funding and have grown their teams by 50+ jobs. Past cohort companies include Alberta based ZayZoon, Toronto based PolicyMe, Quebec's WALO, which recently raised $1.1 Million, and Charlottetown, PEI's MIQ, recently one of four companies part of BKR Capital's first round of investments. Further questions can be directed to communications@fintechcadence.com. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125370 Calgary, Alberta--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Aurwest Resources Corporation (CSE: AWR) ("Aurwest" or the "Company") is pleased to report drill results from recent exploration drilling at the Paradise Lake Project, central Newfoundland. These initial results provide analytical assay data results for the first three drill holes (see Table-1 below) completed as part of the eleven-hole drilling program at Paradise Lake within the 4.5km long Cape Ray Valentine Lake corridor. Highlights include: PL-22-01 intersected 2.50 g/t Au over 3.4 meters, including 6.20 g/t Au over 0.9 meters. Phase II commencing to further test priority targets on westside of Twin Ponds Mr. Colin Christensen stated, "Our Paradise Lake gold property represents an exciting early-stage gold exploration project. Results to date on our first diamond drilling program on the project has so far intersected a broad range of significant gold concentrations in the syenite intrusion associated with the Cape Ray-Valentine Lake structure. Based on the early results of drilling so far, the exploration model that appears to be evolving is similar to that of the Valentine Lake gold deposit, which suggests the potential for a large tonnage lower grade deposit. The drilling so far has exhibited lower grade "Intrusion Related" gold mineralization with concentrations that are in line with this style of mineralization. Based on the 2021 surface sampling results we are confident that there is also the potential for high-grade gold in this area as indicated by our surface sampling. Despite delays in receiving all the analytical results from the Phase I drill program, Aurwest will continue with a modified Phase II drilling program testing the interpreted extensions of the Phase I results received to date." The Phase I diamond drilling program consisted of 11 holes (PL-22-01 through PL-22-11) totaling 2,746m to test a broad range (0.05g/t to 144.7g/t gold) gold concentrations in outcrop/subcrop/float hosted in quartz veined/stockwork/breccia exhibiting a quartz-pyrite-arsenopyrite mineral association exposed in a syenite intrusive along the Cape Ray Valentine Lake structure (See March 14, 2022, news release). Highlights: Hole PL-22-01 returned a 3.4m interval averaging 2.50 g/t gold over a core interval from 80-83.4m, including 0.9m of 6.20 g/t gold. Additional sampling of DDH Pl-22-01 has been completed to fill in open ended intervals of gold mineralization. Drilling is expected to commence next week to continue testing priority target areas identified in 2021and interpreted extensions of the gold mineralization identified to date. The 2022 mapping and prospecting program is underway and focusing on the west side of the Twin Ponds-Paradise Lake area to determine the source of a large resistivity high outlined by the 2021 IP program Exploration Model: The Paradise Lake-Stony Caldera properties are considered to have potential to host "Orogenic" and "Intrusive Related" styles of gold mineralization. The Cape-Ray-Valentine Lake ("CRVL") structural zone and subsidiary structures hosts several gold deposits including Valentine Lake, Cape Ray, Moosehead, and Queensway. During orogenic events in Newfoundland, these primary and subsidiary structures were re-activated allowing hydrothermal activity associated with late stage intrusives to emanate fluids upward along deep-seated faults in the basement rocks to form "leakage halos" within the overlying Botwood Group sediments and Stony Lake volcanics. These leakage halos are characterized by various styles of quartz veining with associated sulfides (pyrite + arsenopyrite) and gold mineralization exposed in outcrop/subcrop along the surface traces of these regional structures. Post Botwood intrusive activity (granodiorite/syenite) occurred in the vicinity of Twin Ponds-Paradise Lake indicating potential for an Intrusion Related style gold mineralization. Table 1: Highlights from the first three diamond drill holes. To view an enhanced version of Table 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/7275/125504_table1.jpg Notes: The cut-off selected for determining the weighted average for the mineralized intervals was 0.1g/t gold. No limitation placed on the sample interval. Gold grades are rounded. Intervals reported in table are core intervals and do not represent true width. 2022 Drilling Results: The drill holes reported in this news release intersected significant gold concentrations in syenite intrusive located along the interpreted Cape Ray Valentine Lake structure. The first hole (PL-22-01) returned the best gold results so far including a 3.4m interval averaging 2.50 g/t gold which includes an interval of 6.20g/t gold over a core interval of 0.9m. The gold mineralization exhibits a pyrite-arsenopyrite mineral association with higher gold values typically associated with higher arsenic concentrations. The mineralized intervals are typically contained within an envelope of enhanced gold value ranging from 10 to 90 parts per billion over several meters on either side of the mineralized interval. 2022 Exploration Program: Aurwest is commencing its Phase II diamond drill program to test the interpretated extensions of the gold mineralization identified to date. The initial part of the program consists of five drill holes totaling 1500m. The 2022 mapping and prospecting program has commenced with the initial portion of the program focusing along the west side of the Twin Ponds-Paradise Lake area to continue follow-up of quartz veined subcrop/float that returned gold concentration up to 144.7g/t. The gold mineralization is interpreted to be related to a large resistivity anomaly identified in 2021. The resistivity high is interpreted to be related to late-stage quartz veining and silica flooding. Analytical Procedures: Sample preparation and analytical work is being completed by Bureau Veritas Commodities Canada Inc. ("BV") located in Vancouver B.C. BV has an ISO/IEC 17025 certification. Sample preparation followed BV's code PRP70-1kg. Gold and 36 trace elements concentrations will be determined using BV's code AQ202, ICP-ES/MS on a 30g sample. Aurwest's QA/QC protocol includes geotechnical measurements, photographs, detailed geological logging and insertion of Standard Reference Material and blanks in the sample streams. Qualified Person: Elmer B. Stewart, MSc. P. Geol., is the Company's independent, nominated Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, Standards for Disclosure for Mineral Projects, and has reviewed and approves the scientific and technical information disclosed in this news release. On Behalf Of Aurwest resources Corporation "Colin Christensen" President and Chief Executive Officer For additional information please contact: Colin Christensen Telephone: (403) 483-8363 Email: cchristensen@aurwestresources.com Website: aurwestresources.com Renmark Financial Communications Inc. Robert Thaemlitz: rthaemlitz@renmarkfinancial.com Tel: (416) 644-2020 or (212) 812-7680 www.renmarkfinancial.com About Aurwest Resources Corporation Aurwest is a Canadian-based junior resource company focused on the acquisition, exploration, and development of gold properties in Canada. The Company currently has three Option Agreements to earn a 100% interest in Paradise Lake and Stony Caldera projects covering a 47,800-hectare (478 sq kms) package of gold exploration licenses within the emerging Central Newfoundland gold district. The Company also currently holds a 100% interest in the 28,294-hectare Stellar/Stars porphyry copper project, located approximately 25 kilometers southwest of Houston, British Columbia. Forward-Looking Information Statements included in this announcement, including statements concerning our plans, intentions, and expectations, which are not historical in nature are intended to be, and are hereby identified as "forward-looking statements." Forward-looking statements may be identified by words including "anticipates," "believes", "intends", "estimates", "expects" and similar expressions. The Company cautions readers that forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the Company's future operations and business prospects, are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements. Readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such risks and uncertainties and should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Any 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, except in accordance with the applicable laws. The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept 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/125504 exceet Group S.C.A. Societe en commandite par actions Registered Office: 17, rue de Flaxweiler, L-6776 Grevenmacher, Luxembourg R.C.S. Luxembourg B 148.525 Convening Notice to the Annual General Meeting and an Extraordinary General Meeting Notice is hereby given to the holders of shares of exceet Group S.C.A. (the "Company") that an ANNUAL GENERAL SHAREHOLDERS' MEETING will be held on 29 June 2022 at 12:00 (noon) CEST at Novotel Luxembourg Kirchberg, 6 Rue du Fort Niedergruenewald, L- 2226 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. At the annual general shareholders meeting, the shareholders shall deliberate and vote on the following agenda items (the "AGM"): AGENDA 1. Presentation of the report of the independent auditor on the annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2021 to the general meeting. 2. Approval of the annual accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2021. 3. Acknowledgment of the profit the Company made with respect to the financial year ended 31 December 2021, and resolution concerning the allocation of the result. 4. Presentation of the management report issued by the General Partner and the report of the independent auditor on consolidated accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2021. 5. Approval of the consolidated accounts for the financial year ended 31 December 2021. 6. Decision to grant discharge to the members of the supervisory board of the Company for the exercise of their mandate for the financial year ended 31 December 2021. 7. Decision to grant discharge to the manager of the Company for the exercise of its mandate for the financial year ended 31 December 2021. 8. Presentation of and advisory vote on the remuneration report in the fiscal year 2021. 9. Decision to elect BDO Audit SA, Luxembourg as independent auditor (reviseur d'entreprises agree) as auditor of the Company. 10. Miscellaneous. The Annual General Meeting shall be followed immediately by an Extraordinary General Meeting, which shall take place at 12.30 CEST, at the same address. At the extraordinary general shareholders meeting, the shareholders shall deliberate and vote on the following agenda items (the "EGM"): AGENDA 1. Acknowledgment of the special report prepared by the Manager of the Company in relation to Article 420-26(5) of the law of 10 August 1915 as amended regarding the proposed creation of an authorised capital of the Company and the waiver of preferential subscription rights regarding shares issued thereunder. 2. Decision to create an authorised capital in an amount of EUR two million eight hundred seven thousand six hundred forty euro EUR 2,807,640), excluding the issued share capital, and to grant the authorisation to the Manager to issue up to one hundred eighty-four million seven hundred fifteen thousand fifty-five (184,715,055) Ordinary Shares. 3. Amendment of Article 5 of the Company articles of association. Quorum and Majorities Pursuant to the Company's articles of association and the law, resolutions at the annual general meeting of shareholders duly convened are adopted by a simple majority of the votes validly cast, regardless of the portion of capital represented. Pursuant to the Company's articles of association and the law, resolutions at the extraordinary general meeting duly convened are adopted by a majority of at least two-thirds of the votes validly cast at such general meeting provided that at least half of the share capital is present or represented. In case the second condition is not satisfied, a second meeting may be convened in accordance with the law, which may deliberate regardless of the proportion of the capital represented and at which resolutions are taken at a majority of at least two-thirds of the votes validly cast. Abstention and nil votes will not be taken into account for the calculation of the majority. Right to Amend the Content of the Agenda Pursuant to the Company's articles of association, and the Luxembourg law of 24 May 2011 on certain rights of shareholders in listed companies, as amended (the "Luxembourg Shareholders' Rights Law"), one or several shareholders representing at least five percent (5%) of the Company's share capital may request the adjunction of one or several items to the agenda of the AGM, and/or the EGM provided that the request is accompanied by a justification of or draft resolution(s). Pursuant to Article 4 of the Luxembourg Shareholders' Rights Law and the Company's articles of association, such request and justification of or draft resolution(s) must be received at the Company's registered office by registered letter (to the attention of the board of directors, 17, rue de Flaxweiler, L-6776 Grevenmacher, Luxembourg) or electronic mail (to: h.vongregory@exceet.com) at least twenty-two (22) days prior to the date of the relevant general meeting of shareholders, i.e. by 7 June 2022 accompanied by a proof of the shareholding of such shareholder(s) and the address or e-mail address which the Company may use in order to deliver the acknowledgment of receipt of such request. The Company must acknowledge reception of such request within forty-eight (48) hours of receipt of such request. In case such request entails a modification of the agenda of the relevant general shareholders' meeting, the Company will make an amended agenda available at the latest fifteen (15) days prior to the relevant general meeting, i.e. by 14 June 2022. Documents Copies of the proposals of the resolutions of the AGM and the EGM as well as the documents related to the aforementioned items on the respective agenda (including the proposed new consolidated articles of association) will be on display for inspection by the shareholders on the Company's website (www.exceet.com/investor-relations) and at the registered office of the Company as from 27 May 2022. Upon request to h.vongregory@exceet.com, copies of the above-mentioned documents are going to be mailed to the shareholders. Share Capital of the Company The Company's issued share capital is set at three hundred eleven thousand nine hundred sixty euro and eighteen cents (EUR 311,960.18) represented by twenty million seventy-three thousand six hundred ninety-five (20,073,695) Ordinary Shares and one (1) Unlimited Share. Each share entitles the holder thereof to one vote. Right to Participate in the AGM and the EGM According to Article 5 of the Luxembourg Shareholders' Rights Law, the record date for general meetings of shareholders of listed companies incorporated under the laws of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has been set at fourteen (14) days prior to the date of the corresponding general shareholders' meeting. Therefore, any shareholder who holds one or more shares of the Company on 15 June 2022 at 24:00 (midnight) CEST (the "Record Date") and registers for the AGM and the EGM (please see below section "Registration for the AGM and the EGM") and provides the certificate specified below, shall be admitted to participate and vote at the AGM and the EGM. All shareholders wishing to participate (in person, or by voting through proxy or voting form) at the annual general shareholders' meeting of the Company shall notify the Company thereof at the latest on the Record Date in writing by mail, fax or by e-mail. Shareholders (whose shares are held in book-entry form through the operator of a securities settlement system or with a professional depositary or sub-depositary designated by such depositary) must request from their operator or depositary or sub-depositary a certificate certifying the number of shares recorded in their account on the Record Date. In addition to the aforementioned registration, to participate and vote in the annual general shareholders' meeting, such Shareholders (whose shares are held in book-entry form through the operator of a securities settlement system or with a professional depositary or sub-depositary designated by such depositary) must submit a copy of the certificate via their custodian bank by mail, by fax or by e-mail to the Centralizing Agent in the period from 15 June 2022 at 24:00 (midnight) CEST until 24 June 2022, at 12:00 (noon) CEST. The Centralizing Agent of the Company is the following: Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft Attn.: Trust and Agency Services/Post-IPO Services Taunusanlage 12 D-60325 Frankfurt am Main Germany Fax: +49/69 910-38794 Email: dct.tender-offers@db.com Any shareholder and/or proxyholder participating in the annual general shareholders' meeting in person shall carry proof of identity at the annual general shareholders' meeting. Registration for the AGM and the EGM Shareholders wishing to participate in the AGM must register for the annual general shareholders' meeting by submitting their registration by mail, fax or by e-mail by 15 June 2022 at 24:00 (midnight) CEST to the Centralizing Agent of the Company at the address referred to above. Registration forms are provided on the website of the Company (www.exceet.com/investor-relations) which must be used. Shareholders having registered for the AGM and the EGM may provide a proxy or voting form in case they do not wish to participate in person in the AGM and the EGM by 24 June 2022 at 12:00 (noon) CEST (see below sections "Representation" and "Voting Form"). Representation In the event that any shareholder appoints another person, shareholder or not, as his proxy to vote on his behalf, the completed and executed proxy must be submitted by mail, fax or by email to the Centralizing Agent of the Company no later than 24 June 2022 at 12:00 (noon) CEST and must be accompanied by the proof of shareholding. Proxy forms provided on the website of the Company (www.exceet.com/investor-relations) must be used and only signed proxy forms will be taken into account. One person may represent more than one shareholder. Shareholders having submitted a proxy form and registered in due time but who wish to revoke such proxy form may do so by timely providing a later dated proxy form or by cancelling the proxy form in writing to the Centralizing Agent of the Company at the address referred to above. Voting Forms Shareholders having registered for the AGM and the EGM but who do not wish to participate in person may also vote through a voting form in the AGM and the EGM. The voting form may be submitted by mail, by fax or by e-mail to the Centralizing Agent of the Company no later than 24 June 2022 at 12:00 (noon) CEST and should be accompanied by the proof of shareholding (see above section "Right to Participate in the AGM and the EGM"). Only voting forms provided by the Company on its website (www.exceet.com/investor-relations) may be used and only signed voting forms will be taken into account. Shareholders having submitted a voting form and registered in due time but who wish to revoke such voting form may do so by timely providing a later dated proxy or voting form or cancelling the voting form in writing to the Centralizing Agent of the Company at the address referred to above. Language The meeting will be held in the English language. Luxembourg, on 27 May 2022. For the General Partner of the Company CORESTATE CAPITAL HOLDING S.A. 4, rue Jean Monnet, L-2180 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg Registered with the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register under registration number B 199780 CONVENING NOTICE TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE SHAREHOLDERS The management board (the Management Board) of Corestate Capital Holding S.A. (the Company) hereby convenes all shareholders to the annual general meeting of the shareholders of the Company (the Meeting), which shall be held on 28 June 2022 at 10 a.m. CEST with the agenda set out below. Important information: In application of the Luxembourg law dated 17 December 2021 extending the measures initially introduced by the Grand Ducal Regulation of 20 March 2020, enacted into law by the Luxembourg law dated 20 June 2020 and prolonged by the Luxembourg law dated 23 September 2020 in relation with the holding of meetings in companies and other legal entities in light of the exceptional circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 (the Emergency Legislation) and notwithstanding any contrary provisions in the articles of association of the Company (the Articles), the Company will not hold a physical meeting. Shareholders may exercise their rights at the Meeting exclusively by appointing a special proxyholder (please refer to item V. (Participation)). I. Quorum and majority requirements The amendments of the Articles proposed under items 17 and 18 of the below agenda being extraordinary matters, article 10.2 of the Articles requires a quorum of representation of at least one half (1/2) of the share capital of the Company at the Meeting. In the event that this quorum is not met, agenda items regarding an amendment of the Articles will be dropped. The agenda items are adopted by a simple majority of the votes expressed by the shareholders duly represented, except with regard to agenda items 17 and 18, for which a majority of 66.67% of the votes expressed by the shareholders duly represented shall apply. II. Agenda 01 Presentation of the stand-alone annual accounts of the Company for the financial year 2021, of the approved consolidated financial statements for the financial year 2021, the auditor report relating to the financial statements for the financial year 2021 as well as the management report for the financial year 2021 The supervisory board of the Company (the Supervisory Board) has not made any comments to the stand-alone annual accounts, the consolidated financial statements for the financial year 2021 as drawn up by the Management Board (the Financial Statements), nor to the report prepared by the Management Board (the Management Report) and the report of the independent auditor relating to the Financial Statements (the Auditor Report). The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose to the Meeting to approve the Financial Statements in accordance with article 461-7 of the Luxembourg act on commercial companies dated 10 August 1915, as amended (the Companies Act). 02 Acknowledgement of the loss of the Company made with respect to the financial year 2021 The Management Board proposes that the Meeting acknowledges that the Company made a loss with respect to the financial year 2021 in an aggregate amount of EUR 89,029,708.65 (the Loss). The Management Board proposes that the Meeting resolves to (i) set off the Loss against the profits and reserves carried forward from the previous financial year and (ii) carry forward the balance of profits and reserves in an aggregate amount of EUR 98,677,141.25 to the next financial year. The Management Board further proposes that the Meeting acknowledges that the Company will not make a distribution, on the basis of the overall financial position of the Company's group. 03 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Lars Schnidrig for the performance of his mandate as member of the management board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Mr Lars Schnidrig for the performance of his duties as member of the Management Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 04 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Daniel Lohken for the performance of his mandate as member of the management board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Mr Daniel Lohken for the performance of his duties as member of the Management Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 05 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Nils Peter Hubener for the performance of his mandate as member of the management board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Mr Nils Peter Hubener for the performance of his duties as member of the Management Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 06 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Sebastian Ernst for the performance of his mandate as member of the management board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting does not grant discharge (quitus) to Mr Sebastian Ernst for the performance of his duties as member of the Management Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 07 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Johannes Marklin for the performance of his mandate as member of the management board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting does not grant discharge (quitus) to Mr Johannes Marklin for the performance of his duties as member of the Management Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 08 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Rene parmantier for the performance of his mandate as member of the management board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Mr Rene Parmantier for the performance of his duties as member of the Management Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 09 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Udo Giegerich for the performance of his mandate as member of the management board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Mr Udo Giegerich for the performance of his duties as member of the Management Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 10 Discharge (quitus) to Mr Friedrich Munsberg for the performance of his mandate as member of the Supervisory Board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Mr Friedrich Munsberg for the performance of his duties as member of the Supervisory Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 11 Discharge (quitus) to Prof. Dr. Hermann Wagner for the performance of his mandate as member of the Supervisory Board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Prof. Dr. Hermann Wagner for the performance of his duties as member of the Supervisory Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 12 Discharge (quitus) to Dr. Friedrich Oelrich for the performance of his mandate as member of the Supervisory Board for the financial year 2021 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting grants discharge (quitus) to Dr. Friedrich Oelrich for the performance of his duties as member of the Supervisory Board for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. 13 Confirmation and Appointment of Dr. Bertrand Malmendier as new member of the supervisory board The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting (i) confirms the appointment by co-optation of Dr. Bertrand Malmendier as member of the Supervisory Board of the Company, with effect as of 1 January 2022 and (ii) appoints Dr. Bertrand Malmendier as member of the Supervisory Board of the Company, for a term of office ending after the annual general meeting of the Company which will be held in 2024. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board further propose that the Meeting recommends that Dr. Bertrand Malmendier shall continue to act as chairman of the Supervisory Board. 14 Confirmation and Appointment of Dr. Roland Manfred Folz as new member of the supervisory board The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting (i) confirms the appointment by co-optation of Dr. Roland Manfred Folz, with effect as of 7 March 2022 and (ii) appoints Dr. Roland Manfred Folz as member of the Supervisory Board of the Company for a term of office ending after the annual general meeting of the Company which will be held in 2024. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board further propose that the Meeting recommends that Dr. Roland Manfred Folz shall continue to act as deputy chairman of the Supervisory Board. Further information about the proposed candidates under items 13 and 14 above, including curricula vitae, providing information about their relevant knowledge, skills and experience, together with a list of relevant activities besides the Supervisory Board position forming the subject of these elections, are available on the Company's website under www.corestate-capital.com in the segment "Shareholders" and "Annual General Meeting". 15 Appointment of the independent auditor (cabinet de revision agree) for the financial year 2022 The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting (i) acknowledges that the Company does not intend to renew the appointment of Ernst & Young SA, with registered office at 35E Avenue John F. Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (Ernst & Young), as independent auditor (cabinet de revision agree) for the stand-alone annual accounts and consolidated financial statements of the Company for the financial year 2022 and (ii) grants discharge (quitus) to Ernst & Young for the performance of its duties as independent auditor (cabinet de revision agree) for, and in connection with, the financial year 2021. The Management Board and the Supervisory Board further propose that the Meeting acknowledges that the Company is currently undergoing a selection process to determine a new independent auditor (cabinet de revision agree) for the stand-alone annual accounts and consolidated financial statements of the Company for the financial year 2022, and that such auditor, upon completion of such process, shall be approved at the occasion of an additional general meeting of the shareholders of the Company. 16 Advisory non-binding vote on the remuneration report The Management Board and the Supervisory Board propose that the Meeting approves, on a non-binding basis, the remuneration report (the Remuneration Report) in accordance with the requirements of articles 7bis and 7ter of the Luxembourg law dated 24 May 2011 relating to the exercise of certain rights of shareholders at general meetings of listed companies, as amended. 17 Removal of the age restriction relating to the mandate of members of the Supervisory Board The Management Board proposes to the Meeting to remove the age restriction relating to the mandate of members of the Supervisory Board, such age restriction being currently set at maximum 70 years for members of the Supervisory Board, and to consequently amend articles 18.2 and 18.3 of the Articles, as set out in Schedule 1 to this convening notice. If and to the extent approved, the relevant amendments to articles 18.2 and 18.3 of the Articles proposed here above shall be enacted by a Luxembourg notary in the course of the Meeting. 18 Amendment of the description of prior consent matters The Management Board proposes to the Meeting to amend the description of matters for which the Management Board requires the prior consent of the Supervisory Board by, including, without limitation, amending the current definition of "Related Party Transaction" and inserting a new definition of "Related Party", and to consequently amend article 15 of the Articles, as set out in Schedule 1 to this convening notice. If and to the extent approved, the relevant amendments to article 15 of the Articles proposed here above shall be enacted by a Luxembourg notary in the course of the Meeting. III. Total amount of shares On the date of the convening of the Meeting, the Company's subscribed share capital equals EUR 2,564,535.97, represented by 34,193,808 shares without nominal value, all of which are fully paid up. Each share carries one vote. The total number of voting rights is therefore 34,193,808. IV. Available information and documentation The following information is available on the Company's website under www.corestate-capital.com in the segment "Shareholders" > "Annual General Meeting" and at the Company's registered office in Luxembourg, as of the day of the publication of this convening notice: (i) full text of any document to be made available by the Company at the Meeting, including draft resolutions in relation to the above agenda items to be adopted at the Meeting and related documents (i.e. inter alia the Financial Statements, the Management Report, the Supervisory Board report, the Auditor Report and the Remuneration Report); (ii) this convening notice; (iii) the total number of shares and attached voting rights issued by the Company as of the date of publication of this convening notice; (iv) the Special Proxy Form as further mentioned below; and (v) the Record Date Attestation form as further mentioned below. V. Participation On or before the Record Date (as defined below), each shareholder shall indicate to the Company his/her/its intention to participate at the Meeting. The participation at the Meeting and the exercise of voting rights attached to the shares held by a shareholder is determined in relation to the number of shares held by each shareholder at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) on the 14th day prior to the Meeting (14 June 2022) (the Record Date). Shareholders must produce an attestation from their depository bank stating the number of shares held by the shareholder on the Record Date in order to be permitted to exercise their rights at the Meeting (the Record Date Attestation). In accordance with the Emergency Legislation, the Company will not hold a physical meeting. Shareholders may exercise their rights at the Meeting exclusively by appointing in writing Mr Andreas Wahl-Ulm as special proxyholder based on a duly completed, dated and signed special proxy form (the Special Proxy Form). In order for votes pursuant to a Special Proxy Form to be considered, the Company must be provided with a Record Date Attestation relating to the relevant shareholder. The Record Date Attestation and the Special Proxy Form must be received by the Company on 22 June 2022 at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) at the latest at the following address: Corestate Capital Holding S.A. c/o Link Market Services GmbH Landshuter Allee 10 80637 Munich Germany fax: +49 (0)89 210 27-289 agm@linkmarketservices.de Exercise of voting rights of shares in connection with Special Proxy Forms received after such date will not be possible. Special Proxy Forms and Record Date Attestations are available on the Company's website under www.corestate-capital.com in the segment "Shareholders" > "Annual General Meeting". VI. Ability to ask questions before the Meeting In accordance with the Emergency Legislation, no physical Meeting will be organised and any shareholder questions must thus be addressed in advance of the Meeting. Shareholders' questions in relation with the agenda must be sent (by fax, post or e-mail) to the contact information mentioned under item V. (Participation) above and received by the Company on 22 June 2022 at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) at the latest. A Record Date Attestation must be attached to such questions to allow the Company to proceed with a satisfactory identification of the relevant shareholder. The answers to these questions will be provided during a conference call to be held on the date of the Meeting. The precise time and joining instructions for such conference call will be made available to registered shareholders prior to the Meeting. Please note that shareholders can dial into such conference call, but will only be able to hear and will not be allowed to speak. VII. Additional important information for shareholders Shareholders are hereby informed that the exercise of voting rights is exclusively reserved to such persons that were shareholders on the Record Date (respectively the special proxyholder duly appointed by them). Transfer of shares after the Record Date is possible subject to usual transfer limitations, as applicable. However, any transferee having become owner of shares after the Record Date has no right to vote at the Meeting. One or more shareholder(s) representing at least 5% of the Company's share capital may request the addition of items to the agenda of the Meeting or table draft resolutions for items included or to be included on the agenda of the Meeting by sending such requests (by fax, post or e-mail) at the latest on 6 June 2022 at 11:59 p.m. (CEST) to the contact information mentioned under item V. (Participation) above. Such request will only be accepted by the Company provided it includes (i) the wording of the agenda point, (ii) the wording of a proposed resolution pertaining to such agenda point or a justification, and (iii) an e-mail address or a postal address to which the Company may correspond and confirm receipt of the request. If you have questions regarding the Meeting feel free to call our Meeting-hotline +49/89/21027-222 or send us an e-mail at agm@linkmarketservices.de (hotline available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CEST except on bank holidays in Luxembourg or Germany). VIII. Data Protection Notice Since the European Data Protection Act came into effect, data protection laws and regulations apply throughout Europe from 25 May 2018 onwards. The protection of your data and the legally compliant processing of your data have a high priority for us. In our data protection notice for shareholders, we have summarized all information regarding the processing of personal data of our shareholders in a clear and structured way. The data protection notice for shareholders can be retrieved and is available for viewing and downloading on the Company's website under www.corestate-capital.com in the segment "Shareholders" > "Annual General Meeting". The direct link is: https://corestate-capital.com/data-protection-agm-2022.pdf Luxembourg, 24 May 2022. Corestate Capital Holding S.A., Societe Anonyme The Management Board Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - C3 Metals Inc. (TSXV: CCCM) ("C3 Metals" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that the 5,000 metre drilling program at the Company's 100% owned Bellas Gate copper-gold porphyry project in Jamaica will commence this weekend. Drilling is designed to test multiple porphyry copper targets identified within the regionally significant Crawl River Fault zone. Drilling will also target epithermal gold prospects on the property (Figure 1). Twelve porphyry systems and multiple epithermal occurrences have been identified in the project area to date. Program Highlights The Epidote Ridge prospect area is located within the Bellas Gate SEPL and specifically within Porphyry Alley, a cluster of porphyries along the Crawl River Fault Zone (Figure 2) prospect area is located within the Bellas Gate SEPL and specifically within Porphyry Alley, a cluster of porphyries along the Crawl River Fault Zone (Figure 2) Epidote Ridge is the first drill target, an interpreted preserved porphyry centre linked to porphyry copper-gold prospects known as Connors, Geo Hill and Camel Hill is the first drill target, an interpreted preserved porphyry centre linked to porphyry copper-gold prospects known as Connors, Geo Hill and Camel Hill Strong copper-gold mineralization intersected at Connors, Geo Hill and Camel prospects is interpreted to converge beneath Epidote Ridge Shallow historic drilling at Connors and Camel Hill intersected good copper and gold grades as highlighted below (full details included in press release of March 24, 2022) Connors results: 114.0m @ 0.69% Cu, 0.52 g/t Au in CON-14-004 (from 28.0m) [1] 84.0m @ 1.00% Cu, 0.77 g/t Au in CON-14-005 (from 14.0m) 1 Camel Hill results: 137.2m @ 0.56% Cu, 0.25g/t Au in CAM92-01 (from surface) 1 85.0m @ 0.52% Cu, 0.25g/t Au in CAM92-05 (from 3.40m) 1 Post Eidote Ridge drilling, the rig will test other high potential porphyry prospects, including Coffee, Lucky Valley, Geo Hill and White Rock Ridge, followed by epithermal copper-gold-silver targets at Charing Cross and Stamford Hill Kevin Tomlinson, President & CEO of C3 Metals, commented, "On March 24th, 2022 we announced our 2022 exploration drilling program in Jamaica. We are excited to commence drilling on a number of untested copper-gold porphyry systems and historic mine workings with impressive copper mineralization but limited multi-discipline exploration. This initial program will test multiple high potential prospects starting at Epidote Ridge, one of our most compelling targets. On completion of the first hole, the drill rig will move to test additional porphyry and epithermal targets along Porphyry Alley and the parallel spatially associated Epithermal Copper-Gold Corridor." Figure 1: Jamaican Exclusive Prospecting Licenses ("SEPLs") and the Crawl River Fault Zone To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/125551_image1fullfinal.jpg Details of the Drilling Program Over the past year, the Company compiled all historical exploration data on its Jamaican Exclusive Prospecting Licenses ("SEPLs") and refined the geological and mineralization models for Bellas Gate (Figure 2). The review identified significant porphyry copper-gold potential beneath Epidote Ridge, where down dip extensions of the Connors and Camel porphyry copper-gold deposits are interpreted to converge. Epidote Ridge is characterized by intense epidote alteration over a nine square kilometre area and is associated with highly anomalous copper in soil geochemistry and coincident magnetic and IP chargeability features at depth (Figure 3). The geochemical and geophysical signatures at Geo Hill, Camel Hill and Connors are similar to Epidote Ridge, making it the most compelling and highest priority porphyry drill target in Bellas Gate. Figure 2. Porphyry Alley on the Bellas Gate Project showing Epidote Ridge, Connors and Camel Hill To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/125551_image%202%20full.jpg Figure 3: Coincident magnetic (top) and IP Chargeability (bottom) anomalies beneath Epidote Ridge To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/2661/125551_image%203%20full.jpg For additional information, contact: Kevin Tomlinson, President & CEO +1 416 841 5122 or ktomlinson@c3metals.com ABOUT C3 METALS INC. C3 Metals Inc. is a junior minerals exploration company focused on creating substantive value for its shareholders through the discovery and development of large copper and gold deposits. The Company's flagship project is the 57km2 Jasperoide high-grade copper-gold skarn and porphyry system located in the prolific Andahuaylas-Yauri Porphyry-Skarn belt of Southern Peru. Mineralization at Jasperoide is hosted in a similar geological setting to the nearby major mining operations at Las Bambas (MMG), Constancia (Hudbay) and Antapaccay (Glencore). C3 Metals also holds a 100% interest in five licenses covering 207km2 of highly prospective copper-gold terrain in Jamaica and a 2% royalty in Tocvan's Rogers Creek project. Related Link: www.c3metals.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. QP Statement Stephen Hughes, P.Geo. is Vice President Exploration and a Director for C3 Metals and is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Mr. Hughes has reviewed the technical information in this news release and approves the written disclosure contained herein. Technical Program C3 Metals adheres to a strict QA/QC protocol for core handling, sampling, sample transportation and analyses. Chain-of-custody protocols are designed to ensure security of samples until their delivery at the laboratory. Half core samples are analysed by 4-Acid digest ICP-MS finish for 60 elements, including pathfinder REE elements with pulps from samples reporting greater than 1.0% copper being re-assayed by the ore grade method. Gold is analysed by 30g Fire Assay AAS finish, with pulps from samples reporting greater than 5ppm re-assayed by 1kg Screen Fire Assay. The Company inserts blanks and certified reference standards in the sample sequence for quality control. COVID-19 Protocols The Company continues to implement its COVID-19 safety protocols at site to ensure the safety of employees and the communities surrounding the Jasperoide project area. Caution Regarding Forward Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. 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 the Company's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, this release contains forward-looking information relating to, among other things, the exploration operations of the Company and the timing which could be affected by the current global COVID-19 pandemic. Those assumptions and factors are based on information currently available to the Company. Although such statements are based on reasonable assumptions of the Company's management, there can be no assurance that any conclusions or forecasts will prove to be accurate. While the Company considers these assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect. Forward looking information involves 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 forward-looking information. Such factors include risks inherent in the exploration and development of mineral deposits, including risks relating to changes in project parameters as plans continue to be redefined, risks relating to variations in grade or recovery rates, risks relating to changes in mineral prices and the worldwide demand for and supply of minerals, risks related to increased competition and current global financial conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, access and supply risks, reliance on key personnel, operational risks, and regulatory risks, including risks relating to the acquisition of the necessary licenses and permits, financing, capitalization and liquidity risks. The forward-looking information contained in this release is made as of the date hereof, and the Company is not obligated 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. [1] References for Historic Data: Data from the above drill results are historical results and it is unknown what type of quality-control programs were performed at the time. The QP also advises that true width of the above results cannot be determined at this time. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125551 Chief Executive Officer of CNERGENZ, Mr. Lye Yhin Choy PENANG, Malaysia, May 27, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - CNERGENZ Berhad (CNERGENZ), an established electronics manufacturing solutions provider based in Penang, has announced its financial results for the first quarter ended 31 March 2022 (1QFY2022) today. The Company registered revenue of RM36.9 million for the 1QFY2022, primarily contributed from the sales of standalone surface mount technology (SMT) machines and equipment constituting 60.9% of its total revenue. In addition, sales generated from the provision of integrated solutions segment contributed 31.2% to the total revenue.Further, the Company recorded profit before tax (PBT) of RM4.87 million and achieved net profit (PAT) of RM3.64 million for the period. After excluding one-off expenses relating to the initial public offering amounting to RM0.16 million incurred during the period, the Company's PBT and PAT stood at RM5.03 million and RM3.80 million, respectively.Chief Executive Officer of CNERGENZ, Mr. Lye Yhin Choy said, "Manufacturing activities remained robust in 1QFY2022 leading to the continued demand for our integrated solutions in the electronics and semiconductor (E&S) industries. We have also seen a rise in demand for smart factory solutions as customers look to automation to solve manpower woes.""We will continue with our plans that we have shared in the run-up to our listing, including the expansion of our facility to enable us to scale up our operations, as well as strengthening our R&D activities to develop new and innovative integrated systems and solutions to the market. To-date, we have secured purchase orders totalling RM82.48 million, which we expect to fulfil by the end of 2022."CNERGENZ Bhd: https://cnergenz.comCNERGENZ Bhd: [BURSA: CNERGENZ]Source: Cnergenz BerhadCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Dieppe, New Brunswick--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Colibri Resource Corporation (TSXV: CBI) ("Colibri" or the "Company") is pleased to report that today its option partner Tocvan Ventures (CSE: TOC) has announced further drilling results from the Company's Pilar Gold & Silver Project in Sonora, Mexico. Tocvan is in year 3 of a 5-year agreement to earn an initial 51% of Colibri's Pilar Gold & Silver Project. For full details of Colibri's agreement with Tocvan please see the Company's news release dated September 24th, 2019. Tocvan Reports: (May 27th, 2022) "Results for core drill holes JES-22-61 and JES-22-64 are provided in this release, both Main Zone extension targets infilling a gap and stepping out from holes JES-22-59 (116.9m at 1.2 g/t Au) and JES-22-62 (108.6m at 0.8 g/t Au) (see Figure 1). JES-22-61 returned 63.4-meters at 0.6 g/t Au and 11 g/t Ag, including 29.9-meters at 0.9 g/t Au and 18 g/t Ag. Within the broader mineralized interval, consistent gold mineralization was recorded within a silicified sulphide-bearing breccia returning 8.9-meters at 2.1 g/t Au, 45 g/t Ag and 6.1% Zn, the highest consistent base-metal mineralization drilled to date (see Plate 1). JES-22-64 was successful in intersecting a broad anomalous gold zone, indicating mineralization continues further to the southeast. A total of 1,562 meters of Phase III drilling has been completed in nine drill holes providing key information across the Main Zone and 4-T Trend. Results for two drill holes are pending. Drill Highlights JES-22-61 (Core) 63.4m at 0.6 g/t Au and 11 g/t Ag, from 60.8m Including 29.9m at 0.9 g/t Au and 18 g/t Ag, from 60.8m Including 8.9m at 2.1 g/t Au, 45 g/t Ag and 6.1% Zn, from 81.8m JES-22-64 (Core) 107.3m at 0.1 g/t Au, from 60.3m - Anomalous Zone on trend with JES-22-62 Including 44.8m at 0.2 g/t Au, from 93.2m "Drilling southeast of our Main Zone continues to return excellent gold and silver values in intensely silicified breccia-hosted mineralization," commented Brodie Sutherland, CEO. "Once again, the orientation of drilling has maximized success through this extension zone returning consistent values that warrant more drilling to fully evaluate the potential of the area. We are excited to evaluate the next steps at Pilar as we continue to move the project forward." Discussion of Results As part of the Phase III program, nine drill holes have been completed totalling over 1,562 meters (Figure 1). Drilling looked to expand the Main Zone through 25, 50 and 100-meter step-outs to the southeast in a gap zone that has seen little drilling focused on the main trend between hole JES-20-32 (94.6m at 1.6 g/t Au) and hole JES-21-50 (39.7m at 0.96 g/t Au). Drilling also covered the 4-T Trend testing below trench T-21-3, which returned 19.5 meters at 0.61 g/t Au. Drill hole JES-22-61 was successful in intersecting a significant zone of gold with broad mineralization in a silicified andesite host (63.4 meters of 0.6 g/t Au, including 29.9 meters of 0.9 g/t Au). The intersection included a silicified breccia zone grading 2.1 g/t Au, 45 g/t Ag and 6.1% Zn over 8.9 meters. This is the highest-grade base metal mineralization recorded to date. The broader low-grade interval correlates with mineralization in the Main Zone Trend, 85-meters southeast of JES-22-59 (116.9m of 1.2 g/t Au) and 50-meters northwest of JES-22-62 (108.6m of 0.8 g/t Au). Drill hole JES-22-64, a 35-meter southeast step-out from JES-22-62, intersected a broad anomalous zone of 107.3-meters at 0.1 g/t Au. Mineralization looks to continue to the southeast, further drill testing along the trend will be required to confirm. Results are pending for two holes on separate parallel trends. Figure 1. Map of Phase III Drill Holes. To view an enhanced version of Figure 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/125576_eac01805e49c9871_001full.jpg. Table 1. Summary of Drill Results. Hole ID From (m) To (m) Width (m)* Au (g/t) Ag (g/t) JES-22-61 60.75 124.10 63.35 0.61 10.74 including 60.75 90.65 29.90 0.91 18.27 including 81.75 90.65 8.90 2.11 44.81 JES-22-64 60.30 167.60 107.30 0.08 2.25 including 93.20 138.00 44.80 0.15 1.00 including 135.30 138.00 2.70 1.21 2.33 *Reported widths are apparent widths, JES-22-61 and JES-22-64 were drilled at a 45 degree inclination both are thought to be near perpendicular to the dip of mineralized structural trends. Figure 2. Cross-Section of JES-22-61. To view an enhanced version of Figure 2, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/125576_eac01805e49c9871_002full.jpg. Plate 1. Photo of HQ Core from JES-22-61. Sections from 81.8m to 90.7m, silicified mineralized breccia, part of higher-grade interval, 8.9m at 2.1 g/t Au, 45 g/t Ag and 6.1% Zn. To view an enhanced version of Plate 1, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/4269/125576_plate%20image.jpg. About the Pilar Property The Pilar Gold-Silver property is interpreted as a structurally controlled low-sulphidation epithermal project hosted in andesite rocks. Three zones of mineralization have been identified in the north-west part of the property from historic surface work and drilling and are referred to as the Main Zone, North Hill and 4-Trench. Structural features and zones of mineralization within the structures follow an overall NW-SE trend of mineralization. Over 20,700 m of drilling have been completed to date. Significant results are highlighted below: 2021 Phase II RC Drilling Highlights include ( all lengths are drilled thicknesses ): 39.7m @ 0.96 g/t Au, including 1.5m @ 14. g/t Au 47.7m @ 0.70 g/t Au including 3m @ 5.6 g/t Au and 22 g/t Ag 29m @ 0.71g/t Au 35.1m @ 0.66 g/t Au 2020 Phase I RC Drilling Highlights include ( all lengths are drilled thicknesses ): 94.6m @ 1.6 g/t Au, including 9.2m @ 10.8 g/t Au and 38 g/t Ag; 41.2m @ 1.1 g/t Au, including 3.1m @ 6.0g/t Au and 12 g/t Ag ; 24.4m @ 2.5 g/t Au and 73 g/t Ag, including 1.5m @ 33.4 g/t Au and 1,090 g/t Ag Historic Core & RC drilling. Highlights include: 61.0m @ 0.8 g/t Au 16.5m @ 53.5g/t Au and 53 g/t Ag 13.0m @ 9.6 g/t Au 9.0m @ 10.2 g/t Au and 46 g/t Ag Quality Assurance / Quality Control RC chips and core samples were shipped for sample preparation to ALS Limited in Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico and for analysis at the ALS laboratory in North Vancouver. The ALS Hermosillo and North Vancouver facilities are ISO 9001 and ISO/IEC 17025 certified. Gold was analyzed using 50-gram nominal weight fire assay with atomic absorption spectroscopy finish. Over limits for gold (>10 g/t), were analyzed using fire assay with a gravimetric finish. Silver and other elements were analyzed using a four-acid digestion with an ICP finish. Over limit analyses for silver (>100 g/t) were re-assayed using an ore-grade four-acid digestion with ICP-AES finish. Control samples comprising certified reference samples and blank samples were systematically inserted into the sample stream and analyzed as part of the Company's robust quality assurance / quality control protocol. Brodie A. Sutherland, P.Geo., CEO for Tocvan Ventures Corp. and a qualified person ("QP") as defined by Canadian National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the technical information contained in this release. 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/125576 President Joe Biden argued on Wednesday that the Second Amendment is not absolute, as he advocated for tighter limitations on gun ownership in the aftermath of a school massacre that killed 21 people. The US president has declared that enough is enough and that he will take action to halt the gun violence that is raging throughout the country. Biden stated that when the Second Amendment was enacted, individuals could not own a cannon or other specific weapons. White House: Biden Isn't Doing Anything To Get Rid of the Second Amendment Conservatives and gun rights advocates were outraged by the comment, citing the language of the Second Amendment, which specifies that the right must not be infringed. Attempts to increase background checks and impose other restrictions have often met with Republican resistance in Congress, making change unlikely, as per Telegraph. During a news briefing on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated that President Biden is not doing anything to repeal the Second Amendment. In response, Jean-Pierre stated that President Biden is not advocating for the repeal of the Second Amendment, but rather for common-sense gun control. A speech following the elementary school massacre on Tuesday night, Biden stated that he is sick and tired of mass shootings and that tougher gun control measures must be implemented. He plans to visit Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday to offer his condolences and to mourn with the family and community, according to Fox News. As reported by CBS News, the president, as he did Tuesday night, asked members of Congress to stand up to the gun lobby. Steve Dettelbach, the president's choice for ATF director, was interrogated on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Some Republicans were concerned about Dettelbach's previous support for an assault weapons prohibition. Speaking before the president, Vice President Kamala Harris encouraged Congress to approve commonsense gun safety legislation on Wednesday. Read Also: Vladimir Putin Cancer: Debate Sparks About Who Could Replace the Russian President Amid Botched Ukraine Invasion Firearm Sales Spike Following Texas School Shooting Meanwhile, gun sales have skyrocketed, and share prices for armament companies have risen in the aftermath of the tragic Texas mass shooting. Sturm, Ruger & Company, the largest publicly traded gunmaker in the United States by market capitalization, was up 5.47 percent at $67.27 as of 5 pm ET. Smith & Wesson's stock rose 8% to $15.02 a share while Vista Outdoor's stock rose 9% to $38.24. Meanwhile, American Outdoor Brands rose 6% to $11.12 and Ammo Inc. rose 5%. It comes just days after President Joe Biden slammed the Second Amendment, saying it was not holy and urging Americans to oppose the gun lobby. The President responded angrily after a psychotic 18-year-old shooter, Salvador Ramos, killed 19 students and two instructors at Uvalde's Robb Elementary School. In the days following the tragic shooting, the stock market revealed a surge in interest in gun ownership. Buyers are thought to be eager to equip themselves for self-defense and to avoid a crackdown on the purchase of guns. The same thing happened in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012 and the San Bernardino attack in 2015. According to sources, gun sales, such as Sturm and Smith, increased following both incidents. According to police and several news accounts, the 18-year-old shooter, Salvador Ramos, lawfully acquired two semi-automatic guns from a local outdoor and hunting store. It was the bloodiest such occurrence since 14 high school students and three adult staff were slain in Parkland, Florida in 2018 - and the deadliest at an elementary school since the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, which killed 20 children and six adults. Since the start of the pandemic, more than two million pistols and rifles have been sold. According to a University of Chicago poll, nearly one in every five US families has acquired a gun since March 2020. According to the poll, one in every 20 individuals in the United States acquired a gun for the first time in the previous two decades, boosting the percentage of US adults presently living in a household with a gun to over 50 percent, Daily Mail reported. Related Article: President Joe Biden Signs Police Order To Mark George Floyd's 2nd Death Anniversary @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Hasbro, Inc. (HAS) said independent proxy advisory firm Glass, Lewis & Co. has recommended that the company's shareholders vote for all of Hasbro's Director Nominees in connection with the Annual Shareholders Meeting. Glass Lewis believes Alta Fox failed to make a sufficient case for change, the company said. Hasbro's Board of Directors urged shareholders to vote for all of the company's director nominees and to disregard any materials, including any gold proxy card, that may be sent by Alta Fox. 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. GUIYANG, China, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 26, the China International Big Data Industry Expo 2022 took place online, with the opening ceremony held in Guiyang, the capital of China'sGuizhou province. A great number of national and international leading figures, including statesmen, entrepreneurs and scholars, attended the opening ceremony and delivered speeches. Under the annual theme of "grabbing new digital opportunities and enjoying digital value", this year's expo closely followed the trends of the digital economy to explore new opportunities for a digital technology revolution and industrial transformation. During the one-day session, the guests discussed influential topics such as metaverse, data security and industrial Internet. Furthermore, this expo focused on the deep integration of big data with the real economy, social governance, people's livelihood, and rural revitalization. The use of data to transform traditional industries in a full-chain manner was also involved. In addition to eight forums, the Big Data Expo Release, which aimed to showcase the outstanding achievements of big data in industry, agriculture and tourism, also attracted attention. At the release, 55 of 437 scientific and technological achievements were awarded the Big Data Expo Leading Technology Achievement Award, including 24 new products, 26 new technologies and five business models. In order to create an interactive platform and bring an immersive experience, the expo took advantage of new means of communication. For instance, the expo used smart conference services, virtual beings and low-latency transmission technologies. This year's expo was co-organized by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the people's government of Guizhou Province. Based on Guizhou's strategic positioning, China International Big Data Industry Expo 2022 emphasized innovation in the transformation of technological achievements, with the hope of exploring experience for industrial upgrading and the construction of digital China. In fact, Guizhou has accelerated the construction of the country's first national-level comprehensive pilot zone for big data in recent years. Its provincial growth rate of the digital economy has ranked the first in the country for 6 consecutive years. As the world's first national-level expo with the theme of big data, China International Big Data Industry Expo has been held for seven consecutive sessions since 2015. It has created a world-class platform for showcasing the latest achievements, exchanging ideas and encouraging cooperation in the relevant industry. Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Canada Computational Unlimited Corp. (TSXV: SATO) (OTCQB: CCPU.F) ("CCU" or "the Company") is pleased to announce its Q1 2022 financial results for March 31, 2022 ("2022"). All amounts in this news release are in Canadian dollars. 2022 Highlights Total revenue of $1,709,266 in Q1 2022 which represents growth of 55% compared to Q1 2021 in Q1 2022 which represents growth of compared to Q1 2021 Revenue from hosting in Q1 2022 grew 2,928% compared to Q1 2021 compared to Q1 2021 Gross profit excluding depreciation was $610,204 in Q1 2022 in Q1 2022 Working capital increase of $603,417 at March 31, 2022, from a working capital of $3,254,131 at December 31, 2021 at March 31, 2022, from a working capital of at December 31, 2021 Digital assets held at March 31, 2022 was $3,857,548 compared to $1,524,681 at March 31, 2021 "These results are reflective of the Company's dedication to its continued growth and success in responsible mining. CCU's mining power at the Center One facility has increased by a 4x factor compared to Q1 2021 and will reach 8x that upon completion. We are on track to reaching full capacity and I am confident that we will continue to deliver shareholder value," commented Romain Nouzareth, President and Chief Executive Officer. Notice On Tuesday, May 31st at 2PM/EST the Company will be holding its Annual General Meeting which will be hosted virtually to cover recent financial results and company developments. To participate or view the meeting please log into: www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/SATO2022 . Q1 2022 Financial Overview For the three months ended March 31, 2022, the Company recorded a net loss of $2,106,661 compared to a net profit of $887,883 for the three months ended March 31, 2021. A summary of the results are as follows: Q1 2022 Q1 2021 % change Revenue 1,709,266 1,102,109 55% Cost of revenue 1,428,568 395,306 261% Gross profit 280,698 706,803 (60%) Gain (loss) on use of digital assets (15,802 ) 240,790 n/a Expenses (2,327,161 ) (257,531 ) 804% Operating income (loss) (2,061,545 ) 690,062 n/a Other (charges) income (46,268 ) (234,004 ) (80%) Gain (loss) before income taxes (2,107,813 ) 456,058 n/a Deferred income taxes 1,152 88,757 (99%) Net income (loss) (2,106,661 ) 544,815 n/a Total comprehensive income (loss) (2,131,273 ) 887,883 n/a Gross mining profit 483,226 770,451 (37%) EBITDA (1,738,598 ) 800,261 n/a Adjusted EBITDA (602,057 ) 562,269 n/a This news release makes reference to certain measures that are not recognized under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. They are therefore not necessarily comparable to similar measures presented by other companies. The Company uses non-IFRS measures including "Adjusted EBITDA" and "EBITDA" as additional information to complement IFRS measures by providing further understanding of the Company's results of operations from Management's perspective. A reconciliation of these non-IFRS measures to their nearest IFRS measures is included in the Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") accompanying the unaudited interim consolidated financial statements for the three months ended March 31, 2022 and March 31, 2021 (the "Consolidated Financial Statements") and should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements. Consolidated Financial Statements and MD&A A complete financial reporting package, including the Consolidated Financial Statements and Notes and MD&A, is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com under CCU's profile and on the Company's website at www.ccu.ai. About Canada Computational Unlimited Corp. CCU operates a state-of-the-art, carbon-neutral bitcoin mining center with a contract of 20 MW of stable, renewable energy. The Company's high-density calculation centers are built for high-grade cryptocurrency mining, AI data processing, and fintech infrastructure. Founded in 2017, CCU is led by technology entrepreneurs, electricity and ventilation experts, network specialists, and Canadian industrialists. Since its inception, the company has pursued a vision of environmental stewardship throughout the mining process. The excess supply of renewable energy in the province of Quebec has made this endeavor feasible and a great base for growth. Additional information can be found at www.ccu.ai. Notice On Tuesday, May 31st at 2PM/EST the Company will be holding its Annual General Meeting which will be hosted virtually to cover recent financial results and company developments. To participate or view the meeting please log into: www.virtualshareholdermeeting.com/SATO2022 . For additional information, please contact: Caroline Klukowski Tel: 604.260.5490 news@ccu.ai Keep up-to-date on developments and join our online communities at Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube. 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. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information This news release contains certain forward-looking statements, including statements relating to the future performance of the Company, and other statements that are not historical facts. Wherever possible, words such as "may", "will", "should", "could", "expect", "plan", "intend", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "predict" or "potential" or the negative or other variations of these words, or similar words or phrases, have been used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to management as at the date hereof. Forward-looking statements involve significant risk, uncertainties and assumptions. Many factors could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from the results discussed or implied in the forward-looking statements. These factors should be considered carefully and readers should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements. Although the forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based upon what management believes to be reasonable assumptions, the Company cannot assure readers that actual results will be consistent with these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release, and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect new events or circumstances, except as required by law. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125587 Las Vegas, Nevada--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - GENERAL EUROPEAN STRATEGIC INVESTMENTS INC. (OTC Pink: GESI) (the "Company or GESI") is pleased to announce that it has obtained signed consents from a super majority shareholders to designate a new series of preferred stock. With board approval, the Company's management will move forward with the appropriate filings to implement the designation. As previously announced in our May 20, 2022 press release, these newly authorized preferred shares will: Designate 1,500,000 of its 10,000,000 authorized shares of preferred stock as a new series of preferred stock entitled "Series C Preferred Stock" with a par value of $0.0001. The 1,500,000 Series C Preferred Stock is to be convertible on a 1:100 basis after the Company's stock trades at a volume-weighted average price (VWAP) of $5.00 for 20 consecutive days. These shares will not have voting, dividend or liquidation rights but will have piggyback registration rights. The Company is now wrapping up discussions with the holders of approximately 100 million currently issued shares held by controlling, affiliate and other large shareholders to have their shares cancelled and replaced with approximately 1 million shares of the newly authorized Preferred Series C stock. "We continue to believe that the use of these preferred shares will strategically help attract funding from various sources," said Wolfgang Rauball, CEO of GESI. Forward-Looking Statements: This 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. Such statements include any that may predict, forecast, indicate, or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain the words "estimate", "project", "intend", "forecast", "anticipate", "plan", "planning", "expect", "believe", "likely", "should", "could", "would", "may" or similar words or expressions. Such statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause the Company's actual results and financial position to differ materially from those in such statements, which involve risks and uncertainties, including those relating to the Company's ability to grow. Actual results may differ materially from those predicted and any reported should not be considered an indication of future performance. Potential risks and uncertainties include the Company's operating history and resources, together with all usual and common economic, competitive, and equity market conditions / risks. Contact: Robert Seguin, V.P., Investor Relations General European Strategic Investments Inc. Robert.Seguin@gesi-usa.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125590 CHINO HILLS, Calif., May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, the world-renowned digital art innovation brand XPPen, has launched 3 animation special student bundles-which is available in US and CA-for students in college, cooperated with the famous animation software Inc.-Toon Boom Animation. 3 drawing displays of XPPen are included in this launch encompassing Artist 12 pro, Artist 22, Artist Pro 16TP, accompanied by the one-year subscription of Storyboard Pro and Harmony from Toon Boom Animation, for the majority of school students in North America, which is also the embodiment of XPPen's support for enthusiasts and students of new generation. Animation creation has always attracted countless young people and students to join. The win-win collaboration between the two professional pilots in digital painting industry is directed to provide more support for animation enthusiasts and young professional users in their pursuits of animation creation and learning, especially for the Gen Z artistic creators and student group. It's not only the brand philosophy of XPPen to empower every creator to pursue and fulfill the artistic dreams, but also the common consensus of both sides. The association this time turns on an innovative software and hardware cooperation pattern while bringing up more efficient user product experience to animation enthusiasts and professional CG artists around the world, as well as enabling the passionate digital drawing and CG creators to freely create and express themselves, and ultimately transfer their dreams into reality. "As a global market brand, North America has always been one of the most important market areas for XPPen. We will provide more powerful support and better services for consumers there, particularly for the student group in college when they are in the process of animation learning. And we are very glad to reach this cooperation with Toon Boom under the efforts of both sides. Furthermore, XPPen has just accomplished its online rebranding on Apr. 15th, the new definition of brand value will also be more centered, to respect and attach more importance to the preferences of the younger generation who pursues digital art creation dreams with enthusiasm." stated North America Sales Director of XPPen. Originated from 2005, XPPen is already one of three top digital drawing brands under HANVON UGEE, integrated with digital drawing products, content and service as a globally notable digital brand of digital art innovation. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1827488/image_5003628_23538347.jpg Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. (TSXV: PE) (OTCQB: PEMIF) ("Pure Energy" or "the Company") announces that, further to its news release of May 9, 2022, the Company has received TSX Venture Exchange acceptance to settle debts totalling $183,376,59 by the issuance of 151,660 common shares at a price of $1.209 per share pursuant to a financial services agreement with an advisor to the Company, and additionally to issue shares for services provided by a director of the Company. The shares are subject to a four month and one day hold period. About Pure Energy Pure Energy Minerals is a lithium resource developer that is driven to become a low-cost supplier for the growing lithium battery industry. Pure Energy has consolidated a pre-eminent land position at its Clayton Valley Project in the Clayton Valley of central Nevada for the exploration and development of lithium resources, comprising 950 claims over 23,360 acres (9,450 hectares), representing the largest mineral land holdings in the valley. Pure Energy's Clayton Valley Project adjoins and surrounds on three sides the Silver Peak lithium brine mine operated by Albemarle Corporation. Pure Energy's strategic partner, Schlumberger Technologies Corporation ("SLB"), is the operator of the Clayton Valley Project. In May of 2019, Pure Energy and SLB signed an Earn-In agreement over the CV Project which requires significant investment by SLB at the Project, to include the design and construction of a pilot plant capable of processing lithium-bearing brines for high-quality lithium hydroxide monohydrate ("lithium hydroxide" or "LiOHH2O") and/or lithium carbonate products at a specified rate. SLB plans to utilize both in-house and commercially available technology in the design of the CV pilot plant. SLB's costs, technical parameters and ultimate technology are anticipated to differ from the published PEA. For further details regarding SLB's participation, please refer to Pure Energy's Annual General and Special Meeting Management Information Circular dated April 4, 2019, available on SEDAR.com. On behalf of the Board of Directors, "Mary L. Little" Director, Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. CONTACT: Pure Energy Minerals Limited (www.pureenergyminerals.com) Email: info@pureenergyminerals.com Telephone - 604 608 6611 Cautionary Statements and Forward-Looking Information The information in this news release contains forward looking statements that are subject to a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such differences include: changes in world commodity markets, equity markets, costs and supply of materials relevant to the mining industry, change in government and changes to regulations affecting the mining industry. Forward-looking statements in this release may include future exploration and development on the Clayton Valley Project. Although we believe the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, results may vary, and we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. The Company does not undertake to update any forward-looking information, except as required by applicable laws. Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of 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/125512 Ananda Developments Plc - Exercise of Warrants 27 May 2022 ANANDA DEVELOPMENTS PLC ("Ananda" or the "Company") EXERCISE OF WARRANTS Ananda announces that 837,007 ordinary shares of 0.2p each in the Company ("Ordinary Shares") have been issued following the exercise of warrants at 0.45p per share. The proceeds received by the Company will be used for general working capital purposes. 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 Monday, 6 June 2022. Following this issue, the Company has 806,511,040 Ordinary Shares in issue, each share carrying the right to one vote. This figure of 806,511,040 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/ Chair of the B20 Energy, Sustainability, and Climate Task Force, Nicke Widyawati, during the 4th Call Meeting of the task force in Jakarta on Tuesday, May 24, 2022. (Antara / HO-Pertamina) JAKARTA, May 27, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - The B20 Energy, Sustainability, and Climate (ESC) Task Force has continued to strengthen steps to produce policy recommendations under the Indonesian G20 Presidency.As part of the effort, the 'Fourth Task Force Call Meeting' was held online for members on Tuesday (May 24, 2022).The meeting, which was accessed from Jakarta, was led directly by Pertamina president director and chair of the task force, Nicke Widyawati.It was attended by around 140 participants comprising deputy chair of the ESC Task Force, Agung Wicaksono; policy manager of the task force, Oki Muraza; eight co-chairs of the task force; and B20 members from 19 industries and 25 countries.Among the topics the 4th meeting focused on was the addition of aspects of SDGs and key performance indicators (KPI) to policy recommendations."Based on the results of discussions between the Task Force and the Implementing Council, it has been agreed that all Task Force B20 should link the SDG goals that are relevant to the draft policy recommendations and develop KPIs as monitoring indicators in policy designs," Widyawati said.She reiterated that the main objective of the forum is to ensure inclusivity in the formulation of recommendations and policies, wherein all members of the task force get the opportunity to express their views."I hope that we can work together in formulating policy proposals that are effective and can be implemented as well as able to represent the interests of the business community from B20 member countries," she said.The policy manager of the task force, Oki Muraza, outlined several KPI proposals in policy recommendations, which are expected to serve as indicators while monitoring the course of policy recommendations, including increasing the percentage of renewable energy from the total global energy supply and creating jobs related to clean energy and low-emission technologies."We have compiled this KPI considering the policies that have been made in the Italian B20 presidency by adding several aspects that are in line with the B20 policy recommendations this year," Muraza said.In addition, the policy recommendations made should be in line with the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) targets, such as those related to affordable clean energy (SDG No. 7 Affordable and Clean Energy) and climate action (SDG No. 13 Climate Action).On the same occasion, deputy chair of the task force, Agung Wicaksono, informed that the task force still has one Task Force Call in June 2022 for submitting final policy recommendations.Wicaksono said he expects the task force members to continue to provide inputs and views on the preparation of policy recommendations that have an impact and can be followed up by the G20 leadership.In addition, he also listed several other important activities that will be held by the task force after the last Task Force Call, including the B20/G20 Ministerial Dialogue in July 2022; an investment forum titled "2nd Partners in Energy Transition," which will be organized in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs; the "SOE Trade & Investment Forum," which will be held in collaboration with the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises in September; and the B20 Summit in November.Contact: Fajriyah Usman, VP Corporate Communications, PT Pertamina (Persero)M: +62 858 8330 8686, Email: fajriyah.usman@pertamina.com, URL: https://www.pertamina.comWritten by: Azis Kurmala, Editor: Suharto (c) ANTARA 2022Source: PT PertaminaCopyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. Philip Thomas, CEO, Ascential Intelligence & Events and Chair, LIONS Paul Coxhill, CEO, WARC Cheryl Guerin, EVP, Global Brand Strategy & Innovation, Mastercard Pam Forbus, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer, Pernod Ricard, USA Amanda Benfell Head of PR & Press amanda.benfell@warc.com LONDON / NEW YORK, May 27, 2022 - (ACN Newswire) - WARC, the global authority on marketing effectiveness, has today launched the WARC Awards for Effectiveness, North America Edition (www.warc.com/awards/effectiveness/north-america). Delivered in association with LIONS (www.canneslions.com/enter/awards), using world-class expertise in award management and judging, this new competition will shine a light on marketing greatness in the region.The Awards are built around the benchmarks of the WARC/LIONS Creative Effectiveness Ladder and B2B Effectiveness Ladder (www.warc.com/about-creative), which provide universal frameworks of the six main approaches for using strategy and creativity to drive specific B2C and B2B marketing outcomes.Philip Thomas, CEO, Ascential Intelligence & Events and Chair of LIONS, said: "The WARC Awards for Effectiveness North America offer marketers a new benchmark against which to assess just how well their marketing is working. Using the WARC/LIONS Creative Effectiveness and B2B Effectiveness Ladders as part of the judging process will give the industry a standard showing of what great effective work looks like in the region."Paul Coxhill, CEO, WARC, added: "The six categories of these new Awards for North America will be judged by extremely high-calibre juries including senior marketers from some of the region's biggest brands and top agency professionals and specialists. To launch these Awards, we are delighted to welcome our two Jury Chairs, Cheryl Guerin of Mastercard and Pam Forbus of Pernod Ricard."Cheryl Guerin, EVP, Global Brand Strategy & Innovation at MasterCard will chair three categories: B2B, Customer Experience and Cultural Impact.Cheryl leads the overall stewardship of one of the world's most iconic and recognizable brands. She oversees the strategy and activation of Mastercard's highly decorated Priceless campaign, advancing the brand to consumers and B2B audiences through cutting-edge advertising, digital marketing and innovative insights that inform and inspire new opportunities for the business.Commenting on her upcoming role, Cheryl Guerin said: "It's a tremendous honor to lead the jury of the first-ever WARC Awards for Effectiveness, North America Edition. I'm looking forward to collaborating with my peers to review the most exceptional B2B and B2C creativity from North America, and recognize the true effectiveness gems, which will help inspire and empower our industry."Pam Forbus, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer of Pernod Ricard, USA, has been appointed Jury Chair of the Instant Impact, Sustained Growth and Brand Purpose categories.Pam oversees U.S. marketing and innovation for 26 leading spirits, wine and champagne brands in the company's premium portfolio, including Absolut, Jameson, Malibu, The Glenlivet, Perrier-Jouet, GH Mumm and many others. Since joining Pernod Ricard in 2020, Pam has implemented "media to shelf" to drive consumer/shopper centric brand and business building.On chairing, Pam Forbus said: "As a long-time fan of WARC, I'm thrilled to be chairing the first year of the WARC Awards for Effectiveness, North America Edition. It's great to see the framework of the Creative Effectiveness Ladder come to life in this competition, and I look forward to using it to shine a light on our region's most inspiring work."The juries will score papers according to campaign objectives, insight and strategic thinking, implementation, business effects and lessons learned. They will then be benchmarked against the Creative Effectiveness or B2B Effectiveness Ladders providing entrants with a clear idea about where their work fits on the six rungs of the relevant ladder. For each category, the juries will award a Grand Prix as well as Gold, Silver and Bronze accolades.With a straightforward process to enter, the Awards are free to enter and open to all agencies and brands from North America. Papers will be accepted until 21 September.More information on the new WARC Awards for Effectiveness, North America Edition, and how to enter is available at www.warc.com/awards/effectiveness/north-america.The newly launched WARC Awards for Effectiveness North America are part of a suite of WARC Awards (www.warc.com/our-awards), which also include the global WARC Awards for Effectiveness, and two other regional competitions -- the WARC Awards for Asian Strategy and the WARC Awards for MENA Strategy.Source: WarcContact:Copyright 2022 ACN Newswire . All rights reserved. DAMAC believes Miami is a natural fit given its luxury and fashion appeal is a natural fit given its luxury and fashion appeal Announcement comes at a time of rapid global expansion for the Dubai -based developer DUBAI, UAE and MIAMI, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- UAE-based DAMAC Properties has announced that it has won the US $120 million bid to acquire land in the upscale Miami neighbourhood of Surfside. The Dubai-based developer plans to build an ultra-luxurious, CAVALLI branded condominium project. The property, on Collins Avenue, offers residents 200 feet of direct beach frontage and access to South Beach and Bal Harbour. The land, comprising 1.8 acres, was sold to DAMAC for $120 million through the court process. Commenting on the purchase, DAMAC Chairman and Founder, Hussain Sajwani, said: "DAMAC Properties has long been eyeing development opportunities in Miami. We see the city, which is known for being a luxury and fashion centre, as a natural fit for our Company, which has an established reputation for its branded luxury offerings." Surfside, in recent years, has become a hotspot for ultra-luxury condominium developments, including the Four Seasons Private Residences, the Fendi Chateau Residences, and the Arte Surfside buildings. The town also has a collection of high-end hotels, including the Four Seasons, the St. Regis Bal Harbour, and the Ritz-Carlton Bal Harbour and its primary shopping area, the Bal Harbour Shops, is known throughout Miami as a luxury shopping destination. DAMAC Properties, known for its luxury real estate offerings both regionally and globally, is rapidly expanding its global footprint such as its flagship project in Europe - DAMAC Towers Nine Elms in the prestigious Zone 1 district of London with Versace interiors. The Surfside project will be DAMAC's first in the United States. The Company's consistent success over the years, and more recently on the tailwinds of Dubai's stellar economic performance and forecast, has propelled it to eye various global opportunities for development and growth. It is developing a luxury resort in the Maldives to be operated by global hotel brand Mandarin International and has already projects in Canada, the UK and across the Middle East. In 2021, DAMAC Properties launched two projects in Dubai, DAMAC Lagoons, the developer's third master community in Dubai, and Cavalli Tower, an ultra-luxurious 70-storey tower overlooking Palm Jumeirah, with Cavalli-branded interiors. Both projects have seen great customer interest and demand. "Our global expansion into the United States marks a major milestone and demonstrates that DAMAC is a force to be reckoned with. This is an exciting time, and we have a lot in store," Sajwani said. "We are rapidly growing, not only in our real estate endeavours but in various sectors such as fashion, hospitality and even emerging industries such as the Metaverse, NFTs and data centres. This enables us to stay ahead of the curve," he concluded. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1827765/DAMAC_1.jpg Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1827769/DAMAC_2.jpg The Palestinian Authority has released the results of its investigation into the fatal shooting of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, claiming that Israeli forces deliberately shot and killed the veteran reporter using armor-piercing bullets. The results of the investigation echoed the findings of a preliminary probe announced nearly two weeks ago and were widely expected amid global outrage over the killing of the victim. On Thursday, Palestinian Attorney General Akram al-Khatib spoke to reporters in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. Fatal Shooting of Palestinian Journalist The official said that it was clear that one of the Israeli occupation forces fired a bullet that struck journalist Abu Akleh directly in her head while she was trying to flee the area. The 51-year-old Palestinian-American journalist was fatally shot with an armor-piercing bullet while wearing a helmet and a vest that was clearly marked with the word "PRESS." Al-Khatib was reporting on the findings of a Palestinian Authority (PA) investigation that was looking into the fatal shooting of Abu Akleh. The journalist was shot on May 11 while covering an Israeli army raid in the West Bank city of Jenin, as per Aljazeera. The official said that the only source of firing was by the occupation forces with the aim to kill their targets. He added that his investigation was based on interviews with witnesses, an inspection of the scene of the incident, and a forensic medical report. Read Also: Russia-Ukraine War: Video Shows How Ukrainian Military Used Kamikaze Drones To Destroy Russian Tank Previously, witnesses and colleagues who were present at the scene of the incident said that Abu Akleh was killed by Israeli forces. The media outlet that the journalist worked for, Al Jazeera Media Network, said that their employee was "assassinated in cold blood." According to The Guardian, Israeli officials rejected the findings with Defense Minister Benny Gantz calling the results a "blatant lie." Al-Khatib echoed the Palestinian position that the bullet not be handed over to the Israelis for study and that it was decided not to show images to "deprive [Israel] of a new lie." Israel's Denial On Thursday, Israeli Defense Force chief of general staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi said in a speech that it was impossible to know who fired the bullet and once again called on the Palestinians to cooperate to "get to the bottom" of what happened. The official added that one thing was for certain, that no soldier fired intentionally at a journalist, arguing that an investigation was conducted into the incident. Israeli officials have denied that soldiers were targeting journalists and offered two possible scenarios, saying that the reporter was either shot by Palestinian militants who were firing recklessly at an Israeli army convoy or that she was struck by Israeli gunfire aimed at a nearby militant. United States President Joe Biden's administration has called for a thorough investigation and accountability into the killing of Abu Akleh. On Wednesday, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the U.S. government made it clear to both Israeli and Palestinian authorities that they were expecting the investigations to be transparent and impartial, requiring a full thorough accounting of the circumstances of the killing of the journalist, Axios reported. Related Article: Hundreds of Bodies Buried Under Rubble Paint Devastating Aftermath of Russia's Siege on Mariupol @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. 27 May 2022 Rightmove plc Share buy-back programme Rightmove plc - Transaction in own shares Rightmove plc ('Rightmove') announces that today it purchased 70,000 of its 0.1p ordinary shares at a volume weighted average price paid per share of 590.212p. The highest price paid per share was 595.400p and the lowest price paid per share was 583.600p. Rightmove purchased these shares through UBS AG London Branch. The number of shares purchased represented 0.0083% 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 467,251,229 ordinary shares. The total number of ordinary shares in issue (excluding treasury shares) following this announcement is 839,335,677. 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 Finsbury Growth & Income Trust Plc - Transaction in Own Shares For immediate release 27 May 2022 FINSBURY GROWTH & INCOME TRUST PLC (the "Company") MARKET PURCHASE OF COMPANY'S OWN SHARES The Company announces that it has today purchased 100,422 of its own shares ("Ordinary Shares") at a price of 795.20p 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 3,175,762; 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 221,815,541. The figure of 221,815,541 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 BRUSSELS/FRANKFURT/PARIS (dpa-AFX) - European stocks closed higher on Friday, extending recent gains, amid easing worries about tighter monetary stance from the Federal Reserve, and on some upbeat earnings updates from U.S. retailers. Markets also benefited from optimism about easing of coronavirus restrictions in China and bargain hunting at several counters that had seen some sharp selling in recent sessions. The pan European Stoxx 600 climbed 1.42%. Germany's DAX and France's CAC 40 surged up 1.62% and 1.64%, respectively, while the U.K.'s FTSE gained 0.27%. Switzerland's SMI advanced 1.35%. The FTSE 100, the DAX and the CAC 40 all gained more than 2% in the week. Among other markets in Europe, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden posted sharp to moderate gains. Denmark, Poland, Portugal, Russia and Turkey closed weak, while Czech Republic ended flat. In the UK market, movements were quite choppy with investors assessing the likely impact of a 25% windfall tax on oil and gas producer's profits. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak, who announced the measure on Thursday, did not rule out applying a similar levy to power generators, but said more work needs to be done on the idea. Scottish Mortgage rallied 6.6%. Ocado Group surged up 5%. Experian, Ashtead Group, Halma, Melrose Industries, Aveva Group, Prudential, Spirax-Sarco Engineering, Rentokil Initial and Pershing Square Holdings gained 2 to 3.5%. Harbour Energy Plc shares plunged 10.7%. ITV ended nearly 4% down. Pearson, Royal Mail, National Grid, Endeavour Mining, SSE and Fresenillo lost 1.4 to 2%. In the German market, Infineon Technologies, Siemens Healthineers, Vonovia, Puma, Siemens, Linde, Sartorius, SAP and MTU Aero Engines gained 2 to 4.5%. Deutsche Wohnen, Adidas, Merck, Munich RE and Qiagen also ended notably higher. RWE ended more than 3% down. E.ON shed about 2.1%. Zalando and Henkel also declined sharply. In the French market, L'Oreal, Hermes International, Kering, LVMH, Dassault Systemes, Essilor and ArcelorMittal gained 3 to 4.3%. Pernod Ricard, Teleperformance, Airbus Group, STMicroElectronics, Air Liquide, BNP Paribas, Safran and Sodexo also moved up sharply. Saint Gobain gained about 1.6%. The company has entered into agreements for the sale of its glass processing businesses Eckelt Glas and Glas Ziegler in Austria to the privately-owned German group AEQUITA, as well as the sale of its holding in the co-venture Glaskontor Erfurt - a glass processing business in Germany - to the CALEOGLAS Group. Unibail Rodamco drifted down more than 3%. Valeo, Sanofi and Carrefour were among the other prominent losers. In economic news, Eurozone money supply expanded at a slower pace in April, while the growth in loans to the private sector accelerated, data from the European Central Bank showed on Friday. The broad monetary aggregates M3 grew at a pace of 6% in April, slower than the 6.3% increase posted in March. Economists had forecast M3 to climb again by 6.3%. Likewise, the narrow measure, M1 that comprises currency in circulation and overnight deposits, gained 8.2% annually, following an 8.8% increase in March. Copyright(c) 2022 RTTNews.com. All Rights Reserved Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / Diamond Fields Resources Inc. (TSX-V:DFR) ("DFR" or the "Company") notes that Moydow Holdings Limited ("Moydow") has commenced a drilling program on the Labola Gold Project in Burkina Faso, West Africa ("the Labola Project"). The drill program is intended to improve the definition of the current resource and potentially contribute to an expansion of the National Instrument 43-101 resource estimate announced on 25 October, 2021. In addition, Moydow will commence drill testing on several other targets across the expanded license area. The Labola Project comprises two exploration license areas, Wuo Land and Wuo Land 2. Moydow completed a thirty one hole, 4,739 meter drilling program of twin and infill drilling between May and August 2021 on the Wuo Land license (the "2021 Drilling Program"). The primary objective of the 2021 Drilling Program was to validate the historical High River Gold Mines Limited ("High River") and Taurus Gold Limited ("Taurus") drilling databases to estimate a maiden mineral resource estimate prepared in accordance with the provisions of NI 43-101 (see DFR announcement dated 25 October 2021): Indicated mineral resource estimate: 5.41Mt @ 1.52g/t Au (264,000oz) Inferred mineral resource estimate: 6.93Mt @ 1.67g/t Au (371,000oz) The 2021 Drilling Program covered the main area of historical drilling and focused on the Daramandougou and Wuo Ne target areas. As announced on 11 March 2022, the footprint of the Labola Project was extended by an additional 243km2 following Moydow's acquisition of an option over an exploration license ("Wuo Land 2") contiguous to the existing license area. Importantly the Company now has control of approximately 30km of strike length along the mineralization corridor. Labola Project exploration The Labola Project lies in the Banfora Birimian Greenstone Belt, one of the three major mineralized belts in western Burkina Faso. Gold mineralization at the Labola Project is spatially associated with sulfides and quartz sericite alteration. Historical geophysics (IP and EM) surveys have helped define a 30km long mineralized corridor. Within this corridor, historical and recent mapping and sampling combined with the widespread activity of artisanal miners has identified seven structures with mapped extents of 15km to 25km. The 2021 drilling program conducted by Moydow concentrated on only a small portion of this belt, towards the northern end of the Central Western and Eastern structures. Drill testing has covered only between 6% and 25% of the mapped strike length of these three structures and rarely to depths of more than 100m. The current resource, which was prepared in accordance with NI 43-101, was based upon validated historical and recent drilling. The objective of the next phase of exploration work is to infill and extend the previous drill pattern on areas of known mineralization. Additionally, the program will test the tenor and continuity of some of the other structures that have been identified through our mapping and sampling campaign and are currently being exploited at surface by artisanal gold miners. Preliminary metallurgical test work conducted by High River and Taurus suggested that the gold present in the license area is treatable by conventional cyanide leaching. Recoveries were seen to be 90 to 98% in the oxide zone and 82% to 93% in the transitional and sulfide zone. During the exploration work undertaken by Moydow, LeachWell accelerated cyanide bottle roll testing was used alongside fire assay analysis of drill samples and the results have provided further indication that the gold mineralization is essentially free milling in line with historical and regional metallurgical results. A wider metallurgical test program to confirm these results will be implemented as the Labola Project advances. Moydow transaction update On 25 August 2021, the Company announced that it had entered into definitive agreements to acquire privately owned Moydow, ("the Transaction"). The TSX Venture Exchange provided conditional approval to the Transaction in April 2022, subject to shareholder approval and other standard conditions. The Company is holding its Annual General and Special Meeting of the shareholders on June 9, 2022 (the "Meeting") to, among other things, seek approval to the Transaction. The Management Information Circular for the Meeting, setting out the particulars of the Transaction was mailed to shareholders in mid-May 2022. A copy of the Management Information Circular is available on the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Further information about the Transaction, including a corporate presentation, is available on the Company's website and at www.diamondfieldsmoydow.com. Subject to shareholder approval, the Transaction is anticipated to close before the end of June 2022. Shareholders are encouraged to review the Management Information Circular and vote their proxies for the upcoming Meeting. The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the proposed transaction and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Ends David J Reading, M.Sc., FIMM, Fellow SEG, a director of DFR and a Qualified Person as defined under Canadian National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), has prepared or supervised the preparation of, or approved, as applicable, the technical information contained in this press release. Mr. Reading has over 40 years' experience in the mining industry covering all stages of mine development, including exploration, feasibility, financing, construction and operations. He has an MSc in Economic Geology and is a Fellow of the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and of the Society of Economic Geologists. DIAMOND FIELDS RESOURCES INC. Join McGloin, CEO Contact: enquire@diamondfields.com Michael Oke/Andy Mills: +44 20 7321 0000 Aura Financial LLP: www.aura-financial.com Notes to Editors: DFR is a TSX Venture Exchange listed exploration and mine development company with assets in Madagascar and Namibia. In Madagascar, DFR is developing the Beravina Project, an advanced high grade hard rock zircon exploration prospect located in the west of the country, approximately 220km east of the port of Maintirano and close to a state road. DFR acquired Beravina from Pala Investments and Austral Resources in 2016. In Namibia, the Company owns several offshore diamond mining licenses including the ML 111 concession which has a ten-year mining license, effective until 4 December 2025. In 2018 and early 2019 mining undertaken by a contractor on the Company's ML111 license area produced two parcels of rough diamonds totaling 47,318.41 carats. Moydow is a privately owned, BVI registered, West African focused gold exploration business, which was formed in 2019 and subsequently in 2020 acquired, from AIM listed Panthera Resources Plc, its interest in the Labola Project, (Burkina Faso), followed by the Kalaka (Mali) project interest in 2021. At Closing Moydow will be controlled by DFR. Website: www.diamondfieldsmoydow.com and www.diamondfields.com The Company's public documents may be accessed 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. Forward-Looking Statements: This release contains certain "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. All statements other than statements of historical fact in this release that address activities, events or developments that DFR expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements or information. Often, but not always, forward-looking information can be identified by the use of words such as "aim", "aspire", "strive", "will", "expect", "intend", "plan", "believe" or similar expressions as they relate to DFR. Forward- looking information is subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to materially differ from those reflected in the forward-looking information. The forward-looking statements and information in this release include but are not limited to statements and information relating to the terms, conditions and completion of the Transaction and Founder Investments; the use of proceeds from the Founder Investments; the obtaining of all required regulatory approvals in connection with the Transaction and Founder Investments; technical information; drilling and exploration programs; political risks; statutory and regulatory compliance; the proposed officers and directors of DFR following completion of the Transaction; and the impact of the Transaction on the business of DFR. Such statements and information reflect the current view of DFR. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause DFR's actual results, performance or achievements or other future events, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause DFR's actual results to differ materially from those indicated or implied by forward-looking statements and information. Such factors include, among others: the ability to satisfy the conditions to the consummation of the Transaction and the Founder Investments; the ability to obtain requisite shareholder and regulatory approvals; the potential impact of the announcement or consummation of the Transaction on relationships; including with regulatory bodies, employees; suppliers customers and competitors; changes in general economic, business and political conditions, including changes in the financial markets; changes in applicable laws; compliance with extensive government regulation and the diversion of management time on the Transaction and the Founder Investments. Should one or more of these risks, uncertainties or other factors materialize, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information or statement prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described herein as intended, planned, anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. DFR cautions that the foregoing list of material factors is not exhaustive. When relying on DFR's forward-looking statements and information to make decisions, shareholders should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties and potential events. DFR has assumed that the material factors referred to in the previous paragraph will not cause such forward looking statements and information to differ materially from actual results or events. However, the list of these factors is not exhaustive and is subject to change and there can be no assurance that such assumptions will reflect the actual outcome of such items or factors. The forward-looking information contained in this release represents the expectations of DFR as of the date of this release and, accordingly, is subject to change after such date. Readers should not place undue importance on forward looking information and should not rely upon this information as of any other date. While DFR may elect to, it does not undertake to update this information at any particular time except as required in accordance with applicable laws. SOURCE: Diamond Fields Resources Inc. View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703050/Diamond-Fields-Resources-Announces-Moydow-Commences-Drilling-at-Labola-Gold-Project-and-Updates-on-Acquisition Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - American Aires Inc. (CSE: WIFI) (the "Company" or "Aires"), is pleased to announce that today it has issued a grid promissory note dated May 26, 2022 (the "Note"), with an arm's length lender (the "Lender") whereby the Lender agreed to advance up to C$500,000 (in C$100,000 increments if and as needed) to the Company pursuant to the terms below (the "Loan"). The Loan will primarily be used for working capital purposes. The Loan will be evidenced by a promissory note in favour of the Lender. The maturity date of the Loan is one (1) year from the date of the Note (the "Maturity Date") and the rate of interest is 8% per annum. The Company has agreed to pay a royalty of 3.5% from net sales for every C$100,000 loaned to the Company, subject to a maximum royalty of 17.5%. The royalty will exist until the Loan is repaid in full. Financial Statement Update Further to its press release dated May 9, 2022, the Company continues to experience delays regarding the filing of its audited annual financial statements, management discussion and analysis and certificates of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer (collectively, the "Required Filings") for the year ended December 31, 2021, which were due to be filed on May 2, 2022. The Company continues to work diligently with its auditors and third-party fulfillment centres and anticipates that it will complete the Required Filings by late-June. About American Aires Inc. American Aires Inc. is Canadian-based nanotechnology company which has developed proprietary silicon-based microprocessors that reduce the harmful effects of electromagnetic radiation (EMR). The technology was developed by a team of highly accredited scientists and confirmed by independent third-party validation including peer reviewed studies and publications in scientific journals. Aires' Lifetune products specifically target EMR emitted by consumer electronic devices such as cellphones, computers, baby monitors, Wi-Fi radiation, including the rapidly expanding next-generation high-speed 5G networks. Aires is listed on the CSE under ticker 'WIFI'. Learn more at www.airestech.com. On behalf of the board of directors Company Contact: Dimitry Serov, CEO Email: dimitry@airestech.com Telephone: (905) 482-4667 Website: www.airestech.com No securities regulatory authority has either approved or disapproved of the contents of this news release. The Shares have not been, nor will they be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or any state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States, or to or for the account or benefit of any person in the United States, absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any common shares in the United States, or in any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. We seek safe harbour. Certain information set forth in this news release may contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial known and unknown risks and uncertainties. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding future financial position, business strategy, use of proceeds, corporate vision, proposed acquisitions, partnerships, joint-ventures and strategic alliances and co-operations, budgets, cost and plans and objectives of or involving the Company. Such forward-looking information reflects management's current beliefs and is based on information currently available to management. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "predicts", "intends", "targets", "aims", "anticipates" or "believes" or variations (including negative variations) of such words and phrases or may be identified by statements to the effect that certain actions "may", "could", "should", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. A number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors may cause the actual results or performance to materially differ from any future results or performance expressed or implied by the forward-looking information. These forward-looking statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, certain of which are beyond the control of the Company including, but not limited to, the impact of general economic conditions, industry conditions and dependence upon regulatory approvals. Certain material assumptions regarding such forward-looking statements may be discussed in this news release and the Company's annual and quarterly management's discussion and analysis filed at www.sedar.com. Readers are cautioned that the assumptions used in the preparation of such information, although considered reasonable at the time of preparation, may prove to be imprecise and, as such, undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking statements. The Company does not assume any obligation to update or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise, except as required by securities laws. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange nor its Market Regulator (as that term is defined in the policies of the Canadian Securities Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this news release. Not intended for distribution to United States Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of United States Securities laws. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125611 ANKARA, Turkey, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Roland Berger, an international management consulting firm, proposed that user operation has become the third driving force for car companies. For a long time, most car companies have not faced users directly, have not been able to obtain the most direct information, and have not heard users' suggestions. With the development of automobile intelligence and digitization, this situation in China has begun to change in recent years. So far, almost all car companies have been chanting slogans to attach importance to user operations, and have carried out various car enthusiast activities. Chery Automobile also promoted the latest concept of user operation to the world. From the year of 2020, Chery has built a global user interaction platform for the first time, and held the first season of With Chery with Love (WCWL), covering more than 20 countries around the world, accumulating more than 500,000 People participated in the sharing histories with Chery. And now the second season of WCWL is going on. Recently, Chery held its first user operation event in Kazakhstan. The theme of the event was a picnic in spring, also there was also a lively band singing at the event, and all the people were excited and happy. The event was well received by local Chery car owners in Kazakhstan, which enhanced the local Chery users' recognition of Chery's overall brand and services. In Peru, Chery also held its first user operation event to provide car owners with a platform to get to know each other. 27 TIGGO 7 PRO owners gathered together to share their stories with Chery, deepening mutual understanding. After the event, the car owner commented on the social media platform: "I have never participated in this kind of event before, I believe this is not the last time, it even makes me want to buy a TIGGO 7 PRO again, thanks to Chery for bringing me Happy memory!". The purpose of customer operation is to really go deep into the car owners, discover what car owners really care about, and truly bring Chery's care and warmth to global users, thereby enhancing the upward influence and reputation of the Chery brand. User operation will also be the key trend of automotive industry future development. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1827706/image_5011064_49643015.jpg Sydney has exploded into a kaleidoscope of colour and technicolour brilliance tonight as the lights were turned on for Vivid Sydney 2022 SYDNEY, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Making a triumphant return after a two-year hiatus, Australia's largest event will bring together light artists, music makers and brilliant creatives over 23 days and nights, from 27 May to 18 June in celebration of Sydney's soul - the diversity, beauty, resilience, First Nations culture, and vibrant creative community. For the first time in Vivid Sydney's 12-year history, the 'Lights On' moment has been preceded with First Light, a powerful acknowledgement and celebration of our First Nations culture, with a spectacular and memorable Welcome to Country ceremony and performance by more than 50 NAISDA dancers, choreographed by Deon Hastie under creative advisor Rhoda Roberts AO. From firelight to spotlights, the 'Lights On' moment wowed with the Sydney Opera House Lighting of the Sails featuring the incredible new digital artwork, Yarrkalpa - Hunting Ground 2021. Created by Martu artists and creative technologists Curiious, with a soundtrack by Electric Fields & Martu artists, the visually striking and complex painting depicts the Parnngurr community and surrounding landscape and represents Indigenous cultures' intimate connection with the country. The Lighting of the Sails is complemented with Sharing the Same Life Essence by Indigenous artist Wayne Quilliam, projected onto all four of the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons during First Light. This year, the Festival is bigger and brighter than ever before, with 11 central business district (CBD) locations across Sydney, including Circular Quay, Sydney CBD, The Rocks, Barangaroo, Darling Harbour, Darling Square, Central Station, The Good Line, Luna Park and Taronga Zoo transformed with illuminating installations and unforgettable performances. This year is the first time that Central Station and the Goods Line has been activated, extending the Light Walk for a continuous 8km. Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade, Minister for Tourism and Sport and Minister for Western Sydney Stuart Ayres said Vivid Sydney was much more than just a captivating light, music and ideas festival. "Vivid Sydney draws millions of visitors to the city in May and June and is such an important driver for the NSW tourism economy," Mr Ayres said. "It's been a long wait since the lights went out on Vivid Sydney 2019 and this year's program is bigger, brighter and bolder, with over 200 events for visitors to enjoy. The largest festival in the Southern Hemisphere brings Sydney to life, and I encourage Sydneysiders and visitors from all around the country and the world to visit our dynamic city when it's at its creative best." Festival Director, Gill Minervini said: "It has been such a privilege and honour to put together a program of this scale that is two years in the making. This year's program features a completely refreshed and revitalised program celebrating Sydney's soul, elevating our artists and creatives onto a world stage that will inspire and captivate audiences. Over the next 23 days and nights, visitors will be spoiled for choice, with the longest ever continuous Light Walk at 8km, hundreds of music events at intriguing locations across the city and thought-provoking talks from the world's most brilliant minds. Sydney shines during Vivid Sydney, and I cannot wait for everyone to experience it." Vivid Sydney is the largest festival of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere and the largest event in Australia. For more information and to purchase tickets to Vivid Sydney events, go to www.vividsydney.com. Follow Vivid Sydney on social media for the latest Vivid Sydney updates and last-minute advice on getting around the city: facebook.com/vividsydney twitter.com/vividsydney instagram.com/vividsydney youtube.com/vividsydney Get social at Vivid Sydney using @vividsydney vividsydney. MEDIA CONTACT Wayne Mitcham, Amio Limited P: +64 21 499 550 E: wayne@amio.nz About Vivid Sydney Vivid Sydney is an annual celebration of creativity, innovation and technology, which transforms Sydney for 23 days and nights. Staged for its 12th year in 2022, Vivid Sydney fuses mesmerising art displays and 3D light projections with exhilarating live music performances and deep-dive discussions from some of the world's brightest minds, as well as the Sydney Opera House Lighting of the Sails. Vivid Sydney is owned, managed and produced by Destination NSW, the NSW Government's tourism and major events agency. Related Images Image 1: Sydney Opera House - Yarrkalpa Hunting Ground 2021 Artists - Martu artists Photo credit - Destination NSW Image 2: Checkmate - Darling Harbour Artists - Amigo and Amigo Credit - Destination NSW Image 3: For Sydney With Love Artist - Ken Done Credit - Destination NSW Image 4: Temple Artists - Leila Jeffreys & Melvin J Montalban Credit - Destination NSW Image 5: Macula Artists - Justin Reinhold & Rico Reinhold Credit - Destination NSW Image 6: Vivid Reflections Artists - The Electric Canvas Art Collective Credit - Destination NSW This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment BMO Commercial Property Trust Limited (a closed -ended collective investment scheme established as a company with limited liabilityincorporated in Guernsey with registration number 50402) LEI Number: 213800A2B1H4ULF3K397 (The "Company") 27 May 2022 RESULT OF ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING At the Annual General Meeting of the Company held today, all Resolutions set out in the Annual General Meeting Notice sent to Shareholders dated 27 April 2022 were duly passed. Details of the proxy voting results which should be read along side the Notice are noted below: Ordinary Resolution For Discretion (voted in favour) Against Abstain 1 433,267,410 52,881 44,915 2,221,606 2 424,626,447 52,881 10,691,973 215,511 3 435,459,567 52,881 11,562 62,801 4 431,639,716 52,881 3,744,253 149,962 5 425,471,845 52,881 9,942,169 119,916 6 428,596,491 52,881 6,787,477 149,962 7 431,634,749 52,881 3,779,266 119,915 8 431,623,842 52,881 3,761,443 148,645 9 434,909,782 52,881 520,385 103,764 10 435,183,494 52,881 61,627 288,810 11 435,424,958 52,881 28,290 80,682 12 435,261,272 52,881 218,276 54,383 Special Resolution For Discretion (voted in favour) Against Abstain 13 431,960,762 52,881 3,453,536 120,633 14 421,428,839 52,881 11,930,237 2,174,855 Note -A vote withheld is not a vote in law and has not been counted in the votes for and against a resolution. The Special Resolutions were as follows: Special Resolution 13 That the Directors of the Company be and they are hereby generally empowered, to allot and issue ordinary shares in the Company or grant rights to subscribe for, or to convert securities into, ordinary shares in the Company ("equity securities'') for cash, including by way of a sale of ordinary shares held by the Company as treasury shares, as if any pre-emption rights in relation to the issue of shares contained in Article 6.2 of the Company's articles of incorporation did not apply to any such allotment of equity securities, provided that this power: (a) expires at the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company after the passing of this resolution or on the expiry of 15 months from the passing of this resolution, whichever is the earlier, save that the Company may, before such expiry, make an offer or agreement which would or might require equity securities to be allotted after such expiry and the Directors may allot equity securities in pursuance of any such offer or agreement as if the power conferred hereby had not expired; and (b) shall be limited to the allotment of equity securities up to an aggregate nominal value of 735,372 being approximately 10 per cent of the nominal value of the issued share capital of the Company (excluding treasury shares), as at 13 April 2022. Special Resolution 14 That the Company be authorised, in accordance with section 315 of The Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008, to make market acquisitions (within the meaning of section 316(1) of The Companies (Guernsey) Law 2008 of ordinary shares of 1p each ("Ordinary Shares'') (either for retention as treasury shares for future resale or transfer, or cancellation), provided that: (a) the maximum number of Ordinary Shares hereby authorised to be purchased shall be 14.99 per cent of the issued Ordinary Shares on the date on which this resolution is passed; (b) the minimum price which may be paid for an Ordinary Share shall be 1p (exclusive of expenses); (c) the maximum price (exclusive of expenses) which may be paid for an Ordinary Share shall be the higher of (i) 105 per cent of the average of the middle market quotations (as derived from the Daily Official List) for the Ordinary Shares for the five business days immediately preceding the date of purchase; and (ii) the higher of the last independent trade and the highest current independent bid on the trading venue which the purchase is carried out; and (d) unless previously varied, revoked or renewed, the authority hereby conferred shall expire at the conclusion of the next Annual General Meeting of the Company after the passing of this resolution, or on the expiry of 18 months from the passing of this resolution, whichever is the earlier, save that the Company may, prior to such expiry, enter into a contract to purchase Ordinary Shares under such authority which will or may be executed wholly or partly after the expiration of such authority and may make a purchase of Ordinary Shares pursuant to any such contract. Enquiries: Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited The Company Secretary Trafalgar Court Les Banques St Peter Port Guernsey GY1 3QL Tel: 01481 745001 END Ottawa, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Tourism Week returns to Canada next week to kickstart the summer travel season. From May 29 to June 4, 2022, communities across Canada will once again be celebrating the beauty of our country - from coast to coast to coast. The seven-day awareness campaign presented by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) invites private- and public-sector tourism partners in Canada and in key countries abroad to come together to promote Canadian tourism destinations, businesses, and employees. All members of the media are invited to attend a press conference to officially launch the event. Please save the date! Press Conference - Tourism Week 2022 Special Guests: The Honourable Randy Boissonnault, Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance & Beth Potter, President & CEO, Tourism Industry Association of Canada Date: Monday May 30, 2022, 10:30 a.m. EST Location: Outside of the Ottawa Visitor Centre Address: 90 Wellington St, Ottawa Ontario Media Contact/RSVP: msimmons@tiac-aitc.ca After two years of enduring the hardships of the global pandemic, its economic impact, and its polarizing effects on society, TIAC believes that tourism is the best way to demonstrate to the world Canada's values as a nation - resilience, peace, diversity, and inclusivity. Our collective values are needed now more than ever on the global stage. This year's theme of "Travel now. For work, life, and play!" emphasizes that tourism in Canada is open for business and ready to safely re-welcome travelers from all over the world, whether for pleasure or business. To celebrate tourism, TIAC is challenging destinations, landmarks, attractions, venues and hotels to light up in green from May 29-June 4 as part of its campaign to raise awareness of the industry's economic, social, and cultural importance in Canada. Business and government leaders across the country will also be sharing videos on their social media to show their support for the industry. Learn more about Tourism Week 2022 here. Tourism Week Logo To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8121/125604_c158693c1427f85e_001.jpg ABOUT TIAC Established in 1930, the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC) advocates on behalf of Canadian tourism businesses and promotes positive measures that help the sector grow and prosper. A not-for-profit organization, TIAC represents tourism interests at the national level, and its advocacy work involves promoting and supporting policies, programs, and activities that will benefit the sector's growth and development. TIAC's membership reflects partnerships across all industry sectors, as well as provincial, territorial, and regional tourism associations, which enables TIAC to address the full range of issues facing Canadian tourism. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125604 Moon, Wisconsin--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - SANIN INU ($SANI), a community-driven meme coin, is ready to present a decentralized community with a platform that may change the 'Meme coin' industry. SANIN is excited to announce that it will soon initiate its own farming and staking protocols in mid June 2022, followed by a plethora of DeFi features and its own DAO. Moonoshi How did SANIN start? SANIN was born with an aim to revolutionize the decentralized space. SANIN has 1 trillion tokens circulating in the market. There are no team wallets or marketing wallets, which creates a sense of True Decentralization. Thus, SANIN is entirely a community-driven project. The SANIN Team: Every holder and community member of SANIN is part of the team. Everyone is participating in what they can contribute to the project, with a vision of true decentralization. Furthermore, SANIN currently has individuals helping the project grow in several aspects such as: Medium Articles Influencers Additional development Raid leaders Hype members Voice Chat mods The Future of SANIN The future of SANIN will be decided by the community. SANIN held a fair launch that commenced on April 5th, 2022. SANIN collected more than 1000 holders in the first week and is growing steadily. SANIN's current and primary goal is to become a true decentralized community token. To achieve this, the project came up with a plan: On April 30th, an announcement was made that DeFi features will be added to SANIN. SANIN as True De-FI In collaboration with the dev team, Sanin is ready to present its own farming/staking platform in the middle of June. Combined with the fact that $SANI doesn't have its own funds, even for marketing, means it is a community-based project. In addition to the farming/Stacking platform, Sanin will receive its own DAO, where the community will be able to officially make a decision on the further development of the project. How to become part of the SANIN revolution? 1) Buy and hold SANI (https://app.uniswap.org/#/swap?outputCurrency=0x4521c9ad6a3d4230803ab752ed238be11f8b342f&chain=mainnet). 2) Join the community on Telegram and be part of the revolution https://t.me/SANININU. "Decentralization is looking within oneself, detaching oneself from one's individuality to become a collective, and acquiring that strength necessary to realize any kind of dream." - (Quote from Founder/CEO SANIN INU) Sanin Inu Contract: 0x4521C9aD6A3D4230803aB752Ed238BE11F8B342F Tokenomics: 1T fixed total supply 0% buy/sale tax 100% LP tokens burned No presale, no team tokens Contract renounced OFFICIAL LINKS Website: http://sanininu.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/sanininu Telegram: https://t.me/SANININU Discord: https://discord.gg/VsEaEADqdP Whitepaper: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Qrs9auJHsLByeJxBmGwTSzClDNo_jWgE/view Renounced: https://etherscan.io/tx/0x8ccae6efcc78dc8eb3883c8bbd4cc34e7df244fe1fef592696c214c8584b37ca Liquidity Burned: https://etherscan.io/tx/0xdbf901c59f139fd6a6e3a8024c3aa9a1a72b72be680985af592d45c09e6edc5c 100/100 on Token Sniffer: https://tokensniffer.com/token/0x4521c9ad6a3d4230803ab752ed238be11f8b342f Media Details: SANIN INU Miho Oson 202-555-0179 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125594 On the day he spoke with an FBI official, the attorney who launched an inquiry into since-debunked claims of a hidden back channel between Donald Trump and a Russian bank billed Hillary Clinton's campaign. The expense records of attorney Michael Sussman were entered into evidence in court Tuesday before the prosecution rested its case against the lawyer, who is on trial for lying to the FBI during the meeting. Sussmann Billed Clinton Campaign For Work on 'Confidential Project' Prosecutors presented Michael Sussmann's billing records to the jury on Wednesday, claiming they show he charged the Hillary Clinton campaign for a meeting with then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in which he shared allegations of a covert communications channel between the Trump Organization and Russia's Alfa Bank. Kori Arsenault, a paralegal with Special Counsel John Durham's office, was the prosecution's final witness. Arsenault worked on several of the government's exhibits and assisted the jurors in understanding the documents. On Wednesday morning, the prosecution disclosed the Perkins Coie document, alleging it shows the law firm billed "Hillary for America" for the meeting Sussmann held with Baker at FBI headquarters on September 19, 2016. The Clinton campaign is mentioned as the customer on the bill, which is likewise dated September 19, 2016, the duration is recorded as 3.3 hours, and the memo states: work and discussions related confidential project. Other evidence indicated Sussmann charged around $800 per hour, according to Fox News. The defense looks to be close to deciding whether or not to summon Sussmann to testify in his defense. His counsel has not stated publicly if he intends to testify. Closing arguments in the case are expected before the end of the week. Durham prosecutors wrapped up their case on Wednesday by reciting Sussmann's testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in December 2017, in which he stated that his meeting with the FBI in September 2016 and another meeting with the CIA in February 2017 were both for a client. The FBI decided that the data Sussmann gave up did not truly demonstrate a hidden communications channel, but was most likely the result of "spam" marketing emails. Sussmann's defense questioned Tashina Gauhar and Mary McCord, two former Justice Department attorneys who attended a March 2017 conference when the Alfa-Bank charges were discussed after Durham's team rested their case. Both stated that they had no recall of the session. Former FBI agent Tom Grasso testified before the jury, saying Joffe had done a good job assisting the government with a previous cyber probe and was unlikely to have knowingly provided the FBI false information. Judge Christopher Cooper, an Obama Administration appointment, removed from evidence an exhibit provided by prosecutors on Tuesday in which Joffe texted fellow tech specialists asking if the Trump-related charges would be "plausible" to a non-expert. An FBI agent testified on the stand that the email appeared to suggest an attempt to spread false allegations, but Cooper said the email was inadmissible because Joffe had asserted his Fifth Amendment right not to testify and, despite earlier plans, none of the email's recipients were called by the prosecution, as per Politico. Read Also: Pfizer CEO Downplays Monkeypox, Says Disease 'Very Difficult' To Become Pandemic Sussmann Won't Take a Stand in Court Before his attorneys rested their case, Hillary Clinton's longtime attorney declined to testify in his defense. Sussman said he was still debating whether to testify in his single-count trial in federal court in Washington, DC, which has lasted over two weeks. Sussmann told James Baker in a text message the night before the meeting that he was going not on behalf of any client or firm, but as a concerned citizen looking to assist the Bureau. Throughout the trial, prosecutors have called a flurry of witnesses in an attempt to establish that Sussmann was working on behalf of his clients at the meeting - and that it was part of a bigger scheme by the Clinton campaign to use the FBI to create an October surprise ahead of the 2016 election. Baker, when called by prosecutors, said that Sussmann assured him towards the outset of their meeting that he was not there on behalf of any client. Sussmann's defense team has worked hard to emphasize memory gaps and other errors made by the prosecution's witnesses, notably Baker. Attorney Michael Bosworth said in his opening remarks that Baker's recall of the Sept. 19, 2016, discussion with Sussmann was as clear as mud. In his cross-examination of Baker, defense attorney Sean Berkowitz emphasized inconsistencies in statements given to investigators about the encounter by the FBI's former top counsel in the years preceding up to the trial, New York Post reported. Related Article: Conspiracy Theory Supporter Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Wins Georgia GOP Primary @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. DGAP Voting Rights Announcement: QIAGEN N.V. QIAGEN N.V.: Release according to Article 40, Section 1 of the WpHG [the German Securities Trading Act] with the objective of Europe-wide distribution 27.05.2022 / 22:03 Dissemination of a Voting Rights Announcement transmitted by DGAP - a service of EQS Group AG. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement. The AFM (the Netherlands Authority For the Financial Markets has informed us on May 24, 2022 that a notification related to our institution has been released by the AFM. The following notification has been disclosed in the relevant register on the AFM website: Date of transaction: 19 may 2022 Person obliged to notify: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., The Issuing institution: Qiagen N.V. Registration Chamber of Commerce: 12036979 Place of residence: VENLO Distribution in numbers Type of share Number of shares Number of voting rights Capital interest Voting rights Manner of disposal Settlement Ordinary share 920.278,00 920.278,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs International Physical Delivery Convertible bond 323.592,00 323.592,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs International Physical Delivery Ordinary share 689.615,00 689.615,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC Physical Delivery Option 3.863.782,00 3.863.782,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC Physical Delivery Swap 24.116,00 24.116,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC In cash Ordinary share 4.999,00 4.999,00 Real Real Indirectly - United Capital Financial Advisers, LLC Physical Delivery Ordinary share 42,00 42,00 Real Real Indirectly - Folio Investments Inc. Physical Delivery Swap 220.077,00 220.077,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs International In cash Ordinary share 11,00 11,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE Physical Delivery Warrant 40.038,00 40.038,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE In cash Ordinary share 17.146,00 17.146,00 Real Real Indirectly - The Goldman Sachs Trust Company of Delaware Physical Delivery Ordinary share 152.476,00 152.476,00 Real Real Indirectly - Goldman Sachs International Physical Delivery Ordinary share 68.025,00 68.025,00 Real Real Indirectly - Goldman Sachs Bank Europe SE Physical Delivery Call-option 10.700,00 10.700,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC Physical Delivery Ordinary share 26.853,00 26.853,00 Real Real Indirectly - NN Investment Partners Holdings N.V. Physical Delivery Convertible bond 520.202,00 520.202,00 Potential Potential Indirectly - NN Investment Partners Holdings N.V. Physical Delivery Distribution in percentages Type Total holding Directly real Directly potential Indirectly real Indirectly potential Capital interest 2,98 % 0,00% 0,00% 0,12% 2,86% Voting rights 2,98 % 0,00% 0,00% 0,12% 2,86% QIAGEN N.V. is not responsible for the accuracy and correctness of the notification above. The content has been taken from the relevant register of the AFM: https://www.afm.nl/en/professionals/registers/meldingenregisters/substantiele-deelnemingen/details?id=124928 27.05.2022 The DGAP Distribution Services include Regulatory Announcements, Financial/Corporate News and Press Releases. Archive at www.dgap.de Quarterly Revenue And Net Loss In Line With Prior Year Year To Date Revenue Of $1.84 Million Up 211 Percent As Compared To Prior Year ALGONA, IA / ACCESSWIRE / May 27, 2022 / American Power Group Corporation ("APG") (OTC PINK:APGI) announced the unaudited results for the three and six months ended March 31, 2022. Chuck Coppa, APG's CEO/CFO stated, "Unaudited net sales for the three and six months ended March 31, 2022, were approximately $315,000 and $1.84 million, respectively as compared to approximately $357,000 and $591,000 for the three and six months ended March 31, 2021, respectively. Our penetration into the oil/gas fracking market over the past two years has been the primary revenue driver with over 240 engines converted during this period. The increase in year-to-date revenue is attributable primarily to the shipment of a $1.4 million follow-on order from our lead dealer/installer during the December 2021 quarter. We currently have $5+ million of outstanding stationary conversion quotes spread among several of our dealers/installers." Mr. Coppa added, "Our unaudited net loss after income taxes was approximately $310,000 for each of the three months ended March 31, 2022 and the three months ended March 31, 2021, respectively. Our unaudited net income after income taxes for the six months ended March 31, 2022 was approximately $348,000 as compared to an unaudited net loss after income taxes of approximately $588,000 for the six months ended March 31, 2021. During the six months ended March 31, 2022 and 2021, we recognized other income of approximately $158,000 and $154,000, respectively, associated with the forgiveness of our Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program loans. Our ongoing efforts to reduce fixed operating costs as well as reduced long-term debt have positively impacted our net results with our year-to-date interest expense down 53 percent to approximately $108,000 as compared to $204,000 in the prior year-to-date period." Mr. Coppa added, "In March 2022, we closed the sale of approximately 98.4 million of unregistered shares of common stock valued at approximately $2.46 million to existing shareholders, including $2.2 million purchased by entities associated with or controlled by our Chairman. We are utilizing a portion of the proceeds to accelerate our V6000 Low-Carbon Dual Fuel solution awareness campaign including trade show participation, demo truck program expansion, website upgrade as well as other visibility initiatives intended to underscore the immediate economic and environmental benefits of using our V6000 Low-Carbon Dual Fuel solution." About American Power Group Corporation ( www.americanpowergroupinc.com ) American Power Group's subsidiary, American Power Group Inc., provides cost-effective dual fuel engine solutions to help accelerate an alternative fuel low-carbon future. Our patented Turbocharged Natural Gas Dual Fuel Conversion Technology is a unique hardware and software solution that can enable existing high-horsepower vehicular and stationary diesel engines to safely displace a significant percentage of diesel with various forms of clean burning natural gas, including low-carbon and negative-carbon renewable natural gas (RNG), captured flare-stack methane gas, conditioned well-head gas, bio-methane gas, compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquid natural gas (LNG). APG's dual fuel solution provides users with a proven technology to meet their Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance ("ESG") objectives by lowering criteria pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements and Opinions The matters described herein contain forward-looking statements and opinions, including, but not limited to, statements relating to outstanding dual fuel conversion quotes for $5+ million and our ability to turn these quotes into actual orders. These forward-looking statements and opinions are neither promises nor guarantees but involve risks and uncertainties that may individually or mutually impact the matters herein, and cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially from such forward-looking statements and impact the matters herein, and cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially from such forward-looking statements and opinions. These risk factors include, but are not limited to, the fact that we may not be able to convert the $5+ million of quotes into actual orders; the fact our dual fuel conversion business has lost money in prior fiscal years and the risk that we may require additional financing to grow our business; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, distribute and install our products; difficulties or delays in developing or introducing new products and keeping them on the market; lack of product demand and market acceptance for current or future products; adverse events or economic conditions; pricing and other competitive pressures; dependence on governmental regulations with respect to emissions, including whether EPA approval will be obtained for future products and additional applications; the risk that we may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights; factors affecting the Company's future income and resulting ability to utilize its NOLs; the fact that our stock is thinly traded and our stock price may be volatile; and the fact that the exercise of stock options and warrants will cause dilution to our shareholders. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and opinions, which speak only as of the date hereof. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to release publicly the result of any revisions to these forward-looking statements and opinions that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. Investor Relations Contact: Chuck Coppa, CEO/CFO American Power Group Corporation 781-224-2411 ccoppa@apgdualfuel.com SOURCE: American Power Group Corporation View source version on accesswire.com:https://www.accesswire.com/703016/American-Power-Group-Announces-Unaudited-Results-For-Q2-Fiscal-2022 Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - PreveCeutical Medical Inc. (CSE: PREV) (OTCQB: PRVCF) (FSE: 18H) (the "Company" or "PreveCeutical"), announces the resignation of Mr. Anderson and Mr. Lotz and the appointment of Dr. Linnea Olofsson to the Company's board of directors (the "Board"). Resignation of Directors Mr. Keith Anderson and Mr. Mark Lotz will be stepping down as directors of the Company effective May 31, 2022, to allow them more time to focus on their business. Appointment of Director The Company is pleased to appoint Dr. Olofsson to the Board, effective June 1, 2022. Dr. Olofsson will also be a member of the Board's audit committee and the corporate governance and nominating committee. Dr. Olofsson is a business entrepreneur with a background in development, clinical trials, and commercialization. PreveCeutical has retained the services of Empire Relations Group effective June 1, 2022, for three months, at a fee of US$2,500 per month, to assist with investor awareness. Stephen Van Deventer, PreveCeutical's Chief Executive Officer, commented, "We thank Mr. Anderson and Mr. Lotz for their contribution to the Company and wish them all the best. We are very pleased to have Dr. Olofsson join the Board. Dr. Olofsson's background, skillset, and experience will be very valuable to the Company." About PreveCeutical PreveCeutical is a health sciences company that develops innovative options for preventive and curative therapies utilizing organic and nature identical products. The Company aims to be a leader in the preventive health sciences sector. With the completion of three of its research programs, the Company is actively working on the development, clinical trials, and commercialization of its products; and has filed a number of provisional patent applications to protect the intellectual property from its research programs. For more information about PreveCeutical, please visit our website www.PreveCeutical.com or follow us on Twitter and Facebook. On behalf of the Board of Directors of PreveCeutical Stephen Van Deventer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer For further information, please contact: Stephen Van Deventer: +1 604 306 9669 Or Investor Relations ir@preveceutical.com Forward-Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively, "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian and U.S. securities legislation, including the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this news release that are not purely historical are forward-looking statements and include any statements regarding beliefs, plans, expectations and orientations regarding the future, including, without limitation, the continued research interests of PreveCeutical, PreveCeutical's anticipated business plans, and its prospects of success in executing its proposed plans. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "will", "pro forma", "plans", "expects", "may", "should", "budget", "schedules", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", "believes", "potential", "proposes" or variations of such words including negative variations thereof and phrases that refer to certain actions, events or results that may, could, would, might or will occur or be taken or achieved. Forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions regarding PreveCeutical, including expected growth, results of operations, including PreveCeutical's research and development activities, performance, industry trends, growth opportunities, that PreveCeutical will be granted requisite expedited approvals by world health, retain and attract qualified research personnel and obtain and/or maintain the necessary intellectual property rights needed to carry out future business activities. Actual results could differ from those projected in any forward-looking statements due to numerous factors, including, risks and uncertainties relating to: complexities and delays in connection with research and development activities and the actual results of research and development activities; the ability of PreveCeutical to, among other things, protect its respective intellectual property, obtain any required governmental, regulatory or stock exchange approvals, permits, consents or authorizations required, including Canadian Securities Exchange acceptance of any planned future activities and obtaining expedited requisite approvals from world health agencies; and the ability of PreveCeutical to commercialize products, pursue business partnerships, complete their research programs as planned, and obtain the financing required to carry out their planned future activities. Other factors such as general economic, market or business conditions or changes in laws, regulations and policies affecting the biotechnology or pharmaceutical industry may also adversely affect the future results or performance of PreveCeutical. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and, unless required by applicable law, PreveCeutical assumes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements or to update the reasons why actual results could differ from those projected in these forward-looking statements. Although PreveCeutical believes that the statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, and intentions contained in this news release are reasonable, there can be no assurance that those statements, beliefs, plans, expectations, or intentions will prove to be accurate. Readers should consider all of the information set forth herein and should also refer to other periodic reports provided by PreveCeutical from time-to-time. These reports and PreveCeutical's filings are available at www.sedar.com. Neither the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE or CNSX Markets), its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the CSE), nor any other regulatory authority accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. Any link in this press release to external information or other resources is provided for reference only, and such information or resources might change from time to time, and may include forward-looking statements as described above, and are subject to the above disclaimers under this heading forward-looking statements. Readers 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. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125651 Istanbul, Turkey--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Istanbul-based hair transplant, dental and aesthetic surgery clinic EMPCLINICS is excited to introduce its new location. Continuing its growth in the health sector, EMPCLINICS expanded to the European continent by continuing its services in the Netherlands. With its new headquarters in Amsterdam, the firm has made healthcare services accessible in the Europe region as well. Chairman of the Board of EMPCLINICS To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8694/125640_4915f009b44849dc_001full.jpg "We are an organization that has been performing hair transplantation since 2008, dental and aesthetic surgery since 2015. We have decided to carry the experience that we have gained from more than 50 thousand patients from 82 different countries that we have treated so far, outside of Turkey. One of the main reasons for our decision was the request of patients who could not come to Turkey for treatment. We had to refuse such requests of patients who could not spare time for travel due to workload. We were upset that we could not meet this need of patients. We decided to open up to the Dutch market both to respond to this demand and to take our brand to a more global level." - Yucel Muratoglu, Chairman of the Board of EMPCLINICS EMPCLINICS brand continues its success from Istanbul to Amsterdam EMPCLINICS, which won 3 awards at the 6th Turkey Brand Summit held this year, sets an example of a successful health tourism clinic. It wants to continue the same success in its new headquarters in Europe. Murat Yuceloglu and his team To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8694/125640_4915f009b44849dc_002full.jpg The company, which has been preparing for a long time for the opening of the new clinic in Amsterdam, has completed the preparations and finally made its new investment. Yucel Muratoglu, Chairman of the Board of EMPCLINICS, who was awarded the Young Businessman of the Year Award, said the following about the new clinic: "Architects worked with Feng-Shui experts during the design phase of our new clinic, where we have specialist physicians and cutting-edge technology equipment. A design was made in accordance with the energy vibration and frequency laws of the universe. Everything from the music played in the clinic to the smells in the environment was designed to increase the energy of the person who will visit the clinic." - Yucel Muratoglu, Chairman of EMPCLINICS Murat Yuceloglu and his award To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8694/125640_4915f009b44849dc_003full.jpg The Netherlands, one of the founding members of the European Union, is one of the countries with a high level of prosperity and purchasing power. It creates an important opportunity for EMPCLINICS to expand its export volume in the European market. The company aims to increase its export volume in the Europe region with its new headquarters in Amsterdam, located in Western Europe. EMPCLINICS plans to open its centers in Germany, Poland, and America in 2023. Since the day it was founded, the company aims to spread its success in Turkey first to Europe and then to other continents. EMPCLINICS To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8694/125640_4915f009b44849dc_004full.jpg Follow EMPCLINICS on Instagram, Facebook and Youtube For more information please visit the website or contact us directly : Contact: Yucel Muratoglu, EMPCLINICS COB (Chairman of the Board) Website: https://empclinics.com/ Email: bilgi@emphair.com Phone: +90 541 345 07 22 To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125640 Global telecom security start-up's ground-breaking ACE automated breach and attack platform takes first place in innovation category ROME, May 27, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- SecurityGen, the global start-up provider of security solutions and service for the telecoms industry has won the Vendor Innovation Award at this year's Telecoms World Middle East Awards. SecurityGen took home the award for its new ACE automated breach and attack simulation platform for mobile networks. SecurityGen was one of nine vendors shortlisted in the "Innovation Award - Vendor" category at this year's awards, which took place during the Telecoms World Middle East conference in Dubai. The shortlist included submissions from a range of blue-chip players, scale-ups and start-ups - including Netcracker, Cisco, Syniverse, Arimac Lanka Pvt, Enea Aptilo, STC Solutions, Zextras, and Evina. Commenting on this latest award win, SecurityGen co-founder and CEO Amit Nath said, "The SecurityGen team is thrilled to win this award. We'd like to congratulate our fellow shortlisted nominees and also thank the judges for recognising, firstly, the hard work that has gone into creating the new ACE platform: and secondly, its game-changing impact on securing mobile networks for operators and their subscribers." 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 hackers, fraudsters and other malefactors. Nath continued, "As mobile networks become more complex and dynamic, new and serious security challenges have emerged for operators. Current preventative security measures are simply not enough to adequately protect networks from malicious external attack. ACE gives mobile operators the network-wide perspective, expert insight, and research-based recommendations they need to defend their networks and protect their subscribers effectively on an ongoing basis." Earlier this month, SecurityGen earned second place in the ROCCO Research Vendor Innovators Awards for its ACE offering, which took place at the ROCCO Genesis innovation conference in Malaga, Spain. The Telecom World Middle East Awards are an annual awards programme that identifies, celebrates and rewards innovation and success in the telecoms sector across the Middle East, Central and South Asia and Africa. About SecurityGen Founded in 2022, SecurityGen is a global start-up focused on telecom security. We deliver a solid security foundation to drive secure telco digital transformations and ensure next-gen enterprise intelligent connectivity. Our extensive product and service portfolio provides complete protection against existing and advanced telecom security threats. Led by a group of global visionary leaders, security experts, and research analysts with a proven track record of innovation and execution, SecurityGen is headquartered in Rome and has a strong presence across Europe, Asia, LATAM, and the Middle East. www.secgen.com Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1827986/SecurityGen_Telecoms_World_Award_Win.jpg David Stewart has been appointed CEO of the Icelandic travel technology company Travelshift, which operates Guide to Europe. Prior to joining Travelshift Dave was Global Head of Private Equity at State Street Global Advisors, the world's fourth-largest asset management company. "After sitting on the board of Travelshift through the pandemic and seeing how the company managed to flourish despite difficult circumstances, I became convinced that this company had created something unique. When the opportunity arose to join the group, it was impossible not to jump," said Stewart. "I am extremely excited about the technology that Travelshift has developed and I have faith that it will completely change the way people travel, not only in Iceland but all over the world ". Dave will move to Iceland from the United States with his wife in the coming weeks. He joins a group of new executives who have recently joined Travelshift, including Dr. Jakob Asmundsson, as CFO, who previously managed Straumur Investment Bank and Rapyd Europe. In addition, Harshal Chaudhari, Chief Investment Officer of General Electric Pension Trust, was recently appointed Chairman of the Board. Travelshift was founded in 2012 and operates marketplaces used by more than 5000 suppliers receiving more than 2.5 million user visits every month. View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220525005728/en/ Contacts: Media contact Jakob Asmundsson jakob@travelshift.com Jeremy McGilvrey agency announces how the rapid acceleration of AI and data science has transformed online marketing and how the agency actively uses it for their clients Houston, Texas--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - Jeremy McGilvrey, a Houston-based digital marketing agency announces that what was once thought to be science fiction when it comes to AI in lead generation, marketing and digital presence has become science fact. Houston-based CRO agency Jeremy McGilvrey To view an enhanced version of this graphic, please visit: https://orders.newsfilecorp.com/files/8843/124893_Houston-Based%20CRO%20Agency%20Jeremy%20McGilvrey.jpg Jeremy McGilvrey agency believes the future isn't coming, it's here. Specifically, the digital marketing agency argues that advancements in AI and data science under the context of conversion rate optimization, (known as CRO) have been disrupted for over a decade due to the pandemic and an ever-increasing demand for digital transformation. Today, Jeremy McGilvrey agency incorporates this new era of science fact, including advanced metrics, tracking, AI and machine learning into their rigorous process for their clients - as they transform their digital presence, noting: "The typical business owner views their website or sales funnel as a static tool. What they don't understand is for the select few that do it right, there is a vast amount of data engineering embedded into every button, link, and text that has been reverse engineered to capture attention, generate trust, and compel behavior. Those who don't get ahead of this now will pay the ultimate price of reduced market share, poor client acquisition, and diminishing bottom lines." Jeremy McGilvrey agency believes the future acceleration of these tools will continue to reward business owners and marketers who not only have access to rich data - but are able to deploy it strategically across their entire business. The benefits, to name a few, include traffic optimization, customer and target market segmentation, advanced lead scoring, and instantaneous interactions based on insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and even future modeling. An example of the digital marketing agency's commitment to staying ahead of the AI and data science curve comes from the development of their proprietary tool, ROI Website and Sales Funnel Calculators. These cutting-edge calculators were developed with a team of high-profile data engineers to help business owners calculate the return on investment, or ROI, of various strategies. These include lead sales funnels, webinar sales funnels, free plus shipping sales funnels, and high ticket offers down to the last cent. Today, Jeremy McGilvrey Houston-based agency stands out with an incredible track record that includes an Ivy League Graduate certification from Harvard University, bestselling books, multiple awards, and being frequent contributors to notable publications such as Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc., and The Huffington Post. Jeremy McGilvrey agency believes the future will only get brighter due to the arrival and unique competitive advantages of advanced AI and data science for them and their worldwide clientele. To find Jeremy McGilvrey's digital marketing agency, visit: https://www.jeremymcgilvrey.com. Media Contact: Contact: Jeremy McGilvrey Address: 1 Riverway Ste. 1724, Houston, TX 77056 Phone: (800) 746-1522 Email: Hi@JeremyMcGilvrey.com Website/URL: https://www.jeremymcgilvrey.com To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/124893 London, United Kingdom and Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - May 27, 2022) - GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Limited (TSXV: BLOK) (OTC Pink: BLVDF) (FSE: BD4) (the "Company" or "GlobalBlock") is providing this bi-weekly default status report (the "Default Status Report") in accordance with National Policy 12- 203 Management Cease Trade Orders ("NP 12-203"). On April 29, 2022, the Company announced (the "Default Announcement") that, for reasons disclosed in the Default Announcement, the filing of the Company's audited annual financial statements, management's discussion and analysis, and related certifications for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021 (collectively, the "Annual Filings"), would not be completed by the prescribed deadline of May 2, 2022. As a result of this delay in filing the Annual Filings, the Company's principal regulator, British Columbia Securities Commission, granted a management cease trade order (the "MCTO") to the Company. The MCTO prohibits all trading by the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Financial Officer of the Company, and such other directors, officers and persons as determined by the applicable regulatory authorities, in securities of the Company until the MCTO is revoked. The Company's board of directors and management confirm that they are working expeditiously to meet the Company's obligations relating to the filing of the Annual Filings, with the goal of filing by May 31, 2022. While the Company previously indicated that its intention was to file the Annual Filings by May 27, 2022, additional time is required to permit the Company's auditors to complete its review and enquiries in connection with the audit of the Annual Filings. Pursuant to the provisions of the alternative information guidelines specified by NP 12-203, the Company reports that since the Default Announcement, except as stated in this Default Status Report, there have not been any changes to the information contained therein that would reasonably be expected to be material to an investor; nor any failure by the Company to fulfil its intentions as stated therein with respect to satisfying the provisions of the alternative information guidelines, and there are no additional defaults or anticipated defaults subsequent to the disclosure therein, other than the delay in filing the Annual Filings. Further, other than as disclosed in Company press releases and other public disclosure, as applicable, there is no additional material information respecting the Company and its affairs that have not been generally disclosed and there are no insolvency proceedings against the Company as of the date of this Default Status Report. Until the Annual Filings have been filed, the Company intends to continue to satisfy the provisions of the alternative information guidelines specified by NP 12-203 by issuing bi-weekly status default reports in the form of further press releases, which will also be filed on SEDAR. As a result of the delay in filing the Annual Filings, the Company also announces that the filing of its unaudited interim financial statements for the three-months ended March 31, 2022, the related management's discussion and analysis, and certificates of its CEO and CFO (collectively, the "Interim Filings"), are expected to be delayed beyond the filing deadline of May 30, 2022. The Company is working to complete the Interim Filings as soon as possible and expects the Interim Filings to be filed within at least five business days following the Company's filing of the Annual Filings. ABOUT THE COMPANY GlobalBlock Digital Asset Trading Limited is a publicly traded holding company (TSXV: BLOK) whose subsidiary, GlobalBlock Europe, UAB (https://www.globalblock.eu), is a European Union based digital asset broker that provides a personalised telephone brokerage service, trading platform and mobile app. Established by an experienced team of financial services professionals, GlobalBlock Europe, UAB acts as a trusted agent serving the digital asset needs of individuals, corporations, institutional financial firms and intermediaries, providing best execution trading and safe custody of digital assets. At this time, clients or customers based in Lithuania and the UK can be onboarded to its digital asset broker and trading services. For further information please contact the Company at: Rufus Round, CEO c/o 65 Curzon Street, London, W1J 8PE, United Kingdom Tel. +44 20 3307 3795 info@globalblockdigital.com https://globalblock.eu/ and http://www.globalblockdigital.com/ https://twitter.com/Globalblocknews https://www.linkedin.com/company/globalblock/ Media Contact Angus Campbell Citigate Dewe Rogerson Angus.Campbell@citigatedewerogerson.com CAUTIONARY NOTE REGARDING FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain information set out in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements or information. Forward looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "could", "might", "should", "believe" and similar expressions. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements in respect of among other things: the filing of the Annual Filings and the Interim Filings and the timing thereof; the continued satisfaction of the requirements of the MCTO; the continued and successful development of the businesses and technologies of each of the Company and its subsidiaries, the ability of the Company and its subsidiaries to obtain the applicable regulatory approvals to continue to conduct its business and other information concerning the intentions, plans, future action and future successes of the Company, and its businesses, technologies and products described herein. Forward-looking statements are based upon the opinions and expectations of management of the Company as at the effective date of such statements and, in certain cases, information provided or disseminated by third parties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in such forward-looking statements are based upon reasonable assumptions, and that information obtained from third party sources is reliable, they can give no assurance that those expectations will prove to have been correct. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements included in this document, as there can be no assurance that the plans, intentions or expectations upon which the forward-looking statements are based will occur. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve numerous assumptions, known and unknown risks and uncertainties that contribute to the possibility that the predictions, forecasts, projections and other forward-looking statements will not occur, which may cause actual results in future periods to differ materially from any estimates or projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, risk factors set forth in the Company's most recent management's discussion and analysis, a copy of which is filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com, and readers are cautioned that the risk factors disclosed therein should not be construed as exhaustive. These statements are made as at the date hereof and unless otherwise required by law, the Company does not intend, or assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Service Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/125666 Autocrypt, a Seoul, South Korea-based secure mobility and V2X communications company, raised USD25.5m in Series B funding, at post-money valuation of $120m. Backers included Korea Asset Investment Securities, Ulmus Investment, BSK Investment, Shinhan Venture Investments, JB Asset Management, STIC Ventures, Pathfinder H, and Hyundai Venture Investment. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations and its business reach. Led by CEO and co-Founder Daniel ES Kim, Autocrypt has developed automotive and smart mobility technologies for C-ITS and autonomous driving. Besides its advancements in V2X security, the company has also added Security Analyzer and Security Fuzzer to its in-vehicle systems security solution. Security Analyzer is an SBOM-based software vulnerability analysis platform, protecting vehicle software throughout its entire lifecycle, while Security Fuzzer effectively detects software flaws through smart fuzzing. Both tools are essential for todays increasingly software-oriented E/E architecture. The company is currently in talks with several public agencies across the globe to implement its V2X security and SCMS for C-ITS projects. It already manages security and PKI for all C-ITS projects on the Korean peninsula. Establishing subsidiaries in Toronto, Canada and Munich, Germany, Autocrypt is growing its foothold in Europe and North America, with plans to open its Singapore office later this year. FinSMEs 27/05/2022 Idiomatic, a Palo Alto, CA-based provider of a proven customer intelligence platform, raised USD4M in Seed funding. The round was led by Freestyle Capital with participation from Adobes Scott Belsky, Amazons Gert Lanckriet, Gaingels, Hyphen Capital, Xoogler Ventures, and others. The company intends to use the funds to further expand its solution offering and accelerate its reach in consumer internet, e-commerce, retail and technology markets. Led by Co-CEOs Kevin Yang and Chris Martinez, Idiomatic provides a contextual AI powered platform, which allows brands to make product and customer service decisions to improve the customer experience. The system categorizes and quantifies all types of customer feedback (including unstructured feedback from emails, chats, voice, reviews, and social media channels) in real time to allow companies to address customer experience and power business decisions. Thanks to data integrations with top customer support platforms such as Gladly, Salesforce and Zendesk, as well as cloud-based survey, review, and social media platforms, Idiomatic is able to consolidate data spread across many systems. It incorporates human context into its Natural Language Processing (NLP) models to deliver actionable insights to improve CX. The company serves top digital-native brands such as FabFitFun, Facebook, Instacart, Pinterest, Medium, Upwork, HubSpot and more. FinSMEs 27/05/2022 On Thursday, China and Russia rejected a US-led drive to impose more United Nations sanctions on North Korea in response to its continued ballistic missile tests, visibly dividing the UN Security Council for the first time since it began punishing Pyongyang in 2006. The remaining 13 council members unanimously supported a resolution sponsored by the United States that advocated a ban on tobacco and oil shipments to North Korea, whose leader, Kim Jong Un, is a chain smoker. It would also ban the Lazarus cyber organization, which the US believes is affiliated with North Korea. China, Russia Veto UN Resolution Against North Korea Following US President Joe Biden's travel to Asia, North Korea fired three missiles, one of which was regarded to be its greatest intercontinental ballistic missile. It was the latest in a series of Security Council-banned ballistic missile tests this year. In response to the council's silence on North Korea, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated earlier this month that it is time to stop granting implicit approval and begin taking action. The Security Council has consistently and unanimously increased sanctions to cut off money for Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs over the last 16 years. Sanctions in Pyongyang were last strengthened in 2017. Since China and Russia have advocated for sanctions relief on humanitarian grounds. While they have delayed some action behind closed doors in the Security Council's North Korea sanctions committee, the vote on the resolution on Thursday was the first time they have openly broken unanimity, as per NDTV. Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's UN Ambassador, told Reuters on Wednesday that he did not believe UN action would be particularly favorable to discussion with North Korea. China has also urged the US to take steps to convince Pyongyang to resume negotiations, which have been deadlocked since 2019, following three unsuccessful meetings between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump. Pyongyang has put testing on hold for several years but has recently restarted long-range ballistic missile launches. The US and South Korea have warned that North Korea is planning its sixth nuclear test, VOA News reported. Read Also: Trump's Losses in the Primaries Show His Dwindling Influence in the GOP as Pence Gains Traction in Georgia West's Sanctions Against North Korea Beijing also advised Washington that it should be more sincere and flexible in dealing with North Korea. Pyongyang launched three missiles Wednesday, defying UN sanctions on the country. One of the missiles is also believed to be capable of carrying nuclear bombs and delivering them to the United States. By prohibiting the import of foreign cigarette products, part of the restrictions will directly target heavy chain smoker Kim Jong-un. Furthermore, sanctions will be imposed on North Korea's short-range missile program, cruise missiles, and intercontinental ballistic missiles, as well as any other delivery mechanism capable of delivering nuclear weapons. A taxon North Korean crude oil imports are also being mooted, to reduce the permissible quotation from 4 million barrels per year to 3 million. Refined gasoline production will also be decreased from 500,000 barrels per year to 375,000 barrels per year. North Korea will be prohibited from exporting minerals, fuels, and other mineral products. The Lazarus Group, a North Korean hacker ring claimed to be headed by North Korean intelligence, would also have its assets blocked. Sanctions on the state would be disastrous for Kim Jong Un. The state has proclaimed the first officially declared cases of COVID-19, despite its refusal to accept international funding to deliver a vaccine campaign. To treat the infection, North Koreans were advised to consume hot tea and gargle with salt water, according to Express. Related Article: US Baby Formula Shortage: FDA Struggles To Explain Slow Response During Session in Congress @YouTube @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Law enforcement officers in Texas arrested four males, including two juveniles, concerning threats against a school in Donna City in Hidalgo County, local media reported. The threats came two days following a Texas School Shooting in Uvalde on Tuesday, where 19 elementary school students and two teachers were shot dead. The Donna Police Department arrested Nathaniel Seth Montelongo and Barbarito Pantoja, both 17 years old. They were slapped with charges of conspiracy to commit aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, according to a report from local news outlet Valley Central. Donna Police Chief Donald Crist said that they were able to stop "an act of physical violence and harm" to students. According to a report by Fox News, the students are being held on a $750,000 bond. Police said they nabbed more minor students in connection with the incident after getting information that the group was plotting an attack on an unnamed Donna school. Due to threats to the district and in light of the tragedy in Uvalde, the Donna ISD issued a statement on Thursday suspending classes. Gunman Was Not Confronted By Police Meanwhile, a Texas law enforcement official said that the 18-year-old gunman was not confronted by police before entering the school, contradicting earlier statements from authorities and raising new questions about the police response to the deadly Texas school shooting. As per a CNN report, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Regional Director Victor Escalon said the suspect "walked in unobstructed initially." "So from the grandmother's house to the (ditch), to the school, into the school, he was not confronted by anybody," he added. On Wednesday, a DPS representative stated a school resource officer "engaged" with the suspect before he entered the building. Salvador Ramos, the suspect, shot his grandmother and then crashed his truck in a ditch outside the school around 11:28 a.m., according to Escalon. Read Also: Israeli Forces Deliberately Shot Journalist Using Armor-Piercing Bullets, Palestinian Investigation Finds He got out of the truck and shot two guys across the street with a gun. According to Escalon, he then approached the school and fired multiple shots at the building before entering via an unlocked door around 11:40 a.m. Former principal Ross McGlothlin said that door is usually locked "unless you are leaving to go home on the school bus." The DPS official said here was no school resource officer on-site or available at the time. Inside, the suspect entered a classroom and fired more than 25 shots. Escalon's remarks occurred during a press conference that added to the chaos surrounding the chronology of Tuesday's Texas School shooting tragedy, which is regarded as the worst school shooting in the United States in nearly a decade, and it was at least the 30th shooting at a K-12 school in 2022. School, Police Response Now Crucial Part of Investigation According to law enforcement sources, as reported by ABC News, the response of school administrators and law enforcement is becoming a crucial focus in the continuing investigation into the Uvalde school massacre. It's unclear whether any students or teachers heard an official request for a lockdown once the gunman walked into the building, the sources said. Moreover, authorities are also looking into whether officers on the scene may have made further attempts to enter the school to stop the gunman's spree sooner. Responding police were confronted with gunfire and requested tactical squads with appropriate equipment to enter the classroom and neutralize the gunman, sources said. Related Article: Texas School Shooting: Suspect's Mom Says Son Wasn't 'Violent,' Grandpa Admits Shock Over 2 Rifles @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Chinese FM elaborates on principles for China-Solomon Islands security cooperation Xinhua) 11:39, May 27, 2022 Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) holds talks with Solomon Islands' Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele in Honiara, Solomon Islands, May 26, 2022. (Xinhua) HONIARA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday elaborated on the principles of promoting the security cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands. Wang expounded on three principles of promoting the bilateral security cooperation at a joint press conference with Solomon Islands' Foreign Minister Jeremiah Manele. The inter-governmental framework agreement on security cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands, which was signed earlier this year, is intended to help enhance the policing capacity of the Solomon Islands for better maintaining its law and order, as well as protecting the safety of Chinese nationals and institutions there, Wang noted. The bilateral agreement represents the cooperation between sovereign states, and it is logical, reasonable and lawful, with everything going in the open, Wang said. Firstly, Wang said, promoting bilateral security cooperation is based on fully respecting the sovereignty of the Solomon Islands. The cooperation is based on the needs and requirements of the Solomon Islands, with its approval as the prerequisite and equal consultation as the foundation, Wang said. Forcing deals, interfering in the internal affairs of other countries or harming the interests of other countries is never part of China's diplomatic policy, nor the behavioral style of the Chinese people, Wang added. Secondly, the bilateral security cooperation is to help the Pacific island nation safeguard its social stability, Wang said. The cooperation includes assisting the Solomon Islands in maintaining its social order, protecting lives and property, carrying out humanitarian assistance and responding to natural disasters in accordance with the law and at its request, Wang said. The purpose is to help the Solomon Islands strengthen its policing capacity building, make up for security governance deficit and maintain long-term stability in the country, he said. Wang stressed that the security cooperation between the two countries is open and aboveboard. It is not imposed on others, nor targeted at any third party, and China has no intention of establishing a military base in the Solomon Islands. Thirdly, China's security cooperation with the Solomon Islands will proceed in parallel with existing regional security cooperation arrangements, Wang said. China supports Pacific island countries in strengthening security cooperation and jointly addressing regional security challenges, and roots for existing regional security cooperation arrangements, Wang said. At the same time, China's security cooperation with the Solomon Islands shares the same goals and interests and is complementary with the existing arrangements in the region, and serves the common interests of the Solomon Islands and the South Pacific region. Wang stressed that the Pacific island countries are all independent sovereign states, not anyone's "backyard". They all have the right to choose for themselves instead of becoming pawns in someone else's games. All the sinister agenda to smear the normal security cooperation between China and the Solomon Islands will be exposed, Wang said, adding that no interference or sabotage will succeed. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) China aims to expand its influence in the South Pacific amid reports that it reached out to the Solomon Islands and nine other island nations in the region with a sweeping security proposal that could give it a presence much nearer Hawaii, Australia, and New Zealand. The alleged move would also place Beijing on the doorstep of the strategic American territory of Guam. Chinese authorities have insisted that its security proposals are targeted at regional stability and economic growth, but experts and governments have expressed concern that beneath the surface, it is a bold attempt to expand its reach in a strategically critical region. China's New Security Proposal The president of Micronesia, David Panuelo, whose nation is of the regions targeted by China, warned the others against signing on the security proposal. He said it "threatens to bring a new Cold War at best, and a world war at worst." In a letter, Panuelo warned that aside from the impacts on sovereignty, the expansion would increase the chances of China getting into conflict with Australia, Japan, the United States, and New Zealand on the day when Beijing decides to invade the self-governing island nation of Taiwan, as per the Associated Press. The Micronesia leader also noted that China did not rule out using brute force to take the island nation, which it repeatedly claimed was part of its territory despite never actually being in control of it. A proposal draft showed that Beijing wants to train Pacific police officers, team up on "traditional and non-traditional security," and expand law enforcement cooperation. Read Also: China, Russia Join Force To Block U.S. Efforts To Impose New Sanctions Against North Korea Furthermore, the Asian superpower also wants to jointly develop a marine plan for fisheries and raises the possibility of free trade with the Pacific nations. China is believed to be targeting the Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Cook Islands, Niue, and Micronesia but excludes the Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, and Tuvalu, all of which recognize Taiwan as a country. According to CNN, the draft proposal is expected to be discussed at the second China-Pacific Island Countries Foreign Ministers' Meeting that will be held in Fiji next week. The talks are part of a 10-day regional diplomatic tour by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Expanding Influence in the South Pacific The Chinese official's tour began on Thursday when he visited the Solomon Islands and will bring the minister to Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, and East Timor. It is not immediately clear whether or not the proposed deal would gain comprehensive support among Pacific Island nations that have relations with Beijing. However, if accepted, the proposal would mark a significant advance in Beijing's connection to the region, which holds geo-strategic importance in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. and Australia are wary of China, which has grown increasingly assertive in the South China Sea, extending its reach further into Pacific waters. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price, while in Washington, expressed his concerns on Wednesday about China's intentions with the new security proposal. He said that Beijing might use the proposed deal to take advantage of the islands and destabilize the region, CNBC reported. Related Article: China Sends Strong Warning to Joe Biden Over Controversial Taiwan Remarks: "Follow the One China Principle" @ 2022 HNGN, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Adobe, wanting to deal with the hard nature of hybrid working, partnered with Microsoft to help hybrid workers. The software giants revealed the new integrations between some of its best known tools at the Microsoft Build 2022. The new integration include Microsoft Teams, Power Automate, Frame.io, and Adobe's own PDF editors. As Microsoft and Adobe have already partnered in the field of business software to deliver "the most modern work experience, centered on technology that enhances teamwork, collaboration, and efficiencies," the reveal further increases the ties between the two companies, as per TechRadar. The tech giants now hope to create "all-in-one, digital experiences to where people already work, like Microsoft." What the Adobe-Microsoft Partnership Offers Acrobat + Teams As promised by Adobe, it is even easier to read, annotate, convert, and sign Acrobat documents on Microsoft Teams. Single Sign-On, a secure identity management tool, was also added by Acrobat for Teams. They also introduced a personalized homepage for easy file access. These features are now also available in Acrobat Sign for Teams. This let users quickly sign documents via a Teams notification without disrupting their workflow. Frame.io + Live Share Since Adobe bought the business last year, the video review and online collaboration tool, Frame.io, has seen plenty of integrations. The preview shows how Frame.io can sync and streamline the review of video edits within a Microsoft app. Acrobat + Purview Information Protection With sensitive data flowing across all businesses, it is imperative to stay compliant in the face of global data protection laws like GDPR and CCPA. Microsoft's Purview Information Protection already allows businesses to track and secure confidential information. In order for authorized users to manage and approve the contents, Adobe Acrobat now lets you easily add Purview Information Protection to PDFs,. Adobe + Power Automate According to TechRadar, the document management software house announced two integrations with Power Automate - Microsoft's automation system for switching out manual processes. Now directly available in Acrobat Sign, Power Automate will let you automate workflows and audit e-signatures. On the other hand, Adobe Experience Manager Forms, will now connect with Power Automate to automatically complete actions. Sign + Search There will be no need to switch between apps to check signature statuses. Saving time across departments and work processes, you will now be able to search Microsoft 365 for agreement tasks. Read Also: Microsoft's Windows 10 Will Run On Qualcomm Processor Adobe, Microsoft Now Allow Seamless Roll-out of Integrations IT teams can now package Acrobat and Acrobat Sign add-ins to Microsoft's office software to allow seamless roll-out of these new integrations. These include Word and Outlook. Ashley Still, Adobe's SVP of Digital Media, said: "Through the deeper integrations between Adobe and Microsoft that we've announced today, we continue to innovate to elevate today's agile and rapidly evolving workforce." According to Charles Lamanna, Corporate VP, Business Apps & Platform at Microsoft, he believed that the two companies are "delivering advanced workflow capabilities through Power Automate and Acrobat Sign that will give our joint customers a better way to get things done." According to TechRadar, Adobe is promising more to come, including FedRAMP Moderate authorization for government officials, which "extends e-signatures to highly sensitive processes." Related Article: Microsoft Office Updates Let You Multitask On iPad After Broadcom acquired VMware for $61 billion, "rapid transition from perpetual licenses to subscriptions" will follow. On Thursday's Broadcom earnings call, Tom Krause, president of the Broadcom Software Group, announced that rapid transition from perpetual licenses to subscriptions is expected to happen soon. According to The Register, Krause was asked how the semiconductor giant plans to deliver on its guidance that VMware will add approximately $8.5 billion of pro forma EBITDA to Broadcom within three years of the deal closing, a pretty significant growth given VMware currently produces about $4.7 billion. He said that subscriptions was the answer. Broadcom To Invest in VMware's Key Product Portfolio Krause said that he is pleased to be acquiring a sales organization and channel relationships within the software game. He said that Broadcom is planning to invest in VMware's key product portfolio. Broadcom's narrow sales efforts reflect its belief that CA Technologies does best when focused on Global 500 companies through direct relationships. Broadcom plans to nurture VMware's 300,000-plus customer base, according to Krause and Broadcom CEO Hock Tan. This move to subscription-based licensing will apparently happen over the course of the next few years. "We will make sure they are well supported. This is a business base that we will grow." Tan said. Channel partners will apparently get the job as Tan said that they don't want to walk away from the channel and they want to embrace it. "Whether it's perpetual or subscription, frankly, it's the same. We are, in a sense, restructuring the contracts from perpetual to subscription," Tan further added. According to the Register, due to the licensing shift, VMware may also experience slower growth in the short term. With R&D to benefit as a result, Krause said Broadcom is willing to live with lower margins for VMware than it expects from CA and Symantec. He pledged ongoing investment and innovation for VMware's core infrastructure products, naming vSphere, VSAN, vRealize and NSX as the subjects of ongoing love and attention, as per The Register report. Read Also: iPhone 13 Hit with Major Problem: Massive Shortage Coming! What Acquiring VMware Means for Broadcom According to Tan, buying VMware will mean Broadcom gains another thousand or so big customers to work with. He added that the virtualization giant will allow Broadcom to help users manage application lifecycles from development to infinity and beyond, The Register reported. Tan expects VMware's portfolio to help companies with complex IT fleets to modernize apps and consider public cloud migrations more easily in the shorter term. However, since Broadcom's big customers are mostly highly regulated entities, he feels that private cloud will remain a big opportunity for VMware. The CEO also suggested that CA Technologies' developer tools will complement VMware's Tanzu portfolio. However, Michael Warrilow, Gartner research vice president for infrastructure software, who covers VMware, told The Register that he advised customers to "proceed cautiously." Because Broadcom has increased bills for acquired companies' wares in the past Warrilow said customers need to get commitments on VMware's prices. He also advised VMware customers to start contingency planning. Moreover, Warrolow suggested that until Broadcom's intentions can be better understood, customers considering VMware's Tanzu cloud-native application development portfolio should "stop" their explorations. Related Article: Broadcom Moves Closer to Software Territory With Planned Acquisition of Cloud Computing Company VMware MOUNT VERNON, Wash., May 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Savi Financial Corporation, Inc. (OTC Pink: SVVB), the bank holding company for SaviBank, today announced plans to form a new state-chartered commercial bank headquartered in Bellingham, Washington. The transaction involves the formation of Orca Bank by applying for a de novo bank charter, with Savi Financial acquiring Orca Bank as a wholly owned subsidiary. Additionally, Orca Bank will acquire SaviBanks Bellingham branch, located at 1910 Broadway, Bellingham, WA 98225. Formation, capitalization and acquisitions will occur simultaneously after issuance of the Orca Bank Charter upon approval by regulators and closing of the reorganization. We are thrilled to announce the filing for a charter to open a new community bank in Bellingham, WA., named Orca Bank, said Michal D. Cann, Chairman and President of Savi Financial Corporation. The formation of Orca Bank came from a local group of community-minded businesspeople from Whatcom County, with the help of Savi Financial Corporation, the parent company of SaviBank. This stand-alone community bank is focused on serving the communities in Whatcom County, the largest county in which Savi Financial Corporation operates. This transaction will enable us to better serve the banking needs of Whatcom County, with a local Board of Directors and management making local decisions. Michal D. Cann will be chairman and CEO of Orca Bank and Drew Wilkens will be President of Orca Bank. We are creating Orca Bank solely for the benefit of Whatcom County. Any bank can claim they help the community, but Orca Bank will be a full-fledged, independent, local bank committed exclusively to Whatcom County communities, said Drew Wilkens, President of Orca Bank. We are also excited about the group of community leaders we brought together as our directors. Over the past few years, we have been actively growing Savi Financial Corporation and expanding our presence in and around the Northwest Washington communities we serve. This transaction is a continuation of that growth strategy, and provides a sustainable business model for future growth, said Cann. In 2021, we expanded into the Friday Harbor market, completed the Freeland branch purchase on Whidbey Island from Coastal Community Bank, relocated from our existing Freeland branch to a new location, and formed our mortgage lending division. All of these efforts complement our expansion efforts in 2019, when we opened full-service branches in Concrete, Sedro-Woolley, and Mount Vernon, relocated our loan production office into a full-service branch in Anacortes, and relocated our Oak Harbor branch and our main Burlington branch. We will continue to search for opportunities to expand our franchise for the benefit of our customers, shareholders and communities. About Savi Financial Corporation Inc. and SaviBank Savi Financial Corporation is the bank holding company which owns SaviBank. The Bank began operations April 11, 2005, and has 9 branch locations in Anacortes, Burlington, Bellingham, Concrete, Mount Vernon (2), Oak Harbor, Freeland and Sedro-Woolley, Washington and a Loan Production Office in Friday Harbor, Washington. The Bank provides loan and deposit services to customers who are predominantly small and middle-market businesses and individuals in and around Skagit, Island, and Whatcom counties. As a locally-owned community bank, we believe that when everyone becomes Savi about their finances, our entire community benefits. Call us or stop by one of our branches and well show you how to bank Savi. For additional information about SaviBank, visit; www.SaviBank.com. Forward Looking Statement This release may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which reflect managements views only as of the date hereof. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, regarding our financial position, business strategy and managements plans and objectives for future operations are forward-looking statements. When used in this report, the words anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, and intend and words or phrases of similar meaning, as they relate to SaviBank or management, are intended to help identify forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although we believe that managements expectations as reflected in forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot assure readers that those expectations will prove to be correct. Forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that may cause our actual results to differ materially and adversely from our expectations as indicated in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include our ability to maintain or expand our market share or net interest margins, and to implement our marketing and growth strategies. Further, actual results may be affected by our ability to compete on price and other factors with other financial institutions; customer acceptance of new products and services; the regulatory environment in which we operate; and general trends in the local, regional, and national banking industry and economy, as those factors relate to our cost of funds and return on assets. In addition, there are risks inherent in the banking industry relating to collectability of loans and changes in interest rates. Many of these risks, as well as other risks may have a material adverse impact on our operations and business. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Imperial Metals Corporation (the "Company") (TSX:III) reports, in accordance with the policies of the Toronto Stock Exchange, that the nominees listed in the management information circular dated April 1, 2022 were elected as directors of the Company at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (the "Meeting"). Results of the vote for the election of directors held at the Meeting on May 25, 2022 in Vancouver, British Columbia are: Name Votes For % Votes Withheld % Carolyn D. Anglin 88,651,655 99.67 % 294,291 0.33 % J. Brian Kynoch 88,939,650 99.99 % 6,296 0.01 % Pierre Lebel 84,408,510 94.90 % 4,537,436 5.10 % Larry G. Moeller 88,658,805 99.68 % 287,141 0.32 % Janine North 88,654,356 99.67 % 291,590 0.33 % James P. Veitch 88,658,806 99.68 % 287,140 0.32 % Edward A. Yurkowski 88,864,381 99.91 % 81,565 0.09 % A total of 89,559,926 common shares were voted in connection with the Meeting, representing approximately 63.3% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company. The results of other matters considered at the Meeting are reported in the Report of Voting Results, filed on SEDAR under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. About Imperial Imperial is a Vancouver based exploration, mine development and operating company with holdings that include the Mount Polley mine (100%), the Huckleberry mine (100%), the Red Chris mine (30%). Imperial also holds a portfolio of 23 greenfield exploration properties in British Columbia. Company Contacts Brian Kynoch | President | 604.669.8959 Darb Dhillon | Chief Financial Officer | 604.488.2658 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, May 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As per Future Market Insights, the hybrid E-scooter market is expected to develop at a modest CAGR of 3.9% through 2032. The worldwide hybrid E-scooter market is expected to be worth around US$ 3692.4 Million by the end of 2032, up from a net worth of US$ 2518.6 Million in 2022. The worldwide impact of COVID-19 on hybrid E-scooter market growth has been unprecedented and devastating, causing myriad disruptions, with demand for hybrid E-scooter suffering across all areas as a result of the epidemic. The high increase in CAGR is due to the demand for hybrid E-scooter and hybrid E-scooter adoption trends, which will revert as COVID-19 appears to be moving to endemicity levels. Therefore we may witness a flood of investment into projects to decarbonize and renew critical infrastructure. Request Sample Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/sample/rep-gb-14781 List of Key Players Covered in Hybrid E-Scooter are: Yadea Group Holdings Ltd. Jiangsu Xinri E-Vehicle Co., Ltd. NIU International Silence Urban Ecomobility Zhejiang Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co. Hero Electric During the projection period, the growing demand for fuel-efficient automobiles, along with growing concerns about greenhouse gas and carbon emissions, is expected to increase the adoption of hybrid E-scooter and surge the hybrid E-scooter market opportunities. The initial cost of a hybrid E-scooter is higher than that of a gas-powered one. However, rising social distancing awareness has resulted in a boom in demand for hybrid E-scooter and hybrid E-scooter adoption trends. The growing popularity of hybrid E-scooter sharing programmes in countries has increased demand for hybrid E-scooter and escalated hybrid E-scooter market future trends. Governments all around the world have developed strategies to encourage the adoption of hybrid E-scooter by providing different incentives to customers and producers in the form of subsidies. Support in the form of research and development initiatives is also a significant hybrid E-scooter market key trends & opportunities component. KEY TAKEAWAYS: Four stroke segments is likely to lead in the hybrid E-scooter market's stroke sector through 2032. China is the leading region in the hybrid E-scooter market, with an anticipated CAGR of 21% by 2032. The United States hybrid E-scooter market is projected to have a CAGR of 16.9% in 2032. The Indias hybrid E-scooter market is projected to have a CAGR of 13.2% in 2032. Browse Detailed Summary of Research Report with TOC @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/hybrid-e-scooter-market COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE: Major firms such as Yadea Group Holdings Ltd., Jiangsu Xinri E-Vehicle Co., Ltd., NIU International, Silence Urban Ecomobility, Zhejiang Luyuan Electric Vehicle Co., and Hero Electric lead the hybrid E-scooter market size. To raise their market share, leading hybrid E-scooter market procurement leaders are focusing on various growth hybrid E-scooter statistics like R&D activities, mergers and acquisitions, and new product launches. These companies offer a diverse range of goods and solutions for the hybrid E-scooter market, have global distribution networks, and invest heavily in research and development to create new products. Recent Development in Hybrid E-scooter Market: New Launches: Yadea Group (China) used a newly designed in-wheel motor produced by Nidec Corporation in January 2022. (Japan). For the first time, Nidec has created an in-wheel motor for electric bikes. The new product is manufactured by Nidec in Pinghu, Zhejiang Province, and China. The Yadea Group (China) unveiled the Y1S, an all-around smart lithium e-moped for commercial usage, in November 2021. The Y1S may be customised for bike-sharing, takeout operations, logistics, and other uses. Collaboration: Gogoro (Taiwan) announced collaboration with Dachangjiang Group (DCJ) and Yadea Group (China) to construct a battery-swapping network in China in May 2021. The DCJ and Yadea collaborated to create a line of two-wheel vehicles using the Gogoro network's battery swapping platform. Vehicles developed under this collaboration utilised the Gogoro network programme, which allows vehicle manufacturer partners to combine their vehicle technology with Gogoro's intelligent drivetrains and controllers, components, and smart systems. Order a Complete Research Report @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/checkout/14781 Detailed Table of Content: Executive Summary Global Market Outlook Demand Side Trends Supply Side Trends Technology Roadmap Analysis and Recommendations Market Overview Market Coverage/ Taxonomy Market Definition / Scope / Limitations Key Market Trends Key Trends Impacting the Market Product Innovation / Development Trends Key Success Factors Product Adoption / Usage Analysis Product USPs / Features Strategic Promotional Strategies Global Hybrid E-Scooter Market Demand Analysis 2017-2021 and Forecast, 2022-2032 Historical Market Volume (Tons) Analysis, 2017-2021 Current and Future Market Volume (Tons) Projections, 2022-2032 Y-o-Y Growth Trend Analysis Global Hybrid E-Scooter Market - Pricing Analysis Regional Pricing Analysis By Type Global Average Pricing Analysis Benchmark TOC Continued Speak to our Research Expert @ https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/ask-question/rep-gb-14781 Have a Look at Related Research Reports: Racing Motor Bike Seat Unit Market Strategies, Key Players, Analysis & Forecast Roll Trailer Market Trends, Size, Share, Regional Analysis by Key Players Armored Vehicle Market Share, Application, Scope, and Opportunities Analysis by Outlook 2032 About Future Market Insights (FMI) Future Market Insights (ESOMAR certified market research organization and a member of Greater New York Chamber of Commerce) provides in-depth insights into governing factors elevating the demand in the market. It discloses opportunities that will favor the market growth in various segments on the basis of Source, Application, Sales Channel and End Use over the next 10-years. Contact: Future Market Insights, 1602-6 Jumeirah Bay X2 Tower, Plot No: JLT-PH2-X2A, Jumeirah Lakes Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates For Sales Enquiries: sales@futuremarketinsights.com Website: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com Report: https://www.futuremarketinsights.com/reports/hybrid-e-scooter-market LinkedIn| Twitter| Blogs TORONTO, May 26, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fountain Asset Corp. (TSXV:FA) (Fountain or the Company) would like to announce its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2022 (Q1/22). Highlights from Q1/22: Adjusted net asset value ( ANAV ) of $22.42 million ($0.36 per share) at March 31, 2022 compared to $24.44 million ($0.40 per share) at December 31, 2021, representing a 8.2% decrease quarter over quarter on an ANAV basis and a 10.0% decrease on a per share basis. ANAV reflects the net asset value plus the amount of available tax loss pools available; ) of $22.42 million ($0.36 per share) at March 31, 2022 compared to $24.44 million ($0.40 per share) at December 31, 2021, representing a 8.2% decrease quarter over quarter on an ANAV basis and a 10.0% decrease on a per share basis. ANAV reflects the net asset value plus the amount of available tax loss pools available; Net comprehensive loss of $2.03 million compared to net comprehensive income of $4.84 million for three months ended March 31, 2021 ( Q1/21 ); ); Total losses from investment activity was $1.80 million compared to total revenue of $5.05 million for Q1/21; Net realized losses on the sale of portfolio investments of $0.81 million compared to net realized gains of $0.56 million for Q1/21; Net unrealized losses on portfolio investments of $0.99 million compared to net unrealized gains of $4.48 million for Q1/21; and Total expenses of $0.23 million compared to $0.21 million for Q1/21. Included in expenses is stock-based compensation of $0.03 million for Q1/22 compared to $0.02 million of stock-based compensation for Q1/21; and Operating expenses of $0.18 million compared to $0.19 million for Q1/21. During Q1/22, the company saw an increase from its portfolio of publicly traded companies which included increases from Filo Mining. These were offset by decreases in Kwesst Micro Systems and Cansortium Inc. The decrease in operating expenses to $0.18 million for Q1/22 compared to $0.19 million in the comparative quarter was driven by lower general and administrative costs. The Company saw net comprehensive loss of $2.03 million for Q1/22 compared to net comprehensive income of $4.84 million for Q1/21. As at March 31, 2022, the Companys adjusted net assets were valued at $22.42 million or $0.36 per share compared to $24.44 million or $0.40 per share at December 31, 2021. The Company posted a revenue and profit decline during Q1/22 due to losses in several publicly traded companies. Fountain saw some of its private investments go public during the quarter which led to an increase in net realized losses. said Andrew Parks, CEO of Fountain. A full set of the Q1/22 unaudited financial statements and the management discussion & analysis are available on SEDAR. About Fountain Asset Corp. Fountain Asset Corp. is a merchant bank which provides equity financing, bridge loan services (asset back/collateralized financing) and strategic financial consulting services to companies across many industries such as marijuana, oil & gas, mining, real estate, manufacturing, retail, financial services, and biotechnology. Forward-Looking Statements Certain information contained in this press release constitutes forward-looking information, which is information relating to possible events, conditions or results of operations of the Company, which are based on assumptions and courses of action and which are inherently uncertain. All information other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Forward-looking information in this press release includes, but is not limited to, growing Fountains capital base and a strong pipeline going forward. These forward-looking statements reflect the current expectations or beliefs of the Company based on information currently available to the Company. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties that may cause the actual results of the Company to differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, and even if such actual results are realized or substantially realized, there can be no assurance that they will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, the Company. Factors that could cause actual results or events to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things: the level of bridge loans and equity investments completed, the nature and credit quality of the collateral security and the nature and quality of equity investments, and the other risks disclosed under the heading "Risk Factors" and elsewhere in the Company's annual information form dated August 30, 2019 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Although the Company believes that the assumptions inherent in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty therein. Neither TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. For further information: please contact Andrew Parks at (416) 456-7019 or visit Fountain Asset Corp.'s website at www.fountainassetcorp.com. English Dutch Regulated Information Nyrstar NV releases notice for the 2021 annual general shareholders meeting to be held on 28 June 2022 and provides a further update on the put option review process 27 May 2022 at 07.00 CEST Nyrstar NV (the Company) today issued the notice for the 2021 annual general shareholders meeting to be held on 28 June 2022 at 11:00 a.m. CEST. The annual general meeting will be held physically with no virtual option available. The practical modalities of the meeting are set out in the notice to the meeting which has been published on the Company's website (https://www.nyrstar.be/en/investors/share-and-bondholder-information/shareholder-meetings). The full notice, including agenda, proposed resolutions and explanatory note can be found on the aforementioned Nyrstar website. Further, the Company provides an update in relation to the put option that the Company has in relation to its (entire) 2% investment in NN2 NewCo Limited (NN2), which holds the Nyrstar operational group, entitling it to sell such 2% to Trafigura New HoldCo (or, at Trafigura New HoldCos election, any other member of the Trafigura group which may lawfully make any relevant purchase) for a fixed amount of EUR 20 million (the Put Option). As announced on 18 November 2021, the Company has appointed Moore Belgium, to prepare an independent expert's report for the independent directors of the Company ("Committee of Independent Directors"), in the framework of Article 7:97 of the Belgian Code of Companies and Associations. The independent expert's report will provide an opinion to the Committee of Independent Directors on the benefit to the Company, taking all relevant circumstances into account, of the exercise or non-exercise of the Put Option. In making its decision on whether or not to exercise the Put Option, the Committee of Independent Directors will also duly consider any substantiated third-party bids, including of the Company's shareholders other than Trafigura and/or of other stakeholders and third parties, that it may receive in respect of the 2% shareholding in NN2. Any such bids for the 2% shareholding in NN2 were requested to be addressed to the Company prior to 15 February 2022. As outlined in the annual report and financial statements issued on 13 April 2022, the Company did not receive any bids. The independent experts review has commenced and is progressing as planned, and is expected to be finalised in July 2022. Once the Committee of Independent Directors has received and analysed the final report, it will make a recommendation to the Companys Board at which time the Board will decide either to exercise or not to exercise the Put Option, or, whether to sell the 2% investment in NN2 to a third-party, prior to the expiry of the Put Option on 31 July 2022. Further details relating to the Put Option are provided on the Companys website (https://www.nyrstar.be/~/media/Files/N/Nyrstar-IR/results-reports-and-presentations/english/2021/put-option-over-nn2-summary-for-website.pdf). During the general meeting of 28 June 2022, a further update will be provided and shareholders of the Company will have the opportunity to ask questions on the Put Option review process. About Nyrstar NV The Company is incorporated in Belgium and, following completion of the recapitalisation/restructuring has a 2% shareholding in the Nyrstar group. The Company is listed on Euronext Brussels under the symbol NYR. For further information please visit the Nyrstar website: www.nyrstar.be. About Moore Belgium Moore Belgium is the largest independent professional services provider in Belgium. Moore Belgium provides services in the areas of Accountancy, Audit, Business Analytics, Business Consulting, Corporate Finance, Interim Management and Tax & Legal Services. As a member of Moore Global a global accounting and consulting network Moore Belgium assists its clients in more than 100 countries. More information about Moore Belgium can be found at www.moore.be For further information contact: Anthony Simms - Head of External Affairs & Legal anthony.simms@nyrstar.com Attachment English Finnish WithSecure Corporation, Press Release, 27 May 2022, at 8:00 EEST WithSecure and F-Secure Capital Markets Day on 3 June 2022 WithSecure and F-Secure will arrange a Capital Markets Day for their analysts and investors on Friday 3 June 2022. WithSecure Capital Markets Day is held at 9 am to 12 pm EEST. The following persons are presenting: Juhani Hintikka, President and CEO (WithSecure) Antti Koskela, Chief Product Officer Ashley Clark, VP, Commercial (Solutions Business Unit) Janne Pirttilahti, VP, Cloud Protection Tom Jansson, Chief Financial Officer F-Secure Capital Markets Day is held at 13 to 16 pm EEST. The following persons are presenting: Timo Laaksonen, CEO (F-Secure) Toby White, Chief Technology Officer Sari Somerkallio, Chief Financial Officer Both events are available via direct webcast. Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions during the events. A recording of each event will be published afterwards on the companies websites. Links to the direct webcast are the following: WithSecure Capital Markets Day https://event.prospectumlive.com/withsecure-capital-markets-day F-Secure Capital Markets Day https://event.prospectumlive.com/f-secure-capital-markets-day Analysts and investors attending the events on-site (Tanssin talo, Kaapeliaukio 3, 00180 Helsinki) are kindly requested to register by Tuesday 31 May 2022 through the address investor-relations@withsecure.com Contact information: Sebastian Vettel, the German Formula One driver, had his backpack stolen outside a hotel in Barcelona. Instead of heading straight to the cops, he had another plan. The racer used the Find My app on his iPhone to track the whereabouts of his belongings in real time. He Tracked Down His AirPods Using Find My App According to Apple Insider, Vettel parked his Aston Martin at a hotel in Barcelona with his family on Monday morning after the Spanish Grand Prix and got out. Thieves took advantage of the chance to steal a backpack from the car before fleeing. The report (via iPadizate) said that the four-time Formula One champion did not immediately inform the police and instead opted to handle the crime himself. Vettel got on an electric scooter and launched the Find My app to look for his AirPods hidden inside a bag. Vettel was eventually joined by police as he pursued the thieves through the city, advising him to file a complaint at a station rather than continue the chase. As per the report of the 9to5Mac, despite the chase, it appears that the robbers were aware that the Find My app can monitor AirPods, so they tossed the earbuds on the street and fled with the bag and what was inside. Vettel collected his earbuds and informed the authorities of the incident. The robbers are yet to be found, but the police hope to identify them using CCTV footage from the hotel. Read More: Apple AirTag Stalking Alert Sends False Alarms to Users' Iphones - Is It a Bug? Apart from the AirPods, the backpack had a variety of personal items, including his driver's license, passport, and several canceled credit cards. 9to5Mac noted that even if your third-generation AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max aren't near your iPhone, you can use the Find My app to locate them. Why? You ask. Because they work with the same Find My Network as iOS devices, Macs, and AirTags. In other words, they're compatible. Not All Stories Featuring AirTags Leads to a Happy Ending As previously reported, after realizing that the Apple tracking device had been following them while visiting Walt Disney World, an AirTag stalker "terrified" a family from Tennessee. It took the family many hours to realize that a surveillance device was tracking their movements. It was reported (via Fox 35 Orlando) that after receiving a shocking notification on her phone, the teen daughter of the family discovered that an AirTag was following them on their Disney World vacation. The alert notably said that the owner of the Apple tracking device was following the 17-year-old girl. It didn't help that the phone alert also informed her that the device had been tracking them to Disney World for over four hours, from 7:09 pm to 11:33 pm. The notification also revealed additional information on the AirTag tracking activities that were utilized to track them to the huge theme park. AirTags: good or bad? Related Article: AirTag Stalking? Family Says Apple Device Tracked Them to Disney World English Finnish EFECTE PLC -- INSIDE INFORMATION -- 27 MAY 2022 at 09.30 Efecte Plc has made a voluntary public tender offer for all shares in InteliWISE S.A. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY AND IT IS NOT AN OFFER TO BUY OR SOLICITATION OF OFFERS TO BUY ANY SECURITIES. INFORMATION REGARDING THE OFFER TO THE SHAREHOLDERS OF INTELIWISE S.A. AS ANNOUNCED IN A SEPARATE PRESS RELEASE IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO SHAREHOLDERS IN CERTAIN PERMITTED JURISDICTIONS. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT MAY NOT BE DISTRIBUTED IN OR INTO AUSTRALIA, CANADA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, NEW ZEALAND, SOUTH AFRICA, SWITZERLAND OR THE UNITED STATES. Efecte has announced a voluntary cash offer to the shareholders of Polish conversational artificial intelligence (AI) company InteliWISE S.A. (InteliWISE) to tender all their shares in InteliWISE to Efecte for a consideration of PLN 3.99 (approximately EUR 0.87) in cash per share (the Offer). The largest shareholders of Inteliwise representing approximately 66.3 % of all shares and voting rights have irrevocably undertaken to accept the voluntary tender offer. The total value of the Offer based on all 6 858 915 shares in InteliWISE amounts to approximately PLN 27.4 million (approximately EUR 5.9 million). InteliWISE is a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) SaaS company listed on Warsaw NewConnect alternative marketplace. InteliWISE would provide Efecte with a solid addition to Efectes technology portfolio, strong R&D team and go-to-market capabilities especially in Poland. Enabling digitalization and automation of work with exceptional experiences Efecte helps people digitalize and automate their work and aims to become the Leading European Alternative in service management. Investing in our product to further strengthen differentiation and our technology platform is a key part of our strategy. The planned acquisition is an outcome of the screening of almost 100 acquisition targets that we announced and started in 2021. InteliWISEs conversational AI technology would strengthen our platform, enabling digitalization and automation of work with exceptional experiences for everybody involved. Customers would be able to take their employee experience to the next level and benefit from increased digitalization and automation of any service processes. The planned acquisition would open Poland as a new direct market for Efecte and bring InteliWISEs offerings available to customers across Europe through our sales organization and partner channel. Together with the talented InteliWISE team of 49 professionals, we would also be able to build on Poland as a location for R&D, professional services and customer success. This would be a natural step for us following our long-term collaboration with R&D partners in Poland. While our guidance for 2022 remains unchanged, there would obviously be a positive impact on our SaaS growth. Building on sales and other synergies, we expect that the EPS impact of the planned acquisition would become positive towards the end of 2023. Efecte CEO Niilo Fredrikson: We have worked intensively with the InteliWISE team over the last months and become convinced that this would be a great technology and culture fit. I am excited about the deal as it aligns with our strategy and brings us one step closer to fulfilling our vision of becoming the Leading European Alternative in our space. InteliWISE CEO Marcin Strzalkowski: Were honored with Efectes invitation to build together a strong European leader in digitalization and automation software. With Efectes diverse team, cross-European aspirations and comprehensive solutions we are well positioned to empowering today's workforce to work smarter, not harder. InteliWISEs natural, conversational AI interfaces, Polish IT talent pool and entrepreneurial drive will be a complimentary boost in the winning mix. Summary of the Offer Pursuant to the Offer, the shareholders of InteliWISE are offered PLN 3.99 (approximately EUR 0.87) in cash per share in InteliWISE. The total value of the Offer based on all 6,858,915 shares in InteliWISE amounts to approximately PLN 27.4 million (approximately EUR 5.9 million). The Offer consideration represents a premium of 85.6 percent compared to the closing price of PLN 2.15 (approximately EUR 0.47) of InteliWISEs share on New Connect on the last day of trading before the announcement of the Offer. The largest shareholders of InteliWISE representing approximately 66.3 % of all shares and voting rights have unconditionally undertaken to participate in the Offer. Efecte may in its discretion decide not to conclude the transaction if Efecte does not reach a minimum threshold of 95% of shares in InteliWISE during the subscription period or if a material adverse change in or affecting the condition of InteliWISE occurs. Efecte may in its discretion also decide to conclude the transaction even if it does not reach the minimum threshold of 95%. The subscription period for the Offer commences on or about 30 May 2022 and is expected to end on or about 29 June 2022. Expected settlement date is 1 July 2022. Efecte can extend the subscription period within statutory limits if required for the success of the Offer. The Offer is subject to Polish law and applicable rules in Poland. Overview of InteliWISE InteliWISE is a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) company. InteliWISE provides customers with AI-powered solutions that enable intelligent automation of customer service, marketing and sales. InteliWISEs AI Voice Assistants, omnichannel cloud contact center and team video-chat software are delivered both as a cloud service and installed on the companys servers (on-premises). InteliWISEs US-patented software enabling omnichannel interactions consists of AI-powered natural language processing (NLP), leading customer service and e-commerce technologies. A strong customers base with global brands, including financial institutions, insurance and e-commerce leaders have used InteliWISE products in their digital transformation projects. InteliWISE has a number of public sector customers in Poland, including its largest customer that represents a substantial share of its revenue, the contracts for which are concluded for a fixed term and are retendered regularly. InteliWISE has won the retender for the largest customer multiple times in the past. InteliWISEs unaudited net sales in 2021 was PLN 4.3 million (approximately EUR 0.9 million), EBITDA was PLN 0.2 million (approximately EUR 0.1 million) and operating profit PLN 0.2 million (approximately EUR 0.0 million). InteliWISE employs around 49 professionals and is headquartered in Warsaw, Poland. In addition, InteliWISE has an office in Lublin, Poland. A majority of InteliWISEs revenue is recurring revenue from the sales of its software and related services. InteliWISEs unaudited balance sheet totaled to PLN 1.7 million (approximately EUR 0.4 million) in the end of 2021. Total equity was PLN 1.4 million (approximately EUR 0.3 million), loans from financial institutions amounted to PLN 0.0 million (approximately EUR 0.0 million), and cash and cash equivalents was PLN 0.5 million (approximately EUR 0.1 million). Consideration and financing Efecte will finance the acquisition fully by cash. Efecte has currently no interest-bearing loan. Efecte is exploring an opportunity to raise financial loans of up to 2 MEUR at a later stage of the process to support financing the transaction. According to a share purchase agreements concluded between certain major shareholders of InteliWISE and Efecte, the CEO and CTO of the target as well as the largest shareholder of InteliWISE have unconditionally undertaken to subscribe shares in Efecte after settlement of the Offer. Our estimated net proceeds from the share subscription are approximately EUR 1.2 million. The subscription price for shares will be 11.12 euros per share, equaling to 30-day volume weighted average price of Efecte before the announcement, and the directed share issuance will be based on the authorization granted by the Annual General Meeting on 17 March 2022 to the Board of Directors of Efecte. The subscribed shares will be subject to customary trading restrictions. The directed share issue will be implemented as part of a transaction which supports the execution of Efectes strategy and there is a compelling financial reason for Efecte to deviate from shareholders' pre-emptive subscription right. The directed share issuance is conditional to successful conclusion of the tender offer, no major adverse change in InteliWISE and an approval by the Board of Directors of Efecte. Financial and Legal Advisors Sisu Partners Oy acts as the lead financial advisor and Domanski Zakrzewski Palinka (DZP) as the lead legal advisor for Efecte in connection with the transaction. The financial advisor of the Inteliwise Group in the transaction is CC Group, while the legal advisor is CDZ Chajec i Wspolnicy. Efecte guidance for 2022 (unchanged) SaaS net sales is expected to grow over 20% and EBITDA to be positive, excluding any potential costs from inorganic activities. Efecte long-term financial targets (unchanged) By 2025, grow organically to 35 MEUR total net sales, maintain an average SaaS growth of over 20% and reach a double-digit EBITDA margin. Through organic growth and acquisitions, become eventually the largest European service management vendor with total net sales over 100 MEUR and EBITDA margin exceeding 25%. Live webcast Efecte will hold a webcast concerning the Offer to all investors, analysts and media on Monday 30 May 2022 at 10:00 EEST. You can register to and follow the event at https://www.efecte.com/efecte-webcast. The webcast will be in English and written questions can be presented in the webcast portal. A recording and presentation materials will be made available afterwards on the Efectes investor pages at investors.efecte.com . Additional information: Niilo Fredrikson CEO +358 50 356 7177 niilo.fredrikson@efecte.com Certified adviser: Evli Oyj, tel. +358 40 579 6210 Efecte Plc Efecte helps people digitalize and automate their work. Customers across Europe leverage our cloud service to operate with greater agility, to improve the experience of end-users, and to save costs. The use cases for our solutions range from IT service management and ticketing to improving employee experiences, business workflows, and customer service. We are the European Alternative to the global goliaths in our space. Our headquarters is located in Finland and we have regional hubs in Germany and Sweden. Efecte is listed on the Nasdaq First North Growth Market Finland marketplace. www.efecte.com Sydney, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Proactive, provider of real-time news and video interviews on growth companies listed in Australia, has covered the following companies: West Wits Mining Ltd (ASX:WWI) shares surged more than 20% higher intra-day after entering into an equity financing facility with SBC Global Investment Fund to raise up to $75 million. Click here Calima Energy Ltd (ASX:CE1) will hold an investor briefing event on Monday, 30 May at Subiaco Hotel in Hay Street, Subiaco, Western Australia. Click here DomaCom Australia Ltd (ASX:DCL) is seeking to raise up to $4.8 million through a private placement for sophisticated and professional investors at an issue price of $0.066 per share. Click here Race Oncology Ltd (ASX:RAC) has advanced the dose-escalation Phase 1b stage of the relapsed or refractory Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (R/R AML) trial running at the Chaim Sheba Medical Centre in Israel. Click here Compumedics Ltd (ASX:CMP) has made several revenue and sales predictions for this financial year, forecasting an increase in sale orders taken of 8% from the 2021 financial year, to $38 million for this year, although revenue growth has been stymied by global supply issues, chip shortages and other pandemic-related factors. Click here Lindian Resources Ltd (ASX:LIN) has reached an out-of-court settlement over a dispute relating to its proposed acquisition of an up to 75% interest in the Kangankunde Rare Earths Project in Malawi. Click here Oklo Resources Ltd (ASX:OKU) has signed a binding scheme implementation deed (SID) under which B2Gold Corp will subject to conditions acquire all fully paid ordinary shares in Oklo via a board-recommended scheme of arrangement. Click here Sipa Resources Ltd (ASX:SRI) has progressed exploration activities across its gold and base metal projects in Western Australia. Click here Noxopharm Ltd (ASX:NOX) has received proof-of-concept confirmation from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), with an abstract from the Annual Meeting 2022 providing evidence of the modulatory effect of Veyondas active ingredient idronoxil on the immune system. Click here About Proactive Proactive is a unique tech-enabled platform providing companies globally with a comprehensive investor engagement solution across their business lifecycle. With six offices on three continents, Proactive works with innovative growth companies quoted on the worlds major stock exchanges, helping executives to engage intelligently with investors. In 2020, Proactive featured in 809 million search results, our content was viewed over 165 million times and our readers spent over 10 million hours on our websites. Proactive has produced over 300,000 articles and 20,000 executive interviews since it was established in 2006. For more information on how Proactive can help you make a difference, email us at action@proactiveinvestors.com New York, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Bronchoscopy Global Market Report 2022" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06280852/?utm_source=GNW Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. The global bronchoscopy market is expected to grow from $2.54 billion in 2021 to $2.81 billion in 2022 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.9%. The market is expected to grow to $3.52 billion in 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.8%. The bronchoscopy market consists of sales of bronchoscopes and bronchoscopy services.Bronchoscopy is a technique for visualizing inside airways or lungs for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. In bronchoscopy, an instrument is inserted into the airways through the nose, mouth, or sometimes through a tracheostomy through which the practitioner can examine the patients airways for any infections. The bronchoscopy market covered in this report is segmented by product into bronchoscopes, imaging systems, cytology brushes, and others.The bronchoscopes are the type of endoscopes that are used to examine a patients larynx, throat, trachea, and lower airways. The bronchoscopy working channel diameter consists of 2.8 mm, 2.2 mm, 3.0 mm, and others that are used for adult patients and pediatric/neonate patients. The various applications of bronchoscopy are bronchial treatment and bronchial diagnosis. The growing prevalence of respiratory diseases contributed to the growth of the bronchoscopy market.According to the American Cancer Society 2020, in the United States, about 228,820 new cases of lung cancer and about 135,720 deaths from lung cancer. Therefore, the increasing prevalence of respiratory diseases around the world, especially the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, will drive the bronchoscopy market. The risk of contamination of devices has been a major challenge in the bronchoscopy market. According to the center for disease control and prevention, in the USA, there are around 6.8 lakhs of hospital-acquired infection cases and 72,000 hospital-acquired infection patients die. Multiple factors including contamination of devices are the reasons for hospital-acquired infection. This can be due to improper cleaning of devices or improper maintenance of the storage rooms and other factors. The risk of contamination of devices has a negative impact on the growth of the bronchoscopy market. The single-use flexible bronchoscopes are increasingly being used to prevent the risk of contamination of devices.The single-use flexible bronchoscopes are longer and thinner tubes that allow seeing the deep areas of the bronchus and are much easier to change and have a clear image of position inside the lung bronchus. The single-use flexible bronchoscopes improve safety and productivity. In April 2019, Johnson & Johnson acquired Auris Health Inc for a deal amount of $3.4 billion. Auris Healths robotic platform technology is used for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in the lungs. Johnson & Johnson is focused on building a connected, data-driven digital ecosystem that pairs one of the surgical solutions with advanced technologies to improve the patients experience. The regions covered in this report are Asia-Pacific, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, North America, South America, Middle East, and Africa. The countries covered in the bronchoscopy market are Australia, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Japan, Russia, South Korea, UK, and USA. Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06280852/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Seoul, South Korea, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Fortune, bidding for the Power of One charity auction lunch with Warren Buffett will open on Sunday, June 12, at 10:30 p.m. ET on eBay. At the same time, this will also be the last auction of Buffett's lunch; this auction has attracted worldwide attention. Interestingly, Buffett has been boycotting the auction. The cryptocurrency industry also has project representatives participating in the auction, wanting to get the ownership of this last lunch. One of the companies in the cryptocurrency industry participating in this auction is named LunchDao, a community-driven autonomous organization that bids for power lunch with Warren Buffett in 2022 to promote Buffett and the traditional financial forces behind him to enter the crypto industry. The organization mainly raises target funds by issuing the DAO governance token $Lunch, and uses the funds raised for the auction of "Buffett's Last Lunch". LunchDao officially launched Juicebox on April 1st this year, with a total fundraising target of 2000 ETH. Currently, it has raised 706 ETH, which is about 1.3 million US dollars. Although there is still a big gap from the amount of the last Buffett lunch auction, in view of the current global economy of the special political environment, this auction may have a low price bid, and Lunchdao is expected to win the auction. Lunchdao fundraising will officially end at 00:00 AM UTC on May 28th. At present, it has been less than 24 hours since the end of LunchDao's fundraising. According to their spokesperson, whether LunchDao can finally raise funds can directly affect the further integration of the crypto industry and traditional finance. The views, suggestions, and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. Do your own research before making a financial decision related to any crypto company or asset. Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Home Infusion Therapy Market, Size, Global Forecast 2022-2027, Industry Trends, Share, Growth, Insight, Impact of COVID-19, Company Analysis" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Global Home Infusion Therapy Market is expected to reach US$ 45.46 billion in 2027 from $27.97 billion in 2021, growing at a CAGR of 8.43% Patients have shifted from conventional treatments to specialty infusion therapy treatments such as home infusion therapy over the years. Furthermore, the home infusion therapy industry is adept at meeting the most complex patient requirements. The demand for home infusion therapy devices will increase in the coming years as the application spectrum of infusion devices expands, along with the growing demand for infusion devices in the home care market. Furthermore, an aging population, a higher prevalence of chronic diseases, and the novelty of such therapeutic devices contribute to the overall market's growth. In contrast, associated risks during medication administration, irregularities in infusion device operation, incorrect use of infusion devices, and complex reimbursement policies may stifle market growth. Covid-19 Pandemic Boosted the Home Infusion Market Across the World The Covid-19 pandemic had a favourable consequence on the home infusion market because the technique of home infusion was in high demand as healthcare facilities were overburdened with increasing numbers of Covid patients. Regional and national lockdowns significantly impacted operations and supply chains, yet the market grew substantially in 2020. Product Insights Across Home Infusion Therapy Market Worldwide By product, the home infusion therapy market is divided into four categories: infusion pumps, intravenous sets, IV cannulas, and needleless connectors. According to the analysis, the infusion pumps segment will have significant market because these pumps are widely used for the delivery of nutrients and medications. The availability of a wide range of products, including enteral, syringe, multichannel, and peristaltic pumps, contributes to segment growth. The rising market for syringes and ambulatory pumps as people prefer home healthcare is also anticipated to contribute to segment growth. Moreover, smart pumps are now widely used because they include advanced features such as barcode technology, which aids in the verification of a patient's identity and prevents drug administration errors. The Anti-Infective Dominates the Worldwide Home Infusion Therapy Market In this report, Anti-infective, Hydration Therapy, Chemotherapy, Enteral Nutrition, Parenteral Nutrition, and Specialty Pharmaceuticals are the application segments of the market. According to the analysis, the anti-infective market dominates the global home infusion therapy market, owing to the large number of procedures performed to administer antifungal and antibiotic drugs. It also helps to reduce patient exposure to other hospital-acquired infections (HAIs). Similarly, chemotherapy is expected to be one of the fastest-growing segments over the forecast period, owing to rising cancer incidences. Home chemotherapy pumps are compact and continuous pressure pumps that do not require a battery and can thus be used for a more extended period. Chemotherapy drugs can be dispensed at the appropriate infusion rate and amount with the help of these pumps. As a result, the demand for pressure pumps is expected to grow in the coming years. Regional Realms of Global Home Infusion Therapy Market North America will dominate the market in the forecast period. Primarily, due to the regions increased R&D and rising adoption of new technology in infusion pumps. The regional market is being driven by the increasing need for long-term therapy for patients with certain conditions. Furthermore, the development of alternative healthcare settings and home infusion services and the shift in appreciation from acute care to home care backdrops due to subordinate costs and increased patient mobility will propel the evolution of this market in the coming years. Over the forecast period, the Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at the fastest rate. This is due to increased patient awareness of the advantages of home infusion therapy over in-hospital procedures and the region's rising diabetes prevalence. The region's growing geriatric population and rise in chronic diseases are expected to fuel market growth even further. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Research & Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Growth Drivers 4.2 Challenges 5. Global Home Infusion Therapy Market 6. Market Share - Global Home Infusion Therapy Market 6.1 By Product 6.2 By Application 6.3 By Region 7. Product - Global Home Infusion Therapy Market 7.1 Infusion Pump 7.2 Intravenous Sets 7.3 IV Cannulas 7.4 Needleless Connectors 8. Application - Global Home Infusion Therapy Market 8.1 Anti-infective 8.2 Hydration Therapy 8.3 Chemotherapy 8.4 Enteral Nutrition 8.5 Parenteral Nutrition 8.6 Specialty Pharmaceuticals 8.7 Others 9. Region - Global Home Infusion Therapy Market 9.1 North America 9.2 Europe 9.3 Asia Pacific 9.4 Latin America 9.5 Middle East and America 10. Key Players 10.1 Overview 10.2 Recent Development 10.3 Revenue Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc. Pfizer Inc. Eli Lilly Becton, Dickinson and Company Baxter International Inc. Smith & Nephew plc Terumo Corporation ICU Medical For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/k7ljyh Attachment Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourism Market, Tourist Numbers, Size, Forecast 2022-2027, Industry Trends, Share, Growth, Insight, Impact of COVID-19" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourism Market was US$ 10.86 Billion in 2021 and is expected to generate US$ 25.49 Billion from international tourist arrivals in 2027 Year after year, the number of outbound tourists from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has increased. Many younger travellers are motivated to visit a destination on their bucket list. Furthermore, the critical factor driving the Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourism Market Size is the purpose of the visit, such as holiday activities, visiting friends and relatives, and business. Furthermore, interest in nature-based, off-season, and sustainable travel has increased, providing new opportunities to attract travellers and bolstering the Saudi Arabian outbound tourism industry. Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourism Industry is expected to expand at a CAGR of 15.28% from 2021 to 2027 While domestic and intra-Saudi Arabian travel is becoming more popular, the analysis focuses primarily on Saudi Arabians traveling long-haul to South Africa, India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Malaysia, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. The United Arab Emirates is the top source market for outbound tourism in Saudi Arabia, followed by Switzerland and Turkey. Furthermore, many Saudi travellers are willing to travel to new areas outside the Middle East, creating significant commercial prospects. How has COVID-19 Impacted the Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourism Market 2020 has turned out to be a catastrophic year for Saudi Arabia's outbound tourism due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus. When the first infection was discovered in Saudi Arabia in January 2020, it had a significant impact. Saudi Arabia resorted to total lockdowns in response. This had a devastating effect on the outbound tourism market, with numbers plummeting. The number of flights departing Saudi Arabia reached an all-time low in April and May 2020. While the number of trips increased slightly in the summer and autumn of 2020, travellers were still severely limited. This was anticipated to change in 2021. However, in Saudi Arabia, the tourism industry has recovered following an increase in vaccination rates and a reduction in anti-terrorist measures. Key Topics Covered: 1. Introduction 2. Research & Methodology 3. Executive Summary 4. Market Dynamics 4.1 Growth Drivers 4.2 Challenge 5. Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourism 5.1 Market 5.2 Volume 6. Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourism - Share Analysis by Country 6.1 By Market 6.2 By Volume 7. South Africa 7.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 7.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to South Africa 7.2.1 Holiday 7.2.2 Business 7.2.3 Study 7.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 8. India 8.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 8.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to India 8.2.1 Holiday 8.2.2 Business 8.2.3 Others 8.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 9. United States 9.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 9.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to United States 9.2.1 Holiday 9.2.2 Business 9.2.3 VFR 9.2.4 Study 9.2.5 Others 9.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 10. United Kingdom 10.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 10.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to United Kingdom 10.2.1 Holiday 10.2.2 Business 10.2.3 VFR 10.2.4 Study 10.2.5 Others 10.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 11. Singapore 11.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 11.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to Singapore 11.2.1 Holiday 11.2.2 VFR 11.2.3 Others 11.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 12. Malaysia 12.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 12.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to Malaysia 12.2.1 Holiday 12.2.2 VFR 12.2.3 Business 12.2.4 Others 12.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 13. Switzerland 13.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 13.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to Switzerland 13.2.1 Holiday 13.2.2 VFR 13.2.3 Others 13.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 14. Turkey 14.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 14.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to Turkey 14.2.1 Holiday 14.2.2 VFR 14.2.3 Others 14.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market 15. UAE 15.1 Saudi Arabia outbound tourist visitors 15.2 By Purpose - Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Visit to UAE 15.2.1 Holiday 15.2.2 VFR 15.2.3 Others 15.3 Saudi Arabia Outbound Tourists Market For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/qkz3j9 Attachment Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Sepsis Diagnostics: Global Markets" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The current report provides detailed exposure to the sepsis diagnostic market. This report highlights the current and future market potential of sepsis diagnostics, as well as a detailed analysis of market drivers, challenges and opportunities. The report also covers market projections to 2026 and market shares for key market players. It details the market share of sepsis diagnostics based on technology type, product, diagnostic method and pathogen type. The report includes company profiles of the key players, with detailed information regarding their business segments, financials, product portfolios and recent developments. The report also provides the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this market. The regional market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Rest of the world. For market estimates, data have been provided for 2019 as the historic year and 2020 as the base year, with a forecast for 2026. Report Includes 35 data tables and 15 additional tables An updated overview of the global sepsis diagnostics market Analyses of the global market trends, with data from 2019 to 2021, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2026 Evaluation and forecast the global market size for sepsis diagnostics, and corresponding market share analysis by product, technology type, diagnostic method, test type, pathogen, end user and geographic region Highlights the current and future market potential of sepsis diagnostics along with a detailed analysis of the drivers, challenges, and opportunities in the market Identification of promising new products and technologies still in the development and assess the probability that they will be commercialized successfully in the next five years Discussion of the COVID-19 implications on the market for sepsis clinical diagnostics and research studies Information pertaining to the companies best positioned to meet this demand owing to their proprietary technologies, mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures and other strategic alliances Insight into the recent industry structure, current competitive scenario, R&D activities, product launch strategies and company value share analysis based on their segmental revenues Descriptive company profiles of the leading global players, including Abbott Laboratories, Bruker Corp., Roche Diagnostics Corp., Siemens Healthineers AG and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc Sepsis is a life-threatening condition marked by severe organ dysfunction. According to the World Health Organization's (WHO) global report on the Epidemiology and Burden of Sepsis, there were 49 million cases and 11 million sepsis-related deaths in 2017, accounting for nearly 20% of all annual global deaths. Sepsis is considered as the common pathway to death for several diseases, including infectious diseases. In the recent report on sepsis, the WHO observed that even non-communicable or chronic diseases and injuries can also lead to sepsis. Studies indicate that the incidence of sepsis is increasing, but the mortality rate is decreasing. The burden of the disease, however, is very high in low-and middle income countries with poor healthcare infrastructures. Elderly patients, neonates and immunocompromised patients are at high risk of sepsis. Sepsis is also associated with high economic burden and is the most expensive condition for hospitalised patients. For this reason, theWHO and World Health Assembly (WHA) have adopted a resolution in 2017 to improve, prevent, diagnose and manage sepsis. There is no specific laboratory test to diagnose sepsis. The current diagnosis is based on various technologies, including microbiological tests, molecular diagnostics and biomarkers. Microbiological tests are the most preferred method. Despite advances in molecular diagnostic methods, blood culture is considered the gold standard for the diagnosis of sepsis. Molecular techniques have been limited due to high cost and the need for a skilled workforce. Microbial identification is restricted to the specified panels used in the technique. The blood culture method has both advantages and limitations. Blood cultures are time-consuming and may result in false negatives. It is for this reason that there is high need for a rapid and accurate diagnostic method. Thus, there is scope for point-of-care tests that would be helpful in bedside sepsis diagnosis. Rapid diagnosis and early treatment lead to better patient outcomes, with survival rates are as high as 80%. Delay in diagnosis also leads to increased risk of antimicrobial resistance, as patients with sepsis are initially started with antimicrobials. It is based on the culture results that physicians start with targeted antimicrobials and look into escalation or de-escalation of the ongoing antimicrobial therapy. Thus, increasing prevalence, awareness and various government initiatives will lead to growth in the sepsis diagnostic market. The market has also witnessed technological advancements with novel instruments that use whole blood for detection and do not rely on positive blood cultures. Research is also focused on studying the benefit of biomarker combinations, as each biomarker represents a different aspect of sepsis and would help in early detection. Research is focused on microfluidics, machine learning and artificial intelligence tools for rapid diagnosis. Major players in the market include BioMerieux, Becton, Dickinson and Company, DanaherCorporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific, T2 Biosystems, Luminex, Roche Diagnostics, BrukerCorporation, Abbott Laboratories and Immunexpress. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Summary and Highlights Chapter 3 Technology Background Introduction Causes Risk Factors Symptoms Pathophysiology Endothelial Dysfunction Coagulopathy Cardiovascular Dysfunction Cellular Dysfunction Epidemiology and Economic Burden Diagnosis and Treatment Regulatory Scenario Regulations in North America European Regulations Chapter 4 Market Dynamics Factors Affecting the Sepsis Diagnostic Market Market Drivers Increasing Incidence of Infectious Diseases Rising Aging Population and Increasing Incidence of Chronic Diseases Increasing Government Initiatives Technological Developments Market Restraints High Cost of Instruments and Lack of Skilled Workforce Opportunities Demand for Rapid and Accurate Diagnostic Tool Chapter 5 Impact of Covid-19 Introduction Outbreak Covid-19 Symptoms Covid-19 Progression Incubation Period Epidemiology Collaboration Between Organizations and Governments Spread of Disease Impact of Covid-19 on the Sepsis Diagnostic Market Chapter 6 Sepsis Diagnostic Market by Technology Global Sepsis Diagnostic Market by Technology Microbiological Tests Immunoassays Molecular Diagnostics Others Chapter 7 Sepsis Diagnostic Market by Product Assays and Reagents Culture Media Instruments Software Chapter 8 Sepsis Diagnostic Market by Method Conventional Diagnostics Automated Diagnostics Chapter 9 Sepsis Diagnostic Market by Test Type Laboratory Tests Point-Of-Care Tests Chapter 10 Sepsis Diagnostic Market by Pathogen Type Bacterial Sepsis Fungal Sepsis Others Chapter 11 Sepsis Diagnostic Market by End-user Hospitals and Clinics Diagnostic Centers Academic and Research Institutions Chapter 12 Sepsis Diagnostic Market by Region North America Europe Asia-Pacific Rest of the World Chapter 13 Competitive Landscape and Analysis of Market Opportunities Recent Developments Mergers, Acquisitions and Collaborations Sepsis Diagnostic Company Market Shares Chapter 14 Company Profiles Abbott Laboratories Axis-Shield Diagnostics Ltd. Becton, Dickinson & Company Biomerieux Bruker Corp. Danaher Ekf Diagnostics Holdings plc Immunexpress Luminex Corp. Qiagen Nv Roche Diagnostics Corp. Seegene Siemens Healthineers AG T2 Biosystems Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/926up4 Attachment Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Dermatologicals Market: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2021-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global dermatological market was valued at $19,974.3 million in 2020, and is projected to reach $59,309.3 million by 2030, registering a CAGR of 11.5% from 2021 to 2030. Dermatological are a class of medicine used to treat patients suffering from skin disorders. These preparations are used to treat conditions such as psoriasis, acne, and rosacea. Different types of dermatological formulations are available in the market, including topical, parenteral, and oral. The treatment for skin diseases are prescribed depending upon the type and severity of symptoms. For instance, psoriasis requires the use of parenteral dermatological preparations for treatment. The growth of the global dermatological market is majorly driven by alarming increase in prevalence of skin diseases such as acne, atopic dermatitis, psoriasis, and rosacea; rise in government initiatives to spread awareness & promote knowledge about skin disease; surge in number of dermatological drugs manufacturing; surge in expenditure on human healthcare services; and increase in adoption of skin care products. For instance, the American Academy of Dermatology Association aims to develop frontiers of dermatologic care and increase dermatologic services for under-served population. This program further aims to increase consumer understanding about the importance of care delivered by board-certified dermatologists. Moreover, dermatological products are prescribed to patients suffering from COVID-19 and who develop skin diseases such as urticaria, morbilliform rash, and perni-like acral lesions. Furthermore, rise in number of teenagers and younger population drive the growth of the market. This is attributed to the fact that the teenager population is highly vulnerable to skin diseases such as acne, due to change in hormonal level, which boosts the demand for various dermatological drug therapies for better health outcomes. This factors is expected to notably contribute toward the growth of the global dermatologicals market. In addition, the development of the pharmaceutical sector is a major factor that drives the global dermatologicals market. Moreover, increase in number of clinical studies significantly contributes toward the market growth. Clinical studies aim to evaluate safety and efficacy of dermatological products. Rise in number of approval of dermatological products acts as a key driving force of the global market. For instance, in December 2021, Amgen, a biopharmaceutical company, announced the Food and Drug administration (FDA) approval of Otezla (apremilast), which is recommended for the treatment of patients diagnosed with plaque psoriasis. Furthermore, rise in funds by governments of various countries and private organizations to develop pharmaceutical manufacturing units are expected to boost the market growth. For instance, in March 2020, the Department of Pharmaceutical, in India, announced the investment scheme of around $1,300 million to strengthen the domestic active pharmaceutical ingredient units and boost the manufacturing of pharmaceutical products. In addition, increase in R&D activities in pharmaceutical industry is anticipated to provide lucrative opportunities for the market expansion. However, availability of alternative treatment options for acne and other skin diseases hinders the market growth. On the contrary, increase in awareness among population about various treatments available for skin diseases augments the growth of the dermatologicals market. This has further encouraged many key players to enter emerging markets, thus offering lucrative opportunities for the expansion of the dermatologicals market. The global dermatologicals market is segmented into disease, type, route of administration, and region. By disease, the market is categorized into acne, dermatitis, psoriasis, skin cancer, rosacea, alopecia, and others. Depending on type, it is fragmented into prescription-based drugs and over-the-counter drugs. On the basis route of administration, it is segregated topical administration, oral administration, and parenteral administration. Region wise, it is analyzed across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. Key Benefits The report provides an in-depth analysis of the global dermatologicals market size along with the current trends and future estimations to elucidate the imminent investment pockets. It offers market analysis from 2021 to 2030, which is expected to enable the stakeholders to capitalize on the prevailing opportunities in the market. A comprehensive analysis on region assists to understand the regional market and facilitate the strategic business planning and determine prevailing opportunities. The profiles and growth strategies of the key players are thoroughly analyzed to understand the competitive outlook of the global dermatologicals market Key Topics Covered: CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2.1. Key findings of the study 2.2. CXO perspective CHAPTER 3: MARKET LANDSCAPE 3.1. Market definition and scope 3.2. Key findings 3.2.1. Top investment pockets 3.2.2. Top winning strategies 3.3. Porter's five forces analysis 3.4. Top player positioning, 2020 3.5. Market dynamics 3.5.1. Drivers 3.5.1.1. Increase in prevalence of skin diseases 3.5.1.2. Increase in number of approval for dermatological products 3.5.1.3. Rise in awareness among individuals regarding skin diseases 3.5.2. Restraint 3.5.2.1. Availability of alternatives for acne treatment 3.5.3. Opportunities 3.5.3.1. Increase in healthcare expenditure 3.5.3.2. Development of pharmaceutical industry 3.5.4. Impact analysis 3.6. Impact analysis of COVID-19 on the dermatologicals market CHAPTER 4: DERMATOLOGICALS MARKET, BY DISEASE 4.1. Overview 4.1.1. Market size and forecast 4.2. Acne 4.2.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 4.2.2. Market size and forecast, by region 4.2.3. Market analysis, by country 4.3. Dermatitis 4.3.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 4.3.2. Market size and forecast, by region 4.3.3. Market analysis, by country 4.4. Psoriasis 4.4.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 4.4.2. Market size and forecast, by region 4.4.3. Market analysis, by country 4.5. Skin cancer 4.5.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 4.5.2. Market size and forecast, by region 4.5.3. Market analysis, by country 4.6. Rosacea 4.6.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 4.6.2. Market size and forecast, by region 4.6.3. Market analysis, by country 4.7. Alopecia 4.7.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 4.7.2. Market size and forecast, by region 4.7.3. Market analysis, by country 4.8. Others 4.8.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 4.8.2. Market size and forecast, by region 4.8.3. Market analysis, by country CHAPTER 5: DERMATOLOGICALS MARKET, BY TYPE 5.1. Overview 5.1.1. Market size and forecast 5.2. Prescription-based drugs 5.2.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 5.2.2. Market size and forecast, by region 5.2.3. Market analysis, by country 5.3. Over-the-counter drugs 5.3.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 5.3.2. Market size and forecast, by region 5.3.3. Market analysis, by country CHAPTER 6: DERMATOLOGICALS MARKET, BY ROUTE OF ADMINISTRATION 6.1. Overview 6.1.1. Market size and forecast 6.2. Topical administration 6.2.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 6.2.2. Market size and forecast, by region 6.2.3. Market analysis, by country 6.3. Oral administration 6.3.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 6.3.2. Market size and forecast, by region 6.3.3. Market analysis, by country 6.4. Parenteral administration 6.4.1. Key market trends, growth factors, and opportunities 6.4.2. Market size and forecast, by region 6.4.3. Market analysis, by country CHAPTER 7: DERMATOLOGICALS MARKET, BY REGION CHAPTER 8: COMPANY PROFILES 8.1. ABBVIE INC. (ALLERGAN PLC) 8.1.1. Company overview 8.1.2. Company snapshot 8.1.3. Operating business segments 8.1.4. Product portfolio 8.1.5. Business performance 8.1.6. Key strategic moves and developments 8.2. AMGEN INC. 8.2.1. Company overview 8.2.2. Company snapshot 8.2.3. Operating business segments 8.2.4. Product portfolio 8.2.5. Business performance 8.2.6. Key strategic moves and developments 8.3. GALDERMA 8.3.1. Company overview 8.3.2. Company snapshot 8.3.3. Operating business segments 8.3.4. Product portfolio 8.3.5. Key strategic moves and developments 8.4. GLAXOSMITHKLINE PLC. (GSK) 8.4.1. Company overview 8.4.2. Company snapshot 8.4.3. Operating business segments 8.4.4. Product portfolio 8.4.5. Business performance 8.4.6. Key strategic moves and developments 8.5. JOHNSON & JOHNSON SERVICES, INC. 8.5.1. Company overview 8.5.2. Company snapshot 8.5.3. Operating business segments 8.5.4. Product portfolio 8.5.5. Business performance 8.5.6. Key strategic moves and developments 8.6. LEO PHARMA A/S 8.6.1. Company overview 8.6.2. Company snapshot 8.6.3. Operating business segments 8.6.4. Product portfolio 8.6.5. Business performance 8.6.6. Key strategic moves and developments 8.7. NOVARTIS AG 8.7.1. Company overview 8.7.2. Company snapshot 8.7.3. Operating business segments 8.7.4. Product portfolio 8.7.5. Business performance 8.7.6. Key strategic moves and developments 8.8. ORGANON & CO. (MERCK) 8.8.1. Company overview 8.8.2. Company snapshot 8.8.3. Operating business segments 8.8.4. Product portfolio 8.8.5. Business performance 8.9. PFIZER INC. 8.9.1. Company overview 8.9.2. Company snapshot 8.9.3. Operating business segments 8.9.4. Product Portfolio 8.9.5. Business performance 8.9.6. Key strategic moves and developments 8.10. SUN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRIES LIMITED 8.10.1. Company overview 8.10.2. Company snapshot 8.10.3. Operating business segments 8.10.4. Product portfolio 8.10.5. Business performance 8.10.6. Key strategic moves and developments For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/trnvbn Attachment Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Preclinical Imaging Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product (CT, MRI, PET/SPECT, Multi-modal, Optical, Ultrasound, Photoacoustic (PAT), Reagents, Services), by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global preclinical imaging market size is expected to reach USD 5.4 billion by 2030. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 3.8% from 2022 to 2030. Heavy investments in research and development are encouraging research projects worldwide. As a result, the demand for preclinical imaging is steadily increasing. Pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, life sciences, medical devices, and cosmetics are wide application areas, where imaging modalities are widely used in research and development. Furthermore, veterinary hospitals and educational institutions also create additional demand for this market. Nuclear medicine techniques (primarily, positron emission tomography [PET] and single-photon emission computed tomography [SPECT]), optical imaging, micro computed tomography (CT), micro magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and ultrasound are the most suitable modalities for small-animal in vivo imaging applications. Each modality has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. The multimodality devices designed to give complementary information on the pathophysiological process under research have rapidly gained popularity, seeking to overcome the inherent limits of each imaging modality. The combination of high-resolution modalities such as micro-CT and micro-MRI with highly sensitive techniques that provide functional information like micro-PET or micro-SPECT is expected to broaden the horizons of research in key areas like infection, oncology, cardiology, and neurology, contributing not only to the understanding of disease underlying mechanisms but also providing efficient and unique tools for evaluating new chemical entities and candidate drugs, thus boosting the market growth. The market's prominent competitors are taking different initiatives such as funding's and acquisitions of medium and small-sized businesses in order to expand their product portfolio and enhance their manufacturing capacity. Preclinical Imaging Market Report Highlights By product, the optical segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021 owing to its wide usage in small animal imaging and new drug discovery projects. The multimodal imaging segment is expected to witness significant growth during the forecast period, owing to the technological advancements. North America accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021, well-developed research infrastructure, a large number of Preclinical projects, and higher adoption rates of technically advanced devices in the region are some of the factors that can be attributed to this share. Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at a lucrative rate over the forecast period owing to the increased government funding for the development of the research and development sector. Major players in the industry are focusing on launch of advanced technology and features such as artificial intelligence enabled systems. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Methodology and Scope Chapter 2. Executive Summary 2.1. Market Outlook 2.2. Segment Outlook 2.3. Competitive Insights Chapter 3. Preclinical Imaging Market Variables, Trends & Scope 3.1. Market Lineage Outlook 3.2. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping 3.3. Industry Value Chain Analysis 3.4. Market Dynamics 3.4.1. Market driver analysis 3.4.1.1. Technological Advancements 3.4.1.2. Growing Number of Investments and Funding in Research and Development 3.4.2. Market restraint analysis 3.4.2.1. Strict regulatory framework 3.5. Preclinical Imaging Market Analysis Tools Chapter 4. Preclinical Imaging Market: Product Estimates & Trend Analysis 4.1. Definitions and Scope 4.1.1. CT Imaging 4.1.2. MRI Imaging 4.1.3. PET/SPECT Imaging 4.1.4. Multi-modal Imaging 4.1.5. Optical Imaging 4.1.6. Ultrasound Imaging 4.1.7. Photoacoustic Imaging 4.1.8. Reagents 4.1.9. Services 4.2. Product Market Share, 2017 & 2030 4.3. Segment Dashboard 4.4. Preclinical Imaging Market by Product Outlook 4.5. Market Size & Forecasts and Trend Analyses, 2018 to 2030 for the following 4.5.1. CT imaging 4.5.2. MRI imaging 4.5.3. PET/SPECT imaging 4.5.4. Multi-modal imaging 4.5.5. Optical imaging 4.5.6. Ultrasound imaging 4.5.7. Photoacoustic imaging 4.5.8. Reagents 4.5.9. Services Chapter 5. Preclinical Imaging Market: Regional Estimates & Trend Analysis 5.1. Regional market share analysis, 2020 & 2028 5.2. Regional Market Dashboard 5.3. Global Regional Market Snapshot 5.4. Regional Market Share and Leading Players, 2020 5.5. SWOT Analysis, by Factor (Political & Legal, Economic and Technological) 5.6. Market Size, & Forecasts, Volume and Trend Analysis, 2018 to 2030: Chapter 6. Competitive Landscape Bruker Corporation Siemens Healthineers AG GE Healthcare Trifoil Imaging Perkinelmer, Inc. Visualsonic Inc. (Fujifilm) Mediso Ltd. Agilent Technologies Mr Solutions Milabs B.V. Molecubes For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/iobcwk 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. Attachment NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES TORONTO, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Water Ways Technologies Inc. (TSXV: WWT) (FRA: WWT) ("Water Ways" or the "Company"), a global provider of Israeli-based agriculture technology, providing water irrigation solutions to agricultural producers, announces the filing of its Interim Financial Statements (the "Statements") and Managements Discussion and Analysis (the "MD&A") for the three months period ended March 31, 2022. A comprehensive discussion of Water Ways financial position and results of operations is provided in the MD&A, filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) Ohad Haber, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Water Ways states: "The first quarter of 2022 was a challenging quarter for Water Ways Technologies. We started the year with a record backlog of orders exceeding CAD$13M, however, the war in the Ukraine and the lockdown in China delayed some of our business. I am very pleased with our Canadian business achieving record quarterly sales and I anticipate finalizing our important acquisition in Chile in the coming weeks". On Tuesday, May 31, 2022, at 9 am Eastern Time, Water Ways' management including CEO, Mr. Ohad Haber, CFO, Mr. Dor Sneh and Mr. Ronnie Jaegermann, Director, will host a live webinar with a corporate update, earnings discussion and outlook for 2022 and beyond. An Investor question-and-answer session will follow. Register: Water Ways Technologies Inc. - Q1 2022 Earnings Call and Financial Statements Highlights First Quarter (the following information should be read in conjunction with, and is qualified by, the Statements and the MD&A) Sales for the three months period ended March 31, 2022, totaling CAD$4.6M compared to CAD$5.4M for the three months period ended March 31, 2021. decrease in sales was mainly due to a delay in the commencement of the Uzbekistan projects and the Lockdown in China. Company's product sales to South and Central America increased significantly to CAD$1.5M for the three month period ended March 31, 2022 compared to CAD$0.46M for the three month period ended March 31, 2021. Net profit for the three months period ended March 31, 2022 amounted to CAD$0.56M compared with CAD$0.22 for the three months period ended March 31, 2021. Record sales of Heartnut Grove WWT Inc., the Companys wholly owned Canadian subsidiary, increased substantially and reached CAD$2.62M for the three months period ended March 31, 2022, compared to CAD$1.68M for three months period ended March 31, 2021. Working capital remains flat as of March 31, 2022 totaled CAD$4.5M compared to CAD$4.5M as of December 31, 2021. The Company signed a Letter of Intent to acquire a Chilean irrigation company. As of March 31, 2022, the Company has completed its Due Diligence and currently negotiating final terms of the agreement. During the three months period ended March 31, 2022, the Company received the largest contracts in its history in Uzbekistan, resulting in orders of over CAD$9.4M. The war in Ukraine impacts the Company and causes delays in 2022 projects in Uzbekistan and other regional territories which conduct business with Russia. The unstable events in the region had forced the Company to be conservative and not recognize revenue from Uzbekistan projects (including the projects announced on press releases dated January 31, 2022 and February 10, 2022) during the three months period ended March 31,2022. IAT Shanghai, the Company's Chinese subsidiary, did not contribute to the revenues as a result of the zero-COVID policy of the Chinese government and the frequent quarantines which delays the Company's ability to finalize existing projects and negotiating new projects. Derivative Liability Warrants relates to a classification under IFRS of outstanding warrants issued as part of the Private Placement as a non-cash liability that arises due to the difference in operational currency and functional currency. This liability is revalued each period by an independent third party. Water Ways Technologies Financial Results Summary (CAD$ in thousands) The following tables set forth the highlights of the consolidated financial information of the Company and should be read in conjunction with the Statements and the notes thereto. (CAD in thousands) As of December 31, 2021 As of December 31, 2021 Change % Balance Sheet Items: Cash and Cash Equivalents 1,311 3,295 -60.2% Total Current Assets 14,727 12,279 19.9% Total Assets 17,758 15,321 15.9% Total Current Liabilities 10,343 7,706 34.2% Total Non-Current Liabilities 7,768 8,589 -9.6% (CAD in thousands) For the three months period ended March 31, 2022 2021 Change % Revenues: Services Projects 904 3,217 -71.9% Products 3,704 2,233 65.9% Total Revenues 4,599 5,450 -15.6% Cost of Sales 3,794 4,219 -10.1% Gross Profit 805 1,231 -34.6% Gross Profit Margin % 17.5% 22.6% Operating Expenses 974 737 Revaluation of derivatives - income (595 ) - Financial expense (income), net (134 ) 228 Taxes on Income (recovery) (3 ) 46 Profit for the period 563 220 155.8% In 2020, The Company registered Share Issuance Liability to the CEO of the Company's Chinese subsidiary, IRRI-AL TAL (Shanghai) in the amount of US$700,000. The Company has agreed, subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval, to issue up to 3,594,360 common shares (the "Shares") in lieu of payments owing to the Chinese CEO at a per share price of CAD$0.25. The Shares will be subject to a statutory hold period of four months plus a day from the date of issuance in accordance with applicable securities legislation About Water Ways Technologies Inc. WWT through its subsidiaries, is a global provider of Israeli-based agriculture technology, providing water irrigation solutions to agricultural producers. WWT competes in the global irrigation water systems market with a focus on developing solutions with commercial applications in the micro and precision irrigation segments of the overall market. At present, WWTs main revenue streams are derived from the following business units: (i) Projects Business Unit; and (ii) Component and Equipment Sales Unit. WWT is capitalizing on the opportunities presented by micro and smart irrigation, while also making a positive mark on society by making these technologies more widely available, especially in developing markets such as Africa and Latin America and developed markets such as China and Canada. WWTs irrigation projects include vineyards, Cotton fields, Apple and Orange orchards, Blueberry, Medical Cannabis growers, fresh produce cooling rooms and more, in over fifteen countries. For more information, please contact Ronnie Jaegermann Dor Sneh Dr. Eva Reuter Director CFO Investor Relations - Germany T: +972-54-4202054 T: +972-54-6512500 +49 69 1532 5857 E: ronnie@waterwt.com E: dor@irri-altal.com E: e.reuter@dr-reuter.eu https://www.water-ways-technologies.com/ https://www.hg-wwt.com/ Twitter: @WaterWaysTechn1 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. Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking information" as such term is defined in applicable Canadian securities legislation. The words "may", "would", "could", "should", "potential", "will", "seek", "intend", "plan", "anticipate", "believe", "estimate", "expect" and similar expressions as they relate to Water Ways. All statements other than statements of historical fact may be forward-looking information. Such statements reflect Water Ways' current views and intentions with respect to future events, and current information available to Water Ways, and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions. Material factors or assumptions were applied in providing forward-looking information. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking information to vary from those described herein should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize. Should any factor affect Water Ways in an unexpected manner, or should assumptions underlying the forward-looking information prove incorrect, the actual results or events may differ materially from the results or events predicted. Any such forward-looking information is expressly qualified in its entirety by this cautionary statement. Moreover, Water Ways does not assume responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such forward-looking information. The forward-looking information included in this press release is made as of the date of this press release and Water Ways undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable law. Water Ways' results and forward-looking information and calculations may be affected by fluctuations in exchange rates and its own share prices. All figures are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Korean group BTS appears at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, April 3. BTS, the Grammy-nominated South Korean boy band, will join President Joe Biden next week to talk about Asian inclusion and representation and to address hate crimes and discrimination against Asians, the White House announced May 26. AP-Yonhap BTS, the Grammy-nominated South Korean boy band, will join President Joe Biden next week to talk about "Asian inclusion and representation" and to address hate crimes and discrimination against Asians, the White House announced Thursday. The musical group's White House visit next Tuesday follows Biden's trip last week to South Korea, a U.S. ally. Biden has been outspoken about being committed to combating a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. Last year, the Democratic president signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law. Biden and BTS, also known as the Bangtan Boys, will also discuss diversity and the K-pop group's platform as youth ambassadors. The band received its first Grammy nomination last year after releasing the song "Dynamite" as a gift to fans isolated by the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP) Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "E-bikes Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Propulsion Type (Pedal-assisted, Throttle-assisted), by Battery Type, by Power, by Application, by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global e-bikes market size is anticipated to reach USD 52.37 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 13.5% over the forecast period. Electric bikes are considered an eco-friendly and flexible mode of transportation. They are an ideal substitute for public transport, scooters, and smart cars as they help avoid traffic jams and achieve high speed with minimal effort. Moreover, they enable riders to maintain a healthy lifestyle through increased physical activity. These factors are contributing to the growth of the global market. The declining consumer inclination toward cars owing to increased traffic on streets and growing urbanization is expected to offer lucrative growth opportunities for the market across the globe. Additionally, governments of several countries, including India, U.K., and Canada, are focused on developing infrastructures for bicycles owing to the growing consumer preferences for electric bikee-bikes. For instance, in 2017, Bikeep, a commercial bike parking systems and bike racks manufacturer, introduced a smart bicycle rack solution that offers electric bicycle charging. The solution is designed to cater to various popular electric bicycles. Key players in the market are focused on strategies such as new product launch and geographic expansion to enhance their business operations and product offerings. For instance, in October 2020, Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd. announced the launch of a full-composite trail bike, Trance X Advanced Pro 29. The bike is equipped with an updated Maestro rear suspension and flip-chip feature that permits riders to modify the frame geometry. Similarly, in October 2020, Pedego Electric Bikes opened a new store in Boca Raton, Florida. The store offers a full range of electric bikes for rental and sale, along with related accessories and services. E-bikes Market Report Highlights The pedal-assisted segment is expected to dominate the market over the forecast period owing to the rising demand for pedal-assisted e-bikes among the youth and elderly population. The lead-acid battery segment dominated the market with a 45.5% market share in 2021, owing to benefits such as low cost and robustness. However, the share is anticipated to decline as a result of a significant rise in demand for Li-ion batteries. The Asia Pacific is expected to become the largest regional market over the forecast period owing to significant investments in the vehicle charging infrastructure and government subsidies for battery-powered vehicles. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Methodology & Scope Chapter 2. Executive Summary Chapter 3. Market Variables, Trends, and Scope 3.1. Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping 3.2. Industry Value Chain Analysis 3.3. Market Dynamics 3.3.1. Market Driver Analysis 3.3.2. Market Restraint Analysis 3.4. Market Analysis Tools 3.4.1. Industry Analysis - Porter's Five Forces Analysis 3.4.2. PEST Analysis 3.5. Company Ranking Analysis, 2021 3.6. Impact of COVID-19 on the E-bikes Market Chapter 4. E-bikes Market: Propulsion Type Outlook 4.1. Market Size Estimates & Forecasts and Trend Analysis, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 4.1.1. Pedal-assisted 4.1.1.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 4.1.2. Throttle-assisted 4.1.2.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 5. E-bikes Market: Battery Type Outlook 5.1. Market Size Estimates & Forecasts and Trend Analysis, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 5.1.1. Lithium-ion Battery 5.1.1.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 5.1.2. Lead-acid Battery 5.1.2.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 6. E-bikes Market: Power Outlook 6.1. Market Size Estimates & Forecasts and Trend Analysis, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 6.1.1. Less Than or Equal to 250W 6.1.1.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 6.1.2. Above 250W 6.1.2.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 7. E-bikes Market: Application Outlook 7.1. Market Size Estimates & Forecasts and Trend Analysis, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 7.2. City/Urban 7.2.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 7.3. Trekking 7.3.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 7.4. Cargo 7.4.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) 7.5. Others 7.5.1. Market Estimates and Forecasts by Region, 2018-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 8. E-bikes Market: Regional Outlook Chapter 9. Competitive Landscape 9.1. Accell Group N.V. 9.1.1. Company Overview 9.1.2. Financial Performance 9.1.3. Product Benchmarking 9.1.4. Recent Developments 9.2. Aima Technology Group Co. Ltd. 9.2.1. Company Overview 9.2.2. Financial Performance 9.2.3. Product Benchmarking 9.2.4. Recent Developments 9.3. Giant Manufacturing Co. Ltd. 9.3.1. Company Overview 9.3.2. Financial Performance 9.3.3. Product Benchmarking 9.3.4. Recent Developments 9.4. Merida Industry Co., Ltd. 9.4.1. Company Overview 9.4.2. Financial Performance 9.4.3. Product Benchmarking 9.4.4. Recent Developments 9.5. Pedego Electric Bikes 9.5.1. Company Overview 9.5.2. Financial Performance 9.5.3. Product Benchmarking 9.5.4. Recent Developments 9.6. Pon.Bike 9.6.1. Company Overview 9.6.2. Financial Performance 9.6.3. Product Benchmarking 9.6.4. Recent Developments 9.7. Rad Power Bikes Inc. 9.7.1. Company Overview 9.7.2. Financial Performance 9.7.3. Product Benchmarking 9.7.4. Recent Developments 9.8. Trek Bicycle Corporation 9.8.1. Company Overview 9.8.2. Financial Performance 9.8.3. Product Benchmarking 9.8.4. Recent Developments 9.9. Yadea Group Holdings Ltd. 9.9.1. Company Overview 9.9.2. Financial Performance 9.9.3. Product Benchmarking 9.9.4. Recent Developments 9.10. Yamaha Motor Company 9.10.1. Company Overview 9.10.2. Financial Performance 9.10.3. Product Benchmarking 9.10.4. Recent Developments For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/ij2a32 Attachment BANGOR, MAINE, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- At Hussons recent graduate student hooding ceremony the University presented the Chesley H. Husson, Sr. Award to John Rohman, the former chief executive officer of WBRC, mayor of Bangor and current chair of the Universitys Board of Trustees. This award is presented annually to an individual who shares the qualities of Hussons founder, Chesley H. Husson, Sr. It recognizes outstanding service to both the University and the greater community. John epitomizes our core values of character and humility, said Dr. Robert A. Clark, president of Husson University. He has been instrumental in making a difference at Husson. With a passion for the arts and strong business acumen, John has consistently contributed to the success of WBRC, our University, the local community and our state. The presentation of this award was part of Husson Universitys annual hooding ceremony. The ceremony recognized scholars and professionals who earned their masters and doctoral degrees from Husson in 2022. The university estimates that 1,000 1,200 people were in attendance for the award presentation and hooding ceremony. More about Chesley H. Husson, Sr. and this Award Chesley H. Husson, Sr. was the founder of Husson College, one of the Universitys predecessor institutions. He believed in academic integrity, hands-on education and community service. His philosophy of combining education and real-world business experience in the classroom continues to be an important academic focus at todays Husson University. First presented in 2001, some of the people who have received this award include: Susan Collins, United States Senator Jeannine Gutman, Editor, Portland Press Herald Takfumi Kimura, Education Leader, Japan Phil Harriman, former State Senator, Community Volunteer Michael Brennan, Chief of Police, Portland Charles Miller, Attorney, Community Volunteer Steve Rowe, Former Attorney General, State of Maine Bill Green, Television Personality, Writer and Environmental Champion Mike Sanphy, Mayor of Westbrook Edward O. Darling, Owner, Downeast Toyota Dr. Teresa Willett Steele, Professor Emerita Dewey Martin, Professor Emeritus More about John Rohman: Graduating from the University of Maine with an engineering degree in 1968, Rohman was later drafted into the U.S. Army and served with distinction in Vietnam. Returning to Maine, he worked first for Eaton Tarbell, a well-known architect, before joining the company that is now known as WBRC in 1973. He enrolled at Husson in 1977 and received a bachelors degree in business management. Developing a love for the arts while working at WBRC, Rohman decided to commute weekly to Boston and attend classes at the Boston Architectural Center to study interior design. His career at WBRC spanned more than 38 years. For 20 of those years, Rohman was CEO of the firm. He became the companys major shareholder in the early 90s and restructured WBRCs ownership by giving some of his own shares to junior partners in order to make sure everyone had equal ownership. The firm recently celebrated its 120th Anniversary and has become an architectural leader whose influence and projects are nationally recognized for excellence. Rohman served on the Board of the Bangor Region Chamber of Commerce in the mid-1990s and went on to serve on the Bangor City Council, including a one-year term as mayor. During this time, he worked to increase downtown development through the arts. His efforts led to him being appointed to the Maine Arts Commission by then-governor Angus King. He served this commission for many years, including nine as chair. He and his wife Lyndy helped bring the National Folk Festival to Bangor in 2002. The result was a resounding success and led and to the creation of the American Folk Festival. This festival boosted the local economy by bringing millions of visitors to Bangor over the course of its 18-year run. Rohman has also donated his time and expertise to the Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium, the University of Maine Museum Art Advisory Committee, the National Council for Traditional Arts, and the National Assembly of State Art Agencies as well as numerous other non-profit organizations. More about Husson University: For more than 120 years, Husson University has shown its adaptability and strength in delivering educational programs that prepare future leaders to handle the challenges of tomorrow through innovative undergraduate and graduate degrees. With a commitment to delivering affordable classroom, online and experiential learning opportunities, Husson University has come to represent a superior value in higher education. The hallmarks of a Husson education include advanced knowledge delivered through quality educational programs. According to a recent analysis of tuition and fees by U.S. News & World Report, Husson University is one of the most affordable private colleges in New England. For more information about educational opportunities that can lead to personal and professional success, visit Husson.edu. Attachments United States, Rockville, MD: , May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As per the study at Fact.MR, the blood flow measurement devices market is valued at US$ 583 million in 2022 and is expected to reach US$ 1.3 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 8.2%. Rising cardiovascular diseases coupled with diabetes are constantly seek real time blood flow monitoring. The technologically advanced devices help in the process of documentation and measurement of these vitals. Another major factor that flourishes the market to the top is its usage in cancer treatment as it helps in dealing the blood flow management of tumorous cancers including breast cancer. National diabetes statics report explains that 2 out of 5 Americans develop diabetes in their lifecycle. These numbers push people to adopt practices that prevent these diseases. Browse in-depth TOC on Sales of Blood Flow Measurement Devices" 80 Tables and 96 Figures 170 Pages Download PDF Brochure: https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=S&rep_id=7381 Due to the unhealthy lifestyle, the diseases related to heart and blood flow are proliferating, especially in the developed nations. National Healthcare facilities filling up with the patients having cardiovascular diseases are pushing the leaders to adopt technologically advanced tools to tackle the traffic, expanding the blood flow measurement devices market size. Ultrasound dopplers are largely used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, advancing the ultrasound doppler technology. Blood flow measurement devices market survey explains that the conventional ways of monitoring vitals including the blood flow measurement hampers the growth of new technologically advanced devices. Another factor affecting the growth of the markets is small numbers of research and development programs that produce real life results and aware citizens about the benefits of blood flow measurement devices. To learn more about Irreversible Blood Flow Measurement Device Demand, you can get in touch with our Analyst at https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=AE&rep_id=7381 KEY TAKEAWAYS: United States dominated the global market by contributing nearly US$ 244.7 Million to the total revenue in 2022 and expanding the market size with a CAGR of 8% through 2032. Strong research and development (R&D) projects led by new healthcare welfare schemes has gained traction while strengthening nations healthcare systems with the adoption the technologically advanced blood flow measurement devices Ultrasound segment is the largest segment and will hold the biggest portion of the market in the forecast period, growing at a CAGR of 8.3%, owing to are its prevalence in cancer and cardiovascular treatment while monitoring the blood flow during pre, post and even during the time of the surgery. Non-Invasive segment is the biggest application segment in the market and is likely to thrive at a CAGR of 8.1% between 2022 and 2032, attributing its growth to its application in Cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes, Tumour Monitoring and Gastroenterology Get Customization on this Blood Flow Measurement Devices Manufacturers for Specific Research Solutions at https://www.factmr.com/connectus/sample?flag=RC&rep_id=7381 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE: Some of the blood flow measurement devices market competitors listed in the Fact. MRs study on blood flow measurement devices market are Medistim ASA, Cook Medical, Inc., Getinge Group, Deltex Medical Group PLC, Transonic Systems Inc. . Recent Developments Medistim ASA has introduced its set of MIraQ Vascular, Cardiac and Ultimate that monitor the blood flow through transit time flow measurement (TTFM), increasing the sales in developing nations like US and Japan. Cook Medical Inc has designed its upgraded version of ultrasound blood flow monitor, bringing in the advanced technology that helps in the real time blood flow measurement. Transonic Systems Inc has introduced its 400-series research blood flow measurement device that are used in cardiovascular labs. This series comes is tow models named T402 and T403 that can hold four and six single-bay pressure modules, making these devices more flexible and reliable. To understand how our report can bring difference to your business strategy, Purchase a copy of this Blood Flow Measurement Instruments Market report at https://www.factmr.com/checkout/7381 Check out more studies related to Healthcare Industry, conducted by Fact.MR: Why is Demand for Transcatheter Valve Replacement Expected to Surge? - Transcatheter valve replacement is a minimally-invasive procedure where a new valve is implanted without removing the old or damaged valve. The surgery is similar to placing a stent in the artery and is available for people with symptomatic aortic stenosis who are at low, intermediate, or high risk of standard valve replacement surgery. What is the Future of Global Bioabsorbable Stents Market? - Growing incidences of physicians and healthcare professionals preferring bioabsorbable stents over conventional stents is believed to have rapidly surged the bioabsorbable stent market growth in the global market. Key Drivers Stimulating Biotechnology Instruments Industry Expansion -The development of medical lasers has made available flexible and sophisticated technology. This project has changed the application of these lasers away from their primary use. These lasers, for example, are utilized to remove or cut crucial therapeutic approaches to restore damaged portions or parts of the body. Prominent Nerve Monitoring Devices Market Growth Drivers - In addition, increasing government support and increasing awareness about neurodegenerative disorders fuel the market growth. The rise in expenditure on healthcare in developing countries and growth in patient awareness of the use of nerve monitoring devices provide new opportunities for the market players. Whats Aiding Transfer Membrane Sales Growth? - Increasing demand for DNA- and RNA-based therapies is also expected to drive demand for transfer membranes in protein sequencing and synthesis. The scope of application for gas transfer membrane technology is also anticipated to witness an increase across the forecast period. About Us: Market research and consulting agency with a difference! Thats why 80% of Fortune 1,000 companies trust us for making their most critical decisions. While our experienced consultants employ the latest technologies to extract hard-to-find insights, we believe our USP is the trust clients have on our expertise. Spanning a wide range from automotive & industry 4.0 to healthcare & retail, our coverage is expansive, but we ensure even the most niche categories are analyzed. Our sales offices in United States and Dublin, Ireland. Headquarter based in Dubai, UAE. Reach out to us with your goals, and well be an able research partner. Contact: Mahendra Singh US Sales Office: 11140 Rockville Pike Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 Email: sales@factmr.com Tel: +1 (628) 251-1583 Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Disease (Dengue, Chikungunya), by Diagnostic Method (Conventional, Molecular/Modern), by Service Type, by End-use, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global neglected tropical disease (NTD) diagnostic market size is expected to reach USD 8.97 billion by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period. Increasing disease burden, growing demand for early disease identification, and complementary advancements in technology is expected to drive growth in demand. Increasing concern regarding neglected tropical diseases and their impact on the population as well as economies has boosted the demand for the development of early disease detection methods. This growth in concern is evident in the launch of a substantial number of programs aiming to combat NTDs. For instance, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases aims to raise awareness and funding, both of which are essential to control and eliminate the most common NTDs. In addition, various companies are undertaking efforts to develop less complicated and inexpensive diagnostic assays for tropical diseases. In January 2021, Novartis AG signed an agreement with the WHO to manage leprosy across the globe. This, in turn, is anticipated to support the growth of this market throughout the forecast period. According to the WHO, as of January 2022, more than 1.5 billion people are infected with soil-transmitted helminth infections worldwide. The Kato-Katz technique is the WHO gold standard that is widely used to diagnose the intensity of STHs. These infections are distributed widely in tropical and subtropical areas majorly occurring in America, sub-Saharan Africa, East Asia, and China. Furthermore, the presence of key players is expected to fuel the overall market growth. The involvement of these players in new product development is considered to be the contributing factor to the development of the NTD diagnosis market. Neglected Tropical Disease Diagnosis Market Report Highlights by disease type, the soil-transmitted helminthiases dominated the market in 2021, owing to the increasing prevalence and high adoption of diagnostics tests. The molecular/modern diagnostic segment dominated the market in 2021, owing to an increase in R&D for molecular diagnostic techniques coupled with a rise in demand for point-of-care products. Centralized service accounted for the largest segment in terms of market share in 2021 due to high procedure volume and the wide presence of ancillary support in terms of infrastructure and manpower. by end-use, home healthcare is expected to be the fastest-growing segment as a result of the growing popularity and demand for POCT services. Asia Pacific dominated the global market in 2021, owing to the high disease burden of NTDs, increased healthcare expenditure, rapid technological advancements, and a rise in customer awareness about the use of PCR tests in diagnosing NTDs. Latin America is expected to grow considerably in the future, owing to increased IVD product penetration and the high disease burden of NTDs in developing countries. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market Variables, Trends & Scope 3.1 Market Lineage outlook 3.1.1 Related/ancillary market outlook 3.2 Penetration & Growth Prospect Mapping 3.3 User perspective analysis 3.3.1 Consumer Behavior Analysis 3.3.2 Market Influencer Analysis 3.4 Market Dynamics 3.4.1 Market Driver Analysis 3.4.2 Market Restraint Analysis 3.4.3 Industry Challenges 3.5 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis: Market Analysis Tools 3.5.1 Industry Analysis-Porter's 3.5.1.1 Supplier Power 3.5.1.2 Buyer Power 3.5.1.3 Substitution Threat 3.5.1.4 Threat from new entrant 3.5.1.5 Competitive rivalry 3.5.2 PESTEL Analysis 3.5.2.1 Political Landscape 3.5.2.2 Environmental Landscape 3.5.2.3 Social Landscape 3.5.2.4 Technology Landscape 3.5.2.5 Legal Landscape Chapter 4 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market: Segment Analysis, by Disease, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.1 Definitions & Scope 4.2 Disease market share analysis, 2021-2030 4.3 Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market, by Disease, 2017 to 2030 4.4 Market Size & Forecasts and Trend Analyses, 2017 to 2030 for the following 4.4.1 Dengue 4.4.2 Chikungunya 4.4.3 Rabies 4.4.4 Leprosy 4.4.5 Buruli ulcer 4.4.6 Yaws 4.4.7 Lymphatic Filariasis 4.4.8 Taeniasis/Cysticercosis 4.4.9 Foodborne trematode infections 4.4.10 Echinococcosis 4.4.11 Chagas disease 4.4.12 Dracunculiasis 4.4.13 Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) 4.4.14 Soil-transmitted helminthiases 4.4.15 Onchocerciasis 4.4.16 Schistosomiasis 4.4.17 Scabies and other ectoparasites 4.4.18 Snakebite Envenoming 4.4.19 Leishmaniases Chapter 5 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market: Segment Analysis, by Diagnostic Method, 2027-2030 (USD Million) 5.1 Definitions & Scope 5.2 Diagnostic method market share analysis, 2021 & 2030 5.3 Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market, by Diagnostic method, 2017 to 2030 5.4 Market Size & Forecasts and Trend Analyses, 2017 to 2030 for the following 5.4.1 Conventional Method 5.4.2 Molecular/Modern Method Chapter 6 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market: Segment Analysis, by Service Type, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.1 Definitions & Scope 6.2 Service type market share analysis, 2021 & 2030 6.3 Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market, by Service Type, 2017 to 2030 6.4 Market Size & Forecasts and Trend Analyses, 2017 to 2030 for the following 6.4.1 Centralized Service 6.4.2 POC Service Chapter 7 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market: Segment Analysis, by End Use, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 7.1 Definitions & Scope 7.2 End-use market share analysis, 2021 & 2030 7.3 Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market, by Service Type, 2017 to 2030 7.4 Market Size & Forecasts and Trend Analyses, 2017 to 2030 for the following 7.4.1 Clinical Labs 7.4.2 Hospitals /Clinics 7.4.3 Home Healthcare Chapter 8 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market: Regional Market Analysis, by Region, 2017-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 9 Neglected Tropical Diseases Diagnosis Market-Competitive Analysis 9.1 Company/Competition Categorization (Key innovators, Market leaders, Emerging players) 9.2 Vendor Landscape 9.2.1 List of key distributors and channel partners 9.3 Key companies profiled 9.3.1 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd 9.3.1.1 Company Overview 9.3.1.2 Financial Performance 9.3.1.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.1.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.2 Abbott 9.3.2.1 Company Overview 9.3.2.2 Financial Performance 9.3.2.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.2.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.3 Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. 9.3.3.1 Company Overview 9.3.3.2 Financial Performance 9.3.3.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.3.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.4 ZeptoMetrix 9.3.4.1 Company Overview 9.3.4.2 Financial Performance 9.3.4.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.4.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.5 InBios International, Inc. 9.3.5.1 Company Overview 9.3.5.2 Financial Performance 9.3.5.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.5.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.6 Genome Diagnostics Pvt. Ltd. 9.3.6.1 Company Overview 9.3.6.2 Financial Performance 9.3.6.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.6.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.7 Omega Diagnostics Group PLC 9.3.7.1 Company Overview 9.3.7.2 Financial Performance 9.3.7.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.7.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.8 Coris BioConcept 9.3.8.1 Company Overview 9.3.8.2 Financial Performance 9.3.8.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.8.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.9 DiaSys Diagnostic Systems GmbH 9.3.9.1 Company Overview 9.3.9.2 Financial Performance 9.3.9.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.9.4 Strategic Initiatives 9.3.10 Oscar Medicare Pvt Ltd. 9.3.10.1 Company Overview 9.3.10.2 Financial Performance 9.3.10.3 Product Benchmarking 9.3.10.4 Strategic Initiatives For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/riy65r Attachment Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report by Product Type (Nebulizer, Humidifiers, Oxygen concentrators), by Technology, by Filters, by Region, and Segment Forecasts, 2022-2030" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global therapeutic respiratory devices market size is anticipated to reach USD 16.1 billion by 2030. The market is expected to expand at a CAGR of 6.8% from 2022 to 2030. A growing geriatric population base, rapid technological advancements, and increasing prevalence of respiratory diseases are the key factors that are driving the market. The market is expected to grow due to rapid technological advancements in the healthcare sector. Nowadays, respiratory monitoring devices use software applications for the collection and analysis of data from ventilators equipped with the health system. The tools in the software application improve patient monitoring through the measurement of parameters such as process and clinical variation in the ventilator therapy. The global increase in the cases of respiratory diseases is one of the major factors that are driving the market for therapeutic respiratory devices. According to the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) Global Atlas of Asthma 2021, more than 350 million patients around the world are suffering from asthma. Moreover, waveform capnography is a technical advancement used in monitoring carbon dioxide levels. New product launch such as automated and stand-alone pressure controls for mechanical ventilators boosts the growth of the market. These pressure controllers enable a reduction in the risk of tracheal injuries and Ventilator-associated Pneumonia (VAP). For instance, in November 2021, Fischer and Paykel launched F&P Visairo, a hospital under-nose mask for noninvasive ventilation, in the United States. F&P Visairo is a new high-performance under-nose hospital mask with dynamic support technology. The company also offers a humidifier with an integrated flow generator, which delivers high flows of air mixture to patients spontaneously breathing. Such factors are bolstering the growth of the market. Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Market Report Highlights The positive airway pressure devices segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021 owing to technological innovations resulting in increased portability and shelf life. The HEPA filter technology segment accounted for the largest revenue share in 2021, because of the increasing prevalence of respiratory diseases coupled with technological advancements in this segment. The humidifiers segment is anticipated to be the fastest-growing segment over the forecast period owing to the rising demand for humidifiers in hospitals, schools, home, and healthcare entities, and the increased prevalence of airborne infections such as tuberculosis. In North America, the market is expected to maintain its dominant position over the forecast period owing to the rising geriatric population base and increasing prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases. Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1 Methodology and Scope Chapter 2 Executive Summary Chapter 3 Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Industry Outlook 3.1 Market segmentation 3.2 Market size and growth prospects 3.3 Therapeutic respiratory devices market dynamics 3.3.1 Market driver analysis 3.3.1.1 Growing geriatric population base 3.3.1.2 Rising prevalence of respiratory diseases 3.3.1.3 Rapid technological advancements 3.3.2 Market restraint analysis 3.3.2.1 Lack of patient compliance 3.3.2.2 Economic impact of respiratory disorders 3.4 Key opportunities Prioritized 3.5 Industry analysis-Porter's 3.6 Therapeutic respiratory devices PESTEL analysis 3.7 Therapeutic respiratory devices market heat map analysis, 2021 3.8 Impact of COVID-19 3.8.1 Current and Future Impact Analysis 3.8.2 Impact on Market Players 3.8.3 Disease Prevalence Analysis Chapter 4 Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Product Outlook 4.1 Therapeutic respiratory devices market share, by product, 2021 & 2030 4.2 Nebulizers 4.2.1 Nebulizers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.2.2 Compressor-based nebulizers 4.2.2.1 Compressor-based nebulizers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.2.3 Piston-based hand-held nebulizers 4.2.3.1 Piston-based hand-held nebulizers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.2.4 Ultrasonic nebulizers 4.2.4.1 Ultrasonic nebulizers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.3 Humidifiers 4.3.1 Humidifiers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.3.2 Heated humidifiers 4.3.2.1 Heated humidifiers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.3.3 Passover Humidifiers 4.3.3.1 Passover humidifiers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.3.4 Integrated humidifiers 4.3.4.1 Integrated humidifiers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.3.5 Built-in humidifiers 4.3.5.1 Built-in humidifiers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.3.6 Stand-alone humidifiers 4.3.6.1 Stand-alone humidifiers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.4 Oxygen concentrators 4.4.1 Oxygen concentrators market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.4.2 Fixed oxygen concentrators 4.4.2.1 Fixed oxygen concentrators market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.4.3 PorTable oxygen concentrators 4.4.3.1 PorTable oxygen concentrators market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.5 Positive airway pressure devices 4.5.1 Positive airway pressure devices market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.5.2 Continuous positive airway pressure devices 4.5.2.1 Continuous positive airway pressure devices market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.5.3 Auto-titrating positive airway pressure devices 4.5.3.1 Auto-titrating positive airway pressure devices market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.5.4 Bi-level positive airway pressure devices 4.5.4.1 Bi-level positive airway pressure devices market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.6 Ventilators 4.6.1 Ventilators market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.6.2 Adult ventilators 4.6.2.1 Adult ventilators market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.6.3 Neonatal ventilators 4.6.3.1 Neonatal ventilators market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.7 Gas analyzers 4.7.1 Gas analyzers market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 4.8 Capnographs 4.8.1 Capnographs market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 5 Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Technology Outlook 5.1 Therapeutic respiratory devices market share, by technology, 2021 and 2030 5.2 Electrostatic filtration 5.2.1 Electrostatic filtration market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 5.3 HEPA filter technology 5.3.1 HEPA filter technology market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 5.4 Hollow fiber filtration 5.4.1 Hollow fiber filtration technology market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 5.5 Microsphere separation 5.5.1 Microsphere separation technology market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 6 Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Filters Outlook 6.1 Therapeutic respiratory devices market share, by filter, 2021 & 2030 6.2 Nebulizer filters 6.2.1 Nebulizer filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.2.2 Inlet filters 6.2.2.1 Inlet filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.2.3 Replacement filters 6.2.3.1 Replacement filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.2.4 Cabinet filters 6.2.4.1 Cabinet filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.3 Humidifier filters 6.3.1 Humidifier filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.3.2 Wick filters 6.3.2.1 Wick filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.3.3 Permanent cleanable filters 6.3.3.1 Permanent cleanable filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.3.4 Mineral absorption pads 6.3.4.1 Mineral absorption pads market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.3.5 Demineralization cartridges 6.3.5.1 Demineralization cartridges market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.4 Positive airway pressure device filters 6.4.1 Positive airway pressure device filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.4.2 Ultra fine foam inlet filters 6.4.2.1 Ultra fine foam inlet filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.4.3 Polyester non-woven fiber filters 6.4.3.1 Polyester non-woven fiber filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.4.4 Acrylic & polypropylene fiber filter 6.4.4.1 Acrylic & polypropylene fiber filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5 Oxygen concentrators filters 6.5.1 Oxygen concentrator filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.2 HEPA filters 6.5.2.1 HEPA filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.3 Cabinet filters 6.5.3.1 Cabinet filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.4 Pre-inlet filters 6.5.4.1 Pre-inlet filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.5 Inlet filters 6.5.5.1 Inlet filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.6 Micro disk filters 6.5.6.1 Micro disk filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.7 Felt intake filters 6.5.7.1 Felt intake filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.8 Bacterial filters 6.5.8.1 Bacterial filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.5.9 Hollow membrane filters 6.5.9.1 Hollow membrane filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.6 Ventilator filters 6.6.1 Ventilator filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.6.2 Mechanical filters 6.6.2.1 Mechanical filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.6.2.2 HEPA filters 6.6.2.2.1 HEPA filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.6.2.3 ULPA filters 6.6.2.3.1 ULPA filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.6.2.4 Activated carbon filters 6.6.2.4.1 Activated carbon filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.6.3 Electrostatic filters 6.6.3.1 Electrostatic filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Billion) 6.6.3.2 Tribocharged filters 6.6.3.2.1 Tribocharged filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) 6.6.3.3 Fibrillated filters 6.6.3.3.1 Fibrillated filters market, 2017-2030 (USD Million) Chapter 7 Therapeutic Respiratory Devices Regional Outlook Chapter 8 Competitive Landscape 8.1 BD 8.1.1 Company Overview 8.1.2 Financial Performance 8.1.3 Product Benchmarking 8.1.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.2 General Electric Healthcare 8.2.1 Company Overview 8.2.2 Financial Performance 8.2.3 Product Benchmarking 8.2.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.3 CAIRE Inc. 8.3.1 Company Overview 8.3.2 Financial Performance 8.3.3 Product Benchmarking 8.3.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.4 Koninklijke Philips N.V. 8.4.1 Company Overview 8.4.2 Financial Performance 8.4.3 Product Benchmarking 8.4.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.5 Compumedics Limited. 8.5.1 Company Overview 8.5.2 Financial Performance 8.5.3 Product Benchmarking 8.5.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.6 ICU Medical, Inc. 8.6.1 Company Overview 8.6.2 Financial Performance 8.6.3 Product Benchmarking 8.7 Medtronic 8.7.1 Company Overview 8.7.2 Financial Performance 8.7.3 Product Benchmarking 8.7.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.8 Invacare Corporation. 8.8.1 Company Overview 8.8.2 Financial Performance 8.8.3 Product Benchmarking 8.8.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.9 Fisher & Paykel Appliances Ltd 8.9.1 Company Overview 8.9.2 Financial Performance 8.9.3 Product Benchmarking 8.9.4 Strategic Initiatives 8.10 Mindray 8.10.1 Company Overview 8.10.2 Financial Performance 8.10.3 Product Benchmarking 8.10.4 Strategic Initiatives For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/oc9edd Attachment New York, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market Research Report by Platform, Product, Application, Region - Global Forecast to 2027 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276761/?utm_source=GNW The Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market size was estimated at USD 12.37 billion in 2021 and expected to reach USD 13.19 billion in 2022, and is projected to grow at a CAGR 6.92% to reach USD 18.49 billion by 2027. Market Statistics: The report provides market sizing and forecast across five major currencies - USD, EUR, JPY, GBP, AUD, CAD, and CHF. It helps organization leaders make better decisions when currency exchange data is readily available. In this report, the years 2019 and 2020 are considered historical years, 2021 as the base year, 2022 as the estimated year, and years from 2023 to 2027 are considered the forecast period. Market Segmentation & Coverage: This research report categorizes the Airborne Countermeasure Systems to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets: Based on Platform, the market was studied across Military Aircraft, Military Helicopters, and Unmanned Systems. Based on Product, the market was studied across Directed Energy Weapons, Electronic Counter Countermeasure Systems, Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) Systems, Infrared Countermeasures, Jammers, Laser Warning Systems, Missile Approach Warning Systems, Radar Warning Receivers, and Self-protection EW Suites. Based on Application, the market was studied across Counter Countermeasure, Jamming, and Missile Defence. Based on Region, the market was studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas is further studied across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The United States is further studied across California, Florida, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas. The Asia-Pacific is further studied across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa is further studied across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom. Cumulative Impact of COVID-19: COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, and the long-term effects are projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report delivers insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecasts, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market. Cumulative Impact of 2022 Russia Ukraine Conflict: We continuously monitor and update reports on political and economic uncertainty due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Negative impacts are significantly foreseen globally, especially across Eastern Europe, European Union, Eastern & Central Asia, and the United States. This contention has severely affected lives and livelihoods and represents far-reaching disruptions in trade dynamics. The potential effects of ongoing war and uncertainty in Eastern Europe are expected to have an adverse impact on the world economy, with especially long-term harsh effects on Russia.This report uncovers the impact of demand & supply, pricing variants, strategic uptake of vendors, and recommendations for Airborne Countermeasure Systems market considering the current update on the conflict and its global response. Competitive Strategic Window: The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies to help the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. It describes the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth during a forecast period. FPNV Positioning Matrix: The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market based on Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape. Market Share Analysis: The Market Share Analysis offers the analysis of vendors considering their contribution to the overall market. It provides the idea of its revenue generation into the overall market compared to other vendors in the space. It provides insights into how vendors are performing in terms of revenue generation and customer base compared to others. Knowing market share offers an idea of the size and competitiveness of the vendors for the base year. It reveals the market characteristics in terms of accumulation, fragmentation, dominance, and amalgamation traits. Competitive Scenario: The Competitive Scenario provides an outlook analysis of the various business growth strategies adopted by the vendors. The news covered in this section deliver valuable thoughts at the different stage while keeping up-to-date with the business and engage stakeholders in the economic debate. The competitive scenario represents press releases or news of the companies categorized into Merger & Acquisition, Agreement, Collaboration, & Partnership, New Product Launch & Enhancement, Investment & Funding, and Award, Recognition, & Expansion. All the news collected help vendor to understand the gaps in the marketplace and competitors strength and weakness thereby, providing insights to enhance product and service. Company Usability Profiles: The report profoundly explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market, including Aselsan A.?., BAE Systems plc, Blue Origin, LLC, Chemring Counter Measures Ltd., Cobham Limited, Elbit Systems Ltd., General Atomics Systems Integration, LLC, General Dynamics Corporation, Israel Aerospace Industries Ltd., L3Harris Technologies, Leonardo S.p.A., Lockheed Martin Corporation, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Saab AB, Safran S.A., Space Exploration Technologies Corporation, Textron Inc., Thales Group, The Boeing Company, and The Raytheon Company. The report provides insights on the following pointers: 1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players 2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyze penetration across mature segments of the markets 3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments 4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, certification, regulatory approvals, patent landscape, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players 5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and breakthrough product developments The report answers questions such as: 1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market? 2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market during the forecast period? 3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market? 4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market? 5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market? 6. What is the market share of the leading vendors in the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market? 7. What modes and strategic moves are considered suitable for entering the Global Airborne Countermeasure Systems Market? Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06276761/?utm_source=GNW About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place. __________________________ Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Cancer Cachexia Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global cancer cachexia market reached a value of US$ 1.88 billion in 2021. Looking forward, the market is projected to reach a value of US$ 2.53 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 4.80% during 2022-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, the analyst is continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor. Cancer cachexia refers to a multifactorial, host-phagocytic, wasting syndrome that is characterized by systematic inflammation, involuntary loss of lean body mass, negative protein balance, loss of appetite and muscle atrophy. It is caused due to the occurrence of various chronic diseases, including tuberculosis (TB), multiple sclerosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Cancer cachexia can be treated with the utilization of various therapeutics, such as progestogen, corticosteroid, and combination therapy. Amongst these, a progestogen is a synthetic or natural steroid hormone that improves appetite and promotes weight gain, whereas corticosteroid assists in mitigating inflammation and suppressing overactive immune systems. Cancer Cachexia Market Trends The increasing prevalence of cancer and cachexia, especially amongst the rising geriatric populations, is facilitating the demand for advanced therapeutic treatment and drugs, which in turn, is primarily driving the market growth. This is further supported by the increasing awareness amongst consumers regarding the availability of novel therapeutic drugs to treat cancer cachexia. Additionally, the shifting inclination of patients toward combinational therapies for improving lean body mass (LBM) through pharmacological, non-pharmacological therapies and clinical trials is acting as another growth-inducing factor. In line with this, the extensive utilization of several appetite stimulants, such as megestrol acetate, dexamethasone, and methylprednisolone, for improving digestion is also contributing to the market growth. Moreover, significant technological advancements that are emphasizing on the development of effective medicines for cancer cachexia treatment are further propelling the market growth. Apart from this, the numerous favorable initiatives being undertaken by the government bodies of various countries and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for sensitizing people regarding the causes of cancer cachexia, their symptoms and benefits of using advanced treatments are creating a positive outlook for the market. Key Market Segmentation This report provides an analysis of the key trends in each sub-segment of the global cancer cachexia market, along with forecasts at the global, regional and country level from 2022-2027. The report has categorized the market based on therapeutics, mode of action and distribution channel. Breakup by Therapeutics: Progestogens Corticosteroids Combination Therapy Others Breakup by Mode of Action: Appetite Stimulators Weight Loss Stabilizers Breakup by Distribution Channel: Hospital Stores Retail Pharmacy Online Pharmacy Breakup by Region: North America United States Canada Asia-Pacific China Japan India South Korea Australia Indonesia Others Europe Germany France United Kingdom Italy Spain Russia Others Latin America Brazil Mexico Others Middle East and Africa Competitive Landscape The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being AAVogen Inc., Actimed Therapeutics Ltd., Aphios Corporation, Artelo Biosciences Inc., AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc., Fresenius Kabi AG (Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA), Helsinn Healthcare SA, Merck & Co. Inc., NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Pfizer Inc. and Tetra Bio-Pharma. Key Questions Answered in This Report How has the global cancer cachexia market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global cancer cachexia market? What are the key regional markets? What is the breakup of the market based on the therapeutics? What is the breakup of the market based on the mode of action? What is the breakup of the market based on the distribution channel? What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry? What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry? What is the structure of the global cancer cachexia market and who are the key players? What is the degree of competition in the industry? Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Cancer Cachexia Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Therapeutics 6.1 Progestogens 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 Corticosteroids 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 6.3 Combination Therapy 6.3.1 Market Trends 6.3.2 Market Forecast 6.4 Others 6.4.1 Market Trends 6.4.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Mode of Action 7.1 Appetite Stimulators 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Weight Loss Stabilizers 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 8 Market Breakup by Distribution Channel 8.1 Hospital Stores 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Retail Pharmacy 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 8.3 Online Pharmacy 8.3.1 Market Trends 8.3.2 Market Forecast 9 Market Breakup by Region 10 SWOT Analysis 11 Value Chain Analysis 12 Porters Five Forces Analysis 13 Price Analysis 14 Competitive Landscape 14.1 Market Structure 14.2 Key Players 14.3 Profiles of Key Players 14.3.1 AAVogen Inc. 14.3.1.1 Company Overview 14.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.2 Actimed Therapeutics Ltd. 14.3.2.1 Company Overview 14.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.3 Aphios Corporation 14.3.3.1 Company Overview 14.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.4 Artelo Biosciences Inc. 14.3.4.1 Company Overview 14.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.4.3 Financials 14.3.5 AVEO Pharmaceuticals Inc. 14.3.5.1 Company Overview 14.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.5.3 Financials 14.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.6 Fresenius Kabi AG (Fresenius SE & Co. KGaA) 14.3.6.1 Company Overview 14.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.6.3 SWOT Analysis 14.3.7 Helsinn Healthcare SA 14.3.7.1 Company Overview 14.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.8 Merck & Co. Inc. 14.3.8.1 Company Overview 14.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.8.3 Financials 14.3.8.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.9 NGM Biopharmaceuticals Inc. 14.3.9.1 Company Overview 14.3.9.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.9.3 Financials 14.3.10 Pfizer Inc. 14.3.10.1 Company Overview 14.3.10.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.10.3 Financials 14.3.10.4 SWOT Analysis 14.3.11 Tetra Bio-Pharma 14.3.11.1 Company Overview 14.3.11.2 Product Portfolio 14.3.11.3 Financials For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/e80npq Attachment Dublin, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Automotive Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering. The global automotive electronic control unit (ECU) market reached a value of US$ 75.1 billion in 2021. Looking forward, the market is projected to reach a value of US$ 105.4 billion by 2027, exhibiting a CAGR of 5.60% during 2022-2027. Keeping in mind the uncertainties of COVID-19, the analyst is continuously tracking and evaluating the direct as well as the indirect influence of the pandemic. These insights are included in the report as a major market contributor. An automotive electronic control unit (ECU) is embedded in vehicles to control electronic systems and subsystems. It also assists in collecting input from its sensors or other ECUs and relying on actuators to manage the functionalities of automobiles. Some of the commonly integrated automotive ECU are the powertrain control module (PCM), engine control module (ECM), parking aid module, transmission control module (TCM), skid control module, and seat belt control ECU. Automotive Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Market Trends At present, there is a considerable rise in the sales of electric vehicles (EVs) across the globe. This, in confluence with the thriving automotive industry, represents one of the key factors impelling the growth of the market. Moreover, automotive ECU comprises in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems that offer handset integration and head-up display for driver assistance, interior personalization, and cloud-based infotainment. It also enables users to customize their cars and infotainment systems with user experience data, music, apps, themes, and colors of their choice to enhance their driving experience. Besides this, governing authorities of numerous countries are mandating the incorporation of safety systems in a vehicle, including an anti-lock braking system (ABS) and adaptive front lighting system (AFS), to increase road safety. This, coupled with the increasing adoption of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) in vehicles to reduce vehicular accidents and fatalities, is escalating the demand for automotive ECU around the world. Furthermore, key players operating in the industry are focusing on product innovations to offer better services, which is positively influencing the market. Other factors, including technological advancements and rising safety concerns among the masses, are projected to stimulate the market growth in the upcoming years. Key Market Segmentation This report provides an analysis of the key trends in each sub-segment of the global automotive electronic control unit (ECU) market, along with forecasts at the global, regional and country level from 2022-2027. The report has categorized the market based on capacity, vehicle type, propulsion and application. Breakup by Capacity: 16-Bit ECU 32-Bit ECU 64-Bit ECU Breakup by Vehicle Type: Passenger Cars Commercial Vehicles Breakup by Propulsion: Internal Combustion Engine Hybrid Battery Electric Vehicle Breakup By Application ADAS and Safety System Body Control and Comfort System Infotainment and Communication System Powertrain System Others Breakup by Region: North America United States Canada Asia-Pacific China Japan India South Korea Australia Indonesia Others Europe Germany France United Kingdom Italy Spain Russia Others Latin America Brazil Mexico Others Middle East and Africa Competitive Landscape The competitive landscape of the industry has also been examined along with the profiles of the key players being Aptiv PLC, Continental AG, DENSO Corporation, Hitachi Ltd., Magna International Inc., Magneti Marelli S.p.A., Nidec Corporation, NXP Semiconductors N.V., Panasonic Corporation, Pektron Group Limited, Robert Bosch GmbH and ZF Friedrichshafen AG. Key Questions Answered in This Report How has the global automotive electronic control unit (ECU) market performed so far and how will it perform in the coming years? What has been the impact of COVID-19 on the global automotive electronic control unit (ECU) market? What are the key regional markets? What is the breakup of the market based on the capacity? What is the breakup of the market based on the vehicle type? What is the breakup of the market based on the propulsion? What is the breakup of the market based on the application? What are the various stages in the value chain of the industry? What are the key driving factors and challenges in the industry? What is the structure of the global automotive electronic control unit (ECU) market and who are the key players? What is the degree of competition in the industry? Key Topics Covered: 1 Preface 2 Scope and Methodology 3 Executive Summary 4 Introduction 4.1 Overview 4.2 Key Industry Trends 5 Global Automotive Electronic Control Unit (ECU) Market 5.1 Market Overview 5.2 Market Performance 5.3 Impact of COVID-19 5.4 Market Forecast 6 Market Breakup by Capacity 6.1 16-Bit ECU 6.1.1 Market Trends 6.1.2 Market Forecast 6.2 32-Bit ECU 6.2.1 Market Trends 6.2.2 Market Forecast 6.3 64-Bit ECU 6.3.1 Market Trends 6.3.2 Market Forecast 7 Market Breakup by Vehicles Type 7.1 Passenger Cars 7.1.1 Market Trends 7.1.2 Market Forecast 7.2 Commercial Vehicles 7.2.1 Market Trends 7.2.2 Market Forecast 8 Market Breakup by Propulsion 8.1 Internal Combustion Engine 8.1.1 Market Trends 8.1.2 Market Forecast 8.2 Hybrid 8.2.1 Market Trends 8.2.2 Market Forecast 8.3 Battery Electric Vehicle 8.3.1 Market Trends 8.3.2 Market Forecast 9 Market Breakup by Application 9.1 ADAS and Safety System 9.1.1 Market Trends 9.1.2 Market Forecast 9.2 Body Control and Comfort System 9.2.1 Market Trends 9.2.2 Market Forecast 9.3 Infotainment and Communication System 9.3.1 Market Trends 9.3.2 Market Forecast 9.4 Powertrain System 9.4.1 Market Trends 9.4.2 Market Forecast 9.5 Others 9.5.1 Market Trends 9.5.2 Market Forecast 10 Market Breakup by Region 11 SWOT Analysis 12 Value Chain Analysis 13 Porters Five Forces Analysis 14 Price Analysis 15 Competitive Landscape 15.1 Market Structure 15.2 Key Players 15.3 Profiles of Key Players 15.3.1 Aptiv PLC 15.3.1.1 Company Overview 15.3.1.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.2 Continental AG 15.3.2.1 Company Overview 15.3.2.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.2.3 Financials 15.3.2.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.3 DENSO Corporation 15.3.3.1 Company Overview 15.3.3.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.3.3 Financials 15.3.3.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.4 Hitachi Ltd. 15.3.4.1 Company Overview 15.3.4.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.4.3 Financials 15.3.4.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.5 Magna International Inc. 15.3.5.1 Company Overview 15.3.5.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.5.3 Financials 15.3.5.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.6 Magneti Marelli S.p.A. 15.3.6.1 Company Overview 15.3.6.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.7 Nidec Corporation 15.3.7.1 Company Overview 15.3.7.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.7.3 Financials 15.3.7.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.8 NXP Semiconductors N.V. 15.3.8.1 Company Overview 15.3.8.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.9 Panasonic Corporation 15.3.9.1 Company Overview 15.3.9.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.9.3 Financials 15.3.9.4 SWOT Analysis 15.3.10 Pektron Group Limited 15.3.10.1 Company Overview 15.3.10.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.11 Robert Bosch GmbH 15.3.11.1 Company Overview 15.3.11.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.11.3 SWOT Analysis 15.3.12 ZF Friedrichshafen AG 15.3.12.1 Company Overview 15.3.12.2 Product Portfolio 15.3.12.3 SWOT Analysis For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/kle7ai Attachment Charleston, SC, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- They say, Write what you know. So after years of frustration with the outcomes of books she had read, Audra M. Davidson decided to follow her passion and write her own fantasy. She envisioned a world of supernatural creatures, some good and some bad, and despite the fantastical elements, she was determined to create a relatable story, one that encompasses not only the harsh realities of life but also joy, beauty and love. Having experienced emotional and physical abuse in prior relationships, although nothing to the extent of the abuse she depicts in the book, Davidson wanted to explore ones ability to live life to the fullest after trauma. What does the aftermath of trauma look like? And how does one overcome the experience? These are the questions at the heart of her debut fantasy novel. In EMBER, the first book in the series, Amber is a young woman looking to start over. Amber knows that the world can be an awful place. Pain. Hunger. Loneliness. Fear. Loss. Feelings she has known since the day her entire pack was mercilessly slaughtered. Held captive by the Alpha Rogue for twenty years, she has been subjected to beatings, rape and starvation. But Amber wont let it break her, and in spite of her incredibly harrowing childhood, she never gives up. There is still hope. Ambers journey is one that is filled with intense suffering, but that is not where her story ends. And thanks to some supporting characters who are loving and loyal, Ambers faith in herself is restored, and a hero is born. For Davidson, illustrating how to overcome abuse and destigmatizing therapy was an integral part of her story. Not only was it important for Davidson to write about the struggles and insecurities that can come from trauma but also the strength and resilience it takes to rise above them. It was also important to create a male lead who isnt chauvinistic or a misogynist but rather a man who is in touch with his feelings and isn't afraid to express them. The plot distinguishes itself from others in the fantasy genre by delving into the backstory of its supernatural characters and detailing the origins of their powers. The result is an insightful and unique storyline, one that Davidson hopes will engage and entertain readers and leave them eager for the release of the second book. EMBER is available for purchase online at Amazon.com About the Author: Raised in Northwest Illinois, Audra M. Davidson works as a 911 dispatcher for her local police department. She is married with three children. Attachment SEATTLE, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to Coherent Market Insights, the global pharmacogenomics market is estimated to be valued at US$ 14,028.01 million in 2022 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 11.1% during the forecast period (2022-2030). Key Trends and Analysis of the Global Pharmacogenomics Market: Key trends in market include inorganic strategies by key players such as acquisitions, which is expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period. For instance, in September 2021, Abbott, an U.S. multinational medical devices and health care company, announced the acquisition of Walk Vascular, LLC, a commercial-stage medical device company with a minimally invasive mechanical aspiration thrombectomy system designed to remove peripheral blood clots. Walk Vascular's peripheral thrombectomy systems will be incorporated into Abbott's existing endovascular product portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed. Request Sample copy of this Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/request-sample/1053 Pharmacogenomics Market Report Coverage Report Attributes Details Market Size in 2022 $14,028.01 Million Market Size Projection in 2030 $33,014.72 Million CAGR (2022-2030) 11.1 % Largest Market North America Growth Drivers Rising product approvals Increasing inorganic growth strategies by key players rising demand for precision medicine Segmentation By Technology By Application By End User Regional Analysis North America (US, Canada) Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Rest of Latin America) Europe (U.K, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Russia and Rest of Europe) APAC (China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia, ASEAN and Rest of Asia Pacific) ME (GCC Countries, Israel, and Rest of Middle East) Africa (South Africa, North Africa and Central Africa) Key Companies Covered Admera Health, Abbott Laboratories, Agilent Technologies, Novartis AG, Dynamic DNA Laboratories, Empire Genomics, LLC., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Illumina, Inc., OneOme, LLC, Myriad Genetics Inc., OPKO Health, Inc. (GeneDx.), Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., and AltheaDx Key Market Takeaways: Global pharmacogenomics market is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 11.1% during the forecast period due to increasing prevalence of cardiovascular disease, which is expected to drive the global pharmacogenomics market growth over the forecast period. For instance, an article published in Elsevier B.V., a Netherland-based publishing company, in 2018, estimated that 10,000 cardiothoracic surgeons in 6,000 centers globally perform more than 2 million open heart operations each year. Among application, oncology segment is estimated to hold a dominant position in the global pharmacogenomics market in 2022, owing to rising adoption of pharmacogenomics-based treatment of cancer along with the introduction of several novel products associated with this approach and the support of the regulatory agencies, which are expected to drive the market growth over the forecast period. Currently, several clinical trials are investigating pharmacogenomics technology for developing precise medications and improving the overall response rate of the treatment. In May 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Lumakras (Sotorasib) for a targeted therapy for non-small cell lung cancer patients with tumors that express the G12C mutation in the KRAS gene. On the basis of region, North America is estimated to hold a dominant position in the global pharmacogenomics market over the forecast period due to key players in the market focusing on growth strategies such as collaboration. For instance, in September 2021, Admera Health, a precision-medicine company and genetics laboratory, announced that it is collaborated with Back Bay Life Science Advisors, a strategic advisory and investment banking firm, to explore strategic alternatives for its pharmacogenomics and clinical services business as part of a company-wide strategic review. Admera offers the most comprehensive clinical pharmacogenomics test in the industry, covering 62 genes, over 270 medications, and over 20 therapeutic areas, including: psychiatry, cardiology, pain management, and oncology. Admera Healths clinical services portfolio is built on a strong foundation of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and data analysis capabilities. Competitive Landscape: Key players operating in the global pharmacogenomics market include Admera Health, Abbott Laboratories, Agilent Technologies, Novartis AG, Dynamic DNA Laboratories, Empire Genomics, LLC., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Illumina, Inc., OneOme, LLC, Myriad Genetics Inc., OPKO Health, Inc. (GeneDx.), Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., and AltheaDx Buy-Now this Research Report @ https://www.coherentmarketinsights.com/insight/buy-now/1053 Market Segmentation: Global Pharmacogenomics Market, By Technology : DNA Sequencing Microarray Polymerase Chain Reaction Electrophoresis Mass Spectrometry Other Technologies Global Pharmacogenomics Market, By Application : Cardiovascular Diseases Infectious Diseases Oncology Neurological Diseases Psychiatry Pain Management Others Global Pharmacogenomics Market, By End User : Hospitals & Clinics Research Institutions and Academic Institutes Others Global Pharmacogenomics Market, By Region: North America By Country U.S. Canada Latin America By Country Brazil Mexico Argentina Rest of Latin America Europe By Country Germany U.K. France Italy Spain Russia Rest of Europe Asia Pacific By Country China India Japan Australia South Korea ASEAN Rest of Asia Pacific Middle East By Country GCC Israel Rest of Middle East Africa By Country/Sub-region South Africa Central Africa North Africa Related Market Intelligence Reports: Electrophoresis Market , by Type (Capillary Electrophoresis, Routine Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel Electrophoresis, 2D Electrophoresis, Pulsed Field Electrophoresis, Isoelectric Focusing, and Immunochemical Electrophoresis), by Application (Estimation of DNA Molecule, Analysis of PCR Product, Forensic Science, Protein and Antibody Interaction, and Clinical Pathology Analysis), by End User (Research Institute, Healthcare and Diagnosis Centers, Biotechnological and Pharmaceutical Industry, and Educational Institution), and by Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa) - Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2021 - 2028 DNA/Gene Microarray Market , By Type (oDNA, cDNA), By Application (Genomics, Proteomics, Agricultural biology, Environment, Drug R&D, Gene expression and SNP analysis, Cancer/oncology, Others), and By Region (North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa) - Size, Share, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2020 - 2027 About Us: Coherent Market Insights is a global market intelligence and consulting organization focused on assisting our plethora of clients achieve transformational growth by helping them make critical business decisions. We are headquartered in India, having sales office at global financial capital in the U.S. and sales consultants in United Kingdom and Japan. Our client base includes players from across various business verticals in over 57 countries worldwide. We create value for clients through our highly reliable and accurate reports. We are also committed in playing a leading role in offering insights in various sectors post-COVID-19 and continue to deliver measurable, sustainable results for our clients. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, right, of the ruling People Power Party, and Song Young-gil of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, both candidates for Seoul mayor, cast their ballots on the first day of the two days of early voting for the June 1 local elections in Seoul, Friday. Yonhap Experts say understanding the policy lender's unique roles is crucial for country By Yi Whan-woo The rival mayoral candidates for both Seoul and Busan are capitalizing on President Yoon Suk-yeol's plan to relocate the Korea Development Bank's (KDB) headquarters outside the nation's capital in their last-minute campaigns to woo voters in the June 1 local elections. Yoon wants to move the state-run KDB to Busan in the name of balanced regional development, which collides with Seoul's goal of becoming a global financial hub by enhancing the networks and infrastructure of financial firms already heavily concentrated in the city. The rival candidates are either for or against the president's plan, not in tandem with the policies of the party they belong to, but rather in tandem with the interests of the city they are from. Their strategy is odd, considering that candidates usually pursue their respective party's policies. In Seoul, both Oh Se-hoon of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and Song Young-gil of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) are pledging to make full-fledged efforts to nurture Seoul as a global financial hub. The incumbent mayor of Seoul who is looking to serve his fourth non-consecutive term, Oh is not explicitly criticizing the KDB relocation plan. But he implicitly expressed his disapproval of the idea by saying, "I will turn Seoul's financial district of Yeouido into a strategic location that successfully incorporates financial support that is scattered across multiple areas." Former DPK Chairman and National Assembly representative Song has indeed been openly opposed to Yoon's plan. During a signing ceremony with the Korean Financial Industry Union (KFU) on policy cooperation, Wednesday, he argued that Seoul can "take a leap toward a global financial hub only if the KDB stays in the city." Headquartered in Seoul, the KFU is an umbrella group of unionists of financial firms nationwide. It has been strongly denouncing the relocation plan and has been calling on Mayor Oh to take action to prevent it from happening. Song also said, "I as the next mayor will show up at a Cabinet meeting of the Yoon administration and strongly express my concerns over moving the KDB out of Seoul." Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon, right, and his wife, cast their ballots on the first day of the two-day period of early voting for the June 1 local elections in Busan, Friday. Yonhap Busan mayoral candidate Byun Seong-wan, right, of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, and his wife, cast their ballots on the first day of the two-day period of early voting for the June 1 local elections in Busan, Friday. Yonhap In Busan, PPP candidate and incumbent Mayor Park Heong-joon is going the extra mile to materialize Yoon's plan by pledging to host not only the headquarters of the KDB but also that of the Export-Import Bank of Korea (Eximbank), another sate-run lender from Seoul. The DPK contender for Busan mayor, former Acting Mayor Byun Seong-wan, is even more enthusiastic than Park over the possible KDB relocation plan. He has promised to relocate the KDB and Eximbank, plus National Federation of Fisheries Cooperatives, to Busan, as the country's largest port city. A government-affiliated financial institution, the federation is tasked with lending and providing other financial support for the fishing industry. Experts contacted by The Korea Times, Friday, said that the conflicting campaign strategy clearly reflects a dilemma that Korea faces in its goal of using finance to become a global industrial leader on the one hand and to bolster regional economies domestically on the other hand. They said that a more thorough understanding is needed of the role of the KDB in policy lending, state-led corporate structuring and M&As, as well as other areas, to make a decision on the future of the KDB and its location, in relation to national interests. "There's no right or wrong concerning the candidates' pledges on the KDB relocation plan. Each side has a justifiable argument and a nationwide discussion will be needed after the local elections to come to a consensus," said Kwon Oh-in, the economic policy director at the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, a civic activist group. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior KFU member said that the union is against the relocation plan because it believes staying in Seoul "helps the KDB the most, serving its purpose." "For example, most of the foreign capital is centered in Seoul, and you can't communicate with foreign investors interested in KDB-led M&As efficiently if you are in distant area from Seoul," he said. Asked to provide any ideas for supporting the financial industry in Busan without relocating the KDB, he suggested bolstering the roles of regional firms such as Busan Bank. VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Optimi Health Corp. (CSE: OPTI) (OTCQX: OPTHF) (FRA: 8BN) (Optimi or the Company), a homegrown, Canadian company producing natural, scalable, and accessible mushroom formulations for transformational human experiences, is pleased to announce that it has entered into a supply agreement with Halucenex Life Sciences Inc. (Halucenex), a wholly owned subsidiary of Creso Pharma of Australia (ASX: CPH). Halucenex is based in Windsor, Nova Scotia and is a life sciences company focused on researching novel psychedelic compounds, developing and licensing psychedelic compounds for the pharmaceutical and nutraceutical markets, and conducting clinical trials on the medical benefits of psychedelic medicine. Additionally, Optimi wishes to confirm that the supply agreement pertains to the entirety of the Companys recently harvested first batch of psilocybe cubensis mushrooms at its Princeton, British Columbia facility. The mushrooms will be supplied to Halucenex in the form of whole, dried mushroom fruiting bodies. This first supply agreement, coming so soon after our first complete cultivation cycle, is a powerful affirmation of our decision to pursue the development of natural, GMP psilocybin, said Bill Ciprick, CEO of Optimi. From this initial proof-of-concept batch, our cultivation team will continue to scale our operations to meet the demands of the sector, domestically and internationally with licensed entities and for individual patients within Canada according to the terms of the Special Access Program. Halucenex CEO, Bill Fleming, says the agreement with Optimi is one both companies will benefit from. Were very excited to be moving forward on this supply agreement with the team at Optimi Health, said Fleming. Among our top priorities in the development of a psychedelic-assisted psychotherapeutic model for conditions such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder has been to secure a safe, consistent supply of GMP psilocybin. Authorized parties interested in purchasing Optimi psilocybin and functional mushroom products should send an email to sales@optimihealth.ca where a member of the sales team will respond within 24 hours. ABOUT OPTIMI (CSE: OPTI) (OTCQX: OPTHF) (FRA: 8BN) Optimi Health Inc. is a homegrown, Canadian success story producing and supplying natural, EU-GMP grade psilocybin and functional mushrooms that focus on the health and wellness markets. Built with the purpose to produce scalable, natural mushroom formulations for transformational human experiences, the Companys goal is to be the number one trusted, compassionate supplier of safe, natural GMP grade psilocybin across the world. With a vertically integrated approach, Optimi intends to cultivate, extract, process and distribute high quality functional and psychedelic mushroom products at its two facilities comprising a total of 20,000 square feet in Princeton, British Columbia. To fully investigate the science of mushrooms, the Company has received a research exemption under Health Canada Food and Drug Regulations (FDR) for the use of psilocybin and psilocin for scientific purposes via its wholly owned subsidiary Optimi Labs Inc. Optimi has also been granted a dealers license under Canadas Narcotic Control Regulations governing possession, distribution, sale, laboratory analysis of and research and development of psilocybin and psilocin formulations. Optimi is committed to expert cultivation and quality production subject to and in accordance with the terms of all applicable laws and governing regulations to ensure safe, superior Canadian fungi production. Optimi was recently granted an amendment to its Dealers Licence by Health Canada, allowing the Company to possess a quota of up to 5000kg of dried psilocybin mushrooms the equivalent of 10kg of psilocybin and 100g of psilocin. ABOUT HALUCENEX Halucenex operates a 6000 sq ft medical facility in Windsor, Nova Scotia with six treatment rooms and a secure laboratory dedicated to performing psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and clinical research. Halucenex intends to maintain control over all aspects of the product development process mycological research, extraction technology, and synthetic formulation as well as drug delivery technologies, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and regulatory affairs. Clinically, Halucenex is focused on researching psilocybin, psilocybin-derivatives, and other psychedelic medicine for the purposes of treating clients suffering from PTSD and anxiety using its comprehensive psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy treatment model. Halucenex is committed to advancing the science around the use of psilocybin in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy by: For more information or to request an interview, please contact: Michael Kydd Media & Stakeholder Relations Advisor Email: michael@kyddergroup.com Phone: +1 (902) 880 6121 FORWARDLOOKING STATEMENTS This news release contains forwardlooking statements and forwardlooking information within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation (collectively, forwardlooking statements) that relate to Optimis current expectations and views of future events. Any statements that express, or involve discussions as to, expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, through the use of words or phrases such as will likely result, are expected to, expects, will continue, is anticipated, anticipates, believes, estimated, intends, plans, forecast, projection, strategy, objective, and outlook) are not historical facts and may be forwardlooking statements and may involve estimates, assumptions and uncertainties which could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from those expressed in such forwardlooking statements. No assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forwardlooking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. In particular and without limitation, this news release contains forward looking statements pertaining to activities proposed to be conducted under the Companys dealers license and associated business related to psilocybin and psilocin and Optimis plans, focus and objectives. Forwardlooking statements are based on a number of assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Optimis control, which could cause actual results and events to differ materially from those that are disclosed in or implied by such forwardlooking statements. Such risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the impact and progression of the COVID19 pandemic and other factors set forth under ForwardLooking Statements and Risk Factors in the Companys Annual information Form dated January 12, 2022, and other continuous disclosure filings available under Optimis profile at www.sedar.com. Optimi undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forwardlooking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required by law. New factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for Optimi to predict all of them or assess the impact of each such factor or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause results to differ materially from those contained in any forwardlooking statement. Any forwardlooking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. Photos accompanying this announcement are available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b1df7352-0b4b-48e9-a3f1-950de89cd66a https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/82589a86-5ae3-4399-b33e-5b4b9927bcb4 Chicago, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- According to MarketsandMarkets, the "Quantum Computing Market by Offering (Systems and Services), Deployment (On Premises and Cloud Based), Application, Technology, End-use Industry and Region - Global Forecast to 2026", is expected to grow from USD 472 million in 2021 to USD 1,765 million by 2026, at a CAGR of 30.2%. The early adoption of quantum computing in the banking and finance sector is expected to fuel the growth of the market globally. Other key factors contributing to the growth of the quantum computing market include rising investments by governments of different countries to carry out research and development activities related to quantum computing technology. Several companies are focusing on the adoption of QCaaS post-COVID-19. This, in turn, is expected to contribute to the growth of the quantum computing market. However, stability and error correction issues are expected to restrain the growth of the market. The Quantum Computing market was dominated by International Business Machines (US), D-Wave Systems (Canada), Microsoft (US), Amazon (US), and Rigetti Computing (US). The major strategies adopted by the top 5 players in the Quantum Computing market included product launches/developments, partnerships and collaborations which helped them to innovate on their product offerings, cope up with the COVID-19 outbreak and broaden their customer base. Ask for PDF Brochure: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/pdfdownloadNew.asp?id=144888301 Top 2 players in the Quantum Computing Market are: International Business Machines (US) IBM provides information technology products, along with computer solutions and services across the world. It has various divisions, namely, IBM Global Services, IBM Smartcamp, and IBM Research. Under its IBM Research division, the company has started the Quantum Experience, a set up wherein researchers carry out research on the IBM quantum computers through the cloud. In January 2020, IBM partnered with Daimler AG, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, to enhance the capacity and increase the charging speed of batteries of electric vehicles. These companies used a quantum computer to model the dipole moment of three lithium-containing molecules that paves the way for the development of the next-generation lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries that will be more powerful, long-lasting, and cost-effective than lithium-ion batteries. In November 2019, IBM partnered with the Unitary Fund to provide grants and priority access to certain IBM Q systems. Like the quantum computing mission of IBM, the Unitary Fund aims to create a quantum technology industry that benefits most of the people. D- Wave Systems (Canada) D- Wave Systems is one of the global leaders manufacturing and providing quantum computing systems and software. It is the worlds first commercial supplier of quantum computers. The company has its presence in various locations such as the US, Europe, and Asia. The company offers a full stack of systems, software, developer tools, and services to enable enterprises, governments, laboratories, and academic institutions to access the power of quantum computing. Browse in-depth TOC on Quantum Computing Market 111 - Tables 51- Figures 199 - Pages Request Sample Pages: https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/requestsampleNew.asp?id=144888301 Top Key Players in Quantum Computing Market: International Business Machines (US) D-Wave Systems (Canada) Microsoft (US) Amazon (US) Rigetti Computing (US) Google (US) In September 2020, D-Wave Systems announced the general availability of its next-generation quantum computing platform, incorporated with new hardware, software, and tools to enable, and accelerate the delivery of in-production quantum computing applications. Available in the Leap quantum cloud service, the platform includes the Advantage quantum system, with more than 5000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity, in addition to an expanded hybrid solver service that can run problems with up to one million variables. In July 2020, D-Wave Systems announced its latest geographic expansion of the Leap quantum cloud service to India and Australia. Developers, researchers, and businesses in these countries can now access D-Wave 2000Q quantum computers, hybrid solvers, and QAE in real-time through Leap to drive the development of business-critical, in-production hybrid applications. Machine learning is expected to witness highest CAGR in coming years Quantum machine learning involves the integration of quantum algorithms within machine learning programs. In the case of complex models, it becomes very difficult to sort many variables systematically. Thus, users can opt for quantum computing technology to resolve this complexity with accuracy and speed. For instance, in the Monte Carlo method, the sampling technique is used to estimate numerical quantities from a large dataset. Quantum algorithms can be used to increase the execution speed of a solution, while algorithms can expedite the implementation of the Monte Carlo method and reduce the computational time. The superconducting qubits segment is projected to account for the largest size of the quantum computing market from 2021 to 2026. The growth of this segment can be attributed to faster operations of quantum computers based on superconducting qubits technology than the computers equipped with other technologies. The technology companies such as IBM, Google, and Intel are expected to launch their quantum computing services with superconducting qubits in the coming years. Related Reports: Deep Learning Market Houston, TX, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Dr. Paul M. Friedman, the director of Dermatology & Laser Surgery Center in Houston, Texas is now serving as the President of The American Society for Laser Medicine and Surgery, Inc. (ASLMS). Dr. Friedman will hold the elected position through 2023. As the largest professional organization of its kind, ASLMS is dedicated to promoting education, research, and excellence in clinical care in the field of biomedical laser and energy-based treatments. Dr. Friedman addressed the ASLMS community in April during their 41st annual conference in San Diego, CA. Dr. Friedman announced his intention to launch a philanthropic committee to further explore the use of lasers to transform lives. He specifically spoke about helping survivors of sex trafficking who are seeking removal of branding tattoos, as well as children with vascular birthmarks. Dr. Friedman shared a video that highlighted the story of a sex trafficking survivor for whom he provided tattoo removal, which aided in her recovery to reclaiming her body. He also shared his work with the Vascular Birthmark Foundation. Dr. Friedman went on to discuss the critical need for proper laser education in order to provide safe and effective treatment and the importance of a proactive social media presence among core cosmetic physicians to provide patient education and counteract misinformation regarding cosmetic procedures. Dr. Friedman is a board-certified dermatologist and has gained international recognition for his research and clinical experience. He is a leader in his field and is known for his broad range of dermatological expertise, including advanced applications of laser treatments. Dr. Friedman has authored more than 100 articles for medical journals and several textbooks and is the co-editor of Lasers and Light Source Treatment for the Skin, a practical guide to treating a variety of dermatological conditions with laser procedures. He is also regularly sought after as a speaker for professional organizations and an expert for media outlets, including New Beauty, The New York Times, Good Housekeeping, Prevention, and more. In addition to clinical research and patient care, Dr. Friedman is an educator and serves as a faculty member at MD Anderson Cancer Center, the University of Texas Medical School, and the Weill Cornell Medical College. Dr. Friedman looks forward to leading ASLMS, as he believes deeply in the importance of advancing the medical and aesthetic application of lasers. He says, There are plenty of needs and opportunities for changing lives with lasers and I am honored to serve as the President for this incredible society and look forward to an exciting year ahead. About Dermatology & Laser Surgery Center The Dermatology & Laser Surgery Center is led by award-winning dermatologist Dr. Paul Friedman. With an emphasis on utilizing modern technology and expert techniques, Dr. Friedman and his team provide high quality treatment in a safe and professional manner. The Dermatology & Laser Surgery Center offers a wide variety of treatments for dermatological issues including wrinkles, acne, skin cancer, scars, veins, birthmarks, and much more. A range of minimally invasive cosmetic, reconstructive, and therapeutic procedures are available. Attachment Staten Island, New York, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In observance of Memorial Day, the Tunnel to Towers Foundation is honoring the memory of 21 servicemen who made the ultimate sacrifice for our country by paying off the mortgage on their homes. Tunnel to Towers will ensure the families these heroes left behind will always have a place to call home. 21 Gold Star families are from 16 states and including the families of: Air Force Captain Jeffrey Hill - Elk River, MN Army Sergeant Andrew Chaisson - Becker, MN USMC Staff Sergeant John Stock - Hughes Springs, TX Army Sergeant Dennis Lee - Killeen, TX Army Sergeant First Class Benjamin Bitner - Wesley Chapel, FL Army Staff Sergeant Paul Olmstead - West Valley, UT Air Force Major Brad Funk - Farr West, UT Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Frank Bryant Jr. - Coronado, CA Navy Master At Arms Dameshvar Jaikaran - San Diego, CA Army Private First Class Steven Drees - Peshtigo, WI Army Staff Sergeant Ronnie Sanders - Fayetteville, NC Army Lieutenant Colonel Christian Blevins - Pinehurst, NC Army Staff Sergeant Alex French - Milledgeville, GA Army Staff Sergeant Kenneth Bennett - Stephens City, VA Army Staff Sergeant Steve Blass - Estherville, IA Air Force Master Sergeant Archie Hodsdon - Mexico, ME Army Staff Sergeant Frank Adamski III - Colchester, CT Army Staff Sergeant Timothy Walker - Spring Hill, TN The Tunnel to Towers Gold Star Family Home Program honors the legacy of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country by paying off the mortgage or providing the surviving spouses and young children with mortgage-free homes. This Memorial Day is the first time in 20 years Americas servicemen and women are not in harms way on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan. These conflicts are over, but families are still dealing with the loss of husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters. I ask all Americans to take a minute to think of these heroes and their families who have sacrificed so much over the last two decades, said Tunnel to Towers Chairman & CEO Frank Siller. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation has set a goal to reach 1,000 mortgage-free homes delivered across the country to our nations military and first responders by the end of the year. Join us on our mission to provide mortgage-free homes to the heroes and the families they leave behind by donating $11 per month at T2T.org. About the Tunnel to Towers Foundation The Tunnel to Towers Foundation is dedicated to honoring the sacrifice of FDNY Firefighter Stephen Siller, who laid down his life to save others on September 11, 2001. For more than 20 years the Foundation has supported our nations first responders, veterans, and their families by providing these heroes and the families they leave behind with mortgage-free homes. For more about the Tunnel to Towers Foundation and its commitment to DO GOOD, please visit T2T.org. Follow @Tunnel2Towers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Attachments Dallas, Texas, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vaycaychella, Inc. (OTC Pink: VAYK) (VAYK) published a presentation today on the companys plans to integrate its alternative short-term vacation rental purchase finance technology into a program designed to expand an existing portfolio of properties in Cuba currently available on Airbnb and VRBO. On May 16th, the U.S. State Department announced it would rollback a number of sanctions against Cuba. Included in the rollback is the opening of U.S. flights to multiple Cuban airports, the increase of remittances to Cuban citizens from U.S. residents and an initiative to improve Cuban entrepreneurs access to microfinance. VAYK is a technology company that last year introduced an award-winning Peer-2-Peer Alternative Finance Application (APP) for sourcing financing to purchase income producing vacation properties. VAYK launched a pilot short-term vacation rental business in Cuba just outside of Havana in 2018. VAYK backed the renovation of ten Art Deco style beach properties originally built in the 1930s and 1940s now operated as vacation destinations available through Airbnb and VRBO. Since that time, the company has added a small boutique hotel in Havana. The Cuba pilot served as a model for the companys design and launch of its award-winning Peer-2-Peer Alternative Finance Application (APP) for sourcing financing to purchase income producing vacation properties. Now VAYK is participating in a new planned program to expand the Cuba pilot and open the opportunity up to more investors and entrepreneurs. Learn more in the presentation published today at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOwRYaVzkzM To learn more and keep up with the latest updates at Vaycaychella, and to access the Vaycaychella App, visit https://www.vaycaychella.com/ . Disclaimer/Safe Harbor: This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act. The statements reflect the Company's current views with respect to future events that involve risks and uncertainties. Among others, these risks include the expectation that any of the companies mentioned herein will achieve significant sales, the failure to meet schedule or performance requirements of the companies' contracts, the companies' liquidity position, the companies' ability to obtain new contracts, the emergence of competitors with greater financial resources and the impact of competitive pricing. In the light of these uncertainties, the forward-looking events referred to in this release might not occur. MONTREAL, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Earth Alive Clean Technologies Inc. (TSXV: EAC Earth Alive or the Company), a company that develops, manufactures and distributes state-of-the-art, environmentally-sound proprietary microbial solutions and products, is pleased to announced today its consolidated financial statements for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022. All amounts are in Canadian dollars unless otherwise indicated. Highlights of the First Quarter Sales totalled $572,779 in Q1 2022 compared to sales of $943,139 in Q1 2021. Total net loss of $560,886 compared to $181,906 in Q1 2021 Total operating expenses of $690,598 compared to $499,945 in Q1 2021 The working capital totaled $3,986,776 on March 31, 2022 with $3,240,809 in cash to support commercialization efforts The lacklustre operational and financial performance in Q1 is a direct result of a reorganization that began in the fall of 2021 with the appointment of new executives, said Nikolaos Sofronis, President and Chief Executive Officer. This initiative included the restructuring of our divisions, which has enabled the confirmation of several tests and leads with new clients and partners in both the Infrastructure and Agriculture divisions. We are confident that these activities will contribute to increase our sales and revenues in the next six to twelve months. Earth Alive Consolidated Financial Statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the first quarter ended March 31, 2022 are available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com and on our website at www.earthalivect.com. Subsequent Events On April 6, 2022, the Company announced closing of a $ 6.1 million non-brokered private placement Earth Alive has announced that its ea1 dust suppressant has arrived in Argentina where it will be used in an Oil & Gas facility. This commercial test is estimated to be completed by the end of the second quarter of 2022 and is the first foray of the Company in the Oil & Gas industry. Earth Alive is starting this week a second test with a major mining operation in Brazil, following an initial test announced by the Company on April 7, 2020. The Mining Group has decided to test ea1 for a longer period of time. The Company announced on April 20, 2022, the appointment of Mr. Jean-Philippe Lejeune as Chief Financial Officer. The Company announced on April 29 that on April 19 th Mr. Eric Paul-Hus joined the company as Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary. Mr. Eric Paul-Hus joined the company as Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary. The Company announced on May 3, 2022, the appointment of Mr. David Colon to the Board of Directors. Earth Alive will host its Annual General Meeting on June 28, 2022 (Montreal time). This will be a virtual meeting only which shareholders of record on April 29, 2022 will be able to attend at http:// meetnow.global/MZXCCCS . About Earth Alive Clean Technologies Earth Alive is an industry leader in microbial technologies. Earth Alives innovative products contribute to regenerative agriculture, natural dust suppression with minimal water use and industrial cleaning that is ecological and human friendly. For additional information, please visit: https://earthalivect.com/. Forward-Looking Information: Certain information in this press release contains forward-looking information and forward-looking statements, which reflect the current view of management with respect to the Company's objectives, plans, goals, strategies, outlook, results of operations, financial and operating performance, prospects and opportunities. Words or expressions such as "to support", "efforts, "confident", "will", "contribute", "estimated" and similar words or expressions identify forward-looking information and forward-looking statements. Forward-looking information and forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a guarantee of future events, performance or results, and will not necessarily be an accurate indication of whether, or the times at which, such events, performance or results will be achieved. All of the information in this press release containing forward-looking information or forward-looking statements is qualified by these cautionary statements. Readers are urged to consider the risks, uncertainties and assumptions carefully in evaluating the forward-looking information and forward-looking statements and are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such information and statements. The Company does not undertake to update any such forward-looking information or forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable laws. For information, please contact : Nikolas Sofronis, CEO 438 333-1680; 514 462 1628 +352621395338 nsofronis@earthalivect.com BERLIN, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Click fraud prevention firm Polygraph is warning of a new cyber-crime targeting advertisers who offer no-cost products and services as part of their customer acquisition process. Some advertisers try to acquire customers by getting them to sign up to a mailing list or download a free report, said Trey Vanes, Chief Marketing Officer at Polygraph. Criminals use these free offers to help disguise their click fraud schemes. Click fraud is a sophisticated internet crime targeting online advertisers. Fraudsters place genuine advertisements on their scam websites, and use technology and trickery to generate massive amounts of fake clicks. The criminals earn a small fee from the advertising network every time an ad is clicked, so by generating thousands of fake clicks each day, theyre able to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars every month, added Vanes. Click fraudsters are stealing billions of dollars from advertisers every year. Some of the advertising networks, including Google Ads, are able to track advertisement conversion rates, meaning they can see which ad clicks resulted in a sale. According to Vanes, this presents a problem for the criminals, as their fake ad clicks never convert. The fraudsters often use bots software pretending to be human - to click on the ads. These clicks are worthless, and will never convert into a sale at the advertisers websites. The ad network can see this, and will flag the criminals account as being suspicious. To get around this problem, the criminals manually generate conversions at websites offering no-cost products and services. The criminals try to find adverts for products such as reports or brochures which can be downloaded free of charge. They force those advertisements to display on their scam websites, and then manually click the ads and complete a conversion such as downloading the report or brochure. This tricks the advertising network into believing a real conversion took place, resulting in a reputation boost for the criminals website. From the perspective of the ad network, these conversions are real, so theyre fooled into thinking the fraudsters clicks are converting into real sales, added Vanes. By mixing fake conversions amongst their fake clicks, the criminals are able to make their traffic seem real. Polygraph helps advertisers monitor fake clicks, so any fraudulent conversions are easily identified. By using Polygraph to monitor your ads for click fraud, Polygraph can tell you which clicks are fake, why theyre fake, and where the click came from. Advertisers can use this information to prevent click fraud and get refunds from the ad networks, added Vanes. For more information, please visit https://polygraph.net About Polygraph Established in Berlin, Germany in 2021, Polygraph monitors the activities of click fraud gangs, including how they operate, who they target, the techniques they use, and how to detect their fraud. We go far beyond bot detection to ensure your ad budget is not stolen by cyber-criminals. Contact Details: 114A Friedrichstrasse Berlin, BE 10117, Germany Trey Vanes, Polygraph +49 (030) 2204 4851 WEST PALM BEACH, Fla., May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sterling Organization, a vertically integrated private equity real estate firm whose national platform is focused on investing in LAST HOUR consumer fulfillment and distribution real estate assets, has announced the acquisition of two premier market-leading grocery-anchored shopping centers totaling 280,000 square feet in a portfolio transaction. The Grove (Orlando MSA) and Riverfront Plaza (New York MSA) were acquired on behalf of Sterling's institutional grocery-anchored shopping center core fund, Sterling United Properties II, LP ("SUP II"), for $113.75 million and mark the 11th and 12th investments made by the Fund. The Grove is located in Windermere, Florida, one of the most affluent communities in Florida. The 151,752-square-foot Publix-anchored shopping center is home to national retailers including Wells Fargo, Great Clips, Charles Schwab, AT&T, and BurgerFi. Riverfront Plaza is a 128,968-square-foot, ShopRite-anchored shopping center located in Hackensack, New Jersey, and sits approximately 13 miles from Manhattan. Additional tenants at the property include Chase Bank, AT&T, H&R Block, Sherwin Williams, KFC and Taco Bell. "We are excited to add these two high quality properties to our growing portfolio of core grocery-anchored shopping centers," said Brian Kosoy, Managing Principal and CEO of Sterling Organization. "It is rare to be able to acquire assets of this extraordinary caliber, in prime markets, anchored by market leading grocers. The properties have combined average demographics of over 130,000 people living within three miles and average household incomes of approximately $120,000," added Kosoy. Sterling Organization currently owns 74 properties, across multiple Funds, in major markets throughout the United States exceeding 12.1 million square feet and approaching $2.5 billion in value. ### Sterling Organization is a vertically integrated private equity real estate firm whose national platform is focused on investing in LAST HOUR consumer fulfillment and distribution real estate assets across the risk spectrum in major markets within the United States. Sterling Organization, with offices across the nation, is headquartered in West Palm Beach, FL. Contact: Dana Verhelst, dverhelst@sterlingorganization.com www.sterlingorganization.com Related Images Image 1: Sterling Organization Logo This content was issued through the press release distribution service at Newswire.com. Attachment NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO UNITED STATES NEWSWIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pure Gold Mining Inc. (TSX-V:PGM, LSE:PUR) (PureGold or the Company) is pleased to announce that it has closed the second and final tranche (the Second Tranche) of its non-brokered private placement, previously announced on May 6, 2022 (the Offering). The closing of the First Tranche was announced on May 25, 2022. The Company is also pleased to announce it has closed the securities for debt agreements (the Securities for Debt Transaction and together with the Offering, the Transactions), previously announced on May 24, 2022. Pursuant to the closing of the Second Tranche, the Company has issued a total of 22,168,000 units of the Company (the Units), at a price of C$0.15 per Unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of C$3,325,200. Each Unit consists of one common share and one common share purchase warrant (a Warrant). Each Warrant will be transferrable and entitle the holder to acquire one common share of PureGold for six months from the closing date of the Offering at a price of C$0.18. No finders fees were paid in relation to the Second Tranche. Between the First and Second Tranches, the Company has issued a total of 207,240,960 units of the Company pursuant to the Offering at a price of C$0.15 per Unit, for aggregate gross proceeds of C$31,086,144. Pursuant to the Securities for Debt Transaction, the Company has issued 20,922,914 Units at a price of $0.15 per Unit to certain creditors in order to settle outstanding debts totaling $3,138,437.10 (the Debt). Between the Securities for Debt Transaction and the Offering, the Company has issued a total of 228,163,874 Units of the Company at a price of C$0.15 per Unit. AngloGold Ashanti Limited (AngloGold Ashanti), the Companys largest shareholder, subscribed for 22,168,000 Units pursuant to the Offering (the AngloGold Subscription), bringing AngloGold Ashantis ownership in the Company following the Transactions to 19.2% on a partially-diluted basis and 16.5% on a non-diluted basis. Mark ODea, Interim President & CEO of PureGold stated, On behalf of the Executive Team I would like to thank our long term shareholders for their continuing support, as well as welcome all of our new shareholders to PureGold. This financing is intended to give the Company the runway it needs to bring stability to our operation and establish a profitable mining business in Canada. With a large, high-grade resource base, a strong and improving geological understanding of the deposit, significant opportunity for growth, and a talented new operating team at the helm, we are excited and committed to driving PureGold forward. Due to its share ownership, AngloGold is considered a related party of PureGold and, accordingly, the AngloGold Subscription constitutes a related party transaction within the meaning of Multilateral Instrument 61-101 Protection of Minority Security Holders in Special Transactions (MI 61-101). The AngloGold Subscription and related party portion of the Offering, as disclosed in the May 25, 2022 news release, were exempt from the minority approval requirement of Section 5.6 and the formal valuation requirement of Section 5.4 of MI 61-101 as neither the fair market value of the AngloGold Subscription and related party portion of the Offering, nor the fair market value of the consideration of the AngloGold Subscription and related party portion of the Offering, exceeded 25% of PureGolds market capitalization. A material change report in connection with the Transactions will be filed less than 21 days before the closing of the Transactions. This shorter period was reasonable and necessary in the circumstances as the Company wished to complete the Transactions in a timely manner. Proceeds from the Offering will be used to complete the Companys near-term objectives of ramping up the PureGold Mine to 800 tpd by Q3 2022, reducing operating and sustaining capital costs in Q2 2022 by at least 30% compared to Q1 2022, achieving sustainable positive site-level cash flow by Q3 2022, completing critical trade-off studies in support of the updated Mineral Resource, Mineral Reserve, and Life of Mine plan expected to be released by Q4 2022, and for general corporate purposes. The securities offered have not been, and will not be, registered under the United States Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the U.S. Securities Act) or any U.S. state securities laws, and may not be offered or sold in the United States or to, or for the account or benefit of, United States persons absent registration or any applicable exemption from the registration requirements of the U.S. Securities Act and applicable U.S. state securities laws. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy securities in the United States, nor will there be any sale of these securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful. About Pure Gold Mining Inc. PureGold is a Canadian gold mining company, located in the very heart of Red Lake, Ontario, Canada. The Company owns and operates the PureGold Mine, which entered commercial production in 2021 after the successful construction of an 800 tpd underground mine and processing facilities. Gold reserves and resources are centered on a forty-seven square kilometre property with significant discovery potential. PureGolds strategy is to pursue operational excellence today while investing in systematic exploration and phased expansions to fuel discovery and growth for the future.1 Additional information about the Company and its activities may be found on the Companys website at www.puregoldmining.ca and under the Companys profile at www.sedar.com For further information, see the technical report titled Madsen Gold Project Technical Report Feasibility Study for the Madsen Deposit, Red Lake, Ontario, Canada with an effective date of February 5, 2019, and dated July 5, 2019 (the Feasibility Study), for further information please see puregoldmining.ca or under the Companys Sedar profile at www.sedar.com ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD " Mark ODea " Mark ODea, President & CEO Investor inquiries: Adrian OBrien, Director, IR & Communications Tel: 604-809-6890 aobrien@puregoldmining.ca 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. All statements in this press release, other than statements of historical fact, are "forward-looking information" with respect to PureGold within the meaning of applicable securities laws, including, but not limited to statements with respect to the use of proceeds for the Offering and certain other matters relating to the Offering and the timings thereof, expectations regarding the new mining areas and the enhancement of the grade and overall tonnes available; and expectations and timing regarding the reduction in operating, the sustaining capital costs at the PureGold Mine, achieving sustainable positive site-level cash, completing critical trade-off studies in support of the updated Mineral Resource, Mineral Reserve, and Life of Mine plans. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "seek", "anticipate", "plan", "continue", "planned", "expect", "project", "predict", "potential", "targeting", "intends", "believe", "potential", and similar expressions, or describes a "goal", or variation of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "should", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved. Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made including, among others, assumptions about future prices of gold and other metal prices, currency exchange rates and interest rates, favourable operating conditions, political stability, obtaining governmental approvals and financing on time, obtaining renewals for existing licences and permits and obtaining required licences and permits, labour stability, stability in market conditions, availability of equipment, accuracy of any mineral resources, successful resolution of disputes and anticipated costs and expenditures. Many assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of PureGold and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct. Such forward-looking information, involves known and unknown risks, which may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking information, including, risks related to the interpretation of results at the Pure Gold Red Lake Mine complex; changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined; current economic conditions; future prices of commodities; possible variations in grade or recovery rates; the costs and timing of the development of new deposits; failure of equipment or processes to operate as anticipated; the failure of contracted parties to perform; the timing and success of exploration and development activities generally; delays in permitting; possible claims against the Company; the timing of future economic studies; labour disputes and other risks of the mining industry; delays in obtaining governmental approvals, financing or in the completion of exploration as well as those factors discussed in the Annual Information Form of the Company dated March 30, 2022 in the section entitled "Risk Factors", under PureGolds SEDAR profile at www.sedar.com. Although PureGold has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended. There can be no assurance that such information will prove to be accurate as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. PureGold disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise unless required by law. SANTA CLARA, Calif., May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Webscale , the fastest, most secure cloud platform for modern commerce, has announced the appointment of Sophie Maler as its new VP of Product, responsible for product direction and technology roadmap execution. Sophie is an industry veteran with over 25 years of experience in software engineering, product management and marketing across startups and large multinational corporations. She joins Webscale from Vesta, a leading transaction guarantee platform for online purchases, where she led Product Marketing. Starting her career in 1996 as a software engineer with Israeli tech leader Elron, she moved on to Netegrity as a principal engineer, instrumental in their acquisition by CA Technologies. Highlights of her leadership roles include Group Product Manager at Oracle, Head of Marketing at Login with Amazon, and Head of Product Marketing at AWS Identity. Focusing on secure infrastructure for enterprise and consumer applications, Sophie has built and launched many widely adopted products, with much of her early work acknowledged as having laid the foundation for all risk-based zero-trust implementations underpinning modern access control models. Committed to ensuring great customer experiences, Sophie has helped organizations make a quantum leap from a feature-based to a value-based mindset, by prioritizing long-term benefits for customers over competitive noise, while building future-proof solutions. About Webscale Webscale is powering modern commerce by layering software for performance, security, availability and compliance, over a distributed global network that leverages the cloud, automation, machine learning, and DevOps protocols to address the needs of growing brands. With use cases across a variety of ecommerce platforms and architectures, Webscale simplifies the deployment and day-to-day management of storefronts, including headless and progressive web application infrastructure, and across any self-hosted or fully hosted commerce cloud. Deployed in multi-cloud environments, including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure, Webscale powers Fortune 1000 brands including Dollar General, Unilever, Swarovski, Olympus, Regal Cinemas, and thousands of other B2C, B2B, and B2E ecommerce storefronts across 12 countries. Webscale has offices in Santa Clara, CA, Boulder, CO, San Antonio, TX, Bangalore, India, and London, UK. For more information, visit www.webscale.com . Follow us on LinkedIn , Twitter, and Facebook . Media Contact: Andrew Humber Webscale ah@webscale.com A second group of investors in Terraform Labs' troubled cryptocurrencies filed complaints Friday against its co-founders on charges of fraud. The company's coins, TerraUSD and Luna, crashed earlier this month, causing huge losses for hundreds of thousands of investors. A total of 76 people participated in the latest legal action against CEO Do Kwon and co-founder Daniel Shin, according to an online community of the tokens' holders. Their combined loss amounted to 6.7 billion won ($5.35 million), they said in the complaints submitted to the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors Office. "If the truth is revealed through a thorough investigation, all the fraudsters will be arrested and pay for their crimes," the group's leader said. On May 19, five investors filed similar complaints with the district prosecution office, claiming they suffered a combined loss of 1.4 billion won. In mid-May, the stablecoin TerraUSD and its digital coin counterpart Luna registered falls of more than 99.99 percent from their highs, wiping out more than US$38 billion of investors' money in a week, according to data by CoinMarketCap. (Yonhap) As part of its acquisition of ADCO, a major Ohio tobacco distributor, TAAT now owns three tobacco outlets in north-central Ohio through which the Company plans to undertake ongoing consumer research for the purpose of optimizing its retailing tactics in stores carrying TAAT products. These research initiatives can also be adapted to other stores in ADCOs distribution network across the state of Ohio as well as other stores in TAATs nationwide portfolio of over 2,700 U.S. retailers of its products. LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQX: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP) (the Company or TAAT) is pleased to announce that the Company will integrate ongoing consumer research with adult smokers into the three tobacco outlets operated by ADCO Distributors, Inc. (ADCO), a major tobacco distributor in Ohio who was acquired by TAAT as announced in a press release dated May 20, 2022 . The three north-central Ohio stores carry a standard range of tobacco products including popular brands of cigarettes (e.g., Marlboro, Newport, Camel) in addition to all three TAAT varieties. With the direct control TAAT now has over the management of these three stores, the Company plans to launch store-level initiatives to capture feedback from adult smokers in various situations (e.g., being offered TAAT in addition to a requested legacy tobacco product). TAAT believes this approach to consumer research could be far more insightful and cost-effective compared to retaining a third-party service provider. Although the Company previously commissioned consumer research of adult smokers to evaluate their perceptions of TAAT both in concept and as an actual product (as detailed in a press release dated April 14, 2021 ), the novel approach of conducting passive studies in-store on a firsthand basis is expected to capture a level of detail that is unprecedented in the tobacco or consumer packaged goods (CPG) categories. Given the routine nature of tobacco cigarette purchases by adult smokers who already have a specific brand preference, there are fairly limited opportunities to observe the actual transaction process as it occurs or to interject with recommendations to also purchase alternative products such as TAAT. The Company therefore plans to leverage the unique research capabilities afforded by having in-house tobacco outlets to further optimize its retailing strategies in the tobacco category. A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3b636ec6-6534-4d7a-bbb2-ec4b8d6035b2 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 Founder Joe Deighan commented, Most brands have very little visibility into how their product performs at the point of sale, especially in relation to products from competitors. Although some insights can be obtained at a macro level through metrics such as scan records and certain quantitative data points, there is no substitute for being able to observe your target customers firsthand as they go about contemplating or making a purchase. Now that TAAT owns three tobacco outlets in Ohio, we are able to roll out tailored in-store research initiatives to help us better understand how adult smokers react when they are offered TAAT. By actively comprehending what factors might contribute to any potential objections or hesitation to trying TAAT, we are able to fine-tune our retailing strategies to overcome some of those pain points with an objective of bolstering our conversion rates. We are very excited about launching these in-store research programs which I believe could be very impactful for commercializing TAAT as a better and nicotine-free alternative to tobacco cigarettes. On behalf of the Board of Directors of the Company, TAAT GLOBAL ALTERNATIVES INC. Joe Deighan Joe Deighan, COO 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. TAAT develops, manufactures, and distributes alternative products in categories to include tobacco, hemp, kratom, and other emerging segments of the CPG industry. Its flagship product is a nicotine-free, tobacco-free cigarette with a patent-pending base material formulation, sold in over 2,700 U.S. stores. With over CAD $80 million in overall net revenue in 2021, TAATs facilities include a manufacturing plant in Nevada, as well as a distribution centre and multiple convenience stores in Ohio. For more information, please visit http://taatglobal.com . 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: Successful launch of integrated in-store consumer research in the three tobacco outlets owned by TAAT following the Companys acquisition of ADCO, and potential outcomes from such research. 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; (iii) changes to the regulatory landscape applicable to the Company's business; and (iv) 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 gettyimagesbank By Anna J. Park The Korean economy is witnessing growing concerns about its ever-increasing trade deficit, which has exceeded the $10-billion mark this year alone, as the country is expected to log a trade deficit in May for the third consecutive month. Analysts say the trend will continue for a while, with a twin deficit becoming more likely. According to the Korea Customs Service last week, the trade deficit during the first three weeks of May stood at $4.82 billion. While exports totaled $38.61 billion during the period, which is a 24.1-percent increase year-on-year, the trade balance remained at a minus level, as imports increased 37.8 percent to $43.4 billion. As the cumulative trade deficit so far this year nears $11 billion, market watchers say the Korean economy is highly likely to post an annual trade deficit by the end of this year. They also express worries that this year's trade deficit might reach a record high. The worst annual trade deficit of $20.6 billion was posted in 1996. Given that this year's trade deficit is already about $11 billion as of mid-May, it is possible that Korea could set a new record of the all-time high annual trade deficit this year. "Cursed Bunny" author Chung Bora, right, and translator Anton Hur attend a press conference in Seoul, April 14. Newsis By Kwak Yeon-soo "Cursed Bunny," written by Chung Bora and translated by Anton Hur, failed to win this year's International Booker Prize, one of three largest literary awards in the world. The prestigious award went instead to "Tomb of Sand," written by Geentanjali Shree and translated by Daisy Rockwell, according to the Booker Prize Foundation on Thursday. Shree became the first Indian author to win the international prize. "Cursed Bunny" is a genre-defying collection of 10 short stories, one that can be best described as a gripping amalgamation of absurdist tales that draw on science fiction, horror and fantasy. The English version of Chung's novel was among the six works shortlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize, which was established in 2005 to honor the author and translator equally for a single work of fiction translated into English. The other books on the shortlist included "The Books of Jacob" written by Olga Tokarczuk and translated from Polish by Crogy, "A New Name: Septology VI-VII" written by Jon Fosse and translated from Norwegian by Damion Searls, "Heaven" written by Mieka Kawakami and translated from Japanese by Sam Bett and David Boyd and "Elena Knows" written by Claudia Pineiro and translated from Spanish by Frances Riddle. "Now I'm just relieved that I've got plenty of time to meet deadlines for impending projects. I think the six finalists were under some pressure as if we were each representing our own countries. I appreciate what Shree said in her acceptance speech that this is not about competing," Chung said in a statement. "I will continue to write stories to express and convey the values that I believe in, not to win a prize or please readers." Hur stressed that translators deserve praise for their outstanding contributions, as they play a major role in increasing the global visibility of Korean literature. "I can't believe we made it this far. I hope this will embed a culture where translators get more recognition," he said. In 2016, an English translation by Deborah Smith of Han Kang's "The Vegetarian" became the first Korean winner of the International Booker Prize. Her "The White Book" also translated by Smith was shortlisted for the award again in 2018, while Hwang Sok-yong's "At Dusk" translated by Sora Kim-Russell was included on the prize's long list the following year. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield is seen speaking in a Security Council meeting held in New York, May 26, before the 15-member council voted on a U.S.-proposed resolution on North Korea in this image captured from the website of the U.N. Yonhap The U.N. Security Council (UNSC) failed to pass a resolution to impose additional sanctions on North Korea, Thursday, for its recent missile tests due to opposition from China and Russia. "With the adoption of this resolution, we can send a message to all proliferators that we will not stand for their actions that seek to undermine international peace and security," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said, urging all council members to vote in favor. Thirteen members of the 15-member council voted in favor of the U.S.-proposed resolution. China and Russia, both veto power-wielding permanent members of the council and close allies of North Korea, voted against the resolution, effectively blocking its passage. Volunteers sought Those who stop by Riverview Cemetery Monday at 10 a.m. can take part in an almost 100-year-old tradition carried on by the Green River Veterans of Foreign Wars. Every year on Memorial Day, VFW members host a ceremony to honor veterans who gave their lives defending our country. The ceremony always includes a reading of the names of deceased veterans in the American Legion and VFW, the sounding of the bell, the playing of Taps and a firing squad. An address from a special speaker who holds a position of authority and leadership in the community is also a regular part of the ceremony. This years guest speaker will be Green River Police Chief Tom Jarvie. Each year before the ceremony the VFW also decorates the graves of veterans throughout the cemetery with United States flags. If its good weather we do 350 to 400 flags throughout the whole cemetery, VFW Commander Jim Shoemaker explained. Every veteran gets a flag. Flags are also put along the roadway by the cemetery 13 flags to represent the original colonies and 50 flags to represent the 50 states. The flags are put up Sunday afternoon, left up all day Memorial Day, and taken away again Tuesday afternoon. Putting out hundreds of flags is a lot of work that can take a few hours, so the VFW members rely on the help of volunteers. Sometimes groups like the Boy Scouts of America will help with the flags, while other times the volunteers are simply community members willing to lend a hand. Volunteers are divided between sections of the cemetery and given flags for the approximate amount of veterans in each section. I tell them its not a game, Jim said about working with volunteers. Do it with honor. You dont run through the course, you just go out there, put your flag on the grave, stick it in the ground in front of the headstone. For this years ceremony, the VFW is still looking for volunteers willing to help put the flags out Sunday at 3 p.m., as well as to collect them Tuesday at 3 p.m. Anyone who wants to can help with the flags, as well as attend the ceremony. We welcome anybody who wants to come, Jim said. The VFW always extends a special invitation to veterans and other service members in the community. Any veteran is welcome to be part of the ceremony, according to Shoemaker, and they can choose whether or not to wear their uniform. Other service members, such as police officers and the American Legion Riders, are welcome to take part as well, even if they arent veterans of a foreign war. They raised their right hand, Jim said. To me, when they raise their right hand to defend the Constitution of the United States, theyre part of us. The Memorial Day ceremony has been a tradition for the VFW for nearly 100 years, dating back to when the city of Green River donated a plot of land in the cemetery to the VFW in 1931. According to VFW District Commander Earl McDonald, during that time Memorial Day parades were also commonly held. The origins of Memorial Day itself go back even further. Although it didnt become an official federal holiday until 1971, the concept of the day goes back to the American Civil War. Although its been around for so long, Memorial Day is often confused with similar holidays. [Memorial Day is] not for the people that are standing, its the people that gave their lives for our freedom, Jim said. Veterans Day is for all veterans, Memorial Day is for those who have passed away, and Armed Forces Day is for all of the soldiers who are now serving, Anita Shoemaker explained. Anita is Jims wife and the district madame president of the VFW, according to Jim. Anita also pointed out Memorial Day originated as a day to honor fallen soldiers specifically. It wasnt meant as a day to remember anyone who has passed away, and its not just a long weekend and a chance to have a picnic as many people think of it, she said. She believes people can honor the original meaning of the holiday by taking time to reflect on those who gave their lives. I would say take a moment of their time in silence to remember why these men are no longer with us, because they fought and died, Anita said. And its not only that they fought and died immediately. A lot of them are still dying because of stuff like agent orange and stuff that they were exposed to during their service. Theres a lot of wounds that dont go away that you cant treat and you cant see, Jim added. The Shoemakers and the VFW are committed to continuing to remember and honor the sacrifice of those who gave their lives in service to our country. Any community members who wish to join them are welcome to attend the ceremony on Memorial Day and invited to volunteer to help put out and take down flags in the cemetery. Macao's meeting, exhibition events rise in Q1 Xinhua) 11:40, May 27, 2022 MACAO, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A total of 97 meeting, incentive, conference and exhibition (MICE) events were held in Macao in the first quarter of 2022, an increase of 29 year on year, the special administrative region (SAR)'s statistic service said on Thursday. The latest report from the Statistics and Census Service (DSEC) indicated that the number of participants and attendees rose by 19.7 percent to 165,000. A total of 76 meetings and conferences were held in the first quarter, up by 15 year on year. However, the number of participants decreased by 6.3 percent to 6,157. The average duration of the meetings, conferences and incentives went down by 0.1 day year on year to 0.9 day, said the report. The number of exhibitions in the first quarter grew by seven year on year to 14, all of which were organized by non-government organizations. The number of attendees rose by 19.8 percent to 158,000. The number of exhibitors soared by 64.8 percent year on year to 692 in the first quarter, and 96.1 percent of them were locals, showed the report. Professional visitors leapt by 63.2 percent to 9,153, with those from Macao accounting for 97.5 percent of the total. In accordance with information collected from 368 interviewed exhibitors, 94.1 percent of their receipts were generated from sales of goods, whereas their expenditure was mainly incurred on rental paid for exhibition booths and booth installation and decoration. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks to South Korea's Ambassador to the U.N. Cho Hyun before a United Nations Security Council meeting at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, in this May 11, file photo. Reuters-Yonhap The South Korean government expressed "deep regret" Friday about an unprecedented rejection of a proposed U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolution imposing sanctions on North Korea for its latest provocation. In a statement, Seoul's foreign ministry took a thinly veiled swipe at China and Russia, two permanent members of the 15-state council, for opposing the U.S.-led push. The two exercised their veto power in the 13-2 vote during a session held in New York Thursday (local time). "(The government) expresses deep regret that the new Security Council resolution has not been adopted despite the approval of most members," its spokesperson Choi Young-sam said. He pointed out that North Korea has continued the ballistic missile launches amid the possibility of it conducting another nuclear weapon test. The reveal of Sweetwater County Travel and Tourisms master tourism plan to the Green River City Council last week had me thinking about a tourism-based study the Rock Springs city government initiated in the early 2010s. Although it was just over a decade ago, Rock Springs and Sweetwater County were a different place. The residual momentum from the oil and gas boom meant money was still coming in from the activity, but local leaders knew things were coming to a close and were looking at a means of diversifying the local economy to lessen or even avoid the bust cycle most knew was on its way. That search never ended as local leaders are talking about how we should diversify our economy, repeating many of the same talking points that were covered years ago. The plan developed then would focus branding on the biking competitions taking place at the Sweetwater County Events Complex. The argument was that competitors traveled throughout the region for competition and expanding BMX competitions at the complex would bring people to the area. One specific comment I remember hearing mentioned during a presentation to the citys business owners was that grandparents tend to feel guilty for how much they worked while raising their children, and spend more to support their grandchildrens activities. The branding included iconography featuring a BMX rider in a similar pose to Wyomings bucking horse and the tagline Home of the Steel Ponies. Look around today and its quickly evident that the branding idea never took hold. I spoke with then Mayor Carl Demshar a few years after the presentation and his response was the businesses and local leaders werent on board and dropped the whole thing. I dont think it was something to absolutely double down all of the areas tourism and branding efforts on, but I also dont see how it couldnt have been integrated into a wider promotion. I also dont think the Home of the Steel Ponies tagline won a lot of fans and should have been workshopped more before the branding plan was unveiled. I think the word ponies itself is problematic because a pony isnt a full horse, its a horse generally associated with small children. Biking is promoted as we have a diverse system of trails and roads throughout Sweetwater County and Sweetwater Travel and Tourism has done a great job promoting them with the other recreational activities available here. However, trying to refer to a place as Home of the Steel Ponies was a stretch. LAKEVILLE A Lime Rock Park tradition will add a new chapter this weekend as the track hosts the Trans Am Memorial Day Classic, through May 30. The four-day event will feature Trans Am presented by Pirelli races on Saturday and Monday, a new Craft Beer Grand Prix as well as a pair of car shows on Sunday, Skip Barber Racing reunion races on Monday, as well as a field of rolling racing history with the Sportscar Vintage Race Association, according to a statement. The Trans Am runners will take to the same 1.53-mile circuit that Dan Gurney, Sam Posey, and Parnelli Jones claimed their stake to Lime Rock Park history in decades past, as a new field of emerging talents looks to do the same in the rapidly growing Trans Am series, according to park officials. Nearly 40 TA2 drivers will take the green on the original Lime Rock circuit Saturday at 11:55 a.m., for 100-miles of Trans Am competition. Drivers like two-time champions Rafa Matos and Cameron Lawrence, 2020 TA2 Champion Mike Skeen and 2019 Lime Rock winner Thomas Merrill will go wheel-to-wheel in a mix of Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers all fighting to be the first to the checkered, officials said. With drivers like Adam Andretti, nephew of Mario Andretti, and Dylan Archer, son of former Trans Am driver Bobby Archer, mixed into the lineup, Saturday's race will surely be a spectacle for fans. The Trans Am action continues Monday at 11:55 a.m. when the TA, XtremeGT, SuperGT and GT classes fight to throw local favorite Chris Dyson off his consecutive Lime Rock winning streak. With years of turning laps at Lime Rock with his dad Rob Dyson, he is undefeated at Lime Rock Park in Trans Am, taking victories in 2019 and 2021. Fans can meet their favorite Trans Am drivers during the Fan Walk, located on the false grid, Saturday at 11:10 a.m. and Monday at 11:20 a.m., ahead of the races. Fans are encouraged to stop by the Trans Am trailer ahead of the Fan Walk for a free event poster. Connecticut Craft Beer Grand Prix, car shows New to the weekend schedule this year is the Connecticut Craft Beer Grand Prix. Accompanied by the areas best food trucks, more than two dozen local breweries will showcase the outstanding quality and variety of Connecticut craft beer on the Lime Rock grounds on Sunday, May 29. Also on Sunday, fans can view hundreds of cars that will be on display from the Royals Garage Car Show and Hagerty Cars and Caffeine, as part of the Sundays at The Park event. Tickets are available including packages. Fans are encouraged to reserve tickets and camping spots ahead of the weekend. Advanced general admission tickets start at $55, with full weekend passes, VIP Fan Hospitality Tent (Available for Saturday ONLY) and Semi-Private Cabana upgrades available. Go to https://limerock.com/ for tickets and information. MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (AP) 3M Co. will pay a penalty of $2.8 million after Minnesota regulators found a series of hazardous waste violations at its Cottage Grove incinerator which has since been shut down. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said Thursday its two-year investigation found that since 1996, 3M repeatedly misidentified hazardous waste shipped to the incinerator as nonhazardous. Other violations occurred elsewhere, including failing to verify levels of mercury, lead, nickel, cadmium, arsenic and other hazardous materials in some waste streams from 2014 to 2020. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) Seven-term U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader, a centrist who was endorsed by President Joe Biden, has been ousted in the Democratic primary in Oregon by progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner after results were delayed more than a week by a ballot-printing issue. The vote count in the state's 5th Congressional District was sloweed because tens of thousands of ballots were printed with blurry bar codes, making them unreadable by vote-counting machines. Workers in Clackamas County, the state's third-largest county, had to transfer votes by hand to fresh ballots so they could be tallied. That process continued Friday for other races yet to be called. McLeod-Skinner had the backing of the local Democratic parties in all four counties covered by the redrawn seat, which now leans a little less blue. In her campaign, she urged stronger action to combat climate change and complained that Schrader was too conservative. She also portrayed Schrader as a politician who. had lost touch with his party's base and in the pocket of large pharmaceutical companies on issues like prescription drug prices. McLeod-Skinner will face Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer in November. Chavez-DeRemer is the former mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon. She has said she will support businesses and police and address the crisis on our southern border. In a statement on Twitter, McLeod-Skinner thanked Schrader for his years of service and said Oregon Democrats should see the contest's outcome as an evaluation of our ideas and as a confirmation of our values. From Sellwood to Sunriver, Oregonians never stopped believing we can protect our families, our climate and our civil rights, she wrote. Oregonians this is your victory. Biden made Schrader his first endorsement of the year but it didn't help the moderate Democrat in a district that now includes Bend, one of the state's fastest-growing Democratic areas where McLeod-Skinner had more name recognition. Schrader has voted against some of Bidens priorities, including a money-saving plan to let Medicare negotiate the price it pays for prescription drugs. A year ago, he was one of only two members of his party to vote against a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill because, among several reasons, he did not support including an increase to the minimum wage. Those decisions may be what cost him re-election, said John Horvick, political director at the nonpartisan public opinion firm DHM Research. Hes a moderate, but its more specific to the issues where he went against the party, he said. The big one is really his reluctance to support Democrats on prescription drugs. You can break with your party in a lot of different areas but a highly salient, deeply held position in the party that was a deal breaker." What remains to be seen is if McLeod-Skinner will compete well in the general election in a district that is split fairly evenly between Republicans and Democrats. Democrats' hold on the seat could be at risk if moderate voters perceive her as too progressive, he said. The Republican nominee, Chavez-DeRemer, is endorsed by the third-ranking House Republican, U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York an endorsement Chavez-DeRemer highlighted in her primary campaign in a crowded field. That might play well in more conservative parts of the redrawn district that stretches from the Portland suburbs toward rural central Oregon. To me, it's a toss-up race going forward and candidate quality is going to matter, Horvick said. The opportunities for Oregon to be central in the national conversation is higher this cycle than any cycle I can think of in recent memory. ___ This story has been updated to correct the description of Oregon's redrawn 5th District. ___ Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Irma Garcia's family was already reeling from her death in the Texas school shooting that targeted her fourth grade classroom and killed her co-teacher and 19 students. Then, a mere two days after the attack, her grieving husband collapsed and died at home from a heart attack, a family member said. Joe Garcia, 50, dropped off flowers at his wifes memorial Thursday morning in Uvalde, Texas, and returned home, where he pretty much just fell over and died, his nephew John Martinez told The New York Times. Married for 24 years, the couple had four children. Martinez told The Detroit Free Press that the family was struggling to grasp that while the couples oldest son trained for combat in the Marine Corps, it was his mother who was shot to death. Stuff like this should not be happening in schools, he told the newspaper. The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcias death to The Associated Press. AP was unable to independently reach members of the Garcia family on Thursday. The motive for the massacre the nations deadliest school shooting since the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut remained under investigation, with authorities saying the 18-year-old gunman had no known criminal or mental health history. The rampage rocked a country already weary from gun violence and shattered the community of Uvalde, a largely Latino town of some 16,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. The Garcias loved to barbecue, 48-year-old Irma wrote in an online letter to her students at Robb Elementary School. She enjoyed listening to music and traveling to Concan, a community along the Frio River about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Uvalde. The couples oldest child, Cristian, is a Marine. The couple's other son, Jose, attends Texas State University. Their eldest daughter, Lyliana, is a high school sophomore, while her younger sister is in the seventh grade. The school year, scheduled to end Thursday, was Garcia's 23rd year of teaching all of it at Robb. She was previously named the school's teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University. For five years, Garcia co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed. The suspect, Salvador Ramos, was inside the classroom for more than an hour before he was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, authorities said. Mrs. Irma Garcia was my mentor when I began teaching," her colleague Allison McCullough wrote when Garcia was named teacher of the year. "The wealth of knowledge and patience that she showed me was life changing." ___ Associated Press journalist Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings. President Yoon Suk-yeol has sent condolences to U.S. President Joe Biden over this week's mass shooting in Texas that left 21 people dead, a presidential official said Friday. Yoon sent a message to Biden, Thursday, offering his condolences over the deaths of the victims and wishing a speedy recovery for those who were injured, the official told reporters. A gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday, killing 19 students and two teachers and wounding multiple others before being killed himself by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. It was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. (Yonhap) Contributed photo / Greenwich Police Department GREENWICH A Greenwich police detective who made two arrests in a series of distraction larcenies, in which thieves stole cash and belongings from cars, has been commended for his work. Detective Brian Perusse was recently selected as Officer of the Month for breaking up a ring of thieves who targeted residents at local banks. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate GREENWICH Residents will have many opportunities to pay tribute to the men and women of the armed forces who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to the country at events around Greenwich during the long Memorial Day weekend. The first event of the weekend will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the pocket park across from the Greenwich Historical Society on Strickland Road with the Cos Cob Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 10112. Parking is available in the Mianus River Boat and Yacht Club. The ceremony will include remarks from post leaders and a memorial wreath will be placed. Two parades will also take place Sunday. At 2 p.m., the Byram Veterans Association will hold its annual parade and ceremony. It will step off from the associations hall and travel to Byram Shubert Library. A second parade will take place at 5 p.m. in Glenville, ending at the Glenville Volunteer Fire Company headquarters with a ceremony and wreath-laying to follow. Several more events are scheduled for Memorial Day on Monday, starting with the American Legion Post 29s ceremony at Indian Harbor Yacht Club in downtown Greenwich on Steamboat Road. The ceremony will start at 8 a.m. dockside and will include a posting of the colors by the Greenwich Police Departments honor guard, an invocation from Ukrainian minister Ihor Midzak, a rifle salute by the Byram Vets Honor Guard, a wreath-laying in Greenwich Harbor and the playing of Taps. Town resident and former New York Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey will be the keynote speaker. This moving annual tribute is indeed a ceremony to behold and will no doubt be remembered by all who participate and attend, the American Legion Post said in a statement. The annual Old Greenwich parade, which is put together by the Sound Beach Volunteer Fire Company, will begin at 10 a.m. The parade will go up Sound Beach Avenue toward Binney Park, and a ceremony will take place once the parade is complete. This is always very, very nice, First Selectman Fred Camillo said during this weeks Board of Selectmen meeting while urging residents to attend the Memorial Day events. Another ceremony will take place at 10 a.m. in Byram at the Eugene Merlot Memorial Parks Memorial Grove. The ceremony is organized by the Byram Veterans Association. Camillo called it a beautiful ceremony. At 1 p.m., the Chickahominy Reunion Association will hold its annual ceremony at the veterans memorial at Hamilton Avenue School. And the final event of the day is planned for 5 p.m. at the Belle Haven Club. kborsuk@greenwichtime.com In response to an explosive investigation, top Southern Baptists have released a previously secret list of hundreds of pastors and other church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. The 205-page database was made public late Thursday. It includes more than 700 entries from cases that largely span from 2000 to 2019. Its existence became widely known Sunday when the independent firm, Guidepost Solutions, included it in its bombshell report detailing how the Southern Baptist Conventions Executive Committee mishandled allegations of sex abuse, stonewalled numerous survivors and prioritized protecting the SBC from liability. Executive Committee leaders Rolland Slade and Willie McLaurin, in a joint statement, called publishing the list an initial, but important, step towards addressing the scourge of sexual abuse and implementing reform in the Convention." Each entry in this list reminds us of the devastation and destruction brought about by sexual abuse, they said. Our prayer is that the survivors of these heinous acts find hope and healing, and that churches will utilize this list proactively to protect and care for the most vulnerable among us. The Guidepost report, released after a seven-month investigation, contained several explosive revelations. Among them: D. August Boto, the committee's former vice president and general counsel, and former SBC spokesman Roger Oldham kept their own private list of abusive ministers. Both retired in 2019. The existence of the list was not widely known within the committee and its staff. Despite collecting these reports for more than 10 years, there is no indication that (Oldham and Boto) or anyone else, took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches, the report said. The Executive Committee did not make additions to the published list, but their attorneys did redact several entries as well as the names and identifying information of survivors and others unrelated to the accused, Thursday's joint statement said. They made public entries that reference an admission, confession, guilty plea, conviction, judgment, sentencing, or inclusion on a sex offender registry, and expect some of the redacted entries on the list to be made public once more research is done. The list also includes Baptist ministers that are not affiliated with the SBC. Survivors and advocates have long called for a public database of abusers. The creation of an offender information system was one of the key recommendations in the report by Guidepost, which was contracted by the Executive Committee after delegates to last years national meeting pressed for an outside investigation. Also in the report was a shocking allegation that Johnny Hunt, a Georgia-based pastor and former SBC president, sexually assaulted another pastors wife during a beach vacation in 2010. Hunt has disputed the allegation, saying in a statement that he has "never abused anybody. He resigned May 13 as senior vice president of evangelism and leadership at the North American Mission Board, the SBCs domestic missions agency. On Wednesday, NAMB leaders announced changes to address the issue including committing to investigate abuse accusations and creating an Abuse Prevention and Response Committee to assess and strengthen existing policies and procedures. Also in the wake of the report's release, survivors have been calling in information about abuse allegations to the Executive Committee, Guidepost and members of a task force set up to oversee the firm's investigation, according to a joint statement from the three entities. A hotline is now open for survivors, or someone on their behalf, to report abuse allegations: 202-864-5578 or SBChotline@guidepostsolutions.com. Callers will be provided with care options and connected with an advocate, the statement said. Guidepost will maintain the hotline and keep the information confidential, but will not be looking into the allegations. The joint statement described the hotline as a stopgap measure for survivors" until delegates can pass reforms during this years national meeting scheduled for June 14-15 in Anaheim, California. The task force expects to make its formal motions based on the Guidepost report public next week. Those recommendations will then be presented for a vote in Anaheim. ___ 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. GREENWICH After a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Greenwich Public Schools this spring, the number of new cases reported Friday among students and staff dropped to 44, the smallest number in a about month in the district, according to the districts online tracker. The drop in the number of new cases occurred just before the school district began a three-day weekend for Memorial Day. The district reported 74 new cases of COVID last Tuesday in the twice-a-week updates. The total number of cases reported in the school district is now 639 for May, which is second only to January in COVID-19 cases. In the first month of 2022, the omicron variant hit the state hard and the district reported 1,422 cases of COVID-19 for the whole month. The number of COVID-19 cases in the twice-a-week updates in the school district has fluctuated in recent weeks, but this is the first report to drop below 50 cases since April 8. The spread of the highly contagious BA.2 subvariant corresponds with the spike in cases seen across Connecticut this spring, experts say. The total number of COVID-19 cases reported since students returned to classrooms on April 24 after a weeklong Spring Recess totals 746, according to the tracker. The Greenwich Public Schools has reported more cases of COVID-19 since Spring Recess than it reported in the entire 2020-21 school year, when it reported 700 cases. Since the Spring Recess in April, the breakdown has been 63 cases reported on April 26; 44 cases on April 29; 55 cases on May 3; 81 cases on May 6; 113 cases on May 10; 112 cases on May 13; 95 cases on May 17; 65 cases on May 20; 74 cases on May 24; and 44 cases on Friday. A total of 3,248 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the school district since classes began Sept. 1. That is more than quadruple the number of cases reported in the 2020-21 school year. Active cases As of Friday, the Greenwich Public Schools was reporting 51 active cases of COVID-19, down from 67 active cases on Tuesday; 68 active cases May 20; 93 active cases on May 17; and 119 active cases on May 13, according to the tracker. Active cases were reported in 12 of the school buildings, with the most 20 active cases reported at Greenwich High, the largest school in the district. The rest of the schools reported COVID-19 numbers in single digits, with seven active cases at Cos Cob; six active cases at Eastern Middle; three active cases each at North Mianus, Old Greenwich and Western Middle; two active cases each at Central Middle, Hamilton Avenue and New Lebanon; and one active case each at Glenville, Julian Curtiss and Riverside. There are no active cases at the International School at Dundee, North Street or Riverside. Of the 51 active cases, 42 were reported among students; five among teachers; and two each among nonteaching staff members and service providers, according to the district. A number of families in the Greenwich Public Schools have been hit hard by COVID-19 this school year, with 503 families reporting 1,083 cases. More numbers Since March 1, when the Greenwich school district moved to a mask-optional policy, a total of 1,257 cases of COVID-19 have been reported among students and staff, nearly twice the number of cases that were reported in the entire 2020-21 school year. The monthly totals for new cases of COVID-19 reported in the Greenwich school district have varied widely, with 639 cases so far in May, 339 cases in April, 167 cases in March, 137 cases in February, 1,422 cases in January, 392 cases in December, 65 cases in November, 29 cases in October and 58 cases in September, according to the tracker. The school district updates its online tracker twice each week to keep the community informed on the COVID-19 pandemic. Google has released a new update to the Android 13 Beta. Alhough were only halfway through the month, the new Android 13 Beta 2.1 patch will address a few issues that affected Pixel devices immediately following the initial release of the Android 13 Public Beta. Googles release notes include the following fixes: Fixed an issue where typing in the search bar resulted in a blank list of suggestions. Fixed an issue where devices would crash and restart when turning on hotspot. Fixed an issue where a continuous call dialing sound could be heard in the background during a phone call. Fixed an issue where devices would crash and restart after disconnecting from Android Auto. This mid-cycle update still includes the same list of known issues as the Beta 2 build that was released back on May 11 except the ones that are addressed above. According to 9to5Google, the search bar issue remains despite the mid-cycle update. Google Pixel 5, Pixel 6 Pro, and Pixel 5a If you are already on the Android 13 Beta, the update will automatically notify you via OTA notification. If you are on the Android 12 QPR (Quarterly Platform Release) Beta program, youll need to opt out and re-enroll for the Android 13 Beta keep in mind that the Android 13 Beta is still in early Beta and there is a meaty list of issues. Those who wish to enroll in either Beta program can enroll here. Remember, if you wish to enroll, you wont be able to revert to the public release without wiping data in most cases. Make sure you do proper research before enrolling on a device you use daily. Source Via Samsung Galaxy M13 Exp. release 2022, June 192g, 8.4mm thickness Android 12, One UI Core 4.1 64GB/128GB storage, microSDXC 32% 63,992 hits 15 Become a fan 6.6" 720x1600 pixels 50 MP 1080p 4 GB RAM Exynos 850 5000 mAh Li-Po Disclaimer. We can not guarantee that the information on this page is 100% correct. Read more Samsung's quietly announced a new entry-level smartphone today, and it's not part of the incredibly successful A series. Instead, it's part of the much more confusing and less well defined M family. Meet the Samsung Galaxy M13. Samsung Galaxy M13 in Deep Green As the first digit strongly implies, this is a basic smartphone which should be rather affordable, although we can't comment on that since Samsung hasn't actually unveiled a price for it. That said, expect the M13 to be offered in Europe at least. Samsung Galaxy M13 in Orange Copper The phone comes with a 6.6-inch FHD+ screen with a V-shaped notch, the Exynos 850 chipset at the helm, 4GB of RAM, 64 or 128GB of expandable storage, and a 5,000 mAh battery. It has three rear cameras: a 50 MP f/1.8 main, a 5 MP f/2.2 ultrawide, and a 2 MP f/2.4 depth sensor. Selfies are taken care of by an 8 MP f/2.2 snapper. Samsung Galaxy M13 in Light Blue The Galaxy M13 runs Android 12 underneath Samsung's own One UI Core 4.1. "Core" means not all features seen in One UI 4.1 will be present, because of the entry-level hardware. This M13 doesn't have 5G support, although if we go by recent leaks an M13 5G should be launching pretty soon. The Galaxy M13 is going to be offered in Deep Green, Orange Copper, and Light Blue. It has dual-SIM functionality and a 3.5 mm headphone jack. Source | Via The military is not doing enough to protect endangered species on Guam in connection with the ongoing buildup and needs to stop clearing land, including the site of the new machine gun range, according to environmental advocates and Prutehi Litekyan: Save Riditian, who announced plans to sue the Navy and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Center for Biological Diversity, Blue Ocean Law and Prutehi Litekyan sent the Navy and U.S. Fish and Wildlife a letter Friday, giving them 60 days notice of the pending lawsuit, as required by the federal Endangered Species Act. According to the notice, the Navy has largely failed to meet its commitments to protect 5,234 acres of bird habitat, restore habitat so three bird species can be reintroduced to the island, suppress the invasive brown tree snake and grow and plant seedlings for several plants, including some which are used by an endangered butterfly. The military plans to transfer as many as 5,000 Marines from Okinawa and elsewhere to Marine Corps Camp Blaz, which is under construction in Dededo, as part of a larger realignment of U.S. military forces in the Asia-Pacific region. The first large group of Marines is expected to arrive in 2025, with others being gradually transferred to Guam through 2027. Military projects are being built in several different areas: the 563-acre Camp Blaz main cantonment; aviation facilities at Andersen Air Force Base North Ramp; family housing at Andersen; an urban combat training facility at Andersen South and harbor improvements at Naval Base Guam to support the movement of Marines. The first phase of a new firing range at Andersen to support Marine training is almost complete. The sites machine gun range, which will require a surface danger zone that extends over Guams northern waters, is scheduled to be complete in 2024. Military officials earlier this month told Guam lawmakers construction activity will peak during fiscal years 2023 through 2025, with more than $1 billion in projects each of those years. Military expansion is destroying Guams precious natural and cultural heritage, and enough is enough, said Maxx Phillips, Hawaii director and staff attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. Instead of barely doing the absolute minimum, the Navy needs to take responsibility and correct the problems its largely caused. According to the notice from the environmental advocates, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued three different opinions that state the relocation of U.S. Marines to Guam adversely affects several imperiled species, including the Mariana crow, the Guam Micronesian Kingfisher, the Guam rail, the Mariana fruit bat, the Mariana eight-spot butterfly, three species of tree snail and seven native plants, including the single remaining adult hayun lagu tree. The notice states the Navy violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to implement the conservation measures identified by the Fish and Wildlife Service. The Navy also failed to consult with Fish and Wildlife, as required, when there was new evidence about harm to species, the notice states. The plight of several of the species has only grown more dire while (the Navy) continues to undertake activities that further harm these protected species, the notice states. If (the Navy) does not remedy these violations in the next 60 days, we intend to file suit in federal court. Rhee Keun, a South Korean volunteer fighter in Ukraine, returned home Friday after sustaining knee injuries while in action. The Navy SEAL-turned-YouTuber arrived at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul, at around 7:30 a.m., about three months after he left for Ukraine to join the Russia-Ukraine war as a volunteer fighter. Appearing before reporters shortly after arrival, Rhee, in khaki pants and a black top, said he had cruciate ligament ruptures on both of his knees that require surgery. Rhee walked on his own with a slight limp with his companion occasionally assisting him. "I returned for rehabilitation and treatment," Rhee told reporters, adding "I am anxious to go back" to Ukraine. "There is a lot to do, as the war is not over yet. We should fight harder and continue to fight," he said. He briefly talked about his experiences in the war, including witnessing a Ukrainian civilian being shot and killed while he was on his first mission. "I have seen many criminal acts while witnessing the war first hand," he said. Police plan to question him over Passport Law violations soon, as he traveled to the war-stricken country in defiance of the country's travel ban on Ukraine. Upon arrival, police checked the extent of his injuries and imposed an overseas travel ban on him. "I will cooperate with a police investigation and receive punishment," he said. In a Twitter post a week earlier, Ukraine's International Legion of Territorial Defense said Ken Rhee, who "sustained injuries on the battlefield ... will return home for rehabilitation," calling him by his English name. South Korea has banned its nationals from traveling to all regions of Ukraine since mid-February amid safety concerns. Those who enter the country without approval can face up to a year in prison or a maximum fine of 10 million won (US$7,961) under the law. (Yonhap) You have permission to edit this article. Edit Close Haiti - Insecurity : A FADH member killed in P-au-P Tuesday afternoon, Kerby Normil, a soldier of the Armed Forces of Haiti (FADH) from the 4th promotion of the Corps of Military Engineers and who was trained in Ecuador, was shot dead in Port-au-Prince, in street Joseph Janvier near Place Sainte-Anne by armed individuals on motorbikes. The soldier hit by several projectiles, at least seven projectiles according to a police source, did not survive. At least two other people were reportedly injured during this attack and taken to a hospital to receive the care their cases require, including a woman who accompanied him and who was shot in the neck. According to some information, his brother, who accompanied also him in the vehicle, died in hospital from his injuries. The reason for this attack according to certain information, to be taken with the usual precautions, would be a settling of scores relating to the division of family property following the death of his father. HL/ HaitiLibre U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Beijing, Thursday, to work with the U.S. on global issues, including North Korea, as he laid out America's policy toward China and their intensifying power competition. The top U.S. diplomat insisted the two powers must cooperate on vital global issues despite their differences. "On non-proliferation and arms control, it's in all of our interests to uphold the rules, the norms, the treaties that help reduce the spread of weapons of mass destruction," Blinken said in an address delivered at George Washington University. "China and the United States must keep working together and with other countries to address Iran and North Korea's nuclear programs, and we remain ready to discuss directly with Beijing our respective responsibilities as nuclear powers," he added. Blinken's remarks come as North Korea is widely anticipated to conduct a nuclear weapon test as part of its ongoing saber-rattling. Pyongyang has staged 17 missile tests this year, including at least four suspected launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Officials in Seoul have said the country appears to have completed "all preparations" for a nuclear test, which would mark North Korea's seventh nuclear test if conducted. Pyongyang last conducted such a test in September 2017. "We remain committed to intense diplomacy, alongside intense competition," said Blinken. "Even as we invest, align and compete, or work together with Beijing where our interests come together, we can't let the disagreements that divide us stop us from moving forward on the priorities that demand that we work together for the good of our people and for the good of the world," he added. (Yonhap) Haiti - Education : Single Book Workshop The work continued yesterday afternoon at the Royal Oasis hotel between specialists, staff of the Ministry and representatives of publishing houses on the singular problems of the Single Book, for the first four years of the fundamental, in 3 groups of reflection on that question. The central question for the working group yesterday Thursday was: "what approach should we take to design the single book ?". Many ideas emerged; the discussions were interesting; many proposals have been made to move the ministry forward on the issue. The book will be used in all schools in Haiti, according to the decision of Minister Nesmy Manigat, who has already begun to reflect on this issue since 2015 during his first stint at the head of the ministry. For Minister Manigat, the Single Book is an initiative that will allow more social justice, access and equity... "It's a chance for all children" to develop their skills and knowledge and to succeed in life. The Minister has constantly denounced the waste of money when a child in the first year of basic education is given 17 books to carry in his school bag. The Minister went on to say that this decision aims to give all children, without distinction, the same chance to develop their skills and knowledge and achieve their best career. According to the MENFP, the single book will contain everything a child needs to know; what he needs to know about reading, math, science, etc... The objective is to allow the ministry to better direct the final phase of this file, and to hear the first actors involved in the single book file such as parents, educators and book-producing companies. This activity is linked to education sector reforms, particularly in terms of curriculum reform. According to the method of supervision of the workshop, the participants had to comment on this file and make valid proposals that would allow the ministry to draft a specification on the Single Book. Gerard Marie Tardieu, representative of Copivit editions; Peter Frisch, representing Editions Henri Deschamps; Mrs. Frank Paul, representative of the Canape edition; Charles Tardieu, representative of Zemes publishing and Jocelyne Trouillot, representative of Caribbean university publishing, are among those who shared with the public their experiences on the Single Book dossier. The activities continue this Friday, May 27. HL/ HaitiLibre Haiti - News : Zapping... Employer associations challenge the decision... Employer associations challenge the government's decision to introduce, "without public debate", changes to the customs tariff, excise duties of the investment code as well as other miscellaneous taxes and levies in the published 2021-2022 budget last May. They are calling for the budget to be put on hold. They advocate, to reduce shortfalls and recurring budget deficits, the gradual abolition of subsidies on petroleum products "by practicing the truth of the prices at the pump". Social appeasement program of 3 billion gourdes The government finally officially launched this Thursday its social appeasement program announced last December by Prime Minister Ariel Henry. About 3 billion gourdes from the public treasury are earmarked for this purpose. This amount will consist, among other things, of supplying nearly 300 community restaurants for the benefit of just over 100,000 people, distributing 100,000 solidarity baskets each month and financial assistance of 3,000 gourdes to approximately 50,0000 households over a period of three months, said the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor (MAST). "Corventina" among the top 21 players The American media, ESPN has just published a list of 21 best players under 21 in the world. Melchie Daelle Dumornay is 9th in this ranking. Corventina is the only Caribbean in this list. Vehicle tint law maintained The Ariel Henry Government, to fight against insecurity, has maintained in the 2022 budget the right to color a vehicle as stipulated in article 10 of the amending budget for (2021-2022) "Any owner of vehicles who, because of their activity professional wishes to travel in a vehicle with tinted windows is required to pay a fixed fee called the vehicle tint fee Haiti Health Fair The Initiative of Women in Haitian Tourism (IFTH) supports the first edition of the Health Fair in Haiti which will be organized on Friday, May 29, 2022, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at Quisqueya University (Haut Turgeau) by the Services and Dental Tourism Agency (ASSURDENT) on the theme "Our planet, our health". HL/ HaitiLibre Login or sign up to follow actresses, movies & dramas and get specific updates and news Login Sign Up Email Password Password Username Your E-mail will only be used to retrieve a lost password. Stay logged in Help South Korea will deepen partnerships with Southeast Asian nations to tackle common challenges in the Indo-Pacific and cooperate on a new U.S.-led economic framework in the region, Seoul's top diplomat said Friday. In a meeting with 10 ambassadors here from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) at his office, Foreign Minister Park Jin said the Yoon Suk-yeol administration plans to strengthen "strategic cooperation" with ASEAN members in such sectors as the economy, security, healthcare and technology. He added that Seoul hopes for closer ties with ASEAN with regard to the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) launched earlier this week. (Yonhap) We're a family of seven living in Georgia where Andrew's working as a professor at GSU. You can read more about us here The chief nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan will meet in Seoul next week to discuss North Korea's continued provocations, the foreign ministry said Friday. Kim Gunn, special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs, will have back-to-back bilateral and trilateral meetings with his American and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Takehiro Funakoshi, respectively, June 3, according to the ministry. The officials are expected to share their assessments on North Korea's recent missile tests, and the possibility of it conducting a nuclear weapon test, and a joint strategy to deal with the recalcitrant nation. (Yonhap) Kim Tae-hoon, a representative of Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea, unveils a document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about meetings between Youn Mee-hyang, former head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, and a ministry official ahead of the 2015 agreement between Korea and Japan on settling the sex slavery incident, at the organization's office in southern Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap By Kwon Mee-yoo Youn Mee-hyang, a sex slavery activist-turned-lawmaker, is once again under fire for not being up front about what she knew and when she knew it, regarding a controversial 2015 settlement deal between Korea and Japan on the historical issue. New evidence shows she was informed of the settlement ahead of its official announcement. Previously, she was accused of keeping the details of the agreement a secret from the victims of Japan's wartime sex slavery. Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea (LHUK) unveiled four documents detailing the talks between Youn and an official in charge of Northeast Asia at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thursday. The documents suggest that Youn had known the details of the settlement before it was released. The lawyers' organization filed an information disclosure suit against the ministry, and the ministry said it hopes that the document will clarify factual grounds of the controversy regarding the agreement. According to the LHUK, Youn, then the head of the Korean Council for Justice and Remembrance for the Issues of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, met with the foreign ministry official four times, including on Dec. 27, 2015, the day before the agreement was declared, and was informed of the details of the agreement. Explaining the document, the ministry official mentioned the three main actions of Japan that the country regrets concerning wartime sex slavery, adding that the Japanese prime minister will officially apologize and saying that Japan will provide 1 billion yen to the foundation for the victims. The document had some parts redacted, including Youn's response to the ministry official, as the court designated the range of information to be released. Activist-turned-lawmaker Youn Mee-hyang, left, and surviving wartime sex slavery victim Lee Yong-soo / Korea Times file A photo of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi is hung on the window of a Burmese restaurant in Bupyeong District, Incheon, May 23. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk This is the second in a series of articles to shed light on various ethnic groups living in Korea and have more of their voices heard. ED. Myanmarese who fled political turmoil in homeland, settle in Incheon's manufacturing district By Lee Hyo-jin Bupyeong, INCHEON Bupyeong District in Incheon, west of Seoul, may be best known for its huge underground shopping center and vibrant nightlife. But off the main street near exit 5 of Bupyeong Station are hidden several restaurants and grocery stores with colorful signs written in Burmese. In this small yet bustling "Myanmartown," it is common to see groups of Southeast Asian people heading to restaurants looking for a taste of home. Among the restaurants is Mingalarpar, which means "hello" in Burmese, run by Win Lay, 50. "Any Myanmarese person would feel at home here in Bupyeong," he said. "Burmese workers who live across the country gather here every weekend to meet their friends and enjoy authentic Burmese dishes." One may wonder how Bupyeong became the "spiritual home" of the Myanmarese community, when only about 600 Burmese actually live there. That is not a large number considering that there are nearly 27,000 Burmese people residing in Korea. This photo shows the Burmese restaurant Mingalarpar, run by Win Lay. Korea Times photo by Lee Hyo-jin According to Win Lay, who has been living in the region for nearly 30 years, it all began with the opening of a Burmese restaurant in the late 1990s. "The restaurant immediately attracted Myanmarese laborers working at factories in nearby Namdong Industrial District. As more people came, several other eateries and bars opened down this street," he said. He added that Burmese people can also fulfill their religious needs in Bupyeong. After the establishment of a Myanmarese Buddhist temple in 2002, four more temples were built in the area. The inside of a Myanmar Buddhist temple in Bupyeong District, Incheon, May 23. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk Win Lay is a political refugee who left his home country roiled by political unrest, after he took part in the pro-democracy protests in 1988, also known as "the 8888 Uprising." The four-digit number means that the popular protests started on Aug. 8, 1988. But he was not the only Burmese asylum seeker in Korea back then. According to the Ministry of Justice, 146 out of the 600 Burmese residents living in Bupyeong came to Korea initially as asylum seekers. Their applications were later accepted and now live there as refugees. Yan Naing Htun, special representative of the Korean office of the National Unity Government (NUG) of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar poses in his office in Bupyeong District, Incheon, May 25. Korea Times photo by Lee Hyo-jin Yan Naing Htun, 52, is one of them. The active participant of the 8888 uprising entered Korea in 1991, and was granted refugee status several years later. Thirty years on, he is now at the center of pro-democracy movements held by Burmese residents in Korea against the ongoing military oppression in Myanmar. He currently leads the Korean office of the National Unity Government (NUG) of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, a coalition of the country's democratic forces comprised of anti-coup leaders, ethnic minorities and lawmakers who were ousted by the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. It has been 15 months since the junta began nationwide crackdowns on anti-coup street protests, resorting to mass killings and the detention of civilians. However, with other global issues such as the war in Ukraine and presidential election dominating the headlines in Korean media, the crisis in Myanmar slowly faded from the front pages of newspapers. "A decrease in media coverage does not mean that things have become better in Myanmar. In fact, the situation has gone worse," said Yan Naing Htun, showing this reporter video clips of the military's brutal attack on pro-democracy protesters and photos of displaced civilians after their houses were burnt down by junta troops. "These are not being revealed to the outside world because the military cuts internet and phone lines in areas where they launch attacks, in order to prevent media coverage of their atrocities," he said. Over the past year, Yan Naing Htun held multiple rallies in Korea, gave media interviews calling for help from the Korean government, and led fundraising campaigns to support anti-military fighters. A poster encouraging Myanmar residents to participate in the "one-day challenge" hangs on the wall near a Burmese restaurant. Launched by the Myanmar community, participants of the campaign donate one day's worth of their monthly income to support the pro-democracy movements in their home country. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk Not to his surprise, the activist soon found himself on the military junta's wanted list. "What I'm more worried about is that the military is threatening to arrest even family members of protesters. So I'm trying not to keep in touch with my family in Myanmar to keep them safe," he said. When asked what support Myanmar needs from Korea, he said, "The most urgent help is for the Korean government to recognize the NUG, so that we can officially cooperate in supporting the resistance fighters." The NUG, which has offices in six other countries Norway, France, Japan, Czech Republic, Austria and Australia has yet to win recognition from any country. Zay min, head of the Myanmar Migrant Worker Welfare Center, poses in his office in Bupyeong District, Incheon, May 23. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk The Supreme Court increased the sentence imposed on a man found guilty of sexually assaulting and killing a 20-month-old baby girl to life in prison, Friday. The ruling raised a lower court's 30-year prison term for the 30-year-old man, identified only by his surname Yang, who was tried for raping and killing the baby daughter of his live-in girlfriend in June last year. "It is right to separate the defendant from society forever, given the cruelty of his crime," the court said. The court also ordered that he be banned from working at child-related facilities for 10 years, wear a tracking device for 20 years and undergo 200 hours of a child abuse treatment program. However, it rejected the prosecution's requests for chemical castration treatment and the disclosure of his identity. Yang was convicted of killing the baby by covering her with a blanket, and punching and stomping on her for about an hour while drunk at his home in Daejeon, about 165 kilometers south of Seoul, because she did not stop crying. He was also convicted of raping the toddler before beating her to death. Yang and his girlfriend, surnamed Jeong, hid the victim's body in an ice box in their bathroom. Also overturning a lower court's one-and-a-half year imprisonment ruling, the court sentenced Jeong to three years in prison. (Yonhap) An appellate court upheld, Friday, a 10-year prison sentence for a 30-year-old man for sexually exploiting dozens of boys and male teenagers to produce and circulate their nude images and videos online. The Seoul High Court handed down the sentence to Kim Young-jun, confirming a lower court's decision to convict him of all the charges filed against him, including producing and spreading sexually exploitative images and videos of boys and male adolescents, as well as sexual assault. Posing as a woman to hook up with underage men on chatting apps, he allegedly filmed 79 boys and male teenagers naked over video calls between 2011 and 2021. Since 2020, he has sold eight pieces of the sexually exploitative materials and 1,839 other illegally filmed obscene videos of adults. At the time of his arrest last year, he possessed around 1,570 pieces of sexually exploitative images and videos of underage men, on top of some 5,470 pieces involving adults. He was also accused of coercing and sexually assaulting a male victim between 2018 and 2020. The appellate court also upheld the lower court's order of a forfeiture of 14.8 million won ($11,780) on Kim, along with a decision to ban him from working at children- and disability-related facilities for 10 years. (Yonhap) New Zealand has officially welcomed its second Holiday Inn Express Hotel with the opening of the design-led Holiday Inn Express Auckland City Centre, offering modern and affordable accommodation in Auckland's CBD. A joint partnership between Pro-invest Hotels and IHG Hotels & Resorts, Holiday Inn Express Auckland City Centre is part of the one of a kind, dual-hotel development which also calls home to the state-of-the-art 201-room voco Auckland City Centre, which opened its doors earlier this month. Boasting a purposeful and contemporary design palate that creates a relaxed, warm environment from the lobby to the top floor and every space in between, the hotel features 294 well-appointed guest rooms featuring walk-in showers, black-out blinds, an efficient work station and high-quality bedding with a choice of firm or soft pillows. With floor to ceiling windows in all of the rooms, guests are guaranteed to have a prime vantage point of Auckland and its surrounds. Guests can kick start their day with a complimentary EXPRESS Start Breakfast that includes hot and cold options, or for those who prefer fuss-free mornings there is the choice of the Express Start Breakfast Grab & Go option. And in the evenings, guests can choose from a drink in the Great Room or head up to the neighbouring voco Auckland City Centre for Italian at Mozzarella & Co. or cocktails at the rooftop bar, Bar Albert on Level 38 (opening early August). "We're delighted to be opening New Zealand's second Holiday Inn Express property with Holiday Inn Express Auckland City Centre, offering travellers comfort, convenience and affordability in the heart of the city," said Shantha de Silva, Chief Operating Officer, Pro-invest Hotels. "Much thought has been put into every detail of this hotel and we are very proud to have the Holiday Inn Express brand sitting alongside voco Hotel in New Zealand's first dual branded hotel development. This year has been a year of 'firsts' for Pro-invest Hotels and the opening of this hotel tower marks a major milestone for our business. We were the first to bring the voco brand to New Zealand and the first to bring Holiday Inn Express to the country with our Queenstown property. Now, with quarantine free travel returning to New Zealand we look forward to welcoming travellers to Auckland and can't wait for our guests to experience these new properties." As one of IHG's fastest growing hotel brands, Holiday Inn Express is well-loved for its approach to simple, smart travel. The brand's much-loved perks will be on offer in Auckland, with business travellers able to appreciate the fast check-in and unlimited fast WiFi as well as the three flexible meeting rooms that can accommodate up to 40 people. Plus, there's access to a 24 hour reception, fitness room and a self-service laundry. Holiday Inn Express Auckland City Centre's strong commitment to sustainability means it is on track to achieve Green Engage Certification. In addition, the hotel is committed to using energy efficient equipment and systems throughout the property and chooses not to use single use plastics, using bulk amenities instead of one-time use disposable bathroom amenities. Continuously looking to reduce its environmental footprint, the hotel also offers 'A Greener Stay' initiative, which gives guests the option of reducing their environmental footprint when staying two or more nights by opting out of housekeeping services helping to save energy, water use and waste output. To celeb rate the official opening of Holiday Inn Express Auckland City Centre, the hotel is offering 20% off the best available rate starting from $205 NZD per room per night valid for bookings and stays from now until 26 August 2022. For bookings, please visit https://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/auckland/aklcc/hoteldetail Having joined Hyatt back in 1997, Mantoani brings 25 years of Hyatt Management experience, with nine years in a GM role. His hospitality career initially started in the food and beverage sector, before developing into a successful career path at Hyatt that has spanned over 10 countries, with predominant exposure in the GCC region. His most recent pre-opening success was with the luxury Park Hyatt Abu Dhabi Hotel and Villas, preceded by the opening of the Park Hyatt Dubai. Grand Hyatt Kuwait Kuwait Website Hailing from a small town in the south of Sicily, Anna Alaimo is the newest addition to Media One Hotel's Ciao Bella restaurant. The young chef will head up the kitchen to showcase her skills in Italian cuisine and create a new menu for the restaurant that will be revealed in June 2022. Before joining Media One, Alaimo came to the UAE as a commi and progressed up the ladder fast. She had a stint working with in-flight catering, where she was a chef for business and first-class passengers. Alaimo learned how to cook at the age of nine and it was her mother who inspired her to cook by telling her to fill the boring summer months by making lunch. Barcelona - ReviewPro, a Shiji Group brand, publishes the first of a series of quarterly data reports for hoteliers wishing to keep ahead of online reputation and review trends. The comprehensive report covers everything related to current review metrics including volume, source, management response rates, both on a Global and on a regional level. Some of the key findings include: Review volume: global review volume increased by 46.5% in Q1 2022 over Q1 2021 global review volume increased by 46.5% in Q1 2022 over Q1 2021 Guest satisfaction has fallen by 1.4%, or 1.2 points, since the start of the pandemic. has fallen by 1.4%, or 1.2 points, since the start of the pandemic. Review market share: booking.com generated more reviews than any other review source in Q1 2022. booking.com generated more reviews than any other review source in Q1 2022. Source indexes: ratings on Booking.com are generally lower than other sources. ratings on Booking.com are generally lower than other sources. There is room for improvement in response rates and times, with only 61.2% of respondable reviews receiving a response and an average response time of 3.8 days. ReviewPro has been providing hoteliers with review data to help understand their online reputation and make data driven operational and service improvements for over a decade. In that time much has changed but one thing has remained the same - online reputation is still a benchmark of excellence and a reliable way of determining a hotels performance,says Michael Kessler, CEO of ReviewPro. The report includes: Key findings on: review volume, review ratings, star segments, review market share, management response, and more. review volume, review ratings, star segments, review market share, management response, and more. Global and regional data sets on: Global Review Index metrics (GRI), review sources market share and volume, semantic analysis and categories affecting reputation, management response and more. Global Review Index metrics (GRI), review sources market share and volume, semantic analysis and categories affecting reputation, management response and more. Expert insights: a range of experts and hoteliers give comment on the state of reviews and how they manage reviews. a range of experts and hoteliers give comment on the state of reviews and how they manage reviews. Reputation strategies for global hoteliers. Download your free copy of ReviewPros Global Hotel Review Benchmark here. About Shiji's ReviewPro ReviewPro, a Shiji Group brand, offers over a decade of experience and investment in innovation to ensure we continue to be the benchmark of the hospitality industry. Our cloud-based Guest Experience Platform includes Hotel Reputation, Guest Surveys, Case Management, and Messaging Automation. Shiji's ReviewPro owns the industry-standard online reputation score, the Global Review Index (GRI), a propriety algorithm based on review data collected from +140 OTAs and review sites in +45 languages. With over, 60,000 establishments in +150 countries, Shiji's ReviewPro offers the technology, support, and education to empower hoteliers to be better. For more information, please visit: www.reviewpro.com. Jana Antonioli Junior Marketing Specialist View source DETROIT Detroit-based real estate development company, The Roxbury Group, in collaboration with TreeFort Hospitality, announced today a major renovation to downtown Detroits historic David Whitney Building and will rebrand its hotel as an Autograph Collection hotel upon completion. The renovations will include an expansion of the hotel as well as new food and beverage venues. The centerpiece of the project, a new Autograph Collection hotel, will be undertaken in phases over the next 12 to 14 months and will involve the complete renovation of all 136 guest rooms, and the addition of two more hotel floors for a total of 160 guest rooms and suites. Additionally, 24 of the David Whitneys current apartments are expected to be converted to one and two-bedroom hotel suites, leaving 80 residences on the upper seven floors. Roxbury Groups plans also call for substantial upgrades to the hotels lobby bar, atrium lounge, and outdoor seating. In addition, plans include a restaurant in the current Capper & Capper event space at the corner of Woodward and Park Avenues. The Roxbury Group is in discussions with a number of potential operators for the restaurant and expect to announce more specific plans by the end of summer. In working with Marriott International and our management team at Azul Hospitality, we concluded that downtown Detroit was ready for the level of service and experience that an Autograph Collection hotel would bring and of course there is simply no better place for that to happen than the David Whitney, said Stacy Fox, Principal, The Roxbury Group. Autograph Collection Hotels advocate for the original championing the individuality of each of its over 250 independent hotels located in the most desirable destinations across 43 countries and territories. Hand-selected for their inherent craft and distinct perspectives on design and hospitality, Autograph Collection properties offer rich immersive moments that leave a lasting imprint. The David Whitney will be the first Autograph Collection property in downtown Detroit. The David Whitney, designed by famed Chicago architecture firm D.H. Burnham and Company, originally opened as a medical office and retail building in 1915. Following a decline in the fortunes of the Grand Circus Park Historic District, the building closed in the late 1990s. A partnership led by The Roxbury Group acquired the property in 2011, and after a $94-million restoration, the David Whitney Building reopened with great fanfare in 2014 as a mixed-used property, marking a major milestone in the decades-long rebirth of Detroits theatre district. Work is expected to commence later this summer and is targeted to be completed by late 2023. The Roxbury Group is working with Detroit-based Patrick Thompson Design and Infuz Architects on the design for the hotel, as well as with Gensler on brand-identity and OBrien Construction Company on construction management. The hotel will continue to be managed by San Diego-based Azul Hospitality, which also manages the Element Detroit at the Metropolitan and the Monarch Club for the Roxbury Group. About the Roxbury Group The Roxbury Group is a real estate development and investment firm founded in 2005. The firm specializes in complex real estate and economic development projects. Since its founding, the Roxbury Group has developed $300 million in projects with $150 million of projects in the pipeline. In addition to the David Whitney and the Element Detroit at the Metropolitan Building, Roxburys hospitality work includes the AC Detroit at the Bonstelle in midtown Detroit which is targeted to break ground later this year, and a planned 150 key hotel at Ann Arbors Broadway Park West development. Roxburys TreeFort Hospitality arm has been responsible for several notable food and beverage venues including the Buhl Bar, the Monarch Club, the Hammer & Nail and the Cadillac House Inn and Tavern in Lexington, Michigan. TreeFort is currently developing a second bar venue for the Metropolitan that will open later this year. About Azul Hospitality Group (Azul) Azul Hospitality Group (Azul), a preferred management company for the AC Hotels by Marriott brand, has a robust infrastructure of industry professionals with extensive experience in all aspects of hotel operations and development services. The company's primary focus is on upscale hotels and resorts, with unique destination and product attributes. Other recent Marriott-branded projects with Azul management include Moxy San Diego Downtown/Gaslamp Quarter; AC Hotel by Marriott Phoenix Biltmore; The Westin Carlsbad Resort & Spa; Sheraton Carlsbad Resort & Spa; The Guild Hotel, San Diego, a Tribute Portfolio Hotel; Sheraton Redding Hotel at the Sundial Bridge; and Element Detroit at the Metropolitan. For additional information, go to www.azulhg.com. LAS VEGAS - Expedia Group Media Solutions, the global travel advertising platform connecting marketers with millions of travelers across the Expedia Group brands, today released its Q1 2022 Travel Trend Report. The quarterly report combines Expedia Group first-party data and custom research with actionable insights and industry examples to help travel marketers on their continued journey toward rebuilding. "As we look back on the first quarter of the year and forward to the months ahead, were optimistic about what 2022 has in store, said Jennifer Andre, Global Vice President, Media Solutions. Rising travel intent, lengthening search windows, a lift in international searches, and growing consumer interest in sustainable travel are just a few of the positive trends we saw in Q1 2022. This year is shaping up to be a year of sustained growth and we look forward to collaborating with our partners and across the industry to continue rebuilding tourism for the future. Key findings from the Expedia Group Media Solutions Q1 2022 Travel Trend Report include: Travel Searches Surge as Restrictions Ease With a new year comes new enthusiasm for travel, as evidence d by the lift in global searches. During Q1, global search volume was up 25% quarter-over-quarter, led by double-digit growth in North America (NORAM) at 30% and in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) at 25%. A prior year comparison further illustrates strong recovery, with global search volumes up 75% year-over-year compared to Q1 2021. All regions saw a year-over-year lift, with EMEA search volume up 165%, NORAM up 70%, Latin America (LATAM) up 50%, and Asia Pacific (APAC) up 30%. Week-over-week search volume fluctuated throughout Q1, but during the week of February 14, all regions saw week-over-week growth following changes and announcements related to vaccine and mask mandates around the world, including in the U.S. and Europe. Growing Traveler Confidence = Longer Search Windows With traveler confidence on the upswing, Q1 saw lengthening search windows. Global share of searches in the 180+ day search window increased 1 90%, while the 0- to 21day search window decreased 15% quarter-over-quarter. Regionally, shorter search window share in APAC and LATAM held steady between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022, while EMEA and NORAM travelers searched further out, with the 91- to 180day search window increasing 140% and 60%, respectively. In Q1, 60% of global domestic searches fell within the 0- to 30day window, a 10% decrease compared to Q4, while the share of searches in 91- to 180day window increased 80% quarter-over-quarter. Global international search share for the 91- to 180+ day window increased 35% quarter over quarter, with the 91- to 180day window seeing the largest gains. Big Cities & Beaches Maintain Appeal Major cities such as Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, and London remained popular with travelers and made the global top 10 list of booked destinations in Q1, along with beach destinations like Cancun, Punta Cana, Honolulu, and Miami. Las Vegas topped the global list, surpassing New York, which held the No. 1 spot in Q3 and Q4 2021. However, for the third consecutive quarter, New York appeared on the top 10 list of booked destinations across all regions. New intra-regional destinations also appeared on the top 10 booked destinations list in each region, including Rome in EMEA, Puerta Vallarta in LATAM, and Phoenix in NORAM. In APAC, destinations within Australia experienced strong quarter-over-quarter growth, including Sydney, Melbourne and Surfers Paradise. Lodging Performance on the Rise Global lodging bookings for hotels and vacation rentals combined were up 35% quarter-over-quarter, and all regions experienced at least double-digit growth in Q1. During Q1, 15 of the top 25 global destinations saw double-digit growth in hotel bookings quarter-over-quarter. Global lodging length of stay held steady between Q4 2021 and Q1 2022, at 2 days for hotel stays an d 5.5 days for vacation rental stays. With both winter breaks and spring vacations occurring during Q1, vacation rentals had another positive quarter, with substantial quarter-over-quarter growth in vacation rental night counts. Domestic travel continued to dominate the vacation rental space, with Australia, France, Brazil, and the U.S. being the top booked countries for their respective regions. Growing Demand and Opportunity for Sustainable Tourism Consumers around the world are already making more mindful decisions when traveling, such as opting for more eco-conscious and sustainable offerings, and more want to do so in the future. However, many feel overwhelmed by starting the process of being a more sustainable traveler and are looking for sustainability information from trusted travel resources and providers. According to our recent Sustainable Travel Study, two-thirds of consumers want to see more information on sustainability from lodging and transportation providers, and half want to see this information from destination organizations. Additionally, 50% of consumers would be willing to pay more for transportation, activities, and lodging if the option was more sustainable. More Q1 2022 Travel Insights For more data and insights from 70 petabytes of exclusive global Expedia Group travel intent and demand data, download the full Q1 2022 Travel Trend Report here. Subscribe to the Media Solutions blog and connect on Twitter and LinkedIn for more travel trends and regional insights. About Expedia Group Media Solutions Expedia Group Media Solutions, the advertising organization of Expedia Group, offers industry expertise and digital marketing solutions that allow brands to reach, engage and influence its qualified audience of travelers around the world. Through its vast network of leading travel brands and global points of sale, Expedia Group Media Solutions provides marketing partners with proprietary data-driven insights about traveler behaviors during every stage of the purchase journey, along with dynamic advertising solutions, to deliver strategic campaigns and measurable results. For more information, visit www.advertising.expedia.com. 2022 Expedia, Inc., an Expedia Group company. All rights reserved. Trademarks and logos are the property of their respective owners. CST: 2029030-50 Ashley Goncena China-Europe freight train heads to Budapest Xinhua) 11:41, May 27, 2022 YINCHUAN, May 26 (Xinhua) -- A freight train loaded with fiberglass departed Thursday morning from Yinchuan, capital of northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, bound for Budapest, Hungary. The 1,300 tonnes of fiberglass, worth 10.5 million yuan (about 1.6 million U.S. dollars), is scheduled to travel around 8,500 km and arrive at its destination in 21 days, according to China Railway Lanzhou Group Co., Ltd. It is the first China-Europe freight train operated from Ningxia this year, and also the first route linking the two cities. The new route will greatly shorten the delivery time of enterprises, effectively accelerate the speed of goods circulation and payment, and reduce transportation costs. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) A voter casts a ballot at a polling station in Daegu's Dalseo District, Friday, the first day of two-day early voting for June 1 local elections. Yonhap Early voting opened Friday for next week's local elections and National Assembly by-elections that can significantly strengthen or undermine the mandate of the new government of President Yoon Suk-yeol less than a month after its launch. Eligible voters can cast ballots at 3,551 polling stations nationwide from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. until Saturday, according to the National Election Commission (NEC). COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine will be able to vote from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. but only on Saturday. Up for grabs are 17 metropolitan mayoral and provincial governor posts, heads of 226 lower-level councils, as well as 779 seats in provincial and metropolitan councils and 2,602 in lower-level local councils. This year's elections have drawn greater attention as seven Assembly seats are also at stake, with political heavyweights, such as former presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo, throwing their hats into the ring. Both the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) have been calling on people to participate in early voting, claiming that high early voting turnout can ensure victory in the June 1 elections. A survey by Gallup Korea showed 69.8 percent of the people answering they will definitely vote in the upcoming elections. Of them, 30.3 percent said they intend to cast ballots during early voting. Former lawmaker Kim Eun-hye, left, the People Power Party's candidate for governor of Gyeonggi Province, casts her ballot together with her husband Yoo Hyung-dong, at a polling station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, the first day of two-day early voting for the June 1 local elections. Joint Press Corps Former Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon, right, the Democratic Party of Kore's candidate for the Gyeonggi Province governor, casts his ballot together with his wife Jeong Woo-young at a polling station in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Friday, the first day of two-day early voting for the June 1 local elections. Joint Press Corps Recent polls showed the PPP taking the lead in most big races, except those in the liberal Honam region, the home turf of the DPK. The PPP hopes it can extend the momentum of the presidential election victory and win more than half of the 17 gubernatorial and mayoral posts. The conservative party believes Yoon's summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and recent North Korea provocations can be helpful for its campaign, especially among those seeking stabilized operation of the Yoon administration. The DPK, which controls a majority in the National Assembly, is looking to recover from the March 9 presidential election defeat and expand its power across the nation to keep the Yoon government in check. The liberal party, which scored a landslide victory in the 2018 local elections, has been promoting that most incumbent local government heads are from the party and that they should be allowed to continue their jobs. People gather at a polling station at the Jeju Special Self-Governing Provincial Council, Friday, the first day of two-day early voting for the June 1 local elections. Yonhap Join us on May 31st, from 3 - 5 PM CET for our Subscription and Loyalty Summit! With younger generations being a commanding force in hospitality, industry leaders need to adapt their loyalty and subscription programs to remain relevant in today's world. Our industry experts will discuss real-world tactics on how to build loyalty to capture the new age of travellers. Speakers: Micheal Ros - Co-Founder and CEO @ Bidroom Minh Tam Ngo - Strategic Designer @ Lufthansa Innovation Hub Gina Richmond - SVP Commercial Partnerships @ Planet Liora Nuchowicz - Global Community Lead @ Selina CoLive Kunal Bharti - VP of Global Sales & Distribution @ Selina CoLive The conference will run for 2 hours and includes; 5 speakers, including a 20-minute audience Q&A panel. This event is complimentary and brought to you by Bidroom. Limit: 500 participants Visit https://www.imeethotel.com/subscription-and-loyalty for more details. This webinar is hosted by I Meet Hotel For more information please contact Kristian Lupinski LIVE Razboi in Ucraina, ziua 99: Zelenski: Fortele ruse ocupa acum aproximativ 20% din teritoriul Ucrainei / Rusii, la un pas sa cucereasca regiunea Luhansk / UE renunta sa il mai sanctioneze pe patriarhul Kirill / SUA iau in calcul livrarea de drone de atac Ucrainei This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for maximum sanctions against Russia during a virtual speech Monday to corporate executives, government officials and other elites on the first day of the World Economic Forum gathering in Davos. He said sanctions need to go further to stop Russias aggression, including an oil embargo, blocking all of its banks and cutting off trade with Russia completely. This is what sanctions should be: They should be maximum, so that Russia and every other potential aggressor that wants to wage a brutal war against its neighbor would clearly know the immediate consequences of their actions," Zelenskyy said through a translator. He also pushed for the complete withdrawal of foreign companies from Russia to prevent supporting its war and said Ukraine needs at least $5 billion in funding per month. The amount of work is enormous: we have more than half a trillion of dollars in losses, tens of thousands of facilities were destroyed. We need to rebuild entire cities and industries, Zelenskyy said, coming days after the Group of Seven leading economies agreed to provide $19.8 billion in economic aid. He said that if Ukraine had received 100% of our needs at once, back in February" in terms of weapons, funding, political support and sanctions against Russia, the result would be tens of thousands of lives saved." The war was a key focus Monday at Davos, the village in the Swiss Alps that has been transformed into a glitzy venue for the four-day confab ostensibly dedicated to making the world a better place. The event resumed in person after a two-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which also delayed this years meeting from its usual winter slot. Besides the war, attendees tackled other major issues like the threat of rising hunger worldwide, climate change, inequality and persistent health crises. But its hard to predict if the high-minded discussions will yield substantial announcements that make headway on the worlds most pressing challenges. Zelenskyy, who received a standing ovation after his remarks, reiterated that Russia was blocking critical food supplies, such as wheat and sunflower oil, from leaving Ukraine's ports. Ukraine, along with Russia, is a major exporter of wheat, barley and sunflower oil, and the interruption of those and other staples is threatening food insecurity in countries in Africa, the Middle East and Asia that rely on those affordable supplies. The head of the U.N.s World Food Program said in a panel that the failure to open the ports is a declaration of war on global food systems. He told The Associated Press that the regions farmers grow enough food to feed 400 million people. If such supplies remain off the market, the world could face a food availability problem in the next 10 to 12 months, and that is going to be hell on earth, WFP Executive Director David Beasley told the AP in an interview. He warned that there are 49 million (people) knocking on famines door right now in 43 countries, including Yemen, Lebanon, Mali, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Congo, Guatemala and El Salvador. Beasley called on the worlds billionaires to aid efforts to prevent hunger: The world is in real serious trouble. This is not rhetoric and B.S. Step up now, because the world needs you. Russian officials on Monday reiterated their assertion that they are not to blame for the food crisis, saying the country is not preventing Ukrainian grain shipments by rail. It is not us that are sources of problems leading to the world hunger threat, but those who imposed sanctions against the Russian Federation and the present sanctions themselves, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in call with journalists. Besides Zelenskyy's speech, a sizable Ukrainian government delegation is attending in person, making their case for more Western support. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko pointed to the audience during a panel, saying, We are defending you personally. We are fighting, first of all, for values and to be part of the democratic world, Klitschko said. And right now, everyone has to be proactive because we pay for that the biggest prize, human lives every day. Russian officials have not been invited to Davos this year, with what was dubbed the Russia House" having been transformed by critics including Ukrainian tycoon Victor Pinchuk and the countrys Foreign Ministry into what they call the Russia War Crimes House." The venue features photos of crimes and cruelties that Russian forces are accused of perpetuating. Meanwhile, the head of the International Energy Agency urged countries and investors not to see energy shocks from the war as a reason to increase fossil fuel investments connecting the invasion to another major theme at Davos, climate change and environmental issues. We should not try to justify a new wave of long-term fossil fuel investments on the basis of what (Russian President Vladimir) Putin did, Fatih Birol said on an energy panel. Instead, efficiencies, such as reducing leaked methane and even lowering thermostats by a few degrees this winter in Europe would help ensure adequate energy supply. Russia is a major supplier of oil and natural gas, with the invasion sending European countries scrambling to reduce their reliance on Moscow through fossil fuel supplies from other countries, conservation and speeding up renewable development. Yulia Klymenko, a member of the Ukrainian Parliament, had harsh words for European leaders, asking why they have failed to diversify their energy for decades. How come that youre all dependent and you are slaves of Putin de facto? she asked on a panel called The Return of the West?" ___ AP reporters Kelvin Chan and Peter Prengaman contributed from Davos. Courtesy / Courtesy A Houston venture capitalist was named to National Advisory Council on Innovation & Entrepreneurship, panel charged with developing a strategy to advance innovation and position the United States as a leader in emerging technologies. Aziz Gilani, a general partner and managing director at the Houston-based Mercury Fund, was one of 32 industry leaders and experts named to the advisory committee by Commerce Secretary Gina M. Raimondo. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate It took time for the news to travel from Rome to Texas. The date was May 4, 1847, when the official declaration establishing the Diocese of Galveston came from the Vatican. It took a while because it had to be delivered by steamboat, said Lisa May, director of archives and records for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. Now, 175 years later, Mayor Sylvester Turner and the Houston City Council marked the anniversary with a proclamation. Auxiliary Bishop Italo DellOro accepted the honor on behalf of the Archdiocese at the City Hall Chamber on May 3. Cardinal Daniel DiNardo received a City of Galveston proclamation on Thursday, May 26. In a video, DiNardo said that after the diocese was created, the first Bishop of Texas, Jean Marie went to work preaching the gospel and bringing the sacraments to those living in the frontier lands of Texas. With him were the Ursuline Sisters, who made it their mission to form the area Catholics in their faith and to educate Catholic children. They brought the Lord Jesus to the people on the periphery, DiNardo said. May said that already there was a Catholic presence in Texas. The story goes back even further to Spanish explorers and missionaries, May said. Catholics settled here when it was New Spain and part of Mexico. That history dates to the 16th and 17th centuries, when area settlers remained members of the dioceses in their home countries. After the Texas War of Independence in 1836, however, Catholics were cut off from church authorities in Mexico. Catholics here no longer belonged to anyone, May explained. They didnt have a bishop. The new Texans appealed to Rome for help and Pope Gregory XVI designated the locale as an Apostolic Prefecture in 1839. Father John Timon was named as Prefect Apostolic, and Father Jean Marie Odin became the Vice Prefect. A year later, the pope raised Texas to the level of a Vicariate Apostolic and Father Odin was ordained a bishop to care for the Vicariate. At the time, in 1840, there were five parishes in Texas, serving 12,000 Catholics. May said more and more Catholics were immigrating from France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland and starting to call Texas home. An amazing church By 1847, Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Galveston. Odin became the first bishop. The diocese was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, under the title of her Immaculate Conception, and St. Marys Church in Galveston was named as the Cathedral. St. Marys remains one of Mays favorite houses of worship in the Archdiocese and was the only church in Galveston to survive the 1900 hurricane. PHOTO GALLERY: The 1900 hurricane wiped out Galveston and made it stronger in the long run Its such an amazing church, she said. When you are there, you can feel the history. In fact, the Cathedral recently completed a renovation, which began in 2019. During the restoration, the 11-foot, 3,000-pound cast-iron St. Mary statue was lowered from the roof. Crews discovered that the bolts keeping the structure in place were rusted. Its a miracle she was not blown from the roof, May said. She was literally hanging on by a thread. Divisions, growth over time At first, the Diocese of Galveston encompassed the entire state, May said. Bishop Odin, along with 10 priests, ministered to the area. The next bishop was the Right Rev. Claude Marie Dubuis, who took the helm in 1861. He served during the Civil War and saw additional parishes, hospitals and schools established throughout the diocese. Then, in 1874, the Diocese of Galveston was split when the western half of the state was established as the Diocese of San Antonio. The division and change of structure over time in Texas shows the growth of the church in the state, May said. Currently, there are 15 dioceses in Texas. We shrunk in territory, but weve grown in population, May said. By 1918, there were 70,000 Catholics and 120 parishes in the Diocese of Galveston. Thirty years later, the population of the diocese increased to 250,000 Catholics. During those three decades, Houston itself grew dramatically. The numbers of churches in the city went from eight to 28. In 1959, the diocese was re-designated as the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and Sacred Heart Church in Houston was named the co-cathedral. At that time, a chancery building was built in Houston and the administrative offices were transferred there in 1963. In 1985, Bishop Joseph Fiorenza became the first native of the diocese to serve as the diocesan bishop. He would become the first archbishop when the area was declared a Metropolitan Archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 2004. Bishop Daniel DiNardo became the coadjutor archbishop and then the archbishop when Archbishop Fiorenza retired in 2006. A year later, he was named cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI. Archive a time machine May works in the Downtown Houston chancery building and said archives are kept both on site and in the co-cathedral across the street. We have thousands of boxes, she said. Contained within are the official records of the chancery office, sacramental records and records from previous bishops dating back to the 1840s. There are even letters sent to Bishop Odin, May said. In the archives are files from closed schools and parishes, as well as issues of the Texas Catholic Herald. I love going back through the old editions, May said. Its like a time machine. You see a slice of what life was like. Often, her office helps find marriage and confirmation records. Staff members help families with genealogy and serve as a resource for parishes. One history, wide net There are currently 146 parishes in the archdiocese. Each has its own wonderful history, May said. And 446 priests minister in the 8,880 square mile area, which covers 10 counties Austin, Brazoria, Fort Bend, Galveston, Grimes, Harris, Montgomery, San Jacinto, Walker and Waller. May said that many people might not be aware that one of the oldest parishes is St. Josephs in Brazoria. It predates the creation of the diocese, she said. The Archdiocese currently serves more than 1.7 million Catholics and also is home to seven health care centers, four homes for the aged and four residential care facilities for children. The Archdiocese is also home to one seminary, one university, 11 high schools and 46 elementary schools with more than 17,000 students from pre-kindergarten through graduation. Each Catholic institution has its own story and Mays job is to assemble them all, as a part of one history of the archdiocese, how it has been established, grown over the years and now poised for the future. Its all about pulling all of these stories together to tell our history, she said. We are all beneficiaries of those who came before us. We are building on their foundation, on the sacrifices they made, the priests, nuns and the lay people. And recognizing those deep roots, being celebrated this year by the archdiocese, is critical to moving forward, May explained. Morning Report: Get the top stories on HoustonChronicle.com sent directly to your inbox Its history that weaves together the faith, she said. It all comes together in this story that were building now, in the 21st century. Cardinal DiNardo said the entire year ahead will be a celebration of the 175 anniversary. His video is part of the official kick-off and events will be planned into 2023, including special Masses and a spring gala. Today, the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston continues to preach the good news of Jesus Christ, DiNardo said. While we celebrate and honor our past, the work of the local church continues. Peyton is a freelance writer based in Houston. Richmond resident Victoria Cuellar has relatives who live in the Uvalde community, and a family friends son who attends Robb Elementary, she said. That family friends son was having nightmares Monday night and didnt really sleep. He wanted to go to an awards ceremony, but his mom wanted him to stay home and rest, Cuellar said. Its what saved him from being in school that day, she said. On Tuesday, a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary leaving 19 students and two teachers dead, more injured and an immeasurable flood of grief in the south Texas city and beyond. I just want to go and see my family. It will never be the same, she said with tears in her voice before a candlelight vigil outside of the Fort Bend County Justice Center Thursday evening. And I still love bragging about Uvalde. And now when I say it, everyones going to know where it is. And what it used to be, and shouldnt be. Cuellar, 45, was one of dozens who came out to the Thursday vigil in Richmond. The high school counselor wore a maroon-and-white ribbon shed made that had small, yellow crosses on it she said shed counted out 21 of them. Those gathered lit candles and heard impassioned words from elected officials and pastors who shared their thoughts, prayed and called for action. On HoustonChronicle.com: Texas politicians shared horror and grief over Uvalde. Here's how much money they took from the NRA. Fort Bend County Judge KP George, Sheriff Eric Fagan, First Assistant District Attorney Ibrahim Khawaja, County Attorney Bridgette Smith-Lawson and State Rep. Ron Reynolds were among those who attended and spoke at the vigil. George told the crowd to remember that the 19 children who were killed didnt go to a war zone or a dangerous place theyd gone to school. He believes when he sends his children to school, its the second-safest place outside of their home, he said. Thats what I thought. And I know that each and every one of you feel the same way when you send your children, he said. And coming back in body bags, its heartbreaking. When Khawaja spoke, he shared how hed gone to his daughters fifth grade graduation that morning and had a somber heart. See, this isnt about politics, he said. And when we speak up, its shameful for people to tell us that its about politics. This is personal. The people in Uvalde, Texas, didnt know this was going to happen. They saw the past shootings on TV just like we see them. On HoustonChronicle.com: As NRA meeting begins, Houston preps for Trump appearance but Abbott drops out When he was sitting there at the graduation, Khawaja said, hed flinched when he heard a cup drop or a chair move. Were living in fear in our own backyard, he said. So step up, stop the words, lets hold the people we put in power accountable. Do something. Because this doesnt affect Democratic kids or Republican kids, it affects American kids. Reynolds later addressed the crowd and said theyd continue to appeal to the states leadership. He voiced support for common sense solutions, such as red flag laws and background checks. Those are some limited, minimal things that we can do, he said. (The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.) Aimee Huff, Oregon State University and Michelle Barnhart, Oregon State University (THE CONVERSATION) In the wake of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, some elected officials are making calls anew for teachers to be armed and trained to use firearms to protect the nations schools. To shine light on the matter, The Conversation reached out to Aimee Huff and Michelle Barnhart, two Oregon State University scholars who have studied the ins and outs of putting guns in the hands of the nations teachers as a way to protect students. 1. What does the public think about arming teachers? According to a 2021 poll, 43% of Americans supported policies that allow school personnel to carry guns in schools. But if you take a closer look, you see that most of that support comes from Republicans and gun-owners. For instance, 66% of Republican respondents expressed support for such policies, versus just 24% of Democratic respondents. And 63% of gun owners supported allowing school personnel to carry guns, versus just 33% of non-gun owners. The majority of teachers, parents and students oppose allowing teachers to carry guns. The largest teachers unions, including the National Education Association, also oppose arming teachers, arguing that bringing more guns into schools makes schools more dangerous and does nothing to shield our students and educators from gun violence. These teachers unions advocate a preventive approach that includes more gun regulations. While the public is justifiably concerned with eliminating school shootings, there is disagreement over the policies and actions that would be most effective. A 2021 study found that 70% of Americans supported the idea of armed school resource officers and law enforcement in schools, but only 41% supported the idea of training teachers to carry guns in schools. In our research on how Americans think about the rights and responsibilities related to armed self-defense, we even find disagreement among conservative gun owners over how to best protect schoolchildren. Some advocate arming teachers, while other gun owners believe guns in schools ultimately make children less safe. These conservative opponents of arming teachers instead support fortifying the buildings design and features. After the massacre in Uvalde, we are seeing renewed calls from politicians to arm teachers and provide them with specialized training. However, amid conflicting reports about whether police officers engaged the Robb Elementary School shooter, there are renewed questions about whether armed teachers would make a difference. Police have acknowledged they didnt enter the school even as kids frantically dialed 911. Given that there were also armed officers present at the Columbine and Parkland school massacres in 1999 and 2018, respectively, the public is understandably right to wonder whether armed teachers can effectively neutralize a shooter. Amid reports that trained and experienced police officers may have been unable or unwilling to intervene against the Uvalde shooter, its not clear whether teachers would be, either. 2. What are the potential drawbacks of arming teachers? Arming teachers introduces risks to students and staff, as well as school districts themselves. These include the risk of teachers accidentally shooting themselves or students and fellow staff. There are also moral and legal risks associated with improper or inaccurate defensive use of a firearm - even for teachers who have undertaken specialized firearms training. One study found that highly trained police in gunfights hit their target only 18% of the time. Even if teachers, who would likely have less training, achieve the same accuracy, four or five of every six bullets fired by a teacher would hit something or someone other than the shooter. Further, a teacher responding with force to a shooter may be mistaken for the perpetrator by law enforcement or by armed colleagues. Introducing guns to the school environment also poses everyday risks. Armed teachers may unintentionally discharge their firearm. For instance, an armed police officer accidentally discharged his weapon in his office at a school in Alexandria, Virginia in 2018. Guns can also fall into the wrong hands. Research on shootings that took place in hospital emergency rooms found that in 23% of the cases, the weapon used was a gun the perpetrator took from a hospital security guard. Students could also access firearms that are improperly stored or mishandled. Improper storage is a common problem among American gun owners. In a school setting, this has resulted in students finding a teachers misplaced firearm, sometimes taking it or reporting it to another school official. News reports show that guns carried into schools have fallen out of teachers clothing, and have been left in bathrooms and locker rooms. There have also been reports of students stealing guns from teachers. Insurance companies also see concealed guns on school grounds as creating a heightened liability risk. Other drawbacks to arming teachers involve the learning environment. In particular, owing to structural racism and discriminatory school security policies, Black high school students are less supportive than white students of arming teachers 16% versus 26% and report feeling less safe if teachers are carrying firearms. 3. What are the arguments for arming teachers? Proponents emphasize that teachers, as Americans, have a right to use firearms to defend themselves against violent crime, including a school shooter. Our research shows that some people interpret their right to armed self-defense as a moral obligation, and argue that teachers have both a right and a responsibility to use firearms to protect themselves and their students. Parents who regularly carry handguns to protect themselves and their children may take comfort knowing that their childs teacher could perform the role of protector at school. In a school shooting, where lives can be saved or ended in a matter of seconds, some people may feel more secure believing a shooter would immediately meet armed resistance from a teacher without needing to wait for an armed school officer to respond. 4. Have any school districts allowed teachers to arm themselves? Yes. Teachers may carry guns at school in districts in at least 19 states. The idea surfaced as a viable policy after the 1999 Columbine shooting, and gained momentum after the 2018 Parkland shooting. The number of school districts that permit teachers to be armed is difficult to ascertain. Policies vary across states. New York bars school districts from allowing teachers to carry guns, while Missouri and Montana authorize teachers to carry firearms. 5. What were the results? There are documented incidents of school staff using their firearm to neutralize a shooter. However, researchers have not found evidence that arming teachers increases school safety. Rather, arming teachers may contribute to a false sense of security for teachers, students and the community. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here: https://theconversation.com/arming-teachers-an-effective-security-measure-or-a-false-sense-of-security-183909. The suspects in the shootings at a Uvalde, Texas, elementary school and a Buffalo, New York, supermarket were both just 18, authorities say, when they bought the weapons used in the attacks. They were too young to legally purchase alcohol or cigarettes, but old enough to arm themselves with assault-style weapons. They are just the latest suspected U.S. mass shooters whose ability to obtain guns has raised concerns. Some shooters got guns legally under current firearms laws, or because of background check lapses or law enforcements failure to heed warnings of concerning behavior. Here is how some suspects in shootings where at least 10 people were killed got their guns: UVALDE, TEXAS: MAY 24, 2022. 21 DEAD. Salvador Ramos legally purchased two guns in the days before the attack that killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School an AR-style rifle from a federally licensed gun dealer in the Uvalde area on May 17 and a second rifle on May 20. Ramos made the purchases just days after turning 18, the minimum age under federal law for buying a rifle. He also purchased several hundred rounds of ammunition. At least one of the rifles was modeled after the U.S. militarys M4 carbine rifle, though without the M4's ability to switch to fully automatic or fire a three-round burst. Ramos was killed at the school by a Border Patrol team. ___ BUFFALO, NEW YORK: MAY 14, 2022. 10 DEAD. Payton Gendron legally purchased the Bushmaster XM-15 E2S used in the attack on Tops Friendly Market from a federally licensed gun dealer near his home in Conklin, New York, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) southeast of Buffalo. In an online diary that surfaced after the attack, Gendron said he bought the AR-15-style weapon in January, bought a shotgun in December and received a rifle as a Christmas present from his dad when he was 16. Last year, Gendron was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation under a state mental health law after writing murder-suicide in response to a teachers question. New York is one of 19 states with red flag laws that allow courts to take guns from people posing immediate danger, but that didn't happen with Gendron, who was 17 at the time. State police described his threat as general in nature." Gendron is charged with murder. ___ BOULDER, COLORADO: MARCH 22, 2021. 10 DEAD. Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa bought a Ruger AR-556 pistol, a semi-automatic weapon with a capacity of up to 30 rounds, six days before the shooting at King Soopers grocery store, police said. Alissa was prone to sudden rage and was convicted of misdemeanor assault and sentenced to probation for attacking a high school classmate. Colorado has a universal background check law covering almost all gun sales, but that misdemeanor would not have prevented him from buying a weapon, experts said. Had it been a felony, federal law would've barred his purchase. A judge ruled Alissa is mentally incompetent to stand trial. ___ EL PASO, TEXAS: AUG. 3, 2019. 23 DEAD. Patrick Crusius bought an AK-47-style rifle and 1,000 rounds of hollow-point ammunition online 45 days before he walked into a Walmart store and opened fire, killing 23 people and injuring two dozen others, before confessing that he had been targeting Mexicans, according to prosecutors. A Crusius family lawyer said his mother raised concerns about the purchase in a call to police on June 27. Police said she asked if Crusius, then 21, was old enough to buy a gun. Police said she was assured he was, if he passed a background check, and she'd seen no recent change in his behavior. He's charged with capital murder in Texas and federal hate crimes and firearms offenses. ___ VIRGINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA: MAY 31, 2019. 12 DEAD. Former Virginia Beach city employee DeWayne Craddock legally purchased six firearms in the three years before he opened fire on a municipal building, including the two .45-caliber pistols used in the attack. A review of the shooting commissioned by the city found that Craddock displayed no warning signs or prohibited behaviors associated with a pathway to violence, and had no known history of mental health treatment. Craddock was killed by police. ___ THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA: NOV. 7, 2018. 12 DEAD. Ian David Long, a former Marine machine gunner who served in Afghanistan, used a legally purchased .45-caliber pistol with an extended magazine in the shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill. Months before the shooting, sheriffs deputies called to Longs home found him acting irrationally, but a mental health specialist didnt feel he needed to be involuntarily committed. California has a red flag law, but theres no indication authorities sought a court order to take away Long's guns. Long killed himself. ___ PITTSBURGH: OCT. 27, 2018. 11 DEAD. Robert Gregory Bowers had a carry license and legally owned the Colt AR-15 SP1 and three Glock .357 handguns police said he used to kill worshipers at Tree of Life synagogue. Bowers spent months posting rants against Jews on Gab, a social media site favored by right-wing extremists. He also posted photos of his "glock family. Just before the attack, he posted a screed against a Jewish organization, saying Screw your optics, Im going in. None of the rhetoric appeared to raise red flags. His case is pending. ___ SANTA FE, TEXAS: MAY. 18, 2018. 10 DEAD. Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old student, used a shotgun and a .38-caliber handgun that his father purchased legally and stored in a closet at their home, authorities said. Prior to the attack, Pagourtzis posted a photo on social media of a T-shirt with the phrase Born to Kill and had writings indicating he planned to attack his high school. A judge sent him to a mental health facility after ruling he was incompetent to stand trial. ___ PARKLAND, FLORIDA: FEB. 14, 2018. 17 DEAD. Nikolas Cruz legally purchased a Smith & Wesson M&P 15 rifle in February 2017 from a licensed dealer a few miles from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, authorities said. Hed been treated at a mental health clinic but hadnt been there in more than a year. Federal law prohibits gun purchases if a court declares a person a mental defective or commits that person to an institution, but not if the person seeks treatment voluntarily. Cruz was 19 at the time of the shooting. He pleaded guilty in October. A four-month penalty trial scheduled to begin this summer will determine if he is sentenced to death or life without parole. ___ SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, TEXAS: NOV. 5, 2017. 25 DEAD. Devin Patrick Kelleys history of domestic abuse barred him from buying guns. He was able to because information about his crimes was never entered into a federal database used for background checks. The Air Force failed to follow rules requiring that it inform the FBI about his conduct. Kelley purchased four guns, including an AR-15-style rifle found at First Baptist Church, from licensed Texas and Colorado dealers over a four-year span. Kelley killed himself. ___ LAS VEGAS: OCT. 1, 2017. 58 DEAD. Stephen Paddock purchased 33 of the 49 weapons found in his hotel room and at his homes in the year before he opened fire on a country music festival. Paddock passed all background checks. His gradual accumulation of guns went undetected because federal law doesn't require licensed gun dealers to alert the government about rifle purchases. Paddock killed himself. ___ ORLANDO, FLORIDA: JUNE 12, 2016. 49 DEAD. Omar Mateen purchased an AR-15-style rifle, a Sig Sauer MCX, and a handgun from a licensed dealer on separate days about a week before the Pulse nightclub attack. He passed a background check and had a security license that allowed him to be armed while on duty. The FBI investigated Mateen in 2013 and 2014 over co-workers concerns that hed spoken about ties to terrorist groups. Neither inquiry led to charges. Even if he'd been placed on a terrorism watch list, Congress in 2015 rejected attempts to prevent people on the list from purchasing guns. Mateen was killed by police. ___ SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA: DEC. 2, 2015. 14 DEAD. Syed Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, used weapons the FBI said his neighbor, Enrique Marquez, legally purchased from a licensed dealer in 2011 and 2012. Marquez pleaded guilty to charges he conspired to provide support to terrorists and made false statements to acquire a firearm. He told investigators Farook asked him to buy the weapons because he would draw less attention. Farook and Malik were killed by police. ___ ROSEBURG, OREGON: OCT. 1, 2015. 10 DEAD. Christopher Harper-Mercer and his family members legally purchased the handguns and rifle used in the Umpqua Community College shooting from a licensed dealer. Investigators found six guns at the college and eight at an apartment. Neighbors said Harper-Mercer and his mother went target shooting together. Harper-Mercer killed himself after he was wounded by police. ___ WASHINGTON: SEPT. 16, 2013. 12 DEAD. Aaron Alexis, a former reservist turned civilian contractor, passed background checks and legally purchased the shotgun used in the Washington Navy Yard shooting despite recent mental health treatment and a history of violent outbursts. He previously fired a gun in anger twice but wasnt prosecuted in either case. Alexis was killed by police. ___ NEWTOWN, CONNECTICUT: DEC. 14, 2012. 26 DEAD. Adam Lanza used his mothers weapons, including a .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle, in the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Lanzas mother, whom he fatally shot before going to the school, also purchased the ammunition. Lanza killed himself. ___ AURORA, COLORADO: JULY 20, 2012. 12 DEAD. James Holmes was receiving psychiatric treatment when he passed required federal background checks and legally purchased the weapons he used in his movie theater assault. As in the Parkland and Navy Yard cases, treatment alone did not prevent him from buying guns. He was convicted and sentenced to 12 life terms and thousands of years in prison. President Yoon Suk-yeol appointed Kim Kyou-hyun, a former deputy national security adviser and career diplomat, as his first spy chief Friday. Yoon presented Kim with a letter of appointment a day after the National Assembly approved him as director of the National Intelligence Service. Kim takes over at a time when tensions run high on the peninsula in the wake of a series of weapons tests by North Korea. During his confirmation hearing Wednesday, the director vowed to reinforce the country's intelligence capabilities with regard to the North while voicing skepticism about Pyongyang's willingness to denuclearize. Kim entered the foreign service in 1980 and worked in various posts dealing with the United States before being appointed first vice foreign minister under then President Park Geun-hye. He later served as first deputy national security adviser, and then doubled as senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs and second deputy national security adviser during the same administration. (Yonhap) UNITED NATIONS (AP) The U.N. Security Council voted by a narrow margin Thursday to extend an arms embargo on South Sudan and a travel ban and financial sanctions for targeted individuals for a year. For a resolution to be approved by the 15-member council, it needs at least nine yes votes and no veto by a permanent member. The vote on the U.S.-drafted resolution on South Sudan sanctions was 10-0 with China, Russia, India, Kenya and Gabon abstaining. South Sudan has repeatedly called for the arms embargo to be lifted, and the five countries that abstained expressed opposition to the sanctions. But earlier this month, the U.N. panel of experts monitoring sanctions against South Sudan recommended that the Security Council extend the arms embargo because of persistent cease-fire violations and intensifying violence in the countrys regions. The experts said the governments purchase of approximately 25 new armored personnel carriers for the police, shown in a March photograph, was a violation of the U.N. arms embargo. Stressing that conditions for millions of civilians are getting worse, the panel said violence, floods and displacement have created unprecedented levels of food insecurity across much of the country. It cited the U.N. World Food Programs warning in March that South Sudan was facing its worst hunger crisis ever, with some 8.3 million people needing food and 1.4 million children acutely malnourished as of December. Chinas U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun countered the experts and resolution's supporters saying the worlds newest nation, which has gone through a decade of war, has a poor and weak foundation and it needs constructive support, not pressure by sanctions, from the international community. He noted that the African Union and the East African regional group IGAD have long opposed the councils punishment of this youngest brother of Africa. South Sudans problems need to be addressed through political means, stressing that in many cases pressure by sanctions is not only ineffective, but also restricts the ability of the government of South Sudan to build security capacity in protecting civilians, he said. Russias deputy U.N. ambassador Anna Evstigneeva said Moscow is not trying to downplay the situation in this young country which still has to overcome many challenges. But she said the government has made certain progress and it needs today to work on forming its armed forces. Kenyas deputy U.N. ambassador Michael Kiboino said his country abstained because the council didnt lift the arms embargo and targeted sanctions as the AU and IGAD called for, and the council didnt make a commitment to progressively lift the measures. We believe that the arms embargo and targeted sanctions have not been effective tools in support of the South Sudan peace process, he said. There were high hopes when oil-rich South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 after a long conflict. But the country slid into civil war in December 2013 largely based on ethnic divisions when forces loyal to President Salva Kiir battled those loyal to Vice President Riek Machar. Tens of thousands of people were killed in the war, which ended with a 2018 peace agreement that brought Kiir and Machar together in a government of national unity. But challenges remained, including the governments failure to implement promised reforms. The resolution adopted Thursday recognizes that the permanent cease-fire was upheld in most parts of the country by the parties, but it reiterates the Security Councils alarm and deep concern regarding the political, security, economic, and humanitarian crisis in South Sudan. It strongly condemns continued fighting in the country and emphasizes that there can be no military solution to the situation in South Sudan. The resolution also strongly condemns past and ongoing human rights violations and abuses and violations of international humanitarian law, including the alarming surge in conflict-related sexual violence. It extends the arms embargo and sanctions until May 31, 2023, and the mandate for the panel of experts until July 1, 2023. Houston Exponential, the nonprofit organization launched in 2017 as part of a push by city leaders to support the citys tech ecosystem, has been acquired by a media and technology company. Gow Cos., which owns CultureMap, InnovationMap, SportsMap and tech-related entities, has taken over the assets of Houston Exponential in a deal whose terms werent revealed. Gow plans to convert HX to a for-profit organization. It has already left the Midtown office building formerly occupied by the Houston Technology Center, a predecessor organization, and is camped out in the Galleria area. A search is underway for a new CEO, says Lawson Gow, a partner at Gow Cos., founder of The Cannon entrepreneurial community and who is serving as interim chief executive of HX. The ideal candidate, he added, will be Houston-loving, among other things, because while Houston Exponential is entering a new phase, its mission remains the same: to help Houston become a center for technology and innovation. This is not something that we acquired to make a ton of money on, Gow said. This is something that we acquired to protect and nurture and grow, because its something that were passionate about for the long term. Gow says he didnt set out to acquire Houston Exponential in the first place. He was approached by its board. And, although he hadnt previously considered the idea, he was quickly persuaded. The Cannon, an entrepreneurial community, also launched in 2017, with similar goals and for the same reason. Houston didnt exactly have a tech ecosystem at the time, he said. TOGETHERNESS: Houston Exponential launches database to pull together the citys tech community It was a term that was out there to describe what we were aspiring to create, Gow said. Innovations born out of hardship, he said. Some cities have less money, fewer corporate headquarters, weaker universities. We were a bit spoiled. We didnt prioritize it, so we did fall behind. That was just not a part of Houstons business culture. Things changed for the city, he said, at about that time. In 2017 Amazon invited cities to compete for a chance to host its second headquarters, and Houston joined the competition. As you review this proposal, we think you will come to this conclusion: Houston and Amazon are kindred spirits, and together, we can change the world, city leaders said in their pitch, which also proposed $268 million in incentives for the company. Amazon disagreed. It didnt even include Houston among the 20 finalist cities. I believe this is a wake-up call for Houston, said Greater Houston Partnership CEO Bob Harvey in a statement at the time. This is a clear indication that we have much more work to do as a region to grow our digital economy. That work led to the launch of Houston Exponential, which has served as cheerleader, front door and community organizer for Houstonians in the technology and innovation space. It also led to the creation of the HX Venture Fund, a venture capital fund, and spurred the city to partner with Rice on The Ion innovation district. SEED MONEY: Houston Exponential gets $25 million for fund to attract venture capital These efforts seem to be having an impact. An April report from the Greater Houston Partnership said that Houston companies received $2.02 billion in venture capital funding in 2021, a record for the region and a roughly tenfold increase from 2016. Still, this is fragile momentum, Gow said, and keeping it going will require community support. If the day comes where the ecosystem is so incredibly evolved and vibrant that HX becomes redundant, thatll be a wonderful day, Gow said, adding that he doesnt expect such a day to arrive for at least a decade. The acquisition of Houston Exponential will create its own challenges, perhaps chief among them retaining the trust of the community as a for-profit company. But HXs work has been integral to the development of Houstons tech ecosystem to date, Gow said, and the organization still has a role to play. There was a need then, he said, and theres still a need. Houston Chronicle A Stafford man admitted to illegally transporting a girl whom law enforcement found in a plastic bin on his vehicles back seat, according to a U.S. Attorneys Office Southern District of Texas release. Fernando Jaramillo, 22, is set for an Aug. 23 sentencing, where he could receive up to five years of federal imprisonment, per the release. He could also face a fine as high as $250,000. UVALDE Sitting in his office on the third floor of the courthouse here, Judge Eulalio Diaz first saw a post around noon Tuesday from the citys police. Not a first responder, he went about his day, watching ambulances and buses out two windows behind his desk, hearing and reading reports. About two hours later, he got a call requesting he make a location, indicating that at least one person is dead in a Texas county without a medical examiner. As the countys justice of the peace, his duties usually include court cases and officiating weddings, but his role also includes serving as the coroner. We were under impression that it was two or three people, Diaz, 49, recounted Thursday. He arrived at Robb Elementary a campus once attended by himself, his eighth-grade son and his high school senior who was supposed to graduate Friday. He was told there were nearly 20 deceased inside a classroom. Thats just, you know, he said, not the news I was expecting to hear. For the first time since before the pandemic, he estimated, he emailed the Bexar County medical examiner for help in undertaking the task of pronouncing individuals deceased and determining manners and causes of death. Families needed to be told, too, once those who had perished had been identified, but it would be hours. He figured he could prepare for what he would see in the classroom in the time it would take the medical examiner to get into town. Time to ready his mind. Time to brace himself to see what at the time was believed to 17 dead individuals, most of them young children. You cant prepare, he said now. You dont want to ever see children, and even adults teachers, you dont want to see something like this happen to them. Its just the most horrible feeling. It was something, he said, he would like to have never done and never want to do ever again. We know people, he said. Its going to affect all of us. This is not one where Im disconnected with the town. Im part of the town, this is my town, this is where I grew up, this is where I live. Its really hard on all of us. Since, Diaz has been answering a lot of questions, trying to be open about his process and the reality he and his 16,000 or so neighbors now share. He has not attended vigils, instead working in his office with authorities and trying to get any more information to mourning families. His clerk and constable have visited him to offer support. We lean on each other, he said. Were a close-knit community. He appreciates the outpouring of support for the city.And he wants people to not forget about what happened in two or three weeks or a month or whenever its no longer new. This, he said, is a life-changing event for everybody. The federal government was already playing catch-up when it started funding gun violence research again in 2019 following a long, politically driven freeze. But as the money trickles in, Houston researchers and physicians say more is needed to inform common-sense laws and practices that could prevent the next mass shooting, like the one in Uvalde that killed 19 children and two teachers. LIVE UPDATES: Follow along for the latest news and analysis on the Uvalde school massacre Even with partial funding, we could really fill gaps, said Dr. Sandra McKay, a Houston pediatrician and gun violence researcher at UTHealth Science Center at Houston. Our clinics could be handing out gun locks in their clinics for free, but we dont because theres no funding for that. We could be partnering with our local schools (for research opportunities), but theres no funding for it. While mass shootings only account for a small percentage of overall gun violence, the tragedy in Uvalde is part of a worsening epidemic of firearm injuries and deaths. An article published last month in the New England Journal of Medicine said as of 2017, firearms had overtaken car crashes as the leading cause of traumatic death among children and young adults for the first time in 60 years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this month published data showing a 35 percent increase in firearm homicides from 2019 to 2020. But despite the growing threat, recent funding for gun violence research does not come close to that of other leading causes of death, according to Giffords, the gun safety organization co-founded by former Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head during a mass shooting. The federal government spends roughly $35 million per year researching car crashes, but less than $2 million per year researching gun deaths, according to the organization. Gun research spending wasnt approved until 2019, following a nearly 25-year hiatus triggered by The National Rifle Associations efforts to undermine studies that appeared to advocate for gun control. That created a considerable gap in the publics understanding of the root causes of the issue, experts say. A lot of people are saying these gun restriction laws dont work, but the problem is we dont have enough data and enough research, said Dr. Rola El Serag, the new director of the Baker Institutes Center for Health and Biosciences at Rice University. We should be pouring money into research that should be guiding our policy instead of being reactive. On HoustonChronicle.com: As Uvalde gunman was inside the school, parents screamed outside. What we know about those 40 minutes El Serag noted that in the wake of past school shootings, the state has chosen to fund school security measures instead of gun violence research. Texas public schools in 2020 received money from a $100 million state grant to enhance physical security, according to the Texas Tribune. But theres little evidence those efforts work, the Tribune reported. As more facts in the Uvalde shooting come to light, Republican lawmakers continue to point to mental illness as the underlying cause of gun violence. But that is a politically expedient excuse that does not bear out with existing research, said Dr. Jeff Temple, director of the Center for Violence Prevention at the University of Texas Medical Branch. I think everyone sees that as a scapegoat, a boogeyman, Temple said. We do need resources for mental health but the fact is, less than 5 percent of all gun violence is traced back to someone with a diagnosed mental illness. Temple published a study in 2019 that found individuals who had access to guns, compared to those with no such access, were over 18 times more likely to have threatened someone with a gun, even after controlling for a number of demographic and mental health variables. In terms of possible gun law changes, policy experts have identified some low-hanging fruit. Re-examining permissive regulations that allow 18-year-olds to buy so-called long guns - like the rifles purchased by the Uvalde gunman after his 18th birthday - would be a good first step, McKay said. Modern rifles can create devastating impacts that leave victims unrecognizable. Over the years our long guns have changed, she said. Theyre no longer the traditional hunting rifles we think of in the 1970s... the technology has advanced and evolved over time but I dont think our laws have adapted. On HoustonChronicle.com: Inside the delays and discrepancies of the Uvalde shooting police response Dr. Cedric Dark, a Houston ER doctor and health policy expert, agrees that that raising the age to buy long guns from 18 to 21 is a reasonable approach. Both he and McKay are firearm owners and say they take a bipartisan stance on the issue one based on science and experience. But the politicians tend to want to manipulate science, Dark said. We say the same things, ranging from masks to bullets to fluoride in water systems to things like the HPV vaccine, he said, adding, The only thing we as physicians can do is use our position in society to make a stance and try to protect people in our community. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate As National Rifle Association annual meeting attendees streamed into Houston for an event thats expected to spark widespread protests, Gov. Greg Abbott late Thursday announced hes canceling his plans to attend. Abbott was part of a slate of marquee speakers that includes former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz. He now joins at least four popular country musicians who are dropping out of the big NRA gathering, which is occurring just three days after a teenage gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in the South Texas community of Uvalde. LIVE UPDATES: Follow along for the latest news and analysis on the Uvalde school massacre The governor faced heavy criticism for his decision to attend the event following the massacre. He will now deliver pre-recorded video remarks rather than appear in person, Abbott spokesman Mark Miner said. Instead of being in Houston, Abbott will travel to Uvalde for another press conference on state resources available for those impacted by the Robb Elementary School shooting. That event will take place at 3:30 p.m., shortly after the governor was set to address NRA attendees. Mayor Sylvester Turner faced pressure to cancel the NRA meeting, but stopped short of doing so. We dont have the luxury to cancel a convention that has been on the books for two years, he said Thursday, adding that the liability in doing so would be too costly for the city. That said, Turner said he might be among the protesters who are expected to gather Friday at Discovery Green, across from the George R. Brown Convention Center, where the conference is being held. Multiple civic and social justice groups have called for people to stand outside with them as attendees come and go. "There is a strong possibility I will be out there as well," Turner said. Abbotts gubernatorial challenger, Beto ORourke, is also expected to be among the protesters. Houston police Chief Troy Finner said he anticipates upward of 80,000 people to descend on downtown Houston in connection with the NRA conference. The police department is prepared to dispatch officers accordingly, he added. We are getting chatter from everywhere, Finner said. I always say we pray for the best and prepare for the worst. We wont know until they show up. Zones for protesters and counter-protesters will be set up as an attempt to avoid clashes, Finner said, warning that graduations for Fort Bend ISD are scheduled Saturday at the nearby Toyota Center. The concerns over protest crowds came as musicians Don McLean, Larry Gatlin, Larry Stewart and Danielle Peck said they would not perform at Saturday's Grand Ole Night Of Freedom Concert at the convention. All said they were canceling because of the mass shooting in Uvalde. Gatlin, in his statement announcing the decision, advocated for background checks to prevent future tragedies and questioned whether the outcome in Uvalde would have been different had teachers there been armed and trained. Stewart said the NRA is a great organization, but his decision not to play was whats best for him. On HoustonChronicle.com: Inside the delays and discrepancies of the Uvalde shooting police response Im sure all the folks planning to attend this event are shocked and sickened by these events as well, McClean wrote. After all, we are all Americans. I share the sorrow for this terrible, cruel loss with the rest of the nation. Protesters had hoped Turner would cancel the full conference. The mayor previously responded to public pressure and canceled the Texas Republican Partys in-person state convention in 2020, citing the health dangers posed by COVID-19, after initially insisting that he was unable to cancel it. In that instance, Houston First, the public nonprofit that operates the city-owned convention center, notified the partys executive committee that the convention had been canceled. It said one side was allowed to cancel for an occurrence out of its control, such as an epidemic. GOP officials sued the city, but a Harris County judge later sided with Turner and denied the party's request to block the city from restricting the convention. It was unclear Thursday whether such reasoning could be applied now. Houston First and the mayor have said they cannot bar the NRA convention for contractual reasons. Relatively small numbers of NRA protesters gathered downtown Thursday. Larger crowds are expected Friday, especially as Trump, Cruz and other speakers address meeting goers in the afternoon. Black Lives Matter Houston announced plans to organize a mass voter registration event" on Discovery Green. The League of United Latin American Citizens is also hosting a protest outside the convention center Friday, while a Houston interfaith group is planning to gather for prayer and a march at 1 p.m. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE Eduardo Trinidads nephew helped his wounded fifth-grade teacher shove a table against a door and climb through a window at Robb Elementary School to escape the deadly bullets. Two days after the terror, the boy stopped by his uncles home for an ice pop. Meanwhile, Trinidad, 60, sat on his shady porch near his former school and contemplated the items he has owned and adored for much of his life: firearms. In the wake of the tragedy, his perspective is beginning to shift. Maybe legislators should raise the minimum age for buying some weapons, he said. Trinidad said his own son recently bought an assault-style rifle to shoot in the open countryside. The father, who used to own a semi-automatic rifle himself, didnt think much about it until he learned the school shooter had used a similar weapon to kill 19 children and two teachers in a classroom. I never looked at it that way, he said. Im not happy with my son owning this. ... I really need to talk to him because of all of this thats going on. Its not good. Not good at all. In a rural, predominantly Hispanic and Catholic town where many people keep guns for hunting, some residents from the heartbroken ranching community of roughly 16,000 people are questioning the need for such high-powered weapons. Victoria Flores, 16, said her family owns guns for duck and rabbit hunting. They take precautions though, including licenses and classes, and she does not know where the firearms are stored. In recent days, the teenagers social media feed has been filled with people posting about gun control. She reflected on the issue while working at her uncles downtown restaurant. I dont understand why they would even sell him one, she said. Thats not a hunting gun. Theres no need to have one, unless youre military or Border Patrol or police then I understand because theyre trained for it. If youre just a random 18-year-old, theres no need to have one. The stretch of Getty Street where Flores works is dotted with small businesses: a barber shop, a thrift store, a flower shop. A Trump flag hangs in one window. Other storefronts are decorated with freshly painted words: Uvalde strong. Amelia Cervantes, a 38-year-old mother, also called for stricter gun control and parental responsibility. How is it possible that he cant buy alcohol or cigarettes, but he can buy a gun a gun of that magnitude? Why? she said in Spanish at a taco stand on Wednesday morning. Im all about and a supporter of the Second Amendment, but Im against that any person could buy a gun that easily. There should be stricter rules, especially at that age. Cervantes moved from Georgia to Uvalde to raise her children in a smaller, safer community. Now, she does not feel safe. Just like it was at this school, it could have been another school, she said. It could have been at church, it could have been at a public place. Understanding a rural communitys attitudes toward guns is more complicated than talking about political parties, said Joshua Blank, the research director of Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. The research Blank has conducted shows that people tend to blame mass shootings either on lenient gun control laws or on failures of the mental health system or on an individual, such as a parent. For people in parts of the state where gun ownership is a regular part of life, theres an incentive not to blame gun laws because it allows their views to stay consistent, Blank said. It wouldnt be surprising necessarily in a rural, probably marginally conservative community with wide exposure to guns, to react to this tragedy without necessarily seeing guns as the primary problem, he said, adding, They may actually feel that the response to a shooting like the one that happened in Uvalde is for there to be more guns. Blanks polling has shown that mass shootings havent substantially changed attitudes toward gun laws in the state. The only reason that this time could be different, he said, is that the debate now centers on the lives of children. Uvalde County voted 60 percent in favor of Donald Trump in 2020, according to the results posted online. The citys mayor is a Republican. Its state senator and state representative are Democrats. The Uvalde County Republican Party on its Facebook page supported Gov. Greg Abbotts perspective that this was about mental health issues and not about gun control. Poncho Nevarez, a Democrat and former state representative in the area, suggested that although those in power in Uvalde were pro-guns, people there might question the view that good people with guns will protect the community from bad people with guns. Were about to test this theory about how much theyre willing to stomach, Nevarez said. They believed that. They had faith in that, so theyre willing to go along with that contract, because were told that that works. Well, we just saw a big hole blown through that. Trinidad was born and raised in Uvalde. Little has changed in the past decades, he said. He works on ranches and farms and wears a cowboy hat and boots like his father. I think with this that just happened, things are going to change here, he said. He said he did not know what could be done to prevent such tragedies in the future but called on leaders to take charge, railing against Abbott. I mean, I dont know how its going to happen, he said, but it needs to happen. Godofredo Vasquez contributed to this report. anna.bauman@chron.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Scientists around the world soon will get slivers of a 50-year-old moon rock sample that NASA recently opened at the Johnson Space Center. This sample was collected in December 1972, vacuum sealed and then stored in a special cabinet at NASA waiting for technology to advance so scientists could glean new insights about the moon and solar system to advance human exploration. RELATED: NASA opens rock sample that may offer insights into how the moon was created Scientists extracted gases from the sample earlier this year, a first for the agency, then began a monthslong process of opening and dividing the sample into half-centimeter increments. They began dissecting the sample on March 21 and plan to finish this work in late June. The first samples will go to scientists at the University of New Mexico, the University of Notre Dame, Washington University in St. Louis and University of California, Berkeley. Many other institutions will receive samples later in June, including NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the University of Arizona, said Apollo sample curator Ryan Zeigler. Gas samples have been given for preliminary analysis to Washington University in St. Louis and the University of New Mexico. These two partner institutions were in the room when NASA extracted the gas. This particular sample, Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program 73001, was collected by astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Jack Schmitt on the last Apollo mission to the moon. They collected rocks and gases that had been buried around 2 feet beneath a landslide. Moon rocks collected by Apollo astronauts have been key to understanding our solar system. And these samples could act as a reference as NASA prepares to return to the moon through the Artemis Program, starting a new era of lunar exploration. andrea.leinfelder@chron.com twitter.com/a_leinfelder The Texas DPS official who fielded a barrage of criticism about his department's response to the mass shooting in Uvalde is the same man who interrogated death row inmate Melissa Lucio into giving what her lawyers said was a false confession, according to the filmmaker who made a documentary about Lucios case. LIVE UPDATES: Follow along for the latest news and analysis on the Uvalde school massacre Victor Escalon, a regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety, came up against a flood of questions from reporters Thursday probing about why police waited for nearly an hour to enter the school while terrified children waited inside and called 911. DPS officials admitted during a Friday press conference that decision was "the wrong one," and that police should have entered the building sooner to prevent more deaths during what has become the second-deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history. The delay and varied accounts about what happened have left many frustrated about the police response. Godofredo A. Vasquez/Staff photographer Lucio, who was convicted in her toddlers death, narrowly escaped lethal injection when she was granted a stay, days before her scheduled execution, last month. Her lawyers and family contend that her daughter's death was a tragic accident, and that Lucio's case was marred by corruption, gender bias and shoddy police work, including her questioning by Escalon. Courtesy the Innocence Project They see Lucio's interrogation the night of her daughter's death as the key element that convinced jurors of her guilt. Escalon and another officer questioned Lucio, who was pregnant at the time, late into the night. She denied involvement more than 100 times before saying she was responsible. Courtesy Innocence Project A 2020 documentary presenting a case for Lucio's innocence garnered national attention, helping spark a movement for her execution to be halted. The film begins with video from Lucio's interrogation, showing Escalon asking Lucio to hit a baby doll the way she allegedly hit her daughter. The film's director, Sabrina Van Tassel, told the Houston Chronicle the Escalon behind the Uvalde media presence is the same man who questioned Lucio. Now Playing: The Texas DPS official who fielded a barrage of criticism about his department's response to the mass shooting in Uvalde is the same man who interrogated death row inmate Melissa Lucio into giving what her lawyers said was a false confession, according to the filmmaker who made a documentary about Lucios case. The video above is footage from the night of Lucio's interrogation, the same night her toddler died, that is featured in the 2020 documentary, The State of Texas vs Melissa. (Courtesy of Filmrise) Video: The State of Texas vs Melissa. (Courtesy of Filmrise) "Our position on Victor Escalon, at least his performance in the Lucio case, he is definitely somebody who takes wild liberties with the truth and his authority," said Tivon Schardl, one of Lucios lawyers. DPS and Escalon did not immediately respond Friday afternoon to requests for comment. rebecca.hennes@chron.com The gunman who killed 21 people in Uvalde this week walked through an unlocked door unopposed, state troopers said Thursday. In a significant departure from initial Texas Department of Public Safety reports, DPS Regional Director Victor Escalon said the gunman didnt encounter resistance after he crashed his pickup in a ditch near the school Tuesday and walked to the building while indiscriminately shooting. LIVE UPDATES: Uvalde shooter arrested in 2018 for threatening to shoot up a school, officials say Previously, DPS State Director Steven McCraw said an officer outside the school engaged with the shooter, Salvador Ramos, but did not exchange gunfire with him. That didnt happen. In the building for about an hour, Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers in adjoining classrooms before tactical officers killed him. The massacre ranks as the second-deadliest school shooting in modern U.S. history. Police first arrived on the scene four minutes after Ramos walked through the back door at the school, Escalon said. Taking fire, the officers retreated, he said. As the gunfire continued, parents of students who remained inside the school urged police to enter and stop the gunman. But it took nearly an hour before a special tactical team was able to assemble and breach a classroom that Ramos had entered and locked. The excruciating delay and discrepancies by the Texas Department of Public Safety in its shifting and incomplete account of the massacres timeline has left law enforcement executives perplexed and elected officials frustrated at still-lingering questions about the police response. On HoustonChronicle.com: Multiple country singers pull out of Houston's upcoming NRA convention in wake of Uvalde On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio, sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray urging him to thoroughly examine the timeline of events. The people of Uvalde, of Texas, and of the nation deserve an accurate account of what transpired, Castro wrote. A block of time between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. local time has yet to be fully accounted for. Police tried to negotiate with Ramos while he was barricaded inside the locked classroom, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin said. Once that shooter was in the barricade, I was in there with the hostage negotiator, McLaughlin said. He would answer (the call), hang up. Meanwhile, a mass evacuation of hundreds of other students was underway. Some kids came out windows, some came out the doors, McLaughlin said. There were parents trying to go into the building. It remains unclear when the scene changed from an active shooter to a potential hostage barricade situation, a transition that could have altered the police response, San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said. The response to someone who is actually actively shooting, that response has to be immediate, and its through the door, McManus said. If it turns into a barricade situation, we are not going to make an entry while nothing is happening. Were going to go in if something happens shooting starts, screaming starts. That thinking reflects changes law enforcement agencies made after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado, said Fulshear Police Chief Kenny Seymour, who described that 1999 massacre as the pendulum swing that prompted law enforcements current response to active-shooter situations. We cant wait, he said. These shootings dont allow us to call those specialized units in. We have the training, the tools, to make a difference in these shootings. On HoustonChronicle.com: AR-style rifles like the one used in Uvalde shooting often leave victims unrecognizable, experts say He understood the anguish parents were feeling waiting outside the school, he said, but added that law enforcement could have been trying to prevent adding more potential victims to the situation. I have six children, he said. Youd be hard-pressed to keep me out of the school. The terror in Uvalde began shortly after 11 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said, when Ramos shot his grandmother in the face. Ramos, an 18-year-old high school dropout, took his grandmothers pickup and drove toward Robb Elementary, crashing into a ditch about 11:28 a.m., Escalon said. The teen jumped out of the passenger side of the vehicle carrying a Daniel Defense assault-style rifle and a backpack containing more than a half-dozen magazines filled with hundreds of rounds of ammunition, Escalon said. He spotted two people at a funeral home across the street and shot at them, Escalon said, but did not hit them. From there, Ramos climbed over a fence and walked into the west side of the elementary school at about 11:40 a.m. He walked in unobstructed, Escalon said. He was not confronted by anybody. Once inside, the shooter walked into the open door of a classroom and began firing numerous rounds, Escalon said. More than 25 (shots), he said. It was a lot of gunfire in the beginning. Escalon said officials believe Ramos shot most of his victims soon after entering the classrooms. Four minutes after the gunman walked inside, Escalon said, officers from the Uvalde Police Department and Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District showed up at the scene. The officers took rounds, Escalon said, and retreated and called for help from nearby agencies. On HoustonChronicle.com: As Uvalde gunman was inside the school, parents screamed outside. What we know about those 40 minutes Law enforcement swarmed to the school, including officers from the Uvalde Police Department, DPS troopers, Texas state troopers and, later, members of the Border Patrols elite BORTAC squad, the agencys tactical unit trained to combat human smuggling, active shooters and other dangerous law enforcement operations. Outside the school, parents waited in agony. They urged police to rush the building; video showed angry and horrified parents pleading with officers as gunfire could be heard in the background. It took an hour after Ramos walked into the school for a team of the tactical officers, a Uvalde police officer and a Zavala County deputy to converge on the classroom. A Border Patrol officer killed the gunman. The revelations of the lengthy delay in bringing down the shooter brought reminiscences of shootings in Columbine and Parkland, Fla. We still dont know all the particulars, said former Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, but were starting to learn the response was not consistent with 21st century, modern day responses to active shooters. In Houston, officers are now trained to respond to active-shooter situations by doing whatever necessary to end that threat, said Acevedo, who led the department from late 2016 to March 2021. If youre the first cop, the only cop, you still need to act, to act aggressively to end the threat, he said. You run toward gunfire and engage the suspect. President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee cast their ballots in early voting for the June 1 local elections at a voting station near the presidential office in Seoul's Yongsan District, Friday, in this pool photo. Yonhap President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee visited a polling station together Friday and cast their ballots in early voting for the June 1 local elections. Yoon and Kim went to the polling station near the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, and marked their ballots in separate booths before dropping them in the same box. Yoon was dressed in a navy suit and gray tie, while Kim wore a white short-sleeved blouse and wide black pants. The two did not speak except to check whether all the different ballots should be placed inside one envelope. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Southern Baptist leaders released a confidential list of hundreds of accused sexual abusers Thursday evening that tracked names, dates and details about a burgeoning abuse crisis but was kept secret for more than a decade. Dating to 2007, the list includes many individuals that overlap with a database of 263 convicted Southern Baptist abusers that was published in 2019 as part of Abuse of Faith, an investigation by the Houston Chronicle and the San Antonio Express-News that revealed how the faith group failed to protect church members. Among the offenders: Charles Adcock, who was charged in 2015 with 29 counts of rape and sodomy involving a 14-year-old girl he met at the SBC-affiliated Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals, Alabama. Adcock moved to Texas after the criminal charges were filed and volunteered at First Baptist Church in Bedford. A pastor was aware of the charges, but the secret SBC list with Adcocks case and other offenders wasnt available to the rest of the congregation in Bedford despite calls from survivor advocates for the SBC to publish a database of sexual abusers to help churches vet employees and volunteers. Without admitting any guilt, Adcock pleaded to a single charge of second-degree sodomy in January 2016, served 15 months in jail and was required to register as a sex offender. Commissioned by the Southern Baptist Conventions former general counsel, August Augie Boto, the list of offenders was withheld from the public and even many top church leaders until a groundbreaking investigation published Sunday revealed its existence and shocked members of the nations largest coalition of Baptist churches. The path that led us to this moment was ugly, said Gene Besen, a lawyer who represents the SBCs 86-member executive committee, the faith groups highest governing body. Most of the committees members were unaware the list even existed. A blistering, 400-page report by Guidepost Solutions found that Boto, who resigned in 2019, asked an SBC employee to compile a list of accused Baptist offenders that ultimately reached more than 700 names since 2007, with 409 of them believed to be affiliated with Southern Baptist churches. Guidepost investigators found that nine of the suspected abusers were still in ministry, with two of them at SBC churches. Most of the cases in the list offer details about accused sexual abusers who were arrested or convicted of crimes. Since most sexual abuse cases go unreported to police and never reach the court system, experts say the true number of cases in the SBCs network of 47,000 churches is likely far higher. Roger Sing Oldham, a former vice president for SBC relations, said he supplied some of the material for Botos list, but insisted he had no idea what it was used for or that it even existed. I dont know if it was ever used, Oldham told the Houston Chronicle in an interview this week. If it was used, I dont know what it was used for. Oldham said he had set up a Google Alert to find new webpages that included the terms Baptist and arrested. Over the years, Google automatically emailed Oldham links to news stories about cases of sexual abuse, which he forwarded to Boto to keep him informed. The Guidepost investigation found there is no indication that Dr. Oldham, Mr. Boto, or anyone else, took any action to ensure that the accused ministers were no longer in positions of power at SBC churches. Oldham said he never checked the status of the ministers because the news articles made it clear that law enforcement officials had intervened and the accused abuser had resigned or been fired. The 409 Southern Baptist abuse cases in Botos list exceeds a tally of 263 convicted offenders documented in Abuse of Faith, which examined cases from a longer, 20-year time frame beginning in 1998. The newspapers database of offenders was posted online as a resource for the public and had a narrower focus than Botos list: confirmed cases that resulted in criminal convictions. The newspapers also found scores of additional pastors, employees and volunteers at Southern Baptist churches whose cases hadnt yet been adjudicated. Three days after a teenager slaughtered 19 fourth-graders and two teachers in a little Texas town called Uvalde and 13 days after a teen white supremacist used the same sort of high-powered semi-automatic rifle to murder 10 people at a Buffalo supermarket, the loyal people of the gun are coming to Houston. In light of whats happened in the past few days, its hard to imagine a less appropriate time or place for the National Rifle Association to hold its annual meeting, a gathering the writer Evan Osnos has described as a combination of political convention, trade show and Comic-Con. No organization in America has done more to delude Americans that the Second Amendments guarantee of gun rights is so rigidly absolute that even the most common-sense gun rules such as licenses and basic training are verboten. Nothing in our history, or in nearly 250 years of Supreme Court rulings, supports anything like that proposition, but the terrible power of the NRAs lobbyists and its free-spending PACs have made it gospel in states such as Texas, where well-compensated elected officials have all but sworn fealty to its twisted mandates. Members of the NRA have the constitutional right to gather when and where they please, its true. Only upon the laws of common decency and respect for the anguished parents, grandparents and siblings who have yet to bury their dead did we rest a faint hope for cancellation. Thats not the NRAs style, of course. The organization is practiced at gathering in the shadow of tragedy. In 1999, when actor Charlton Heston was NRA president, the group was scheduled to meet in Denver, a few days after the horrific school shooting in nearby Columbine. Denver Mayor Wellington Webb told the NRA, We dont want you here, and the city reportedly offered to pay NRAs expenses for calling off the event. NRA officials refused. In his closing address, Heston reminded attendees that Adolf Hitler also supported gun control. We considered calling on convention organizers to scrap their program and replace it with three days of discussion, reflection and sober reassessment in an effort to seek solutions to a grave national crisis a crisis for which the NRA bears out-sized responsibility. Sensible gun reforms would be part of those discussions, but so would many other aspects of our violence-drenched society. Still, that was never going to happen, either. Instead, we know from previous NRA meetings held in Houston in 2005 and 2013 what to expect: a cavalcade of craven politicians, including U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and others who will declare their servile obedience to NRA and its distorted view of the Second Amendment. None will speak truth to power at this anguished moment for fear of being Oliver-Twisted when it comes time to hold out their beggars bowls. (Please, sir. . . .) Uvalde might come up in remarks, probably in tandem with the NRA mantra about good guys with guns stopping bad guys, even though in both Buffalo and Uvalde the good guys were overpowered by a single bad guy firing an AR-15-style rifle. We also can expect to see a jam-packed George R. Brown Convention Center audience swoon when former President Donald Trump swaggers onto the stage. And we can expect to see attendees strolling through a massive exhibit space over 14 acres of the latest guns and gear where theyll stroke and fondle finely tuned machines. Interestingly, the NRAs real power over Congress hasnt emanated merely from its millions of dollars in campaign spending but from its formidable constituency of dues-paying members, which the NRA tallies at 5 million people. They include ordinary Americans with a fondness of hunting and sport and some others who see firearms as necessary to their personal safety. Not all whove pasted the red-and-gold NRA shield on the rear window of their pickup or SUV are ideologues. Some equate the organization with support for the Second Amendment itself. Perhaps some, like one of our editorial board members, took a gun-safety course as a youngster taught by an NRA member. Those courses are still offered. Some, however, no doubt realize that its no longer their grandpas NRA. And perhaps thats precisely why they stay. Founded in 1871 by two former Union Army officers concerned about the poor shooting skills they had observed among their troops, the group emphasized marksmanship and gun safety for decades. It jumped the rails a century after its founding when far-right activists led by a Texas attorney named Harlon Carter staged a palace coup of sorts at the 1977 annual meeting, which came to be called the Revolt in Cincinnati. The renegades wrenched the NRAs focus from gun safety and recreation to politics and pro-gun legislation, a focus buttressed by formidable fundraising and campaign spending. Thus was born the modern gun culture, one that has metastasized into a nationwide gun obsession (400 million firearms and counting). In league with gun manufacturers, whose motives are naturally profit-minded, and other free-spending gun rights lobbying organizations, the NRA has helped create a death-dealing culture that has no counterpart anywhere else in the world. In so doing, theyve not only betrayed their safety-minded roots but actively thwarted policies to make our society safer. As they gather in our city this weekend, we ask NRA members whether they truly support their leaders twisted and uncompromising view of the Second Amendment. Are they comfortable with a blanket refusal to consider or even discuss better background checks, waiting periods for some purchases, and restored requirements for training or licensing? We ask too how they feel about an organization that has taken their dues to not just ensure the loyalty of office-holders, but to fund a lifestyle for its leadership that should make every member blush. Their dues have afforded Wayne LaPierre, the NRAs CEO and executive vice president, a lifestyle to rival that of a Russian oligarch, with a $2.5 million salary, private-jet getaways to exotic locales, and an absurdly huge clothing allowance. He even asked the NRA to buy him a 10,000-square-foot estate, to which even the normally compliant board said no. LaPierres lavish tastes cost the NRA $64 million in a three-year period, according to a lawsuit seeking to dissolve it by the New York attorney general Letitia James. Houston, then, is hosting an organization this weekend in which the rot runs deep, to quote James. We hope our visitors have an opportunity to get out and about. We hope they get to interact with everyday Houstonians who are likely to have questions and strong opinions about an organization that has thwarted every effort to stop the plague of gun violence in this country, even as Americans young and old continue to die. Our visitors might be surprised by what they hear. Regarding Turner won't bow to pressure on NRA like he did with GOP. But he'll join convention protests outside, (May 26): I find the energy of these protests grossly misdirected. This evil, despicable coward who committed the Uvalde atrocity was not an NRA member. He didn't serve on the board of directors or participate in any of the programs offered. From what is being reported, he was a social misfit with known, aggressive behavior and with severe mental issues. Speaking as an NRA life member, I can honestly say, of all the estimated 55,000 members anticipated to attend this convention, I believe every last one of us, given the opportunity, would have willingly put our lives in danger to have stopped this madman. We are not the enemy. We need to work together, have an open and honest dialogue with each other to implement ways to prevent future tragedies like this. Jeff Kesler, Sugar Land Regarding Letters, (May 26): Mr. Muecke feels that we have a society problem and that religion no longer plays a major role. In your paper, on May 26, there was a prominent article about how the Southern Baptist Conventions executive committee opened a hotline for sex abuse allegations after publication of a thorough investigation. Irony rules the day. He also referred to the NRA convention and their many legal, honest gun owners. Repeated surveys have shown that a majority of those gun owners support background checks. Debbie Angel, Friendswood Grim irony Regarding 'How do you comfort a child thats broken?': Uvalde faces the grim reality of a horrific massacre, (May 25): Do you know whether attendees at the Uvalde high school auditorium press conference were required to go through a metal detector or be searched for firearms? The reason I ask is that, in the 2021 open carry law, politicians have insulated themselves from exposure to the dangers of firearms: Penal Code Sec. 46.03 (a)(14) states the places weapons are prohibited, including in the room or rooms where a meeting of a governmental entity is held, if the meeting is an open meeting subject to Chapter 551, Government Code, and if the entity provided notice as required by that chapter. This prohibition makes it clear Texas legislators know handguns are deadly and dangerous. This is not the only prohibition in the law ( hospitals and secured areas in airports), but it goes against the guns for all rally cry of the Second Amendment proponents. What the hypocrites really mean is guns are OK, just stay away from me. Mark A. Sanders, Houston Regarding Guns are banned at Houston NRA conference where Trump is speaking but it's not because of Uvalde, (May 25): I am surprised that at the NRA event in Houston where Trump is scheduled to speak steps were taken to ensure the audience was unarmed. I would have thought that the NRA, the Republicans and Trump would prefer everyone be armed. Safer, right? Donald Cook, Houston Its almost inconceivable. While families in Uvalde, a predominantly Hispanic community, are laying their loved ones to rest after the second deadliest mass shooting at an elementary school in American history, less than 300 miles away, the organization most responsible for our nations gun violence epidemic is celebrating its legacy of demolishing public safety. Its not like we havent seen this before. After the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., senior NRA leadership had a choice: they could either back down, or they could double down on their extreme rhetoric and support for deadly policies that fuel gun violence and line the pockets of the gun industry. They chose violence and at every opportunity theyve had to make that choice, theyve continued to choose violence instead of our lives and the lives of those most impacted by gun violence: communities of color. In the spirit of that deadly legacy, the NRA is holding its annual convention and gun show this weekend in Houston, and its leadership will likely pat each other on the back despite all the death and destruction their campaign contributions bought. Theyll celebrate laws like permitless carry, ignoring the fact that law enforcement across the country have told them to their faces that passing this law will put them in danger every single day. Theyll attack the strongest gun safety administration weve seen for actually doing their job and trying to prevent gun violence. Theyll align themselves with criminals and white supremacist extremists in their defense of ghost guns untraceable, unserialized firearms that make it nearly impossible for police to do their jobs. Theyll cross their fingers for the most dangerous Supreme Court opinion possible, praying for a dystopian nightmare of guns everywhere, for everyone. And theyll congratulate themselves on a job well done, giving the middle finger to the nearly three in every five people in this country who know someone impacted by gun violence. Now, the NRA may win individual battles here and there, but they come at a cost. With every radical, dangerous policy they help pass, more and more people in this country are shot, wounded and killed. More and more people in this country are waking up to the gun lobbys true nature an organization that exists solely to sell more guns, public safety be damned. See, they think theyre winning but theyre not. In the 10 years since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook, our Moms Demand Action movement has ballooned to more than 8 million supporters. Were taking the fight to the gun lobby in red, purple and blue states; in state houses, city councils, and school boards, and more. The truth that the gun lobby doesnt want people to know is that the states that have passed strong gun laws and invested in proven solutions are much safer than those that havent. Were winning at the ballot box and winning in courtrooms large and small. Just this past Wednesday, in a massive blow to the gun industry, a federal court upheld New Yorks landmark gun industry accountability law, making it easier for survivors, advocates and New York State to hold reckless actors responsible for the consequences of their business practices. And we wont stop there. Were winning because of one simple fact were fighting for something more. At the end of the day, this is a profit-or-loss issue for the gun lobby. Its a life-or-death issue for us. And no matter what, a mom fighting to keep her kids safe will always beat a gun industry executive looking to pad their bottom line. So as lawmakers come to Houston to kiss the ring and pay their dues to an organization hell-bent on flooding our streets with guns and destroying our public safety, were taking notes. Come November, well make sure every single voter knows what their officials stand for. Well remind voters that while families were burying their children in Uvalde, extremist lawmakers were bowing down to the organization most responsible for our nations gun violence epidemic. And no matter what, well keep going because thats what we do. Shannon Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action and the author of Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World. Norri Leder is a volunteer with the Texas chapter of Moms Demand Action. As a growing number of Texas lawmakers call for a special legislative session to address gun violence after the Uvalde school shooting, Gov. Greg Abbott said Friday that all options are on the table. Since Tuesdays massacre left 21 dead, Democrats have been urging Abbott to call legislators back to Austin and pass new laws that would prevent, or at least mitigate, future school shootings. And on Friday, some Republicans who hold the majority in both chambers of the Texas Legislature joined their pleas. If this isnt the catalyst for the Legislature to do something, I dont think anything will happen, said state Rep. Lyle Larson, a San Antonio Republican who is not seeking re-election. Every day that passes, it will be like Santa Fe and El Paso there will be less energy in trying to fix this, and well start going back, complacency will set in and we wont meaningfully address this. A year after the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting, Texas leaders reconvened for regular session in Austin and passed a slew of new school safety policies. The bills extended mental health services in schools, established threat assessment teams to identify potentially dangerous students and expanded the number of school employees who could carry guns. READ MORE: Uvalde police acted too slowly as terrified children made 911 calls, Texas DPS official says But none of them restricted firearm access, and none were enough to stop the Uvalde gunman, who entered an elementary school late Tuesday morning without resistance. He killed 19 children and two teachers. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez, a San Antonio Democrat who represents Uvalde, interrupted Abbotts Friday press conference to push for a special session. Senate Democrats will send Abbott a letter on Saturday formally requesting a special session and advocating for gun restrictions, he said. Im asking you now to bring us back in three weeks, Gutierrez said, before reiterating the grief the Uvalde community is experiencing this week. You have to do something, man. ... Just call us back. Abbott, a Republican, said new laws would absolutely result from Tuesdays tragedy, and he expects lawmakers to revisit every policy passed after the Santa Fe shooting. First, we need to gain the information about exactly what happened at the school to find out the extent to which those laws were complied with, to the extent that they were not complied with, to find out what shortcomings allowed this travesty to occur, the governor said. Earlier this week, Abbott ruled out any gun control policies, saying the restrictions wouldnt stop gun violence and large, Democrat-led cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City were proof. Public policy experts and widely available data refute those claims; Texas had a higher firearm death rate in 2020 than Illinois, California and New York, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Instead, Abbott said mental health was the problem, and state lawmakers needed to expand resources for Texans in rural areas. House Speaker Dade Phelan endorsed the idea, as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called to fortify schools and other top Republicans asked for more armed teachers. But state Rep. Steve Allison, a San Antonio Republican, said lawmakers should evaluate all possible solutions including potentially banning or raising the age to purchase assault-style rifles. Hes open to a special session, though hed encourage the creation of a bipartisan special committee to guide the Legislatures work. No law would have prevented what happened in Uvalde, but I think we can put the guardrails around it to make it very, very difficult for it to happen again, Allison said. We just owe it to the children. LATEST UPDATES: Gov. Abbott cancels NRA trip, will travel to Uvalde instead Its unclear which proposals the states GOP leaders would pursue in the wake of the Uvalde shooting, in part because the facts of the case have changed greatly since the incident occurred. State law enforcement officials revised a number of key details, including whether the shooter was confronted outside the school before entering. We just changed the fact record almost 180 degrees within the last 24 hours, and bad facts make bad law, said state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, a Houston Republican. We have to slow down and make sure that we really understand what happened here because, quite frankly, to honor the people that died, we have to do this right. Bettencourt said he doesnt see any rush to have a special session, and he is waiting to ensure that Uvalde officials fully enacted the school safety changes approved by the Legislature in 2019. And if funding is an issue, he added, the Texas Education Agency and the Legislative Budget Board could authorize additional spending immediately. But others say the urgency of the moment could help define Texas legislative response. State Sen. Kel Seliger, an Amarillo Republican who is not seeking re-election this year, said lawmakers should hope and pray but, more than anything, they should do something. After the Midland-Odessa shooting in August 2019, the governor said, Were not going to let this happen again, Seliger recalled. But I sat there in the 87th session, and we did nothing. I havent been able to sleep since then. We have to do something because its going to happen again. Staff writers Sig Christenson and Jasper Scherer contributed reporting. cayla.harris@express-news.net The day after a shooter gunned down 19 students and two teachers at a Uvalde elementary school, Gov. Greg Abbott praised law enforcement officers who responded to the grisly scene, describing a heroic effort to contain a shooting spree that he said could have been worse. The reason it was not worse is because law enforcement officials did what they do, Abbott said. They showed amazing courage by running toward gunfire for the singular purpose of trying to save lives. And it is a fact that, because of their quick response, getting on the scene, being able to respond to the gunman and eliminate the gunman, they were able to save lives. Two days later, Texas top law enforcement officer painted a much different picture, revealing that 19 officers waited in a hallway outside adjoining classrooms, where panicked children were repeatedly calling 911 to plead for help. It was the wrong decision, period, for authorities to wait more than 45 minutes before breaching the door, Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw said Friday. That revelation sparked a fresh round of criticism toward Abbott, who was already under fire for attending a political fundraiser hours after the shooting and late Thursday announced that he had backed out of his appearance at the National Rifle Associations annual convention in Houston this weekend. It was yet another example of how Tuesdays mass shooting at Robb Elementary School has put Abbott in a politically tenuous position, as he faces intensifying calls for gun restrictions aimed at preventing future grade school massacres, while a large portion of his Republican base is urging him to resist those calls. Abbotts critics, including his Democratic opponent, former congressman Beto ORourke, have sought to capitalize on the moment, arguing that the governor has done little to respond to the numerous mass shootings that have taken place in Texas during his tenure. This is on you, ORourke said as he confronted Abbott at the news conference this week. The time to stop the next shooting is right now, and you are doing nothing. SHOOTING DETAILS EMERGE : Uvalde police acted too slowly as terrified children made 911 calls, Texas DPS official says Abbott and other Texas Republican leaders have defended their response to the 2018 shooting at Santa Fe High School, which left 10 dead and prompted the GOP-controlled Legislature to pass several school safety measures the next year. The package of reforms which did not include anything to restrict firearms access extended mental health initiatives in schools, established threat assessment teams to identify possibly dangerous students and expanded the number of school employees who could carry guns on campus. We consider what we did in 2019 to be one of the most profound legislative sessions, not just in Texas, but weve seen in any state, in addressing school shootings, Abbott said. That said to be clear we all understand our work is not done. Still, none of the changes helped prevent the carnage that unfolded Tuesday in Uvalde. At a news conference Friday, Abbott said he expects state lawmakers to revisit each law passed after the Santa Fe shooting, after first learning the extent to which those laws were complied with in Uvalde. Abbott also said he was misled about how law enforcement responded to the shooting, calling the inaccuracies inexcusable. The information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, and Im absolutely livid about that, Abbott said, urging investigators to get down to the very second of exactly what happened with 100 percent accuracy. And for the first time since Tuesdays shooting, he suggested a possible special legislative session on gun violence. Five months is a lifetime The political discourse surrounding this weeks shooting marks a departure from the way gun policy had played into the governors race up to this point. Since ORourke announced his candidacy, Abbotts campaign team has hammered the Democrat for famously saying, Hell yes, were going to take your AR-15, your AK-47, as a presidential candidate in 2019, touting a mandatory buyback program for assault-style weapons. While running for governor, ORourke has emphasized less aggressive measures, such as requiring background checks for private gun sales and passing a red flag law allowing judges to temporarily confiscate firearms from people deemed potentially dangerous. Abbotts team has accused ORourke of flip-flopping on gun policy, particularly after he said in February that he was not interested in taking anything from anyone. This is yet another example of Beto ORourke lying to the public about his extreme liberal views that align him more with President Biden than the people of Texas, Mark Miner, Abbotts campaign spokesman, said earlier this year. Nevertheless, its not clear how much political blowback Abbott may face from this weeks developments even as polling suggests his blanket rejection of gun restrictions is out of step with the majority of Texas voters, said Joshua Blank, research director for the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. As raw as emotions are in the present moment, politically, five months is a lifetime, Blank said, referring to the time left until the November election. And this issue is going to be competing with the economy, with immigration, with abortion, certainly, for peoples attention. On HoustonChronicle.com: ORourkes standoff with Gov. Abbott over Uvalde mass shooting marks the new era in Texas politics Despite Texas reputation as a mecca for gun-toting conservatives, a majority or plurality of voters has supported stricter gun laws in statewide polls conducted by Blanks group over the last several years. In a 2019 survey, 81 percent of Texas voters said they supported background checks on all gun purchases, 68 percent supported red flag laws and 59 percent backed the idea of a nationwide ban on semi-automatic weapons. On the other hand, national polling has been much less conclusive when Americans are asked whether the background checks would decrease the number of mass shootings or when they answer questions about specific legislation. At the very least, the Uvalde shooting may have created an opening for ORourke to combat Abbotts blanket portrayal of him as a gun-grabbing liberal and refocus some voters attention on Abbotts positions, Blank said. Absent a tragedy that really recontextualizes the states relationship with guns, ORourke was not going to make guns the centerpiece of his campaign. He may still not make guns the centerpiece of his campaign, Blank said. But given this opportunity to have the discussion about it, its clearly an advantage to ORourke to point to the fact the state has been moving away from public opinion on gun laws for about a decade. jasper.scherer@chron.com Godofredo A. Vasquez/Staff photographer Gov. Greg Abbott is canceling his appearance at the National Rifle Association convention in Houston on Friday, days after a gunman killed 21 people, including 19 children, at a Uvalde elementary school. The governor faced heavy criticism for his decision to attend the event following the massacre. He was scheduled to speak alongside former President Donald Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, but he will now deliver pre-recorded video remarks, Abbott spokesman Mark Miner said. Sen. Ted Cruz delivered a speech at the National Rifle Association conference in Houston on Friday afternoon, one day after refusing to discuss proposed gun control measures with the media, calling such matters politics when the focus should instead be on the Uvalde shooting victims and their families. You know, its easy to go to politics, Cruz said Thursday when a reporter asked if now was the time to support proposed changes to federal law. Cruz went on to say that those proposals came from Democrats and the media, inevitably, when some violent psychopath murders people. Cruz spoke Friday at the event, even as Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick canceled their appearances in the wake of the massacre at Robb Elementary School. Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan was invited to speak, but he declined, a spokeswoman confirmed in a text message. Spokesmen for Cruz did not respond Friday to a request for comment. Despite Cruzs dismissal of proposed gun control laws as politics, he has in recent days discussed other potential policies to address school shootings, such as hardening schools by having more armed police officers at schools or having just one entrance to them an approach that mirrors that of other Texas Republicans who have denounced Democrats as playing politics with the school shooting. Now Playing: Scenes from outside NRA Convention in Houston Video: Yi Chin Lee, Laura Duclos New details about the Uvalde school shooting demonstrate that increased security measures would only be as effective as the people following them: The shooter entered through a back door that was supposed to have been locked, and it took 19 armed police officers nearly an hour to confront the shooter. In Cruzs Friday speech, he reiterated the arguments he made Thursday. Its never been about guns, Cruz said. (Democrats) so-called solutions wouldnt have stopped these mass murders and they know it. FRIDAY: Uvalde police acted too slowly as terrified children made 911 calls, Texas DPS official says Refusals to discuss politics in the wake of mass shootings at least when the subject is gun control laws and not school hardening has been a consistent part of the GOP playbook for years. On CBS News on Thursday morning, Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, who represents Uvalde, refused to discuss potential gun control measures when host Gayle King pointed out Gonzales past votes against such policies. After Democrat Beto ORourke interrupted a news conference the day after the school shooting to blame GOP nonaction on gun laws, Patrick called ORourke an embarrassment and Gov. Greg Abbott struck a similar anti-politics note when he responded: We need to think of something other than ourselves, think of the people who have been hurt. And help those who have been hurt. After 11 were shot down in a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, Trump said now is not the time for politics and he said it again shortly after more than 20 were shot and killed in an El Paso Walmart in 2019. After the 2016 Vegas shooting that killed more than 60, Fox News held a segment lamenting how quickly Democrats wish to discuss gun control policies in the wake of mass shootings. But the line between tragedy, politics and public policy is not so easily drawn. Tragedies can inflame the public, which can sweep a new candidate into office who promises to bring change or can convince an incumbent to support change, according to a popular academic model used by political scientists to describe how laws are made. Many other countries in the world have tightened gun laws after mass shootings, including Germany, Australia, Norway and New Zealand, where the country banned military-style semi-automatic rifles after 51 were killed in 2019 at mosque. NRA DONATIONS: Abbott, Cornyn, Cruz and other Texas Republicans Yet in the U.S. which has more mass shootings than any country in the world Congress has not passed any wide-ranging rewrite of gun laws or universal background checks. Similar to the recent New Zealand law, military-style rifles were also banned in the United States until 2004, but Congress allowed the ban to expire, and Republicans have opposed efforts to renew it. Americans can also bypass federal background checks to purchase firearms by buying online, through a gun show or from a private seller, loopholes that many mass shooters have exploited to access their weapons. In Texas, the Legislature last year passed landmark legislation allowing any Texan to carry a handgun, openly or concealed, without any training or licensing. As the states Republican-led political leadership make it easier to access guns in Texas, they say the answer to the epidemic of mass shootings is increased access to mental health services. Many people around the world just cannot fathom, Why only in America? ... Is this the moment to reform gun laws? the British journalist said as he pressed Cruz on Thursday before the senator brushed him off. But its important, the journalist objected. Its at the heart of the issue. Jeremy Wallace contributed to this report. edward.mckinley@chron.com Subscribing to our services is a three step process. First you have to create an account and then you have to pick if you want to subscribe to digital and or print. Some people only want to be a digital subscriber to get access online and others want to also receive the print edition. If you are already a print subscriber and want online access, it is free, you simply have to create an online account and then attach your print subscription account number to the online account you create. A voter places their ballots in a ballot box at an early voting polling station in Yongsan District, Seoul, Friday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul Survey shows ruling party taking sizable lead in 9 major constituencies By Nam Hyun-woo Early voting started Friday for the June 1 local elections, which will select 4,125 candidates for elected posts across the country, including 17 metropolitan mayors and provincial governors. The election will be an early barometer gauging President Yoon Suk-yeol's performance less than a month after his inauguration, as well as determining whether the ruling People Power Party (PPP) can manage to break the dominance of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). According to the National Election Commission (NEC), early voting started at 6 a.m. at 3,551 polling stations across the country, for 12 hours until 6 p.m. Voters can cast their ballots during the same period on Saturday, while COVID-19 patients and those in quarantine will be able to vote from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday only. As of 6 p.m., Friday, the turnout for the local elections was 10.18 percent, which is 1.41 percentage points higher than what was recorded at the same time during the 2018 local elections. Voters fill in ballots in booths installed at a polling station at Incheon International Airport, Friday during the first day of early voting. Yonhap There are 44.3 million eligible voters for the June 1 election, including 127,623 foreign nationals who have been residing in Korea for more than three years after earning permanent residency. The local elections will select representatives for 4,125 elective jobs, such as provincial governors, mayors, metropolitan and provincial council heads and members, education office superintendents and members of lower-level local councils. Of them, more than 500 people have been elected even before early voting began, because there were no rivals, or the number of candidates was smaller than the number of local council seats up for grabs. Incumbent Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who is running for a fourth term on the ruling People Power Party ticket, and his wife, leave booths at a polling station in Gwangjin District, Seoul, Friday on the first day of early voting. Joint Press Corps Of the elections, the highest-profile races are for 17 metropolitan mayor and provincial governor posts. According to a joint poll conducted by Ipsos, Hankook Research and Korea Research revealed on Thursday, the PPP has taken the lead in nine constituencies, while the DPK has taken the lead in four. Incumbent Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, who is running for a fourth term on the PPP ticket, secured a 53.6-percent support rate over the DPK's Song Young-gil with 31.2 percent. The PPP was also leading in the races for Gangwon Province governor, Busan mayor, Ulsan mayor, Daegu mayor, South Gyeongsang Province governor and North Gyeongsang Province governor. These six regions have conventionally been strongholds for conservative parties. In the North Chungcheong Province governor race, PPP candidate Kim Young-hwan was ahead of DPK candidate Noh Young-min, who was former chief of staff to former President Moon Jae-in. For South Chungcheong Province governor, PPP candidate Kim Tae-heum was outpacing the DPK's Yang Seung-jo. In most of Korea's nationwide elections, it has usually been difficult to predict the outcome in the Chungcheong provinces, but this time the North Chungcheong and South Chungcheong provincial governor appear to be leaning toward the conservative side. In this combined photo, the top two candidates for Gyeonggi Province governor, People Power Party candidate Kim Eun-hye, left, and Democratic Party of Korea candidate Kim Dong-yeon, cast their votes at polling stations in Seongnam and Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, respectively, Friday. On the other hand, the DPK was leading in the four jurisdictions of Gwangju Metropolitan City, the South and North Jeolla Provinces and Jeju Special Autonomous Province. Gwangju mayor candidate Kang Ki-jeong, North Jeolla Province governor candidate Kim Kwan-young and South Jeolla Province governor candidate Kim Young-rok were all holding support rates of more than 50 percent. In the Jeju governor race, the DPK's Oh Young-hoon was leading by over 10 percentage points. In the races for Gyeonggi Province governor, Incheon mayor, Daejeon mayor and Sejong mayor, candidates from the rival parties have been neck-and-neck within the survey's margin of error. The race for the Gyeonggi Province governorship, which is the most heated, the DPK's Kim Dong-yeon has 39.1 percent support, outpacing the PPP's Kim Eun-hye, who has 37.7 percent. In Incheon, PPP mayoral candidate Yoo Jeong-bok was ahead of the DPK's Park Nam-chun by 4.1 percentage points, while DPK candidates are maintaining narrow leads in the Daejeon and Sejong mayoral races. The survey was requested by broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS and questioned 14,020 adults from May 23 to 25. Further details are available on National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website. Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker candidate Lee Jae-myung votes at a polling station in Gyeyang District, Incheon, Friday. Joint Press Corps By-elections Alongside the vote for local representatives, the voters of seven constituencies will cast ballots for lawmakers to fill empty seats at the National Assembly. Former presidential candidates Lee Jae-myung of the DPK and Ahn Cheol-soo of the PPP have jumped into the race, running for Incheon Gyeyang District B and Seongnam Bundang District A, respectively. While Ahn has a comfortable lead of 56.1 percent support over DPK candidate Kim Byung-kwan, with 28.2 percent, Lee is in a neck-and-neck race against the PPP's rookie politician, Yun Hyung-sun, with Lee slightly behind Yun in some surveys. Big names call for turnout As the country begins early voting, the two main rival parties are striving to urge people to participate in early voting, each claiming that high early voting turnout is advantageous for victory. Current Seoul Mayor and candidate for a fourth term, Oh Se-hoon, voted at a polling station in Gwangjin District and told reporters, "Please participate in early voting so that I can have the opportunity to work and keep Seoul's engine running for change." PPP spokesperson Yang Geum-hee said in a commentary Friday that "despite the presidential election victory, the DPK is still exploiting its influence through its majority in the Assembly and dominance in local government jobs," and urged "everyone to participate in early voting for the sake of the future." DPK lawmaker candidate Lee Jae-myung, Seoul mayor candidate Song Young-gil and Gyeonggi Province governor candidate Kim Dong-yeon also participated in early voting on Friday. A day earlier, Lee said at a canvassing event, "We will win if the turnout is high." With many big-name candidates participating in early voting, President Yoon likewise voted on Friday in an apparent bid to promote early voting also. Yoon, who is still commuting from his home in Seocho District, Seoul, voted with his wife, Kim Kun-hee, at a polling station near the presidential office in Yongsan District, without making any noteworthy comments. Thank you for reading! Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. About This Property 3-family home with detached 2-car garage built in 2012, plus off-street parking ! This amazing property features two 2-bedroom apartments and a one bedroom studio. One of the 2-bedroom units has a de-lead certificate. This property is heated with natural gas, it has vinyl siding, vinyl replacement windows and 100 amp electrical panels. It needs some TLC, but it is a great opportunity for owner-occupants and investors to own a multifamily in a convenient Pittsfield location, close to restaurants, schools and more! Land Details Community Details Acres Apx: 0.16 Parking Type: Garaged & Offstreet Lot Description: Paved Drive Region: Berkshire - Central Elem School: Egremont Middle School: Theodore Herberg High School: Pittsfield Exterior Details Interior Details Color: White Style: Colonial Construction: Wood Frame Exterior: Vinyl Water: Public Sewer: Public Underground Oil Tank: Unk Garage: 2 Car,Detached Total Rooms: 10 Total Full Baths: 3 Fuel: Nat Gas Hot Water: Nat Gas Electric: 100 Amp Floor: Laminate,Linoleum Lead Paint: Delead Cert,Unk Heat/Cool: Steam Accessibility: 1st Fl Bdrm,1st Flr Full Bath Search More Properties With these Features Porch Trash Public Lila Kanner joins Jacob's Pillow as Chief Philanthropy Officer BECKET, Mass. Jacob's Pillow announced that Lila Kanner has joined Jacob's Pillow as its new Chief Philanthropy Officer. She started in her new role with the Pillow on May 23. Kanner brings to the Pillow more than 20 years of experience in the arts and a decade in fundraising leadership. Most recently, she served as the Acting Director of Development at The Courtauld Institute of Art in London where she managed a development team to deliver campaigns, major gifts, membership, operations, alumni relations, and events. In her tenure at The Courtauld, she oversaw the strategy and management of the organization's fundraising efforts and led the fundraising team to complete a capital campaign of more than $70 million. Prior to her time at The Courtauld, Lila served as Director of Major Gifts and Strategic Initiatives at the Harvard Art Museums. "Some of my earliest, formative art experiences are from attending Jacob's Pillow performances, and I am thrilled to join the leadership team as Chief Philanthropy Officer at this important time," Kanner said. "I am inspired by the organization's artistic program, mission and the ambitions of all who are part of the Pillow's treasured local, national and international communities. I look forward to working with staff, artists, and supporters to celebrate the 90th anniversary this summer and to engaging everyone who believes in a bright second century for the Pillow." In her new role, Kanner will be working with the Executive and Artistic Director, the Board, and staff to advance the development goals of the Pillow. Lila will be key in strengthening the organization's major giving and essential in the creation of a new development and stewardship plan for the future. In addition to her experience including London, Boston and New York, Lila is a Berkshire native, having graduated from Pittsfield High School and attended Pillow performances throughout her life. Lila looks forward to bringing her passion for the arts and dance to Jacob's Pillow. "I'm so thrilled to have such an experienced strategist and exceptional human being join our senior team," said Jacob's Pillow Executive and Artistic Director, Pamela Tatge. "We feel so fortunate that this graduate of Pittsfield High School and camp counselor from Chimney Corners Camp is returning to the Berkshires to assist our beloved Pillow in growing and evolving at this exciting time in our history." Great Barrington Police Arrest 4 on Unarmed Robbery Charges GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. Four individuals from New York State were arrested after an unarmed robbery at Berkshire Bank on Thursday afternoon. Desmond Collins, 34, of Queens; Adam Lamar Morrison, 30, of Irvingdale; Christopher Wright, 32, of the Bronx; and Shamina Cruz, 45, of Manhattan are all charged with larceny more than $1,200 and unarmed robbery. Police said more charges may be pending. An employee of Berkshire Bank's Stockbridge Road branch reported the robbery at about 2:39 p.m. A woman was attempting a fraudulent transaction when a bank employee identified the transaction as suspicious; the woman then grabbed the money and fled the bank. She got into a black Honda Accord with purple fenders and headed north on Stockbridge Road. Officer Andres Huertas immediately distributed a be-on-the-lookout to officers and area police agencies, including State Police. Within minutes, Stockbridge Police Officer Rosario Messina was able to stop the vehicle without incident on Main Street in Stockbridge. An investigation into the incident resulted in the four individuals being arrested by Great Barrington Police Officers Sam Stolzar, Elias Casey and Brandon Messina. Officers from Stockbridge Police Department and State Police assisted in the arrest. A large amount of cash was secured from the vehicles and occupants. Police said they are looking into the possibility that other banks may have also been hit. "I am proud of the quick work from all officers involved and the bank employee," said Great Barrington Police Chief Paul Storti. "Handling a call like this situation without incident shows the professionalism of the officers." The four suspects are being held on bail ranging from $6,000 to $9,000 at the Great Barrington Police Department. This investigation is ongoing and additional charges may be filled at a later date. Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Dae-ki speaks during a National Assembly House Steering Committee meeting at the Assembly on Yeouido, Seoul, May 17. Joint Press Corps By Nam Hyun-woo The presidential office said Friday that it is not considering privatizing state-run companies such as Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC), dismissing controversies that have stemmed from the presidential chief of staff's remark about unloading the IIAC's stake in the airport company on the market. During a meeting with reporters, an official at the presidential office said the government "has never considered privatizing state-run companies and has no plan to do so." The remark came amid the rival main parties' conflict over privatizing some state-run companies. During a National Assembly House Steering Committee meeting on May 17, presidential Chief of Staff Kim Dae-ki said, "Incheon International Airport should be managed by the government, but some 30 to 40 percent of (the IIAC's) stake should be unloaded on the market." Kim was answering a question asking whether he is still supportive of the idea of privatizing state-run companies, referring to Kim's experience of working at the presidential office under former President Lee Myung-bak, who sought the privatization of many public services. Kim's remarks triggered protests from the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK). A day after Kim's remarks, the DPK's June 1 elections campaign committee chief, Lee Jae-myung, wrote on Facebook that he opposes any move to privatize electricity, the water supply, airports or railways. Seoul mayor candidate Song Young-gil also said that the Yoon government's intention to privatize public services, as well as Chief of Staff Kim's remark about selling IIAC's stake in Incheon Airport will "result in hikes in utility charges and suffocate the public livelihood." Song proposed "a public protest" to deter the government's moves. To counter their criticisms, Deputy Prime Minister Choo Kyung-ho said on May 19 that the Yoon administration has never considered privatization and has no plan to do so. As Lee, Song and other DPK members use this rationale for their June 1 local elections and by-elections campaigns, the PPP filed complaints with the prosecution against Lee and Song, saying that they are spreading groundless rumors despite the government's denial. The presidential office also said that Kim's remarks do not represent the government's stance on privatization. "What Kim said during the May 17 meeting was just the content of his book written 10 years ago, and it was his personal idea, not the government's policy direction," the official said. BCC Offers Free Exam Prep Class for Certified Professional Coders PITTSFIELD, Mass. Berkshire Community College invites students who have completed the Medical Coding Technical Skills Certificate program to register for a free, non-credit course called Certified Professional Coder (CPC) Exam Prep. The course, offered both in-person and remotely, will be held on four consecutive Thursday evenings from 5:30-7:30 pm on June 9, 16, 23 and 30. The comprehensive review course is designed for students preparing to take the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC) credential exam to become a Certified Professional Coder. It covers the Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) and Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) manuals, medical terminology, anatomy, and the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM) coding manual and guidelines. Students will learn new test strategies and build test-taking skills. After each class, students will be provided with timed assignments that will assess knowledge, accuracy and speed. The final assignment will be a short test that replicates the CPC exam. "Certification is a professional's official recognition of achievement, expertise and judgment. It is a mark of excellence requiring continued learning and skill development to maintain," said Laurie Vilord, Adjunct Faculty Medical Coding. "These are just a few reasons why employers seek AAPC certified professionals." About the Medical Coding Program Medical coding is the assignment of letters and numbers to specific medical and diagnostic phrases. These codes enable the healthcare industry to collect, process, and send information more effectively. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, medical coding is among the 20 fastest-growing occupations, with a national anticipated growth of 18.2 percent by year 2028. Medical coders may become inpatient or outpatient coders, auditors, clinical documentation specialists, insurance evaluators, case reviewers, teachers or compliance officers. At BCC, the Medical Coding Department is designed to meet the needs of students at different stages of their careers, whether just starting out, returning to school for a second career, studying part-time at night to enhance a full-time job during the day or looking for promotion in the field. The stackable credits towards a certificate or a degree represent different phases of expertise in this emerging career path. Fire Officials Urge Seasonal Fire Safety During Memorial Day STOW, Mass. With the Memorial Day weekend coming up, State Fire Marshal Peter J. Ostroskey, Shrewsbury Fire Chief James Vuona, president of the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts, and Chief Fire Warden David Celino of the Department of Conservation and Recreation are asking residents to practice fire safety this summer. "Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer, and we want to remind everyone to play it safe as they enjoy the warm weather," said State Fire Marshal Ostroskey. "Take the appropriate safety precautions against fires and burns so you can have fun all summer long." "Don't let a fire or serious burn ruin your summer," said Chief Vuona. "Practice fire safety with friends and family safely this season, and you won't have your local firefighters showing up as uninvited guests." "We've seen increased brush and wildland fire activity and larger fire growth during the spring fire season this year," said Chief Fire Warden Celino. "As more people spend more time outside in the warm months ahead, we want to be sure everyone enjoys the great outdoors safely and responsibly." Grilling Safety More than 75 percent of grilling fires in Massachusetts occur between May and September. Between 2012 and 2021, there were 908 fires involving grills, hibachis, and barbeques. These fires caused 35 civilian injuries, 10 fire service injuries, and $8.9 million in estimated damages. General safety tips for grilling: Always grill outdoors, never inside. Do not use a gas or charcoal grill on any porch, balcony, or fire escape. Place grills 10 feet away from the house and deck railings. Make sure grills are not under eaves or overhanging branches. Gas grills can be used on first floor decks or patios, only if there is an outdoor stairway to the ground, or it is at ground level. Keep all matches, lighters and lighter fluid away from children. Create a circle of safety. Keep children and pets three feet away from grills. Children should never play near grills. Charcoal grill safety: Only use charcoal starter fluid. Do not use gasoline or kerosene to start a fire in a grill. Never add lighter fluid to burning briquettes or hot coals. Doing so may cause a flash fire and result in serious burn injuries. Charcoal briquettes give off carbon monoxide, a colorless, odorless gas that can be deadly. Always use charcoal grills outdoors in a well-ventilated area. For proper disposal of grill ashes, allow the coals to burn out completely and then cool for 48 hours before disposal. If you must dispose of ashes before they are completely cooled, thoroughly soak them in water before putting them in a metal container. Gasoline Safety "Serious gasoline-related burns peak in the summer months, with about 40 percent reported from June through August," said State Fire Marshal Ostroskey. Gasoline vapors are highly flammable and refueling a hot motor can ignite them. Gasoline spilled onto clothing or rags can give off vapors until completely dry and be ignited by any heat source. Gasoline vapors can travel a long distance to find an ignition source, which is why gasoline must not be stored inside the house. There have been nearly 900 gasoline-related fires in Massachusetts over the past 10 years, causing nine deaths, 132 injuries, and over $19 million in damage. Gasoline safety tips: Never use gasoline to start a fire or add it to any fire. Store gasoline only outside the home, such as in a locked shed, and always in an approved container. Never store gasoline in the home or basement. Gasoline should only be used as fuel for an engine, not as a solvent. Refuel lawnmowers, leaf blowers, mopeds, and other devices only when the engine is cool. Never refill while it is hot. Keep gasoline away from all heat sources, such as smoking materials, campfires, and grills. Smoking Safety Smoking materials have been the leading cause of fire deaths in Massachusetts for decades, and there have been many fires this spring from improperly discarded smoking materials on porches and in backyards. Smoking fires can be particularly dangerous because they may smolder undetected and then erupt into flames that grow rapidly. A fire that starts on a porch, balcony, or exterior stairway can get a strong hold before smoke alarms inside warn anyone of the danger. Massachusetts fire departments reported almost 5,000 smoking-related structure fires between 2012 and 2021. These fires claimed 108 lives, including the life of a Watertown firefighter, caused 610 injuries to civilians and firefighters, and resulted in nearly $200 million in damages. Cigarettes and other smoking materials cause an even higher number of fires outdoors, including brush fires. "If you still smoke, or if you're having guests who smoke, please do it responsibly," said Chief Vuona. "Always use a deep, sturdy ashtray or a can with sand or water. Don't let people toss smoking materials into the mulch, leaves, grass, or planters, and don't stub them out on the porch railing or stairs. Remember to put it out, all the way, every time." Brush and Wildland Fire Safety According to Department of Conservation & Recreation data, there were more than 1,100 wildland fires on non-federal land in Massachusetts last year, burning more than 1,600 acres. More than 1,000 acres have burned in more than 400 fires so far this year. Everyone can and should play a part in preventing them by using caution and common sense when camping, cooking on the barbecue, extinguishing smoking materials, or riding dirt bikes or ATVs in wooded areas. "More than 98 percent of wildland fires in Massachusetts are caused by human activity," said Chief Fire Warden Celino. "These fires threaten our forests, they can severely tax local and regional firefighting resources, and they put people and homes in harm's way." Brush and Wildland Fire Safety Tips: Before setting up a campfire, be sure it is permitted by checking with the local fire department. Clear away dry leaves and sticks and overhanging low branches and shrubs. Avoid burning on windy, dry days. Keep campfires small so they are easier to control and attend to them at all times. Never use gasoline or other flammable or combustible liquids. Always have a hose, bucket of water, or shovel and dirt or sand nearby to put out the fire. Make sure your campfire is out cold before leaving. If using an ATV, dirt bike, or other off-road vehicle, be sure the spark arrestor is properly installed, as required by Massachusetts law Don't park an ATV, dirt bike, or other off-road vehicle on or near dry vegetation, and turn the engine off when stopped for an extended period of time. Fireworks Safety Massachusetts law prohibits the use, possession, or sale of fireworks in Massachusetts without a license, even if they were purchased legally elsewhere and then transported into the state. Their possession or use carries a fine of up to $100, and sale carries a fine of up to $1,000 and a year behind bars. "People are injured and property is lost every single year in Massachusetts because of fires that start with illegal fireworks," said State Fire Marshal Ostroskey. "If you want to watch fireworks this summer, many cities and towns will have displays that are carefully managed and organized by licensed experts. For the safety of our friends, families, and communities, let's leave fireworks to the professionals." Trade Minister Ahn Duk-geun asked the European Union, Friday, to review its directive on single-use plastics, saying the rule has even regulated eco-friendly items and limited Korean firms' market access. Ahn made the request during a meeting with EU Ambassador to Korea Maria Castillo-Fernandez held in Seoul. The Single-Use Plastics Directive, which came into effect in July last year, calls for banning certain single-use plastics. But it not only regulates fossil-based plastics but also restricted eco-friendly bioplastics, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. "The regulation has prevented Korean companies with the latest technologies for making bioplastics from accessing the European market. The regulation needs to be swiftly reviewed based on close consultations between the EU and the companies concerned," Ahn said. Currently, only Korea, the United States and Japan have secured key technologies on bioplastics. During the meeting, the two sides also discussed ways of cooperation in supply chains, and digital and other major trade issues. They shared the assessment that the two sides have maintained close and staunch economic ties despite the COVID-19 pandemic and other global uncertainties, as two-way trade hit an all-time high of $129.5 billion last year, up 26.1 percent from a year earlier. Ahn noted growing bilateral cooperation in terms of supply chains in new industry fields such as electric cars, batteries and chips and voiced hope for further joint work in emerging trade issues, including green and digital growth. The EU ambassador stressed the need to work together for a free and open market order and the transition to a sustainable economic structure in the face of the global supply chain crisis, the Ukraine war and other challenges, the ministry said. (Yonhap) Reasonable approaches needed for effective system The nation's top court on Thursday ruled against the peak wage system designed to reduce salaries gradually for senior workers from the age of 55 until retirement. The Supreme Court upheld decisions by both the district and appellate courts that ordered compensation for a former employee of the Korea Electronics Technology Institute. The 67-year-old plaintiff called for reimbursement of his lost wages due to the system. The court said it was improper for the institute to cut his salary while he still had to do the same work as before. It added the institute violated the Act on Prohibition of Age Discrimination in Employment and Aged Employment Promotion that bans any discrimination against employees on the basis of age without a good reason. The court said the institute should have taken compensatory measures for the plaintiff such as extension of the retirement age in return for applying the peak wage system. The recent ruling is meaningful as it is the first time for the top court to offer a definite yardstick amid growing confusion and conflicts in many workplaces surrounding the peak wage system. According to the Ministry of Employment and Labor, 54.1 percent of public organizations and companies employing more than 300 workers have incorporated the system as of 2019. Given this, the court's ruling will likely trigger lawsuits and calls for realignment of the wage system. It has become inevitable to overhaul the content and operation of the system. To that end, in-depth discussions to reach a social consensus are necessary. The court noted, to judge the validity of the peak wage system, overall considerations should be given to various factors regarding, for instance, the purpose of introducing the system, possible disadvantages to relevant workers and whether the financial resources saved from the reduced salaries are being used to fulfil the system's purpose. The ruling has brought about mixed responses. The Federation of Korea Trade Unions welcomed it by saying, "Contrary to the government's assertion, the peak wage system failed to increase job opportunities for young people. Rather, it has only led to curtailing wages of workers." Yet the Korea Enterprises Federation, a mouthpiece of business employers, denounced the ruling, saying, "It failed to respect the value and purpose of the peak wage system while overlooking the possible adverse impacts on businesses." Conflicts over the system will likely flare up following the court ruling. Both business and labor representatives should make combined efforts to improve the problems with the system while maximizing its positive aspects. For this, the government should double down on its efforts for smoother implementation of the system while preventing confrontations between labor and management over the issue. Endeavors should be focused on stopping discrimination against senior workers through the peak wage system. And companies need to find ways to use the resources conserved under the system in a bid to generate more jobs, especially for young people. In a further harsh restriction to Afghanistans media, the Taliban have issued a decree instructing all women television anchors and broadcast journalists to cover their faces while on air. International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the order and urges the Taliban to allow all women journalists to work independently and without interference. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid had promised for women rights when he addressed the first press conference in Kabul on August 17, 2021. Credit: Hoshang Hashimi / AFP On May 19, Taliban's Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which was reinstated after the Taliban takeover in the offices of the previous Ministry of Womens Affairs, issued the decree effective from May 21, which is final and non- negotiable. Ministry spokesperson, Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir, implied that any female journalists appearing on screen without a face-covering would be forcibly removed from work, while Taliban spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, argued the new rules would help women journalists contribute to their familys modesty and honour. Any media manager or guardian of a female presenter who fails to obey they order will also be liable under the new laws. The day following the new directive, female journalists from three Afghan media organisations defied the orders and broadcast with their faces visible. However, after pressure and threats from the Taliban, they began to adhere to the order on May 22, with male journalists wearing masks on air to in solidarity with their female colleagues At present, women broadcaster in Afghanistan televisions such as TOLOnews, Ariana Television, Shamshad TV and 1TV, wear full hijabs and face-covering veils that allow only their eyes to be seen. Women journalists and media activists have said the directive is a warning to women journalists and a planned attempt to erase women from the media. On May 7, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice issued a decree to all Afghan women to wear a hijab or headscarf, with so-called male guardians of those women who breach the code facing imprisonment for repeated violations. The IFJ said: The Talibans new directive is one of many measures to systematically erase women journalists from working in the media and is a complete violation of freedom of press and expression. The IFJ urges the Taliban authorities to immediately withdraw the provision and allow all journalists to work freely and independently. IFJ, PJS and Palestinian Rights Group to submit new complaint to ICC regarding killing of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and shooting of Ali Samoudi The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) and International Center of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) have been asked by the family of, Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, and by journalist Ali Samoudi, to submit a new complaint to the International Criminal Court about the circumstances surrounding Shireens death and Alis shooting on 11 May 2022. A long-time TV correspondent for Al Jazeera Arabic, Shireen was killed while covering Israeli army raids in the city of Jenin. Ali, who was present when Shireen was killed was also shot in the shoulder. Ali is able to provide crucial witness testimony with regards to his own shooting and the death of Shireen. There are strong grounds to believe that Shireen was killed, and Ali was shot, by Israeli armed forces. Both join a long list of journalists targeted by the Israeli armed forces in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The new complaint follows the April 2022 submission to the Court which requested the ICC Prosecutor launch an investigation into the systematic targeting, maiming and killing of journalists and destruction of media infrastructure in Palestine. Shireen was killed only days after the ICC prosecutor acknowledged receipt of the first complaint. The Group have retained leading lawyers from Bindmans LLP and Doughty Street Chambers to represent the victims at the ICC. On 5 February 2021, the International Criminal Court ruled that its criminal jurisdiction extended to the Situation in Palestine, and that its territorial scope covered allegations that occurred in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This presents for the first time, a real opportunity for the accountability of Israels alleged policy of targeting journalists and could lead to a formal investigation by the ICC Prosecutor and potential prosecutions. The Groups April 2022 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 also 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 infrastructure including the bombing of the Al-Shorouk and Al-Jawhara Towers in Gaza City in May 2021. Tayab Ali , Director of the ICJP and Partner at Bindmans LLP comments: Shireens family and Ali have trusted us to bring what happened to them to the attention of the International Criminal Court. Shireen is not anonymous or a statistic. She was not a terrorist. She was one of us. She dedicated her life to one of the most important principles in a democracy - freedom of speech. As a journalist, Shireens work ensured that the world knew what was happening in Palestine. Journalists like Shireen and Ali are crucial in holding governments that violate international law to account. Israels belligerent and excessive use of force has led to irreversible damage and the killing of innocent journalists. This can no longer be allowed to continue. The international communitys inaction in the situation in Palestine is tantamount to complicity in violations of international law. We are determined in our legal work to reverse Israels ongoing impunity. 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 criminal acts that they will not have impunity but will instead be swiftly held to account for their violations." IFJ General Secretary, Anthony Bellanger, said: The targeting of journalists and media organisations in Palestine violates the right to life and freedom of expression. The brutal killing of Shireen Abu Akleh and all crimes against Palestinian journalists must be fully investigated. The time for justice is now. 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. For more information: ICJP www.icjpalestine.com info@icjpalestine.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 3488 2737 Bindmans www.Bindmans.com press@bindmans.com Doughty Street Chambers www.doughtystreet.co.uk +44 (0) 20 7404 228 Multiple media workers were attacked during protests by members of political party Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) on May 25 and 26 in several cities across Pakistan. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Pakistan affiliate, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), condemn the attack on journalists, media workers and media houses and urge the newly formed Pakistani government to apprehend the perpetrators and further protect journalists. Police use tear gas to disperse Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party protests in Lahore on May 25 2022. Credit: ARIF ALI / AFP. In Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, and other cities, numerous journalists, cameramen, and photographers were assaulted during the PTI demonstrations. In Karachi's Numaish Chowrangi area, Asif Hassan, a 45-year-old photographer for Agence France Presse (AFP), was hit in the head by a stone intended for police officers. He was taken to Aga Khan University Hospital where he received five stitches to treat the wound. Hassan is said to be in a stable condition. Reporters for Samaa TV were also attacked and harassed while covering the demonstrations in the Numaish Chowrangi area. Protestors abused female journalist, Zamzam Saeed, Yasir Hussain, and cameraperson Imran Khan while they were filming for Samaa TV. The Samaa TV transmission van was also pelted with stones as the reporting team returned from interviewing PTI Sindh President Ali Zaidi. In the capital city of Islamabad, several media vans were damaged. Protesters attacked an Aaj News and a Peshawar Neo News DSNG van with sticks and smashed the glass of a Hum News DSNG van. The Geo News office in Islamabad was also attacked with rocks. A similar incident occurred in Lahore's Liberty Chowk, when the Aaj News DSNG vans windows were shattered and the assistant DSNG operator was physically assaulted. Renowned photojournalist Amjad Hussain was also attacked during the protests. The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) has strongly condemned the violence against journalists during the PTI protests and the attack on the Geo News office. President GM Jamali and General Secretary Rana Muhammad Azeem have criticised the political partys leaders and supporters for attacking media houses and staff. According to the IFJs South Asia Press Freedom Report 2021-2022(SAPFR), Pakistani media practitioners faced several safety related challenges over the last year. These included a continuing spate of physical attacks that resulted in the murder of five journalists, including a citizen journalist; assault on and injuries sustained by at least six journalists; arrest or abduction of at least seven journalists; legal cases or notices faced by at least 15 journalists; attacks or intimidation of at least five media establishments; specific threats against journalists in at least four instances; and several instances of coordinated or violent online harassment and intimidation of journalists and other digital information practitioners, including women. The PFUJ said, We have been requesting the government authority to look into and provide security to the media workers and ensure freedom of speech and expression in the country. The IFJ said, Pakistans government must ensure the safety and security of journalistsas required by law, and condemn all assaults on media workers so that they can report without fear. The IFJ calls on Pakistans authorities to fulfil their international obligations under the Pakistani Constitution on media and press freedom. Local and international media access was heavily restricted at the Chinese foreign ministers visit to Solomon Islands on May 26, with only select news outlets permitted to attend. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the obstruction of the press from events of international public interest and urges the government of Solomon Islands to ensure press freedom is protected. The Chinese delegations visit to Solomon Islands on May 26 marked the beginning of a tour of the Pacific region, called extraordinary and unprecedented by Pacific experts. Chinas foreign minister, Wang Yi, will visit eight countries including Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Timor-Leste and Fiji. All journalists from international news outlets, along with some local media organisations, have said that they are being prevented from covering or attending any of the tours events. Reportedly, journalists and media organisations have faced difficulties gathering specific information about the foreign ministers itinerary in Solomon Islands. President of the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI), Georgina Kekea, said that during the single press event in the capital city of Honiara, only journalists from two Solomon Islands newspapers, the national broadcaster, and Chinese media were allowed to attend, and are only able to ask a maximum of two questions each. MASI called for the invited media outlets to boycott the press event in solidarity with the media workers who were blocked from attending. While Covid-19 concerns have been cited as the official reason for the limited number of journalists in attendance, Kekea said this is an excuse to further restrict information about the countries security discussions. "MASI thrives on professional journalism and sees no reason for journalists to be discriminated against based on who they represent. Giving credentials to selected journalists is a sign of favouritism. Journalists should be allowed to do their job without fear or favour, Kekea said. Relations between Solomon Islands and China have drawn international attention since March, after a draft security agreement between the two countries was leaked, outlining Chinese security and naval deployments to Solomon Islands. In April, China confirmed it had signed an agreement with Solomon Islands but it is not clear what specific provisions were included in the final agreement. Wang Yi says, however, that China has no intention to build a military base on Solomon Islands. The IFJ said, The restriction of journalists and media organisations from the Chinese delegations visit to Solomon Islands sets a worrying precedent for press freedom in the Pacific. The IFJ urges the governments of Solomon Islands and China to ensure all journalists are given fair and open access to all press events. zennya Health, the advanced mobile healthcare app, has launched a series of personalized home Laboratory Packages. At the touch of a button, people can select a testing package that addresses their particular health concern. The lab results are delivered directly to the app and include a virtual consult and tailor-made care plan to improve the patients health. Each lab package is presented in an easy-to-understand format and does not require a prescription. The full range includes Heart Health, Stress & Inflammation, Fertility, Prenatal Health, Womens Health, Mens Health, Nutrient Deficiency, Diabetic Panel, Liver & Kidney, Thyroid, and Food Intolerance. Clients who dont have a specific health concern can avail of zennyas comprehensive health checks which serve as an at-home physical. The Broad Health Check and Executive Health Check give a glimpse into how the body is functioning as a whole. Upon choosing a Laboratory Package, a registered nurse will come to the patients home or workplace to collect the patients specimen. Then, an online doctor will discuss the results and provide actionable, personalized advice, including nutrition and lifestyle adjustments, and medicines as required. The tests in each package are carefully selected by zennyas team of doctors, and designed to identify health conditions and health risks early. This reverses the usual approach to care, where patients wait until they become sick, at which point the damage to their health has been done. This is part of our overall strategy to shift power to the patients. Clients can choose a lab package that addresses their health concerns, no lab prescription is required. This skips the usual consult and lab referral process, which is costly and time-consuming. We hope that removing some of the usual barriers to care will encourage Filipinos to be more proactive about their health. says David Foote, zennyas CEO. These packages are accessible to patients based in Metro Manila and will expand to Metro Cebu soon. Partnerships with other healthcare providers The pandemic led to a surge in telehealth and home healthcare. Many hospitals, laboratories, and insurance providers want to meet this demand but lack the in-house technology, logistics, and mobile workforce. zennyas White Label Service can fill in those gaps. Instead of creating a mobile medical system from scratch, white-label partners can access zennyas digital platform, medical logistics team, and a fleet of nurses and virtual doctors. The White Label Service is also offered to hotels, with the focus being on wellness and COVID-19 testing. Hotels can provide massage and wellness services to their guests using zennyas digital platform and pool of highly trained massage therapists and nurses. The White Label Service gives zennyas partners a pathway to deliver high-quality medical and wellness care under their own branding. Current white label partners include Maxicare, Doctor Anywhere, and hotel groups in Manila and Cebu. So much has changed due to and during the pandemic. Whether its patient behavior or patient needs, zennya is always on its toes when it comes to providing the latest healthcare innovation. We take what we have, see what we can offer, and provide more than what is expected, says David Foote. Download the zennya app on the App Store or Google Play today. Many companies are sitting on their hands while figuring out how much office space they will actually need in a hybrid work environment. But commercial real estate brokers say that landlords are willing to make good deals now as the market slowly recovers. While lease vacancy rates aren't expected to return to the 30-year average of 15 percent until at least 2026, according to insights from real estate market research firm CBRE, leasing activity is picking up--totaling 45.8 million square feet, up over 26 percent from last year. Additionally, average gross asking rent increased by 1.2 percent to $35.10 per square foot. The improvement in office demand will be greatest in markets hardest hit during the downturn, including parts of Manhattan, Chicago, Seattle, and Dallas. Though the market is getting more competitive, many companies are still hesitant, not wanting to waste time, effort, and resources on making large changes without more certain projections into when, and how many, employees will return to the office full time, says Julie Whelan, global head of occupier thought leadership at CBRE. A recent survey by CBRE of 207 office-using companies globally found that more than 70 percent expect a full return to the office to unfold in 2022. Those companies allowing employees to decide will see workers trickling back throughout the year; those requiring a return on a part-time basis can expect a return by July. And those requiring a full-time return are largely already back. This suggests overall office occupancy will steadily increase, especially for tech and financial services companies with money to spare, says Whelan. You should especially move fast if you're looking to downsize, she says, since most companies will end up doing so. Remote work has led to a 9 percent reduction in per-employee office use in a baseline scenario, according to insights from CBRE. Getting a Deal Companies looking to coax employees back to the office are seeking space with attractive amenities and flexibility, such as free meals, comfortable spaces to socialize and relax, and fitness studios. "The evolution to hybrid work and employee preferences has led to a flight to quality," says Robert Rivani, president of Black Lion Investment Group, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment firm. In Los Angeles, for example, Rivani says areas that are purely corporate, with vast, traditional office space, or those in more suburban locations, lost tenants to smaller spaces in more bustling neighborhoods. For example, while the overall office vacancy rate declined across L.A. in the first quarter of 2022, in downtown the vacancy rate rose to 22.4 percent, according to reports from CBRE. In Miami, however, which experienced a population boom during the pandemic, there was a corresponding surge in demand for downtown office space, and in areas such as Brickell, which touts high-end restaurants, bars, and nightlife. Absorption climbed to an all-time high of 6.8 million square feet in the last quarter of 2021, and overall office vacancy declined to 3 percent, according to CBRE. "The high end of the market is going to rebound faster and become tighter, so it might not be there when you want it if you wait too long," says Whelan. Before you jump ship to a new location, it's of course worth negotiating with your current landlord to see if they're willing to budge on rent or offer other incentives. Rivani says he commonly hears of landlords offering shorter lease terms, free rent, and car loans to hang onto tenants. For new leases, some landlords will ask for smaller deposits, one or two months instead of the usual four or six, or insert "Covid pause" clauses, which would not penalize tenants in the case of another surge or shutdown. If a space isn't move-in ready, you can also negotiate on renovations. Whelan notes that most business owners have six to 18 months to make a deal before the market tightens, and that, of course, could change if the pandemic experiences another wave. While that may seem like a long time, you'll likely want to start looking now or budgeting to see if making an office transition is a smart idea now rather than later. Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Lee Chang-yang, left, poses with Korea International Trade Association (KITA) Chairman Christopher Koo, at the latter's office in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy By Baek Byung-yeul The government will provide full support to help local companies bolster their outbound shipments against ongoing uncertainties such as global supply chain disruptions, Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the conflict between the United States and China, the industry ministry said Friday. "Our trade has been the backbone of the country's economy and the pillar of sustainable growth. I hope to work closely with the trade association in establishing a new vision and goals for trade and promoting trade policies to respond to rapidly changing conditions here and abroad," Industry Minister Lee Chang-yang said during a meeting with Christopher Koo, chairman of the Korea International Trade Association (KITA), at the latter's headquarters in Seoul. "The public and private sectors need to work together to support the normalization of our economy amid deepening global uncertainties stemming from the prolonged war between Russia and Ukraine, China's lockdown of major cities and a competition for technological supremacy between the U.S. and China," the minister said. Do you believe local towns in Rhode Island should pave the way for more affordable housing developments? Why or why not? Let us know in this week's poll question below. 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No worries for refund as the money remains in investor's account." www.indiainfoline.com is part of the IIFL Group, a leading financial services player and a diversified NBFC. The site provides comprehensive and real time information on Indian corporates, sectors, financial markets and economy. On the site we feature industry and political leaders, entrepreneurs, and trend setters. The research, personal finance and market tutorial sections are widely followed by students, academia, corporates and investors among others. How often do you see a Television host delivering a powerful speech free of bias or prejudices? It takes a lot of courage to call out political leaders without mincing words, but Jimmy Kimmel did just that and much more in his latest monologue for his popular show. A passionate and tearful Jimmy Kimmel spoke about the Texas school shooting on Wednesdays episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Agencies He begins the monologue by saying, Screenshot Here we are again on another day of mourning in this country. Once again, we grieve for the little boys and girls whose lives have been ended and the families that have been destroyed. Since Tuesdays show had already been taped before news broke of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Kimmel's episode aired on Wednesday. Agencies Kimmel addressed the camera directly without a studio audience as he appeared visibly shaken by sorrow and anger. Screengrab The show's host struggled to compose himself, and he teared up when he spoke of "the little boys and girls whose lives have been ended and whose families have been destroyed." Kimmel also spoke about most Americans supporting "keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and children," citing polls that support "common-sense gun laws." Kimmel appealed to lawmakers humanity and urged them to admit when they were wrong. Reuters I dont believe Ted Cruz doesnt care about children Hes a father. I bet he went to bed sick to his stomach last night. Its easy to call someone a monster, but hes not a monster. Hes a human being. Heres the thing I would like to say to Ted Cruz, the human being, Governor Abbott, and everyone. Its OK to make a mistake. In fact, its not just OK. Its necessary to admit you made a mistake when your mistake is killing the children in your state. He further appealed directly to Texas pro-gun Republicans Sen. Ted Cruz, Gov. Greg Abbott, and Sen. John Cornyn to consider gun control laws, citing successful examples from abroad, such as the U.K. and Australia, which enacted stricter measures after mass shootings. SN Our cowardly leaders just arent listening to us; theyre listening to the NRA, theyre listening to those who write them checks, who keep them in power because thats how politics work, said Kimmel. "This is the only country where this keeps happening," the host said. "If you care about this...we need to make sure that we do everything we can, that unless they do something drastic, let's make sure that not [one of these] politicians ever holds office again," he concluded. Watch Kimmel's full, uncensored speech here: To my friends in Dallas who are asking: I do not know whether our @ABCNetwork affiliate @wfaa cut away from my monologue tonight intentionally or inadvertently but I will find out. In the meantime, here's what you didn't get to see https://t.co/tqfHoBHMwN Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) May 26, 2022 The devastating mass shooting left at least 19 children and two adults dead and has been considered the deadliest school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012. (With inputs from ANI) (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.) Actors may start their journey with regional cinema but soon make a seamless shift and start juggling between different roles across different languages. Dhanush, Saswata Chatterjee, and Swastika Mukherjee are just a few actors who have shifted from regional cinema to Bollywood and vice-versa. The shift has been exciting for the audience as they see talented actors not remaining confined to just one language. Instagram The barriers are finally breaking. Swastika Mukherjee, the actor, known for Bengali films like Shaheb Bibi Golaam, Shah Jahan Regency and Bhooter Bhabishyat, left the audience wanting for more when she played Dolly, Sanjeev Mehra's wife, in Paatal Lok. Real talent never goes unnoticed, and she found herself flooded with more web shows and films. Swatika Mukherjee/Instagram While the language debate in Indian cinema is still on, Swastika has raised an important point. Questioning why she is only labeled as 'Bengali Actress' instead of 'Indian,' Swastika shared her thoughts on Twitter. Swastika Mukherjee/Instagram Despite having done a significant body of work in Bengali films, including several Hindi films and shows, Swastika Mukherjee expressed her displeasure on being 'put in a box. Instagram/Swastika Mukherjee In a well-worded tweet, she put across an important message, reminding everyone that she is an Indian actress above all else. She has seamlessly juggled different roles in the Bengali film/TV industry and Hindi. Swastika Mukherjee/Instagram She wrote: What is bengali actress ?! Does anyone write hindi actress for those whose mother tongue is hindi ? Does every actor working in Bollywood hail from Mumbai ? Or do we keep mentioning their home town in every damn headline ? Indian actress bolne mein kya dikkat hain bhai ? Swastika Mukherjee (@swastika24) May 24, 2022 "What is Bengali actress ?! Does anyone write Hindi actress for those whose mother tongue is Hindi? Does every actor who works in Bollywood hail from Mumbai? Or do we keep mentioning their hometown in every damn headline? Indian actress bolne mein kya dikkat hain bhai?" Mukherjee made her big-screen debut with the 2001 Bengali film Hemanter Pakhi. In 2008, she was seen in the Bollywood film Mumbai Cutting. Mukherjee won hearts with her brief yet memorable stint in 'Pataal Lok.' A still from Paatal Lok/Amazon Prime Video-Clean Slate Productions In 2020, she starred in Sushant Singh Rajput-starrer Dil Bechara, with Sanjana Sanghi, Saswata Chatterjee, Sahil Vaid, and Saif Ali Khan in a unique appearance. A Still From 'Dil Bechaara' | Disney+Hotstar The actress is currently gearing up for the release of Netflixs Qala, co-starring late actor Irrfan Khans son Babil Khan and Tripti Dimri. (To get the latest updates from Bollywood and Hollywood, keep reading Indiatimes Entertainment.) Seventy-eight per cent of school students who were learning at home during the coronavirus pandemic found it to be "burdensome", according to the National Achievement Survey (NAS)-2021 conducted by the Ministry of Education. Meanwhile, 24 per cent of students did not have a digital device at home. The survey found that the learning levels (achievements) of students drop as they progress to a higher class. The survey also highlighted that in India 48 per cent of the students commute to school on foot. The NAS was conducted throughout the country for Classes 3, 5, 8, and 10 on November 12 last year. Shutterstock About 34 lakh students of 1.18 lakh schools in 720 districts from both rural and urban areas have participated in the survey. The last NAS was held in 2017. Too many assignments made studying from home burdensome According to the report released on Wednesday, at least 78 per cent of students said they found learning at home during the pandemic burdensome with a lot of assignments. While 45 per cent of the students said online learning was joyful, 38 per cent of the respondents faced difficulty in learning. Twenty-four per cent of the students claimed they had no digital device at home. Fifty per cent of the students said there was no difference in learning at home and school while 80 per cent said they learn better in school with the help of peers. Time to learn new things at home Seventy per cent of the students said they had a lot of time to learn new things at home during the pandemic. Schools were closed for several months across the country in view of the pandemic. The NAS covered government, government-aided and private schools. The subjects covered were Language, Mathematics, and EVS for Classes 3 and 5; Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Science for Class 8 and Language, Mathematics, Science, Social Science and English for Class 10. Representational Image "The objective of NAS 2021 is to evaluate children's progress and learning competencies as an indicator of the efficiency of the education system, so as to take appropriate steps for remedial actions at different levels. It will help to unravel the gaps in learning and will support state and UT governments in developing long term, mid-term and short-term interventions to improve learning levels and orient on differential planning based on survey data," a senior MoE official said. According to the report, the average performance of students at the national level with a scaled score of 500 starts decreasing in higher classes. For example, the national average performance of a Class 3 student in the language is 323 out of 500, but the same dips to 260 in Class 10. According to the report, the average achievement of schools in rural areas remained lower than the schools in urban areas in the same states/UTs. For instance, the average achievement of schools in rural areas remained lower than their urban counterparts across all states and UTs, excluding Manipur and Daman and Diu, in Language in Class 8. For more on explainers, news, sports, and current affairs from around the world, please visit Indiatimes News. Some videos on the internet just make you retain your faith in humanity all over again. In this fast-paced world, people helping others without any prior motive is something that will always be the kindest thing. Just last week a 4.8 magnitude earthquake struck Shimian County in Chinas Sichuan province. Footage from the time earthquake hit the country has gone viral. In the video, a group of students who were asked to evacuate the classroom helped their specially-abled classmate evacuate as well. In the said video, all the students were seen evacuating their class during an earthquake. They did so in a single file and didnt forget their classmate who was in a wheelchair in the back. The kind students helped him as well and the teacher assisted too. The video was shared on Twitter by former Norwegian diplomat Eric Solheim. He captioned the video, "Solidarity! On May 20th, in the middle school of Sichuan earthquake with a magnitude of 4.8, teachers and classmates didn't forget him in a wheelchair." Solidarity! On May 20th, in the middle school of Sichuan earthquake with magnitude 4.8, teachers and classmates didn't forget him in wheelchair. pic.twitter.com/FRzMTM7Z0Q Erik Solheim (@ErikSolheim) May 25, 2022 People on the internet lauded these students. The fact you show this and everybody is so happy about it (understandable), means it is outside of the normal. People and their struggle for power, fear of death and addiction to comfort, makes them monsters. The human world is not a beautiful place. Bas, (@BasVanvliet12) May 26, 2022 There is some difference between classmates and FRIENDS....... They are FRIENDS.... Ashish B (@0AshishB006) May 25, 2022 Height of Humanity Subramanian Swamy (@Subrama46348615) May 25, 2022 Good guys! That's the fact (@Golover_Tu) May 25, 2022 Humanity. Very proud of the students and staffs Sesu Selvakumar (@SelvakumarSesu) May 25, 2022 Wonderful seeing this act of solidarity. Follow us on telegram. People walk along a pedestrian crossing in the tourist district of Asakusa in Tokyo, July 31, 2021. AP-Yonhap By Baek Byung-yeul Tour agencies here, which have been struggling with low travel demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, are set to capitalize on Japan's decision to ease entry restrictions for foreign tourists next month, according to company officials Friday. They expect more Korean tourists will fly to the neighboring country, which will serve as a catalyst in revitalizing the sluggish travel industry. There will be a significant increase in the number of Korean tourists to Japan, as the Japanese government will expand the daily number of people allowed into the country starting next month and exempt them from strict quarantine requirements. "Our company is currently receiving reservations for travel packages departing for Japan after July 20. We understand that other travel agencies are also planning similar products and accepting reservations," a spokesman of local travel agency Modetour said. "The response from customers is much better than expected. Modetour is only selling tour packages to Hokkaido, and it is preparing to sell other products for travel to other regions of Japan starting next week." Very Good Tour, a local travel agency, also said 1,365 tour programs for Osaka and Kobe were sold out within only two hours of release on May 25. Their moves to promote travel to Japan came after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said recently that Japan will allow foreign tourists to enter the country through package tours starting June 10. Also, international flights will be expanded to cover airports in Sapporo and Okinawa. Additionally, border restrictions will be eased on June 1, raising the daily cap of new arrivals to 20,000 from 10,000. Taking the easing of restrictions as a beginning, the local travel industry expects the Japanese government to lift entry restrictions on foreigners gradually. The official expected that visa-free entry would have to be possible to increase travel further between Korea and Japan. "Even when it is not possible to enter the country without a visa, customers are making reservations for tour packages. If it becomes possible to enter Japan without a visa, the number of Korean tourists will increase even more," he said. In March 2020, the Japanese government placed restrictions on entering the country and suspended visa-free entry for many countries including Korea. The Korean government also banned Japanese visa-free entry. "It has been three years since travel to Japan was cut off due to the deteriorated relationship between the two countries, starting in summer 2019 and the virus spread in 2020. For the domestic tourism industry, Japan is an important market as the monthly number of passengers to the country accounted for between 15 percent and 20 percent of the total number of travelers as of May 2019, just before their relationship became rocky," the spokesman said. As COVID-19 quarantine measures around the world begin to ease, a growing number of Koreans are choosing to travel abroad. According to data by the Korea Tourism Organization, the number of tourists who left the country in March was 145,503, a 97 percent increase from the same period in 2021. Travellers who have booked a cruise to the Bermuda Triangle are being told they will potentially receive a full refund of their ticket money if the ship disappears in the sea. We aren't talking about any place, we are talking about the Bermuda Triangle here. Daily Mirror It is an approximately triangular area located off the southeastern coast of the US in the Atlantic Ocean, between Bermuda, Florida and Puerto Rico. Also known as Devil's Triangle, many ships and planes have been reported to have mysteriously disappeared in the region. For decades, the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle has captured the human imagination with unexplained disappearances of ships, planes, and people. Representational Image/Shutterstock These reasons make the offer by the cruise seem utterly bizarre, but there is no shortage of suitors. Passengers are splashing as much as 1,450 (Rs 1.4 lakh) for a cabin on a two-day trip with the Norwegian Prima liner, The Mirror reported. Organisers have promised a full refund if the giant ship disappears in the triangle. Their website states: "Don't worry about disappearing on this Bermuda Triangle tour. The tour has a 100% return rate and your money will be refunded in the rare chance you disappear." The tour will include a twilight Bermuda Triangle cruise on a glass-bottom boat with talks, presentations, and Q&As. As shocking as it may sound, the trip is not a new one. It is popular with conspiracy theorists around the world. In 2017, a scientist from Australia claimed to have solved the mystery of the Bermuda Triangle, once and for all. Karl Kruszelnicki told news.com.au that there is no mystery to solve because the incidents were likely caused by human error. According to Lloyds of London and the US Coastguard the number that go missing in the Bermuda Triangle is the same as anywhere in the world on a percentage basis," he had told the outlet. It is close to the equator, near a wealthy part of the world, America, therefore you have a lot of traffic," he had added. He reckons the incidents were likely the outcome of bad weather and human error. For more trending stories, follow us on Telegram. New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Efforts by financial firms and others to bring workers back to Manhattan offices more than two years after the start of the coronavirus pandemic face persistent headwinds, consultants said, with commuters still worrying about COVID-19 as well as safety. New York has lagged others major markets in the percentage of employees regularly working in the office, in part because of high usage rates of public transportation and COVID concerns, said David Lewis, chief executive of HR consultant firm OperationsInc, which works with several firms in the financial sector. Overall, New York City had an office occupancy rate of 38.8% in the week that ended May 11, below the 43.4% occupancy rate nationwide, according to data from Kastle, which sells office access cards. Subway system safety was the largest obstacle in returning to the office, with 94% of respondents saying that not enough is being done to address the issue, according to a survey by the Partnership for New York City. Companies will need to address fears of public transportation if they want to have a hope of getting people to return to the office, said Lewis. There have been a series of recent attacks that have included a mass shooting at a subway station in Sunset Park, Brooklyn in April and the death of Michelle Go, a 40-year-old woman who died in January after being shoved in front of an approaching train at the Times Square station. On Sunday, Daniel Enriquez, who had worked for Goldman Sachs GS.N Global Investment Research since 2013, was killed while on a Manhattan-bound Q train in an apparently random attack. Approximately 80% of office workers in Manhattan relied on the subway to get to work before the coronavirus pandemic began, said Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of nonprofit Partnership for New York City. The uptick in crime on the subway over the last two years has clearly discouraged people about its safety, and whether its an excuse or reality, people are less willing to return to the office unless the crime situation on the subway is dealt with, she said. Criminal complaints on the subway system in April were up 24.7% compared with the year before, to a total of 389, according to data from the New York City Police Department. Overall criminal complaints in the subway system were, however, down 15% in 2021 compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019, though ridership has fallen significantly over that time. Rising concerns about public safety may prompt more firms to pay for taxis or private shuttles for employees, said Melissa Swift, U.S. transformation leader at Mercer. It didnt used to be an employers job to get you to the office, but one consequence of the COVID period is that once work and life blended together you cant just pry them apart again, she said. Mayor Eric Adams, a former police captain who took office in January, increased the number of police in the Transit Bureau to 3,500, exceeding the 3,250 officers sent to the system last summer in a surge by his predecessor. Adams said he would temporarily double that number following the Sunset Park shooting. Concerns about the safety of public transportation will likely add to the existing pressures on the New York City office market, said Scott Crowe at real estate investment firm CenterSquare Investment Management in Philadelphia, who expects market values for office buildings in Manhattan to fall by 10% or more. Employers are under tremendous pressure from employees to offer the most flexibility as possible as it relates to location of work, he said. If there are now issues around safety thats another headwind for employers to be trying to get people back to work. (Reporting by David Randall; Editing by Megan Davies and Lisa Shumaker) Topics COVID-19 New York New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! ALFRED, Maine Three FedEx delivery vehicles traveling single file crashed into each other, sending one driver to the hospital and tying up traffic, officials said. The delivery vehicles collided with each other when traffic slowed in front of them late Tuesday morning on busy Route 111, said Shannon Moss, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Public Safety. All of the trucks suffered damage, and one of them was pushed off the highway into a tree, Moss said. One FedEx driver was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, Moss said. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Maine Sen. Chris Murphy is joined from left by Sen. Ed Markey and Sen. Alex Padilla, as they speak to activists demanding action on gun control legislation after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a Texas elementary school this week, at the Capitol in Washington, May 26. AP-Yonhap A bipartisan group of senators is considering how Congress should respond to the horrific shooting of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, restarting gun control talks that have broken down many times before. Aware of the difficulty of their task, the Democrats and Republicans say they hope to find agreement on legislation that could help reduce the number of mass shootings in the United States. The Uvalde shooting came 10 days after a gunman opened fire in a racist attack killing Black people at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket. Senators have narrowed the discussion to a few ideas, some of them based on legislation they have been working on for years, such as expanded background checks or red flag laws that keep guns away from people who could do harm. Led by Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, the group of 10 is hoping to negotiate a proposal over the Senate's upcoming recess and have it ready for a vote at the beginning of June. It is uncertain if the group can come to consensus, and even if they do, winning enough votes from Republicans could prove difficult, as most do not want to see changes in the nation's gun laws. Democrats would need 10 Republican votes to overcome a filibuster and get a bill through the 50-50 Senate. ''Odds are against us, but we owe it to parents and kids to try,'' tweeted Murphy, who has been a lead advocate for stricter gun control since 20 children and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012. A look at the proposals under consideration, and others that are not: Red flag laws Senators emerging from a bipartisan meeting Thursday were talking about the possibility of incentivizing states to pass red flag laws that take firearms away from people who may do harm to themselves or others. Many states have adopted red flag laws, including Florida, which passed a law after the Parkland high school shooting in 2018, and Maine, which has a ''yellow flag'' law that requires a medical professional to sign off before guns were removed. Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican, has pushed for something similar on the federal level. Republicans are unlikely to get on board with a red flag statute for the entire country. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican who is also part of the group, said after the meeting that would be a non-starter, ''whatever the color.'' As an alternative, they are discussing whether federal grants could coax states into implementing such flag laws, an idea explored in past years by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla. Blumenthal, who is working with Graham on the compromise proposal, said the ''complicated and challenging part'' will be figuring out what the standards are for removing guns from a person who is flagged. Still, Blumenthal said ''there is a powerful emotional element to the red flag statute that gives it momentum, especially after Uvalde and Buffalo, where the shooter indicated very strong signs that he was dangerous.'' The shooter in New York had been reported by his school, but the state's red flag law was not triggered. The House is planning to pass its own version of red flag legislation when it returns from a two-week recess June 6. Activists join Senate Democrats outside the Capitol to demand action on gun control legislation in Washington, May 26. AP-Yonhap Expanded background checks Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., have been trying for almost a decade to pass expanded background checks for all commercial gun sales, including at gun shows and on the internet. Under current law, background checks are required only when guns are purchased from federally licensed dealers. The idea has wide public support, even among many gun owners, but the two senators have faced resistance from congressional Republicans who don't want any changes, along with groups like the National Rifle Association. Various versions of the proposal have been repeatedly defeated in the Senate, including in 2013 after the Newtown massacre and in 2016 after a shooting in which 49 people were killed at an Orlando, Florida, nightclub. The House passed legislation last year that would expand background checks to almost all sales, including private sales. The senators have been in talks since then about crafting a version that could pass their chamber, but they have yet to come to agreement. Manchin says the House version goes too far and could interfere with informal sales between people who know each other. Manchin and Toomey, who is retiring this year, are part of the Senate working group and are tasked with finding compromise on their proposal perhaps for the last time. Toomey said Thursday that the measure doesn't have enough support to pass right now, ''but I hope we'll get there.'' School security Republicans who have traditionally opposed gun control have seized on the idea of ''hardening'' schools, giving money for more resources, law enforcement officers or even arming teachers. Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota suggested this week that Congress ''promote direct funding for local units, to be able to have the resources available to add additional protections to offer a deterrence for these individuals.'' Murphy said Thursday that he is ''open'' on adding funds for school security and that the working group is looking at what could be done along those lines. But Democrats have adamantly opposed arming teachers, and they say money for security is not enough. Gun rights activists, including the group Youth Over Guns, participate in a rally in Foley Square to demand an end to gun violence in New York, May 26. AFP-Yonhap DAVOS, Switzerland Financial firms already struggling with climate-compliance due to unclear measurement metrics will soon face new disclosure requirements for biodiversity, or nature-related, investments. Nature is a financial risk for business, Elizabeth Mrema, co-chair of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), told the Reuters Global Markets Forum, adding that $10 trillion is accrued every year from nature. The TNFD working group is putting together metrics to measure biodiversity targets in consultation with industry and financial institutions. Its post-2020 Biodiversity Framework is expected to be adopted later this year. Its about accountability. You cannot improve what you cannot measure. What gets measured gets done. We need that robust measurement system, said Daniel Stander, deputy chair of the Resilient Cities Network. The framework will ask financial institutions and corporate bodies to shift their financial flows from nature-negative to nature-positive outcomes. Another metric will ask the private sector to repurpose and redirect harmful subsidies, worth over $500 billion a year. Biodiversity is getting higher on the agenda, said David Knibbe, CEO of Dutch insurer NN Group NV, which has 200 billion euros ($214 billion) in assets under management and is active in sustainable finance. If we get biodiversity problems, lets say the ecosystem is being disturbed, that could lead to food shortages and instability, Knibbe said, adding that NN plans to engage with companies so that the insurer can track their progress. The good news is quite a few of the biodiversity projects go hand-in-hand with the climate projects, Knibbe said. (Reporting by Divya Chowdhury and Jessica DiNapoli in Davos; editing by Alexander Smith) DAVOS, Switzerland NN Group NV expects to accelerate its deadline to exit coal investments, now set at 2030, due to fears about Europe reverting to burning the fossil fuel, the Dutch insurers CEO David Knibbe said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum. We do run the risk because of a lack of gas and oil that it is being replaced by coal produced in other European countries, Knibbe told Reuters in Davos on Wednesday. Geopolitically we understand the sanctions, but from a carbon footprint, that is not a good thing, Knibbe said. Knibbe said the insurer had not yet decided on the new deadline for phasing out its coal investments. World leaders gathered in Davos this week worried that market gyrations would disrupt the transition to green energy and that companies would fail to meet their goals to reach net zero in the coming decades. Some countries have already turned to coal to meet their energy needs. NN Group, with roughly 200 billion euros in assets under management ($214 billion), is also making its definition of a company involved in coal stricter, Knibbe said, so that even those with small exposure could be subject to divestment. Climate activists have long lobbied investors to back away from supporting the heavily polluting coal industry. We cannot engage on everything, but coal is high on our list as an engagement topic, Knibbe said, adding that the longer it takes to reduce carbon footprints, the more the insurance industry would have to charge for insurance. The longer it takes we will see the premiums increase, he said. (Reporting by Jessica DiNapoli in Davos; editing by Alexander Smith) Photograph: Steam and exhaust rise from the RWE Weisweiler coal-fired power station on February 11, 2021 near Inden, Germany. Photo credit: Lukas Schulze/Getty Images. Related: Topics Carriers Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, the second largest shareholder in Assicurazioni Generali, has quit its board, the Italian insurer said on Friday, opening a new chapter in a long-standing shareholder row. Caltagirone holds a 9.95% stake in Generali, having beefed up his holding in recent years as tensions mounted between the construction and newspaper magnate on the one hand, and the insurers board and its single biggest investor Mediobanca on the other. Shares in Generali fell more than 2% after the news, underperforming a flat Italian blue-chip index .FTMIB on investor concerns that Caltagirone might reduce his stake. Generalis Board Reappoints CEO Without Support From Rebel Investors: Sources Rebel Generali Investor Could Mount Legal Challenge if Bid to Remake Board Fails However, a source close to the matter told Reuters the holding remained strategic and Caltagirone had no plans to sell it. Caltagirone earlier this year challenged a decision by Generalis board to secure a third term for CEO Philippe Donnet but his bid to appoint his own CEO candidate was defeated in a shareholder vote last month. Caltagirone did secure three board seats for his list of nominees at the general meeting on April 29 and had taken up one of these. Generali said it would call a board meeting in the coming days to take a decision on Caltagirones replacement, adding the reasons behind his decision were not known. A person with knowledge of the matter said Caltagirone had informed Generali of his decision in a letter on Friday. Caltagirone stepped down from the previous Generali board in January before proposing a rival to Donnet for the top job. (Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro and Stefano Bernabei; writing by Valentina Za, editing by Giulia Segreti and Keith Weir) Topics Generali Life Assurance (Thailand) Plc. The United States has confiscated Iranian oil held on a Russian-operated ship near Greece and will send the cargo to the United States aboard another vessel, three sources familiar with the matter said. It was unclear whether the cargo was impounded because it was Iranian oil or due to the sanctions on the tanker over its Russian nexus. Iran and Russia are facing separate U.S. sanctions. The Iranian-flagged ship, the Pegas, was among five vessels designated by Washington on Feb. 22 two days before Russias invasion of Ukraine for sanctions against Promsvyazbank, a bank viewed as critical to Russias defense sector. Impounded Russian Tanker to Be Released by Greece Amid Confusion Over Sanctions The vessels Russian owner Transmorflot was subsequently designated on May 8. The tanker, renamed Lana on March 1 and flying the Iranian flag since May 1, has remained near Greek waters since then. It was previously Russian-flagged. A source at Greeces shipping ministry said on Thursday that the U.S. Department of Justice had informed Greece that the cargo on the vessel is Iranian oil. The cargo has been transferred to another ship that was hired by the U.S., the source added, without providing further details. The United States on Wednesday imposed sanctions on what it described as a Russian-backed oil smuggling and money laundering network for Irans Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, even as Washington tries to revive a nuclear deal with Iran. A spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the oil seizure. Russian officials did not respond to requests for comment. The confiscation was confirmed by a separate Western source familiar with the matter, who said the cargo was transferred onto the Liberia-flagged tanker Ice Energy, which is operated by Greek shipping company Dynacom. A source at Dynacom confirmed that a transfer of the oil was underway from the vessel to Dynacoms Ice Energy, which will then sail to the United States. Irans IRNA state news agency reported on Wednesday that its foreign ministry summoned the charge daffaires of Greeces embassy in Tehran following the seizure of the cargo of a ship which was under the banner of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Greek waters and he was informed of the strong objections of Irans government. Greek government officials could not confirm the information. IRNA quoted Irans Ports and Maritime Organization as saying the tanker had sought refuge along Greeces coast after experiencing technical problems and poor weather, adding that the seizure of its cargo was a clear example of piracy. The Ice Energy on Thursday reported its position as anchored close to the southern Greek island of Evia, ship tracking data on Eikon showed. In 2020, Washington confiscated four cargoes of Iranian fuel aboard foreign ships that were bound for Venezuela and transferred them with the help of undisclosed foreign partners onto two other ships which then sailed to the United States. Those seizures took place after a U.S. district court issued an order for the shipments cargoes in a civil forfeiture case. Greek authorities last month impounded the Pegas, with 19 Russian crew members on board, near the island of Evias coast. They said the ship was impounded as part of EU sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. However, the vessel was later released due to confusion about sanctions on its owners. U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic, said the Pegas had loaded around 700,000 barrels of crude oil from Irans Sirri Island on Aug. 19, 2021. Prior to this load, the Pegas transported over 3 million barrels of Iranian oil in 2021, with over 2.6 million of those barrels ending up in China, according to UANI analysis. U.S. President Joe Bidens administration has been engaged in indirect talks to restart a 2015 Iran nuclear deal former President Donald Trump abandoned, under which world powers lifted international financial sanctions on Tehran in return for curbs on its nuclear program. While talks had appeared close to resurrecting the deal in March, they stalled over last-minute Russian demands and whether Washington might drop the Revolutionary Guards from its terrorism list. Washingtons Iran envoy said on Wednesday the chances of reviving the nuclear deal were shaky at best, and Washington was ready to tighten sanctions on Iran. (Reporting by Jonathan Saul in London and Lefteris Papadimas and Renee Mazeltou in Athens; additional reporting by Dubai bureau; Editing by Jason Neely, David Evans and Howard Goller) Topics USA Russia Energy Oil Gas Trucking Ditch diggers who accepted work assignments online and used their own spades and shovels to do the work cannot be classified as independent contractors by a company that contracted with Time Warner Cable to install underground lines, a divided Ohio Supreme Court ruled this week. In a 5-2 decision, the high court affirmed a Court of Appeals judgment that Ugicom Enterprises employed the laborers it assigned to bury underground lines and owes the state Bureau of Workers Compensation $346,817.55 for unpaid premiums. The majority said in its unsigned opinion that it isnt drawing a bright line to determine the limits of the gig economy, it is holding only that the bureau had some evidence to support its determination that Ugicom was an employer. Ugicoms take-it-or-leave-it approach to pricing the jobs, which foreclosed an installers ability to submit a bid, was a means of controlling the installers, the opinion says. Whether a worker is an employee or independent contractor is a frequently disputed question for workers compensation and liability insurers. Since there are myriad ways that organizations can assign and pay for work, courts generally look to variety of factors to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor. The degree of control an employer exercises over the workers, whether it provides the tools for the job, the degree of skill required and whether the work is part of the regular business of the employer are some of the factors considered. The Supreme said the Bureau of Workers Compensation is the sole fact finder for workers compensation matters. In reviewing the case, the courts function is to determine only whether the BWC abused its discretion by entering an order that is not based on some evidence in the record, the majority opinion says. Ugicom contracted with Time Warner to install underground cable in residential areas. The company used the internet to assign specific jobs. Installers were required to sign independent contractor agreements. They would log into the system each morning to obtain job details and select the projects they wanted, then log back in again at the end of the work day to note repair work that was completed. The installers were allowed to choose their own work hours, provided that they obtained the customers consent to be on their properties. Annual pay averaged from $50,000 to $60,000 per year, but some workers made as much as $90,000, the court said. The BWC audited Ugicom in 2009 to determine whether it had paid the correct amount of workers compensation premiums for the previous five years. An auditor determined that the company had misclassified its ditch diggers as independent contractors and invoiced the company for unpaid premiums. Ugicom challenged the finding through the BWCs administrative process and filed an action with Ohios 10th District Court of Appeals when that failed. The appellate court found that the BWC had used the wrong type of test to determine whether the workers were employees, but allowed the bureau to issue a new order. The BWCs adjudicating committee heard the matter and found once again that the Ugicom workers were employees. The Supreme Court listed eight factors that can be used to determine whether a worker is an employee or an independent contractor in 1943 decision. It found some evidence that six of those factors support the BWCs determination that the installers were employees. Ugicoms regular business is to install underground cable, which is exactly the work that it hired the installers to do. Installers wore badges with the name of Ugicom and Time Warner, evidence that they were not independent of Ugicom. Ugicom did not allow installers to negotiate on price; the installers had to take whatever pay was authorized for specific jobs. The installers did not advertise their services to the community, evidence that they had an ongoing relationship with Ugicom. The independent-contractor agreements that the installers signed contained a clause that prohibited them from working for Ugicoms competitors. Minimal skill was required for the work. The installers job was basically to dig ditches to bury cable and to connect the cable to a box on the home. Justices Kennedy and OConnor wrote a dissenting opinion. They said Ugicom is largely a labor-management company that contracted with Time Warner to install underground cable lines. The some-evidence rule presents a playing field that is tilted toward the bureau, but the bureau must still supports its conclusions with relevant and probative evidence, the dissenters said. The majority here has not identified any evidence that supports its conclusion that Ugicom has the right to control the manner or means of the installers work. Topics Ohio Contractors South Dakota voters are set to vote again on whether they want recreational marijuana legalized for adults after the secretary of state on Wednesday validated the initiated measure for the November ballot. Secretary of State Steve Barnett announced that a random sample of petition signatures showed that South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws, the group campaigning to legalize pot, had easily collected enough valid signatures to surpass the roughly 17,000 needed to place the initiated measure on the November ballot. It will appear as Initiated Measure 27. The proposed law would allow people 21 years old and over to use and grow pot for personal use. It would place a 1 ounce (28 gram) limit on the amount that people could use or share. Marijuana legalization has spurred political fights among South Dakotas dominant Republican party in recent years and tested faith in a form of direct democracy _ the ballot measure. A citizen-proposed constitutional amendment to legalize cannabis passed by 54% in 2020, but Gov. Kristi Noem sponsored a lawsuit to challenge it and the state Supreme Court ruled last year that it violated the state Constitution. The secretary of states validation may be challenged within 30 days. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Cannabis South Dakota New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! The head of the Food and Drug Administration faced bipartisan fury from House lawmakers May 25 over months of delays investigating problems at the nations largest baby formula plant that prompted an ongoing shortage. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf laid out a series of setbacks in congressional testimony that slowed his agencys response, including a COVID-19 outbreak at the plant and a whistleblower complaint that didnt reach FDA leadership because it was apparently lost in the mail. Califf testified before a House subcommittee investigating the shortage, which has snowballed into a national political controversy and forced the U.S. military to begin airlifting supplies from Europe. The shortage largely stems from Abbotts Michigan plant, which the FDA shut down in February due to contamination issues. Under fire from Congress, parents and the media, Califf gave the first detailed account Wednesday of why his agency took months to inspect and shutter the plant despite learning of potential problems as early as September. The FDAs response was: Too slow and there were decisions that were suboptimal along the way, Califf told lawmakers. The FDA and President Joe Biden face mounting political pressure to explain why they didnt intervene sooner to head off the supply crisis. Why did it take an onslaught of national media attention for the Biden administration to act with a sense of urgency required to address an infant formula shortage? asked Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Virginia, the committees ranking Republican. Califf said the agency had been trying to monitor formula supplies since 2020 when COVID-related disruptions first emerged, but regulators have limited visibility into company supply chains. The House panel also heard from three formula manufacturers, including a top Abbott Nutrition executive who apologized to parents for the shortage. We let you down, said Abbott vice president Christopher Calamari. We are deeply sorry. Calamari repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether any employees were disciplined or fired over the problems at the plant, which included standing water, a leaky roof and damaged equipment. FDA staff began honing in on Abbotts plant last fall while tracking several bacterial infections in infants who had consumed formula from the facility. The four cases occurred between September and January, causing hospitalizations and two deaths. The FDA planned to begin inspecting the Sturgis, Michigan, plant on Dec. 30, according to Califfs testimony. But Abbott warned that about a dozen plant employees had tested positive for COVID-19 and requested a delay. As a result, the FDA didnt begin its inspection until Jan. 31. After detecting positive samples of a rare-but-dangerous bacteria in multiple parts of the plant, the FDA closed the facility and Abbott announced a massive recall of its formula on Feb. 17. We knew that ceasing plant operations would create supply problems but we had no choice given the insanitary conditions, said Califf, calling the problems shocking and unacceptable. Abbott and the FDA have reached an agreement to reopen the plant next week, under which the company must regularly undergo outside safety audits. Califf also struggled to explain delays in following up on a whistleblower complaint alleging numerous safety violations at Abbotts plant, including employees falsifying records and failing to test formula before shipment. Several FDA staffers reviewed the complaint in late October when it was sent to a regional FDA office, but an interview didnt take place until two months later, in part due to the whistleblowers scheduling conflicts. Senior FDA officials eventually received the complaint via email, but not until February due to an isolated failure in FDAs mailroom, likely due to COVID-19 staffing issues, according to the FDA testimony. A mailed copy addressed to then-acting commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock has still not been located. Political outrage over the shortage has landed squarely on the FDA and Califf, who was confirmed to the FDA role for a second time in February. The problems have escalated into a political firestorm for the White House, which has invoked the Defense Production Act and emergency import measures. The FDA contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Feb. 11. about a potential shortage, just days before Abbotts recall, according to FDAs timeline. Califf said the FDA requested new authorities, funding and staff to track supply chain data that could have helped get ahead of the problem, but noted Congress has not provided them. Several lawmakers raised longstanding concerns that the FDAs food program which oversees most U.S. foods except meat, poultry and eggs is underfunded and needs restructuring. The program has a convoluted leadership structure in which there is a director of FDAs Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition and a separate deputy commissioner for food policy and response. The deputy commissioner has more of a safety focus, but has no direct authority over food center staff nor field staff who inspect company plants. Both officials testified Wednesday, along with Califf. When Rep. Nanette Diaz-Barragan, D-Calif., asked who is in charge of food safety, Califf and food center director Susan Mayne gave extended answers, describing different roles and responsibilities. I dont think theres one person that is responsible, Diaz-Barragan responded. I just think it goes to show there needs to be restructuring and it needs to be more clear whos ultimately responsible. Later Wednesday afternoon, Abbotts Calamari told lawmakers his company plans to build extra capacity and redundancies into its supply chain to avoid future disruptions. He reiterated the companys point that the FDA has not drawn a direct link between the illnesses reported in infants and bacteria samples collected from its plant. After the company restarts production next month it will be able to produce more formula than before the recall, he noted. Were going to learn from this. Were going to get better as a result of this, Calamari said. Executives from Reckitt and Gerber also testified on their efforts to boost production. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! McDonalds Corp. investors voted in favor of a proposal calling for an independent civil-rights audit, going against the companys recommendation, according to preliminary vote totals viewed by Bloomberg. The fast-food chain joins the ranks of other large businesses facing a wave of shareholder scrutiny regarding their environmental, social and governance stances. The civil rights audit was the only shareholder proposal to gain the backing of a majority of votes cast at McDonalds annual meeting. Other votes that failed included a request for a report on lobbying activities and spending. The vote was a close one and one of several contentious issues on the ballot at the virtual stockholders meeting Thursday, with 52% of votes cast in favor of the proposal, 47% against and the remainder abstaining. McDonalds didnt allow media to listen to the meeting. While the vote is nonbinding, failing to follow through wouldnt look good, according to Nell Minow, who advises companies about corporate governance as vice chair at ValueEdge Advisors. Even before the vote, large shareholders including Norges Bank and the State Board of Administration of Florida voiced their support for an audit. The companys second-biggest shareholder, BlackRock Inc., voted against the proposal even though its undergoing its own racial-equity audit, according to people familiar with the matter. McDonalds Beats Back Challenge to Settlement With U.S. Labor Agency McDonalds declined to comment on the audit vote. Separately, McDonalds said activist investor Carl Icahn received only about 1% of shareholder votes in favor of his two director candidates, failing in his drive to advocate for animal rights through a proxy challenge. The shareholders voted to re-elect all 12 of McDonalds board members, the Chicago-based company said in a statement. Icahn had nominated two new directors as part of his campaign for pregnant pigs to be treated more humanely in McDonalds supply chain. Gathering Details The company likely will have to gather details and data from its franchised locations, along with customers and suppliers, to measure if and how their practices may be contributing to social and racial inequities. About 95% of the companys locations are franchised and employ their own staff, which means they make individual decisions on hiring and pay. McDonalds Chief Executive Officer Chris Kempczinski said during the meeting that the company had raised wages at its company-owned locations, but that didnt include those franchise stores. Last year, the average wage was increased to $13 an hour, but the company declined to give an updated figure for 2022. A group of Black franchisees has demanded that the company do more to aid current minority franchisees who are facing systemic barriers to their success. McDonalds meanwhile has been trying to increase diversity in its corporate leadership, and has vowed to shift more spending to minority-owned suppliers. Related: Copyright 2022 Bloomberg. About $33 million of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan recently signed into law by President Joe Biden will go toward cleaning up 277 of an estimated 15,000 abandoned oil and gas wells on federal land, the nations interior secretary said Wednesday. Millions of Americans live within one mile of an abandoned oil or gas well, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said, adding during a news conference that the wells pose a danger to people, particularly in communities of color and rural communities. With tens of thousands of known orphaned wells across the country there is a significant amount of work to be done, so the program will provide many jobs that pay well, Haaland said. There are an estimated 15,000 abandoned wells on federal land _ and states have indicated that they would need more than $8 billion to clean up 130,000 other orphaned wells, said Laura Daniel-Davis, principal deputy assistant secretary for land and minerals. Those figures could be low _ the Environmental Protection Agency has estimated the national total at 3.2 million. Daniel-Davis said money to help nail down state inventories is included in $1.1 billion announced in January as available to states under the infrastructure law. This is the first installment of $250 million provided through the infrastructure law for cleaning up orphaned wells and well sites on federal public lands, national parks, national wildlife refuges and national forests, Daniel-Davis said. The next will probably be announced during the fiscal year which starts Oct. 1, she said. Including wells on federal land, the bill will provide $4.7 billion to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells, said Mitch Landrieu, Bidens infrastructure coordinator. States are now finally counting them, he said. Wells covered by Wednesdays announcement are considered high-priority because pollution threatens human health and safety, the climate and wildlife. Several wells, particularly in Pennsylvania and Louisiana, are near disadvantaged groups, Daniel-Davis said. Some 163 wells are in Louisiana, in five wildlife refuges and the Jean Lafitte National Historic Park and Preserves Barataria unit. Sixty-eight are in the Darbonne National Wildlife Refuge and 59 in the Upper Ouachita National Wildlife Refuge. There are 24 each in Kentucky, in the Daniel Boone National Forest, and in Oklahoma, in the Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge. Another 20 are in Texas, 18 in the Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania and 14 in Bureau of Land Management lands in Utah. In addition, the government will inventory and assess wells in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah. Ten wells are in California, three in the Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio and one in the Gauley River National Recreation Area in West Virginia. Contractors will measure methane before and after cleanup, Haaland said. Louisiana has about 4,600 orphaned wells, defined in state law as those with owners that have either gone out of business or have ignored state clean-up orders, said Patrick Courreges, spokesman for the state Department of Natural Resources. He said environmentalists often count those which have been plugged for at least five years as abandoned. As of last fall, he said, there were 9,352 such wells, owned by 447 companies. Louisiana has been plugging 120 to 200 abandoned wells a year for the past five or six years, he said. It is our hope to at least double that with money from the infrastructure bill, said Courreges. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Louisiana Energy Oil Gas Texas Mutual Insurance Company is awarding $1.1 million in grants to 11 colleges across Texas to fund workplace safety courses for employers, workers and the general public. Texas Mutualthe states leading provider of workers compensation insurancebegan its commitment to supporting safety education at state colleges in 1999. Over a 23-year period, Texas Mutual has awarded $11 million in safety education grants, and more than 35,000 students have attended free or discounted safety training offered at various colleges. The grants support risk management programs at Amarillo College, Angelina College in Lufkin, College of the Mainland in Texas City, Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, El Paso Community College, Kilgore College, Lamar Institute of Technology in Beaumont, Lee College in Baytown, Midland College, Odessa College and Texarkana College. Our Texarkana College safety training program has been able to provide our students, staff, health care workers, schools and businesses valuable workplace safety education thanks to the support from TexasMutual, said Mendy Sharp, executive director of business development at Texarkana College. For six years, our courses have prepared the community with current and upcoming safety measures they can adopt and use for years to come. Courses at these safety institutes include driver safety, ergonomic safety and the latest OSHA standards. The colleges also provide courses tailored to the primary industries in their communities. Source: Texas Mutual Topics Texas Education Training Development Universities RTHK: Russia pounds Ukraine's Kharkiv Ukraine's second city Kharkiv on Friday reeled from a deadly onslaught of Russian shelling as Moscow pressed its offensive to capture key points in the eastern Donbas region with more bombing of residential areas. The pounding of Kharkiv, which according to local officials left at least nine people dead, raised fears that Russia had not lost interest in the city even after Ukraine took back control after fierce battles. Over three months after Russia launched its attack on Ukraine which has left thousands dead on both sides and displaced millions of Ukrainian civilians Moscow is focusing on the east of Ukraine after failing in its initial ambition to capture Kyiv. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated accusations that Moscow is carrying out a "genocide" in Donbas, saying its bombardment could leave the entire region "uninhabited". Oleg Sinegubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv which lies to the north of the Donbas region, said that nine civilians had been killed in the Russian shelling on Thursday. A five-month-old child and her father were among the dead, while her mother was gravely wounded, he said on social media channels. Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov said the northeastern city's metro, which resumed work this week after being used mainly as a shelter since the start of Russia's military offensive, would continue operating, but also offer a safe space for residents. (AFP) This story has been published on: 2022-05-27. To contact the author, please use the contact details within the article. China, Solomon Islands ready to forge "iron-clad" ties Xinhua) 11:42, May 27, 2022 Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare (R) meets with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Honiara, Solomon Islands, May 26, 2022. (Xinhua) HONIARA, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare and visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday expressed willingness to forge "iron-clad" ties and deepen cooperation between the two countries. Sogavare said China has become the biggest cooperative partner of the Solomon Islands on basic infrastructure and a reliable development partner, expressing thanks to China for providing anti-pandemic supplies, repid-test equipment and sending medical teams to his country. He also appreciated the Chinese side for sending policing supplies and police advisers to help maintain social order of the Solomon Islands after the riot in Honiara. The Solomon Islands and China have conducted cooperation on the basis of equal treatment and mutual respect, and the connection in various fields has become increasingly close, bringing tangible benefits to the Solomon Islands people, the prime minister noted. For his part, Wang said the Chinese side appreciates the Solomon Islands' firm determination of safeguarding national interests, strong desire of developing China-Solomon Islands friendly cooperation and adhering to the one-China policy. China also staunchly backs the Solomon Islands' efforts to safeguard natioanl sovereignty independence, protect natioanl unity and solidarity, and speed up the realization of natioanl prosperity on a path chosen by the country. Wang said it's not long since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries but the development of bilateral ties has been sound, steady and fast. China and the Solomon Islands have become good friends of mutual trust and good partners of mutual support, with political trust between the two countries further deepening and pragmatic cooperation widening, he noted. It is proven that the political decision of the Solomon Islands to establish diplomatic relations with China is in line with the development and progress of the times as well as the fundamental and long-term interests of the people of the Solomon Islands, Wang said. China is ready to work with the Solomon Islands to forge "iron-clad" ties, and deepen cooperation between the two sides so as to benefit the two peoples, Wang said. The emerging economies are rising en masse, and peace and development are still the irreversible trend of the times despite the unilateral bullying, Wang noted. China is ready to enhance coordination and cooperation with the Solomon Islands in multilateral organizations such as the United Nations to accelerate the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, cope with climate change, and jointly safeguard the rightful interests of medium and small countries. Sogavare also said the Solomon Islands is willing to strengthen communication and coordination with China on international issues. Wang is visiting the Solomon Islands as part of his tour to the South Pacific island nations, which will also take him to Kiribati, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, as well as Timor-Leste. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) A man gets a haircut on the street, amid the ongoing Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai, May 26. EPA-Yonhap On a balmy Sunday night, residents of an upscale Shanghai compound took to the streets to decry lockdown restrictions imposed by their community. By the following morning, they were free to leave. The triumphant story quickly spread on chat groups across the city this week, sparking one question in the minds of those who remained under lockdown: Shouldn't we do the same? By the end of the week, other groups of residents had confronted management in their complexes, and some had won at least a partial release. While it's unclear how widespread they are, the incidents reflect the frustration that has built up after more than seven weeks of lockdown, even as the number of new daily cases has fallen to a few hundred in a city of 25 million people. They also are a reminder of the power of China's neighborhood committees that the ruling Communist Party relies on to spread propaganda messages, enforce its decisions and even settle personal disputes. Such committees and the residential committees under them have become the target of complaints, especially after some in Shanghai and other cities refused to allow residents out even after official restrictions were relaxed. A woman with a two-three hour pass from her residential compound walks along a street during a Covid-19 coronavirus lockdown in the Jing'an district of Shanghai, May 27. AFP-Yonhap More than 21 million people in Shanghai are now in ''precaution zones,'' the least restrictive category. In theory, they are free to go out. In practice, the decision is up to their residential committees, resulting in a kaleidoscope of arbitrary rules. Some are allowed out, but only for a few hours with a specially issued pass for one day or certain days of the week. Some places permit only one person per household to leave. Others forbid people to leave at all. ''We have already been given at least three different dates when we are going to reopen, and none of them were real,'' said Weronika Truszczynska, a graduate student from Poland who posted vlogs about her experience. ''The residential committee told us you can wait a week, we are going to reopen probably on June 1st,'' she said. ''No one believed it.'' Two days after the Sunday night breakout at the upscale Huixianju compound, more than a dozen residents of Truszczynska's complex confronted their managers on a rainy Tuesday. The residents, who were mostly Chinese, demanded to be allowed to leave without time limits or restrictions on how many per household. After the demands were not met, some returned to protest a second day. This time, four police officers stood watch. Men exercise at a closed residential area during lockdown in Shanghai, May 27. Reuters-Yonhap New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! The North Carolina Department of Transportation has armed itself with an advanced flood-warning system designed to help pass the word to motorists on any flood risks to roads, bridges and culverts. A news release from the department says the system will rely on a network of 400 river and stream gauges. Information will be passed on to department maintenance staff responding to flooded roads and washed-out culverts. It will also benefit local emergency management officials and the public accessing the departments DriveNC.gov website for timely weather-related closures. The last major storm to impact the states roads was Hurricane Florence in 2018. After that, the legislature gave the department a $2 million grant to develop sophisticated software and install more flood gauges. The system mostly taps into existing gauges operated by other agencies, and it includes an interactive online dashboard and flood mapping based on three-dimensional ground surveys. One part of the new system covers almost 3,000 miles of state-maintained roads, mostly east of Interstate 95. The system also will allow the department to monitor flood conditions for some 15,000 bridges and culverts statewide. The departments hydraulics unit has been refining the system and training staff during the past year. Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Topics Flood New Markets North Carolina New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed property insurance and condominium maintenance reform legislation into law Thursday, putting an exclamation point on a whirlwind of lawmaking that began just a week ago when the bills were drafted and filed. This package represents the most significant reforms to Floridas homeowners insurance market in a generation, DeSantis said in a statement. These bills will help stabilize a problematic market, help Floridians harden their homes through the My Safe Florida Home Program, and pave the way for more choices for homeowners. The two-bill package took effect immediately. Among other major reforms, Senate Bill 2D aims to put an end to the practice of contractors offering free roofs by barring attorney fees for those who are assigned benefits. Another law, Senate Bill 4D, modifies state building code that often required whole-roof replacement if just a quarter of the roof surface is damaged. While the Legislature was debating the measures in special session this week, though, some roof contractors saw the writing on the wall and stepped up solicitation of homeowners, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said. My office has received recent reports that unscrupulous contractors are trying to get out in front of the recent legislative changes made during special session by ramping up their solicitation schemes and sending out flyers to Florida residents, Patronis said in a statement Thursday evening. Im urging all Floridians to beware of fly-by-night roofers and contractors looking to take advantage of consumers. Patronis praised the legislation and the governors quick signing of it. Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier, whose office came under fire during the three-day legislative session, also smiled on the changes that will require more oversight and reporting from his understaffed department. This legislation strengthens protections for Florida insurance consumers, provides greater tools to hold insurance companies accountable, and promotes the long-term stability of our market, Altmaier said. Some insurance industry groups had concerns about the efficacy of a new, lower-level reinsurance program authorized by the bill, and about a prohibition on insurers refusing to write homes with roofs that 15 years old or less. But most agreed the legislation is a significant step toward reducing roof claims and litigation costs. This is a great bipartisan achievement for Florida consumers, said Michael Carlson, head of the Personal Insurance Federation of Florida. Several Democrats in the House and Senate charged that the bills help rescue insurance companies but dont do enough to reduce premiums for homeowners. Legislative leaders agreed that most policyholders wont see much effect for another 18 months. The reinsurance plan, known as the RAP fund would require participating insurers to provide rate reductions by the end of June. Those could amount to 3% to 4% for insureds, according to John Rollins, an actuary and former CFO for Olympus Insurance Co. The State Board of Administration, which oversees the RAP program and the cat fund, posted information about the plan on its website. The condo reform legislation was folded into SB 4D. It, too, takes effect immediately and requires inspections for high-rise condominiums, everywhere in the state, 30 years after construction. For condos closer to the coast, inspections would be done more frequently. Condo associations also would no longer be able to postpone needed repairs. The measure was adopted 11 months after the collapse of the Champlain Towers South condo building near Miami Beach, which killed 98 people. The governor called the special session after lawmakers in March did not adopt significant reform measures. The bills were crafted by the governors office, Sen. Jim Boyd, Rep. Jay Trumbull and others and, some legislators said, ended up with stronger anti-assignment of benefits and litigation-limiting provisions than did bills that were discussed during the regular session. Topics Florida Condominium New You can now listen to Insurance Journal articles! Two more property insurers, including two of Floridas larger carriers, did not wait around to see what help the just-concluded special session of the Legislature may provide, and have stopped new business in the state. Peoples Trust, once listed as the ninth-largest property-casualty carrier in the state and whose chief operating officer is former Florida Insurance Commissioner Tom Gallagher, on May 19 made a filing with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. It said the company would suspend writing new homeowner and dwelling-fire policies that day. Southern Fidelity Insurance Co., headquartered in Tallahassee, told agents Thursday that it had suspended new and renewal business for all lines until it can complete its reinsurance coverage for the 2022 hurricane season. Existing quotes cannot be bound, the memo said. We deeply apologize to our agency partners for the impact this will take on your business and appreciate your commitment to us, reads the Southern Fidelity announcement. The company also writes in South Carolina, Louisiana and Mississippi. Company offices will be closed starting today, Friday, at 2 p.m., the company said. The Peoples Trust filings, which were quickly approved by OIR, tweak wording in the companys manuals for homeowners multi-peril and for dwelling fire coverage. Ineligible risks now include new business located in all Florida counties. The companies did not indicate how long the suspensions would be in effect. Peoples Trust did not fully explain the reason for the suspensions, but Gallagher provided a brief statement Friday morning: We have completed our reinsurance purchase and are working on our new rate filing to account for additional reinsurance costs so that we can open up to new business, he said. We are currently renewing business that meets our underwriting criteria. We will be applying for the newly legislated roof deductible to be placed on our policies as soon as its approved. Its likely the carriers will be able to tap into a special reinsurance program established this week by the Florida Legislature at its special insurance session, but its unclear if the program will provide enough savings to help Southern Fidelity secure other layers of reinsurance. The filings did not indicate how many Peoples Trust policies will be affected. Peoples Trust does not report the quarterly information to OIR. Southern Fidelity does, and reported 98,641 policies in force at the end of 2021, and $184 million in total premium written. Southern Fidelity was provided significant financial support in late 2020 when Hudson Structured Capital Management took a majority ownership stake. The carriers are now the seventh and eighth insurers to announce they have stopped writing in Floridas distressed market in the last seven months. Others include United P&C Insurance, Avatar Insurance (now insolvent), Florida Farm Bureau and TypTap. Progressive Insurance also said late last year it will not renew homes with roofs over 16 years of age. Other carriers have made similar filings. The suspension comes as a surprise to some, not to others in the Florida insurance market. Some have warned that more carriers will soon become insolvent, despite the action from lawmakers at the special session this week. Gallagher said the new laws should help but more work remains to be done. The special legislative session was very helpful to both insureds and carriers. As was stated in both the house and senate, Florida accounts for 79% of the nations homeowners insurance lawsuits over claims filed while making up only 8% of the nations homeowners insurance claims, so we look forward to the Legislature taking additional measures to finish addressing this Florida-specific problem of frivolous lawsuits, he said in an email. Peoples Trust has a business model that was seen by many as innovative when it was unveiled about five years ago. The company was one of the first to require the use of its own contracting companies to make repairs after claims were filed, and the insurer had prevailed in several court decisions in the last two years that upheld the requirement. Some policyholders and their attorneys have complained that the restoration companies did not complete jobs or provided poor-quality work. Topics Florida The Superior Court of Lewis County upheld Washington Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidlers fine and cease-and-desist order against Armed Citizens Legal Defense Network Inc. for illegally acting as an insurer in Washington. In March 2020, Kreidler ordered Armed Citizens to stop acting as an insurer. Armed Citizens sells memberships that include self-defense insurance to cover bail and legal costs incurred in conjunction with using force against another person. In May 2020, Kreidler fined Armed Citizens $200,000 for violations. Armed Citizens appealed both actions and an administrative law judge upheld Kreidlers actions, but amended the fine to $50,000 and ordered Armed Citizens to pay it by Dec. 7, 2020. Armed Citizens has until June 24 to file a notice of appeal. From 2008 to 2019, 25 members nationwide filed claims. Of the 25 claims, two occurred in Washington; Armed Citizens paid $2,000 in one claim and denied the other one, according to the commissioners office. Kreidler has taken similar enforcement action against four other organizations that sell or underwrite self-defense insurance and fined them $302,000. Armed Citizens and other similar organizations can legally sell insurance in Washington by applying for admission as an insurer and complying with the laws and rules that apply to insurers and insurance producers. Related: Topics Washington News Global market trend 2024-2028 Shanghai port container throughput recovery has a positive impact on the nvocc market by Newsintegra927 Factors affecting freight forwarder nvocc Freight transportation In international freight transport, one of the most concerning issues is the price of freight transport. The cost is directly related to the cost of transportation. Because many exporters do not understand the price of transportation very much, and often have a lot of extra spending, then today to understand the factors of the price of international freight transportation? Do You Need Freight Forwarders? DDP for World is a full-service and shipping forwarder dedicated to assisting our clients in focusing and growing their businesses. Send an Email to info@ddpforworld.com and get the latest freight price. Ministry of Transport: the daily container throughput of Shanghai port recovered to the normal level of 95.3% Beijing, May 26 (Yan Bing wang Zihan) On May 26, the Ministry of Transport held a press conference, the Ministry of Transport services department, Deputy director Li Huaqiang introduced the current logistics in China. The daily container throughput of Shanghai port recovered to the normal level of 95.3%. In the past week, the average daily cargo throughput of Pudong Airport has recovered to about 80% of pre-epidemic levels during peak hours. Baiyun Airport has basically returned to normal levels. Li Huaqiang said that at present, the overall achieved "dynamic problem clearance, smooth traffic network, better operation indicators, hub gradually reach production" stage results. Specifically reflected in: The problem of excessive control is dynamically cleared. The requirements for vehicle traffic, such as no persuasion for inspection, no waiting for testing, no re-testing of nucleic acids, and no additional policies, have been generally implemented. The country's transportation network is generally smooth. Since May 4, the temporary closure of expressway toll stations and service areas across the country has been dynamically cleared. Since May 10, the number of villages where supplies were blocked due to epidemic prevention and control has been dynamically eliminated. Major operating indicators remained stable and improved. Compared with April 18, truck traffic on May 24 increased by about 10.9%; Railway and road freight volumes increased by 9.2% and 12.6% respectively, both recovering to about 90% of normal levels. In the past week, the average daily business volume of national postal express services has basically recovered to the level of the same period last year. Key hubs have gradually resumed work and production. The daily container throughput of Shanghai port recovered to the normal level of 95.3%. In the past week, the average daily cargo throughput of Pudong Airport has recovered to about 80% of pre-epidemic levels during peak hours. Baiyun Airport has basically returned to normal levels. The transportation prices are different for different nvocc In the general international trade process, the price of transport according to different modes of transport, price is also different. International freight rates are divided into sea freight, air freight and rail freight. The specific nvocc freight rate can also be subdivided. For example, rail freight can be divided into passenger freight and freight. Shipping rates are also divided into tramp rates and liner rates. Tramp rates are also affected by market supply and demand relations at that time, while liner transport costs are relatively fixed. Airfreight can be divided into general goods, designated goods and special goods, and the specific transportation price is also determined according to the weight of transportation, at the same time, even if the volume is small, the weight is also counted by weight, but if the opposite is large, small weight, also according to the specific volume to calculate. The choice of international logistics, the quality of logistics will affect the seller's store score, but also affect customer satisfaction rate. Factors affecting the shipping price of nvocc In the process of international transportation, there are many factors affecting the price of transportation, in addition to some fuel and labor costs, there are many important factors. For example, the nature of the nvocc, its own value and packaging form, as well as stowage factor and transporter's requirements for transportation, etc. There will be some fixed costs during the use of the ship, such as the ship's maintenance insurance and fuel consumption. There is also the change of supply and demand in the nvocc market. In the transport off-season, transport prices are relatively low, in the transport of the peak season, transport prices will be relatively high. Logistics advantages of the nvocc in the destination country and region In Eastern Europe, DHL has advantages in Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Hungary and other places while EMS has advantages in Greece, Russia, Turkey and other places. Western Europe, Northern Europe, southern Europe can use DHL international express, TNT international express, these two kinds of customs clearance capacity. TNT has a clear advantage in the Netherlands and Belgium. For Canada, the United States and other American countries, FedEx, UPS and DHL are all suitable for their strong customs clearance capacity and fast time. Applicable to Asia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries DHL, FedEx. DHL and FedEx are time-saving, but THE price of DHL is higher. Indonesia also suggests USING DHL because it has a stronger customs clearance capacity. In Oceania, DHL and UPS aging fast, with high prices; TNT and FedEx have lower prices but relatively few outlets. Particular attention should be paid to the "Made in China" label on the packaging of Australian products. Middle East express ARAMEX, EMS for Middle East region. Commercial express in Africa is very expensive. In remote areas, IT is suggested to send EMS international express. EMS countries have the strongest customs clearance capacity. The air express nvocc can reach many countries and regions that commercial express and postal express cannot reach, so the wide range of nvocc transportation is its advantage. Contact a professional freight forwarder- D DPFORWORLD-Professional freight forwarder in China Freight forwarders with large volumes of business can get large international express at lower discounts; And personal orders directly official, the price will certainly be more expensive. Secondly, the freight forwarders are skilled in business and are very familiar with the channels and market conditions of major international express companies. Know what to send, what to send and how to send. Directly report demand, for you to match the most cost-effective logistics, save worry and money. Do You Need Freight Forwarders ? DDP for World is a full-service and shipping forwarder dedicated to assisting our clients in focusing and growing their businesses. We do DDP shipping since 2015 by handling home decor, Pet products, battery, power banks, DG cargo, general cargo and Amazon FBA forwarding service. We make your shipping easier and faster by Sea, Air, Express, Truck or Railway. If you have any questions or needs about freight forwarder, please feel free to contact us, we will serve you wholeheartedly. Email: info@ddpforworld.com Inquery us Opinion Policies 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. Feedback policy If you have a grievance concerning the content or argument of the Editorial Board, please contact either Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or the Editorial Board as a whole (editorialboard@iowastatedaily.com). Those wanting to respond to editorials can also submit a letter to the editor through the Iowa State Daily website or by emailing the letter to Opinion Editor Peyton Hamel (peyton.hamel@iowastatedaily.com) or Editor-in-Chief Sage Smith (sage.smith@iowastatedaily.com). Column Policy 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 Illauncreeveen, County Cork It is instructive to read back on old accounts of Ireland from the 19th century. The language is often flowery, the tributes glowing and the ostentatious ideals sobering. One such missive, from the pen of English writer Samuel Smiles concerned the attractions of Glengarriff, County Cork. The view is one of surpassing grandeur, the very perfection of scenery, combining with the softest landscape the wildest and most romantic features of mountain and lake with woods in the foreground, he wrote. Many thousands came to see Glengarriff for themselves as the railway network expanded. On the Iveragh Peninsula, Parknasilla was to prove very popular with the growing tourist industry. Newspaper adverts offered trips from Cork to Glengarriff for 27 shillings including first-class rail [to Bantry], board, coach and accommodation at the world-famous Eccles Hotel'. Glengarriff itself had expanded by the ever-increasing trips by British Navy boats to the village to obtain supplies for its presence further out the peninsula at Castletownbere. The harbour offered benign shelter for ships to anchor and local produce or supplies from Cork City with which to stock up. Or in the words of Samuel Smiles: Right before it lies the beautiful Glengarriff Bay. Its shores are varied by numerous creeks, each rock and jutting headland reflected in the still waters, and in front a noble background of mountains stretches away in find depths of shade and sunshine, and wild confusion but with the happiest variety of form and outline. Smiles of course was effusive with good reason and 150 years after he recorded this opinion the harbour still harks to its halcyon days. In among his jutting headlands are around 20 small islands. Brandy Island appeared here recently as a possible smuggling location in the 19th century. The small island of Illauncreeveen is in a strategically important location at the mouth of the harbour just near Gun Point and lying less than 100m from the shore. The four-acre island, like most of the other islands in the bay, is wooded, though less so than the others. In the 19th century, the British Navy used the island as a semaphore base. The flag signalling system is still used by navies in emergency situations. When the ships came up the bay, when they were calibrating the guns, they had men on the island sending signals to the ships where to go in the bay, said a local historian. In among the trees are the ruins of an old shack, barely habitable today, though it looks like someone might have once lived in it. And it is of a vintage that suggests a link to the construction of the other structure on the island. This is a 1.8m obelisk constructed by the British as part of a navigational aid for shipping. Also erected were a 2.4m high white cairn on the mainland east of Illauncreeveen; and an iron perch, surmounted with a spherical iron cage on the Yellow Rocks; and another at Carrigskye rock. The beacons and perches were complemented by a 2.7m white post with triangular top situated on the hill at Derrycreigh, to the east of the harbour. Over the years the island was a natural magnet for swimmers with one Glengarriff local fondly recalling his memories: We used to go out as kids from the Blue Pool and on low tide you could dive and pick scallops out of it at the sandy bottom. A beautiful spot. Some islands capture the imagination of the public. An Fear Marbh, Inishtooskert, is one of the Blasket Islands which continually draws photographers to interpret its plentiful photographic qualities. So too, Illauncreeveen, which has attracted several photographers to capture its alluring shores. Even its rocks are colourful with geological surveys identifying slate of purple, green and greenish grey. In Irish, it is Oilean Craoibhin, which refers to island of the twigs or shrubs. There is a possible interpretation however of sods built around a creel which in turn suggests the island may have been used by fishermen to store equipment. How to get there: harbourqueenferry.com getmyboat.ie/trips/WYWnZZad Photography: flickr.com/photos/64356739@N06 richardcreagh.com petercox.ie A protest is to be held outside Downing Street on Friday amid growing anger over revelations in the partygate report over the way cleaners and security staff were treated. Sue Gray said in her report that she learned of multiple examples of unacceptable treatment of security and cleaning staff during her investigation. She wrote: I found that some staff had witnessed or been subjected to behaviours at work which they had felt concerned about but at times felt unable to raise properly. I was made aware of multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff. This was unacceptable. While government officials and staff were eating pizza, drinking Prosecco and making a mess, an army of invisible workers had no choice but to risk their lives and clean! We call on all low paid and precarious workers to TELL THE Government to clean up their own mess! pic.twitter.com/mu0spcoeDU United Voices of the World the union (@UVWunion) May 26, 2022 Staff members drank excessively at the Downing Street Christmas party on December 18 2020, and a cleaner found red wine was spilled on one wall the next morning, the report said. United Voices of the World (UVW), a union which represents cleaners and security guards in government buildings, has called the protest outside Downing Street. The union said it was protesting against the culture of disrespect towards low-paid workers, such as cleaners and security guards, in government buildings and offices across London. Petros Elia, UVW general secretary, said: Were not in the least bit surprised by the revelations in the Sue Gray report. We have thousands of members who work as cleaners and security guards and these workers face disrespect and discrimination on a daily basis in offices and government buildings across London, not just in Downing Street. It is outrageous to have rowdy and illegal parties during the pandemic but to then expect cleaners to mop up after you and to pay them, as well as porters and security guards, poverty wages and deny them full sick pay is abhorrent. Most of the cleaners and security guards out there are ethnic minority workers, Black, brown and migrant people, who are disproportionately impacted by poor working conditions and racialised inequalities. We represent cleaners at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) who had to walk off the job during the pandemic because they were not given adequate PPE and were denied full sick pay, which they eventually won for Covid-19 absences. One of our members who worked as a cleaner at the MoJ tragically died an untimely and avoidable death. Thats how far the levels of disrespect and mistreatment went and goes towards low paid workers. A leading official of the cleaning industry is calling for a meeting with the Cabinet Secretary over the way cleaning staff were treated at 10 Downing Street. Jim Melvin, chairman of the British Cleaning Council, said he was appalled and upset at revelations in Sue Grays partygate report. Mr Melvin has written to Cabinet Secretary Simon Case, saying: At a time when many cleaning and hygiene operational staff, arguably as frontline workers, were putting themselves directly at risk to maintain high standards of hygiene and ensure that key workers and the public were kept as safe as possible during the pandemic, it is absolutely appalling and upsetting to hear that they were being treated with such contempt by people who may sit within Government or the Civil Service and who frankly should know better. The BCC is appalled and upset to hear that Sue Grays report into parties at Number Ten revealed multiple examples of a lack of respect and poor treatment of security and cleaning staff.https://t.co/t8BVu9rj6r The British Cleaning Council (@BritishCleaning) May 26, 2022 It is our position that cleaning and hygiene operatives are hardworking, professional and deserve to be respected in their vital work, just like anyone one else and certainly how the people concerned would expect to be treated. For further clarification and information, in some parts of the cleaning industry, the demand for increased standards of hygiene during the pandemic has combined with severe staff shortages to drive many colleagues close to breaking point. What cleaning staff need is support and recognition from the Government and Civil Service, not to be treated with any level of disrespect. Burma Arakan Army Clashes Heavily with Myanmar Junta Troops An Arakan Army fighter in Paletwa Township, Chin State. / The Irrawaddy Fighting broke out between Myanmars junta and the Arakan Army (AA) in Paletwa Township, Chin State, on Thursday. The two sides clashed at the foot of Mt Suu Poke in northwest Paletwa with Light Infantry Battalion 289 providing artillery support, according to residents. There is a junta outpost and AA troops are nearby. Troops from Battalion 289 went to the outpost as reinforcements and were intercepted by the AA, a resident told The Irrawaddy. School enrollment began on Thursday but had to be suspended due to continuous artillery fire, witnesses said. The AA is based in Rakhine State but is also active in Paletwa, which borders Rakhine. Paletwa saw two years of intense fighting before a ceasefire was agreed ahead of the November 2020 general election. Paletwa relies on neighbouring Kyauktaw Township in Rakhine State for supplies of food and other goods. In response to growing military tensions, the regime prohibited water supplies to Paletwa from Kyauktaw in early May. Neither side was available for comment. Tensions have been running high for months and junta troops and the AA also clashed for nearly 20 minutes near the village of Than Htaung in Paletwa on May 15. In early May, AA chief Major General Tun Myat Naing warned the regimes western commander, who oversees Rakhine State. Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun then told a press conference that the regime was losing patience with the AAs provocative and hostile remarks and that the Rakhine people would suffer if fresh fighting broke out. The two sides observed an unofficial ceasefire after November 2020 following two years of intense fighting since late 2018. More than 200,000 people were displaced by the fighting and some 60,000 remain in displacement camps after many returned to their homes since the 2020 ceasefire. Burma Myanmar Junta Detains Petrol Tycoon With Corruption Charge A YP filling station. Myanmars military regime has detained another leading business owner on Thursday as U Zin Min Aung, the major shareholder in the chain of Yangon Petrol (YP) filling stations, becomes the third tycoon to be charged by the regime since February. The regimes Anti-Corruption Commission announced on Thursday that it has opened a case against him under the Anti-Corruption Law. The commission also filed corruption charges against ousted Yangon Region National League for Democracy (NLD) figures, including energy minister U Han Tun, mayor U Maung Maung Soe, vice-mayor U Soe Lwin, Yangon City Development Committee secretary Daw Hlaing Maw Oo and joint secretary U Than, accusing them of involvement in U Zin Min Aungs case. The YP chain was established in 2019 as part of then Yangon Region chief minister U Phyo Min Theins plan to bring down fuel prices. It was reported that YP Co. bought state-owned land from the regional government at 2,000 kyats per square foot, far below the market rate. In return, YP filling stations were expected to sell at lower prices and its petrol prices were reportedly around 50 to 60 kyats per liter less than other filling stations. A petrol industry source in Yangon told The Irrawaddy that U Zin Min Aungs arrest is connected with YPs acquisition of land. There was a lot of controversy and opposition to YPs acquisition of land. The arrest of U Zin Min Aung has raised the eyebrows of other directors, said the source. The majority of YPs directors are also on the board of PT Power Co., a leading operator of Myanmars petrol stations in the country. In April the regime detained Eden Group of Companies chairman, U Chit Khine, and his son U Win Min Khine and charged them with bribery. The regime also detained and charged one of Myanmars most notorious cronies, Zaykabar Co. chairman U Khin Shwe and his son U Zay Thiha. U Khin Shwes daughter is married to the son of former general and parliament speaker Thura U Shwe Mann, now the chairman of the Union Betterment Party. U Khin Shwe represented the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party in the Upper House between 2011 and 2016. The regime has also reportedly asked military-linked crony U Teza, the chairman of Htoo Group of Companies, and Cooperatives Bank owner U Khin Maung Aye, both of whom have been living abroad, to return to Myanmar. Another of the countrys top cronies, Ayeyarwady Bank owner U Zaw Zaw, was also briefly detained after last years coup. Burma Myanmar Junta Intensifies Arson Attacks in Resistance Strongholds A village in Myaung Township in Sagaing Region after a regime attack on May 22. / Myaung PDF Myanmars junta has intensified its attacks in the resistance strongholds of Sagaing and Magwe regions by razing around 100 villages this month. The Irrawaddy estimates that more than 7,000 houses in 97 villages were burned down in the two regions so far this month. Tens of thousands of residents have been displaced. Ye-U, Khin-U, Myaung, Yinmabin, Salingyi, Mingin, Kani, Taze, Shwebo, Wetlet, Kale and Tabayin townships in Sagaing Region have been raided by junta troops and more than 6,000 houses were burned down. During raids in Magwe Region this month, over 1,300 houses from 28 villages were burned down. Myaing Township in Magwe Region has about 10,000 civilians sheltering in seven camps. About 10,000 civilians from Yesagyo Township in Magwe have been displaced and at least 63 killed during junta raids in May. Ko Zay, head of the Salingyi Special Taskforce, told The Irrawaddy that the regime wants to break up civilian administrative networks while the junta cannot extend control beyond a few cities. He said: They well know Magwe and Sagaing are under the command of the National Union Government. They are resistance strongholds. That is why regime troops target them. Peoples defence forces from Sagaing and Magwe regions lack the military experience and support networks of the ethnic armed forces, he said. By torching civilian houses, they try to stop public donations to resistance forces and the resistance groups weaken each day, Yay Lae Kyaun PDF said in a statement. A War Tan villager in Salingyi Township said: Soldiers made us homeless and hungry and it is impossible to support the revolution. But they can only destroy our houses: they cant destroy our revolutionary spirit. Currently, thousands of civilians are staying with relatives, at monasteries and in forests under tarpaulin shelters. Tabayin refugee relief network said the junta attacks make the delivery of aid to civilians extremely challenging. Myaing NGOs are asking for food, other humanitarian assistance and help to rehabilitate civilians. We do not dare return to our village and if we did there is nothing there, said a Lat Yet Ma villager in Myaung. Two-thirds of the village was burned down on May 14. Burma Myanmar Junta Jails Man for 10 Years for Alleged Ties to Peoples Defense Force Thandwe Township signboard A junta court in Rakhine States Thandwe has sentenced a man to 10 years in prison with labor over his alleged ties to the Peoples Defense Force (PDF), which Myanmars military regime has branded as a terrorist group. Ko Tin Tun Naing, 26, from Thalu Kyun Village was detained by junta soldiers while traveling to Gwa Township on Jan. 29. He was later charged under Section 49 (a) of the Counter-Terrorism Law. A family member said: They said they found Ko Tin Tun Naings messages to the PDF on [Facebook] Messenger in his phone. He was unfairly jailed. On May 20, two Thandwe men were given three years in prison with labor for their alleged ties to the PDF. Since February, the regime has jailed five residents including a high school teacher and a famous Rakhine writer for allegedly financing PDFs. Young author Ko Min Di Par from Pan Maw Village in Mrauk-U Township was arrested in October last year on suspicion of financing PDFs and charged under Myanmars Counter-Terrorism Law. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison with labor in February. Three women aged 28, 35 and 40 from Thandwe were given 10 years on March 31 for donating cash to PDF groups. The regime has detained and charged 12 residents from Thandwe, Taungup, Mrauk-U and Gwa townships under the Counter-Terrorism Law on suspicion of having ties to the PDFs. In August last year, coup leader Min Aung Hlaing signed an amendment to the Counterterrorism Law introducing harsher penalties for supporting anti-regime activities. Under the amendment, the jail term is increased from three to seven years for acts of exhortation, persuasion, propaganda and recruitment of any person to participate in any terrorist group or activities of terrorism. Burma Ousted NLD Regional Chief Minister Given New Jail Term by Myanmar Regime Ousted Magwe Region Chief Minister Dr. Aung Moe Nyo. / The Irrawaddy Ousted Magwe Region Chief Minister Dr. Aung Moe Nyo was sentenced to a new jail term of three years by a junta court on Wednesday, taking his total prison sentence to 24 years. Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, who was Magwes Chief Minister under the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government, was convicted on Wednesday of violating COVID-19 regulations under the Natural Disaster Management Law, for a trip he made to Magwes Pwintbyu Township during the coronavirus outbreak. He was given the maximum penalty under the law. He had expected this. He said [the regime] will do as they please, said Dr. Aung Moe Nyos lawyer. The ousted Chief Minister was sentenced at a special court in Magwe Prison, where he has been detained since last years coup. He faces nine charges in total. In June last year, Dr. Aung Moe Nyo was sentenced to two years in prison with labor after being convicted of incitement. He had shared a video on social media in which he stated his opposition to the militarys coup and his support of the Civil Disobedience Movement, as well as supporting a statement issued by the NLDs central executive committee that condemned the coup. He was also given 18 years for three corruption charges and a one year sentence for violating electoral laws in the 2020 general election. His lawyer said that Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, who is also a medical doctor, is in good health. Prior to becoming Magwes Chief Minister in 2016, Dr. Aung Moe Nyo served as the No.3 general secretary in the NLD and won parliamentary seats in the 1990, 2015 and 2020 general elections, as well as in the 2012 by-elections. Burma Senior US Senator Questions White House Support for Myanmar Resistance Senator Mitch McConnell speaks to reporters after a closed-door meeting with Senate Republicans in Washington DC on May 24, 2022. / AFP US Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell has questioned whether President Bidens administration is willing to help Myanmar, saying the USs role supporting the countrys struggle for democracy was at a serious crossroads. The senator, who has worked across the aisle to encourage previous administrations to do more to stand with the dissidents and democrats of Myanmar, addressed senior officials from the Biden administration during Wednesdays briefing to members of the US Senate. Senators McConnells intervention comes at a time when the Senate is carrying out a process directed by McConnells bipartisan amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 to support Myanmars democracy movement. It includes provisions such as legitimizing Myanmars parallel National Unity Government (NUG), which was formed by lawmakers from the National League for Democracy (NLD) and its ethnic allies after the NLD government was ousted in a coup last year. The amendment was passed by the Senate in December last year, but still requires White House officials to brief senators on the USs policy towards Myanmar since the coup. Senator McConnell told the Senate: My friends (in Myanmar) are enduring a 16th month under the rule of yet another brutal military junta. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives. The Senator was referring to the regimes post-coup atrocities against its own people, the majority of whom have rejected junta rule. But Burmas [Myanmar] struggle for democracy and our role in support is at a serious crossroads. And today, our colleagues expect to hear from the administrations representatives what more it is prepared to do to help the people of Burma, he added. Days before the briefing, Senator McConnell met with the NUGs foreign minister Daw Zin Mar Aung. She requested the US to bolster the legitimacy of the NUG, sanction the regimes support system and give direct assistance to the people of Myanmar. Im hopeful the representatives here today are prepared to discuss how the Biden administration is prioritizing these objectives, and its strategy to achieve each of them, said Senator McConnell. During the briefing on Wednesday, the Senator asked the US government what steps the administration was prepared to take to engage, support, and formally recognize the NUG and its National Unity Consultative Council, a body formed to bring together forces opposed to the regime, and the NUGs armed wing, the Peoples Defense Forces. He said also that the US needs to ramp up pressure on the military regime because Myanmar dissidents were asking what additional steps the administration will take to target the juntas foreign enablers and corporate affiliates, including the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise. The junta-controlled enterprise runs the countrys oil and gas sector. Lastly, the senator urged the US to find a more effective way of partnering with Myanmars neighbors India and Thailand to deliver direct aid assistance to the people of Myanmar, as tens of thousands of civilians nationwide have been forced to flee their homes due to junta raids and arson attacks. How is it [the administration] working to help document the juntas crimes and provide cross-border humanitarian assistance for its victims? asked the Senator. Senator McConnell admitted that the challenges facing the Myanmar people are complicated. But he said the proposition for the US government was simple: Are we willing to help a people committed to democracy finally realize it for themselves? I look forward to hearing how the Biden administration plans to answer this call, he added. Mobile Core Network and Multi-access Edge Computing market revenues for 1Q 2022 bounced back to a positive year-over-year growth rate after decreasing in 4Q 2021the first decline since 4Q 2017, according to market and research firm DellOro Group. According to DellOro Group, MCN market growth was driven by a double-digit percentage year-over-year (Y/Y) revenue growth rate in the 5G MCN market overcoming (Y/Y) revenue declines in the 4G MCN and IMS Core markets. DellOro Group points out that the MCN market in China had a high growth rate while the MCN market excluding China had a negative growth rate for the quarter. With the continued aggressive build-out of 5G Standalone (SA) networks in China, the China region in 1Q 2022 substantially increased its share of the 5G MCN market over last quarter, comments DellOro Group research director Dave Bolan. At the end of 1Q 2022, we have identified 25 mobile network operators that have commercially launched 5G SA mobile Broadband networks (MBB) with services available to consumers. The 5G Core vendors include Cisco, Ericsson, Huawei, NEC, Nokia, Samsung, and ZTE. We have identified 150 MNOs with 5G Core contracts with the above vendors and Mavenir https://www.mavenir.com/. There are still more 5G Core contracts that vendors have acknowledged without revealing the associated MNOs, Bolan says. We see fewer 5G Core network launches slated for 2022 as compared to 2021 when 16 networks were launched. However, many are being readied for 2023 launches and we project mid-single-digit percentage Y/Y growth rates for the balance of 2022, Bolan predicts. One of the most anticipated and publicised 5G Core launches is Dish Wireless the first to run 5G Core on the Public Cloud. The company is preparing to launch in many cities by mid-June 2022 to meet regulatory coverage requirements. In early May 2022, Dish had a soft launch in its first city, Las Vegas. Nokia is the primary 5G Core vendor, Bolan says. Multi-access Edge Computing deployed by MNOs has barely scratched the surface in spite of all the hype, except for the China region, which has deployed thousands of MEC nodes throughout their MNO networks, with a mix of public MEC and private MEC sites. DellOro Group highlighted the following findings in its 1Q 2022 Mobile Core Network and Multi-Access Edge Computing Report: 1. The top two vendors for the MCN, 4G MCN, and IMS Core markets were Huawei and Ericsson. 2. The top two vendors for the 5G MCN market were Huawei and ZTE. 3. Nokia and Ericsson had the highest Y/Y growth rates for the 5G MCN market coming from a low small base. However, Huawei had the highest dollar revenue gain, with a lower Y/Y growth rate coming from a larger base. This first appeared in the subscription newsletter CommsWire on 26 May 2022. COMPANY NEWS: Leading managed services provider blueAPACHE today announced it has signed a new strategic, three-year IT managed services agreement with the Brotherhood of St. Laurence (BSL). The agreement extends an existing five-year technology partnership between the organisations and will allow BSL to further strengthen its outreach and support services to Australians experiencing disadvantage. Founded in 1930, BSL is a social justice organisation that provides critical services to vulnerable Australians. For more than 90 years, the organisation has been working to prevent and alleviate poverty across Australia. With the head office in Melbourne, BSL employs over 1,400 staff to deliver a complex range of social services. Critical to the success of these activities is the organisations supporting IT and telecommunications infrastructure, and their technology partnership with blueAPACHE. BSL Senior Manager ICT, Jason Atkinson, said blueAPACHE had become a true business partner for the organisation and some exciting projects were now in the planning pipeline. These projects come at an important time for BSL as the organisation realigns its strategic goals after having been awarded new contracts. blueAPACHE has helped us to build a resilient and scalable IT infrastructure that will support our activities in the years ahead and reduce operational risk," said Atkinson. "This new agreement means we can continue to work with a trusted organisation that truly understands our operations. A new strategic plan The agreement compliments a new ICT strategic plan that was validated by the BSL Board in late 2021. This plan is designed to guide investment and technology selection during the three-year period and beyond. Atkinson said the IT support provided by blueAPACHE under the agreement will be vital to ensure BSL can perform from a technology perspective and continue to provide the best possible levels of service to support those facing disadvantage. The scope of works that will be completed under the new agreement with blueAPACHE includes: Network management: blueAPACHE, in collaboration with BSL, will continue to commission a robust national wide-area network (WAN) solution as required and manage BSLs existing infrastructure to ensure performance and reliability. This will also cover the organisations VoIP telephony system. Infrastructure management: Thorough analysis of resources will be performed on an ongoing basis to deliver efficient migration of applications to the appropriate cloud-solution, including blueAPACHEs trusted emPOWER IaaS platform. Extension of end user communications: Projects will be designed to uplift and extend the use of Microsoft Teams to allow it to eventually become a complete unified communications (UC) platform across the organisation. This will enable BSL staff to interact more efficiently regardless of their location and provide superior levels of service to clients and mobility to staff. Maturity of IT security: blueAPACHE will assist BSL to continue to develop its security operations platform by incorporating the very latest tools and information management procedures. This, in turn, will ensure that the organisations entire IT infrastructure is fully resistant and critical data continues to remain protected at all times. Ongoing staff mobilisation: blueAPACHE will assist BSL with the ongoing management of its growing fleet of mobile devices. This will ensure staff are supported regardless of their workplace location and are able to be agile and responsive to client needs. This applies to all staff, whether they are working in central offices, in warehouses, or out in the field. Information management support: During the next 12 months, blueAPACHE will also work to refine BSLs data capabilities in line with the organisations ongoing commitment to data management. Mechanisms will also be put in place to ensure all data continues to be highly available and secure. Asset lifecyle management: In partnership with HPE, blueAPACHE will facilitate a hardware repurposing program to ensure sustainable asset practices are achieved and e-waste is minimised. Ongoing cloud adoption The new agreement will also facilitate BSLs ongoing migration to the cloud. Atkinson said he expects the organisation to be fully migrated by the end of 2022. We are shifting from being focused on hardware and software to an IT services model, said Atkinson. This helps us to reduce our costs while also ensuring we have access to the very best tools and applications that are available. blueAPACHE Founder and Managing Director, Chris Marshall, said the company welcomed the opportunity to continue the working relationship with BSL for a further three years. It is fantastic to have the chance to support an organisation that is delivering so much for Australians in need, said Marshall. We look forward to achieving even more and further strengthening our business relationship. Rodney Weston, BSLs Acting Director of Finance, Strategy and Operations said he welcomed the knowledge, guidance and support that blueAPACHE would continue to deliver under the new managed service agreement. Over the years, blueAPACHE has developed a deep understanding of our operations and goals as an organisation, said Weston. Together we can continue to deliver our programs and services with even greater impact. About blueAPACHE Since 1998, blueAPACHE has been helping organisations access technology to their business advantage. We achieve this by providing IT management, IT strategy and converged IT services to clients across Australia, UK, Asia and North America. blueAPACHE is renowned for helping organisations grow by removing the IT capital investment required to fund expansion. By delivering IT as a Service, blueAPACHE has revolutionised the way organisations access technology and communications with affordable solutions that provide true scalability, elasticity and agility. Our team of industry specialists work together to provide outstanding solutions to the complex technology problems. In addition to taking ownership of our clients IT challenges, we also leverage technology to improve business performance, align strategy, and drive their business objectives. With technical expertise, experience and infrastructure, blueAPACHE are the ideal technology partner for organisations looking for a professional IT services partner, that will enable them to free up capital expenditure and focus on their core business knowing that their IT is aligned to their needs, tailored for their objectives and underpinned by a team of industry experts. For further information, please visit: www.blueapache.com COMPANY NEWS: Radware, a leading provider of cyber security and application delivery solutions, today announced it has expanded its relationship with a leading, multinational e-commerce company in a million dollar deal. The company purchased the Radware Bot Manager and managed services to further protect its global e-commerce network and website traffic from cyber attack. The industry leader also uses Radware's DefensePro and Cloud DDoS Protection Service to safeguard its online infrastructure. The e-commerce company turned to Radware when the bot manager solution from another provider was unable to handle spikes in fourth generation distributed bots and could not scale to meet the needs of a large global network. The e-commerce provider's global network, website traffic and bot attacks were extremely complex and evolving over time. "Various parts of this e-commerce company's online transaction process were being attacked by different methods and outcomes, and exporting different data sets," said Radware chief operating officer Gabi Malka. "The Radware Bot Manager was able to successfully mitigate the attacks while managing false positives so that shoppers making online purchases were not blocked or challenged. We won this deal because our customer was impressed with the consistent performance of our solution, mitigation capabilities and partnership." The Radware Bot Manager provides comprehensive protection of web applications, mobile apps, and APIs from automated threats like bots. It offers precise bot management across all channels by combining behavioural modelling for granular intent analysis, collective bot intelligence, and fingerprinting of browsers, devices, and machines. To help organisations safeguard and grow their online operations, Bot Manager protects against account takeover, API abuse, scalping, skewed analytics, form spam, web scraping, and carding and digital ad fraud. Radware's Managed Services include the support of the company's Bot Defense Lab, a team of experienced data analysts. This team is tasked with real-time threat monitoring, as well as the analysis, investigation, and response to malicious threats. Radware was named recently as the technology leader in Quadrant Knowledge Solutions' 2021 report titled SPARK Matrix: Bot Management. This marks the second year in a row that Quadrant Knowledge Solutions ranked Radware the technology leader in its bot management category. About Radware Radware (NASDAQ: RDWR) is a global leader of cyber security and application delivery solutions for physical, cloud, and software defined data centres. Its award-winning solutions portfolio secures the digital experience by providing infrastructure, application, and corporate IT protection, and availability services to enterprises globally. Radware's solutions empower enterprise and carrier customers worldwide to adapt to market challenges quickly, maintain business continuity, and achieve maximum productivity while keeping costs down. For more information, please visit the Radware website. The United States has won the latest round of a legal battle to seize a $325-million Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji, with the case now appearing headed for the Pacific nations top court Johnson City, TN (37604) Today Thunderstorms this evening followed by a few showers overnight. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 63F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%.. Tonight Thunderstorms this evening followed by a few showers overnight. Storms may contain strong gusty winds. Low 63F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 100%. Forty-two years ago this week, South Korea was engulfed in the flames of class struggle. Amidst the fight by the masses for democracy and to bring down the military, a heroic episode took place in Gwangju a city of nearly one million people. The workers beat back a vicious military, and for a few days the working class de facto took over the running of the city, which was briefly under the control of armed workers militias. In conditions of siege that were not unlike those that gave rise to the Paris Commune, the workers of Gwangju began to run society on their own. Though they were drowned in blood in the end, the struggle of the proletariat of Gwangju offered the world a glimpse of the power that the working class has at its fingertips. The death of Park and the struggle for democracy South Korea after the Korean War of 1950-1953 was a place of oppression, exploitation, and anguish. The masses suffered at the hands of two successive right-wing dictators, and they enjoyed none of the democratic rights that existed in the West. The United States, supposedly a champion of freedom and democracy, lent its unrelenting support to the dictators, in return for which the latter allowed the US not only to station troops in the country, but to remain in direct command of the Republic of Korea/US Combined Forces Command (CFC). For the US, the Korean peninsula was a frontline of its counter-revolutionary crusade against the tide of revolutions that had broken out after WWII. The South Korean masses were merely small change in their efforts. By 1980, South Korea had been ruled by military dictator Park Chung-hee for nearly two decades / Image: public domain By 1980, South Korea had been under the rule of the military dictator Park Chung-hee () for nearly two decades. Park, who had come to power through a coup in 1961, faithfully served US interests in the region, while crushing the South Korean masses beneath an iron heel. All oppositions and trade unions were suppressed or banned. The Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) meanwhile, following the model of its US counterpart, would crackdown on dissent through violence and torture. The Park regime, while based upon a different system of property from the deformed workers state in the North, was no less of a totalitarian police state. The state under Parks regime, however, also forced to strongly intervene in the economy to stimulate development, beginning with nationalisation of banks. Though the market system and private property were left intact (the existing big capitalist enterprises known as the Chaebols were not expropriated) the Park regime forced them to invest in industries that were necessary for the states designs. Far from being a product of market forces, it was only heavy state intervention directing economic development that lead to the creation of heavy industries and export sectors unseen under the previous Rhee Sung-man regime. During this time, South Koreas economy grew by an average 10 percent a year. Its GDP went from $3.96 billion USD in 1960 to $65.4 billion USD in 1980. With the growth of capitalism came the growth of the working class and an educated student element. By the late 1970s, protests demanding democratic rights often led by students began erupting everywhere, despite the Park regimes iron rule. The labour movement soon followed suit, the sit-down strike of women textile workers of YH Trading Company in August 1979 being a particularly inspiring example. The regime responded with a bloody crackdown on all acts of defiance, but the struggle continued to grow. The ruling class and the state were thrown into a state of panic, and the head of the KCIA decided to assassinate Park Chung-hee. But the sudden death of the dictator did not lead to the collapse of the dictatorship. Instead, General Chun Doo-hwan () stepped in as the new dictator. He declared martial law, mobilised the troops to crackdown on the protests, and arrested prominent opposition leaders. But the students and the masses continued their fight against the dictatorship across multiple cities, among them Gwangju in the South Jeolla Province, which is a region with a rich tradition of struggle stretching back through Korean history. The whip of reaction Marx once observed that revolution is often spurred on by the whip of reaction. This was certainly the case for the masses of Gwangju. On 18 May, the military regime deployed the 33rd and 35th Battalions of the 7th Airborne Brigade to Gwangjus Chosun University and Chonnam University two hotbeds of student protest in the region. These battle-hardened paratroopers greeted the students with merciless violence. Hundreds of unarmed students were clubbed and gassed by soldiers, who had bayonets attached to their rifles. Faced with overwhelming violence, the students fled the campuses and regrouped in the city to continue their protest, while spreading the news of the militarys atrocity. As sympathetic masses joined the students processions, the soldiers pursued them with even more vengeful violence. Even mere passers-by were viciously assaulted by the rampaging paratroopers. The first recorded victim to lose his life at the hands of the army was Kim Gyeong-cheol (), a deaf cobbler who was only having lunch with his friends at work. The paratrooper happened to encounter this unlucky young worker in the street. A few hours later, he was rushed to hospital with a crushed skull, left eye socket, right arm, back and left leg. He died shortly after arriving. Rather than inspiring fear, news of similar atrocities across the city inspired rage and a brave willingness to fight among the masses. Contrary to the regimes hopes, the protests in Gwangju were swelled by outraged citizens. Many workers actively reached out to the students, offering them shelter, while arming themselves with elementary weapons. The military doubled down on its response. On 19 May, the regime declared a blockade of Gwangju and sent in the 11th Airborne Brigade to assist in the repression. Soldiers were permitted not only to shoot at protesters, but also commit other unspeakable acts in order to instil fear among the population. In their initial attempts to suppress the rising struggle, the soldiers raped and tortured women encountered at gunpoint or already in their custody, a fact that the South Korean government only admitted 38 years after. But the masses were uncowed by this beastial attack. Instead, the working class stepped up to face the soldiers head on. Taxi and bus drivers rammed into police barricades. Many workers began confronting the soldiers with their sheer numbers. Others organised to take the wounded demonstrators to safety. The masses of Gwangju took note of the fact that the media had either downplayed the situation on the ground or else misreported it to the rest of the country, and they thus burned down the local Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) station in anger. Fearlessly advancing with taxis and buses against the army and police positions, the masses began gaining, whilst growing stronger as new layers of workers joined the struggle. Despite their superior firepower, the soldiers were forced to retreat into government buildings. By 21 May, hundreds and thousands of people were in the streets confronting the troops who had barricaded themselves into the Provincial Government building and a handful of other locations. The workers militia and workers power Confident after their initial fightback, the masses were determined to drive the soldiers out of Gwangju. The soldiers, however, were heavily fortified in their positions, and had helicopters and armoured vehicles. The improvised weapons and civilian vehicles that the masses had at their disposal would not do the trick. The workers understood the need to arm themselves. With the confidence gained through their initial fightback, the masses became determined to drive the soldiers out of Gwangju but the soldiers were heavily fortified with helicopters and armored vehicles / Image: May 18 Democratic Uprising Archive Some worker militants in Gwangju travelled to nearby mining towns to obtain dynamite from the miners and to appeal to the miners to join them. Others raided police stations in Gwangju and in nearby counties in order to obtain guns and ammunition. The workers rapidly organised themselves into militias, giving themselves the name Simin-gun (), or Citizens Army. The militias consisted of workers from a broad range of industries, which according to the eye-witness account in the Gwangju Diary, comprised workers from construction sites, small workshops, and shoeshine men; and ragpickers, street vendors, waiters, and menial workers. Middle-age men wearing reserve army uniforms had joined to avenge the deaths of family members. The presence of army reservists in particular was pivotal. Their military training meant they could bring organisation to the largely improvised and inexperienced workers militias, which were now grouped into clear combat cells. They also conducted firearm training for anyone willing to join the fight. Under the leadership of these reservist cadres, the workers militia successfully drove the paratroopers out of their heavily fortified positions, leaving them with no choice but to flee Gwangju in haste. Although many had given their lives in the struggle, this victory was a tremendous injection of morale, spurring the working class on into taking control of the city into their own hands. Dual power and reaction from within Beyond the military engagement with the army, the proletariat of Gwangju began improvising their own organs of class power in order to maintain the functioning of society. As early as 21 May, the workers of the Lotte Pastry and Coca Cola plants had taken charge of distributing bread and drinks to the masses. Food allocation networks were spontaneously organised by small vendors and housewives. There were jubilant scenes as a new class order began emerging in Gwangju: Masked militia members drove all over the city, pointing guns out the windows, singing and chanting. Their cars displayed signs written in blood: End Martial Law! and Down with Chun Doo-hwan! They were like victorious soldiers returning home. The rebels were cheered wherever they went, receiving food and wet towels from housewives, tonic drinks from pharmacists and cigarettes from storeowners. They fielded questions and told war stories. Though some later described the militia and its allies as a drunken mob, nobody was drinking alcohol. At dawn, militia cells on the outskirts returned to the city after an all-night battle with the paratroopers. They had heard of the governments withdrawal and were now bracing for an imminent invasion by martial-law forces. The cells also had to police the city, and reorganized themselves in front of Gwangju Park. Several young men painted numbers on the commandeered vehicles and began to assign drivers. Small cars were to carry messages; larger ones, people and supplies; jeeps were for reconnaissance, and patrol; and military trucks for combat. Registered drivers were told to encourage other rebels to have their vehicles registered. (From the Gwangju Diary) A new authority based on the power of the proletariat was emerging. Yet at the same time, a significant source of confusion and reaction would come not from the regime, but from within the city itself. While power was effectively in the hands of the workers, they did not consciously realise this at the time. Parallel with the workers power, there remained the preexisting ruling class elements of Gwangju, who were now without a military or police force. These people superficially opposed the repression of the military (how could they not?), but their whole activity was dedicated to pulling back the working class. As the workers had not decisively taken the power, the Vice-governor of South Jeolla Province Jeong Shi-chae () was able to convene the bourgeois elements in the city to form a Citizens Settlement Committee. The make-up of this body was not in the least representative of the masses. Rather, it consisted of prominent citizens: fifteen clergymen, Catholic priests, lawyers, government officials, and businessmen. Their primary objective was to negotiate a surrender to the government, while sowing illusions among the workers that this was the only path to change. Although it did not have strong authority among the workers, there was no revolutionary party that could help the proletariat to forge a political leadership of their own, to sweep aside the bourgeois elements in the Settlement Committee, and to work to spread the insurgency nationwide towards a socialist revolution. Without this perspective, and constantly undermined by the fifth column of the Settlement Committee, the uprising became confined within the blockade established by the military, and was starved of oxygen. The fall of Gwangju and the role of US imperialism Contrary to the soothing message that the Settlement Committee was telling the workers, the military had no intention of ending the fight peacefully. Instead, the Chun Doo-hwan regime was busy securing the United States backing to drown Gwangju in blood. Chun would get the go-ahead he was looking for, and on 27 May, five divisions of the infantry and mechanised infantry totaling over 20,000 troops drove into Gwangju from all directions and crushed the uprising. Attack helicopters were used to mow down people. Official figures at various times counted only hundreds of deaths, but many sources indicated that casualties could have been in the thousands / Image: May 18 Democratic Uprising Archive The counter-revolution led to an untold number of deaths. Official figures at various times counted the death toll as merely in the hundreds. But many sources have indicated that the real casualty figure could have been in the thousands. The brutality of the crackdown left an indelible scar on the Gwangju masses that is felt to this day. US imperialism was entirely complicit in this counter-revolutionary bloodbath. Both the US forces and embassy clearly understood the social implications of the Gwangju uprising and gave their blessing to the Chun regime, though they have always evaded official responsibility. But such a bloodbath would have been impossible without US complicity. To begin with, the command structure of the ROK/US Combined Forces Command required any deployment on the scale of that which Chun Doo-hwan used against the Gwangju masses to have the explicit approval of the American commander, who at the time was General John A. Wickman. Furthermore, according to veteran US journalist Tim Shorrock, who obtained communication records between US officials and the South Korean regime at the time, Chun was already discussing military suppression of protests around South Korea even before the Gwangju uprising. As the Gwangju struggle went into full swing, the US ambassador William H. Gleysteen issued a panicky demand for a crackdown in the city: On May 23, hours after the White House meeting, Mr. Gleysteen paid a call on Acting Prime Minister Park to communicate the U.S. position. In the discussion, Mr. Gleysteen reported back, I said that the policy decisions of May 17 had staggered us. However, the two officials agreed that firm anti-riot measures were necessary, but the accompanying political crackdown was political folly and clearly had contributed to the serious breakdown of order in Kwangju. Mr. Gleysteen also noted that the United States was doing all we can do contribute to the restoration of order, and cited the official statements issued in Washington the day before and our affirmative replies when asked to chop CFC forces to Korean command for use in Kwangju. Notably, in another set of documents, Shorrock found that, contrary to the outward-facing propaganda peddled by the South Korean military regime, the US fully understood that North Korea had nothing to do with the Gwangju uprising: A Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report dated June 5, 1980, and based on unnamed sources within the South Korean military, made the startling claim that some 2,000 people in the Gwangju area had secured arms and made their way into the wilds after the uprising was put down on May 27. While participants in the rebellion have denied any such movement in Gwangjus nearby mountains, which were heavily patrolled by the ROK Army, they point with pride to the DIAs observations that the motivation to go into the hills was not communist inspired, and that the rebelsare truly representatives of the people of Cholla Namdo (South Jeolla). Moreover, US military intelligence openly scoffed at Chuns claims of North Korean involvement. That can be seen in a secret DIA cable (dated June 2, 1980) about an official ROK Ministry of Defense report claiming that a North Korean agent had been captured in Seoul after agitating demonstrators in Gwangju. The data is one-sided and somewhat distorts the picture, DIA concluded about what it called the alleged communist infiltration. The analyst added, somewhat sarcastically: The ROKG would have it believed that because of these aggitations (sic)extended ML [martial law] was the will of the people. In short, US imperialism understood the crackdown on Gwangju not part of a military skirmish with the North Korean regime, but was part of a social war against the South Korean working class. They were afraid lest a genuine, democratic workers power should arise and spread in South Korea, and reignite a revolutionary wave across East Asia. Fear of revolutionary contagion also explains why the bureaucratic regimes in North Korea, China, and the USSR showed complete passivity to the crushing of the Gwangju workers. These governments restricted themselves to purely tokenistic, verbal condemnations of the Souths violence against the masses. Had they been genuinely revolutionary regimes, they would have mobilised every resource available to aid the Gwangju insurgents and help the South Korean workers drive out capitalism and US imperialism. In reality, they were all deformed workers states governed by bureaucratic dictatorships that feared genuine workers' democracy far more than they feared the forces of imperialism. Aiding the development of a workers power in Gwangju would have been contrary to their interests as parasitic bureaucracies, and could even have encouraged workers in their own countries to follow suit. Preserving the legacy Although the Gwangju proletariats heroic struggle was decimated in the end, the struggle against the dictatorship elsewhere in South Korea continued with ebbs and flows. By the 1990s, mass strikes and protests emerged once again. However, the leadership of these anti-dictatorship movements fell into the hands of bourgeois liberals, who would form the basis of what became todays Democratic Party in South Korea. These elements had no perspective of overthrowing capitalism or letting the working class take power. Instead, they directed the energy of the masses struggle into legal channels, and opted for gradual changes with tacit support from the US. The result was a limited bourgeois democracy, with US imperialism preserving its presence, and many elements of the former dictatorships being likewise preserved. Those with direct ties to the dictators of the past, backed by the Chaebol oligarchy, formed the basis of South Koreas modern hard-right conservative camp. They were even able to capture several presidencies through elections, among them Park Chung-hees daughter, Park Geun-hye, and most recently Yoon Suk-yeol. Chun Doo-hwan, the butcher of Gwangju and of countless South Korean class fighters, would never face justice in his lifetime. The system after democratisation still allowed the likes of him to occupy high places and to live comfortable retirements. After a lifetime spent cutting lives short, Chun died at the ripe old age of 90. Though the dictatorships have gone away, the very same capitalist system and the very same ruling class that has brutalised the Korean workers remain. The task of the Korean proletariat therefore remains unfinished, and their history of struggle for emancipation alongside workers of the world is not yet over. The Gwangju Uprising has already secured its unerasable place in this history. It positively demonstrated the potential power that the working class holds in its hand. Marxists and class fighters around the world therefore have a duty to preserve the memory of Gwangju so that workers everywhere can draw insight and inspiration from it, until the world socialist revolution is victorious. Russia on Thursday made an all-out effort to capture the rest of the industrial region of Lugansk in eastern Ukraine, officials said, as President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of seeking to commit genocide across the eastern Donbas. As the fighting intensified, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba aired Kyivs increasing frustration with the West, accusing allies of dragging their feet on arms deliveries and telling his German counterpart that Ukraine needs heavy weapons as soon as possible. Russian forces are now closing in on several urban centres, including the strategically located Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. Lugansk is part of the Donbas, the industrial basin comprising that region and Donetsk. The situation remains difficult, because the Russian army has thrown all its forces at taking the Lugansk region, regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a video on Telegram. Extremely fierce fighting is taking place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk. They are simply destroying the city, they are shelling it every day, shelling without pause. Russian forces also bombarded Ukraines second city Kharkiv, killing nine people, and five civilians were killed Thursday in the Donetsk region to the south, according to the governor. In his daily televised address, Zelensky said Moscow was pursuing an obvious policy of genocide in the Donbas after failing to take the capital Kyiv and its bombardments could leave the entire region uninhabited. Kyiv has been losing patience with what it views as the Wests failure to quickly arm Ukraine and impose a ban on Russian oil exports on top of punishing economic sanctions already in place. We need more heavy weapons delivered as soon as possible, especially MLRS (multiple launch rocket systems) to repel Russian attacks, Kuleba wrote on Twitter after speaking with Germanys Annalena Baerbock. Maximum intensity Earlier in the day, Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar told journalists that fighting in the east had reached its maximum intensity since Russia invaded its neighbour on February 24. Pro-Moscow separatist groups have since 2014 controlled parts of Donbas, but Russia now appears set on taking the whole region. Enemy forces are storming the positions of our troops simultaneously in several directions. We have an extremely difficult and long stage of fighting ahead of us, Malyar said. Gaiday said three people died in recent Russian attacks on Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which stand on the crucial route to Ukraines eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk. In Kramatorsk itself, children roamed the rubble left by Russian attacks as the sound of artillery fire boomed. I got used to the shelling, said Yevgen, a sombre-looking 13-year-old who moved to Kramatorsk with his mother from the ruins of his village Galyna. And fresh shelling around Kharkiv killed another nine people and injured 19, officials said. Today the enemy insidiously fired on Kharkiv, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said on social media, warning residents to evacuate to air raid shelters. An AFP reporter in Kharkiv saw plumes of smoke rising from the stricken area, along with several people injured near a shuttered shopping centre. An elderly man with injuries to his arm and leg was carried away by medics. Show me one Nazi! Russias rationale of a special military operation to demilitarise and de-Nazify Ukraine drew a snort of derision in one village near Kharkiv that came under fire. Show me one Nazi in the village! We have our nation, we are nationalists but not Nazis nor fascists, said retired nurse Larysa Kosynets. Elsewhere, in the strategic southern port city of Mariupol, occupying authorities cancelled school holidays to prepare students to switching to a Russian curriculum, said a Ukrainian official. Mariupol fell to Russia earlier this month after a devastating siege that left thousands dead the reduced the city to rubble. Throughout the summer, children will have to study Russian language, literature and history as well as math classes in Russian, city official Petro Andryushchenko wrote on social media. Trust is lost for generations Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Thursday became the latest Western official to visit Kyiv, where she said it would take Russia decades to repair its standing in the world after invading Ukraine. Trust is lost for generations, Marin told a press conference. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has faced criticism over Berlins slow response, also weighed in Thursday, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin will not negotiate seriously until he realises he might not win in Ukraine. Our goal is crystal-clear Putin must not win this war. And I am convinced that he will not win it, Scholz told the World Economic Forum in Davos. Food crisis fears The Ukraine conflict has sparked fears of a global food crisis, on top of the political and economic shockwaves that have already reverberated around the world. The Kremlin on Thursday pointed the finger at Western countries for stopping grain-carrying vessels from leaving ports in Ukraine rejecting accusations that Russia was to blame. Putin said Moscow was ready to make a significant contribution to averting the crisis if the West lifts sanctions imposed on Russia over Ukraine, in a telephone call with Italys Prime Minister Mario Draghi. Speaking to journalists after the call, Draghi said he would continue talking to both Moscow and Kyiv to resolve the food crisis, but added that he had little optimism for ending the war. When asked if I have seen any glimmer of hope for peace, the answer is no, the Italian prime minister said. burs-dk/wd/sst Ukraines President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of carrying out a genocide in the eastern region of Donbas, where the city of Severodonetsk is suffering an onslaught of Russian shelling. In his daily televised address, Zelensky condemned Moscows brutal assault on the Donbas where it has redirected its forces after having failed to capture Kyiv adding that its bombardment could leave the entire region uninhabited. All this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians, is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia, he said. Pro-Moscow separatist groups have since 2014 controlled parts of Donbas, but Russia now appears set on taking the whole region. Invading forces are closing in on several cities, including the strategically located Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which stand on the crucial route to Ukraines eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk. Three people died in attacks on those two cities, Kyivs Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar told journalists, saying that fighting in the east has reached its maximum intensity since Russia invaded on February 24. The situation remains difficult, because the Russian army has thrown all its forces at taking the Lugansk region, regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in a video on Telegram. Extremely fierce fighting is taking place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk. They are simply destroying the city, they are shelling it every day, shelling without pause. Not scared In Kramatorsk, children roamed the rubble left by Russian attacks as the sound of artillery fire boomed. I am not scared, said Yevgen, a sombre-looking 13-year-old who moved to Kramatorsk with his mother from the ruins of his village Galyna. I got used to the shelling, he declared as he sat alone on a slab of a destroyed apartment block. To the northwest, in Ukraines second city of Kharkiv, shelling killed another nine people and wounded 19, officials said. Today the enemy insidiously fired on Kharkiv, regional governor Oleg Sinegubov said on social media, warning residents to evacuate to air raid shelters. An AFP reporter in Kharkiv saw plumes of smoke rising from the stricken area, along with several people injured near a shuttered shopping centre. An elderly man with injuries to his arm and leg was carried away by medics. And in the south, hints at what awaits those cities should they fall to Russian forces were emerging in Mariupol, which was taken over by invading forces this month after a devastating siege that left thousands dead and reduced the city to rubble. Occupying authorities there cancelled school holidays to prepare students to switch to a Russian curriculum, said a Ukrainian official. Throughout the summer, children will have to study Russian language, literature and history as well as math classes in Russian, city official Petro Andryushchenko wrote on social media. The aim in the bombarded city, he said, was to remove Ukraine from the curriculum and prepare them for going back to school with a Russian curriculum. The Kremlin is seeking to tighten its grip over the parts of Ukraine it occupies, including fast-tracking citizenship for residents of two southern regions that are mostly under Russian control. The United States has branded the plan an attempt to subjugate the people of Ukraine. Trust is lost The intensified fighting across the country prompted Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to air Kyivs increasing frustration with the West, accusing allies of dragging their feet on arms deliveries and telling his German counterpart that Ukraine needs heavy weapons as soon as possible. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin became the latest Western official to visit Kyiv on Thursday, where she said it would take Russia decades to repair its standing in the world after invading Ukraine. Trust is lost for generations, Marin told a press conference. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has faced criticism over Berlins slow response, also weighed in Thursday, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin will not negotiate seriously until he realises he might not win in Ukraine. Our goal is crystal-clear Putin must not win this war. And I am convinced that he will not win it, Scholz told the World Economic Forum in Davos. The flow of grain exports from Ukraine, known as Europes breadbasket, has been disrupted since Russias invasion, threatening food security around the world and sending prices soaring. The Kremlin on Thursday pointed the finger at Western countries for stopping grain-carrying vessels from leaving ports in Ukraine rejecting accusations that Russia was to blame. President Putin said in a telephone call with Italys Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Moscow was ready to make a significant contribution to averting a looming food crisis if the West lifts sanctions imposed on his country over Ukraine. But the United States scoffed at the offer. Now theyre using economic tools as weapons. Theyre weaponizing food. Theyre weaponizing economic assistance, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. I guess we shouldnt be surprised by that, since theyve weaponized everything else, including lies and information, he said. burs-oho/dhc Russia said Friday it was expelling five employees from Croatias embassy in Moscow, following a similar move by Zagreb over Moscows military campaign in Ukraine. Russias foreign ministry said it summoned Croatias ambassador to express its strong protest over the groundless attempts of the Croatian authorities to blame Russia for war crimes in Ukraine. The ministry also accused Croatia of providing military assistance to the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv. It said that in response to the unfriendly steps previously taken by Zagreb five employees of Croatias embassy in Moscow were declared persona non grata. In April, Croatia ordered 24 Russian embassy staff to leave the country over Moscows brutal aggression against Ukraine. A number of European countries have recently expelled Russian diplomats as part of joint action against Moscows military operation in Ukraine, with Russia responding in kind. Moscow last week kicked out diplomats from France, Italy and Spain, dozens in total, in retaliation for the expulsion of Russian diplomats from their countries. A military court in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Friday sentenced to death eight soldiers, including a colonel and two majors, as well as three civilians for selling arms to a violent militia. The trial opened in conflict-torn Ituri province last month with the group facing charges of supplying rifles and ammunition to the notorious CODECO group, which has been blamed for a slew of ethnic massacres. At a public hearing, the courts president Colonel Kelly Dianga sentenced the three senior officers, a captain and four rank-and-file soldiers for criminal association, war crimes, and participation in an insurrectional movement. The civilians two women and a man were also sentenced to death for involvement in the affair, he added, while another two civilians received 10-year jail terms. Another army major and a civilian were acquitted for lack of evidence. The DR Congo has observed a de facto moratorium on capital punishment since 2003, according to the United Nations, but courts continue to hand down death sentences. CODECO the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo is a political-religious sect that claims to represent the interests of the Lendu ethnic group. The Lendu and Hema communities have a long-standing feud that led to thousands of deaths between 1999 and 2003 before intervention by a European peacekeeping force. Violence then resumed in 2017, blamed on the emergence of CODECO. Congolese security forces have governed Ituri and neighbouring North Kivu province since May last year, in a bid to crush the myriad militias active there. Civilian massacres have continued, however. Russia should cooperate with the International Criminal Courts investigation into alleged war crimes carried out during Moscows invasion of Ukraine, the tribunals prosecutor told AFP on Friday. The invitation is there. My door is open, and I will also keep knocking on the door of the Russian Federation, ICC prosecutor Karim Khan said in an interview at the Hague-based court. If there are allegations that the Russian Federation have, if theres information that they have, if they are conducting their own investigations or prosecutions or have information thats relevant share it with us. Russia is not a member of the ICC, set up in 2002 to prosecute the worlds worst crimes, and had declined to cooperate so far, Khan said. Ukraine is not an ICC member either but it has accepted the courts jurisdiction, and is working with Khans office as it probes possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. Russia says allegations of war crimes by its troops are fake, and Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the February 24 invasion by saying that Ukraine was overseeing a genocide in the east of the country. If one makes those allegations, cooperate, share the information, cooperate with us, said Khan. If theres been fake news, we will expose the fake news. Russia should cooperate with the International Criminal Courts investigation into alleged war crimes carried out during Moscows invasion of Ukraine, the tribunals prosecutor told AFP on Friday. Prosecutor Karim Khan said Russia, which is not a member of the Hague-based court, had declined to work with the ICC on Ukraine but added that his door is open if it wants to help. The British barrister also insisted that war crimes culprits could be brought to justice although he refused to say whether President Vladimir Putin himself could one day be a suspect. The invitation is there. My door is open, and I will also keep knocking on the door of the Russian Federation, Karim Khan said in an interview. If there are allegations that the Russian Federation have, if theres information that they have, if they are conducting their own investigations or prosecutions or have information thats relevant share it with us. Like Russia, Ukraine is not an ICC member, but it has accepted the courts jurisdiction and is working with Khans office as it probes possible war crimes and crimes against humanity. Russia says allegations of war crimes by its troops are fake, and Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the February 24 invasion by saying that Ukraine was overseeing a genocide in the east of the country. If one makes those allegations, cooperate, share the information, cooperate with us, said Khan. If theres been fake news, we will expose the fake news. Battlefield but a crime scene The ICC was created in 2002 to try the worlds worst crimes where states are unable or unwilling to. It does not have its own police force and so relies on individual countries to enforce any arrest warrants it issues. Khan who took over as the ICCs third-ever prosecutor last year announced an investigation four days after Russias invasion and the probe has since been backed by 42 countries. He later visited Bucha, a town outside Kyiv where AFP journalists discovered 20 bodies in civilian clothing lying in a street, and where officials later said hundreds of other people had been killed. Last week Khan sent the largest ever investigative team in the ICCs nearly 20-year history to Ukraine, comprising 42 staff including forensics experts. The reality is its a battlefield, but its also a crime scene, Khan said. The team were looking at mass graves and seeking satellite and radar evidence, taking testimony from witnesses, and helping Ukrainian authorities unlock seized phones so they can be scrubbed for information, he said. But questions remain about where war crimes trials will be carried out and how suspects will be brought to justice. Kyiv has already started its own war crimes trials, sentencing a 21-year-old Russian soldier to life last week for killing a civilian. Ukraines chief prosecutor has suggested that the ICC could deal with higher profile cases, but Khan said the ICC was still working with Ukraine and international partners on the best path. He refused to give artificial timelines for when the ICC could bring any of its own indictments, saying it was a recipe for a disaster. He also insisted that the court was not here to target a particular country but wanted to get to the truth. Ukrainian troops have also faced war crimes allegations over a video in which Russian soldiers appeared to be shot in the legs. Difficult to hide Moscows refusal to cooperate and the fact that it is not a member of the ICC have raised questions about how any eventual suspects could be brought to trial. But Khan pointed to previous significant successes by international tribunals in bringing fugitives to justice, such as Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic over the wars in the former Yugoslavia, and suspects in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. In this day and age we know its difficult to hide, it needs cooperation from states to ensure warrants are executed, said Khan. Meanwhile suggestions that Putin himself could one day end up in the dock have been made by both Ukraines chief prosecutor and former war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte. But Khan said he was not going to talk about individuals. Its very dangerous to succumb to popular demand its very important to follow the evidence, he said. The clear starting position is every individual in the conflict whether a low level soldier, a pilot, a battlefield commander, a general, a military commander or a civilian superior they all have responsibilities. Lee Ji Eun a.k.a IU unexpectedly turned the 2022 Cannes Film Festival into her fan event. Here's what happened. 'Broker' Cast Takes First Red Carpet Walk at 2022 Cannes Film Festival Hallyu dominates the 2022 Cannes Film Festival as the lead cast of the Korean movie "Broker" had their first red carpet walk. IU, on the other hand, made a spectacular debut in the prestigious event. "Broker," starring Song Kang Ho, Kang Dong Won, Bae Doona, IU, and Lee Joo Young, had its world premiere screening on May 26 at the Lumiere Grand Theater of Palais des Festivals at the Cannes Film Festival and entered the competition category. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Bae Doona No Show at Cannes Film Festival 2022 For THIS Reason Since it is a new film helmed by Hirokazu Koreeda, who has won the Palme d'Or award, it drew attention as many people looked forward to seeing its star-studded cast. Lots of individuals try to get tickets for the official screening of "Broker." But above all, overseas fans came to see K-pop star IU and waited for her to take a photo and autograph. IU Dominates 2022 Cannes Film Festival The "Hotel Del Luna" actress suddenly turned the 2022 Cannes Film Festival as her fan event because of the overwhelming love and support of her fans at the venue. In particular, at the prestigious event, IU was introduced as "Actress Lee Ji Eun," but many French viewers who came out after watching the film were surprised to know that IU is actually a K-pop star. The idol-actress looked stunning with her gray off-shoulder dress. She stole the spotlight as crowds started to recognize her. IU's elegant charm captivated the event's attendees. As she was walking on the red carpet, she went to where her fans were and humbly approached them and responded to their photos and autograph requests. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to meet all of her fans and felt regret when she could no longer communicate with them as she needed to proceed inside the venue for the ceremony and movie screening. The actress showcased her incredible acting skills in "Broker" as she plays a calm yet mature role. After the Korean movie's screening, "Broker" received a 12-minute standing ovation. It has been said that it was the longest standing ovation for a Korean film ever invited to this year's film festival. Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda did the honor and introduced the brilliant and talented stars of the movie. IU was flashed on the screen and immediately lauded by the audience. YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: IU Moved to Tears After Unexpected Remark From 'Broker' Co-star Sang Kang Ho What are your thoughts about IU's first Cannes International Film Festival appearance? Tell us in the comments! For more K-Drama, K-Movie, and celebrity news, follow and subscribe to KDramastars. KDramastars owns this article. Shai Collins wrote this. Korean movies are dominating the Cannes Film Festival 2022 after receiving a great response from the audience. The 75th Cannes Film Festival is held from May 17 to 28 and takes place at the Palais des Festivals et des Congres convention center. Joining the prestigious annual festival are "Hunt," "Next Sohee," "Broker," and "Decision to Leave." 'Hunt' Gets 7-Minute Long Standing Ovation After Premiere "Hunt" is Lee Jung Jae's directorial debut, which stars himself and his good friend Jung Woo Sung. The espionage action film was invited to premiere for the Midnight Screening section. Joining the said screening are "Fumer Fait Tousser" by filmmaker Quentin Dupieu and David Bowie's documentary "Moonage Daydream" directed by Brett Morgen. At Cannes, Lee Jung Jae and Jung Woo Sung mesmerized the crowd with their charms. In an interview, the 49-year-old actor-director says that he was amazed by how the crowd reacted after the premiere. As noted by Ten Asia, Lee Jung Jae shared, "I was moved by the long applause," adding that he hugged his co-star Jung Woo Sung "awkwardly" because the people were clapping for too long. Fellow "Hunt" star and award-winning actor also praised Lee Jung Jae and told him that he "did a great job." IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Lee Jung Jae Praises Celebrity Friend Lee Min Ho, Talks About New Movie 'Hunt' Interestingly, this is Lee Jung Jae's second time attending the festival. The first time was for the film "The Housemaid," alongside Jeon Do Yeon. As his interview continued, he said that returning to the Cannes Film Festival as a director is such an extraordinary experience that can be remembered for a lifetime. He added, "This is my second experience, and I think it will be a fun and great memory." Lee Jung Jae and Jung Woo Sung's movie "Hunt" is set in the 1980s and at the height of the military dictatorship in South Korea. KCIA Foreign Unit chef Park Pyong Ho, played by Lee Jung Jae, teams up with Domestic Unit chief Kim Jung-do, portrayed by Jung Woo Sung, to uncover a North Korean spy Donglim. "Hunt" will be the duo's reunion project after the 1998 film "City of the Rising Sun." Song Kang Ho, IU's 'Broker' Premiere End With 10-Minute Standing Ovation Besides Lee Jung Jae's movie, "Broker," directed by Japanese filmmaker Koreeda Hirokazu is also well-loved at the Cannes Film Festival 2022. The drama film stars Song Kang Ho, IU, Kang Dong Won, Lee Joo Young graced the film debut. Unfortunately, Bae Doona couldn't make it due to a conflict with her schedule. As noted by News 1 Korea, "Broker," who is also in the running for the coveted Palme d'Or, received a 10-minute long standing ovation following the premiere. The movie follows the story of a young mother, Soo Young, played by IU, who had no choice but to leave her infant in a "baby box" while brokers Sang Hyun and Dong So, played by Song Kang Ho and Kang Do Won become the person who sets out to find new families for the abandoned babies. While the movie gained support at Cannes, "Broker" will be officially released in theaters on June 8. KDramastars owns this article Written by Geca Wills Members of the Okanagan Indian Band celebrated a new monument honouring the Syilx Okanagan at the Fintry Estate earlier this month. From left are Viola Brown, Pauline Archachan, Dan Wilson, Bill Robins, Danielle Saddleman, and Jason Coble (from the Westbank First Nation). The US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention is investigating more cases of monkeypox across the United States as part of a global outbreak. The CDC has identified nine monkeypox cases in seven states as of Wednesday, Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Thursday. Cases have been identified in Massachusetts, Florida, Utah, Washington, California, Virginia and New York. Most of the cases "are within gay [and] bisexual men and other men who have sex with men," she said. Virginia announced Thursday that the case in its state is a woman. Walensky called for an approach "guided by science, not by stigma." "This is a community that has the strength and has demonstrated the ability to address challenges to their health by focusing on compassion and science," she said in an apparent reference to the AIDS epidemic. "While some groups may have a greater chance of exposure right now, infectious diseases do not care about state or international borders. They're not contained within social networks, and the risk of exposure is not limited to any one particular group," she warned. Walensky implored Americans "to approach this outbreak without stigma and without discrimination." 'We shouldn't be surprised to see more cases' The CDC is working to learn more about the outbreak: Samples from the nine identified cases were sent to the agency for additional confirmatory testing and genomic investigation, Walensky noted, and there are efforts to learn how each person contracted the virus. Some of the nine cases have a recent history of international travel to areas with active monkeypox outbreaks, she said, but others do not. Officials expect more cases to be diagnosed as the CDC has urged doctors and Americans to be on the lookout for symptoms. "We shouldn't be surprised to see more cases reported in the US in the upcoming days. It's actually a sign that Americans are remaining vigilant, and health care providers and public health workers are doing their job," said Dr. Raj Panjabi, White House senior director for health security and biodefense. As part of this outbreak, the CDC has been tracking multiple clusters of monkeypox that have been reported in early- to mid-May in several countries that don't normally report such infections, including regions in Europe and North America. Monkeypox is rare in the United States, and the virus does not occur naturally in the country, according to the CDC. After the virus jumps from an animal to a human, human-to-human transmission can happen through close direct contact, such as via large respiratory droplets or lesions on the skin. Monkeypox symptoms can include fever, headache, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes. A characteristic of the disease is that it can cause lesions or pustules and a rash on the body, including the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. US plans to move vaccine to states that need it most The US has mobilized vaccine for monkeypox to states that have reported cases and plans to move the vaccine where it may be needed, Walensky said Thursday. "The US has the resources we need to help us respond to monkeypox in this country right now. We've been preparing for this type of outbreak for decades," she said. The US has two preventive vaccines and two antiviral treatments that can be used for orthopox, the family of viruses that includes monkeypox. "One of these vaccines, with the trade name of Jynneos, is approved for the prevention of monkeypox disease in adults 18 years of age and older," Walensky said. "CDC has mechanisms in place to move these products around the country so that they can be used for prevention or treatment for people who may benefit, wherever they may be." Panjabi said that vaccination against monkeypox has been offered to health care workers in Massachusetts, where the first US case in this outbreak was identified last week. "In Massachusetts, they got it as the Jynneos vaccine as of Sunday, and we're offering it to health care providers who've had high-risk exposure or are eligible according to the state and CDC guidance," Panjabi said. CDC officials are recommending vaccination for people at highest risk of infection due to direct contact with someone who has monkeypox. "Right now, while we are in the early phase of investigating this, we know that those at highest risk for infection are those who had contact with a known monkeypox patient, with the kind of contact that would facilitate spread. So those are the individuals we're really focusing on recommending vaccination for right now: post-exposure vaccination," said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the CDC's Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. "We continue to watch what is happening and think about whether wider vaccination recommendations would make sense, but at this time, we only have nine known cases, and we have contacts that we've identified associated with those cases that would likely most benefit from vaccines," McQuiston said. "And so that's where we're focusing our energies right now." The-CNN-Wire & 2022 Cable News Network, Inc., a WarnerMedia Company. All rights reserved. Love 0 Funny 0 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Two of the citys key leaders were panelists at the latest Courageous Conversation about the importance of building community trust between police, school officials and people of color. The Thursday evening two hour event, sponsored and organized by the Coalition for Dismantling Racism and Congregations United to Serve Humanity, was held in the Civil War Museum in Downtown Kenosha. Interim Kenosha Police Chief Eric Larsen and Interim Kenosha Unified School District Supt. Bethany Ormseth fielded questions from local activist Gregory Bennett Jr. and the Rev. Dr. Monica Cummings, assistant minister at Bradford Community Church Unitarian Universalist. Dozens turned out for the event that also included two student panelists from Bradford High School, Aniyah Ervin and Marciara Fuller, and Brandon Wheat, chief minister of defense for Kenosha Coalition Organizing Resolution. It was the first in-person Courageous Conversation since the COVID-19 pandemic began spreading here in early 2020. The event opened with a moment of silence for those killed in the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday and those killed in the racist attack at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday. One of the first questions was about the divide between law enforcement officials and people of color. How can we overcome these issues and concerns to improve upon relationships? Bennett asked. KPDs Larsen said its importance for officers to learn about the communities they serve and not rely on stereotypes. That mistrust that (was) created decades ago can be perpetuated generationally. Similarly, its with the (police) academy, Larsen said. That fear, that mistrust of community and things like that. How do we get past that? In some ways weve got to unlearn what we learned. And you learn that not everyones out to get you. (Police) are going to have negative experiences, but you have to start learning to read people. Because they cant teach you in the academy how to read people necessarily because who are you reading? Other academy people. Larsen said its also important to foster positive exchanges with people throughout the city. Who will be replacements? Both Larsen and Ormseth were questioned about who will replace them in their respective roles. Larsen said the Police and Fire Commission will have the ultimate authority to determine the new chief from what he believes will be a national search. If I have any input, one of the main focuses would be someone thats very focused on community, diversity and those types of things, Larsen said. He encouraged concerned citizens to attend commission meetings and express their thoughts and concerns about a new chief. Ormseth said the Kenosha Unified School Board has partnered with the Wisconsin Association of School Boards to conduct its search. Ormseth said the goal is to have a permanent superintendent named by September. There will be opportunities for the community to have input. We set those dates last night. (They will be) June 7 and 8, Ormseth said. The ultimate decision is on the School Board. She encouraged concerned residents to attend district meetings and express their opinion to the board. There will be focus groups, there will be multiple rounds of interviews, there will be opportunities to hear the final candidates present to the community, she said. Ervin said she would have liked to see a superintendent help foster trust between school resource officers and students. Weve been having a lot of issues in KUSD, she said. We also have a mistrust with some security guards. Because if you dont build that trust with the students then theyre going to see you as somebody thats just telling me what to do, somebody thats just here to bother me. Another question from the audience pertained to the police-involved shooting of Jacob Blake in 2020. What did you learn about community relations immediately after the Jacob Blake shooting? How will you use that information, and how will you use what you learned to interact differently with communities here in Kenosha and particularly communities of color? I learned a lot of things, Larsen said. One of them was the strength of the community. Larsen said he and many officers have fostered relationships with people in the community that never existed before. We truly werent connected to some of these grassroots level organizations and it was a significant learning experience, he added. Love 0 Funny 1 Wow 0 Sad 0 Angry 0 Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. 32 Shares Share Nineteen children were killed in a mass shooting in Texas. I have barely escaped the pandemonium of the pediatric emergency department to scarf down a bowl of pasta when I hear the announcement on the breakroom TV. My stomach drops. Again? How is it possible? I step back into the ED and immediately am called over by an agitated mother whose infant came in with respiratory distress 30 minutes earlier. Any moment they would be transferred to the intensive care unit I hurry over, worried a crisis with her infant awaits me. She wants to talk about the shooting. In despair, she asks how she can send her other child to kindergarten the next day. Its not safe, she says, clutching her sick infant to her chest. I let the irony of the moment sink in. Of all the things this mother must worry about, whether her children will be murdered at school should not be among them. The lack of gun control legislation in the U.S. is criminal. The increasing frequency of mass shootings and the tragic death count has long established this as a public health emergency. Mass shootings in the U.S., defined as when four or more victims are shot or killed, are rising. The numbers are unfathomable. According to the Gun Violence Archive, in 2022 alone, there were 212 mass shootings. Twenty-seven of these were school shootings. In the past decade, each year has tallied more shootings than days in the year with an ever-increasing rise. 2021 recorded 693 mass shootings, surpassing the 611 in 2020 and the 417 in 2019. Without gun control improvements, we can expect that 2022 will prove the deadliest year yet. The main culprit in the lack of gun control legislation lies with the Senates filibuster power to block national policy, as it is based on the votes of individual states rather than the majority vote. There is, in fact, a majority consensus in America in favor of gun-control measures such as universal background checks and assault-weapon bans. However, the disproportionate power of small Republican states was made clear in 2013, after the Sandy Hook shooting, when the Senate blocked the bill imposing background checks on gun sales despite representing a minority opinion. To prevent future stalemates in the Senate, the filibuster must be addressed. The deep underpinnings of gun ownership in America must be understood in the historical context of the Second Amendment. The right to bear arms is inextricably intertwined with the idea of American freedom, and groups such as the NRA have pitted any efforts at gun control against this fundamental right. But at what point does this right infringe on the rights of indefensible children? To be sure, eliminating guns in the U.S. is unlikely, so what next? Do we provide teachers with training and firearms? Augment school security? This would be futile against an automatic weapon or determined school shooter. Gun control is by no means a cure-all to gun violence, but it has reduced death rates in countries such as Japan, the U.K., and Australia. It is a start that must be taken. Passing gun control laws will not be easy. To reform the filibuster power the Senate holds will require fighting legal, political, social, and ideological barriers. And yet it must be done. With each new headline of a shooting, it feels as though America has found its emotional breaking point. Surely this will be the news story that tips legislation. Let us not become numb to the rising body counts. We can be bystanders no longer. Marina Mai is a medical student. Image credit: Shutterstock.com Funding is being made available to allow local authorities buy vacant buildings to be converted and developed for community use, it has been announced. Up to 400,000 will be available to each local authority to spend in 2022. The Minister for Rural and Community Development, Heather Humphreys TD, announced the new funding stream on Friday to support local authorities. The funding, which is being made available under the Town and Village Renewal Scheme, aims to support the continued regeneration of our rural towns and villages so that they are attractive, vibrant places for people to live and work. The scale of vacant buildings is set to be revealed in the latest CSO population census undertaken in recent months with anecdotal evidence of a large amount of vacant properties in towns across the country. Announcing the launch of the scheme, Minister Humphreys said: Our Rural Future, the Governments ambitious policy for rural development, prioritises the regeneration and repopulation of our rural towns and villages we want our towns to be attractive places where people want to live, work, socialise and raise a family. I am providing specific funding to local authorities this year to identify and purchase vacant and derelict buildings in rural towns and villages so that these can be taken into public ownership and converted for community use and the public good. Under the new Building Acquisition Measure up to 400,000 will be available per local authority this year. I am encouraging local authorities to engage with communities, identify suitable properties, come up with a proposal for their future use and apply to my Department for the funding. There are former bank buildings which could easily be converted into remote working hubs. Equally we know there are many community groups and voluntary organisations who need a space for local events and activities so lets renovate and repurpose some of our old town centre buildings to accommodate them," Minister Humphreys said. Priority will be afforded to projects that align with the objectives of Our Rural Future with a focus on: Purchase of vacant properties/sites for community use Enabling vacant and derelict buildings to be repurposed as community spaces / digital hubs Developing vacant sites in towns and villages into parks, green spaces and recreational amenities Development of Outdoor Dining Spaces/Plazas in town centres The Scheme typically funds rural towns and villages with a population of up to 10,000 people. Larger rural towns with a population of up to 15,000 people may be eligible where the application is particularly strong and the project will have a significant impact on the town in question. Full details of the Scheme will be published on the Departments website in the coming days. The announcement on May 27 forms part of the Our Rural Future Work Programme for 2022, which continues the focus on the renewal of our towns and villages and the continued expansion of our remote working hubs under the ConnectedHubs.ie platform. Navies of China, Gulf of Guinea countries discuss maritime security Xinhua) 11:43, May 27, 2022 BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Navies of China and the Gulf of Guinea countries on Tuesday met virtually for a symposium on the security situation in the Gulf of Guinea, a defense spokesperson said Thursday. The virtual event saw the participation of the Gulf of Guinea countries' naval and coast guard leaders, and officials from relevant regional organizations, said Wu Qian, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of National Defense, at a regular press conference. Commander of the People's Liberation Army Navy Dong Jun attended the event and delivered a keynote speech. In-depth discussions and exchanges were carried out on topics such as maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea and sustainable economic development, the role of maritime forces in ensuring peace and development in the Gulf of Guinea, and new prospects for China-Africa maritime security cooperation. The symposium was aimed at strengthening maritime security cooperation between the Chinese military and the armed forces of countries around the Gulf of Guinea, the spokesperson said. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Instacart says searches for baby formula hit a record high in mid-May but the on-demand grocery delivery site is struggling to fulfill orders because its stores remain severely understocked amid the ongoing national formula shortage. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. By Lee Hae-rin Jeju International Airport will resume international flights in June for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago. According to Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Friday, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport approved the resumption of international flight operations in Jeju airport starting next month. Since April 2020, the entry of international travelers to the country has been restricted within Incheon International Airport to control the spread of the coronavirus as well as seven other international airports in the country, including Jeju. Jeju Air will begin with nonscheduled chartered flights to Bangkok on June 2 and 6. Singapore's low-cost airline Scoot will resume regular operations between Jeju and Singapore three times a week from June 15 to 30. The Jeju provincial government plans to implement quarantine measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. In partnership with the Korea Airports Corporation (KAC), a public enterprise that runs the airport, the airport will operate temporary quarantine facilities for unvaccinated international travelers and those who test positive on a PCR test upon arrival. These travelers will be carried via special transportation. Earlier this month, in response to growing demand for inbound travel, the Ministry of Justice resumed temporary visa waivers to tour groups of foreign nationality visiting Jeju Island for up to 30 days. Meanwhile, low-cost carriers are showing signs of recovery in international flight operations as the COVID-19 travel restrictions are eased. Korean low-cost carrier Air Premia announced Friday that it will begin flights between Incheon and Singapore on June 29. The flights are scheduled for twice a week at first, and the service will increase to three times a week in July, the airliner said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seen on a screen as he addresses the audience from Kyiv during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, May 23. Zelenskyy plans to invite Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to a conference to discuss the country's post-war reconstruction in July. AP-Yonhap By Kwon Mee-yoo Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy plans to invite Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol to a conference for rebuilding Ukraine following Russia's invasion in early July. The Ukraine Recovery Conference (URC2022) is scheduled to take place in Lugano, Switzerland on July 4 and 5. Formerly named the Ukraine Reform Conference, the event was renamed to highlight the new focus of the gathering amid the current conditions. The Ukrainian embassy in Seoul said an official joint invitation by Zelenskyy and the Swiss president will be sent out in a couple of days. Yoon had a phone call with Zelenskyy in late March as the president-elect where he expressed his support for Ukraine, proposing a meeting with Zelenskyy after the war ends. The invitation to the conference shows how Korea now has greater international responsibility to fulfill as the world's 10th largest economy. As of early May, Korea has provided about $40 million in humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. President Yoon Suk-yeol arrives at the presidential office in Yongsan District, central Seoul, Friday. Yonhap The conference, co-hosted by Ukraine and Switzerland, aims to discuss Ukraine's post-war reconstruction and development in cooperation with international partners. Zelenskyy noted the war-torn country's high hopes for the conference during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, May 23. "I invite you to take part in reconstruction of Ukraine after the war. The scope of work is colossal. We have more than half a trillion dollars in losses, tens of thousands of objects have been destroyed. It is necessary to restore entire cities and industries," Zelenskyy said during the forum. "We offer a special historical and weighty recovery model, when each partner country or partner city, or partner company will have a historical opportunity to take patronage over this or that region of Ukraine, city or community, or industry," he said. He added that by the start of the international conference in Lugano, he hopes partner states and the world's leading companies will present proposal packages for Ukraine's reconstruction. U.S. President Joe Biden boards Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland on May 19, as he travels to South Korea and Japan on his first trip to Asia as president. UPI-Yonhap By Nam Hyun-woo South Korea and the United States will discuss ways to strengthen their partnerships in nuclear energy during President Yoon Suk-yeol's summit with visiting U.S. President Joe Biden scheduled to be held on Saturday. Biden is anticipated to touch down at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek on Friday evening, and attend a summit with Yoon on Saturday. Yoon told reporters on Friday that the summit "will be an opportunity for the Seoul-Washington alliance to become more comprehensive and stronger in the wake of many changes to global society." Smoke and dirt rise from the city of Severodonetsk, during shelling in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, May 26, amid Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine said May 26 that the war in the east of the country had hit its fiercest level yet as it urged Western allies to match words with support against the invading Russian forces. Moscow's troops are pushing into the industrial Donbas region after failing to take the capital Kyiv, closing in on several urban centers including the strategically located Severodonetsk and Lysychansk. AFP-Yonhap WHO member states strongly condemned Russia's war in Ukraine and attacks on healthcare facilities in a resolution overwhelmingly adopted Thursday. The resolution, carried by 88 votes to 12 at the World Health Organization's annual assembly, did not impose any sanctions on Russia but underlined Moscow's isolation on the international stage in yet another global forum. The resolution "condemns in the strongest terms" Russia's "military aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on healthcare facilities." It urged Russia to "immediately cease any attacks on hospitals" and other healthcare sites. Ukrainian Ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko said the Feb. 24 full-scale Russian invasion had triggered a huge health and humanitarian crisis in and outside the country. The assembly "must be crystal-clear about where responsibility for this health crisis lies: it lies with the Russian Federation," she said. The resolution was brought by Ukraine and co-sponsored by countries including the United States, Britain, Japan, Turkey and all members of the European Union except Hungary. Of the 194 WHO member states, 183 had the right to vote. Eighty-eight voted in favor and 12 against, with 53 abstentions and 30 countries absent. The resolution said the war was seriously impeding access to healthcare in Ukraine and having wider health implications across the region. It also urged Russia to respect and protect all medical and humanitarian personnel as well as the sick and wounded, in line with international law. The resolution also called for safe, rapid and unhindered access to people in need of help, and the free flow of essential medicines and equipment. A woman looks out from window of her apartment in the city of Lysychansk, a city without electricity and water, in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donbas, May 26. AFP-Yonhap 256 attacks on healthcare The WHO has verified 256 separate attacks on healthcare in Ukraine since the Russian invasion. The WHO said 75 people have died and 59 have been injured. No Yes, a light case Yes, two or more light cases One serious case Two or more serious bouts Vote View Results THE Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) has been recognised for its fight for the welfare of civil servants, winning an international human rights award on Thursday. Artuz was recognised among other four rights defenders from Afghanistan, Belarus, Sudan and Mexico by the Irish-based human rights organisation, Front Line Defenders (FLD). In 2015, Artuz launched the safe schools campaign to prevent schools from being used as political means. In 2018, the union sued the electoral commission for denying teachers the right to vote during elections, FLD said in a statement yesterday. In the past 12 months, the union handled 132 cases of teachers who were forcibly transferred for being members of the union. 220 members have been arrested, detained and beaten by state security forces. In January 2022, 16 teachers who were part of a group of peaceful protestors protesting for a living wage were beaten, arrested and incarcerated. They were released on bail on January 17, 2022. The FLD applauded the union for developing a remote teaching toolkit for use by teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Artuz members have been arrested and attacked for their work. Artuz has pushed for the adoption of the Education Equalisation Fund, which would support young girls and pregnant girls in receiving an education. Newsday Millions of students who participated in virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic had their personal data and online behaviors tracked by educational apps and websites without their consent and in many cases shared with third-party advertising technology companies, a new report has found. Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy organization, this week published the findings of an investigation conducted from March 2021 to August 2021 that looked into the educational services, including online learning tools, used by students all over the world when school districts shifted to remote learning. Of the 164 products reviewed across 49 countries, Human Rights Watch found 146 (89%) appeared to engage in data practices that "risked or infringed on children's rights." These practices included monitoring or having the ability to monitor children without the students' or parents' consent, and collecting a range of personal data, according to the report, such as their identity, location, their online activity and behaviors, and information about their family and friends. "Children, parents, and teachers were largely kept in the dark," Hye Jung Han, children's rights and technology researcher at Human Rights Watch, told CNN Business. "But even if they had known what was going on, they had no choice. Children had to either use these products and pay for it with their privacy, or be marked as absent and drop out of school during COVID-19." Han said the majority of the apps and websites examined by Human Rights Watch sent information about children to Google and Facebook, which collectively dominate the digital advertising market. A spokesperson for Facebook-parent Meta told CNN Business the company has policies around how businesses can share children's data and advertising restrictions for how minors can be targeted. A Google spokesperson said it requires developers and customers to abide by data and privacy protections, and prohibits any personalized or marketing ads aimed at minors' accounts. "We are investigating the specific report claims and will take appropriate action if we find policy violations," the spokesperson said. The report was shared with a consortium of more than a dozen international news outlets, including The Washington Post, The Globe and Mail, and El Mundo. Albert Fox Cahn, founder and executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project and a fellow at the NYU School of Law, said the findings add to mounting concerns around the collection of data among young people. In recent months, there has been intense scrutiny from lawmakers about the impact tech platforms have on teens. "We already knew technologies were being abused and putting children at risk, but this report is really important because it shows the scale of harm and how the same mistake is being made by educators and governments around the world," he said. Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a US law, policies are in place to provide broad privacy protections for student educational records and protect them from invasive online tracking. "But schools and tech firms are circumventing the laws we're supposed to have that make it harder for advertisers to track students and minors online," Cahn said. "Platforms that, through loopholes, can make students some of the most surveilled individuals on the planet." John Davisson, director of litigation and senior counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, called the issue "a regulatory failure, pure and simple." But he said he's encouraged by the Federal Trade Commission recently warning edtech vendors about their obligations to protect children's privacy. Last week, the FTC announced plans to crack down on companies illegally surveilling children during online learning. "Students must be able to do their schoolwork without surveillance by companies looking to harvest their data to pad their bottom line," said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, in a statement. "Parents should not have to choose between their children's privacy and their participation in the digital classroom." Bart Willemsen, an analyst at research firm Gartner who focuses on privacy issues, said schools and ed tech providers have a responsibility to be fully transparent about what they're potentially doing with data, have detailed control over how it is used, and establish why the data is needed at all. "The data must serve a purpose, but the purpose cannot be advertising," he said. "If it is not something we do in physical classrooms, it is not something that should be part of digital school life." He also said the collection of this type of information could have a long-lasting impact on their children's digital footprint, as that data is not easily erased. "Parents have a role here," he said. "Yet in situations like these, their strongest action is to let their voice be heard." ___ Patrons at a recently-opened establishment can purchase drinks but will have to wait a little while longer to purchase food. Kevin Singh, co-owner of Guac Star, said the bar area of the restaurant currently is open on the weekends, but the opening of the restaurant area has been delayed because he is still waiting to receive some equipment. Guac Star, 120 Broad St. in Lake Geneva, is in the former the location of the Wicked Poke Hut, which closed for business in December 2021. Singh said he hopes to have the restaurant area open within the next couple of weeks. He said some equipment has not arrived because of supply chain issues. The restaurant initially was set to open in early spring. With the supply chain, with everything the way it is, everything has been delayed, Singh said. So hopefully within the next couple of weeks, I should have the restaurant side open. The bar area currently offers frozen wine drinks, margaritas, pina coladas and a selection of beer, including crafted beer from Topsy Turvy Brewery in Lake Geneva, as well as chips and guacamole and chips and salsa. Members of the Lake Geneva City Council unanimously approved a fermented malt beverage Class B liquor license and a wine Class C liquor license for the business, Jan. 10. Once the restaurant area is open, it will feature made-to-order tacos, burritos and quesadillas. Its all made to order and by the time you get to the register, your food is ready, Singh said. Theres no waiting. Everything is quick. You can sit down at our restaurant or bar area. The restaurant is set to offer an outdoor seating area in the near future. Guac Star currently includes five employees, and Singh said he plans to hire more workers in the future. With the way it is now, well manage to get by but the plan is to have more employees, he said. Singh said he is looking forward to the opening of the restaurant area. Its a little chaotic, but were managing and were excited to open, Singh said. Were basically at the finish line now. Singh also is the co-owner of Going Bananas, located in the lower level of the Riviera, 812 Wrigley Drive, which is set to open during Memorial Day weekend. Were getting ready for the holiday rush, he said. Singh purchased the 120 Broad St. location from the former Wicked Poke Hut owners Karen Schultz and Joshua Bernicchi late last year. Get local news delivered to your inbox! Subscribe to our Daily Headlines newsletter. Sign up! * I understand and agree that registration on or use of this site constitutes agreement to its user agreement and privacy policy. Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 27 (ANI/BusinessWire India): MIT School of Government (MIT SOG) under the aegis of MIT World Peace University, Pune organised the Convocation Ceremony of the 14th and 15th Batch of its flagship program Master's in Political Leadership and Government. The degrees were awarded at the hands of Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati, Hon'ble Governor of Mizoram and General (Dr.) V.K. Singh, Hon'ble Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways & Civil Aviation, Government of India. Also Read | RR vs RCB, IPL 2022 Qualifier 2 Live Cricket Streaming: Watch Free Telecast of Rajasthan Royals vs Royal Challengers Bangalore on Star Sports and Disney+ Hotstar Online. The convocation took place in the august presence of Mr Gajanan Kirtikar, Hon'ble Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha; Revered Prof. Dr Vishwanath D. Karad, Founder & Chief Patron, MAEER's MIT, Pune and President of MIT World Peace University; Rahul V Karad, Managing Trustee & Executive President, MAEER and Executive President, MIT World Peace University. The MIT School of Government (MIT-SOG), a constituent unit of MIT World Peace University (MIT-WPU), Pune, is the first institute of its kind to initiate a two-year Master's degree program in Political Leadership & Government for a Career in Politics. It is the brainchild of the visionary educationist Mr Rahul V Karad, the Executive President of Dr. Vishwanath Karad MIT World Peace University with a vision of creating Ethical, Spirited and Committed Political Leadership for the country from all walks of life. Also Read | Gyanvapi Row: VVSS Demands Ban on Disclosure of Gyanvapi Video Contents To Maintain Communal Harmony. A total of 59 students were conferred with a Master's degree in Political Leadership and Government by the University in 2022. Over 450 number of candidates have passed out from MIT School of Government since its establishment in 2005. Gajanan Kirtikar, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha (Shiv Sena) said, "School of Government is a great initiative of MIT WPU. Students from MIT SOG are trained individuals who have helped me throughout my session in the politics from strategizing to winning the elections. Students from MIT SOG will be a great asset for political parties, to the MPs and MLAs by helping in managing organizational responsibilities in the coming future." Retd. General (Dr.) Vijay Kumar Singh, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, ADC; Hon'ble Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways & Civil Aviation, Govt. Of India, said, "Students are the backbone of our democracy and they must have a vision and will to work hard to achieve their goals despite the obstacles they face. To become a successful leader of tomorrow, they must persist in the face of adversity." Dr Hari Babu Kambhampati, Hon'ble Governor of Mizoram said, "Formal training in any field contributes in efficiency and effectiveness at workplace. Formal training in political leadership and governance is the need of the hour and government should encourage and aid youth who wish to join the politics by means of providing robust training to students. Government should foster institutions like MIT- SOG which not only encourage people to get trained in politics but also become the leaders of tomorrow." Rahul V Karad, Managing Trustee & Executive President, MAEER and Executive President, MIT World Peace University, said, "MIT SOG aims to create leaders from grassroot level who will lay the path transformation through good governance. MIT SOG students have not only gone to work with leaders from various political parties and have aided the electoral success of politicians but have also worked with NGOs, think tanks, policy research, campaign planning, election analysis and so on." Students from earlier batches of MIT SOG have found opportunities in functional politics with the offices of political parties, Members of Parliament, Speakers of various State Assemblies, Chief Ministers, Members of various State Legislative Assemblies and Ministries in various roles such as Political Analyst, Policy Research Associate, Political Consultant, Political Strategist, Constituency manager, Election & Campaign manager, Media Analyst, Elections Analyst, Public Relations Officer, Social Media Analyst and so on. Over the years, MIT SOG has established itself as one of the India's foremost schools in political training and governance. MIT SOG is known for its cutting-edge infrastructure and vibrant curriculum, as well as its illustrious alumni list. The institution's committed faculty guarantees that the courses meet the needs of the transitioning industry. The campus, which strives to strike a balance between academics and extracurricular activities, is not only pleasant to look at, but it's also well equipped with opportunities for its students to become future leaders. This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) London [UK], May 27 (ANI/BusinessWire India): India's Minister for Commerce and Industry, Piyush Goyal, formally flagged off UK-India Week 2022, organised by UK-headquartered India Global Forum (IGF), at a special curtain raiser event in London with a positive message of a win-win Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in the works for the two nations. In conversation with IGF Founder Professor Manoj Ladwa at Taj 51 Buckingham Gate on May 26th evening, the senior Indian Cabinet Minister shared insights on a wide range of subjects - from his recent interactions at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos with businesses around the world keen on investing in the India story to the Narendra Modi led government's increasingly FTA-friendly and outward-looking engagement with the world. Also Read | Prof Haberal Has Tirelessly Raised Awareness About the Importance of Organ Transplantation Latest Tweet by World Health Organization. The minister said: "There's a big difference between the mood in India and the mood in the rest of the world. In India, there's a lot of excitement about the future, our young India is looking at the future with great hope and aspiration. Davos, unfortunately, represented quite a bit of doom and gloom. Most of the engagements showed that participants were very disturbed, concerned, slightly pessimistic about the future of multilateralism, already talking about deglobalisation. We in India look at the future with great optimism, we believe these things will also pass as have many other challenges. India is ready to engage with the world from a position of strength." On the subject of FTAs, he pointed to the two fast deals clinched with the UAE and Australia, with Canada progressing well towards an Early Harvest Agreement. Also Read | Mumbai: BMC To Launch Shiv Yoga Kendras From June 1 Across 24 Wards in the City. The minister added: "With the UK, we had agreed to do an Early Harvest Agreement - basically, to grab the low-hanging fruits and leave the more difficult elements for the next stage and give the people of both countries the confidence that this agreement is a win-win and create an automatic demand for more. But the way things are progressing, we'll actually land up doing a full FTA with the UK by Diwali. We are working towards a fair deal and a win-win for both countries." The event brought together prominent UK-based parliamentarians, business chiefs and academics to set the tone for IGF's UK-India Week 2022 next month, themed around Reimagine@75 - as a celebration of 75 years of India's independence and UK-India ties. HE Gaitri Issar Kumar, the Indian High Commissioner to the UK, said: "Our teams are looking at the possibility of completing the trade agreement as fast as possible. In fact, Hon. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has invited our Hon. Prime Minister [Narendra Modi] to come to London and announce the Free Trade Agreement with him. I have no doubt that under the stewardship of Hon. Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and Rt Hon. Trade Secretary Madam Anne-Marie Trevelyan, we will move with the greatest speed and efficiency towards this target." Minister Goyal, who is on a visit to the UK, has been holding talks with his UK counterpart - Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan - and engaging with business chiefs and stakeholders to ensure progress towards a UK-India FTA. The trade talks are expected to be central to the wide-ranging deliberations and interactions planned for UK-India Week across various sectors, with some of the highlight speakers confirmed as: Rt Hon Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer, UK Government Dr S. Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India Bill Winters, CEO, Standard Chartered Harmeen Mehta, Chief Digital & Innovation Officer, BT Virat Bhatia, Managing Director, Apple Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament for Thiruvananthapuram, Lok Sabha Falguni Nayar, Founder and CEO, Nykaa Amit Kapur, CEO, UK &Ireland, TCS Complete list here. Prof. Manoj Ladwa, Chairman & CEO of the India Inc. Group said: "India Global Forum is celebrating 75 years of India's independence. We'll be showcasing the investments, the collaborations and the solutions needed to achieve what Mr Modi has called a quantum leap in UK-India relations. Across five invigorating days, we'll be joined by over 100 leading politicians, global business leaders, innovators and disruptors from the UK, India and beyond as they discuss, debate and deliberate global developments, their impact on India and the UK and how businesses can thrive in the face of challenging global events." The curtain raiser in London also marked the launch of the Shortlist for the UK-India Awards, slated for 1 July 2022. *Watch the Curtain Raiser here *Full UK-India Week programme here This story is provided by BusinessWire India. ANI will not be responsible in any way for the content of this article. (ANI/BusinessWire India) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Alan White, longtime drummer for the rock band Yes, has died. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Alan White passed away after a "short illness." He was 72. The news of his demise was shared by the Yes band on their Instagram handle. "The news has shocked and stunned the entire YES family. Ray Liotta Dies at 67: Jeffrey Wright, Cary Elwes, Viola Davis and Other Celebs Mourn the Demise of the Hollywood Star. Alan had been looking forward to the forthcoming UK Tour, to celebrating his 50th Anniversary with YES and their iconic Close to the Edge album, where Alan's journey with YES began in July 1972," the band wrote alongside a photo of their drummer of 50 years. Ray Liotta Dies at 67; Actor Was Best Known for His Roles in Field of Dreams and Goodfellas. "He recently celebrated the 40th Anniversary of his marriage to his loving wife Gigi. Alan passed away, peacefully at home," the band added. Alan White joined Yes in the summer of 1972 after original drummer Bill Bruford left to join King Crimson. Before that, John Lennon, in 1969, invited him to join the late Beatle and Yoko Ono's Plastic Ono Band. White contributed to Lennon's Imagine album, including the iconic title track. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Srinagar (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], May 27 (ANI): Four terrorists of the proscribed terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), including two who were involved in killing TV artiste Amreen Bhat have been shot dead in two separate anti-terrorist operations in Jammu and Kashmir, police said Friday. Also, police said that one hybrid terrorist was also arrested along with arms and ammunition in the Bemina area of Srinagar. Also Read | Germany Respects Indias Stand on Ukraine Conflict, Says Ambassador Lindner Read @ANI Latest Tweet by ANI Digital. According to Jammu and Kashmir Police, acting on a specific input generated by Awantipora Police regarding the presence of terrorists in village Aghanzipora area of Awantipora, a joint cordon and search operation was launched by Police, Army and CRPF. As per the police, two local terrorists identified as Shahid Mushtaq Bhat resident of Budgam, and Farhan Habib resident of Pulwama linked with proscribed terror outfit LeT were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission Latest Update: Centre Likely To Hike Dearness Allowance to 38% for Government Employees. Addressing media persons, IGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar said that both the killed terrorists had joined terror ranks recently and were involved in the killing of artiste Amreen Bhat on May 25 in the Chadoora area of Budgam under the directions of LeT Commander Lateef. Besides, after getting input about the movement of terrorists from South Kashmir to Srinagar city and tracked their presence in the Soura area of Srinagar, a special and small team of Srinagar Police launched a cordon and search operation in the said area. During the search, as the presence of terrorists was ascertained and the search party proceeded towards the suspected spot the hiding terrorists fired indiscriminately upon the search party which was retaliated leading to an encounter. In the ensuing encounter, two terrorists of the proscribed terror outfit LeT were killed and their bodies were retrieved from the site of the encounter. They have been identified as Shakir Ahmad Waza and Afreen Aftab Malik both residents of Trenz Shopian, the police said. As per police records, both the killed terrorist were categorized terrorists and were part of groups involved in several terror crime cases including attacks on Police and security forces. Incriminating materials, a huge cache of arms, and ammunition were recovered from both the sites of the encounter. All the recovered materials have been taken into case records for further investigation. IGP Kashmir congratulated the joint teams of Police/SF for their valour and determination to neutralize and avenge the killing of artiste Amreen Bhat within 24 hours. He also termed these operations as a big success and said that during the past three days 10 terrorists including three from Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and seven from LeT proscribed terror outfits have been neutralized in the Kashmir valley. In another action, Srinagar Police along with security forces have arrested one hybrid terrorist of proscribed terror outfit LeT from the Bemina area along with arms and ammunition. An individual suspiciously approaching towards the checkpoint was challenged and apprehended tactfully by the alert party, police said in a press statement. He has identified himself as Nasir Ahmad Dar, a resident of Gund Brath Sopore. On his personal search, one pistol, one magazine, and five live rounds were recovered from his possession. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Guwahati, May 27: The Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) from the Ministry of Home Affairs on Thursday reached Guwahati to examine the districts affected critically due to the flood in Assam and interacted with the State Revenue Department and the officials of Assam State Disaster Management Authority. One group of the IMCT team, comprising the leader Ravinesh Kumar, FA, NDMA; Anjali Maurya, Assistant Director of Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance; Adelbert Sungi, Regional Officer of Ministry of Road Transport; P. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, Joint Secretary and Joint CEO, ASDMA, have scheduled their visit to flood-hit Cachar on Friday and will be visiting Dima Hasao on Saturday (May 28). Assam Floods: Death Toll Rises to 30, Marginal Improvement in Situation. Another group of IMCT, including Jintu Das, Joint Director of Ministry of Agriculture; Ajay Kumar Sinha, Superintendent Engineer of Ministry of Jal Shakti; Kailash Shankla, Under Secretary of Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India will visit Darrang, Nagaon, and Hojai on today and tomorrow (May 27 and May 28). As per the ASDMA reports, nearly 5.61 lakh people in 12 districts of Assam-- Nagaon, Cachar, Morigaon, Dima Hasao, Goalpara, Golaghat, Hailakandi, Hojai, Kamrup, Kamrup (Metro), Karbi Anglong West, Sonitpur are still affected in the deluge. Although the overall condition has significantly improved in the state, the ASDMA reports suggest nearly 3.68 lakh people in Nagaon, alone, continue to remain affected while as many as 1.50 lakh people in Cachar and 41,036 in Morigaon district are distressed.The death toll due to flood and landslides raised to 30 after two persons in the Nagaon district were reported dead after drowning in the flood. The report further stated that 47,139.12 hectares of cropland and 956 villages are still under the water and 66,839 people are currently lodged in 295 relief camps. (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, May 27 (PTI) A 24-year-old auto-rickshaw driver was stabbed to death in south Delhi's Sangam Vihar area on Friday, police said. Information about the incident that took place on street number 15 in Sangam Vihar was received about 6.35 pm, a senior police officer said. Also Read | Hyderabad Shocker: Married Woman Stabbed by Stalker on Busy Road in Broad Daylight (Watch Video). Police reached the spot and found that a man was stabbed by some people. The injured was shifted to Batra Hospital where he was declared brought dead, the officer said. The injured was identified as Sangam, a resident of Ratia Marg, Sangam Vihar. He was an auto-rickshaw driver, they said. Also Read | Gurugram: 10 Sacks of Lemons, 35 Crates of Tomatoes Stolen From Wholesale Vegetable Market. A case under section 302 (murder) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered at Sangam Vihar police station and three accused have been identified. Further investigation is underway, police said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], May 27 (ANI): The Bharatiya Janata Party slammed Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin for bringing up several ongoing issues while sharing the stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Chennai on Thursday. In a series of tweets, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai vehemently criticised Stalin for it. Also Read | Monsoon Onset Over Kerala Can Happen Anytime Till June 1, Says IMD. Taking to Twitter, K Annamalai wrote, "As an ordinary citizen of India and a proud Tamil, I am absolutely ashamed by the appalling conduct of TN CM @mkstalin. Hon PM @narendramodi had come as the PM, not for a BJP programme. Our CM was expected to show grace but he ended up disgracing himself." Stalin appealed to the Central Government to return the central Goods and Service Tax (GST) dues of Rs 14,006 crore to the state. Also Read | GST Return: Govt Waives Late Fee Till June for Delayed Filing of GST Returns Under Composition Scheme. "I appeal to the Government to return the central GST dues of Rs 14,006 crore to our state. I also appeal to the Prime Minister that Tamil should be announced as an official language at the High court," Stalin said. Attacking Stalin on GST issues, Annamalai said, "On the issue of GST, CM @mkstalin must be schooled that the GST council decisions were always taken by consensus. On compensation too, the TN Government took the option which provides payment of balance compensation after July 2022. They are making issues out of non-issues." "CM @mkstalin keeps speaking of federalism but insults the GST Council, a shining example of federalism. The dues are paid as per a formula jointly worked out. CM @mkstalin thinks that only his whims should matter. Typical dynastic entitlement that doesn't understand consensus. Now, GST revenues have increased significantly over the last one year and all states including Tamil Nadu are benefiting. But, does @mkstalin or DMK ever care for facts? They are only interested in politic," added the state BJP chief. The Chief Minister further requested PM Modi to exempt Tamil Nadu from the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) exam and asked PM to get back to Katchatheevu Island from (Sri Lanka) so the Indian fishermen can fish freely in the sea. Reacting to this, Annamalai said, "Our CM @mkstalin wants to talk about Katchatheevu island but he forgets that the island was gifted to Sri Lanka by none other than Smt Indira Gandhi in 1974. Since 1974, DMK and Congress have formed alliances, looted the people together. Why this sudden awakening?" Stalin urged PM Modi to declare Tamil as the official language, like Hindi, at Union government offices and the Madras High Court. Criticising the CM, Annamalai said, "On language, PM @narendramodi has expressed his affection for the Tamil language, literature & culture on multiple occasions. I don't think @mkstalin needs an answer because I am sure he also does not believe what he said on the issue. He was only doing petty politics." The Prime Minister, on Thursday, launched several new schemes and development projects. (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, May 27 (PTI) BJP national spokesperson Nupur Sharma on Friday alleged that she and her family were receiving death threats. She took to Twitter to inform the Delhi Police about the threatening messages received by her. Also Read | Hyderabad Shocker: Married Woman Stabbed by Stalker on Busy Road in Broad Daylight (Watch Video). "@DelhiPolice @CPDelhi I am getting continuous death and beheading threats against my family and myself which are egged on by @zoo_bear because of his attempts to incite communal passions and vitiate the atmosphere by building a fake narrative. Attaching a few pics. Please note," Sharma tweeted. In its reply to the tweet, the city police said, "The matter has been forwarded to the concerned officials for necessary action. You will be contacted shortly." Also Read | Gurugram: 10 Sacks of Lemons, 35 Crates of Tomatoes Stolen From Wholesale Vegetable Market. (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], May 27 (ANI): The Border Security Force (BSF) on Friday apprehended one more Pakistani fisherman and seized five other Pakistani fishing boats near-horizontal channel of Harami Nala in Gujarat's Bhuj, the force said. This was part of an operation conducted by the BSF on Thursday in which the border guarding force apprehended two Pakistani fishermen and seized four country-made Pakistani fishing boats from the same area. Also Read | Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh Admitted to ICU of KEM Hospital in Mumbai Latest Tweet by ANI. The BSF Bhuj has apprehended three Pakistani fishermen and has seized nine Pakistani fishing boats till now. "During the intensive search operation launched on May 26 and continued entire night, today morning, Patrol of BSF Bhuj apprehended one more Pakistani fisherman and seized five more Pakistani fishing boats from the horizontal channel of Harami Nala," Public Relations Officer (PRO)BSF Gujarat Frontier said in a statement. Also Read | Yogi Adityanath Led Government Empowering Women Through Various Schemes. As per the statement, the search party fired three rounds during the course of the chase to encircle and apprehend the Pakistani Fisherman. "Nothing suspicious recovered from the boats except for fish, fishing nets, and fishing equipment. An intensive search of the area is going on," the BSF further said. Earlier on Thursday, the BSF apprehended two Pakistani fishermen and seized four country-made Pakistani fishing boats near the horizontal channel of Harami Nala in Gujarat's Bhuj, the force said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) PM Modi flies a drone at the Bharat Drone Mahotsav, in New Delhi on Friday. New Delhi [India], May 27 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday tried his hand at flying a drone during the inauguration of the two-day Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. https://twitter.com/ANI/status/1530133607158730752 Also Read | Mumbai: Eastern Freeway Named After Former Maharashtra CM Late Vilasrao Deshmukh. Here he interacted with Kisan drone pilots and witnessed open-air drone demonstrations in the drone exhibition centre. Earlier today, while inaugurating the event, PM Modi termed drones as a 'game-changer' in the agriculture sector and pointed out the need for drones to improve last-mile healthcare delivery. Also Read | Oppo A57, Oppo A57s Tipped To Launch in India Soon; Specifications Leaked Online. The Prime Minister also said, in the last few months, the government has removed most of the restrictions regarding the usage of drones. "We are also introducing PLI Scheme that will help us build a drone manufacturing ecosystem in India," said PM Modi. PM Modi, at the event, invited investors and experts from across the globe to come to India and invest in drone technology. "I request all startups and the youth to work towards developing solutions for better development outcomes, using drones," he said. Bharat Drone Mahotsav is a two-day event and is being held on May 27-28. Over 1,600 delegates comprising government officials, foreign diplomats, armed forces, central armed police forces, PSUs, private companies and drone startups etc will participate in the Mahotsav. More than 70 exhibitors have displayed various use cases of drones at the exhibition. Mahotsav will also witness a virtual award of drone pilot certificates, product launches, panel discussions, flying demonstrations, display of a Made in India Drone Taxi prototype, among others. (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, May 27: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday tried his hand at flying a drone during the inauguration of the two-day Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 at Pragati Maidan in Delhi. Here he interacted with Kisan drone pilots and witnessed open-air drone demonstrations in the drone exhibition centre. Earlier today, while inaugurating the event, PM Modi termed drones as a 'game-changer' in the agriculture sector and pointed out the need for drones to improve last-mile healthcare delivery. The Prime Minister also said, in the last few months, the government has removed most of the restrictions regarding the usage of drones. "We are also introducing PLI Scheme that will help us build a drone manufacturing ecosystem in India," said. PM Modi. India Has the Potential of Becoming a Global Drone Hub. PM Modi, at the event, invited investors and experts from across the globe to come to India and invest in drone technology. "I request all startups and the youth to work towards developing solutions for better development outcomes, using drones," he said. Watch Video: #WATCH | PM Narendra Modi tried his hand at flying a drone during the inauguration of two-day Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022 at Pragati Maidan in Delhi pic.twitter.com/XNto9g28PY ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2022 Bharat Drone Mahotsav is a two-day event and is being held on May 27-28. Over 1,600 delegates comprising government officials, foreign diplomats, armed forces, central armed police forces, PSUs, private companies and drone startups etc will participate in the Mahotsav. More than 70 exhibitors have displayed various use cases of drones at the exhibition. Mahotsav will also witness a virtual award of drone pilot certificates, product launches, panel discussions, flying demonstrations, display of a Made in India Drone Taxi prototype, among others. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 27 (ANI): Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh was admitted to KEM Hospital in Mumbai on Friday after he complained of chest pain. "Anil Deshmukh was admitted to ICU of KEM Hospital in Mumbai after he complained of chest pain, high BP and shoulder pain," an official statement said. Also Read | Ganpati Festival Made Invaluable Contribution to National Politics, Says President Ram Nath Kovind. He is currently in jail in connection with a money laundering case. Notably, the Former Maharashtra Home Minister was arrested by ED in November, last year in connection with the alleged Rs 100-crore extortion and money laundering case. Also Read | On DD India Today: Indias Biggest Drone Festival is Here! What Did NSA Ajit Doval Latest Tweet by DD News. Former Mumbai Police Commissioner Param Bir Singh had accused Anil Deshmukh of asking dismissed assistant inspector Sachin Vaze to collect Rs 100 crore from hotels and bars in Mumbai every month. ED registered a case against Deshmukh and others based on a corruption case filed against him by the Central Bureau of Investigation. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Mohali (Punjab) [India], May 27 (ANI): Mohali court on Friday sent former AAP leader and Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla to 14-day judicial custody. Singla's lawyer HS Dhanoa said, "There will be a trial court for this and we will apply for bail soon after discussing it with the panel." Also Read | Mumbai: College Professor Reunites Runaway Minor Girl Found Alone in Local Train With Mother. Earlier on Tuesday, Punjab Health Minister Vijay Singla was sacked from the cabinet by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann. Shortly after which, he was arrested by the Anti-Corruption Branch. The Punjab Chief Minister said that the AAP has a zero-tolerance policy against corruption. He said that he has sacked Singla from the cabinet and directed Police to register a case against him. Also Read | Navneet Ranas Harassment Complaint: Privilege Committee Summons Maharashtra Chief Secretary Manu Kumar Srivastava, DGP Rajnish Seth. According to Punjab CMO, Singla was demanding 1 per cent commission from officials for contracts and he also confessed to it. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Srinagar, May 27 (PTI) Four Lashkar-e-Toiba militants, including two who were involved in killing a female TV artist, were killed in two separate encounters in Pulwama and Srinagar districts of Jammu and Kashmir, police said on Friday. An encounter broke out at Aganhanzipora locality in Awantipora area of Pulwama district late on Thursday night, a police spokesman said. Also Read | Monsoon Onset Over Kerala Can Happen Anytime Till June 1, Says IMD. He said two ultras, who were responsible for killing TV artist Amreen Bhat in Budgam district a day earlier, were trapped in the cordon. "Both killed newly joined local #terrorists identified as Shahid Mushtaq Bhat R/O Hafroo Chadoora #Budgam & Farhan Habib R/O Hakripora #Pulwama. They had #killed TV artist on the instruction of LeT Cmdr Lateef. 01 AK 56 rifle, 4 magazines and a pistol recovered," IGP Kashmir zone Vijay Kumar tweeted. Also Read | GST Return: Govt Waives Late Fee Till June for Delayed Filing of GST Returns Under Composition Scheme. Another encounter broke out in Soura area of Srinagar city where two LeT ultras were shot dead, the police said. "10 #terrorists including 3 from JeM & 7 from LeT #terror outfits killed in 3 days in #Kashmir valley. Heinous #murder case of late Ambreen bhat solved in 24 hours," Kumar said in another tweet. (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, May 27 (PTI) Germany respects India's stand on the Ukraine conflict and it never sought to criticise New Delhi over the matter, the European country's envoy here Walter J Lindner said on Friday and asserted that every nation has the right to calibrate according to its interests. Interacting with journalists at the Indian Women's Press Corps, Lindner also announced that his assignment as the German ambassador here would come to an end in some weeks and that he is retiring soon. Also Read | NIA Special Court Sentences Parbhani Convict With ISIS Links To 7 Years Of Imprisonment. The envoy said the Ukraine war had given an "extra push" and "urgency" to the efforts to work towards an EU-India free trade agreement, stressing that "we need partners to keep the trade flowing". Lindner also said there is a G7 meeting in about five weeks' time that Germany would host, and added Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been invited to attend it and he has agreed to come. Also Read | Ganpati Festival Made Invaluable Contribution to National Politics, Says President Ram Nath Kovind. Asked about India's stand on the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the German envoy said such a question was not new anymore because the war was now over three months old. "At the beginning there were negotiations within the United Nations on the adoption of resolutions and there was the expectation that India would condemn more clearly the Russian invasion, they didn't. But I think it has never damaged our relationship because we as Germans but also others in Europe have said, we respect Indian position," Lindner said. Every country in the world has its own interests, neighbourhood and dependencies, he said, adding that every nation has its right to calibrate according to its interest and regional position. "Our point was from the beginning not to criticise India...our point was to make clear what is at stake. There we share the same wave-length as India. What is at stake is if a brutal aggression like (Vladimir) Putin's war on peaceful neighbour Ukraine, an independent, sovereign state, would go unpunished, then who is next," he said. "There are quite a number of countries in the world, including big ones and including those who are close (in terms of proximity) to India, who might get some appetite...border corrections, border disputes (and may say) let's use force because Putin used force, let us do the same," Lindner said without naming any country. Asked what role he expects India to play in defusing the Ukraine crisis, Lindner said everyone will have to use his own strength to influence the stakeholders. "Everything that could be done or said to Putin has to be done right now. It is a question to talk to both sides...there is one aggressor. This aggressor does not understand the language of diplomacy anymore," the German envoy said. "I don't know what can be said to him and who can talk to him. I think anyone who had any sort of influence has already talked to him including your PM (Narendra Modi), and so far we do not see any resolution to this that is why we may increase the sanctions and make sure that Ukrainians defend themselves well," Lindner said. On efforts to work towards an India-EU trade agreement, Lindner said he was very optimistic and confident following the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month. "The setting up of negotiation teams took some time and now with this visit (of EU Commission president to India) it is an excellent push. I understand that they are already working on the first text but of course the devil is in the detail. But the most important thing is that things are happening right now and I think the Ukraine war has put some urgency into this," he said. "We need partners to keep the trade flowing in the world. If we have partners with similar values which is European Union and India, I think it gave an extra push of urgency to both sides," he added. Lindner's remarks come after European Union Executive Vice-President and Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said the EU will formally launch negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement with India "very soon". In May last year, India and the European Union (EU) announced to resume negotiations for a balanced and comprehensive trade agreement after a gap of over eight years. Later, in a tweet, Lindner said, "Soon my job as GER Amb to India & Buthan comes to an end. But in fact, since I came to IND 1976, the country has been in my veins, never left me, so this time leaving the H.E. behind is just beginning of another chapter of my exploration of IND magic & mystic. A lifelong journey." (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, May 27 (PTI) Former Haryana chief minster Om Prakash Chautala was on Friday brought to Tihar Jail here after he was awarded a four-year jail term in a disproportionate assets case, officials said. Chautala (86) was medically examined on his arrival in the prison complex. He will be lodged in a cell in jail number 2 along with two other inmates. He reached the jail around 7 pm, a senior jail official said. Also Read | India, Hungary Have New Opportunities in Green Hydrogen, Solar Energy: Meenakashi Latest Tweet by ANI Digital. Earlier too, he was lodged in jail number 2 after being convicted in another case, they said. Special Judge Vikas Dhull also imposed a fine of Rs 50 lakh on the convict in the case of acquiring disproportionate assets from 1993 to 2006. The judge also directed the authorities concerned to confiscate four of his properties. Also Read | Gurugram: 10 Sacks of Lemons, 35 Crates of Tomatoes Stolen From Wholesale Vegetable Market. The court had last week convicted Chautala and said the accused had failed to satisfactorily account for such disproportionality by proving his source of income or means by way of which, he acquired assets during this period. The CBI had filed the case in 2005, and a charge sheet was filed on March 26, 2010, accusing him of amassing assets disproportionate to his legitimate income, between 1993 and 2006. The INLD chief walked free from the Tihar Jail on July 2 last year after serving a 10-year sentence in a recruitment scam. He was jailed in 2013 in connection with a teacher recruitment scam. Chautala, his son Ajay Chautala and 53 others, including IAS officer Sanjiv Kumar, were convicted and sentenced in the case of illegal recruitment of 3,206 junior basic teachers in 2000. (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, May 27 (PTI) The iconic rifle and the soldier's war helmet, which were part of the Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate, were moved to the National War Memorial on Friday. The defence ministry said the armed Forces "shifted the inverted rifle and the helmet from India Gate, which was the symbol of fallen soldiers of 1971 war, to Param Yodha Sthal at National War Memorial". Also Read | Ganpati Festival Made Invaluable Contribution to National Politics, Says President Ram Nath Kovind. It said the rifle and the helmet were installed in the midst of busts of Param Vir Chakra awardees. "With this ceremony, the integration of the memorial of fallen soldiers of 1971 war with National War Memorial has been completed," the ministry said in a statement. Also Read | Mumbai: Eastern Freeway Named After Former Maharashtra CM Late Vilasrao Deshmukh. The ceremony was led by the Chief of Integrated Defence Staff to the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) Air Marshal BR Krishna and attended by Adjutant General equivalents from the three services. The Amar Jawan Jyoti at the India Gate was merged with the eternal flame at the National War Memorial (NWM) in January. The NWM is around 400 metres away from the India Gate. The Amar Jawan Jyoti was constructed as a memorial for Indian soldiers who were killed in action in the 1971 Indo-Pak war, which India won, leading to the creation of Bangladesh. It was inaugurated by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi on January 26, 1972. (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], May 27 (ANI): India's COVID vaccination coverage exceeded 193.11 (1,93,11,63,686) crore on Friday as per provisional reports by 7 pm, informed the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. More than 12 lakh (12,64,122) Vaccine Doses have been administered till 7 pm today. Also Read | Mumbai: College Professor Reunites Runaway Minor Girl Found Alone in Local Train With Mother. COVID vaccination for the age group 12-14 years was started on March 16, 2022. So far as many as than 3,36,21,307 adolescents have been administered with the first dose and 1,57,16,052 with the second dose of COVID vaccine. According to the Ministry, of the total doses administered so far to the health care workers (HLW's), 1,04,06,829 have received the first dose, 1,00,38,470 have received the second vaccine dose and 51,89,959 have been administered the precaution dose. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission Latest Update: Centre Likely To Hike Dearness Allowance to 38% for Government Employees. Also, 1,84,18,823 frontline workers were administered the first dose, 1,75,81,408 with the second dose and 86,11,162 with the precaution doses. In the age group 15-18 years, 5,93,86,364 doses have been administered as the first dose and 4,54,58,676 doses as the second dose. Similarly, for the age group of 45-59 years, 20,32,33,160 have received the first dose, 19,06,79,741 have received the second dose and 13,23,491 have been administered the precaution doses. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Srinagar, May 27 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh Friday reviewed the security arrangements for this year's Amarnath Yatra and asked different agencies to maintain close coordination within their ranks and among themselves for conducting the pilgrimage peacefully. The director general of police held a high-level meeting of officers from police, army and central armed paramilitary forces (CAPF) at the police headquarters. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission Latest Update: Centre Likely To Hike Dearness Allowance to 38% for Government Employees. The meeting was attended by ADG CRPF Daljit Singh Choudhary, Special DG CID J&K R R Swain, Commandant General Home Guard and Civil Defence J&K H K Lohia, ADGP Armed J&K SJM Gillani and ADGP Traffic J&K T Namgyal. The Jammu-based officers attended the meeting via video conferencing, a police spokesman said. Also Read | Manchester United Transfer News: Red Devils Keen on Signing Christopher Nkuku From RB Leipzig. "The meeting deliberated on different issues of security of camps, communication network, regulation of traffic management on national highway and other roads, parking of vehicles and deployment of forces on both the yatra routes of Pahalgam and Baltal, etc," the spokesman said. He said it was decided to deploy sufficient manpower in advance so that the camps and routes of yatra are secured and checked at the earliest. It was also decided that rescue teams be deployed by the police forces at various places to provide necessary help to the yatris. The DGP asked the officers present in the meeting to maintain a close coordination with their ranks and other security agencies to achieve better results and called for an effective mechanism and planning for smooth and peaceful conduct of the yatra. He emphasised upon officers for special focus on sensitive locations and base camps while putting in place the security arrangements. Singh said the coordination mechanisms and communication systems must be established among the counterparts of all the stakeholders of army, CAPFs, Police and Civil administration. He said that adequate and effective deployments should be made on ground to address any vulnerability. He directed the officers to revisit security plans and fine tune these at sectoral level to augment an adequate response to any exigency. Singh also emphasised putting focus on road opening parties, lateral deployment, law and order deployment to neutralise threats and meet challenges. The DGP said adequate logistics with regard to mobility, CCTVs and other security gadgets will be made available along with sufficient manpower. He said adequate arrangements with regard to disaster management be made to tackle any natural calamity. (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, May 27 (PTI) Congress MP Karti Chidamabaram on Friday wrote to Lok Speaker Speaker Om Birla alleging that during a raid CBI officers seized "highly confidential" personal notes and papers pertaining to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology of which he is a member, and sought redressal for what he said was a "breach of his parliamentary privilege". In a letter to Birla, Karti Chidambaram also said that over the course of the past few years, his family and he himself have become targets of a "relentless campaign by the present government and its investigating agencies which are trying to silence our voices of dissent by foisting one fake case after another". Also Read | Bihar: Nitish Kumar Government To Provide 10% Grant to Leather, Textile Industries. Such "targeted intimidation" of a member of the House amounts to a breach of privilege, the MP from Tamil Nadu's Sivaganga constituency said. Karti Chidambara's letter to Birla comes amid his questioning by the CBI. He appeared before the CBI for the second day on Friday to answer queries related to allegations of bribe in issuance of visas to 263 Chinese workers in 2011 when his father P Chidambaram was the home minister, officials said. Also Read | Kashmir: 10 Terrorists Belonging to JeM and LeT Killed in 3 Days. Earlier this month, CBI teams had conducted coordinated search operations at 10 locations in multiple cities in the country, including residences of the Chidambarams in Chennai and Delhi. "I am writing to you now because I have become the victim of a grossly illegal and patently unconstitutional action," Karti Chidambaram said in his letter to Birla. "The Central Bureau of Investigation in the garb of conducting an investigation into an 11-year-old decision of the Government in which I have absolutely no involvement raided my residence in Delhi," he said. In the course of this so-called raid, certain officers of the CBI seized my "highly confidential and sensitive personal notes and papers" pertaining to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information and Technology, Karti Chidambaram alleged. "Shockingly, even my draft notes and questions which I had intended to ask witnesses summoned to the Committee, were also seized," he alleged. He claimed that his handwritten notes pertaining to the depositions made to the Committee by witnesses were also seized for reasons best known to the Agency. Karti Chidambaram alleged that these actions by the CBI, in so far as they relate to "interference with my duties as a Parliamentarian, amount to a direct assault upon democratic principles on which our Parliament is founded". "I, therefore, urge you to take immediate cognizance of this issue, which is a brazen breach of my Parliamentary privilege," he said in the letter. (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], May 27 (ANI): Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will hold a meeting with the newly-appointed Lieutenant Governor of Delhi Vinai Kumar Saxena at 4 pm today. The meeting will be held in the LG Secretariat. This will be Kejriwal's maiden formal meeting with the new Lt Governor of Delhi. Also Read | Uttar Pradesh MLAs Banned From Taking Selfies Inside Assembly Premises. Vinai Kumar Saxena on Thursday was sworn in as the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi. On May 23, Saxena, the chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Commission, was appointed Delhi's new Lieutenant Governor after Anil Baijal resigned from the position last week. Also Read | Oppo A57 (2022) With MediaTek Helio G35 SoC Debuts in Thailand. A statement issued by the Rashtrapati Bhavan informed that President Ram Nath Kovind has accepted Baijal's resignation and appointed Vinai Kumar Saxena as the new Lieutenant Governor. "On behalf of the people of Delhi, I extend a warm welcome to the newly appointed Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Vinay Kumar Saxena. For the betterment of Delhi, he will get full cooperation from the cabinet of Delhi Government," said Chief Minister Kejriwal in a Twitter post following the appointment of Saxena. Baijal, who served as Delhi LG for five years and four months, resigned citing personal reasons. (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, May 27 (PTI) Sri Lankan High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda on Friday met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and explored the possibility of India increasing its financial assistance to the island nation to help it deal with its severe economic crisis. In the meeting, Moragoda reiterated that Sri Lanka would require "bridging finance" until the economic adjustment programme with the IMF could be negotiated and finalised, according to the Sri Lankan High Commission. Also Read | Brendon McCullum Does Not Think His Coaching Inexperience at International Level is an Latest Tweet by ANI Digital. "In this context, the minister and the High Commissioner explored the possibility of increasing and restructuring the assistance provided by India in the form of credits for essential commodities and fuel as well as the balance of payment support," it said in a statement. It said the high commissioner and the Indian finance minister evaluated the status of ongoing economic cooperation and discuss the way forward. Also Read | 7th Pay Commission Latest Update: Centre Likely To Hike Dearness Allowance to 38% for Government Employees. "High Commissioner Moragoda thanked Minister Sitharaman for the continuation of assistance that India is extending to Sri Lanka in the form of credits for essential commodities and fuel, and also for the balance of payment support," the mission said. "He particularly appreciated her taking up the case of Sri Lanka on the sidelines of the IMF Spring Meetings in April in Washington DC, with the IMF, other multilateral institutions and bilateral development partners," it said. Moragoda briefed Sitharaman on the present developments in Sri Lanka. The meeting took place in the midst of widespread protests in Sri Lanka over the severe economic crisis. (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, May 27 (PTI) The NHRC on Friday issued a notice to the Uttar Pradesh government over reports that a woman and her two daughters allegedly consumed poison during a police raid at their house in Baghpat district, officials said. The elder daughter, 19, died on the day of the incident on May 24, whereas the mother and her younger daughter, 17, died at a hospital in Meerut on May 26, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement, quoting the reports. Also Read | Monsoon Forecast: Cyclones in Early May Compensate for Pre-Monsoon Rain All India. The NHRC has taken suo-moto cognisance of the media report that a woman and her two daughters consumed poison during a police raid at their house in Bachaud village, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh on May 25. Reportedly, a case has been registered against a sub-inspector and five others, it said. The commission has issued notices to the chief secretary and the director general of police, Uttar Pradesh seeking a detailed report in the matter within four weeks, including the present status of the investigation of the case and whether any relief has been granted to the family of the victims, the statement said. Also Read | Haryana Board 10th, 12th Result 2022: BSEH Class 10, 12 Results To Be Announced Soon; Know Steps To Check Scores. Issuing the notice, the commission observed that going by the contents of the media reports, "it seems that the law enforcing agencies failed to deal with the situation sensibly resulting in violation of human rights". According to the media report, carried on Friday, the son of the woman, belonging to the Lohar community, "had eloped about a fortnight ago with a woman belonging to the Scheduled Caste". The family members of the woman, who had eloped, had registered a complaint and the police conducted a raid to search the couple at the man's house, it said. Reportedly, the police personnel and the brothers of the woman, who had eloped, were present during the raid. The villagers are demanding that they be booked for pushing the woman and her daughters to consume the poisonous substance. It is also mentioned in the news report that a heavy police force has been deployed in the village to maintain peace. The police had reportedly not arrested anyone so far, the statement said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will tour Gujarat on Saturday during which he will visit a newly-built hospital, address a seminar of leaders of various cooperative institutions and inaugurate a Nano Urea (liquid) plant, his office said. Around 10 am on Saturday, he will visit the newly built Matushri K D P Multispeciality Hospital at Atkot in Rajkot, the Prime Minister's Office said in a statement. This will be followed by his address at a public function at the venue. Also Read | Samsung Galaxy M13 With Triple Rear Cameras Launched; Prices, Features & Specifications. Thereafter, around 4 pm, Prime Minister Modi will address the seminar of leaders of various cooperative institutions on the subject 'Sahakar Se Samriddhi' at Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar. There he will also inaugurate a Nano Urea (Liquid) Plant built at IFFCO, Kalol, the PMO said. According to it, the cooperative sector of Gujarat has been a role model for the entire nation. There are over 84,000 societies in the cooperative sector in the state with about 231 lakh members. Also Read | Tamil Nadu Spinning Mill Workers in Distress Amid Strikes Due to Cotton Price Hike. In yet another step towards further strengthening the cooperative movement in Gujarat, a seminar on 'Sahakar Se Samriddhi' attended by leaders of various cooperative institutions will take place at Mahatma Mandir in Gandhinagar. Over 7,000 representatives from various cooperative institutions of the state will participate in the seminar, the statement said. It also said that to further provide farmers with the means to boost productivity and help increase their income, the prime minister will inaugurate the Nano Urea (Liquid) Plant constructed at IFFCO, Kalol at a cost of around Rs 175 crore. The ultramodern Nano Fertilizer Plant has been set up keeping in mind the increase in crop yield through the use of Nano Urea. The plant will produce about 1.5 lakh 500-ml bottles daily. The Matushri KDP Multispeciality Hospital, which is being visited by the prime minister in Rajkot, is managed by Shree Patel Seva Samaj. It will make available high-end medical equipment and provide world-class healthcare facilities to the people of the region. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Karwar (Karnataka) [India], May 27 (ANI): Preparations made by the Indian Navy are not a provocation to any aggression but it guarantees peace and prosperity to the region, said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday. He took sea sortie in a Kalvari class submarine INS Khandari off the coast of Karwar after inspecting the naval base in Karwar, Karnataka. Also Read | Mumbai: Eastern Freeway Named After Former Maharashtra CM Late Vilasrao Deshmukh. Singh was in Karwar for a two-day visit to Naval Base. "Whatever I have seen today and experienced, I am assured that the Indian Navy is capable of vigilant, variant and victorious in every situation," Singh said. Also Read | Oppo A57, Oppo A57s Tipped To Launch in India Soon; Specifications Leaked Online. INS Khanderi is a make in India inspired submarine. It was commissioned by me in the year 2019. The ships and other platforms launched by the Indian Navy have given a boost to the PM Modi's Make in India campaign, he added. During the visit, he also reviewed the progress of infrastructure upgrade under 'Project Seabird' and interacted with senior officials of the Navy during the 'Bada Khana' hosted at the base. The second of the Project 75 submarines, which are been constructed under the 'Make in India' initiative at Mazagon Docks Limited, Mumbai, Khanderi was commissioned by the Defence Minister in September 2019. Earlier, Defence Minister had witnessed the three-dimensional combat capability of the Indian Navy, having embarked on INS Vikramaditya in Sep 2019 and P8I earlier this month. The Scorpene submarines are extremely potent platforms, have advanced stealth features and are also equipped with both long-range guided torpedoes as well as anti-ship missiles. These submarines have a state-of-the-art SONAR and sensor suite permitting outstanding operational capabilities. During the sortie, the full spectrum of capabilities of underwater operations of the Stealth submarine was demonstrated to the Raksha Mantri. "This year when we are celebrating Aazadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, INS Vikrant is getting ready to commission. Both Vikrant and Vikramaditya will enhance the maritime security of India. The Indian Navy is counted among the frontline Navy of the world. Big maritime forces are ready to cooperate with India," he said. The operational demonstrations included simulated weapon launches as well as advanced MR - Sub cooperation exercises with P8I aircraft. Singh witnessed first-hand, operations onboard the potent platform, he interacted with the submarine crew during lunch on board, and he complimented them for their courage and sense of duty. Presently Indian Navy operates four submarines of this class with two more likely to be inducted by the end of next year. The induction of these submarines has significantly enhanced the Indian Navy's underwater capability in the Indian Ocean Region. The sea sortie by Defence Minister is coinciding with 'Azaadi ka Amrit Mahotsav' and 'Swarnim Vijay Varsh' celebrations. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Hyderabad, May 27 (PTI) Telangana has attracted investments worth over Rs 4,200 crore during the 10-day trip by Minister for IT and Industries K T Rama Rao to the UK and Davos in Switzerland, an official release said on Friday. Also Read | Ladakh Road Accident: President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu and PM Narendra Modi Condole Loss of Lives of Soldiers in Accident. During the trip, the minister who led the Telangana delegation attended a series of meetings, interacted with top executives of global corporations, and participated in panel discussions at the World Economic Forum, Davos and in the UK, it said. Also Read | Smriti Irani Slams Gandhi Family, Says Chants of Shri Ram Must Reach Them in Delhi, Amethi and Kerala. "The primary aim of the trip is to showcase Telangana as an investment destination for global companies and bringing investments to the state and thereby creating more employment opportunities to the youth of Telangana," the release said. The Telangana pavilion at WEF, set up with a slogan "India welcomes the world, Telangana First Stop," has been very attractive and completely stood out from the rest. Apart from attending formal business meetings, Rama Rao participated in panel discussions. The minister impressed a large audience of global executives with his grasp of major contemporary issues. Meanwhile, German auto parts maker ZF is all set to inaugurate its newest facility centre in Hyderabad. The ZF facility centre, which was constructed at a cost of about Rs 322 crore, will be inaugurated on June 1. The proposed facility will create job opportunities for about 3,000 people, the release said. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bandipora (Jammu and Kashmir) [India], May 27 (ANI): Kashmir Police on Friday informed that few terrorists escaped during a search operation in the Gundpora Rampora area of Bandipora. Tweeting the details of the encounter J&K police said tweeted on Friday, "After initial brief encounter during cordon & search operation in Gundpora Rampora area of Bandipora, terrorists managed to escape from the spot. However, our team chasing them." Also Read | Hyderabad Shocker: Married Woman Stabbed by Stalker on Busy Road in Broad Daylight (Watch Video). According to the police, terrorists escaped after an initial brief encounter during cordon and search operation. Currently, a team of Kashmir Zone police is chasing them. Further investigation is underway. (ANI) Also Read | Gurugram: 10 Sacks of Lemons, 35 Crates of Tomatoes Stolen From Wholesale Vegetable Market. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Bhubaneswar, May 27 (PTI) The National Network of Sex Workers (NNSW) on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court verdict that recognised prostitution as a profession. Observing that human decency and dignity extend to sex workers and their children, the Supreme Court recently directed police forces in all states and Union territories to treat sex workers with dignity. Also Read | Uttarakhand Govt Announces Drafting Committee to Implement Uniform Civil Code. "A celebration for each and everyone of us who has participated in the struggle," the NNSW said in a statement. "Sex workers and activists who worked tirelessly with the panel, represented the sex workers' cause in court -- indeed a great victory for all of us," it added. Also Read | Monsoon Forecast: Cyclones in Early May Compensate for Pre-Monsoon Rain All India. The NNSW is a national network of sex worker-led organisations and allies committed to promoting the rights of sex workers in India. The Supreme Court also said sex workers should not be arrested or penalised or harassed during raids on brothels, "since voluntary sex work is not illegal and only running the brothel is unlawful". (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], May 27 (ANI): Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, who is being probed by the CBI in an alleged visa scam case, on Friday wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla alleging a "brazen breach" of his "parliamentary privilege", adding that his family members are being targeted by the present government and its investigating agencies by foisting one fake case after another. "I am distressed to bring the matter of grave importance to your urgent notice. This issue concerns my rights and privileges as a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha). Over the course of the past few years, my family and I have become targets of a relentless campaign by the present government and its investigating agencies who are trying to silence our voices of dissent by foisting one fake case after another. Such targeted intimidation of a Member of the House amounts to a breach of privilege," Karti said in his letter to Lok Sabha Speaker. Also Read | Android Apps on Windows 11 Coming to 5 New Countries: Report. Karti claimed he has become the victim of a grossly illegal and patently unconstitutional action. He said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided his residence in Delhi in the "garb of conducting an investigation" into an 11-year-old decision of the government in which he did not have any involvement. The Congress MP alleged that certain officers of the CBI seized his highly confidential and sensitive personal notes and papers pertaining to the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information and Technology, of which he is a Member. Also Read | Samsung Galaxy M13 With Triple Rear Cameras Launched; Prices, Features & Specifications. "These actions by the CBI, in so far as they relate to interference with my duties as a parliamentarian, amount to a direct assault upon the democratic principles on which our Parliament is founded. I, therefore, urge you to take immediate cognizance of this issue, which is a brazen breach of my parliamentary privilege," he urged. [{7fb06626-b77b-4e8d-a590-c2452661f1b8:intradmin/FTvFn8XUEAA6732.jpg}] After Thursday, the Congress MP has been called again by CBI in the alleged visa scam case on Friday. On his way to CBI Headquarters, Karti said, "It is their privilege to call me and it is my duty to go." On May 17, the CBI arrested Karti's close associate S Bhaskar Raman in the case. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had also filed a money laundering case in the alleged Chinese visa scam case involving Congress MP. It is alleged that Karti Chidambaram received Rs 50 lakh to illegally facilitate visas for 263 Chinese nationals to complete a power project in Punjab. Karti's father and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram was home minister in 2011 but P Chidambaram has not been named as an accused in the FIR. Besides the MP, the CBI has booked four other people including Karti Chidambaram's chartered accountant S Bhaskararaman, Vikas Makharia, representative of Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd, a Mansa-based private company, and Bell Tools, Mumbai along with 'unknown public servants and private individuals. (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, May 27 (PTI) Private player JSPL on Friday announced its plans to manufacture rail wheelsets at its plant at Raigarh, in Chhattisgarh, a move which will build its portfolio of railway products. "JSPL has taken a big leap in rail infrastructure manufacturing. The company will install India's first private rail wheelset manufacturing plant at Raigarh facility. JSPL has collaborated with GIFLO Steel - Hungary for this ambitious project," a company statement said. Also Read | Oppo A57, Oppo A57s Tipped To Launch in India Soon; Specifications Leaked Online. In this regard, an agreement for technology collaboration was signed between the two companies at 'India Hungary Business Forum' organized by the Embassy of Hungary along with FICCI in the national capital on Friday. The plant will have an initial capacity of producing 25,000 wheelsets per year. Jindal Steel will also install a rail forging unit for asymmetric rails which are used in rail track switches, especially for high-speed train tracks, it said. Also Read | Infinix Note 12 Turbo Now Available for Sale in India, Check Offers Here. "We are committed to AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan launched by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Rail wheelset manufacturing plant will help Indian Railways to speed up the modernization of its rail infrastructure by making available world-class rail wheels to realize the vision of Gati Shakti," JSPL Managing Director V R Sharma said. Sharma further said that JSPL is working to meet our country's demand for various grades of rails while maintaining international quality and safety standards. Our rail mill in Raigarh has been supplying superior grades of rails to various metro and Indian Railway projects under execution. JSPL is the only producer of head hardened rail grades of 1080 HH and 1175HT for a heavy axle load of more than 25 tonne and high-speed application in the country. It also produces rails in grades R 260 and 880 for 60E1, ZU 1-60 & 60E1A1 profiles. In the public sector, Visakhapatnam-based Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) produces forged wheels at its plant in Rae Bareli, Uttar Pradesh. (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, May 27 (PTI) The Ministry of Power on Friday said it has modified norms for pass through of higher cost of imported coal used by domestic thermal plants having power supply agreements with discoms under tariff-based bidding. The ministry, in a statement, said domestic coal-based power plants whose tariffs have been determined under Section 63 of the Electricity Act have raised concerns about the pass through of the increased cost in tariff if imported coal is used. Also Read | Oppo A57, Oppo A57s Tipped To Launch in India Soon; Specifications Leaked Online. They requested for a suitable methodology to determine the impact on tariff of mandatory blending of imported coal. The ministry said it has examined the request in detail and a methodology has been finalised in consultation with the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), which was discussed in a meeting held on May 20, 2022 with the stakeholders. Also Read | Infinix Note 12 Turbo Now Available for Sale in India, Check Offers Here. Based on the discussions, it said, "the methodology has been revised to make it in line with the existing methodology being adopted by the CERC (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission)." In light of the present circumstances, and in continuation of the directions to import coal for blending, using the powers under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, the ministry has directed that the methodology shall be used by the generating companies supplying power under Section 63 of the Act (projects won on tariff-based bidding) and state governments/discoms will calculate the compensation due to blending with imported coal. The mechanism for billing and payment for these plants shall be as per the PPA (power purchase agreement). However, it stated that to enable generating companies (gencos) importing coal with adequate cash flow, the provisional billing shall be done by the gencos on a weekly basis. Payment of at least 15 per cent of the provisional bill shall be made by the procurers within a week from the date of receipt of bill, it stated. This provisional billing and payment shall be subject to reconciliation during final billing and payment on monthly basis as per the PPA. In case of default of payment of 15 per cent of the weekly provisional bill, the genco shall be free to sell 15 per cent power via the power exchange. The gencos shall ensure blending with imported coal and maintain coal stock as per extant norms and the directions issued by the ministry from time to time, it stated. This direction is for coal imported for blending by such domestic coal-based power plants up to March 31, 2023. The ministry has issued directions to gencos using the powers under Section 11 of the Act in the light of current circumstances due to sharp increase in electricity demand. It stated that with soaring power demand and power shortage in some areas, the generation needs to be maximised. The ministry added that despite efforts to increase the supply of domestic coal, there is still a gap between the requirement and supply of coal, because of which the dry-fuel stocks at the generating stations are depleting at a worrisome rate. Taking note of the fact that blending of imported coal to the extent of 10 per cent is not happening as stipulated, the ministry issued directions to all gencos on May 18 that if the orders for import of coal are not placed by them by May 31, 2022 and if the imported coal does not start arriving at power plants by June 15, 2022, the defaulter gencos would have to import coal to the extent of 15 per cent (to meet shortfall of imported coal in Q1) in the remaining period up to October 31, 2022. (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Columbia (US), May 27 (AP) Capri Isidoro broke down in tears sitting on a chair at the office of a lactation consultant. The mother of two had been struggling to breastfeed her one-month-old daughter ever since she was born, when the hospital gave the baby formula first without consulting her on her desire to breastfeed. Also Read | US: New York Steps Up Policing at Schools, Mulls Raising Age Limit To Buy Guns. Now, with massive safety recall and supply disruptions causing formula shortages across the US, she also can't find the specific formula that helps with her baby's gas pains. It is so sad. It shouldn't be like this, said Isidoro, who lives in the Baltimore suburb of Ellicott City. We need formula for our kid, and where is this formula going to come from? Also Read | Vladimir Putin Says, 'Countries Attempting To Isolate Russia Only Hurt Themselves'. As parents across the US struggle to find formula to feed their children, the pain is particularly acute among Black and Hispanic women. Black women have historically faced obstacles to breastfeeding, including a lack of lactation support in the hospital, more pressure to formula feed and cultural roadblocks. It's one of many inequalities for Black mothers : They are far more likely to die from pregnancy complications, and less likely to have their concerns about pain taken seriously by doctors. Low-income families also face a particular struggle: They buy the majority of formula in the US Experts fear small neighbourhood grocery stores that serve these vulnerable populations are not replenishing as much as the larger retail stores and that some of these families do not have the resources or means to hunt for formula. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 per cent of Black women and 23 per cent of Hispanic women exclusively breastfeed through six months compared to 29 per cent of white women. The overall rate stands at 26 per cent. Hospitals that encourage breastfeeding and overall lactation support are less prevalent in Black neighbourhoods, according to the CDC. The Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses also says Hispanic and Black women classified as low wage workers had less access to lactation support in their workplaces. The racial disparities reach far back in America's history. The demands of slave labour prevented mothers from nursing their children, and slave owners separated mothers from their own babies to have them serve as wet nurses, or women who breastfeed other women's children. In the 1950s, racially targeted commercials falsely advertised formula as a superior source of nutrition for infants. And studies continue to show, Black mothers are more likely to receive in-hospital formula introduction than white mothers, which happened to Isidoro after her emergency cesarean section. Physicians say introducing formula means the baby will require fewer feedings from his mother, decreasing the milk supply as the breast is not stimulated enough to produce. Andrea Freeman, author of the book Skimmed: Breastfeeding, Race and Injustice", said these mothers still aren't getting the support they need when it comes to having the choice of whether to breastfeed or use formula. They also may have jobs that do not accommodate the time and space needed for breastfeeding or pumping milk, Freeman said. Nobody's taking responsibility for the fact that they've steered families of colour toward formula for so many years and made people rely on it and taken away choice. And then when it falls apart, there's not really any recognition or accountability, Freeman said. Breastfeeding practices are often influenced by previous generations with some studies suggesting better outcomes for mothers who were breastfed when they were babies. Kate Bauer, an associate professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, said she began hearing back in February about Black and Latino families in Detroit and Grand Rapids feeling stuck after finding smaller grocery stores running out of formula. Some were told to go to the local office of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Programme for Women, Infants, and Children, better known as WIC, the federal programme that supports low-income expectant and new mothers. Between 50 per cent and 65 per cent of the formula in the US is bought through the programme. Going to the WIC office is like a full day's errand for some moms, Bauer said. She also said she fears mothers are getting desperate enough to try foods that are not recommended for babies under six months. Yury Navas, a Salvadoran immigrant who works at a restaurant and lives in Laurel, Maryland, says she was not able to produce enough breast milk and struggled to find the right formula for her nearly three-month-old baby Jose Ismael, after others had caused vomiting, diarrhea and discomfort. One time they drove half an hour to a store where workers told them they had the type she needed, but it was gone when they got there. Her husband goes out every night to search pharmacies around midnight. It's so hard to find this type, she said, saying sometimes they have run out before they can secure more formula. The baby will cry and cry, so we give him rice water. On a recent day, she was down to her last container and called an advocacy group that had told her it would try to get her some at an appointment in five days. But the group could not guarantee anything. Some mothers have turned to social media and even befriended other locals to cast a wider net during shopping trips. In Miami, Denise Castro, who owns a construction company, started a virtual group to support new moms during the COVID-19 pandemic that has now also started helping moms get the formula they need. Most of the moms we have been helping are Black and Latinas, Castro said, said, adding many of them are back to work. These moms really don't have the time to visit three to four places in their lunch hour. Castro said one of the women they have been trying to help is a Hispanic teacher who is back at work and does not have much flexibility between her job and caring for her two-month-old infant, who has been sensitive to a lot of formula brands. Lisette Fernandez, a 34-year-old Cuban American first-time mother of twins, has relied on friends and family members to find the liquid two-ounce bottles she needs for her boy and girl. Earlier this week, her father had gone to four different pharmacies before he was able to get her some boxes with the tiny bottles, but they run out quickly as the babies are growing. Fernandez said she wasn't able to initiate breastfeeding, trying with an electric pump but saying she produced very little. Her mother, who arrived in Miami from Cuba as a seven-year-old girl, had chosen not to breastfeed her children, saying she did not want to, and taken medication to suppress lactation. Some studies have attributed changes in breastfeeding behaviour among Hispanics to assimilation, saying Latina immigrants perceive formula feeding as an American practice. Over the last three to six weeks it has been insane, Fernandez said. I am used to everything that COVID has brought. But worrying about my children not having milk? I did not see that coming. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Kabul [Afghanistan], May 27 (ANI): Terror group ISIS (ISIL) has claimed responsibility for series of explosions in the Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, which killed 9 people and left 15 others injured, according to the statement posted on the group's Aamaq news agency. Three explosions rocked the capital of Balkh province on May 25, leaving at least 9 people killed and 15 others injured, Khaama Press reported. Meanwhile, on the same day, a blast at Masjid Sharif Hazrat Zakaria mosque in Kabul City left at least two worshippers dead, according to officials, Al Jazeera reported. Also Read | Monkeypox in Argentina: Latin America Reports First Virus Case; Man Travelled From Spain. In response to the attacks in Balkh and Kabul, the US Special Envoy for Women and Human Rights in Afghanistan, Rina Amiri said that the Taliban must ensure people's security and prevent similar atrocities. "The heinous attacks in Mazar & Kabul serve no purpose but to inflict further devastation on innocent Afghans who have suffered enough," Amiri tweeted. Also Read | US President Joe Biden To Visit Uvalde To Mourn School Shooting Victims. "Preventing these horrid attacks and addressing the security & needs of all Afghans should be what the Taliban focus on," she added. The first two explosions in Balkh province targeted passenger vehicles in the Hazara neighbourhood, Khaama Press reported citing local sources. Additionally, an explosion at a traffic square in Kabul's fourth police district killed at least 30 people and injured others at the Hazrat Zekriya Mosque. The Emergency hospital said that 22 people had been injured and that 5 of them had died on their way before reaching the hospital. No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the blast in Hazrat Zakariya, according to Khaama Press. The Taliban face a severe security threat from the Khorasan branch of ISIS, which has been active in Afghanistan since 2014. Earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the recent attacks in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them members of the Hazara Shia community and several children." The Secretary-General condemns the recent attacks in Afghanistan, including on passenger vehicles in Mazar-e-Sharif City and the Masjid Sharif Hazrat Zakaria mosque in Kabul City, which have claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them, members of the Hazara Shia community and at least 16 children," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General said in a statement. Guterres extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a swift recovery to those injured. "Attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including mosques, are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law." The Secretary-General reiterated his call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians, including ethnic and religious minorities, as well as their right to freely practice their religion. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Belgium [Brussels], May 27 (ANI/Sputnik): The NATO Defense Ministers will meet on June 15-16 in Brussels, the alliance said on Friday, adding that the EU, Georgia, Finland, Sweden and Ukraine are invited to attend the event. "A meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) at the level of Defence Ministers will take place on Wednesday 15 June and Thursday 16 June at the NATO Headquarters in Brussels. The meeting will be chaired by the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg," NATO said in a statement. Also Read | Monkeypox in Argentina: Latin America Reports First Virus Case; Man Travelled From Spain. NATO added that the meeting will start with a working dinner where "Finland, Georgia, Sweden, Ukraine and the European Union are invited". (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) Tivaouane (Senegal), May 27 (AP) Police were on guard and nearby residents and parents stood mourning outside a hospital in Senegal where a fire in the neonatal unit killed 11 newborns. Only three infants could be saved, President Macky Sall said before calling on Thursday for three days of mourning for the young lives lost. Mamadou Mbaye, who witnessed the fire Wednesday at the Abdoul Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane, a town 120 kilometers (75 miles) northeast of the capital, Dakar, told The Associated Press that conditions inside the hospital were atrocious. Also Read | BTS To Discuss Anti-Asian Hate Crimes and Celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month With US President Joe Biden. It was hot and smoky inside with a suffocating heat, and there was a power outage, Mbaye said. Grieving parents were still in shock. Also Read | Kevin Spacey Charged With Sexual Offences Against Three Men in the UK. I baptized my child on Wednesday and he was baptized here in the hospital. To my great shock, I got a call to tell me that the neonatal section had been destroyed by a fire, said Badara Faye, who lost his son. Moustapha Cisse, who also lost a newborn, said they are still awaiting answers on how such a tragic fire could take the lives of their children. The fire was blamed on an electrical short circuit, according to Mayor Demba Diop. Interior Minister Antoine Diome announced that authorities would be opening an investigation into the condition of the hospital's facilities as well as other health care centers, Senegalese media reported. President Sall called for three days of mourning. To their mothers and families, I express my deepest sympathy, Sall had tweeted upon hearing the news of the fire. His chief of staff, minister Augustin Tine, visited the remains of the hospital Thursday. We have come to be close to the people, in particular the parents, he said. We have come to share the suffering, he added, to share our condolences and to say again it is a misfortune that has hit our country, but we keep our faith. The deadly fire comes a year after four other newborns died in a hospital fire in Linguere in northern Senegal. A series of other deaths also have raised concerns about maternal and infant health in the West African nation known for having some of the best hospitals in the region. Earlier this month, authorities discovered a baby that had been declared dead by a nurse's aide was still alive in a morgue. The infant later died. Last year a pregnant woman died in Louga, in the north of the country, after waiting in vain for a cesarean section. Three midwives were given six-month suspended sentences for not giving help to a person in danger. Health Minister Abdoulaye Diouf Sarr, who was attending the World Health Assembly in Geneva, cut short his trip to return to Senegal. (AP) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) China, Venezuela vow to strengthen communication between legislatures Xinhua) 11:52, May 27, 2022 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 (NPC) Standing Committee, meets with Iris Varela, First Vice President of Venezuela's National Assembly, via video link in Beijing, capital of China May 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) BEIJING, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Wang Chen, vice chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, met with Iris Varela, First Vice President of Venezuela's National Assembly, via video link on Thursday. Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said the two countries firmly support each other's core interests and major concerns. The NPC stands ready to work with Venezuela's National Assembly to strengthen communication and cooperation on the international rule of law, resolutely oppose external interference, and actively promote the implementation of the Global Development Initiative and the Global Security Initiative, Wang noted. Iris Varela said that Venezuela firmly adheres to the one-China principle, and is willing to enhance communication between legislatures to promote cooperation on economy and law, as well as other fields, between the two countries. 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 (NPC) Standing Committee, meets with Iris Varela, First Vice President of Venezuela's National Assembly, via video link in Beijing, capital of China May 26, 2022. (Xinhua/Zhai Jianlan) (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Dubai, May 27 (PTI) Government and business leaders in India and the UAE have held a series of high-level meetings focused on opportunities within the energy transition and industrial growth. The meetings were held on the sidelines of UAE Climate Envoy and Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology Dr Sultan Al Jaber's visit to New Delhi on Thursday, UAE's official news agency Wam said. Also Read | US President Joe Biden To Visit Uvalde To Mourn School Shooting Victims. Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Thursday met Al Jaber and the two discussed issues relating to climate change, hosting of COP 28 and other related matters. Prior to the bilateral meeting, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on climate action was also signed by the two ministers to establish a framework to facilitate and enhance bilateral cooperation on climate action, and also contribute towards implementing the Paris Agreement. Following Dr Al Jaber's meeting with Yadav, the UAE and India agreed to expand bilateral cooperation towards accelerated climate action and implementation of the Paris agreement, including public-private partnership across renewable power deployment, agriculture efficiency, green hydrogen, sustainable finance, and carbon market development, the official Wam news agency reported. Also Read | International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers 2022: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Remembers Fallen Peacekeepers. The UAE-India cooperation in climate aims to support India's ambition to achieve 450 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy installed capacity by 2030 and aligns with the UAE's ambitions to expand its low and zero-carbon energy capabilities. The UAE delegation also met with Indian business leaders discussing new opportunities, particularly those in decarbonisation and climate solutions. The UAE minister also met Foreign Minister S Jaishankar, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal. Both sides also acknowledged that with the signing of the MoU on climate change, they may explore ways on how to strengthen bilateral cooperation on climate action mutually, especially in the areas and activities identified in the agreement. (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], May 27 (ANI): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemned the recent attacks in Afghanistan that claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them members of the Hazara Shia community and several children. "The Secretary-General condemns the recent attacks in Afghanistan, including on passenger vehicles in Mazar-e-Sharif City and the Masjid Sharif Hazrat Zakaria mosque in Kabul City, which have claimed the lives of numerous civilians, among them members of the Hazara Shia community and at least 16 children," Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General said in a statement. Also Read | BTS To Discuss Anti-Asian Hate Crimes and Celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month With US President Joe Biden. Guterres extended his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a swift recovery to those injured. "Attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including mosques, are strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law." The Secretary-General reiterated his call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians, including ethnic and religious minorities, as well as their right to freely practice their religion. Also Read | Kevin Spacey Charged With Sexual Offences Against Three Men in the UK. This statement comes as Afghanistan had been hit by a series of bomb attacks launched by the Islamic State (IS) group opposing the Taliban regime. In Wednesday's blasts, at least five worshippers were killed and 17 others wounded in Kabul after a blast ripped through a mosque during evening prayers in Police District (PD) 4. The blast occurred when people were offering prayers in Hazrat-e-Zekria Mosque. The blast came about one hour after three consecutive explosions struck three van-buses in PD 10 and PD 5 in Mazar-i-Sharif, killing nine people and wounding 15 others. The targeted buses were carrying commuters. Afghanistan is at a crossroads and the de facto authorities, the Taliban, must pursue a path towards stability and freedom for all citizens, especially women, the UN independent expert on human rights there said in the capital, Kabul, on Thursday. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett was speaking to journalists at the end of an 11-day visit to the country. Bennett said Afghanistan is facing a plethora of human rights challenges that are having a severe impact on the country's people. However, the Taliban have failed to acknowledge or address the magnitude and gravity of abuses, many of which were committed in their name. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) Washington [US], May 27 (ANI): US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday said Washington does not support the independence of Taiwan but will continue to strengthen relations. "We oppose any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means," Blinken said. "We'll continue to uphold our commitments under Taiwan Relations Act to assist Taiwan in maintaining a sufficient self-defense capability." Also Read | BTS To Discuss Anti-Asian Hate Crimes and Celebrate AANHPI Heritage Month With US President Joe Biden. Blinken also said the US will continue to expand cooperation with Taiwan on its many shared interests and values as well as "support Taiwan's meaningful participation in the international community, deepen economic ties consistent with our One China Policy." Blinken went on to add that the Biden administration is not seeking a "Cold War" with China but wants Beijing to adhere to international rules. He also said that Washington sees Beijing as a "long-term challenge". Also Read | Kevin Spacey Charged With Sexual Offences Against Three Men in the UK. "We are not looking for conflict or a new Cold War. To the contrary, we're determined to avoid both," Blinken said Thursday in a much-anticipated speech that laid out the US' China policy."But we will defend and strengthen the international law, agreements, principles, and institutions that maintain peace and security, protect the rights of individuals and sovereign nations, and make it possible for all countries -- including the United States and China -- to coexist and cooperate," he said. The top US diplomat used his remarks at George Washington University to explain existing policies rather than unveiling any bold new direction toward China. During his 30 minutes address, Blinken reflected on US President Joe Biden's Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) announcement and the Quad meeting earlier this week during his first Asia tour. Biden unveiled the discussion on IPEF on May 23 with a dozen initial partners, including India, which represent 40 per cent of the world GDP. In his speech, Blinken outlined US administration's strategy towards the world's most populous country in three words - invest, align and compete. He said while the administration has devoted much of its resources to containing Moscow, Washington sees Beijing as a "long-term challenge". US Secretary of State also highlighted China's violation of human rights in Tibet, noting that the US stands with the people of Tibet. "We stand together on Tibet as the (PRC) authorities continue to wage a brutal campaign against Tibetans in their culture, language and religious traditions," 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], May 27 (ANI): During his upcoming visit to Qatar, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu is expected to launch the India-Qatar Startup Bridge to link the ecosystem of the two countries. India's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Dr Ausaf Sayeed announced this on Friday at a special briefing on the nine-day visit of Vice President to Gabon, Senegal and Qatar starting from May 30. The Vice President will be in Qatar from June 4-7. Also Read | US President Joe Biden To Visit Uvalde To Mourn School Shooting Victims. The envoy said that Naidu will also visit the Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organization headed by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. "During the visit, Vice President is expected the launch the India Qatar Startup bridge to link the ecosystem of the two countries. The next day (on June 6), he will visit Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organization headed by Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. It promotes education science, health and cultural development. It also has an education city which includes well-reputed institutes such as Hamad Bin Khalifa University, campuses of International universities, Qatar National Library, Qatar Science & Technology Park and others," the envoy said. Also Read | International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers 2022: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Remembers Fallen Peacekeepers. Vice President Naidu would also be visiting the National Museum of Qatar. "Qatar is a very valued partner for India and our extended neighbourhood in a Gulf region. The modern relationship between India and Qatar is anchored in the historical and traditional exchanges between the people of the two countries. it is anchored under four pillars of -- energy partnership, Indian Diasporas, Trade and Investment, and Defence and Security," he said. Naidu's visit to Qatar will be on the occasion of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Qatar to further enhance the bilateral ties, according to a statement by the Ministry of External Affairs. During the visit, the Vice President will hold delegation-level talks with Qatar's Deputy Amir, Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamad Al Thani, and review bilateral cooperation, the MEA said. Vice President will meet several other Qatari dignitaries during this visit and also address a business roundtable in Qatar. People-to-people contacts are at the heart of the historical relations between India and Qatar, with the latter hosting over 750,000 Indians, the MEA said. "The multifaceted cooperation between the two sides has witnessed significant growth in economic, energy, investment, education, defence, and cultural ties," the external affairs ministry said. Bilateral trade crossed USD15 billion in FY 2021-22. Qatar has also committed investments of over USD 2 billion in various Indian companies over the past two years, the ministry said. Meanwhile, the MEA said that the Vice President's visit to Gabon and Senegal will add momentum to India's engagement with Africa and highlight India's commitment to the African continent. The most important aspect of the visit is that it is the first-ever high-level visit from India to both Gabon and Senegal. The Vice President is visiting these two countries from May 30. On June 4, he departs from Senegal and goes to Qatar, Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations), MEA, said. "So, May 31 and June 1 are the main visit to Gabon. On June 1, the Vice President goes to Senegal from Gabon. June 1,2, 3 are the three engagement days, then he moves to Qatar, Dammu Ravi, Secretary (Economic Relations)," the foreign ministry secretary said. "An important aspect of our relationship with Gabon is that both of us are in the UNSC non-permanent membership capacity," he said. (ANI) (This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body) San Francisco, May 27: A Twitter shareholder has sued Elon Musk, alleging that the Tesla CEO actively manipulated the company's stock for personal gain. The lawsuit alleged that Musk proceeded to make statements, send tweets, and engage in conduct designed to create doubt about the deal and "drive Twitter's stock down substantially in order to create leverage that Musk hoped to use to either back out of the purchase or re-negotiate the buyout price". Elon Musk Says Twitter Deal On Hold Till He Gets More Information About Fake Accounts The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of Twitter shareholders in federal district court in San Francisco, The Verge reported late on Thursday. "Musk's conduct was and continues to be illegal, in violation of the California Corporations Code, and contrary to the contractual terms he agreed to in the deal," the complaint read. It focused on Musk's recent tweet that the $44 billion Twitter deal "cannot move forward" without more information about fake accounts and bots on the platform. The complaint asked for injunctive relief by the court, which could potentially force Musk to purchase Twitter at the agreed-upon price, the report said. In a fresh filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Musk has announced the expiration of a series of margin loans against Tesla stock. He has now committed to provide an additional $6.25 billion in equity financing for his $44 billion Twitter takeover, bringing his total equity commitment to $33.5 billion. Musk's original plan was to acquire Twitter with a combination of $21 billion in personal equity and $25.5 billion in loans and $12.5 billion of those loans were secured against Tesla shares owned by Musk. According to the new SEC filing, "(Elon Musk has) committed to increase the aggregate principal amount of the equity commitment there to $33.5 billion". However, it is not clear where the additional $6.25 billion will come from. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 27, 2022 10:24 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Anek Movie Review: I think Anubhav Sinha should be complimented first for Anek for bringing the conflict of North East region of India to Bollywood. Very rarely does mainstream cinema here even try to address the conflict of one of the most volatile regions of the county. Anek begins with a racist attack on one of the leads, Aido (Andrea Kevichusa) by the police, before it moves onto a scathing interview of a fictional rebel leader Tiger Sanga that exposes the supposed Indianness of this region. The geopolitical nature of the premise is set right in these two scenes. Anek Movie: Review, Cast, Plot, Trailer, Release Date All You Need To Know About Ayushmann Khurranas Film. Aido trains to be a boxer and she dreams to represent the country. But unlike the sentiment usually represented in the films where wearing the tricolour is seen as a matter of pride, for Aido it is to make a statement about her identity and her struggles. Back at her home state, she is unaware that her father Wangnao (Mipham Otsal) is the secret leader of an outfit called Johnson that is fighting for the freedom of the region and against the peace 'talks' between Government of India and Tiger Sanga. She is also oblivious that her boyfriend Joshua is an Indian undercover agent Aman (Ayushmann Khurrana) who is sent to infiltrate the workings of Johnson and such other rebel outfits. Watch the Trailer: Now I know I made the above premise sound like we are seeing the film's events through Aido's eyes, and I really wish that was the case. Sadly, it ain't. While Aido could have served as a far more compelling lead, while she does turn narrator occasionally and even is present in the film's better moments, Ayushmann's Aman ends up with more footage. Now in any other movie, that's nothing to complain about. Ayushmann is a very capable performer, who can easily own a frame with his mere presence (so why the need to add distracting sniffs to his body language is something I can't fathom). As someone who adds an outsider's view to the less explored ground politics of the NE, his character isn't unwanted, but feels so when he over-dominates the proceedings vocally presenting his views. Ayushmann Khurrana: We Should Celebrate Uniqueness of India's Diversity. Anubhav Sinha had done something similar with Ayushmann in the structurally and impactfully far better Article 15 that dealt with caste politics, despite the film's inhered Brahmin saviour complex. However, the lead's inclusion in that movie's events made him a reactionary, who in his way brings attention to the troubling stature of how lower castes are being dealt with in the interiors of the country. In Anek, however, Aman (such a hard-nosed nomenclature) stands out like a sore thumb, where the better scenes of the movie doesn't even involve him. He is there to express perhaps the director's libertarian views, which I had welcomed in Mulk, Thappad and Article 15 but feels awkward here. Like for example, the sequence between Aman and JD Chakravarthy's character in the car - that's shown in the trailer as well - where they debate about what it is to be an Indian. The scene feels so out of place and clumsily written, especially when the local characters are shown not even wanting to identify themselves as Indians. At one point, Ayushmann even breaks the fourth wall and looks at the camera to emphasise his point on the current political situation (there are also potshots at media pandering and 'vikas' talks). It felt weird rather than effective. Thappad Movie Review: Anubhav Sinhas Social Drama Is a Stinging Slap on Male Privilege With Taapsee Pannu in Stellar Form. More than the whole sermonising part, even the character of Aman feels sketchily written. I couldn't figure out his real endgame, and why the intelligence department keep indulging him and his rebellious tactics. His relationship with Aido is weak, we hardly feel for this supposed 'love story', even if Aman doesn't confess he feels anything for her, and that is supposed to matter for the main story. I also never got when Aman had gotten a change of heart. When your protagonist leaves you confused, that doesn't really fare well for the movie. Anek, however, could have been a far better movie, a powerful piece of cinema if it hadn't tried to sermonise itself way much or baulked at taking a true stand while heading towards a Call of Duty-feel-like climax. Or even play down the Body of Lies-inspired track of Aman and his boss Abrar (Manoj Pahwa), a Ajit Doval-standin, whose Kashmiri identity is used to draw parallels with J&K and the NE conflict. Does that identity matter in the movie? Not much. For one, the movie should have been completely through Aido's point of view, and there should have been more scenes exploring her and father's clashing views on their fights. Andrea Kevichusa is fantastic in her debut lead act, and Mipham Otsal gives a good account of himself in every scene he is in. Anek would have been more effective if the focus was more on them, and Aman taking on a more supporting role. There are also some sequences that do make a strong statement. Like when Aman goes to a detainment camp to see hundreds of tortured prisoners rendered faceless by their bamboo prisons. Or the scene involving the tracking shot of a young boy walking through his village that is being attacked (cinematography by Ewan Mulligan). The most harrowing is the scene where a rebel outfit is violently ambushed by an unseen unit, and the prayer scene afterwards. A murdered child's mother's laments stay with you long enough, echoing the tragic situation of many such inhabitants of her state sandwiched in the politics, a situation that deserve more exposure in mainstream cinema. Anek deserves praise for that, but as a movie, it couldn't escape its own muddled treatment. Yay! - When The Focus is on the Local Characters, Especially Aido, Nico and Wangnao - A Few Impactful Scenes Revolving Around the Conflict - Slick Direction Nay! - Muddled Screenplay With a Weak Third Act - Ayushmann's Character - Forced Debative and Sermonising Scenes Final Thoughts There is no doubt that Anubhav Sinha took a braver and more ambitious veer with Anek's exploration of the fractured politics of North-East India. However, an uneven screenplay and the constant need to make a statement rob Anek of the same impactful storytelling seen in Sinha's earlier social themed efforts like Mulk, Article 15 and Thappad. Rating: 2.5 (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 27, 2022 10:46 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). Get latest articles and stories on Business at LatestLY. Hindi film, 'Love In Ukraine' has successfully been released in India in more than 356 cinemas, and the makers are extremely happy that the film will finally reach out to the masses. Love in Ukraine is a story about an Indian student based in Ukraine, who falls head over heels in love with a Russian girl, who has been promised to get married to a mafia family. Vipin Kaushik will be seen playing the role of the male lead opposite actress Liza Beta. Interestingly, this also marks the debut of Vipin in Bollywood. ... A court sentenced former #Haryana Chief Minister #OmPrakashChautala to four years in prison and slapped a fine of Rs 50 lakh in connection with a disproportionate assets case, in which he was convicted earlier. pic.twitter.com/aNjiz40eqG IANS (@ians_india) May 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.) Inverted Rifle & Helmet, symbol of fallen soldiers of 1971 war, shifted by Armed Forces from India Gate to National War Memorial. pic.twitter.com/AzrLnFaPc6 DD News (@DDNewslive) May 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.) One LeT terrorist has been killed in an ongoing encounter between terrorists and security forces at Soura in Central #Kashmir's #Srinagar district, officials said. pic.twitter.com/8UwMCzgIPs IANS (@ians_india) May 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.) Baghdad, May 27: The Iraqi Parliament has passed a bill to criminalise institutions, officials and ordinary people for normalising relations with Israel. A statement issued by Parliament said that 275 lawmakers voted unanimously to pass the bill, reports Xinhua news agency. The bill is supposed to preserve the principles of the Iraqi people in defending Palestine and its people as well as the Arab peoples, whose lands are occupied by the Jewish state, the statement added. UN Agencies Say Over 500 Iraqi Children Killed by Explosive Ordnance in 5 Years It aims to deter all those working on normalising or establishing relations with Israel. The bill also prohibits Iraqis from travelling to Israel and having any kind of communications with the country, or they will face harsh penalties of up to life imprisonment and death penalty on violations, according to some articles of the new law revealed by local media. The approval comes weeks after Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr called on the members of the Sadrist Movement, which won the largest number of seats in last year's elections, to formulate such a bill. In September 2021, the Iraqi government announced its opposition to normalising its relations with Israel. (The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 27, 2022 01:08 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com). People can apply for SNAP benefits in California as fast as 10 minutes online by visiting the state's website for SNAP benefits 2022, which is GetCalFresh.org. Applicants can also call the CalFresh Info Line at 877-847-3663. CalFresh is California's SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. AOL News report noted that CalFresh provides monthly assistance to low-income households that meet state and federal eligibility guidelines. The benefits are deposited monthly to CalFresh accounts linked to CalFresh EBT cards. SNAP benefits in California are distributed over the first 10 days of each month, with the date of your benefits deposited onto your CalFresh EBT card depending on the last digit of your case number. CalFresh deposit schedule for June 2022 noted that recipients with the case number that ends in 1 will have their benefits available on the 1st of the month, while those with a case number ending in 2 will have their payments on the 2nd of the month. The schedules are the same order until it reaches the 10th of the month. READ NEXT: SNAP Benefits 2022: Texas, California, Florida, Other States Payment Updates SNAP Benefits California SNAP benefits California is known as CalFresh statewide. It is also formerly known as Food Stamps and helps low-income households to increase their buying power in food to meet their household's nutritional needs. The Department of Public Social Services noted that CalFresh EBT cards can be used in grocery stores and participating Farmers Markets. Meanwhile, homeless, elderly, or disabled persons may purchase prepared meals from participating restaurants with their EBT cards. You are generally eligible for CalFresh benefits if you receive CalWORKS or General Relief, have low income or no income, have limited property, are a U.S. citizen or a legal resident, are an immigrant that meets certain criteria, and receive Supplementary Security Income or State Supplementary Payment. To file for a CalFresh application, one must state their full name and household address. If homeless, district address is acceptable. The signature of the head of household, any adult household member, an authorized representative, or a responsible household member is also needed. SNAP Benefits 2022 Aside from California, Florida will also be sending out its SNAP benefits between the 1st and 28th of every month based on the 9th and 8th digits of your Florida case number, according to a Go Banking Rates report. In addition, Florida has a work requirement provision and a child support provision connected to SNAP and food assistance benefits. The state also has a program called Fresh Access Bucks, which is an effort of Feeding Florida. It is a statewide nutrition incentive program that urges Florida SNAP recipients to use their benefits at farmers' markets, produce stands, community-supported agriculture venues, and mobile markets. The state of Texas will also start distributing its SNAP benefits on June 1st, which will be deposited onto Lone Star Cards over 15 days. Another Go Banking Rates report noted that Texas' distribution of the SNAP payments also depends on the recipients' last digit in their Eligibility Determination Group number. READ MORE: SNAP Benefits 2022 Update: Full Schedule of Texas June Payments, Revealed This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: EBT UPDATE - MAY/JUNE 2022- SNAP EMERGENCY Allotment Schedule, Pandemic EBT, States Approved! - from UI Vlogs 2021 U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Robert Califf predicted that the dilemma of the Americans on the baby formula shortage may likely end in about two months. Califf made his comments on Thursday as he appeared before the Senate Health, Labor, and Pensions Committee, per CNBC. "I can't be exact ... my expectation is that within two months we should be beyond normal and with a plethora [of supply]," Califf underscored, according to New York Post. The FDA commissioner then explained that the dilemma of baby formula shortage would soon be eliminated due to the measures being taken by the government. It can be recalled that the federal government this month allowed foreign manufacturers to send baby formulas into the U.S. Furthermore, the Defense Department is also airlifting the equivalent of 1.5 million bottles of baby formula from Europe. READ NEXT: Baby Formula Scam: Miami Man, 2 Others Get 18-Year Jail Time Over $115 Million Fraud FDA Addresses Complaint About Lax Practices on Baby Formula Plant FDA Commissioner Robert Califf also addressed the complaint of a whistleblower that Abbott's Michigan Plant had lax practices and regulatory violations. It can be recalled that at least four infants who consumed baby formulas produced in Abbott's Sturgis, Michigan plant fell ill with Cronobacter infections. Politico reported that a whistleblower mailed about the conditions of the plant in October. However, the FDA inspected the plant in January and found five different strains of potentially deadly bacteria called Cronobacter sakazakii. Senators slammed the agency for taking too long to physically inspect the plant after receiving the reports of contamination in the facility. Califf acknowledged that the FDA responded too slowly to the complaint of the whistleblower. "There [are] systemic issues at FDA and in our interactions with the industry and in our authorities that need to be corrected," Califf told the lawmakers. Baby Formula Shortage Update: Michigan Plant Will Not Yet Reopen - FDA Califf also said on Thursday that Abbott's Michigan plant will not yet reopen, citing several issues they have discovered in the facility. FDA inspectors reportedly found bacteria growing from multiple sites, standing water, roof leaks, and inadequate hygiene. The FDA commissioner likened the facility at one point to dining at an unsanitary restaurant. The Abbott plant was temporarily closed in February, following the inspection held by the FDA. The plant closure then triggered a nationwide baby formula shortage. "We knew that ceasing plant operations would create supply problems, but we had no choice given the unsanitary conditions," Calliff told lawmakers. Abbott, Mead Johnson Nutrition, Nestle USA, and Perrigo control the 90 percent of the domestic baby formula market in the U.S. Abbott alone has a 40 percent share of the U.S. baby formula market. Senators, inlcuding Bernie Sanders, called on Califf to increase the number of companies that are producing infant formulas so that the U.S. will not once again encounter the baby formula shortage. "It's not good for the country to have such an undiversified supply chain and manufacturing chain for a critical product like that that's used by so many people... Anyone who meets the criteria within the US or outside the US that wants to import can bring formula in," FDA Commissioner Robert Califf underscored. READ NEXT: Texas School Shooting: Grieving Husband of Slain Teacher Dies of Heart Attack This article is owned by Latin Post. Written By: Joshua Summers WATCH: Baby Formula Shortage Explained: What You Can Do - From CNET Mark Meadows has reportedly burned documents in his White House office fireplace after meeting with Scott Perry, a Republican lawmaker who was trying to overturn the 2020 election. Meadows was a former chief of staff of former U.S. President Donald Trump. The Jan. 6 House committee learned about the incident on Wednesday, according to a Daily Mail report. The meeting between Meadows and Perry took place in the immediate weeks after the presidential race in November 2020. Jan. 6 House Committee questioned Meadow's aide at the time, Cassidy Hutchinson, for more than 90 minutes about the act of burning the documents. Hutchinson noted that she personally saw Meadows light the pages on fire after the meeting with Perry, per Daily Mail. The report did not detail what those documents were or if any were classified. Perry is a retired Brigadier General who chairs the House Freedom Caucus and was subpoenaed along with four sitting members of Congress this month. Perry and Rep. Andy Biggs were supposed to sit for depositions on Thursday. However, they both formally objected to the matter. READ NEXT: January 6 Panel Considers Rewriting the 1807 Insurrection Act Amid Fears of a Donald Trump Repeat Mark Meadows Burning Documents Scott Perry's district covers the area around Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He is also the most pro-Trump voting back in the chamber. Business Insider reported that the House committee subpoenaed Perry and asked him to testify over his alleged efforts to install a Trump loyalist as attorney general. Perry had also objected to the subpoena. The House committee probing the January 6 Capitol riot has acquired a total of 2,319 text messages from Meadows before and after the insurrection. Some of the witnesses have spoken to the bipartisan select panel and said that "Meadows used his fireplace to burn documents." MSNBC also noted that the Trump had a habit of tearing up official records into pieces the size of confetti even after his attorneys told him to stop doing it. Jan. 6 House Committee The Jan. 6 House Committee has heard testimony indicating that Trump had expressed support for hanging his former vice president Mike Pence, according to three people familiar with the matter. Meadows was in the dining room off the Oval Office with Trump at one point during last year's Capitol attack. Meadows then left the dining room and informed other people nearby that Trump had signaled a positive view of the possibility of hanging the vice president, as reported by Politico. However, Politico could not independently verify the accuracy of the claim regarding Meadow's comments. Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich slammed the committee when reached for a comment, saying that the committee's vague "leaks," anonymous testimony, and willingness to alter evidence prove it is just an extension of the Democrat smear campaign. Meanwhile, a member of Meadows' legal team said that the account is "totally incorrect regarding Meadows." On the other hand, an aide to Pence did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The House committee held Meadows in contempt of Congress in December and referred to him to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. READ MORE: Donald Trump Admits He Didn't Win Presidential Election 2020 During Interview With Presidential Historians This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Mark Meadows criminal contempt referral heads to Justice Department after House vote - from CBS News A Jif peanut butter recall has caused some of its snacks like trail mix and candy to be pulled out from store shelves and vending machines nationwide due to salmonella risk. According to CBS News, federal health officials are investigating a multi-state outbreak of salmonella, of which at least 16 people from 12 states have been infected. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said two persons had already been hospitalized. The CDC added that four of five people interviewed reported eating different types of Jif brand peanut butter before getting sick. Multiple Jif brand peanut butter types sold across the U.S. and in Canada were recalled last week. It includes creamy, crunchy, natural, and reduced-fat. The J.M. Smucker Co. plant in Lexington, Kentucky was found to have the outbreak strain of Salmonella, Senftenberg, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The CDC noted that the actual number of sick people and affected states is likely higher as some individuals recover without being tested. READ NEXT: US Baby Formula Shortage: GOP Rep. Raises Alarm After Discovering Massive Stocks in Border Centers for Illegal Migrants Jif Peanut Butter Recall Fruit and vegetable to-go cups with peanut butter sold at 7-11 and Wawa stores were among the Jif products that were recalled. Snacks sold nationwide at stores such as Albertsons and Safeway and fudge at Walmart were also pulled out. J.M. Smucker has created an online form for consumers seeking a rebate for recalled products. USA Today reported that the rebate option came after the company earlier suggested consumers throw away the products. However, consumers do not need to have the product on hand to seek a rebate. In a statement, J.M. Smucker said they were asking consumers to fill out the form to the best of their ability, and the company will work to issue the correct reimbursement. The firm noted that the Smucker plant in Memphis will "maximize output," while the Jif Lexington plant has temporarily stopped its production. Health officials and the company have not yet released information about the size of the recall, including how much peanut butter was produced and shipped. Sarah Sorscher, deputy director of regulatory affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said it could take weeks to assess how many products were affected. She added that peanut butter has a long shelf life, making the recall likely drag on for months. According to NPR, the original recall covered 49 Jif products. It was then widened, including several well-known brands such as Del Monte's PB&J sandwiches and some of Albertson's store-made snacks. Salmonella Investigation The FDA, and the CDC, with state and local partners, are currently looking at a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella Senftenberg infections linked to Jif peanut butter brand products. The FDA has recommended in its press release that consumers, restaurants, and retailers should not consume, sell, or serve any recalled Jif brand peanut butter, including recalled products that contain the peanut butter brand. The agency also urged consumers to avoid feeding the recalled peanut butter to pets or other animals, including wild birds. If consumers are unsure what to do with the recalled product, one can call or email J.M. Smucker company for more information. READ MORE: Kellogg's Workers at All Cereal Plants Go on Strike, Demand Better Wages and Benefits This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: JIF Peanut Butter Recall: Where to Look to See if Your Jar Is Included - From WFMY News 2 The death toll in a bus crash in northern Mexico on Wednesday has climbed to seven. Authorities said Thursday that all of those who died and the 24 injured were migrants. According to Associated Press, one of those killed was a pregnant woman. The identities and nationalities of the deceased have yet to be reported. Preliminary reports said only six people died after the bus plunged down an embankment in San Luis Potosi state. Prosecutors initially reported that the dead were composed of four women and six men. However, their nationalities were not immediately made available. Among those 24 injured include an eight-year-old child and a six-month-old baby. Those who survived the bus crash in Mexico included 11 Salvadorans, seven Hondurans, and four Cubans. A Mexican and Panamanian were also injured. READ NEXT: Boat With Over 800 Migrants From Haiti Arrives in Cuba Instead of the U.S. Mexico Bus Crash Local media reported that the bus departed from an area near Mexico City and was heading toward the U.S. border, TRT World reported. Photos from the scene suggested that the bus had flipped onto its side. Reports claimed that Wednesday's bus accident was the latest in a series of deadly crashes and drownings of migrants in the last week. It was not clear what steps Mexico's government took in connection to the bus crash. It can be recalled that a larger truck carrying migrants also overturned on a highway near the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez last December. The said accident killed at least 56 migrants. Crackdown on Migrant Crossings Causes Riskier Routed to the U.S. Immigrants and activist groups claimed that the crackdown on migrant crossings contributed to why illegal immigrants use riskier routes to the United States. Immigrant activist Irineo Mujica noted that more individuals who want to seek asylum in the U.S. take more dangerous routes, and the number of people who die trying to cross Mexico is increasing. Reports pointed out that migrants usually wade, swim, or take rafts in crossing the Mexico river in an attempt to reach the United States. On Tuesday, authorities from Veracruz reported that at least six migrants drowned off Mexico's Gulf Coast, and one is still reportedly missing. In another incident, a migrant father and his seven-year-old son were found dead in the Suchiate River, which marks the border between Mexico and Guatemala. Mexico's national immigration institute noted that the 36-year-old father and his son were from El Salvador. On Saturday, at least four migrants died, and 16 were injured following a traffic collision in a town not far from Guatemala's border. The prosecutor's office did not mention the identities of the deceased but claimed that the injured included migrants from Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Ecuador. Mexican officials have already tightened border inspections along Guatemala's border, but thousands of Central Americans still make it across, often with smugglers' aid. READ MORE: Texas School Shooting: Grieving Husband of Slain Teacher Dies of Heart Attack This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Joshua Summers WATCH: Migrants Die When Bus Plunges Off Cliff in Mexico - From TeleSUR English Patricia Krenwinkel, a Charles Manson cult follower, has been recommended for release by a California parole panel for the first time in more than five decades. According to The Guardian, Krenwinkel was previously denied parole 14 times for the killing of pregnant actress Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. Krenwinkel has also helped Manson and other followers kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary LaBianca the next night in what prosecutors described as an attempt by the cult leader to start a race war. The parole recommendation on Thursday will be reviewed by the California parole board's legal division before likely going to state governor Gavin Newsom before year's end. The board did not release its reasons for the recommendations. Newsom has already rejected previous parole recommendations for other followers of Manson, who led the Manson Family, a cult based in California. Manson died in prison in 2017. Krenwinkel was last denied parole in 2017. However, parole board spokeswoman Terry Thornton could not cite specific reasons for the commissioner's decision. The now 74-year-old follower of Charles Manson remains imprisoned at the California Institution for Women east of Los Angeles. READ NEXT: Former Charles Manson's Cult Member Recalls How He Lured Her Into His 'Family' Charles Manson Cult Follower Patricia Krenwinkel Patricia Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary living with her older sister when she met Charles Manson, who was 33 at the time, at a party in the 1960s, according to The Sun. Krenwinkel admitted that she left everything behind three days later to follow the cult leader as she believed they had a budding romantic relationship. However, Krenwinkel said her feelings had faded when Manson became physically and emotionally abusive to her and started to traffic her to other men for sex. The Charles Manson's cult follower added that she was usually under the influence of drugs and rarely left alone. At her last parole hearing in December 2016, Krenwinkel recounted how she chased and repeatedly stabbed Abigail Folger at Tate's home on August 9, 1969. As she helped kill the LaBiancas, Manson and his right-hand man, Charles "Tex" Watson, told Krenwinkel that she had to "do something witchy." Krenwinkel then stabbed Leno LaBianca in the stomach with a fork and took a rag, and wrote "Helter Skelter," "Rise," and "Death to Pigs" on the walls with his blood. In June 2017, Krenwinkel was denied parole for five more years after California officials investigated whether physical, emotional, or mental abuse affected her state of mind during the slayings. Officials denied her bail application after they seemed to agree with Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, who insisted she was still dangerous. Parole of Another Charles Manson Cult Followers Blocked Gavin Newsom blocked the parole of another Charles Manson cult follower, Leslie Van Houten, last March. The California governor said in his parole review that Van Houten poses an "unreasonable danger to society if released from prison at this time." Van Houten's attorney Rich Pfeiffer said the decision will be appealed in court, according to The Guardian. The lawyer accused Newsom of rejecting the parole as he was worried about his "political future." Pfeiffer added that Van Houten has a spotless prison disciplinary record. The now 72-year-old Charles Manson cult follower is serving a life sentence for helping the cult leader and others kill the LaBiancas. She was 19 when she and other cult members fatally stabbed the LaBiancas and smeared the couple's blood on the walls. Newsom noted in his rejection letter that Van Houten had undergone therapy, earned educational degrees, took self-help classes in prison, and had shown "increased maturity and rehabilitation." However, the California governor said Van Houten also has "gaps in insight" that made her a danger to society. Krenwinkel, Van Houten, and other followers of Charles Manson were initially sentenced to death. But they were resentenced to life with the possibility of parole after California's death penalty was briefly ruled unconstitutional in 1972. READ MORE: Amityville Killer, Who Massacred His Entire Family, Dies at 69 This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Mary Webber WATCH: Patricia Krenwinkel, Leslie Van Houten on Why They Followed Charles Manson: Part 2 - From ABC News A mentally ill Black man in Brazil died after two police officers forced him into a police vehicle and then threw a gas grenade inside it. According to The Guardian, Genivaldo de Jesus Santos, 38, who according to his family had schizophrenia, died of asphyxiation. Highway police officers reportedly stopped De Jesus Santos in Umbauba city at Sergipe state on Wednesday. Video footage of the incident starts with three highway police officers pinning the Black man on a dirt road. OMG: In broad daylight, police in Brazil stuff a man with learning difficulties into an improvised gas chamber, killing him immediately.pic.twitter.com/Q8gbLTrzoH Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) May 26, 2022 After a cut, two officers can be seen holding the police vehicle's rear door as white smoke pours out of the hatchback. De Jesus Santos' legs are shown thrashing as the officers trap him inside the vehicle. The video is punctuated by harrowing screams from the Black man inside the hatchback. An onlooker can be heard saying, "They're killing him inside the car." Eventually, De Jesus Santos' legs stopped moving, the Independent reported. Angry protests have erupted in Brazil following the Black man's horrific death at the hands of the police. De Jesus Santos' was buried on Thursday morning. Dozens of people in Umbauba reportedly staged a protest before his funeral. As they demanded justice, the protesters blocked the road where the Black man was killed and set tires on fire. De Jesus Santos' widow, Maria Fabiana dos Santos, said: "This was a crime. They acted with cruelty to kill him." Many netizens also criticized the action of the police. Douglas Belchior, a member of the Coalition for Black Rights civil rights organization, tweeted that the two police officers knew they were being filmed, and yet they "still applied a death sentence." "There is no more decency or embarrassment. They tortured and executed the man," Belchior noted. Esses dois vermes sabem que estao sendo filmados e, mesmo assim, aplicam a sentenca de morte. Nao ha mais pudor ou constrangimento. Eles torturaram e executaram o rapaz. Como voce segue o dia? O meu sera uma lastima, pensando que eu ou algum amigo podemos ser os proximos. https://t.co/V5F3XYp5AK Douglas Belchior (@negrobelchior) May 26, 2022 Black activist and politician from Rio de Janeiro Renata Souza also tweeted that the police officers turned the vehicle into a gas chamber and executed a mentally ill man "with his nephew watching in broad daylight." "There are no words in the face of such inhumanity. Brazil is an extermination camp!" Souza said. Policiais transformaram uma viatura em camara de gas e executaram um homem com transtornos mentais, com seu sobrinho assistindo a tudo, em plena luz do dia. Nao ha palavras frente a tamanha desumanidade. O Brasil e um campo de exterminio! Renata Souza (@renatasouzario) May 26, 2022 Executive director of the nongovernmental Brazilian Forum on Public Safety Samira Bueno told The Washington Post that the images were shocking. "He's tortured. He's a mentally disturbed person, and it's the story of you using the vehicle as a gas chamber to immobilize a person," Bueno noted. READ NEXT: Texas School Shooting: Grieving Husband of Slain Teacher Dies of Heart Attack Brazil Police: Black Man Displayed Aggressive Behavior Genivaldo de Jesus Santos' nephew, Alisson, was reportedly on the scene when his uncle died at the hands of the police. Alisson said he told the police officers that his uncle suffered from mental health issues and had a prescription for medication in his pocket before they released what he described as a teargas grenade. Alisson told the local press that "it was a torture session." In a statement, the federal highway police in Brazil's state of Sergipe defended the officers' actions and said the Black man displayed an "aggressive behavior." They also said De Jesus Santos actively resisted the officers who pulled him over. The statement noted that the police officers used "immobilisation techniques" and "instruments of minor offensive potential" after the Black man became aggressive. Police claimed that De Jesus Santos was taken to a hospital after becoming unwell on the way to a police station. However, De Jesus Santos' family said the man was already dead when he arrived at the hospital, where his death was confirmed. George Fernandes, a spokesperson for Sergipe state's forensic institute, told the Associated Press that a preliminary autopsy concluded the Black man died of respiratory failure due to "mechanical asphyxia." Investigation Into the Death of the Black Man in Brazil Police have confirmed that it has opened an investigation into the death of Genivaldo de Jesus Santos. Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro noted that he would seek answers from the Federal Highway Police regarding the man's death. This incident came a day after highway police officers participated in a police raid at the Vila Cruzeiro favela in Rio de Janeiro that left more than 20 people dead. READ MORE: FDA Commissioner Robert Califf Says Baby Formula Shortage Will Likely End in 'About 2 Months' This article is owned by Latin Post. Written by: Joshua Summers WATCH: Black Lives Matter Protests Erupt Across Brazil - From FRANCE 24 English Laurel, MS (39440) Today Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low 67F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%.. Tonight Scattered showers and thunderstorms. Low 67F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50%. remaining of Thank you for reading! On your next view you will be asked to log in to your subscriber account or create an account and subscribepurchase a subscription to continue reading. A Portlaoise woman has been appointed Senior Vice President of Presidio Europe and APAC, a global digital services and solutions provider. Brid Graham's appointment was announced on Friday. The Portlaoise woman will assume overall leadership for the Presidio business that operates out of its Dublin based operation, where it currently employs over 300 people. In her new role as Senior Vice President at Presidio, Brid will be responsible for building Presidios offering to its customers where the business now provides a full spectrum of IT services and solutions, including digital infrastructure, cloud and cybersecurity. Under Brids leadership, the Irish operation is set to become the strategic hub to support Presidios international expansion outside of the US, with particular emphasis on growth in Europe and Asia Pacific. Brid takes on her new role having served for the past two years as managing director of the Product Procurement division led out of Ireland. A key member of the management team of IT services company Arkphire before being acquired last year by Presidio, Brid played a central role in the success of the Arkphire business, growing the business multinational client base both in Ireland and internationally. Brid originally joined the Arkphire business in 2011 as an account manager for enterprise customers having previously worked in a similar role with IT business EDS. Brids appointment now sees her take over from Paschal Naylor, former CEO and co-founder at Arkphire, who is retiring from his executive role after more than 40 years in the business. Paschal has been appointed to an advisory role where he can continue to provide his guidance and support to the business. Commenting on the appointments, Bob Cagnazzi, Chief Executive Officer of Presidio said: Supporting our multinational clients and growing internationally is a key priority for Presidio, and we are thrilled to have Brid bring her talent and passion for providing the best possible customer experiences to this strategically important leadership role. He added: The Arkphire business, now known as Presidio Europe is providing us with the ideal platform from which to grow out our international presence. Huge credit goes to the exceptional contribution of Paschal as co-founder of Arkphire for his foresight and hard work in building a great business. We are delighted to have Paschals continuity with the business and look forward to working with him in his new role. Commenting on her new appointment, Brid Graham said: I look forward to working with Bob and the rest of the Presidio team in building the Presidio brand internationally and bringing the full breadth of our IT offerings and expertise to our global customer base. Originally from Portlaoise, Brid holds Postgraduate Diplomas in both International Sales and Marketing and Marketing Management as well as a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College Dublin. Last year, Presidio acquired Arkphire, the Irish owned and headquartered IT solutions and managed services company. The Irish operation has now been rebranded to Presidio and operates as a fully integrated part of Presidios $3.1 billion business. Top Laois television broadcaster Claire Byrne is ending her current affairs RTE show Claire Byrne Live. After more than seven successful years, RTE One's Claire Byrne Live series will conclude broadcasting this coming Monday, 30 May 2022. The popular weekly current affairs programme hosted by the Mountrath native, and featuring a live studio audience, will wrap as this season ends. The programme was home to powerful interviews, debates, and contributions from thousands of audience members who chose to tell their story each week over the lifetime of the series on RTE One. Claire Byrne has explained how the decision was made. "When we started Claire Byrne Live in 2015, we wanted it to be a forum for people in Ireland to shape the news, respond to unfolding events and most importantly, to have their say. We came through two general elections, two hugely significant referendums and one global pandemic in the time that we have been on air. "I have been hugely proud to be part of this show for those years and I have been humbled to work alongside three talented editors of Claire Byrne Live - Aoife Stokes, Jane Murphy and Hugh Ormond, not to mention the small, hard-working team that made sure we got to air every week, despite the massive challenges posed by the pandemic in the last two years. "I have made the decision now to focus on my radio show and I am very much looking forward, in time, to working on other television projects for RTE. I want to thank everyone who made Claire Byrne Live such an enjoyable show to be part of and in particular, the audience at home, who allowed me to spend Monday nights in their company over the last seven and a half years," she said. Jon Williams, Managing Director of RTE News & Current Affairs, paid tribute to Claire Byrne and the programme. "For seven years, Claire has hosted Irelands biggest conversation, giving the audience a voice on the key issues of the day. From her extraordinary interview with the family of Clodagh Hawe, to the drama of the Leaders Debates in two General Elections and breaking news throughout the pandemic, Claire Byrne Live has shown that current affairs can be both popular and engaging. I want to thank Claire for a truly remarkable run." Claire will continue to present Today with Claire Byrne on RTE Radio 1, Monday to Friday from 10.00am, and will also work with RTE on future television programmes. Watch Claire Byrne Live, this Monday night at 10.35pm on RTE One and RTE Player. The number of Ukrainians living in Laois since the Russian invasion in February has been revealed in new CSO data. Nationally, data reveals that there have been 33,151 arrivals in Ireland from Ukraine since February based on the number of Personal Public Service Numbers (PPSNs) issued to individuals from Ukraine under the Temporary Protection Directive. Women aged 20 and over account for 48% of arrivals to date, while individuals aged 0-19 (both male and female) account for 38%. The highest percentage of those arriving (43% or 14,271 individuals) were categorised as 'One parent with children' under the broad relationship classification headings used. Most men have stayed in Ukraine. The Local Electoral Area (LEA) which had the highest number of associated arrivals from Ukraine was North Inner City in Dublin with 1,156 individuals. A total of 487 people have found accommodation in Laois since then. The biggest number have found refuge in the Portlaoise Municipal District which includes Abbeyleix and touches the Kilkenny border. There are 264 Ukraininans registered in the the district. Meanwhile, the Borris-In-Ossory-Mountmellick District which takes up the west and south west of the county, has 125 Ukrainians. The area with the smallest number is the north, east and southeast of the county. There were just 98 refugees from Russia's invasion in Graiguecullen -Portarlington, Laois on May 23 when the figures were finalised. Laois has more than Offaly where 333 Ukrainians are now living in Offaly with the vast majority (256) resident in Tullamore hotels and B&Bs. Laois has also welcomed more than Carlow where 265 Ukrainians are living. Most are in Carlow town. Commenting on the release, Karola Graupner, Statistician, said: This release is based on administrative data up to 22 May 2022. It is the first publication by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) providing insights into Irelands response to the Ukrainian crisis. "Based on the local post office address as per the process through which refugees were seeking assistance from the Department, we also show two maps in this release based on mapping 29,718 individuals, or 90% of arrivals, to a local post office. "The first map is a count of arrivals by Local Electoral Area (LEA), and the second is the rate of arrivals by LEA (per 100 of the Census 2016 population). Using the local post office address as a proxy for place of residence, arrivals from Ukraine are present in all LEAs and North Inner City in Dublin had the highest number of associated arrivals from Ukraine at 1,156. "Our analysis also shows that the rate per 100 of the population ranges across all LEAs in the country from 0.03% to 6.81%. The LEA with the highest rate is Ennistymon in Clare while the LEA of Drogheda Rural in Louth had the lowest rate in the country." A plan to create special school centres for children with additional needs is a watered-down form of education that is unlawful, an expert has said. Childrens rights solicitor Gareth Noble said the governments plan is in breach of childrens constitutional right to an education. The Government has faced frustrations among parents and advocates about the difficulty in finding school and class places for children with additional needs. In Dublin alone, there are 80 children waiting for a special class place. Plans to create emergency special school centres were confirmed by Minister of State for Special Education Josepha Madigan on Twitter on Wednesday evening following media reports. However, Ms Madigan appeared to row back on the plan, saying yesterday (Thursday May 26) that it was in its infancy and that the plan had been misperceived. Mr Noble said there is a duty on the minister to provide a suitable and appropriate education to all children, regardless of their needs. Talk of stop-gaps, autism centres, temporary arrangements, that just doesnt wash with our constitutional standard, he said. This isnt a luxury or a privilege for young people. This is absolutely a constitutionally enshrined right. He said that Ireland recently brought into effect the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which adds a further layer of protection for children with additional needs. He said that the Governments plan to shove children away into autism centres breaches the convention. This isnt about a name change, this is about values change, he added. Its about the value that is being placed on a child and their rights and to suggest that this plan is in any way a child-centred or rights based approach, its a watered-down, diluted form of education that doesnt enable children to access the curriculum on a par with their peers. It is for that reason that it is not only unjust, and its not just immoral but it is unlawful. Parents of children with additional needs have struggled to find school places for this September. While Ms Madigan said she is dealing with legacy issues and not adequate forecasting, Mr Noble claimed the numbers of children needing school places have been well known to the Department of Education and the National Council for Special Education for years. This is the departments equivalent of the dog ate my homework, he added. The minister has also been urged to issue a notice under Section 37A of the Education Act 1998, that requires a school to make a place available to a child with additional needs. But Mr Noble said the piece of legislation is hugely bureaucratic and needs reformed. Effectively, it envisages engagement between the department, the National Council for Special Education and schools around ensuring that there are students for the appropriate places, he added. Whether its in the form of autism classes, or indeed special education provision. If that engagement doesnt produce the results, then ultimately the minister can compel a school to open a learning environment. I think weve arrived at the point now where every school in Ireland, there has to be a discussion about not whether they provide for children with additional needs, but how they can support it in doing so. The Minister of State for Special Education, the National Council for Special Education and the National Parents Council have all been contacted for comment. The Kildare Integration Committee in conjunction with Monasterevin library are hosting an exhibition about the life of Ken Saro Wiwa. Ken Saro Wiwa was a distinguished Nigerian writer and environmental activist who was unlawfully executed at the hands of the Abacha regime in 1995. Sister Majella McCarron presented an archive of letters, poems and artefacts from Ken Saro Wiwa to Maynooth University Library in 2011. Her relationship with Saro Wiwa stemmed from her time as a lecturer at the University of Lagos in Nigeria in the 1990s. When charged by the Vatican with the task of observing the operations of western multi nationals, she began visiting Ken Sara Wiwa in the Lagos office to learn about his opposition to the activities of the oil and gas multinationals in his homeland of Ogoni and the wider Niger Delta region. Shortly after those visits took place in 1993, Mr Saro-Wiwa was detained without charge and Sister McCarron began to correspond with him. But due to an atmosphere of increasing political violence and repression, she was recalled to Ireland in 1994 from where the correspondence continued. In Ireland, she also helped to organise campaigns for Saro-Wiwas release. That same year, at Saro-Wiwas request, she attended the prestigious Goldman Environment Award ceremony on his behalf in Stockholm and she brought documents and items shed received from the imprisoned writer to Stockholm for an exhibition. The contents of this valuable archive shed light on the exploitative activities of oil and gas multinationals in the Niger Delta in the 1990s and have an ongoing role in contributing lessons to our understanding of human rights, climate action and the role of writing and art in social movements. The exhibition is on display in Monasterevin library until tomorrow, Saturday May 29. Monasterevin librarys opening hours are Tuesday and Friday 10am -1pm and 2pm to 5pm, Wednesday 10am 1pm, Thursday 1:30pm to 5pm and 5:45pm to 8pm, and Saturday 10am -1pm and 2pm to 4pm. Monasterevin Library Book club is open to new members. The book club takes place on the first Thursday of every month at 7pm in the library. For further queries, you may contact the library at 045 529239 or email monasterevinlib@kildarecoco.ie . There are a few pockets of high radon levels in county Kildare according to the latest map released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Parts of south west Kildare and small areas dotted throughout the north of the county have been identified as having a radon risk of one house in ten. However, the county at large seems to have relatively low levels. People can submit their eircode on the EPA website to see if their home is at risk. However, that facility is currently not working. A notice published on the site today said; "Our new interactive radon risk map is currently being upgraded to deal with very high demand. Until then you can download a high-resolution version of the map below." The new EPA map Micheal Lehane, EPA Director said:Radon is a serious public health hazard. The new maps combine thousands of radon measurements, with detailed geological information, and are a significant revision of the previous map from 2002. More importantly, the new maps make it easy for everyone to find out the radon risk in their local area using the eircode search on the EPA website. We urge people to test for radon as this is the only way of protecting you and your family from this cancer-causing gas. Yvonne Mullooly, Assistant Chief Executive of the Health and Safety Authority (HSA), welcomed publication of the new radon maps. Employers in high radon areas are obliged to test their workplaces for radon. The new maps enable them to clearly identify where they are legally obliged to test, so allows for targeting of resources in the areas where the risk from radon is highest. The HSA will continue to support employers by providing information, and through our on-line risk assessment BeSMART tool www.BeSMART.ie. Radon testing is simple and inexpensive and, where necessary, reducing high radon levels in a building is also straightforward. Radon is a radioactive gas that originates from the decay of uranium in rocks and soils. Exposure to radon is linked in up to 350 cases of lung cancer in Ireland each year. It has no smell, colour or taste and can only be detected using special detectors. Outdoors, radon quickly dilutes to very low concentrations, but when it enters an enclosed space, such as a house, workplace or other building, it can accumulate to unacceptably high concentrations. Availability of over 10,000 places on further and higher education courses under the Springboard Plus (Springboard+) initiative has been announced. The news came today (Wednesday May 25) from the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, who confirmed a total of 10,697 places on 275 courses at institutions across Ireland. Springboard+ courses are from Level 6 (certificate) to Level 9 (masters) on the National Framework of Qualifications and are delivered by public and private higher education providers around the country. Minister Harris said, "As we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic and in the current economic climate, where new technologies and business practices are on the rise and issues such as climate change must be urgently addressed, lifelong learning is essential to ensure employability, meet societal needs and enable personal fulfilment. "Upskilling is important for everyone in employment, regardless of their occupation or current skill levels. Springboard+ and the graduate conversion courses under the Human Capital Initiative are a key part of the governments strategy to ensure we are planning for the future skills needs of our economy, which is critical to delivering on our ambitions as a nation." Today, we are announcing over 10,500 free higher education courses under the Springboard+ 2022. These courses are in areas of growth including health innovation, retail and creative industries. Log onto https://t.co/tNj35yngj0 for further details pic.twitter.com/AacNYydgk4 Simon Harris TD (@SimonHarrisTD) May 25, 2022 The courses are in areas of new and emerging technologies, including cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, climate and sustainability, construction, energy, health innovation, logistics, online retail and creative industries. Now in its twelfth year, almost 100,000 people have benefitted from the Springboard programme to date. Funding for the programme is allocated from the National Training Fund on an annual basis, with 41.4 million ringfenced for Springboard+ for the calendar year 2022. Over 330 million has been spent on Springboard+ since 2011. Minister of State for Skills and Further Education, Niall Collins, also commented on the news and said, "Springboard+ training programmes provide people who are unemployed, those looking to return to the workforce and those in employment with a great opportunity to upskill or reskill in areas in which employers need skilled workers. "I am particularly pleased that courses provided under Springboard+ 2022 will continue to be delivered in a flexible manner, in excess of 95% of the courses will be delivered in a flexible format which will enable more people to engage in upskilling and reskilling around the country." Courses are free for people who are unemployed, previously self-employed and returning to the workforce. Courses are also free for employed people on NFQ Level 6 courses. For employed participants on courses NFQ level 7 to 9, 90% of the course fee is funded by the state, with students required to contribute just 10% of the fee. Applications will open this afternoon and a helpline for applicants will be available on 1800 303523 from early June. A group of Irish students have been chosen to present their idea of an inhabitable space settlement at an international space conference in the United States. Fifth year physics students at St Flannan's College in Ennis, Co Clare - Naem Haq, Adam Downes, Cian Pyne, Jack O'Connor and Garabhan Monaghan - won the NASA Ames Space Settlement Contest after going up against 17,000 other students from 22 countries. They will showcase their 'Mag Mell' design at the International Space Development Conference (ISDC) in Washington DC this week. The talented youngsters set off from Shannon Airport today (Wednesday May 25), where they reportedly received the VIP treatment in the Presidential Lounge. Speaking at the airport - which sponsored their flight to Washington DC - their physics teacher John Conneely said, "This is a wonderful opportunity. We are so proud of our students for winning the grand prize out of 17,000 students from 22 countries. We are incredibly grateful to Shannon Airport for the support. It is quite fitting that we are travelling from Shannon to the International Space Development Conference. Our students were thrilled to get the VIP treatment with a reception in the airport Presidential Lounge where they go to sign the guest book along with the likes of Astronauts Chris Hatfield and Al Worden, one of only 24 people to have flown to the moon! According to the team's submission, they named the settlement after a mythical land in Irish mythology - Mag Mell - which translates from Irish as 'delightful' or 'pleasant plain'. The basic shape of their design is a half-cut rotating torus with six spokes and a central hub which can rotate at a different rate of rotation to the outer rim. As well as residential and commercial hubs - or villages - the team also designed multi-level farms suspended from ceilings which they called 'Agri-Areas'. The airport's Operations and Commercial Director, Niall Maloney, said the airport was "delighted" to host the team from St Flannan's. He said, They represent the incredible talent and innovative young minds coming from this region who are making an impact on the world stage. Shannon Airport and its campus were the brainchild of an innovative and entrepreneurial mind of a young Brendan ORegan, and we are proud to support Naem, Adam, Cian, Jack and Garabhans richly deserved achievement." The team's full design can be viewed by clicking here. A care assistant accused of sexual assault in a Kildare nursing home was named in Athy District Court on Thursday, May 26. It is alleged by the State that Michael Tuohey, with an address listed as 15 Beaufield Avenue in Maynooth, sexually assaulted a resident at TLC Nursing Home Maynooth. Garda Sergeant Brian Jacob told Judge Zaidan that the alleged victim is an 80-year-old woman with dementia, who was allegedly digitally penetrated by the defendant. The 51-year-old is accused of engaging in a sexual act with a protected person on a date between January and December 2020. This allegation is in contravention of Section 21 of the Criminal Justice (Sexual Offences) Act, 2017. It was heard that reporting restrictions were sought in the case by the State and prosecuting gardai. However, both the Director of Public Prosecutions and Judge Desmond Zaidan said that there was no legal basis for the restrictions. The judge pointed out to the court that the alleged injured party was not named in any of the legal documents seen by the court, and as such, the defendant could be identified. He also said that, in accordance with Irish law, the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Mr Tuoheys barrister, Aisling Murphy, also previously said that her client has no previous convictions. The case has been put back to a date in June, when a book of evidence is due to be presented. The Committee of Boyle Arts Festival is delighted to announce that Hilary Beirne will officially open this years Arts Festival on Thursday, July 14th. The event which will take place at King House will also mark the official opening of this years Visual Art Exhibition entitled Past, Present & Future. Boyle Arts Festival will continue until July 23rd. Hilary (formerly of Oatland Villa, Boyle) is well known for his extensive work with the Irish community in the United States. He is the founder and Chairman of NYC St. Patricks Day Foundation and has been the principal orchestrator of the world's largest and oldest St. Patricks Day Parade in New York City. He is an active member of the Irish Ad Hoc Committee in Washington DC, a member of the Executive Board at VotingRights.ie, an honorary member of the famed Fighting 69th Regiment" and serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the 69th Historical Trust. Hilary said earlier, I am absolutely delighted to have been invited to play an active role by the organising committee of the Arts Festival in my home town of Boyle in Co. Roscommon. He continued by saying, It will be a honour for me to welcome everyone to the town of Boyle and open the Festival on July 14th and I am looking forward to meeting old friends and renewing acquaintances, some of whom I havent seen or spoken to in years. Hilary will also be the special guest of RTE News Journalist, Carole Coleman during this years In Conversation event on Friday, July 22nd and tickets are available now at www.boylearts.com Boyle Arts Festival is supported by The Arts Council, Local Sponsors, Roscommon County Council and Failte Ireland. To make sure you don't miss out on any African news, subscribe to 'Le Monde Afrique' newsletter from this link. Every Saturday at 6 am, find a week of news and debates treated by the editorial staff of 'Le Monde' Afrique. About 600 million people are still without electricity in Africa. Here, schoolchildren in the township of Soweto, South Africa, in 2015. REUTERS "We must reach an agreement on a fair energy transition for Africa and this discussion must take place in Sharm el-Sheikh [in Egypt]," said Senegalese president Macky Sall on Wednesday, May 25, in his address to the annual Mo Ibrahim Foundation forum on climate change. For the first time since Durban, 11 years ago, the continent will host the Conference of the United Nations Climate Convention (COP27) in November. The Africans intend to seize the opportunity to place at the center of the debate the fate of the region least responsible historically for global warming, and simultaneously the most vulnerable and least developed. Their request: the right to use their fossil fuels and gas in particular for several more decades. "Africa must be able to exploit its large gas reserves for another 20 or 30 years to further its development and provide access to electricity to the 600 million people who are still deprived. It would be unfair to stop us," said Mr. Sall, who currently holds the rotating presidency of the African Union (AU). The war in Ukraine and the need for Europeans to find alternatives to Russian gas have changed the story. During an official visit to Senegal on Sunday, May 22, German chancellor Olaf Scholz, clearly demonstrated his willingness to support the African country in its exploitation of the substantial offshore deposits discovered on the border with Mauritania, part of which is due to be launched in 2023. A statement which suggests that the commitments made at the COP26 in Glasgow in November 2021 are no longer sacrosanct. Lower energy consumption than Japan About 40 countries and development agencies, including France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, announced at the time that they would no longer support overseas fossil fuel-based investment projects by the end of 2022. The decision is considered even more baffling now that industrialized countries with much higher-polluting fossil fuels, such as shale oil and gas in the United States and coal in Germany, are increasing their production. Africa wants natural gas to be considered a "transitional energy," just like the European Union (EU) has just endorsed "an energy transition" away from fossil fuels and toward a more sustainable, low-carbon society. 18 countries already produce natural gas on the African continent, which holds 40% of the recently discovered gas reserves worldwide. The majority is exported. You have 48.72% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only. IT IS "an exciting time to join" Bothar, according to the Limerick-based charity which is hiring a new CEO. The three-year contract comes with a 90,000 per annum salary; 30 days annual leave; employer pension contribution and health cover. It states in the job description for the new Bothar CEO that "a crucial aspect of this role is to represent the charity externally, especially as we work to resolve legacy issues and mitigate the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic on our operations". Last year Bothar, whose activities include aiding poor farmers in developing nations through donations of livestock, launched High Court proceedings against its former CEO, David Moloney, who, they claim, misappropriated the charity's monies for his own use. Bothar is seeking to recoup the monies taken. Mr Moloney, of Clino, Newport, County Tipperary, has admitted misappropriating large amounts of monies donated to the charity for his personal use. In a sworn statement to the court, he said he spent the cash on things including family holidays, on his friends, but never lodged the monies in the bank nor kept any of the cash taken. He also claims that much of what was misappropriated was paid to others, including to Peter Ireton, co-founder and former CEO of Bothar. Mr Ireton died following what has been described as a personal tragedy at his home in Limerick in April, 2021. Mr Ireton's death came days after Bothar's High Court action against Mr Moloney began. The total sum it is alleged has been misappropriated is 1.1m. The job description for the new Bothar CEO states the role reports to the chair of the board of trustees and there are currently three other employees who all report directly to the CEO. "This is an exciting time to join us as we determine future strategy for our organisation," it states on the job description. There are a number of headings with bullet points regarding what is expected of the new CEO. Under Communications & Fundraising, it reads: "Carry out a full analysis into past income, as part of future strategy." Below Governance & Compliance, it states: "Lead and direct Bothars work ensuring that robust management and governance practices are adhered to." Meanwhile, under Risk Management & Financial Controls, it reads: "Ensure financial integrity and accountability of Bothar through sound controls and financial reporting." The most recent financial statements available on the Bothar website date back to 2018. Being "passionate with an international perspective, committed to a more just world for all" is another advantage for those considering applying. Exactly a year ago, Sean Lavery, Limerick IFA chairman, said the revelations at the time concerning Bothar had left Limerick farmers "shocked and angry". The closing date for applications to be the new CEO of Bothar is Monday, June 6 at 5pm. THE LIMERICK father of controversial comedian Jimmy Carr has called on the Mayor of Limerick, and Limerick City and County Council, to strip his son of an honour bestowed on him in 2013 unless they receive a sincere public apology. And, in Jim Carr Snrs view, if no apology is forthcoming, and if the Mayor or the local authority dont rescind the distinction - A Certificate of Irish Heritage - then its a joke! Jim Carr made his comments to Limerick Live this week in response to references made by his son, Jimmy, in his self-help book, Jimmy Carr, Before and Laughter. The passages which have particularly irked the presenters father relate to Limerick, and Irish people in general. The Limerick city native said his sons comments crossed the line and are derogatory and offensive. On page 23 of his latest book, Jimmy - who performed at Limericks Radisson Blu hotel last Friday night - writes: I might seem urbane, but Im the son of two immigrants from Limerick who moved to Slough (they moved from a sh** town to another sh** town, I guess they knew what they liked). Hes one sick comedian, his father Jim told the Leader, literally and metaphorically. It looks like it anyway. Leave all that aside, I dont want somebody writing that about Limerick in a book. Jim, who is a native of Mount Pleasant Avenue off Wolfe Tone Street, describes himself as a proud Limerick man. He attended the CBS primary and secondary school on Sexton Street in the city, competing in the Dr Harty Cup hurling competition. He also played rugby for Young Munster, Connacht and London Irish. His son, who is one of the most well-known comedians working in Britain today, is famous for his deadpan delivery of controversial one-liners, for which he has been both praised and criticised. Just last February he came under fire for joking that nobody talks about the positives in reference to the Nazi murders of hundreds of thousands of people from the Roma, Sinti and Traveller communities. The father and son who once were extraordinarily close have not been on good terms since 2004. According to Jim, around the time that Jimmy made a false harassment accusation against him, he had sent a card saying best dad in the world. Its the style of his comedy, Jim continued. I am not shocked or surprised that my son referred to Limerick and Slough as [sh** towns ]. He is, after all, a shock jock. His defence will be they are only words, Im only having a laugh. But there are people reading that Limerick is a s*** town and Slough is a s*** town. Ironically, we didnt move to Slough, we moved from Limerick to South Kensington, London, Jim pointed out. In his correspondence to the local authority this week, Jim wrote: Limerick is a very proud city which had its charter before London and is not a town. As part of the Gathering Ireland initiative in 2013, each local authority was invited to nominate a person of Irish descent and born outside Ireland, to receive a Certificate of Irish Heritage. Handing over the certificate, Mayor Kathleen Leddin commented: Jimmy is very proud of his parental connections with Limerick and certainly has an emotional attachment to the city and to Ireland." Jimmy Carr receives certificate of Irish descent in Limerick TOWARDS the end of a sold out show in the UCH on Saturday, top UK comic Jimmy Carr made brief reference to his Limerick roots. Meanwhile, Jim has also taken issue with a joke his son makes in the book about, How many potatoes does it take to kill an Irishman? The Famine - thats our Holocaust for Gods sake, said Jim, who added that the book is full of defamation by word and innuendo. I have instructed my lawyer, and my lawyer has issued a letter before action to Jimmy concerning defamation. I love him, of course, like a son but I am still very active in business and I cant be having my name sullied by innuendo, he noted, adding Jimmy claimed in a recent podcast that he hasnt been in contact with me for 20 years whilst neglecting to say he phoned me in December 2018 asking for a huge favour. I gave him what he wanted but received not a word of thanks. Instead, he has blocked me from trying to tell him I forgive his false accusations and am ready for a reconciliation. When Limerick Live contacted Limerick City and County Council for comment in relation to the rescinding of the honour bestowed on Jimmy Carr in 2013, a spokesperson said they wouldnt be commenting on the matter. Jimmy Carr and his agent have not replied to a request for comment. PAST PUPILS of one Limerick school have signalled their support for Ukrainian refugees in Limerick through a generous donation. Crescent College Past Pupils Union President Kevin Cotter and Committee member Ms Orla Prendergast presented a cheque for 1,500 to Mr Eugene Quinn, Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Ireland. Crescent College Past Pupils Union brings together former pupils and staff of the Sacred Heart College in the Crescent and Crescent College Comprehensive SJ in Dooradoyle to maintain and encourage friendships. It supports pupils, staff, and the school through fundraising and by holding social events where past pupils can renew and strengthen those friendships. From its head office in Dooradoyle, JRS Ireland is working in partnership with a range of agencies to assist high need refugee families and to improve access to support services, including interpretation and trauma support. Their tireless work is estimated to be helping 3000 Ukrainian refugees in Limerick and Clare. Its European branch, JRS Europe, is working through its national offices in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Hungary to provide shelter, food, medicine, and psychological support to people in Ukraine and to the refugees at reception centres. Donations are welcome and can be made through the JRS Ireland website (JRS.ie). A LIMERICK dairy farmer has now poured 46,000 worth of milk into a slurry tank due to a dispute over hedge cutting. This is going to break me. I cant do a thing about it because I was prosecuted for an offence I never committed. Im sticking it out. Im not cutting the hedge. No way am I cutting the hedge, said Robert Hickey, of Carrigmartin, Ballyneety. This dates back to last August when he received a note from a driver for his milk processor. It read: Last collection til bushes cut back. Mr Hickey, aged 52, had received previous warnings that his milk collection would stop unless the ditch was trimmed. Mr Hickey wrote to the Limerick City and County Council in March, 2021, to inform them of the excessive overgrowth and encroachment of the roadside hedge along the public road leading to my property. I request that Limerick County Council immediately cut back and trim this roadside hedge to allow the dairy truck to be able to access my farmyard and collect the milk, wrote Mr Hickey. Following a query from Limerick Live, a council spokesperson said the cutting of hedgerow is the responsibility of the landowner and he can carry out this activity outside of the bird nesting season annually. Mr Hickey says this contradicts what a council employee said in a court case where he was prosecuted. During the hearing in 2018, the council employee said they take the view that it is responsible for the surface and margin of all public roads in as far as the roadside ditch. Mr Hickey's position is that the hedge is in the charge of the council as was stated in court. In recent weeks he found a letter sent to him from a council engineer in 2016. The letter states: The road is public for 17 perches from the main road. 1 perch = 5.5 yards = 5.029 metres, so 17 perches = 85.496 metres. Mr Hickey contends that this also proves in black and white that it is a public road so it is in charge of the council and they should be cutting it. Limerick Live put this to the council. We have nothing more to add, said a council spokesperson. In recent weeks, Mr Hickey said council workers have cut the hedge on the main road. They even cut around signs that I have put up and about 12 feet in the public road leading to my property. They stopped there. It would have taken them less than an hour to cut it all, said Mr Hickey. So the stalemate continues and the farmer continues to pour his cows milk into a slurry tank. Its 46,000 now Ive lost out on. Im milking 24 cows. I dont even turn on the bulk tank, it goes straight into the slurry pit. I have no fertiliser bought because I couldnt buy it because I had no money to buy it at the price it is making. I only have slurry on the silage ground. This is going to drive me out of farming. We are here all our lives farming. My father bought the farm in 1957, said Mr Hickey, who reiterates his call on the council to cut the hedge and then his milk processor will recommence milk collection. Otherwise, his herds milk will continue to be poured away. If you dont stand your ground you may as well walk away. I wont let these people walk down on top of me, concluded Mr Hickey. A NEW book by a Limerick broadcaster takes readers on a journey into the spiritual world and beyond. Anne Marie Geraghtys voice will be known by many who listen to Limerick radio station Live 95, but listeners will learn even more about her thanks to her book, My Other World. The veteran journalist kept her experiences of premonitions and the spirit world under wraps for many years, but now she feels ready to share her stories with the world. The book is made up of a selection of journal entries over a four year period as Anne Marie learns more about herself and the complexities of the paranormal. Anne Marie is originally from Athlone, however, she has lived in Limerick for over 20 years and now resides here with her family. The mother-of-two spoke to Limerick Live about how her connection to the spiritual world began when she was a child. In primary school I started having dreams at night and then the next day the dreams would play out. It would be very simple things. Something would happen in the schoolyard and it was like a deja vu moment, except I would know what was going to happen next. I was living what I had already seen in my sleep. As I got older it became more about feeling and sensing things, it was only when I was in my late teens that I started seeing things. It was like I was only being shown a certain amount and everything gradually opened up to me the older I got. What started with dreams developed into Anne Marie seeing mists and sparks as well as figures and receiving messages about why things were happening in her life. Anne Marie did not share her experiences with many people as she would be dismissed or laughed at and says even today she does not discuss her experiences with everyone. Close friends and some family know most of what is in the book. If I sense someone is skeptical or afraid then I won't have the conversation but if I meet a like minded soul then I will. I have been blown away by the reaction to the book so far, there have been strangers who have gotten in touch and telling me their own stories. While she has become more comfortable with situations over the years, Anne Marie says some of her experiences can be overwhelming at times. In my early 20s I had a dream in which I saw a man I hadn't seen in years take his own life, in detail. A few weeks after I had the dream, he took his own life. I found that really hard to deal with. I just thought How do you explain this?. That kind of started me on a journey then. I have got to the point now where I am no longer afraid and that is why I have written the book. I know how to deal with things now. It was really difficult at times when something serious like that would happen, it would rock me, she pointed out. The book documents a four year period in Anne Marie's life where she says there was a lot going on including the birth of her two daughters. However, Anne Marie says the book is mostly about her own experiences and details her own journey. Anne Maries book, My Other World, is available now on Amazon. A GROUP of cyclists have taken on a 800km challenge to raise money for charity in memory of their friend and cousin who passed away from cancer. A group of seven set off from London on Saturday, May 21 for their week long cycle to Lahinch. The group took on the challenge in memory of Declan Sexton who passed away from a rare form of cancer two years ago at the age of 27. Declan worked in London and was originally from Lahinch, hence the route the cyclists decided to take. The group decided they wanted to do something in Declan's memory and are raising money for the Irish Cancer Society. The boys are expected to arrive in Lahinch this evening to a welcome reception from locals. Conor Meaney, from Caherdavin, said the journey was challenging at times as the group tackled tight deadlines and bad weather. "On Wednesday morning we had to get to the ferry in Holyhead by 9am and we were in Bangor which is 50 kilometres away. "So we were up at 4am to get there in time and the conditions were quite stormy. We had wind and rain in our faces but we arrived mostly intact! "The group is mostly amateur cyclists, some more so than others! But we trained beforehand and made sure we had the right equipment for the journey." You can donate to the challenge on iDonate here. The Government is to investigate claims that some Ukrainian refugees have raised concerns about being placed in centres with people of Russian ethnicity. However, Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said that while the claims will be examined, he does not have a major concern that pro-Putin agents are arriving in Ireland and staying in refugee centres. Some Ukrainian refugees stay at temporary accommodation centres before moving on to long-term accommodation in different parts of the country. A spokeswoman for the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth (DCEDIY) said that where issues arise in accommodation centres, managers deal with those involved on site. It said that when a resolution cannot be reached, the department will endeavour to provide alternative accommodation. Mr Varadkar said the concerns raised by Ukrainian refugees will be looked into. I think its important to appreciate that there are a lot of people who are Ukrainian who have Russian family and vice versa, Mr Varadkar added. The countries are not dissimilar to England and Ireland in many ways. So you do have people that have dual citizenship, and you have people who are Ukrainian but have Russian family members and vice versa. I think as Irish people you can kind of understand that sort of relationship that can exist between two neighbouring countries, often friends, sometimes enemies. We will look into this but I dont have a major concern that there are pro-Putin or pro-Kremlin Russian agents getting into the country under the guise of being Ukrainian. But we do have to bear in mind that thats not impossible, and thats why we will look into it. A department spokeswoman said it provides short-term accommodation to those who are deemed by the Department of Justice to be eligible for protection under the Temporary Protection Directive. The department does not discriminate based on race or nationality, the spokeswoman added. When a person has received Beneficiary of Temporary Protection (BOTP) status from the Department of Justice, DCEDIY then provides temporary accommodation according to their particular needs. Some BOTPs may be of Russian ethnicity and have been resident in Ukraine prior to the invasion. Where issues arise in any of the procured DCEDIY accommodation centres, managers deal with BOTPs onsite and only when a resolution cannot be reached will the department endeavour to provide alternative accommodation. The department does not comment on individual cases. Click here to read the full article. Bobby Brown recounts the origins of new jack swing and his hit My Prerogative in a new clip from the upcoming two-part documentary Biography: Bobby Brown. It airs May 30 and May 31 on A&E. The clip begins with Brown and critic/author Nelson George offering a succinct breakdown of new jack swing, the latter explaining how it took the aggression of hip-hop and some of the instrumental sounds, but mixed them with R&B melodies. The producer at the forefront of this revolution was Teddy Riley, who invited Brown to his mothers apartment in Harlem for a recording session. There was keyboards everywhere, we had the mics set up in the bathroom, Brown recalled. We just decided that, no matter what, we were gonna make something funky out of this. What emerged was My Prerogative, a career-defining hit that anchored Browns 1988 album, Dont Be Cruel. The clip ends with Jermaine Dupri summarizing what made Brown so special in that moment: He understood, if your attitude is street, let that be what it is. But when you sing, be Smokey Robinson. And when you dance and perform, be Fred Astaire, be Michael Jackson. To me, Bobby had figured all that out, and when he locked that in, you couldnt stop him. Biography: Bobby Brown will offer an extensive overview of Browns wildly successful, though often equally tumultuous life and career. Per a press release, Brown will discuss his struggles with substance abuse, his marriage to Whitney Houston, as well as Houstons death and the death of his two children, Bobby Brown, Jr. and Bobbi Kristina Brown. The documentary also reportedly features footage of Brown visiting the gravesite of Houston and Bobbi Kristina Brown for the first time. The press release does not state whether Brown will discuss some of the domestic violence and abuse allegations against him: In 1998 he was accused of sexual battery, but that case was dismissed due to lack of evidence; and in 2003, he was charged with battery after an altercation with Houston. In his memoir, Every Little Step, Brown did admit to striking Houston on one occasion, but denied claims that he was abusive towards his late ex-wife. Click here to read the full article. Kore-eda Hirokazu, director of the well-received Cannes competition film Broker says his diverse and lonely characters constitute a family of choice. This film tells the story of a family which came together by choice. Each character had been rejected. They set off on a car journey, as if by accident. Each has committed offences. They all try for once in their life to do something good, to a greater or lesser degree, said Kore-eda. He was speaking at a standing room only press conference at the Cannes that veered between four languages and seemed to be filled with young film fans as much as journalists and camera crews. The more things are serious, the more I want to add a touch of humor. Song Kang-ho was the ideal actor for this film as he has these two sides in himself, the director said, explaining the films style and presentation. I take this approach because I think it makes people pay attention more. If Id made this film as a tragedy it might have been less convincing. The fragmented structure, family theme and precise acting performances recall his Shoplifters, which won the Palme dor at Cannes in 2018. Questions inevitably turned to how and why a Japanese director chose to work in South Korea. Kore-eda said there were few differences between a Korean and a Japanese director. Kore-eda enjoys good food, cooking and eating well. Thats the main difference, he said, speaking in translation and apparently in the third person. Song described Kore-eda as someone who likes challenges and responds to them. Joint male lead, Gang Dong-won said that Kore-eda was ever-present on set and meticulous. Female lead, Lee Ji-eun said: Kore-eda doesnt speak the same language. Because of this language barrier we had to pay more attention, listen harder. Id been to Busan before, to the film festival. But I was always too busy eating great Korean food and so I had not explored the city that much before choosing the film location. We scouted widely and found a city of contrasts. It is very hilly and I enjoyed playing with the different levels, said Kore-eda. Some time has to elapse to understand what being a father means, said Kore-eda, responding to a question as to whether his three films Like Father, Like Son, Shoplifters and Broker constitute a film trilogy. I had thought that it was easier to understand what it means to be a mother, but a friend of mine challenged that assumption. And Ive regularly been reflecting on that since. The police captain represents majority public opinion and speaks the first line in the film, suggesting that the woman should not have given birth if she was going to give up her child, said Kore-eda. The whole purpose of the two hours of the movie is to open peoples minds, not necessarily to change them. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. It is widely known that Tom Cruise would rather jump off a building or out of an airplane than resort to using CGI. Thus, when it came to filming Top Gun: Maverick, having access to the Navy equipment and expertise that informed the original 1986 hit was paramount for production designer Jeremy Hindle to create a believable, engaging action film. From an opening sequence aboard the flight deck of a USS aircraft carrier to an F-14 Tomcat plane, or a fleet of fighters, Hindle pulled out all the stops. The film brings back Cruise as Pete Maverick Mitchell now a weathered test pilot. He has returned to the San Diego base in the original movie, this time to train a group of naval graduates for a very dangerous mission. The F-14 Tomcat was featured in the first film, and with the sequel hitting a lot of nostalgic notes, it was fitting for the plane to make an encore in a climactic dogfight sequence. But there was a catch, as Hindle explains: There are no F-14s that fly because they [have been decommissioned in the U.S.] and all the engines have been taken out of them. Getting access to even one was quite an undertaking. The only people that have F-14s are in Iran, and they have six of them, says Hindle. But he wasnt going to get any of those. In the end, the filmmakers found one they could use at the San Diego Air and Space Museum, but it had to be dismantled and shipped, since the scenes with the plane were shooting at an airfield more than 500 miles away, near Lake Tahoe. The next challenge was to make the aircraft as fully functional as possible. It needed to be operational enough that the [cockpit] canopy opens, Hindle says. After that, since it still lacked an engine, it was towed. Everything up to that point is as real as you can get, he adds. Hindle credits the Navy crew assigned to the film for aiding to secure the F-14. They would do anything to help make the movie amazing, he says. For the other planes used by Lt. Bradley Rooster Bradshaw (Miles Teller), Jake Hangman Seresin (Glen Powell) and other members of the cast, Hindle brought in 20 other aircraft, also not an easy feat. We collected those from all over the country because these were planes that are working, flying and still doing their jobs, Hindle says. Once he had the planes including a Boeing F/A-18/F call signs needed to be painted on them and the actors headgear. Hindle worked with director Joseph Kosinski, a graphic artist and an illustrator to design the character helmets. Theres so much story to each helmet, Hindle say. Hangmans has a tiny hangman graphic, and Rooster has his design. Everything has to register instantly, because the audience has this second [on screen] to know who they are. Hindle reveals that call signs on helmets did not exist in the Navy until after the first movie was made. It was Tonys [Scott] idea on the first movie, and now everyone does it, he says. There was one plane, though that Hindle didnt have to worry about procuring the one Maverick is working on in a hangar early in the film begins. That was Cruises own P-51 fighter jet, Hindle explains. He flew that from Florida to California to that hangar. As for the films bar, Hindle explains that all Navy bases have I-Bars where officers come and hang out. If theyre stationed there, they will bring a mug which is then hung on a hook, explains Hindle of the decorating choice. The idea behind it was the bar belonged to Penny (Jennifer Connelly), but she had inherited it. Says Hindle, Its this old bar. Everything in the Nacy has this old feel to it, you feel their history because they pass everything on. They dont tear it down and build on it, and thats how we wanted this bar to look. The bar was a real set build on the beach. I scoured bars all along the beach in San Diego, but nothing worked, says Hindle. We actually built it in L.A., completely made of steel and dressed it so I could see it, but then we dismantled it and rebuilt it on the beach. The set dressing, Hindle says, is real from the tail wings to the plaques on the walls. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. An Indigenous Canadian producer who was turned away from the Cannes red carpet for wearing traditional moccasins says he was made to feel like a criminal for representing his culture at the worlds foremost film festival. Vancouver-based producer Kelvin Redvers, who is a member of the Dene nation, was in line to walk the red carpet for the world premiere of Valeria Bruni Tedeschis Les Amandiers on Sunday (May 22) when he was stopped in his tracks by red carpet security. Redvers was part of a contingent of Indigenous producers who were in Cannes for the first time, pitching their projects and experiencing the festival. The groups trip was backed by Canadian funding org Telefilm, Toronto-headquartered Indigenous Screen Office and Capilano Universitys FILMBA program. Originally from the Northwest Territories, Redvers was in the festivals requisite red-carpet attire of black tie but had swapped out the skate shoes he walked to the Palais des Festivals in for a pair of brown moccasins. I was hoping to wear an example of something that would be formal for my culture, which was a beautiful pair of moccasins that were actually beaded by my sister, says Redvers. I was pretty excited to wear those. But as soon as security guards spotted the moccasins, they blocked Redvers from the red carpet, and after a confused back and forth among staff, the producer was asked to leave. Although his French-speaking colleague tried to explain that Cannes is meant to have flexibility for cultural outfits such as saris and kilts, protestations fell on deaf ears. A fairly aggressive security guard got fed up, got right in my face and said, You need to leave now. Leave now. Leave now. Leave now. Leave! says Redvers. I was very confused and hurt; I felt belittled. I was being treated like a criminal for just trying to wear my formal traditional wear. Redvers was only allowed back on the red carpet after changing into his regular shoes. Cannes has had a long history of red carpet controversy, and in the past turned away women wearing flat shoes instead of high heels. Although this outdated rule, which was never codified, seems to have been largely relaxed, Cannes attendees continue to have run-ins with security on the red carpet. Last week, Variety awards editor Clayton Davis was pulled aside for wearing a white tuxedo instead of a black or blue outfit, despite another individual in a white tux, who was white, walking the carpet without any issue. After Telefilm and the Indigenous Screen Office complained about Redvers altercation, top brass at Cannes including the festivals secretary general Francois Desrousseaux and the head of the red carpet met with Redvers and his advocates the next day, and apologized for the commotion. Yet, oddly, Cannes leadership admitted that even if Redvers case had been presented to the red carpet staff that makes the final call on admittance, he would have been turned away because his moccasins just didnt fit the approval levels of what formal wear is. One of the problems is I was only wearing one piece of my formal wear, says Redvers. If Id been wearing the full regalia, they would have put me through, which is interesting because it really limits formal wear into a preconceived idea and a Western idea of what formal wear should be. Kerry Swanson, co-executive director of the Indigenous Screen Office, says the group had a productive and open conversation with Cannes executives, but highlights that because red carpet staff are making subjective decisions about formal wear, expanding the vocabulary of cultural attire is necessary to ensure this doesnt happen again. If security is confronted with cultural attire they are not familiar with, it would be better to err on the side of allowing them in rather than keeping them out, says Swanson. This is especially crucial, she says, given the growing wave of Indigenous-made work getting global attention, which means more Indigenous filmmakers will be present at international festivals like Cannes. Added Redvers: Our goal is to create awareness that a ribbon skirt may not look necessarily formal but in a cultural context, its tremendously important when it comes to ceremony in Indigenous communities. Theyre willing to hear it and we want to start a conversation over the summer so that if someone else shows up in moccasins or a ribbon skirt in Cannes, [organizers] know what to look for. Cannes invited Redvers to walk the red carpet on Monday, for the world premiere of Canadian director David Cronenbergs Crimes of the Future and this time, his moccasins got the green light. The next day, at the red carpet, although the first security guard who saw us was about to say something, the next person saw how we were dressed and said, Yes, let them through, says Redvers. That was my favorite moment of my festival: to walk in and get kicked out for a case of cultural wear, and the next day to have changed the understanding for myself and other people on the red carpet. A spokesperson for the Cannes Film Festival did not respond to requests for comment. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. Digital artist and NFT virtuoso Emily Yang joined Variety and Kering at the Cannes Film Festival for an inspiring Women In Motion conversation on Friday, just ahead of the final day of the festivals 75th edition. In just over two years, Yang went from being on unemployment insurance to becoming a rockstar in the NFT-driven digital art space under the handle @pplpleasr. Yang, who designed the April cover of Vogue magazines Taiwan edition, has used the proceeds of the sales of her artwork to set up the Stand With Asians Community Fund as well as an NFT collective for charitable work. Starting her career as a visual effects artist, Yang worked on studio tentpoles like Batman v. Superman and Wonder Woman, and in 2020, had a job offer from Apple for a digital artist role. When the pandemic struck, however, the opportunity went away, leaving Yang jobless for over a year. It was definitely not an easy time, reflects Yang. Looking back now, I obviously see it as a blessing in disguise, but at the time it was particularly stressful because I was living in New York and worried about paying rent. I was actually collecting unemployment insurance because I had lost my job and I think what kept me sane during that time was I started an Instagram account and thats how pplpleasr was born. Yang who was doing endless job applications wanted an outlet and building out her pplpleasr brand provided a respite from the job hunt. I started making artwork for myself for the very first time, because before I had always been making artwork for other big Hollywood studios. It was really to make myself feel like I was doing something productive and I wasnt putting my life to waste. Around that time, Yang began looking into other revenue streams and was drawn into DeFi (decentralized finance), which is a sub-sector of cryptocurrency. I saw a way to marry my own skill set with crypto knowledge and make myself valuable and useful in the space out of purely a need to create some kind of income for myself. I started using my medium and making all these animations to promote DeFi protocols. Through word of mouth, they all started hitting me up and thats when I was like, This could be a real job.' Yet Yang acknowledges that there are still plenty of misconceptions and misunderstandings about the crypto world. People see it as super ridiculous or over the top, especially as the media focus is a lot on the numbers [big sales deals] that are generated, says Yang. For me, I obviously found the technology very interesting, about being able to generate unchained royalties for artists, beyond the many, many things that NFTs enable for people. But its really weird because I feel like as an NFT artist, your entire worth and self-worth is put online. Everyone is judging you by the numbers that you generate. Overall, Yang finds the space empowering for women, and points out that the crypto community is not a sexist one. This is pretty obvious by how many anonymous influencer accounts there are where people are just represented by a picture of a monkey online or something, says Yang. They dont know who you are or what your background is it doesnt really matter its just what kind of thoughts and ideas youre putting out into the space. There is a gender disparity, says Yang, but thats more a spillover from the tech and finance industries being more male-dominated. Its basically a convergence of all these industries that previously had a large gender imbalance, she says. But my job is to hopefully inspire more women to join this space, adds Yang. And you are seeing this happen more and more, but my own success is also a result of people not [discriminating by gender] because they just realized the work I was doing was cool, and less about who I am or what I look like. In that regard, I feel really lucky and I hope that my story can inspire other women to join in my footsteps and build in web3 as well. Watch Yangs full conversation at Kerings Women In Motion talk with Variety in the video below: Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Click here to read the full article. It was Paul Gauguin, Frances most celebrated Polynesian tourist, who once wrote of learning to know the silence of a Tahitian night. Its a void, he wrote, in which other senses and sensory awarenesses are heightened, amplifying his sense of loneliness and separation from others: The inhabitants of the district and I mutually watched each other, and the distance remained the same. Gauguin isnt mentioned in Pacifiction, Albert Serras languorous, meandering tour of modern-day Tahiti, though those words echo through its survey of the islands distanced, distracted residents even if the nights here arent as silent as the artist might remember, disrupted as they are with tinny discotheque beats, darkened trysts and the hovering, unidentified threat of nuclear warfare. The first film by cultish Catalan provocateur Serra to crack Canness competition lineup, Pacifiction is an unhurried, 164-minute tropical tour that is sort of about nothing and everything at once. Slender in terms of incident, its drawn-out narrative is nonetheless rife with political tension, observing both the enduring colonialist entitlement of the French Republic territorys Gallic custodians and the ever-itching resentment felt by its indigenous population coming to a head under the twin threats of gentrifying development and military destruction. The films contemporary setting makes it a departure of sorts from Serras recent run of sensuous, somnambulant period pieces which bottomed out, so to speak, with 2019s 18th-century erotic endurance test Liberte but its fully consistent with his oeuvre in its hazy cultivation of mood and its merging of historical realities with daydreamed surrealism. Either way its a very passive fiction indeed, the oblique thriller-ish trappings of which probably arent enough to significantly expand Serras select, besotted fanbase, though esoterically-inclined distributors will try. Provided they stick with the films luxuriantly gradual pacing, however, there are rewards here even for more bemused viewers caught in its tide. Those include the humid beauty and occasionally giddy technical fluidity of Artur Torts camerawork and an amusingly offhanded lead performance by Benoit Magimel, settling ever more louchely into the character-actor phase of his career. He plays the islands French High Commissioner De Roller an apt enough name for someone who at least likes to see himself as a droll high roller, permanently clad in the expected uniform of white summer suit, beachy printed shirt and orange espadrilles, whether hes taking meetings or zooming around on a jetski. Gregarious but glib, he seemingly has no off-switch as a politician: Every encounter is a negotiation and a performance, whether hes appeasing local community leaders to pave the way for a new luxury casino development, paying tribute to a visiting French novelist attempting a Gauguin-style creative exile, or simply making small talk with fellow patrons at the sleazy neighborhood nightclub run by fellow expat Morton (a brief cameo from Sergi Lopez). Even with his would-be lover, transgender traditional dancer Shannah (Pahoa Mahagafanau, in a warm, watchful turn), hes guarded and manipulative, seeking opportunities for an advantage with the locals newly aggravated by rumors that a French submarine is lurking near their shores, set to resume the program of nuclear testing that was paused in the area in the mid-1990s. De Roller denies such talk with smarmy assurance. The truth, however, is hes exasperatedly out of the loop himself, stalking a newly arrived navy admiral (Mark Susini) and his crew, and cruising the ocean after dark for signs of underwater activity none of which is especially fruitful, not least since the sailors seem mostly interested in hanging around Mortons club, in extended scenes of semi-homoerotic socializing that play a little like Abdellatif Kechiche remixing Querelle. Written down in such terms, Pacifiction sounds plottier than it is, whereas Serras primary interest is in the slow, repetitive grind of De Rollers routine. His daily circuits of meetings, greetings and cocktails expose the petty vanities of colonial bureaucracy and the puffed-up insecurities of privileged but replaceable European patriarchy, in a manner comparable to Lucrecia Martels far more feverish, intellectually buzzing Zama. Serras filmmaking, though, keeps any political agitation below the rippling surface. Its perhaps significant that the films most captivating scene involves simply giving over to the elements, as we head out on one of the boats transporting surfers far from the shore an into the Pacific, where staggeringly high breakers lift and carry all crafts with vast, inhuman power and for several minutes, Torts 4K camera bobs and rises with them in a thrilling, immersive surrender. Pacifiction is a film in many ways about floating, through life and water and power, inviting the viewer to idly drift right along with it. Reviewed at Cannes Film Festival (Competition), May 26, 2022. Running time: 164 MIN. Running Time: Running time: 164 MIN. Production (France-Spain-Germany-Portugal) An Ideale Audience Group, Andergraun Films, Tamtam Film, Rosa Filmes production in co-production with Arte France Cinema, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Archipel Production in association with Cinemage 16. (World sales: Films Boutique, Berlin.) Producers: Pierre-Olivier Bardet, Albert Serra, Montse Triola, Dirk Decker, Andrea Schutte, Joaquim Sapinho, Marta Alves, Laurent Jacquemin. Crew Director: Albert Serra. Screenplay: Serra, Baptiste Pinteaux. Camera: Artur Tort. Editors: Serra, Tort, Ariadna Ribas. Music: Marc Verdaguer. With Benoit Magimel, Pahoa Mahagafanau, Marc Susini, Matahi Pambrun, Alexandre Melo, Sergi Lopez, Montse Triola, Michael Vautor, Cecile Guilbert, Lluis Serrat, Mike Landscape, Cyrus Arai, Mareva Wong, Baptiste Pinteaux. (French, English dialogue) Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NEW YORK - Here's to the playwrights who quip. And yes, please, everybody laugh, because things are terrible right now, and we can all use the kind of release activated by being with other people and sharing an hour or two of funny respite. Chief among the blessed humorists at the moment: James Ijames, whose divine comedy "Fat Ham" just won the Pulitzer Prize for drama. (A thanks to the Pulitzers for recognizing a play with a thoroughly joyful leitmotif.) The work made its debut last year as a digital production by Philadelphia's Wilma Theater, where Ijames is one of three co-artistic directors. And now, at the Public Theater, in a production with the National Black Theatre, the show gets its live theatrical premiere, courtesy of director Saheem Ali and a terrific corps of seven actors who plant their feet firmly in Ijames's cheeky turf. (His surname is pronounced IMES.) "Fat Ham" is not the most delicately wrought work of dramatic literature ever to win the esteemed prize. Nor as a riff on "Hamlet" can it claim 100 percent originality: Shakespeare's soliloquies find their way into the audience asides delivered by Marcel Spears's nimbly rendered Juicy. He portrays a student at an online university whose usurping uncle leaps into his mother's bed. It is all unabashedly entertaining and one of a spate of enticing new plays that are destined to be seen on stages across the country, offering fresh hope to theaters and theatergoers who are willing the industry back to full health. Anecdotal reports, and my own observations, indicate that playhouses are not filling seats the way they did before the pandemic, and some artistic directors say an attendance drop-off of 10 to 20% may be long-lasting. Plays like "Fat Ham" and "John Proctor Is the Villain," Kimberly Belflower's terrific revisionist take on "The Crucible," now at D.C.'s Studio Theatre, are of an accomplished caliber to spearhead a more vibrant return to live performance. Another is Samuel H. Hunter's deeply affecting "A Case for the Existence of God," at off-Broadway's Signature Theatre Company (not to be confused with the Arlington, Va., troupe of the same name). Hunter has danced with the sublime before, in plays such as "Greater Clements," his 2019 contemplation of identity and history in an Idaho mining town. Woolly Mammoth Theatre was an early proponent, staging Hunter's trenchant "A Bright New Boise" in 2011. In "A Case for the Existence of God," he returns us to Idaho, this time in the company of Keith (Kyle Beltran) and Ryan (Will Brill), whose ever more meaningful and complex friendship explodes all the tired tropes about the emotional bonds between men. Keith is a mortgage broker and Ryan the woefully underqualified loan applicant who walks into his office - a typically colorless cubicle placed by set designer Arnulfo Maldonado at the ethereal center of the vast Irene Diamond stage. What evolves in that office belies the impersonal surroundings, but not in the soapy ways a writer of lesser gifts might contrive. Keith and Ryan discover a safe space for their free-floating insecurities, their love of being fathers, an essence of masculine intimacy that manages to thrive outside homoeroticism. (Keith, we learn, is straight and Ryan is gay.) "I think we share a specific kind of sadness, you and me," Ryan confides, as their various struggles over divorce and foster parenting come to the fore. With incisive input from Hunter and director David Cromer, the smashingly good Brill and Beltran - who were roommates at Carnegie Mellon University - forge a relationship at times tense and tenuous, at others mutually affirmative. Lighting designer Tyler Micoleau is enlisted to devise a clever plan for indicating shifts in time and place without the necessity of Keith and Ryan leaving the office. The final scene of "A Case for the Existence of God" is as touchingly resonant as the finale in "Fat Ham" is groove-in-your-seat exuberant. Ijames's meta-theatrical comedy follows melancholy Juicy on the occasion of a backyard barbecue in America celebrating the marriage of his mother, Tedra (the wondrous Nikki Crawford), to Rev (Billy Eugene Jones). Rev probably arranged the shanking in prison of Juicy's father, Pap, who (in the guise of Jones again) materializes in ghostly white formal wear, traces of smoke wafting out of his hair. Yes, the famous play's the thing as Ijames's evocations of storied characters arrive: Ophelia, as Adrianna Mitchell's Opal, Horatio (Chris Herbie Holland's Tio), Laertes (Calvin Leon Smith's Larry) and Polonius (Benja Kay Thomas's Rabby). One of the pleasures of "Fat Ham" is its wry act of appropriation; there's affection, not snark, in Ijames's embrace of the canon so that the contemporary frictions among the reimagined characters propel the play winningly into social satire. That Mitchell's risibly restless Opal has no eyes for Juicy - and uptight Marine Larry does - are just two of the many ways "Fat Ham" turns "Hamlet" giddily upside down. In the mouthy matriarchal role, Thomas is a special magnitude of irresistible. As Juicy, Spears proves an appealing central conveyor of Ijames's conceits, one of which proposes this latter-day Hamlet as seeking a career in human resources; the job is portrayed here as being for someone who, ahem, has trouble making up his mind. The playwright sneaks in bits of enjoyable wordplay, too, as when Rev lavishes praise on his own grilling skills. "The secret is the rub," he says. "Ah, there's the rub," Juicy replies. Silly for sure - and kind of great. - - - "Fat Ham," by James Ijames. Directed by Saheem Ali. Set, Maruti Evans; costumes, Dominique Fawn Hill; lighting, Stacey Derosier; sound, Mikaal Sulaiman. About 95 minutes. Through July 3 at Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., New York. publictheater.org. "A Case for the Existence of God," by Samuel H. Hunter. Directed by David Cromer. Set Arnulfo Maldonado; costumes, Brenda Abbandandolo; lighting, Tyler Micoleau; sound, Christopher Darbassie. About 90 minutes. Through June 5 at Signature Theatre, 480 W. 42d St., New York. signaturetheatre.org. Courtesy/Webb County Sheriff's Office A man was arrested after threatening to beat up another male via Facebook for being a dumba--, according to an arrest affidavit. Esteban Ivan Acosta, 35, was served with an arrest warrant charging him with harassment -- repeated electronic communication. The Uvalde, Texas mass shooting that left 21 dead 19 children and two teachers has caused reactions from people from all over the state and even locally. One local representative of Webb County and Uvalde, Tracy O. King, actually lives in the area. And he spoke to LMT about what he is seeing in the community following the tragedy. The Texas District 80 State Representative said he continues to focus on the healing process for those affected in his community, as he believes that questions of policy will come later as time progresses. We are truly heartbroken, and this has shaken our community to the core, King said. We are now mourning with the families of the children and teachers lost. King represents the area as his district extends from Uvalde County in the north to Zapata County in the south. As such, the matter is obviously more personal to him as the massacre occurred at Robb Elementary School, located about 10 minutes away from his office. Since the situation occurred, he said that he has been involved with local law enforcement to ensure anything that can be done to help mitigate the situation is being done. King also states that he knew some of the families directly impacted by the mass shooting, and that he has been in contact with several of them. I live in the City of Uvalde and have been here to help and support our school and local officials, local law enforcement, first responders and, most importantly, the families involved in this tragedy, King said. King describes Uvalde as a close-knit community. The city had a population of just over 15,000 as of the latest Census figures from 2020, and it's been a family atmosphere for the state rep. while he's lived there. I have been in the area for decades, King said. I raised my family here and both my children graduated from the Uvalde public school system. I am very familiar with Robb Elementary and Uvalde CISD, as well as the city and surrounding region. It is my home. As law enforcement continues to investigate how things unfolded on the day of the mass shooting, many people from Uvalde and the surrounding areas including Laredo Police Department officers and ordinary Laredoans have gone out to the small community to the north to offer their assistance. For now, King hopes that locals can keep the families of the victims in their prayers. But he expressed his thanks to everyone who has stepped up and helped those in need in the area. We ask that folks keep the victims, their families and our community in their prayers, King said. I believe there will be more material ways for people to offer direct help in the coming days. We are grateful for everyone's assistance, and please feel free to contact our office if we can help them in those efforts. King also said that right now is not the time to diverge into policy, as people should reflect and honor the victims and continue praying for their families. He believes that soon a time will come when the policy can be approached and spoken about, but not at the moment. The community is in shock and is grieving, King said. The investigation is still ongoing, and we are supporting our law enforcement team as they continue their work. In the meantime, we will ask all Texans for their continued prayers for the families and the Uvalde community. The opportunity to address this tragic event will come, but now is the time to offer support to our neighbors. Graduation celebrations are here, and the Laredo community is gathering at Sames Auto Arena all week to honor respective students. UISD is graduating 3,145 seniors from four high schools in the district. And it kicked off the week with commencement ceremonies for Lyndon B. Johnson and John B. Alexander High School on Tuesday and Wednesday night, respectively. LBJ started the week with 662 students graduating in the Class of 2022. Among them is Sergio Villarreal Jr., who graduated with his associate's degree from Laredo College. Villarreal completed this degree through the Early Start Pathway program. "If I am honest, every school week was filled with doing work at school and getting home to doing even more homework," said Villarreal of his busy schedule. "Even then, I was still able to make great memories. Now I am here in my senior year about to graduate with my associate's degree. "It may be tiring and challenging at times, but without it I would have had to spend even more time pursuing college hours to be able to graduate from college after high school." Villarreal advises students to take advantage of the Early Start Pathway program and the opportunities it brings so they can too can finish high school with a dual-degree. "To any future students interested in the Early Start Pathway program, I recommend to take advantage of the summers and all opportunities to take college courses so that by your senior year, you too can graduate with your associate's degree," he said. "Do not procrastinate. Pace yourself, but never lose sight of the goal." After high school, Villarreal plans to attend Texas A&M International University to pursue a degree in botany. As a second option, Villarreal considers continuing his enrollment at Laredo College to study trade. Alexander continued the week of graduations with a ceremony that graduated 721 Bulldogs on Wednesday. Last month, AHS held an early graduation for Joshua Gonzalez, whose ill father Daniel would likely not be able to attend his graduation. On Wednesday night, Joshua was joined by his family, with the exception of his dad, where he received his diploma with the Class of 2022. "It was a tremendous honor to walk that stage with my peers," Gonzalez said. "Having the teachers, the staff, our principal and our parents cheering us on as we move on to a new chapter in our lives, opening the door for countless possibilities opportunities and beginnings, I will always be proud to be of the Class of 2022. And no matter where we may end up, we will have the strength and character to preserve and push on in the face of adversity. "I am again grateful to the entire UISD staff for going above and beyond to help my family. I will never forget them as I move on to new opportunities made possible by their diligence and dedication to providing us with an education. Especially to Miss Rodriguez, she provided me a special attachment for my tassel that was able to help honor my father. He didn't make it to the main graduation, but his words were, 'It's OK, I made it to the important one' -- the important one being the first small graduation we held for him. "The one thing I would like to say to my peers is that sometimes it's the people that no one imagines anything of that go on to do the things that no one can imagine. So never let anyone make you out to be any less than what you are." Additionally, Alexander presented graduation diplomas to the parents of five students who have passed away within the last years before being able to reach the esteemed ceremony. Walter Gabriel Garza Marron, Jaqueline Ashley Gonzalez, Alicia Lisset Hernandez, Julio Jesus Lerma Montemayor and Juan Antonio Sosa Santana were remembered by their class and honored with their high school diplomas and a minute of silence. UISD will continue graduations of United South High School on Friday at 7 p.m. and United High School on Saturday at 7 p.m. LISD held its celebrations on Thursday with Martin, Nixon and Cigarroa High Schools having its events at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., respectively. Garcia Early College rounds out LISD with an event Friday at 11 a.m. inside the LISD Performing Arts Complex Auditorium. Courtesy/Laredo Police Department A man is wanted for breaking into a home to steal a window air conditioning unit and a weed eater, according to Laredo police. Luis Manuel Gonzalez, 25, has an active warrant for his arrest for burglary of habitation. Since Monday, the deputy constables of Precinct 4 have been enforcing the 2022 Click it or Ticket campaign. Constable Harold Devally has committed his deputy constables to work the two-week campaign to help educate motorists and passengers on the importance of seat belt safety. This is Devallys third year participating in the statewide campaign, and he is optimistic for favorable reporting back to the state. "The priority of the grant is public safety," Devally said. "The law applies to everyone when it comes to seatbelts for drivers and passengers. Deputy Constables will also be making sure that children are properly fastened in their car seats." TxDOT has awarded the Constables Office over $3,500 in grant monies to allow deputies enforcement from May 23 through June 5. Deputies will be working morning and evening hours along areas that have been designated and approved by the state. These areas include Loop 20, Mines Rd and Interstate Highway 35, among other areas throughout the city and county. These areas have been identified by the state to have had accidents involving serious injuries or fatalities. The Constables Office has worked closely with TxDOT representative and Traffic Safety Specialist of the Laredo District Blanca N. Trevino-Castro to review all submissions of the grant. "This is the 20th anniversary of the Click It or Ticket Campaign, and we are pleased to have deputies available to work this grant," Devally said. "TxDOT has been an important partner to all law enforcement agencies, and we hope that our partnership continues for years to come." Devally also encouraged everyone to Buckle Up day or night to try and end the streak of daily deaths on Texas roadways. In 2021, there were 3,507 Texas crashes with people that were not buckled up. Those crashes resulted in fatal or serious injuries. The state has seen a 14% increase from the previous year. There hasn't been a deathless day on Texas roads since Nov. 7, 2000. (Information provided by Texas Department of Transportation) For more information regarding the Click It or Ticket Campaign of Precinct 4, contact 956-523-5100 or Trevino-Castro at 956-712-7408. Cities and counties in Texas dominated the list of the fastest-growing places in the U.S. between 2020-2021, according to population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Between July 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021, eight of the fifteen fastest growing cities in the nation were located in Texas, the data shows. San Antonio saw the largest numerical growth in population over the 12-month period, Census data shows. The city gained 13,626 residents for a total population of 1.45 million, making it the seventh-largest city in the nation and the second-most populous city in Texas behind Houston. Fort Worth had the third-largest growth in population in the U.S., gaining 12,916 people between 2020 and 2021. Frisco gained 7,933 residents in 12 months, the third-highest total in Texas and the eighth-largest increase nationwide. The other Texas cities with the largest increases were New Braunfels (7,538), Georgetown (7,193), Leander (6,159), Denton (5,844) and McKinney (5,586). While Georgetown did not have the largest numerical increase in population, the Austin-area city had the largest percentage growth in population in the U.S., growing 10.5%, Census data shows. At that rate, the citys population would double in less than seven years, a Census press release said. The city has a population of 75,420, according to Census estimates. Texas is also home to some of the fastest-growing counties in the U.S., Census data shows. Rockwall County, in the Dallas area, grew the most in the nation between 2020 and 2021 with a population growth of 6.5%. Chambers County (5.7%), Hays and Comal counties (5.2%) and Fort Bend County (5.1%) were all also in the top 10 fastest growing counties in the U.S., according to Census data. The 15 largest U.S. cities remained the same, although half of the cities saw a decrease in population, according to Census estimates. That includes Houston, which lost 11,777 people between 2020 and 2021, and Dallas, which lost 14,777 people during the same period. Texas had the third-highest percentage increase in housing units in the 12-month period, growing 2.0% for a total of 11.9 million units. Utah was the state with the fastest growth at 2.7% followed by Idaho at 2.5%. Harris County saw the largest numerical gain in housing units in the country between 2020 and 2021, gaining 34,132 units. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Breaking with the party line in a rare show of opposition to his countrys war in Ukraine, a Communist Party legislative deputy in Russias Far East demanded an end to the military operation and withdrawal of Russian forces. We understand that if our country doesnt stop the military operation, well have more orphans in our country, Leonid Vasyukevich said at a meeting of the Primorsk regional Legislative Assembly in the Pacific port of Vladivostok on Friday. His comments, which he addressed to President Vladimir Putin, were shown in a video posted on a Telegram channel emanating from the region. Another deputy followed to support Vasyukevichs views but the legislative assemblys chairman issued a statement afterward calling the remarks a political provocation not supported by the majority of lawmakers. Earlier this month, a Russian diplomat based in Geneva resigned, saying he was ashamed of the war. Russia has imposed severe penalties for publicly challenging the Kremlins narrative on the military operation in Ukraine. ___ KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR: Relentless: Russia squeezes Ukrainian strongholds in east West mulls having Russian oligarchs buy way out of sanctions Russia blames the West for global food crisis as it blocks Ukraine ports US wins latest legal battle to seize Russian yacht in Fiji US general: No need to add ground forces in Sweden, Finland ___ Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine ___ OTHER DEVELOPMENTS: KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnkyy spoke defiantly Friday in two speeches about his countrys ultimate victory over Russian forces in both the most pressing battle in eastern Ukraine and the war, generally. Ukraine is a country that has destroyed the myth about the extraordinary power of the Russian army -- an army that supposedly, in a few days, could conquer anyone it wants, he told Stanford University students by video. Now Russia is trying to occupy the entire state but we feel strong enough to think about the future of Ukraine, which will be open to the world. Later, in his nightly video address, Zelenskyy reacted to Russians capture of the eastern city of Lyman, the Donetsk regions large railway hub north of two more key cities still under Ukrainian control, and its attempt to encircle and seize the city of Sievierodonetsk, one of the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk. If the occupiers think that Lyman or Sievierodonetsk will be theirs, they are wrong, the Ukrainian president said in his nightly video address. Donbas will be Ukrainian. ___ KYIV, Ukraine The governor of the Luhansk region is denying Russian claims that their forces have surrounded the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk but said Ukrainian soldiers may have to retreat. Serhiy Haidai wrote on Telegram Friday that the Russians have seized a hotel and bus station. The Russians will not be able to capture Luhansk region in the coming days, as analysts predict. We will have enough forces and means to defend ourselves, Haidai wrote. He added that its possible that not to be surrounded, we will have to leave. A critical supply and evacuation path, the Lysychansk-Bakhmut highway, is constantly under fire, but supplies and people are still passing on it, Haidai said. ___ KYIV, Ukraine The leaders of the Orthodox churches in Ukraine that were affiliated with the Russian Orthodox Church have adopted measures declaring the churchs full independence and criticizing the Russian churchs leader for his support of Russias invasion of Ukraine. Orthodoxy, the largest religious denomination in Ukraine, is divided between churches that had been loyal to the Moscow Patriarchate and those under a separate ecclesiastical body. The council of the Moscow-connected body, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, on Friday said it condemns the war as a violation of Gods commandment Thou shalt not kill! ... and expresses disagreement with the position of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia regarding the war in Ukraine. It also adopted charter changes indicating the full self-sufficiency and independence of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. ___ ROME Italian Premier Mario Draghi spoke by phone Friday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnkyy, assuring him of the support of the Italian government in coordination with the European Union. Draghis office said the leaders also discussed the prospects for opening Ukrainian ports to allow grain exports to help combat the food crisis that is threatening the worlds poorest countries. Draghi spoke Thursday with President Vladimir Putin in a bid to reach an agreement to open the ports, and Zelenskyy expressed his appreciation for Italys commitment to work on a possible solution. Draghi noted after speaking to Putin that many millions of tons of grain risk rotting in Ukrainian ports if there is no agreement to allow their passage. __ The Kremlin-backed leader of Russias southern province of Chechnya has posted a video in which he warns that Poland could be next after Ukraine. Ramzan Kadyrov, who is famous for his bluster, said in the video he posted to his official Telegram page that Ukraine was a done deal and that if an order is given after Ukraine, well show you (Poland) what youre made of in six seconds. Poland, which borders Ukraine, has provided its neighbor with weapons and other aid since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. It has also welcomed in millions of Ukrainian refugees. Kadyrov later urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to finally come to his senses and accept the conditions offered by our president (Vladimir Putin). Kadyrov has repeatedly used social media to boast about Chechen fighters alleged performance against Ukrainian troops and to make other unconfirmed statements about the war in Ukraine. ___ MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Ukraine should remove sea mines from areas near its ports to allow safe shipping. Putin made the statement in Fridays call with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, according to the Kremlin readout of the conversation. It said that Putin and Nehammer had a detailed exchange of views on issues regarding food security with Putin rejecting Western claims that Russias action that exacerbated a global food crisis. The Kremlin noted that Putin emphasized that attempts to blame Russia for difficulties regarding shipments of agricultural products to global markets are unfounded. It added that the Russian leader gave a detailed explanation of the real roots behind those problems that emerged, in particular, because of the U.S. and the EU sanctions against Russia. The U.S. and other Western allies have rejected the Russian demand for the sanctions to be lifted and accused Moscow of blocking grain supplies from Ukraine to global markets accusations the Kremlin has denied. ___ LONDON British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says Russian forces are making palpable progress in eastern Ukraine, and Kyivs forces need long-range rocket launchers and other military support. Britains defense ministry said Friday that Moscows troops have recently captured several villages as they attempt to surround Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk in the eastern Donbas region, but do not yet have full control of the region. Johnson told news agency Bloomberg that Russian President Vladimir Putin at great cost to himself and Russian military is continuing to chew through ground in Donbas, hes continuing to make gradual, slow but Im afraid palpable progress. He said that therefore it is absolutely vital that we continue to support the Ukrainians militarily. Johnson said long-range multiple-launch rocket systems, or MLRSs, would enable them to defend themselves against this very brutal Russian artillery. Britain possesses some of the systems, but Johnson did not say whether the U.K. would send any to Ukraine. ___ PRAGUE The U.K.s top diplomat says countries supporting Ukraine have to be ready for the long haul and there should be no talk of appeasing Russian President Vladimir Putin. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said after meeting her Czech counterpart in Prague Friday that we need to make sure that Ukraine wins and that Russia withdraws and that we never see this type of Russian aggression again. She said that there should be no talk of cease-fires, or appeasing Putin. Truss says that Ukraine needs to receive more heavy weapons and gradually get upgraded to get NATO-standard equipment. She said that at the moment, theyre using a lot of ex-Soviet equipment. We need to make sure theyre able to defend themselves into the future. ___ BUDAPEST, Hungary -- A U.S. lawmaker is urging the Biden administration to consider imposing sanctions on some Hungarian companies in an effort to pressure Budapest to agree to a European Union embargo on Russian oil. In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, Democratic Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi urged him to consider all tools including sanctions to ensure that Hungary -- a member of the EU and NATO -- gets on board with the proposal. The EU has for weeks has sought to forge a consensus on a new sanctions package that would phase out Russian oil imports by the end of 2022. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has held up negotiations and threatened a veto of the plan, arguing it would devastate Hungarys economy and lead to energy insecurity. In his letter to Blinken, Krishnamoorthi wrote that the EUs proposed embargo would significantly increase financial pressure on Russias economy and Putins war machine. If Orban continues to stall EU negotations, he wrote, the Biden Administration should consider implementing sanctions against companies in Hungary that continue to do business with Russian oil exporters. ___ ISTANBUL Turkeys foreign minister says Sweden and Finland must now take concrete steps to alleviate his countrys security concerns to overcome Ankaras objections to their NATO membership bid. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Friday that delegations from the two Nordic countries have returned home with Turkeys demands after a visit this week and Ankara is awaiting their answers. The countries membership bids require support from all NATO countries, but Turkey is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants that Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey. Cavusoglu said that an approach of well convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies would not be correct. He insisted that these countries need to take concrete steps. He added that we understand Finland and Swedens security concerns but ... everyone also needs to understand Turkeys legitimate security concerns. ___ ROME Italian Premier Mario Draghi has discussed the emerging food crisis in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Draghis office said that the call Thursday focused on the situation in Ukraine and ... efforts to find a shared solution to the ongoing food crisis and its serious repercussions on the worlds poorest countries. Ukraine is one of the worlds largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports have halted much of that flow, endangering world food supplies. Many of those ports are now also heavily mined. Russia also is a significant grain exporter. Moscow pressed the West on Thursday to lift sanctions against Russia, seeking to shift the blame for the food crisis. ___ BERLIN -- Germanys development minister has traveled to Ukraine to pledge further civilian support and discuss the countrys rebuilding. Svenja Schulze is the second German minister to visit Ukraine since the Russian invasion started. Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited on May 10 and reopened the countrys embassy in Kyiv. Schulzes ministry said she planned to meet Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and other senior officials in Kyiv on Friday. It said the talks will address immediate aid to address the problems Ukraine faces now and strategic questions related to rebuilding the country. Schulze said in a statement that we must already lay now the foundations for internationally coordinated support for the rebuilding of a free and democratic Ukraine and Germany will contribute. ___ MOSCOW -- Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine claim to have taken control of Lyman, a town in the Donetsk region. There has been no confirmation yet from Ukrainian officials. The military of the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic said on Telegram that rebel forces, supported by the Russian troops, as of Friday have liberated and taken full control of 220 settlements, including Lyman. Lyman, which had a pre-war population of over 20,000, is a large railway hub in the Donetsk region, north of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk, cities that remain under Ukrainian control. ___ MOSCOW -- Russias Foreign Ministry has announced that it is expelling five Croatian diplomats in response to unfriendly steps taken by Zagreb to reduce the size of Russias diplomatic mission there. The ministry said in an statement that it summoned Croatian ambassador Tomislav Car on Friday. It said it expressed a strong protest in connection with the groundless attempts of the Croatian authorities to blame Russia for war crimes in Ukraine and the provision of military assistance by the Croatian side to the neo-Nazi Kyiv regime. Last month, Croatia expelled 18 Russian diplomats. ___ KYIV, Ukraine -- Ukraines foreign minister is pleading with Western nations to provide Kyiv with heavy weapons to enable it to push Russian forces back. Dmytro Kuleba on Thursday night tweeted a video of himself answering questions submitted on Twitter and said: We need heavy weapons. The only position where Russia is better than us its the amount of heavy weapons they have. Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems we wont be able to push them back. Kuleba said that the situation in the east of the country, where the Russian forces are on the offensive, is as dire as people say. He added: I would even say its even worse than people say. We need weapons. If you really care for Ukraine, weapons, weapons and weapons again, the minister stressed. ___ KYIV, Ukraine -- A Ukrainian regional governor says that four people have been killed in the eastern city of Sievierodonetsk over the past 24 hours by Russian shelling. One more person was killed by a Russian shell in the village of Komushuvakha. Serhiy Haidai, the governor of the Luhansk region, wrote in a Telegram post Friday that the residents of Sievierodonetsk have forgotten when was the last time there was silence in the city for at least half an hour. He said that the Russians are pounding residential neighborhoods relentlessly. Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said on Thursday that 60% of the citys residential buildings have been destroyed, and about 85-90% have been damaged and require major repairs. ___ WELLINGTON, New Zealand The United States has won the latest round of a legal battle to seize a $325-million Russian-owned superyacht in Fiji, with the case now appearing headed for the Pacific nations top court. The case has highlighted the thorny legal ground the U.S. finds itself on as it tries to seize assets of Russian oligarchs around the world. Those intentions are welcomed by many governments and citizens who oppose the war in Ukraine, but some actions are raising questions about how far U.S. jurisdiction extends. Fijis Court of Appeal on Friday dismissed an appeal by Feizal Haniff, who represents the company that legally owns the superyacht Amadea. Haniff had argued the U.S. had no jurisdiction under Fijis mutual assistance laws to seize the vessel, at least until a court sorted out who really owned the Amadea. Haniff said he now plans to take the case to Fijis Supreme Court and will apply for a court order to stop U.S. agents sailing the Amadea from Fiji before the appeal is heard. ___ WASHINGTON The U.S. general nominated to take over European Command has told senators that Sweden and Finlands push to join NATO wont require adding more U.S. ground forces into either country. But Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli said Thursday that military exercises and occasional American troop rotations will probably increase. Cavoli, who currently serves as head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, said the increased military focus will probably continue to be on eastern Europe where nations are more worried about potential Russian aggression and any spillover of the war on Ukraine. Cavoli told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his nomination hearing that The center of gravity of NATO forces has shifted eastward." He said that depending on the outcome of the conflict, we may have to continue that for some time. Cavoli was asked about the U.S. troop presence in Europe, which has grown from fewer than 80,000 to about 102,000 since the buildup to Russias invasion. He said the increase had no ties to the more recent move by Finland and Sweden to seek NATO membership. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE, Texas (AP) Students trapped inside a classroom with a gunman repeatedly called 911 during this weeks attack on a Texas elementary school, including one who pleaded, Please send the police now, as officers waited more than an hour to breach the classroom after following the gunman into the building, authorities said Friday. The commander at the scene in Uvalde the school districts police chief believed that 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos was barricaded inside adjoining classrooms at Robb Elementary School and that children were no longer at risk, Steven McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said at a contentious news conference. It was the wrong decision, he said. Fridays briefing came after authorities spent three days providing often conflicting and incomplete information about the more than an hour that elapsed between the time Ramos entered the school and when U.S. Border Patrol agents unlocked the classroom door and killed him. Three police officers followed Ramos into the building within two minutes. In the next half hour, as many as 19 officers piled into the hallway outside. But another 47 minutes passed before the Border Patrol tactical team breached the door, McCraw said. As the gunman fired at students, law enforcement officers from other agencies urged the school police chief to let them move in because children were in danger, two law enforcement officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they had not been authorized to speak publicly about the investigation. One of the officials said audio recordings from the scene capture officers from other agencies telling the school police chief that the shooter was still active and that the priority was to stop him. Ramos killed 19 children and two teachers inside the room. His motive remained unclear, authorities said. There was a barrage of gunfire shortly after Ramos entered the classroom where officers eventually killed him, but those shots were sporadic for much of the time that officers waited in the hallway, McCraw said. He said investigators do not know if children died during that time. Throughout the attack, teachers and children repeatedly called 911 asking for help, including the girl who pleaded for the police, McCraw said. Young survivors of the attack said they pretended to be dead while waiting for help. Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she covered herself with a friends blood to look dead. After the shooter moved into an adjacent room, she could hear screams, more gunfire and music being blared by the gunman. Samuel Salinas, 10, who also played dead, told ABCs Good Morning America that the assailant shot teacher Irma Garcia before firing on the kids. Questions have mounted over the amount of time it took officers to enter the school to confront the gunman. It was 11:28 a.m. Tuesday when Ramos' Ford pickup slammed into a ditch behind the low-slung Texas school and the driver jumped out carrying an AR-15-style rifle. Five minutes after that, authorities said, Ramos entered the school and found his way to the fourth grade classroom where he killed the 21 victims. But it was not until around 12:50 p.m. that police killed Ramos, McCraw said, when shots could be heard over a 911 call from a person inside the classroom as officers breached the room. What happened during that time frame, in a working-class neighborhood near the edge of Uvalde, has fueled mounting public anger and scrutiny over law enforcement's response to Tuesday's rampage. "They say they rushed in," said Javier Cazares, whose fourth grade daughter, Jacklyn Cazares, was killed in the attack, and who raced to the school as the massacre unfolded. We didnt see that. According to the new timeline provided by McCraw, after crashing his truck, Ramos fired on two people coming out of a nearby funeral home, officials said. Contrary to earlier statements by officials, a school district police officer was not at the school when Ramos arrived. When that officer did respond, he unknowingly drove past Ramos, who was crouched behind a car parked outside and firing at the building, McCraw said. At 11:33 a.m., Ramos entered the school through a rear door that had been propped open and fired more than 100 rounds into a pair of classrooms, McCraw said. He did not address why the door was propped open. Two minutes later, three local police officers arrived and entered the building through the same door, followed soon after by four others, McCraw said. Within 15 minutes, officers from different agencies had assembled in the hallway, taking sporadic fire from Ramos, who was holed up in a classroom. Ramos was still inside at 12:10 p.m. when the first U.S. Marshals Service deputies arrived. They had raced to the school from nearly 70 miles (113 kilometers) away in the border town of Del Rio, the agency said in a tweet Friday. But the commander inside the building the school district's police chief, Pete Arredondo decided the group should wait to confront the gunman, on the belief that the scene was no longer an active attack, McCraw said. The crisis came to an end at 12:50 p.m., after officers used keys from a janitor to open the classroom door, entered the room and fatally shot Ramos, he said. Arredondo could not be reached for comment Friday. No one answered the door at his home, and he did not reply to a phone message left at the district's police headquarters. Gov. Greg Abbott, who at a Wednesday news conference lauded the police response, said Friday that he was misled, and hes livid. In his earlier statements, the governor told reporters, he was repeating what he had been told. The information that I was given turned out, in part, to be inaccurate, he said. Abbott said exactly what happened needs to be thoroughly, exhaustively investigated. The governor previously praised law enforcement for their amazing courage by running toward gunfire and their quick response. On Friday, Abbott had been set to attend the annual convention of the National Rifle Association, which is being held across the state in Houston. Instead he addressed the gun-rights group's convention by recorded video and went to Uvalde. At the convention, speaker after speaker took the stage to say that changing U.S. gun laws or further restricting access to firearms isnt the answer. What stops armed bad guys is armed good guys, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told those gathered in Houston. Former President Donald Trump was among Republican leaders speaking at the event, where hundreds of protesters angry about gun violence demonstrated outside, including some who held crosses with photos of the Uvalde victims. The motive for the massacre the nation's deadliest school shooting since Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago remained under investigation. Authorities have said Ramos had no known criminal or mental health history. During the siege, frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the school, according to witnesses. Go in there! Go in there! women shouted at the officers soon after the attack began, said Juan Carranza, 24, who watched the scene from outside a house across the street. Cazares said that when he arrived, he saw two officers outside the school and about five others escorting students out of the building. But 15 or 20 minutes passed before the arrival of officers with shields, equipped to confront the gunman, he said. As more parents flocked to the school, he and others pressed police to act, Cazares said. He heard about four gunshots before he and the others were ordered back to a parking lot. A lot of us were arguing with the police, You all need to go in there. You all need to do your jobs. Their response was, We cant do our jobs because you guys are interfering, Cazares said. The many chilling details of the attack were enough to leave parents struggling with dread. Visiting a downtown memorial to those killed, Kassandra Johnson of the nearby community of Hondo said she was so worried the day after the attack that she kept her twin boys home from school. Before she sent the 8-year-olds back, she studied the school building, figuring out which windows she would need to break to reach them. And she drew hearts on their hands with marker, so she could identify them if the worst happened, Johnson said, as she put flowers near 21 white crosses honoring the victims. Those kids could be my kids, she said. ___ Associated Press reporters Claire Galofaro in Uvalde, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings Protesters are making good on a promise to put pressure on the National Rifle Association during its annual convention in Houston this Friday, days after a legally armed teenager allegedly shot and killed 19 students and two teachers inside a Uvalde elementary school. The investigation into the shootingas well as the delayed police responseremains active Friday as several Republican officials, including former President Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, are set to speak to members of the NRA. Gov. Greg Abbott and others have backed out of attending the meeting, although the governor will deliver pre-recorded remarks to the assembly. Ariana Garcia The protest garnered an estimated 4,000-plus demonstrators, according to an officer from the Houston Police Department, as well as several speakers, including U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. "Our hearts do break," Hidalgo said to the crowd. "Kids are terrified. Moms are terrified. Dads are terrified. Teachers, school administrators, they're carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders." Hidalgo, who wore T-shirt from national gun safety organization Moms Demand Action, continued: "I offer my sadness. I offer my anger. I know I share it with you. I offer my thoughts and I offer my prayers," Hidalgo said, calling out Republican leaders who offered their thoughts and prayers for victims following the Uvalde shooting. "But you did not elect me to offer my thoughts and to offer my prayers." Hidalgo also called for a special legislative session to regulate the purchase, sale and storage of guns. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez (D- San Antonio) who represents Uvalde is also calling for a special session. "If Greg Abbott can call a special session, and a second special session, and a third special session to keep people from voting, surely he can call a special session to keep babies from being murdered," Hidalgo said. Ariana Garcia Texas governor hopeful Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat who confronted Abbott over the shooting at a press conference earlier this week, also spoke. "There are some, including those who have lost those who are most dear to them, who say its too soon to talk about what were going to do to prevent this from ever happening again," O'Rourke said to the crowd. "I hope you agree with me, that the time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Sandy Hook. The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Parkland. The time for us to have stopped Uvalde was right after Santa Fe High School. The time for us to stop mass shootings in this country is right now, right here, today." O'Rourke also addressed those attending the NRA convention across the street from the protest, calling for them to join the fight against gun violence. "You are not our enemies. We are not yours," O'Rourke said. "We extend our hand open and unarmed in a gesture of peace and fellowship to welcome you to join us to make sure that this no longer happens in this country." Before leaving, O'Rourke made the plea for those in attendance to "get in their [lawmaker's] faces before another child is shot in their face." Ariana Garcia Jackson Lee called on the NRA and Trump to cancel the convention which is scheduled to run through Sunday. As she spoke, she was surrounded by children wearing the names of the children killed in the Uvalde shooting. "I want you to look at these babies and I want you to be reminded of those in Uvalde," Jackson Lee said to the crowd. "I want you to look at these babies and know they love teddy bears, they love Legos, they love hugs, and they love good food. Do you know what they have now? Body bags." Ariana Garcia Other speakers including Parkland shooting survivor and March for Our Lives co-founder David Hogg, who made similar calls, adding the movement to end gun violence is stronger than ever. "We need allies," Hogg said, pointing to the NRA Convention happening across the street. "You are complicit in this if you are not speaking out against this." Organizers put the protest together almost immediately after the shooting, according to Black Lives Matter Houston leader Ashton Woods. "It's about making sure we create a nexus of power while calling out the organization that enables Republicans... like Greg Abbott and other folks who make these laws and put them on the books to make it easier for what happened to happen," Woods said. "These same people are talking about the right to life and about family. A child is a human at conception, but you won't protect children who are living." Paul Wright had just returned from a project in Puerto Rico and was working in Atlanta when the news broke the 1996 Olympics would be held in Polk County. Meteorlogist Clay joined the Local 3 Weather Storm Alert Team as the weekend meteorologist and reporter in June of 2021. He came to Local 3 from WABG Channel 6 in Greenville, Mississippi where he served as the morning meteorologist for 2 years. Nature & Weather, Local News By Chris Boyle Published: May 27 2022 It has become necessary to empower coastal homeowners with the knowledge to stay prepared for any disturbances and changes ahead, said Legislator Anker. Suffolk County Legislator Sarah Anker, in conjunction with New York Sea Grant, will host a public presentation for homeowners on coastal erosion on June 9th, 2022 at 7:30PM. The informational session will discuss erosion, the recession of bluffs and shorelines, rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and disturbances caused by the changing climate. As erosion has impacted many residents in my district, it has become necessary to empower coastal homeowners with the knowledge to stay prepared for any disturbances and changes ahead, said Legislator Anker. I would like to thank New York Sea Grant for their partnership as well as their many contributions toward public safety and education throughout their many years of research and service. The event will feature speakers from New York Sea Grant, including Elizabeth Hornstein, who specializes in Sustainable and Resilient Communities. She will discuss her work with the Long Island Sound community to anticipate and address erosion caused by the changing climate. In addition, New York State Sea Grant's Coastal Processes and Hazards Specialist Kathleen Fallon will be presenting on erosion, recession of land, and options for mitigation. Local News, Crime, Politics By Chris Boyle Published: May 27 2022 Empowers survivors of sexual offenses that occurred when they were over the age of 18 to file suit regardless of when abuse occurred. Governor Kathy Hochul has signed the Adult Survivors Act (S.66A/A.648A), creating a one-year lookback window for survivors of sexual assault that occurred when they were over the age of 18 to sue their abusers regardless of when the abuse occurred. "Today, we take an important step in empowering survivors across New York to use their voices and hold their abusers accountable," Governor Hochul said. "The fight against sexual assault requires us to recognize the impact of trauma within our justice system. I am proud to sign this legislation, which is part of our collective responsibility to protect one another and create an environment that makes survivors feel safe. While our work is not done, eradicating sexual assault begins with our ability to bring the perpetrators of these heinous acts to justice and this legislation is a historic step forward." In 2019, New York passed the Child Victims Act, which created a one-year lookback window for survivors of childhood sexual abuse to file claims otherwise barred by the statute of limitations. Similar to the Child Victims Act, the Adult Survivors Act will empower survivors of sexual offenses that occurred when they were over the age of 18. The one-year window will begin six months from signing and will allow survivors to sue regardless of the statute of limitations. For many survivors, it may take years to come to terms with the trauma of sexual assault and feel ready to seek justice against an abuser, while possibly experiencing fear of retaliation or shame. In 2019, New York extended the statute of limitations to 20 years for adults filing civil lawsuits for a select number of sex crimes. However, that legislation only affected new cases and was not retroactive. Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said, "For too long, our legal system has failed adult survivors and prevented them from accessing true justice. It takes time to come forward, particularly when faced with the trauma that accompanies disclosures. With the Adult Survivors Act, we are saying that we believe you and that you deserve accountability. This powerful legislation is the first of many steps towards better supporting survivors of sexual abuse and ensuring these heinous crimes don't go unpunished. I want to especially commend the Senate sponsor, Senator Brad Hoylman, for his tireless advocacy and thank Governor Hochul for signing it into law." Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie said, "The Adult Survivors Act is critical to ensuring that every survivor of sexual abuse is able to have their day in court and experience a sense of justice. This legislation builds on our previous work to deliver justice to survivors of childhood sexual abuse and sends a clear message that perpetrators will be held accountable. I would also like to thank Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal for her unwavering support for survivors and tireless efforts to get this legislation to the governor's desk." State Senator Brad Hoylman said, "Victory! Today is a watershed moment for survivor justice in the State of New York. With Governor Hochul's signature on our Adult Survivors Act, we send a powerful message to sexual abuse survivors: We hear you! We would not be here today without the courage of your convictions that propelled you to share your deeply personal stories about the sexual abuse that upended your lives and made legislative passage possible. Finally, courthouse doors across our state will be flung open so you can confront your abusers and seek the justice that was too long denied you. To the predators who for decades have benefitted from New York's prohibitively short statutes of limitations, you know who you are. The Adult Survivors Act will bring you to justice and make New York a safer place for everyone. I'm grateful to Governor Hochul, Senate Majority Leader Stewart-Cousins, Speaker Heastie, and my colleagues in the State Senate and Assembly, several of whom are sexual abuse survivors themselves." Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal said, ""Regardless of your age, sexual assault destroys a piece of you, and it takes most survivors time to process and overcome the trauma. More time than New York law currently allows. Now that the Adult Survivors Act is finally law, the doors to justice will be flung wide open and countless survivors will have an opportunity to seize justice by filing a case against their abusers, and the institutions that harbored them, in the civil court. The ASA will also ensure that predators who have hidden behind New York's weak laws will finally face justice. And, the passage of the ASA signals a long overdue shift in New York's law, a necessary rebalancing of the scales of justice and ensures that survivors are protected. I was humbled to work with a fearless group of survivors who have been relentless in their pursuit of justice. These brave survivors have been the heart and soul of our movement, and it is for them that I fought. All of New York owes them a tremendous debt of gratitude. I am grateful my colleagues in the New York State Assembly and Speaker Car Heastie for his leadership. And to Governor Hochul for wasting no time signing the Adult Survivors Act into law. Survivors have waited long enough, it's about time they see justice prevail. Today, they will." The Adult Survivors Act builds on Governor Hochul's steadfast and ongoing commitment to protecting and supporting survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. Earlier this year, the Governor announced nearly $24 million for domestic violence and sexual assault programs, including $16 million for 83 domestic violence programs and shelters and $7.6 million for 50 rape crisis centers and sexual assault programs. Governor Hochul also recently announced $21.4 million in federal aid being used for domestic violence service providers to help survivors pay for the short-term expenses associated with relocation, including rent, utilities, and repairs. Earlier this month, Governor Hochul signed legislation that expanded protections for victims of domestic violence to areas of discrimination where they were not previously guaranteed, such as housing and public accommodations. Local News, Business & Finance, Arts & Culture By Long Island Published: May 27 2022 The Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage, legislators voted unanimously to allocate $250,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding to establish a new paid scholarship program for local college students. During the Monday, May 23 meeting of the full Nassau County Legislature at the Museum of American Armor in Old Bethpage, legislators voted unanimously to allocate $250,000 of American Rescue Plan Act funding to establish a new paid scholarship program for local college students. Under the County program, interns will be employed by the Office of the County Executive and will be assigned to a department within the Nassau County government. The goal is to provide students with opportunities to gain hands-on experience and learn directly from high-ranking Nassau County government leaders. The program will be open to college students who are residents of Nassau County and/or students who are enrolled in colleges or universities located in Nassau County. I am glad that Nassau County has taken steps toward utilizing County government to enrich the educational opportunities available to local college students and create a valuable opportunity for them to earn while they learn, said Nassau County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton (D - Glen Cove) said. I look forward to the creation of a successful, merit-based program that empowers participants to thrive as they complete their studies and pursue their passions in the workplace. Crime By Long Island Published: May 27 2022 Suffolk County Police arrested a Medford man today after he threatened to start a race war and kill white people. Suffolk County Police arrested a Medford man today after he threatened to start a race war and kill white people. Julien Henriquez was upset with the service he received at a business in Medford on April 27, and called the business and threatened to kill white people in a race war. Following an investigation by Hate Crime Unit detectives, Henriquez was arrested at his home, located at 306 Jamaica Avenue at approximately 2:05 p.m. Henriquez, 30, was charged with Aggravated Harassment 2nd Degree as a Hate Crime, a felony under the New York State penal law. He will be arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on a later date. (Alliance News) - Uxbridge, England-based Coats Group PLC on Friday said it has sealed the sale of its business in Brazil and Argentina to Reelpar SA. Reelpar is a local entity backed by a Sao Paulo, Brazil-based private equity firm. Under the terms of the agreement, thread manufacturer Coats committed USD10 million to Reelpar to support a restructuring of the Brazil and Argentina business. In May, Coats said it expects to see a 50 basis point annualised lift to adjusted operating margins as a result of the deal. Shares in Coats were down 0.3% to 69.80 pence each in London on Friday morning. By Sophie Rose; sophierose@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. May 27 (Reuters) - French construction materials group Saint-Gobain said on Friday it would divest several glass processing businesses in Germany and Austria which combined employ over 320 staff. The company under pressure from activist investor Bluebell Capital to increase profitability will sell Eckelt Glas and Glas Ziegler in Austria to the privately-owned German group AEQUITA, it said in a statement. It also plans the sale of its holding in the co-venture Glaskontor Erfurt in Germany to caleoglas, with a closing of all transactions expected by this summer. (Reporting by Juliette Portala, editing by Tassilo Hummel) REA Holdings PLC - London-based crude palm oil producer - On Thursday, notes the lifting of the temporary ban on exports of crude palm oil by the Indonesian government. Some restrictions on crude palm oil exports remain in place, however. REA says it sells crude palm oil to Indonesian refineries under long term sales contracts that are not affected by the export restrictions, but adds that the prices achieved are based on prevailing domestic market prices for crude palm oil which may be affected by the restrictions on exports. Current stock price: 157.00 pence 12-month change: up 209% By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - Oil major Shell PLC has questioned the UK government's decision not to allow its green investment to count towards the tax relief it will get from the new windfall tax. Activists hit out at the tax's relief system, which encourages new investment to extract more oil and gas from the North Sea. It does not incentivise investment in renewable energy. Shell had originally seemed to welcome the new system after it was announced on Thursday. It said that a tax relief that could give it 91p back for every GBP1 it invested in the UK was "a critical principle in the new levy." But after sleeping on it, bosses appeared to have some new thoughts on the way the relief works. "In its current form the levy creates uncertainty about the investment climate for North Sea oil and gas for the coming years," it said. "And, longer term, the proposed tax reliefs for investment don't extend to the renewable energy system we want to drive forward in the UK and invest in very substantially. "When making plans for the next decade and beyond, we need certainty." On Thursday, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a GBP15 billion support package for households around the country to offset some of the rising energy bills. At the same time he said that the government would try to raise GBP5 billion by slapping an extra 25% on the tax that North Sea oil producers pay to HM Revenue and Customs. It came with a promise that the firms can claim heavy tax relief if they invest in the UK, but only for investments in oil and gas. This decision was criticised by environmental campaigners. Shell said: "We understand the worry for millions of people about how high energy costs are challenging their household budgets and the need for support to help make ends meet. "But at the same time, we must sustain investment in securing supplies of oil and gas the UK needs today, while allocating future spend for the low-carbon energies we want to build for the future." Rival BP PLC on Thursday said it will review its investments in the North Sea in light of the government's windfall tax plans. source: PA Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. (Alliance News) - The following is a round-up of updates by London-listed companies, issued on Friday and not separately reported by Alliance News: ---------- Clontarf Energy PLC - Dublin-headquartered oil & gas exploration and production company focused on South America and Africa - Spuds the Sasanof-1 well with the jetting of the 36 inch conductor at a water depth of 1,068 metres. Drilling is now underway on the 17 and a half inch intermediate hole section to a depth of 2,030 metres, company says. This will be followed by the drilling of the 12 and a quarter inch hole section through the target reservoir section to a total depth of 2,500 metres. Drilling is expected between June 2 and June 5. Clontarf holds a 105 working interest in the well. ---------- Gresham House Energy Storage Fund PLC - London head-quartered battery storage fund - Raises GBP150 million through the issue of 103.4 million shares. Company says the placing was "significantly" oversubscribed and, as a result, a scaling back exercise has been undertaken. Chair John Leggate says: "Strong investor demand means that we can commit to further development of our pipeline to create even greater scale and diversification." ---------- Alien Metals Ltd - London-based mineral exploration company focused on Australia, Mexico and Greenland - Begins a phase four reverse circulation drilling programme at its Hancock Iron Ore Project in Western Austrlia. Programme will drill 70 holes over 2,100 metres with the aim of further increasing geological confidence in the existing inferred mineral resource estimate of 10.4 megatonnes at 60.4% of iron. In conjunction, company will carry out more surface mapping and sampling on the remaining 6.5 kilometres of strike length. ---------- RUA Life Sciences PLC - Glasgow-based medical devices using polymer technology - Says the year ended March 31 has been one of increased sales growth, recovery from Covid-19 and advances in its business processes. Expects revenue for the year to total GBP1.6 million, up 6% against the GBP1.5 million generated last year if achieved. Research & development expenditure is expected to be GBP887,000, up from GBP541,000 the preceding year. Pretax loss is expected at GBP2.4 million, widened from GBP1.6 million a year ago as a result of research & development expenditure and investment into infrastructure. Company expected to release its full-year results in mid-July. ---------- Oilex Ltd - Perth-based developer of natural gas assets - Reports that an independent review of its net reserve and resource position in the Cambay PSC has resulted in the return of 206 BCF of gas and 8 million barrels of condensate to the 2P reserves category. Oilex's participating interest in the reserves and resources also increases to 100% from 45%. ---------- Savannah Energy PLC - London-based energy company focused on Africa - Signs an agreement with the Ministry of Petroleum and Energy of the Republic of Chad for the development of up to 500 megawatts of renewable energy projects supplying electricity to the Doba Oil Project and the towns of Moundou and Doba in Southern Chad and the capital N'Djamena. Savannah expects to fund the projects from a combination of its own internally generated cashflows and project specific debt. ---------- Rurelec PLC - London-based power producer with operations in Latin America - Receives a further USD758,400 payment from Patagonia Energy Ltd for the partial repayment of its amended and restated loan notes. To date, Patagonia Energyhas made repayments of USD5.3 million on the loan Notes, of which Rurelec has received USD4.2 million. The total balance outstanding on the notes is now USD18.6 million. The total amount owed to Rurelec is USD13.4 million. The rest is owed to Basic Energy Ltd. ---------- Angle PLC - Surrey, England-based medical diagnostics company - Notes new results relating to its Parsortix system which suggest it can successfully isolate circulating tumour cells from frozen peripheral blood mononuclear cell samples. The company explains that the potential ability to process frozen sample could allow for retrospective analyses and improve sample sharing capabilities. The results came as part of a study in advanced non-small cell lung cancer and sarcoma patients. ---------- Pure Gold Mining Inc - Vancouver-based gold mining company focused on Canada - Closes the first tranche of its non-brokered private placement announced on May 6. Following the closing of the first tranche, the company has issued a total of 185.1 million units in the company at CAD0.15 each - around GBP0.093 - raising proceeds of CAD27.8 million. Proceeds will be used to complete the near-term objectives of ramping up the PureGold mine to 800 tonnes per day by the third quarter of 2022. ---------- NetScientific PLC - London-based life sciences and sustainability technology investment firm - Notes new data from two ongoing phase two clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of PDS0101, a HPV16-targeted immunotherapy, in combination with Merck & Co Inc's anti-PD-1 therapy Keytruda. Data shows 77% of patients had either disease stabilisation or tumour shrinkage and 89% of patients were alive at nine months. After nine months the overall survival rate was 87% and progression free survival was 55%. Patients were those with recurrent or metastatic head and neck cancer. ---------- By Heather Rydings; heatherrydings@alliancenews.com Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved. Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd ("Company" or "Bluebird") Batangas Gold Project Update Bluebird Merchant Ventures (EPIC: BMV), the South Korean focused gold development group is very pleased to announce an update on the Batangas Gold Project in the Philippines. Highlights: Application has now been made for a further two-year extension of the exploration period of the Mining Permit; Proposed work program to focus on the potential of underground mining at Lobo; Project benefits from existing JORC compliant resources and reserves; The Company's Batangas Gold Project has been under care and maintenance since 2016. In recent months there have been strong indications of a more favourable policy in the Philippines towards responsible mining and which has now presented an opportunity for the Company to revive the gold project. The Batangas Gold Project consists of two Mineral Production Sharing Agreements (MPSA), which are permits that are valid for a period of twenty-five years and that can be renewed for a further period. The permits consist of periods of exploration and once two further key permissions are granted then allow for production. Approximately USD 20 million of historical exploration work has been incurred at the Batangas Gold Project and there are substantial JORC compliant resources of approximately 440,000 ounces of gold. The mineral resources at Lobo, Batangas are associated with a linear, steeply dipping, epithermal lode with high grade 'shoots' of mineralisation. In June 2016, the previous partner announced to the Australian Securities Exchange it had developed Probable JORC Compliant Ore Reserves at Lobo of 171,000 tons at 6.6 grams per ton for 36,000 ounces of gold excluding silver credits. This included 150,000 tons at 6.4 grams per ton from the upper 80 metres of the mineral resources at Lobo. This ore could be mined and processed within the first eighteen months of production. The Company has made an application for a further two-year period of exploration to be granted and has proposed an Exploration Work Program and Environmental Work Program to focus on the potential for underground mining at Lobo. The Company's previous partners had presented the project as an open pit mine but they were not able to secure the further key permissions. The Company believes that by using its core competencies of underground mining and repurposing the project from an open pit mine to an underground mine focused around Lobo, that the project will have minimal surface environmental impact. The Company has submitted the application and subsequent work programs and is thus encouraged to report that it has received a favourable response. The Company will update the market as the application progresses. Despite this unexpected opportunity the Company remains fully focused on its South Korean projects. Colin Patterson, CEO, commented: "Reviving the Batangas Gold Project is a fantastic and unexpected opportunity to create value for shareholders. Approximately USD 20 million of historical expenditures have currently been written down to zero in our accounts. Should the application be granted this will immediately resurrect the value of this project. I have always been an advocate of responsible mining that focuses on safety and the highest environmental standards. Looking at the potential for underground mining is absolutely the best way forward for the projects that will both create value in the local communities whilst ensuring minimal surface impact. Bluebird continues to move forward with renewed vigour on all fronts." THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION FOR THE PURPOSES OF ARTICLE 7 OF THE MARKET ABUSE REGULATION EU 596/2014 ("MAR"). Enquiries: Bluebird Merchant Ventures Ltd Jonathan Morley-Kirk, Non-Executive Chairman jmk@bluebirdmv.com The cast for the te reo Maori version of Disneys The Lion King has just been announced. The team began casting the Maori versions of the characters back in 2021, hunting up and down Aotearoa to find the perfect performers. After hundreds of auditions, Matewa Media and Walt Disney Animation Studios announced the fourteen actors chosen, and recording has begun. Hong Kong continues tracing COVID-19 through sewage surveillance Xinhua) 11:52, May 27, 2022 HONG KONG, May 26 (Xinhua) -- The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) government said Thursday that the COVID-19 virus continues to be detected in sewage samples from different areas in Hong Kong, indicating that there may be hidden cases in the premises in these areas. About 210,000 sets of COVID-19 rapid antigen test (RAT) kits will be distributed to residents, cleaning workers and property management staff working in the 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 results for COVID-19 via the government's online platform. In efforts to combat COVID-19, the HKSAR government's Environmental Protection Department and the Drainage Services Department have been collecting sewage samples in all districts of Hong Kong for COVID-19 virus testing. On Thursday, Hong Kong registered 111 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 140 additional cases through self-reported RATs, official data showed. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) Just when actor Kevin Spacey was about to return to his career, new charges from the United Kingdom have been confirmed. According to Sky News, prosecutors made the ennouncement that the 'House of Cards' actor has been charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. So, basically he's been accused of rape on one account. For many years, Spacey had been considered a menace to the work place everywhere he went towards young men. His sexual preferences led him to force many to aavoid direct contact with him on a repeated basis due to the bad reputation he had. Amongst the deviants inside the Hollywood industry, Kevin Spacey was one of the most infamous. Which prosecution agency charged Kevin Spacey? Said charges were made public on Thursday by the U.K.'s prosecution agency Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Over the last year, they have spent several hours taking a closer examination of a file that was handed to them by the Metropolitan Police. Head of the CSP Special Crime Division, Rosemary Ainslie confirmed that the 62-year-old actor will be thoroughly investigated over these charges. The way in which they describe rape was in line with how correct the CPS can be at times, you don't often hear the phrase 'penetrative sexual activity without consent'. Even if it's in the United Kingdom's vernacular. The CPS also reminded everybody that this criminal investigation against Kevin Spacey is ongoing and no details about it can be unveiled to the public. This decision to remain so private is because they don't want any information to affect the outcome of the investigation. In the United States, Kevin Spacey has been facing sexual assault allegations since 2017. Actor Anthony Rapp first spoke to Buzzfeed about the non-consesual sexual advances Spacey made against him when he was 14 years old. This is a developing story, more to come in the following hours... Thank you for subscribing! By signing up to this free newsletter you agree to receive occasional emails from us informing you about our products and services. You can opt out of these emails at any time. While changes to Michigans auto insurance policies have reduced the amount people are spending on auto insurance, those who benefited from those policies have found it more difficult to carry on. Representatives of the Grand Rapids-based AdvisaCare Home Health & Hospice have gone to the boards of commissioners of several counties explaining the need for further reforms. AdvisaCare offers services such as private duty home care, skilled/certified home care services, rehabilitation services, and working with those who suffered catastrophic injuries. It currently has 250 clients it works with, including a handful in Huron County. Kristy Groce, the executive director for AdvisaCare, said that as a result of changes implemented last year, their patients have had to be admitted into nursing homes instead of with caregivers and Michiganders have died due to the lack of care. The company stands that auto reform was needed, Groce said. Home care was an unintended consequence. Michigan changed its no fault auto insurance in May 2019, where drivers no longer had to purchase unlimited personal injury protection to lower auto insurance premiums. Drivers can choose their level of coverage based on needs and budget and can now rely on their own health insurance to cover medical bills. Personal injury protection covers all reasonable and necessary medical expenses for a persons lifetime up to the maximum coverage amount selected in a policy, or unlimited if they choose. The Michigan Catastrophic Claims Association acts as the policy payer. The changes from that law went into effect in July 2020. Outside of other advocacy groups, AdvisaCare was one of the first home health care organizations to weigh in on this issue. It has had conversations with legislators, the governors office, the Department of Insurance and Financial Services, and the Insurance Alliance of Michigan. Julie Wagner, a home care consultant with AdvisaCare, said that as soon as those changes were implemented, 20 other home care companies closed and AdvisaCare tried taking in as many clients as it could. Over 40 companies have since closed with some of their clients discharged into nursing homes. The amount that caregivers were being reimbursed from auto insurance companies was cut 45%, dropping from $32 an hour down to $12 an hour. Changes to that law also limited the amount of time that caregivers who care for their clients 24/7 could get reimbursed for, to only 56 hours a week. No ones taking them, so who has to take care of them? Wagner said. Its the families that take care of them 24/7. Now they have to quit their job to take care of their loved one. Theyre not getting paid from insurance companies because the state says you cannot work more than 56 hours a week, even though they are taking care of loved ones. AdvisaCare is trying to hold on to its clients, but it also has to pay its employees a living wage of between $14 and $18 per hour. Brian Harrison, the executive director of therapy services for AdvisaCare, said that what makes the most sense is to use what the states workers compensation statute says and apply that to home health care. Conversations are taking place to have that written up. Its a tried-and-true trusted system, Harrison said. It works for carriers that do workers and auto insurance. We believe this is something the majority of the House, Senate, and people of Michigan would support. The AdvisaCare representatives have gone to nearby counties urging their commissioners to adopt resolutions advocating for further no-fault reform. According to Groce, 20 Michigan counties have adopted such resolutions, including Bay, Saginaw, Lapeer, Genesee, and Midland counties. The two reps plan on visiting Sanilac County next. It is a state problem ultimately, but its a fix that need to happen, Groce said. Harrison said that in a perfect world, changes would be passed before the Legislature goes on its summer recess, while also saying they put on rose-colored glasses every day. Youre going to see a lot more providers that cant sustain the burden of acting in good faith while taking a loss on financials every single day, Harrison said. Every hour we work, were paying for that care. We feel were on the right side of this conversation, helping families to the care theyre entitled to. MECOSTA COUNTY When it came to dairy education, returning home to help the dairy community was an easy decision for Cora Okkema. Growing up on her family's dairy farm in Blanchard, working in the dairy industry is almost second nature for Okkema. Now, recently graduated with a Masters degree in Livestock Behavior and Welfare from Colorado State University, returning to Mecosta County is like returning home for Okkema. I grew up in this area, I did 4-H in Mecosta County. I previously worked in livestock nutrition covering this area and a few other counties. Okkema said. So, when I saw that it was a Mecosta County office where Id be based out of, like, it's me going back home. "I remember walking into the office space as a kid in 4-H and being like, Oh, these are all the adults, they're in their fancy offices, and they have their computers and all this paperwork and boxes stacked to the ceiling.' It was very surreal thinking, Wow, I have my own office. Okkema has lived on her family's farm since they moved to Michigan from the Netherlands when she was 4 years old. Since then, her family has seen the farm grow to over 680 milking cows. Okkema graduated from Montabella Community Schools in 2012 before attending Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa. She graduated in 2016 with a degree in Animal Science before studying at Colorado State. Where I grew up, I learned a lot about life, I learned a lot about farming. Okkema said. It's through that experience, I feel like we became a very tight knit family and understood the nature of farming where there's always sacrifices when it comes to understanding the responsibility that you have. "The big thing is understanding that, especially when you're working with animals, but also on a farm in general, you have to do the job to the fullest. We don't do half the job or take shortcuts. UNIQUE STRUGGLES Her official title now is dairy educator with Michigan State University Extension. This program consists of educators who are a source of information, material and connections that provide farmers with whatever needs that they may have to help them be more efficient at their job. Okkema covers 10 counties in northwest and central Michigan. Michigan State University Extension as an organization has provided hands-on training for farms across the area. This includes teaching farms innovative technologies in the industry that help raise efficiency levels, dairy calf care workshops, education on milk quality, and new practices that are rising in the dairy sector. These education services expand beyond just working with the animals, with Okkema working with farmers on good mental health practices. Recently, a big push is actually providing farms stress and mental health services to our farmers, because that demographic has, unfortunately, experienced a really high suicide rate. Okkema said. The struggles with farming, it's very unique. But also, you're working with a lot of individuals where they have to explain the situation before they can even get into the frustrations about it. So, providing those services for our farmers is a massive push. One issue that Okkema has noticed in the industry is not on the animal side, but instead managing people as farms grow over the course of years. While farms that expand and grow in cow numbers is a positive thing to have happen, as farms grow, they need to hire more people to manage various aspects of the farm. Thus, learning how to manage staff alongside running a farm is becoming more prevalent within the field. According to Okkema, taking care of employees has a positive impact on animal care. Helping our farmers learn how to manage people and understand that we don't expect them to be HR people on the very first day or something like that. Okkema said. It's a continuously evolving landscape and you're working with people. We have off days, we make mistakes, but we also want affirmation when we're doing a good job and validation. Okkemas office is located at the Mecosta County Service building at 14485 Northland Drive in Big Rapids. She may also be reached at okkemao@msu.edu or through her office phone at 231-592-9493. COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) An Iraqi man behind bars following his arrest on a charge of plotting to assassinate former President George W. Bush has waived his right to a detention hearing and will remain behind bars for now, according to a court document filed Thursday. Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 52, also schemed to smuggle other Iraqis into the U.S. from Mexico to aid in the plot, after which they'd be smuggled back out through Mexico, prosecutors said in a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Columbus following his Tuesday arrest. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Mass shooters have killed hundreds of people throughout U.S. history in realms like stores, theaters and workplaces, but it is in schools and colleges where the carnage reverberates perhaps most keenly places filled with children of tender ages, older students aspiring to new heights and the teachers planting the seeds of knowledge, their journeys all cut short. If a mass shooting is defined as resulting in the death of four or more people, not including the perpetrator, 169 people have died in 14 such events connected to U.S. schools and colleges from 1999's Columbine High School massacre to Tuesday's shooting in Texas. That's according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University, and to other AP reporting: ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, May 2022, 21 dead An 18-year-old gunman opened fire Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two adults, officials said. Law enforcement killed the attacker. OXFORD HIGH SCHOOL, November 2021, 4 dead A sophomore student is accused of killing four people and wounding others at his school in Oxford, Michigan, near Detroit. His trial is set for September. His parents are charged with involuntary manslaughter; authorities say they ignored warning signs. SANTA FE HIGH SCHOOL, May 2018, 10 dead A shooter opened fire at a Houston-area high school, killing 10 people, most of them students, authorities said. The 17-year-old suspect has been charged with murder. MARJORY STONEMAN DOUGLAS HIGH SCHOOL, February 2018, 17 dead An attack left 14 students and three staff members dead at the school in Parkland, Florida, and injured many others. The 20-year-old suspect was charged with murder. UMPQUA COMMUNITY COLLEGE, October 2015, 9 dead A man killed nine people at the school in Roseburg, Oregon, and wounded nine others, then killed himself. MARYSVILLE-PILCHUCK HIGH SCHOOL, October 2014, 4 dead A 15-year-old used text messages to draw several cousins and friends to his cafeteria table at Marysville-Pilchuck High School in Washington state. He fatally shot four of them before killing himself. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA, May 2014, 6 dead A 22-year-old college student frustrated over sexual rejections fatally stabbed or shot six students near the school in Isla Vista, California, and injured several others before he killed himself. SANDY HOOK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, December 2012, 27 dead A 19-year-old man killed his mother at their home in Newtown, Connecticut, then went to the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first graders and six educators. He took his own life. OIKOS UNIVERSITY, April 2012, 7 dead A former nursing student fatally shot seven people at the small private college in East Oakland, California. He died in prison in 2019. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY, February 2008, 5 dead A 27-year-old former student shot and killed five people and wounded more than 20 others at the school in DeKalb, Illinois, before killing himself. VIRGINIA TECH, April 2007, 32 dead A 23-year-old student killed 32 people on the campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, in April 2007; more than two dozen others were wounded. The gunman then killed himself. WEST NICKEL MINES AMISH SCHOOL, October 2006, 5 dead A 32-year-old man entered an Amish schoolhouse near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, dismissed the boys, bound the girls, and fatally shot five of them before killing himself. Five others were wounded. RED LAKE HIGH SCHOOL, March 2005, 9 dead A 16-year-old student killed his grandfather and the man's companion at their Minnesota home, then went to nearby Red Lake High School, where he killed five students, a teacher and a security guard before shooting himself. COLUMBINE HIGH SCHOOL, April 1999, 13 dead Two students killed 12 of their peers and one teacher at the school in Littleton, Colorado, and injured many others before killing themselves. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate UVALDE, Texas (AP) Jacklyn Cazares hadnt yet reached her 10th birthday, but she was already a tough-minded firecracker always looking to help people in need, her father said. Jacklyn and her second cousin, Annabelle Rodriguez, were especially tight with three other classmates at Robb Elementary School. They are all gone now, Javier Cazares said. "All her little best friends were killed too. The girls were among 19 students killed Tuesday when an 18-year-old gunman barricaded himself in a fourth-grade classroom at the school in the southwestern Texas town of Uvalde and began to kill. Their families can only cling to memories, and each other. Jacklyn would have turned 10 on June 10. Despite her young age, she was equal parts tough-minded and compassionate. She had a voice, her father said. She didnt like bullies, she didnt like kids being picked on. All in all, full of love. She had a big heart." She was a character a little firecracker. Cazares drove his daughter to school Tuesday she had an awards ceremony that morning. About 90 minutes later, the family got a call: An active shooter was in the school. I drove like a bat out of hell," he said. "My baby was in trouble. There was more than 100 people out there waiting, it was chaotic, he said of the scene at the school. He grew impatient with how the police were responding and even raised the idea of rushing into the school with several other bystanders. Cazares said his niece followed an ambulance to the hospital and saw Jacklyn taken inside. The entire family soon joined and pressed hospital officials for information for nearly three hours. They begged, cried and showed them photos of their daughter. Finally, a pastor, police officer and a doctor met with them. My wife asked the question, Is she alive or is she passed? Cazares said. They were like, No, shes gone. Cazares fought back tears as he pondered how long his daughter was in the classroom with the gunman before she was killed. He finds some solace in believing that in her final moments, Jacklyn was doing what came naturally to her helping her fellow students. It kind of comforts our hearts that she would be one of the ones that was brave and tried to help as much as she could, he said. Ryan Ramirez also rushed to Robb Elementary when he heard about the shooting, hoping to find his daughter, Alithia, and take her home, KTRK-TV reported. But Alithia, too, was among the victims. Ramirezs Facebook page includes a photo, now shown around the world, of the little girl wearing the multi-colored T-shirt that announced she was out of single digits after turning 10 years old. The same photo was posted again Wednesday with no words, but with Alithia wearing angel wings. Maite Rodriguez, 10, got straight Fs when classes went on Zoom during the pandemic, having gotten straight As before. The day she died was supposed to be a day of triumph. Maite made the honor roll for straight As and Bs this year and was publicly recognized at an assembly on Tuesday, said Ana Rodriguez, her mother. She worked hard, I only encouraged her, Rodriguez said in an interview Thursday at her dining room table, which displayed a bouquet of red roses, the honor roll certificate and photos of Maite. Maite especially liked physical education. After she died, her teacher texted her mother that she was highly competitive at kickball and ran faster than all the boys. Maite was focused, competitive, smart, bright, beautiful, happy, her mother said. As a kindergartner, Maite said she wanted to be a marine biologist and held firmly to that goal. She researched a program at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi and told her mother she was set on studying there. She was just so driven. She was definitely special. She was going to be something, she was going to be something very, very special. Rodriguez hosted a steady stream of visitors and said she hasnt started to grieve. She was deeply touched by one of her brothers friends who recently graduated from Texas A&M and gave her the red cardboard cylinder that held the diploma. Rodriguez didnt want to relive Tuesdays events but was upset by reports that police waited outside the school as shots were fired. She said she advocates stricter gun laws. The grief only grew Thursday with confirmation that the brokenhearted husband of one of the slain teachers, 48-year-old Irma Garcia, had died on Thursday. Joe Garcia, 50, had dropped off flowers at his wifes memorial on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported. He pretty much just fell over after returning home and died of a heart attack, his nephew John Martinez told the newspaper. The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcias death to The Associated Press. AP was unable to independently reach members of the Garcia family on Thursday. Married for 24 years, the couple shared four children. In a post on the schools website at the start of the school year introducing herself to her class, Irma Garcia wrote of her love of barbecue, listening to music and taking country cruises to the nearby town of Concan. The school year, scheduled to end Thursday, was Irmas 23rd year of teaching all of it at Robb Elementary School. She had been previously named the schools teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University. For five years, Irma had co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed. Mireles also posted on the site as the school year began, noting she had been teaching 17 years. She cited her supportive, fun, and loving family. Welcome to the 4th grade! We have a wonderful year ahead of us! she wrote. Two of the victims had hoped to skip school that day. Carmelo Quiroz's grandson, Jayce Luevanos, 10, had begged to go along with his grandmother on Tuesday as she accompanied her great-granddaughters kindergarten class to the San Antonio Zoo. But, he said, the family told Jayce it didnt make sense to skip school so close to the end of the year. Besides, Jayce liked school. Thats why my wife is hurting so much, because he wanted to go to San Antonio, Quiroz told USA Today. He was so sad he couldnt go. Maybe if he would have gone, hed be here. Jayce's cousin, 10-year-old Jailah Nicole Silguero, also wanted to miss school that day. Jailah's mother, Veronica Luevanos, tearfully told Univision that Jailah seemed to sense something bad was going to happen. Jailahs friend, Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo, also was killed and her aunt noted Naveahs first name is heaven spelled backward. In a Facebook posting, Yvonne White described Nevaeh and Jailah as Our Angels. Two men who responded to the shooting discovered their own children among the victims. Uvalde County Sheriffs Deputy Felix Rubio and his wife had been at the school Tuesday morning to celebrate with their daughter, 10-year-old Alexandria Lexi Aniyah, since the fourth-grader had made honor roll with all A's and received a good citizen award. In a Facebook post, Kimberly Rubio wrote, We told her we loved her and would pick her up after school. We had no idea this was goodbye. Medical assistant Angel Garza also hurried to the school and immediately found a girl covered in blood among the terrified children streaming out of the building. Im not hurt. He shot my best friend, the girl told Garza when he offered help. Shes not breathing. She was just trying to call the cops. Her friend was Amerie Jo Garza Angel Garzas stepdaughter. Amerie was a happy child who made the honor roll and loved to paint, draw and work in clay. She was very creative, said her grandmother Dora Mendoza. She was my baby. Whenever she saw flowers she would draw them. Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Home, which is across the street from Robb Elementary, began posting brief obituaries of some of the victims. It was assisting families of the shooting victims with no cost for funerals. GoFundMe pages were set up for many of the victims, including one on behalf of all victims that has raised more than $3 million. ___ Groves reported from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Associated Press writer Stefanie Dazio contributed to this report from Los Angeles. ___ Find more of the AP's coverage of the Uvalde school shooting at https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings Midland City Council heard a presentation on the status of Currie Parkway Bridge and voted on funding regarding bridge repairs. The Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation agreed to cover the costs of repairs and modifications, with the current total estimate at about $639,000, said City Manager Brad Kaye. He added that the city hopes to start construction after this years Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational pro golf tournament, which is from July 10-16 at the Midland Country Club. Council unanimously accepted the gift from the foundation. Last October, the bridge was damaged when a commercial bus exceeding the bridges weight limit crossed it. An inspection found damage to deck support beams and the concrete bridge deck, both of which needed to be replaced. The bridge has been closed to vehicular traffic ever since but has reopened to pedestrians, said City Engineer Matt Lemon. Midland needs to be a town of vitality, said foundation Executive Vice President Bill Schuette. We cannot have closed roads and closed bridges. We have to fix things and get it done right. The city also wanted to prevent an oversized vehicle from crossing the bridge again, settling on options that included adding a curve to the road to make it too tight for larger vehicles to drive onto the bridge. Guardrails and signage that says, Passenger Vehicles Only would also be installed, Lemon said. Council member Steve Arnosky asked about holding drivers responsible who cross the bridge and cause damage, such as with weight pads and traffic cameras to alert the city when it happens. Lemon said the city could consider this, but added that the citys goal is preventing vehicles from accessing the bridge that have historically caused damage to it. Council member Diane Brown Wilhelm asked what would happen if a large bus decided to try to cross the bridge and got stuck. Lemon said that the city would have to free the bus and repair the guardrail, which would be of lower cost to repair than the whole bridge. Other council business: This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate OREGON CITY, Ore. (AP) Voters in an Oregon county where a ballot-printing error delayed primary results for nearly two weeks have elected the same county clerk five times in the past 20 years despite missteps that impacted two previous elections and cost taxpayers at least $100,000. Opponents have repeatedly tried to unseat Clackamas County Clerk Sherry Hall, who was first elected in 2002, following elections errors in 2004, 2010 and 2011 and a state vote-tampering investigation in 2012. Hall makes $112,600 a year in the nonpartisan position overseeing elections, recording property transactions, keeping public records and issuing marriage licenses. She is running for a sixth four-year term in November in the suburban county south of Portland, and is being challenged by a former librarian who works in the elections department of Oregon's largest county. The latest scandal in Oregon comes against the backdrop of a polarized political landscape in which vote counts are increasingly scrutinized. Races for local elections clerks who until recently toiled in obscurity and relative anonymity are getting new attention, particularly from right-wing voters who deny that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Local elections chiefs are the first line of defense for elections integrity, but most voters don't know who their county clerk is, or even what they do, and are likely to skip over the nonpartisan race on Election Day, or simply pick the incumbent. Some county clerks are appointed, but in many counties in Oregon and elsewhere they are beholden to the whims of voters who may not be paying attention, said Christopher McKnight Nichols, an associate professor of history at Oregon State University. There's a myopia and invisibility about this sort of office in American public life, he said. The situation in Oregons third-largest county underscores the importance of such contests. In the current election, tens of thousands of ballots sent out with blurry barcodes were rejected by a vote-counting machine. The issue affected Democratic and nonpartisan ballots more than Republican ones, state officials have said. The fiasco forced the county to shift nearly 200 county employees to vote tabulation duties; county officials don't yet know the full cost of the cleanup job. For days, workers have been transferring each voters intent from spoiled ballots to fresh ones, by hand using purple markers, in a painstaking process that might not be complete for more than two more weeks. More than 81,000 ballots out of more than 116,000 had been counted by early Friday, and nearly 35,000 spoiled ballots remained to be duplicated, according to county tallies. The outcome of the Democratic primary for Oregon's 5th Congressional District a close race between a seven-term centrist incumbent and a progressive challenger was delayed more than a week by the blunder. The AP called the race for challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner on Friday. The results of several other contests remained undecided as the county struggled to meet daily vote-counting benchmarks laid out in a corrective plan submitted to the state. This affects all of us. This is voter integrity, said Janet Bailey, a Republican voter who protested outside the Clackamas County election offices Thursday with about a dozen others. We, in Oregon, a week ago we had our primary, and we still dont know the results. Hall knew of the problem with the ballots on May 3, but did not take significant action until after the election on May 17, when it became clear the vote tally was substantially delayed. The Oregon Secretary of State has said Hall refused offers of help from the state; at least one Democratic state lawmaker has demanded a legislative inquiry into the ballot fiasco. Some voters seized on the countys problems to demand an end to Oregons trailblazing vote-by-mail system and the use of electronic machinery to count votes. Our votes have to count, said Cindy Hise, a Clackamas County voter who wants the entire primary redone. This has been going on for days. We're past all hope of it being a true vote." Hall declined a phone or in-person interview with The Associated Press for this story but said in response to emailed questions Thursday that she would cooperate with any investigation. She said she has no comment on calls from some for her resignation. She also addressed numerous 2020 contributions she made to national Republican causes, saying in a brief email that she maintains neutrality. The donations to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and to WINRED, a Republican Party fundraising platform, were all $100 or less. I have the right as a private citizen to exercise free speech and association. I do give small contributions to a large number of organizations," she wrote. I do not accept endorsements of any kind." Controversy isn't new to Hall, who has overseen the county's elections since she took office in 2003. In 2004, the county excluded three annexation questions on ballots mailed to 300 voters and didn't alert the public for 10 days. In 2010, a county commission race was listed on the primary ballot when it should not have been. The ballots were reprinted at a cost of more than $100,000. Hall later filed a complaint with state elections officials saying the episode, including press leaks and public criticisms of her by county officials, cost her primary votes and forced her into a November runoff. In 2012, an elections worker was caught tampering with two ballots and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. In 2018, Hall placed her name and the county clerk title on the ballot return envelopes and on voter information pamphlets while also seeking reelection to the post, a decision critics called egregious self-promotion in a tight race. Hall said in her email that all the elections incidents did happen under my watch" and that she or those in her office "took appropriate steps as needed. Pamela White, who challenged Hall in 2018 and lost by fewer than 6,000 votes, said even with such missteps it seemed impossible to defeat Hall. In that election, more than 52,000 voters skipped the county clerk race altogether despite persistent criticisms of Hall's elections oversight and White's endorsement by Halls recently retired elections manager. White spent $100,000 on the race, including $25,000 of her own money, and campaigned for two years, she said. I worked very hard, she said. I knew what I was doing, but that down-ballot thing is an issue even in your own party. It just takes all the air out of the room. Steve Kindred, the former elections manager who endorsed White, said his relationship with Hall soured after a 2014 incident in which she asked him to do work on her reelection campaign during office hours without telling him what it was for. She was later fined $100 by state elections officials for the lapse. Kindred retired early. Kindred said seeing the ballot fiasco now after experiencing the ballot-tampering probe in 2012 was like a punch to the gut. We had a couple of hell elections, not nearly as bad as this one," he said. Its almost like shes frozen, like a deer in the headlights. For now, the county is focused on getting the votes counted by June 13, the state's election certification deadline. ___ Cline reported from Portland. Associated Press writer Andrew Selsky in Salem and AP investigative researcher Randy Herschaft in New York contributed to this report. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate Pam Keister and her husband, Jacob, understood the economic hardship facing Sanford after the May 2020 dam failures. When they considered opening a business there, they began by thinking outside the wine box. The couple recently opened Crazy Vines Winery with the hope that the business could help launch the village into a new era. The married couple she is a Midland Police officer and he is a Midland firefighter met on the job and fell in love. In addition to careers and a brand-new business, they also have a blended family of five children ages 10 and under. With a multitude of responsibilities, some familiar and some new, Keister said shes thankful for the family's support system. We have amazing family and friends that came to the plate to help us out, Keister said. It was standing room only on May 19 at 37 Saginaw Road when Crazy Vines Winery opened its doors to the Sanford community which was also the two-year anniversary of the dam failures. You could have called the opening a toast to new beginnings - for the couple and the community. The winery came at just the right time to lift our spirits and have something new, fun and classy, said Sanford Village President Dolores Porte. Sheila Diamond, of Midland, said everyone was having a great time on opening night. Some people saw it as an opportunity to put aside the hardships of the past two years. It was lovely, said Diamond, who joined some of her Sanford friends that evening. It was standing room only, but it was still very cozy. It was so busy that one of the businesss 10 employees walked a total of seven miles that night, according to her Fit Bit. And we arent even that big of a place, Jacob Keister said. The Keisters said they wanted to create a cozy hangout and something new for the area. Only open for a week, the business is already starting to book bridal and baby showers along with wine tasting parties. We want people to hang out and be comfy and cozy, Pam Keister said. We want people to come in and relax. They are thankful for all the support theyve been given from Michigan vineyards such as Rose Valley Winery, Currant Mist, Mackinaw Trail Winery and Brewery, and Bel Lago. In addition to the winery business, the family takes care of its own vineyards. They planted 150 Marquette grapevines last year and another 150 this year - but cant use them for another three years. They are working toward producing an estate wine, which is one owned or controlled by one's own winery. Crazy Vines Winery is serving 13 wines. Eleven of those are made in Sanford using only Michigan stock. We are keeping everything local, Keister said. One of the wines is Damd Ole Lake, which Keister said is popular. She doesnt know if its because of the name or the wine itself. The Keisters agreed that the village is a great place to bring a business. They are excited to bring their family-owned and family-run operation there. Even their children are growing to love the grape business. When it comes to crushing grapes, they are right out there with it, Keister said. We want to teach them hard work and dedication." Keister said she and her husband handle full-time careers, a family, and a business, and they want to show their two sons and three daughters that if you want something, you can make it happen. You might need to sacrifice a little sleep, though, to make that dream come true. We really wanted to bring something new and something comfortable where people could come and hang out, Keister said. The atmosphere is better than we anticipated. It all turned out better than anticipated." Crazy Vines Winery is open 1 to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 1 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday, and closed Monday and Tuesday. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate A new dining experience is coming to Fairfield by way of Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Down Under. Isla & Co. is officially opening June 16 at 1420 Post Road, featuring Australian-inspired cuisine. The restaurant is adjacent to the Sacred Heart University Community Theater, and will offer breakfast, brunch and coffee during the day. At night, Isla & Co. becomes "a cocktail-driven dinner destination," according to a press release. Parched Hospitality Group, the Australian team behind New York Citys Hole in the Wall restaurants and The Sentry, Daintree, Isla and Ghost Burger, opened the first Isla & Co. in Williamsburg in March. Alexandro Loayza / Isla & Co. "We started as a coffee shop, and then we introduced breakfast, brunch, and then cocktails and dinner. By doing it that way, I think we were able to make sure we did each one at a really, really high level, rather than trying to do them all from the start," said Tom Rowse, Parched's chief strategy officer. Rowse said Australian food isn't as clearly defined as some other cuisines; rather it's a "mixing pot" of cultures, taking influence from the United Kingdom and southwestern Europe. Australian chefs often visit Southeast Asian countries, he said, and bring those flavors back to their cooking. Dishes at Isla & Co. are "very seasonally charged and colorful, lots of vegetable focus and high-quality meats," he said. Brunch offerings include seasonal smashed avocado with additions like sugar snap peas, cucumber and feta, and an egg scramble with chili sambal sauce, green harissa and parmesan with sourdough and choice of bacon or avocado. Veggie-focused dishes include a butter lettuce salad, mushroom toast, warm farro and mushroom salad and a grain bowl with chicken and vegetables. Alexandro Loayza / Isla & Co. Main courses at dinner feature plates like a grass-fed beef burger, fish and chips with yuzu kosho tartar sauce, braised short ribs, half-chicken, spicy shrimp vodka rigatoni and a Thai green vegetable curry. The menu also features some Aussie staples, Rowse said, like pork sausage rolls with sweet chili sauce. Another breakfast item, the brekkie roll, is made with scrambled egg, bacon, cheddar, arugula and aioli on a toasted brioche bun. "It's very influenced by Australian coastal towns and the cafes that pop up along there," he said. "Going in for a brekkie roll after going for a surf is very nostalgic for us." Matt Foley, formerly of Michelin-starred Marea in Manhattan, designed the menu as Parched Hospitality's corporate executive chef. Alexandro Loayza / Isla & Co. Cocktails will change seasonally, Rowse said, but drinks like an espresso martini with cold brew liqueur and an Isla OF (Old Fashioned) with bourbon, amaro and eucalyptus bitters will remain constants. Wines by the glass naturally feature selections from Australia and New Zealand, but also others from France, Germany, Spain, Italy and California. Rowse said Parched is "growing quite rapidly" as a hospitality group, and they're looking to identify "cool, fun areas" that are family-oriented. With Fairfield's proximity to New York City, "it felt like a really obvious place" to build the new restaurant, he said. "We aim to be someone's favorite place to come through for a coffee, or someone else's favorite place to come to for breakfast, or a lunchtime meeting, or after-work happy hour, or a date night, or catching up with friends or family," he said. "We truly believe that we can offer each one of those at a really, really high quality." Parched also plans future Isla & Co. restaurants in Atlanta and Dallas, and two in South Florida: West Palm Beach and Miami's South Beach. Isla & Co. will be open Monday through Sunday in Fairfield, with brunch served from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and dinner offered from 5 to 11 p.m. The restaurant has seating for about 45 guests indoors and another 60 outdoors. The father who died after an assault in Killingly this week was in the past afraid to be alone with his son, who was charged with the assault, according to a report by the state police. That all changed after the son, Alexander Neidhardt IV, apologized for his past behavior and seemed to improve, the prosecutors report said. We thought he had turned a corner, a witness associated with the father, Alexander M. Neidhardt, 72, of Sturbridge, Mass., told police, according to the report. But late on May 24, a state police sergeant found the father dead under plastic garbage bags in the Killingly condo he had bought for his son, the report said. It was justifiable homicideI was going to call you guysIm sorry about this, the younger Neidhardt told him, according to the report. Neidhardt IV, 43, of Whetstone Mills Valley Road, was arrested at the scene and charged with first-degree assault, police said. He was listed in state records Friday as being in custody at Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center in the Uncasville section of Montville on $750,000 bail. Windham States Attorney Anne Mahoney said she will consider upgrading the charge depending on the results of the autopsy, which hadnt been done as of Friday. The prosecutors report paints a picture of a person who has struggled with mental illness. According to the report, the accuseds brother said his sibling was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and later with bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia and paranoia. He once threw hydrochloric acid at a fellow student, he told investigators, according to the report. Neidhardt IV attended Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton, Mass. and later went to Woodstock Academy in Connecticut, graduating in 1997. Neidhardt IV couldnt hold down a job longer than six months, the brother told investigators. He said their father bought him the condo in the Dayville section of town. Alex thought we were just out to get him, the sibling said, according to the report. Alex was always checking himself in and out of Day Kimball Hospital. The doctors were always changing his medication and could never get it right. Sometimes he seemed OK, but then he would stop taking them, he thought the meds affected his creativity. Once, at a family party, Neidhardt IV lashed out at his father and said, you ruined my life, the brother told police. He described his siblings relationship with their father as tumultuous, and said although his father always tried to be there for Alex, Alex always thought (the victim) was evil, according to the report. Still, the brother never heard his sibling say he wanted to hurt their father, the report said. Another witness said in a separate interview that, in addition to his other problems, Neidhardt IV was delusional, the report said. In the past, the father was afraid to be alone with his son and used to bring a friend with him to visit, the witness told investigators. She didnt think Neidhardt IV had ever been violent with his father, but he blamed him for everything that was wrong in his life and would tell him that, she told investigators. His attitude recently had improved, she said. Alex 4th seemed to be doing a lot better in the last three weeks, he apologized to (the victim) for everything he had put him through and told him he loved him, the witness told police. The father was not concerned for his safety when he left today to meet Alex 4th, the report said. The witness was one of two people who called police Tuesday night when the 72-year-old man, who had Parkinsons disease, didnt return home from the visit. He was going with his son to plant flowers at Alexs mothers grave in Woodstock. He had missed two doses of his medication, the report said. About 10:30 p.m., a trooper went to a commuter lot near I-395 where he had run a routine check on the fathers 2021 Ford Ranger three and a half hours earlier, the report said. It was still there. Troopers asked the missing mans cellphone provider to ping his phone to show its location, and the phone was detected about three miles from a cell tower on Bailey Hill Road, the report said. The Whetstone Mills condos are about three miles from the tower. Troopers headed to the condo complex and talked to Neidhardt IV. As he stood outside his front door, the Neidhardt IV made a statement that didnt make sense, the report said. He said something like, If he had stuck to just watching YouTube videos and not Facebook, none of this would have happened, according to the report. A state police sergeant then asked if the father was inside, and Neidhardt IV said he was, according to the report. He had the same answer when he was asked if his father was injured. Neidhardt IV said his father threatened me and raped little children, the report said. While the sergeant was walking into the condo, Neidhardt IV said, It was justifiable homicideI was going to call you guysIm sorry about this, according to the report. The sergeant went in and found the fathers body wrapped in a sheet beneath garbage bags. He had a serious head injury, and there was a lot of blood, the report said. The son was then taken into custody. MIDDLETOWN The $87.35 million Beman Middle School, described as beautiful, amazing and innovative, and named for the family of abolitionists who helped usher people through the Underground Railroad, was formally dedicated Friday morning. Local dignitaries, Board of Education members, the schools acting chief and others instrumental to the project spoke to about 70 middle school students and others who sat in the bleachers. Acting Superintendent of Schools Alberto Vazquez-Matos delivered a short, inspirational speech, telling students they are in a place that evokes excitement, inquiry and wonder. After acknowledging it has been a heartbreaking week, referring to the Texas school shootings, Vazquez-Matos said, We will see better days, and today is one of those days. Councilwoman Jeanette Blackwell took the podium, saying that even in the midst of national tragedy, with an overcast day, today is a magnificent day. The acting superintendent said the school was named after those who were courageous and stood on the right side of history. The Beman family patriarch, Jehiel Beman, a free man, moved to Middletown from Colchester with his family in 1830. He had taken the name Beman as a contraction of Be A Man. Marty Lowman, a board member of the Middlesex County Historical Society, Cross Street AME Zion Church historian and is associated with the Connecticut Freedom Trail. She spoke of the Bemans, saying that when she sees middle-graders, they will tell her about how the family members were born free, and how grandfather Cesar Beman fought in the Revolutionary War, taking his slave masters place. Leverett and his father, Jehiel Beman, eventually opened a shoe-making and repair business, Lowman said, near where Sbona Towers is now. She told students about the importance of setting goals, even at their young age, and then achieving them, much as the Beman family did. This middle school was made for you, Mayor Ben Florshiem told students while recalling his own time as a fifth-grader, when he moved into a brand new school. I remember thinking about how exciting it was to be the first. Wed be making the first friendships, we would be learning new things, experiencing this new space for learning, he told those gathered. It is so important we do good by our middle school students, he added. Its the most important time in your lives in so many ways. All places of learning are sacred spaces, and places of learning and schools also have to be safe spaces. They are places where people can learn and socialize and become the people theyre going to become without fear of harassment, bullying and the world around them, Florsheim added. Council Majority Leader and middle school building committee co-chairman is a former principal at Woodrow Wilson High School, which was replaced by Beman. Middle school buildings in this town, for decades, were hand-me-down high schools, Nocera said, that were thought of as good enough for our middle school kids. They werent good enough, but we had to do the best we could. Some said this building has passed on. I agree with that in every sense of the phrase, Nocera explained. Lowman related a story about when Jehiels son Amos was determined to get a college education. He tried to attend Wesleyan University, but the institution didnt accept Black students in 1833, she said. He found out it was not possible, she added. He found a student to study with, however, when the administration at the time learned he was on campus, he was told to leave. He still maintained his goal of getting a college education, Lowman said. Vazquez-Matos concluded his talk with words of wisdom. Children grow into the conversations that surround them. If we speak of greatness to them, they will grow to be great This building, and all who spend their days in it, are a beacon of hope for us all, he added. MIDDLETOWN Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater announces a special Oddbridge Season Finale program, Anansi the Trickster. This is a two-week theater adventure for kids in grades one through eight, with transportation provided directly from Middletown Public Schools (a drop-off option is available for home schoolers or students from other school districts). It will conclude with a public performance in the theater, according to a press release. Anansi the Trickster will run May 31 to June 9, Monday through Thursday, from 3:15 to 6 p.m., with a final show June 9 at 6 p.m. Rehearsals and performance will take place Oddfellows Playhouse, 128 Washington St. Anansi the Trickster is based on West African folk tales about Anansi, the trickster spider, Oddfellows said. Anansi stories are prevalent throughout the African diaspora, originating with the Ashanti people in Ghana and spreading throughout Africa and the Caribbean. The older students will take on the lead characters, which require more advanced mastery of text and character, while the elementary school troupers will form the ensemble of animals and other characters. Oddbridge is Oddfellows after-school child care option for public school students, the news release said. As most classes ended by May 26, Extended Oddbridge is providing a unique, creative opportunity for families needing after-school care through June 9, the theater said. Tuition for the seven-day program is $150, which includes transport, snack and supervised recreation, participation in rehearsals and performances. Financial aid is available. Enrollment is limited and is on a first-come, first-served basis. To register, go to oddfellows.recdesk.com/Community/Program. For information, email info@oddfellows.org or call 860-347-6143. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate TOKYO (AP) Japan will open its borders to foreign tourists in June for the first time since imposing tight pandemic travel restrictions about two years ago, but only for package tours for now, the prime minister said Thursday. Beginning June 10, Japan will allow the entry of people on tours with fixed schedules and guides, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said. Tourists from areas with low COVID-19 infection rates who have received three vaccine doses will be exempt from testing and quarantine after entry. Japan this week is hosting small experimental package tours from four countries, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States. That experiment, which involves only 50 people who received special visas, not tourist visas, is to end May 31. Free and active exchange of people is the foundation of economy and society, as well as that of Asias development, Kishida told his speech at a Tokyo hotel Thursday. Japan, while watching the infection situation, will gradually accept more tourists in stages to the level of arrivals before the pandemic, he added. After facing criticism that its strict border controls were xenophobic, Japan began easing its restrictions earlier this year and currently allows entry of up to 10,000 people a day, including Japanese citizens, foreign students and some business travelers. Japan will double the cap to 20,000 a day from June 1, which will also include package tour participants, said Makoto Shimoaraiso, a Cabinet official in charge of pandemic measures. The scale of the package tours and other details will be finalized after officials evaluate the results of the current experimental tours, he said. It will take some time before foreign visitors can come to Japan for individual tourism, Shimoaraiso said. Japan this week also eased requests for mask wearing. While masks are still requested on public transportation, hospitals and other public facilities, people can take off masks outdoors where others are not around or talking. Despite the easing, most Japanese so far are seen sticking to wearing masks in public. Japans tourism industry, hit hard by the border controls, is eager for foreign tourism to resume. COVID-19 infections have slowed in Japan since earlier this year and the government is gradually expanding social and economic activity. Kishida said during a visit to London earlier this month that he planned to ease the border controls as early as June in line with the policies of other Group of Seven industrialized countries, but gave no further details. Foreign tourist arrivals fell more than 90% in 2020 from a record 31.9 million the year before, almost wiping out the pre-pandemic inbound tourism market of more than 4 trillion yen ($31 billion). SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) A California parole panel recommended the release of Patricia Krenwinkel for the first time Thursday, more than five decades after she and other followers of cult leader Charles Manson terrorized the state and she wrote Helter Skelter on a wall using the blood of one of their victims. Krenwinkel, 74, was previously denied parole 14 times for the slayings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969. She helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the next night in what prosecutors say was an attempt by Manson to start a race war. The parole recommendation will be reviewed by the state parole board's legal division before likely going to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a decision within five months. He has previously rejected parole recommendations for other followers of Manson, who died in prison in 2017. New laws since Krenwinkel was last denied parole in 2017 required the parole panel to consider that she committed the murders at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner. Also, for the first time, Los Angeles County prosecutors werent at the parole hearing to object, under District Attorney George Gascons policy that prosecutors should not be involved in deciding whether prisoners are ready for release. However, Krenwinkels attorney, Keith Wattley, said relatives of her victims offered the same objections at the hearing as prosecutors have in the past. What was different this time was that the parole panel was willing to follow the law, he said, recognizing that she has had no disciplinary violations and is no longer a danger to society. She's completely transformed from the person she was when she committed this crime, which is all that it's supposed to take to be granted parole, he said. Im hopeful that the governor recognizes that he shouldnt be playing political games with peoples lives," Wattley said. The governor would be blocking her parole not because hes afraid of her, but because he doesnt like her. And the law doesnt allow that. Krenwinkel remains incarcerated at the California Institution for Women east of Los Angeles. Commissioners five years ago rejected her parole despite arguments then that she was affected by battered womens syndrome when she helped in the bloody slayings. Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary living with her older sister when she met Manson, then age 33, at a party. She testified in 2016 that she soon left everything behind to follow him because she thought they might have a romantic relationship. But she said Manson abused her physically and emotionally and trafficked her to other men for sex. She said she fled twice only to be brought back and that she was rarely left alone and usually was under the influence of drugs. At her last parole hearing, Krenwinkel told how she repeatedly stabbed Abigail Folger, 26, heiress to a coffee fortune, at Tates home on Aug. 9, 1969. The next night, she said Manson and his right-hand man, Charles Tex Watson, told her to do something witchy, so she stabbed La Bianca in the stomach with a fork, then took a rag and wrote Helter Skelter, Rise and Death to Pigs on the walls with his blood. She and other participants were initially sentenced to death. But they were resentenced to life with the possibility of parole after the death penalty in California was briefly ruled unconstitutional in 1972. Krenwinkel became the states longest-serving female inmate when fellow Manson follower Susan Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009. Wattley said he understands she is the longest-serving woman in the United States. President Joe Biden called out Russia's "brutal" war in Ukraine and warned Naval Academy graduates that the world is at a turning point during his commencement address in Annapolis, Maryland, on Friday. The president delivered the address to more than 1,000 graduating midshipmen following commencement speeches at the Air Force Academy earlier this week by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and at West Point last Saturday by Gen. Mark Milley, the Joint Chiefs chairman, who said that a "hard rain's gonna fall" on global peace and stability in the coming years. Biden also warned of a hard road ahead for naval officers and specifically called out Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. has given about $4 billion in weapons and aid to the Ukrainians since the invasion began, but the president has pledged American troops will not fight in that country. Read Next: Thousands Sickened, 17 Hospitalized by Navy's Hawaii Water Crisis, Survey Finds "Not only is he trying to take over Ukraine, he is really trying to wipe out the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people -- attacking schools, nurseries, hospitals, museums, with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture," Biden said, raising his voice. "That's what you're graduating into ... a world that, more than ever, requires strong, principled, engaged American leadership." The class is "graduating at an inflection point, not only in American history, but in world history," Biden told the sailors. "To state the obvious, no generation's graduates get to pick what world they're gonna graduate into -- it's already been formed for you -- but you must change it," he said. Although no U.S. troops are deployed to Ukraine, the Russian invasion has prompted deployments to neighboring countries, as well as the positioning of more than 20 Navy ships, including the aircraft carrier USS Truman and its strike group, to the Mediterranean Sea. Since then, Navy and Marine leaders have regularly talked about how the conflict has shaped their thinking on tactics and fighting in a future war. "Take a look at the 125 [battalion tactical groups] that Vladimir Putin has positioned around Ukraine. That's not the force that any of us want," Adm. Mike Gilday, the military head of the Navy, told military officers and industry representatives at the Sea-Air-Space Exposition outside Washington, D.C., in early April. Meanwhile, Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps, said that the conflict helped validate some of the changes he's making in reshaping the service for the future. The Marine Corps' top general in May pointed to the strike against and eventual sinking of the Russian cruiser Moskva as a good example of where he sees the future of his branch. "This is the direction the Marine Corps is going as a part of what the nation needs us to do in sea control and sea denial," he said. "It does serve as an example of the vulnerability of ships, writ large, to missiles." The Ukrainians have claimed that they struck the ship with two Neptune missiles and caused "serious damage." Russian state media said that the ship later sank while under tow in a storm. Looking even more broadly, Biden charged the graduates with protecting democracy and the world order centered around freedom that America helped establish. To make his point, he recalled a conversation he had with Chinese President Xi Jinping shortly after his election win. "He said to me, as he said many times before, democracies cannot be sustained in the 21st century," Biden said of his Chinese counterpart, before adding that Xi argued autocracies will prevail. "He's wrong," the president said. -- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin. Related: Biden Picks Replacements for Purged Naval Academy Board -- Including 2 Trailblazing Women A kennel that catered to the pets of deploying service members in the San Diego area was recently shut down after the owner was investigated for animal cruelty. Military Mutts Ranch in Aguanga, California, was officially closed when an appeal to uphold its permit was denied this week during a county board meeting. The renewal of the kennel license was originally denied at the end of March for a series of violations, including not providing updated rabies documentation and for hosting too many dogs at its facility. The kennel was already facing several animal cruelty complaints -- from dogs becoming infested with maggots to a horse dying from starvation -- and it was regularly on watch by the county's Department of Animal Services. Read Next: Biden Warns Naval Academy Grads of 'Brutal' Russia and an Uncertain World "What I saw on that property was nothing less than animal neglect and cruelty," said Grace Turner, a former client who was identified as a San Diego military spouse by CBS, during the county board hearing. Turner brought her three dogs to the facility at the end of April, but when she went to pick them up a few days later, one of them was missing. As she searched for her lost canine, she noticed the facility was covered in animal excrement and that pets appeared crowded and malnourished. Charlotte Orrin, 67, a retired therapist, opened the animal boarding center around 10 years ago. She charged customers $250 per month to leave their pets with her at the southern California kennel. Orrin had appealed the decision not to renew the kennel's license. "I don't abuse and neglect animals. I do this because I care about our soldiers," Orrin said during the hearing. Troops also serving as pet owners often have limited options to receive affordable and safe long-term care for their beloved animals while they are traveling on assignment, making kennels an appealing choice. However, the failure of facilities like Military Mutts Ranch to follow standard health and safety practices puts service members' pets at serious risk. "Ms. Orrin has ... continued to fail animals in her care," Erin Gettis, the Riverside County director of Animal Services, said during the hearing. Instead of placing their pets in the care of centers with a record of poor conditions, service members can instead find peace of mind knowing their animals are safe and healthy thanks to nonprofits working to find pet foster homes. PACT for Animals is a nonprofit that provides troops with a nearly cost-free program to find long-term boarding for their pets so they can avoid giving up companions to a shelter during their service. "The one thing we do differently than other programs is we vet every foster home," said PACT's director of operations Susan Miller in an interview with Military.com. She described the detailed reference check and home visit they require of foster hosts to ensure pets are looked after by a quality care provider. Since it was founded in 2011, the group has placed more than 1,000 pets across nearly every state. PACT also offers temporary foster care for troops who are not deploying but still have military assignments that require travel. Charlotte Orrin, Military Mutt Ranch owner, appeals to the Riverside County Board of Supervisors over the denial of her permit to run a kennel for pets of service members, May 24, 2022. (Screengrab from Riverside County Board of Supervisors meeting) Meanwhile, the board of supervisors in California unanimously voted to deny Orrin her appeal, effectively ending her business. She is not allowed to apply for a new kennel permit for another year. "I'm appalled this business is advertised to people in the military and has been allowed to operate for so long for the amount of suffering and death that some of these dogs have experienced over the years," Turner added during the hearing. Her lost dog was eventually found near the property, and the other animals at the kennel are now being cared for by a nonprofit, along with Riverside Animal Services, until service members can reclaim them, according to CBS Los Angeles. Military Mutts Ranch was not immediately available to respond for comment. -- Jonathan Lehrfeld is a fellow at Military.com. Follow him on Twitter @lehrfeld_media. Related: PCSing with Pets: 4 Things to Remember While Moving Your Animals The number of soldiers who have been separated from the Army due to refusing the COVID-19 vaccine has more than doubled from last month, according to new statistics released by the service on Friday. The service has now discharged at least 742 active-duty soldiers for refusal, it said. On April 20, the total was 345. In addition to COVID-19, troops are mandated to receive more than a dozen other vaccines, including those against smallpox, hepatitis and the flu. However, troops are not required to get any COVID-19 booster shots. Right now, 97% of the active-duty Army is fully vaccinated. Read Next: Thousands Sickened, 17 Hospitalized by Navy's Hawaii Water Crisis, Survey Finds In addition to the separations, 3,416 general officer reprimands have been given out to soldiers refusing the vaccine. The admonishments are largely seen as career killers in the military. Soldiers can receive a religious or medical exemption from the vaccine, but those exceptions are exceedingly rare. Only nine out of 4,428 religious exemption applications have been approved by the Army. It's unclear how those nine soldiers made their case, and troops seeking a religious waiver may have a steep hill to climb if they didn't take issue with any of the service's other vaccine mandates. Army officials have approved 22 medical exemptions of the 732 requested so far. COVID-19 vaccines have been determined to be safe, but do carry a minor risk of causing some health issues such as heart inflammation, which has affected at least 22 service members, according to a study from the JAMA Network. The new numbers on separations also come a month before the Army Reserve and National Guard hit their deadline to be inoculated at the end of June. Some governors have challenged the Pentagon's directive for the National Guard amid Republican opposition to pandemic-related mandates, saying they will not kick out any refusers. It's still unclear whether those governors will follow through with their defiance. The rules Guardsmen must follow can change depending on what type of mission they are on and whether it falls under state or federal orders. -- Steve Beynon can be reached at Steve.Beynon@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevenBeynon. Related: Lieutenant Found Guilty After Breaking COVID-19 Rules in a First for the Army, But Won't Be Punished KRAMATORSK, Ukraine Russia-backed separatists claimed they captured a railway hub city in eastern Ukraine as Moscow's forces pushed to gain more ground Friday by pounding another Ukrainian-held area where authorities say 1,500 people have died since the start of the war. With Russia's offensive in Ukraine's industrial Donbas region showing incremental progress, Ukrainian officials characterized the battle there in grave terms and renewed their appeals for more sophisticated Western-supplied weaponry. Without that, Ukraines foreign minister warned, Ukrainian forces won't be able to stop Russia's advance on the east. Some European leaders sought dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin toward ending a war in its 93rd day that has ravaged both Europe and Russia's economies, while Britain's foreign minister worked to rally the West's continued support for Ukraine. There should be no talk of ceasefires, or appeasing Putin. We need to make sure that Ukraine wins. And that Russia withdraws and that we never see this type of Russian aggression again, U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said. But in Ukraine's east, Russia has the upper hand. The fighting Friday focused on two key cities: Sievierodonetsk and nearby Lysychansk. They are the last areas under Ukrainian control in Luhansk, one of two provinces that make up the Donbas and where Moscow-backed separatists have controlled some territory for eight years. There are battles on the outskirts of the city. Massive artillery shelling does not stop, day and night," Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk told The Associated Press. The city is being systematically destroyed - 90% of the buildings in the city are damaged." An assault was underway in the citys northeastern quarter, where Russian reconnaissance and sabotage groups tried to capture the Mir Hotel and the area around it Friday, Striuk said. At least 1,500 people have died in Sievierodonetsk because of the war since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, he said. The figure includes people killed by shelling or in fires caused by Russian missile strikes, as well as those who died from shrapnel wounds, untreated diseases, a lack of medicine or while trapped under rubble, according to the mayor. About 12,000 to 13,000 people remain in the city down from a pre-war population of about 100,000, he said. Those remaining are huddled in shelters, and largely cut off from the rest of Ukraine. In Donetsk, the Donbas region's other province, the Russia-backed rebels said Friday they took control of Lyman, a large railway hub north of two more key cities that remain under Ukrainian control. Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovich acknowledged that we lost Lyman" Thursday night. However, a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesperson reported Friday that its soldiers countered Russian attempts to push them completely out of the city. Ukrainian analysts said Russian forces have taken advantage of delays in Western arms shipments to step up their offensive in the east and secure territory before Ukraine's fighters could push them back. Russia brought in an additional 10-12 battalion tactical groups to the zone, military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said. Throwing so much muscle at the offensive could also backfire by seriously depleting Russias arsenal. Echoing an assessment from the British Defense Ministry, Zhdanov said Russia was deploying 50-year-old T-62 tanks, which means that the second army of the world has run out of modernized equipment. Mykola Sunhurovskyi, an analyst at Kyiv's Razumkov Center, said that going forward, It is in Putins interests to solidify the situation that has developed today at the front, biting off from Ukraine what there is still strength for, and secure this line of contact as a position in (eventual) negotiations." As Ukraine's hopes of stopping the Russian advance faded, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba pleaded with Western nations: We need heavy weapons. The only position where Russia is better than us, its the amount of heavy weapons they have. Without artillery, without multiple launch rocket systems, we wont be able to push them back." In his nightly address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had some harsh words for the European Union, which has not agreed on a sixth round of sanctions that includes an embargo on Russian oil. With Hungary blocking the deal, EU countries are hunting for other methods to punish Russia. Pressure on Russia is literally a matter of saving lives, Zelenskyy said. And every day of delay, weakness, various disputes or proposals to appease the aggressor at the expense of the victim is new killed Ukrainians. And new threats to everyone on our continent. Zelenskyy said Russia's offensive in the Donbas could leave its communities in ashes and uninhabitable. He accused Moscow of pursuing an obvious policy of genocide through mass deportations and killings of civilians. On Thursday, Russian shelling of Kharkiv, a northeastern city that has been under assault while Ukrainian forces keep the invading troops out, killed nine people, including a father and his 5-month-old baby, the president said. Associated Press reporters saw the bodies of at least two dead men and four wounded at a central subway station, where the victims were taken as shelling continued outside. To the north, neighboring Belarus announced Friday that it was sending troops toward the Ukrainian border, raising concerns in Ukraines military command. Russia used Belarus as a staging ground before it invaded Ukraine. Germanys development minister traveled to Ukraine on Friday to pledge further civilian support and to discuss the countrys rebuilding. Austria's chancellor, meanwhile, was set to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin about possible prisoner exchanges. Italian Premier Mario Draghi talked with Putin on Thursday but reported no breakthrough. If you are asking me if there are openings for peace, the answer is no," Draghi told reporters. Putin and Draghi's conversation focused on the question of unblocking Ukrainian ports to allow grain to be delivered to countries that are suffering a food crisis, and avoid the risk that the stores rot in port. Moscow pressed the West on Thursday to lift sanctions already imposed over the war, seeking to shift the blame for a growing global food crisis that has been worsened by Kyivs inability to ship millions of tons of grain and other agricultural products while under attack. ___ Karmanau reported from Lyiv, Ukraine. Andrea Rosa in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and AP journalists around the world contributed. The Department of Veterans Affairs will be required to regularly report the performance -- including incidents that risk patient safety -- of its troubled electronic health records systems to Congress under new legislation headed to the president's desk. The Senate approved a bill Thursday to require the VA to submit quarterly reports to lawmakers on the performance and costs of the Electronic Health Record Modernization program, or EHRM. The bill already passed the House in a voice vote in November, meaning it now heads to President Joe Biden for his signature. A VA hospital in Spokane, Washington, was forced to suspend patient admissions and appointments after the records system, estimated by the agency to cost $16.1 billion, crashed in March. Multiple inspector general reports and news stories have highlighted issues with the rollout of the system that risked patient safety, as well as cost overruns. Read Next: Thousands Sickened, 17 Hospitalized by Navy's Hawaii Water Crisis, Survey Finds "The VA, and consequently our nation, has invested a great deal of time and money into the VA Electronic Health Record Modernization program," Senate Veterans Affairs Committee ranking member Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the lead sponsor of the Senate version of the bill, said in a statement. The legislation will "ensure veterans receive the care they deserve and hold the VA accountable for taxpayer dollars," Moran said. The reports ordered by Congress, which would continue until after the program is fully implemented, would in part have to include "a list of patient safety reports, incidents, alerts or disclosures" at each facility where the new electronic system is in use. The system, built by health technology powerhouse Cerner, was first launched at the Mann-Grandstaff VA Medical Center in Spokane in November 2020. After several delays, it was also rolled out in Walla Walla, Washington, and Columbus, Ohio, earlier this year. In March, the VA inspector general released a series of three reports that found the system failed to flag patients who had been identified as suicide risks, gave doctors inaccurate information about patients' medications, and caused delays in scheduling appointments, among other patient safety risks. Those reports came after the IG in a pair of 2021 reports found the VA's $16.1 billion cost estimate for the program is likely an underestimate of as much as $5.1 billion because planning and reports to Congress did not include physical and IT infrastructure costs. There have also been media reports of glitches and shortcomings, including dozens of crashes. The issues have prompted some lawmakers to call on the VA to halt the rollout of the program. "The EHR has been very frustrating, very disruptive and even dangerous for some of our patients," Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., told VA Secretary Denis McDonough at a congressional hearing earlier this month. "I do not want EHR to move an inch further in my state until all of this is fixed and ready to go." Murray said reports from her constituents in the state show the system is "plagued" by problems. VA officials have pledged to work with lawmakers to assuage their concerns but also claim the problems with the system are being ironed out. "Spokane's getting better, but it's not perfect," McDonough told Murray at the hearing. "I'm not suggesting it is. Walla Walla's not been perfect, but it's been better. So far, in day six in Columbus, we're seeing reasonable results, but again, it's early." -- Rebecca Kheel can be reached at rebecca.kheel@military.com. Follow her on Twitter @reporterkheel. Related: Lawmakers Balk at VA Plans to Roll Out Electronic Medical Records System Latest Kremlin reports indicate that legendary American actor, Morgan Freeman has been banned from entering Russia. The actor joins a least of about 960 Americans who have been noted as Anti-Russian. According to the list, the actor placer 840 after he created a video about the 2016 presidential election cycle. Morgan Freeman is a well-known film actor who in September 2017 recorded a video message accusing Russia of conspiring against the United States and calling for a fight against our country, the Kremlin list noted. The actor is recalled to have directed and narrated a video in which he expressed concerns about the involvement of Russia in the American elections. He recommended a committee to investigate the European country indicating, We have been attacked we are at war. The video features renowned American actor, Rob Reiner, who happens to be on the ban list too. Meanwhile, Russia says its action is in response to the continuous imposed anti-Russian sanctions by the U.S. Some notable Black Americans on the ban list include Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, Vice President Kamala Harris, Ilhan Omar, Senator Cory Booker, and Ayanna Presley. 27.05.2022 LISTEN Comic Ghanaian actor Kwadwo Nkansah LilWin has officially kicked off his One Student, One Pen initiative. The actors efforts seek to provide students in the Ashanti Region with pens which will go a long way to aid in their academic work. In collaboration with the Ashanti Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service and DPS Ball Point Pens, the initiative was launched at the Kumasi Anglican School on Thursday. Speaking to the Ghana News Agency, LilWin indicated that the initiative is part of his vision to give back to society. I love giving back to society, especially in the educational sector. I always want to help these younger ones achieve their dreams of becoming better people in society. A pen is an essential learning material, but it has unfortunately become expensive. "Some parents are unable to afford them for their wards and this occurs especially in the rural areas. So this project seeks to address this challenge and I hope to make the desired impact, he said. He expressed his gratitude to individuals and corporate bodies who have contributed to the course. The actor added that the initiative will go beyond the Ashanti Region for every student in every part of the country to benefit. 27.05.2022 LISTEN Members of the National Concerned Spare Parts Dealers Association have expressed their readiness to embark on demonstration against the government if it fails to reverse its intentions to relocate them against the Association's decision. Speaking at a press conference in Accra, the Public Relations Officer of the Association, Mr Takyi Addo said the outfit vehemently opposes government and for that matter the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council's supposed relocation of the Association from Abossey Okai to Afeinya, describing the decision as unfortunate and unnecessary. According to him, the decision could hardly help the spare parts dealers to operate effectively when they are moved to Afienya. The Association observed that Abossey Okai is the point where business thrives in the country and also contributes massively towards economic development. He noted that government needs to develop the area instead of finding avenues to relocate traders who have invested heavily in their current location. "We are through this press conference giving the government two weeks to withdraw its intention to relocate us to Afienya or we proceed to demonstrate and register our protest against its decision," Mr Takyi hinted. Mr Takyi Addo alleged that officials of the Greater Accra Coordinating Council have in two separate interviews at Adom FM and Joy FM threatened to relocate the spare parts dealers of 11 Abossey Okai to Afienya on the reason that they wanted to decongest the area for free vehicular movement among others. The spokesman said the Coordinating Council also linked the decision to relocate them to number of meetings the officials have held with the executive members of the Association whom have given them the green light for the relocation exercise to happen. According to Takyi, the said executives are only interim members whose tenure of office have long expired, and therefore have no power to decide for all spare parts dealers at Abossey Okai. "We consider the intention by the government through the Greater Accra Regional Coordinating Council to relocate us to Afeinya as an affront to our traditional activities," the Mr Takyi Addo noted. He added, "This is an obvious attempt by the alleged unrecognized executives to make the current government unpopular as they wrongly give false information of which if the authorities follow could dent the reputation of the government." Concluding Mr Takyi Addo called on government to come out with measures that could help the effective running of the spare parts business. Seventy-five-year-old Hanganani Gideon Dube has walked with a slight limp and his speech been laboured since he miraculously survived being trampled by an elephant in northwestern Zimbabwe. He considers himself lucky to be alive following the assault one afternoon in May 2021 near Mabale village on the outskirts of Hwange National Park, the country's biggest. But the injuries have left him unable to fend for his family of six. Dube was tending his cattle when "suddenly I found myself face-to-face with an elephant". He sprinted off, without realising he was running straight into the path of another elephant. "There was no time for me to evade the second elephant. It attacked me swiftly and I blacked out," he said in the local Ndebele language. Dube said he's still puzzled "why the elephant didn't finish me off". "I am lucky to be alive but I am now useless as I can no longer do any physical work, including looking after my cattle," he said sitting on a stool by a cooking fire at his homestead. At least 60 people have been killed by elephants in Zimbabwe since the start of the year, compared with 72 over all of 2021 year. Seventy-five-year-old Hanganani Gideon considers himself lucky to be alive after an assault by an elephant. By Zinyange Auntony (AFP) Zimbabwe's conservation success story has had unfortunate side-effect of heightening jumbo-human conflict. With some 100,000 elephants, Zimbabwe has the world's second-largest population after Botswana, and about one-quarter of the elephants in all of Africa. More than half of those pachyderms live in and outside the unfenced Hwange, a wildlife park nearly half the size of Belgium, some 14,600 square kilometres (5,637 square miles) of vegetation. Elephants roam freely from Zimbabwe's sprawling and unfenced game reserves and it is common to find herds crossing or resting along the main highway from Hwange to the nearby prime tourist resort of Victoria Falls. 'Reward not punishment' Zimbabwe's elephant population is growing at about five percent a year, reaching unsustainable levels. Elephants roam freely from Zimbabwe's sprawling and unfenced game reserves. By Zinyange Auntony (AFP) "Our conservation methods are working and I believe that instead of being punished we should be rewarded," Fulton Mangwanya, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority director told AFP. He spoke on the sidelines of a conference in Hwange where the government is this week lobbying allies to push for legal ivory trade. Zimbabwe, along with Botswana, Namibia and Zambia, wants the UN Convention on International Trade Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, commonly referred to as CITES, to lift the ban on the trade in ivory. They argue that scrapping the ban can help to better preserve the animals and bring economic benefit to local communities who live close to the animals. Zimbabwe has a huge $600-million stockpile of ivory which it recently showed to ambassadors representing various countries including the European Union, China and Japan. It has urged EU diplomats to allow a one-off sale of the ivory. Cattle herder Hanganani Gideon Dube can no longer fend for his family because of his injuries sustained in an elephant attack. By Zinyange Auntony (AFP) The country's last official elephant census in 2014 counted more than 80,000, a figure now estimated at 100,000, which authorities say is three times more than capacity. But some conservationists doubt the accuracy of the statistics and fear that lifting the trade ban would pose a threat to elephant populations. America, along with EU countries and Britain remain opposed to lifting the ban while China and Japan are some of the countries in support. International trade in ivory and elephants has been banned since 1989 under the CITES. One-off sales were allowed in 1999 and 2008, despite fierce opposition. The Harare government has threatened to pull out of the convention if it doesn't have its way on ivory trading. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, escalating the Russo-Ukrainian War, which had started in 2014. With more than 6.5 million Ukrainians fleeing the country and a third of the population displaced, the invasion has triggered Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II. While the Bangladeshs Rohingya's plight has been overshadowed by the Covid-19 outbreak, Myanmar's military coup in February, Afghan refugee crisis, now the Ukraine crisis, the community remains in limbo, with many of its members missing citizenship and the rights that come with it. Around a million Rohingya refugees has been living in Bangladesh since 2017, while others have sought sanctuary in nations all over the world. When the Myanmar military began a clearance operation against them in 2017, several members of the community were forced to flee. Rakhine state was particularly tense, with tales of rape and murder against Rohingyas abounding. The International Court of Justice has charged Myanmar with genocide over these atrocities. Meanwhile, the community's living conditions in refugee camps are deteriorating. Due to the extended ambiguity surrounding their repatriation to Myanmar, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are becoming frustrated. Such ambiguity poses a significant risk because it tempts many people to engage in illicit activity. Bangladesh confronts increasing difficulty in managing the displaced people as foreign support for the Rohingyas dwindle, with little hope of repatriation in the near future. Following the ongoing Ukraine crisis, the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan, which has already displaced millions of Afghans both inside and outside the nation, another humanitarian crisis has emerged. While many in the world community have correctly condemned Myanmar's junta for deposing an elected government, the Rohingya's situation must not be overlooked. The international community must demand justice for the Rohingya in addition to a restoration to representative rule in Myanmar. Despite the fact that members of the Muslim Rohingya population claim generations of roots in the country formerly known as Burma, Myanmar's ruling generals have long promoted the xenophobic stereotype that they are "outsiders" in the Buddhist-majority country. Bangladesh is home to nearly 1.1 million forcibly displaced Rohingyas, the majority of whom arrived on August 25, 2017, following a murderous crackdown by Myanmar's army described as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing." International community should have always taken the safe repatriation of refugees seriously. Bangladeshs administration began diplomatic attempts to return them and negotiated agreements with Myanmar. However, even five years later, not a single Rohingya has returned to their homeland for fear of persecution. It appears that Bangladesh is paying the price for expressing sympathy for a persecuted minority community in another country. Bangladesh wants to resolve the Rohingya situation through peaceful negotiations, and Myanmar and the international community should do the same. Myanmar has been attempting to mislead the international community in order to avoid fulfilling its duties for the repatriation and reintegration of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas. The host country has done everything. It wants ensure Rohingya return through peaceful means, but nothing has worked out so far. It goes without saying that voluntary repatriation of Rohingyas is the most sustainable and long-term solution to the situation. However, because to the Rohingyas' lack of faith in the Myanmar government, repatriation attempts failed twice in November 2018 and August 2019. Myanmar must ensure that Rohingya refugees are not persecuted upon their return in order to facilitate voluntary repatriations. To this aim, the international community and the United Nations should increase pressure on Myanmar to create a safe, secure, and dignified environment for the Rohingya refugees to return home. World anticipate the international community should play a more assertive diplomatic role in pressuring Myanmar to return the Rohingyas. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, has stated recently during his visit to Bangladesh that while focusing on the "catastrophic disaster" in Ukraine, they must not forget about other challenging situations across the world, such as the Rohingya crisis, which require attention and resources. Despite new financing to Ukraine in response to an "exceptional humanitarian situation," the US is committed to continuing to support Bangladesh in the Rohingya crisis, according to a top USAID official who visited Rohingya camps in Bangladesh in May 11, 2021. "We are dedicated to maintaining our support for the Rohingya response," USAID Deputy Administrator Isobel Coleman told a small group of journalists at an American Centre press conference in the capital before ending off her 5-day visit to Bangladesh. She continued, "We have a very fundamental approach to humanitarian response, and ensuring that the refugees (Rohingyas) who are here receive the basic necessities to meet is a priority for us." Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh, as well as Rohingya and other conflict-affected persons in Myanmar, will benefit from an additional 22 million in humanitarian help from the European Commission. Protection services, food aid, nutrition, health, and shelter will all benefit from the investment. Since 2002, the EU has been actively assisting people in Bangladesh (since 2002) and Myanmar (since 1994), with a particular focus on disaster preparedness and emergency response activities, providing life-saving assistance to Rohingya refugees, and funding emergency aid to people affected by natural disasters. Rohingyas need more assistance of the international community. They've spent the last five years telling the world about their situation and repeating the same stories. They've gotten nothing but compassion and hollow promises in exchange. With the world's attention focused on the migrants in Ukraine, we hope the world should not overlook the misery of 1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. The international community's plea for repatriation to Myanmar must be louder, more visible, and more frequent. Bangladesh's government must continue to ensure that any transfers are entirely voluntary. Any long-term solution must take into account the local and national context. But flow of humanitarian assistance must be ensured till then because they need to fulfill their basic needs. They have right to survive with dignity because they are also human being. But peaceful and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingyas in Myanmar is the final solution. But till then, they need to survive! survive! survive! Please dont forget them. Kyaw Min, is an activist, educator, freelance writer, and researcher. Original address: Mandalay, Myanmar. Present Addresses: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Postgraduate degree from Mandalay University (Department of International relations) Africa Centre for Education and Community Development, a non-profit organization, NGO, has donated school uniforms and footwear to over 150 children in three basic schools in the Upper West Akyem District of the Eastern region. The items were distributed to needy pupils in Kofi Kyere D/A basic school, Asuokwaw Presby school and Katayensua D/A school. The aim is to encourage school going children who were not regular in school due to tattered uniforms and worn-out footwear to show commitment towards their education. Records at the district education directorate suggest that some school pupils in the district regularly absent themselves from school due to lack of befitting school uniforms. Some, however, defy the odds and the embarrassment of donning tattered uniforms just to be educated, shying away from extra curricula activities. This, according to some teachers and circuit supervisors in the district, demoralizes the pupils and affect their academic performances. Government in 2009 introduced free school uniform policy as a social intervention programme in education, with the aim to reduce the cost of education and support needy pupils in deprived public basic schools across the country. The programme, has however, taken a nosedive in recent past, affecting enrollment levels in most basic schools across the country. Some parents in the predominantly farming communities say they are unable to afford uniforms for their children due to hardship. To address this challenge, Africa Centre for Education and Community Development, following its need impact assessment program conducted in the district saw the need to present to pupils who lacked these items. Addressing a ceremony to present the items, the country director of Africa Centre for Education and Community Development, Kofi Baafi, Esq. said "the main focus of the organization is to advise on education, help people build their skills and make education environment very convenient". According to him, the findings from its impact assessment revealed low education performance due to lack of financial support on the part of parents. "It's not as a result of lack of teachers, they are a lot of teachers here, they have infrastructure though it's not that convenient but we have seen that the parents have a role to play so the parent-teacher relationship is not moving properly and most of the children too are not properly informed about what they have to do and they just come to school and go home. Some are not clothed so they don't come to school at all. We found out that poverty is very very high, and performance is very low so comparing these two things we realized that one is influencing the other. When we work on these two things it will impact positively on education," he stated. A Circuit Supervisor in the district, Edward Boakye told Journalists the district faces a lot of challenges including lack of textbooks, and infrastructure deficits among many others. According to him, the lack of these uniforms and other needs discourages students from attending school regularly. "We are very hopeful that once the ACECD has come to our aid in Katayensua, Kofi Kyere and Asuokwaw Presby with school uniforms and footwear, we are hopeful they would extend their tentacles to other schools in the district. We are faced with absenteeism so with this kind gesture, we are convinced enrollment levels will rise all aimed at a better education," he explained. Beneficiary students commended the group for their support. The event was well attended by traditional rulers, opinion leaders and heads of schools in the three communities. 27.05.2022 LISTEN The first vice-chair for the NPP-Japan branch, Mr. Awuah Michael has urged candidates of Bono East not to make the mistake of voting for any NDC candidate in 'NPP skin' in the upcoming internal election. He is asking delegates to keep an eye on candidates who defected from the opposition NDC to join the NPP. Mr Michael alleged that their plan was to win their positions and conspire with the opposition NDC to destroy NPP. "The election is just around the corner and we should be vigilant about the people we choose as leaders of the region. We should remember our children's education, our health, good roads, potable drinking water and others are in the hands of these leaders whom we will choose someday to come. This should tell us we should vote for competent leaders, not pro-NDCs candidate whom the NDC party have sponsored to partake in the raise. "We all know there are some candidates who just left the NDC party some months ago to the NPP to win the regional elections so that he will conspire with his former party to bring the Bono East NPP to a downfall. "We should remember is not about money but someone who can work and work better for the development of the NPP party and the citizens, not one who is in hand with the opposition party to draw the party's good policies and development back. "We know what these people can do so we shouldnt give them the chance to rule us otherwise we are done forever," he stated. He added, if the head of the regional executives is destroyed, theres nothing the tail, constituency and branch can do, so Bono East candidate shouldnt do any mistake by voting for the NDC candidate whom he is known by everyone in the Region. All is set for the maiden John Evans Atta Mills' Memorial Lecture in Northern Ghana which has been slated for Saturday, May 28, 2022. The event which is on the theme "The man John Evans Atta Mills-Ten years on" is expected to bring together people from academia, students, family and the political arena. The event is being organised by the local organising team in conjunction with the Governing Board of the John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Heritage. It will be chaired by the paramount chief of the Pishigu traditional area, Naa Alhaji Dr Alhassan Andani. The lecture is scheduled to take place at the multi-purpose auditorium at the University for Development Studies(UDS) at 2PM. Key speakers of the lecture include Professor Stephen Kendie of UCC, Dr Charles Abugri of IDEAS INT, Dr Vida Yakong of UDS, Dr Malik Zakaria, a traditional ruler and Dr Samuel Nkumbaan of the University of Ghana (UG). Chairman of the Local Organising Team, Mr Osmond Amuah in an interview with the media said the local organising committee was fully prepared for the event. According to him, preparations were about 90 per cent complete ahead of the event as invitation letters have been sent to those who matter. He added that decoration of the hall, as well as radio and television announcements, have been catered for awaiting the day. He also said many of the dignitaries who have been invited to attend the lecture have assured the organisers of their pledge to honour the invitation. Touching on the legacies of the late Professor John Evans Atta Mills, Mr Osmond said, he lived an enviable life and was noted for his positive actions in strengthening democratic values and human advancement in and outside Ghana. He added further that the Asomdwehene as JEA was called, had the zeal for creating a better Ghana for all, excellence and integrity as well as accountability, hence the need for the nation to celebrate him even in his absence. "The John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Heritage is a Heritage that was instituted basically to promote the legacies of the late Professor John Atta Mills, his key attributes that we seek to sell, that is the attributes of a humble person, a humble servant, a father and someone who rose above pettiness and lived his life in such a way that he wanted to include everybody. He promoted the ideals of inclusiveness that led to the rapid transformation of the nation," Mr Osmond said. Other members of the local organising team include: Dr Elias Kuusaana, Dr Elijah Yendaw, Dr Benson Konlan, Dr Mohammed Ali, Dr Iddrisu Sulemana, DR Kilu Rufai, Mr Joseph Anamooo: Haruna Musah Kalamuhi, Dr Malik D. Zakaria, Prof Dominic Dery Alimbe and Dr Damian Tom-Dery. The John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Heritage The John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Heritage was established with a vision that seeks to inspire humanity for a better society The mission of the heritage is to promote the JEA Mills' unique view of society to cause positive actions in strengthening democratic values and human advancement. The heritage has many objectives some of which are: To continue to deepen President JEA Mills legacy of excellence in law, taxation and sports, Build and project the President JEA Mills brand as a model servant leader who invested in people, Engage in charity work among others. It has the values of Passion, Excellence and Integrity, Accountability, as well as Commitment. The John Evans Atta Mills Memorial Heritage is a Company Limited by Guarantee under the Ghana Companies Act, 2019 (Act 992). Governing Board members of the heritage include Hon. Alex Segbefia (Board Chairman), Madam Sherry Ayitey (member), Hon. Samuel Atta Mills (member), Mr Emmanuel Siisi Quainoo(member), and Nana Oye Bampoe Addo (Board Secretary). It has Mr Kwame Pianim, Mr James Bebaako Mensah, Mr John Henry Martey Newman, Prof. Agnes Attia Apusigah, Dr Esther Offei Aboagye, Togbe Afede XIV, Agbogbomefia of Asogli State, Alhaji Dr Ahmed Vanderpuye, Dr Kwabena Duffuor, Dr Cadman Atta Mills, Naa Alhassan Andani and HE. Ken Kanda as Advisory Council. We must ask, when in Gods name will we do what needs to be done to if not completely stop, fundamentally change the amount of the carnage that goes on in this country? Those were some of the words of exasperation on the part of the President of the United States Joe Biden on Wednesday, May 25, 2022 regarding the senseless shooting to death of 19 school children and 2 adults at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde (near San Antonio), Texas. In his role as Americas comforter in chief, Biden who has had deeply emotional events in his own life promised Jill and I will be traveling to Texas in the coming days to meet with the families and let them know we have a sense just a sense of their pain and hopefully bring some little comfort to the community in shock and grief and trauma. On May 24, 2022, many families and communities sense of peace and purpose were shattered when 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered Robb Elementary and in the most violent ways shot those children, those kids and two teachers to death. For the immediate community, some sense of the trauma resonated in the words of Pastor Tony Gruben of Baptist Temple Church who said Our hearts are broken. We are devastated. It had a familiar, dispiriting reminder and feeling for millions of Americans and people around the world whose own communities had witnessed and suffered some form of gun violence against citizens and students. Uvaldes Mayor Ron Nirenberg said that his city have come together to honor the dead: Were here to be a witness to the collective trauma. Significantly, on Friday, May 27, 2022 in Houston, Texas, former President Donald Trump is scheduled to speak at the pro-gun rights National Rifle Association's Annual Leadership Forum. No one attending or entering the hall as part of the audience at the Houston event will be allowed to carry gun(s) during Trumps address. The U.S Secret Service will ensure enforcement, during which "firearms, firearm accessories, knives, and other items WILL NOT BE PERMITTED in the General Assembly Hall." Among those scheduled to speak are the Governor of Texas Greg Abbot and Sen. Ted Cruz. Both are Republicans. A few minutes, hours and a couple of days following those terrible events in Uvalde, Americans across all ideological collaborations and positions have jumped back to the daily, intense debates in America. The extremely divisive issue of guns, gun control, lessons from Columbine High School, gun rights, safety of citizens, special security needs of schools in America and associated issues. I think the key issue, among others, is that our children are daily encouraged, here in the U.S and around the world, to go to school and learn to become more successful and purposeful in life but how do we deal with the increasing existential challenge that schools and many of the public facilities which we regard(ed) as sacred and safe have since come under the target list of the known and unknown gunmen? Member of Parliament for Nkoranza South, Emmanuel Kojo Agyekum, says the police have frustrated attempts by his constituents to stage a demonstration over alleged extrajudicial killings in the area. According to him, the demonstration which was expected to come off on Friday, May 27 by the youth of Nkoranza to impress on the police to get persons responsible for the death of young businessman Albert Donkor and another resident are brought to book, has been stopped by the police. Speaking to Citi News, Emmanuel Kojo Agyekum said after submitting a letter to inform the police of their intention, the police said they will not allow him or the youth to hold any demonstration or press conference in the area over the recent developments. The police stopped us from doing the demonstration. When I submitted the letter to the Regional Police Commander, they said they are not going to allow me or the people to do that demonstration, he said. He said among other things, the police said the notice was too short. Among other things, they said we cannot demonstrate against the police and also the time we gave them was not enough They also said we will not be allowed to have a press conference. It is just bullying, he said. The MP also requested that the investigation into the killings in Nkoranza must be done by an independent body. We are calm. We are only demanding justice. Nobody is happy with what transpired. The visit of the IGP has given assurance to the people that they [police] are going to investigate, but we also still want a different investigation far from the police investigation. We want a different body, he added. ---citinewsroom Dome-Kwabenya MP Sarah Adwoa Safo has said she is not aware she has been invited or served a notice of appearance before the Privileges Committee on Friday, 27 May in connection with her long absence from the law chamber without permission. I am not aware such a thing has been given to me, she told Accra-based Joy News on Thursday, adding: I am just hearing it from you. As we speak, I dont know that I have been invited, she stressed. I have to be served, she added. The Minister of Gender, Child and Social Protection said she will only return home from the United States when he sick son is declared fit and healthy. She is billed to appear before the Privileges Committee along with Ayawaso Central MP Henry Quartey and Assin Central MP Kennedy Agyapong. The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin, had earlier explained to the house that: I have accordingly come to the irresistible conclusion that a member who absents himself or herself from 16 sitting days of Parliament in a particular meeting, without the permission in writing of the Speaker, falls squarely within the ambit of Article 97, clause 1(c) of the 1992 Constitution and Order 16(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament. A former Member of Parliament for Kumbumgu Constituency, Mr Ras Mubarak, petitioned the Speaker of Parliament, Mr Alban Bagbin, to enforce Article 97(1)c of the 1992 Constitution by referring some four MPs to the Privileges Committee for absenting themselves for more than 15 days without permission. According to the ex-lawmaker, the Standing Orders of Parliament are not clear as to who can or should raise the matter of absenteeism on the floor of the House for a debate and, or referral by Mr Speaker to the Committee on Privileges but it is incidences like this, if unattended to, that threatens Ghanas democracy. Quoting an Afrobarometer data, Mr Mubarak said trust in Parliament has fallen by 12 per cent between 2002 and 2019. The report, he said, ranked Parliament as the third corrupt institution in the country just behind the police and judges. I humbly submit that democracy can only work if Parliament puts the common good ahead of party and personal interest. At a time of seeming collapse of trust in politics and Parliament as an institution, it is my fervent prayer that the House would rise to the occasion and be united on this matter, so as to uphold our constitution and also win back waned public confidence, the petition stated. The Speaker of Parliament referred the matter to the Committee, following the absence of the MPs for more than fifteen days without permission. Source: Classfmonline.com Over 50 Ghanaian contract workers working for Orsam Oil and Gas in the Western Region have been locked out following workers agitations on Wednesday over unfair and poor working conditions and contractual issues. The technicians including welders and fabricators are currently working on a major fabrication works worth millions of dollars meant for the five-year Jubilee South East field expansion development project which is to increase Jubilee Field's daily production by over 20,000 barrels. The workers complained of being forced to sign unfair contracts and poor general working conditions. The Western Regional Industrial Relations Officer of the Chemical and Petroleum Workers Union, Richard Hanson explained the issues to Citi News and what the union is doing to resolve them. I was at the premises of Orsam Oil and Gas this [Thursday] morning in relation to the action that was taken by the contracted workers of Orsam regarding poor working conditions and rate of pay. Yesterday [Wednesday], the Western Regional Labour Officer visited the premises and had a phone conversation with the Union and called for a stakeholder meeting between the Orsam Oil and Gas Management, the subcontractors and the Union. It was agreed that the workers go back to work before the meeting, and so I went to talk to the workers. Unfortunately, when I got there this [Thursday] morning, management of Orsam lad locked the workers out for calling for better working conditions and the rate of pay. Subsequently, the Regional Labour Officer met the Orsam Management and enquired from them as to why this morning the workers have been locked out contrary to the discussions the Regional Labour Officer had with the parties? In his (an official of Orsam) answer, he said it is a directive from above and that the subcontractors' employer's contract had been terminated, and subsequently, the workers who are working for the subcontractor do not have work in Orsam, he narrated. Richard Hanson, who described the situation as unfortunate however proposed a way forward to resolving the issue. It is quite unfortunate these things are happening. The way forward for us as a Union is the need for a harmonious working environment to be restored, and so we are going to push this to the leadership, thus both within the region and beyond, the security apparatus, and we have already informed the Regional Minister's office as well as possibly bring other bodies to ensure that the issue is resolved amicably for the workers to go back to work. Information we have also got from the Orsam management is that they have started contacting other subcontractors to be employed on the same project that they are terminating these workers to go away, added. He said the workers have however sworn to prevent others, being locals or foreigners to be brought in whiles they have started the work. Hanson further said the union will try as much as possible to ensure dialogue with all relevant stakeholders to resolve the issue. In a petition to the Petroleum Commission which is the upstream oil and gas sector regulator, the workers appealed to the PC to intervene. We the workers of Orsam Oil and Gas subcontractors that are lockout respectfully petitions the Petroleum Commission to intervene to ensure that management of Orsam Oil and Gas meet the concern of the workers. 1. Lord Mocha and Emmanuel Atiappe who were unfairly terminated should be brought back. 2. The poor condition and service rate of pay by subcontractors should be reviewed to reflect the work we are doing. 3. The foreigners which Orsam management is bringing (Ivorians, Cameroonians, Togolese) to take the Ghanaians job must be prevented. 4. We expect Orsam Oil and Gas to join hands with the three subcontractors to resolve and conclude the breakdown discussions on the conditions of service and the rate of pay. 5. We are expecting the commission to call management of Orsam Oil and gas to open the gate for us to go and work tomorrow whiles negotiation continues. It is our hope that the petroleum commission being the regulator in the industry will ensure that there is a peaceful working environment for all parties and with no victimization and threat of any termination of any appointment. Meanwhile, the managers of Orsam Oil and Gas Limited are yet to comment on the matter to Citi News despite several attempts to reach out to them. ---citinewsroom 27.05.2022 LISTEN We hear it said a lot... Whenever our conversations turn to music, we hear it said a lot. Whats your favourite genre of music? Persons seeking to know each other better find themselves taking turns asking, Whats your favourite genre of music? And thats when we hear this said a lot. In the list, being answers to the inquiry, you are bound to hear this wordpronounced ever-so proudly, Jazz Oh, so fancy! And fancy is exactly the word we almost always are shooting for when we announce this taste of ours. Well, add to that, words like intellectual, deep, classy and all that jazz. Hoping to be put in the same sentence with these words, we find ourselves say it quite a lotJazz. This is all well and good, up until there is this follow up question: who is your favourite Jazz artiste? And God forbid one hears the answer: Kenny G. This right here is where all hell breaks loose. But thats beside the point. Note: A History on Black Notes First of all, I must say that I have listened to too much music in my lifetime to be this dense about music. I mean, technically, I still dont understand what a chord really iseven though I have perhaps listened to music longer than I have read books. But here we are, writing thesis of articles week after week, yet not knowing with all certainty what a musical chord even is. So bear with me this attempted musical analogy Like everything in the world around us, music, we know, has compositiona fabric which can be spread out, taught and learnt, studied like words on a page. Like everything in the world around us, music is tainted with Eurocentrism. A flaw which we shall seek to dissect and break free off later. But the subject matter of todays article (and last weeks) being an African American artiste, a people in whom we must be deeplyinvested (and we showed reason why in the article The Scattering, the Gatheringthe Diaspora), and with these people having their histories intertwined with the West, we will proceed with this piece, with focus begrudgingly given to European music. Lets begin with Classical music If music is a fabric, Classical music is easily a straitjacket. It is beautiful, yet formulaic. Classical music is the 1+1 = 2 of music. Music has physical formClassical music requires adherence. But what are rules if not for the breaking?sometimes. a. Symptoms of an Inferiority Complex In the late 19th century and early 20th century, the White folk, still suffering from immense inferiority complex, held tightlystill to their need to belittle. So the African American remained the subject of constant belittling in all aspects of American society. Sure, you could deny them the study that prepared them for landing on the moon, yet you could not inhibit their art. Sure, you could deny them places in your classrooms, to study your music theoriesyour Classical music, yet you could not inhibit their own music and dance. So onwards the transported African went with Borboorbor, Kpanlogo, Adowa, Fontomfrom, Bamaya, Agbadza, Apala, Fuji, Juju, and co. to their new homeAmerica. And through these centuries of pain, trauma, enslavements, imprisonments, servitudes, the inhumane, these Black folks would gather still, in the small time afforded them, to celebrate lifethrough music and dance. What hurts more than to painstakingly cause pain to a person only to find them moments later singing and dancing joyously?The White folk suffering, then, still from excruciating inferiority complex, felt they had failed in cruelty. To remedy this, cruelty was heightened. Enter, the Black Codes. Also known as the Black Laws, this set of inhibiting regulations took the drums away from Black music. Yet the Black folk, they found rhythm in their body. To replace the drum were the hands, clapping to the rhythm, and the feet, stomping to the tune. With slavery facing a total phasing out, the Black Codes was one of the many resorts the White folk had to keep the Black folk captive. The White man took freedom of association from the Black folk every chance they could get, even to the extent ofprohibiting them from meeting in groups in worship of Godbecause isnt it this same God who bragged, promising liberty to the captives. No, the White man did not want that happening. They so badly sought to take life away from the African American that even in music, they tried taking away what they believed gave Black music its vigour, its lifedrums. But they were wrong. As the years went by the Black man and woman, denied every chance at decent society, and inhibited in all aspects of life, saw increase in their body of music yet still. All over the world, where the Black folk was spread, inspiration was drawn. The African American drew inspiration from, among others, their African roots and from the Caribbean. These African music traditions were merged with the European music traditions of their new home nation, Americawhenever this uppityEuropean music would allow it. After a series of metamorphosis, Jazz emerged. A music with a very eventful history; music which had a personality; music which had a soulJazz. If Classical music was the 1+1 = 2 of music, Jazz showed that one could derive the same answer with a little more twisting aroundthat 1+1+2-2 also equals 2 b. The Prohibition and Black Inhibition Still Like every dystopian society, you had the oppressed African American denied access to all the good places. Yet the oppressed, being human still, and needing to carry out social and economic activities for meaningful survival, needing to fulfil that human need to be somewhere, they had no option but to couch a niche for themselves in the supposed bad places. So in the early 1900s, when the White folk realised that there was in fact an evil lurking in them and on their land that neededridding ofevils such as crime, corruption, brutality etc., in their White society that needed purging, they incorrectly blamed it on the alcohol. And many of these locations for social gatherings such as those leftovers the Black folks were left with in this cruel society were not only conveniently made target ofthe immoral tag, but of actual prosecutions and incarcerations. The Black folk was right where the White folk wanted them; their music, right where the White folk wanted itin the slums, in the bad places. Ergo, Black musicJazz music was badmusic. An imbecilic White man, a man whose name, funnily enough, is now a slur, a certain Mr. Dyke, called Jazz a music invented for the torture of the imbeciles. Stupidity personified, Henry van Dyke, he went on, As I understand it, it is not music at all. It is merely an irritation of the nerves of hearing, a sensual teasing of the strings of physical passion Dyke is still shaking in his grave as we speak, finding himself a certified imbecile in death. Dyke and many White men and women of his kind plagued with the curse of the majority, who dared to speak ill of something they knew little of, are convulsing in their graves as we speak. Because what do we have now? A world of people, a world containing the United States of America, the United States of America containing a whole chunk of White folks, us all in this world, pronouncing our chests, cocking our necks, turning up our noses, as we declare proudlyhoping to find in the declaration an imbued sense of importanceJazz music as answer to the question: what is your favourite music genre? The Curse of the Majority History repeats itself has repeated itself so much that one, even in repeating this saying, is bound to miss the truth of the matterthat history does, in fact, repeat itself. Remember Black folks the same people who when stripped off the drum, went for their bodies in order to generate rhythm In Rap music, we find the Black folk pull off yet another wonder. Using words, they generate content (meaningful content), flow (rhymes and rhythm), and delivery (impressive delivery expressed in distincttone and speed). Take a Rap song, strip it off all its added beats, leave it with its verses alone, and what you have is speechspeech having rhyme and reason, rhythm and rapidity. There is an urgency to Rap music. Well, because the Black person has had things to share urgently. It is an urgency beautifully expressed through musicone that cannot so easily be mimicked without dedicated study of the craft. Put together a string of words on your own, or take a rap lyric and attempt a rap-along, and youll sooner find that those words, they are not just said with rapidity, but there is such rhythm to thema rhythm innate and learnt, one that cannot just be easily mimicked. Music had for long been the human voice, singing (a feat of which we have come to find that not all of us can pull off), or instruments doing their own things, but here comes Rap music, acting as though it is merely the act of speaking (a feat of which most of us all humans are blessed with). Yet Rap music, it lied, because speaking to a tune, as it does, it is a harder feat still. Just like that, a new genre had emerged in the late-1900s. No sooner had the Black folk found in Rap music, a voice than they began seeing the need to use this voice to mirror the societies in which they livedthe American society deeply-steeped insocial injustices, Black injustices. Rap music, having roots in West African music-storytelling tradition, took on a more urgent approach to confront the urgency of the matter of American realitya reality of police brutality, of incarcerations, racism on all fronts, segregation, White gentrifications, White flights, the list is long. Authenticity: A Blessing or Curse The stories told on Rap music were, have been, and still are, as raw as they comeunfiltered, unadulterated. The African American, still having boiling within them an African blood, hence suffering the curse or blessing of authenticity, have painted vivid pictures of their realities through their music, specifically through this talky genre of music, Hip hop. We must remember, this is a reality that was painstakingly and cruelly dealt them by a White society. It is important to remember this because this reality, when so taken without its historical and factual context of White cruelty creates the impression that makes for a good stereotype. All of a sudden, as the Black folk is decrying incarcerations in their music, what is heard by the uninformed listener is this: the Black folk is a natural criminal. But what the listener, in so stereotyping, forgets is that this entire race was and have been treated like a mass of inmates. Inmates who faced varying degrees of imprisonments as the years went byfrom absolute imprisonment during the slavery era, to mental imprisonment during the years of racialism that followed. As freed men and women, they were strategically, economically imprisoned, denied all the tools that allowed for proper functioning in the American societyeducation, decent employment, and inclusion in all aspects of societal and economic life. Crime, in many cases, became the only logical resort. As the African American raps odes to guns, what is heard by the uninformed listener is: the Black man is a savage. But this misinterpretation occurs when we forget that in their very eventful history in America, the African American suffered through, among others, what is dubbed the Terror lynchingsera. During this period, the Black man and woman could be grabbed at whim, lynched, burnt at stake, hanged on trees to die and rot away, just for committing the crime of walking around in their Blackness. And that lasted up until the 1940sjust someeighty years ago. So the gun, to the Black man, being per the Second Amendment of the gun-loving nation of America, a Constitutionally endowed right, became a necessary accessory for survival. The Black activist Ida B. Wells put it succinctly, A rifle should have a place of honour in every Black home, and it should be used for that protection which the law refuses to give. When the White man who is always the aggressor knows he runs as great a riskof biting the dust every time his Afro-American victim does, he will have a greater respect for Afro-American life. The more the Afro-American yields and cringes and begs, the more he has to do so, the more he is insulted, outraged, and lynched. Elsewhere, she noted, I bought a pistol for protectionI felt that one had better die fighting against injustice than to die like a dog or a rat in a trap The Burden of Rectification And now, the Black folk, worldwide in fact, bears a burden of rectification. Like every global dynamic surrounding us now, the Black man and woman is left to rectify the White folks mess. And rectification, the Black person has attempted since this whole White mess started. Some portions of these White folk have also attempted joining in this rectification. And how is rectification to ensue if one does not acknowledge the problem in the first place? Yet we see how in attempting this rectification by first addressing the problem, we find the Blackfolk at a conundrum: The conundrum: By acknowledging the problem and expressing them through music, art, written texts, is the Black folk unknowingly further enforcing these stereotypes? As artistes like Kendrick Lamar shed light on the plights their communities are burdened with, as generations of rappers before him have done, is he helping the White folkwho is conveniently silently sitting on their ownevils, painting over them goldto enforce these stereotypes fraudulently placed on the Black man and woman? These plights and vices, having been repeated so much in relation to the African American, do they not become in the minds of these people, something of a culture? Still on the Power of Naming Violent killings expressed by the White American through terrorismsthe very frequent mass shootings, serial killings, police brutalities, etc., are glossed over, as Black-on-Black crimes in poor Black communities receive the stereotyping. The White American drug culturethe cocaine and heroin culture, sometimes almost receiving praises in their movies and music, sits by, glossed over, as the African American weed culture receives the stereotyping. The White American foul language culture, expressed blatantly through their movies, are glossed over, praised as masterpiecesthey receive top awards during the Oscars and Emmys. Language so foul, sometimes outright degrading, like the infamous nigger (a total abomination when White uttered), are in White movies uttered freely, and accepted as high art, deserving of high praises and top awards, while the African American foul language culture, expressed through their music, are interestingly, consistently overlooked, downgraded as lower artyou can give Hip hop all but the coveted topmost music award at the Grammys. Album of the Year Kendricks masterpieces have been, yet have been conveniently snubbed. That is easily what happens when a people have the power of numberswe discussed this last week. More so a people wanting so badly to be something as the White folk have historically been Wanting so badly to be something that the means conveniently sought by them has been to make others nothing. This is what happens when such a people have the power of namingthat they can choose to, at whim, assign to all that is theirs good, and to others, in the particular case, the Black folk, bad. Even when all one can find between what is theirs and what is ours is similarities. The Making of a Utopia Before we end, let me quickly note: its funny, isnt it? To find a historically charged word such as nigger being typed in its totality right here, in the Business & Financial Times, the nations very distinguished newspaper, without so much as a blink of an eye... Its funny, isnt it? How on one end of the world a thing could be somethingall that, yet on the other end, nothing at all. This emotionally-charged word nigger, when uttered to the Ghanaian by a White man, might just elicit from us, a dotting nigger uttered right back, in return. Also, isnt it funny how this supposed filthy music, Jazz, now is to us all a means of asserting distinguishedness (arguably, the White person especially). It is funny still, knowing how notorious history is of repeating itself, that in some years to come, when this same familiar question is asked a person, they will, with their chest protruded, necks stiffened proudly, nose upturned, respond, Rap music! And in so responding, they will hope to illicit words such as fancy, intellectual, deep, classy, and all that rap. And the word rap would have undergone a semantic shift to mean all things as profoundly great as this. This is going to happen in no time. But I do hope that we do not wait for the White folks supposed full stamp of approval, before this happens. So all ye fancy people, go give Rap music (from all over the world) a chance. Most especially do so with Kendrick Lamar. And remember, any reference to penises and vaginas you stumble upon are metaphorssometimes they are personifications, err but mostly figurative. As I am So we have here, this young gentleman, Kendrick Lamar,running away from the saviour crown donned him by his fellowcountrymen and women. Smart, right? For a mere mortal to prance about with such a god-like crown, accepting upon themselves, the tag of saviour of the masses, that is blasphemy, isnt it? It comes as no surprise that this Black gentleman, blessed/cursed with the urge for authenticity and respect for Deity as we the Black folks have taught ourselves to be, would want nothing to do with any accolade that seeks to uplift one from positions of mere mortal to the realm of gods. With a crown on his head, and a gun in his trousers, this young man chooses to be so-called saviour of his little confinement called familynuclear and extended. But to play god and guide to all, that is plain blasphemy, so he runs away. But tell me this, why does the White folk, even the most mundanely talented, find it so easy to accept and perpetuate this tag of god and perfection upon themselves without even the littlest scruples? Kendrick rejects the crown from the Rap community, but a White person will just as easily pick it upand run with it. I mean, just look at how Jesus Himself was easily misappropriated by the White folkbleached white to the bone, bearded to look like every average White man with a beard. So that even as they bow down in supposed worship of a Deity, it is in fact their own selves that they worshipEven as you and I bow down in supposed worship of our God, it is in fact to them that we do Eh? Jesus, finding trouble to pass by this earth on a short suicidal vacation, now perpetually hanged on crosses worldwide, bleached white to the bone basaa like that. I may just be detouring, please remind me again, what is this article about? [Published in the Business & Financial Times (B&FT) - 26th May 2022] Senegal's President Macky Sall fired his health minister on Thursday as his country mourned the death of 11 newborn babies in a hospital fire blamed on an electrical short circuit. The tragedy late Wednesday in the western city of Tivaouane was just the latest in a series of hospital deaths that have exposed the weaknesses of the nation's healthcare system. Sall earlier announced the tragedy on Twitter and declared three days of national mourning. "I have just learned with pain and dismay about the deaths of 11 newborn babies in the fire at the neonatal department of the public hospital," he wrote. "To their mothers and their families, I express my deepest sympathy." Outside the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in Tivaouane, a city with a population of 40,000, one of the distraught mothers called out for her son. "Where is Mohamed?" she cried. Distraught families gathered outside the hospital. By SEYLLOU (AFP) Her baby son was taken to the hospital 10 days ago and was baptised on Monday, Mohamed's 54-year-old father Alioune Diouf said. The city's mayor Demba Diop said the fire had been caused by a short circuit and spread very quickly. He denied allegations from relatives at the hospital and across social media that the babies had been left alone, saying a midwife and nurse were present on Wednesday evening. "There was a noise and an explosion that lasted three minutes at most," he said outside the hospital entrance. "Five minutes after, the fire brigade arrived. People used fire extinguishers." The mayor said the air-conditioning had accelerated the flames and added that the two nurses fainted but were revived. "There was no negligence," Diop insisted. The disaster however sparked calls for the resignation of Health Minister Abdoudaye Diouf Sarr, who was quoted in media reports also as blaming an electrical fault. The presidency in the evening said he would be replaced by Marie Khemesse Ngom Ndiaye, formerly the director-general of the public health authority. Sall would return early from abroad and visit the hospital on Saturday, his office said. 'Beyond heartbroken' The maternity unit was equipped to take care of 13 babies. "At the time of the fire, there were 11 whom nurses were unable to save," the minister said. Map of Senegal. By Tupac POINTU (AFP) World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tweeted that he was "beyond heartbroken with this tragic news. "I'm sending my deepest condolences to the parents and families of the babies who lost their lives." Outgoing health minister Sarr, who had been in Geneva attending a meeting with the WHO, said an investigation is under way. The tragedy in Tivaouane comes after several other public health incidents in Senegal, which suffers from a great disparity between urban and rural areas in healthcare services. In the northern town of Linguere in late April, a fire broke out at a hospital and four newborn babies were killed. The town's mayor cited an electrical malfunction in an air-conditioning unit in the maternity ward. 'This is unacceptable' Wednesday's accident came over a month after the nation mourned the death of a pregnant woman who waited in vain for a caesarean section. The woman, Astou Sokhna, arrived at a hospital in the northern city of Louga in pain. The staff refused to accommodate her request for a C-section, saying it was not scheduled. She died on April 1, 20 hours after arrival. Sokhna's death caused a wave of outrage across the country over the dire state of the health system. Sarr acknowledged two weeks later that the death could have been avoided. Three midwives on duty the night Sokhna died were given a six-month suspended prison sentence on May 11 by the High Court of Louga for "failure to assist a person in danger" in connection with her case. Amnesty International's Senegal director Seydi Gassama said his organisation had called for an inspection and upgrade for neonatal services in hospitals across Senegal after the "atrocious" death of the four babies in Linguere. With the new tragedy, Amnesty "urges the government to set up an independent commission of inquiry to determine responsibility and punish the culprits, no matter the level they are at in the state apparatus", he tweeted. Opposition lawmaker Mamadou Lamine Diallo also responded with outrage to the Tivaouane blaze. "More babies burned in a public hospital... this is unacceptable @MackySall," he tweeted. "We suffer with the families to whom we offer our condolences. Enough is enough." The United States of America is known for having the highest level of democracy in the world. Despite its reputation as the land of freedom, America is home to a quarter of the world's prisoners, and the country's death sentence is second only to China, Iran, North Korea, and Yemen. Since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976, it has been used in 34 of the 50 states, killing over 1,254 persons, the majority of whom are African-Americans. Why are there so many black people who have been sentenced to death? Is the death penalty a form of racial discrimination? Lethal injection has been used for a majority of the executions carried out in the United States of America. Photo credit: The US Media African Americans make up around 14% of the entire population of the United States, yet they account for 42% of those sentenced to death. The disparity is even more pronounced when a black man murders a white man, demonstrating that a black man who kills a white man is considerably more likely to be executed than a white man who kills a black man. Around 80% of death penalties in the United States are handed down to individuals who murder a white man. As a result, the death penalty is a system that largely benefits white people, and the cost of living varies depending on skin color and financial resources. Being black in the United States of America, a country that claims to be a land of freedom, is a burden after 400 years of slavery. So, would you believe the US administration if they said they love Africans and that's why military bases are needed on the Black Continent to protect Africans from terrorism? That's nonsense! How can we expect the US government to love Africans if they despise its own African-Americans, descendants of slaves who have established, worked, and paid taxes? The continent's rich resources attract a wide range of cruel policies and devious tactics for inflicting misery on the African people through odd diseases. Even Donald Trump, the previous president of the United States of America, couldn't disguise his hatred toward black people in the country. Trump then urged the execution of five African-American teens who slandered themselves and pleaded guilty to raping a white girl after being pummeled by police officers. The real killer was eventually discovered, but the innocent teenagers had already spent several years in prison. Five of them, aged 14 to 16, who became scapegoats, were brought to trial throughout the investigation. The adolescents stated during the trial that they were compelled to confess to the crime by police threats and coercion. There was no other strong evidence, thus the verdict was nearly entirely dependent on their testimonies. Five of the detainees were charged: 14-year-old Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Youssef Salaam, 15-year-old Antron McCray, and 16-year-old Cary Wise. All five were found guilty and sentenced to jail terms ranging from seven to thirteen years in 1990. Mathias Reyes, a serial killer, and rapist who was serving a life sentence for another crime at the time, didn't admit until thirteen years later, in 2002, that he was the one who conducted the rape in Central Park and acted alone at the time. Reyes went into great detail about the crime. A DNA test later corroborated his testimony. It is no secret that there is racial bias in the US death sentence system, and examining such an essential part of the US death penalty system reveals both explicit and latent types of racial discrimination. African-Americans are incarcerated at over five times the rate of White persons, according to recent research by The Sentencing Project. According to the research, one in every 81 Black adults in America is incarcerated in state prison. Despite the fact that both whites and blacks use and sell drugs, black people are incarcerated at higher rates than whites. Black drivers are more likely to be stopped and charged for traffic violations than white drivers, indicating that race is a big issue in the United States. People who commit major crimes, such as multiple homicides, torture, or rape, can be condemned to death, but being black in America automatically makes you a suspect. A residential apartment housing police officers has been gutted by fire at Dagombaline in the Asokore Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region. The incident according to eyewitnesses started at about 1 pm. Fire officers however managed to bring the fire under control. The fire was contained at the top floor and prevented it from spreading to adjoining structures and the floors below it. Information we gathered from eyewitnesses is that, the lights went out and after a few minutes, they saw smoke emanating from one of the rooms on the top floor. No one was however hurt, D.O. III Peter Addai, the Ashanti Regional Public Relations Officer of the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) said. citinewsroom African Union leaders are meeting in Equatorial Guinea for two summits as the continent contends with humanitarian crises, terrorism and military coups. Around 20 heads of state as well as donors are expected in the Equatorial Guinean capital, Malabo, to raise funds at the AU's first "extraordinary humanitarian summit" taking place this Friday. According to AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, 113 million Africans need urgent humanitarian assistance this year, including 48 million refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced people (IDPs). The AU said 15 particularly hard-hit countries required urgent aid, with climate shocks and conflicts rauiring humanitarian assistance to increase "exponentially". The war in Ukraine has also exacerbated food shortages. Of the more than 30 million internally displaced Africans, more than 10 million are children aged under 15, it added, pointing to inter-ethnic conflict in certain regions plus food insecurity. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says around 282 million of Africa's 1.4 billion inhabitants are under-fed an increase of 49 million compared to 2019. Senegal's foreign minister Aissatou Tall Sall told RFI that the continent's humanitarian situation is "alarming". With all the refugees and IDPs "we see the most urgent thing is to find solutions here and now," she said. There is talk of creating an African humanitarian aid agency and setting up a special emergency fund based on contributions from each African state, according to RFI's correspondent in Malabo, Peter Sassou Dogbe. A declaration to that effect is due to be submitted to heads of state on Saturday. Terrorist 'cancer' A second meeting on Saturday will tackle "terrorism and unconstitutional changes". Countries like Libya, Mozambique, Somalia, the Sahel region, West Africa's Lake Chad basin and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are all facing rebellions and jihadist insurgencies. AU chief Mahamat called terrorism a "cancer" progressively infecting the whole continent with painful economic and security consequences. Military coups in Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso over the past two years have ousted elected leaders and set lengthy or no timetables for a return to civilian rule. The moves have sparked condemnation and sanctions from regional bodies, the EU and Western capitals, with the AU suspending the four countries until power is handed back to civilians. Mahamat called the transition periods proposed by military juntas "sources of dissension and occasionally of tension" not conducive to the stability of those states or their neighbours. (with wires) 27.05.2022 LISTEN Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has placed a moratorium on the approval of a 75 million euro loan for COVID-19 Response contracted from the European Investment Bank by Government of Ghana. The Speaker says this will be in place until the Minister for Finance accounts for the utilization of funds approved so far for government. The Ministry of Finance must give an account of all the monies that it has gotten for the management of COVID-19. Only after that will this house consider approving or otherwise another loan. He made the remarks in Parliament when the motion for the loan was tabled in the house. Mr. Bagbin also summoned the Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, to account for all monies utilised during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. I direct that the Minister of Finance appears before this House to account for all the monies that were approved for the utilisation of the covid pandemic. Its only then and only after that this motion will have an expression in the House to be approved or otherwise. Govt disbursing NBSSI's COVID-19 loan to NPP sympathizers for votes Mahama In the run to the 2020 elections, flagbearer for the NDC, John Mahama accused the Akufo-Addo government of allocating about 50% of the COVID-19 relief fund to supporters of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP). The government set aside an amount of GH600 million to be disbursed in the form of loans to small-scale businesses to cushion them from the adverse economic impact brought on the country by the Coronavirus pandemic. Mr. Mahama made similar accusations at the 24th African Business Conference organized by the Harvard Business School last month. He alleged that the Akufo-Addo-led government channelled the Covid-19 pandemic windfall of over GH33 billion meant to cushion the economy into its 2020 campaign activities. citinewsroom Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused Moscow of carrying out a "genocide" in the eastern region of Donbas, where the city of Severodonetsk is suffering an onslaught of Russian shelling. In his daily televised address, Zelensky condemned Moscow's brutal assault on the Donbas - where it has redirected its forces after having failed to capture Kyiv - adding that its bombardment could leave the entire region "uninhabited". In the address, Zelensky added: "All this, including the deportation of our people and the mass killings of civilians, is an obvious policy of genocide pursued by Russia." Since 2014, pro-Moscow separatist groups have controlled parts of Donbas, but Russia now appears set on taking the whole region. Invading forces are closing in on several cities, including the strategically located Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, which stand on the crucial route to Ukraine's eastern administrative centre in Kramatorsk. According to Kyiv's Deputy Defence Minister Ganna Malyar, the fighting in the east has reached "its maximum intensity" since Russia invaded on 24 February. The region's governor has reported that the Russian army "has thrown all its forces at taking the Lugansk region." Sergiy Gaiday said in a video on Telegram: "Extremely fierce fighting is taking place on the outskirts of Severodonetsk. They are simply destroying the city, they are shelling it every day, shelling without pause." Eradication of Ukraine's national education system The Kremlin is seeking to tighten its grip over the parts of Ukraine it occupies, including fast-tracking citizenship for residents of the two southern regions that are mostly under Russian control. Occupying forces have reportedly cancelled school holidays to prepare students to switch to a Russian curriculum. Over the summer, children in occupied zones will have to study the Russian language, literature and history as well as math classes in Russian. The United States has branded the plan an "attempt to subjugate the people of Ukraine". Frustration with Western 'support' Meanwhile, the intensified fighting across the country prompted Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba to voice Kyiv's increasing frustration with the West, accusing allies of dragging their feet on arms deliveries and telling his German counterpart that Ukraine needs heavy weapons "as soon as possible." Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin became the latest Western official to visit Kyiv on Thursday, where she said it would take Russia decades to repair its standing in the world after invading Ukraine. Marin told a press conference that "trust is lost for generations." German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has faced criticism over Berlin's slow response, also weighed in Thursday, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin will not negotiate seriously until he realises he might not win in Ukraine. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sholz said: "Our goal is crystal-clear - Putin must not win this war. And I am convinced that he will not win it." Impending food crisis The flow of grain exports from Ukraine - known as Europe's breadbasket - has been disrupted since Russia's invasion, threatening food security around the world and sending prices soaring. On Thursday, the Kremlin pointed the finger at Western countries for stopping grain-carrying vessels from leaving ports in Ukraine rejecting accusations that Russia was to blame. In a phone call with Italy's Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Russia's President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to make a "significant contribution" to averting a looming food crisis if the West lifts sanctions imposed on his country over Ukraine. The United States has scoffed at the offer. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby retorted: "Now they're using economic tools as weapons. They're weaponising food. They're weaponising economic assistance." "I guess we shouldn't be surprised by that, since they've weaponised everything else, including lies and information," he said. The Member of Parliament (MP) for Dome-Kwabenya, Sarah Adwoa Safo says she is not worried about losing her seat. According to her, she is very spiritual and believes her prayers to God will fight her battles. The MP has been out of the country for months taking care of her child who is unwell. Dragged before the Privileges Committee of Parliament alongside two other NPP MPs for breaching the Standing Orders of the house on absenteeism, Sarah Adwoa Safo now risks losing her Dome-Kwabenya seat. Speaking to Joy News on Thursday, the Parliamentarian said she is calm and believes she will come out victorious. I am not worried [about losing Dome-Kwabenya] because I am very prayerful and I don't believe only in the physical. I also believe in the spiritual. I know my Lord knows exactly why Im not there and he is going to fight my battles for me, Sarah Adwoa Safo said. The MP also revealed that she is unaware of any invitation to appear before the Privileges Committee of Parliament over the long absenteeism from Parliament. I am not aware such a thing has been given to me. I am just hearing it from you. As we speak, I dont know that I have been invited, she stressed. A Twitter investor is suing Elon Musk and the social media platform over its handling of the billionaires $44bn (34.9bn) bid for the company. The case alleges he violated California corporate laws in a number of ways. It accuses the Tesla boss of wrongful conduct as his false statements and market manipulation have created chaos at Twitters headquarters in San Francisco. Twitter shares are around 27% lower than Mr Musks $54.20 offer price. The proposed class-action lawsuit was filed this week at the US District Court for the Northern District of California by investor William Heresniak, who said he was acting on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated. A class-action is a lawsuit that has been filed or is defended by an individual acting on behalf of a group of people. The lawsuit claimed Mr Musk benefitted financially by delaying the disclosure of his significant stake in Twitter, and his plan to become a board member of the company. It also claimed that several tweets posted by Mr Musk, who is a regular Twitter user with more than 95m followers, were misleading. It included a post in which Mr Musk said his takeover bid for the social media firm was on hold because of his doubts over the number of fake accounts on the platform. The tweet on 13 May constituted an effort to manipulate the market for Twitter shares as he knew about the fake accounts, the lawsuit said. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. View original tweet on Twitter It also said Mr Musk doubled down on his allegations four days later, by stating on Twitter that the deal cannot go forward. On Friday, Frank Bottini, who is one of the lawyers representing the Twitter investors, told the BBC that the lawsuit was filed as Mr Musk continues to disparage the company he wants to buy for $44bn in an effort to renegotiate the purchase price. The complaint we filed in San Francisco seeks to hold Musk liable for his unlawful conduct, Mr Bottini said. Mr Musks lawyers and Tesla did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment on Friday. Twitter declined to comment when contacted by the BBC. Analysts have speculated that Mr Musk may be looking for ways to lower his takeover offer or walk away from the deal. He has tweeted several times that he was concerned about the number of fake accounts, or bots, on Twitter. A bot is a software programme that sends out automated posts and is often associated with misinformation on social media platforms. Mr Musk has also hinted that he may seek to pay less for Twitter than the $44bn agreed with the companys board in March. Speaking at a technology conference earlier this month, he said striking a deal at a lower price was not out of the question. Earlier this month, a Florida pension fund also challenged Mr Musks move to buy Twitter as it claimed a deal could not be struck in months as planned. The Orlando Police Pension Fund said Mr Musk was an interested shareholder in Twitter, as he had made agreements with major shareholders, including its co-founder Jack Dorsey, before he offered to buy the business. Citing the law in the US state of Delaware, where Twitter is incorporated, it said the deal should not be allowed to close before 2025. The fund did not disclose its stake in the social media platform, although it said it has been a beneficial owner of Twitter common stock at all relevant times. Source: BBC More than 3,000 tonnes of Kinder products have been withdrawn from the European market following salmonella fears, leaving a dent of tens of millions of euros in the Ferrero company's accounts. Nicolas Neykov, the head of Ferrero France, told Le Parisien on Thursday the contamination came "from a filtre located in a vat for dairy butter" at a factory in Belgium. He added the contamination could have been caused by humans or raw materials. Chocolate products made at the factory in Arlon, south-eastern Belgium, were found to contain salmonella, resulting in 150 cases in nine European countries. Eighty-one of these were in France, mainly affecting children under 10 years old. Easter blow The factory's closure and the health concerns were blows to its owner, Italian confectionery giant Ferrero, coming at the height of the Easter holiday season when its Kinder chocolates are sought-after in European supermarkets. Neykov said: "This crisis is heartbreaking. It's the biggest removal of products in the last 20 years." But the company hopes to start up the factory again, with 50 percent of health and safety inspections to be carried out by an approved "external laboratory" in the future, instead of the previous system of only internal reviews. "We have asked for a reopening from 13 June to relaunch production as soon as possible," he added. Read more: Speaking on the fringes of this week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Irish leader Micheal Martin blamed the United Kingdom and Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson for a deadlock in talks between Brussels and London over the movement of goods between Britain and Northern Ireland. Martin said the Republic of Ireland and the European Union did "not want a trade war" with the UK, adding that such a conflict would be both "shocking" and "unnecessary". He said the UK government needed to "get into the tunnel and negotiate" over changes to post-Brexit trade arrangements that affect Northern Ireland. The problem is the need to control the passage of goods across the land border separating EU member state, the Irish Republic, from non-member Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland Protocol The so-called Northern Ireland Protocol, agreed between London and the EU in 2019, is an attempt to have a border that is not a border. European food regulations, for example, require that meat, milk and eggs from any non-EU nation be inspected to ensure compliance with EU norms at their point of entry into the 27-country bloc. At the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, for example? Except that that frontier no longer exists, and would violate the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement if it did. The 1998 peace deal put an end to nearly three decades of sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, and the physical integrity of the island of Ireland is one of its guiding principles. So, the protocol proposes checking the goods as they enter Northern Ireland. Except that some members of the loyalist population in the province see that as diminishing their status as part of the United Kingdom. As a result, Northern Ireland's largest loyalist party, the Democratic Unionists, are refusing to take part in the province's power-sharing government. 'Ransom' The nationalists of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the now-disbanded militant Irish Republican Army, and who accept the protocol, say the unionists are holding the political future of the province to ransom. There is a real danger of a return to sectarian violence. Now London is proposing there will be no need for checks on goods that meet UK standards, wherever they are exported. Europe has responded by saying that any such move would violate the post-Brexit agreement, and EU law, and will be met by Brussels "with all measures at its disposal". Asked if that meant an EU campaign to apply tariffs to certain key exports from the UK, Martin said he did not want "to get into the details of anything like that, because hopefully, that's something we won't ever have to contemplate". "For now I'm simply saying, and I've been consistently saying, get down there, get into the tunnel, UK government and EU, negotiate and get the technocrats in there," the Irish PM added. Asked who he believed was to blame for the crisis, Micheal Martin was clear. "The only unilateral move that has been made here has been by the United Kingdom government, which has threatened to tear up an international deal signed with the European Union," he said. Enrolment in Senior High School (SHS) has increased by 50% since the introduction of the free senior high school programme by the Akufo-Addo government, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has said. Speaking at a ceremony to hand over some 75 buses and five pickup trucks to some selected public schools on Thursday, 26 May 2022 at Accra High Senior High School, Dr Bawumia said: In the last 5 years, our government has committed to increasing access to quality education and providing vehicles to Secondary Schools to support the transportation of our growing population in these schools. This government, since 2017, resulting from the Presidents Free Senior High School policy, has increased secondary school enrolment to an excess of 1.2 million students. Indeed, the introduction of Free SHS has increased the senior high enrolment in Ghana by 50% and this is massive. He noted that the handing over of the buses and trucks was in further fulfilment of the governments pledge to address the logistical and other needs of the education sector and expand access to education. The beneficiary institutions include Lambussie Community Day SHS, St James Seminary, Begoro Presby SHS, Techimantia SHS, Odupong SHS, Asankragua SHS, Wa SHS, and Koforidua SHTS. Others are STEM SHS Kpasenkpe, Accra Academy SHS, Anum Boso SHS, Tepa SHS, Northern School of Business, Osino Presby SHS, Oti Boateng SHS, Tarkwa SHS, Asare Bediako SHS, Assin North SHTS and Bosomtwe Girls STEM SHS. This is the fourth time the Vice-President has handed over vehicles to schools and institutions in the education sector in the last two years, after earlier occasions in March 2020 (365 Isuzu Double Cabin Pickup trucks out of 840 procured by the Government: distributed to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directorates of Education as well as selected agencies under the Ministry of Education, together with 493 motorbikes out of 2000 procured to aid the work of Circuit Supervisors); and July 2020 (100 out of 350 buses procured). Dr Bawumia also handed over, in January 2022, 100 Pickups and 50 buses to more schools. Todays handover, he emphasized, is further concrete evidence of the Governments commitment not only to increase access but also to ensure that we provide the complementary resources to make sure that we deliver quality education for our nation. In handing over these buses and pickups, I want to encourage the various schools receiving these buses and pickups to ensure a maintenance culture to harness the potential in these students for our transformational agenda. Ladies and gentlemen, the handover of buses today is part of efforts to increase access to quality education anchored on a robust education system that trains a critical mass of students to be empowered to be active participants in our countrys transformation, he underscored. Dr Bawumia commended the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, and the leadership of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), for their hard work which has ensured the procurement and delivery of the vehicles. Please continue with this hard work so that we can see more vehicles for our students, he urged. Classfmonline.com In further fulfilment of the governments pledge to address the logistical and other needs of the education sector and expand access, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia has, once again, handed over dozens of vehicles to a number of Senior High Schools from across the country. At a brief ceremony at the Accra High Senior High School on Thursday, 26 May 2022, Dr Bawumia handed over the keys to 75 buses and 5 Pickup trucks to elated head tutors of the schools. The beneficiary institutions include Lambussie Community Day SHS, St James Seminary, Begoro Presby SHS, Techimantia SHS, Odupong SHS, Asankragua SHS, Wa SHS, and Koforidua SHTS. Others are STEM SHS Kpasenkpe, Accra Academy SHS, Anum Boso SHS, Tepa SHS, Northern School of Business, Osino Presby SHS, Oti Boateng SHS, Tarkwa SHS, Asare Bediako SHS, Assin North SHTS and Bosomtwe Girls STEM SHS. This is the fourth time the Vice-President has handed over vehicles to schools and institutions in the education sector in the last two years, after earlier occasions in March 2020 (365 Isuzu Double Cabin Pickup trucks out of 840 procured by the Government: distributed to all Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directorates of Education as well as selected agencies under the Ministry of Education, together with 493 motorbikes out of 2000 procured to aid the work of Circuit Supervisors); and July 2020 (100 out of 350 buses procured). Dr Bawumia also handed over, in January 2022, 100 Pickups and 50 buses to more schools. Todays handover, he emphasized, is further concrete evidence of the Governments commitment not only to increase access but also to ensure that we provide the complementary resources to make sure that we deliver quality education for our nation. In handing over these buses and pickups, I want to encourage the various schools receiving these buses and pickups to ensure a maintenance culture to harness the potential in these students for our transformational agenda. The Vice-President reiterated the holistic nature of the governments interventions in the education sector saying, To complement our investment in transportation, Senior High Schools have also seen a massive investment in infrastructure including classrooms, dormitories, administration blocks, libraries and canteens. In the last 5 years, our government has committed to increasing access to quality education and providing vehicles to Secondary Schools to support the transportation of our growing population in these schools. This government, since 2017, resulting from the Presidents Free Senior High School policy, has increased secondary school enrolment to an excess of 1.2 million students. Indeed, the introduction of Free SHS has increased the senior high enrolment in Ghana by 50% and this is massive. Ladies and gentlemen, the handover of buses today is part of efforts to increase access to quality education anchored on a robust education system that trains a critical mass of students to be empowered to be active participants in our countrys transformation, he underscored. Dr Bawumia commended the Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, and the leadership of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund), for their hard work which has ensured the procurement and delivery of the vehicles. Please continue with this hard work so that we can see more vehicles for our students, he urged. Newly appointed French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has promised financial support to farmers in a bid to stop France's crippling drought from further hurting the industry. The measures were announced during Borne's trip to the Loiret region, which has been without rain for months. Visiting a 230-hectare farm specialising in cereals, strawberries and asparagus, the Prime Minister spoke at length with a young farmer who explained that "this year the drought started early". Accompanied by the Minister for Agriculture, Marc Fesneau, and the Minister for Ecological Transition, Amelie de Montchalin, Borne explained that her new government was "taking measures to manage water resources and avoid the situation becoming unmanageable this summer". She added that regional administrations have been instructed "to preserve water resources as much as possible," with "messages to all French people to reduce their water consumption." 400m in assistance Nineteen departments across France are currently affected by water shortages, and for the most severely impacted "drought orders and therefore restrictions on non-priority uses" will be introduced. The head of government also recalled that 400 million will be allocated "to farmers who may have difficulties with animal feed due to drought," as part of an aid plan put in place following the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the global surge on food prices, starting Monday. Borne also pointed out that the budget for farmers wishing to invest in equipment to optimise water consumption had been doubled to 40 million, and an additional 100 million had been made available to France's water agencies to help the agricultural sector to adapt or create water reservoirs. Finally, she assured that her government would pursue a major reform of crop insurance, that will be implemented from 1 January 2023. President Nana Akufo-Addo 27.05.2022 LISTEN It is frustrating, even irritating, the inability of the relevant authorities to apply the laid-down responses to breaches of construction in the nation's capital, the consequences of which laxity has been costly and even fatal. The angst of the President was palpable when he gave the orders for structures constructed on waterways to be demolished. The First Gentleman's orders for the demolition only reflected those of the rest of the good citizens of this country who stand against such reckless constructions but can do only so much. It is instructive that even before the President's orders, the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Henry Quartey, started such an exercise at Tema especially making the headlines in this regard. The minister was constrained to order the demolishing of structures on waterways following the impunity with which the relevant bylaws were being ignored by developers and the devastating consequences. In other jurisdictions, where bylaws work because public officials put in charge of state departments are on top of their assignments, it is unthinkable that even when they are warned against developing structures at specific locations, because reasons of risks are involved, among others, developers would ignore such directives. In our part of the world, the notion is that bylaws do not work and when the authorities show up, phone calls to their superiors and the influence of money can help them to have their own way. It can only be imagined the kind of pressure the regional minister endured when he embarked upon the demolishing of structures in Accra. The regional minister and other relevant bodies in ensuring orderliness in the life of the city of Accra can draw inspiration from the President's order and move into action. The dangerous status quo must give way to orderliness. Those who breach the laid-down standards in the matter of building construction should not be left alone to carry on with impunity because the consequences of their recklessness have far-reaching effects, in fact, beyond their rooms and compounds. The Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs), the President's representatives at the lowest level of governance, have failed us and it shows in the number of structures which continue to stand regardless of the dangers those pose to society by virtue of their positions. In the case of permits, these have no meaning because they are almost on sale and therefore available for those who want them. It is not about the regulators inspecting to determine whether or not structures can be put up on specific lands. The STOP WORK in red are only invitations to developers to go and do the needful at the permit-giving units of assemblies. With the Presidential order now issued, let us see which of the assemblies will continue to slumber on their jobs. We shall stand by and watch how the President's order is carried out or not by the relevant authorities such as the assemblies. Photo exhibition highlights murals found on ancient buildings in Chinas Fujian People's Daily Online) 13:59, May 27, 2022 A photo exhibition that opened recently showcased the charm of murals found on ancient buildings in Youxi, a county known for its ancient buildings in Sanming city, southeast Chinas Fujian Province. A guide to the Museum of Youxi county introduces photos of murals found on ancient buildings at a photo exhibition held in Youxi county, Sanming city, southeast Chinas Fujian Province. (Chinanews.com/Liang Wenbin) The exhibition, which will last until late May at the Museum of Youxi county, displayed 113 photos of murals on ancient buildings scattered across the county. Youxi is home to a national famous historical and cultural village, a key historical and cultural site under national-level protection, 15 such sites under provincial-level protection, 81 such sites protected at the county level, and 564 unmovable cultural relics, said Huang Chunlin, deputy curator of the museum. Huang introduced that the museum has committed itself to conducting surveys of cultural relics in recent years and has found a large number of murals on ancient buildings scattered in towns across the county. These murals have rich cultural connotations that depict different themes, such as history, operas, famous anecdotes, auspicious animals, flowers, birds, fish, insects, and traditional graphic patterns. Photo shows a mural featuring the giant Chinese character Fu, meaning fortune and good luck in English, found on a wall of an ancient building in Jingtong village, Youxi county, Sanming city, southeast Chinas Fujian Province. (Chinanews.com/Liang Wenbin) Huang pointed out that these murals reflect Youxi countys profound historical and cultural legacies and peoples pursuit of a happy and harmonious life. This is a photo of a 4-square-meter mural featuring the giant Chinese character Fu, meaning fortune and good luck in English. The original mural is found on a wall of an ancient building in Jingtong village, Meixian township of the county, Huang said. Photo shows an ancient residential complex in Youxi county, Sanming city, southeast Chinas Fujian Province. (Chinanews.com/Liang Wenbin) The mural also depicts ancient people celebrating someones birthday with a large number of gifts, symbolizing their longing for fortune and good luck, Huang added. Most ancient buildings in Jingtong village were built during the Qing Dynasty (1636-1912) and some of them have since fallen into disrepair. In 2017, Wu Xixiao, a local resident who had started a business outside of the village, donated over 900,000 yuan (about $133,576) to restore ancient buildings in the village. In the same year, the village was included in the list of Fujians traditional villages. (Web editor: Hongyu, Liang Jun) Recent clashes between the military and M23 rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have displaced 72,000 people, the United Nations said Friday, warning that fleeing people faced "constant violence" and the looting of their homes. In a statement, the UNHCR refugee agency said 72,000 peoople had fled their homes in the Rutshuru and Nyiragongo territories of North Kivu province since May 19. "At least 170,000 civilians have been displaced, often repeatedly since an escalation of fighting in eastern DRC from November 2021," the statement added. Separately, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and International Rescue Committee (IRC) said on Friday that around 37,000 people had fled Rutshuru and Nyiragongo since May 22. Clashes between the army and M23, a primarily Congolese Tutsi group, have spread close to the provincial capital Goma since erupting late last week. M23 briefly seized the city in late 2012 before the army quelled the rebellion the following year. But the militia resumed fighting this year, accusing the Congolese government of failing to respect a 2009 agreement under which its fighters were to be incorporated into the army. "This new escalation of violence is threatening the humanitarian community's capacity to provide timely support in a region where 1.9 million people have already been displaced," said Caitlin Brady, the NRC's DR Congo director. The UNHCR said that people on the move "are exposed to constant violence," with fields and property they leave behind at risk of being looted. Some displaced families have taken shelter in churches and schools in Goma and urgently need assistance, the NRC and IRC warned. The epicentre of the fighting is in Rutshuru territory. By Tupac POINTU (AFP) The DRC, a vast nation of 90 million people, has accused neighbouring Rwanda of backing M23, an accusation that Rwanda denies. More than 120 armed groups roam volatile eastern DRC, many of which are a legacy of regional wars more than two decades ago. Beatrice Annan 27.05.2022 LISTEN A Member of the National Communications Team of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Beatrice Annan has called for an all-hands-on-deck approach to tackle the countrys perennial flooding problem. The country especially parts of the capital, Accra in the past week has experienced flooding after days of heavy downpour As expected, there have been fingers pointed at the government for failing to put in place measures to solve the issues. For Beatrice Annan, flooding is a national problem and must not be politicised. Speaking on the GTV Breakfast show on Friday, May 27, 2022, she said the rain knows no political colours and will not spare anyone on its way. She is calling for a collective approach from the government and the citizenry to tackle the perennial flooding problem. When it comes to flooding when the water enters your house it will not ask for your party colours. When you are being swept away it will not ask whether you are NPP or NDC. So there is the need for us to have a bipartisan discussion and I will urge the government to act responsibly, the NDC communications team member said. Beatrice Annan further charged the government and those in authority to enforce the countrys laws. She said it is important that while reserving forest land, people should also be stopped from building in waterways. It is important for us to enforce the laws. I have no doubt in my mind that when it comes to enforcing laws on building waterways and environmental protection we do have them. But the laws are not being enforced because the politicians are afraid that when the laws are enforced the people will vote against them. Lets move the people who are in the waterways. Lets stop selling the first reserves, lets stop thinking about ourselves. Lets for once as a society just do the right thing, Beatrice Annan stressed. PRESS STATEMENT ON BAWKU CONFLICT TO BE DELIVERED BY THE UPPER EAST REGIONAL HOUSE OF CHIEFS INTRODUCTION Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press Let me on behalf of the Vice-President and members of the Upper East Regional House of Chiefs welcome you to this press briefing. This ceremony has been organized to enable the House to update the media and members of the public on the recent developments in the Bawku township with regards to the communal conflict there and to let Ghanaians know the position of the House on these developments. UPDATES In the last quarter of 2021, there was renewed escalation of the regrettably enduring conflict in Bawku. These skirmishes in the township aggravated in the run up to the Samampiid and the purported plans by the Mamprusis to observe the final funeral rites of the late Tampuri Alhaji Adam Zangbeogo, who is still recognized as the last Bawku Naba by the Mamprusis and subsequently celebrate the Damba. This has led to the loss of abled and productive lives and valuable property, stalled economic activities, and deprived several school children of an opportunity to pursue their future dreams. As a bustling economic hub of the east and Ghana, it has further worsened the woes of a country emerging from the ravaging effects of COVID-19 and its consequences on the national economy. It is from this background that the Chiefs of the Region wish to condemn in no uncertain terms these senseless and morally depraved criminal acts. It is saddening to note that since these clashes in Bawku in 1983, 1984, and 1985 all has not been well with the inhabitants of this growing township. The clashes have transformed, over the years into a war of attrition rather than an action to settle a chieftaincy dispute. HISTORY The Bawku conflict has a long history, perhaps rivaling Ghanas struggle for independence and its political history. For more than 65 years, this conflict has been intertwined in issues of politics, ethnicity, land, and chieftaincy. It is no surprise that various political groupings have fed from the blood of its victims since the inception of the conflict. From its onset, legal processes have been initiated, government commissions, traditional authorities and civil society organisations have all attempted to settle the matter. It is important to recall that the Supreme Court Ruling of April 2003 still remains the most remarkable attempt to bring finality to this ailing conflict. Despite the political meddling in the conflict, it is worth noting that successive governments have equally played significant roles in ending the debilitating conflict through their unequivocal declarations on the matter in reference to the Supreme Court Decision. The most recent attempt initiated by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo, by inviting the Nayiri and the Bawku Naba for discussions is highly commendable. Ladies and Gentlemen, it is rather disappointing that these high-level interventions have yielded little results in resolving this devastating conflict. This has led us to reason that what we are experiencing in the area is organized crime orchestrated by people with doubtful integrity for their selfish interests. Crime is intolerable in any society and thus must be stamped out. What is of particular concern to us in this Region is the attempt by some persons to associate the recent acts of lawlessness in Bawku with the desire of Nayiri, Overlord of Mamprugu, to maintain a hold in the Kusaug Traditional Area through violence and intimidation. It is our considered view that no ruler, whether traditional or secular, can thrive in power by means of violence and high handedness. That is why it is difficult for us to accept reports circulating in Bawku and elsewhere that those organizing and executing these acts of violence have the support and blessing of the Nayiri. The Nayiri is respected and we wish to call on those peddling these claims to desist from doing damage to His Royal name. WAY FORWARD Ladies and Gentlemen of the press and all present, it is from this informed background that I and my fellow eminent chiefs of the region wish to put forward the following proposals for mitigating this cancer eating away our livelihoods and robbing the future of our children. The situation in Bawku has reached crisis level, with many families and individuals having lost their source of livelihood and currently struggling to survive. We call on government to set up a relief fund and to appeal for various kinds of donations to alleviate the humanitarian crisis currently unfolding in the area. For the long term, we encourage government to consider setting up major state establishments and providing special investment packages to provide employment for the teaming youth and give them a sense of meaning in life. There may be need to add that the highest state institution and investment in Kusuag is a Senior High School. This cries foul of the enormous contribution that the land has rendered to the state. Bawku is the capital of the Kusaug Traditional Area, which is home to a number of settler communities including Yanga, Hausa, Bimoba, Bisa, Moshie, and Dagomba besides the Mamprusis and a host of other tribal groups from across the country. These are people belonging to one country called Ghana, desire to live in peace, tranquility and to go about their legitimate businesses like everyone in this country. We therefore urge them to make a joint statement about the situation in Bawku and call the feuding factions to embrace peace. Information available to the House indicates that some identified youth are said to have been on the wanted list of the security services in connection with several criminal incidents in Bawku. If these reports are true, then we urge the police to expedite their investigations and bring whoever is guilty of breaches of the law to speedy prosecution. The conflict in Bawku in our view needs to be dealt with seriously and with utmost expediency devoid of political interferences. We cannot continue to allow persons with criminal intentions to hold us to ransom in perpetuity. We also call on the security services to execute their mandate in an impartial and professional manner to win the trust of the parties involved and foster peace. In the same vein, we would like to advise the politicians to stay clear of the Bawku conflict because in our opinion, they are the midwives that have conducted the labour for the delivery of this monstrous child, They are advised to stop parading in political regalia causing havoc wherever they pass with great impunity. We wish to caution that there is no way that perpetuating illegality can become a conduit to remedying a situation or settling grievances. Fellow respected chiefs, the chieftaincy institution has been the main contention of the Bawku conflict and many especially the political elite have on various occasions laid blame at our door for the sustenance of the unfortunate situation. The Bawku-Naba, Zugraan Abugrago Azoka II has been on the skin for thirty-eight years now and a lot of goodwill and support has existed between the skin and the people of Kusaug. It is trite knowledge that the Bawku Chieftaincy Dispute has been settled through due process/ legal process. For the avoidance of doubt. We know that in 1957 the colonial Governor, Lord Listowell setup a committee of enquiry to ascertain the conflicting claims between the Kusasis and Mamprusis. The committee found that Bawku is a Kusasi land and that the present Bawku Nabas family are the right descendants and rulers of the Bawku Skin. This committee finding in favour of the Kusasi was upheld and confirmed by the Court of Appeal (the Highest Court of the land at that time) in 1958. Despite the military intervention in the Bawku skin affairs in 1966 (NLCD 122) and in 1981 (by PNDC Law 75), the Supreme Court in 2003 affirmed the legitimacy of Naba Asigri Abugrago Azoka II. Ladies and Gentlemen, In this regard, and with the support of my fellow esteemed chiefs of the House we wish to respectfully and kindly invite the Nayiri, our elder brother and father, some of the noble chiefs of this House and the Bawku Naba, also our elder brother and member of this distinguished House, to a round table meeting to be mediated by a selected group of eminent chiefs in order to dialogue and fashion out home-grown solutions to this monstrous conflict. Our people say that for a witch to catch you, there must be one in your House, therefore, let us come together to hunt down and banish this witch forever. Naba Azoka II is a ruler of the Kusaug Traditional Area, If the Mamprusis in Bawku want to be involved in chieftaincy matters, they are advised to select from amongst themselves a suitable candidate for consideration by the Naba Azoka II for enskinment as a Mamprusi community chief in Bawku. As a Regional House of chiefs, we hereby wish to appeal to the Nayiri to advise his kinsmen to embrace this alternative for us to ensure a lasting and sustainable peace in the area. My Vice President, eminent chiefs of this House, the Press, ladies and Gentlemen, In conclusion, we need peace in Bawku as any insecurity in the area affects the whole of the Upper East Region and the country in General. Bawku being a border town with Togo and Burkina Faso is vulnerable to foreign terrorists, Jihadists and other criminals, hence our worry. If our language is a bit hard, we beg everybodys pardon for it is just that our sensibilities have been hurt. I thank you all for your presence and support and for coming. UPPER EAST REGIONAL HOUSE OF CHIEFS BOLGATANGA UPPER EAST REGION CC: President of the Republic of Ghana President of the National House of Chiefs Minister for Chieftaincy and Traditional Affairs Minister for National Security Minister for Interior Inspector General of Police The National Director NIB National Peace Council Upper East Regional Minister Upper East Regional Police Commander Upper East Army Commander Upper East Regional Peace Council Upper East Regional NIB Director On 27 May 1997, NATO and Russia signed a non-binding treaty that for years formed the foundation for cooperation between the two sides, separated between 1949 and 1989 by the Cold War's Iron Curtain. But today, not much is left of this early attempt to heal divisions between the former arch-enemies. "NATO and its member states, on the one hand, and the Russian Federation, on the other hand ... will build together a lasting and inclusive peace in the Euro-Atlantic area on the principles of democracy and cooperative security," the text of the NATO-Russia Founding Act on Mutual Relations reads. Today, exactly 25 years after signing the treaty, it is nothing more than a dead letter. How did it start? At a summit in London in July 1990, NATO for the first time said that Warsaw Pact countries were no longer "adversaries". The then secretary general of the alliance, former German defence minister Manfred Worner, went to Moscow and met with the president of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev. In 1991, the USSR itself was dissolved. Six years later US president Bill Clinton together with his French and Russian counterparts Boris Yeltsin and Jacques Chirac signed the NATO-Russia Founding Act. It formed the foundation for the NATO-Russia Council, a platform to discuss military policy issues and coordinate cooperation. But while the Warsaw Pact (USSR, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania) had completely disappeared, NATO expanded eastwards, swallowing the former USSR satellites to the anger of Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin, who claim that they were led to believe the alliance would never expand eastward. During the NATO-Russia Council in April 2008 at a NATO summit in Bucharest, Russia objected strongly against yet another possible expansion, when Ukraine and Georgia - both former USSR states - showed interest to join the alliance. The Federation strikes back After Russia's 2008 invasion of Georgia, NATO suspended the council, but resumed it in 2009. Later on, the platform was used for Moscow and NATO to discuss issues ranging from Libya to Afghanistan with NATO partners. By the end of 2013 the two sides were still meeting, but the relationship between Moscow and the West had grown increasingly tense. Four months later, Russia annexed Crimea. NATO member France cancelled a deal to sell two Mistral-class amphibious assault ships to Moscow. The ships were instead sold to Egypt. After Russia annexed Crimea, NATO froze cooperation with Moscow. But it did invite then Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to the 2014 NATO summit in the UK. Both sides stated a commitment to "develop a special partnership" between the alliance and Ukraine. At the end of 2021, relations between NATO and Moscow had again deteriorated. Russia staged a massive build-up of troops along Ukraine's border, while at the same time demanding that NATO withdraw behind its 1997 line. Talks in January 2022 led to nothing. On February 24, Russia invaded Ukraine, effectively ending 25 years of cooperation with NATO. Three months into the war, Finland and Sweden, formerly neutral, indicated that they wanted to apply for membership of the alliance in spite of Russian threats and protests. Read also: 27.05.2022 LISTEN A former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Obuasi Constituency, Mr Edward Ennin is appealing to delegates of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the Ashanti Region to reject Mr Bernard Antwi Boasiako popularly known as Chairman Wontumi in tomorrows regional delegates conference. According to him, he regrets voting for Chairman Wontumi because he lacks the administrative skills to manage and steer the affairs of the party in the region. He said Chairman Wontumi has, over the years, proven to be a failure. Mr Ennin warned that if the delegates fail to show Chairman Wontumi the exit, they will come and do their own campaign in the various constituencies in the region. The former MP made this call to the delegates during an interview with Kwame Obeng Sarkodie, host of Accra100.5 FMs morning show on Friday, 27 May 2022. Mr Ennin warned that if the delegates make the mistake of retaining Chairman Wontumi, then he will work alone in the region. He reminded them to disregard some of the monetary overtures being made to them by the campaign team of Chairman Wontumi. Wontumis administration in the region has left the region more divided, adding that his belligerent behaviour is the main cause of the divisiveness in the region. Also, he said Chairman Wontumis penchant for talking loose, has not helped the course of the party in the region. He was of the view that the Chairman is quick to show off his wealth when everybody is complaining about things being hard. ---Classfmonline.com 27.05.2022 LISTEN The founder and leader of the Prophetic Hill Chapel, Prophet Nigel Gaisie has added his voice to cries from Ghanaians that the country under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is hard. Speaking to Kumasi-based Angel FM in an interview, the controversial man of God said there is too much hunger in Accra. According to him, unlike past governments, people now troop to his church at dawn to beg for money for food. There is insecurity, there is hunger, especially in Accra. Ive been in Ministry for a very long time but for the first time by 5:00 am in the morning couples are on the premises of the Church asking for GHC 20 for food, Prophet Nigel Gaisie shared. Comparing the current NPP government to the Kufour administration, the Prophetic Hill Chapel leader said he has no doubt President Nana Addo is superintending over the worst government. The President Kuffour administration wasnt like this, the best NPP government ever is the President Kuffour administration. The worst NPP government is this regime and everyone will attest to it, Prophet Nigel Gaisie added. He said it is sad that after contributing largely to President Akufo-Addos victory in the last general elections the people in the Ashanti Region are being 'thanked' with nothing but bad road network. Prophet Gaisie lamented, Yesterday when I arrived in Kumasi I drove through Sofoline and other places in town. Look your roads are bad. President Akufo-Addo is at the Jubilee House because of the Ashanti Region and you come and see the roads in Ashanti Region. A political analyst has questioned the posture of the sitting Member of Parliament Dome-Kwabenya Constituency Sarah Adwoa Safo who is now domiciled in the United States of America looking after her sick son. According to him, the MPs posture that she will only return to Ghana if her son is fully recuperated is worrying. Mr. Jonathan Asante Okyere raised these concerns about the posture of the MP speaking on mid-day news on Accra 100.5 FM on Friday, May 27, 2022. He bemoaned that this is not right as far as the representation of the people of Dome Kwabenya Constituency was concerned. He argued that the situation of reprobation and approbation from the court system has accounted for the situation Parliament and for that matter the government finds itself in. "So if Adwoa Safos son will heal in the year 2024, the people of Dome-Kwabenya should not be represented," he questioned. "The MP is holding onto the position as if it is her inheritance. "When the NPPs MPs for Hoehoe Constituency in the Volta Region and Techiman South Constituency in the Bono Region were questioned over their representation of the people at the court while a matter was pending, the courts avered that the people cannot be seen not have a representation in Parliament," he stated. He called on the MP to let go of her posture toward the sick son and focus on her Parliamentary duties. 'I am fully aware family life and politics is a daunting task for women but she does not need to create a situation for the dog to be given a bad name hanged. "In life you win some, leave some and gain some," he stressed. "When it came to Jame Gyeke Quayson, the NDC MP for Assin North the court maintained that his constituents should be denied representation, he laments. "Here is an MP who has been out Parliament without permission from the Speaker for over fifteen days and the seat is waiting for her," he emphasised. ---Classfmonline.com 27.05.2022 LISTEN Following the United Nations Security Councils decision to renew the arms embargo on South Sudan for another year, Amnesty Internationals Director for East and Southern Africa, Deprose Muchena said: The renewal of the arms embargo is a step in the right direction and it is crucial to curtailing the flow of weapons that have been used to commit or facilitate war crimes, human rights violations and abuses including conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). South Sudan and all other UN members states, particularly neighbouring states, should diligently enforce it. We also welcome the preservation of the integrity of the benchmarks adopted by resolution 2577 in May 2021, and particularly the maintaining of the implementation of the Action Plan for the armed forces on addressing CRSV in South Sudan as a benchmark against which any future amendment of the arms embargo will be reviewed. We call on the Government of South Sudan to expedite implementation of the action plan. Given the high prevalence of CRSV in the country and endemic impunity with which it is met, we particularly welcome that the Council reiterated its call on the government to establish the Hybrid Court for South Sudan. Special emphasis should be put on protection of victims, witnesses and judicial actors and criminal accountability, including transitioning from using military courts to civilian courts to prosecute crimes committed against civilians. Background On 18 May, Amnesty International published a report If you dont cooperate, well gun you down: conflict-related sexual violence and impunity in South Sudan revealing how CRSV is ongoing in the country, and how guns can be used to facilitate sexual violence. It also exposes how two sections of an action plan that was drafted to address CRSV in the country, adopted by the government in January 2021, are yet to be fully implemented. Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the COA Research and Manufacturing Company say his outfit is close to a research breakthrough in plant medicine from which the country could realise not less than $32 billion annually. Prof Samuel Ato Duncan added that funds generated from the medicine would bring some economic relief to the country when it turns out successful. Speaking at the re-launch of the COA Mixture on Wednesday, May 25, he added that the medicine can also offer treatment to some diseases the world is still struggling to treat. This is what I want to achieve for mother Ghana as part of my Global Peace Mission Project, Prof Duncan explained. Ghana can generate $32bn annually through plant medicine Prof Ato Duncan COA Mixture products He noted that the re-launched COA Mixture is an upgrade in drug development and after going through processes at the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), it has been upgraded from a food supplement to a herbal medicine for general wellbeing. However, it is not an HIV and AIDS drug. COA Mixture is for healthy living; it is a 100 per cent natural product from plants and without any artificial preservatives. Ghana can generate $32bn annually through plant medicine Prof Ato Duncan COA Mixture is one of the best medicines the world has ever produced because of the numerous evidence-based testimonies from users. Need for collaboration Prof Samuel Duncan called on government, research institutions and investors to collaborate with the Company in order to make its visions achievable. Although the Company has acquired 1,000 acres of land to cultivate raw materials in the Ashanti Region, he said they would need an additional 9,000 acres of lands to produce COA products that would meet international market demands. Ghana can generate $32bn annually through plant medicine Prof Ato Duncan The COA Mixture has been upgraded from a food supplement to a herbal medicine for general wellbeing. A cash donation of 100,000 was made to the Ghana Federation of Traditional Medicine Practitioners Associations (GHAFTRAM) to help members go through some evaluation and registration processes for the certification of their medicines. Prof Ato Duncan also appointed the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II to be the Patron of the COA Mixture because of his support for the product. Pharmaceutical sector The Trade and Industry Minister, Alan Kyerematen, revealed that government is investing in the pharmaceutical sector in the quest to diversify the economy. For the country to depend on only two commodities cocoa and gold for over 100 years is clearly not sustainable. So we need to diversify our economy. The country produces only about 30 per cent of our required medicines, so we import almost 70 per cent of our required drugs, which is unacceptable, he posited. Ghana can generate $32bn annually through plant medicine Prof Ato Duncan The Trade Minister said an effective pharmaceutical industry would not only boost the economy but also create skilled jobs. The Trade Minister also used the opportunity to urge manufacturers to follow laid down protocols to build public confidence and get their products accepted. If you want to become like COA, you have to be able to subject your products to various processes, including therapeutic analysis. If you want to do mass production that will earn you income, then you need to expose your processes to technology, he stressed. Ahead of the launch of the YouStart programme by government in July, the Municipal Chief Executive for Obuasi Honorable Elijah Adansi-Bonah has thrown his weight behind the program and has called for public support for it. Speaking at a community durbar organised by the Obuasi Municipal Assembly at Nkamprom, a suburb of Obuasi, Hon Adansi-Bonah said the YouStart programme will provide a perfect opportunity to address youth unemployment and also unearth potentials in the youth to create jobs for themselves. He said given the high rate of unemployment in the country, Government had to be very innovative in order to address the challenge hence the introduction of the YouStart programme. He said currently there are 700,000 people on government payroll which has put a lot of burden on Government finances. "This has prompted Government to intervene to empower the youth to venture into business to also create jobs for others". He promised to lead a campaign to encourage the youth to embrace the programme and access the facilities the programme will provide. He seized the opportunity to admonish Ghanaians to accept the Electronic Transfer Levy (E-levy) which he said will provide financial support for the YouStart programme. The YouStart programme seeks to support young entrepreneurs to gain access to capital, training and technical skills to enable them to start, build and grow their own businesses. The initiative targets young people and students between 18 and 35 years who have brilliant business ideas and viable businesses and support them to nurture, grow and expand their businesses and job creation opportunities. Government, through the YouStart programme, intends to build an entrepreneurial nation by providing some of the key enablers that make entrepreneurship a success. It includes access to finance and markets, mentorship, strategic partnership and digital linkages, technical assistance and business advisory support service. Obuasi to have a State of the Arts Recreational center The MCE whiles interacting with the Chief and people of Nkamprom revealed that work will soon begin on a state of the art recreational center in Obuasi. The center which will be the first in Obuasi will provide a safe, affordable and welcoming recreational facilities. He again assured the people that the Assembly has in its plans to construct CHPS compound, school and proper drains for the people of Nkamprom. Ghanas Deputy Minister for Education, Mr. John Ntim Fordjour, has come under fire for allegedly attending a program late whiles invited guests were seated over two hours before his arrival. The invited guests were seated an hour before the start of the programme at 10:00 am. Surprisingly, the young deputy minister arrived at 12:14pm while dignitaries including the Mantse of Adjei Kojo and Mrs. Anne-Claire Dufay, Country Representative for UNICEF, the main sponsor of the Ghanaian Sign Language Dictionary, which was scheduled to be launched, were seated. The program was held on Tuesday 24th May, 2022 at Tetteh Ocloo School for The Deaf, Ashaiman. Other dignitaries including teachers, headmasters and journalists were visibly angry especially about the fact that they were asked to rise up and welcome Ntim Fordjour who walked gallantly with his entourage into the auditorium which was filled with the frustrated guests and the hearing impaired pupils of Tetteh Ocloo School for the Deaf. It is worth noting that during the inauguration speech of President Nana Akufo Addo, he called on Ghanaians not to be lackadaisical towards work and also respect working hours. The action by the deputy minister, however, follows calls on Ghanaians by the President of the republic, Nana Addo to attach a high level of seriousness to their line of work. What was more baffling is that, when it was Mr. Ntim Fordjour's turn to deliver his address, he didn't even have the decency to apologise to the people he had kept waiting for hours, no excuse was also given. This is due to his habitual habit of attending programs late and he didn't show remorse. Some educationalists said his tardiness showed disrespect for his office and agencies under the ministry of education. Mrs. Efua Adomako who walked out of the hall after the deputy minister sat down said she arrived at 9:34am and had another equally important event to attend so she could not wait for the programme to end before taking her leave. "I came here early because I realised the significance of such a programme but unfortunately no importance was attached to this programme by the deputy minister. This kind of attitude of arriving late at events just because a person feels he is better than the guests should be discouraged. Leadership should be set by example followers will emulate these lazy leaders. What is he teaching those who follow him? I am very disappointed in him. I came all the way from Adabraka. I don't have a car but I managed to find my way here despite the rains but this man has a Toyota V8, personal assistant and a driver yet he disrespects us in this manner," she lamented. A journalist who pleased anonymity mentioned that he was not surprised at the behaviour of the deputy minister because he seems to have the habit of disrespecting guests at events he's supposed to grace by reporting late. He lamented that many current government appointees have that habit which needed to be checked. "You keep guests and sponsors of your projects late at programmes and you do not show any remorse about it? Who does that, UNICEF and other unions representatives were here for a very long time before the programme begun." Another attendee described the action of the deputy minister as a shame, saying he least expected such behaviour from a young man. Nana Kofi Annan 27.05.2022 LISTEN President of the Western Regional Chapter of All Canoe Owners Association of Ghana, Nana Kofi Annan has called on the National Fishery Commission to embark on series of public engagements with the coastal community to reduce the level of unapproved methods of fishing. Nana Kofi Annan who is also the Chief Fisherman for the Axim Fishing Community says he has observed with concern the rates at which dangerous fishing activities were being carried out by some fishermen across the country. In an interview with Newsmen at Axim recently, the Chief Fisherman suggested that instead of the closed season, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquaculture in collaboration with the Fishing Commission and other stakeholders could organise series of community engagements on its policies and interventions for the Fishing Industry. "I will like to make a passionate appeal to Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hon. Mrs. Mavis Hawa Koomson and the National Fishery Commission to postpone this year's closed season to cushion the fisher folks at these trying times. "The Global Economy crisis cannot be ruled out of what the country is facing currently. There is therefore the need to put in place prudent measures to cushion our Fishermen economically. "That explains why am making this passionate appeal to consider postponement of 2022 Closed Season along the Coastal Communities. "The Fishing Industry is facing economic crisis due to dangerous fishing activities. We the Fishermen are those who are destroying our own source of income through the use of unapproved tools like lights, dynamite and others. Government and for that matter Ministry of fisheries or its agencies cannot be blamed for these mishaps. We are our own enemies. "We appreciate efforts by His Excellency Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo President of the Republic of Ghana, Hon. Mrs. Mavis Hawa Koomson, Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture and the Fishing Commission Secretariat for what they are doing for us but should also consider my humble plead. "The Fishing Community needs serious education on how to improve their financial status rather than expecting Government and other agencies to support them even though they have the avenue to lift their standard of living." He continued, "I want to encourage my colleagues and stakeholders in the fishing industry to strive to work according to the laid down rules and regulations for better their standard of living. Government must purchase more detective machines to prevent unwholesome fishes from getting to the market." On the issue of regular supply of premix fuel, Nana Kofi Annan once again commended the President and the Fishery Ministry for providing the opportunity for the Fishermen to operate their businesses. He however suggested marginal increase in the price of the Premix fuel to facilitate regular supply of the needed commodity to boost the industry. "My personal appeal to Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture, Hon. Mrs. Mavis Hawa Koomson and the Fishing Commission Secretariat to consider if possible increasing the price of Premix fuel marginally. "It is an open secret that Government spends a lot on refinery of the fuel. Marginal increase would be less burdensome and would enhance the regular supply of Premix to the various depot stations. "Even though we have been receiving Premix to power our outboard motors, the snail pace nature of supply is worrying to the Fishing Community," Nana Kofi Annan noted. 27.05.2022 LISTEN Every year May 25, the world celebrates Africa Day. On May 25 1963, 30 independent African leaders signed the founding charter of the OAU (Organization of African Unity). In 2002, to give more impetus to the organization, many new areas were added and it was transformed into African Union (AU). From that perspective, this year is special as we commemorate the 20th anniversary of AU. On the other hand, the celebration will be tarnished by rising food prices as a result of Covid-19, climatic induced drought in parts of Africa and the Ukraine crisis. Notwithstanding, Africans and African diaspora across the world will commemorate the day as it represents their collective struggle against colonialism, racism, development and economic progress. The day truly serves to integrate the diverse continent into one identity and can truly be termed as African Unity Day. In 1963, Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, declared, "AFRICA must unify," criticising that most African countries trade raw commodities to their former colonial powers rather than trade among themselves. He envisions more intra-African trade, harmonised systems, and removed borders. His pan-African ambition was never realised. True to his dream, in March 2018, African leaders agreed to establish an Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Covering more than 2 billion African population, majorly youth, it aims to create around 15 billion GDP for each country and an overall 3 trillion US$ for the continent in the immediate future. Each year African Union decides a theme for the day based on the common challenges for the continent. The theme, for this year, is Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent. The theme underpins the importance of food and nutrition security across the continent and promotes nature-based solutions to climate, health issues, food and water security, and sustainable livelihoods. Parallel to Africa day, the Union has also convened an extraordinary summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea on May 25-28 in order to discuss on terrorism and unconstitutional changes of Government. As the extraordinary summit contemplates the progress towards its various objectives and analyse the challenges and resolve them, it would be interesting to re-evaluate the progress of Africa so far, vis-a-vis the fixed goals and highlight the good, bad and ugly. Good At the outset, it must be acknowledged that, despite their reputation for having fragile state health systems, the continent was able to resist the spread of coronavirus through an effective strategy. When the very first patient of Covid19 was detected in Egypt on 14 February, it created a lot of doubt and anxiety regarding the possibility of the newly found virus possibly resulting in massive deaths and destroying the already frail health systems. However, despite intermittent outbreaks, which also occurred in other candidates, the virus remained the least fatal in Africa. The credit for preventing its spread must go to the policymakers who took several aggressive measures. Countries like Lesotho declared an emergency and went into lockdown even before there was a single case of covid19. While the pandemic is still not over, the countries are refocusing their efforts. Instead of frantically pursuing the elusive vaccines, they are focusing on longer-term testing and surveillance methods that will gradually enhance the continent's health systems. Despite claims of democratic decline, Africa is seeing an increase in the number of elections held. Afrobarometer conducted a poll that found that the majority of Africans prefer to live in democracies. Multiple countries successfully had elections in 2021, and their governments were democratically altered. When opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema upset incumbent Edgar Lungu in a hard-fought presidential election in Southern Africa, the country made history in the continent's democratic history. Morocco's long-ruling Islamists were defeated by liberal parties in a resounding defeat in North Africa, illustrating the dwindling appeal of political Islam and the shrinking space that Islamists now find for themselves in Morocco and elsewhere. In both Sao-Tome and Principe and Cape Verde, two island nations, opposition candidates defeated the incumbents. In West Africa, Gambian voters re-elected the incumbent President Adama Barrow. Niger, another West African country, witnessed its first transfer of power through election. In Ethiopia, despite the ongoing conflict between the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, the election took place in June as scheduled and Abiy Ahmed won a landslide victory. Most recently, despite the resurgence of Al-Shabaab group, which continues to destabilise the country by sporadic terrorist attacks, Somalia successfully conducted its election. Bad The recent years witnessed a succession of coups in the continent. It started in April 2021, Idriss Deby, the President of Chad for three decades, surprisingly got killed in the battlefield, which has been termed as an institutional coup detat. In May, Mali witnessed its second coup in nine months led by Colonel Goita who declared himself President immediately after the coup. In fact, the last coup in August 2020 which took place in the wave of strong anti-government protests, was also led by Colonel Goita. The same Colonel Goita was also in charge of the last coup, which took place in August 2020 amid a wave of intense anti-government rallies. Following the successful coup of 2020, the goal was to hold national elections as soon as possible under a Transitional. But now the election is postponed till 2026, which irked France, the principal security provider. Under this prevailing political instability and rumoured presence of Russian private army Wagner, France government decided to withdraw its troop from the country, which will further aggravate the security situation in Mali and greater Sahel region. Guinea, a small West African country, experienced a military coup in September. Sudan's military General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan staged another coup in October, arresting Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and a number of his Cabinet ministers from the transitional government. Meanwhile, countries like Niger, Madagascar, and Guinea-Bissau have survived coup attempts but are currently in limbo. No one expected Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's war against the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) to go until the end of 2021 when he started it a year ago for their alleged involvement in an attack on a federal military post. In this expanding conflict, there have been countless twists and turns. In fact, the rebels were once only 130 kilometres from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia's capital and the African Union's headquarters. The Ethiopian government was obliged to declare a six-month state of emergency as a result of this. PM Abiy Ahmed appears to have regained momentum with the help of countries such as Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran. The emergency has been lifted and the country seems to be regaining its momentum, particularly with the launch of Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). However, as we have seen in the past, this conflict is far from over and might continue to linger indefinitely. Ugly While the AfCFTA is a bold endeavour to economically integrate Africa, the continent remains politically divided. This was clear during the UNGA resolution condemning Russian aggression, which received only 31 African votes in favour. Russia's long-time African friends Sudan, Mali, and the Central African Republic were among the 17 African countries that abstained. South Africa's absence was unanticipated, given that it has persistently opposed both the Israeli occupation of Palestine and NATO's intervention in Libya. Six more African countries have decided to abstain from voting. Ethiopia, Africa's second-most populated country, and Cameroon were absent from the voting booth. The only African country to vote against the motion was Eritrea, Ethiopia's erstwhile foe turned partner. This split house was also during the African Union's (AU) annual summit earlier this year. While there were many important issues to debate, such as military coups and measures to recover from the COVID pandemic, the entire meeting was disrupted by disagreements among the African Union's Member States over Israel's observer status. Despite the vehement opposition to Israel's membership in the union from nations such as Algeria and South Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia publicly supported it. Many other African countries, like Morocco, a signatory of the Abraham Accord, had tacit support for Israel. Although, in order to avoid an unprecedented schism in the house, the union decided to postpone the debate until next year's meeting, the debate might further aggravate the already divided house. Way Forward The cover story of Economist magazine in 2000 was titled The hopeless continent, whereas in 2011 it changed to Africa Rising. Africa is known for its abundant natural resources, particularly fossil fuels including oil, gas and coal. Africa now has six of the world's top ten fastest growing economies. Africa has come a long way through various plans such as OMEGA plan of President Wade of Senegal, and the Millennium Partnership for the African Recovery Programme (MAP) promoted by the Nigerian President Obasanjo, South African President Mbeki and Algerian President Bouteflika. However, it is far from an integrated nation, as envisaged by Kwame Nkrumah or Julius Nyerere, the first torchbearers of one Africa. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was the last African leader who called for the establishment of a government of the United States of Africa. On Africa Day 2022, political stability still remains a severe challenge. The post-Cold War period of civil war, internal conflicts have forced the African Commission to set the goal of silencing the gun by 2020. Ironically, since in 2020, due to the Covid crisis, Africa became more focused on internal migrations rather than its stated goal of Silencing the Guns. In a world beset by global crises such as COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, the choice to emphasise the importance of malnutrition and food insecurity is both timely and critical. Strengthening resilience in the areas of nutrition and food security will go a long way in addressing a number of interconnected concerns. The continent continues to hold a lot of promise. It possesses both the people and technical resources necessary to ensure a better future for all of its citizens. It is still possible to eliminate hunger and malnutrition by 2030. More than just cultural and culinary celebrations, I It should also be about evaluating the state of the African Union, the continental institution that embodies the ideals of Pan-Africanism. As hope springs eternal, the continent is expected to strive together in its journey of a long walk to freedom. With barely 24hours to the regional elections of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) in the Ashanti Region, the Tertiary Students Confederacy(TESCON) has called for an audit of the voters' album. The student group said non-students have been smuggled into the TESCON album. At an emergency press confab at the Catering Rest House in Kumasi on Friday, May 27, 2022, the TESCON leaders claim the album to be used for the election tomorrow should be rejected. According to them, 35 names have been smuggled into the TESCON album. Infact, after thorough scrutiny, 35 anomalies have been detected in their album, ie: many of the supposed delegates are not students of the said schools, some are past TESCON members who are no more in the school and others totally unknown to TESCON. Many ghost names are found in the album. As we speak, we have received names of people who are not members of TESCON, some of which are nurses and former students. They alleged some non-member institutions have suddenly found their way into the album with assigned delegates. Members of the media, the following institutions have emerged as unaccredited TESCON institutions but have found their way into the album with assigned delegates: Newman College of Health Kessben Adum campus Global College of Aviation Oxford School of Journalism Ghana Baptist University College, Abuakwa. "However, Kumasi Nursing and Midwifery training college which they claim is accredited has been excluded," they intimated. They emphasised, Based on this we wholly reject the supposed delegates list, it is not credible, it is fraudulent and not a true representation of the TESCON. We request that those of our leaders of TESCON who have so far been meeting with aspirants, and based on the established convention since 2010 be reinstated as the delegates to the Regional conference come tomorrow, Saturday, 2022. The Military in the North East Region has been ordered to be on the standby as delegates of the region cast their ballot in the New Patriotic Partys Regional executives elections today. Tensions are building up as a result of factions within the party. A total of 26 contestants are vying for different positions in the region. The North East Regional Minister Yidana Zakaria in an address asked those fermenting trouble to return home because the military will be called in to deal with anyone who creates disturbances at the voting ground. Anybody with any mindset to come and misbehave should rethink, Mr. Zakaria said. This is an in-house election. It is not about us and the opponents. Even with our opponents, we must be civil, and we must get it right. Meanwhile, the incumbent regional chairman who is seeking to be reelected, Fuseini Nurudren, advised his colleagues to accept the outcome of the election. According to him, the stability of the party in the North East means a lot to the fortunes of the Vice president, who will be running for the flagbearership of the NPP. He also urged his colleagues not to lose sight of the NPPs actual rivals. We don't fight amongst ourselves. We have a bigger enemy, which is the NDC. Let's rather fight the NDC. Rather than fighting ourselves, Mr. Nurudren said. ---Citi Newsroom A 2021 Dennislaw Ghana Report has revealed that 155 out of the 261 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) are operating without legitimate and valid bylaws. This translates to 59 per cent of the assemblies operating without the incorporation of local rules, which is in violation of the Local Governance Act. Dr Nana Ato Arthur, the Head of Local Government Service, said that was unacceptable and ordered the various assemblies to make reference to the appropriate Local Governance Act for validity of the bylaws. Making reference to the Report at the Sixth Annual General Conference of the Association of District Co-ordinating Directors in Kumasi, he said 26 out of 43 MMDAs in the Ashanti Region had no bylaws governing their operations. Eight of the 12 MMDAs in Bono Region had no valid bylaws, whereas three out of the six assemblies in Ahafo Region operated without these governing rules. The three-day conference was on the theme: Digitisation: A Critical Tool for Transforming MMDAs. The Association, comprising all the metropolitan, municipal and district coordinating directors (MMDCDs) of the assemblies in Ghana met to review and evaluate past performances and forge stronger and workable solutions to emerging problems at their workplaces. Dr Arthur called on political and administrative heads to commit to improving holistic working relations to improve outcomes. MMDCDs must learn and know their bosses, know when to approach them on certain issues and what to discuss at what time, he said. A good knowledge of our bosses will ensure a smooth and hitch-free relationship for which we would all be proud of, to collectively execute the development agenda of the assemblies. He reminded them to be worthy ambassadors of the service by displaying the highest levels of professional standards with the vision of a world class decentralised and client-oriented service in mind. The Local Government Service would remain resolute in assisting MMDAs to mobilise the needed resources to ensure the implementation of the digitalisation initiative, he said. Mr Simon Osei-Mensah, the Ashanti Regional Minister, said digitising the operations of the assemblies would ensure quality and timely service delivery to the public. He said the lack of transparency, accountability and automation of the processes and procedures, which were the bane of the MMDAs, would be addressed through digitisation. Mr Osei-Mensah urged the MMDAs to budget for and invest in digitising their processes to ensure improvement in productivity, service delivery and reduce inefficiencies and the cost of operations. GNA The death of 11 newborns in a hospital fire has provoked grief and indignation over Senegal's health system, just weeks after the country was rocked by the tragic death of a mother-to-be. The blaze in a neonatal ward in the western town of Tivaouane has turned a spotlight on flaws and funding problems, triggering calls for senior-level sanctions. President Macky Sall on Thursday fired his health minister, Diouf Sarr, replacing him with the former director-general of the public health authority, Marie Khemesse Ngom Ndiaye. But for many Senegalese people, that is not enough. They have demanded more action, fearing Wednesday's fire will not be the last. In April 2021, four newborns died in a hospital fire in the northern town of Linguere. The mayor of that town blamed an electrical malfunction. Last month, a heavily pregnant woman died in agony after her appeals to be given a caesarean at a public hospital in the northwestern town of Louga were denied. Three midwives were sentenced to six months' suspended imprisonment as public outrage rolled. Details behind the fire at Tivaouane's Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh public hospital remain sketchy. The new neonatal ward was inaugurated just last year. Sarr and mayor Demba Diop said the blaze was caused by a short circuit, and staff blacked out and were unable to save the babies. But Serigne Cheikh Tidiane Sy Al Amine, a local religious figure, said the hospital had been plagued for 15 years by "donations of obsolete equipment and broken promises to build a new hospital." Private health services are expensive in Senegal, and many residents of Tivaouane and its surrounding areas must choose between the hospital or traditional medicine. 'Never again' Calls for sanctions abound on social media, with many tweeting "Never again." "We have qualified doctors, but... if we do not create the conditions for them to practice, there is no point in dismissing a minister to replace him with another who will end up facing the same problems," said Nina Penda Faye, spokeswoman for a campaign group called Patients in Danger. President Sall has declared three days of national mourning, and festive activities such as those of the Dakar Biennial of Contemporary Art have been suspended. He cut short a trip abroad and was expected Friday in Tivaouane. The judicial unit leading an investigation into the incident said it would be "ruthless" towards those responsible. Senegal, widely seen a stable democracy in a turbulent region, is considered to have superior health care to many other African countries. But there is a significant gap in the quality of service between large towns, smaller settlements and rural areas. A 2019-2028 plan drawn up by the health ministry acknowledged shortcomings despite efforts made in recent years. It highlighted lack of staff and equipment in health centres -- widely-used facilities that are a midpoint between rural health posts and urban hospitals. "Sixty-seven percent of the operating theatres set up in health centres are non-functional (including 59% due to lack of equipment and human resources)," it said, describing the maintenance of devices as "inefficient." 'Up to divine will' At Tivaouane hospital, the mood among many patients on Friday was of sadness mingled with resignation. The tragedy turned a spotlight on the flaws in Senegal's health system -- but many patients say they have no other options for treatment. By SEYLLOU (AFP) "What happened is very hard," said Mbene Souare, a woman aged in her 40s who had come from the neighbouring village of Pire for treatment. She admitted that the hospital would not have been her first choice given the tragedy, but said she had no other option. "We pray to God that this will not happen again," she said. Mohamed Camara, 24, said he was worred about coming to the hospital. "But I can't not come here," he said, as he stepped out of the building holding an X-ray. "I leave it up to divine will." Corruption is a threat to national development, democracy, and stability, it erodes confidence in public services and trust in officials, Mr. Emmanuel Wilson Junior, Chief Crusader for the Crusaders Against Corruption has stated. He explained that corruption distorts economic markets, curbs economic growth, and discourages foreign investors. Mr. Wilson Junior, therefore, charges the citizenry to collectively come together and fight against corruption; the fight against corruption involves all because it affects us all and has a chain effect. Corruption has a disproportionate impact on the poor and most vulnerable increasing losses, and reducing access to services including health, education, and justice. Mr. Wilson Junior stated when speaking on the topic: Is the fight against corruption a reality or mirage? At the Ghana News Agency-Tema Industrial News Hub Boardroom Dialogue platform, which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema. He stressed, we must be concerned in fighting against corruption because it doesnt hurt the current citizen alone but the future generation as well. According to the Chief Crusader, corruption affects all areas of society quoting that corruption unlocks progress towards the sustainable development goal which helps protect the society, create jobs, achieve gender equality and secure wider access to essential services such as health care and education. Mr. Wilson Junior urged the government to help strengthen the anti-corruption agencies to be autonomous and independent noting that, the government should enforce the already existing anti-corruption law. Mr. Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager in his contribution reiterated that the role of the media is crucial in the nations campaign to eradicate corruption. Mr. Ameyibor explained that current efforts being made would not achieve desired results without an effective partnership with the media, stressing the need to empower media practitioners consistently He urged both public and private institutions and organizations to deal effectively with credible media houses in their fight to prevent the incidence of corruption. He contended that without integrity, the media could not make any positive impact in the campaign against corruption, advising that media practitioners must accordingly not allow their personal and monetary interests to override the national interest in their reportage since that could promote corruption. Mr. Ameyibor also appealed to the media to devote more space in the newspapers and airtime on the radio and television to discuss corruption and its consequences on the country's development. Alhaji Osman and wife 27.05.2022 LISTEN The Tijjaniya Muslim Movement of Ghana (TMMG) has revealed that domestic violence is anti-Islamic describing the act which involves violence and coercion has no legitimacy in Islam. Alhaji Khuzaima Mohammed Osman, the Executive Secretary of the Movement stated in an interview monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema that there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding Islam and domestic violence, stressing people who aren't Muslim think Islam condones violence and that's simply not the case. "There is no place for domestic abuse in Islam, lets come together as Muslims to eradicate domestic abuse from our society," he added. Alhaji Osman noted that under no circumstances was violence against women encouraged in Islam adding that, the Quran and Hadith encourage couples to live with mutual love, respect, and kindness. He said marriage in the Islamic context is a means of tranquility, protection, peace, and comfort thus abuse of any kind on women is in conflict with the principles of marriage. Alhaji Osman explained that when a husband insults and raises his hands against his wife it was like him raising ones hand and insulting God and his prophet. The Executive Secretary of the Tijjaniya Muslim Movement of Ghana noted the fact that domestic violence was a blight on society emphasizing it was a mental and social illness that goes through every part of the society and therefore it was important for the citizenry and the society to address such issues in the country. He called on victims of domestic violence to be bold and voice out to the necessary authorities to enforce the law on the culprits. Alhaji Osman appealed to Islamic Scholars and Imam to end the silence on the issue by discussing the issue of domestic violence in their sermons. "HIV/AIDS is still real even though the fear of death it used to carry has gone because of the treatment, the public needed to take its prevention seriously as more new infections were being recorded daily." Dr Stephen Ayisi-Addo, Programme Manager of the National AIDS/STI Control Programme has revealed and called on institutions such as the Commission on Human Rights Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to upscale how they handle issues of stigma against persons living with HIV/AIDS. He said the issue of stigmatization is a major problem hindering the crusade against HIV, if the public would show love to people with HIV, the tendency to hide their status and spread the virus to unsuspecting people would be reduced. He said this at the 13th edition of the Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Offices Stakeholders Engagement when he addressed the topic; Ghanas HIV Strategies in line with the Global Health Strategy for HIV, STI and Viral-Hepatitis, which was monitored by the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema. The monthly engagement also serves as a motivational mechanism to recognize the editorial contribution of reporters towards national development in general and the growth and promotion of the Tema GNA as the industrial news hub. The engagement also saw Ms Fatimata Mahami, Tema Regional Director of the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) presenting on the topic; The fight against corruption in Ghana, a mirage or reality; the Perspective of CHRAJ. Dr Ayisi-Addo also gave the assurance that Ghana would be able to achieve the 95-95-95 HIV goal by the scheduled year 2025. The 95-95-95 target was launched globally by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to diagnose 95 per cent of all HIV positive persons, put at least 95 per cent of those diagnosed on antiretroviral therapy (ART) and also achieve viral suppression for 95 per cent of those on treatment by 2025. Dr Ayisi-Addo said Ghana could achieve the target if all stakeholders got involved and played their respective roles in the prevention of new cases, case finding, and referral of persons living with HIV to the respective facilities for treatment, and discouraging stigmatization. He said data collected for the year 2020 showed that currently Ghana was at 88-79-79 of the 90-90-90 target for 2023 but from here we shall move to achieve the 2025 target stressing that achieving it does not only depend on the HIV Control Programme or the Ghana AIDS Commission but rather required the efforts of everyone. He said looking at the data, Ghanaians must know that between the figure and the target represented people who needed to test for their status to be known therefore calling on the public to encourage themselves and others to take volunteering counselling and testing to know their status. He said achieving the second and third targets of respectively putting 95 per cent of HIV positive people on ART, and achieving 95 per cent viral suppression in those on medication would be problematic if the first target could not be achieved because people were not testing for the positive cases to be picked up. To achieve Ghanas HIV and Aids Strategic Plan 2021-2025, Dr Ayisi-Addo said four strategic objectives have been adopted to empower the population to prevent new infections, as well as ensure the availability of and accessibility to prevention, treatment, care and support services. The others are to mitigate the social and economic effect of HIV on persons infected and affected by HIV and to ensure the availability of adequate funding to execute the policy strategies. Dr Ayisi-Addo said new initiatives to achieve the target as introduced by his outfit included the provision of combination prevention and treatment to Adolescent Girls and Young Women (AGYW). He said provision of timely Pre-Exposure and post-exposure prophylaxis to key populations and persons exposed to HIV, implementation of HIV self-testing, and effective integration of HIV services to ensure universal health coverage. Mr Francis Ameyibor, Ghana News Agency Tema Regional Manager has entreated journalists to visit various health centres for information to highlight the several social issues affecting mankind. He said, "go to our hospitals, there are lots of information at the clinics, polyclinics, Hospitals, the Regional and District health directors, Ghanaians need education on healthy lifestyle from professionals. "If you enter the clinics and hospitals and focus on HIV coverage alone the number of stories that will emanate would cover the pages and news bulletins daily, journalists must develop an interest in health news, you can develop a profession in medical journalism and it's very big because there are a lot of things to cover," Mr Ameyibor stated. The Bono East Regional Minister, Hon Adu Gyan have urge delegate who are supposed to vote in this year NPP regional elections not to vote for voting seek candidates but vote for competent and energetic leaders. From him, the NPP party wants to 'break the 8' and to do so, they have to elect leaders who can see the future and fight for it. "We the ministers and Members of Parliament cant do this work alone unless we get help from the national to the branch, especially the region which holds the constituency and the branch. "Is about time we should vote for good, not monitory issues because each and everyone needs development in his or her life," he stated. He again pleads to delegates and supporters to calm down so that the elections can be held peacefully. "The police are here to protect you, not to harm you, so lets cope with them for a peaceful election," he added. He said this when addressing the delegates and party members at the regional delegate conference and election which is held in Kintampo in the Bono East region. African Court President Justice Aboud 27.05.2022 LISTEN The African Court on Human and Peoples Rights will begin its 65th Ordinary Session on Monday, May 30th, 2022, at the seat of the Court in Arusha, Tanzania. The Judges, among others, will examine a number of applications during the four-week session that will close on June 24th, 2022 a document signed by Dr Robert Eno, African Court Registrar and copied to the Communication for Development and Advocacy Consult (CDA Consult) in Tema has stated. During the session, the African Court will deliver Judgements on June 23rd, which will be live streamed via link: https://www.youtube.com/user/africancourt/live The African Court is composed of eleven Judges, national of the Member States of the African Union elected in their individual capacity; and meets four times a year in Ordinary Sessions and may hold Extra-Ordinary Sessions. The African Court explained that an application before it can be filed by the African Commission on Human and Peoples Rights, State Parties to the Protocol or African Intergovernmental Organizations, and non-governmental organizations with observer status before the African Commission and individuals. It explained that as long as the State against which the application is brought has deposited the declaration recognizing the jurisdiction of the Court to accept cases from individuals and NGOs. According to the African Court, the decision of whether an application can be considered or not depends on whether it deals with a matter that is within the Courts Jurisdiction. The jurisdiction is the competence of the African Court to decide on matters brought before it. The scope of the jurisdiction of the African Court is set out in the Protocol to the African Charter and according to this instrument, the Court has material jurisdiction over allegations relating to violations of human rights contained in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights or any other human rights instrument ratified by the State concerned. It explained that material jurisdiction is satisfied if the allegations relate to violations of human rights contained in the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights or any other human rights instrument ratified by the State concerned. Personal jurisdiction refers to the entities which can bring a case before the Court. In general, that are the African Commission, State Parties to the Protocol, and African Intergovernmental organizations. Individuals and non-governmental organizations may only directly bring cases before the Court if the State against which such application is made has made a special declaration accepting this procedure. Temporal jurisdiction refers to the fact that the alleged violations must have occurred after the State concerned ratified the Protocol; Territorial jurisdiction requires the alleged violations to have taken place in the State concerned. According to the African Court, the application should indicate the names and addresses of the person designated as the Applicants representative; include a summary of the facts of the case and of the evidence that will be adduced, and indicate clear particulars of the Applicant and of the party or parties against whom the Application has been brought. It must also specify the alleged violation; demonstrate the evidence of exhaustion of local remedies or the inordinate delay of such local remedies; indicate the orders or injunctions sought; and indicate whether an Applicant on his/her on behalf or on behalf of the victim wishes to be granted reparations. 27.05.2022 LISTEN After three days of cogitation about an incident that took place in a public space, making myself and an NDC activist cynosure of all eyes, I have decided to publish my views about it to create public awareness about how some Ghanaians have chosen to remain uncivilized, even when living in the civilized white mans land. This fellow Ghanaian in question, not necessarily my workmate or work colleague, although we work for different companies and do different jobs in the same building, approached me on Tuesday, 25 May 2022, in a public space. He greeted me. I politely acknowledged his salutation. He then asked, how is it going? I responded everything is fine. He further asked, how is it going in Ghana, thus, how is your government doing? I responded the government is trying her best to manage the country. He said, your president is cocking up big time; conditions of living are bad in Ghana. Things have gotten out of his hands. Why dont you say the truth and write about your governments failures, as though the NPP government is for only Rockson Adofo and his Ashanti tribesmen but not him and his minority tribesmen in Ghana. I dont want to stereotype certain tribes for the ignorance, tribalism and hatred by a few of them towards a particular tribesmen in Ghana for all stupid reasons bordering on enviousness and inferiority complexes. However, their behaviours and pronouncements make me doubt them as rational human beings. As if I owe him something, he shouted at me saying, You are a hypocrite! You people are aman mofo3, to wit, you people are nation wreckers. I can report you to be arrested. You have always been writing about the previous Mahama-led NDC administration about what you said to be their incompetence, cluelessness, thieveries and mismanagement of the country and the economy. Why dont you publish same about your president and government, now that prices of everything is over the roof without him having solutions to the problems while Ghanaians are suffering?, he said. I asked him, are the current hikes in prices of goods not a worldwide phenomenon? Dont you know that the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia/Ukraine war are greater contributors to the skyrocketing prices of goods that we are experiencing throughout the world at the moment? Have prices of foodstuff and essential commodities and petroleum products not gone up in the United Kingdom here that we live and in America and Europe, I queried? Have the prices not gone up because of the pandemic and the war? Is it not on the news and in the newspapers here in Britain? Why should it be any different in Ghana, I asked? Why cant Ghanaians be realistic to tell the truth but for our political affiliations and aspirations we love to throw dust into peoples eyes all the time, I asked? The more I asked tangible questions, the louder he screamed as if he has gone mental! He was all the while insisting that I am a hypocrite and people of my type are aman mofo. Here is where I have a problem with those people who have identified themselves as NDC fanatics and are usually, or unfortunately principally, of the minority tribes. I will explain why in a moment. I walked away from him but not after stating to him that he is a big fool and that it is not worthy of me to argue with a fool since a fool will always remain a fool, sticking to what they believe in without seeing sense in anything other than what they believe in their warped mind to be the sole truth, although, as erroneous as it could be. Yes, President Nana Akufo-Addo had asked Ghanaians to be citizens but not spectators. Did he ask all Ghanaians, or only a particular group of people, to be citizens but not spectators? Why was the NDC guy, the subject of this publication, forcing me to publish his suspected negative views about the president and his NPP government because I have to obligatorily be a citizen but not a spectator? Has not got two hands, two eyes, two ears, a mouth, two legs and grey matter in his oblong head same as Rockson Adofo, the proud and fearless and no-nonsense son of Kumawu/Asiampa soil has? If I dont see things same as he sees them from his opaque mental lenses, why cant he publish how he sees them himself but forcing me to? Again, as foolish as he is, he was threatening me with arrest for publishing my candid views about Mahama and his incompetent NDC government. That is the height of expressed stupidity by a highly uncivilized Ghanaian living in the UK. Rockson Adofo should be the last person for anyone to threaten with arrest, especially, here in Europe, for publishing his candid opinions about Ghana politics. A fool who does not know their rights and how the laws operate and are applied in the civilized white mans land will embark on such boastful but empty threats. I laughed and warned him to be mindful of his words and actions before I land him in hot waters where he could only get out extremely bruised. Two weeks to this reported incident, another man who lives in the same London borough as me, struck up a conversation with me when we were both walking the same direction towards our homes; returning from work of course. He asked about how things are going in Ghana. I told him prices of goods are getting higher similarly as they are getting the world over and that the president is doing his best. He said, no. The mismanagement by your government, not his, referring to me for being an Ashanti without even me stating to him which political party I belong to, is the cause of the economic problems in Ghana. I asked him if prices of petrol, essential commodities, taxes, etc. have not gone up here in the United Kingdom? He answered yes, they have gone up but here, it is manageable because people have got jobs and those without jobs are given financial assistance, thus, benefits, by the government, to make them able to cope with the situation. The question is, have prices of goods gone up, yes or no? Are the current worldwide hikes in prices of goods not caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the ongoing Russia/Ukraine war? Whether there are benefits or jobs in other countries but not in Ghana, does it negate the fact that prices of commodities have gone up in both the advanced and developing countries without Ghana being the exemption? He said, why can't the government in Ghana create jobs for the people and that her failure to create jobs has led to the rising cost of living in the country hence the mismanagement of the economy? I answered him by saying that jobs he says to abound in the UK and the developed nations are not created principally by the government but private individuals. Why cant these NDC guys for once be truthful and think as rational human beings but always allowing their political aspirations and desires to regain power cloud their mental faculties to behave themselves so foolishly, when it comes to normal discussions about how best Ghana can develop? These two guys under discussion are sorry to say, from the minority tribal extractions. What is wrong with them? Cant they reason as Ghanaians to put a stop to their tribal sentiment which is injurious to the development of the nation? Political polarisation and entrenchment of unhealthy partisanship are retarding the progress of Ghana. They are the causes of lies, exaggerations and the ramifying pull him down syndrome affecting many political sycophants in the country to end up militating against the advancement of Ghanaians to give bad name to black people in general. We had better grow up as a nation of people with a common destiny. Dont let politics divide us just because of the parochial interests of the corrupt and insatiably greedy politicians who have no shame and know nothing apart from amassing illegal wealth. Rockson Adofo Friday, 27 May 2022 The Member of Parliament for Asawase, Alhaji Mubarak Muntaka has said Parliament is broke to the extent that the House is unable to change its photocopiers although the time is due. He accused the Ministry of Finance of deliberately denying Parliament funds as part of a grand agenda to weaken the legislature. Mr Muntakas comments come at a time the Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin has raised concerns over failure of the Finance Ministry to released funds to Parliament. Mr Bagbin said on Thursday May 26 that Parliament will be running on some arrears of last year. He described the situation as not easy. He said on the floor of the House that What many of you don't know is that even as at this time we don't have any releases from the Ministry of Finance for us to run Parliament. So we will be running Parliament on some arrears of last year, it is not easy. Sometimes we see your request for me to approve for you to do some things I declined. It is not because I love declining your request, it is because we don't have the wherewithal fund those operations. I think the Ministry of Finance should not treat Parliament like this a Ministry or MDA. I will emphasize this again, this is an arm of government, we are not part of the MMDAS. We have even been written to reduce our budget in some areas by 50 per cent. If they want Parliament to run aground, they should let us know. The Speaker is not ready and prepared to be blamed for the inability to get Parliament going on just because we are not getting the necessary funding. Speaking on this matter in interview with TV3's Evelyne Tengmaa on Friday May 27, Mr Muntaka who is the Minority Chief Whip, said Obviously, the major challenge is the Ministry of Finance continue to treat Parliament as a department or agency of the state. Unfortunately, Parliament is not an agency, so we need to try and distinguish that. For example, they will write a letter to all MMDAs that they should cut their budget and they will serve Parliament the same. We think that is wrong. Once Parliament approved this budget if you have challenge you go through the same route. In the case of the Judiciary and Parliament for variation you will have to come back to Parliament to do that, you dont have the power to just sit and say that. That is why they have to come to update the House that the budget that we have approved, so far, they are having additional funding or we are having challenges raising funds and therefore we want to come up with this variation. They dont want to do that so they just sit and they arrogate to themselves powers that they do not have. I dont blame them, it has between happening, Parliament has made itself so weak and when they do that we do the usual NDC, NPP game, if it is NPP in power you try to cover up for the Minister, if it is the NDC you try to cover up, so it moves to a point where releases are not coming. Not only in Ghana, even in America their preference is that they should have a Congress that is weak so that they can get to do whatever they want to do. The starting point of getting parliament weak is to stifle Parliament of funds. It is just like you have vehicle and there is no fuel in it, that vehicle cannot travel. You will see that when they do not release money to Parliament, when committees want to go to site, let us say Transport Committee wants to go to the Takoradi Harbour, they want to see what is happening at the Harbour, Parliament will say no, there is no money so you cannot go. If the Health Committee wants health insurance facilities across the country, they will write, Speaker says we dont have funds so we have to wait. If you want to do capacity building or anything, once there is no money you get grounded, Parliament itself gets grounded. He added Before we re-opened, I heard ECG threatening to come and cut the power here. If they cut, the generator will come on but for how long will the generator run? The generator cant run for ever, so we have to pay our utilities. So far, we have been struggling to go to Parliament where you will not see, even our photocopiers, given the number of copies that they run you will have to say every 8 years they will have to be changed, it is time to change since last year, [but] the lack of funds is making it impossible. That is the extent to which stifling funds in Parliament is affecting the operations of Parliament. I must also admit that sometimes, we ourselves must also try to prioritize our expenditures. For example, if Finance Ministry is doing what they are doing and then they release, let us assume our quarterly budget, let us say 50 million, they release 20million, if we dont itemize the things , if we dont get them done the whole system will be grounded. 3news.com The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has launched an Integrated Mass Drug Administration (MDA) Project to help in the fight against neglected tropical conditions including lymphatic filariasis and Onchocerciasis . The Integrated Mass Drug Administration, to be carried out nationwide, would begin from May 28 to June 12. It will provide a single dose medication to all eligible individuals once or twice a year and implemented over three to seven years, to significantly control the burden of such conditions. Dr Afez Adam Taher, the Chairperson, Ghana Intra Country Coordinating Committee for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), Ministry of Health, who launched the project in Takoradi, said human onchocerciasis - river blindness was a disease of the skin and eye caused by a parasitic worm in fast-flowing rivers and streams. As part of a process of eliminating Onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis by 2030, he explained that this year's Mass Drug Administration targets 77 oncho-endemic districts to reach out to about 12.6 million people. It also envisions reaching four lymphatic filariasis endemic districts, targeting 440,000 people. Dr Taher said the disease was endemic in 31 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Yemen, adding that Lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis, is a neglected tropical disease. Infection occurs when filarial parasites are transmitted to humans through mosquitoes. He explained that the infection was usually acquired in childhood causing hidden damage to the lymphatic system and later years causing elephantiasis and scrotal swelling with mental, social and financial losses contributing to stigma and poverty. Dr Taher said since 2013, the World Health Organisation (WHO) had verified three countries in Latin America as free of human onchocerciasis but unfortunately, Ghana was still endemic for the disease, which was one of the 14 NTDs in the country. Meanwhile, the World Health Assembly Resolution 50.29 encouraged Member States to eliminate lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem. In response, the WHO launched its Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis in 2000 with key components including stopping the spread of infection through large-scale annual treatment of all eligible people in an area where infection is present; and alleviating the suffering it caused through the provision of the recommended essential package of care. "Preventing and controlling NTDs is central to ending extreme poverty in the next two decades. Onchocerciasis/river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, two of the NTDs can be targeted through a highly effective integrated community treatment approach using drugs that have been proven safe and effective and which can be delivered by trained non-health personnel," Dr Taher said. He, therefore, encouraged all eligible persons to avail themselves for the immunisation to fight against Onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis, describing the drug as safe. Dr Joyce Aryee, the Ambassador for such conditions, said the drugs were not deleterious but life saving and efficacious to protect one against the condition. She called on the media to educate the public on the process for more people to participate in the two-week exercise. GNA The Eastern Regional Police Command of the Ghana Police Command has said it is pursuing a gang of six robbers, the police have announced. The robbers are said to have shot two persons at a mining facility at Asamang Tamfoe in the Eastern Region. The pursuit is an anti-robbery operation. It is being led by the Regional Police Commander, George Alex Mensah. The West African Sub-region has made strides in counter terrorism through a one-year project, dubbed: "Strengthening Response Capacities of State and Civil Society Actors in preventing and Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism in Coastal States in West Africa. The project has contributed to strengthening the capacities and enhancing knowledge of 81 state and civil society actors on the project. They are from Benin, Togo, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire and Burkina Faso to respond to threats of terrorism by promoting inter-agency collaboration and intelligence sharing. Air Commodore George A. Dadzie, the Deputy Commandant, Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre (KAIPTC), said it was funded by the Government of Japan through its Japan Supplementary Budget Fiscal year 2020. The project was implemented by the United Nations Development Programme and the KAIPTC from March 2021 to March 2022. Speaking at the end of the project in Accra, Air Commodore Dadzie said it had created the opportunity for networking among the stakeholders and contributed to knowledge on the nature of terrorist and violent extremist activities in the region to guide policy formulation. Two training courses were organised in Ghana and Burkina Faso with consultative meetings in three of the five countries to seek input and buy-in from stakeholders to enhance implementation. It was followed by a Learning Design and Development Workshop at the KAIPTC in September, 2021. Air Commodor Dadzie commended the Japan Government for its continuous support, stressing that over the past years, the partnership with Japan had contributed to capacity development of civil society actors on projects including the Small Arms and Light Weapons Programme. Dr Angela Lusigi, the UNDP Resident Representative, said the landscape of violent extremism in West Africa had grown exponentially, spreading across the region and undermining human security. Thousands have lost their lives, and millions are displaced in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. Up to 1.8 million people have been displaced by the violence in Burkina Faso since 2016, with current reports of attacks in coastal states like Cote d'Ivoire, Togo, and Benin. Those threats, she said, put the economic, social, political and environmental gains made towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals at risk. At UNDP Ghana, we are working with communities to build capacities for more effective early warning and response. By strengthening social cohesion and reducing the vulnerability of women and youth, we believe that Ghana will be better positioned in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, she said. Mr Hisanobu Mochizuki, the Ambassador of Japan to Ghana, said Japan stood for international cooperation and solidarity in fighting terrorism and had supported countries to prevent and eradicate violent extremism. He urged beneficiaries of the project to impact positively on the fight against terrorism and violent extremism. GNA The Very Rev Professor Emmanuel Martey, Former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana (PCG) says there is something fundamentally wrong with Ghana and the Church must rise to the call. "Its sad and very worrying that the Christian population in Ghana keep growing yet the economy is not growing while corruption has become pervasive even among Christians who claim to believe in the Bible," he stated. He said every religion including Christianity frowned on corruption and perjury, which had become the order of the day and that clearly showed that there was something fundamentally wrong. The former Moderator of the PCG was speaking at a public lecture as part of activities to mark the 140th anniversary of the Ascension congregation in Koforidua, on the theme The Bible, Its Impact on the Church and Society in Ghana. He said the inability of some pastors to condemn the wrongful acts of politicians in the country due to ethnic affiliations, fear of being insulted and losing members and the desire to accumulate assets and many more was a dent on the image of Christianity. However, there are good pastors who speak against the ills in society and corruption but whose voices were behind the scenes to counteract the opinion of some writers that, "the Bible and politics have become tools for corruption in Africa and It was the same Bible that the Apartheid South Africa used to justify the inferiority of Africans, to dehumanize and oppress them. Rev Martey said any government interested in genuinely fighting the menace of corruption in Ghana must prioritise functional education and cultural consciousness that can promote probity, accountability and transparency. The Ascension congregation was established as a mission station in 1882 by the Basel missionaries led by evengelism George Mohr, it's first building was opened in 1916 and the church was elevated to a district status in 1930. A GHS50,000 endowment fund has been set up to support the needy in the church to acquire Technical and Vocational training for sustained livelihoods, as part of the half a year long celebrations. GNA New York, US (PANA) - African countries are at the vanguard of a vital transformation of food systems to simultaneously address food security, nutrition, social and environmental protection all while boosting resilience said the UN chief on Thursday After jumping by 14 rigs last week, the US rig count took a breather this week. Oilfield services firm Baker Hughes said Friday its US rig count, which it has posted weekly since the 1940s, fell by one to 727. Still, its up 270 rigs or about 60 percent from the 457 counted last May. The number of rigs drilling for crude oil dropped by two to 574 still 215 more than the 359 reported a year ago. The number of rigs drilling for natural gas rose by one to 151 53 more than the 98 reported last year. Texas saw an additional rig added during the week, bringing the states tally to 358 140 more than 218 last May. New Mexico was unchanged at 98 rigs. Oklahoma (1) joined Texas as the only producing state to see an increase while Louisiana (3) was the only state to see a decline. The Permian Basin followed the US example, falling one rig to 342 109 more than 233 at work in the basin the previous year. Eddy County, New Mexico, was the most active county in the Permian with 52 rigs, up four and the sharpest increase among Permian counties. Midland County and Lea County, New Mexico, tied for second most active at 41 rigs each unchanged for Midland and down four for Lea County, the steepest decline among counties this week. Martin and Reeves counties each reported 33 rigs for a second consecutive week. Loving County had 28 rigs, down one. Howard County had 20 rigs for a second week while Upton County had 18, down one. Ward County added two rigs for 11 at work within county lines. Enverus Foundation, part of the energy-focused Software as a Service firm Enverus, said its US rig count fell five to 788 as of May 25. Enverus count is up up 3% in the last month and up 53% in the last year. Activity levels reached as high as 810 during the last week, which is down by one compared to the prior weeks peak. With 304 rigs running, the Permian is flat on the week and up by two on the month. Leading their Delaware and Midland Basin peers in rig count were Pioneer Natural Resources (25) and EOG (18). Nine operators are running 10 rigs or more. Of the 18 counties with drilling activity, Lea and Eddy counties, New Mexico, had the highest activity at 46 and 43 rigs, respectively. Midland County led the Texas side of the Permian with 42 rigs. Interestingly, Lea County is little changed in the last year, while Eddy jumped by 23 rigs and Midland is up by 10. The rig count in the Anadarko Basin rose by one week over week to 67. Activity levels are also up by two in the last month. The most active operators are Continental Resources at eight rigs and Hinkle Oil & Gas at four rigs. The most active counties are Grady (11 rigs), Canadian (nine) and Stephens (five), all in Oklahoma. Appalachia is down by one rig in the last week, but up by one in the last month at 54 rigs. The most active operators, each running four rigs, are Ascent Resources Utica, Chesapeake Energy, EQT Corp. and Tug Hill Operating. Marshall County, West Virginia, and Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, are the most active counties at five rigs each. The 18 rigs in the DJ Basin are one more than last week, but the same as a month ago. PDC Energy is the most active operator at five rigs, two of which are running on acreage that came from its recent acquisition of Great Western Petroleum. Civitas Resources is running the second most with three rigs. And per usual, Weld County, Colorado, is the most active county with 10 rigs. In the Gulf Coast region, which includes the Eagle Ford, the count was flat week over week, but up three compared to a month ago at 98. Running five rigs each, the most active operators are BP, ConocoPhillips and EOG Resources. Webb County (Texas) is the most active county, with 12 rigs running, which is double the number from a year ago. DeWitt County has the second-most rigs at nine. And in the Williston Basin, the rig count is up by two in the last week and by four in the last month at 40. Continental has twice as many rigs running as its next most active peer in the play at six rigs. Hess and Whiting Petroleum are running three rigs each. The most active counties are North Dakotas McKenzie (11), Williams (nine) and Dunn (nine). Members of the Midland Walkabout Club met in April for a walk in Stanton. Since it coincided with the Old Sorehead Trade Days the walkers were able to explore among the more than 600 booths of vendors from all over Texas. Stanton, the seat of Martin County and just 20 miles east of Midland, was settled in 1881 by German Catholics. Originally named Marienfeld (field of Mary), the name was later changed to Stanton in honor of Abraham Lincolns secretary of War, Edwin Stanton. The major historic attraction, quite a unique gem, is the Carmelite Monastery. The group enjoyed an extensive, detailed tour of the renovated building; and were given an insight into the life of the monks in the late 1800s. Original artifacts, excavated on the grounds, are on display. A severe draught in 1886-1887 forced many living in the community to move or face starvation. The buildings were sold to the Sisters of Mary in 1897. They operated Our Lady of Mercy Academy and nunnery for the next 44 years, until a tornado struck in 1938, which severely damaged the buildings. Eventually the property was sold. Today, the original 1884 adobe monastery structure is open to visitors. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Registered Texas Landmark. Reconstructions continue with the remaining buildings. A walk with the Midland Walkabout Club is not only good for your health but inspires the history-buff in you. Come Walk with us. For more information, go to: www.midlandWalkabout.org. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday hes confident Turkeys objections to Finland and Sweden joining NATO can be overcome swiftly, possibly in time for a summit of alliance leaders at the end of next month. At a news conference in Washington with visiting Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, Blinken said the U.S. has no reason to believe Turkeys concerns cannot be addressed. His comments came after Turkey's top diplomat said Finland and Sweden would have to take concrete steps before Ankara could support their membership. The United States fully supports Finland and Sweden joining the alliance and I continue to be confident that both will soon be NATO members, Blinken said. "We look forward to being able to call Finland and Sweden our allies." Haavisto said his country and Sweden had held good negotiations with the Turks over their concerns in recent days and said those discussions would continue with an eye toward resolving them before the NATO summit in Madrid at the end of June. We agreed to continue to those talks, Haavisto said. We think that these problems can be solved that Turkey has been raising. We hope that some results could be achieved before the NATO summit. Sweden and Finland submitted their written applications to join NATO last week. The move represents one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of Russias war in Ukraine and could rewrite Europes security map. The countries membership bids require support from all 30 current NATO countries, but Turkey, which commands the second-largest military in the alliance, is objecting to them. It has cited alleged support for Kurdish militants whom Turkey considers terrorists and restrictions on weapons sales to Turkey. Earlier Friday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Finnish and Swedish negotiating delegations had been given documents detailing Turkeys concerns, like information on terror groups, during their visit to Turkey this week. He said Ankara is awaiting specific answers. Cavusoglu said an approach of well convince Turkey in time anyway, we are friends and allies would not be correct. He insisted that these countries need to take concrete steps. He added that we understand Finland and Swedens security concerns but ... everyone also needs to understand Turkeys legitimate security concerns. Turkey this week listed five concrete assurances it was demanding from Sweden, including what it said was termination of political support for terrorism, an elimination of the source of terrorism financing, and the cessation of arms support to the banned PKK and a Syrian Kurdish militia group affiliated with it. The demands also called for the lifting of arms sanctions against Turkey and global cooperation against terrorism. Cavusoglu's comments came at a news conference with the visiting foreign ministers of NATO allies Poland and Romania, both of whom expressed strong support for Finland and Sweden's bids. There is no doubt that we do need the accession of Sweden and Finland to the NATO alliance in order to make it stronger," Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau said. Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu, agreed, saying their membership would consolidate the collective defense and our security. ___ Follow the APs coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BERLIN (AP) Officials from the Group of Seven wealthy nations announced Friday that they will aim to largely end greenhouse gas emissions from their power sectors by 2035, making it highly unlikely that those countries will burn coal for electricity beyond that date. Ministers from the G-7 countries meeting in Berlin also announced a target to have a highly decarbonized road sector by 2030, meaning that electric vehicles would dominate new car sales by the end of the decade. And in a move aimed at ending the recurring conflict between rich and poor nations during international climate talks, the G-7 recognized for the first time the need to provide developing countries with additional financial aid to cope with the loss and damage caused by global warming. The agreements, which will be put to leaders next month at the G-7 summit in Elmau, Germany, were largely welcomed by climate activists. The 2035 target for power sector decarbonisation is a real breakthrough. In practice, this means countries need to phase out coal by 2030 at the latest, said Luca Bergamaschi, director of Rome-based campaign group ECCO. Coal is a heavily polluting fossil fuel that's responsible for a fifth of global greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans. While there are ways to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of coal, experts say it is almost impossible to reduce it to zero, meaning it will likely have to be the first fossil fuel to be phased out. G-7 members Britain, France and Italy have already set themselves deadlines to stop burning coal for electricity in the next few years. Germany and Canada are aiming for 2030; Japan wants more time; while the Biden administration has set a target of ending fossil fuel use for electricity generation in the United States by 2035. A common target would put pressure on other major polluters to follow suit and build on the compromise deal reached at last year's U.N. climate summit, where nations committed merely to phase down rather than phase out" coal with no fixed date. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry called the agreements reached in Berlin very comprehensive and forward-leaning. "I think it will help lay the groundwork for what has to happen at the G-20," he told The Associated Press, referring to a meeting later this year of the broader Group of 20 leading and emerging economies, who are responsible for 80% of global emissions. Getting all G-20 countries to sign on to the ambitious targets set by some of the most advanced economies will be difficult, as countries such as China, India and Indonesia remain heavily reliant on coal. Under pressure to step up their financial aid to poor nations, the G-7 ministers in Berlin said they recognized that action and support for vulnerable countries, populations and vulnerable groups need to be further scaled up. This includes governments and companies providing enhanced support regarding averting, minimizing and addressing loss and damage associated with the adverse impacts of climate change, they said. Developing countries have for years demanded a clear commitment that they will receive funds to cope with the destruction wrought by climate change. Wealthy nations have resisted the idea, however, for fear of being held liable for costly disasters linked to their emissions. After years of roadblocks, the G-7 finally recognize that they need to financially support poor countries in addressing climate-related losses and damages," said David Ryfisch of the Berlin-based environmental campaign group Germanwatch. But that recognition is not enough, they need to put actual money on the table, he added. "It is now up to (German Chancellor Olaf) Scholz to mobilize significant financial commitments by leaders at the Elmau summit. Germanys energy and climate minister, Robert Habeck, said the 40-page communique couldn't hide the fact that G-7 countries had long been laggards on combating global warming. But we're trying to make up for those things that didn't go so well in the past, he said. Including on climate finance. Speaking at a former coal depot, later converted into a gas storage facility and now home to clean energy startups, Habeck also highlighted the pledge by G-7 countries to end what he called the absurdity of fossil fuel subsidies in the coming years. Separately, the United States and Germany signed an agreement Friday to deepen their bilateral cooperation on shifting from fossil fuels to renewable energy. The deal will see the two countries work together to develop and deploy technologies that will speed up that clean energy transition, particularly in the area of offshore wind power, zero-emissions vehicles and hydrogen. The U.S. and Germany pledged to also collaborate on promoting ambitious climate policies and energy security worldwide. Kerry said both countries aim to reap the benefits of shifting to clean energy early, through the creation of new jobs and opportunities for businesses in the growing market for renewables. Such markets depend on common standards of what hydrogen can be classified as green, for example. Officials will now work on reaching a common definition to ensure that hydrogen produced on one side of the Atlantic can be sold on the other side. Habeck said the agreement reflected the urgency of tackling global warming. Scientists have said steep emissions cuts need to happen worldwide this decade if the goals set in the 2015 Paris climate accord are to be met. Time is literally running out, Habeck said, calling climate change the challenge of our political generation. ___ Follow all AP stories on climate change issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate British royal family member Meghan Markle traveled to Texas on Thursday and laid flowers at a makeshift memorial site by the Uvalde County Courthouse, where family community members have gathered this week to honor the victims of Tuesday's school shooting that claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers. The Duchess of Sussex was photographed laying a bouquet of white roses at a cross bearing the name of Rojelio Torres, a 10-year-old student who was among those massacred in a single room at Robb Elementary School by suspected shooter Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old Uvalde resident killed by authorities after he barricaded himself inside a classroom, shooting and killing its occupants. The Andrews Economic Development Corp. is set to receive $1.5 million for infrastructure for a business park. The Commerce Department in Washington, D.C., reported this week that its Economic Development Administration will award the grant to the economic development corporation in Andrews to support a new business park. This grant is funded by the American Rescue Plan, according to a press release. This project will provide road and water infrastructure for the Northwest Business Park, supporting business development and growth, the news release stated. This EDA grant will be matched with $2.4 million in local funds and is expected to create 50 jobs and generate $62 million in private investment, according to grantee estimates. The project will be located on around 200 acres of land between Loop 1910, Highway 115 and Southwest Mustang Drive in the southwest part of the city. This EDA investment will provide new space for businesses to grow in West Texas, supporting a robust, diverse regional economy, said Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo in the release. The Economic Development Administration works closely with communities to support locally-driven economic development strategies to drive growth, said Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development Alejandra Y. Castillo in the release. The infrastructure improvements provided through this EDA investment will create new opportunities for businesses to locate and expand in Andrews, creating good-paying jobs in the community. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is quoted in the release as saying, Road and water infrastructure is vital to the development of our communities, and I thank the Economic Development Administration for this grant supporting the Northwest Business Park in Andrews. This investment will create more jobs and greater economic opportunities for Texans in the Permian Basin for generations to come. This project is funded under EDAs American Rescue Plan Economic Adjustment Assistance program, which makes $500 million in Economic Adjustment Assistance grants available to American communities. The Texas Department of Public Safety hosted a press conference on Thursday, May 26, in Uvalde to provide more details on the timeline of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School. There have been conflicting reports from authorities on when the shooter went into the school and was shot. Victor Escalon, DPS regional director, explained the shooter wrecked his car at 11:28 a.m. and then walked into the school unobstructed at 11:40 a.m. He entered the school and walked about 400 feet before reaching the classroom where he opened fire, killing 19 students and two teachers. Initial reports from authorities said there was a police officer on campus, but Escalon said it's "not accurate." He said the school was not locked when the shooter entered. He added there was not an officer with gun at the time of the shooting, despite authorities telling MSNBC the day of the shooting the school officers were armed. It wasn't until about an hour later that U.S. Border Patrol tactical teams arrived, entered the classroom, and killed the suspect, Escalon said. "They don't make entry initially because of the gunfire they're receiving," Escalon said. "We have officers calling for additional resources. Everybody that's in the airfield. Tactical teams. We need equipment. We need special equipment. We need body armor. We need precision riflemen negotiators. So during this time, they're making those calls to bring in help to solve this problem and stop it immediately. They're also evacuating students, and teachers. There's a lot going on. It's a complex situation." Escalon was asked about reports of police inaction and he said the department is trying to "verify" things that took place on the day of the shooting. There have been multiple videos circulating on social media of police standing around and restraining parents. "Could anybody have gone there sooner? You have to understand it's a small town," Escalon said. "You have people from Eagle Pass from Del Rio, Laredo, San Antonio responding to a small community." Officials said more updates will come in the coming days. Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - The French lawyers of pressure group, the National Front for the Defence of the Constitution (FNDC) of Guinea, on Thursday expressed concern about a probable repression of future peaceful demonstrations following statements by senior government officials in the region of N'zerekore, in southern Guinea Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The issue of demobilisation and integration of armed groups in Libya, the subject of a workshop held on Tuesday in the Spanish city of Toledo, brings this thorny question to the forefront of the Libyan scene at a time when the political crisis in the country is reaching its peak with the existence of two governments SRINAGAR, India (AP) A bus carrying soldiers fell into a gorge in India's remote Ladakh region on Friday, killing at least seven and injuring 19 others, officials said. The bus plunged off a mountainous road and rolled down the 25-meter (80-foot) -deep gorge in the frigid region's Nubra Valley, police said. JOLIET, Ill. (AP) A judge has thrown out statements that a 77-year-old Minnesota man charged in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old suburban Chicago girl nearly half a century ago made to police and to his wife. Will County Judge David Carlson on Wednesday granted two defense motions tossing out statements that Barry Whelpley of Mounds View, Minnesota, made to police when they searched his home and a conversation between Whelpley and his wife that police recorded. Police arrested Whelpley in June last year. Its significant to the defense. And its a significant loss to the prosecution, Whelpleys defense attorney, Terry Ekl, told the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. Whelpley is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault for the 1972 death of Julie Ann Hanson. The 15-year-old Naperville girl disappeared on July 7, 1972, while riding her bicycle. Her body was discovered a day later in a field. She had been stabbed 36 times, coroners said. In his motions, Ekl argued that Whelpley was not advised of his Miranda rights during the search of his Minnesota home and that, as a result, police were not allowed to interrogate him during the search. Prosecutors argued that Whelpley was not in custody during the search and that police were allowed to talk to him. Carlson ruled videos of the search showed seven or eight armed police officers and that the questions asked were directly related to the 1972 murder. The judge also banned the use of statements made at the police station after Whelpleys second request for an attorney. Ekls motions did not go into detail about what Whelpley said to police or his wife, and he declined to elaborate after Wednesdays ruling. The Will County states attorneys office declined to comment on Carlsons ruling. The girl's murder remained unsolved for decades. The breakthrough in the case came through technological advancements in DNA and genetic genealogy analysis, police said. From that came the scientific evidence that pointed to Whelpley, a 1964 graduate of Naperville High School who lived about a mile from the girls house when she was killed. Whelpley remains in the Will County jail on $10 million bond. New York, US (PANA) - The United Nations paid tribute to the men and women serving under its flag in some of the most dangerous places in the world during a ceremony in New York on Thursday to mark the International Day of UN Peacekeepers Kelly Reichardt: Im fine with being a side B-er View Photo CANNES, France (AP) The quiet perceptions, everyday troubles and intermittent moments of transcendence that make up Kelly Reichardts films have always had a rhythm apart from most American movies. Reichardts latest, Showing Up, which premiered Friday at the Cannes Film Festival, is no exception, but its also more directly about the compulsions and pains of making modest, hand-crafted art. Michelle Williams plays a Portland, Oregon, ceramics artist of little renown but quiet devotion, trying to prepare a gallery show while things like a distracted landlady (Hong Chau) and an injured bird intrude on her life. We were trying to make a film about someone whos caught up in balancing the day-to-day, someone for whom working is like eating, but life has all these other demands of you, Reichardt, who penned the film with her regular screenwriter, Jonathan Raymond, said in an interview along the beach in Cannes. How the 58-year-old Reichardt, long a leading American indie filmmaker, has balanced her own career in filmmaking with lifes demands has sometimes been a topic of debate. While steadily making movies, Reichardt also teaches film at Bard College. After Williams in a recent article suggested Reichardt has to teach to have health care, Gawker published a piece headlined Kelly Reichardt Shouldnt Have to Put Up With Bard Students. I cringe at that, Reichardt said. The thing is, I love to teach. The idea of that really bums me out. I never look at anything but someone sent me that link. I never had the idea that filmmaking was going to sustain me. I just always think: I get to go make a film? Thats cool. About someone stealing milk? said Reichardt, whose sublime 2020 film First Cow revolved around a pair of baking friends in 1820s Oregon. I mean, I get it. Filmmaking is expensive. Then also, in America, we dont do art for arts sake. But I feel fortune. Ive gotten to make a lot of films in the last years. People who are going to make these films are either up for it or theyre not going to get involved. If an A24s up for making a film about two ceramicists, thats pretty good. Showing Up, which A24 will distribute in theaters at a not-yet-announced date, is one of the last films premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, which concludes Saturday with an awards ceremony. Its also one of five out of 21 films up for the top Palme dOr award that was directed by a woman a typical ratio in Cannes that has often been criticized. The day before Cannes began last week, Showing Up came up in the press conference held by the festivals artistic director, Thierry Fremaux, who was defending Cannes record with female filmmakers. One journalist, as an example, discussed whether Reichardts film was major or minor Reichardt. And Thierry said, Theyre all minor? guessed Reichardt, laughing. It was an ironic exchange given that Reichardt films, where economic inequities often slyly dictate characters lives, have never catered to traditional dichotomies of status. The stakes in Showing Up may be low, but they are, more importantly, whatever they mean to the characters. A lot of people are creative, Williams character says. If were talking in the context of, like, the hit is on side A, Im fine with being a side B-er, says Reichardt. But if its in the context of your own work, thats maybe more discouraging. If youre already a minor and then youre a minor of your own minor, I dont know. One really doesnt need to spend too much time thinking about these things because the rest of the world will just decide for you. You can just do your own thing and let everyone else figure it out. And for Reichardt, much of the joy of Showing Up was in relying on Portland-based artists to make the pieces seen throughout the film. She shot much of the film in a defunct art school, filling its classroom spaces with artists and art-making. Its community based. These are singular artists making their work but theyre not in a vacuum, Reichardt said while the thumping music of a nearby DJ preparing for the nights party nearly drowned her out. You could talk about it in terms of filmmaking, too. Im working with my mates. The kids were making stuff that I would go home at night and work into the script. We were all passing things off and learning. It became a school, basically. ___ Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP ___ For more Cannes Film Festival coverage, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival. By JAKE COYLE AP Film Writer Kevin Spacey to face 4 sex assault charges in Britain View Photo LONDON (AP) British prosecutors said Thursday they had authorized police to charge actor Kevin Spacey with four counts of sexual assault against three men, an announcement that came as the actor was in court in New York testifying in a different case. The Crown Prosecution Service said it had authorized criminal charges on the four sex assault counts and one of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent. The alleged incidents took place in London between March 2005 and August 2008, and one in western England in April 2013. The alleged victims are now in their 30s and 40s. Rosemary Ainslie, head of the services Special Crime Division, said the charges followed a review of evidence gathered by Londons Metropolitan Police. Prosecutors initially said Spacey had been charged. However, they later clarified that charges had been authorized, but the formal charging by police had not yet taken place. The authorization to charge means criminal proceedings against Spacey are underway. The police force said Spacey who is not currently in Britain will be formally charged at a later date. If Spacey does not return to Britain to face the charges, prosecutors could seek to start extradition proceedings. Spacey, a 62-year-old double Academy Award winner, was questioned by British police in 2019 about claims by several men that he had assaulted them. The former House of Cards star ran Londons Old Vic Theatre between 2004 and 2015. Spacey won a best supporting actor Academy Award for the 1995 film The Usual Suspects and a lead actor Oscar for the 1999 movie American Beauty. But his celebrated career came to an abrupt halt in 2017 when actor Anthony Rapp accused the star of assaulting him at a party in the 1980s, when Rapp was a teenager. Spacey denies the allegations. Spacey testified Thursday in a courtroom in New York City in the civil lawsuit filed by Rapp. Spacey didnt respond to reporters as he left the courthouse talking on his mobile phone. The British charges were mentioned briefly by Rapps lawyers during the court hearing, and Spaceys lawyers were asked about it by reporters during a break in testimony. They declined to comment. Another criminal case brought against Spacey, an indecent assault and battery charge stemming from the alleged groping of an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket resort, was dismissed by Massachusetts prosecutors in 2019. Thursdays court session in New York City dealt with a technical issue in the civil lawsuit, whether it was better handled in a federal or state U.S. court. Spacey was called to testify about where he lived, not about the truthfulness of the allegations against him. Spacey testified that his main residence and domicile is in Baltimore, where he moved for the filming of House of Cards. He said he was beguiled by its charm, its beauty. But he also testified about his time living in London as the artistic director of the Old Vic. It was extremely important to me that I endear myself to the British public, that Im not running away, he said, noting that his start there was troubled by a disastrous production in 2005 of Arthur Millers last play. But, he said, Im an American citizen. Once the job was done, I came back to America. He said he made a trip to London in February 2020 for a possible film, but then the pandemic hit. His U.S. doctor recommended he stay there, where he resided until the following September, when his visa expired and he flew to Los Angeles for an arbitration proceeding. He said he has not returned to the U.K. since then. ___ Associated Press writer Larry Neumeister contributed to this report from New York. ___ This story has been corrected to say British prosecutors authorized charges against Spacey and he will be formally charged by police later, not that Spacey has been formally charged, and to reflect that it was Rapps lawyers, not Spaceys, who brought up the criminal charges in court. By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press CCSO patrol car View Photo Burson, CA Calaveras deputies were dispatched to a report of a burglary in progress in the 11000 block of Navajo Way in Burson. The person who phoned in the report had noticed several suspicious vehicles at a residence and notified the Sheriffs Office. After arriving, deputies located Andrea Lynn Tate, 38 years of age, Burson, and Brant Alan Steiger, 45 years of age Valley Springs inside the home. Both suspects were taken into custody without incident and a search revealed suspected methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in Brant Alan Steigers clothing. Steiger told deputies that he was at the residence with the homeowners permission. The homeowners were out of town, but deputies contacted them via telephone and confirmed that they had no knowledge of the suspects and were not allowed to be inside the residence. Brant Alan Steiger was charged with burglary, vandalism, conspiracy to commit a crime, possession of controlled substances, and possession of drug paraphernalia. Hes being held with the bail of $45,000. Andreas Lynn Tate was charged with burglary, vandalism, and conspiracy to commit a crime. No additional information has been given by law enforcement and the incident is still under investigation. House fire on Yankee Hill Road - Courtesy Photo by Timothy Valentine View Photo Columbia, CA There was an early morning fire that destroyed a home in the Columbia area. It was reported to fire officials just before 3am in the 11400 block of Yankee Hill Road. A house was destroyed and the fire was contained at around 4:30am. There were some power lines down nearby, according to first responders. The fire did not spread to nearby vegetation. There were no injuries, but the Red Cross is assisting two displaced residents. The cause of the blaze is under investigation. Caltrans Litter Rmoval Day photo courtesy Caltrans View Photo Sonora, CA Caltrans held its Litter Cleanup Day with crews and volunteers removing trash and debris along highways throughout the state. In Caltrans District 10, the event included crews picking up litter on Highway 5 through San Joaquin County, along Highway 99 through Stanislaus and Merced counties, through Highway 152 in Merced County, Highway 108 through Sonora, and Highway 88 through Amador and Alpine counties. A lot of trash was removed with District 10 removing 1,627 bags of litter from state roadways, or 240 cubic yards. This program is part of Litter Cleanup Day, Governor Gavin Newsoms Clean California initiative which is funded with $1.1 billion dollars and is planning on lasting multiple years. The goal of the project is to not only keep roads clean but waterways as well. Caltrans Acting Director Steven Keck explains. Litter on our roadways pollutes waterways, threatens wildlife, and increases the risk of fire, Californians can be part of the solution by disposing of garbage responsibly, securing cargo properly, and volunteering to collect litter through the Adopt-A-Highway program. Earlier this year, Caltrans announced a Clean California incentive program that offers up to $250 per month to Adopt-A-Highway volunteers who pick up litter along the state highways. More information on that program can be found here. Biden to console families in Uvalde, press for action View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to Uvalde, Texas, on Sunday to console families and honor victims of Tuesdays mass school shooting in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. The White House said the Bidens would grieve with the community that lost 21 lives in the horrific shooting at Robb Elementary School. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president would meet with the community and religious leaders and victims families. Jean-Pierre, the parent of an elementary school student, delivered an impassioned plea at the White House for lawmakers to come together to address gun violence. These were elementary school kids, they should be losing their first teeth not losing their lives, she said. Asked about the propriety of the National Rifle Association going ahead with its planned conference in Houston this weekend, Jean-Pierre, said, What is inappropriate is that the leadership of the National Rifle Association has proven time and time again, that they are contributing to the problem of gun violence, not trying to solve it. Its shameful that the NRA and their allies have stood in the way of every attempt to advance measures that we all know will save lives, she said. Jean-Pierre echoed Biden, who in remarks Tuesday evening, spoke from personal experience about the pain of losing a child, and called on the country to tighten gun laws in response to the shooting. When in Gods name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? he said. Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings By ZEKE MILLER and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press Grieving husband dies after wife is slain in Texas rampage View Photo Irma Garcias family was already reeling from her death in the Texas school shooting that targeted her fourth grade classroom and killed her co-teacher and 19 students. Then, a mere two days after the attack, her grieving husband collapsed and died at home from a heart attack, a family member said. Joe Garcia, 50, dropped off flowers at his wifes memorial Thursday morning in Uvalde, Texas, and returned home, where he pretty much just fell over and died, his nephew John Martinez told The New York Times. Married for 24 years, the couple had four children. Martinez told The Detroit Free Press that the family was struggling to grasp that while the couples oldest son trained for combat in the Marine Corps, it was his mother who was shot to death. Stuff like this should not be happening in schools, he told the newspaper. The Archdiocese of San Antonio and the Rushing-Estes-Knowles Mortuary confirmed Joe Garcias death to The Associated Press. AP was unable to independently reach members of the Garcia family on Thursday. The motive for the massacre the nations deadliest school shooting since the 2012 attack in Newtown, Connecticut remained under investigation, with authorities saying the 18-year-old gunman had no known criminal or mental health history. The rampage rocked a country already weary from gun violence and shattered the community of Uvalde, a largely Latino town of some 16,000 people about 75 miles (120 kilometers) from the Mexican border. The Garcias loved to barbecue, 48-year-old Irma wrote in an online letter to her students at Robb Elementary School. She enjoyed listening to music and traveling to Concan, a community along the Frio River about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Uvalde. The couples oldest child, Cristian, is a Marine. The couples other son, Jose, attends Texas State University. Their eldest daughter, Lyliana, is a high school sophomore, while her younger sister is in the seventh grade. The school year, scheduled to end Thursday, was Garcias 23rd year of teaching all of it at Robb. She was previously named the schools teacher of the year and was a 2019 recipient of the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Education from Trinity University. For five years, Garcia co-taught with Eva Mireles, who also was killed. The suspect, Salvador Ramos, was inside the classroom for more than an hour before he was killed in a shootout with law enforcement, authorities said. Mrs. Irma Garcia was my mentor when I began teaching, her colleague Allison McCullough wrote when Garcia was named teacher of the year. The wealth of knowledge and patience that she showed me was life changing. ___ Associated Press journalist Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings. By STEFANIE DAZIO Associated Press Judge tosses statements defendant made in 1972 murder case View Photo JOLIET, Ill. (AP) A judge has thrown out statements that a 77-year-old Minnesota man charged in the stabbing death of a 15-year-old suburban Chicago girl nearly half a century ago made to police and to his wife. Will County Judge David Carlson on Wednesday granted two defense motions tossing out statements that Barry Whelpley of Mounds View, Minnesota, made to police when they searched his home and a conversation between Whelpley and his wife that police recorded. Police arrested Whelpley in June last year. Its significant to the defense. And its a significant loss to the prosecution, Whelpleys defense attorney, Terry Ekl, told the Arlington Heights Daily Herald. Whelpley is charged with first-degree murder and aggravated criminal sexual assault for the 1972 death of Julie Ann Hanson. The 15-year-old Naperville girl disappeared on July 7, 1972, while riding her bicycle. Her body was discovered a day later in a field. She had been stabbed 36 times, coroners said. In his motions, Ekl argued that Whelpley was not advised of his Miranda rights during the search of his Minnesota home and that, as a result, police were not allowed to interrogate him during the search. Prosecutors argued that Whelpley was not in custody during the search and that police were allowed to talk to him. Carlson ruled videos of the search showed seven or eight armed police officers and that the questions asked were directly related to the 1972 murder. The judge also banned the use of statements made at the police station after Whelpleys second request for an attorney. Ekls motions did not go into detail about what Whelpley said to police or his wife, and he declined to elaborate after Wednesdays ruling. The Will County states attorneys office declined to comment on Carlsons ruling. The girls murder remained unsolved for decades. The breakthrough in the case came through technological advancements in DNA and genetic genealogy analysis, police said. From that came the scientific evidence that pointed to Whelpley, a 1964 graduate of Naperville High School who lived about a mile from the girls house when she was killed. Whelpley remains in the Will County jail on $10 million bond. Shooter warning signs get lost in sea of social media posts View Photo WASHINGTON (AP) The warning signs were there for anyone to stumble upon, days before the 18-year-old gunman entered a Texas elementary school and slaughtered 19 children and two teachers. There was the Instagram photo of a hand holding a gun magazine, a TikTok profile that warned, Kids be scared, and the image of two AR-style semi-automatic rifles displayed on a rug, pinned to the top of the killers Instagram profile. Shooters are leaving digital trails that hint at whats to come long before they actually pull the trigger. When somebody starts posting pictures of guns they started purchasing, theyre announcing to the world that theyre changing who they are, said Katherine Schweit, a retired FBI agent who spearheaded the agencys active shooter program. It absolutely is a cry for help. Its a tease: can you catch me? The foreboding posts, however, are often lost in an endless grid of Instagram photos that feature semi-automatic rifles, handguns and ammunition. Theres even a popular hashtag devoted to encouraging Instagram users to upload daily photos of guns with more than 2 million posts attached to it. For law enforcement and social media companies, spotting a gun post from a potential mass shooter is like sifting through quicksand, Schweit said. Thats why she tells people not to ignore those type of posts, especially from children or young adults. Report it, she advises, to a school counselor, the police or even the FBI tip line. Increasingly, young men have taken to Instagram, which boasts a thriving gun community, to drop small hints of whats to come with photos of their own weapons just days or weeks before executing a mass killing. Before shooting 17 students and staff members dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, Nikolas Cruz posted on YouTube that he wanted to be a professional school shooter and shared photos of his face covered, posing with guns. The FBI took in a tip about Cruzs YouTube comment but never followed up with Cruz. In November, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley shared a photo of a semi-automatic handgun his dad had purchased with the caption, Just got my new beauty today, days before he went on to kill four students and injure seven others at his high school in Oxford Township, Michigan. And days before entering a school classroom on Tuesday and killing 19 small children and two teachers, 18-year-old Salvador Ramos left similar clues across Instagram. On May 20, the day that law enforcement officials say Ramos purchased a second rifle, a picture of two AR-style semi-automatic rifles appeared on his Instagram. He tagged another Instagram user with more than 10,000 followers in the photo. In an exchange, later shared by that user, she asks why he tagged her in the photo. I barely know you and u tag me in a picture with some guns, the Instagram user wrote, adding, Its just scary. The school district in Uvalde had even spent money on software that, using geofencing technology, monitors for potential threats in the area. Ramos, however, didnt make a direct threat in posts. Having recently turned 18, he was legally allowed to own the weapons in Texas. His photos of semi-automatic rifles are one of many on platforms like Instagram, Facebook and YouTube where its commonplace to post pictures or videos of guns and shooter training videos are prevalent. YouTube prohibits users from posting instructions on how to convert firearms to automatic. But Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, does not limit photos or hashtags around firearms. That makes it difficult for platforms to separate people posting gun photos as part of a hobby from those with violent intent, said Sara Aniano, a social media and disinformation researcher, most recently at Monmouth University. In a perfect world, there would be some magical algorithm that could detect a worrisome photo of a gun on Instagram, Aniano said. For a lot of reasons, thats a slippery slope and impossible to do when there are people like gun collectors and gunsmiths who have no plan to use their weapon with ill intent. Meta said it was working with law enforcement officials Wednesday to investigate Ramos accounts. The company declined to answer questions about reports it might have received on Ramos accounts. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings. By AMANDA SEITZ Associated Press Students who survived Texas school attack describe scene View Photo UVALDE, Texas (AP) A young survivor of the massacre at a Texas elementary school said she covered herself with a friends blood and pretended to be dead while she waited for help to arrive. Miah Cerrillo, 11, told CNN that she and a friend called 911 from her dead teachers phone Tuesday and waited for what felt like, to her, three hours for officers to arrive at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The 18-year-old shooter, Salvador Ramos, was inside the school for more than an hour before he was shot to death by Border Patrol tactical officers. Thats according to top law enforcement officials who provided new details Thursday of a confusing and sometimes contradictory timeline that has angered and frustrated the parents and onlookers who had urged police to charge into the school. Miah said that after the shooter moved from one room into the adjacent one she could hear screams and a lot more gunfire, and that the gunman then started blaring music. The children who survived the attack, which killed 19 schoolchildren and two teachers, described a festive, end-of-the-school-year day that quickly turned to terror. Samuel Salinas, 10, told ABCs Good Morning America that he and other classmates pretended to be dead after Ramos opened fire on the class. Samuel was struck by shrapnel in his thigh. He shot the teacher and then he shot the kids, said Samuel, who was in Irma Garcias class. Garcia died in the attack and her husband, Joe Garcia, died Thursday of an apparent heart attack. Gemma Lopez, 10, was in a classroom down the hall when Ramos entered the building. She told Good Morning America that a bullet came through her classroom wall before any lockdown was called. Her best friend, Amerie Garza, died in the rampage. ___ More on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas: https://apnews.com/hub/school-shootings SEATTLE (AP) Alan White, the longtime drummer for progressive rock pioneers Yes who also played on projects with John Lennon and George Harrison, has died. He was 72. Whites death was announced on his Facebook page by his family. The post said he died at his Seattle-area home Thursday after a brief illness. Just days earlier Yes had announced that due to health issues White would not take part in the bands upcoming tour of the United Kingdom to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the iconic album Close to the Edge. White joined Yes in 1972, replacing original drummer Bill Bruford. In a band noted for frequent lineup changes, White was a constant and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Yes in 2017. Though he didnt play on Close to the Edge, he performed on every subsequent Yes studio album over nearly five decades, including the bands latest release, The Quest, which came out last year. White stayed with the band through its many iterations. A trailblaizing act in the progressive rock scene in England that grew in popularity in the early 1970s alongside bands like Genesis, Pink Floyd and Jethro Tull, Yes was especially known for its intricate arrangements and the musical skill of its individual members. When progressive rock fell out of fashion in the late 1970s many of the bands associated with the genre struggled. Following another lineup change, Yes, with White still behind the drum kit, reinvented itself in the 1980s as a harder edged band that appealed to younger listeners more attuned to heavy metal and the visual cues of music videos. In 1983 Yes released the smash hit album 90125." A longtime Seattle-area resident, White was born in Pelton, County Durham, England, in 1949. His family said he began piano lessons at age 6 and playing the drums when he was 12. White played with bands in England throughout the 1960s. In 1969, he was asked by John Lennon to join his Plastic Ono Band. In an interview with The Seattle Times in 2021, White said he thought the call from the famous Beatle was a prank. A voice announced, Hello, this is John Lennon, White said. I thought it was a mate pulling my leg, put the receiver down, and went back to the kitchen." White played a 1969 concert in Toronto with Lennon's band, which also included guitarist Eric Clapton. White also played with another Beatle, contributing drums to George Harrison's 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass. In the statement announcing his death, his family wrote: Alan was many things to many people: a certified rock star to fans around the world; band mate to a select few, and gentleman and friend to all who met him. A former Flower Mound Baptist pastor has been indicted by a Denton County grand jury on sexual misconduct charges involving a 14-year-old girl and a woman in her 30s. Grand jurors issued two indictments last week against Michael Wayne O'Guin, 34, who left The Church at Wichita Creek in Flower Mound amid allegations of misconduct in August 2001. O'Guin, who arrived at the church in fall 1999, now lives in Tennessee. Denton County District Attorney Bruce Isaacks said his office will seek to extradite O'Guin to Texas. O'Guin was indicted on charges of the sexual assault of the girl and the attempted sexual assault of the woman. Officials say the later incident took place at the church. O'Guin has declined to comment. He works at an insurance company in Dyersburg, Tenn. The girl was raped at a Flower Mound home in spring 2001, Flower Mound police Lt. Wendell Mitchell told the Dallas Morning News. O'Guin at one time lived nearby, Mitchell said, and the girl reported the incident in September. The incident involving the woman occurred in fall 2000 at the church, Mitchell said. She reported the crime to police in October, he said. Mitchell said he did not know why the women did not alert police sooner. "He is innocent until proven guilty, but any time you have an allegations of a sex crime involving a minister, that's fairly egregious," Isaacks said. "Any allegations like this tears up a church." The church's current pastor, David Sylvester, said in a written statement that the church is cooperating with authorities. He said the Flower Mound church, which has about 175 members, is recovering and counseling is being offered. Two weeks after the second report was made, Flower Mound detectives traveled to Tennessee to question O'Guin, Mitchell said. He was arrested on the two charges and taken to the Dyer County jail. O'Guin was released after posting a $1,000 bond the same day, Dyer County jail officials said. Information from: The Dallas Morning News As memorials take shape to honor the 19 students and two teachers killed in their classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday, May 24, some San Antonio H-E-B partners are providing a space where shoppers can also mourn the losses. Andrew Mauricio, an employee at the H-E-B location at Potranco and Loop 1604 built a makeshift memorial with the help of the store's floral department to remember each of the children and their teachers. The table has 21 flower bears, in pink and blue, with each of the victims' names. Heart-shaped balloons loom over the table. A sign with the words "Uvalde Texas Strong" sits at the center. Mauricio tells MySA that the Texas grocery company is a "tight-knit" work environment and the geographical proximity between San Antonio and Uvalde made the tragedy "hit home." Courtesy, Andrew Mauricio "We support each other anyway that we can," he says. Mauricio teamed up with floral manager Lidia Rivas to get enough flowers for the memorial. They decided on the bears, covered in flowers, for a special reason. Courtesy, Andrew Mauricio "It's forever that we are going to remember them so I thought it would be proper to put a Forever bear," he says. As customers pass the heartfelt show of support, set up near the frozen section, many are snapping photos and sharing on social media, saying how the memorial touched them. While Mauricio appreciates the sentiment, he says it wasn't the intent. "It's not about getting comments or advertising ourselves, it's about doing what's right," he adds. Barbara Robles-Ramamurthy, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the Long School of Medicine at UT Health San Antonio, previously told MySA doing things like donating or finding activities to connect with community can be essential in the grieving process. If anything, Mauricio's idea is an avenue for San Antonians to connect with their neighbors. He says the tribute will remain up until Saturday, May 28. H-E-B as a whole committed $500,000 to Uvalde aid and is giving customers a chance to add a donation to their bills at checkout. "What do you say, how do you console these people? I have two daughters and I can only imagine what they're going through," Mauricio says. "It's something that no parent should have to go through. This is just our way of showing we're thinking about them and we're there in support. That's really what this is about." Click here to read the full article. Fresh from their stealth takeover of the final episodes of The Book of Boba Fett, Din Djarin, aka Mando (Pedro Pascal), and his adorable companion Grogu are coming back early next year for Season 3 of The Mandalorian. Announced at Star Wars Celebration on Thursday, Season 3 of The Mandalorian will premiere on Disney+ in February 2023. Also announced at the Thursday Star Wars Celebration, the Ahsoka spinoff, starring Rosario Dawson as Anakin Skywalkers former Padawan, will arrive sometime in 2023. In-person attendees at Star Wars Celebration were shown an exclusive teaser, which featured Mando dealing with the repercussions of removing his sacred Mandalorian helmet. It was also announced that Katee Sackhoff is returning as Bo-Katan Kryze in an antagonist role. At the end of Season 2 of The Mandalorian, Mando and Grogu parted ways when Luke Skywalker (played by a digitally de-aged Mark Hamill) took Grogu with him to train in the ways of the Force. But on The Book of Boba Fett, Grogus bond with Mando proves too powerful, and Grogu chooses to leave his Jedi training and reunite with Mando. Thats just after Mando is cast out from his Mandalorian covert for the cardinal sin of removing his helmet in the presence of others. The only way Mando can restore his honor, he learns, is to visit the living waters beneath the mines on the planet Mandalore which is a problem, as the Empire carpet bombed the entire planet in their great purge of Mandalorians from the galaxy. Mando is also still contending with the darksaber, the weapon he won at the end of Season 2 that by prophecy made him the rightful heir to rule Mandalore. That also puts Mando at cross purposes with Bo-Katan (Sackhoff), a Mandalorian warrior who once possessed the darksaber without having won it which, by prophecy, doomed the planet. Bo-Katan knows that in order for her to stake another claim at rule, she needs to win back the dark saber, and Mando stands in her way. At least the taciturn bounty hunter has a sleek new ride in the form of a custom outfitted Naboo speeder, which has just enough room for Grogu now sporting custom-made beskar chainmail armor to join him. The news was part of Lucasfilms main presentation at the Star Wars Celebration convention in Anaheim, Calif. the first time Star Wars fans have gathered in person since the pandemic. Sign up for Varietys Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. NEW ORLEANS (AP) Seventeen years after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, the Army Corps of Engineers has completed an extensive system of floodgates, strengthened levees and other protections. The 130-mile (210-kilometer) ring is designed to hold out storm surge of about 30 feet (9 meters) around New Orleans and suburbs in three parishes. It is "the largest civil works project in the Corps history and is the result of nearly two decades of hard work and collaboration at the local, state and federal level, Gov. John Bel Edwards said during a symbolic handoff to the state Friday. The people of New Orleans have experienced the worst Mother Nature has to offer, and with the completion of the system, theyll be protected by the best of engineering, design and hurricane protection. The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1, and federal meteorologists predict it will be busy. Congress provided $14.5 billion for what is formally called the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System and related projects. It includes two features the Corps describes as the worlds largest a pumping station and a 1.8-mile (2.9-kilometer) barrier that can be closed against storm surges. Louisiana will pay $1.1 billion, the governor's office said in an email Friday. It did not say whether that includes interest. The levees stood up to Hurricane Ida in 2021, though some suburbs outside the system flooded. By 2011, the system could protect against a storm with a 1% chance of occurring in any given year, according to the Corps. Features added since then include armoring levees to prevent erosion and scouring when stronger storm surges rise above their tops, and three permanent canal closures and pumps. We know that eventually we will face a surge greater than the 1-percent elevations so we designed the HSDRRS to be overtopped, Col. Stephen Murphy, commander of the Corps' New Orleans District, said in a news release. With all of the armoring now in place, this system enters the 2022 Hurricane Season stronger than it has ever been. The state has been taking control of the system for years as components were built, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate noted. It said maintenance and operation costs are expected to run about $25 million a year for the Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority-East and about $7.8 million annually for its west bank counterpart. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) Fabian Espinel last year helped organize concerts in the streets of Bogota, as young people protested against police violence and government plans to increase taxes on lower income Colombians. Now, as his country heads into its presidential election Sunday, he walks the streets of the capitals working-class sectors handing out flyers and painting murals in support of Gustavo Petro, the front-runner candidate who could become Colombias first leftist head of state. Young people in this country are stuck. We hope Petro can change that. said Espinel, who lost his job as an event planner during the pandemic and received no compensation from his company. We need an economic model that is different than the one that has been failing us for years. Colombians will pick from six candidates in a ballot being held amid a generalized feeling the country is heading in the wrong direction. The latest opinion polls suggest Petro, a former rebel, could get 40% of the votes, with a 15-point lead over his closest rival. But the senator needs 50% to avoid a runoff election in June against the second-place finisher. Should Petro win outright Sunday or the possible runoff contest next month, the leftist anti-establishment candidate would usher in a new era of presidential politics in Colombia. The country has always been governed by conservatives or moderates while the left was sidelined due to its perceived association with the nations armed conflict. The left has been quite marginalized due to the weight of the armed conflict in Colombia, to the very recent existence of a guerrilla that claimed to be leftist like the FARC, Yann Basset, a political analyst and professor at the Universidad del Rosario, said referring to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The change occurs with the peace agreement, which lifts this mortgage for the left a little and promotes a different agenda with social issues suspended by the conflict. His main rival through most of the campaign has been Federico Gutierrez, a former mayor of Medellin who is backed by most of Colombias traditional parties and is running on a pro-business, economic growth platform. But populist real estate tycoon Rodolfo Hernandez has been rising fast in polls and could challenge for the second spot in Sunday's vote. He has few connections to political parties and says he will reduce wasteful government spending and offer rewards for Colombians who denounce corrupt officials. Petro promises to make significant adjustments to the economy as well as change how Colombia fights drug cartels and other armed groups. His agenda largely centers on fighting inequalities that have affected the South American nation's people for decades and became worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. He has promised government jobs to people who cant get work, free college tuition for young Colombians and subsidies for farmers who are struggling to grow crops, which he says he will pay for by increasing taxes on wealthy individuals and corporations. His agenda also touches on issues that could shake up Colombias tight-knit relationship with the United States. Adam Isacson, an expert on defense policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, a think tank, said if Petro wins the election there will be more disagreement and distance between both countries. Petro wants to renegotiate a free trade agreement with the U.S. that has boosted imports of American products like powdered milk and corn. and instead favor local producers. He also promises to change how Colombia fights drug cartels that produce around 90% of cocaine currently sold in the U.S. The senator often criticizes U.S. drug policy in the hemisphere, saying it has failed because it focuses too much on eradicating illegal crops and arresting kingpins. He wants to boost help for rural areas, to give farmers alternatives to growing coca, the plant used to make cocaine. Isacson said coca eradication targets could become less of a priority for the Colombian government under a Petro administration, as well as the pace at which drug traffickers who are arrested are sent to the U.S. to face charges, The election comes as Colombias economy struggles to recover from the pandemic and frustration grows with political elites. A Gallup poll conducted earlier this month said 75% of Colombians believe the country is heading in the wrong direction and only 27% approve of conservative President Ivan Duque, who cannot run for re-election. A poll last year by Gallup found 60% of those questioned were finding it hard to get by on their household income. Sergio Guzman, a political risk analyst in Bogota, said the pandemic and the 2016 peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia rebel group have shifted voters' priorities. Whereas previous elections centered around issues like how to deal with rebel groups, now the main issue is the economy, Guzman said. Voters are concerned about who will tackle issues like inequality or the lack of opportunities for youth. If Petro or Hernandez should win the presidency, they would join a group of leftist leaders and outsiders who have been taking over Latin American governments since the pandemic started in 2020. In Chile, leftist legislator Gabriel Boric won the presidential election last year, leading a progressive coalition that promised to change the countrys constitution and make public services like energy and education more affordable. In Peru, voters elected rural school teacher Pedro Castillo to the presidency although he had never held office. Castillo defied political parties that have been mired in bribery scandals and presidential impeachment trials and bungled the nations response to the coronavirus pandemic. Ecuadorians bucked the leftist trend last year, but still elected an outsider opposition candidate, Gullermo Lasso. In regional affairs, Petro is looking to re-establish diplomatic relations with the socialist government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Colombia cut diplomatic ties with Venezuela in 2019 as part of a U.S.-led effort to isolate Maduro and pressure him with sanctions into holding new elections. Some observers think Petro could be in a position to mend bridges between Maduro and some sectors of Venezuela's opposition. Solving Venezuelas political and economic crisis is in Colombias interest, said Ronal Rodriguez, a professor at Bogota Rosario university. Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at the University of Los Andes in Bogota, said Petro may not have enough leverage to make significant changes to Colombias foreign policy. Efforts to renegotiate the free trade agreement with the United States could be thwarted by legislators in both countries, she said. And when it comes to security, the Colombian military will be reluctant to give up on cooperation agreements with the U.S. that include joint exercises, intelligence sharing and jobs for Colombian military instructors in U.S.-financed courses in other Latin American countries. Borda said Petros ability to change Colombias foreign policy could hinge on whether he wins the first round outright. If he has to go to a run-off, she said, he will have to make deals with parties in the center, which might support his domestic reforms in exchange for more control over security and international relations. His priority will be to carry out domestic reforms aimed at reducing inequality and overcoming poverty, Borda said. Petro understands that if he does that he has a greater chance of consolidating his political movement. If you were looking for the Charlestown Democratic Town Committee website and ended up here, try this Got news tips, gossip, suggestions, complaints?E-mail us: progressivecharlestown@gmail.com We strive to avoid errors in our articles. Our correction policy can be found here Kin Man Hui, San Antonio Express-News / Staff photographer Rep. Joaquin Castro took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon, May 26, to call for the FBI to step in and "investigate and provide a full report" on the deadly shooting in Uvalde as new information from law enforcement conflicts with previous reports. The Texas Department of Public Safety held a press conference Thursday following previous conflicting reports from authorities on when the18-year-old shooter that killed 19 children and two teachers went into the school and was later shot and killed. There were initial reports that there was a police officer on campus when the shooter arrived, but Victor Escalon, DPS regional director, said that was not accurate at the press conference. U.S. Border Patrol tactical teams didn't breach the school until an hour after the shooter's arrival. CECILE CLOCHERET/AFP via Getty Images Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick may have canceled their appearances for today at the National Rifle Association Annual Meeting, but thousands of gun control activists are protesting outside Houston's George R. Brown Convention Center, where the event is scheduled to take place from Friday, May 27, through Sunday, May 29. The protests have developed after Uvalde's Robb Elementary School became the site of a mass shooting on Tuesday, May 24. An 18-year-old gunman locked himself inside a classroom, eventually killing 19 students and two teachers. An additional 17 were wounded during the shooting. vmargineanu/Getty Images/iStockphoto San Antonio police are investigating reports of a shooting off the highway that caused a panic at a nearby business. Shots were reported fired between two vehicles on the citys Northside on I-10 on Thursday afternoon, May 26, according to KSAT. The incident happened around 1:30 p.m. on Interstate 10 near the 6800 block of Park Ten Boulevard. Police said the two drivers involved knew each other and pulled over to the side of the highway. Thats when, investigators say, one driver pulled a gun and fired at the other driver in the second vehicle. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Colonel Steven C. McCraw has given details on why the police department waited about an hour to enter the classroom where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday, May 24. After an investigation, McCraw said it was a bad decision to not enter the classroom. According to McCraw, the gunman entered a door that was propped open by a teacher at 11:33 a.m. after he crashed his stolen grandmother's vehicle. He then started shooting into two classrooms connected to each other one minute later. McCraw said 19 officers entered the same door as the gunman and responded to the classrooms where the doors were locked in with the shooter at 11:35 a.m. McCraw said it was the decision of the Uvalde Police Department to not enter the classroom as they believed it was a barricaded subject situation and not an active shooting case. McCraw said the police department believed there weren't any children at risk at that time. It wasn't until 12:50 p.m. when U.S. Border Patrol tactical teams entered the classroom and killed the suspect, McCraw said, adding it was a wrong decision to wait for backup. He said they believe there should have been an entry as soon as they could. "There was no excuse for that," McCraw said. "It was the wrong decision, they should've gone right in but then again I wasn't there." McCraw also gave details of the 911 call that came from the students in the classroom. He said the multiple calls were made around 12:10 p.m. that gave details of how many students were alive and dead inside the classroom. McCraw said he's not sure why 911 dispatchers didn't tell the officers at the scene that children were still at risk. The shooter brought a total of 60 rifle magazines to the school, along with 1,657 rounds of ammunition. McCraw said 315 of those rounds were brought inside the school by the shooter and 142 of those rounds were fired. McCraw said there were 35 spent law enforcement cartridges inside the school. Eight shots were fired in the hallway and 27 were inside the classroom, where the shooter was killed. According to McCraw, the shooter never posted on Facebook publicly that he was going to shoot up the school. He said it was actually through Facebook Messenger where the shooter had a conversation with somebody else about his plans to shoot up a school. In his group chat on Instagram on March 3, he replied to a question about buying a gun with "just bought something [right now]." On March 14, the shooter posted on Instagram, "10 more days." A user replied if he was going to shoot up the school, in which the gunman answered, "No. And stop asking dumb questions and you'll see." McCraw also confirmed the gunman was not one of the individuals arrested in the 2018 foiled plan to shoot up a school in Uvalde CISD in 2022. Crystal City Independent School District, about 39 miles south of Uvalde, has implemented safety precautions to its graduation ceremony after receiving persistent and pervasive threats, according to a news release from the district. The district announced the new safety measures on its Facebook page Thursday evening, May 26, stating the ceremonies remain scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 27. However, no bags, purses, cases, backpacks, and other like items will be allowed. The district isn't allowing noise makers and firecrackers as well. Additionally, the district isn't allowing pictures after the ceremony. It advises families to arrive a few minutes early to capture as many memories as possible prior to the commencement of the ceremonies. The district plans to have a heavy amount of law enforcement at the ceremony. Carrizo Springs CISD, another district not far from Uvalde, announced on Thursday that it has canceled school for the remainder of the school year out of an abundance of caution to keeping its schools safe. The last day of school was slated to be on Friday. The Carrizo Springs High School graduation ceremonies for the senior class of 2022, however, will continue as planned at Frank Carter Stadium beginning at 8 p.m. MySA.com has reached out to the district on any safety measures being placed at the ceremony. The district is 50 miles south of Uvalde. The threats and school cancellations come after a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday, May 24. Other districts across Texas have been investigating threats as well. On Wednesday, May 25, Donna Independent School District announced on its Facebook page that it has decided to close all schools in light of recent school threats and out of an abundance of caution. The district, which is in the Rio Grande Valley area near McAllen, stated the safety of its staff and students are its main priority. According to The Monitor, an AK-47 and a list of targeted students were found by law enforcement officers in the home of one of the suspects. In San Antonio, Northside Independent School District is investigating a threat made via social media toward one of its campuses on Wednesday. The district said it's aware of a photo circulating on Instagram of someone threatening the students at Sul Ross Middle School at 3630 Callaghan Road. Rep. Tony Gonzales told KSAT on Friday, May 27, the Uvalde gunman was allegedly arrested four years ago for threatening to shoot up a school. Gonzales, who said he heard the information Thursday night, told WOAI that the gunman said, "When I'm a senior in 2022, I'm going to shoot up a school." He did not share a source for the information. During a May 27 press conference in Uvalde, Director Steven McCraw of the Texas Department of Public Safety confirmed the gunman was not one of the individuals arrested in 2018. After his initial tweet and prior to the press conference, Gonzales tweeted that, "There are multiple agencies on the ground and I am getting updated information by the minute. We will continue to revise as we learn more." Earlier this week, MySA asked DPS and Uvalde Police Department about the possible connection to a 2018 incident, but a response was not received before this article's original publication. In May 2018, two unidentified teenagers from Uvalde were arrested after authorities discovered their plan to commit a mass shooting at a junior high school in Uvalde that was originally planned to carry out on April 20, 2022, according to a report from MySA.com. The teens were inspired by the Columbine, Colorado shooters, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and often referred to each other using those names. Harris and Klebold killed 13 people and wounded 24 others in a mass murder at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Although originally planned for 2022, one of the suspects persuaded the other to commit the shooting in 2018 at Morales Junior High, which is in the same district as Robb Elementary School. The teens allegedly created a list prioritizing which students they would kill and planned to steal their neighbors' weapons. They planned to detonate explosive devices at the beginning of the attack, hunt down and kill the students on their list, and then indiscriminately kill as many students as they could before committing suicide. A student at Morales Junior High learned of the plan and reported it to school officials, who then notified law enforcement authorities. Lambert and I, and many readers, agree that Ukraine has prompted the worst informational environment ever. We hope readers will collaborate in mitigating the fog of war both real fog and stage fog in comments. None of us need more cheerleading and link-free repetition of memes; there are platforms for that. Low-value, link-free pom pom-wavers will be summarily whacked. And for those who are new here, this is not a mere polite request. We have written site Policies and those who comment have accepted those terms. To prevent having to resort to the nuclear option of shutting comments down entirely until more sanity prevails, as we did during the 2015 Greek bailout negotiations and shortly after the 2020 election, we are going to be ruthless about moderating and blacklisting offenders. Yves P.S. Also, before further stressing our already stressed moderators, read our site policies: Please do not write us to ask why a comment has not appeared. We do not have the bandwidth to investigate and reply. Using the comments section to complain about moderation decisions/tripwires earns that commenter troll points. Please dont do it. Those comments will also be removed if we encounter them. * * * Whats killing the worlds biggest fish? Vox Every Bear Market is Different Compound Advisors Climate The Wests Poor Climate Track Record Is Spilling Over to Other Policy Areas Carnegie Endowment for International Peace #COVID19 Monkeypox Warning signs ahead of monkeypox outbreak went unheeded, experts say STAT. Chikwe Ihekweazu, former director general of the Nigeria CDC: [Y]ou pull out the army whenever theres a single case exported. But theres no interest in working together with the country from which the cases are coming to try and understand it a little bit more. Oh good: Premier cas de variole simienne en milieu scolaire au Qc First #monkeypox school case in Quebec https://t.co/ynwk2X7CFi pic.twitter.com/3DSiQOaifK Covid Ecoles Quebec (@CovidEcoles) May 26, 2022 China? Myanmar Myanmars environment hit by rare earth mining boom Mekong Eye. Kachins rare earth production makes Myanmar the worlds third-largest rare earth producer behind China and the US, according to United States Geological Survey (USGS). The Economist Is at Risk Of Believing the Burmese Militarys Propaganda Domestic Voice of Burma India Police say they have dismantled Alameddine crime network after arresting 18 people ABC Australia. [E]ach phone could generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug sales, with one of the seized devices having 700 contacts and making $250,000 each week alone. [T]here has been a number of murders in regards to these phones. UK/EU Tory Britain faces extinction at the hands of a radical hard-Left alliance The Telegraph. Parliamentary Labour, who threw Corbyn under the bus, hard left? GTFO. New Not-So-Cold War Biden Administration Uvalde No way to prevent this: Supply Chain Shortages Patients Face Long Delays for Imaging of Cancers and Other Diseases NYT Search Results for fabral closure strip at The Home Depot (Re Silc): Fabral1 in. x 36 in. Inside Shelterguard Closure Strip Model# 6769019000 (2) $5.96 Limit 5 per order https://www.homedepot.com/s/fabral%2520closure%2520strip?NCNI-5 Cant even make this stuff. Its crappy foam. Operational Breakage Our Famously Free Press Whistleblowers My Full Speech Outside Chevrons Cancer-Causing Refinery in California Donzinger on Justice Imperial Collapse Watch Guillotine Watch Why does it feel good to do good? FT Class Warfare Winning Against the Odds: The 32BJ SEIU Organizing Model New Labor Forum (Left in Wisconsin). We Are Not Living in a Simulation, We Are Living In the Past The Convivial Society Whig History The Rectification of Names What Is Time? Nautilus Antidote du jour (via): See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here. China to promote cold-chain logistics development for agricultural products Xinhua) 14:33, May 27, 2022 BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- China will prioritize the development of cold-chain logistics for agricultural products amid efforts to better secure market supply. The country aims to improve the cold-chain infrastructure for agricultural products and boost the capability and efficiency of their cross-regional cold-chain circulation over the next two years, according to a circular jointly released by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Commerce on Friday. The ministries will support the upgrade of cold-chain infrastructure in distribution centers and sales areas and the establishment of public cold storages and central kitchens, per the circular. The circular also noted support for related enterprises in sales areas to expand their cold-chain collection and distribution centers and low-temperature delivery centers. Provincial-level governments are encouraged to utilize their subsidies from the central government to shore up market supply. The circular also advised local governments to buttress pandemic-hit cold-chain companies that have contributed to securing supply in accordance with local situations. (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) (Natural News) Every May 20 of each year, World Bee Day is celebrated to raise awareness about the importance of bees and other pollinating insects for ecological health and human survival. More than 75 percent of the worlds food crops relies on bees and other pollinators, either completely or in part, as do 90 percent of wild flowering plants. In the past five decades, there has been a 300 percent rise in the number of crops being produced that are reliant on pollination. Slovenia proposed to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly on December 20, 2017 to proclaim May 20 as World Bee Day. The resolution was the outcome of an initiative started in 2015 by the Slovenian Beekeepers Association to create awareness about the significance of bees and other pollinating insects, which are facing extinction due to the wide range of toxic human activities. May 20 was selected because it coincides with the birthday of Anton Jansa, who pioneered modern beekeeping techniques in his native Slovenia in the 18th century and praised the bees for their ability to work so hard, while needing so little attention. There are in fact around 25,000 and 30,000 different species of bees around the world. Some of the most common species are the sweat bees, digger bees, carpenter bees, cuckoo bees and long-horned bees. Caring for bees, other pollinators part of the fight against world hunger The UN has said that caring for bees and other pollinators is part of the fight against world hunger. It is also critical to maintain and protect biodiversity among bee species to guarantee agricultural resilience. The Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agricultures first report on The State of the Worlds Biodiversity for Food and Agriculture released in April 2019 had warned that biodiversity is decreasing around the world, thus threatening global food production and human survival. The commission is part of the UNs Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). All forms of life, such as animals, plants and microorganisms essential for food, feed, fuel and fibers are also losing diversity. Of around 6,000 species of agricultural plants, fewer than 200 contribute to global food production, and just nine of them account for 66 percent of total crop yield. World livestock production is based on approximately 40 animal species, with just a handful providing the vast majority of meat, milk and eggs, WorldBeeDay.org said. The catch quantity is being exceeded for a third of fish stocks, while more than half have reached their limit of sustainability. At the meeting of the FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, the European Region proposed that the results of this report be included in the strategy of biodiversity being drawn up by FAO. It also said that countries should respond to the main conclusions of the report by including the findings and content in national policies, legislation, programs and projects in the area of biodiversity in agriculture, forestry and food. It added that this should be in line with their capacities, while there is an urgent need to formulate measures to implement the conclusions from the report. The website further said the report will be important for discussion on the global framework for biodiversity as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity after 2020 and for achieving the sustainable development goals of Agenda 2030. Another global assessment report on pollinators, pollination and food production issued by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in 2016 found that an estimated 16 percent of the vertebrate pollinators across the globe are threatened by extinction including 30 percent of island species. Likewise, researchers at the University of New Hampshire warned that there has been a dramatic decline of 14 wild bee species required for pollination of apples, blueberries, cranberries and other crops grown in the Northwest. (Related: Wild bees are ESSENTIAL for producing larger and better blueberries) Utilizing museum data from 1891 through 2016, the researchers examined the predominance of 119 wild bee species that are native to New Hampshire but also widespread across the Northeast and North America as a whole. Fourteen of the species were discovered to have substantially decreased while eight species have considerably grown. Out of the 14 species that are decreasing, 13 are said to be ground nesters and one is a cavity nester. In general, both decreasing and increasing bee species have been migrating northward over the last 125 years, hinting changes in climate are a driving factor. Follow Ecology.news for more news about bees and their importance in the ecosystem. Watch the video below to know why the death of all bees will lead to the demise of humanity. This video is from the Natural News channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Putting it bluntly: If all bees die, humanity will soon follow Deadly pesticides can harm bee populations for generations, study finds Probiotics found to protect honey bees from toxic effects of pesticides Amazing study reveals bees can connect symbols to numbers: Insects COMPUTE Save the bees: The American Bumblebee may become critically endangered, warn researchers Sources include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org Gov.si Brighteon.com (Natural News) The United States ambassador to the United Nations warned that the global food shortage caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has reached the highest level of alarm. I can tell you, on a scale of one to 10, Im probably at the 10 level of alarm, because this crisis has exacerbated what is already a serious food insecurity issue, said Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield on Friday, May 20, during an interview with the BBC. Thomas-Greenfield said food insecurity was already a serious issue before Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, and it has severely worsened since. (Related: Ukraine reports two-thirds decrease in grain exports while global wheat prices skyrocket.) Russias aggression in Ukraine, its blockade of the ports, blocking Ukrainian wheat from getting to the market has exacerbated this situation and made it even more dire and the impact is being felt across the world, she said. Ambassador blames Russia for growing food insecurity The first thing that must be done to aid food insecurity issues around the world, according to Thomas-Greenfield, is for Russia to end its war. First and foremost, we have to keep the pressure on the Russians to end this unconscionable war against the Ukrainian people and allow Ukraine to go back to a situation where they are contributing to the food market around the world. In previous statements, Thomas-Greenfield said she fully supports UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres initiatives to get Ukrainian grain back into the international marketplace amid the war. He has spoken to us about his plans and his discussions with the Ukrainians and the Russians on the issue, the ambassador told reporters without giving further details regarding the progress of the U.N. negotiations. Guterres himself has visited both Moscow and Kyiv, and following these visits the UN secretary-general has been determined to help bring back to world markets the agricultural production of Ukraine and the food and fertilizer of Russia and its close ally Belarus. Guterres has reportedly asked Russia to allow shipments of Ukrainian grain past its blockade of Ukraines Black Sea ports. In exchange, the UN will negotiate with the West, which has imposed heavy sanctions against Russia, to allow Russian and Belarusian exports of potash fertilizer. For her part, Thomas-Greenfield has made statements condemning countries engaging in protectionism by putting limits or other restrictions on food produced in their countries that are being exported. She said removing these restrictions could help alleviate food supply issues. But the ambassador emphasized that Russia has the biggest responsibility when it comes to ending the current food supply crisis. The facts are that they are blocking food. There are no sanctions on their agricultural products. They are attacking Ukrainian silos and keeping farmers from planting. So the action is in Russias hands to stop this food blockade, to also start to export their own food that they have put restrictions on, said Thomas-Greenfield. But in the meantime, as we keep the pressure on Russia, we will increase our humanitarian funding, our in-kind funding of food and were encouraging others to do the same to keep the food and agriculture markets open. Guterres has pointed out that some 36 countries count on both Russia and Ukraine for at least half of their wheat imports. These countries include some of the worlds poorest and most vulnerable, such as Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. David Beasley, executive director of the World Food Program, warned the Security Council that 50 percent of the agencys grain for food aid comes from Ukraine, and the ongoing war is threatening its ability to provide food to some 125 million people globally. Learn more about food insecurity issues around the world at FoodCollapse.com. Watch this episode of the Health Ranger Report as Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, lays out a timeline for the coming food and diesel shortages in America. This video is from the Health Ranger Report channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Bank of England governor warns of coming apocalyptic global food shortage. Global hunger crisis on the horizon as US, Britain, Australia, others deliberately demolish their own food production. Possibility of poor wheat harvest in China increases fears of global food collapse. Food prices nearing record highs, likely to get worse in coming weeks. Globalists have been planning to starve the world with food scarcity since at least 2015. Sources include: News.Yahoo.com USUN.USMission.gov Euractiv.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) The media frenzy surrounding monkeypox is making the disease out to be extremely deadly and the current outbreak to be far larger than it actually is. How scary is it? Should you be scared at all, or should you be just annoyed at the dunderheads who are trying to frighten you to hide again, to wear masks again, to get experimental jabs again? asked broadcaster and homeopathic practitioner Robert Scott Bell during the May 23 episode of his Brighteon.TV program, The Robert Scott Bell Show. (Related: Why did the government buy 13 million monkeypox vaccines from a biotech company backed by Fauci?) Bell pointed out that one of the main factors that drive the news cycle and bring mainstream media companies more revenue through views and advertisements is learning about the disease of the day, disease of the week, disease of the month. The only thing that can catch peoples attention through fear is something scarier than what [the media] lied to you about before, said Bell. And now were on to monkeypox. Bell made it clear that he believes the media is trying to keep peoples attention focused on this to divert from other issues. I think this is a ruse, of course, he said. Just to keep you on edge before something really bad and horrible really happens. US has only one confirmed case of monkeypox Health authorities in Europe, North America, Israel and Australia have confirmed around 130 cases of monkeypox and are monitoring around 100 other people as suspected cases. The United States itself only has one confirmed and six presumptive cases. As mainstream media companies continue to fearmonger about the monkeypox virus, the worlds leading doctors are claiming that the risk to the general public is very low. Although this latest outbreak has affected more patients than we had previously encountered in the U.K., historically monkeypox has not transmitted very efficiently between people and overall the risk to public health is low, said Hugh Adler of the Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in a press release talking about the outbreak in Britain. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently said during a media briefing that people should not treat this outbreak the same way they treat Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreaks. This is not COVID, said Dr. Jennifer McQuiston, the CDCs deputy director for the Division of High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology. The only community that needs to be moderately worried about monkeypox are men who identify as gay or bisexual. Both the CDC and the World Health Organization agree that gay and bisexual men have an increased risk of catching monkeypox through sexual contact. Regardless of risk, the disease itself can be terrible, but not deadly. Most monkeypox patients only experience fever, body aches, chills and fatigue. People with more serious cases may develop pox painful fluid-filled blisters that can appear on the face, hands and feet. Most people recover within two to four weeks of infection without needing to be hospitalized. The monkeypox variant currently circulating has a fatality rate of less than one percent. Learn more about the monkeypox outbreak at Outbreak.news. Watch this episode of The Robert Scott Bell Show as host Robert Scott Bell talks about the monkeypox outbreak. The Robert Scott Bell Show with host Robert Scott Bell airs every Monday at 4-5 p.m. and Saturday at 6-7 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. More related stories: WHO: Monkeypox outbreak traced to homosexual men who attended rave events in Europe. Monkeypox outbreak was actually predicted in a 2021 report from companies that receive financial support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Monkeypox just the latest engineered distraction as controlled demolition of human civilization accelerates. RIGGED: Government spends $119 million for monkeypox vaccines following ONE confirmed case in US. New engineered pandemic: US buys millions of vaccines as monkeypox outbreak hits Europe and North America. Sources include: Brighteon.com TheHill.com ABC.News.Go.com 1 FoxNews.com NPR.org ABC.News.Go.com 2 (Natural News) There is some good news Down Under: South Australias extreme Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) restrictions as provisioned under the Emergency Management Act are on the verge of being repealed. The bad news is that they are simply shifting in a new direction to become a permanent fixture of South Australian life. 7 News ran a segment you can watch it below about how the penalties under a new proposed law for Fauci Flu restriction violations are so extreme that the Australian Parliament is expected to explode in conflict over their potential implementation. (Related: Remember when Australia was selectively non-enforcing covid restrictions for LGBTQs, giving them a free pass while everyone else was tyrannized?) South Australia ?? Labor Covid Madness ?Fines of up to 70k and 2 years jail for any individuals breaking Covid RulesWelcome to Covid1984 ? pic.twitter.com/Le3lQe6zho ????????????? (@risemelbourne) May 23, 2022 The new legislation is said to replace the Emergency Management Act responsible for rules like mandatory quarantining and mask wearing, a 7 News reported explained. But the alternative bill could face some pushback in the Upper House. The law society says it lacks detail and would hand the governor extraordinary, permanent powers. Leaked documents have reportedly revealed that the Liberal Party is worried about hefty penalties of up to $75,000 and a two-year jail term planned for any future covid breaches. Is this the consequence of Aussies giving up their gun rights? The evening after the segment ran, the shadow cabinet met to go over the bill with a fine-toothed comb. The Liberal Party apparently supports a move out of the emergency declaration, but will not be agreeing to a tick-and-flick situation with the new bill and its provisions. So there could be some fiery scenes in Parliament when it resumes tomorrow, the 7 News reported added. It is important to emphasize that the proposed changes, if enacted, would make covid fascism a permanent affair in South Australia. Since the restrictions would no longer be categorized as an emergency, they would become codified as law and enforced indefinitely. This is why many now refer to the plandemic as Covid-1984. It was predicted that medical fascism would never go away, despite initial claims that it would only take two weeks to flatten the curve. If you give the government an inch, they take a mile and then some. And once they have that newfound power, chances are they will not give it up easily or ever. So far, the powers that be seem to be running into minimal resistance in Australia with these kinds of things, probably because that country gave up its gun rights years ago. Many are warning that Americans must defend the Second Amendment at all costs to avoid the same type of thing happening here. Dont ever, I mean never, let them take our guns, wrote someone in response to the news. This is the kind of garbage that tyrannical government brings on when the population is disarmed and unable to do anything about it, suggested another. Numerous others pointed out that governments are magnetized to maximum totalitarianism when they know that the population does not possess the weaponry to fight back against it. Oh well, there goes any chance of the return of tourist revenue, said another about the travel implications of these new proposed restrictions in South Australia. I was vacationed in Australia and New Zealand for three weeks six years ago and loved it. Was going to go back in 2023, now I never will go back to those dystopian hellholes. More related news coverage about ongoing covid restrictions can be found at Fascism.news. Sources for this article include: CitizenFreePress.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The Biden administration is warning Americans that another pandemic is coming and it could happen just around the November midterm election. Or, maybe, Biden and his gang will just intensify their fearmongering and make it seem that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is still out for more blood. Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and the White House Coronavirus Response coordinator, predicted a rise in COVID-19 cases for the coming fall and winter during his recent appearance on ABCs This Week. (Related: Ashish Jha, Bidens new COVID-19 Coordinator, wants everyone to have vaccine passports) Jha told host Martha Raddatz that they are planning for a variety of scenarios, including a wave of infection this fall and winter. Were making sure we have a new generation of vaccines that are being worked on right now, that we have availability of treatments and testing, and we have the resources, he said. Biden administration wants more COVID funding And just like Biden, Jha also called on Congress to pass funding against the virus. By the way, one of the reasons Ive been talking a lot about the need for Congress to step up and fund this effort is if they dont, Martha, we will go into the fall and winter without that next generation of vaccines, without treatments and diagnostics. Thats going to make it much, much harder for us to take care of and protect Americans, Jha said. And when it comes to funding, Americans dont appear to be as worried as the Biden administration. Based on a report released by Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index on May 18, the numbers are evenly split by the smallest amount with at least 31 percent saying that funding is not enough. At least 35 percent said its the right amount, while 33 percent said that its too much. Experts said that administration officials should do a better job of preparing the public for a rejuvenated virus in the fall and winter seasons when people spend most of their time indoors. They added that if people become complacent by waiving booster doses or neglecting to vaccinate their children, they could pay a price later. The attitude is, Weve got this, were over it.' said Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in San Diego. People should be gearing up, they should be getting booster shots. But there is no awareness. If the pandemic seems to be a minor concern, that also makes it tougher for the White House to get new funding from Congress to refill its supply of tests, treatments and vaccines in time for the fall. The Biden administration has said it wants to launch a booster campaign at that point with vaccines retooled to work better against the latest version of the virus. Jha warned during a White House briefing that if Congress fails to give the administrations request for $22 billion in new COVID funding, Americans would suffer when the fall season comes. Indoor mask mandate set to return Another takeaway from Jhas appearance on the ABC program is a likely return to indoor masking. Raddatz and Jha made mention of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who ceased from re-imposing an indoor mask mandate. Jha reiterated the directive: When youre in an indoor space, you should be wearing a mask. I feel that very strongly, that in crowded indoor spaces, in places with high transmission, people should be doing that. Neither Raddatz nor Jha mentioned that Adams ordered the forced masking of toddlers. More news like this can be found at BigGovernment.news. Watch the video below to know how Americans react to Bidens handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. This video is from the This video is from the GalacticStorm channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Federal judge blocks Bidens covid vaccine mandate for health care workers. Another 14 states have been cut off from monoclonal antibody treatments, compliments of the Biden regime. Republicans vow to sue Biden over COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Sources include: News Punch.com NYTimes.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) Two drug companies that specialize in manufacturing smallpox vaccines and other associated treatments are going gangbusters in the profit department now that the media is fearmongering about the spread of monkeypox, a relative of smallpox. Emergent BioSolutions and SIGA Technologies were both failing companies before all this began, and now they suddenly hold a monopoly in the U.S. market for smallpox drugs how convenient. Share prices in both companies have risen substantially ever since monkeypox started appearing in the news cycle. Emergents stock climbed 12 percent the other day while SIGAs soared by 17.1 percent. For these companies, the monkeypox fears are a godsend, specifically for SIGA, which produces a smallpox treatment, known by its brand name TPOXX, writes Whitney Webb for The Defender. It is SIGAs only product. It turns out that Ron Perelman is behind SIGA, which is part of his powerful empire of company holdings. Perelman, as you may recall, has troubling ties to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, as well as to the Clinton crime family and the Democrat Party. Moderna was also a failure before COVID magically rescued the company from financial ruin Emergent also has a sordid history with troubling ties to the 2001 Anthrax attacks, as well as a more recent cover-up involving quality control issues with its production of Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines. A congressional investigation revealed serious quality control issues at an Emergent-run production facility that resulted in more than 400 million doses of Fauci Flu shots having to be discarded for contamination. This is all strikingly similar to the situation that Moderna was in prior to the launch of the COVID-19 plandemic. The company had never produced a successful product until suddenly launching a novel mRNA (messenger RNA) injection technology that quickly exploded in global use. Modernas stock skyrocketed after the announcement of Operation Warp Speed and the rest is now history. It appears as though we are once again witnessing a Big Pharma pump-and-dump scheme taking place under the guise of a new disease threat, and most people are still none the wiser as to the fraud. As for the Emergent factory that was shut down last April due to the contamination issue, it reopened in August only to have the government terminate its contract with the company. Given that the majority of the companys business is tied to U.S. government contracts, the loss of this contract, and the accompanying poor publicity, the news that its smallpox vaccine may soon be of international interest is likely seen as a godsend by the company, Webb further writes. Notably, this is the second time in a year that both companies have benefitted from pandemic or bioterror fears propagated by the media. Last November, speculation arose that a re-emergence of the eradicated virus that causes smallpox would soon take place. Billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates is also involved in all this, which is hardly a surprise since his name always seems to turn up in association with these types of things. Last November, Gates commented on the prospect of smallpox bioterrorism. Less than two weeks later, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced an investigation into 15 suspicious vials labeled smallpox that were discovered at a Merck & Co. facility in Philadelphia. Now, roughly six months later, the same fears are again paying off for the same two companies, Webb notes. What becomes of this whole thing in the coming days remains to be seen. Will the powers that be successfully swindle the public into once again falling for fear and hysteria over an invisible virus? Or have the people finally smartened up after more than two years of covid fascism? More related news about Big Pharma can be found at BigPharmaNews.com. Sources include: ChildrensHealthDefense.org NaturalNews.com (Natural News) When looking at how systems are corrupted [and] controlled and how ordinary lives are affected, its usually important to look at where power is centralized and how power operates, said comedian and commentator Russell Brand. (Article by Susan C. Olmstead republished from ChildrensHealthDefense.org) Weighing in on the U.S. baby formula shortage, Brand said he believes corrupt power structures are behind the crisis. Calling the shortage a f*king disgrace, Brand singled out Abbott Laboratories parent company of formula-maker Abbott Nutrition, which dominates the baby formula market for valuing profits over people. Power structures hamper free market At the root of the formula shortage is not Putins price hikes or migrant babies stealing our formula, Brand said, but rather the powerful corporations that cornered the market on formula. Is Putin hiking prices, Brand rhetorically asked, or are those prices being hiked because of centralized financial power and monopolizing forces that have been ramping up for many a long year now? Free-market capitalism has failed, at least when it comes to regulated products, he said: The myth that we are sold about free-market capitalism is [to create] a variety of choice, any plucky little upstart can make their own little baby formula if your baby formula is good enough. Well, thats not true, is it? Because what tends to happen is centralized power is able to organize itself efficiently and monopolize indefinitely. Once a market is cornered or controlled it can be manipulated and prices can be increased and managed. Whats more, Brand said, The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the formula companies collaborate, cooperate [and] communicate in ways that dont seem like the kind of relationship that should exist between a regulator and the thing that theyre regulating. Abbott Nutrition, the food-sector branch of the medical device and healthcare corporation Abbott Laboratories, dominates the infant formula market. The companys sales accounted for roughly 43% of the $45.4 billion formula market a decade ago, according to a 2011 U.S. Department of Agriculture report, which contains the latest available figures. Abbott used the massive profits it accumulated between 2019 and 2021 to enrich shareholders amid a bacteria outbreak that killed two babies and temporarily closed its plant in Sturgis, Michigan, according to financial documents and whistleblower testimony that The Guardian recently revealed. On May 16, the White House announced a deal to reopen Abbott Nutritions infant formula plant in Michigan in a bid to ease widespread shortages. The Associated Press on Tuesday reported Abbott Nutrition representatives said they expect to restart the plant June 4 and begin shipping new formula to stores about three weeks later. However, the move wont address the underlying problem of an industry dominated by only three companies Abbott, Mead Johnson and Gerber. Also on Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced it would launch an investigation into the formula shortage, to shed light on the factors that have led to concentration in the infant formula market and the fragility of the supply chains for these crucial products. Another aim of the investigation is to look into the nature and prevalence of any deceptive, fraudulent, or otherwise unfair business practices aimed at taking advantage of families during this shortage, the FTC stated in its announcement. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) last week said Abbott Nutrition put profits and production over people, and due to what is a disgraceful lack of oversight is now causing parents and caregivers to struggle to feed their kids. Abbotts Depakote payout revealed exploitation Brand pointed out that in 2012, Abbott Laboratories paid more than $1.5 billion to settle criminal and civil charges relating to the promotion of off-label uses of its drug Depakote. It was the second-largest settlement of this kind by a drug company. The Pharmaceutical Integrity Coalition called the fraudulent marketing a coldly calculated scheme to exploit [people with dementia] for financial gain. The coalition also reported that in 2001-2006, Abbott encouraged unlawful, off-label use of Depakote to treat schizophrenia, despite clinical results showing no efficacy for the use of Depakote for this indication: Abbott waited almost two years to inform its sales force and another two years to publish the findings [of the clinical studies]. Instead, the company continued to promote off-label use of Depakote to treat schizophrenia. Abbott Laboratories is the ninth-biggest pharmaceutical company in the world, with a net worth of $192 billion, Brand said, citing Macrotrends. How does Abbott get away with this negligence? Its almost as if, he said, the government which Abbott aggressively lobbies thinks the profits of companies like Abbott are more important than schizophrenic people, people with dementia and babies. Watch the episode here: Read more at: ChildrensHealthDefense.org (Natural News) As the nation mourns and tries to deal with yet another senseless slaughter of innocent children and adults at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this week, in which 19 fourth-graders and two adults were gunned down by an 18-year-old shooter, a report has surfaced suggesting the same suspect may have been involved in a similar plot four years ago. According to a 2018 report by KENS5, two students, ages 13 and 14, were arrested by police after a plot to commit a mass casualty event was uncovered: Two Uvalde teens were recently arrested for Conspiracy to Commit Murder after officers said they foiled a mass-shooting plot the pair had schemed. A press release obtained by KENS 5 thoroughly chronicles events leading up to an investigation performed by the Uvalde Police Department and the Texas Rangers. One of the students had numerous writings and drawings which depicted weapons capable of causing mass destruction. He wrote about being God-like and killing police and other persons, the report added. Uvalde Chief of Police Daniel Rodriguez noted in the press release that a Morales Junior High School student, 14, and a former Morales student, 13, were specifically targeting several students in what they were plotting as a mass casualty event against the school. Police said that the two teens were motivated in large part by the Columbine High School shootings outside of Denver in 1999. The investigation revealed that the students were infatuated with the Columbine High School shootings and identified themselves to the shooters. The investigation uncovered that the students even referred to themselves using the Columbine shooters names, the press release stated. Investigators also believe the students were planning to hold the attacks years from now during their senior year, on the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. However, one of the students began to convince the other that they should move the attacks up to this year. One of the students had numerous writings and drawings which depicted weapons capable of causing mass destruction. He wrote about being God-like and killing police and other persons. He had an academic analysis of one of the Columbine shooters journals, the release stated. The press release also said that the teens were planning to detonate IEDs before murdering students placed on a list ranked by priority. But heres the chilling part, according to KENS5: Investigators also believe the students were planning to hold the attacks years from now during their senior year, on the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. However, one of the students began to convince the other that they should move the attacks up to this year. After detonating the IEDs and gunning down those on a target list, the teens were then planning to finish out their attack by shooting whomever they encountered before eventually turning their guns on themselves, according to the release. Any kids that had talked bad about them or said anything they did not like, basically, they said they were going to go and kill them, one student said. You just felt unsafe. And teachers have been bringing it to our attention that you cant be saying those things anymore. We cant do that. It is wrong. It was scary. We hear it everywhere else, but you dont expect for it to happen in your town, a parent added. I am glad they were able to control the situation before anything does happen. And that they actually did something about it. Sometimes you think theyre just going to hear it, and say it wont happen and dust it under the rug, and they actually did something. Now, since the names of juveniles are not publicly released, and their records would be sealed, given the nature of the crime when compared to what happened in Uvalde this week, it is fair to ask: Is the Robb Elementary School shooter one of these two teens? Sources include: KENS5.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) A tenured professor at Duke University compared mandatory equity training to Maoist political propaganda workshops, prompting outrage from PhD candidates accusing him of transphobia & homophobia. (Article by Jarryd Jaeger republished from ThePostMillennial.com) On Tuesday, the Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology (MGM) at Duke University sent out an email to faculty, staff, postdocs, and trainees informing them of mandatory equity training. The response from one tenured professor caused Alan Rosales to take to Twitter and complain. https://twitter.com/bshwckplantdad/status/1529226005763727363 Rosales, who according to his Twitter profile is a Biomedical Engineering PhD candidate, posted screenshots of the original email and the professors response, which he deemed to be disgusting. MGM leadership and department members are working with OIE to design a training module aimed at helping members of our department be fair and welcoming to individuals who differ in their background, the email read. The dates and times are then listed, along with a warning that Per school of Medicine guidelines, all faculty are required to attend a session. Not long after, distinguished professor Dr. Bryan Cullen replied to the request. My initial reaction is I refuse to engage in left-wing Maoist political propaganda workshops, he wrote, and, as a tenured faculty, that is my choice. Rosales tagged Duke and the school newspaper in his post, accusing Dr. Cullen of having a history of transphobia & homophobia. He doesnt provide any details, however, according to the Duke Chronicle, the professor had come under fire for posting comics with transphobic undertones, and suggesting in his lectures that gay men played a critical role in the early spread of HIV in the USA. https://twitter.com/bshwckplantdad/status/1529226009123356672 THIS IS NOT OKAY AT ALL! Rosales said, decrying the fact that Duke constantly talks about creating an inclusive environment but dares to support faculty members with alternate viewpoints. Transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia or ANY form of discrimination is never okay! he added, before urging the university and department to act accordingly ASAP! According to another PhD candidate, Dr. Cullen is slated to retire in the near future. Aside from teaching, he is Director of the Center for Virology, and Member of the Duke Cancer Institute. Read more at: ThePostMillennial.com (Natural News) The World Economic Forum (WEF) met in Davos, Switzerland to discuss the future of controlling humanity. J. Michael Evans, president of the Alibaba Group, talked about the development of an individual carbon footprint tracker. Were developing through technology an ability for consumers to measure their own carbon footprint, said Alibabas Michael Evans. What does that mean? Thats where theyre traveling, how theyre traveling, what are they eating, what are they consuming on the platform. Individual carbon footprint tracker. Stay tuned, we dont have it operational yet but this is something that we are working on, he added. Chinese mega corporation to unleash new carbon footprint tracking technology This carbon footprint tracker technology (from China) is designed to track and control every persons travel and consumption of food, energy and other goods. To accomplish these goals of surveillance and control, the world elite would either have to use injectable or implantable surveillance technology or reset the global economy with a digital currency that can track and restrict everyones purchases and travel abilities. This tracking technology could be adapted into vehicles to restrict a persons travel and interfere with their autonomy and freedom. Individuals have already been primed to accept this technology due to their use of apps and devices that track and record their every move, purchase and behavior. The Alibaba Group is behind the technology. This Chinese mega corporation operates in a culture that doesnt respect human rights. The company has great leverage and would be able to implement these tracking systems with ease. The company could easily convince corporations around the world to apply the carbon footprint tracker technology and shame companies that dont go along as being climate change deniers. Carbon footprint trackers go hand-in-hand with social credit scores and grander population control schemes Now that individuals have given up their body sovereignty to mask and vaccine mandates, it wouldnt be that hard to mandate this kind of technology for the greater good. Many people will easily go along with the carbon mandates to virtue signal that they are saving one another and saving the planet. This is all part of a grander scheme of implementing social credit scores, which have also been introduced in China. People will be pressured to slowly give up their faith in God and put their trust in a global government. In order to have a high social credit score and be acceptable in society, individuals will be cajoled to behave and believe as their masters desire. Social media platforms have already been engineered to prime people to comply with this system of social acceptance and control. The carbon footprint is just one of the main aspects in this system of total control over the population. This technology will easily go hand-in-hand with future plandemics and climate change lock downs. The WEF previously praised the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021 as beneficial to the climate. In social media posts, the WEF advertised lockdowns as quietly improving cities around the world. Many of the WEF members supported contact tracing to unlawfully detain and lock people in their homes for two weeks at a time, (multiple times) under the guise of complying with a public health-ordered quarantine. These same WEF panelists lecture the world population about their carbon footprint, right before they take off in their private jets, which spew more carbon emissions in one flight than the average person uses in one year. The WEF endorsed the lockdowns and the labeling of small businesses as non-essential. It was these totalitarian actions that rapidly consolidated corporate and government control over the population, quashing property rights and leaving individuals and businesses dependent on the next government stimulus. As WEF founder Klaus Schwab infamously said, In the future, youll own NOTHING and youll be happy about it. Schwab and the rest of the WEF elite derive their pleasure from manipulating and controlling people and treating us all as expendable blips in a faithless, centrally-planned world. Sources include: BigleaguePolitics.com Twitter.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The Kremlin claims that sanctions imposed by the West as punishment for the Russia-Ukraine war are to blame for the global food crisis. The conflict and the sanctions on Russia that followed have sent prices of cooking oil, grains and fertilizer skyrocketing. Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on May 23: We are not the source of the problem. The source of the problem that leads to world hunger are those who imposed sanctions against us, and the sanctions themselves. He remarked that Russia has always been a rather reliable grain exporter, citing its refusal to prevent Ukraine from exporting grain to Poland by rail which was far slower. This, he said, is in spite of the West sending in weapons to Ukraine by rail. According to Peskov, Ukraine had made commercial shipping impossible by placing mines in its waters to prevent the entry of Russian warships. But this made navigation dangerous for both commercial and military vessels, he continued. For the sea transportation method we say, again, that we are not the source of this problem. On alternative routes from our side, again we are not the source of problems that lead to the threat of world hunger. (Related: Germany BLOCKS Russia from exporting food, then BLAMES Russia for causing brutal hunger.) Since the war broke out in late February 2022, Kyiv has lost some of its biggest seaports such as Kherson and Mariupol to Russian forces. It also fears that Moscow may attempt to take Odesa, located in southwestern Ukraine. Ukraine is a major exporter of grains and vegetable oil which include corn, barley, sunflower and rapeseed oil. Meanwhile, Russia and its ally Belarus account for more than 40 percent of potash, a fertilizer that supplies key nutrients for food crops. Both Russia and Ukraine account for almost a third of global wheat supplies. According to the United Nations (UN), 36 countries some in the Middle East and Africa depend on these two major wheat producers for imports. West officials rebuke Russia for weaponizing food supply The Kremlin press secretarys comments came amid remarks by officials from the West that denounced Russia for purportedly weaponizing the global food supply. On May 19, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken accused Russia of holding food supplies hostage for Ukrainians and other people around the globe. He added that the decision to weaponize food is Moscows and Moscows alone. The food supply for millions of Ukrainians, and millions more around the world, has quite literally been held hostage. The Russian government seems to think that using food as a weapon will help accomplish what its invasion has not: to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people. Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev hit back at Blinken. Things dont work like that; we are not idiots. We have all the opportunities to ensure there is food in other countries so that there are no crises. Just dont prevent us from working, he wrote on the Telegram messaging app. Everything turns out to be illogical. On the one hand, crazy sanctions are introduced while on the other hand, there are demands to supply food, added the former Russian president. A day after Peskov gave his remarks, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen rebuked Russia for its actions against Ukraine, citing allegations of Moscow deliberately bombing grain silos in the country. Russia is now hoarding its own food exports as a form of blackmail holding back supplies to increase global prices, or trading wheat in exchange for political support. This is using hunger and grain to wield power, she said on May 24 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was in contact with multiple parties to restore grain exports from Ukraine. He had been talking with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union with a view to alleviating the worsening global food crisis. Watch this Russia Today report about the wider repercussions of the Wests sanctions on Russia. This video is from the High Hopes channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Russia warns Western firms supporting sanctions that they could face asset seizures, arrests. Russian sanctions and oil embargoes to cause worlds biggest oil supply crisis by next month. IMF official warns Western sanctions on Russia are threatening the dollar as worlds reserve currency. Business and investing podcaster M.C. Laubscher: Entire world will suffer because of sanctions on Russia. Biden casually tells Americans that food shortages are going to be real as a necessary price of his anti-Russia sanctions. Sources include: Reuters.com AA.com.tr Business-Standard.com English.Ahram.org.eg Brighteon.com (Natural News) The NBC News tool we wrote about last week, Brandy Zadrozny, is now the standard of comparison for vaxx zealots on this blog. This person, who is also a pedophile supporter, tells the vaxx zealot populace at-large how and what to think, how to deny reality, and how to deny indisputable truth. (Article republished from TheCOVIDBlog.com) For example, this blogger spoke with Zadrozny about Pfizer board member James C. Smith. He was the President and CEO of Thomson Reuters until 2020. Smith is also currently the Chairman of the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Thus all Reuters fact-check articles are inherently biased misinformation due to the blatant conflicts of interest with Pfizer. Zadrozny said this fact is irrelevant because Thomson Reuters, the Reuters Foundation, and Reuters are all independent of one another. She was shown the bottom of the Reuters Fact Check page that clearly states Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters. Vaxx zealot modus operandi is then to dismiss the indisputable truth as conspiracy theory and misinformation, followed by ad hominem attacks aimed at the truth messenger. The following headline is from a Vice News article published on February 28, 2020. The story mocks anti-vaxxers and their conspiracy theory about forthcoming vaccine mandates. About 21 months later, in November 2021, risk management firm Willis Towers Watson published a survey. It found that 57% of employers already had COVID vaccine mandates or planned to implement them in the near future. Four months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a preliminary injunction, halting the Joe Biden mRNA vaccine mandate for employers with 100-plus workers. The term conspiracy theory in 2022 is synonymous with truth and/or accurately predicting the truth. U.S. government and mainstream media are incredibly predictable. But a majority of Americans refuse to accept the fact everything in this world is orchestrated by government, mainstream media and corporations. Tribal loyalty is more important than truth in 2022, despite the two tribes being owned and operated by the same nefarious factions. The Washington Post published an article last week showing how Fox News host Tucker Carlson has been close friends with Hunter Biden for decades. Donald Trump has given upwards of $250,000 to the Clinton Foundation through 2020, including $100,000 in 2009 alone. But in 2022, truth to 70-plus percent of Americans is whatever their tribal leaders tell them. And now with so-called COVID-19, the most powerful human psychological operation in history, millions will die or be maimed as a result of government and mainstream media propaganda. Pregnant women not included in mRNA, viral vector DNA vaccine clinical trials The Zadrozny disinformation podcast featured an interview with Mrs. Amanda Makulec. We wrote about Ms. Makulec and her infant son who died on September 26, 2021, just 85 days after birth. Ms. Makulec bragged incessantly about the injections being safe for everyone. She was particularly vocal about sharing [my] immune protections via the injections while pregnant and subsequent vaxxed breast milk. Ms. Makulec complained to Zadrozny about this blogger using her story to spread misinformation, particularly regarding safety and efficacy with pregnant and breastfeeding women. The New York Times even gave Ms. Makulec a platform to continue encouraging pregnant and breastfeeding women to receive the injections. Granted critical thinkers who have followed this blog from the beginning know that pregnant and breastfeeding women were excluded from all Pfizer Phase III clinical trials. We published this information on May 7, 2021 via Pfizers own documents. Also by that time, wed already covered several stories of pregnant women having spontaneous abortions and stillborn babies days and weeks after the injections. There was even a March 2021 paper published in the peer-reviewed European Heart Journal that confirmed breastfeeding and pregnant women were excluded from Phase III trials for all of the injections. Now we have even more confirmation after Pfizer released 80,000 more pages of clinical trial data on May 1. Continue reading at: TheCOVIDBlog.com (Natural News) There are those in the U.S. deep state who are champing at the bit to go to war with Russia, but because they know that the vast majority of Americans oppose that lunacy, they are looking for other ways to fight Moscow by proxy. That has largely come in the form of providing tens of billions of dollars worth of aid and weaponry to Kyiv, even at the risk of reducing our own military war stocks to dangerously low levels. Now, according to a new report, the Pentagon appears to have drawn up plans to sink the entire Russian navys Black Sea Fleet, an escalation that would no doubt draw a nasty response from President Vladimir Putin. According to Antiwar.com: Shortly after Reuters published an exclusive story that the White House was looking to move advanced anti-ship missiles to Ukraine, an official in Kiev said that the US is making a plan to sink Russias Black Sea Fleet. Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs adviser Anton Gerashchenko wrote in a now-deleted tweet, The US is preparing a plan to destroy the [Russian] Black Sea Fleet. The effective work of the Ukrainians on [Russian] warships convinced [the US] to prepare a plan to unblock the [Ukrainian] ports. Deliveries of powerful anti-ship weapons are being discussed. Gerashchenko cited the Reuters report on Washingtons effort to ship Harpoon and Naval Strike Missiles to Ukraine. The missiles have a range of up to 300 km and cost $1.5 million each. A trio of U.S. officials, as well as two congressional sources, told Reuters that the White House was continuing to work out details of how to get more advanced weapons to Ukraine, even as Russia has been targeting NATO supply lines into Ukraine. Due to logistical issues and the potential for the U.S. having to remove a launcher from one of the U.S. Navys warships, there are obstacles standing in the way of the transfer at the moment. So in other words, Bozo Biden and his handlers are dismantling a portion of our own fleet to provide Ukraine with a weapon system Russian forces are sure to target and destroy once it is used. Perfect. In response to a question from Newsweek, a State Department spokesperson would not rule out that the Pentagon was working on a plan to destroy the Black Sea Fleet. As the conflict is changing, so too is our military assistance to deliver the critical capabilities Ukraine needs for todays fight as Russias forces engage in a renewed offensive in eastern Ukraine, a spokesperson noted. As is normal for this administration, however, not long after someone from the Department of Defense issued a strong rebuke of any notion that the regime was planning to take out Russian warships. I can tell you definitively that thats not true, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters late last week, though the denial only pertained to the Ukrainian officials assertion about getting help from the U.S. to attack the Russian fleet. Kirby did not, notably, deny the proposed transfer of anti-ship weapons, which, if it takes place, is akin to Washington taking out the Russian fleetby proxy. And rest assured, Vladimir Putin knows the distinction; he wont sit back and allow the U.S. government to take part in destroying hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian state property. Gerashchenko said the attack would help to open up Ukraines ports. Russia currently controls the Black Sea and maintains a blockade, Antiwar.com reported. The UN has called for an easing of restrictions in the sea to allow food exports from Ukraine to help alleviate global food shortages, the site added. Earlier this week, NATO announced that it would not be sending allied warships into the Black Sea, which appears to be a deescalation for now. But providing anti-ship missiles to Ukraine still appears to be on the table. Sources include: AntiWar.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) A small victory has been won in the fight against the World Health Organizations (WHO) highly oppressive International Health Treaty (IHR). Reports indicate that 12 of the 13 amendments to the treaty submitted by the Biden regime at the recent World Health Assembly (WHA) in Geneva have been scrapped though this does not mean that they will not make a comeback at a future date. At least for now, the amendments are on hold because IHRs Working Group for Pandemic Response (WGPR) was unable to reach a consensus on the amendments and thus removed them from consideration. On his Substack, independent journalist James Roguski, who monitored the meetings, wrote that this is a crucial step in the fight against the WHOs all-encompassing proposal. He is also still urging everyone to contact their legislators to oppose it. Roguski reported that in addition to the public inundating the WHO and their representatives with objections to transferring national sovereignty to the global elites, the removal of a dozen amendments came through legal action filed in the U.K. by a physician, Zac Cox, writes Veronika Kyrylenko for The New American. Cox filed an appeal last Friday after his May 17 request for judicial review of the amendments was rejected. The court notified the physician that his appeal was without merit since the IHRs Working Group for Pandemic Response (WGPR) was unable to reach a consensus on the amendments and removed them from consideration. The one IHR amendment that remains is the one the Biden regime really, really wants, says Roguski Nobody seems to know for sure yet what transpired to lead to this outcome, but Roguski suspects that it could have something to do with the fact that WHO operates behind closed doors, and only now did member nations realize the full details of its agenda once the amendments were proposed. Maybe some of the members of the WGPR actually read the amendments, comprehended them and had the same reaction that I did, Roguski writes. Maybe Brazil, some African nations or other stakeholders read the amendments and realized what the hell was going on A good percentage of the members of the WGPR opposed the amendments Maybe, just maybe, People Power reared its powerful head, shined a very powerful light on the amendments, which were expected to be considered in darkness. There is only one pending amendment that remains, and according to Roguski this is the one that they [the Biden regime] really, really want. This is why Americans need to really get involved in the process of shooting it down or as Roguski puts it, to deliver a knockout punch. In an interview with War Rooms Steve Bannon, Roguski opined about how the WHO will never give up in its quest to take over every aspect of global health at the individual level. The United Nations arm wants full control of everyones bodies, and so does the Biden regime. They will keep trying to do this again in the future, Roguski explained. Weve got to stay vigilant. The last remaining amendment, by the way, would change Article 51 of the IHR to change the amount of time to reject amendments from 18 months to just six months. The U.S. technically ratified the IHR back in 2005, but these latest amendments really expand its reach. And all of them were released publicly with almost zero media coverage, suggesting that the plan was to covertly enact them with little or no fanfare. The New Americans Kyrylenko explains more about all this in his article. The latest news coverage about the WHOs encroachment on national sovereignty can be found at Tyranny.news. Sources for this article include: TheNewAmerican.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed House Bill (HB) 2086 into law on May 20, effectively banning mandatory Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination for K-12 students in the state. Under HB 2086, immunization against HPV and COVID-19 including the different variants of the latter are no longer required before students can attend in-person learning. The Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) is in charge of drafting the rules for students mandatory vaccines. HB 2086 also mandated that the DHS must also include a recognition of immunity from the two diseases. Students with a medical contraindication to vaccines are exempted from the requirement. The same exemption also applies to students whose parents object to vaccination on grounds of religious or personal belief. As per the bills text, it does not preclude a parents right to make health care decisions for the parents minor child. According to local Phoenix channel FOX 10, HB 2086 supersedes an earlier bill passed in 2021 that banned mandatory vaccination using vaccines that only have emergency use authorization. Following Duceys signature, HB 2086 will take effect 90 days after the Arizona Legislature adjourns its session for this year. (Related: Arizona governor bans state and local governments from requiring vaccine passports.) Ducey, a Republican, also signed into law HB 2453. The bill prohibited governmental entities defined the state and any political subdivision of the state, including the judiciary, that receives and uses state tax revenues from imposing mask mandates anywhere on their premises. Only those with workplace safety and infection control measures introduced before the COVID-19 pandemic can require face coverings. Critics of the measures are claiming that the mandates repealed by the two bills are critical in keeping COVID-19 at bay when another surge strikes. Florida signed vaccine ban a year earlier A year before Ducey signed HB 2086, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a similar measure into law. The leader of the Sunshine State signed Senate Bill (SB) 2006 back in May 2021, which prohibits schools, businesses and government entities across Florida from mandating COVID-19 vaccine passports. This essentially equates to a ban on mandatory vaccination in schools as the passports prove that students got injected with the shot. SB 2006 took effect on July 1 of the same year. DeSantis defended his decision to sign SB 2006 into law, saying: The legislation creates a default legal presumption that during any emergency, our businesses should be free from government mandates to close, and our schools should remain open for in-person instruction for our children. The move followed an April 2 executive order issued by DeSantis that blocks COVID-19 passports. With SB 2006 being signed into law and taking effect, the executive order now becomes permanent. Aside from outlawing vaccine passports, SB 2006 also ensures that both the state and local governments would be prohibited from banning students from attending in-person classes unless there are hurricane emergencies. The bill also limits local emergency orders to a maximum of seven days, and allows the governor to invalidate a local emergency order if it unnecessarily infringes on individual rights or liberties. In Florida, your personal choice regarding vaccinations will be protected. We wanted people to be happy living [here]. It was the road less traveled at the time, said DeSantis. Watch Jefferey Jaxen and Del Bigtree talking about Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey dropping COVID-19 mandates below. This video is from The HighWire with Del Bigtree channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Florida lawmakers pass bill banning vaccine passports in the state. Arizona attorney general alarmed by Bidens door-to-door vaccination push. Florida governor bans vaccine passports, as they create TWO CLASSES of citizens. Arizona AG rules Tucsons COVID-19 vaccine mandate targeting city employees is ILLEGAL. Arizonas largest health system announces vaccine mandate; move to affect over 52,000 workers. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com AZLeg.gov 1 FOX10Phoenix.com AZLeg.gov 2 GovTech.com FLGov.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) For The Right Side host Doug Billings, the Democratic Party is no more. Theres not the slightest hint of what it used to be and what it used to represent. Ive told this many times on this program, the Democratic Party, the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy, of Bill Clinton; the Democratic Party of Barack Obama is dead, especially in the elected class in the United States. It has been replaced by the Communist Socialist Party taking the first part of communism, last part of socialism [the] Communist Socialist Party of America. And they are no longer an American political party, Billings said during the May 24 episode of his program on Brighteon.TV. You can count on it. You can believe it. They have stolen control of our government. They buy, of course. They buy fraudulent elections not only [through] electoral systems, but through voter ID and registration rules, etcetera. The host of one of the most popular conservative and social commentary programs in America stated that the Democratic Party, which was once the stalwart and strong champion of blue-collar workers in the country, has rebranded itself over the last couple of years after Obama called for the need to fundamentally transform America. (Related: The Democratic party has become radicalized into the party of communism, violence and anti-America.) When the Democrats talk about fundamentally changing America or grabbing power and seizing control, they were not kidding, Billings said. He added that there are no more Democrats because they are all commie socialists who are doing everything in their power to expedite the fundamental transformation of America that Obama has called for. The Brighteon.TV host pointed out that the Democratic Party has now become all about chaos, and they want to accelerate and expedite the transformation of America away from the principles of the Divine Providence of God and the Divine-inspired founding documents of the United States. Billings said the policies, procedures and philosophies of the Communist Socialist Party have now taken over the elected class in America and they have completely hijacked the Democratic Party. They have destroyed with purpose and chaos the livelihood, career and family of the American people, he said. The Communist Socialist Party wants to destroy America The podcaster and author said the Communist Socialist Party wants to fundamentally destroy America and rebuild it in a commie socialist image. He noted that the communist socialist people or democratic people are genuinely unhappy people, unlike conservatives who are very happy people in general and better looking not in terms of physical looks but in demeanor and aura. The Left is unhappy because they are immoral, and it is a coalition of immorality that leaves depression, destruction, death and despair in its wake, he said. According to Billings, the Democratic Party is trying to tear America apart with the woke culture. He mentioned that the white supremacist movement and the Ku Klux Klan all sprang from the liberal mindset of the Democratic Party, which has now morphed into the Communist Socialist Party of America. The conservative commentator said the radical Left wants to censor, disarm and jail Americans who exercise their Second Amendment right and speak out in public in mass numbers against the establishment of the Communist Socialist Party. The woke movement of the Communist Socialist Party has to be stopped now, Billings said. He said Americans are waking up now, and millions are going to vote Republican candidates for the first time in their life because of the nightmare that the commie socialist party has thrust upon them. We are experiencing the great reawakening of the Divine Providence of God. People all across this country that have a D after their name to think theyre a Democrat are thinking to themselves this is not what I signed up for. And theyre gonna go to the voting polls this November. And youre going to see a seismic shift take place, 50 to 60 seats will go to our side, the conservative side, in the House, in Congress and well get five or six in the Senate, Billings said. We are waking up and we are witnessing the greatest example of the divine providence of God, since even the time of the founders, not even the founders witnessed this kind of Great Reawakening. We are there, we are going to be fine. Follow DNC.news for more stories about the Democratic Party. Watch the full May 24 episode of The Right Side below. The The Right Side airs every Tuesday at 7-8 p.m. on Brighteon.TV. More related articles: Marxists and extreme radicals seek to take over the Democratic Party. Elon Musk: Democratic party has been hijacked by extremists. The Democratic Party needs to be destroyed before it destroys the country. Dr. Alan Keyes brands Democratic Party the anti-American party Brighteon.TV. Sources include: Brighteon.com DougBillings.us TheFocus.news (Natural News) If it is getting harder and harder for you to believe much of what you see and hear these days in the news media, were sorry to tell you but that is all intentional. The deep state elites seek to keep all of us unstable, unsure and questioning everything because if we do that, we wont be paying any attention to the fact that those disinformation operations are designed to tighten their grip on power. So the next best thing we can do is expose the liars and disinformation operatives in the media, including Nina Jankowicz, the woman who was supposed to be the first director of the Biden regimes ministry of truth, also known as the Disinformation Governance Board. Jankowicz was exposed by Revolver News as being a disinfo specialist, meaning her job would have been to create and spread disinformation, not root it out and expose it. In fact, her job would have been to identify any factual information that runs counter to the current left-wing narrative and proclaim it disinformation while then leading efforts to censor it. And there is a reason why that new panel was to become part of the Department of Homeland Security: Censoring factual counter-narratives was to be viewed as a threat to domestic security. Its all a lie, and Jankowicz was one of the operatives. Now, Revolver News has exposed another one: It is not yet clear whether Elon Musks increasingly precarious play for Twitter will result in the restoration of free speech in the global public square. Successful or not, Elons brave move has clarified beyond any doubt the Regimes fundamental hostility to free speech and dissent. Judging from the critical reactions from journalists, NGOs and Democrat politicians, youd think the man were attempting to invade Poland rather than remove censorship on a social media platform. Of all the regime scribblers and scribes flooding the internet with glorified blog posts on the awfulness of Elon Musks Twitter bid, a piece by Renee DiResta published in the Atlantic stands out from the rest not because of its force of argument, but because of the largely forgotten scandal behind its author. Like Jankowicz, DiResta has made a career out of spreading disinformation, having worked for a constellation of NATO and State Department-funded NGOs and so-called civil society groups that work to censor facts and information that are inconvenient to the deep state and globalist regimes, all under the guise of protecting the public from disinformation. And like Jankowicz, DiResta is very closely associated with one of the most explosive and aggressively censored influence operations of the century thus far. In her piece on Musk, DiResta couched her defense of censorship with the usual platitudes about the importance of free speech, but when you delve into the crux of her article, she really takes hard aim at the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla founder while claiming that moderation is necessary to minimize bad information during a pandemic and handling a litany of rumors and lies about election theft, among others. What bad information during a pandemic? That masks dont work to stop the spread and the vaccines can be harmful and ineffective. What litany of rumors and lies about election theft? The fact that the deep state literally stole Donald Trumps reelection, as laid out in a February 2021 Time magazine article (a month after Joe Biden was sworn in), and as detailed in the new documentary 2000 Mules. Now, on to DiRestas work as a dark disinfo operative, as Revolver News notes further: Before DiResta was complaining about the threat of Elon Musks free speech absolutism in the pages of the Atlantic, she worked (among other things) as a research director for a cyber security firm called New Knowledge. New Knowledges purpose was to study the spread of disinformation, malign narratives and Russian influence operations. In her capacity as Research Director for New Knowledge, DiResta submitted written testimony to the US Senate drawing attention to the danger of such Russian disinformation and influence operations, including the alleged Russian troll farm Internet Research Agency which every self-respecting disinformation operative knows to puff up as the most malign and consequential political influence operation in modern history. But she failed to convey to the Senate a very important disinformation operation she was involved with. This influence operation was conducted by her own employer, New Knowledge, to influence the outcome of the 2017 Alabama special Senate contest between populist Roy Moore and Doug Jones. The details of the influence operation are even more scandalous. In what even the head of New Knowledge described as a false flag operation, New Knowledge conducted a secret influence operation to make it look like populist candidate Roy Moore was the beneficiary of a secret Russian influence operation! Revolver News reported. Sound familiar? Interestingly, The New York Times reported on the now-forgotten operation: As Russias online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try out similarly deceptive tactics in the fiercely contested Alabama Senate race, according to people familiar with the effort and a report on its results. Again, we cant do much to convince readers what to believe when they read in the mainstream media. We all have our sources we do and dont trust. But whenever we can expose the agents of disinformation, that is just as significant. Sources include: Revolver.News NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The medias new obsession over monkeypox could be a planned diversion away from the many adverse effects that are now appearing in people who took Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines. Suddenly the monkey disease is said to be spreading among the LGBT community, and the same type of fearmongering that appeared at the start of the Fauci Flu plandemic is once again being deployed by the government and the media. (Related: Bill Gates and other deep state criminals held a monkeypox simulation event last year that predicted the current outbreaks.) Even though this is hardly the first time that monkeypox has jumped ship from animals to humans, it is all of a sudden a major deal, we are told. Could it be that this is all a coverup or distraction to keep people fixated on the next scare rather than all the health damage being caused by Operation Warp Speed injections? The new evolving hysteria surrounding the alleged emergence of monkeypox in Western nations is not what it appears to be, reports Expose News (UK). We are not witnessing the monkeypox virus run rampant across first world countries for the first time ever. Instead, we are witnessing the latest attempt to advance Draconian biosecurity policies through a monumental coverup of the devastating damage done to the immune systems of people who have had the Covid-19 vaccine. Damage so severe that it can be likened to Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. Will monkeypox become the next global plandemic? It turns out that monkeypox is really not that big of a deal. It is much less contagious than coronaviruses and not nearly as big of a threat as smallpox, its biological relative. Chances are that very few people will actually catch it, save for those involved in homosexual sexual activity. So why all the ballyhoo about monkeypox and why now specifically? While monkeypox has mostly been restricted to Africa throughout its history of circulation, it did escape the continent and arrive in the United States for the first time in 2003. Since then, there have been a few minor outbreaks. Now we are being told that monkeypox is spreading like wildfire at LGBT festivals in Europe, and the same type of rhetoric used in early 2020 to scare the world about covid is once again being used to scare the world about monkeypox. The main points to take away from this are that the alleged monkeypox disease is extremely rare, has rarely been seen outside of Africa, and has never been recorded in multiple countries outside of Africa at the same time, the Expose explains. So with that being the case, do you not find it strange that we are suddenly being told that cases of monkeypox are now being recorded in the USA, Canada, the UK, Australia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, all at the same time? A map of all the places where monkeypox is suddenly an issue reveals that only those areas of the world where Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) jabs were introduced are reporting cases of it. Could it all be a big distraction from the elephant in the room known as Fauci Flu shot adverse events? evidence suggests were not witnessing an outbreak of monkeypox across first-world countries at all, reports indicate. Instead, were witnessing the consequences of the damage that has been caused to immune systems by the Covid-19 injections in the very same first-world countries, and authorities are rushing to cover it up. The longer time goes on, the more we are going to witness vaccine-induced AIDS (VAIDS) manifest in the fully vaccinated. With that said, monkeypox hysteria will likely continue until they move on to the next distraction. The latest news about monkeypox can be found at Outbreak.news. Sources for this article include: Expose-News.com NaturalNews.com (Natural News) The United Kingdoms National Health Service (NHS) removed all mentions of the word woman from its web pages about ovarian and uterine cancer. The Daily Mail reported that the word woman is now missing from the landing pages of three web pages explaining the three cancers that only occur in biological women. Despite the fact that only women suffer from cancers of the ovary, womb and cervix, the NHS management removed any mention of them in an attempt at politically correct language. The original version of NHS web page for ovarian cancer contained this passage: Ovarian cancer, or cancer of the ovaries, is one of the most common types of cancer in women. Ovarian cancer mainly affects women who have been through menopause, usually over the age of 50, but it can sometimes affect younger women. However, a stealthily-done update in January 2022 dropped the two-sentence passage. It was instead replaced with this line: Anyone with ovaries can get ovarian cancer, but it mostly affects those over 50. The page for womb cancer was also subjected to the same changes. Its original version opened with: Cancer of the womb uterine or endometrial cancer is a common cancer that affects the female reproductive system. Its more common in women who have been through menopause. The opening statement was excised from the site in October 2021, with no mention of women. Cervical cancer develops in a womans cervix the entrance to the womb from the vagina. It mainly affects sexually active women aged between 30 and 45, stated the NHS web page for the condition. However, a subsequent revision removed the aforementioned passage entirely. Interestingly, the latest version of the NHS page for cervical cancer features a diagram of the female reproductive system even though no mention of women is made. The NHS defended its decision to remove the words woman and women in the web pages about the three cancers, saying that it seeks to make the resources as helpful as possible to everyone who needs them. NHS pandering to feelings over biological facts Writing for LifeSiteNews, pro-life activist Jonathon Von Maren criticized the NHS move. These changes are just the latest example of the ongoing colonization of the NHS by the transgender movement, he said. It is impossible for a man to give birth or contract cervical cancer. But none of that matters: Only the feelings of trans activists matter now. Von Maren was not alone in his criticism of the British health systems removal of the word women in its resources. Coventry University professor Jenny Gamble, an expert in midwifery, warned that the change in language risked women missing out on important health information. The trend to avoid using the terms woman and women is unhelpful. It is a well-established principle of communication that the sex of individuals should be made visible when relevant and should not be made visible when not. This ensures that sex-related needs and issues are not overlooked, she told the Mail. It appears the trend to erase any mention of women for fear of offending the transgender sector is not only found across the pond. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), drew flak for using the purportedly inclusive term pregnant people instead of pregnant women. (Related: CDC director draws flak for calling on pregnant people to get vaccinated, refusing to admit only WOMEN can be pregnant.) The director of the public health agency used the phrase in a tweet that called for people to get the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. The rise in cases, vaccine hesitancy and the increased risk of severe illness for pregnant people make vaccination against COVID-19 more urgent than ever, her tweet said. Walensky used the supposedly gender-neutral term in a subsequent tweet. Many Twitter users, including two U.S. lawmakers, did not take too kindly to Walenskys use of the term. Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) said the CDCs use of left-wing language makes the American public to lose faith and trust in [its] objectivity. Meanwhile, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said the term pregnant people was erasing women, adding that the recent movement to erase women is disturbing and has made its way into our bureaucracy. Watch this video about CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walenskys call for pregnant people to get the COVID-19 vaccine. This video is from the high impact Flix and more!!! channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: UK hospitals go full woketard by now asking MEN if they are pregnant. UK equality commission: Transgenders CAN BE DENIED access to single-sex spaces. SAY WHAT? Western perversion: British midwives now being taught how to deliver babies through male genitalia. Woke insanity: Hospitals tells women to stop using the term BREASTfeeding because its offensive to transgenders. Sources include: LifeSiteNews.com DailyMail.co.uk 1 DailyMail.co.uk 2 Brighteon.com Welcome Guest! You Are Here: (Natural News) World Economic Forum (WEF) founder and Executive Director Klaus Schwab issued a thinly veiled threat toward Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro after the strongman refused to sign the World Health Organizations (WHO) pandemic treaty. Lets also be clear: The future is not just happening. The future is built by us, a powerful community you, here in this room. We have the means to impose this state [of the future] on the world, Schwab said in a video posted on Twitter. The German globalists message came amid remarks made by Bolsonaro on May 15. The strongman leading the Portuguese-speaking nation voiced out Brazils explicit refusal to sign the WHOs pandemic treaty, which grants the global health body overarching powers in the guise of addressing public health issues. (Related: Stunning plan devised by Klaus Schwab, founder of World Economic Forum, to hand globalists control of the world using COVID pandemic.) Brazil will not get into this [pandemic treaty]. Brazil is autonomous and will not get into this, you can forget that. Ive already [spoken] to our foreign relations cabinet and if that proposal goes forward, it wont be with Brazil, said Bolsonaro. Moreover, I was the only statesman that didnt adhere to the lockdown policies. I said we had to take care of the elderly and people with comorbidities, and todays studies outside of Brazil especially show that I was right. He cited the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo as an example of the utter failure of lockdowns to curb the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19). Check this out: Which state in Brazil locked [down] itself the most? Sao Paulo. Which state had the most deaths per 100,000 people? Sao Paulo. Thats a sign I was right. Bolsonaro critical of COVID-19 guidance from the WHO This was not the first time the Brazilian president crossed swords with the global health body leading to Schwab castigating the strongman. Back in October 2021, Bolsonaro and WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus tackled the worlds responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and their bigger repercussions. The two sat down during the G21 Summit that month, held in the Italian capital Rome. The Brazilian leader started the ball rolling by asking if there was prior consideration on the global health bodys part when it implemented lockdowns and other measures. All over the world, there are people who need to work to feed themselves, he pointed out, adding that the economy will collapse if the lockdowns continue. In response, Tedros said he does not see a need for Brazil to lock itself down due to the countrys high COVID-19 vaccination rate. Lockdowns were no longer necessary as long as Brazilians continue wearing face masks and washing their hands properly, he added. Bolsonaro also questioned the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines, claiming many who got the second dose are getting COVID-19. In Brazil, many who got the second dose are dying. But according to Tedros, it was possible for vaccinated people to die if they had comorbidities. The vaccine does not prevent COVID, but it does prevent serious illness and death, he added. Meanwhile, Schwab mentioned two conditions that were necessary to bring about the Great Reset he espouses. These came amid Bolsonaros refusal to work with the WHO to advance the globalist agenda. The first one is that we act all as stakeholders of larger communities instead of serving only our self-interest. Thats what we call stakeholder responsibility. [The] second [condition is] that we collaborate, Schwab said. Watch Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro rejecting the WHOs pandemic treaty below. This video is from the Journaltv channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: WHO director-general shuns vaccine passports, admits shots do not prevent COVID. Brazils Bolsonaro unchained: If you accept this vaccination passport it will lead to population control. Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro tests positive for the Wuhan coronavirus tells supporters he is well and fine. Facebook, YouTube censor Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for pointing out that covid vaccines destroy immune function Sources include: BlacklistedNews.com Twitter.com WeLoveTrump.com LifeSiteNews.com Brighteon.com (Natural News) David Beasley, executive director of the United Nations (UN) World Food Program (WFP), recently said that the global food crisis has gotten so bad that the WFP has had no choice but to take food aid from countries with already limited resources to provide for those that are on the brink of famine. Beasley made these remarks at a meeting with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, following a two-day visit to Yemen, which is currently spiraling into a catastrophe that the WFPs own resources are unable to deal with as funding dries up. We have no choice but to take food from the hungry to feed the starving and, unless we receive immediate funding, in a few weeks we risk not even being able to feed the starving, said Beasley. This will be hell on earth. The WFP, like the rest of the UN and the Western world, has pinned the recent food crisis to the ongoing war in Ukraine. If it continues, the WFP warns that fuel and food prices will continue increasing, especially grains. (Related: American ambassador to the UN: Global food crisis has reached highest level of alarm because of Russia.) In Yemen, food prices have more than doubled over the past year alone, thanks in part to the ongoing civil war. The WFP provides monthly food assistance to 13 million people in the country of approximately 30 million. At the beginning of the year, the WFP was forced to halve food rations for eight million people due to a lack of funding. The other five million have continued to receive full food rations due to their immediate risk of slipping into famine conditions. Yemen has come full circle since 2018 when we had to fight our way back from the brink of famine but the risk today is more real than ever, said Beasley. And just when you think it cant get any worse, the world wakes up to a conflict in Ukraine that is likely to cause economic deterioration around the world, especially for countries like Yemen, dependent on wheat imports from Ukraine and Russia. Prices will go up compounding an already terrible situation. WFP calls for Black Sea blockade to end Beasley has repeated the call of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Navy to end its blockade of Ukrainian ports. He urged for a political situation to allow Ukraine to continue exporting its agricultural products. If the blockade doesnt end, Beasley warned that this will further threaten global food security and will result in famine, [the] destabilization of nations as well as mass migration by necessity. He made these remarks during a debate at the UN Security Council, where he urged world leaders to take action immediately to reopen Ukrainian ports. Truly, failure to open those ports in Odesa region will be a declaration of war on global food security, he said. When a mother has to choose between freezing her child or starving her child to death, somethings wrong. Especially when theres so much wealth on the planet today over $430 trillion worth. During his speech, Beasley noted that Ukraines grain silos are full. Why are the silos full? Because the ports are not operating. It is absolutely essential that we allow these ports to open because this is not just about Ukraine, this is about the poorest of the poor around the world who are on the brink of starvation as we speak, he continued. According to the UNs data, there are currently 811 million chronically hungry people in the world. A record high of 276 million people are on the brink of starvation. This is a massive increase from the 135 million people on the brink of starving pre-Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Of these, nearly 49 million people in 43 countries are right on the edge of famine, said Beasley. The WFP director went on to warn countries against enacting protectionist policies which prevent other nations from benefiting from open food trade, as this is resulting in rapidly depleting global food supplies and skyrocketing food prices. Food pricing is our number one problem right now, as a result of all this perfect storm for 2022, he said. But by 2023, it very well will be a food availability problem. When a country like Ukraine that grows enough food for 400 million people is out of the market, it creates market volatility, which we are now seeing. Learn more about the deteriorating global food situation at FoodCollapse.com. Watch this special exclusive report from InfoWars as host Harrison Hill Smith talks about how the United Nations and the World Economic Forum are responsible for triggering the worldwide collapse of food supplies. This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com. More related stories: Conditions worse than Arab Spring coming to a city near you, warns UN food head amid worsening inflation. Corn, soybean, wheat, oat planting in the US now far behind their five-year averages. Ukraine reports two-thirds decrease in grain exports while global wheat prices skyrocket. Bank of England governor warns of coming apocalyptic global food shortage. Global hunger crisis on the horizon as US, Britain, Australia, others deliberately demolish their own food production. Sources include: SHTFPlan.com ZeroHedge.com WFP.org ReliefWeb.int Brighteon.com (Natural News) Its now 100% clear that the Uvalde mass shooting was a stand down operation, meaning law enforcement was deliberately ordered to stand down so that the massacre could take place. The goal? Gun control, of course. Uvalde police stood outside school while parents urged them to go inside during shooting, declares the title of an article from ThePostMillennial.com: Go in there! Go in there! Women shouted at officers as the officers stood there and did not go into the school to intervene and prevent the carnage, according to the AP. The gunman was barricaded in a classroom for 40 minutes, where he murdered 19 children and 2 teachers. A father who lost a daughter in the massacre raised the idea of charging in themselves, without weapons, while the police stood idly by. Lets just rush in because the cops arent doing anything like they are supposed to, Javier Cazares said. More could have been done. His daughter Jacklyn Cazares was killed inside. When he heard about the shooting, he raced to the school only to find officers standing outside. We also have a story from the left-wing media outlet MSN, declaring, Uvalde Police Officer Admits Cops Saved Their Own Kids From Robb Elementary Before Stopping Shooter: A police officer admitted that the police went inside the school to save their children first rather than stop the shooter. The officer said, There [were] some police officers families trying to get their kids out of school because it was an active shooter situation. The officer continued to talk about the situation while trying to justify the officers that went in to save their children initially. Video shows devastated parents pleading with officers to enter the school as the cries and screams of the children could be heard inside. So wait the same cops who tackled parents, pepper-sprayed one dad and tackled other parents to prevent them from going in were, themselves, rushing in just to save their own kids? Is this what law enforcement has become now? Even in Texas? They could have been shot! One of the most frustrating developments in all this is the fact that Texas DPS spokesman Lt. Chris Olivarez said in an interview with CNN that officers couldnt continue to pursue the suspect immediately because, they could have been shot. This has been reported by The Epoch Times: A Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) official has said officers could have been shot if they engaged the gunman holed up with his victims in a classroom at Robb Elementary School before a specialist tactical team arrived. They are hearing gunshots. They are receiving gunshots. At that point, if they proceeded any further not knowing where the suspect was at, they couldve been shot, they couldve been killed, and at that point, that gunman would have had an opportunity to kill other people inside that school. By this standard, then, all firefighters should just stand back and watch buildings burn down, because if they try to fight the fire, They could have been burned. And I suppose all military soldiers should refuse to fight on the battlefield because if they enter they battlefield, They could have received artillery fire. You get the point. This is insane. In todays podcast, I demand that cops who arent willing to pursue active shooters should turn in their badges and stop pretending to be cops. If you arent willing to put your life on the line when it counts, youre no cop to begin with. Brighteon.com/5d002cab-fe16-4d49-ad2e-bf9d5d9a7169 Discover more information-packaged podcasts each day, along with special reports, interviews and emergency updates, at: https://www.brighteon.com/channels/HRreport Follow me on: Brighteon.social: Brighteon.social/@HealthRanger Telegram: t.me/RealHealthRanger Truth Social: https://truthsocial.com/@healthranger Gettr: GETTR.com/user/healthranger Parler: Parler.com/user/HealthRanger Rumble: Rumble.com/c/HealthRangerReport BitChute: Bitchute.com/channel/9EB8glubb0Ns/ Clouthub: app.clouthub.com/#/users/u/naturalnews/posts Join the free NaturalNews.com email newsletter to stay alerted about new, upcoming audiobooks that you can download for free. Download my current audiobooks including Ghost World, Survival Nutrition, The Global Reset Survival Guide and The Contagious Mind at: https://Audiobooks.NaturalNews.com/ Download my new audiobook, Resilient Prepping at ResilientPrepping.com According to forecasters, this year's hurricane season is hectic. For the second year in a row, a natural phenomenon called La Nina will significantly impact winter weather patterns. Hurricane Season Incoming The official prognosis for the hurricane season, which runs from June to November, has been issued by scientists from NOAA, the US weather agency. It supports projections from Colorado State University and the Met Office in the United Kingdom. Australia proclaims the start of the La Nina phenomena. This points to an unusually high number of named storms, hurricanes, and major hurricanes. The 2022 hurricane season is expected to be the eighth straight above-average hurricane season. Also Read: Extreme Heat Waves Can Cause More Power Outages Inevitable Hurricanes According to Colorado State University forecasters, at least one significant hurricane (category three or higher) is expected to impact the continental US coast. A 53 percent likelihood is the long-term average. Forecasts are based on various factors, but the El Nino Southern Oscillation is one of the most crucial (ENSO). This is a naturally occurring weather pattern in the eastern Pacific that has global consequences for the weather. Compared to Average Temperatures A warmer-than-average El Nino, cooler-than-average La Nina, and a neutral phase refer to trade winds and sea surface temperature changes in this region. Because La Nina lowers wind shear - the abrupt shift in wind speed and/or direction - high in the sky, tropical storms may form more easily. Warmer than average sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, weaker tropical Atlantic trade winds, and an accelerated west African monsoon, according to NOAA forecasts, contribute to the heightened activity. The previous two winters have had La Nina, a double-dip in the meteorological profession. This has only happened eight times since records began in 1950. According to NOAA and the Australian Bureau of Meteorology projections, La Nina has a roughly 60% chance of continuing or becoming somewhat neutral during the hurricane season. Some computer models even predict a neutral or La Nina-like climate during the northern hemisphere winter, an extremely uncommon 'triple-dip.' This has only happened twice in the history of records. It will affect the hurricane season in 2023, and the effects of La Nina on other weather patterns throughout the planet will have far-reaching ramifications. La Nina has had a big role in this year's severe floods in eastern Australia and the severity of California's prolonged drought. While a triple-dip La Nina appears to be a possibility, the accuracy of ENSO projections in the Spring is debatable. Thus it is far from guaranteed. With another busy season on the way, many people wonder if climate change is to blame. Because the naturally occurring El Nino Southern Oscillation pattern is the major driving factor for tropical storm and hurricane development, experts believe climate change is unlikely to have a role in an increase in storms. Fuel for Storms Warmer than usual sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic and Caribbean, on the other hand, might influence storm development. More fuel is available for a storm to grow and strengthen quickly as the waters warm. According to the IPCC, there is "high confidence" that the fraction of intense tropical storms will increase as global warming continues. Related Article: Exposure to Major Disasters Can Cause Long-Term Mental Health Problems For more climate and weather updates, don't forget to follow Nature World News! Fossilized remains of a huge reptile have been unearthed in Argentina, Mail Online reports. The creature, which lived alongside the dinosaurs some 86 million years ago, has been dubbed the "Dragon of Death." With a length of about 9 meters, it is the largest pterosaur discovered in South America, and one of the largest known flying vertebrates. Researchers say the "beast" was likely a fearsome sight as it chased its prey out of the prehistoric sky. It is estimated that this fearsome species lived for at least 20 million years before an asteroid impact on what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago wiped out about three-quarters of life on the planet. Thanatosdrakon amaru A team of paleontologists discovered the fossils of the newly discovered Thanatosdrakon amaru in the Andes Mountains in Argentina's western Mendoza province. Leonardo Ortiz, the project's leader, said the fossil's never-before-seen features necessitated a new genus and species name, the latter composed of the ancient Greek words for death (thanatos) and dragon (drakon). Ortiz, who is from the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, said that it seemed appropriate to name as the dragon of death. The gargantuan reptile was as long as a yellow school bus and had an estimated wingspan of about 30 feet (9 meters). About 40 bones and fragments were excavated by the paleontology team. They said the fossil's huge bones classify the new species as the largest pterosaur yet discovered in South America and one of the largest in the world. The researchers found that the rocks where the reptile's remains were found dated back 86 million years to the Cretaceous period, which lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago. Ortiz said that there are no current record of a close relative with even a similar body modification to these animals. The researchers wrote in their paper that Thanatosdrakon is the largest pterosaur to cross the Cretaceous skies of South America discovered to date. They said the discovery will allow scientists to expand knowledge of the anatomy of this diverse group of pterosaurs. Ortiz's study was published in the journal Cretaceous Research with co-authors Bernardo J. Gonzalez Riga and Alexander W. A. Kellner. Read also: Post-Dinosaur World: Prehistoric Mammals Use Muscles First Before Their Brains to Survive Pterosaurs Pterosaurs were flying reptiles that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, which were neither birds nor bats, but reptiles that ruled the skies during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Scientists have long debated where to place pterosaurs in the evolutionary family tree. The prevailing theory today is that pterosaurs, dinosaurs, and crocodiles are closely related and belong to a group known as archosaurs, but this is still unconfirmed. Pterosaurs evolved into dozens of species. Some were as large as an F-16 fighter jet, others as small as a sparrow. They were the first animals after insects to evolve powered flight - not just jumping or gliding, but flapping wings to generate lift and move through the air. Pterosaurs had hollow bones, large brains with well-developed optic lobes, and several crests on their bones where the flight muscles are attached. Related article: New Pterosaur Dinosaur Fossil Discovered on the Isle of Skye, Scotland A 2.6-magnitude mild earthquake struck the region outside Knoxville, Tennessee during the night, Weatherboy reports. According to the USGS, the earthquake occurred at a depth of 9 km from the town of Garland in the eastern part of the state. This event is the strongest earthquake recorded in Tennessee this month. In the past week, the state has been hit by three earthquakes: a magnitude 2.1 quake near Ridgely and a magnitude 2.0 and 1.6 quakes near Tiptonville. Earthquakes have also been felt near the state of Missouri, Georgia, and Arkansas in the past couple of weeks. While these earthquakes are mild and scattered across Tennessee, scientists are advising people to prepare in case something much stronger occurs. While many people associate earthquakes with the western states rather than Tennessee, one of the strongest earthquakes in the United States occurred not far away. And scientists are concerned that residents of this region are not properly prepared for the next major earthquake to hit the area. New Madrid Seismic Zone On December 16, 1811, at about 2:15 a.m., an 8.1 magnitude earthquake rocked northeast Arkansas in what is now known as the New Madrid seismic zone. The quake was felt throughout much of the eastern United States and jolted people out of bed in places like New York City, Washington, DC, and Charleston, SC. In areas that were particularly hard hit by the earthquake, such as Nashville, TN, and Louisville, KY, the ground shook for an incredibly long time, running from 1 to 3 minutes. Ground motions were so violent near the epicenter that liquefaction of the ground was observed, with soil and water being thrown several feet into the air. President James Madison and his wife Dolly felt the quake in the White House. Tremors were felt across Boston where church bells rang. From December 16, 1811, to March 1812, more than 2,000 earthquakes were reported in the Midwest, including 6,000-10,000 earthquakes located in the "Bootheel" where the New Madrid seismic zone is located. The second main shaking, a magnitude 7.8, occurred weeks later on January 23, 1812, in Missouri. The third, a magnitude 8.8, occurred on February 7, 1812, along the Reelfoot fault in Missouri and Tennessee. The main earthquakes and the violent aftershocks caused considerable damage and claimed some lives. However, the lack of scientific tools and the poor news coverage of the time were unable to capture the full extent of the events. Earthquake Lights In addition to the tremors, the earthquakes were also responsible for triggering unusual natural phenomena in the area, which include earthquake lights, seismically heated water, and earthquake smog. Residents in the Mississippi Valley reported seeing lights flashing from the ground. Scientists believe this phenomenon is "seismoluminescence", which is light produced when quartz crystals in the ground are compressed. The "earthquake lights" were triggered during the main earthquakes and strong aftershocks. The water is thrown into the air from the ground, and the nearby Mississippi River was also unusually warm. Scientists speculate that the strong vibrations and resulting friction caused the water to heat up. Other scientists believe that the light emitted by the quartz crystals as they were squeezed, also contributed to the heating of the water. Read also: A 5.5 Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Area Near the Fukushima Disaster Site During the strong quakes, the sky darkened so much that residents claimed the lights did not illuminate the area; they also said the air smelled bad and was difficult to breathe. Scientists suspect that this "earthquake smog" was caused by dust particles rising from the surface and combining with the eruption of warm water molecules in the cold winter air. The result was a steaming, dusty cloud that enveloped the areas affected by the quake. The area remains seismically active, and scientists believe the region will be hit again by a strong earthquake sometime in the future. Unfortunately, science is not yet mature enough to say whether this threat will occur as early as next week or as late as 50 years from now. Either way, because the population of the New Madrid Seismic Zone is huge compared to the sparsely populated area in the early 1800s, and millions more people live in an area that will be affected by strong ground shaking, there could be a significant loss of life and property if another major quake occurs. Related article: Experts are Studying the "Biggest Earthquake in Human History" A 12-meter humpback whale gestured its thanks to a group of Spanish divers who rescued it from a drift net. According to Newsbreak, one of the divers described the encounter as an incredible experience. The ship spotted the humpback whale three miles off the east coast of Mallorca in the Balearic Islands, where sightings of such whales are rare and have only been reported twice before. For Gigi Torras, a 32-year-old marine biologist, the whale's grateful response is the best birthday present. Torras was part of a rescue group. Torras told Reuters news agency about the experience and said it was an extraordinary experience for her. The rescue took place on May 20. Officials said they discovered the frail whale completely trapped in a red net so that the mammal could not even open its mouth. Staff from Palma de Mallorca's Aquarium swung into action when they learned about the trapped whale. Thank you! In the first rescue attempts, the members of the marine department tried to cut the net from a boat. However, they found that they had to get closer to the whale to make a difference. On May 20, divers from the Albatros and Skualo dive centers were called in. The crew then dove up to the whale to cut the net with knives, concluding the rescue operation after 45 minutes. Torras, the owner of the Albatros Dive Center, reported how crew members saw the humpback whale calm down after an initial period of nervousness. Torras said the whale got a little nervous in the first 10 seconds and bubbles started popping up everywhere. Torras later added that from her perspective, the whale knew Torras and her team were there to help. The whale was able to relax and the dive team began to work from front to back. She added that the team continued to cut the net, after which the mammal wriggled a bit to free itself from the net. The whale, Torras said, then stayed for a while to regain its strength while four divers kept it company. But before it swam away after escaping, the mammal gave something that looked like a sign of thank you. The UN banned drift nets 30 years ago because they pose a major threat to aquatic life. Virtually invisible to marine life, drift nets float on a cork line and reach depths of 50 feet to catch fish. Drift gillnets can also kill a range of marine life, including larger underwater mammals such as whales, seals and dolphins, and seabirds. Read also: Another Humpback Whale 'Unlikely to Survive' After Getting Entangled in Fishing Net Whales Whales are found throughout the world's oceans. This species communicates with complex and mysterious sounds. The blue whale can reach a length of over 100 feet and weigh up to 200 tons, which can be compared to 33 elephants. Whales are warm-blooded animals that breathe air and nurse their young. Bubbler, a thick layer of fat insulates them from the cold seawater. Some whales are known as baleen whales because they have special bristle-like structures in their mouths called baleen that pulls food out of the water. Other whales, such as beluga or sperm whales, do not have baleen but instead have teeth. Related article: Humpback Whales No Longer Endangered Species, But Experts Are Still Worried Temperatures in the UK will feel significantly cooler from Sunday and into next week as the mercury dips to below-average levels - albeit the bright weather is expected to remain for the time being, according to forecasts. The lovely weather will continue for most of the UK today and tomorrow, with highs of 22C (72F) forecast in the South East, before the warmth begins to fade on Saturday, with highs of 18C (64F) - and then 16C (61F) on Sunday. Rainfall and thunderstorms will appear this week Thunderstorms featuring lightning, downpours, and even hail have battered parts of the UK in recent days, as per Express. On Tuesday, hail and lightning rocked London, causing alarms to go off. British Weather Services forecaster Jim Dale cautioned that higher temperatures may be on their way out. When asked about the weather forecast for the Jubilee bank holiday weekend, the meteorologist described it as "on a knife-edge." While the north and Scotland have been cautioned about rain, the Met Office predicted "above-average temperatures" in the south and southeast. As a result, the North Atlantic pressures will bring more days of rain and chilly temperatures to the country. Netweather has released a storm forecast, especially for the country's northern regions. Storms will proceed east across the Shetland Islands towards Norway on Thursday, according to the forecast. Showers and storms will be most common across western and northern Scotland, with the potential of hail, gusty gusts, and isolated floods. Also Read: Heatwave to Hit the UK in April and Climate Change is to Blame: Met Office Forecast Temperatures will plummet this weekend Despite the brightness, weather in London might be considerably colder on Sunday, with just 14C (57F) anticipated well below the average May temperature in England, which is 16C (61F). Looking ahead to next week, highs of 16C (61F) are expected on Monday before gradually rising to roughly 20C (68F) by Wednesday and remaining there for the remainder of the week. This morning saw early bright periods in the south, but also dense clouds bringing rain to Northern Ireland, southern Scotland, and northern England, which will gradually track southwards later and become light and patchy. Saturday will be a lovely, dry, and bright day with long periods of sunshine, but patchy cloud cover may form at times. On Sunday, there will be some sunshine, but clouds will rise in from the east, bringing a possibility of showers. Forecasters said that there is still lots of detail to be determined for next week, with conditions relying on how the highly pressurized system moves in the late weekend and details still relatively unknown. The Met Office predicts a "continuing mixed picture" for next week, with a mix of dry and rainy periods and usually low winds, with temperatures forecast to be "near-average." This weekend will see things quiet down for most of the UK at first said Deputy Chief Meteorologist Dan Rudman, as per Dailymail. There will be lots of sunlight, and temperatures in the south might reach 21 degrees Celsius (70 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday. Sunday will be colder and cloudier. There's a lot to figure out in the forecast for next week, but early signs point to a mix of sunshine and a few showers, with near-average temperatures for the most part. Related article: UK Consumers Will No Longer Be Able to Buy Free-Range Chicken Eggs Starting Monday Inclement weather will ensue during the Memorial Day weekend, according to United States weather authorities. Late-season snowfall, severe thunderstorms, and extreme heat have been forecasted to occur or continue in several parts of the country in the coming days. Heavy snowfall is expected in the Pacific Northwest and its surrounding areas. Severe storms are possible in the Northern US. Meanwhile, above-average temperatures reaching triple-digit heat will cover the southern and central parts of the US, as well as the Northeast and Eastern US. The said hot weather in the mentioned US regions coincides with the previously forecasted storm system, which navigates the Central US to the East Coast, bringing the risk of heavy rain with flooding, strong winds, and isolated tornadoes. The upcoming multi-faceted adverse weather comes not only before the US summer season but also the Atlantic hurricane season, which spans from June 1 to November 30 each year. Pacific Northwest Snowfall US meteorologists have issued a Memorial Day weekend forecast which will consist of the mentioned weather hazards, potentially disrupting plans for outdoor activities as one might think during the US national holiday, according to CNN. The National Weather Service (NWS) office in Missoula, Montana, reportedly advised the public to set carefully holiday weekend plans due to wet weather conditions. High-altitude snowfall may occur over the northern Rockies as high as more than 8,000 feet. Heavy snow will mostly occur from Sunday to Monday, May 29 to May 30. On Sunday, the NWS Missoula office says snow levels can reach between 5,500 and 6,000 feet. This can yield cooler temperatures and wet conditions for half of the weekend in low-altitude areas across the Northwest US, including from Portland, Oregon to Fargo, North Dakota from Saturday, May 28. Also Read: US Weather Forecast: Coastal Storm to Bring Heavy Rain and Snow in New England Northern US Severe Weather Renewed severe weather will occur in the Northern US, crammed between the cooler west and warmer east. According to the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) of the NWS on Thursday, May 26, areas from the central-northern Great Plains into the Upper Midwest will be met by increasing severe storms. The SPC issued a warning for residents living in or near the following areas are at risk: Sioux Falls in South Dakota Omaha in Nebraska Minneapolis in Minnesota Hot Memorial Day Weekend This week's rainfall in some parts of the US will be replaced by hot, sunny weather from Texas to Maine by the end of the weekend due to a "dome of high pressure" from Saturday noon until Monday, according to CNN. Texas will be the worst affected state with temperatures that can reach up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. The drought-stricken region, where Texas is also included, has been reported to see dry conditions again with elevated fire weather conditions. The said fire weather threats will continue to aggravate the ongoing wildfires named the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire and the Black fire in New Mexico, which has already burnt a total land area of over 300,000 acres. The New Mexico fire has become the largest wildfire in the history of the state, according to The Washington Post. Related Article: Weather Forecast: National Weather Service Says Severe Thunderstorms are Possible Across the Central US Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs), which are frequently derived from salmon nasal cartilage, are an important component of many healthy foods. Scientists are looking for other sources of CSPGs as the popularity of healthy foods grows. The PGs and associated CS formations in the head cartilage of 10 edible bony fishes, including the sturgeons, have now been studied. Their findings hint at numerous new fish that might replace salmon as a source of CSPGs. Fish as a new source of proteoglycans Aggrecan, a significant component of proteoglycan (PG) with chondroitin sulfate (CS) in cartilaginous tissues, has grown in popularity as a health food ingredient, as per ScienceDaily. Indeed, proteoglycans derived from salmon nasal cartilage have biological features such as antiaging, angiogenesis suppression, and inflammatory response attenuation. Only salmon nasal cartilage has been used to make commercially accessible chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans. Although head cartilage has been discovered in other edible bony fishes, nothing is known about the content of core proteins and their CS structures in head cartilage. A group of scientists led by Associate Professor Kyohei Higashi of Tokyo University of Science, as well as Dr. Naoshi Dohmae and Dr. Takehiro Suzuki of the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, has now addressed this question in a new study published in the International Journal of Biology Macromolecules. According to Dr. Higashi, they discovered that the content of PGs and their CS structure in the skulls of Siberian and Russian sturgeons was comparable to that of salmon nasal cartilage. Atsuhi Nakamura of the Miyazaki Prefectural Fisheries Research Institute donated the fish for the study. On March 23, 2022, this study was made accessible online, and on May 31, 2022, it was published in Volume 208 of the journal. The skull cartilage of all the fish analyzed contained a high concentration of CSPGs. The structure of CS obtained from Perciformes was comparable to that of CS produced from terrestrial animal cartilage, according to a comprehensive examination of CS structure in PGs derived from 10 bony fishes. The structure of CS from sturgeon skulls, on the other hand, was comparable to that of CS from salmon nasal cartilage. They also discovered that aggrecan, a significant CSPG in cartilaginous tissue, was preserved in 10 bony fishes. Indeed, the aggrecan protein from the LOC117428125 and LOC117964296 genes discovered in the National Center for Biotechnology Information database was shown to be prevalent in sturgeon skulls. Also Read: Understanding the Risks and Benefits Of Eating Fish Benefits from CSPGs Skin health assistance According to certain studies, chondroitin sulfate supplements can aid with the pain of chronic skin problems. The treatments throughout this study lasted from two and three months. Support for the Bladder Function Some chondroitin sulfate formulations can aid in the maintenance of healthy bladder functioning. Support for bone health Chondroitin sulfate may assist to alleviate the pain caused by bone constriction. This use is frequently coupled with glucosamine hydrochloride. Health and function of the joints Oral chondroitin sulfate supplements can help relieve joint pain, particularly in the knees and hands. They may also be able to control the progression of joint diseases. Osteoarthritis is one of the most prevalent symptoms that you may require chondroitin sulfate supplements, particularly if your back or knees are afflicted. This symptom is particularly common in situations of osteoarthritis that are not progressed. People who have bone issues that cause narrower joint spaces may benefit from chondroitin sulfate. Chronic inflammatory diseases affecting the bladder and skin may also indicate that chondroitin sulfate supplements might be beneficial, as per Xtendlife. Related article: Flu Induces Cardiovascular Problems by Invading the Heart Directly According to Scientists Vitamin D has long been thought to suppress the development of type 2 diabetes based on previous research. However, researchers in Japan revealed their results, which showed inconsistence with such a notion, as they have discovered vitamin D supplements have no significant effect when it comes to preventing a person from acquiring type 2 diabetes. Type 2 diabetes affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, with a growing number of people diagnosed with pre-diabetes, a borderline condition between diabetes and non-diabetes. While there is no cure yet for type 2 diabetes, the chronic medical condition involving a faulty insulin balance can be managed through medication and a healthy lifestyle. Type 2 Diabetes Clinical Trial In a new paper published in the journal BMJ on Wednesday, May 25, medical researchers during a clinical trial concluded there is "no clinically meaningful effect" between vitamin D supplements and type 2 diabetes development. The study attempted to assess whether vitamin D known as eldecalcitol can reduce the development of the disease among adults with damaged glucose tolerance. The research design is based on a double-blinded, multicenter, placebo, and randomized controlled trial. The research team gathered their data in three hospitals in Japan between June 2013 and August 2019. The study's participants had an age range of between 30 and 78 years old with impaired glucose tolerance, an elevated blood glucose level, or the infamous prediabetes stage. The study was conducted by researchers from various health and education institutions in Japan, including the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Shin Komonji Hospital, International University Health and Welfare Clinic, National Cancer Center EPOC, Ritsumeikan University, and Radiation Effects Association. Also Read: New Vitamin D Therapy Could Lead To Cure For Cancer And Diabetes Vitamin D Supplements Impact Prior to arriving at their conclusions, the Japan-based researchers enrolled 1,256 Japanese adults from the said hospitals, including 571 (45.5%) women and 742 (59.1%) people who had a family history of type 2 diabetes. The participants were divided into two groups: the vitamin D and placebo groups. The vitamin D group consisted of 630 participants who were administered a daily dose of eldecalcitol. The placebo group consisted of 626 participants who were given a placebo version of the vitamin D supplement. Both groups were assessed every three months over a three-year follow-up period. While the result suggested eldecalcitol did not decrease the incidence of diabetes for the group with pre-diabetes, the researchers suggest that vitamin D supplement still has a potential benefit for people with insufficient insulin secretion. Diabetes and Cases The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates over 37 million Americans have been diagnosed with diabetes, and around 90% to 95% of them are suffering from type 2 diabetes across the United States. The cells of a person with a medical condition do not respond normally to insulin, leading to insulin resistance. Such a condition makes the pancreas produce more insulin for the cells to respond, resulting in high blood sugar and causing damage to the body, leading to other health problems like vision loss, heart disease, and kidney disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 422 million people have diabetes worldwide, the majority of which are living in middle- and low-income countries, with around 1.5 million deaths attributed to the disease each year. Related Article: Sunshine May Slow Onset of Obesity, Diabetes Rabab Fatima. -- File photo. Bangladesh is concerned that the situation in Myanmar continues to remain unsafe for civilians, especially for the ethnic and religious minorities such as Rohingyas, permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Rabab Fatima has said. While referring to the precarious security situation in Myanmar which is causing a delay in the repatriation of the Rohingyas, she also expressed concern about the denial of access to the UN and other humanitarian agencies in the country. Ambassador Fatima was speaking at the UN Security Council Open Debate on Wednesday. She said that the protection of civilians was an important national priority for Bangladesh, and the country remained committed to all efforts to strengthen it. Convened by the United States delegation as the current president of the Council, the debate focused on the protection of civilians in armed conflicts. It discussed possible practical measures that the UNSC can take in the context of denial of humanitarian access, and attacks against humanitarian workers, among others. The Bangladesh ambassador said that the protection of civilians remained a serious challenge in the context of ongoing conflicts, protracted humanitarian crises and growing forced displacement. While humanitarian needs are soaring, access remains a major challenge. Ambassador Fatima mentioned Bangladeshs commitment to the protection of civilians, and the role its peacekeepers play in fulfilling this mandate. Nearly 7,000 peacekeepers from Bangladesh are serving in some of the most challenging missions, providing security at civilian sites, ensuring unhindered humanitarian services, supporting delivery of health and social services, community engagement and empowerment of women and youths, she added. However, the peacekeepers and the humanitarian workers are increasingly becoming targets of attacks, often fueled by misinformation and disinformation. The ambassador suggested that the relevant UN entities developed effective communications strategies to combat this. She also emphasised ensuring that the peacekeeping missions are adequately resourced and equipped to fulfil their POC mandates. Ambassador Fatima also called for increased awareness of compliance with international humanitarian law by all parties to the conflicts. She also stressed the importance of holding the perpetrators accountable for violations of international humanitarian law. Targeting civilians, schools, hospitals, and humanitarian actors cannot be condoned under any pretext. These attacks must be investigated and accounted for. Gautam Chakraborty. -- Collected photo. Lawyer Gautam Chakraborty, a former state minister for water resources and two-time lawmaker, died of cardiac arrest on Friday. He was 68. Gautam, also the Bangladesh Nationalist Partys rural development affairs secretary, breathed his last at about 1:30pm in the Evercare Hospital in Dhaka, said BNP chairpersons media wing member Sayrul Kabir Khan. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and a son to mourn his death. Sayrul said that Gautam was first taken to Ibne Sina Hospital in Dhanmondi area as he suffered a heart attack, and later shifted to Evercare as his condition worsened. Gautam was the convener of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Kalyan Front. He was elected MP from Tangail-6 (Nagarpur-Delduar) in 1996 and 2001 with BNPs ticket. Meanwhile, BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir went to Evercare Hospital after hearing the news of Gautams demise. He talked to the bereaved family members of the BNP leader and consoled them. Later talking to reporters, Fakhrul said that Gautam Chakraborty kept huge contributions to BNP since his involvement with the party. BNP is affected through his departure. I am devastated personally as he was one of my close friends. The void created through his demise will not be easily filled, he observed. Fakhrul said that Gautam worked for the welfare and development of the Hindu community while serving as the state minister of the BNP government. He was a popular leader in his constituency, Tangail. Were deeply saddened at his death, he said. BNP acting chairman Tarique Rahman and secretary general Mirza Fakhrul expressed deep shock at the death of Gautam. In separate condolence messages, they prayed for the eternal peace of the departed soul and conveyed their profound sympathy to the bereaved family members. The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances said in their latest report that the information Bangladesh conveyed to them on 66 cases of enforced disappearance was insufficient. On February 5, 2022, the [Bangladesh] government transmitted information concerning 66 additional cases, but the information was considered insufficient to clarify them, the Working Group made their conclusion in their latest report, made public on May 22. The report was based on the proceedings of the Working Groups 126th session held between February 7 and 11, 2022. In the observation, the Working Group also appreciated the engagement of the Bangladesh government for the information in relation to many outstanding cases. The report stated that under its urgent procedure, the Working Group sent one case to the government concerning Imam Mahady Hasan, who was allegedly abducted on November 6, 2021 by a group of individuals in plain clothes, presumably affiliated with the Rapid Action Battalion in Phulbaria of Mymensingh. The RAB dismissed the allegation, while his family members said that the last location of his phone was Uttara in the capital. The Working Group also sent another case to Bangladesh concerning Mohammed Omar Farouqe, who was allegedly arrested on February 5, 2014 by eight members of the RAB and the Detective Branch of the police during a raid on his relatives house in Chittagong. The report stated that Bangladesh provided information on January 10, 2022 and February 5, 2022, on the basis of which the Working Group decided to apply the six-month rule to eight cases, concerning Mohammed Mahmud Hasan, Mohammad Altaf Howlader, dismissed army colonel Mohammed Hasinur Rahman, Mohammad Siddiqur Rahman, Mohammad Abdullah al-Faruq, Mohammad Akhter Hossain, Shamim Uddin Prodhan and Mohammad Rafiqul Islam. However, the Working Group requests that the Bangladeshi authorities take decisive steps to initiate the search for disappeared persons or their remains, the report read. The Working Group refers to the guiding principles for the search for disappeared persons, in particular principle 7, which outlines that the search is a continuing obligation, stated the report in this regard. On the allegations of reprisals against relatives of disappeared persons and those acting on their behalf, the Working Group refers to article 13 of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which stipulates that all involved in the investigation, including the complainant, counsel, witnesses and those conducting the investigation, must be protected against ill-treatment, intimidation or reprisal. The report of the 127th session held between May 9 and 13 was yet to be made public, while the Working Group will hold their 128th session between September 19 and 28 this year. On December 7, 2021, the Working Group sent, jointly with other special procedure mechanisms, an allegation letter on the on-going judicial harassment against Adilur Rahman Khan and Nasiruddin Elan, who are, respectively, the secretary and the director of the non-governmental human rights organisation Odhikar. LeConte Nix: We have to normalize that going to therapy is great and is needed just like going to a movie or your regular doctors appointment. We all have stuff that we hide mentally or avoid. Now, think about a young adult who only knows how to deal with anger by violence of some sort, because he or she has never been taught how to handle certain situations." A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind. Reporter Mary Schenk is a reporter covering police, courts and breaking news at The News-Gazette. Her email is mschenk@news-gazette.com, and you can follow her on Twitter (@schenk). Funeral homes often submit obituaries as a service to the families they are assisting. However, we will be happy to accept obituaries from family members pending proper verification of the death. Submit Hypomethylating agents (HMA) are currently used as a first-line treatment for patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) - a group of disorders where there is insufficient production of healthy mature blood cells in the bone marrow - and increasingly in other diseases, but their mechanism of action remains unclear. One potential risk is that they could potentially activate a sleeping oncogene, although this has not been clearly demonstrated to date. In a recent study, scientists from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS), working in close collaboration with the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), and the Harvard Medical School (HMS) in Boston have established that HMA can and does activate the oncofetal protein, SALL4. The study, which was also conducted in collaboration with University of Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy, and the Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital, Tianjin, China, was published in scientific journal New England Journal of Medicine on 26 May 2022. Turning on the gene that causes cancer SALL4 is a known oncogene, and expression of SALL4 has been found to contribute to the development of MDS and leukemia. A study conducted by another research group in 2016 had demonstrated that SALL4 activation in a liver cancer cell line was associated with hypomethylation, and Professor Daniel Tenen from CSI Singapore and his team had demonstrated in 2021 that the hepatitis B virus-induced SALL4 demethylation in liver cancer through an RNA mediated mechanism. To examine possible upregulation of oncogenes in patients being treated with hypomethylating agents, Prof Tenen's team collaborated with the other groups to study the association between HMA utilized and SALL4 activation, as well as the implications on survival outcomes. The research team analyzed the bone marrow samples of 68 patients with MDS, taken before and after their HMA treatment. The scientists found that HMA therapy could result in the activation of the SALL4 oncogene, leading to poor survival outcome for patients, even those in complete disease remission. Our findings from this pioneering study show that treatment using hypomethylating agents can activate and upregulate oncogenes, such as SALL4. This suggests the importance of monitoring SALL4 expression levels in patients receiving HMA therapy. While upregulation of SALL4 may likely influence the disease progression and be associated with a poorer diagnosis, it may also provide an opportunity to identify patients for early intervention with a drug targeting SALL4 pathways, thereby improving treatment and patient outcomes." Professor Daniel Tenen from CSI Singapore Early intervention for better results Interestingly, these findings by Prof Tenen's group, working with the BWH and HMS teams, further support another study of theirs in 2021, in which they demonstrated that cancer cells with reactivated SALL4 by hypomethylation were efficiently treated with a drug designed to inhibit a SALL4 downstream pathway. These newly established principles may help alter the treatment paradigm for other cancers and diseases where HMA are being used. Moving forward, the team intends to carry out larger prospective studies to validate these findings and develop low cost but accurate biomarkers kits to monitor SALL4 expression. Through collaborative research across laboratories, the team aims to develop more effective and specific drugs that target SALL4 directly. This week's mass shooting of elementary schoolers in Texas (just 10 days after a racially motivated mass shooting at a Buffalo, New York, grocery store) has reignited the gun debate in Washington, D.C., and around the country. But the political disagreements over guns and their appropriate role in American society are as insoluble as ever. Meanwhile, Oklahoma becomes the first state to try to ban all abortions, as the nation awaits the Supreme Court's ruling in a case it is expected to use to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision. And on Capitol Hill, lawmakers criticize the FDA for its handling of the infant formula shortage, rekindling a debate over whether food should be regulated by a separate agency. This week's panelists are Julie Rovner of KHN, Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, and Rachana Pradhan of KHN. Among the takeaways from this week's episode: Although much of the nation has been riveted by the May 24 shooting in Uvalde, Texas, thousands of Americans are killed each year in gun violence that doesn't make headlines. More than half of those deaths are suicides and many others result from isolated shootings. Despite an epidemic of gun violence, the regulation of guns in the U.S. has declined in the past couple of decades. Not only did the federal assault weapons ban expire, but many states have moved to make guns easier to purchase and own. Since the Columbine High School shooting in Littleton, Colorado, in 1999, an entire generation has come of age with the prospect of violence hitting their schools. The oldest of those people are sending their own children to schools where shooting drills are a fact of life. Texas officials have said that the Uvalde shooting demonstrates a need for more security in schools but that adding metal detectors and more guards do not necessarily make children feel safe, especially in communities where they may have reason to fear the police, too. In a congressional hearing this week, lawmakers blasted the FDA for its slow response to reports that an Abbott infant formula plant in Michigan had extreme contamination problems and its handling of the aftermath when that plant closed and formula became scarce. The issue points up difficulties at the FDA when it was trying to deal with the covid pandemic and was also without a permanent leader. The Biden administration was slow to nominate anyone to head the agency; Dr. Robert Califf didn't take the helm until earlier this year. The infant formula problems have renewed a debate about whether food safety should be placed under the purview of a new, separate agency since the FDA is so busy handling drug and medical device issues. A report out this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that 1 in 5 adults who get covid will develop longer-term problems that can include neurological issues and some organ disorders. The study of long covid, however, has left many questions unanswered, including whether vaccination reduces the number of cases and how long the problems last. The high number of long-covid cases identified in the report suggests that there could be a significant increase in the population of people needing disability services. As the country awaits a decision by the Supreme Court on the future of access to abortion services guaranteed by its 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, states continue to enact restrictive laws. Oklahoma's governor this week signed a law that bans abortion from the time of fertilization. Some companies have pledged to help workers travel to get abortion services, but that may run afoul of states' efforts. Texas lawmakers say they want to stop businesses from providing that benefit. Also this week, Rovner interviews Dr. Richard Baron, president and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine. Baron co-authored a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine about how the medical community should deal with doctors who spread medical misinformation on social media. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too: Julie Rovner: "Strangerville" podcast's "Episode 203: Jacob," by Jessica and Justin Van Wyen Joanne Kenen: NBC News' podcast "Needle In/Tiffany Dover Is Dead*" by Brandy Zadrozny Anna Edney: ProPublica's "The Plot to Keep Meatpacking Plants Open During COVID-19," by Michael Grabell Rachana Pradhan: The Washington Post's "We're Ignoring a Major Culprit Behind the Teen Mental Health Crisis," by Heather Turgeon and Julie Wright Also discussed on this week's podcast: Vox.com's "The School Shooting Generation Grows Up," by Marin Cogan Stat's "Viruses That Were on Hiatus During Covid Are Back And Behaving in Unexpected Ways," by Helen Branswell The New York Times' "More Than 1 in 5 Adult Covid Survivors in the U.S. May Develop Long Covid, a C.D.C. Study Suggests," by Pam Belluck The Texas Tribune's "Businesses That Help Employees Get Abortions Could Be Next Target of Texas Lawmakers if Roe v Wade Is Overturned," by Zach Despart Last summer, Northwestern University scientists introduced the first-ever transient pacemaker a fully implantable, wireless device that harmlessly dissolves in the body after it's no longer needed. Now, in a study published in the journal Science, they unveil a new, smart version that is integrated into a coordinated network of four soft, flexible, wireless, wearable sensors and control units placed around the upper body. The work was led by Northwestern's John Rogers, PhD, the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering; Igor R. Efimov, PhD, professor at the McCormick School of Engineering; and Rishi Arora, MD, professor of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology. The sensors communicate with each other to continuously monitor the body's various physiological functions, including body temperature, oxygen levels, respiration, muscle tone, physical activity and the heart's electrical activity. The system then uses algorithms to analyze this combined activity in order to autonomously detect abnormal cardiac rhythms and decide when to pace the heart and at what rate. All this information is streamed to a smartphone or tablet, so physicians can remotely monitor their patients. The new transient pacemaker and sensor/control network can be used in patients who need temporary pacing after cardiac surgery or are waiting for a permanent pacemaker. The pacemaker wirelessly harvests energy from a node within the network a small wireless device that softly adheres to the patient's chest. This technology eliminates the need for external hardware, including wires (or leads). To enable the system to communicate with the patient, the investigators incorporated a small, wearable haptic-feedback device that can be worn anywhere on the body. When the sensors detect an issue (such as low battery power, incorrect device placement or pacemaker malfunction), the haptic device vibrates in specific patterns that alert wearers and inform them of the problem. Insights from the experts "This marks the first time we have paired soft, wearable electronics with transient electronic platforms," Rogers said. "This approach could change the way patients receive care providing multinodal, closed-loop control over essential physiological processes through a wireless network of sensors and stimulators that operates in a manner inspired by the complex, biological feedback loops that control behaviors in living organisms. "For temporary cardiac pacing, the system untethers patients from monitoring and stimulation apparatuses that keep them confined to a hospital setting. Instead, patients could recover in the comfort of their own homes while maintaining the peace of mind that comes with being remotely monitored by their physicians. This also would reduce the cost of health care and free up hospital beds for other patients." "In current settings, temporary pacemakers require a wire that is connected to an external generator that stimulates the heart," Efimov said. "When the heart regains its ability to stimulate itself appropriately, the wire has to be pulled out. As you might imagine, this is a pretty dramatic procedure to pull out a wire connected to the heart. We decided to approach this problem from a different angle. We created a pacemaker that simply dissolves and does not need to be removed. This avoids the dangerous step of pulling out the wire." "Current pacemakers are quite intelligent and respond well to the changing needs of the patients," Arora said. "But the wearable modules do everything traditional pacemakers do and more. A patient basically wears a little patch on their chest and gets real-time feedback to control the pacemaker. Not only is the pacemaker itself bioresorbable, it is controlled by a soft, wearable patch that allows the pacemaker to respond to the usual activities of life without needing implantable sensors." Rogers is also director of the Querrey Simpson Institute for Bioelectronics (QSIB). Efimov is also professor of of Medicine in the Division of Cardiology. Arora is also co-director of the Center for Arrhythmia Research. 'Body-area network' A bioelectronics pioneer, Rogers and his lab have been developing soft, flexible, wireless wearable devices and bioresorbable electronic technologies for nearly two decades. In the new study, Rogers and his collaborators combined and coordinated their bioresorbable, leadless pacemaker with four different skin-interfaced devices to work together. The skin-mounted devices are soft, flexible and can be gently peeled off after use, eliminating the need for surgical removal. The pacemaker naturally dissolves in the body after a period of need. The "body-area network" includes: A battery-free transient, bioresorbable pacemaker to temporarily pace the heart; A cardiac module that sits on the chest to provide power to and control stimulation parameters for the implanted pacemaker as well as sense electrical activity and sounds of the heart; A hemodynamics module that sits on the forehead to sense pulse oximetry, tissue oxygenation and vascular tone; A respiratory module that sits at the base of the throat to monitor coughing and respiratory activity; and A multi-haptic-feedback module that vibrates and pulses in a variety of patterns to communicate with the patient. We wanted to demonstrate that it's possible to deploy multiple different types of devices, each performing essential functions in a wirelessly coordinated manner across the body. Some are sensing. Some are delivering power. Some are stimulating. Some are providing control signals. But they all work together, trading information, making decisions based on algorithms and reacting to changing conditions. The vision of multiple bioelectronic devices all talking to one another and performing different functions at different relevant anatomical locations is a frontier area that we will continue to pursue going into the future." John Rogers, PhD, the Louis Simpson and Kimberly Querrey Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering New advances, on-demand pacing Since Northwestern's transient pacemaker was first introduced a year ago, the scientists have made multiple improvements to advance the technology. While the previous device was flexible, the new device is flexible and stretchy, enabling it to better accommodate the changing nature of a beating heart. The new iteration also uses a biocompatible adhesive developed in Rogers' and Efimov's labs. The adhesive allows the lightweight, thin device to softly laminate onto the heart's surface without needing sutures. Another new benefit: As the transient pacemaker slowly and harmlessly dissolves, it now releases an anti-inflammatory drug to prevent foreign-body reactions. Perhaps the most impactful advance is the device's ability to provide pacing on-demand, based on when the patient needs it. Synced with the pacemaker, the chest-mounted cardiac module records an electrocardiogram in real time to monitor heart activity. In the study, investigators compared this wireless technology to gold-standard electrocardiograms and found it was as accurate and precise as clinical-grade systems. "The cardiac module literally tells the pacemaker to apply stimulus to the heart," Efimov explained. "If normal activity is regained, then it stops pacing. This is important because if you stimulate the heart when it's unnecessary, then you risk inducing arrhythmia." "The pacing system is completely autonomous," said Yeon Sik Choi, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow in the Rogers laboratory and co-lead author of the paper. "It can automatically detect a problem and apply treatment. It's easy and self-contained with minimal external needs." Health care gentle enough for newborns Rogers, Efimov, Arora and their teams believe their system would be most beneficial for the most vulnerable patients. Every year, approximately 40,000 babies are born with a hole in the wall that separates their heart's upper chambers. About 10,000 of these cases are life threatening, requiring immediate surgery. After surgery, 100% of babies receive a temporary pacemaker. "The good news is this is a temporary condition," Efimov said. "After about five to seven days, the heart regains its ability to stimulate itself and no longer needs a pacemaker. The procedure to remove the pacemaker has improved greatly over the years, so the rate of complications is low. But we could free these babies from the wires connecting to an external generator and free them from needing a second procedure." In the early weeks of the pandemic, Dr. Lorenzo Gonzalez, then a second-year resident of family medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, ran on fumes, working as many as 80 hours a week in the ICU. He was constantly petrified that he would catch the covid-19 virus and guilt-ridden for not having enough time to help his ailing father. In April 2020, his father, a retired landscaper, died of heart and lung failure. Gonzalez mourned alone. His job as a doctor-in-training put him at high risk of catching the virus, and he didn't want to inadvertently spread it to his family. Financial stress also set in as he confronted steep burial costs. Now, Gonzalez is calling for better pay and benefits for residents who work grueling schedules at Los Angeles County's public hospitals for what he said amounts to less than $18 an hour while caring for the county's most vulnerable patients. "They're preying on our altruism," Gonzalez said of the hospitals. He is now chief resident of family medicine at Harbor-UCLA and president of the Committee of Interns and Residents, a national union that represents physician trainees and that is part of the Service Employees International Union. "We need acknowledgment of the sacrifices we've made," he said. Residents are newly minted physicians who have finished medical school and must spend three to seven years training at established teaching hospitals before they can practice independently. Under the supervision of a teaching physician, residents examine, diagnose, and treat patients. Some seek additional training in medical specialties as "fellows." These trainees are banding together in California and other states to demand higher wages and better benefits and working conditions amid intensifying burnout during the pandemic. They join nurses, nursing assistants, and other health care workers who are unionizing and threatening to strike as staffing shortages, the rising cost of living, and inconsistent supplies of personal protective equipment and covid vaccines have pushed them to the brink. More than 1,300 unionized residents and other trainees at three L.A. County public hospitals, including Harbor-UCLA, will vote May 30 on whether to strike for a bump in their salaries and housing stipends, after a monthslong negotiation deadlock with the county. Since March, residents at Stanford Health Care, Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California, and the University of Vermont Medical Center have unionized. "Residents were always working crazy hours, then the stress of the pandemic hit them really hard," said John August, a director at Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations. The Association of American Medical Colleges, a group that represents teaching hospitals and medical schools, did not address the unionization trend among residents directly, but the organization's chief health care officer, Dr. Janis Orlowski, said through a spokesperson that a residency is a working apprenticeship and that a resident's primary role is to be trained. Residents are paid as trainees while they are studying, training, and working, Orlowski said, and the association works to ensure that they receive effective training and support. David Simon, a spokesperson for the California Hospital Association, declined to comment. But he forwarded a study published in JAMA Network Open in September showing that surgery residents in unionized programs did not report lower rates of burnout than those in nonunionized programs. So far, none of the new chapters have negotiated their first contracts, the national union said. But some of the longer-standing ones have won improvements in pay, benefits, and working conditions. Last year, a resident union at the University of California-Davis secured housing subsidies and paid parental leave through its first contract. With more than 20,000 members, CIR represents about 1 in 7 physician trainees in the U.S. Executive Director Susan Naranjo said that before the pandemic one new chapter organized each year and that eight have joined in the past year and a half. Residents' working conditions had come under scrutiny long before the pandemic. The average resident salary in the U.S. in 2021 was $64,000, according to Medscape, a physician news site, and residents can work up to 24 hours in a shift but no more than 80 hours per week. Although one survey whose results were released last year found that 43% of residents felt they were adequately compensated, those who are unionizing say wages are too low, especially given residents' workload, their student loan debt, and the rising cost of living. The pay rate disproportionately affects residents from low-income communities and communities of color, Gonzalez said, because they have less financial assistance from family to subsidize their medical education and to pay for other costs. But with little control over where they train medical school graduates are matched to their residency by an algorithm individual residents have limited negotiating power with hospitals. For unionizing residents seeking a seat at the table, wage increases and benefits like housing stipends are often at the top of their lists, Naranjo said. Patients deserve doctors who aren't exhausted and preoccupied by financial stress, said Dr. Shreya Amin, an endocrinology fellow at the University of Vermont Medical Center. She was surprised when the institution declined to recognize the residents' union, she said, considering the personal sacrifices they had made to provide care during the pandemic. If a hospital does not voluntarily recognize a union, CIR can request that the National Labor Relations Board administer an election. The national union did so in April, and with a certified majority vote, the Vermont chapter can now begin collective bargaining, Naranjo said. Annie Mackin, a spokesperson for the medical center, said in an email that it is proud of its residents for delivering exceptional care throughout the pandemic and respects their decision to join a union. Mackin declined to address residents' workplace concerns. Dr. Candice Chen, an associate professor of health policy at George Washington University, believes that the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also bears some responsibility for residents' working conditions. Because the agency pays teaching hospitals to train residents, it should hold the facilities accountable for how they treat them, she said. And the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which sets work and educational standards for residency programs, is moving in the right direction with new requirements like paid family leave, she added, but needs to do more. How far these unions will go to achieve their goals is an open question. Strikes are rare among doctors. The last CIR strike was in 1975, by residents at 11 hospitals in New York. Naranjo said a strike would be the last resort for its L.A. County members but blamed the county for continuously delaying and canceling bargaining sessions. Among its demands, the union is calling for the county to match the wage increase granted to members of SEIU 721, a union that represents other county employees, and for a $10,000 housing allowance. The union's member surveys have found that most L.A. County residents report working 80 hours a week, Naranjo said. A spokesperson for L.A. County's Department of Health Services, Coral Itzcalli, thanked its "heroic" front-line workforce for providing "best-in-class care" and acknowledged the significant toll that the pandemic has taken on their personal and professional lives. She said limits on hours are set by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and that most trainees report working "significantly less" than 80 hours a week. Jesus Ruiz, a spokesperson for the L.A. County Chief Executive Office, which manages labor negotiations for the county, said via email that the county hopes to reach a "fair and fiscally responsible contract" with the union. Results of the strike vote are expected to be announced May 31, the union said. This story was produced by KHN, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. While Pakistan has managed to confine an outbreak of lumpy skin disease that affects cattle and buffaloes there are fears that cattle fairs ahead of the religious festival Eid-ul-Azha might trigger a second wave. The viral disease spread by insects can seriously affect cows' milk production and damage reproductive organs, say animal health experts. Vaccines arrived from Turkey in early April, five months after the first reported cases in Pakistan, and within two weeks of free-of-charge administration to 1.9 million cattle, the disease had begun to subside. "Our target (for Sindh province) is four million cattle by June," said Nazeer Hussain Kalhoro, director-general of the Sindh Institute of Animal Health, Karachi. Overall, there are 42 million buffaloes and 51 million cattle in Pakistan, according to the Ministry of National Food Security and Research. But Eid ul Azha - a religious festival where animals are sacrificed falling in the second week of July - could result in a second wave of the disease if the customary cattle fairs are allowed to go ahead, warns Zaka Ullah Pathan, a veterinarian based in Khairpur, Sindh province. Shahbaz Rasool managed to get his herd of 40 cows vaccinated against the fast-spreading, lumpy skin disease in the nick of time last week, but the danger is far from over. "I will know for sure after 28 days if they are out of danger," the dairy farmer told SciDev.Net by phone from Gujrat, in Punjab province. Rasool decided not to wait for the government to vaccinate his animals and bought the imported vaccine. A 100-milliliter bottle is selling for PKR 44,000 (US$220) and 1 milliliter is needed per cow. Livestock contributed 60.1 per cent of the of agriculture and 11.5 per cent to the gross domestic product during the 2021 financial year, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2020-21. Milk is the most important commodity in the livestock sector. Pakistan is ranked fourth in milk production worldwide after China, India and the US. Rasool's is among eight million families engaged in the livestock industry. He is worried that if the disease is not contained it will wipe out many small dairy farmers. The vector-borne virus that causes lumpy skin disease is found among cows and water buffaloes and is spread primarily through biting insects like mosquitoes and ticks. It first surfaced in Zambia in 1929. Infected cattle typically suffer from "high temperature, much discomfort and loss of milk production," says Tahir Yaqub, spokesperson of the University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore. "The nodes developed on the body look rather unsightly and may carry pus if there is bacterial infection. However, it is fine to consume meat and milk from an infected animal provided it was cooked well and the latter pasteurised properly," he added. If a female cow is infected, its reproductive organs are badly affected, says Pathan. In addition, the milk productivity of a cow producing eight litres on an average will drop down to less than 1.5 litres. In Karachi, provincial capital of Sindh, Shakir Umer Gujjar, president of Pakistan's Dairy and Cattle Farmers Association, said as the disease spread people stopped buying milk causing enormous losses to farmers who then were compelled to sell the milk to big companies at vastly reduced prices. "They bought our milk for as little as PKR 800 (US$4) for 40 litres instead of the standard rate of Rs 4,780 (US$24) for 40 litres we were thankful for even that," said Gujjar. The disease, which has already infected animals in India and Iran, was first reported in Pakistan in November 2021 from Bahawalpur, Punjab province. "Animals often cross borders and may have come from India where the disease was already present," says Kalhoro. On the potential of a resurgence around Eid ul Azha, Kalhoro reassured that there would be several checkpoints at the borders between Punjab and Sindh to screen animals and turn back infected ones. "They will need to be certified to be healthy and vaccinated, like the cards we carry to show for COVID-19 vaccination," he said. Yaqub suspected the disease to have originated with imported livestock landed at the port of Karachi last year. According to Pathan, of the 28 animals that were imported "none were quarantined" as required. Guijar supported Kalhoro's assertion that the disease subsequently spread in the port city of Karachi, where commercial farming is practiced on a large scale. "After writing to top officials and even the prime minister, the government finally took action, but the damage was done," said Gujjar. "Had I not created a noise, the disease would have devastated the entire cattle population of Pakistan, but has now been contained in Sindh. We even sent samples to the National Veterinary Laboratory, in Islamabad," said Kalhoro. "It took them till 4 March to confirm and declare the outbreak officially." Thought Leaders Irene Walsh (Elsevier) Claire Smith (BSMS) In this interview, News Medical speak to Irene Walsh, the Director of Product, Design & Content, for 3D4Medical from Elsevier, and Professor Claire Smith, Head of Anatomy at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, about the importance and real-world applications of the Complete Anatomy female model, the most advanced full female anatomy model in the world. In this interview, News Medical speak to Irene Walsh, the Director of Product, Design & Content, for 3D4Medical from Elsevier, and Professor Claire Smith, Head of Anatomy at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, about the importance and real-world applications of the Complete Anatomy female model, the most advanced full female anatomy model in the world. Please can you introduce yourself, tell us about your background, and what inspired the creation of the innovative 3D full female anatomy model? Irene Walsh: My name is Irene Walsh and Im the Director of Product, Design & Content at 3D4Medical from Elsevier, the developer of Complete Anatomy. I have worked for more than 10 years in the design field, across architectural, graphic, user experience and interface design. It might surprise you to know that the female anatomy has been historically underrepresented in the study of the human body since the 1500s. Our vision in developing this advanced 3D full female anatomy model is to create an experience where the male and female anatomy are equally represented. Our goal has always been to use the latest research, not just highlighting where the female differs from the male, as traditionally taught, but to promote equality through choice. Ultimately, we want to provide the opportunity for educators around the world to teach an entire anatomy course using the female model as default, rather than the male, should they choose to. By providing this option, we want to play our part in disrupting the gender bias which exists in clinical practice. Professor Claire Smith: Hello, Im Professor Claire Smith, Head of Anatomy at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS). At BSMS we have been working with Elsevier for many years, and more recently we have been increasing the amount of diversity in our teaching. I was especially mindful of this when writing Grays Surface Anatomy and Ultrasound to ensure that we are teaching anatomy that is representative of all patients. We are delighted that Complete Anatomy have developed the full female model and that we have been able to bring this into our teaching of medical students. The Complete Anatomy female model is the world's most advanced full female anatomy model. Image Credit: Elsevier The Complete Anatomy female model is the most advanced full female anatomy model in the world and marks the first time that a female model has been built with such intricate detail in its entirety, versus replacing specific parts of male models with female anatomy. Why is this such a major milestone for education equality, and why do you believe this creation hasnt been developed in the past? Irene Walsh: One approach, which is regularly observed in the anatomy market, is to simply replicate the male skeleton and shrink it, adding in the female reproductive organs. Our team felt this would not align with our vision, it would not reflect the nuances of the female skeleton and how it presents, especially in anthropological instances. We wanted to represent the female as comprehensively as possible and set about researching points of sexual dimorphism seen in female bones using resources from forensic anthropology. We referenced anthropological data from specialists texts, academic papers, and customer feedback. This information was discussed in detail with subject matter experts. Once a brief was created on a specific region, a specialist medical writer worked closely with a 3D artist to craft the sexual dimorphic details apparent on the female. Our team at Complete Anatomy from Elsevier is creating a platform of representation that is diverse, balanced, and most importantly, accurate. By giving educators the option to choose the female body as the basis for their students education, were helping evolve equitable teaching practices by normalizing the female body. We are proud to take this step forward in addressing gender bias and believe our 3D full female model will have a clear impact on the educational experience of medical students worldwide as well as on the outcomes of patients they treat in the future. Can you explain what the Complete Anatomy female model includes to create an accurate representation of female anatomy? Irene Walsh: Informed by four years of expert research and development, anthropological data from specialist texts, academic papers, and customer feedback, our 3D full female anatomy model provides an unprecedented opportunity to study the female form in more detail than before. The Complete Anatomy female model includes: The full skeletal system A complete female skeletal system includes a wide array of unique features, rarely seen in anatomical texts. Sexual differences have been applied to areas such as the pelvis and skull. Long bones have been proportioned, and bone angles accurately reflect the uniquely female architectural skeletal base. A complete female skeletal system includes a wide array of unique features, rarely seen in anatomical texts. Sexual differences have been applied to areas such as the pelvis and skull. Long bones have been proportioned, and bone angles accurately reflect the uniquely female architectural skeletal base. Accurate portrayal of muscles In line with research findings from the broadest demographic of females, each muscle has been refined, amounting to a reduction in the overall volume of muscle mass by roughly 30%. In line with research findings from the broadest demographic of females, each muscle has been refined, amounting to a reduction in the overall volume of muscle mass by roughly 30%. Visually detailed female-specific regions The female-specific regions have been created in detail that is equivalent to the male counterpart. Breast tissue can be hemisected or quartered to reveal the underlying tissues with a more accurate distribution and representative state of the mammary glands, now shown as non-lactating, unlike many anatomical resources. The reproductive organs from the internal and external genitalia have been remodeled to accurately show their continued relationship. The female-specific regions have been created in detail that is equivalent to the male counterpart. Breast tissue can be hemisected or quartered to reveal the underlying tissues with a more accurate distribution and representative state of the mammary glands, now shown as non-lactating, unlike many anatomical resources. The reproductive organs from the internal and external genitalia have been remodeled to accurately show their continued relationship. Comparative functionality Users can switch between models for comparative study on any part of the male and female forms, compare sexual differences and reveal the origin and distribution of nerves. Users can learn from an interactive dissection course, take quizzes and watch videos to test their skills. Differences between the male and female forms are accurately portrayed via the Complete Anatomy female model. Image Credit: Elsevier Why is it so important to have access to accurate models that can provide a complete understanding of the female anatomy? Irene Walsh: With Complete Anatomy, were putting anatomy software in the hands of health science students on day one of their training. As a team, we take this responsibility very seriously. We are committed to playing our part in the changing and evolving nature of anatomical education in the 21st century, and our role in challenging previously held historical biases in the ongoing social conversations of our time. We also believe it is important to have equal representation in the study of anatomy and remove unconscious bias that can be carried by learners into their future interactions with the body, including potentially with patients. Professor Claire Smith: Traditionally, scientific understanding of anatomy and the generation of images in textbooks was based on the dissection of the human body. However, these dissections were predominantly performed on executed male prisoners. Therefore, these images and our understanding of the human body are based on the male anatomy, with elements of the female just added on as an adjunct. When half of the population is female, having just the breasts and pelvis added doesnt reflect the comprehensive view of health care that is needed. Accurate teaching that is removed from bias is really important from the start of medical education, as this enables the doctors and allied health care professionals of tomorrow to have an in-depth understanding of the human anatomy in both sexes. Complete Anatomy models allow students to utilize 3D technology alongside existing teaching methods for a deeper understanding of anatomical differences between sexes. Image Credit: valiantsin suprunovich/Shutterstock Can you explain some of the practical applications of the model? Moreover, how is the Complete Anatomy female model currently being used to teach students? Professor Claire Smith: At BSMS we use Complete Anatomy in a range of our teaching sessions. In lectures, the model enables 3D reconstruction of a specific area, in dissection sessions, this is available on iPads next to our amazing body donors so that students can compare the model to their donor. Additionally, in living anatomy and ultrasound sessions, students use the model to understand the difference between how the anatomy looks on themselves and then compared to without the skin on the model. Primarily the new female model helps us to pull out key points in each body to then analyze where there are differences and what the clinical significance of this is. How does the model provide educators with a more comprehensive teaching approach? What are some of the benefits of using the female model in classes? Professor Claire Smith: For the first time this model has provided us with a full resource of the female form, rather than just a male skeleton with a female pelvis. The benefits of this range beyond just the overt; such as the in-depth exploration into the anatomy of the breast; it has also given us resources to explore many more subtle elements of the female anatomy such as the difference in long bones. The model has also contributed to the hidden curriculum as it demonstrates equality in our teaching and creates awareness of the historic bias in medicine. Introducing the full Female model: Complete Anatomy 2022 Play The Complete Anatomy female model signifies a major milestone in equal representation, however, there is still a long way to go. How do you believe we can further improve education equality in terms of the underrepresentation of the female anatomy in the study of the human body? Irene Walsh: Complete Anatomy is just one small segment of a massive project being undertaken across the teams at Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, with the potential to significantly impact learning and teaching globally. We are passionately committed to increasing inclusion, diversity and equity in research, healthcare, and publishing, and in particular to increasing the representation of under-represented groups, including women, people of color, and socially disadvantaged populations, among our editorial advisors, reviewers, authors, and contributors. We are working together to promote a stronger, more diverse, and representative scholarly community of authors, editors, and contributors built on a platform of inclusion and diversity. Professor Claire Smith: I believe that we need to work alongside the national curriculum to develop more of an open and inclusive approach when delivering teaching on anatomy. By working to remove the historical bias of anatomy education, students of both sexes can gain a more comprehensive understanding of female health. This also extends beyond the underrepresentation of female anatomy to include better education on differences in age, race, normal variation, and body type. Where can readers find more information? Irene Walsh: www.3d4medical.com/ Professor Claire Smith: https://www.bsms.ac.uk/about/contact-us/staff/professor-claire-smith.aspx About the Interviewees Irene Walsh: In her role at 3D4Medical from Elsevier, Irene Walsh leads the Product, UX, Medical Content, and 3D teams to deliver engaging medical teaching and learning experiences, through the use of 3D Anatomy. In 2015, Irene became only the ninth woman to present on the Apple Keynote stage, demoing the companys flagship product Complete Anatomy to an estimated audience of over 40 million. Her passion lies in user-centered product design and tackling the biases in anatomical learning, through developing great experiences and leveraging cutting-edge technology. Irene has lectured at Technical University Dublin in Design Practice, held workshops on Tackling Bias in Education, and is a council member of the National Design Forum of Ireland. Professor Claire Smith: As a Professor and Head of Anatomy, I oversee all aspects of teaching to over 1,500 medical students and allied health professionals in a year. This includes leading a body donation program of which at BSMS alone we require 60 donors a year. My career highlights include being awarded National Teaching Fellowship, and on a daily basis having great conversations with students and surgeons really motivates me to deliver excellent teaching programmes. For more information on body donation please visit: https://www.hta.gov.uk/guidance-public/body-donation/how-donate-your-body In a recent study posted to the bioRxiv* preprint server, scientists analyzed the antigenic characteristics of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 sublineages. Background SARS-CoV-2 mutants have emerged constantly throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2 and BA.1 lineages appeared in late November 2021 in South Africa and harbor a substantial antigenic gap from prior SARS-CoV-2 variants and existing vaccine strains, yet a minor antigenic distance between each other. BA.4 and BA.5, the most recent SARS-CoV-2 Omicron mutants to appear, were initially discovered in Southern Africa, where they are causing the present wave of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, the Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 sublineage cases were elevating quickly in various European nations. BA.5 and BA.4 encode similar spike (S) proteins and are more closely associated with BA.2. They share multiple mutations with BA.2, including 69-70, F486V, and L452R, but neither has the Q493R alteration compared to BA.2. About the study In the present report, the scientists examined the antigenic features of the key Omicron BA.4/BA.5, BA.1, and BA.2 sublineages as F486V and L452R mutations were anticipated to have an antigenic impact on the SARS-CoV-2 S protein. For this, they employed sera samples from vaccinated, vaccine-breakthrough, and post-infection animal/human cohorts and currently used therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The researchers characterized the antigenicity of the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 S protein in depth by comparing sera samples taken post-Omicron BA.2, or BA.1 infection, post-vaccination, and post-Omicron/Delta vaccine breakthrough infection. The team tested the susceptibility of Omicron BA.4/BA.5 sublineages to neutralization by therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) named casirivimab/REGN10933, imbedvimab/REGN10987, and sotrovimab. The investigators assessed three-dose vaccinated subjects (two ChAdOx1 doses plus BNT162b2 booster dose or BNT162b2 triple-vaccinated). They also analyzed the cross-reactivity between different Omicron subvariants using unvaccinated hamsters and human sera collected post-BA.2 or BA.1 infections. Findings The study results indicated that the three-dose vaccinated subjects exhibited a comparable decline in neutralizing titer (six to 15-fold) for all Omicron subvariants, including an eight- to 10-fold drop against the BA.5 or BA.4 sublineages. The team noticed a similar result in an older vaccinee group, with comparable reductions in all Omicron sublineages. In this same group, both the BNT162b2 triple-dose and two-dose ChAdOx1 plus BNT162b2 booster dose vaccination regimens augmented BA.4 neutralizing titers by 10 times comparable to BA.2 and BA.1 neutralizing levels. Sera from non-vaccinated people who had just one known exposure to BA.1 showed a 23-fold reduction in relative neutralizing levels against BA.4 and BA.5 and a minor decline against BA. 2. Cross-neutralization of BA.4/BA.5 by BA.1-infected hamster sera dropped dramatically, whereas BA.2 dropped only a little. The decrease in cross-neutralization of BA.4/BA.5 was less pronounced in hamster sera collected after BA.2 infections, while neutralization of BA.1 was diminished by 2.3 times. A similar pattern of cross-neutralization was depicted by unvaccinated single BA.2 infection-only and non-specified Omicron infection-harboring human sera samples. The researchers reported 3.3 times reduction in neutralization between BA.1 and BA.5/BA.4 for BA.1 breakthrough infection and 5.5 times reduction between BA.2 versus BA.4/BA.5 for BA.2 breakthrough sera. Community Omicron breakthrough infected antisera with unspecified lineage exhibited similar decreases in titer towards all Omicron subvariants. Interestingly, in hamsters, Delta breakthrough infection elicited a cross-neutralizing reaction against BA.4/BA.5 and BA.2, yet not BA.1. Furthermore, BA.1 breakthrough resulted in a substantially cross-neutralizing response, with BA.5/BA.4 being neutralized to a similar degree as BA.2 or BA.1 in hamsters. Finally, BA.4/BA.5 displayed a broadly similar trend of mAb sensitivity to BA.2, being identified by sotrovimab less well than the SARS-CoV-2 wild-type (WT) or BA.1 S protein but slightly better by imbedvimab versus BA.1. Conclusions Overall, the study data illustrated that post-vaccination sera had a similar capacity to neutralize the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.2, BA.1, and BA.4/BA.5 subvariants. On the other hand, previous BA.1 or BA.2 infections without COVID-19 vaccination imparted poor BA.4/BA.5 neutralizing antibody responses. COVID-19 vaccinees infected with Omicron exhibited a broader neutralizing response toward the new Omicron mutants. Besides, BA.4/BA.5 was similar to BA.2, considering the susceptibility to neutralization via therapeutic monoclonal antibodies. To conclude, the present study depicted that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron BA.4/BA.5 differ antigenically from BA.1 and, to a minor degree, BA.2. The increased range of neutralization upon breakthrough Omicron infections indicated that after priming with ancestral strain, booster vaccination with multivalent or heterologous antigens might be a feasible strategy for the establishment of cross-neutralizing antibody reactions. *Important notice bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. Scientists at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center were optimistic when they identified a small molecule that blocked a key pathway in brain tumors. But there was a problem: How to get the inhibitor through the bloodstream and into the brain to reach the tumor. In collaboration with multiple labs, the teams fabricated a nanoparticle to contain the inhibitor, and the results were even better than expected. Not only did the nanoparticles deliver the inhibitor to the tumor in mouse models, where the drug successfully turned on the immune system to eliminate the cancer, but the process triggered immune memory so that a reintroduced tumor was also eliminated-;a sign that this potential new approach could not only treat brain tumors but prevent or delay recurrences. "No one could get this molecule into the brain. It's really a huge milestone. Outcomes for patients with glioma have not improved for the last 30 years," said Maria G. Castro, Ph.D., R.C. Schneider Collegiate Professor of Neurosurgery at Michigan Medicine. Castro is the senior author of the study, published in ACS Nano. Despite survival gains in many cancer types, glioma remains stubbornly challenging, with only 5% of patients living five years after their diagnosis." Pedro R. Lowenstein, M.D., Ph.D., study author, Richard C. Schneider Collegiate Professor of Neurosurgery at Michigan Medicine Gliomas are often resistant to traditional therapies, and the environment inside the tumor suppresses the immune system, rendering new immune-based therapies ineffective. Add to that the challenge of passing the blood brain barrier, and it becomes even more difficult to deliver effective treatments to these tumors. The Castro-Lowenstein lab saw an opportunity. The small molecule inhibitor AMD3100 was developed to block the action of CXCR12, a cytokine released by the glioma cells that builds up a shield around the immune system, preventing it from firing up against the invading tumor. Researchers showed in mouse models of glioma that AMD3100 prevented CXCR12 from binding with immune-suppressive myeloid cells. By disarming these cells, the immune system remains intact and can attack the tumor cells. But AMD3100 was having trouble getting to the tumor. The drug did not travel well through the bloodstream, and it did not pass the blood brain barrier, a key issue with getting drugs into the brain. The Castro-Lowenstein lab collaborated with Joerg Lahann, Ph.D., Wolfgang Pauli Collegiate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the U-M College of Engineering, to create protein-based nanoparticles to encapsulate the inhibitor, in the hopes of helping it pass through the bloodstream. Castro also connected with Anuska V. Andjelkovic, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology and research professor of neurosurgery at Michigan Medicine, whose research focuses on the blood brain barrier. They noted that glioma tumors create abnormal blood vessels, interfering with normal blood flow. The researchers injected AMD3100-loaded nanoparticles into mice with gliomas. The nanoparticles contained a peptide on the surface that binds to a protein found mostly on the brain tumor cells. As the nanoparticles traveled through the bloodstream toward the tumor, they released AMD3100, which restored the integrity of the blood vessels. The nanoparticles could then reach their target, where they released the drug, thus blocking the entry of the immune-suppressive myeloid cells into the tumor mass. This allowed the immune cells to kill the tumor and delay its progression. "If you don't have blood flow, nothing will get to your target. That's why tumors are so smart. But AMD3100 restores the conduits, which is what allows the nanoparticles to reach the tumor," Castro said. Further studies in mice and patient cell lines demonstrated that coupling the AMD3100 nanoparticle with radiation therapy enhanced the effect beyond either the nanoparticle or radiation alone. Among the mice whose tumors were eliminated, the researchers then reintroduced the tumor, simulating a recurrence. Without any additional therapy, 60% of mice remained cancer-free. This suggests that, like a vaccine, AMD3100 created immune memory, enabling the immune system to recognize and destroy the reintroduced cells. While it prevented a recurrence in mice, Castro said it bodes well for at least delaying recurrence in people. "Every glioma recurs. It's very important for glioma therapy to have this immunological memory," Castro said. Initial tests showed little to no impact on liver, kidney or heart function and normal blood counts in the mice after treatment. The nanoparticle has a similar base as ones that have been previously tested in humans and shown to be safe. Additional safety testing is necessary before moving to a clinical trial. In a recent article posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers demonstrated the short-term protection conferred by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) BNT162b2 vaccination in adolescents and children. Background The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT162b2) vaccine has a lower efficiency against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant than the Delta and other variants. Moreover, the BNT162b2 vaccine's real-world efficacy against Omicron infection in children and adolescents is limited. Shortly before the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron outbreak, the BNT162b2 two-dose vaccination for children and the third BNT162b2 shot for adolescents were authorized in Israel. The BNT162b2 vaccination was approved in Israel on 2 June 2021 for adolescents aged 12 to 15, and a booster dosage was approved on 29 August 2021 for those who had received the second vaccine at least five months before. Starting 23 November 2021, children aged five to 11 received a two-dose BNT162b2 vaccination utilizing a third of the amount provided to children aged 12 and older. However, the impact of these vaccinations on Omicron-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in these populations is still unknown. About the study In the current work, the researchers analyzed data from Israel to investigate the efficacy of the two-dose BNT162b2 schedule for children aged five to 11 years old and the booster shot for adolescents aged 12 to 15. The authors collected information for the Omicron BA.1 sublineage-dominated timeframe: between 26 December 2021 and 8 January 2022 in Israel. They noted that credible estimates of efficacy for the time following 8 January 2022 were hard to acquire due to substantial policy changes in COVID-19 testing, contact isolation, and quarantine in schools. The scientists analyzed data from the Israeli Ministry of Health database, which contained information on all vaccinations and tests performed in Israel. The study cohort included children (aged five to 10) and adolescents (12 to 15) if they had received a COVID-19 vaccine or had taken at least one state-regulated antigen or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before 1 December 2021. The team omitted the 11-year-old age group because the current data only contained age in years, and vaccination eligibility dates varied for 11 and 12-year-olds. The investigators evaluated rates of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in children aged five to 10 years old 14 to 35 days after getting the second dose with an internal control cohort of children three to seven days following receiving the first shot when the vaccination was still ineffective. Likewise, they compared confirmed COVID-19 rates in adolescents aged 12 to 15 years old 14 to 60 days following getting a booster shot to a control cohort of adolescents three to seven days after getting the booster dose. The authors used Poisson regression controlling for sex, age, calendar week, exposure, and socioeconomic level. Results and conclusions Overall, the study results showed that the COVID-19 BNT162b2 vaccination offered an initial nearly two-fold improvement in immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infection in children aged five to 10. The estimated incidence of confirmed COVID-19 in the five to 10 age category was 2.3-times lower in the second dose cohort compared to the internal control population. In addition, the current analysis found that a recent BNT162b2 booster dose in adolescents reduced SARS-CoV-2 infections by three- to four-time relative to the internal control. Specifically, the third dose decreased confirmed-COVID-19 rates over 3.3-time in adolescents. The authors found that different testing habits did not explain the reduced confirmed-SARS-CoV-2 infection rates in the vaccinated groups relative to the non-vaccinated. In all age categories, the non-vaccinated cohorts tested less frequently than the vaccinated groups, implying that the predicted protection compared to non-vaccinated persons may be underestimated. While the vaccine-naive cohorts had reduced testing rates than the vaccinated groups, the internal control subjects had a slightly higher testing rate than the second dose vaccination group in the five to 10 age range, which might contribute to an overestimation of the vaccine's protection. The internal control subjects had a decreased testing rate than the booster group in the vaccinated 12 to 15 age range, probably indicating that the booster shot confers a better degree of protection than anticipated in this study. To summarize, the current investigation illustrated an assessment of the COVID-19 BNT162b2 vaccine's transient protection against confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection in adolescents and children. Relative to the corresponding internal control cohorts, the recent two-dose vaccination of the BNT162b2 vaccine in children and the latest booster shot in adolescents lowered the risk of confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The authors mentioned that future research was needed to determine how long this protection lasts and how well it protects against other COVID-19 outcomes, including long-COVID and pediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome temporally associated with SARS-CoV-2 (PIMS-TS). *Important notice medRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information. (Newser) Scientists say they have fully sequenced the DNA of a Mount Vesuvius victim for the first timeand the genetic information explains why the Pompeii resident didn't flee the eruption nearly 2,000 years ago. According to research published in the journal Scientific Reports, the man's DNA sequence showed signs of tuberculous spondylitis, a spinal condition also known as Pott's disease. Researchers say the man, who was 35 to 40 years old, would have had little mobility, the New York Times reports. His skeleton was found on a wooden couch, near the skeleton of an older woman who had a bag of 27 silver coins. The well-preserved skeletal remains were discovered under a layer of volcanic material during the excavation of Casa del Fabbro, or House of the Blacksmith, in 1933, the Wall Street Journal reports. Researchers say there were too many gaps in the woman's DNA for full sequencing, but comparison to around 1,500 modern and ancient samples showed that the man was genetically similar to the inhabitants of Rome, 150 miles away, though he also had genes commonly found in people in Sardinia and what is now western Turkey, suggesting the area had a high level of genetic diversity. Thanks to advances in technology, researchers were able to extract and sequence DNA from the extremely hard petrous part of the man's skull. Anthropologist Dr. Serena Viva from the University of Salento tells the BBC that unlike many others, it appeared that the man and woman were not trying to escape the eruption, probably because of their health conditions. She says every body recovered from the ancient site is a "treasure." "These people are silent witnesses to one of the most well-known historical events in the world," she says. "To work with them is very emotional and a great privilege for me." (Read more Pompeii stories.) (Newser) Firefighters have rescued an abandoned newborn elk calf found amid the ashes of the nation's largest wildfire as calving season approaches its peak in New Mexico and fires rage across the American West. Missoula, Montana-based firefighter Nate Sink said Tuesday that he happened upon the motionless elk calf on the ground of a fire-blackened New Mexico forest as he patrolled and extinguished lingering hot spots. "The whole area is just surrounded in a thick layer of ash and burned trees. I didn't think it was alive, said Sink, who was deployed to the state to help contain the wildfire, the AP reports. By Wednesday, the fire had spread across 486 square miles and destroyed hundreds of structures. It's one of five major uncontained fires burning in New Mexico in extremely dry and windy conditions. More than 3,000 firefighters battling the biggest blaze have made significant progress halting its growth in recent days ahead of more dangerous fire conditions forecast to return into the weekend, crew commanders said Wednesday night. Bruno Rodriguez, an interagency meteorologist, said gusts should continue to increase by about 5mph per day, from 25mph Thursday to as strong as 50mph by Monday. "It's definitely going to be a critical fire weather pattern, and unfortunately it's going to be fairly prolonged and persistent," he said. Wildlife officials in general discourage interactions with elk calves that are briefly left alone in the first weeks of life as their mothers forage at a distance. Sink said he searched diligently for traces of the calf's mother and found none. The 32-pound singed bull calf, dubbed Cinder, was taken for care to a nearby ranch and is now regaining strength at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Espanola. Veterinarian Kathleen Ramsay at Cottonwood Rehab says she paired Cinder with a full-grown surrogate elk to be raised with as little human contact as possible. Ramsay said she hopes the calf can be released into the wild in December after elk hunting season. The strategy has worked repeatedly with elk tracked by tags as they rejoined wild herds. "They do elk things, they don't do people things, said Ramsay. (Read more wildfires stories.) (Newser) A US effort to impose new sanctions on North Korea over its series of intercontinental ballistic missile launches was blocked Thursday in the United Nations. China and Russia vetoed the resolution, making the Security Council vote 13-2. It was the first major split among the five nations with vetoes on sanctions for North Korea, the Washington Post reports. US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield reminded the other nations before the vote that they'd agreed to add sanctions in December 2017 if North Korea launched any ballistic missiles with the ability to reach intercontinental ranges. The six tests by North Korea so far this year are "a threat to the entire international community," Thomas-Greenfield said. China's ambassador said it's a bad time for provocative action, given the tension on the Korean Peninsula. Zhang Jun urged the US to instead take "meaningful, practical actions" toward dialogue with North Korea, per the AP. Adding sanctions, he said, "can only get the situation even worse." Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said the US and its Western allies "seem to have no response to crisis situations other than introducing new sanctions," per the AFP. President Biden has expressed an openness to meeting with North Korean President Kim Jong Un. (Read more North Korea sanctions stories.) (Newser) At least 10 GOP senators would have to support gun control legislation for it to pass. The New York Times contacted all 50 Republicans to see whether they'll back two measures that the House has approved to toughen background checks for people who want to buy guns. Most of them either wouldn't say how they'd vote or said they'd oppose the House bills. Here are a sampling of their responses, which the Times ran along with their grades from the National Rifle Association and the amount of money the organization has contributed to the senators over their careers. Maine Sen. Susan Collins : A spokeswoman said "Senator Collins is one of two Republican senators currently serving who voted for Manchin-Toomey, which included background checks for all commercial transactions." NRA rating: A. Funding: $18,000. : A spokeswoman said "Senator Collins is one of two Republican senators currently serving who voted for Manchin-Toomey, which included background checks for all commercial transactions." NRA rating: A. Funding: $18,000. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz : The senator blamed Democrats "and a whole lot of folks in the media" for rushing to "try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens." NRA rating: A+. Funding: $176,000. : The senator blamed Democrats "and a whole lot of folks in the media" for rushing to "try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens." NRA rating: A+. Funding: $176,000. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham : "None of these things we're talking about seems to change the outcome, before these most recent cases. I doubt if any Republicans vote for that." NRA rating: A. Funding: $433,000. : "None of these things we're talking about seems to change the outcome, before these most recent cases. I doubt if any Republicans vote for that." NRA rating: A. Funding: $433,000. Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey : "My interest in doing something to improve and expand our background check system remains." NRA rating: C. Funding: $1.5 million. : "My interest in doing something to improve and expand our background check system remains." NRA rating: C. Funding: $1.5 million. Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell : No answer. NRA rating: A+. Funding: $1.3 million. : No answer. NRA rating: A+. Funding: $1.3 million. Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville : "I'm willing to say that Im very sorry it happened. But guns are not the problem, OK? People are the problem." NRA rating: A. Funding: $10,000. : "I'm willing to say that Im very sorry it happened. But guns are not the problem, OK? People are the problem." NRA rating: A. Funding: $10,000. Utah Sen. Mitt Romney : "I do believe that we will be looking at ways to improve our background checks. ... And I do believe that red flag laws ... are helpful." NRA rating: A. Funding: $13.6 million. : "I do believe that we will be looking at ways to improve our background checks. ... And I do believe that red flag laws ... are helpful." NRA rating: A. Funding: $13.6 million. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio : No answer. NRA rating: A+. Funding: $3.3 million. : No answer. NRA rating: A+. Funding: $3.3 million. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe: "I hadnt thought about it. You're the first one to bring that to my attention." NRA rating: A+. Funding: $82,000. You can read the full piece here . (Read more Senate Republicans stories.) (Newser) A suspect was shot dead near an elementary school in Toronto Thursday after police responded to reports of a man seen carrying what appeared to be a rifle in the area, just two days after the Texas mass shooting. Police described the suspect as a man in his late teens or early 20s. Toronto Police Chief James Ramer said the suspect was shot after he "confronted" officers, the Toronto Star reports. Investigators say a BB gun was recovered at the scene, reports CTV. Witnesses said they heard three shots and then saw officers trying to revive the man. Police said two officers fired on the man and he was hit at least once. "Due to the proximity to a school, I certainly understand the trauma and how traumatic this must have been for staff, students, and parents, given the recent events that have happened in the United States," the chief said. He said investigators "have no understanding, at this point in time, what was about to happen, or what could have happened." The chief said he can't disclose details about the man's interaction with police because Ontario's Special Investigation Unit is investigating the shooting, as it does whenever police in the province shoot a civilian, the Guardian reports. Witnesses say the man was shot around 300 feet from William G. Davis Junior Public School. Parent Steve Matthews tells CityNews that he called 911 after seeing the man pacing back and forth with what appeared to be a rifle. Hundreds of students at that school and three others in the area were locked down during the incident. Fifth-grader Inaaya Zaman tells the CBC that she realized it wasn't a drill when the lockdown lasted more than 20 minutes. "There was a mass shooting in Texas and that was really sad, so knowing about this person that is armed, it feels like they were going to shoot the school and I was feeling really tense," she says. (Read more Toronto stories.) (Newser) A California parole panel recommended the release of Patricia Krenwinkel for the first time Thursday, more than five decades after she and other followers of cult leader Charles Manson terrorized the state and she wrote Helter Skelter on a wall using the blood of one of their victims. Krenwinkel, 74, was previously denied parole 14 times for the slayings of pregnant actor Sharon Tate and four other people in 1969, the AP reports. She helped kill grocer Leno LaBianca and his wife Rosemary the next night. Krenwinkel was a 19-year-old secretary living with her older sister when she met Manson, then age 33, at a party; she says he abused her physically and emotionally and trafficked her to other men for sex, and that she was suffering battered women's syndrome when she helped in the slayings. The parole recommendation will be reviewed by the state parole board's legal division before likely going to Gov. Gavin Newsom for a decision within five months. He has previously rejected parole recommendations for other followers of Manson, who died in prison in 2017. New laws since Krenwinkel was last denied parole in 2017 required the parole panel to consider that she committed the murders at a young age and is now an elderly prisoner. Also, for the first time, Los Angeles County prosecutors werent at the parole hearing to object, under District Attorney George Gascons policy that prosecutors should not be involved in deciding whether prisoners are ready for release. However, Krenwinkels attorney, Keith Wattley, said relatives of her victims offered the same objections at the hearing as prosecutors have in the past. What was different this time was that the parole panel was willing to follow the law, he said, recognizing that she has had no disciplinary violations and is no longer a danger to society. She's completely transformed from the person she was when she committed this crime, which is all that it's supposed to take to be granted parole, he said. Krenwinkel became the states longest-serving female inmate when fellow Manson follower Susan Atkins died of cancer in prison in 2009. Wattley said he understands she is the longest-serving woman in the United States. (Newsom in March rejected a panel's recommendation that another Manson follower be paroled.) (Newser) Is the free fish really worth it? A bunch of people in Taiwan who legally changed their name to "Salmon" to take advantage of a restaurant promotion are about to find out, because the government isn't letting some of them change their names back, reports the Guardian. It started in March 2021, when the restaurant chain Sushiro ran a gimmick in which anyone who used the two characters for "giu yu" (which means "salmon") could earn a free, all-you-can-devour sushi meal for themselves and a handful of friends. Of course, most people weren't given such a name at birth, so sushi lovers who wanted in on the promotion did the next best thing: They paid a small administrative fee and had their names changed. Salmon Dream, Dancing Salmon, and Explosive Good-Looking Salmon were among some of the picks. Many apparently figured they'd just change their names back after the promotion had ended, even though government officials complained that the "salmon chaos" was causing a ton of paperwork, and despite the fact that the law in Taiwan only allows for three name changes in total over one's lifetime. And it appears that while some who went through with it were able to simply transition back to their regular names afterward, others didn't take that three-time cap seriously or miscalculated how many times they'd changed their names in the past, because now those already at the limit can't change them back. Which brings Taiwanese lawmakers to their "I told you so" moment. On Thursday, legislators in the nation's parliament brought to the table amendments that would include help for those now stuck with a fishy name, as well as other measures such as cooling-off periods and increased fees. The general public, meanwhile, doesn't seem to have much sympathy for their name-shifting compatriots. "How can we amend the law for those who sell their personality for the sake of benefits?" one irked commenter complained. Another piped in: "Be responsible for your own life, Salmons!" (Read more Taiwan stories.) (Newser) Two ex-FBI agents tangled up in the Larry Nassar case won't see charges brought against them by the Justice Department. The DOJ said as much on Thursday, noting in a release that, "after multiple reviews and analyses of evidence," it won't be pursuing a criminal case against former Indianapolis agents Michael Langeman and his then-boss W. Jay Abbott. They were accused of not properly investigating allegations against the USA Gymnastics doctor, reports NBC News. CNN notes this is the third time prosecutors have looked into and declined to bring charges against the pair. The DOJ's decision "reflects the recommendation of experienced prosecutors," though "this does not in any way reflect a view that the investigation of Nassar was handled as it should have been, nor in any way reflects approval or disregard of the conduct of the former agents," the release adds. The department's inspector general last year put out a scathing report that found a massive failure on the part of FBI agents to look into complaints against Nassar, as well as declared the agents then lied about their actions to investigators. The IG report noted that, between July 2015, when the first sex abuse allegations were reported to the FBI, and September 2016, when the agency finally started moving on those accusations, Nassar had the chance to abuse at least 70 athletes. The most recent review was launched in October, based on new information that reportedly surfaced. John Manly, an attorney for some of the victims, calls the DOJ's ruling a "complete failure," per NBC. The "infuriating" decision is getting flak from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill, too. "FBI agents who knew of Larry Nassar's abuse, did nothing, and then lied about it will face no legal consequences for their actions," a joint statement from Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal and GOP Sen. Jerry Moran reads. The Wall Street Journal notes that Abbott has since retired, while Langeman was fired last year after the IG report came out. Nassar is currently serving up to 175 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2018 to sexually abusing 10 patients, although allegations emerged against him from hundreds. (Read more Larry Nassar stories.) (Newser) For Edward Niedermeyer, it's plain as day: The emperorthat would be Elon Muskhas no clothes. It's an opinion Niedermeyer has held for years, and he hasn't been quiet about it (see his 2019 publication of the book Ludicrous: The Unvarnished Story of Tesla Motors). In an opinion piece for Slate, he writes that it's possible that others are finally "ready to learn what I have discovered in my time not taking Musk at his word." For him, it started with a 2015 visit to a battery-swap station Tesla was trumpeting about in Harris Ranch, California, thoughtfully situated between Los Angeles and San Francisco. Tesla's line was that the station could get Tesla drivers ready to go again in a powered-up car quicker than it would take a driver to refuel a typical vehicle. That's not what he found once there. Tesla was actually "running diesel generators to power additional Superchargers (the kind that take 30 to 60 minutes to recharge a battery) to handle the holiday rush, their exhaust mingling with the unmistakable smell of bulls---. That one decision to go and find the truth underlying Elon Musks promises, rather than just take his word for it, changed my life." He assumed the "duplicity" wasn't a one-off, and said that his digging has confirmed it wasn't (he runs down some of the "cockroaches" he says he found). The crux of it for Niedermeyer is this: Musk's celebrity is remarkable, but his "trajectory is unsustainable. It was only a matter of time before impunity and arrogance caused his mask to slip, and then the world would be ready to learn that Teslas runaway valuation was underwritten by memes, corner-cutting, information control, and outright deception." (Read the full column.) (Newser) It's the moment that Stranger Things fans have been waiting for: The spooky series is back on Netflix as of Friday for Season 4, though viewers in the US watching last season's recap trailer that plays right before the new one will notice a special disclaimer. USA Today reports that, due to the first scene in the premiere episode, a warning has been added in the wake of this week's massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. "We filmed this season of Stranger Things a year ago," the disclaimer card reads. "But given the recent tragic shooting at a school in Texas, viewers may find the opening scene of episode 1 distressing. We are deeply saddened by this unspeakable violence, and our hearts go out to every family mourning a loved one." A parental advisory has also been tacked onto the episode's description, noting: "Warning: Contains graphic violence involving children." The show's rating advisories now have a "disturbing images" added on as well. Variety notes that the scene at the center of the warning features "a massacre that involves Millie Bobby Brown's psychokinetic and telepathic character Eleven and shows the dead bodies of several children covered in blood." A sneak peek of the scene was released last week, before the Uvalde shooting. Meanwhile, Brown has put up her own post about the Texas tragedy. "Mourning the loss of these beautiful angels," she posted Wednesday on Instagram. "Each one of these precious children deserved the chance to live their lives to the fullest and to pursue their hopes and dreams. My heart aches for their families and loved ones, the teachers and fellow students." (Read more Stranger Things stories.) (Newser) Seven-term US Rep. Kurt Schrader has been ousted in a Democratic primary in Oregon by progressive challenger Jamie McLeod-Skinner. The vote count in the state's 5th Congressional District was delayed due to ballots with blurry bar codes being rejected by vote-counting machines. Workers in Clackamas County had to transfer votes by hand to fresh ballots so they could be tallied. McLeod-Skinner had the backing of the Democratic Party organizations in all four counties covered by the redrawn district. She had urged stronger action to combat climate change, the AP reports, and complained that Schrader was too conservative. McLeod-Skinner will face Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer in November. Chavez-DeRemer is the former mayor of Happy Valley, Oregon. She has said she will support businesses and police, and address "the crisis on our southern border." Schrader, a moderate, had the support of President Biden, who made the congressman his first endorsement of the year. Schrader has voted against some of Bidens priorities, including a money-saving plan to let Medicare negotiate the price it pays for prescription drugs. Schrader has faced mounting criticism from progressive Democrats. A year ago, he was one of only two members of his party to vote against a $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill because, among several reasons, he did not support including an increase to the minimum wage. The newly drawn 5th District stretched from the Portland area southeast into rural communities in the central part of the state. While Democrats have held the seat since 1997, there are concerns by some in the party that a more progressive candidate would face a tougher time getting elected in the region after it was changed through redistricting. (Read more Oregon primary stories.) (Newser) Another wrenching story has emerged from one of the young survivors in the Texas school shooting. Fourth grader Miah Cerrillo tells CNN that she smeared blood from a classmate over herself to play dead. The classmate already had been killed by the gunman. Miah recounts how the gunman shot out the window of her classroom door just as one of two teachers went to lock it. The gunman entered the classroom and continued shooting, then went through a door into an adjoining classroom, the 11-year-old recalls. That's when Miah says she and a classmate retrieved a phone from their slain teacher and called 911. She recalls saying something like, "Please come ... we're in trouble." At a news conference Friday, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said multiple calls came in from students and teachers as the shooting unfolded, per the AP. One girl told a dispatcher, "Please send the police now," he said. It's possible that was Miah, who told CNN she doesn't understand why police waited so long to come rescue her and others. ("It was the wrong decision," McCraw acknowledged on Friday.) Miah was treated and released from the hospital after being wounded by bullet fragments. (Read more Uvalde mass shooting stories.) (Newser) The company that made the AR-15-style rifle that was used in the Texas school massacre has dropped out of the National Rifle Association convention in Houston this weekend. Daniel Defense, which is based in Georgia, confirmed it manufactured the weapon bought by an 18-year-old and used in the shootings Tuesday at Robb Elementary School, as did law enforcement officials, the Houston Chronicle reports. The company had booked an exhibitor's booth and promised "Giveaways, Demos, Celebrity Appearances & More!" in an online ad, per the Washington Post. Daniel Defense is not on the exhibitor list anymore. And the company's social media accounts have gone dark. Before that happened, a tweet by the company was captured that went up on the gunman's 18th birthday, the moment he was able to buy the weapons legally. The photo is of a toddler with an AR-15-type weapon in his lap. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it," the May 16 post said, a reference to a proverb in the Bible. An ammunition clip is on the ground near him, and the boy is wearing a T-shirt that says, "#Rascal." A prayer emoji follows. "Sickening," one reply on Twitter said. After the killings in Uvalde, the company posted: "We are deeply saddened by the tragic events in Texas this week. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and community devastated by this evil act." One of the replies to the post showing a child with a weapon was from Florida state Sen. Jason Pizzo, a Democrat. "I'll trade you all the moments of silence, for one moment of action," he wrote. Daniel Defense did not respond to requests for comment, per the Post. (Read more Uvalde mass shooting stories.) (Newser) Employees at a call center in Argentina began Monday morning with chocolate brownies, brought to work by a colleague. One woman stopped after one bite, Vice reports, saying the brownie didn't taste right. That bite was enough to cause problems. "My body stopped responding, I stopped feeling my arms, legs, and mouth," she said. "It was as if I fell into a well and came back, as if I was fading away." The 25-year-old man who brought the brownies was fired, then arrested at his home, where police said they found "105 grams of marijuana and traces of cannabis in some kitchen utensils." Seven employees of the Cordoba call center were hospitalized. At least 10 were left dealing with symptoms such as dizziness and rising heart rates. Some fainted. Police said they haven't confirmed the brownies' ingredients yet but suspect they include cannabis, per Vice. The employer released a statement saying it provides food only through government-sanctioned vending machines, though employees are in the habit of bringing their own. (Read more pot brownies stories.) (Newser) A former US Army reservist described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer was convicted Friday of storming the US Capitol to obstruct Congress from certifying President Biden's 2020 electoral victory. Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked as a security contractor at a Navy base when he joined the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, also was convicted of disorderly conduct and other misdemeanors. Hale-Cussanelli took the stand in his defense and claimed he didn't know that Congress met at the Capitol building, the AP reports. "I know this sounds idiotic, but I'm from New Jersey," Hale-Cusanelli said, according to WUSA-TV. "In all my studies, I didnt know there was an actual building that was called the 'Capitol.' Its embarrassing and idiotic." Defense attorney Jonathan Crisp told jurors that "groupthink" and a desperate desire to be heard drove Hale-Cusanelli to follow a mob into the Capitol. Hale-Cusanelli's trial was the fifth before a jury and the seventh overall for a Capitol riot case. The first four juries unanimously convicted the defendants of all charges. Roughly 300 others have pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the riot, including seditious conspiracy, and assault. Prosecutors said Hale-Cusanelli openly espoused white supremacist and antisemitic ideology and wore an Adolf Hitler-style mustache to work. On his cellphone, investigators said, were photos of him with the distinctive mustache and combed-over hairstyle associated with the Nazi leader. Hale-Cusanelli had a "secret" security clearance as a security contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, New Jersey. He lived on the base with a roommate who reported him to the Naval Criminal Investigation Service and secretly recorded a conversion about the Capitol riot. One Navy seaman said Hale-Cusanelli told him "he would kill all the Jews and eat them for breakfast, lunch, and dinner." (Read more Capitol riot stories.) Chinese economy resilient despite short-term downward pressure Xinhua) 14:37, May 27, 2022 Staff members work at the workshop of the Anhui Electric Power Transmission &Transformation Co., Ltd. in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, May 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Liu Junxi) BEIJING, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Despite key indicators suggesting downward pressure on the Chinese economy, new investments continue to flow into the world's second-largest economy, seeking opportunities that businesses believe are irreplaceable for their long-term strategic development. Observers say that China's economic outlook remains robust due to its strong resilience and ample potential despite the Omicron resurgence and external headwinds. The fundamentals sustaining its sound growth remain unchanged. CURRENT RISKS In April, China's surveyed urban unemployment rate was 6.1 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from March. On a monthly basis, the consumer price index inched up 0.4 percent partly due to the domestic resurgence of COVID-19 and the continuous rise of bulk commodity prices across the globe, noted Dong Lijuan, a senior statistician with the NBS. The International Monetary Fund has slashed the global growth forecast for 2022 to 3.6 percent amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, 0.8 percentage points lower than the January projection, according to its World Economic Outlook in April. Liao Tianshu, chairman of BCG Greater China, told Xinhua that China's economic growth in the first quarter was in line with expectations, considering the impacts of the Omicron resurgence on the economy. "Although downward pressure has increased, the impacts are short-lived and external," she added. POSITIVE TREND UNCHANGED China's economy is expected to improve in May with the accelerating resumption of work and production in Shanghai and Jilin and the implementation of pro-growth measures, Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the NBS, has said. "The fundamentals of the Chinese economy remain unchanged. The overall trends of economic transformation and upgrading and high-quality development remain unchanged," he said. The spokesperson listed favorable conditions for stabilizing the economy, such as a super-large market, complete industrial and supply chains and huge domestic demand. Observers said China will continue to deepen reform and expand opening-up, which is a fundamental driver of China's long-term growth. "Looking ahead, opening-up remains the defining feature of China's high-quality development," Liao said. "As China moves from high-speed growth to high-quality growth, there will be many opportunities in terms of technology, talent, common prosperity and green transition." Toshiyasu Iiyama, executive managing director of Nomura Holdings Inc. and chairman of the China committee, lauded changes to the country's financial industry. "In recent years, the transformation and upgrading of China's economic structure has also supported the high-level opening-up of the financial industry," Iiyama said. In 2019, Nomura launched its joint venture, Nomura Orient International Securities, one of China's first newly approved foreign-controlled securities companies. The global financial service group, which entered China market 40 years ago, viewed the step as a major breakthrough. Iiyama said China's building of a multi-layer capital market system and the further reform and opening-up of the financial industry provide more and more opportunities to foreign financial institutions to achieve more significant development and growth in China. OPPORTUNITIES AHEAD According to a business confidence survey 2021/22 conducted by the German Chamber of Commerce in China, 71 percent of German companies intend to increase their investments in China. A similar report released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) said nearly two-thirds of companies rank China as the top or a top-three priority for near-term global investment. The 2022 American Business in China White Paper, released by AmCham China, noted that China's market also has a robust research, development and innovation ecosystem. Many leading American companies generate a substantial portion of their revenue from the Chinese market. Emerging industries have demonstrated their resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first quarter of 2022, official data showed that foreign investment in China's high-tech industries logged a sharp yearly increase of 52.9 percent. Kurt Wee, CEO of Celligenics Pte Ltd., a Singapore biotechnology firm specializing in regenerative science, encouraged foreign businesses to maintain a sense of optimism and establish a footing in China. "China will continue to gain pace in sophistication and in development," said Wee. "It's a lifetime opportunity when you have such a huge market developing at this pace." (Web editor: Zhong Wenxing, Liang Jun) An Uttarakhand politician, Rajendra Bahuguna, climbed a water tank and shot himself on Wednesday, three days after his daughter-in-law filed a case accusing him of molesting his granddaughter. Mr Bahuguna, 59, reportedly dialed the police on the emergency number 112 from his home in Haldwani and told them about his suicide plan. He killed himself after the cops arrived, in front of horrified neighbours and witnesses. "He was very upset about his daughter-in-law's allegation," senior police officer Pankaj Bhatt told NDTV. When the police came, they saw Mr Bahuguna standing on the tank, threatening to shoot himself. The police, using a loudspeaker, tried to talk him out of it but the politician kept repeating he had been falsely accused. At one point, it seemed he was ready to come down. But then he suddenly shot himself in the chest and died on the spot. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Staff Reporter While the United Arab Emirates has confirmed its first case, there are many other suspected cases of Monkeypox in Arab countries and in the region, said Dr Ahmed Al Mandhari, Regional Director for Eastern Mediterranean at World Health Organisation (WHO), during an online press conference yesterday. No deaths have been linked to Monkeypox following the non-endemic spread of the virus during the past one month. Dr Ahmed praised Bahrains success in tackling the Covid-19 threat, highlighting that the Kingdom has a strong system to combat infectious diseases including Monkeypox. Monkeypox is containable in the Arab region and what is required now is close cooperation between nations and increased awareness among the people to stop transmission of virus. Dr Ahmed said people are the main partners in combatting any virus transmission. He said that 157 confirmed cases have been reported from 17 countries worldwide and 106 suspected cases are still under examination. After reporting the first case, the UAE is in its best efforts to trace contacts and prevent the transmission of virus. Countries in the region already have accumulated experience in order to protect individuals from the disease. Speaking at the press conference, Dr Rana Hajjeh, Director of Programme Management at WHO, said the organisation doesnt recommend any lockdowns or isolations for Monkeypox. The role of the media is pivotal in spreading accurate information and I urge all not to spread any misleading information. Quite similar to Covid-19, contact tracing is important in cases of Monkeypox as well. She said Monkeypox is not expected to spread like Covid-19 and every disease has different precautionary measures. Healthcare systems must be continuously supported with human and financial resources to face the challenges. And the training of healthcare workers is of great importance as they are in the forefront of the fight against the virus. Dr Rana said there are vaccines that give protection from Monkeypox and even Smallpox vaccines are also effective against the virus. Widespread vaccination is not a recommendation. Dr Abdinasir AbuBakar, Manager, Infectious Hazards Prevention and Preparedness Unit, WHO, said Monkeypox is not a new disease. We have been seeing this disease since the beginning of the 1970s. But it is the first time we are seeing something of this higher magnitude, especially in non-endemic countries. Dr Abdinasir said that the symptoms of Monkeypox are fever, swollen lymph nodes and rashes, and in some the symptoms are really severe. Knowledge matters in the fight against Monkeypox, unless you know the virus you cannot tackle it. There are two active strains of Monkeypox virus, the Central African and West African and out of these two, the Central African strain is much more severe. When asked about the contribution of climate change to the increasing cases of infectious diseases, he said there should be a connection but it is unclear. Dr Abdinasir said the recovery rate is very high in cases of Monkeypox with a fatality rate varying between one and 10%. It is clearly known that the origin of the virus is from animals and there is no specific answer for the increasing number of transmissions. The virus has not changed genetically, which is good news and there have been no mutations. Dr Abdinasir said the Monkeypox virus has nothing to do with the current conflict between Russia and Ukraine. The virus has not changed genetically. It is not biologically manufactured or biologically modified. Spain's Monkeypox case tally rises to 84 Spanish health authorities reported 25 new cases of monkeypox yesterday, bringing the total tally of infections in one of the main hot spots of the recent outbreak to 84. The Health Ministry, which now considers all non-human-origin pox infections as monkeypox after a positive test while before only counting those confirmed by sequencing, also said there were 73 suspected cases. Spain, England and Portugal are the countries with the most cases in the recent outbreak of the usually mild viral disease outside its endemic areas in parts of west and central Africa. Spain's neighbour Portugal confirmed nine new infections on Thursday, bringing the total to 58. The US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) said it had identified nine monkeypox cases in seven US states as of Wednesday. Cases were confirmed in Massachusetts, Florida, Utah, Washington, California, Virginia and New York, the CDC told reporters yesterday. The first monkeypox case in the United States was reported in Massachusetts last week. Most of the infections detected globally so far have not been severe. Symptoms include fever and a distinctive bumpy rash. Vaccine stockpiles The WHO classified smallpox as an eradicated disease in 1980, but there have been longstanding concerns that the virus could be used as a bioweapon, leading countries to stockpile vaccines. The WHO holds 2.4 million doses at its Swiss headquarters dating from the final years of the eradication programme. The agency also has pledges from donor countries for more than 31 million additional doses. US officials say there are more than 1,000 doses of the Bavarian Nordic vaccine in the national stockpile and expect that level to ramp up very quickly in the coming weeks. The country also has 100 million doses of ACAM2000. Germany has said it had ordered 40,000 doses of Bavarian Nordics vaccine, to be ready to vaccinate contacts of cases if needed. Other countries, including Britain and France, are also offering or recommending vaccines to people with close contact to infected people and healthcare workers. Bavarian Nordic, which has an annual production capacity of 30 million doses, told Reuters multiple countries have approached it interested in buying its vaccine, without providing details. A spokesperson said it does not need to expand production. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com A 30-year-old man who swallowed 114 capsules stuffed with heroin to smuggle the drugs into Bahrain will spend 15 years of his life in jail. The Fourth High Criminal Court also slapped him with a fine of BD10,000 and ordered his deportation after finishing his jail terms. The suspect reportedly concealed the drugs in his stomach with the help of medical staff while he was on his way to the Kingdom. He was given laxatives to recover the 858.2 grams of drugs from his stomach. The man, an Asian national, was arrested at the Bahrain International Airport when customs officers grew suspicious of his unusual behavior. The Drug Enforcement Administration said the suspect was part of a network whose members are Asian nationals. The suspect came to Kingdom by hiding the drugs in his guts but showed signs of confusion during customs procedures. Officers, who grew suspicious diverted him to the red lane to search his luggage but found nothing. However, the suspects travel history, which showed taking several transit flights instead of a direct flight, which was available, sparked more doubts. Customs officers, who also grew more suspicious about his behaviour, decided to take him for an x-ray examination and found several capsules in his guts. Doctors then gave him laxatives to lower the capsules in stages. During interrogation, the suspect admitted hiding narcotic capsules in his guts and said he was doing it for money. He confessed to consuming 114 narcotic capsules. He said he was also promised a job in the Kingdom by a friend. The Muharraq Governorate Prosecution said it received the notification of the arrest at the Bahrain International Airport from the Anti-Narcotics Department. The Public Prosecution said it opened an investigation soon after receiving a report. Prosecutors had ordered the pretrial detention of the suspect, pending further investigation. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The High Administrative Court upheld a decision cancelling the allocation of a housing unit by the Ministry of Housing to a Bahraini man, who resides abroad, for abandoning the house for the past nine years. Announcing the verdict, the Court said, citing housing law, that if a beneficiary fails to reside in the apartment allocated to him for more than six months from the date of receiving the dwelling without an acceptable reason, the authority could exercise the right to cancel the deal and recover the unit. In the lawsuit filed, the ministry requested the Court cancel the deal signed for the housing unit in the Sanad area and recover the keys, lawsuit fees and expenses. The ministry accused the beneficiary of leaving the housing unit in disrepair for several years. When summoned, his sister stated that the defendant resides outside Bahrain. The defendant appeared before the Housing Services Department at the Legal Affairs Department and admitted the violation, based on which the ministry decided to cancel the deal for non-compliance with the usufruct contract. The Court clarified that the decision follows Article 1 of Resolution No. (909) of 2015 regarding the housing system amended by Resolution No. (90) of 2019. The rule defines permanent residence as a continuous residence from the time of application to the time of allotment, and the family is resident in Bahrain. The ministry could cancel the deal if the stay outside the Kingdom exceeds six months unless for any of the following reasons: 1. Work for a Bahraini governmental entity or delegate to work for foreign governments, regional or international organizations, or for companies registered in the Kingdom of Bahrain. 2. Study or training. 3. Other reasons that the ministry considers according to the assessment of the Housing Committee. Article (10) of Resolution No. 909 of 2015 states that a housing contract stands cancelled if a beneficiary fails to receive it for more than six months after receiving notification to sign the contract and take delivery or if he defaults. The defendant told the court that he had been working outside the Kingdom for 20 years and admitted that his family resides with him abroad. Since the defendant and his family were not working for a Bahraini government agency or on an assignment to work for foreign governments, regional or international organizations or companies registered in Bahrain, Court considered the act a violation. The defendant also failed to respond to the legal notice and submit evidence of reconciliation of his legal status. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) has declared Bahrain free of equine plague, further strengthening the position of Bahrain in maintaining the health status of horses. Shaikh Duaij bin Salman Al Khalifa, Chairman of the Horse Care Affairs Authority, congratulated His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and HRH Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince and Prime Minister, for their care and support to this sector. A certificate proving the absence of the disease in the Kingdom was presented by Dr Monique Eloit, Director-General of the OIE, to Dr Fajer Al Salloom, Director of Animal Wealth and Delegate of the Kingdom of Bahrain to the World Organisation for Animal Health. The ceremony came during the organisations 98th annual conference 2022 at the OIE Headquarters in Paris. Shaikh Duaij said: The Kingdom of Bahrain has been free of this disease for more than 50 years. This is confirmed by annual medical examinations conducted on a large number of horses. Additionally, this international recognition contributes to facilitating the movement of Bahraini horses between different regions of the world and reducing quarantine periods for horses, and reducing the financial cost and effort on the horses and their owners, he added. Shaikh Duaij thanked the Animal Wealth Directorate, represented by the Undersecretary for Animal Resources, Dr Khalid Ahmed Hassan, Dr Al Salloom, Yusuf Al Isa, the CEO of the Horse Care Affairs Authority, and members of the Authoritys Board of Directors. TDT | Manama The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com The Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) hosted a joint board meeting with Tamkeen, the Society of Private Hospitals and a group of private hospital CEOs to discuss partnerships and cooperation in clinical training, education, research and other healthcare projects. President of RCSI Bahrain, Professor Sameer Otoom, commented, To date, one of our joint collaborations biggest achievements is the enrolment of 25 Bahraini students being trained as nurses with Tamkeens support and soon to be employed in the private healthcare sector. We hope to gather more momentum for this joint programme which started in 2019. Another highlight of our collaboration is the development of clinical and research opportunities for RCSI Bahrain students, which supports the development of our medical and nursing graduates profile for the benefit of the healthcare sector in Bahrain. RCSI Bahrain is a not-for-profit health sciences institution focused on education and research to drive positive change in all areas of human health. Lavrov says plans to visit Bahrain, Saudi next week Lavrov says plans to visit Bahrain, Saudi next week Agencies | Moscow The Daily Tribune www.newsofbahrain.com Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is planning to visit Bahrain on May 31 and Saudi Arabia on June 1, reports said. The next visit will take place soon. On May 31 and June 1, in accordance with the existing invitations, I plan to visit Bahrain first. Then, on June 1, a regular meeting of the Russia-GCC (the Gulf Cooperation Council) Foreign Ministers Forum will be held in Riyadh, Lavrov told RT Arabic. Small groups of foreigners have been arriving in Japan to take part in government-sponsored guided tours, as the country prepares to welcome tourists next month. A participant from a travel agency in Australia said, "we really hope that the Japanese people are excited about having tourism back in the country again." Japan's Tourism Agency says information gathered from the test groups will help the government finalize COVID-19 guidelines for hotels and other tourism-related businesses. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio announced on Thursday that his country will begin welcoming foreign tourists starting June 10. People from nearly 100 countries and territories including the US and China, will be able to travel through packaged tours, as long as they are escorted by a guide. Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary says they are being cautious. Matsuno Hirokazu told reporters on Friday that the government will make an appropriate decision for the management of the total number of those entering Japan, taking into account the quarantine system and prevention measures. He added the government will also consider the COVID-19 infection situation at home and abroad, as well as border control measures in major countries. Parliament's Privileges and Ethics Committee on Friday asked Maharashtra Chief Secretary and Director General of Police, and Commissioner Mumbai Police to appear before it on June 15 for oral evidence over the arrest of Lok Sabha Member Navneet Rana. The Committee also asked Superintendent of Women District Prison, Byculla (Mumbai) to appear before it on June 15 for oral evidence. An office memorandum issued by Privileges and Ethics branch Lok Sabha Secretariat said: "Committee of Privileges has directed that Manu Kumar Srivastava, Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra be asked to appear before the Committee for oral evidence on the above subject matter on Wednesday, June 15, 2022 at 1230 hours in Committee Room '2', Parliament House Annexe Extension, New Delhi." The office memorandum (OM) further stated that the Ministry of Personnel and Public Grievances and Pensions are accordingly, requested to ensure that the official referred to above, appear before the Committee of Privileges, Lok Sabha on the date and time indicated above. "Necessary confirmation, in this regard, may please be sent to this Secretariat latest by June 7, 2022. The receipt of this OM may kindly be acknowledged," it added. Another office memorandum said that the Committee of Privileges has directed the following officials be asked to appear before the Committee for oral evidence on the above subject matter on Wednesday, June 15 at 12.30 p.m. in Committee Room '2', Parliament House Annexe Extension, New Delhi. "The undersigned is directed to state that Director General of Police (DGP) Maharashtra Rajnish Seth, Commissioner of Police, Mumbai Sanjay Pandey and Superintendent, Women District Prison, Class-2, Byculla, Mumbai. "The Ministry of Home Affairs are accordingly, requested to ensure that the officials referred to above, appear before the Committee of Privileges, Lok Sabha on the date and time indicated above," it said. Officials are asked to appear before the committee regarding April 25 complaint of Navneet Rana alleging patently illegal arrest and the consequent inhuman treatment meted out to her in Khar Police Station, Mumbai. Greece's residence permit provides its holders with a range of rights in the country. In particular, tax residency is given to those who stay in the country for over 183 days. This program is beneficial for non-EU citizens because it opens the way to great travel opportunities. In fact, it is also suitable for UK citizens who wish to enjoy the same benefits as residents of EU countries. What Is a Greece Residence Permit? A Greek residence permit allows an applicant to stay in the country for two years with access to all the related benefits. The status can be renewed every three years. Many people seek tax residency in the country because it allows them to benefit from a favorable taxation system. Read more detailed info on that provided by the experts of Immigrant Invest - https://immigrantinvest.com/residence-and-citizenship-greece-en/. How to Obtain a Greek Residence Permit A residence card can be given upon an investment program. There are several types of residence permits. For example, those who obtain the residency in Greece due to investment can get the following types of visas: Schengen Visa C (allows staying in the country for up to 90 days within six months) National Visa D (allows staying in the country for one year) A resident permit will be a step toward obtaining citizenship in the country. Immigrant Invest has provided sufficient information on that - https://immigrantinvest.com/blog/how-to-obtain-greek-citizenship-en/. Those looking for long-term Greek residency can opt for a golden visa. It gives a five-year Greece residency right away. Like tax residency, it provides access to a favorable taxation system as well as great traveling, work, and business opportunities. The applicant can apply every five years to renew ones residence card. Investment Options There are several investment options to choose from for those willing to apply for a Golden Visa for Greece. They include the following: Purchasing a real estate property Making a direct investment Depositing funds in a Greek bank The amount of money required for investment depends on its type. For example, it is enough to purchase property for the price of 250,000 or greater, while if you are willing to make a deposit in a Greek bank, it must be in the amount of at least 400,000. Except for the investment, the applicants will also need to pay certain fees. A residence card can also be obtained by the family members of the applicant. Other requirements may also apply to the main candidate and ones family members. Which Option to Choose? When it comes to obtaining a Greek residence permit, applicants have different options to pick from. It is essential to understand the differences between various programs. The essential conditions to keep in mind include: The desired length of stay in the country Available funds The purpose of stay Others It may be difficult to decide what type of permission you wish to obtain. Specialists can provide you with the necessary support. Also, they will take care of collecting the required documents and applying with the responsible authority. Conclusion There are different options that you can consider when it comes to staying in Greece and taking advantage of other benefits, such as tax residency. The best opportunities are provided by Greece Golden Visa, but this option is available for wealthy candidates who are willing to spend a solid amount of money. By consulting experts, you will be able to avoid mistakes when choosing the right program and lots of hassle associated with the application procedure. The Japanese government plans to allow exports of fighter jets, missiles and other arms to 12 countries, including India, Australia as well as some European and Southeast Asian nations, Nikkei has learned. Regulatory changes to allow for the exports could come by next March. The government aims to enhance deterrence against China by cooperating with countries that have signed individual security agreements with Tokyo. These countries include Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, U.S., U.K., Germany, France and Italy. In 2014, Japan established a principle regarding transfers of defense equipment and eased regulations that had prohibited its export. However, it still bans exports of lethal weapons. The principle states that exports to countries that do not jointly develop arms with Japan are limited to equipment for rescue, transport, warning, surveillance and minesweeping missions. However, the easing will be included in the government's policy on economic and fiscal management and reform, to be finalized in June. The principles will be revised after a National Security Strategy is formulated, which is scheduled to take place at the end of this year. Japan is planning to develop new fighter jets and medium-range anti-aircraft missiles with the United States and the United Kingdom. Export customers will allow Japan's manufacturers to lower their production costs. This will also lower the Japanese government's procurement costs and lighten its financial burden. ...continue reading COVID-19 transmission in Connecticut appears to be slowing, state numbers show, following several months of steady increase. As of Thursday, the state averaged 1,137 daily cases over the past week, down from nearly 1,600 at one point earlier this month, though still much higher than immediately before the current wave. The states seven-day positivity rate, meanwhile, has decreased from 14.2 percent last week to 11.8 percent as of Thursday. Though both case counts and test positivity rate are likely skewed by the popularity of at-home tests, most of which are never reported to authorities, experts say the metrics can still be useful in assessing broad trends. Additionally, traces of COVID-19 in New Haven wastewater appear to have plateaued or even decreased slightly, data from Yale researchers shows, offering another sign that transmission in Connecticut has reached a peak, at least for now. As of Thursday, Connecticut had 379 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, down slightly from Wednesday, when hospitalizations hit their highest level since February. Hospitalizations have continued to increase in recent days but not as sharply as earlier this month. Over the last two weeks, weve seen at least some stabilization in terms of COVID hospitalizations, which we can track, and community transmission, which we can roughly estimate with the current data, said Dr. David Banach, hospital epidemiologist at UConn Health. So Im optimistic, with some caution, for the coming weeks. Additionally, traces of COVID-19 in wastewater in New Haven appears to have plateaued or even dropped slightly, according to Yale researchers. Since March, Connecticut has been mired in a COVID-19 spike, which experts have attributed to the BA.2 subvariant. What was initially expected to be a relatively small uptick has instead caused a substantial increase in cases and hospitalizations, lasting more than two months. Coronavirus-linked deaths have not particularly spiked during the recent wave, which may owe to the fact that deaths lag cases and hospitalizations but may also be a product of vaccine protection, strains of virus that are somewhat less deadly, and improved treatment protocols, including antiviral pills. Connecticut on Thursday reported 19 COVID-19 deaths over the past week, bringing its total during the pandemic to 10,941. In terms of severity of the hospitalized patients, we are seeing a smaller number with an intensive-care level of illness, Banach said. I think thats encouraging. Still, even as Connecticuts case count and positivity rate have dipped slightly in recent days, transmission in Connecticut remains high, with tens of thousands of new infections (both reported and unreported) likely occurring each week. Dr. Ulysses Wu, chief epidemiologist at Hartford HealthCare, said Thursday that hes not yet ready to celebrate any improvement in the state numbers. We are at a place where we shouldnt be at all, Wu said. Whether its 383 [hospitalizations] yesterday or 379 today, both numbers are equally bad. Connecticuts recent COVID-19 uptick, which came almost immediately on the heels of the states devastating omicron-driven winter surge, has led some infectious disease experts to fear the state will see high levels of transmission indefinitely, with new variants emerging one after another. Already, the state has identified several cases of BA.4 and BA.5, subvariants that caused a dramatic COVID-19 uptick in South Africa. Wu said recent trends in Connecticuts numbers have not changed his relatively pessimistic outlook about the months to come. As he sees it, Connecticut could return to lower viral levels by the end of June but could also see cases rise again at any time. With a population that has apathy and doesnt care, whats going to happen is were going to see wave after wave after wave, Wu said. We are going to see a downturn at some point, but it really depends how prolonged that downturn is and then what is the depth of that downturn. Even as Connecticuts cases decrease, Wu said, they are unlikely to return to the lows recorded last summer. Its like coming down from Everest to the Tibetan pleateau, he said. Youre still pretty frickin high up in the Tibetan plateau. Banach offered a slightly more optimistic view, arguing that summer weather, which facilitates outdoor activity, should help Connecticut keep its numbers lower than they have been. As he sees it, Connecticuts recent decrease in cases and positivity rate could be the start of a lower-risk period. We still need to be aware that COVID is around us, but here in Connecticut warmer weather, spending more time outdoors is beneficial in reducing the risk of spread, he said. So I think we can maintain some cautious optimism for the next few weeks. alex.putterman@hearstmediact.com Contributed Photo BROOKFIELD A man was taken to the hospital Thursday evening after a firefighter and a police officer rescued him from underwater, according to officials. Fire, police and emergency medical personnel were dispatched to North Lake Shore Drive around 6:25 p.m. for a man who was last seen working on his boat tied to his dock, according to the Brookfield Volunteer Fire Company and the Brookfield Police Department. Scientists from the United States, Italy, Denmark and Brazil have successfully sequenced the genome of a 35-40 year-old male who died in the ancient city of Pompeii after the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 CE. The archaeological site of Pompeii is one of the 54 UNESCO World Heritage sites in Italy. Pompeii was a Roman Imperial Age port city located south of Naples in Central Italy until it was completely destroyed and buried by the ashes of the Mount Vesuvius eruption in 79 CE. According to Pliny the Younger, the Vesuvius eruption occurred around 1 p.m. on the 24th of August and was visible from over 40 km away. More than 2,000 individuals died as a direct consequence of the eruption, the deadliest ever in European history. The several exceptionally well-preserved buildings found in Pompeii such as Casa del Chirurgo (House of the Surgeon), Casa del Fauno (House of Faun) and Casa dei Casti Amanti (House of the Chaste Lovers) suggest that Pompeii was probably a holiday resort for wealthy Romans. However, Pompeii was also an important city for trading and business, with a population ranging between 6,400 and 20,000 dwellers. Despite continuing an intense scientific research on the site since the nineteenth century to this day, conducting both bioarchaeological and genetic studies from Pompeiian human remains has been a challenge, as exposure to high temperature diminishes the quality and quantity of recoverable DNA. In a new study, Dr. Gabriele Scorrano from the University of Rome Tor Vergata and the University of Copenhagen and colleagues examined the remains of two individuals who were found in Casa del Fabbro (House of the Craftsman) in Pompeii and extracted their DNA. The shape, structure, and length of the skeletons indicated that one set of remains belonged to a male between 35 and 40 years old and 1.64 m tall, while the other set of remains belonged to a female over 50 years of age who stood 1.53 m tall. Although the researchers were able to extract and sequence ancient DNA from both individuals, they were only able to sequence the entire genome from the males remains due to gaps in the sequences obtained from the females remains. Comparisons of the male individuals DNA with DNA obtained from 1,030 other ancient and 471 modern western Eurasian individuals suggested that his DNA shared the most similarities with modern central Italians and other individuals who lived in Italy during the Roman Imperial age. This individual was found to belong to the Y-chromosome lineage A-M13 (A1b1b2b), a rare lineage absent among ancient individuals from the Italian Peninsula, mainly found in Eastern Africa (40%), but with known occurrences, at much lower frequencies, in the Near East (Turkey, Yemen, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia) and the Mediterranean islands of Sardinia, Cyprus and Lesbos, they said. He belonged to the mitochondrial DNA haplogroup clade HV0a, the main monophyletic branch of HV0 and subclade of haplogroup HV. This mitochondrial lineage is absent among published Roman Imperial individuals from Italy. Additional analyses of the male individuals skeleton and DNA identified lesions in one of the vertebrae and DNA sequences that are commonly found in Mycobacterium, the group of bacteria that the tuberculosis-causing bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis belongs to. This suggests that the individual may have been affected by tuberculosis prior to his death. Our study albeit limited to one individual confirms and demonstrates the possibility of applying paleogenomic methods to study human remains from this unique site, the authors said. Our initial findings provide a foundation to promote an intensive analysis of well-preserved Pompeian individuals. Supported by the enormous amount of archaeological information that has been collected in the past century for the city of Pompeii, their paleogenetic analyses will help us to reconstruct the lifestyle of this fascinating population of the Imperial Roman period. The teams results were published in the journal Scientific Reports. _____ G. Scorrano et al. 2022. Bioarchaeological and palaeogenomic portrait of two Pompeians that died during the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD. Sci Rep 12, 6468; doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-10899-1 The gun manufacturer that produced the AR-15-style assault rifle the Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooter used to kill 19 children and two teachers has shut down its social media accounts after being linked to the massacre. It has also reportedly dropped out of the National Rifle Association's annual convention set to be held starting Friday in Houston. On Tuesday, alleged shooter 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered a fourth-grade classroom at Robb Elementary School, killing 21 people in the deadliest school shooting in Texas history. The firearm Ramos used is reportedly made by Georgia-based gun manufacturer Daniel Defense, authorities and the company each confirmed. LIVE UPDATES: The latest news on the Uvalde school massacre. The arms manufacturer states on its site, "At Daniel Defense, we celebrate the liberty of our country, the enthusiasm of our customers and employees, and the quality and accuracy of our products." On Wednesday, one of the company's social media posts resurfaced from a week ago on May 16, the day Ramos turned 18. That week, he legally purchased two AR-15-style assault rifles, including the Daniel Defense DDM V7 rifle, according to the Washington Post. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it," the post said, in reference to a Biblical proverb, followed by a prayer emoji. The post included a photo of a toddler sitting with an AR-15-style assault rifle on its lap. Daniel Defense also reportedly posted the same image and text on Instagram that day, which included the hashtag #childrenarethefuture. Both posts have since been deleted after the gun company faced an onslaught of backlash from social media users. Daniel Defense has limited comments on its Instagram posts and also went private on Twitter in the aftermath. However, screenshots of the posts are still being circulated online. Daniel Defense had planned to hold an exhibitor's booth at the NRA's annual convention, being held this Friday through Sunday in Houston, and had stated it was "proud to reunite with thousands of patriots." However, those plans appear to have been scrapped as the NRA's list of vendors no longer includes the gunmaker, per the Washington Post. Daniel Defense issued a statement following the Uvalde shooting: "We are deeply saddened by the tragic events in Texas this week. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and community devastated by this evil act." ST. JOHN'S, NL, May 27, 2022 /CNW/ - Canada and the United States have a long history of working together to help mariners in need and manage the coastlines and shared waterways that run along the borders between the two countries. This week, the Canadian Coast Guard hosted the 2022 Canada-United States Coast Guard Summit in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. This year's Summit was the first to take place in person since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with additional presenters joining the Summit virtually. In-person participation enabled members of both Coast Guards to experience hands-on key services at the heart of both organizations. This included participating in an exercise with a recently built Canadian Coast Guard search and rescue vessel and a Fast Rescue Craft, as well as touring an icebreaker. This hands-on experience provided an opportunity for senior officials and personnel from both Coast Guards to exchange operational knowledge and experience. During the Summit, senior officials from the Canadian and United States Coast Guards addressed priorities for both countries, such as increased collaboration to address emerging challenges, including climate change resiliency and cyber security. Delegates also discussed icebreaking on the Great Lakes, which is a shared responsibility between the two Coast Guards, who work hand-in-hand to serve all Great Lakes winter marine traffic. Known as the "One Fleet" approach, the Great Lakes Icebreaking Agreement is an example of the collaboration between the two Coast Guards working together to provide services on both sides of the border and on shared waterways. This year's Summit also provided an opportunity to mark the 60th Anniversary of the Canadian Coast Guard, and bid farewell to Admiral Karl L. Schultz during his last international engagement as Commandant of the United States Coast Guard before his retirement. Quotes "Canada and the United States of America are proud maritime nations. The ongoing collaboration in place between the Canadian and the United States Coast Guards benefits our citizens, and our economies. Mariners on both sides of the border can rest assured that help will be there when they need it, and businesses can feel confident that vital waterways and shipping corridors will remain open and safe." The Honourable Joyce Murray, Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard "It has been an honour to host the annual Canada-US Coast Guard Summit in 2022, the year in which we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Canadian Coast Guard. Our longstanding relationship with the United States Coast Guard, our closest international partner, is one that is vital to the operations of both organizations. Now more than ever, renewing our commitment to collaborate is critical to address emerging challenges. I am confident that, through ongoing cooperation, we will continue to serve mariners, residents and industry in both our nations. I also extend my best wishes to Admiral Schultz, Commandant of the United States Coast Guard, on his retirement, and thank him for his years of dedication, partnership and collaboration." Mario Pelletier, Commissioner, Canadian Coast Guard "In the 60th year of the Canadian Coast Guard, I can say our partnership has never been stronger. Strong partnerships are imperative to the success of our Service, and the U.S. Coast Guard's partnership with the Canadian Coast Guard is among the strongest. From the Great Lakes to the high Arctic, U.S.Canadian Coast Guard cooperation is essential to ensuring the safety and prosperity of our waterways and addressing threats to the security of our nations. As my tenure as Commandant comes to an end next week, I look back on four years of effective bilateral maritime operations and exercises. I am grateful for this 2022 Canada/United States Coast Guard Summit which further enhanced our level of cooperation on emerging issues like cyber security, climate resiliency, and illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing." Admiral Karl L. Schultz, Commandant, United States Coast Guard "As Assistant Commissioner of the Atlantic Region, I was honoured to have hosted so many of our colleagues from the United States Coast Guard at our St. John's Canadian Coast Guard base this week. Our staff and crews were pleased to welcome Canadian and American officials onboard some of our vessels, to share best practices and lessons learned. It was a very successful Summit that allowed senior leaders to meet and explore avenues for increased collaboration to address 21st century challenges such as climate change resiliency, and exchange ideas and operational expertise." Gary Ivany, Assistant Commissioner, Atlantic Region, Canadian Coast Guard Quick Facts The Canada-United States Coast Guard Summit was first held in 2005 and is hosted alternately by each country. The summit is an annual opportunity for the senior leadership of the Canadian and United States Coast Guards to meet and discuss strategic and operational issues of mutual importance. Canada and the United States have had an agreement in place for shared icebreaking on the Great Lakes since the 1980s. and have had an agreement in place for shared icebreaking on the Great Lakes since the 1980s. In March 2022 , the Canadian and United States Coast Guards updated the signing of the CANUSLAK agreement. The CANUSLAK agreement is an operational annex, established to ensure coordinated planning, preparedness, and response to any pollution incidents in shared waters on the Great Lakes and connecting waterways between. Related Products: Associated Links Stay Connected Follow the Canadian Coast Guard on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. SOURCE Canadian Coast Guard For further information: Claire Teichman, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard, 604-679-5462, [email protected]; Media Relations, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, 613-990-7537, [email protected] OTTAWA, ON, May 27, 2022 /CNW/ - The Honourable Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport, and the Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety, issued this statement today to provide an update on actions the government is taking to reduce wait times at Canadian airports: "The Government of Canada recognizes the impact that significant wait times at some Canadian airports are having on travellers. It is great news that more and more Canadians are choosing to travel. As travel volume surges, there are reports of delays in many aspects of travel: Canadian customs, United States customs, airport security screening, luggage handling, airline services, taxis and limos, among many other areas. We are also witnessing similar phenomena at other airports around the world. Having said that, we are taking action to quickly address delays while continuing to maintain adequate security screening. We are working with airports, air carriers and other airport partners to find solutions to reduce delays in airports in advance of the summer peak season. The goal of this collaboration is to ensure efficient services for inbound and outbound passengers, so Canadians are able to travel smoothly and safely as the sector recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. "Specific action being taken in response to the airport delays include: Transport Canada (TC) quickly convened government agencies and industry including the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), creating an outbound screening committee to address bottlenecks occurring at pre-board security screening and pre-clearance departure checkpoints and to develop new approaches to dealing with these pressure points in the travel system. (TC) quickly convened government agencies and industry including the Public Health Agency of (PHAC), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA), creating an outbound screening committee to address bottlenecks occurring at pre-board security screening and pre-clearance departure checkpoints and to develop new approaches to dealing with these pressure points in the travel system. CATSA has been working with its contractors to increase the number of screening officers at passenger screening checkpoints. Currently, there are approximately 400 additional screening officers in different phases of their training across the country who will be deployed between now and the end of June. With TC's support, these recruits will benefit from progressing more quickly through a more flexible onboarding process so they can be on the ground as quickly as possible. Airports are working to support CATSA with this initiative. CATSA is very close to having recruited 100% of their target numbers of screening officers for the summer in many airports, including Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport. International Airport. CATSA has accelerated the use of pre-certified screening officers to carry out non-screening functions, to optimize resources, and to allow certified screening officers to focus their efforts on key security functions. Airports, airlines, and other partners are communicating with CATSA daily to help them adjust scheduling to ensure screeners are available where and when they are needed to support busy travel times as air travel quickly recovers. CATSA is currently studying best practices at airports to see where these processes can be applied to other airports to gain efficiencies. "While more remains to be done, these efforts are paying off through declining wait times for screening. Since the beginning of the month, the number of passengers waiting 30 minutes and more for outbound screening at our largest airports (Toronto Pearson International, Vancouver International, Montreal Trudeau International and Calgary International), has been halved across all four airports. "For arriving passengers, the Government of Canada, including TC, PHAC and Public Safety Canada, continues to work with airlines and industry partners to reduce delays, including with planes holding at the gates at Toronto Pearson International Airport. CBSA and the Toronto Pearson International Airport are taking action by adding 25 kiosks to speed up processing time. CBSA is also initiating the Summer Action Plan to ensure efficiency; increasing available officer capacity; and easing the return of Student Border Services Officers. PHAC is working with CBSA and partners to streamline their operations. For example, they will be removing the requirement for Mandatory Random Testing on the International to Domestic Connections Process. Other changes to streamline processing on public health grounds are being developed. "Airports, airlines and the Government of Canada, including CATSA, PHAC, TC and the CBSA, are improving communications with travellers so passengers can better anticipate pre-boarding screening and arrival processing requirements, facilitating a smoother passage in and out of airports. There are things travellers can do to help speed up the processes: Travellers arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport and Vancouver International Airport can use the Advanced CBSA Declaration on the web version of ArriveCAN to make their customs and immigration declaration up to 72 hours in advance of flying into Canada . This will save travellers time when they arrive at the airport. This feature will be integrated into the ArriveCAN mobile app this summer and will also be made available at other airports across Canada in the coming months. International Airport can use the on the web version of ArriveCAN to make their customs and immigration declaration up to 72 hours in advance of flying into . This will save travellers time when they arrive at the airport. This feature will be integrated into the ArriveCAN mobile app this summer and will also be made available at other airports across in the coming months. All travellers arriving from international destinations must complete their information in ArriveCan. Travellers who arrive in Canada without having completed ArriveCAN contribute significantly to border congestion. Regardless of vaccination status, a traveller who arrives without an ArriveCAN receipt is considered an unvaccinated traveller, meaning they have to test upon arrival and Day 8 and quarantine for 14 days. Travellers without an ArriveCAN receipt may also be subject to enforcement, including a fine of $5,000 . The simplest thing travellers can do to speed up their airport experience is to come prepared, including completing ArriveCAN. without having completed ArriveCAN contribute significantly to border congestion. Regardless of vaccination status, a traveller who arrives without an ArriveCAN receipt is considered an unvaccinated traveller, meaning they have to test upon arrival and Day 8 and quarantine for 14 days. Travellers without an ArriveCAN receipt may also be subject to enforcement, including a fine of . The simplest thing travellers can do to speed up their airport experience is to come prepared, including completing ArriveCAN. Travellers 16 years old or older can use new eGates at Toronto Pearson International Airport to verify their identity and submit their customs and immigration declaration, which will improve the traffic flow at the Terminal 1 arrival hall and speed up processing. "The Government of Canada recognizes the urgency of the situation and continues to work with all partners to address wait times as a matter of priority. With additional CATSA screeners and CBSA Border Services Officers in place and coming, and ongoing discussions to further reduce the delays, some progress has been made, but we recognize we need to do moreand we will. We will take clear and decisive action to ensure the safety, security and resiliency of Canada's transportation system, its employees, and its users, while supporting economic recovery." Transport Canada is online at www.tc.gc.ca. Subscribe to e-news or stay connected through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to keep up to date on the latest from Transport Canada. This news release may be made available in alternative formats for persons living with visual disabilities. SOURCE Transport Canada For further information: Laurel Lennox, Press Secretary, Office of the Honourable Omar Alghabra, Minister of Transport, Ottawa, [email protected]; Media Relations, Transport Canada, Ottawa, [email protected], 613-993-0055 The governments of Canada and New Brunswick announce a major investment in College communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick DIEPPE, NB, May 27, 2022 /CNW Telbec/ - Our two official languages are inseparable from our country's heritage. This is why the Government of Canada has committed to protecting and promoting our linguistic duality, and to fostering the vitality of official-language minority communities, specifically by funding postsecondary institutions to increase learning opportunities in the minority language. Today, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, announced support of more than $6.6 million for three projects of the College communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick (CCNB). Minister Petitpas Taylor was accompanied by the Honourable Daniel Allain, New Brunswick Minister of Local Governments and Local Governance Reform, and Pierre Zundel, President and Chief Executive Officer of the CCNB. Through this funding, the CCNB will introduce a support model for continuing education and career plan management. This model will provide the student population with personalized training plans and resources aimed at integrating them into the labour market in their field of study. In addition, the project will give students tools that will let them progress professionally throughout their whole career. The Government of Canada is providing more than $1 million to this project, while the Government of New Brunswick is providing nearly $700,000 over a three-year period. The federal and provincial governments will also finance a project aimed at transforming the study programs based on an approach centred on the development of skills that reflect employment positions in companies. The CCNB will begin revising each of its study programs based on the technical and social skills identified in the labour market, in order to allow their students to develop sustainable and transferable skills in several different contexts and situations, to take on their role as workers, and to develop professionally. This project will be supported by funding of $2 million from the federal government and $1.2 million from the provincial government. Finally, the Government of Canada is investing $734,00 and the Government of New Brunswick $921,779 to allow the CCNB to modernize its IT systems to improve the mechanisms for collecting, analyzing and using data to provide services to the student population and fully process applications online. These projects are funded under the CanadaNew Brunswick Agreement on French-Language Education and Second-Language Instruction from 201920 to 202223. Quotes "As Member of Parliament for MonctonRiverviewDieppe and a proud Acadian, I know that this investment will help the College communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick achieve its goals and stand out from other colleges across the country. The announcement today will enable the CCNB to modernize its education models and its technology, and allow it to offer the resources the next generation needs in order to access the labour market right here in our beautiful region." The Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency "We are delighted to join with the federal government to support our French language postsecondary establishments under this bilateral agreement. We recognize that the College communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick has a role to play in offering programs which aim to prepare our Francophone students for their entry into the labour market. This funding will enable their programs and services to be improved in this regard." The Honourable Trevor Holder, Minister of Postsecondary Education, Training and Labour, Government of New Brunswick "This is very good news for New Brunswick. These three projects will enhance the CCNB's ability to support the New Brunswick economy, bolster the province's Francophone communities and help students achieve their goals. The entire CCNB team is working together on these three projects. The CCNB thanks the governments of Canada and New Brunswick for their confidence in us." Pierre Zundel, President and CEO, College communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick Quick Facts The College communautaire du Nouveau-Brunswick has been a fully autonomous Francophone college corporation since May 30, 2010 . . The CCNB serves all Acadian and Francophone communities in New Brunswick through its five campuses located in Bathurst , Campbellton , Dieppe , Edmundston and the Acadian Peninsula. The CCNB is headquartered in Bathurst , in northeastern New Brunswick . through its five campuses located in , , , and the Acadian Peninsula. The CCNB is headquartered in , in northeastern . Budget 2021 included an investment of $121 million over three years (202122 to 202324) to support high-quality postsecondary education in the minority language. These new investments will be made primarily through existing intergovernmental collaboration mechanisms to help provinces and territories meet pressing needs to help stabilize the minority-language postsecondary sector. over three years (202122 to 202324) to support high-quality postsecondary education in the minority language. These new investments will be made primarily through existing intergovernmental collaboration mechanisms to help provinces and territories meet pressing needs to help stabilize the minority-language postsecondary sector. This funding is provided through the Official Languages Support Programs, whose objective is to enhance the vitality of English- and French-speaking minority communities and promote the English and French languages in Canadian society. On March 1, 2022 , the Government of Canada introduced an enhanced bill promoting the substantive equality of Canada's official languages, in order to adapt the Official Languages Act to a changing society. Among other objectives, the bill aims to address the decline of French in Canada , clarify and strengthen the section of the Official Languages Act dealing with the promotion of official languages, and support official-language minority communities. Associated Links SOURCE Canadian Heritage For further information: (media only) Marianne Blondin, Press Secretary, Office of the Minister of Official Languages and Minister responsible for Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency, [email protected]; Media Relations, Canadian Heritage, 819-994-9101, 1-866-569-6155, [email protected] Shahid Mushtaq Bhat of Hafroo Chadoora Budgam and Farhan Habib of Hakripora Pulwama, both newly enlisted to the LeT, were identified as the terrorists. Security forces have avenged the killing of social media star Amreen Bhat by Lashkar-e-Toiba militants inside her house in the Chadoora town of Budgam district late Wednesday evening in a successful operation. Four terrorists were killed in two separate confrontations in Jammu and Kashmirs Pulwama and Srinagar districts on Friday, including two who were involved in the death of a female TV artist. When the confrontation broke out in the area, Inspector General of Police Kashmir Zone Vijay Kumar stated both of Amreen Bhats killers were caught in the crossfire. The IGP has tweeted that both killers (LeT terrorists) of late Amreen Bhat, an artist trapped in Awantipora encounter: Further Details shall follow. Both the trapped terrorists had been killed in the encounter, the Kashmir Zone police stated in a tweet later. Searches in the vicinity were on. Shahid Mushtaq Bhat of Hafroo Chadoora Budgam and Farhan Habib of Hakripora Pulwama, both newly enlisted to the LeT, were identified as the terrorists. Over 1,600 delegates, including government officials, foreign diplomats, military forces, central armed police forces, PSUs, private firms, and drone startups, will attend the two-day Bharat Drone Mahotsav. The central government intends to increase domestic demand for drone services. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will kick off Indias largest drone festival, Bharat Drone Mahotsav 2022, today at 10 a.m. in Delhis Pragati Maidan. PM Modi will also meet with Kisan drone pilots, watch open-air drone demos, and talk to entrepreneurs at the drone exhibition centre. Over 1,600 delegates, including government officials, foreign diplomats, military forces, central armed police forces, PSUs, private firms, and drone startups, will attend the two-day Bharat Drone Mahotsav. At the expo, more than 70 exhibitors will demonstrate various drone applications. The festival will also feature virtual awards, product introductions, panel talks, flying demos, and the unveiling of a Made in India Drone Taxi prototype, among other things. The federal government intends to increase domestic demand for drone services. Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Union Aviation Minister, recently stated that India will require roughly one lakh drone pilots in the future years. Adani Groups joint venture company with Israeli firm Elbit, IdeaForge Technology, and 12 other drone companies were selected as beneficiaries of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, which was launched this year to give a fresh push to manufacturing and services in the drone sector. On May 5, the civil aviation ministry issued a second call for applications for the plan. The deadline for applicant submissions was May 20. The government announced the PLI scheme for drones and drone components on September 16, 2021, with a budget of 120 crore split over three years. The incentive for a drone and drone component producer under the PLI plan will be 20% of the value addition achieved by the company over the next three years. The annual sales revenue from drones and drone components (net of GST) is subtracted from the acquisition cost of drones and drone components (net of GST). Page Content On Monday May 23rd, the Minister of Public Health, Social Development and Labor, Omar Ottley met with Collective Prevention Services (CPS) to discuss the monkeypox virus outbreak. Monkeypox, a virus that is usually found in rodents, marsupials and monkeys, has been detected in humans in a number of countries worldwide. So far, 92 cases have been recorded across 12 countries. This number is likely to grow but it has not been detected on Sint Maarten. Monkeypox virus is transmitted from person to person by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding. Those infected with monkeypox often have the following symptoms: fever; headache; back pain; muscle soreness; weakness; swollen lymph nodes; a rash beginning on face then spreading elsewhere, followed by lesions or pustules. If individuals experience any of these symptoms, please visit your general practitioner. Note that monkeypox disease is rarely severe, and in most cases resolves in 2-4 weeks without treatment, however those with weakened immune systems are at higher risk and could require hospitalization. Monkeypox is different to impetigo (a skin infection caused by a bacterium that is common in the Netherlands). The name monkeypox is frequently used for impetigo on the islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao and in Suriname. Please be sure to check your information sources carefully and do not spread misinformation about the disease. The best websites to follow are the World Health Organization, US Centers for Disease Control and National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). CPS is monitoring the international situation closely and will communicate all relevant updates to the public in a timely manner. Please remember to visit your general practitioner if you are feeling unwell. Although the virus has not reached the shores of Sint Maarten, we are taking preventative measures to assure maximum safety against this virus. Said Minister Ottley. M.K. Stalin, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, has presented a number of key demands to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is now in Chennai. Stalin demanded that the Prime Minister recapture the Kachchatheevu island from Sri Lanka, drawing the Prime Ministers attention to the problems faced by Indian fisherman in Tamil Nadu. He also added that now is an excellent opportunity to rescue Kachchatheevu Island and ensure the traditional fishing zone and rights of the Tamil Nadu fishing community, in order to find a solution to the problems that the coastal fishing community in Tamil Nadu is facing. At a gathering to inaugurate and lay foundation stone for projects worth Rs 31,530 crore, the CM quoted former Chief Minister M Karunanidhis comments to clarify his governments relationship with the Centre: Well extend hand for friendship; well speak out for our rights. The CM also reminded the PM of the Rs 14,006 crore GST compensation owed to Tamil Nadu, stating that it is the appropriate moment to reclaim Katchatheevu as a solution to the challenges faced by our fishermen and protect their traditional fishing rights. At a time when many States revenues have yet to fully recover, Stalin added, I demand that the GST compensation term be prolonged for at least two more years beyond June 2022. To name a few, TNs contribution in Indias GDP is 9.22 percent, the Chief Minister added, emphasising the critical role played by Tamil Nadu in Indias development and the Centres budgetary resources. The state of Tennessee contributes 6% of the Union governments total tax revenue. TN accounts for 8.4% of Indias overall exports. In Indias textile industry, TN has a 19.4 percent market, while in vehicle exports, it has a 32.5 percent share. TN contributes 33 percent to the export of leather products. The CM outlined how the States portion of costs in projects that are jointly implemented by the State and the Centre rises dramatically as programmes progress. AMERICAN FORK, Utah (AP) _ Domo, Inc. (DOMO) on Thursday reported a loss of $32.9 million in its fiscal first quarter. On a per-share basis, the American Fork, Utah-based company said it had a loss of 99 cents. Losses, adjusted for stock option expense and amortization costs, came to 23 cents per share. CANNES, France (AP) Just days removed from finishing her latest film and hours after arriving in Cannes, Claire Denis sat down in a poolside hotel restaurant and warmly pronounced herself a mess. Denis latest, the Denis Johnson adaptation Stars at Noon, has been percolating in her for more than a decade. She was compelled to make it after the authors death in 2017. But there have been hurdles along the way. The pandemic, for one. (Masks appear in the film.) Robert Pattison, star of Denis' 2019 sci-fi film High Life," had to drop out over scheduling conflicts. After another actor departed at the last minute, Denis cast co-star Joe Alwyn from Panama by Zoom days before shooting began. A week before Cannes, a problem with the film's mix meant having to frantically redo it before the film's premiere Wednesday. But Denis, the 76-year-old French filmmaking legend of Beau Travail," White Material and 35 Shots of Rum, felt strongly about making Stars at Noon." It stars Margaret Qualley as a motel-dwelling American journalist named Trish in a present-day Nicaragua overrun by rebels and oilmen. (The book takes place in the 80s). When Trish propositions a British businessman (Alwyn) at a hotel bar, she finds both trouble and love. The film drew a mixed reception from critics at Cannes, but it's a characteristically Denis film, languid and seductive, enlivened by a freewheeling, charismatic performance by Qualley. Denis, who grew up in colonial West Africa and briefly considered resetting Stars at Noon there, crafts a politically-tinged thriller and an oblique love story about the perilous, transactional nature of intimacy. I think for Denis, love is the main problem of his life," Denis says, sipping an espresso. Much more than money. Asked if its the same for her, Denis smiles. Obviously, yeah. Its probably not a good choice, Denis replies. If youre made for falling in love, what else can you do? ___ AP: This is your first time in Cannes competition lineup since your feature film debut Chocolat in 1988, which seems unbelievable. How do you feel about it? DENIS: It's not a problem for me. I was not aware it was so important. To be in competition, it's not fun. I'm happy to have been more to the side. Sometimes I read things like, Shes a renegade. I'm not a renegade. I'm a normal person. The selection people probably don't like my films and it's their right. It's such a difficult thing to be able to do a film. Some people like it or not. That's the story of cinema, no? I'm a strange figure for people from a distance, probably. AP: Do you think there's a false perception of you? DENIS: I try to be honest with my work, of course. I never try to do an arty movie. I always try to do my best with my feelings. Like this film, it's so moving to do a film. The best for me is to be in the mood for love, with the actors, with scriptwriting. AP: How did you get to know Denis Johnson? DENIS: I heard about Denis Johnson sort of late. I read Jesus' Son. After a while I found Stars at Noon. It was as if I understood everything completely. So I wrote to Denis Johnson, I met with him. I was so terribly sad when he died. I said, Man, I have to try. I had been a little bit afraid. Then he died and I thought: I have to do it. At least try. AP: Why did you respond to the book so much? DENIS: These two characters are absolutely not made to meet. They should not, and yet they do. Little by little they fall in love but each with a different aim. He's lying to her. She's not lying to him but he doesn't know how much she's been through. She cheats on him in a way I understand, in a way I could do. I thought: This is like a tragedy in the modern world, not in Greece. Their destinies are so imposed. I thought Denis was maybe both characters. He was her when he was trying to be a journalist, and he was maybe a little bit of the Englishman with his secret. AP: Did you always want to set it in present day? DENIS: Yeah, when I was in Nicaragua and I saw what was happening, the way it is today. To pretend this is 1984 with American tanks, I thought was too late. It would have been too sad to make a film outside Nicaragua, because no insurance wanted us to shoot in Nicaragua, speaking about a glorious revolution. I thought it was unfair to the Sandinistas. AP: I imagine you're also not especially interested in a lot of set dressing and would rather focus on working closely with the actors. DENIS: Yeah. Reading the novel, the two characters' relationship is much more important than the revolution. The revolution is like background noise. AP: Qualley is a revelation in the film. How did you come to see her in the role? DENIS: I was in Cannes watching (Quentin) Tarantino's movie ("One Upon a Time in Hollywood"). I already had the project. I came out of the Palais and I thought: It's her, only her. She waited for almost three years because the pandemic came and Robert was supposed to be in it but he was Batman and did Tenet. She believed in the project and trusted me. I never thought I would be disappointed by her. She's so luminous. She's not interested in being a beautiful young woman only. She has a spirit, a flame. ___ Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP ___ For more Cannes Film Festival coverage, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival. Connecticut drivers are reminded to be on alert this long holiday weekend because Memorial Day tends to be not only one of the busiest weekends in terms of travel but also deadly. Between 2011 and 2020, 44 people were killed in crashes in Connecticut during the Memorial Day weekend, which runs from Thursday evening through early Monday, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Nationwide, more than 5,600 people were killed in Memorial Day weekend accidents in the last decade, according to the NHTSA. Memorial Day weekend is considered one of the busiest travel times in Connecticut, state Transportation Commissioner Joe Giulietti said. Vehicle crashes are rising to unprecedented levels, and people continue traveling way too fast. I urge motorists to put down the cellphone, buckle up, slow down and always drive sober. The most fatal car accidents in the state occur from May through August, peaking with 192 car deaths in August since 2015, according to the DOT crash emphasis area dashboard. May is the fourth deadliest month for car crashes, according to the data. Since 2015, there have been 177 car fatalities in Connecticut in May. Connecticut State Police are also gearing up for the holiday weekend, heightening their search for people driving under the influence as the start of summer is often associated with drinking, according to a State Police statement. Traditionally, Memorial Day weekend is the start to activities related to beaches, backyards and barbecues. State troopers are standing by to ensure that highways are free of hazardous drivers as residents drive to their destinations, the statement said. Troopers from each of the agencys 11 troops will be conducting extra roving DUI patrols from the evening of May 26 through the evening of May 30. Its a great time to spend be with friends and family, so troopers ask you to utilize lawful driving skills and plan for traffic delays as more drivers venture out, the statement said. The number of accidents over Memorial Day weekend has varied widely in recent years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, state police investigated 341 accidents, 52 of which included injuries and one of which was fatal, according to the statement. Troopers responded to 7,540 calls for service and issued 2,242 violations, 607 for speeding and 448 seatbelt violations, according to the statement. The remaining violations include texting and driving, following too closely and unsafe lane change, among other violations. And 20 driving under the influence arrests were made, according to state police. In 2020, with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the months prior, the amount of traffic and the number of accidents dropped significantly. State police investigated 175 accidents in 2020, none of which were fatal, according to the statement. However, more calls for service were received and more DUI arrests were made, police said. In 2020, police received 7,963 calls for service, issued 2,017 violations and made 33 DUI arrests, according to the statement. Speeding violations were also up in 2020, with nearly 1,000 tickets administered, police said. Last year, Memorial Day weekend accidents rose again to 377, with 56 injuries and one fatality, according to the statement. Calls for service dipped to 5,636, and DUI arrests went down to 30. Troopers at Troop D in Danielson, will be conducting a DUI/sobriety checkpoint on Friday evening on Route 44 in the vicinity of Route 21 in Putnam. The Troop D troopers will work in conjunction with troopers from the Traffic Services Unit to conduct this checkpoint to ensure the highest possible degree of safety for motorists during the holiday period. Holiday traffic is expected to return near pre-COVID levels this weekend, according to AAA. Road travel is expected to increase by nearly 5 percent compared to last year, which represents approximately 93 percent of prepandemic vehicle travel, a DOT statement said. To help with the flow of traffic, no DOT maintenance or construction will be conducted from Friday through Tuesday morning on the states limited-access highways, according to the statement. Every year, hundreds of Americans hit the road on Memorial Day weekend but dont make it home to their families after a traffic crash, said Alec Slatky, AAAs director of public health and government affairs for the Northeast. A car is a multi-ton weapon when operated recklessly, and drivers must be sober, avoid distractions, and travel at a safe speed so they dont endanger themselves and others. Even small changes in speed can make a big difference in crash severity, he said. abigail.brone@hearstmediact.com This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 5 1 of 5 Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 2 of 5 Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 3 of 5 4 of 5 Ben Lambert / Hearst Connecticut Media Show More Show Less 5 of 5 HAMDEN Police are searching for a man who allegedly brandished a firearm and robbed the Goodwill store on Dixwell Avenue Friday morning, according to the department. Officers were called to the Goodwill at 2369 Dixwell Ave. for a reported armed robbery around 8:30 a.m., Det. Sean Dolan said in an email. Former Hamden police officer Devin Eaton will not serve any time in prison for the on-duty shooting of Stephanie Washington in April 2019, according to his lawyer. Washington, who is Black, was wounded during the shooting and was treated for her injuries. Eaton was given a sentence in state court Friday of five years suspended, with three years of probation, his attorney, Gregory Cerritelli, said. Eaton pleaded no contest to a charge of first-degree assault in January. The charge stems from an incident on April 16, 2019, as Eaton was investigating a report of an alleged armed robbery. During the incident, Eaton fired 13 shots into a car driven by Paul Witherspoon III, Washingtons friend, while she was in the car, according to court records. Eatons plea agreement initially would have suspended his five year sentence after he served 18 months in prison, but the agreement allowed him to argue for a fully-suspended sentence if he agreed to never seek employment in law enforcement again, records show. Washingtons attorney, Win Smith III, who is representing her a lawsuit over the shooting, said Friday they were extremely displeased and shocked at the sentence that came down today, or lack thereof. He also clarified that Washington was struck three times by gunfire from the officers not once as the judge had stated during the sentencing hearing Friday. It should shock the conscience of anybody who has paid attention to this shooting, Smith said in a phone interview. The fact that Stephanie, an unarmed, African American woman, was shot by the police - still has bullet fragments in her - was shot three times; and she has to live with that horror every day and the officer walks free, no jail time were shocked by that, he said. Washingtons suit names Eaton and the town of Hamden as defendants, along with a Yale police officer who also fired his gun and Yale Univeristy. The clerk at a gas station who initially reported Witherspoon had a gun during an altercation the morning of the shooting was also named in the lawsuit. As a convicted felon, Eaton is prohibited from state and federal laws from possessing a firearm. Cerritelli said Friday his client has no desire to return to law enforcement. Hes grateful for the support hes received from his friends, family and members of the law enforcement community, Cerritelli said in a phone interview. He said hes received messages describing Eaton as a wonderful person. Its really a sad irony that his career ended the way it did, he wanted nothing more than to help and serve the people of his community, Cerritelli said. Other conditions of Eatons sentence include no contact with Washington other than what is necessary for civil proceedings, and 150 hours of community service for each year of his probation for 450 hours in total. According to officials, Witherspoons vehicle was stopped on Argyle Street in New Haven. Eaton told state police investigators he believed he saw an object - possibly a gun - in Witherspoons hand as he began to exit the vehicle at officers command. No gun was found at the scene. A clerk at the Go On Gas Station on Arch Street in Hamden had reported an attempted robbery involving Witherspoon early that morning, initially saying during the 911 call that hed seen a gun, according to records. A newspaper delivery man at the station told investigators hed been approached by Witherspoon as he handed papers to the clerk, and Witherspoon had asked him repeatedly do you have anything for me, records show. After the delivery man said he did not, he claimed Witherspoon had tried to grab the papers, holding on until the clerk yelled at him to let go. The deliveryman later told investigators he was 100 (percent) sure that Witherspoon was going to rob him. The clerk later told authorities he never saw a firearm during the incident. Yale police Officer Terrance Pollock also fired his gun during the shooting, officials said. Pollock was not charged. The police shooting drew outrage and protests from the community, with faith leaders demanding that both officers be fired NEW HAVEN City and veterans officials tuned up for Memorial Day by dedicating a long-planned new City Hall plaque commemorating the service and sacrifice of all the New Haven residents who have served in the military since Vietnam and throughout the war on terror. We started this journey about three years ago to get this plaque dedicated and were finally here, said Frank Alvarado, a Vietnam veteran and former city and state employee who is chairman of the citys Veterans Advisory Committee. Veterans Advisory Committee member Robert Reed, who served as sergeant in the Marine Corps from 1983-93, during both Operation Desert Storm in Iraq and Operation Desert Shield in Afghanistan, was master of ceremonies. The plaque was unveiled on the inner wall of the entrance from the City Hall entry hall to the second floor of the atrium. Its purpose is to honor our veterans, past, present and future, said Alder Sal DeCola, D-18, who shepherded the plaque through the Board of Alders. By adding this, we hope people when they visit City Hall will stop and give thanks, said DeCola, the alders third officer. The citys veterans are willing to give all, so lets take care of our veterans. Mayor Justin Elicker said that as we approach Memorial Day, I think its appropriate to honor those who have served ... and especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice. ... As we reflect on those who have given their lives in the past, we should reflect today about those who are ready to protect us should something happen today, he said. Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker-Myers, D-23, said she was honored and humbled to be here today. These are our unsung heroes, who made the decision to selflessly go and fight for the country, and I am honored to give them their respect. Board of Alders Majority Leader Richard Furlow, D-27, thanked the veterans in the crowd for their service and said, The veterans have shown us ... that they were friends of this country, because they laid their lives down. Maj. Gen. Francis J. Evon Jr., adjutant general of the Connecticut National Guard and a onetime anti-tank gunner in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom said of New Haven, Im proud of the military tradition that we have in this great city. We honor those who serve with this plaque, but also those ... who made the ultimate sacrifice, he said. He told those who attended, If you know a Gold Star family, let them know that you remember them. Memorial Day is time to honor, and to never forget, Evon said. The city and its veterans organizations will hold two Memorial Day wreath-laying ceremonies this Sunday. New Haven and area residents are invited to attend two traditional wreath-laying ceremonies and programs, VFW New Haven Post 12150 and American Legion New Haven Post 210 said in a Facebook post. They will take place as follows: At 1 p.m., there will be a wreath laying ceremony at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Park on Long Wharf Drive. At 3 p.m., there will be a second wreath laying ceremony at the World War Memorial Flagpole on the New Haven Green. Jack Mordente, coordinator of Veterans and Military Affairs for Southern Connecticut State University, will be the principal speaker at both events. mark.zaretsky@hearstmediact.com John Martinez awoke Thursday just before 10 a.m. to a text message from his younger brother: "Pray for tio Joe." Martinez, a 21-year-old student at Texas State University, said at first that he didn't think anything was amiss. Of course his uncle needed prayers, he said. Joe Garcia had just lost his wife, the mother of his children, his life partner. Irma Garcia, 48, was one of the two teachers slain in a shooting rampage at Robb Elementary School in the Garcias' hometown of Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday. Less than two hours after the morning text message, Martinez got a call from his family to tell him his uncle had died after being rushed to the hospital following an apparent heart attack. Martinez texted his brother around noon. "This is so overwhelming." On Thursday, as Martinez began to fill in the details from his relatives, he said, he felt ill with grief. Joe Garcia had just returned to the family's home after venturing out to leave flowers at a memorial set up for the victims outside Robb Elementary School. He was in the kitchen, Martinez said, when he suddenly seized and fell over. Martinez's mother, who was at the house with the family, sprang into action, administering chest compressions until paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital. He died there. "We're all just in shock," Martinez said. Before his uncle's death, Martinez told The Washington Post on Wednesday that his tia Irma had died a hero and that his family wanted her to be remembered as someone who sacrificed her life to protect her students. "They weren't just her students. Those were her kids, and she put her life on the line. She lost her life to protect them," Martinez said. "That's the type of person she was." On Thursday, he struggled to find the words to describe his aunt and uncle. Together, the couple had four children: Cristian, 23; Jose, 19; Lyliana, 15; and Alysandra, 12. "Their family was an all-American family," he said of his aunt, uncle and cousins. "They're great people. The entire family, they're all great people. They don't deserve this." Joe and Irma Garcia's love story stretched a quarter century, packed with barbecues, music, scenic country drives and the couple's four children. "I truly believe Joe died of a broken heart and losing the love of his life of more than 25 years was too much to bear," Irma's cousin, Debra Austin, wrote in an online fundraiser mounted in support of the Garcias' four children. Joe was a dedicated father, a leader at his job at the H-E-B grocery store and a doting husband, who adored the woman he met in high school and then married, Martinez said. But this week, the Garcia home - typically the site of jubilant family gatherings, filling holiday meals and traditions like sharing grapes for luck at midnight on New Year's Eve - was transformed into a monument to the pain of a family that in less than two days saw both parents perish. "Our family is just in shambles right now," Martinez said. "Nobody expected any of this. It's heartbreaking." ATLANTA (AP) Georgia's secretary of state is expected to appear next week before a special grand jury in an investigation into whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to meddle in the 2020 election in the state. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has been summoned to appear before the special grand jury Thursday, according to a subpoena obtained by The Associated Press through an open records request. Five other people in his office have received subpoenas to appear in early June and the office has received a subpoena for documents. State Attorney General Chris Carr has received a subpoena to appear June 21. Trump directed his ire at Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, after the secretary of state refused to bend to pressure to overturn Democrat Joe Bidens narrow presidential election victory in Georgia. On Tuesday, Raffensperger won the Republican primary in his quest for reelection, defeating a Trump-endorsed challenger. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis opened the investigation soon after she took office in January 2021. She made clear when she requested a special grand jury earlier this year that one purpose for doing so would be to issue subpoenas to people who might not cooperate otherwise. The 23 members of the special grand jury and three alternates were selected May 2 but Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who's overseeing the panel, said the grand jurors wouldn't begin meeting until June. Willis has confirmed that her investigation includes looking into a January 2021 phone call in which Trump pushed Raffensperger to find the votes needed for him to win the state. Among the documents the grand jury has asked for is anything that memorializes the events surrounding that call, anything that explains the conduct of the president during that call, and any logs of telephone calls between anyone in Raffensperger's office and Trump or his representatives. They also asked for anything showing the results of the audit and hand recount of the results of the 2020 presidential election and a forensic audit of the state's voting equipment, among other documents. The other people from the secretary of state's office summoned to appear are Gabriel Sterling, chief operating officer; Ryan Germany, general counsel; Chris Harvey, former head of the elections divisions; Frances Watson, former chief investigator; and Victoria Thompson, a former executive assistant who is now a legislative liaison. Willis has also said her team is looking at a November 2020 phone call between U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Raffensperger, the abrupt resignation of the U.S. attorney in Atlanta on Jan. 4, 2021, and comments made during December 2020 Georgia legislative committee hearings on the election. Trump has said his call with Raffensperger was perfect and said he did nothing wrong. Graham has also denied any wrongdoing. Its not clear exactly what charges Willis could choose to pursue against Trump or anyone else. In a letter she sent to top-ranking state officials last year, she said she was looking into potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local government bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the elections administration. This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate SEOUL, South Korea (AP) According to North Korea, its fight against COVID-19 has been impressive: About 3.3 million people have been reported sick with fevers, but only 69 have died. If all are coronavirus cases, that's a fatality rate of 0.002%, something no other country, including the world's richest, has achieved against a disease that has killed more than 6 million people. The Norths claims, however, are being met with widespread doubt about two weeks after it acknowledged its first domestic COVID-19 outbreak. Experts say the impoverished North should have suffered far greater deaths than reported because there are very few vaccines, a sizable number of undernourished people and a lack of critical care facilities and test kits to detect virus cases in large numbers. North Koreas secretiveness makes it unlikely outsiders can confirm the true scale of the outbreak. Some observers say North Korea is underreporting fatalities to protect leader Kim Jong Un at all costs. There's also a possibility it might have exaggerated the outbreak in a bid to bolster control of its 26 million people. Scientifically, their figures cant be accepted, said Lee Yo Han, a professor at Ajou University Graduate School of Public Health in South Korea, adding that the public data were likely all controlled (by the authorities) and embedded with their political intentions. The most likely course is that North Korea soon proclaims victory over COVID-19, maybe during a June political meeting, with all credit given to Kims leadership. The 38-year-old ruler is desperate, observers say, to win bigger public support as he deals with severe economic difficulties caused by border shutdowns, U.N. sanctions and his own mismanagement. Diverse public complaints have accumulated, so its time to (strengthen) internal control, said Choi Kang, president of Seouls Asan Institute for Policy Studies. Kim Jong Un has been taking the lead in the anti-epidemic efforts to show that his campaign is very successful and to reinforce his grip on power. Before North Korea on May 12 admitted to an omicron outbreak, it had maintained a widely disputed claim that it had zero domestic infections for more than two years. When the North at last publicized the outbreak, many wondered why now. It was initially seen as an attempt to exploit the outbreak to get foreign humanitarian assistance. There were hopes that possible aid by Seoul and Washington could help resume long-stalled diplomacy on Pyongyangs nuclear program. Kim has called the outbreak a great upheaval and launched what his propaganda teams call an all-out effort to suppress it. Hes held several Politburo meetings to criticize officials, inspected pharmacies at dawn and mobilized troops to support medicine delivery. A health official explained pandemic responses on state TV, while state newspapers have churned out articles on how to deal with fever, including gargling with saltwater and drinking honey or willow leaf tea. Honey is a rarity for ordinary North Koreans. They likely felt bad when their government asked them to drink honey tea, said Seo Jae-pyong, a North Korean defector-turned-activist in Seoul. I have an elder brother left in North Korea and have big worries about him. Every morning, North Korea releases details about the number of new patients with fever symptoms, but not with COVID-19. Experts believe most cases should be counted as COVID-19 because while North Korean health authorities lack diagnostic kits, they still know how to distinguish the symptoms from fevers caused by the other prevalent infectious diseases. North Koreas daily fever tally peaked at nearly 400,000 early last week; it has nosedived to around 100,000 in the past few days. On Friday, it added one more death after claiming no fatalities for three consecutive days. Our country set a world record for having no single (COVID-19) infection for the longest period ... and weve now made an achievement of reversing the tide of the abrupt outbreak in a short period, the main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said Thursday. This evidently proves the scientific nature of our countrys emergency anti-epidemic steps. Medical experts question the validity of North Koreas stated fatality rate of 0.002%. Given that South Koreas mortality rate of unvaccinated people for the omicron variant was 0.6%, North Korea must have similar or higher death rates because of its low capacity to treat patients and its peoples poor nutrition, said Shin Young-jeon, a professor of preventive medicine at Seouls Hanyang University. In a study published by the Johns Hopkins University last year, North Korean ranked 193 out of 195 countries for its ability to deal with an epidemic. U.N. reports in recent years said about 40% of its people were undernourished. North Koreas free socialist public health care system has been in shambles for decades, and defectors testify that while in the North, they bought medicines at markets or somewhere else. North Korea wouldnt really care about fatalities at all, said Choi Jung Hun, a defector who worked as a doctor in North Korea in the 2000s. Many North Koreans have already died of malaria, measles, chickenpox and typhoid. There are all kind of infectious diseases there. Choi, now a researcher at a Korea University-affiliated institute in South Korea, said North Korea likely decided to admit to the omicron outbreak because it sees it as less lethal and more manageable. He suspected North Korea set up a scenario to raise up and then bring down fever cases so as to boost Kims leadership. Lee, the Ajou professor, said North Korea may have overstated its earlier fever cases to give a powerful shock to the public to rally support for the government, but avoided releasing details of too many deaths to stave off public unrest. The outbreak could eventually kill more than 100,000, if people remain unvaccinated and die at the same death rate as in South Korea, Shin, the Hanyang professor, warned. The North Korean outbreak will likely last several months, Moon Jin Soo, director of the Institute for Health and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, said. Its urgent to ship anti-viral pills and other essential medications to North Korea, rather than vaccines whose roll out would take at least a couple of months, he said. "North Korea could spend a couple more months massaging the statistics, but they could also abruptly announce their victory this weekend, said Ahn Kyung-su, head of DPRKHEALTH.ORG, a website focusing on health issues in North Korea. North Korea always operates beyond your imagination. Its hard to predict what theyll do, but they do have a plan. Page Content On Tuesday, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its forecast for the 2022 Atlantic hurricane season, predicting an above-normal season being caused by an on-going La Nina and warmer-than-average Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea surface temperatures, setting the stage for a busy season ahead. For the 2022 hurricane season, NOAA is forecasting a likely range of 14 to 21 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which six (6) to 10 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including three (3) to six (6) major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence. The Office of Disaster Management (ODM) which falls under the Fire Department (Ministry of General Affairs) headed by Fire Chief/Disaster Coordinator Clive Richardson, said on Tuesday appeals to all residents and businesses to plan ahead and lets Be Prepared for the hurricane season. ODM calls on residents to review the content of their Disaster Kit and to start restocking it with the essentials that are necessary to ride out the hurricane season. Every households Disaster Kit should be able to support members of the household for a minimum of seven days after the hurricane has passed. The Disaster Kit should contain non-perishable food, water and medicine (fill prescriptions before the storm); non-electric can opener; first-aid kit; extra cash (ATM machines and credit cards wont work if there is no electricity); a battery powered radio and flashlights as well as extra batteries; make sure cell phones are all charged prior to the arrival of the hurricane; fill up your car/truck with gas; check if your home and automobile insurance are up to date; put ID cards, passports and drivers license, insurance papers in a waterproof bag along with other important documents. If you are a parent with an infant or young child (ren), you also need to have essential items as part of your disaster supply kit: baby formula; diapers; bottles; powdered milk; medications; moist towels; and diaper rash ointment. Your Disaster Kit must also include hand sanitizer, a soap bar or liquid soap; two cloth face coverings for each person; disinfecting wipes, or general household cleaning supplies to disinfect surfaces. Now is the time to trim back tree branches from your home; cut all dead or weak branches on any trees on your property; clean-up your yard and put away items that could blow away during the passing of a hurricane; check your roof and storm shutters to make sure they are secure, and the latter are working. For those whose homes are not yet storm/hurricane ready, you should make alternative housing arrangements to stay at family or friends. The community is urged to learn more about hurricane hazards and how to prepare for a storm/hurricane strike by visiting the Government website: www.sintmaartengov.org/hurricane where you will be able to download your Hurricane Season Readiness Guide and Hurricane Tracking Chart. Listen to the Government Radio station SXMGOV 107.9FM - for official information and news before, during and after a hurricane. For official weather-related information, check out the website of the Meteorological Department of St. Maarten (MDS): www.meteosxm.com or visit their social media page Facebook.com/sxmweather/ Remember, it only takes one hurricane to make it a bad season. Be prepared! As Kevin Berlings birthday was approaching, he asked his employer not to celebrate his birthday because it might trigger a panic attack due to his anxiety disorder. After the employee who planned office birthday parties forgot about his request, the birthday party went forward and Berling did suffer a panic attack. Berling went to his car, ate lunch and told his manager by text that he was upset his request was ignored. He was confronted and criticized the following day and had another panic attack. Three days later, Berling was terminated. Last month, a jury awarded him $450,000 for his disability discrimination claim. Berling is one of the escalating number of employees claiming workplace discrimination based on mental health. About 30 percent of claims filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in fiscal 2021 involved mental health-related claims. EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas recently said that claims related to mental health are going to start to explode into the publics sight soon. The COVID-19 pandemic may be among the reasons for the increase in the last two years. The EEOC observed that employees with certain pre-existing mental health conditions, for example, anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder ... may have more difficulty handling the disruption to daily life that has accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, anxiety and PTSD account for most of the federal mental health claims filed in 2021. The other mental health conditions include depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and cumulative trauma disorder. There is no federal list of medical conditions which meet the statutes definition of disability. Rather, the condition must substantially limit a major life activity. Connecticut defines it more broadly, covering persons with a present or past history of mental disability. If the employees mental health impairment may be covered under federal or Connecticut statute, the employer might be required to provide the employee with a reasonable accommodation. There are a wide range of possible accommodations based on the employees needs, such as permitting remote work, flexible scheduling, providing a leave of absence or providing a private workspace. Nevertheless, employers should not assume there is a need for an accommodation. An employer generally will not be required to accommodate an employees mental health impairment unless his or her medical condition is disclosed with a request for some kind of adjustment or assistance as an accommodation. The COVID-19 pandemic is not the only catalyst for the increase in claims. Today, there is much greater awareness about the mental health challenges faced by employees. The stigma based on mental health has steadily declined particularly among younger employees. As a result, more employees who in the past would have remained silent now are more willing to talk about their mental health challenges. A variety of resources are available to employers. At the top of the list is the federal Job Accommodation Network. For example, JAN suggests that employers consider the following questions when seeking to accommodate those with mental health conditions. 1. What limitations is the employee experiencing? 2. How do these limitations affect the employee and job performance? 3. What job tasks are problematic? 4. What accommodations are available to reduce or eliminate these problems? 5. Once accommodations are in place, would it be useful to meet with the employee to evaluate the effectiveness of accommodations and determine if others are needed? 6. Do supervisory personnel and employees need training? As Mays Mental Health Awareness month comes to a close, employers have an opportunity to invest in their employees. That investment will not just pay benefits for the one in five workers who navigate mental health challenges, it .also will enable them to increase employee engagement, reduce turnover, reduce employee burnout and increase job satisfaction. Gary Phelan is an attorney with Mitchell & Sheahan, P.C. in Stratford, Connecticut. He is co-author of Disability Discrimination in the Workplace and teaches Disability Law at Quinnipiac University School of Law. He can be reached at 203-873-0240. Former Governor of Lagos State and one of the leading aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed ... Former Governor of Lagos State and one of the leading aspirants on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has stated that to lead the country as President, he does not need the strength of a wrestler or a Christiano Ronaldo. Tinubu, who was reacting to speculations over his health status, disclosed that all that is required for him if elected as president are ideas. I am not looking for a wrestling job, I am not going to the presidency to fight Anthony Joshua, Im not running to compete with Ronaldo. All I am going to use is my brain. I am sure, I am a better thinker, I am a better doer. You, delegates, should distinguish us like kerosene on top of water. I, Bola Tinubu, I am a runner. Go to Lagos State, I built a state of great value for Lagos, it is a reference point. I will rebuild Nigeria, I will reunite Nigeria, I will develop Nigeria. I will use our diversity for our prosperity. Join me in an effort to reunite Nigeria. You will see prosperity and performance. I know I can do it," he said The presidential hopeful disclosed this on Thursday while meeting with delegates of the party in Ondo State at the Cocoa Conference Hall of the Governors Office, ahead of the presidential primaries of APC. He maintained that he is not in the race for the money but for the betterment of the country and the people. During the visit to the state, Tinubu emphasised that he remained the only one and best among the aspirants to lead the party to victory in 2023. According to Tinubu, what Nigeria has been lacking is a spirit of unity and a sense of hope, both of which he claims he can restore. When they talk about my health, I tell them, Im not looking for a wrestling job, I dont want to beat Ronaldo. Im a better thinker and a better doer. I want the delegates to distinguish us and separate us like a dip of kerosene on top of water. My running is not because I need pockets of money, that was past. It is the love of the country, my people, commitment to development, giving value to education and better future for our children. After losing his bid to return to the Senate for the third time, Ayo Akinyelure, the senator representing Ondo Central in the National Ass... After losing his bid to return to the Senate for the third time, Ayo Akinyelure, the senator representing Ondo Central in the National Assembly has allegedly begun reclaiming vehicles donated to some Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leaders. On Monday, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions finished second in the Ondo Central senatorial primary, trailing Ifedayo Adedipe (SAN), who won with 82 votes. Akinyelure received 58 votes, with Chief Clement Faboyede, the ex-Ondo State PDP Chairman, coming in third with 57 votes. The legislator was believed to have sought his vehicles back from the leaders after being dissatisfied with the primarys outcome despite the money and vehicles he allegedly used as mobilisation for the election. Akinyelure, according to a party official, retrieved the vehicles he handed to Chief Segun Adegoke, a member of the PDPs Board of Trustees, BOT, and Hon. Wole Akindiose, a former PDP Chairman in Ondo East and national delegate to the partys upcoming convention. According to Charles Akinwon, Akinyelures Media and Strategy Adviser, the Senator only retrieved the vehicle given to Akindiose because of his role in the primaries. Akinyelure had blamed the loss on Monday on the immediate past Governor, Olusegun Mimiko. Mr Akanimo Udofia has emerged the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Akwa Ibom. Out of the 1, 313 accredited d... Mr Akanimo Udofia has emerged the Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Akwa Ibom. Out of the 1, 313 accredited delegates, Udofia polled 1,227 votes to beat eight other aspirants including Senator Ita Enang who scored 34 votes and a University Don, Prof Chris Ekong who got 21 votes. Announcing the result of the election in Uyo yesterday, the chairman of the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Nomination Committee, Mr Omabatunde Ajibola gave details of votes scored by the other candidates to include, Mr Uduak Udo(7), Akpan Udoedehe(2), Richard Anana(2), Larry Esin(1) and Austin Utuk(0) with 19 void votes In his acceptance speech, the APC guber candidate thanked the delegates for staying by him despite intimidation and threats from other members of the party. Udofia while extending a hand of fellowship to other aggrieved members promised to carry everyone along even as they looked forward to winning Akwa Ibom at the 2023 general elections. I thank God with the way you conducted yourselves. Most especially party faithful who despite all challenges, and intimidations from undemocratic forces, because the way certain people behaved today was certainly not anyway tenable in the life of an Akwa Ibom person. Akwa Ibom is a peaceful state and our people do not stand for anything not peaceful. I want to say that this is the beginning of a revolution. The Akwa Ibom APC have spoken very loud, you have indicated that true change will come to Akwa Ibom State come 2023. You have agreed that we are going to use our great party, the APC to institutionalize the dividends of democracy and it must cascade down to the last ward, to the last corner. We are going to build a greater Akwa Ibom State. It is going to be an enormous task but when I look at the resilience of each and every one of you party faithful, I know you are ready to join hands with me and together we are going to make Akwa Ibom a greater and better state. He assured. He commended the ex-minister of Niger Delta Affairs Senator Godswill Akpabio for his efforts at building the party and called for support for his presidential ambition. State chairman of the party, Mr Stephen Ntukekpo had earlier commended delegates for their patience and commitment towards the progress and unity of the party. Ntukekpo who commended the electoral committee for sticking to the constitution of the party tasked stakeholders to eschew selfish interests and work towards strengthening the party to enable it triumph in next years general elections in the state and country. American actor and producer, Ray Liotta, is dead. The movie star died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic at the age of 67. Publicist Jen... American actor and producer, Ray Liotta, is dead. The movie star died in his sleep in the Dominican Republic at the age of 67. Publicist Jennifer Allen said he had been on location shooting a new film Dangerous Waters. The deceased got a big break with his role as an ex-convict Ray Sinclair in 1986 comedy Something Wild. Liotta gained prominence for playing Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams (1989). Another movie hes best known for is Martin Scorseses Goodfellas (1990); he played mobster Henry Hill. Liotta was also Tommy Vercetti in the video game Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002). He won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series (ER) in 2005, among other awards. Born in Newark, New Jersey, Liotta was engaged to Jacy Nittolo at the time of death. The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) says it has arrested a 37-year-old Nigerian man for allegedly operating a transn... The International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) says it has arrested a 37-year-old Nigerian man for allegedly operating a transnational cybercrime syndicate. Interpol said the syndicate had launched mass phishing campaigns and business email compromise schemes in several international operations across four continents. The international police, in a statement released on its website, said the suspect was arrested by the cybercrime unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. The agency added that the intelligence leading to the arrest of the suspect was enriched by analysts within INTERPOLs Cyber Fusion Centre. Interpol did not reveal the name of the suspect. The cybercrime unit of the Nigeria Police Force arrested a 37-year-old Nigerian man in an international operation spanning four continents, coordinated and facilitated by the recently created Africa operations desk within INTERPOLs cybercrime directorate, the statement reads. The intelligence was enriched by analysts within INTERPOLs Cyber Fusion Centre, which brings together experts from law enforcement and industry to turn information on criminal activities into actionable intelligence. INTERPOLs AFJOC desk then referred the intelligence to Nigeria and followed up with multiple case coordination meetings supported by law enforcement in Australia, Canada and the United States. Investigators began to map out and track the alleged malicious online activities of the suspect, thanks to ad hoc support from private sector firm CyberTOOLBELT, as well as tracking his physical movements as he travelled from one country to another. Nigerian law enforcement successfully apprehended the suspect at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos. Speaking on the arrest, Garba Umar, an assistant inspector-general of police and vice-president of Interpol for Africa, said the suspects arrest is a testament to Nigerias collaboration with Interpol in combating cybercrimes. The arrest of this alleged prominent cybercriminal in Nigeria is testament to the perseverance of our international coalition of law enforcement and INTERPOLs private sector partners in combating cybercrime, Umar said. I hope the results of Operation Delilah will stand as a reminder to cybercriminals across the world that law enforcement will continue to pursue them, and that this arrest will bring comfort to victims of the suspects alleged campaigns. On his part, Bernardo Pillot, Interpols assistant director of cybercrime operation, said the persistence of law enforcement agents resulted in the success of the case. This case underlines both the global nature of cybercrime and the commitment required to deliver a successful arrest through a global to regional operational approach in combatting cybercrime, Pillot said. Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has expressed shock over the killing of a military personnel and the abduction of an expatriate in Ondo State... Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu has expressed shock over the killing of a military personnel and the abduction of an expatriate in Ondo State by gunmen suspected to be kidnappers. Akeredolu, who condemned the ugly incident, stressed that it was unfortunate that such occurrence could happen in the State despite the security framework of the State. The expatriate, who is a Lebanese national, was kidnapped in Ogbonmo, Ijebu-Owo in Owo Local Government Area of the State after his security personnel and driver were killed by the gunmen. The kidnapped expatriate who has been in the State, alongside his colleagues for over four years, was working on the 4.7Kilometre Ifesanmi-Mobil-Ikare Akoko Junction dualisation road project in Owo. The gunmen were said to have attack the workers on the site, which is located in the busy part of the town. The Governor, who visited the scene of the incident, in company of the Commissioner of Police, Oyeyemi Oyediran, Special Adviser to the Governor on security and commander of the Amotekun Corps, Adetunji Adeleye, and the Commissioner for Infrastructure, Lands and Housing, Engr. Raimi Aminu, assured of the rescue of the kidnapped expatriate. While also commiserating with the family of the victims who died during the attack, Akeredolu assured that security will be reinforced on the site for the safety of the workers. I am shocked. Seriously, this development is not expected in Ondo State of today. Ondo State is where we take security very serious. It has been part of our pride that we ensure security of lives and property by making sure that all the security apparatus are working well The construction area is within town. One is surprised that some criminals can infiltrate the site in town and carry out this dastardly act. We lost a military man and a driver. The expatriate, has been kidnapped, he lamented. Folajimi Mohammed, a lawmaker in the Lagos state house of assembly, has lost the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to recontest the I... Folajimi Mohammed, a lawmaker in the Lagos state house of assembly, has lost the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket to recontest the Ikeja constituency 1 seat. Folajimi, son of Lai Mohammed, minister of information and culture, has served as lawmaker in the state assembly for two consecutive terms. Seyi Lawal, a house of representatives aspirant, secured the ticket after polling 15 votes to defeat Folajimi at the primary that was held on Friday. Lawal is a former legislative leader of Onigbongbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) in Lagos state. According to NAN, the primary, which held at St. Peters Anglican Primary School, Ikeja constituency 1, was conducted under heavy presence of security operatives. Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) were also present to monitor the exercise. Aside from Folajimi and Seyi Lawal, seven other aspirants contested the Ikeja constituency 1 APC ticket, and they included Ladapo Oyebiyi, Ismail Balogun, Taofeek Olorunfunmi, Olabode Akerele, Adegboyega Kuku, Bode Tawak, and Adesipe Adebiyi. Announcing the result, Ewosho Oladunjoye, chairman of the three-member APC electoral committee for the constituency, said Lawal scored 15 votes to defeat Mohammed, who polled nine votes. The other seven aspirants polled no votes, while there was one void vote. In his acceptance speech, Lawal commended the process, saying it was free and fair. He also thanked the leaders of the party and assured members of the constituency of better and quality representation in the house of assembly . I thank the delegates, party faithful and the people of Ikeja constituency 1 for showing their support and l promise not to disappoint them, he said. Ace broadcaster and owner of Agidigbo FM, Oriyomi Hamzat, has been released from police custody. It was reported that Hamzat, who had cons... Ace broadcaster and owner of Agidigbo FM, Oriyomi Hamzat, has been released from police custody. It was reported that Hamzat, who had consistently advocated for justice in a murder case involving Hilton Hotel, Ile-Ife owner, Chief Rahman Adedoyin, was arrested on Thursday. The management of his radio station confirmed his release in a statement on Friday, faulting the claims of the police over the reasons stated for Oriyomis arrest. The statement read, It is with a heart filled with immense gratitude and huge relief that we confirm to the general public that Mr. Oriyomi Hamzat has finally regained his freedom after the arrest that spanned the entirety of yesterday. He was released on bail to his lawyers after due conversations with the authorities, particularly with respect to the petition written against him by Rahmon Adedoyins lawyers and the validity of his consequent arrest. As we have rightly stated yesterday, at no point was Mr. Oriyomi Hamzat found guilty of cyberbullying neither did he refuse at any point to not honour invitations from the Nigeria Police Force as wrongly alleged by the Force PRO. Why this false insinuation is being purveyed is completely beyond our grasp. Nonetheless, it is at this juncture; that we express our heartfelt appreciation to all Nigerians who stood by us throughout yesterdays trying moment, and lent their voice to #FreeOriyomiliamat. This might not have been possible; especially this soon, without your amplification of our concerns. We also say a huge thank you to the general public who joined in the peaceful protests that were held in Ibadan yesterday, to Nigerians in Diaspora for their prompt reactions, the Nigerian Union of Journalists and to all of our colleagues who considered Mr. Oriyomi Hamzats arrest as an injury to one that equates an injury to all. We also appreciate the efforts of the legal team led by Barrister Adekunle Ridwan. This wasnt just an attempt to stem the undue incarceration of a man calling for justice but also an exercise in protecting the sanctity of free speech. Well keep the general public abreast of further developments. Oriyomi Hamzat is a free man now. 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